As time passes, the novels of Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) seem to gain in freshness, stature and influence. He lived long enough to see his modest reputation fade, in contrast to that of many of his famous novelist contemporaries. Nowadays the situation seems to be reversing.

Of special merit, amongst his huge output, are the so-called Barsetshire ("clerical") novels, and the so-called Palliser ("political") novels. Of the former, the last and longest is "The Last Chronicle of Barset". Not only are there fresh concerns, complications and current affairs introduced here, but there are also fond and final appearances of people and places encountered in the earlier Barsetshire novels. Everybody's favourite literary virago, Mrs Proudie, is again denouncing and dominating everybody. Trollope even contrives to create a character who has the temerity to say to her, "Peace, Woman!"

There are the innumerable characters of marriageable age, whose names are perhaps more memorable than their characters, whose charming dialogues and relationship problems are deftly laid out and interwoven. Above all, there is master story-teller Anthony Trollope, admitting finally that for him Barset has been a real place, a place where he as been induced to wander too long by his "love of old friendships, and by the sweetness of old faces".

Superb TV and radio adaptations of Trollope's Barsetshire novels have appeared in recent years. His novels read aloud well, too, and audio cassette readings, some of them unabridged, can provide endless hours of rich listening pleasure.

THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET is one of the great novels in the English language, and yet it is not widely read. The reason for this is obvious: it is the LAST novel in the Barsetshire series of novels, and a relatively small number make it all the way through the previous five volumes. This is a shame, because while all the previous novels are quite excellent and thoroughly entertaining, the final novel in the series is a work of an entirely different level of magnitude.

This novel is also one of the darkest that Trollope wrote. The moral dilemma in which Crawley finds himself would seem to belong more readily to the world of Dostoevsky than Victorian England.

Can this novel be read on its own, without reading the novels that precede it? Yes, but I do feel that it is best read after working through the other books in the series first. This is hardly an unfortunate situation, since all the books in the series are superb (with the exception of the first novel, THE WARDEN, which, while nice, is merely a prelude to the far superior five novels that came after it). Many of the characters in THE LAST CHRONICLE appeared first as characters in the other novels, and the central character of the book, Crawley, himself appeared earlier.

Trollope is...one of the most entertaining writers the English language has produced. At this point I have read around 20 of his novels, and fully intend to read more. But of all his books, this one might be his finest. The only two that I feel are close to the same level are his incredible books THE WAY WE LIVE NOW and HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT (possibly the finest work on excessive jealousy since OTHELLO). Anyone who loves the English novel owes it to him or herself to read as many of these volumes as possible. My recommendation would be to read first the six novels in the Barsetshire Chronicles, and then to move on to the other two novels I mentioned. If still hooked, then try his other major series of novels, variously known as the Political novels or the Palliser novels or the Parliamentary novels, which begin with CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?

How one man could hold in his mind so much of his age, and then relate it back to us peopled with so many and varied characters in--how many? 20?-- interconnected novels of surpassing richness of detail and sagacity of moral observation, is a great mystery of human psychology.

"The Last Chronicle of Barset" is surely one of the most successful and satisfying of the whole Barset and Palliser series, illustrating perhaps better than any of the former Trollope's admirable gift for creating multi-dimensional characters that are as recognizable to us today as they were in his time.

According to George Gilder, tv as we know it , will soon become antiquated and we will only see it in the Smithsonian. What Gilder is talking about is giving back the power of choosing programming to that of the viewer.

Fiber and wireless, he is amazingly correct in predicting the technology trends, can't wait to see what he is going to talk about in his next book.

George Gilder has been hailed as one of the foremost science and technology writers for Forbes Magazine. His book, Wealth and Poverty, was one of the "Bibles" of '80s supply-side economics. Although I may not totally agree with his economic views, his extensive research of telecommunications and how this vast and intertwined conglom of industries affects humanity is unquestionably thorough, thought provoking, intellegent, and timely. Some craggy rocks which potentially ground Gilder's predictions of a tidal wave on the technoscape are FCC auctions; mis-directed consumer advertising; lack of consumer education on what cell phone towers "really" are (you know, fear of radiation, cancer scare, etc.), and the inability of competing telecoms, cable companies, computer megopolies, etal to install fiber-optic cable and satellites at a break-neck enough pace. All I know is, wherever TCI has tried Internet services, the "Alpha Test" consumers not only wouldn't give it up after the test was over, some people would not move to an area where they couldn't purcase the service! So readers: Ride premiere prognosticator Gilder's technowave, and be one of the first to hang ten in a prospective post-Mellenium promised land! And be sure to pick up his other books, such as Microcosm. I believe he is updating this for 1998, and he's "write-on" in his first edition. Surf's up!

The author's grate sensibility comes out through his words, describing feelings that we all have or had in the past, but we couldn never express them like this. Through his wards, the author creates a special bound with the reader, taking him into the writer's world, which is, hopefully, his own world. Enjoy reading this fantastic book

I must say this is one of the finist poetry and photography book that I have read. I can really relate to what the author was feeling each time I read a poem. The clear and understanding literature is very enjoyable to read. I find myself reading Love Triangle over and over again. Do not pass this one up.

The first time I read the back cover, I knew this book of poetry was going to be well written. I have enjoyed the poetry and photography. I can actually relate to the authors feelings and emotions on being in love. I still find myself picking up the book to read it again and again. You will like it and find yourself consumed with its literature.

When you think about quantum physics, you may be inclined to think small. Many people naturally think that quantum effects happen only on a scale that, for most of us, isn't relevant. Hey and Walters, though, help us think again. Quantum effects are in the world all around us. Indeed, the universe would be very different if the rules of quantum mechanics were not what they are.

The stated purpose of this book is to "present the essential ideas of quantum physics as simply as possible and demonstrate how quantum physics affects us all." After reading the book, I have to agree that Hey and Walters have succeeded on both accounts. They've achieved their goal by laying the book out in a careful and logical manner, including filling it with lots of informative and nicely made illustrates (on average, more than one for each page).

The book begins by discussing the classical differences between waves and particles. Most of us have been introduced to quantum mechanics this way. First learning how quantum-mechanical objects act like "particles" some of the time, and "waves" part of the time. An important point made by the authors is that particles and waves are idealizations. In reality, quantum-mechanical objects cannot be described by any simple picture. Overcoming this conceptual obstacle is one of the first challenges for someone who is first becoming acquainted with QM. This is a point made by their careful discussion about the results and implications of double-slit experiments.

This book has equations. Not many, and not too difficult (mostly just algebra). It's really written at a High School or Freshman College level. The ideas introduced are mostly qualitative. I think this makes the book an excellent introduction. I certainly wish I'd had something like this before taking my first QM class. Having a qualitative and conceptual understanding before diving into the mathematics is a more productive approach.

Leaving the chapter on waves and uncertainty, the authors introduce the reader to the weird world of the uncertainty principle, which is the strange characteristic of quantum-mechanical objects that they don't actually have an exact position/velocity until it's measured. There's an excellent series of photographs that illustrate the uncertainty principle in a macroscopic object by using a sequence showing the probabilistic formation of a camera image over time. The book quotes often from Richard Feynman, and this chapter has an introductory description of Feynman's diagrams/quantum paths.

These discussions lead naturally to the Schrodinger equation and matter probability waves. Again, there's a little mathematics here (the differential equation for a particle moving in one dimension, in a potential). The authors illustrate the tie-in with the macroscopic world by illustrating a photograph of some dust mites, made by using the quantum-mechanical nature of electrons.

Chapter 4 is one of the best, in my opinion. It's about the structure of atoms. When this subject was first introduced to me over 35 years ago, the explanation faltered and it took several more years before I felt comfortable in my understanding. How I wish I'd had this book then. The explanation here is crisp and clear, and does a nice job of explaining the notation used for the different quantum-energy levels and how they relate to things like the angular momentum.

How atoms are made affects our everyday lives. The fact that bosons and fermions have different statistical distributions makes a huge difference in how macroscopic objects behave. In fact, we would probably not be alive to notice how different the universe would be without these specific characteristics at the quantum level. One of the best examples is found in the life sequence of stars, where the quantum-mechanical structure of stars is inherently related to their evolution. There's an excellent chapter in this book that describes how stars work, how they are born, what makes them shine, and how they die. In each step, the laws of quantum mechanics govern the evolutionary process.

Other topics covered include superconductivity, superfluidity, Feynman diagrams, Hawking radiation and black holes, the weak and strong forces, the Higgs vacuum, particle accelerators, lasers, monopoles, and quark confinement. The book also has several informative appendixes in the back, that supply additional mathematical information, including a simple solution to the Schrodinger equation.

This book is a little like Chandrasekhar's book "Why Things Are the Way They Are," with a touch of the flavor found in Sam Trieman's book "The Odd Quantum." Both of these other books are among my favorite introductory texts, and "The Quantum Universe" sits on my bookshelf next to them.

This is a well-written book that makes an excellent introduction for students, and enjoyable leisure reading by scientists and engineers who've already had a college class in quantum mechanics. The illustrations and photographs add to the expressive and clear writing style to make this a book I can heartily recommend

this is an excellent book, from the beginning to the end. it introduces all the modern physics concepts with very clean explanations and beautiful colorful pictures. i just love it.

An extremely interesting book on physics for an average readerr.If you're a guy who has forgotten most of what you learned in college physics courses and want to pick it up a little bit, and have a little fun in the mean while, this book is for you.

If you're a fan of Henson's work you'll absolutely die for this book! It's got great coverage over his past movies to 91. Some include The Dark Crystal, The great muppet Caper, and my personal favorite: THe Labyrinth!

This book is great if you want to learn more about the movies that the creature workshop did instead of Jim Henson. Although it does talk alot about him it's more about the workshop he created and left behind. It's a grest book if you love Jim Henson's work and I do !Get it it's great!

Since skipping school to go and watch 'Labyrinth'. I've been fascinated with animatronics. The creatures produced both during and after Jim Henson have been both imaginative and captivating. 'No Strings Attached' is a wonderful book of mechanical invention, artistry and imagination. Being someone who loves to watch 'The making of..' specials on TV whenever a new special-effects blockbuster comes out, I found this book catered to my 'Wow! How did they do that?' curiosity. I am a great fan of puppetry but I am a biased fan of Jim Henson...if you buy this book, turn to page 112, the girl kneeling on one knee on the bottom right corner is yours truly!

Great book! Covers not only the Catholicism of Italian Americans, but also a great deal about their home and family lives. Neither PC nor arrogant, this book depicts the Italian American world better than anything I have read! I kept nodding in agreement and underlining passages while reading. Forget the movie stereotypes and sentimental recollections; this is the real thing. It helped me understand my own culture a great deal.

The only letdown was the part about a "Theology of the Streets." That section struck me as a tad unrealistic.

In The Madonna Of 115th Street, Robert A. Orsi (Charles Warren Professor of American Religious History, Harvard University) offers a seminal and ground breaking study of faith and community in New York City's Italian Harlem. The focus of this treatise is the annual Catholic festival called "Madonna of 115th Street" and how it has both influenced and reflects the lives of the men and women of the neighborhood. The Madonna Of 115th Street reveals a compelling perspective on how religion plays out in the everyday lives and experiences of American Catholics and the formation of a distinctive immigrant community. This Yale "Nota Bene" paperback edition is highly recommended reading and enhanced with a new introduction by Orsi outlining the changes that Italian Harlem has undergone in recent years and the significant shifts that have occurred in the field of American religious history.

This book helped me think in new ways about the place of tradition and authority in the contemporary world. Orsi's reconstruction of the mental and social schemata of the Italian community in East Harlem is a fascinating, compelling story. His research is impressive and his interpretation persuasive. Three cheers for Orsi's "theology of the streets."

MUTE HAS TO BE THE BEST NOVEL I HAVE READ OF PIERS ANTHONY TO DATE. THOUGH I READ THE NOVEL MANY YEARS AGO, I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN THE MESMERIZING QUALITY OF READING I RECEIVED FROM IT. I HAVE NOT READ ANY OTHER NOVEL LIKE IT. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS NOVEL TO ANYONE. I EVEN CONVERTED A NON-READER TO A READER AFTER THEY READ THIS NOVEL.

I read this book years ago (12) and found it truely exciting. I am an avid Xanth series reader, and eagerly await the newest releases in this ongoing saga, but MUTE is be far Anthony's best single volumn novel to date. I have searched for this book since the first time I read it--when I checked it out of the local library--and am finally glad to have added it to my personal collection via Amazon.com.

In my opinion, this really is one of his best books. It is up to par with his incarnations and Xanth series, except you don't have to buy a million books. It was worth the read, definately. It encompasses all the whole genre of scifi, both the fantasy part and the space part. You have your fantasy story in a spacial setting. No matter how hard to find it is, I would recommend this book

Lacks the tragic inevitability of "Dead Man in Deptford", but still a good read. Brilliant language, Elizabethan England nicely evoked, well-drawn characters, clever speculation to fill in the gaps in what we know of Shakespeare's life. A bit crazy, especially at first, but that's what you pay for with Burgess, right?

Anthony Burgess's "Nothing Like The Sun" is a linguistic marvel. It is a philosophically oppressive look at William Shakespeare's foray into literature and the world. Starting in the small 'borough' of Stratford, WS (as he is called) is an apprentice leather craftsman. He spends his days and nights dreaming of plays, gentility, and idealistic love.

Most of the novel shows WS trying to figure out what kind of love he is after. His notions of love come from Plato's "Symposium" - will it be common, physical lust, or contemplation of absolute beauty leading to his best poetic and dramatic works? The relationships that the novel explores these questions with are with the youthful noble Henry Wriothesly and the exotic, colonial Fatima.

Burgess delights in wordplay throughout the novel, using for the most part, the language of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets in the narration and dialogue. Unlike "Shakespeare in Love" Burgess's novel does not build around any specific text, instead making his works almost marginal to the drama of Shakespeare's fictional biography. Burgess presents Shakespeare's works as the results and expressions of a desperate life.

Burgess augments Shakespeare's story with an almost post-colonial historical setting. With Fatima allegedly from the Indies, and a backdrop of English oppression of the Irish, "Nothing Like The Sun" complicates Shakespeare's historical moment. Class struggles, plagues, and political sterility also mark the temporal setting as the novel moves from the country (Stratford) to the coast (Bristol) to the capital (London).

Reading "Nothing Like The Sun" was a welcome experience for me, having only ever read Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" before. The writing style takes a little getting used to, but that is the price you pay for art. I highly recommend it.

This fictional account strings together those facts we know about Shakespeare and uses complete and admitted fancy to flesh out the rest of his life. In this way, Burgess creates a fascinating and engaging lifestory of the young provincial man who became the greatest playwright of our language. While clearly a novel, it manages to make real, palpable people from those faceless names of the Elizabethean time, and helps makes sense (or nonsense) of so many of the theories surrounding Shakespeare's genius. It's vividness shows Burgess as a master of both academia and imagination. A thoroughly good read, and a must for anyone remotely interested in Shakespeare.

I very much enjoyed this book. It was a easy read and a well paced novel. I also thought that this could very easily be turned into either a movie or made for T.V. movie. I would recommend this book to all readers.

THIS BOOK WAS A PAGE TURNER. THE PLOT WAS EXCELLENT. THE BOOK IS FAST PACED YET GOES IN DEPTH AS FAR AS WHAT THE CHARACTERS ARE THINKING. YOU REALLY GET INTO THE PLOT BECAUSE OF THIS. I HOPE THE AUTHOR IS NOT A "ONE-BOOK WONDER". I WOULD DEFINTELY LOVE TO READ MORE BY HIM.

This is by far the best novel of this genre that I have ever read. The storyline had me captivated from the very first chapter and it was difficult to put it down. The plot is fictional, yet it is realistic enough that it is easy to believe that it could happen (or maybe it already is)!

It is difficult to find a first writing from an author that is as well done as this. I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.

Never having had any experience or knowledge on the basis of this disease, I got the book to help me understand my father's disease. I have gotten a fuller understanding of the causes of the disease, the symptoms, the treatments (and making decisions regarding the selections of the treatments), and the progression of the disease. I feel much better informed and feel I can support my father better because of it. It was definitely written to help support the patient and family supporting that patient.

The author of this book did a great job in explaining what Parkinson's Disease is and giving information for the patient and the caregiver. I am a dental hygienist and I learned just an overview of the disease in school. After having my first patient with the disease I decided to learn more about it. I learned alot from this book that I should of already known for my patient. The book tells you the symptoms and the side effects of the disease and advice on drug therapy, diet, and exercise. Some people don't even know that they have the disease for a couple of months or even years. They think it is just old age or arthritis. The book also states what kind of medical advice to seek.
I have never met a patient with Parkinson's Disease until a couple of months ago. I didn't know what to expect. When the patient walked in I was shocked. She looked normal and wasn't shaking. She was the sweetest patient I had met. She explained to me her life and how she lives with the disease. She said that she sometimes gets embarrased to be seen in public when she has her tremors because she thinks that everyone is staring at her. But she said she is the same person as all of us. She just has to take medication and she gets tired alot more than you and me. When I was cleaning her teeth she only had mild tremors so it wasn't that difficult to work on her. But one day I will probably get a patient who has severe tremors but I am ready thanks to this book in guiding me with the knowledge of what I needed to know. I think that if you know someone who has Parkinson's disease or if you would like to learn more about the disease buy this book and you will be filled with all the information you need to know about Parkinson's disease.

Very informative. This books explains in PLAIN ENGLISH what the Dr's look for when making a diagnosis. Also it explains what the average PD. patient goes through in stages. I give it 5 stars!