In this retelling of an ancient Jewish legend, Singer demonstrates all his skill.

In ancient times, in a distant land, there was a large city where many rich men lived. It had magnificent palaces, broad avenues, parks and gardens. In their midst wound a tiny street of broken down houses with narrow windows and doorways and roofs that leaked. In the simplest of these lived a holy man named Tobias with his wife Peninah and their three sons and two daughters. Tobias, a scribe, copied Torah scrolls to make his meager living. Tobias suddenly took ill and lost the use of his right hand. He could earn nothing. The family were hungry. His children had no shoes and could not attend school. But Tobias refused the help of others.

"Even while waiting for miracles, it is good to do something," his wife told him, and after borrowing a coat, sent him out to seek some luck. Tobias came upon a stranger, and mysteriously regained use of his hand to grasp the man's hand in greeting. The man introduced himself as Elijah and ordered Tobias to take him to the market and sell him as a slave. Tobias refused, calling himself Elijah's slave, but as Elijah was a messenger from God, Tobias had no choice but to heed him.

What do you suppose happened next? I cannot tell you. But the story honors Elijah's good name. Alyssa A. Lappen

I still remember how excited I was after finding this book back in the early seventies. Up to that time it was the only popular book on planetary geology. I remember that the section on Mars was especially interesting and extensive. Of course, thorough as always, Asimov also speculated on the nature of the environments of the other terrestrial planets and the moons of the gas giants. It was quite well illustrated with black and white illustrations.

This book fueled an interest in planetary geology in me that persists to the present day. I'm sorry that I let my old copy slip away somewhere along the line.

Ethical Tales From The Kabbalah gathers over fifty stories, most dating from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, which reveal the basic legends and ethical tales of the Kabbalah. Students Of The Kabbalah receive a fine survey combining history and spiritual and ethical insights, here.

This very good book uses the premise that in other times and other places, many fantastic creatures lived. Isaac Asimov provides the introduction and also is the editor of this volume of wonderful stories.

There are eight stories, written by various writes such as Anne McCaffrey and Cordwainer Smith. The titles are also as intriguing as the writers - "Flight Over XP-637" and "The Anglers of Arz".

"The Smallest Dragonboy" by Ann McCaffrey details the rite of passage on the world of Pern. A young man cannot become a warrior until he is chosen by one of the telepathic dragons. The story details the struggles of Keevan to be chosen by a dragon hatchling and to become a warrior.

"The Botticelli Horror" by Lloyd Biggle,Jr reads like a 1950s sci fi movie. It involves a visitor from Venus that also lives in a sideshow. The Venusian visitor happens to paint in a manner similiar to Botticelli. This sounds rather nice to have an alien that could create those kinds of pictures but of course there's always a slight problem with aliens in sideshows.

"Kid Cardula" by Jack Ritchie is about a young man who wants to train as a boxer. Well, maybe he's not such a young man though he claims to be blue blooded - he is very strong and does suffer from photophobia. He requests all his matches to be scheduled at night due to his fear of sunlight. His favorite color is black, he has two long upper teeth and he gets spooked when another fighter makes the sign of the cross before a fight begins. Wonder what type of fantastic creature fits that description? I'm sure you can guess but the story is very entertaining.

"The Man From P.I.G." by Harry Harrison is also about visitors froma another planet. There appears to be nothing but pigs on the spaceship - except for the pig farmer. The pig farmer sets up in an area where "we're a little short of meat animals and the sight of all that fresh pork on the hoof..". But of course, these pigs aren't for eating purposes. And the pig farmer - he's not an ordinary pig farmer, either.

"Flight Over XP-637" by Craig Sayre is about alien scientists observing life on earth. An accident occurs to one of the scientists that has transformed to live on Earth. The story reconstructs the accident and gives you much more insight into the aliens.

"The Bees From Borneo" by Will H. Gray is about the best beekeeper and queen breeder in the United States. Through genetic engineering, Silas Donaghy's bees manage to surpass all other bees for production of honey. All goes well until a wild queen bee is introduced into the hives of Silas Donaghy's bees.

"The Anglers of Arz" by Roger Dee is about about scientists traveling to a strange land and investigating it. In that respect, it sounds similiar to "Flight Over XP-637" but the similarities end at that point. The scientists are from Earth and are exploring Arz, a strange world with an underwater city.

"The Game of Rat and Dragon" by Cordwainer Smith is about telepathic cats and humans working together to destroy a common enemy - to the humans, the enemy appears as a dragon. To the cats, the enemy appears as a rat. This partnership works for the benefit of both animals but causes some problems along the way.

All the stories are very well written and intriguing. I advise you to get this book and expand your mind as to what types of creatures may exist in the world. It is an enjoyable read.

Starting with Galois and his contribution to the evolving subject of group theory Yaglom gives a beautiful account of the lives and works of the major players in the development of the subject in the nineteenth century: Jordan, who was a teacher of Lie and Klein in Paris and their adventures during the Franco-Prussian War. Monge and Poncelet developing projective geometry as well as Bolyai, Gauss and Lobachevsky and their discovery of hyperbolic geometry. Riemann's contributions and the development of modern linear Algebra by Grassmann, Cayley and Hamilton are described in detail. The last two chapters are devoted to Lie's development of Lie Algebras and his construction of the geometry from a continuous group and Klein's Erlanger Programm unifying the different approaches to geometry by emphasizing automorphism groups. These last pages are definitely the climax of the book.

All of this only occupies the first half of the book, the second half consists of extensive notes to the former, intended to help the reader deepen her understanding of the subject in a second reading.

I think this book is very readable and should be accessible to any interested reader who has a slight understanding of the terms used so far in this review. In particular I enjoyed the details of the lives of the mathematicians involved and how the whole story seemed to culminate in the works of Lie and Klein.

Henry Abramovitch combines the study of religion with his knowledge of psychology to explore the biblical personages of the hebrew patriarchs. In this in-depth exploration we can see Abraham in an exciting and new light.

Abramovitch is a dedicated educator of medical students. He struggles to teach scientists how to be caring and human in the face of despair. This work is the true synthesis of his love for Judaism and psychology. If you like Joseph Campbell's writings on myths, you will appreciate this work.

This book is a great continuation of the overall Isaac's Universe concept. The other three books are great, as is this one. This book is a great continuation, in novel form, of the Issac's Universe series. I wish more big name sci-fi writers like Hal Clement would write about this universe which Isaac Asimov created. I would recommend for anyone that likes good science fiction to read this book.

I love the foundation series, I started reading it in 7th grade and never stopped

The four books of andrea palladio is a must have for the interior design library. The father of architecture's designs are the cornerstone of good classical design. Even though he is so widely copied he has never been equaled. This is a very good value for his works.

Goldemberg's novel is a fascinating portrait of th experiences of Jews who immigrated to South America during the early to mid 20th century. The author describes how difficult it was to find acceptance among Peruvians while being incapable of maintaining ties to the Jewish community and to Jewish religious practices.

The story is fragmented in its presentation (hence the title.) It is not told in a chronological fashion. Instead, it jumps around from point to point. I found the structure difficult at first, but I eventually became accustomed thereto.

Jacobo Lerner is reviewing his pitiful life just before he is about to die. He set up a shop in a small rural village where there were few Jews. He impregnated a local woman, but leaves the village for Lima because he longs for the cosmopolitan life. He never sees his son, Efrain. He remains in the village where he is taught to hate Jews, but where is also feared because he is the son of a Jew. Lerner sets up a brothel and carries on an affair with his brother's wife; he alienates the Jewish community. The people whose lives he has affected feel that his death is a good thing, either because it will relieve his suffering or because it would be just.

Each chapter is set up in a different format: memories by Lerner, remembrances by old friends, exerpts from a Jewish daily, etc.

I wish Ilan Stavans' introduction would have given more insight into the importance of the novel for Jewish and Latin American Literature. His work is usually good.