The Hamlet-esque mind of Mike Rose is the hook to Ventura's "The Death of Frank Sinatra". His head whirls in the indecision of what he loves or hates and in some cases what or whom is the object of both extremes. The italicized asides in the first person are probably the strongest portions of the book as Rose's wannabe existentialist is continually crippled by loathing for himself, his past, his connections, and perhaps most of all, for Las Vegas which he believes is his puppet master and submissive lover all at once.

Here is the crux of the novel which centers on a private eye who has bathed with and been raised by mobsters but has remained on the edge of the precipice without ever truly jumping in. It is an intriguing dilemma when his unstable brother unwittingly blabs "too much" in front of a grizzled old Outfit veteran, although as with most of the book what is spoken is half said, a half truth and, well, to be blunt, only half convincing. It's all well and good having the circle of insecurity forever turning in one's head, but surely no group of people are as instantly tuned in as Ventura's characters are. It seems half the time that, whoever it is, they are inexplicably able to read their conversation partner's mind, irrespective of intelligence, age or familiarity. What we get is a series of unfinished statements and knowing glances, which doesn't quite wash.

At first, I thought the insight into Vegas, spearheaded by the persona and rep of Frank Sinatra - a nifty touch - was about as illuminating as a travel guide, but without really being conscious of it, the constant bombardment and repetition of the town's warts and all, became quite intoxicating and ultimately revealing. I was less convinced by the insider knowledge of the mob, which seemed to focus on shock value and sensationalism, in marked contrast to the understatement of the book's overall tone. The little nuances that are so prevalent in Scorsese's films, for example, that help to humanize and rationalize are absent for the most part here.

The plot is convoluted and difficult to grasp with several intertwining threads that don't really mesh. However, in truth, most of the action happens in Rose's head, so that's not as disastrous as it sounds. Still, there seemed to be several loose ends that Ventura was content to let lie, which was a little unsettling.

Overall, I felt it was indulgent and melodramatic, teetering on the edge between dark social commentary about an inately corrupt city, and simply incoherent rambling, but the well expressed sadness and stolid, if misguided defiance of the central character, along with the admitted originality of the style was enough to earn 3 stars. Just.

OK, I picked up "The Death of Frank Sinatra" as an impulse-buy $2.99 hardcover from the "used library books" aisle...so I was pretty much purchasing it by-the-pound...no expectations, other than it was Vegas-fiction and sounded fun.

Now, I feel like I owe somebody. Which is not a good feeling in the hardboiled world Ventura describes so bristlingly.

I have been turned on to a fusion of genres so rich and bountiful, that a full $24.99 pricetag seems only fair. So...if anyone wants to collect the remainder, no pistol-whipping will be necessary.

It's quite simply pulp poetry.

Crackling descriptions of the blood-in-your-urine doings of a Vegas private dick, featuring characters that jump off the page to pin your arms back while kicking your nuts and a geo-real Vegas that resonates with anyone who can "recite" the Strip from the Alladin to the Sahara and whose secret desire is to be buried at the YESCO graveyard.

It's great stuff, and if you've never heard of Michael Ventura, (cause I sure as hell hadn't) you'll soon be saying the same thing I am now..."How the hell is this guy not being read on every Flight 711, instead of Grisham?"

...

Michael Ventura really knows how to tell a story that's more than just plot or characterization, but also SAYS something. I bought this book, read it right through, and then re-read it in bits right away, just for the enjoyment of it. This is as good as it gets.

The author is trying to jump around on the concept he is trying to explain. Sometime, author used a long paragraph to explain a concept while at the end the point is still not clear.Examples in the text are not given in a consistent manner which causes lots of confusion to reader.
Some important concepts are not presented in the text, unsymmetrical substitution in the conjugated system for example.
I would recommend reader to read the book critically and do expect that things in the book are not 100% correct.

The second edition contained incredible errors regarding mechanistic organic chemistry, many of which were corrected by the third edition. No doubt, these errors were taught to a significant number of students, and have resulted in some ribbing of the authors by their peers. Nonetheless, the third edition still contains significant errors. Bright students will find those errors confusing, as they contradict what they learn about pKa's and acid/base chemistry within the text.

Text information states pKa values are for the conjugate acids of bases listed in tables, and this further confuses students, who assume the molecules listed are the acids themselves.

Incredible leaps of logic must be required for students to take sparse detail in the text and apply them to complex problems in the problem sets. Although the problems are enjoyable for Ph.D.'s in the field, they miss the mark regarding beginning students. I find the problems relevant and amusing, but they are often advanced or graduate level. In contrast,example problems in the text are quite simplistic.

It appears that the text attempts to address biochemistry, polymer and medicinal chemistry to some level - but must sacrifice content in the core areas of organic chemistry in order to satisfy the unwritten rule of a book of dimensions of 1.5" x 8" x 10" for the publisher.

The sidebars were a reasonable attempt to humanize chemistry. University academics are still scratching their heads as to why they continue to have trouble interesting students in chemistry - they need to look close to home regarding text and laboratory material. Both seem to provide an exercise in futility for U.S. students. Scientific method is taught in high school, and promptly forgotten. Logic and flow is missing today.

Good luck with the next edition!

Of all the Organic Chemistry text books I have reviewed, this one is at the top of the pile. It is logically organized and figures are well done. Brown & Foote do a great job of presenting the difficult subject matter.

The emotional realities of life in the NICU are as important as the medical realities. This book doesn't do a good job of recognizing the importance of emotional support, and has tone that is authoritative but not warm or encouraging on an emotional level.

My son was born at 28 wks-while this book gave me all the med info-tech support I could have asked for, ultimately it felt 'hands off'. I am a huge advocate of kangaroo care for preemies, if you have a preemie PLEASE find a compassionate medical provider that understands and supports this kind of mother/child care! If you wish to breastfeed DO NOT GIVE UP! PUMP! It's not fun, but it can work. -DON'T SLEEP WITH YOUR CHILD IN YOUR BED?! At 16 mnths my son is just leaving our bed-it's been sweet, it's been HEALTHY. PLEASE read the Sears' 'The Baby Book' for emotional and common sense back-up, not geared specificly towards preemies, this book espouses the kind of HANDS ON parenting our children really need-especially our preemies. My '28-wkr' is healthy, bright and sweet-I credit kangaroo care and 'The Baby Book' for alot of it! I wish you the best.

When my ten week early preemie came back to the hospital of his birth, the nurses loaned me this book, as well as one on Kangaroo Care. This is a good REFERENCE book, meaning that it gives clear information on different things to expect from infants born within certain gestational periods, but does not seem to have a supportive emotional tone. Frankly, I am glad I read the loaner on Kangaroo Care first. It was informative as well as comforting during this very stressful time. I am thankful that my hospital not only loaned both books, but strongly advocates Kangaroo Care. I would recommend this reference book be used in ADDITION to an emotionally uplifting book, which would cover all the bases for parents.

I thought it would be the American version of the Oxford's Advanced Learner's Dictionary. It is not. Dry definitions with few examples. A native speaker may find it more useful. There are interesting comparisons of words with similar meanings sprinkled here and there. Pictures are outdated. To my great disappointment does not use IPA. It covers a large number of words, but few phrasal verbs. L**gman has a better Advanced American Leaner's Dictionary - now with CD.

I found this to be the most useful and comprehensive single volume dictionary of the many I own. Clear, easy to use, helpful with guidance on usage, it is a manageable-sized volume. I go to the New Shorter Oxford or Webster's Second (a classic) for hard to find definitions, but this answers most questions for me. It is much better than the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. I recommend it without reservation.

One of the best features of this contribution is its excellent explanation of the usages of different synonyms. The nuances are very well explained and the diction of its users should improve significantly.

Another strong point are the comments on usage.

It's often pointed out that autobiographies are to a considerable extent works of fiction. It's less often pointed out, but equally true, that biographies are also to a considerable extent works of fiction. "Frank LLoyd Wright: A Biography" is a case in point. Now, it just so happens that the author of Frank Lloyd Wright's AUTObiography was a great artist, and it shows not only in his archecture, but also in his stylish, accomplished and original handling of English prose. This BIOGRAPHY, on the other hand, is dull, drab, and perfunctory, and its information is second-hand (at best). If you're going to read fiction, I say read GOOD fiction.

Also: I've read a number of biographies of composers, and I find that they are almost always written by professional musicians. It seems to me that a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright ought to have been undertaken only by someone with a professional knowledge of architecture.

Secrest's "biography" focuses exclusively on the personal life of Wright, and to that end it seems fairly complete. Secrest attempts to explain Wright's inflated sense of self, his drive to succeed and his willingess to use others as means to his ends by reflecting on his Welsh background, his family's history in Wisconsin and his relationships with his immediate family, particularly his mother. My complaint is that Secrest does not carry this analysis over to his architecture - most of his works receive a paragraph or less. I was hoping for a biography of Wright that placed his work in an socio-historical framework as well as accounting for his personality. Secrest briefly mentions how Wright bristled at being called a pre-modernist and how much of a romanticist he was, but she only mentions this to elucidate Wright's personal interactions with others. If you're looking for more info that places Wright's work in a historical or theoretical framework, look somewhere else.

The above review doesn't take into account that Wright himself in his own autobiography stretches the truth on several occaisons for reasons known only to him. As we all know, Wright has said he intended to be the greatest architect of all time. If his own voice were heard, it would undoubtedly reinforce that fact. It is better to have an outside view, or a recounting of events by someone other than wright that happened to be present at that time. Anyone who has read his autobiography (or has any knowledge of history, for that matter) knows Wright was a notorious self-promoter and a grain of salt should be taken to anything he said. Wright is my favorite architect and a man of un paralleled geinus, so no- I'm not biased.

despite a colorful premise- a festival celebrating the centennial of the wizard of oz- a surprisingly lackluster whodunit. author's usual vivid sense of place and some interesting tidbits of ozinalia; but thin on the whole,an anemic effort.

Cat Marsala thinks she's just entertaining her young nephew with a visit to the Chicago Oz festival but before the night is through, she witnesses two murders, gets herself and her nephew shot at, and escapes through the tunnels that run underneath Chicago.

When her evidence gets the police convinced that her brother is the killer, Cat decides to investigate herself. Yet if it isn't her brother, who could it be. She saw the victim run toward her brother with no evidence of blood anywhere.

The strength of Hard Road is in its descriptions of Chicago and its little peeks into the Oz legend (I also enjoyed the Oz essay at the end although it had nothing to do with the mystery). Its weaknesses are in the lack of character development and fairly linear plot.

HARD ROAD is well written--I certainly kept turning the pages and enjoyed the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Barbara D'Amato's Hard
Luck several years ago, & was pleased to find that she
had published another installment to her Cat Marsala
series, Hard Road. Set in Chicago, the mystery
revolves around a Wizard of Oz festival. The story is
full of suspense, color & drama. As usual, the author
has gone to great lengths to research & provide a
plethora of factually accurate details. This book
also features a substantial epilogue, The Wooden
Gargoyles: Evil in Oz by Brian D'Amato, & Twenty
Questions in Oz: An Oz Quiz. Oz fans will not go
wrong with the purchase of this stunning book.

I still don't understand what the scope of this book is.
50 houses in 61 pictures? FLW's architecture is very rich in details and interesting interior solutions, obviously this can't be shown in 1 (mostly exterior) picture per house. Some of them are from a terrace, a garden or some detail and some are taken at night or at a distance with little to be seen... There are NO plans, NO drawings and little if any information on the design process. Only one paragraph for each house? It lacks substance as it lacks everything. The book itself contains little more information than the index does. If you are interested in FLW's architecture look somewhere else, because you are NOT going to find it here. I am very disappointed with my purchase and still looking for a nice FLW book.

While I learned some things from this book, I was a bit disappointed in the presentation. The photography left a lot to be desired...in some photos, one could not even get a sense of the structure of the building. Also, being a Wright afficionado, I wanted more from the text.

What could be learned from this book, by someone not familiar with Wright, were the stages of his career (Early Homes, Prairie Houses, Houses of the 20s and 30s, and Usonian Houses).

The Early Houses were of many different styles, usually dictated by the owner, since Wright did not yet have enough of a reputation to insist on HIS style.

Prairie Houses (1901 and later) were characterized by art glass, roofs providing shade, bands of windows, open interiors, a ground-hugging form, prominent hearths, and custom (often built-in) furniture.

In Wright's homes of the 1920s and 30s, he found new ways of using old materials, often making concrete into textured blocks. His most famous residential design, Fallingwater, was built during this time.

His Usonian Houses were simpler homes, built more economically, with combined living and dining rooms separate from the bedroom zone. These houses were private on the street side with windows in the back and were usually one-story with a low roof.

No matter what the period of his design, Wright thought that decorations should be limited to one fine item and no bric-a- brac. He thought draperies were unsanitary and believed in "going to nature" for colors used on the inside and outside of his houses. His walls were either punctuated by windows or alcoves or some built-in feature, making it very difficult to hang art. I suppose that Wright felt that his house was all the art an owner needed!

Not a bad book, but just not very complete.

Either I like a book, or I don't, so I liked this one, so I gave it 5 stars. Some people give books 2 and a half, which dosnt make since, either they like it or they don't! But anyway, this book was good, I read it for school. I think I will read Diane maddex's other books as well. This book is a good buy!

It rambles. It's vague. I found it incoherent.

Frank Browning's The Culture of Desire (Paradox and Perversity in Gay Lives Today) is a series of essays exploring aspects of gay men lives (no longer quite "today" as this book is bordering on a decade ago). These essays are hit and miss but there are enough little bits of interest to keep most of the readers happy and lead them successfully through the collection. It is very anecdotal and no conclusions can be truly be drawn from this book but it is successful in showing the diversity that existed in gay America and has only continued to grow since this book. It is not an important read but can be, at times, an interesting one.

Smart, sexy, and as cutting edge now as when it was published six years ago, "Culture of Desire" is required reading for anyone who likes to think of themselves as informed about the state of American/Western European gay male culture (if "culture" is the right word). I have yet to meet anyone who hates this book who didn't buy it for the cover.

The House Church Movement? I thought only bowels have "movements." And that is how I felt after finishing this book. There are some good points regarding the Institutional Church and the shallowness of some home churches (HCs)not centering and trutsting on Jesus Christ alone, but the whole of the book is deceitfully dangerous. These "planters" or "workers" "plant" HCs that claim to be the only TRUE or biblical HCs in existance and any HC that wants to be truly Christ-centered needs to be taught by the "God-ordained worker" to lead us in the "right" path. So they say in subtle words. In actuality, they have switched from the OVERT control of Institutional Churches to the CO-VERT control of House Churches.

If anyone really wants to know more about Body-life and real, relational Christianity, and a balanced view of Home Churches, you won't find it here. You'll find instead a group of men proclaiming that "their way" is really the only right way. To be a valid HC you need to be "planted" - and planted by whom? You guessed it, one of them. Their elitest attitude and their shallow descriptions of other HCs are repulsive. They certainly had an agenda with this book, an agenda, in my opinion, much more sly than the IC ever came up with.

If you want to truly know more about "Home church" subscribe to a balanced HC discussion list like New-Wineskin on yahoogroups.com. You'll learn more about "Home churching" from a healthy perspective than you will from the very biased perspective of these authors.

With a title like "The House Church Movement" one might expect to find an overview and history of the current exodus of true believers out of the pews of traditional steeple-house churchianity in search of a more organic expression of corporate "body life." Disappointingly, what one finds here is little more than grandiose pamphleteering for one small segment of the movement.

Even this could have been useful, had there been more hard information and less sloganeering. Some examples, facts, numbers, histories and testimonies would have been nice. Instead, there is little more than arrogant claims by the four authors that they are doing something right that hasn't been done on earth for nearly 1,800 years.

Although accredited to four disciples, anyone familiar with the movement's founder, Gene Edwards, will recognize his peculiar brand of hyperbole peppered throughout the tome. I have met with one of his groups in Rochester, New York and was present for several sessions with Gene himself presiding. Many chapters of the book are none other than Gene's own voice.

There are bright moments, and of course, the theme is important. Particularly worthy of reading and praying about is the chapter on the Church, the Dream and the Dreamer. Traditional churchianity is an old wine skin and monumentally unsuitable to contain the movement of the Holy Spirit and true body life that God is pouring out on the earth today as the Bride of Christ prepares to meet her soon returning Bridegroom.

Nevertheless, while professing liberty and freedom, the authors are clearly stating that they recognize no party or movement but their own as being true expressions of the life of Christ in a community of believers. It may not be intentional, but by refusing to embrace and celebrate ALL movement in the right direction to the exclusion of only their own methodolgy, these men set themselves up as the popes of the house church movement, who "give liking unto nothing but what is framed by themselves, and hammered on their (own) anvil." How this serves to promote the unity in the Body of Christ that is everywhere called for throughout the New Testament is hard to understand.

Gene Edwards has written much useful material -- Climb the Highest Mountain, The Inward Journey, and of course the classic Tale of Three Kings. His understudies have produced a book of questionable value which is guaranteed to produce much heat and very little light among the uninitiated, and absolutely no new information or inspiration for those who are familiar with the subject matter and the particular movement in question.

Blunt. Straight Talk. Probably will be rejected by most house churchers who like their stuff mostly shallow, thickly candy-coated and polite ad nauseum (House Churchers have their own, weird brand of "political correctness").
These authors lack that modern-day pastoral tact and "Christian" veneer and write in a more gritty, thundering, prophetic style, like the men of old. And, yes, while their claim to be leading the radical wing of house churching is brash, it is also clear that they are passionate men--I found that more refreshing than offensive. And their critics must ask themselves if they are truly pioneering more radically than these men are.
These men write in a raw, unpolished form, but man are their words and thoughts badly needed to be heard by house churchers the world over. Most people I've met are too focused on the messengers of this book, their style, tone, their affiliation, and not enough on the real issue---the sad and sorry state of what is passing for "house church" around the world. House Churchers need to be less sensitive to the coarseness these men write with and more sensitive their timely message.

I was hired by ARCO to review this book in the face of mounting complaints that it was not useful as a review tool any more. I agreed that it, indeed, was not very good (see other review). So, they hired me to rewrite the book from scratch. My book is being released in January 2001: Mastering the Calculus AB and BC Tests, by W. Michael Kelley.

Not only is my book (also published by ARCO/Peterson's) comprehensive, it is also the only funny math AP prep book out there.

Do not buy this book! I bought this book in hopes of doing well on the AP test. However, when I started actually reading the book, I found out that the book was a complete waste of my money. The book is hard to understand, the explanations are not helpful, and the content of the book does not even focus on the topic outline for the AP Calculus exams. For example, the last section for Calculus BC focuses on differential equations that are not variable-separable -- an obvious indicator that the author of this book does NOT know anything about what is on the AP Calculus BC test! Another example is the inclusion of the hyperbolic functions. Rolle's theorem is stated incorrectly; the book states f(a)=0 and f(b)=0 as a condition, when in reality f(a)=f(b) is all that is needed. And is it proper calculus to write the limit of a quotient = 0/0 or infinity/infinity? I think not! Perhaps the biggest error is that the book defines critical numbers to be when f'(x) = 0, when in fact it should be when f'(x) = 0 or f'(x) DNE! In fact... where's the first derivative test? How could that be overlooked? And where is the antiderivative that yields inverse secant? Oh, it's in the lengthy table of integrals in the back of the book, something that you will never see during the AP test. Where's Euler's Method? How about slope fields? Netwon's method is tucked away in Appendix C, where nobody will find it. If you want this book just for the practice tests-- the practice tests in this book are not like the actual AP tests, and doing them will not help you at all! Follow the cgkm theorem (I'm cgkm)-- don't buy this book!

I definitely disagree with the negative reviews of this book. When I was taking AP Calculus, this review book helped me extremely because it provided many examples of pitfall mistakes that all students make. It gives good excercise questions after every section. It is concise, but very very comprehensive. Furthermore, if you are keeping up with what is going on in your class this is the ONLY book I recommend. Some might feel that some sections are not explained too deeply; however, this is more than made up for by the great example questions that are clearly picked wisely. This book very much helped me in high school for class and the AP exam. It is a wonderful book to have if you are going to stop taking calculus after high school but sometimes want to look back at something for a quick review. A definite plus.