A global world is subject that is often pondered and disected at any given moment in time. Ideas and opinions aren't always out of vogue like some issues. In Mansbach/Rhodes 2nd Edition of this Reader, they present the ideas of what the world is, was and should/could be.

This Reader is almost like a history lesson juxtaposed with current affairs to present concepts in international politcs. And because it was printed in 2003 (but really in 2002) there are issues that most people are familiar with that are discussed (i.e. terrorism-9/11, UN, weapons of mass destruction, ethnic/cultural/social/economic changes, etc). Numerous and well known authors in each chapter give their own view. But most importantly, there are also counter arguments that give the reader a well rounded idea of the subject. It's very important to be able to see all sides and not one that is the most popular or the most radical.

Each chapter has a short introduction (in which for some subjects, gives a kind of brief history, and better understanding) as does each article. Lots of examples and references that are clear and concise. It's difficult not to understand.

The author's are w/o bias and are willing to give all sides of the same issue--which doesn't color the subject one way or the other; they leave it to the reader to decide.

I actually loved reading each chapter and all the varied opinions made me think more about my world and how it functions. There are things that most of us are completely unaware of and dont' take the time to read and understand. With this Reader, anyone can get a brief history that they can apply to real life issues. I am a better informed person and more aware of how the system came to be and why. It's a fountain of information that can be used for first time users, as myself, and it's not difficult to follow at all.

A lot of information, mostly very interesting and well-presented. It's appeal is quite general, to anyone interested in colorful local history and the sea, not just to those with esoteric fascinations with fishing industry history or old boats. The main draw, though, is the collection of photographs, some very old, capturing a largely vanished way of life and yet showing a lot of similarities between they that go down to the sea in ships today and their ancestors. The text and photos work together beautifully to give a feeling for a very difficult way of life and the very real and ever-present danger.

Joseph Modica has assembled something of a festschrift for Tony Campolo and his ministry in the interesting little book The Gospel with Extra Salt. This book covers a number of topics that the essay's authors deem appropriate to concerns that have played a role in Campolo's ministry. The authors address among the seven essays topics such as covenant, justice issues (including capital punishment), youth ministry, inclusive language, the biblical concept of family, and gender issues in local congregations. In many of the essays the authors allude to their ministry with Campolo and how he ministered to them. His fingerprints may be seen all over individual author's theologies. This is a good book on a variety of "current event" type topics. For those pastors who want to read how an evangelical approaches serious social action, then this is the book for that purpose.

reviewed by The Clergy Journal, March 2002

Gothic is "dark" for most of people, who often ignore it has been a real language, a very important one. If Wulfila had not translated the very Bible into Gothic, we wouldn't have today any tangible hint of the existence of this early Germanic language.
Wright gave us a very good grammar. Yet, Mossé's "Manuel de la Langue gotique" - which is originally in French and (I hope) has certainly been translated in English - may be a better.
But anyway: you want to learn Gothic ? This grammar is clear, handy, and certainly a reference.

The book smells like 40 year old books do. Inside are a lot of nuances that the non-novice could appreciate. Granvile was a market master for a time and then fell from glory (FYI) like most do. He still has some good insight and the pros might appreciate that here.

There are very few good Indian cookbooks out there which are the real stuff and this is one of them. Both authers have considerable proffessional expereince and unlike most others seem to have kitchen tested the reciepes before putting them down. I draw from this collection of reciepes for the sunday buffet at my restaurant with very good results. Wanted to gift a copy to one of our 'Indian-cooking enthusiast' patrons. Too bad it's currently out of print. Balraj Bhasin ( BBhasin@aol.com)

Bombay Curry Company, Alexandria, VA

This was a great book which expanded my knowledge of the T.V. production and industry. I highly recommend it for research purposes.

Thanks for scholars like Nicholas Delbanco who hunt down biographical details that enrich our knowledge of famous authors lives. Here is a book that offers a savory meal for the literary gourmet. Henry James liked donuts. Stephen Crane chain smoked. Conrad the English stylist spoke with a thick Polish accent. Ford Madox Ford embellished his recollections with untruths. H. G. Wells treated offers of help with cocky independence.

The author contends that for a certain interval these men associated with and admired each others literary accomplishments. "South of London in 1900, a galaxy of talent assembled that beggars in accomplishment anything the English language has since produced." He provides quotations and photographs that demonstrate social intercourse between the big five. Between the initial overview and the concluding summary, three chapters provide respectively a view of Stephen Crane on a visit to England to meet the other masters of ficti! onal prose, a study of the collaboration between Ford Madox Ford and Joseph Conrad, and an examination of one of English literature's most famous disputes - James vs. Wells.

I found the book informative and interesting and recommend it to any admirer of any of the five writers singularly or in combination. About those we admire our curiosity is insatiable. Did Shakespeare like his eggs over easy or sunny side up? We have his Hamlet, his Lear, isn't that enough? Some might say no. We have Crane's "Open Boat", Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", Ford's *Good soldier, James' *Ambassadors, Wells' *Time Machine*. Still, it's natural to inquire about the virtues, quirks, and foibles of their creators. *Group Portrait* gives us a taste of the traits that rounds out these illustrious authors.

A sad epilogue to which Mr. Delbanco refers in his lead chapter is that this literary summer was so brief. Crane died in 1900. Eventually the other associations wither! ed. By 1906 the friendship between Conrad and Ford had coo! led. *Boon* published in 1915 dissolved Wells' ties to James with its ridicule of the latter. For a while there was Camelot albeit a loose confederacy of brilliant writers. A genius needs a tough ego to sustain him for the long haul to fortune and fame. An alternate lesson from *Group portrait, perhaps one not intended, but nevertheless patent, is that collaboration must eventually give way to ego.

Duggan's demonstrates good grasp of the book and those who have analyzed it before. He analyzes many of the passages in French so having a little knowledge might help when reading this book or you could quickly get lost. He reviews the "Formulaic Style and the Poetic Craft" of the work

This book, written by many well-known experts in the field, is a fine compendium of articles on the most active areas of computational geometry. Each article is supplemented with a glossary of terms needed for understanding the relevant concepts and frequently contains a list of open problems. An overview of the convex hull of a collection of random points in Euclidean n-space is given in one of the articles on discrete aspects of stochastic geometry, where also a very interesting discussion of generalizations of the Buffon needle problem is given.

There are a few articles overviewing Voronoi diagrams, such as the one on Voronoi diagrams and triangulations. The applications of Voronoi diagrams are many, and include tumour cell diagnosis, biometry, galaxy distributions, and pattern recognition. This article is a little short considering the importance of the subject.

The article on shortest paths and networks is somewhat disappointing since there is no in-depth discussion on network routing algorithms.

The article on computational topology highlights some of the results in this very important area. Many problems in topology have been tackled recently using computers, particularly the work of the mathematician A.T. Fomenko. Computational topology is a relatively young field, having been in existence only since the early 1990's. The applications are enormous, ranging from meshing, morphing, feature extraction, data compression, and in many scientific areas such as computational medicine, chemistry, and astrophysics. It can also be used in computer security via graphical passwords. It is an immense help in visualizing complicated topological objects, such as Lens spaces, horned spheres, and thickened knots. The article does not touch on the use of Mayer-Vietoris sequences to design efficient divide-and-conquer schemes for computing the homology of higher-dimensional complexes. The interplay between topology and finding better algorithms in computational geometry is one that will flourish no doubt in years to come.

The last section of the book covers applications with the most interesting article being the one on sphere packing and coding theory. The algorithms in sphere packing have direct applicability to error correctiong codes over the field GF(q). The author of this article does touch briefly on general algebraic-geometric codes, which is good considering their importance in applications.

The last article appropriately discusses available software for computational geometry. Although the list of Web sites is quite extensive, there are many more available since this book was first printed.

A very fine addition to the literature on computational geometry and should be on everyone's shelf who is interested in this important area.