For those who have seen the movie American Beauty, this book sort of reminds me of that message. Different reviews mentioned AIDS in their discussion of this book but I didn't get that from the read at all. It lends itself to seeing life at various levels. I finished this book with a sense of wonder and hope. I recommend this book.

Though I'm not often a particular fan of magic realism or fable-like narratives, this one fooled me by its literary quality into turning every page with vast enjoyment. Golding takes chances and succeeds, never sticking to the expected. I loved the way it ended, which was satisfying in a much deeper way than if all our longings (and those of the sympathetic characters) had been readily fulfilled. It's pretty much a timeless tale, though set a long time ago. Golding's got a lock on human nature and writes with supreme flair about frailty, longing, and ambivalence.

This beautiful little book has continued to haunt me. It took me away from my daily existence to a shimmering island peopled by characters who were not of this world, but somehow still as familiar as my neighbors, my cousins, my mailman. Delicious.

I am a medical student taking my radiology elective (finally) in the spring of my fourth year. Our department loaned the book to us during the rotation. I've found it to be one of those few books that I will actually purchase to have on my shelf at home (and I'm NOT going into radiology). It is written in a pleasing, conversational manner. The illustrations are of high quality. The discussions are at just the right level for an introduction to radiology. And there are many little "problems" presented throughout the text for the student to puzzle over. The answers are either listed in back, or turn up later in the "conversation" within a few pages. Although it seems long (over 500 pp?), it is mostly pictures. I highly recommend the book.

It is a very well written basic introductory book. This book is a must for any medical student interested in imaging. To get the most out of a radiology elective, suggest reading this book cover to cover.

I used this as my main text during my radiology rotation as a medical student.

I loved it. read it cover to cover and found it to be very easy to read and every page was worthwhile.

I would HIGHLY recommend it to medical students who want to gain solid introductory skills in radiology. I now feel that I can look at just about any imaging study and either make an easy diagnosis or follow the readings of radiologists with ease.

It may be best to start with a few quotes from the many letters and autographed photos from the many martial arts legends in this book;
"Is a kowlageable work on martial arts literature and can be used as a guide to all martial arts systems"/ "Master Ricardo's book stress concepts and the evolution of the martial arts" Signed Prof.Sig Kufferath 10th dan Kodenkan Danzan-Ryu Headmaster .
"To Grandmaster Frank Ricardo,you have done well with the Small Circle System, Signed Prof. Wally Jay 3/15/00
"To Master Ricardo The Ultimate Warrior "Signed from Prof.Sig Kufferath 98"
"This book is a must read for any serious martial artist whether beginner or advanced practitioner. " Signed Grandmaster Ernesto Presas
There are quotes from Special Forces soldiers, Commanders , about how Professor Ricardo directly improved battlefeild survivabilty and mission capability. There are testimonials from Police Defensive Tacticts Instuctors,Kripalu Yoga teachers,T'ai chi masters and so many more. They all speak in harmony the one truth Professor Ricardos Conceptual guide is ingenous!
The back cover says it all; " In 1953, Honorable Great Grandmaster James M.Mittose asked; What is self Defense?" The quest for a definitive answer continues in this text this is self Defense (Kenpo JuJitsu), one thing for sure it can never be answered by the amassing of all the techniques,as the are infinite. but in the study of the concepts, the science's,the levels of transformations of life,physical,mental,and spiritual may be the Key!' Professor Frank R Ricardo Oct.7th 2000 .
The bottom line is the fact this book lives up to all of it! The best of the best it ROCKS!

Prof. Ricardo's book "This is Self Defense(Kenpo Jujitsu) The Essential Guide For the Conceptual Martial Artis," Is a book that goes beyond the technique and into what makes all the techniques work for all martial arts systems. One should read carfully and then apply the concepts to a specific technique and see how it works. Anyone who thinks that this book is not good because it doesn't show techniques then you don't know what you are talking about. This book should be read for the concepts and not for the pictures and then applied if you understand.

This book is amazing! I've read lots of martial arts books, and they all are limited to "do it my way" picture sets that reveal little if anything. Professor Ricardo has broken this boundary by providing an intelligent look at "the concepts that make all techniques work". I've applied these concepts to my techniques, and now they're 300% tighter, cleaner and more efficient! Thank you Professor! ...

This book is poorly written. That does not mean it is not a great story--it's just not a great novel. The Wizard of Oz is written in a very conversational style; it often does not flow, as if Baum were pausing to collect his thoughts or remember exactly how he last described the Wicked Witch. I think it is meant to be read aloud to a child or else you are missing something. I feel that the pauses and the stops and starts probably have more impact on a small child trying to fight off sleep with a wonderful tale than they do on a grown woman finally checking The Wizard of Oz off her "Things I Always Wanted to Read" list.
Please don't misunderstand, I enjoyed the story of The Wizard of Oz, and I think everyone should read it, especially those who enjoyed the movie. There is much more to it than the movie, many more adventures, more explanation, and more sarcasm and social criticism. There just isn't much more literary merit.

I bought this book years ago and am looking for another copy as a gift. This edition is the entire MGM script (including the lyrics to the songs) of the 1939 movie and is is wonderfully illustrated with stills from the movie. My family has practically worn out this oversized book and we need another! My husband recently witnessed my daughter's new boyfriend reading along as they watched the movie because he knew we were just fans and he had better catch up! Our families favorite book!

Here's a trivia question for you. When Dorothy killed the Wicked Witch of the West by dropping her house on the witch, was the witch wearing (a) ruby slippers? (b) silver shoes? (c) both?

If you answered "both," you have the correct answer. L. Frank Baum's original story (found in this book) has magical silver shoes in it. The movie version of the story, starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, had ruby slippers. Why the change? Well, ruby slippers film much better. So the Wicked Witch of the West wore both types of footwear, depending on whether you are reading the book or watching the movie.

I share that example with you because 9 people out of 10 have seen the movie, but never read the book. When I was a wee lad, I started in the opposite direction and was sorry to see how much of the Oz story was left out in the movie.

Now, you can make up for lost time by reading or rereading the original. I commend it to you for three primary reasons. First, the book version is built around the idea that the different parts of Oz cannot be easily traversed and the ensuing travel complications make for a better plot. Second, there are many more types of imaginative creatures in the book than in the movie. Third, the book has been lovingly enhanced by new illustrations done in turn of the 20th century style by Michael Hague. The illustrations encompass styles from immediately post van Gogh (yes, there are sunflowers) through Art Deco. I especially liked the water colors of gloomy and darkening skies.

If you are like me, you will chortle when you read L. Frank Baum's comment in the beginning that the story was "written solely to please children . . . a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained . . ." while the scary parts are left out. If you remember frightening moments, you are thinking about the movie. The book is much more gentle, which makes it more suitable for the youngsters. Yes, there are frightening villains, but they are quickly dispatched rather than being allowed to hang around to menace and frighten children just before bedtime. Still, children must have been braver in those days. This story is still scary enough for most to feel a deathly chill now and then.

Many of the ambiguities and confusing aspects of the movie are clearer and less disconcerting in the book, as well.

I won't go into a fine comparison of the two, because that will just spoil the plot for you. Do let me mention a few chapters that you will not recognize from the movie . . . just to whet your appetite for the book -- Away to the South, Attacked by the Fighting Trees, The Dainty China Country, and The Country of the Quadlings.

After you have finished enjoying the wonderful story and new illustrations, think about some of the lessons of the book. Notice that by teaming up, Dorothy and her friends could combine strengths to overcome individual weaknesses. This is the ultimate group of superheroes. How can you combine your talents with others so that all of you combined can accomplish vastly more than any one of you can individually?

Stay on the Yellow Brick Road with effective allies!

Not as concise, powerful as Worsley's "Endurance". With all the verbiage, the question remains, why did he choose this route when he had failed the Amundsen route via the Ross shelf? Surely the Wedell sea approach was fraught with too many unknowns. And why didn't he try to land when he first approached the "harbor" in the shelf? More time exploring these issues would have been better than all the daily details of the drift through the icepack. Oh well, too late now, and his brave efforts to rescue his men were grand indeed. Clearly a greater hero than a planner.

We've had so few recently.

I took the book to work with me and found every possible moment to read it and totally absorb it's contents. Twenty-eight men survived the most horrendous situation imaginable by any human being...it makes the normal hardships that we live with seem trivial to say the least. In 1914, there were no cell phones, satelite systems for communication....these men were left with their resourcefulness...of which Sir Shackleton praised highly throughout the book. The leadership qualities of Sir Ernest Shackleton made it possible for them to survive, not months, but YEARS under these extremely trying circumstances. I couldn't help but wonder why a movie has not been made to depict this most amazing part of history.

I just took my first stained glass class, and I was looking for a pattern book of designs that I actually LIKED, as opposed to the schmaltzy stuff that is so easy to come by. I own a bungalow, and I love Frank Lloyd Wright, so this was perfect for me. It's also fairly easy for beginners, because most of the patterns have only straight lines - no curves.

There are only a few colored examples, but if you're familiar with Wright's work, or if you're creative enough to come up with your own colors, this is a great resource! I was just so happy to find this! I really didn't want to spend hours creating unicorns & rainbows!

When I received this book, with the intention of using it for actual stained glass patterning, I was surprised to find that the patterns are presented on translucent paper. It is clearly designed to be colored and then hung on a window - a great kid's project, no doubt. The images are clear enough for patterning, but the lack of those little niceties like color examples and piece counts is disheartening.

I bought this book as a reference to make my own copies of F.L.
W's windows as stained glass and also as quilts. It's perfect for this use! I will have to research the colors as all of the pages are in black and white, or I can do my own colors.

I was very disappointed in this book. Unless you are willing to do all of your shopping at health food stores and completely change your life style you can't possibly gain anything from any of the suggestions in the book. I did not find it inspiring. It just seemed like a lot of demands that are especially impossible for someone in a small town to meet.

Frank Lipman's approach to health seems revolutionary. He's not presenting a doctrine; he's not saying you must do this or that or else; he's not promising an unrealistic cure-all. He's showing you how you can take charge of your own health and change it, permanently, for the better. His approach is a perfectly balanced combination of western and eastern training, of common sense and non-traditional thinking, of information and suggestion. And the book is wonderfully readable--personal, anecdotal, straightforward, and friendly in the best sense. Lipman isn't setting himself up as a guru, but once you feel the effects of his ideas and methods, as I have, you might think of him that way. Do yourself a great favor and find out what he has to offer. You won't be sorry.

Total Renewal is a must have! Learn to live an aware and healthy life. This book will teach you how to be responsible for your own health and well-being, realize which foods you eat contribute to how you feel, and will teach you to reconnect with yourself and your life by taking charge of your own health. Reading Total Renewal will start you on your path to feeling energized and living a better life.

I bought this book based on the reviews and I made a mistake.
This book doesn't give the technical details I wanted.
If you are one of those bosses who doesn't get into details and just want to know the jargon so you can look technical when you are in meetings with more incompetent people, this is your book.

If one can't manage to complete a book in a week, then it is not a book. It is a reference that you occasionally use. XML, Web Services, and the Data Revolution by Frank P. Coyle definitely comes under my 'book' category. If one wants to learn what XML and Web Services are in a week, this is a book to read.

Lot of information yet concise presentation accomplished with self explanatory pictures depicting various XML technologies.

There are about 230 pages of actual content that provide a high-level tour of what the author calls the "data revolution." There is a crisp and concise overview of the XML technology family, along with some examples of XML in use. There is broad yet concise description of SOAP and Web Services. Common implementations like .Net, J2EE and other vendor implementations are discussed along with some of the issues in the industry. XML Security is discussed in enough detail to give you a good grasp of the issues. The book wraps up with some ideas about where this technology could take us.

The best thing about this book is that it shows how XML and Web Services overcome many of the problems that plagued RPCs, DCOM, CORBA and RMI in a way understandable by anyone.

This book is a quick read, in the concise, bulleted, margin-annotated style of Object-oriented Technology: A Manager's Guide. There are lots of really excellent visuals. This book will not help you actually write code or implement Web Services -- it is good for a semi-technical reader, or a technical reader who wants a better grasp of the big picture. Highly recommended.

"Nothing made it my business except curiosity. But strictly speaking, I hadn't had any business in a month."(21) For Phillip Marlowe, the irresistibly aloof private detective who stars in Chandler's impressive detective novel, Farewell, My Lovely, crime is not something he seems able or willing to avoid. Hitting the streets of Los Angeles in the midst of the American gambling craze of the 1930's, Marlowe finds himself an inextricable player in a search for knowledge of past and present crimes and criminals.
Though he appears, on the surface, to be little more than a nosy, bumbling "private dick," his successful unraveling of a closely interwoven crowd of crooks proves, as one suspect cop observes, that Marlowe "played...smart....You must got something we wasn't told about." (228) Keeping his cards in his hand for most of the noel, Chandler shows that both he and Marlowe are "smart," leading the reader on a circuitous trail that shakes out only in the novel's final pages.
The story begins with a happenstance encounter between Marlowe and an ex-con called "Moose" Malloy. Marlowe cannot resist pursuing the suspicious-looking hulk of a man and soon finds himself both running after and from a variety of shady characters. In the course of his private investigations, Marlowe survives several near brushes with death, getting "sapped" by thugs near the novel's start, pumped full of opium in a suspicious hospital-like place, and stealthily boarding a closely guarded gambling boat to confront an infamous mobster in the middle of the night. In the end, Marlowe succeeds at untangling the web of murders and crimes that keep him running throughout the novel, but not before giving the reader the run-around as well. Chandler's smart, articulate prose lends itself well to the captivating story and intriguing characters that combine to make this a must-read for fans of detective fiction.

Chandler is the greatest writer of detective fiction and a great author period. To ignore these books is to ignore much of what is great about American literature.

Earlier anthologies of Raymond Chandler's works mostly center upon what have come to be known as his 'big four' or earliest novels -- The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, The High Window, The Lady In The Lake -- or upon his later, and admittedly (with the possible exception of The Little Sister) 'inferior' works. Chandler's earlier short stories ( many of which he "cannibalized," to use his word, for the material in his subsequent novels) are normally treated as a separate genre altogether.

This particular collection, rightly, combines Chandler's first three novels with the best of his earlier short stories, recognizing the thematic unity in those works. (Good as it is, "The Lady In The Lake" demands to be treated separately from Chandler's earlier efforts.)

Chances are, if you're reading this, you've read most, if not all, of Chandler's Phillip Marlowe novels. You may as well have read many, if not all, of the short stories presented here. But have you read these novels, and these short stories, TOGETHER in this context? Likely not. But you deserve to.

In the short stories, for example, there are protagonists named John Evans, Ted Carmody and Tony Resick (the last two of which, interestingly, inhabit locations which were most likely Los Angeles' Hotel Mayfair, with which Chandler had more than a nodding familiarity). And when, in Chandler's writings, did they meld themselves into what would be his penultimate creation, Phillip Marlowe?

And at which point did Chandler begin to write, as fellow writer Ross McDonald termed it, "like a slumming angel . . ."? The answers to both questions may well lie here, in this collection.

Pick up this collection! Read it! Discover the material anew!

The stength of this book lies in its long-term view on Asian economies since the Asian economic crisis to their revival, looking into potential scenarios for their future.

Richter and Mar write with a strong sense of urgency, bringing a fresh perspective to the debate on Asia's future. The books starts with two short chapters by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir and Australian Prime Minister Howard, followed by longer chapters written by the who-is-who of corporate and political Asia. Issues addressed include globalization, regiononal trade, governance issues, and corporate strategies. A useful book.

Reading this book is a really enjoyable experience. Most of the real Asian shakers and movers (including Lee KY, Tung CH, Mahathir, Arroyo, Takenaka) are gathered in this project. I especially appreciate the way the content was given with an appropriate mixture of open-source information, empirical data and personal experiences.

If you want a systematic and sound grouding in Asian economies, this is the book to read.