Louisiana Tech Books

This book is a must for an upsetting and deep look into the Intifada. The authors are unsparing in the details and deeply perceptive in the social framework that lead to the revolt.

The writing (or translating) in this book is forceful, evocative, concise and superb. The criticisms of both Israeli leadership (Labor and Likud), and Palestinian leadership (the PLO and Hamas), during the intifada, are sharp razors of analysis. The book is somewhat out-of-date, and I would love to see an update--not only on the subsequent course of events, but also on what more is known (if anything) about the time period covered by the book (1987-1991). It is, however, enlightening to view the current "peace process" in the light of the authors' predictions, especially that Israel would soon be casting about for someone--anyone--to take the business of micro-governing Gaza and the West Bank off its hands.

This is an interesting and detailed account of the 1st Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation, written by one of Israel's leading investigative reporters. Though written primarily from an Israeli perspective and though it is not free from bias, "Intifada" does a reasonably good job of analyzing the structure and working of the Palestinian leadership of the Intifada. Few other books discuss in such detail how the "Unified National Leadership" operated, how its communiqués were written and distributed, etc. It also has detailed descriptions and analyses of all the major events, and particularly, the first sparks of the Intifada in Gaza and the series of events leading up to it in 1987. The book accurately grasps the surprise of both the PLO and Israeli leaderships at the eruption of this uprising. What this book fails in is estimating the underlying causes of the Intifada, especially long-term assessments. For those factors, I recommend complementing this book with either "Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising", by Don Peretz, or "The Intifada: Causes and Effects", by Aryeh Shalev.

I think this is a great book. Very helpful for anyone who is planning on receiving a degree in the medical field.

The Basic Life Support course should be made a requirement for everyone and anyone, the healthcare provider to the layman. Simple techniques that are taught and learnt can save lives. This is not the reponibility of the individual to make this happen, but also institutions.

As a doctor I had to sit for my BLS course to join my required residency training program. The one day course teaches simple steps for safe and effective chain of survival that can help save a life of an injured person. From calling for help, to correct CPR and finally to the use of automated external defibrillators. This was the required reading material published by the American Heart Associtaion to help in understanding the basic principles of BLS.

The book is easily written, mainly to help lay people understand its true meaning. As a doctor, I admit that I found some chapters boring, since the book goes on to explain simple terminology, but it is understandable the reason this was set forth, that not only doctors are priviliged to save lives, but everyone. The diagrams and drawings are top notch. Even without practicing the techniques a person can know what to do by actually looking at the drawings and knowing what to do. There are tables that demonstrate the important facts and red flags of certain diseases so that people can distinguish between a hear attack or a stroke for example. Everything is covered, the correct BLS steps for adults in distress to children of different age groups. Perhaps the most interesting would have to be the methods for preventing harm, especially in children. Topics on pregnancy, allergic reactions and the important legal issues of CPR are also handles very beautifully in this text.

This is a thorough book. The questions at the end of each chapter convey the essence of the MCQs in the BLS course. These are BEST answer questions, unlike the outdated, obsolete, but still used TRUE/FALSE questions of the European ALS. A concise that should be in the library of every parent, intelligent person and, yes even those who call themselves, doctors.

I felt as if my head was being beaten against a flower pot. I was hoping to read a book about gardening, not about racial situations. Couldn't finish it. Sorry. There are better books out there. I know Miss Kincaid must have an agenda, but why drag in into the garden?

I found this book at a library book sale and bought it because of the subject (I enjoy garden writings immensely) and because of the loveliness of the book itself.
The first story about a wisteria that won't bloom at the proper time is the only story I didn't like. The author repeated the sentece "What to do?" so many times that it got on my last nerve. Her writing in that piece seemed to be the meanderings of her thoughts that she then attempted to give a heavy-handed poetic touch. I enjoyed the rest of the pieces.
This book is not typical of garden books and Jamaica Kincaid puts in bits and pieces of her life, touching on racial issues and gardener snobbery. Some sentences widen the eyes and make you read it again because it is so unexpected, tidbits that most other authors would self-censor. The author can come across as a bit offensive, particularly when branding various people "ugly", and I'm not sure if she would be a difficult person to know or a fun person to know - maybe both, but I definitely enjoyed her writings and am glad I didn't let her wisteria story deter me from reading the rest of the book.

If Jamaica Kincaid's book were a garden, it would be a very weedy one indeed. I've enjoyed her occasional pieces on gardening for The New Yorker, but I quickly guessed (and a check in the front of the book confirmed) that the book is a compilation of pieces that have been published elsewhere. How else to account for the wearying repetition of names, places, incidents, and (worst of all) thoughts? There are some bright spots, particularly Kincaid's meditations on English and Antiguan gardens, and thus on the relationship between colonizer and subjects. However, even this subject becomes, as its themes are repeated, tedious. It's hard to say who this book is intended for. Even non-gardeners may enjoy an occasional piece about gardening, but how does such a reader know what Kincaid is talking about when she describes (more than once, I assure you) what a White Flower Farm catalog looks like or why a Festiva Maxima peony is beautiful? And if you are a gardener, one truly interested in growing flowers (Kincaid says little about growing vegetables), you will find no tips or helpful advice here, just endless rhetorical questions. Finally, Kincaid's meandering style is better for short pieces than for a book. By the time I reached the incredibly self-absorbed account of her trip to China, I began to sympathize with the tour leader she maligns. This book is one for the compost heap, I'm afraid. Too bad---the graphic design of the book is quite lovely.

I found this book insufferable, and didn't get to finish it. The contrived title should have tipped me off. Why isn't Amazon listing it correctly? It should be My Garden (Book):

For started, i don't really care for Jamaica Kincaid's writing style. She uses punctuation sparsely, and you go for what it seems like a mile with no period in sight. In the meantime, she has branched in a myriad of extra information, and after a while it gets to be too much to keep track of. This is not stream of consciousness writing, or at least not the good kind anyway.

What really did me in was the beginning of her anecdote titled "Reading":

"It was a day in late October and I had two thousand dollars' worth of heirloom bulbs to place in the ground [...]"

If that wasn't enough, then she continues:

"I do not like winter or anything that represents it ..."

What is she doing then living in Vermont?!

She came across as a malcontent human being who agonizes over insignificant stuff, like the exact month her wisterias bloom. She takes the joy out of gardening, and out of reading.

"Oh, how I like the rush of things, the thickness of things . . ."

Oh, how I like Kincaid's My Garden (Book). I am halfway through it and realize I had better slow down, because I am not going to find another book on the garden I like nearly so much as this one, probably for a very long time. I've got a stack of other books, none so good, and I will use My Garden (Book) like a tiny slice of truffle among the more common and less delicious food on my plate. Rationing is the only option.

What I like about her (among the everything else I like about her) is that she doesn't like Asiatic Lilies because their colors remind her of a hallucinogenic drug she took once ever seven days for a year when she was young. This is the best sort of confession to make in a gardening book.

She also confesses to amassing large debts and threatening letters from creditors about her garden habit. She confesses to being a messy, careless person with a messy house. All these confessions endear her to me. The weaknesses balance the austere authority of her prose, which also endears her to me.

Her garden aesthetic - odd, overgrown, intense and personal, wild, even, endears her to me. I remember reading a bit of memoir in the New Yorker that involved her experiments with coffee enemas. This struck me as the strangest thing I had ever read (because perhaps I was still a teenager in Kansas and ready to be struck by things). Enemas? The reason for them escaped me, but with coffee none the less - or espresso? I paid careful attention to the byline of that piece, wanting to find more of this sort of writing.

Later, one of her essays was in a book I used as a graduate teaching assistant. When I saw her name, I took a sip of coffee.

I like Ms. Kincaid because she doesn't love the writing of Vita Sackville-West. She says that the best literary companion to Vita's gardens is the autobiography of Nina Simone. How could this not be love? The best companion to life is Nina Simone and gardening like Vita Sackville-West.

How could I not see bringing Ms. Kincaid a bouquet of flowers in exquisite yellows and sharing a cocktail in some overgrown, wild garden someday? How could I not tell everyone I know who enjoys the garden or good writing to pick up this book immediately and fall in love?