Hill Books

This is a pretty good book - simply one of the best references I've seen that dwells a lot on special cases in magnetics and electrostatics (I haven't looked at the rest in detail, but I know how clear the explanations are). If you are a researcher, or someone who wants to know the deeper math and underlying assumptions behind all the theory in this field, this is a very good book. As a researcher myself, I deal with special cases where the normal equations - the ones you learnt in introductory undergrad/high-school physics don't really apply. This book is a good reference for me. The author deals in depth with interface conditions in electrostatics and magnetics, boundary problems and the fields in anisotropic materials where the magnetic induction need not vary linearly with the magnetic intensity. Stratton teaches us how to deal with situations where the magnetic permeability and electric permittivity are dependent on position.

I found this book after reading old technical papers (dating back to the 1950's), that referred to this book as their source. Written by a very distinguished author, it's math is not as presumptuous as most books in the field. It seems much more friendly spreading knowledge. Another book that I would recommend is the Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism by J.C. Maxwell (volume 2) - on magnetism.
A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism: Volume 2 (Oxford Classic Texts in the Physical Sciences)

Both these books are quite old - and some of the notations used are different from the ones you might encounter. The Stratton book is, in that sense, more up to date. The Maxwell book deals with a lot of basic vector calculus - by basic I mean the simple calculus that people used in the 19th century to derive formulas and churn out ideas. As such, most of them are quite elegant.

If you're a physics student or a researcher, this is a must-have addition to your collection.

The most complete and detailed book about Electromagnetic theory I have read so far!

To the curious minds of today and tomorrow:

As you can gather from the other reviews on this book, Stratton's magnum opus is time-honored, and kept in highest regard. If you checked the reference list of all modern day books on electromagnetic theory, you would immediately discover that there is always Stratton's on the list. And that should be your hint.

The prose used in the book is simply lucid. No corner is cut in the discussion. Almost everthing presented therein is worked out from scratch, and the discussion of the analyses is as rigorous as they possibly can be.

I believe this book would be most useful to those who are interested in gaining a truly deep understanding of electromagnetic phenomena. But here's a word of caution...this book needs to be read very slowly and carefully. Every sentence in the book is a gem, on which the reader needs to reflect :-)

I highly recommend this book. And I wish someone would publish
it again, so that the current and next generations of curious minds will not be denied widespread access to such a masterpiece!

Cheers,

Dr. E.
----------------------------------------------------

What it really distinguishes this book is it explains the crucial issues to understand the real physical concepts behind the electromagnetic theory. for instance, the explanation why one over the square root of the multiplication of epsilon and mu gives the velocity of wave, check any book it will say the typical statement "mathematical consequences". The coverage is superb when it comes to the field source and in the subsequent chapters relating it to the boundary conditions. For engineers, this book is not a textbook, it is a book you read to establish a substantially strong background to analyze any electromagnetic problem. For a physicist, it is essential textbook to understand EM theory. Unfortunately, it is out of print, I hope every one knows this fabulous book or want to have it to send an email to prof. Donald G. Dudley, the editor of the IEEE series on Electromagnetic Wave Theory, to reprint it again. This his email: dudley@ece.arizona.edu

This book is not suitable as an introductory text because it assumes its readers have a mature understanding of Maxwell's equations and high mathematical sophistication. I have no further opinion of it as a teaching tool, having only used it as a reference for professional work in the electromagnetic sciences. In this role it never fails to provide a systematic and rigorous discussion of the topics it covers. The book is particularly comprehensive in areas of potential theory and contains the solutions to many problems that I have not been able to find elsewhere. Often these solutions are assumed as background for current research publications in EM so having access to detailed solutions can be very helpful. However, the book has three significant drawbacks as a reference: (1) The sections are not written to be standalone so one often has to do much work looking up early equations and notations (2) The mathematical techniques are, expectedly, dated. For example it relies more heavily on Green's Therom than current approaches (which largely avoid explicit use of Green's Therom by employing Green's Functions) and seeks explicit solutions where numerical techniques could be more easily employed (3) The material on wave propagation and scattering is limited. All that said, for the right person in the right field, this book is a real gem.

Training is my specialty, so this book explained everything in detail and the show me the future of training.

Employee Training and Development is a very interesting book to read. It helped me out in planning a training and delopment plan at my job.

Fast shipment. Delivered as promised. Would reccomend amazon again for textbook purchases. Thanks for the savings!!!

This book was an excellent tool for my Training Methods class. There were several sections on new training methods, and explained in easy to understand terms, the proper methodology in developing a training program. I would recommend this for anyone needing help in developing a training manual, or who needs general guidelines on setting up a training program for others.

Very good text for the novice in Employee Training & Development. I would recommend this book to those considering study in employee performance improvement or training.

From the lyrical title "Fabled Flowers" to the elegant designs displayed, Kumiko Sudo has demonstrated artistry and exquisite taste.

Combining techniques first used for paper origami the author/artist employs every trick using cloth & stitching to create divine quilt patches which are enhanced with the Japanese quilting technique known as Sashiko.

Sashiko quilting began as a means of reinforcing work wear, and also stitching layers of padding for the cloth armor of the Samurai. It evolved into an intricate and breathtaking art of fabric enhancement and is employed herein for detailing on the small squares constructed by Kumiko for this book.

30 quilt blocks are featured, in gorgeous colour and detail deliciously folded fabric in different flower folds from complicated Hydrangea to glorious Pomegranate and sweet Morning Glory. I lament only the lack of Peonies, as a personal favorite.

The guides for folding the origami effect flowers are realtively simple and easy to follow, while the detailing on the Sashiko quilting is heavenly inspiration!

All necessary templates are included at end of book as well as clear instructions for assembly.

These quilt patterns are much more applique than patchwork although some is included in the design - a little bit of everything for everyone.

Great inspirational book and definately worth the price.

As a extra snippet, a cute fable is included with every flower.

kotori May'2005

In this book, Kumiko has included the most fantastic flowers for applique based on origami, unique designs, and sushiko quilting designs. There is enough variety for even beginners, and several designs that are advanced or intermediate too. Her fabric choices are very artistic. With each design, Kumiko also includes her inspiration for the piece in the form of poetry or a story. This helps one to really feel a part of the design. There is room for much creativity. One can make a single square or a small quilt, or even full size if desired.

The life-experience fables that accompany the creative expression of this fabric/quilt artist add to the wonderful texture of the final product. This book opens up new dimensions and levels of creativity using fabric as a vehicle and providing a serene pleasue for even the casual quilter. The directions are easy to understand. The patterns are complete. The process is great fun.

I love this book. I wanted to do something floral, I did want to do some applique, but didn't want to do a Baltimore album style quilt. This was the answer. It's beautiful, less work than regular applique, and very unique and visually interesing. I'm working on the hydrangea block.

The blocks are big (mine is 17 inches) and 3 dimentional. Some of the folded shapes are tacked down.

Another excellent book from Kumiko. Clear, precise directions and diagrams. The coloured pictures are worth buying the book for.

This is one of the best books on reunion planning, with lots of great information and ideas I never thought of before. Well worth the money!

Family reunions are not, for many of us, as basic a part of family research as they might be, and books on the subject usually reflect that. If most of your relatives still live within a day's drive, you probably see them regularly and an annual picnic is almost a routine event, dedicated to introducing new offspring and remembering the recently deceased. If your family is scattered all over the country, as is true of probably a majority of the American population these days, a reunion becomes a special event with a significant outlay in time and money for both planners and attendees, but the activities are still largely the same. But Sandy Clunies, a Certified Genealogist and frequent speaker at the national level, is a very experienced family researcher and past winner of the NGS Family History Writing Contest, so her interest here is primarily in the role of genealogy at the family reunion. How could any attentive researcher pass up the chance to graze among all those memories and experiences brought together for a few days in one place?

Putting on a reunion can be an overwhelming task, but (to quote the author's grandmother) you can eat an elephant if you cut it into bite-sized pieces. "What kind of show should it be?" she asks. Do you need a theme? Is there to be a central event, like a milestone anniversary or the dedication of a DAR grave marker? Will it be potluck at a state park? A gathering at the ancestral family farm? Or a Caribbean cruise? The most important rule, though is Plan Ahead. At least a year - preferably two if it's to be a big event. The second rule is Take a Businesslike Approach. This includes record keeping, not only to properly account for finances but to provide information for future reunions. (Detailed attendance records from family gatherings held a century ago have become valuable resources in their own right.) The Internet, naturally, is a great help in locating those whom you want to invite, especially if you've been out of touch for a few years, and the author gives detailed advice (plus encouraging anecdotes) on the use of search engines and message boards for this purpose. You will also want to advertise your reunion online in order to alert those individuals you weren't able to locate. Many suggestions of an historical and genealogical nature are provided for activities (house and cemetery tours, living history demonstrations), and for showcasing the family's history (enlargements of photos collected in advance, displays of inherited artifacts). And, of course, a series of oral history sessions is an opportunity not to be missed, with memories triggered by old photos and conversations with other descendants. To preserve all you've been able to learn, a post-reunion book (with sales solicited during the event) will not only provide a permanent record, it will help establish a tradition of future reunions and encourage wider attendance. A family website can present new information acquired, woven into what was already known, and can also encourage further research -- and advance planning for the next get-together. Even though I'm not a big reunion-attender, this is by far the best book I've seen on the subject.

Years ago, family was the root of this country. In today's world, it's easy to say to yourself, "tomorrow I'll look into that." The problem is, too many tomorrows pass and we drift further from our roots. Don't be overwhelmed with the thought of organizing a family reunion - it's easy with today's technology and this guide. This book will be your "right-hand" and will guide you the through the process step-by-step. "A Family Affair" will not let you down. You'll create memories that last many lifetimes.

Excellent book with a lot of info and good Ideas. Will not be disappointed with this Book! A great book for planning a reunion.

What a great book this is!!! Many families would love to have a reunion, but are quickly daunted by what appears to be the enormity of such a project.
This author not only has organized her own large family reunions, but has beautifully and personally given us a simple to follow road map.
With this book you can begin building the strengths and joys a reunion will bring to every family member - and you will be giving the very best present of all - the gift of new memories.
Your family deserves the best - and you can give it to them!!!

Excellent film studies text--informative. Delineates the different epochs of film not only in the U.S. It includes international film and the work of Eisenstein, Renoir, Kurosawa, and others. Concise language and beautiful black-and-white and color reproductions.

Due to a change of plans I didn't use this book this quarter. However, hearing from my follow film students this book details well about the history of film and not just North American film. All film. A must for a film student.

I had this book for a Film History class, and it was great. I've used it every semester since and plan to keep it forever and sleep with it under my pillow.

Even though it isn't aimed at teaching film theory or basics, it's better at explaining the basics than Film Art by miles. It also makes theory more interesting and topical to learn since it goes chronologically and highlights films that were actually influential, instead of the ones that Film Art just happened to get the rights to print pictures of.

Highly recommend.

If you are interested in film history on the whole, please, give yourself a treat by purchasing this book. It is not cheap but it is worth every penny. I had it after a course in film history and despite being someone who usually sell or dump away my texts after graduation, I find it very hard to give this one away. Boy, am I glad I did not. As one's scope and experience in world cinema grows, so too does one's interest in this book. Bordwell and Thomas's style is academic but always enthusiastic, and theirs is the most comprehensive account of world cinema in English (pre-war Japanese cinema, anyone?). I have not found another general film book on world cinema history to match, and I will certainly be purchasing its third edition (what I have is the first) if that ever comes by.

here's a short comparison I made between the following 3 film history books:

A History of the Cinema from Its Origins to 1970 (Eric Rhode)
A Short History of the Movies (Gerald Mast)
Film History: An Introduction, (Thompson-Bordwell)

I was looking for a technical/historical overview of the development of cinema, without idiosyncratic criticism and with emphasis on the origins of film techniques, genealogy of influences of filmmakers, relevant references to history, literature and other arts, and impartial accounts of filmmakers' careers.

Instead of a verdict, I will simply quote passages about two greats:

Rhode: [about Fellini] "Fellini's greatest works are inevitably works of laughter and tears. [...] Fellini gets into trouble when he deserts feeling for thought. La Dolce vita (1959) is a sterile thematic exercise [...] In the film's first sequence, a helicopter [...] The film, intellectualy, is over. Christ has been petrified into wood; he is the tool of modern machinery [...] Although the film has nothing more to say, Fellini continues for two hours, contrasting sensual things [...] Juliet of the Spirits [...] suffers from a similar over-schematization."

Mast: [about Antonioni] "Antonioni sometimes has trouble in allowing his images to accrete meaning [...] His failure to generalize experience was to be total in La notte (1960). Lacking any understanding of how writers think and feel, his portrait of the author, [...] is so unconvincing that the spectator may be tempted to think that Giovanni's crisis of conscience is no more than a rationalization of his inability to escape from his wife's purse-strings."

Thompson-Bordwell: [about Antonioni] "From the start of his career Antonioni demonstrated a mastery of deep focus (Fig. 19.30) and the long take with camera movement (pp. 427-429). The early works also pioneered [...] Antonioni's muted dramatization of shallow or paralyzed characters found a sympathetic response in an era that also welcomed Existentialism. [...] Juan Bardem, Miklos Jansco, and Theo Angelopoulos learned from his distinctive style. Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974) and Brian De Palma's Blow-Out (1981) derive directly from Blow-Up."


nuff said...

One of the very best references for learning to develop a plan for
quilting is "A Fine Line" by Melody Crust and Heather Tewell. One of their excellent suggestions for working out your quilting design involves clear vinyl and simple wipe-off pens (such as expo). The book is packed with information and ideas of how to evaluate each particular piece to determine suitability of whatever quilting design you might want to attempt. An excellent addition for any quilters library, whether your preference is art quilting or traditional.

A Fine Line was an early Christmas present to myself when I was ordering books from Amazon. I usually don't allow myself to open
it until Christmas...But I couldn"t resist. It is a beautiful book filled with glorious photos of quilts made by Heather and Melody. It came just as I was trying to choose a quilting design for a special quilt and it inspired me to see the quiilting design in a new way. Thank you for that and for making so many spectacular quilts. A Fine Line is a real treasure.

I have known Melody Crust and Heather Tewell for over ten years and I have spent many wonderful hours quilting and learning from these two ladies. I have read their book from cover to cover and I am delighted to share with those of you out there who love quilting as much as I do my review of this book.

"A Fine Line" is excellent for even the new quilter and yet it has a great amount of information for the long time quilter. The book has wonderful and very interesting pictures by Charles Crust and show the quilter lots of examples of different things (mountains, sky, and places all over the world) that are inspirational and terrific starting points.

The quilting line examples Heather and Melody show in there book are marvelous and keep your interest in learning their examples of fine line quilting. "A Fine Line" shows very good examples and projects that Melody and Heather have created just for this book and a goodly number of their award winning quilts they have shared with the quilting community.

If you want to add a very good quilting book to your quilting library this is the one. It would make an excellent gift for the quilter in your life. Hope you enjoy "A Fine Line" as much as I have.

At last a book to guide you past the dread "quilt as desired"!
It would be a useful and inspiring addition to the library of any quilter. The quilts are lovely and the reader is given clear explanations as to why each was quilted the way it is and alternatives are discussed. Designing the quilting will never be easy, but the authors will help you create a design that will best complement your pieced or appliqued top.

This book has added volumes to my quilting library....just in and of itself. If you are a quilter who is sometimes "stumped" as to the term 'quilt as desired' I do believe you will not regret acquiring "A Fine Line." The authors have done an outstanding job...if anyone needs help....here you go! It's hard to describe in this review area, space is limited...but I thoroughly enjoy this "book."

I read this on a flight overseas. It helped me to understand what I've been doing wrong over the past few years. As a doctor I have very little time to commit to investing however this was without a doubt one of the most useful and practical books I've ever read on investing. I only wish I'd gotten it sooner, it would have stopped me from making a lot of mistakes! Easy to apply and gave me some real peace of mind.

This book was easy to follow. Fun and insightful. Unlike most investment books its not just a dictionary of investment terms it actually taught me how it all works. I learnt so much about investing, and myself. It was flat out great. I have been investing for some time but this showed me what I was doing wrong. I'm sending it to my kids in college so they get an early start.

Gave this to a client who wanted to be more knowledgeable about basic investing. She spent the weekend working through the book, and called to say it's the best book she's ever read. She said she placed it beside her Bible as her second most important book for her family!

Two thumbs up! Finding an investment book that actually makes sense to me is a rarity. This might actually be the first that actually helps me make money. I would recommend it to any investor, not just the neophytes. It is written in an easy-to-read fashion, but is jam packed with information that anyone can use. In fact, I'm going to give it to everyone I know as a Christmas present. This is the best book I've read all year. Buy it. Read it. Use it.

I read this book to see if I could get more out of it than I was getting at my college investments class. It actually helped me to understand the concepts the complicated text books included. As a student I can see this book being very useful to anybody learning about investing. The graphical depictions are awesome. Really interesting and practical, I'm sending this to my Mom to help her out. Now all I need is some money to do it with!

I picked up Flagstaff Hill and couldn't put it down until I was done. It was a great read from start to finish with wonderful characters and layers of intrigue. For those from Pittsburgh, it's a must because it features many of the old familiar places.

Jim Enright's new book brought back a lot of good and interesting memories from time past. You see I have known Jim for over 25 years. We ran and raced together on the roads and trails of Pittsburgh. He was instrumental in helping The Greater Pittsburgh Road Runners get started in Pittsburgh.
His knowledge of running and coaching is interwoven with an interesting and somewhat mysterious plot of what happens to Tommy Hanlon. Runners are somewhat introverted and often are misunderstood by others. He does an excellent job in bringing the story of good runner to a positive conclusion. I liked the places that Jim mentions in Pittsburgh where Tommy runs because I have run those places and races around the city of Pittsburgh. All Pittsburgh runners should read this book to bring back those nostalgic years of yesterday.I look forward to Jim's next book!

Jim Enright was actually my cross country coach for my last two years of high school. I had no idea he was a writer, a chemist, or even a hiker. I was so impressed with his knowledge; the book covers so many topics including national parks, chemistry, running, law, etc. He fits all that information into the book while still having a great plot. Its a great book and coach enright is a great guy.

Easy reading with a good story line. A truly inspiring story for anyone who loves to run, and for all of us who sometimes feel that life is unfair.

Mr Enright is actualy my coach and if I had not stumbled upon this book then i never would have known about it. Because of his modesty he had never even mentioned the fact that he was a novelist to anyone on the team? I am in the process of reading it and so far i have found it very powerfull. It has hit home to me as a runner and a human being.

Future Prospect provides immense insights on the shape of the future of e-business that will be of great value to technologists and business leaders seeking to understand and take advantage of the mega strategies taking place in the market space. Books like Future Prospect come along too infrequently, but when they do, the power of human creation is unleashed, transforming our business landscape. Future Prospect is the most talked about book in the current era.

Future Prospect raises the bar for any professional involved in business performance and development. This book clearly explains the core concepts and strategies underlying in any business and advances the business activities and processes to world-class level. And it provides how-here-and-now you can make enormous impact on your business results.

The first book to explore the impact of ebusiness in any business for any one aspiring to reach world-class status by guiding the readers to the changes that are taking place now, and an intriguing look into the future of business.

Future Prospect has served us as an irreplaceable map to chart our ebusiness visions and strategies and to drive our company to be number one.

Penetrating through the swirling mist of high-tech business scenarios with vision and simplicity, Future Prospect offers the vital tools to configure your business for tomorrow's prospects. It offers executives and analysts with a roadmap and agenda they need to advance their carriers.

I haven't dug into this book fully yet, but since there wasn't an in-depth review, I'll add my quick two cents.

Areas covered include a brief history of Italian cuisine, and a region-by-region look at history and specialties. There are recipes, naturally, but the depth of the glossary sections (separate glossaries for ingredients and Italian terms/techniques) can't be overstated. The section on wine was a little too brief, but that information can absolutely be found elsewhere.

I have the paperback version of this book, which I'm guessing is the same version as this one, and feel like I got a heck of a gift from my step-sister this Xmas. While I really like the cookbooks of Lidia Bastianich (pictures are nice - this paperback has none, and the recipe variety is better), this book should be treated more as a reference than a cookbook. A solid addition to your kitchen, or even to your backpack if you're traveling Italy and want to decode the menu.

This is yet another Italian cookbook suffering from poor proofreading and kitchen testing (judging from the severe errors in the one recipe I've tried so far, the Polenta with meat sauce). I don't see how they could invest so much money in beautiful photography and printing and yet completely drop the ball in what matters most, making it easy and pleasant to generate the meals.

Of course, that doesn't matter most in selling the book off the shelf, so publishers are getting away with it. But I will gripe here when I have a chance and punish them for their oversight. (The thing could have been done in half the time, with a third the salt, and anyone trying it would realize this immediately once it was too late...) I also want preparation times in my recipes and make-ahead and storage/leftover notes.

Otherwise this book is beautiful and has one tempting page after another with plenty of useful Italian translations and an encyclopedia of ingredients and wine all of which sold me the book and I am generally happy enough with it. But I will defensively make the recipes from now on, now that my trust has been violated.

`the Gastronomy of Italy' by Anna Del Conte is a dandy little reference to regional Italian recipes, products, wines, and techniques. The list of the author's other works and the imprimatur of the Accademia Italiana Della Cucina demonstrates that this is no quickie knock-off by publisher, Barnes and Noble. An examination of the book's contents confirms this first impression with a very nice collection of information for the foodie, the scholar, and the traveler.

The first chapter on the `development of Italian Gastronomy' is too short to compete with full length books on the subject, but it does give some interesting perspective in twelve (12) pages, with the claim that Italians owned the leadership in European cuisine through the Renaissance, only to let it slip away to the French with the political disintegration of the late seventeenth century. By far the most interesting content of this chapter is the account of major culinary works by Italians from the fifteenth century to the present. It is a revelation to hear writers of 400 years ago advising their readers to concentrate on fresh, seasonal produce. So this was not an idea invented by Alice Waters!

The second chapter on the Italian food culture fills out the picture we get from watching `Molto Mario'. It gives a very nice little list of major Italian food markets, which is a useful guide for someone wishing to create a culinary tour of Italy. The only thing I missed was a description of `Enoteca', the name of an Italian wine bar. The chapter on the culinary regions of Italy gets down to serious business. This profile is a great introduction, but again, it cannot compete with complete books written on the subject such as Claudia Roden's `The Food of Italy', Erica DeMane's `The Flavors of Southern Italy', and Micol Negrin's `Rustico' or the classic `The Foods of Italy' by Waverley Root. But, if you just want a quick look around, this will do the job, as long as you realize there is much this chapter is leaving out.

The next two chapters are the heart of the book and the primary reason you will want to buy it. First, there are 130 pages of recipes organized by ingredient or course, with headnotes that often indicate the geographical source of the recipe. Surprisingly, several recipes also come from American and English sources such as Marcella Hazan and Alan Davidson. It is a pleasant surprise to find the recipes in such an omnibus volume written with a keen eye to guiding the amateur to getting things right. A lot of cautions and advice which could easily be taken for granted are carefully spelled out, as when the recipe for polenta describes the delicate task of slowly streaming the corn meal into the pot with one hand while constantly stirring the pot with the other. Well done Anna! The only oddity with this selection of recipes is in the fact that the meat chapter is larger than the vegetable section, with lots of space being given to veal and beef recipes. While not even close to being a `complete' selection, the choice of recipes is very representative of classic Italian dishes.

The next chapter is probably the basis for which most people will buy this book. It is a dictionary of Italian ingredients. The entries are much more than what you will find in a dictionary, but a bit less than you may find in the `Larousse Gastronomique' for French preparations. For basic ingredients such as vinegars, the entries describe how to identify good samples of the product plus a brief idea of how the ingredients are produced. For compound ingredients such as agrodolce (sweet and sour sauce), the entry gives an outline of how the product is made and how it is used, but no complete recipe (as you might find in Larousse, except that Larousse has no entry for agrodolce). Thus, this book is an admirable supplement, filling in for the French classic when it ignores an Italian ingredient. Like Larousse, the entries are written in such a way that it is easy to just start with the A's and read it as if you were reading a memoir or a novel. Well, maybe not a novel, but you get the idea. Some of the more interesting things you will find are the facts that Italy has a name for strudel as made in Venice and a name for the bouillabaisse ingredient, Racasse, which is used in Italian fish stews as a thickener. The separate section on descriptions of Italian food preparation techniques is equally interesting. It is well known that Italian bacon, pancetta, is generally not smoked, yet there is a variety of smoked `pancetta afumicatta'.

The next section on wines will not replace a good book on Italian wines, but it is an excellent resource for finding the terroir of specific wines. It confirmed something I had heard in passing that the first major Italian wines to make an impression on American taste (after the Tuscan cliché, Chianti) were Bardolino and Valpolicello from the lands around Venice. If nothing else, this chapter will impress upon you the great variety of Italian wines and how they are typically used.

My personal favorite section in this and most other books is the bibliography. And, this book has a great one, with lots of entries from both classic and modern Italian sources. Like Germany and France, but unlike the United States, Italian scholarship has produced encyclopedic volumes on regional gastronomy which, if you knew Italian, would make writing this kind of book for American audiences very easy. Makes me want to learn Italian.

While this book overlaps lots of other volumes, its paperback price makes it a valuable book for both reading and reference. If you want to know more about Italian cuisine, you could do a lot worse than to start here.

Being a huge fan of Italian cooking (and quite a good novice in my own right) I was very eager to find a good cookbook on the subject especially after returning from a month long culinary tour of the pennisula in November. Well, I hit the jackpot when a friend presented me with a copy of Gastronomy of Italy. It is a simple, beautifully written and presented book on the foods of Italy. Anybody who is looking for a really good book on Italian cooking need look no further than this. I spent over 3 hours on the first evening just savoring the recipes and drooling over the photographs!! Bella! Enjoy. Scott

This book is a good start for initiating an Italian cooking affair; it gives you dictionary of ingredients, regional description, and few recipes.
The recipes represent important Italian ingredients and cooking techniques, they aren't simple (Lasagna like dish made with Polenta sheets - for example) but capture the Italian flavors and texture.
When you've got the Italian taste, you can use (return to) other books with more complete list of Italian recipes, and this book can be used as a reference book, for finding ingredients substitutes, and basic pasta handling.
In addition the book is beautiful and the recipes are very tasty.