As a big Wong Kar-Wai fan, I had to have the book. But most of the "critical analysis" goes way too far in trying to "understand" his films. He must get a great laugh when he reads about these author's claims of knowing the deeper meaning he was going for. Check out the pictures and forget about the articles.

A great book. The photography is well selected. An insightful analysis. A little excessive in intelltualizing the ideas of Wong Kar-Wai's art.

I only wish it would emphasize more on how seductive and sensual his works are, and how skillfully he uses the props and sounds(cigarettes , blood-red bedcover, the Falls, wallpapers etc.), the lighting (mastered by Christopher Doyle), colours (like stained glasses), and the make-up (thick, dark eye-brows rendering a Latin flavour) to exude nostalgia, time, sensuality, sorrow, and romanticism. It's very Hong-Kongish. Wong's art is all about feelings.

(P.S. Try to get Christopher Doyle's Photo Journal on Happy Together. Magnificient photography from the footages. Well written in both English and Chinese).

Every fan of the Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wei should immediatly check out this book. It contains a critical review of all of his films to date, going into depth on the possible meanings and significant aspects of each film. As a graduate of a Film Production program, it can be a bit heady, but still very interesting. The best part is at the end when two interviews with the famed director are combined. It is a real treat to her Wong Kar Wei talk about his own work! The photography, mostly by Christopher Doyle, gives a great glimpse into the world of Wong's films.

Read this to understand one human's attempts to know the mind of the universe. Don't read this if you want some kind of instruction on how to develop your own connection to that Intelligence. A pretty book nonetheless.

Evelyn Underhill wrote numerous books about mysticism, an amazing number of which are still in print (click on author name to see). In this little book, published just at the start of WWI, Underhill attempted to distill a summary of the mystical pursuit in simple language.

Addressing an imaginary "practical man", Underhill attempts first to justify the validity and value of the pursuit of mystical experience; then explains the stages of the mystic's quest in several chapters. These chapters represent Underhill's synthesis of the works of many mystics.

The writing style is deliberately lyrical, at times quite striking, at other times crossing the line to become pretentious and old-fashioned.

Is this actually a book for the (modern) "practical man"? I think not. Underhill's instructions in how to begin meditating are vague and could easily mislead a beginner into fruitless paths. Also, the descriptions of the stages of mystical progress are strongly influenced by the Christian mystics of the middle ages -- Underhill had studied few, if any, primary sources on Eastern traditions since few Buddhist or Hindu documents had been translated at the time of writing. But it reduces the value of the book for modern readers.

I enjoy this book. It falls short of five stars, in my opinion, because the thesis which Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) argues, namely, that spiritual concerns have priority over temporal ones, is belied by her inability to engage in a world beyond her sheltered life of privilege. That aside, there are many wonderful and redeeming qualities brought to light by her insights. It is clear to me that she has considered this subject quite seriously in translating the meaning of a spiritual relationship into secular terms. I have often found it difficult to reconcile Free Will with Determinism. However, I clearly understood her explanation, "Perhaps, you always fancied that your will was free -- That you were actually, as you sometimes said, 'captain of your soul.' If so, this was merely one amongst the many illusions which supported your old enslaved career." Thoughts, such as these, are, of course, valuable. Even so, what is more important to me is that Ms Underhill identifies clearly the steps to a fulfilling, spiritual relationship by outlining three Forms of Contemplation. Briefly, they are : (1) discovering your own connections with the world around you; (2) recognizing that the changes in the world are the "outbirth of another power ... transcendent to itself." and (3) experiencing a "mysterious contact, a clear certitude of communion and possession." Her gentle, patient explanations make clear to me some of the tools which help me to have a spiritual relationship. If you are interested in developing a spiritual self, this book will be intersting to you.

While this book is helpful and one of the most commonly used textbooks for learning Arabic, there is a big gap between it and the first book. The texts are very dense and the grammatical explanations are not that detailed. Also the vocabulary is very strange and leaves a lot to be desired in the everyday sense. I do think that the contextual way of learning vocabulary is very good and the texts are interesting. Probably not a good book for someone who is trying to learn Arabic on their own, but good for someone who has a good base of knowledge and wants to work on their reading skills.

The second part of the Al Kitaab series puts an emphasis on the development of reading skills and concentrates on more complex grammatical structures and vocabulary, the type that students are likely to encounter in authentic texts (mainly for academic purposes).
As a whole, this book is a lot more "academic" than the first part and this is probably why there seems to be such a wide gap between the two books. Al Kitaab One is about "learning Arabic and having fun doing it" and Al Kitaab Two seems to leave out the "having fun" part.
Those hoping that Al Kitaab Two will address topics in everyday life communication which were not found in Part One will be disappointed. Part Two teaches you the vocabulary you need to read about the first newspapers in the Arab world but it won't teach you how to say "Could you pass me the bread please".
I believe that one reason for this is the setting for which the Al Kitaab series was initially developed: the Middlebury Summer Immersion Arabic program. Now, in an immersion program this would be the perfect book. It gives you the necessary materials for work in class and skipps over some aspects of everyday communication assuming that you will be exposed to them anyway outside the classroom.
Unfortunately, if you are a student in normal academic setting or someone struggling to learn Arabic on their own, this book needs a lot of supplementary materials and, most of all, a very good teacher/consultant to make up for the defficiencies.
You should also be aware that the audio and video tapes that go with the book make it twice as useful. Good luck finding them :)

The Al-Kitaab books use a truly outstanding and innovative approach to the teaching of the Arabic Language. The grammatical explanations are clear and concise, texts used are varied in content and address relevant cultural and social issues in the Arab world, and the vocabulary used in the lessons is widely useful. I recommend this series very enthusiastically.

John Tobler has written a fairly good book on ABBA, but is far too focused on the events surrounding ABBA's UK success (and failures). His style of writing is difficult to read. His sentences seem to ramble on, and at times they are quite hard to follow. There is very little really new information here. That was even true before reading the more recent books by Carl Magnus Palm and Jean-Marie Potiez. And now that those two authors have published their versions of the ABBA story, ABBA Gold seems very basic.

I think that the other reviewer was reviewing the wrong book. This book is a book of collections of music sheets that appear in ever popular "ABBA Gold" CD. Considering that all the other individual music sheets are not available, this book is the only source of ABBA songs for the people who wants to play them. This book contains the music sheet quality of scores - piano and chords, as well as lyrics. Not a "easy" version. A true ABBA lover should definitely check this out !

There is another one which is titles as "Great Songs of ABBA", which contains almost all songs of ABBA. Unfortunately, the book is hard to get these days.

just a wonderful, new, look at Christ and his family. A subject almost never before dealt with from the angle this author has approached it. well worth the time it takes to read it.

a book for the jr. high to high school level. well written. very interesting in that it poses a new and refreshing angle to the subject at hand. a must for any christian to read--young or old

This is an eye witness account of all that happened to Samakar from hours before his arrest in Summer of 1352 (1973) upto his release in Fall of 1357 (1978).

Samakar, along with 11 others, were accused of trying to kidnap Shah, Farah, and Reza Pahlavi. Their arrest and subsequent trial was front page news for months. I remember it clearly myself, as it was right around the time I had gotten old enough to start reading daily papers. The heroic defense of Khosrow Golesorkhi, which was broadcasted on Iranian TV, and that of Keramat Daneshian made them legends. Both were subsequently executed. Samakar, Allamehzadeh, and Bathayi who refused to cooperate with savak got life sentences and joined the ranks of most famous political prisoners.

The book is an excellent portray of the conditions in Iranian prisons during the reign of Shah; both political and regular as Samakar was "exiled" to regular prisons all around Iran on numerous occasions.

The early part of the book is very engaging. Once you start, it is hard to put it down.

For those of us Iranians, old enough to remember the famous Golesorkhi-Daneshian trial and having had a lasting impression as a result of having watched it on TV, there were always numerous questions.

Who were these people? Why did SAVAK allow the trial to be shown on TV? Why did only Golesorkhi and Daneshian put up a resistance? How their resistance turned the SAVAK plot upside down and turned the youth against the regime.

This book reveals it all. At times one is really surprised by the naive SAVAK tactics, and by how naive these young people were. How the prisons under the Shah functioned and how adventureous and dedicated the young generation of that time had become.

Perhaps not much relevance now, but an enjoyable bedtime reading for those who remember the famous televised trial.

there is a lot to learn from this book

THE EXAMPLES ARE ESPECIALLY HELPFUL WHEN TRYING TO EXPLAIN IAS TO FOREIGNERS, OR WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO RELATE THE IAS TO US GAAP. I FOUND THE COMPARISONS AND EXPLANATIONS VERY READABLE TOO. THANK YOU.

This is a limited edition set of a picture CD and a miniature, thoroughly illustrated book on the most glamorous pop group of all time. Although this collector's item is mostly geared towards fans, it is very well produced and documented. The interviews are not gossipy, but they explore instead the ABBA phenomenon and its music. The CD covers 2 interviews; the first one is with the whole group in October 1976, when they visited the United States for a short promotional tour. The second interview took place around 10 years later with Bjorn Ulvaeus alone, when he was promoting the first musical that he and Benny Andersson wrote post-ABBA (called "Chess"). In both interviews ABBA's music past, present and future is discussed, compared and explored. If you are a fan of the group and its members as soloists as well, you just have to have this CD.

As a student of modern and classical Hebrew for many years, this dictionary is usually my first stop. Occassionally, I will need to go to a more complete reference, but usually not.

I didn't know much gossip about ABBA before I read this book, and having read it, I certainly know more than I did, mainly about the career and inside world of Agnetha as a performer. But as an average reader and former fan of ABBA I would have liked to know more about her personal life, and about her as a person, not as a performer. Although some people have commented in these reviews that there are wonderful photos, what I was really hoping to see was pictures of her with her family, her children, her parents, and her sister, and what they really thought about her as a daughter, a mother, and a sister. All the pictures show her as a part of ABBA onstage or in her professional life, except for one very blurry and old picture of her as a little girl with her parents and her baby sister. I expected more interesting pictures, especially of her children.

Though I do agree that her romantic and more personal life are her own business, I wish that Agnetha would have provided a bit more detail about her life during ABBA. That said, the book is the first time that many fans have had the chance to hear from her in her own words. Personally, I respect her tight lipped approach, which enables her to avoid the typical tasteless 'tell all' book syndrome. But again, it would have been nice to here a bit more about specific events during her years with ABBA. The original Swedish version was longer and apparently provided a bit more detail. I wonder why the translations for the English edition were so selective? Still, with pictures spanning the last thirty years of Agnetha's life and text letting us know where Agnetha is in her life, this is an enjoyable book for any ABBA fan.

This is a great book, if you can read between the lines. Agnetha will never speak badly about other people. If that is what you would like to hear, then read a tabloit. Agnetha has matured in a decent and honourable way. She knows her faults and isn't ashamed about it. In this book she tells in detail about her pre-ABBA life. This is very interesiting to read. One gets to know the reason why she wanted to be on stage and sing; not to portay herself, but to let her talent shine! Ofcourse she was always the more interesting singer of ABBA. Her voice was a golden tread through the music of the group. Without her there is no ABBA. One can agrue if the same can be said about Frida. Agnetha is modest about her contribution. This makes her all the more worthy. If you are interested in Agnetha as a person and a singer, this is your book. If you are only interested in Agnetha as a part of ABBA, then maybe you'll end up a little dissapionted, cause Agnetha's carreer is far more than just ABBA.