The story is cute but the big disappointment to me is that the illustrations are different than they are in the cartoons. The characters that we've come to love seeing on TV are all different--even Diamonds the elephant is gray and not pink like she is on the series. I don't understand why they didn't use the same illustrator!

Anyone doing research into the history of anaesthesia should check this out, but this should definitely not be the last or only word on the controversy. Historians tend to disagree on who should be credited with the discovery of anaesthesia in the United States: Wells or Morton. MacQuitty plants herself well within the Morton supporter's camp, oversimplifying a complex series of human interactions and relationships by dismissing Wells' role in the "discovery" (excuse the scare quotes) and adpotion of surgical anaesthesia, especially when treating ether, nitrous oxide, and cholorform as historically identical substances.

Any etymological information is scanty or assumed. This was a waste of my time, a waste of my money and a waste of my shelf space. After reading the belabored introduction and several pages of exemplary cliches, I couldn't pick the book up.

I recently had the opportunity to examine this book in depth, and I admit this book was rather disappointing. This book only DEFINES phrases such as: "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," but NEVER explains the ORIGINS of each phrase. Since most everyone knows the definition of phrases such as "Just what the doctor ordered" defining it is seems almost pointless. Want to look up a cliche about being sick(for instance)? Think again, each 'cliche' is listed ONLY alphabetically and can not easily cross-referenced by subject matter giving it ZERO practical application to the modern writer or researcher.

For those seeking deeper understanding of cliches, you'd best look elsewhere. This was a superficial effort at best.

I own this book. It's a waste of money since it's really an "introduction" to cell biology. All the data contained are superficial and aberrant from medical course.

The authors of this text say that their aim was to provide, in an affordable text of 300 pages, all the information a medical student needs about cellular biology. They've done a fair job of it, but I think they're confused about where in the curriculum it belongs.

The text actually runs to a bit over 300 pages. It is divided into only 9 chapters; and each chapter contains a variable number of sections. Unfortunately, the chapters are uneven in terms of quality and quantity of content. Cell signaling, for instance, is given fairly short shrift, while the mechanics of transcription, translation, and protein assembly go on forever. In addition, the authors don't seem to have a solid idea of the background of their hypothetical medical student audience: they assume the reader knows the difference between the 3' and 5' ends of polymerized nucleic acids, but isn't already familiar with the citric acid cycle. This is a bit reflective, I suppose, of the wide variance in science preparation among medical students, where on the one hand you have biochemistry majors, and on the other journalism graduates with a bare minimum of science.

Another problem concerns the enclosed disk, which does not contain all the necessary files for installation (the missing ones must be downloaded from the publisher's website). Unlike the electronic component of many basic science texts, this disk, once installed, contains only drill-and-practice mock National Board questions, without any electronic enhancement of content.

All things concerned, an A for effort, but a C- for outcome.

This book started out looking very promising. It appeared as if it would answer the need for a good book for friends and family members. However, as I continued to read, I became very upset, as there was a distinct intimation that there is a strong psychological etiology to FMS, and that if the patient would just get on with life, everything would be fine. I refused to place a copy of it in our support group library. I felt betrayed by it's attitude.

If you are looking for a book to explain Fibromyalgia to yourfamily and friends please don't look for it here. There are a fewpages that make mention of Fibromyalgia. The rest of the 55 pages here are filled with information that you can get from a any self help book. For instance: "Using I messages is effective, because" etc. Page 33. I sure don't intend to waste the time of my family and friends by suggesting they read it. Your family and friends who are interested in helping you would be better served to send or call for the information provided free from the National Arthritis Foundation.

In my April, 1999 review of this book (somewhere among the reviews listed here), I said there were better books now available. Several people have e-mailed me asking me to be more specific.

OK. I now recommend the following to my students. They are both excellent and different from each other (as the titles imply):

Beyond Acceptance : Parents of Lesbians and Gays Talk About Their Experiences; Carolyn Welch Griffin, et al.

Coming Out to Parents : A Two-Way Survival Guide for Lesbians and Gay Men and Their Parents; Mary V. Borhek

Upon the recommendation of others, I bought this book; however, many better choices exist for parents dealing with the new knowledge that they have a gay child. This book's information comes from the 70s. Even though the book has been republished twice, the authors have done an inadequate job of keeping up-to-date. I'm sure the book seemed heaven sent in the early 80s, but not now.

This was a very important book in 1979 when it was first published, a book that I often recommended to gay/lesbian students who wanted to inform their parents. But the authors have been very lazy and have barely changed it in the 20 years since the first edition. I was disappointed in the second edition (1989) because it was virtually unchanged from the first edition except for an added chapter on AIDS and a minimally revised discussion of the PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) organization.

The third edition is even worse. Again the first 9 chapters appear to be untouched. Even the AIDS chapter remains unchanged except for a 1 page postscript about "recent" treatments. The chapter is now such a "downer" in the light of recent developments that it will hardly reassure parents worried about their gay sons. Why not rewrite the chapter optimistically, with a warning that the crisis is not over and that safer sex is still a requirement?

Less crucial but still disappointing is that the book is still quoting old Kinsey statistics on the incidence of homosexuality rather than using more reliable data from a recent national survey. The discussion of the nature of homosexuality is still based on sources over 30 years old. Nothing is said about recent data (and controversies) over the biological correlates of sexual orientation. Any parent who has read Time or Newsweek in the past 5 years would know more about these developments than they will find in this book.

Maybe the personal stories of parents will still resonate with some families, mainly those who haven't been exposed to the mass media for 20 years.

The most valuable part of the book may be the updated bibliography. But as long as you are already here at Amazon.com, why not just search here for "related" books? Or go to the pflag website for information, recommendations, and literature: www.pflag.org.

So disappointing. It was such an important book, sympathetically written, and perfectly pitched for its intended audience. Shame on the authors (and their publishers) for such laziness!

I would not read this book if someone paid me too

This is a lousy textbook. It teaches you shit

Betty Burnett's book is nothing more than a compilation of weekly news magazine articles available after the bombing. This is a book that belongs on a middle school shelf. I realize now that Rosen publishing does scholastic books. There are only 65 pages in the book from forward to appendix. There is only one first person account of the bombing. The heroic work of the crew is not discussed in any detail. There was a fantastic opportunity to discuss the challenge faced by the female chief engineer Deborah Courtney to save the ship; a first I believe in the anals of naval lore.Many of the pictures do not belong in the book as they are not of the Cole.I will donate the book I bought to my local middle school library.

I bought the first "Betty Crocker Italian Cooking" book.(published 1991)It was the best Italian cook book I've seen. The receipes were great. The history of the dishes were included in the margins. It was very interesting. I loved this book so much, I wanted to give it to my sister. The 1991 edition was not available so I bought this edition. I was VERY DISAPPOINTED. The receipes were different and called for "jarred" ingredients. I suppose there are people who want short cuts, but it ruined the book. My sister never uses her book, where as mine has fallen apart!

I was so looking forward to a good book on the geology and history of Texas rivers. I was disappointed. The travelogues are sketchy but useful. In every chapter, over and over again, we hear that industrilization is bad for rivers, dams stop the free flow of rivers, and that Ango settlers stole the land from native Americans. Yes, that's true and probably can be profitably discussed in a preface. Something like John Graves "Good Bye to a River" engenders sympathy and makes you care about the rivers. Huser's treatment of the subject leaves the reader merely irritated at the author.