The authors give a nice presentation of theory involved in recrystallization, distillation, chromatography, and extraction. The writing style is academic, but friendly enough to keep you interested. I found it great to read before doing the scheduled experiments in O-Chem lab. However, this is a very "student"-ish text and I seriously doubt professionals would find it useful, unless you're looking for a refresher course in the basic techniques. The labs I took had a significant amount of NMR involved; not much discussion in this text about that. The problems provided are usually good, but there are no answers given. I'd also recommend "Principles and Techniques in an Integrated Chem Laboratory" by Aikens, Bailey, et al.

Playing Joan is a collection of interviews of 26 actresses who have played the character, Joan in different productions of George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan." The play itself is about Joan of Arc's leadership of the French army and her eventual death by fire at the stake. In the introduction of the book, Hill explains that she's written the interviews "as if the actress is talking directly to the reader, not as if they were English essays." As such, each essay seems to be a direct transcript of the interview with the interviewer's voice omitted. Hill writes that she chose this style in order "to preserve the individual personalities of the speakers". Logically, this seems to make sense; by reading the actresses' thoughts in their own words-not filtered through the eyes of the interviewer-the reader has direct access to the emotions and personalities of the actresses. In fact, however, this method does not achieve the desired end. (Even if it did, the book was supposed to be about different ways to play the character and not the actresses themselves.)

No matter how hard Hill tries to subtract herself from the equation of the interviews, she is still present. One way her presence is felt is through the questions she asks of the actresses. For example, all the actresses address the idea of Shaw's "Joan" being to them what Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is to male actors. Some of the actresses agree that there is a similarity and some don't, but the fact that they all discuss this point reveals that the question was one that the interviewer thought was important and not that the actresses were particularly concerned with it. In fact, it is fairly obvious that the interviewer asked the same list of questions of all the actresses. Because they are all constricted by the same questions, the reader misses out on the true differences between the reactions to the character; what the actresses themselves thought was important enough to be discussed.

Another means by which the interviewer reveals herself is thro! ugh her editing. Hill must have spent several hours interviewing each actress and consequently, must have had tapes and tapes of raw footage through which to navigate while doing the actually writing. What Hill chose to leave in, what she cut out, and what order she presents the information says more about her own search and her writing style than it does about either the character or the actresses. Each chapter of the book is about a different actress but somehow they all sound the same. This is hard to believe because in actuality, each chapter presents a different person saying different things in different ways with different words. But, because their words have all gone through the same editing process, the chapters may as well be different reactions by the same person.

The list of questions and the editing process work to create a consistency throughout the different chapters which Hill must have felt was important to the cohesiveness of the book. However, these things do not work at all toward revealing the actresses' true feelings about the character nor does it reveal enough about the actresses' individuality for a reader to see them as real people. It seems that Hill has not clearly decided exactly what she wants her book to be about: the character of Joan, the actresses' reactions to the character, the actresses' reactions to specific questions about Joan, the actresses as actresses, or Holly Hill's ideas about Joan. Although Hill has a topic and 26 different views of the subject, she has not put them together in a way that reveals anything about what she says she set out to explore.

Although the book was interesting, it could have been much more so if Hill had admitted that there is no way she can completely erase herself from an interview and, instead of trying to be invisibly (but actually standing between the reader and the actress), she allow the reader to use her as a lens through which to see these actresses as they present themselves. This could have been done through descriptions o! f the actresses' tone of voice, facial expressions, sound of laughter, pace of speech, reaction to the questions before the answer, willingness to be interviewed, etc. Hill admits in the introduction that she wishes that the readers could have seen these things and that they are important to understanding the actresses, but at the same time, her interviewing style and her editing of the transcripts are the things that really keep the reader from "being there" during the interview.

The best way to keep from setting out to answer one question and ending up with answers to another is to not limit oneself in the first place. If Hill had decided to explore actresses' reactions to the character "Joan" instead of looking for answers to a list of questions, and if she had allowed the actresses to talk about what they felt was important, she could have ended up with a fascinating book about what types of actresses are drawn to play the character, actresses' attitudes toward acting, how the actresses' attitudes toward a character, a director, or a company change over time, amusing anecdotes about their particular experiences as Joan, and about the lives, dreams, and fears of the actresses themselves with the character of Joan as the glue that holds it all together.

The Rancher and the Amnesiac Bride is an average story. Although it does have some comic moments, the plot suffers from lack of depth. The love story between the two main characters seems a little forced because the romance is based upon physical attraction.

This book should be read by everyone interested in managment

this is apparently Pickart's 9th book or something...and it's weak, man. the plot is so incredibly cliche: they meet, they fall in love, he finds out her secret and hates her, they kiss and make up. all's well that ends well? no, not really...
beyond the plot being weak, i had problems with the narration and dialouge. it was corny and predictable, and it seems that sometimes the characters or narrator would just say TOO MUCH of the obvious.
indeed a very mediocre book, but i didn't hate it. although i don't believe that it's worth buying - check it out from your library.

Having known little about Russia, let alone the workings of its political systems, I was amazed at how easy the book was to read. It was simple, to the point, and yet not lacking in its own in-depth analysis. This I would recommend for students, people whom like me, want something fast and easy. There are even maps, so in case someone gets bored with words, there are always national boundaries to consider.

This oversized coffee table book was prepared and published as part of the 75th anniversary celebration of the San Francisco Opera in the fall of 1997. It contains page after page of beautiful photographs with descriptions of performances by the likes of Lawrence Tibbett, Lauritz Melchior, Kirsten Flagstad, Beniamino Gigli, Leonard Warren, Leonie Rysanek, John Vickers, Ezio Pinza, Birgit Nilsson, and many many others. The San Francisco Opera is indisputably one of the important opera companies of North America. Operas by 20th century composers such as Britten, Hanze, Orff, Poulenc, Ravel, Shostakovich, Tippett and Walton as well as operas by earlier composers such as Cherubini and Rossini were given their United States premieres on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House. For all of this book's strengths, it has some decided faults. It does contain a listing of all performance from 1923 through the end of the 1996-97 season with dates and casts. While it is interesting to browse through the listings, its usefulness as a research tool is seriously undermined by the lack of an index. If you want to find out how many times Lily Pons sang the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, or if she ever sang that role in San Francisco, you have to read through the listings for every year. With an index you could simply look up the information by the name of the singer or opera. Likewise, there is no single list of all of the operas performed by the SF Opera. Also, the organization of the book lends itself to browsing, not to finding specific facts. The text of the book does not form a chronological history of the company. Rather, the chapters are devoted to specific topics. Four chapters are devoted to the general directors that have led the company. Interspersed between those four chapters are chapters on leading men, leading women, physical productions, and the orchestra/chorus/ballet. So, if you wanted to read about the 1967-68 season, you might find mention of that season in several different chapters.

Ian MacDonald yearns to go into battle. His true love Frances Stewart refuses to marry a soldier. Angry and resentful of Frances' ultimatum, Ian sails for South America to join a war. Frances marries to spite Ian. Without his childhood love, Ian is a "man without a center". Stubborn pride, lies, and grief all play a part in keeping this couple apart. This book reads as an old fashioned romance. It's predictable that Ian and Frances will wind up together, but still a pleasant read.

I've used this book in vocal competitions and some of the songs in it are perfect for those competitions. Unfortunately, some are better suited for a musicals type book. I expected when I first got this book that it would be good for more professional settings, but there are some very non-professional style songs in it.

Also, the songs in this book are truly meant for sopranos, so if you are a mezzo...please don't attempt this. You might hurt your voice or something.

The Secret Life of Walter Kitty is about a young cat who becomes a super hero, Wonder Cat. The book, though, is not wonderful at all. The pictures are boring and there is too much text for a 5 year old like me. Batman rulez.