I came across this old volume while cleaning out a crowded book shelf yesterday. Intrigued by the first line ("Southern political personalities, like sweet corn, travel badly."), I ambled on ahead for a few pages - and couldn't stop reading until the very last line on the last page ("As I send this manuscript to the publisher, the grass-eaters and the nuts have taken over the streets of New Orleans.") In between first and last lines are some of the most colorful, cold-blooded, hot-tempered, loud-mouthed Southern politicians you'd ever want to meet - described first-hand in 1959 by one of the wryest, dryest, most sardonic Yankee writers you'd ever want to read.

On the cover is a picture of Earl Long - governor of Louisiana in the 'fifties and brother of the legendary Huey ("Share the Wealth") Long who was assassinated at the State Capitol during the 1930s. Earl started out underrated ("wouldn't make a patch on Huey's pants") but grew in political power to the enrichment of his cronies - and ironically, to the benefit of the state's colored people. Earl Long - as governor - was able to hold off the most vicious attacks on African-Americans in Louisiana - which for a time was less oppressive than sister strongholds of racism like Mississippi.

On the back of my book - in shirt sleeves with a glass in hand - is a black-and-white photo of the chubby, bald A. J. Liebling who started covering the 1959 campaign just after the ranting Gov. Long was steered off the floor of the state legislature and physically forced into a car and driven to a Texas insane asylum, where he was signed in as mentally unsound by his own wife, Blanche. That event drew Liebling's attention - and inspired this wild, true tale of political double-dealing, deal-making, and cynical race-baiting. Liebling came to Louisiana curious about Earl Long - and left a grudging admirer of a man who could attack the rich while thinning out their wallets, condemn black people while giving them more state jobs, and rave like a lunatic while practicing shrewd, realistic political artistry.

The raw jokes, the Southern speech-patterns, the rural metaphors, the genuine ignorance and the feined ignorance, the rich cuisine, the heat - ever the blanketing heat - are captured quickly and perfectly. This book is for you if you like politics, H. L. Mencken, brilliant stump oratory, or American history. Obviously, I enjoyed it as much as - well, to steal a phrase from Uncle Earl - as much as a hog loves slop.

A.J. Liebling has insights into politics like very few other journalists -- and all of his keen observations are on parade in this landmark book. "The Earl of Louisiana," which was originally written as a series of dispatches for The New Yorker, is, first and foremost, a rollicking story. In addition to Governor Earl K. Long, Liebling paints wonderfully colorful portraits of a number of Louisiana's political denizens, including New Orleans Mayor Maurice Delessups, singing cowboy candidate Jimmie Davis and white supremacist scoundrel Willie Rainach. Liebling wades through the bizarre political culture of Louisiana, setting his penetrating eye on all manner of rallies, dinners and barroom jaunts where politics are discussed and dissected. Particularly entertaining is Liebling's voyage into the domain of the Old Regulars, a stalwart race-fixing organization, based in New Orleans. Over the course of his long career, Liebling produced some utterly remarkable journalism. Indeed, his writings on horse-race fixer Col. John R. Stingo in "The Honest Rainmaker," or French cuisine in "Between Meals," or on the vibrancy of Chicago in "Second City" are all classic works in the field of journalism. "The Earl of Louisiana" is at least the equal of any of those, and in many ways surpasses them.

Liebling covers the Louisiana gubernatorial campaign of 1959. Reporting on what turned out to be Earl Long's final run for governor, Liebling journeys from the taverns and restaurants of New Orleans to the small, rural parishes of Louisiana, providing hysterical anecdotes about Long and relatively unpatronizing local color. A brief book, but very amusing and highly reccomended.

I must have read Early Disorder fifteen years ago and certain passages are still vivid in my mind. It is an amazingly well-written book, probably the best young adult book I read growing up, and I practically lived in the library. While the 'subject' is anorexia, any adolescent (or grown up for that matter) can relate to Willa's struggle with friends, love relationships, and family, and see all the different ways people try to deal with their problems. Willa develops anorexia, while her best friend drinks; her mother uses denial, etc. It is funny, sad, incredibly moving. This book is one reason I decided to become a writer.

This is my current favorite book. Josephs' intoxicatingly rich prose weaves a complete subjectivity for the main character, precocious, intellectual, perceptive and poignant Willa. The story feels like a slice of her life, including her struggles with her self-absorbed family, her difficulties making friends, her panics over growing up and her adolescent observations in general. Willa's anorexia is only one aspect of the book. Read this little-known novel if you want to truly get into the head of one of the most brilliant and pointedly observant characters in fiction. She will stay with you long after you have finished the book.

Willa is a a young teenage girl who is afraid to leave the love and security of her home to go live out in the real world. What starts out as a simple diet to lose her baby fat leaves her in a life and death struggle with anorexia. No one is able to help her because she does not want to get better. She really believes she doesn't need food to live and begins to lose her mind. I found this book very helpful as a struggling anorexic. I recommend it to any one who is dealing with this problem.

In the real East Liberty, in Pittsburgh, where Joseph Bathanti, an author I had never heard of, and I grew up, I attended a function dedicating a refurbished theater and celebrating locals, including Bathanti, who have made good. He had a table set up in the lobby where one could purchase copies of his book East Liberty and, frankly, I bought a copy simply to be supportive of this hometown fellow. And although I fully intended to dip into the book, I doubted that it would merit my reading it to the end.

To my surprise and delight, I learned - despite the book's less-than-enticing title unless you happen to hail from East Liberty - that this fellow Bathanti is a wonderful writer, far more readable than many of the big names who have managed to secure the services of mammoth marketing machines. My concern now is that his book won't receive the kind of publicity and marketing it deserves.

Joseph Bathanti's anecdotes about growing up fatherless in a working class Italian family are authentic and affecting. But it is his skilled use of language that impresses. During an evening of mischief with his own friends and a rival group, the young narrator finds himself the victim of a ricocheting rock. He doesn't know at first that he's been wounded but eventually feels "the warm scarf of blood on my bare neck." When an ambulance comes to haul off a neighbor felled by a heart attack, he says, "It's red lights spray my bedroom with what looks like blood and fire."

East Liberty is a story of struggle and love, hope and survival, in a blue collar, multi-ethnic neighborhood. And although it is presented as a novel, it reads like an autobiography. If that is not the case, Bathanti's powers of description have convinced me otherwise. There are incidents in East Liberty that will make you laugh out loud and that will resonate with your own experiences, but the stories of his hardworking mother, his stern and culturally eccentric immigrant grandparents, and multi-cultural neighborhood influences are haunting and bring back memories of the "good old days" that were not necessarily so good.

Mr. Bathanti's blazing rich characters and truly insightful renderings of the '50s, bring Bobby Renzo's extended family and neighborhood brilliantly to life. In a well-stirred play of dream life, gleanings from old black and white movies, the lure of baseball as savior, and exotic language so true, I was cruising close beside him on the streets of Pittsburgh. East Liberty is a wonderful whirlwind chase though boyhood adventures told in a strong voice of innocence and curiosity. Renzo's coming-of-age is rendered with deep passion for the honesty of his heritage and flows from a stream of amazing, brave stories. This book has soul - highly recommended.

This is a terrific coming-of-age story about a boy growing up in a seedy Italian-American neighborhood in Pittsburgh in the '50s and early '60s. His mother is single, so the neighborhood's Catholic residents disapprove of her but accept the boy. As a result, he gets his information partly from the Church (he goes to parochial school, where the nuns try to encourage him to become a priest), partly from the old movies he watches with his mother, and partly from his tough buddies on the street. Great read!

This book not only is informative abouut the K-9 corps in Nam, but is a story about a man and his experience in the army. White showed that one can make mistakes and still come back from everything. I strongly suggest that anyone who has any interests in war, K-9's, or a great tale should read this book. It is an easy and quick read. Well worth every penny!

This is a chilling account of White's army experience. In the early 60's he was drafted into the army as a rebellious and reluctant teenager and sent to Vietnam. Plunged into mountain guerilla warfare, he spent months in the jungle as a "point man". Finally he was transferred to a Scout Dog Platoon, where he met Ebony, the black German Shepherd that was to become his devoted companion. His intense attachment to Ebony is touchingly conveyed. His account of the war is horrifying, and the terror, tension and appaling conditions. Patricia Bennet Hoffman writing in The Northwest Canine Companion

They saved thousands of soldiers but America left the K-9 vetereans of the Vietnam war behind to die of neglect chained to their kennels. The author relates how his dog, Ebony, led him and platoons of men safely thru the jungle. Now White is is the president of the National War Dogs Memorial Fund and trying to raise money to honor the canine heroes who were turned over to the Vietnamese. Frank Mainville writing in April 21st, 1996 edition of the Lansing State Journal

Depression in a close family member; the stigma attached with mental illness; worry that your aging mother might have a baby with Down Syndrome: these are topics not traditionally associated with a young adult novel, but which Franklin deals with head-on. Trina, the main character, is a typical sixth grade girl who feels the weight of the world on her shoulders as she watches her father fall deeper and deeper into clinical depression and worries about the state of her unborn sister (Trina's mother is 48 years old). These are tough topics for a twelve-year-old to handle, and Trina does have trouble adjusting and adapting to these problems--as well as dealing with the day-to-day problems of life by herself as she tries to give her parents time to sort through their problems by theirselves.

Franklin should be commended because she never resorts to "talking down" to her young adult reader. Neither does she sound preachy or sugar-coat the story with an "everything will turn out OK" theme. Indeed, the reader is never sure how the story will end. Trina is often afraid, uncertain, and feels alone. She feels compelled to give up certain "kid" things and takes an adult role in the house...yet seems to resent the fact that she has to make that choice. Although this may or may not be what young adults in similar situations think or do, it is very easy to empathize with Trina; the reader is taken on an emotional roller coaster along with the main character.

In a side note, I met Kristine Franklin at a teachers' conference in Springfield, Illinois, in spring of 2001. She was a very nice and personable lady and I'm happy to find that such a lady is such a talented writer. Highly recommended.

Trina's perfect summer falls apart when her Dad falls into a deep depression. The characters are very memorable and both Trina and Miranda will remind you of people you know.

Eclipse was one of the best books I ever read. You could really tell how Trina was feeling about her dad and his strange behaviors. It was sort of sad, but lots of people could be living with this problem. It was funny how opposite Miranda and Trina were, for example, Miranda talked nonstop before their puppet show, and Trina just sat there VERY nervously! Trina had so many problems, but she still tried to live her life as best she could. I would definitely read another one of Kristine Franklin's books.

"We can do good and do well at the same time." This book connects together many different perspectives and traditions to assert that now is the time to bring this concept into being through the laws in the United States. Of particular importance are laws governing the duties of business leaders in public companies, the rights of the poor and downtrodden to have an opportunity to develop themselves and live healthy lives, and putting human potential ahead of the treatment of objects. Clearly, this line of thinking requires us to see more interconnectedness among all people and from this time into fuure times.

Many young people are attracted to the law as a way to achieve a more just world. Disillusionment sometimes sets in as students begin to appreciate that the law lags behind the development of community ideals. In this interesting volume, Harvard Law School professor Joseph William Singer uses a variety of references to make the case for amending the legal property rights in order to serve all better in the democratic community. Using sources as differing as the efforts to protect workers by the CEO of Malden Mills, the hit musical Rent, Jewish, Christian and Islamic sacred texts, and studies of the effects of new welfare legislation, Professor Singer argues persuasively for releasing many citizens from "duties" in the law that only serve to create harm in practice.

There is a comforting view of the potential to be humane in this book that will make any reader glad to think about the potential to be a noble person in serving all. Those who do not know about the legendary hospitality of Abraham will enjoy the part of the book that explains the impetus to serve others that is recounted in the Torah (and the Old Testament). The book's title refers to the Jewish law that fields should be cultivated to the edges, and that the gleanings from those edges be left for the poor (along with any grain that falls to the ground and any sheaves that are left behind). From this observance evolves the familiar and broader moral perspective that those who have, also have the need to share and assist others. We are all guardians for all.

At a time when individualism and materialism are strong, and community is becoming weaker, it is all the more important to consider the roots of what methods have always served the needs of humanity well. These analogies and our subjective reaction to them can help us understand where we need to rebalance our focus. If we can extend our vision to think about all the ramifications of our actions, we will take more meaningful actions that will bring us greater spiritual and material comfort. Done properly, the outcome will also be more prosperity for all, including those who give.

In what you do every day, how could what your organization does be changed to benefit more people and more kinds of people in more ways?

May you also find wonderful ways to expand health, happiness, peace, and prosperity for all!

Joe Singer has written a wonderful book. In contrapuntal style, he addresses many of the contradictions of the "prosperity" of modern capitalism. This gives the book an even handed feel which makes the most disagreeable truths easier to confront. He illumines the gaps between the law and human values in the context of corporate dynamics. The title delightfully prepares the reader for an excursion into the history and the development of religious acommodation to the inequality of men. Again and again, this book answers questions that have been at the edge of one's consciousness - why is corporate conduct apt to be threatening to human welfare? Why are people like Aaron Fuerstein so rare ? Where is the failure ? What should we be doing about it? Above all else, this is a fair book. Its seemingly simplicity makes the reader appreciate its jewel like qualities.

This deceptively simple and accessible book brings together complex arguments to a conclusion that unites the heart, mind, and spirit -- ownership has obligations as well as rights, and acting with a sense of mercy and fairness is not only ethical and right, but economically beneficial as well. Singer compellingly tells the story of Malden Mills, whose CEO kept the employees on the payroll after the factory burned down -- because it was the right thing to do. Tying together sources from the Old Testament to the Broadway show, "Rent," Singer makes an important contribution to our notions of property and our own conduct. The title, a reference to the Biblical injunction to leave the wheat from the edges of the field for the poor to glean, also reminds us of field theory in physics, the interconnectedness of everything, magnificently described in this fine and important book.

James Ramsey has written the ideal introductory statistics text for those with inquisitive minds. Ramsey's The Elements of Statistics with Applications to Economics and the Social Sciences presents an insightful, but accessible approach to the processes of statistical reasoning and problem solving. There are plenty of well-developed and realistic case studies that offer the reader straightforward explanations of the statistical reasoning used in setting up the problem solution. Ramsey does not just present statistics as facts and numbers; the why's and how's behind the use of specific statistical tools required in case studies and other examples are addressed in a straight forward and simple to understand manner. This contrasts most contemporary introductory statistics texts where it seems there is always an attempt to be the biggest encyclopedia of statistical examples. Ramsey's style of exposition offers the reader the depth and perspective required to facilitate both the current and future statistical requirements of the reader. In short, this is one of the few introductory texts that allow the reader to attain a stable grounding in the field of statistics on one hand, and on the other, will still be a useful reference throughout one's professional career. I highly recommend Ramsey's text as both a starter text and as a reference for those looking to clarify their fundamental statistical queries.

This book is a wonderful introductory statistics text. In contrast to the usual extensive approach in which students are exposed to a large cookbook of statistical procedures that end up being memorized 'for the exam,' this text operates on the intensive margin in a successful effort to provide the conscientious student a far deeper introduction to statistical reasoning and practice.

Each chapter contains a large set of exercises and the text comes with a simplified student version of S-Plus. Most of the computational work required for these exercises can be carried out through a menu-driven GUI interface. To help facilitate learning, many worked examples are also provided.

The mathematical requirements include a little beyond what a student should have upon entry into a first calculus course in an American university, i.e., little beyond basic algebra. An appendix explains all the mathematics used in the text.

I enthusiastically recommend this text!

The Elements of Statistics: with Applications to Economics and the Social Sciences by James B. Ramsey is an innovative and excellent undergraduate level text on the foundations and reasoning of statistics estimation and inference. This book is written for the curious student who is interested in understanding the basics of statistical analysis, the intuition behind statistical and information processing, and the process of decision making based on some data. Most importantly, in this book Ramsey takes the student through a fascinating voyage of discovery. In this voyage, Ramsey devotes significant effort to explaining what are the fundamental rules underlying most data analyses within the social and natural sciences. This is done without requiring much prior knowledge of calculus and with almost no formal mathematics. Ramsey accomplishes this task by building on a large number of real world examples, some of which he re-evaluates at the end of each chapter. By doing so, he allows the reader (student or researcher) to see the real value of the knowledge just acquired in the most recent chapter. That is, "what can I understand now about that specific problem that I could not understand before." In that way the student is going through an on-going learning process. A process that allows one to understand the data by recognizing what is observed and what is not observed, what is random and what is not random, what process may have generated the data, and what one can infer from the data.
To summarize, once Ramsey expresses his philosophy of approaching statistical analyses, he proceeds to teach statistics in a completely new and innovative way. First, unlike existing undergraduate textbooks, Ramsey teaches the students via a "discovery" approach where each step starts with a new set of questions and the students are guided toward discovering the relevant answer, given the information they have. Second, the text is easy to read and is full with real world examples taken from a large number of disciplines. Finally, the book is equipped with complete software (S-Plus) that provides the necessary tool for the students to practice and understand how to work with real data. This is an ideal undergraduate level textbook. It is a very useful statistical text for the open minded and advanced undergraduate student and provides the teacher with a perfect teaching tool. It is highly recommended.

Amos Golan
Research Professor

I was very touched by the story of the Elephant man, who was very deformed and endured many hardships in his childhood and young adult life because of his appearance. His life becomes bearable though in his end years thanks to the kindness of Dr. Fredrick Treves and many other people. If you haven't heard of or read about the Elephant man yet, I recommend this book, Joseph Merrick's story (the Elephant man) is something you won't forget. The terrors he went through and then how incredibly grateful he was for the simplest pleasures after being rescued by Dr. Treves make me see life through new eyes: it is hard to take things for granted. The book also includes photographs of Joseph.

THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ IT IS A TRUE STORY ABOUT A MAN JOSEPH CAREY MERRICK WHO SUFFERED A DISEASE PROTIO-SYNDROM WHICH DISFIGURED HIM. ITS ABOUT HOW HE LIVED AND HOW HE SPENT HIS TIME WITH HIS DOCTOR. THE WHOLE BOOK IS GREAT I FOUND IT VERY INTERESTING AND TOUCHING. BUT IN ALL I WOULD RECOMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE. -RANDY

The movie, which I saw when I was 7 was a lie. Tom Norman, his manager in the freak show treated him with great respect and was a portaryed as a monster. He was never stolen from the London Hospital and was not beaten. The movie focused on the bad of his life but not the good. Sir Fredrick Treves (forgiven an misspelling,s, I am only 12) the sugeon that helped him was a great man and help John and brought out the good that most overlooked because of his appearance. He is man i would love to personally meet and this book helped me realize that he was a smart man, a caring man, a loving man....This book would help anyone interested in this subject with it's photos and insight.

I work as a clinical psychologist in private practice. It is with great pleasure I recommend this book on emotional intelligence. This book deals with the topic in a highly relevant and useful way with it's chapters on mental health, intimate relationships and measuring emotional intelligence. Finally such information is written in a clear format which enables it to be not only used by clinicians but can also be recommended to clients.

This is a superb book, an excellent read. I found the chapters on emotional intelligence and relationships to be particularly interesting and useful. the chapters relating emotional intelligence to health and wealth building were also quite useful. I strongly recommend the book to anybody.

This book was an excellent read, and highly informative. It made it clear how emotional intelligence could be used to improve just about every aspect of everyday life, including work, family, education, and health. What I liked most about the book was that it was based on scientific research, yet it was easy to read and understand. I highly recommend it!