I bought this book to find out about soap factories supposedly found on Pompeii and Herculaneum but this book discounts the theory of several other places. There's a lot of history about the dig but you get much more information about what was actually found in the digs with pictures of the artifacts in the museums. The pictures are clear and the book reads very well. Lots of discussion about the various shops. Doesn't leave anything out. Does discuss the eros side a little. Not a good book for teachers of young students because of various images but overall an excellent secondary source of info with pictures from a primary source.

I greatly enjoyed this book. It carries you along deep into the personal lives of ancient Romans, nearly two millennia gone. Deiss constantly links the architecture to the minutiae of finds and to individual lives and actions. This is a wonderful way to do popular archaeology. It is worth taking along on a trip to visit Herculaneum, although slightly oversize for a pocket. It is not a street by street guidebook but rather is constructed by themes that make sense of the whole as well as the individual lives, and deaths, recovered deep in the ruins.

Herculaneum (and its neighbor Pompeii) are archaeological godsends, the rarest of time capsules showing the complete range of life at one particular instant in the Ancient world. The spectacular history, deep burial and rediscovery of Herculaneum is excitingly covered in the first five chapters, including eyewitness accounts of the fatal eruption of Vesuvius as lunches were being prepared on August 24, A.D. 79. In the next six chapters Deiss systematically tours you through Roman housing there, from top to bottom of the social hierarchy (including the astounding copy of a Roman villa Paul Getty built for himself in Malibu CA). Five more chapters take you through the public spaces and functions of the town revealed in tunnels and exposures. The book concludes with a summary of the skeletons and plans for site conservation and exploration. Yes, a few pages deal with earthy topics, just as the Romans frankly did. (I think the Getty Museum has since put out a separate book for parents of American kiddies.)

Excellent b/w photographs are found throughout. An absolutely vital aerial photograph and map is provided on p. 34 which you will want to bookmark. It's really too bad they are so tiny that a magnifying glass is needed to read the labels in order to locate the houses when their plans and ruins are discussed individually later in the text. Some locations are never identified. Larger foldout versions would be a real help in the next edition (excavations began in 1709 and new things are constantly found).

A friend once bemoaned there being no autobiography, or biography, of Joseph Campbell. This book fills a void.

For those who have watched "The Power of Myth" videos, and read several JC books, this collection of dialogues is no disappointment.

No intimate details are given of Campbell's life; when asked for juicy details during one session, he responds (more or less):

"That's biography, and I don't do biography."

I was impressed with the quickness of Campbell's replies and answers.

JC relays several anecdotes of his friends Robinson and Zimmer, and gives honorable mention to the Bollingen Press and Sarah Lawrence College for crucial assistance in his career development. Particularly of interest are the frequent remarks concerning, and discussions with, his wife (and former student) Jean Erdman.

While many of the remarks are verbatim replies heard in "The Power of Myth" videos, some are unreleased gems: there are two kinds of people in this world - those who know their myth is a fact (the orthodox religious) and those who know their myth is a lie (the atheists)- both KNOW that their myth is most certainly NOT a metaphor!

I enjoyed it.

Each chapter of this book begins with a biographical narrative, followed by excerpts from myriad interviews with Campbell, organized in such a way that the interview topics follow the biographical line of the book. Jean Erdman, Stuart Brown, Phil Cousineau, Robert Bly, John Densmore and many more appear in the interviews with Campbell. The book also contains a complete timeline of Campbell's life and a list of books written or edited by Campbell.

Note that this is a collection and is not as comprehensive a biography as 'A Fire In The Mind.' But what it misses in magnitude and detail, it makes up for in presentation. The book lends itself to both the page-through and in-depth readers. It is full of photographs (some full page)and highlights many of Campbell's memorable quotes.

In a beautifully written introduction, Phil Cousineau refers to Campbell as the "ecstatic scholar", an "animateur" who was capable of evoking "the telling shiver of truth about your own life." This book re-animates Campbell's work and he is capable as ever, through the interviews on these pages, of speaking to the heart of his listeners and reawakening the mysteries of life with enthusiasm and awe.

(I do also recommend 'A Fire In The Mind,' which contains details of Campbell's life and excerpts from his personal journals that are not included in this work.)

This book provides a refreshing change from most networking books that describe a mass of protocols, and instead attempts to extract principles that underly these protocols. These are summarized in an appendix, and are discussed throughout the book.

The downside is that one section of the book will often (of necessity) refer to principles described in another section of the book, but the only reference is to a name and number of the principle (e.g. "Backward Compatibilty Inhibits Radical Change (III.7)"). To find more detail about the principle requires searching the appendix (section III.7 for the example) that is somewhere towards the end of the book for a page reference where the principle is defined. It would be better if the inside cover listed the titles of the principles and the pages where they are defined, and if the appendix or index could list the pages where the principle is used.

If you already know basics of networking and you in developing a product or involved in protocol design or trying to architect a BOX this book is for you.

The book has taken a different approach by explaning concepts and providing key difference which you will not find in RFC's are specifications.

The book does not talk about any protocol detail rather it provides a concepts and problems behind the protocol and is really a nice thing to read and covers from physical layer, network components, host and end-to-end issues.

I gave this 5 star - useful references , tips and quotes to remember the principles are really good. Thank God! not much of mathematics while explaining some concepts.

This book had many interesting stories, but repeatedly covered material previously mentioned.

This collection of essays is a masterful representation of the Irish Brigade in the American Civil War. The volume was intended to strip away all of the glorified mistruths that have been fostered by historians and present the Irish Brigade to us only in pure fact. It reads easily, is immeasurably interesting and has a special place in my Irish book collection. Also contains many black and white photographs, maps and illustrations that complement each essay very well. I don't think you'll be disappointed with this one :)

Brodsky, Heaney, and Walcott helped me hear the music of Frost's poetry. They don't analyze all that many poems but the insights they offer open the door to others. For example, I learned about Frost's idea of "Sentence-Sounds" in Brodsky's review of "Home Burial" and his idea of the "Sounds of Sense" in Heaney's discussion of "Desert Places". Then when I read Frost's "To a Thinker", which does not appear in "Homage to Frost", I came across the line "...From sound to sense and back to sound", and of course I recognized a familiar theme. If you like Frost, this book makes a nice companion reader.

If you need to read one critical examination of Robert Frost, buy this & read Joseph Brodsky's fantastic, accessible take on "Home Burial". What a great book this is--three fine poets examining a brilliant poet. But it is Brodsky who best holds to the Frost credo--he speaks clearly and plainly.

I was so excited when I bought this book. All the colorfull pictures and lots and lots of big words, makes this book stand out above the rest. Thank you Joe and Kevin, I like to read now.

A great source for understanding how contracts work, and how to make money in the world of real estate, mortgages and finance. More than just a beginners book, it reveals the "How To's" that many other "experts" texts omit.

For the price of this book, there isn't a lot of information presented here. But the author, Erik Joseph, does at least provide an overview of what to expect when entering a screenplay contest.

The first part of the book describes structuring. I was skeptical about this section in particular since I've seen some great screenwriting books devoted to this. And, the author doesn't really go much into structure but scratch the surface, relying on quotes to guide the novice screenwriter.

But Mr. Joseph does at least cover what the screenwriting contests consider standard formatting for screenplays. So I'd say his advice on formatting was effective and helpful.

As for the screenwriting contests themselves, Mr. Joseph provides a one page overview of 42 screenwriting competitions. This section could definitely have been condensed. I think about every screenwriting journal out there lists these contests frequently in their respective publications ("Creative Screenwriting," by the way, is my personal favorite of those publications).

Further along in the book are a few interviews. I always like interviews in screenwriting books, and I will sometimes buy a screenwriting book just for the interviews. However, these are very short and terse and could have been more effective (I guess not everyone can interview like Barbara Walters, so I'll cut the author SOME slack).

An excellent chapter (only two pages though) is entitled "Good Examples of Bad Screenwriting." It contains actual samples of bad writing in submitted entries. Examining those atrocities was very helpful. However, I thought the author could have expanded on these a little more or explained why he chose specific ones for inclusion (are these frequent mistakes? how can one best avoid them? what are good sources for further refinement of grammar?)

Overall, I will give "How to Enter Screenplay Contests & Win!" four stars because it is effective in its discussion of screenwriting contests. However, I would have liked more advice and a longer book (it's 170 pages; but a lot of the pages are partially blank). And the cover of the book was not up to par due to the advertising blurbs on it that were entirely superfluous ("over $3 million in guaranteed cash!" on the front cover; and "win millions of dollars with your movie idea!" on the back cover).

In short, I'd like to see a second edition of this book that is expanded upon. However, I do think the product as it stands now is effective in accurately describing screenwriting contests and motivating aspiring writers to enter them.

Erik's book organizes the contests in a manner which allow writers to submit to the ones which seem most appropriate. Specific contests are described; including info on guidelines, fees, and number of people who submit each year. He even projects odds of winning for each.

We are more than our symptoms. It is a natural progression, demand and supply, that one in three people in this country have experience with some form of alternative medicine. Currently there are four medical schools that off courses on Integrative medicine, and over twenty schools teach spirituality, healing and medicine. We are seeing a new generation of doctors of modern medicine trained and enlightened on holistic healing. Dr. Ian Smith, medical correspond for ABC, is one of the young doctors of this generation. Dr. Smith talks about natural healing, Chi and herbs whenever he is on the Today show. Having come from three generations of TCM - traditional Chinese medicine, and work with Chi energy healing, I see this book provides a timely overview of the available alliterative methods as well as some of the basics on prevention by living a healthy and balanced life. Cancer isn't necessarily an automatic death sentence anymore. Often times it is a manageable disease like arthritis. One can live with cancer and still achieve a good quality of life.

As a physician striving to keep pace with the rapidly growing science behind natural medicine, I have always found Dr. Murray's writing to be highly trustworthy, practical and just really great reading. This book is an excellent resource for anyone struggling with cancer. I am recommending it to all of my cancer patients and I have begun to incorporate many of the books recommendations into my practice. Thanks Dr. Murray for a fantastic book!

I have this book for an undergrad intro to pharmacology paper, as advised by lecturers. It is also the set text for next year. This is a very good reference book, however I think for my purposes, it is a bit too advanced. It's organised very clearly, and I found it quite useful for writing an essay. But I think to get the best use out of it, the reader should be at a more advanced level of study, or someone like a graduated professional using it as a reference. Overall, I think it is concise and easy to read, with a broad range of types and uses of grugs. Each chapter is set out under the same format: therapeutic overview, mechanisms of action, pharmacokinetics, relation of mechanisms to clinical response, side effects & problems & toxicity. I'm not very familiar with other pharmac texts, but this was recommended as the text for further study as well. I have a friend at 2nd year med school, and she found it "good but a bit dry to read".

While possibly a bit advanced for undergraduates, I've found this book to be the single best references for people who already have some background knowledge, who need to catch up with advances in the field and don't have the time to read 1800 pages of small print. I'd recommend it for researchers in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industry, and clinicians (including residents). Unlike some references that present a lot of undigested material, the authors aggressively keep up with developments, speak with unambiguous voices, and synthesize the facts very clearly. The quality across the book is remarkably consistent, which is a tribute to the tight editorial control that appears to have been exerted. (Goodman & Gilman, by contrast, is quite uneven.)

Beautiful writing filled with true and complete passion and compassion. Meredith's poems pay homage to,and reveal feelings of genuine love and affection,caring and concern, and deep respect, for those nearest and dearest to his heart. Especially touching are those poems written for his children and wife. Highly recommended.

A simple observation of a not-so-simple accomplishment: Meredith's verse sounds right. It's deceptively accessible on first reading: the humor is gentle and engaging, the people vivid out of small details. And it reveals more every time you come back to it. It's MEMORABLE poetry--you'll find yourself hearing kernels of these poems as you come on similar scenes in the course of your days. (Try it!)