While the historical context that is so lucidly described in the introduction to this translation is fascinating in itself, the rule resonates with a disciplined approach to spiritual development in a communal setting. Placed in an appropriate historical context the "rule" is remarkable for its attention to physical and spiritual detail in the structured life of a monastery. Anyone interested in monasticsm or church history will be well rewarded by reading this.

Benedict, having dropped out of university because he viewed the life there as degenerated, goes into the bush and makes his abode in a crack in the side of a mountain. Upon coming out he writes the moral code for the next 1,400 years! This is that code or set of rules.

Some of the book is dry - namely the end of it which goes over seating arangements for meals and other architectural details but the historical end of it is interesting and so are his guidelines for clean living in a monastic setting (which one can employ almost anywhere with the right focus).

More than anything else, this book is a picture book. The photographs are of good quality and take more space than the text. The book is also printed on good quality paper. Each photo carries a brief well written description so that one could enjoy this book without ever reading the main text. The photos give the reader a nice introduction to imperial Russia: the nobility, their palaces, and their art. The text is informative but often does not correspond to the photos. The most glaring example of this is the chapter on painting. The author describes Van Dycke portraits, a Velesquez masterpiece, a sixteenth century Danae by Titian, a Danae by Rembrandt, and a gallery of seventeenth century Rubenses among others. The author compares and contrasts these paintings, yet no images of these works appear in the book. The reader is left hanging, wondering what these paintings really look like. Although the chapter on paintings is the most glaring example of this, the whole book does have this same problem. Absent this flaw, however, the book is well worth the money and should be recommended to anyone with an interest in imperial Russia.

This is a beautiful book! If you like Russian or French architecture, their art or furniture from the 17c on, you will love this book. With its beautiful color photos it is more of a coffee table book then a casual read. This would make a great Birthday or Mother's day gift.

Just a word of warning: you can breeze through this book in 15 minutes. It's *very* small, and half of the book is pictures. Also, given the rapidly changing face of Vegas nightlife, it's going to get out of date quite quickly (not to mention omissions). Still, it's an okay little guide that might point out 1 or 2 lounges or afterhours clubs you didn't know about. Still, I would not suggest this as your only guide to nightlife or dining in Vegas. I would definetly suggest pairing this with another book, or even better, going with someone 'in the know'.

Even if you're not a Gen Xer you will love this guide. The photos say it all and the reviews are definetly not your usual boring blahness. A fun book! All you need is this guide and those leather pants your dying to wear and you're set for an all-nighter in sin city!

I found this book with high hopes since I'm very interested in both astronomy and ancient civilizations, but this book's writing is just not strong enough to tie everything together. It reads like a textbook in many parts with unclear explanations to all but the scientifically adept. I wanted to know more about each of these societies and cultures (Incans, Mayans, Babylonians, etc...) but this book only scratches the surface. Despite the interesting topic and neat cover, I found the book disappointing for its lack of clear information, the necessary background and the often obtuse writing.

One of my earliest memories is of lying on my back in the snow, just looking up at the stars. I've long since lost the ability to look at stars through the eyes of a child, but Anthony Aveni's book, Stairways to the Stars, has given me a whole new way of looking at them. For ancient cultures, the night sky was an ever-present companion. They used it as both calendar and augur, to track and predict the seasons, foretell the future, and understand the present. But the night sky we see is strongly dependent on where we live. The stars and stellar events (such as eclipses) that we see change, depending on where we see them from.

In a society based on the sky, how much of the sky you can see (and what's in it) becomes critical. So what the Mayans chose to focus on will be different from what the Celts considered important. And that may have had far-reaching effects on their society. From charts of the planet Mars in ancient Mayan codexes to the role of Stonehenge as an observatory, watching the skies left lasting, tangible effects on societies.

It's an interesting, thoughtful book. I enjoyed it, even though it's not an overwhelmingly easy read. Certainly there are times when it feels like a textbook (and the section of exercises at the end certainly doesn't hurt that sense).

If you're a beginning stargazer, I'd suggest something a bit more straightforward. But if you've been looking up at the night sky for years ... or if you're interested in ancient societies, I think you'll probably find this book well worth your time. For more reviews, check out my web page at exn.ca/printedmatter

The nice thing about this book is that you can quickly find what you need and apply it. It is well ogranized and comes with reproducible pages, should you decide to apply a strategy straight out of the book. When you're searching for solutions but don't have time to read through chapters of philosophy on education (what teacher does!), this book is great. There are also some helpful lists of do's and don'ts, which are great for new teachers.

As a beginning teacher of secondary grades, I'm on the hunt for good advice about classroom management. Unfortunately, most of what I read seems to directly conflict with the other materials! This book has a pick-what-works-for-your-own-style approach, rather than an entire management system. I found it helpful for finding specific strategies to incorporate into my own teaching and discipline style.

As many of these books are, this one is especially well suited toward the elementary end of the spectrum, but some of the concepts can be successfully adapted to secondary grades as well.

[....] I liked this book but didn't love it. It was a little predictable as compared to the others in the series.

If you like camps you will like this book. It is one of those books that will keep you up a night reading. The "mystery" is not too hard for the recommended age group, but not too childish for an older child to read.

An engaging overview of the N.Y. art scene. Especially nice is how Haden-Guest uses gossip and fact to give an entertaining explanation to the rise of such 80s figures as Jeff Koons. I especially enjoyed his chapter on Donald Judd and other chapters on early Conceptualists and how that genre has morped over the past 3 decades. These are not hard core critical essays! But that is not what I was looking for. Recommended to the casual art fan like myself.

This is the first book that ties together the art movements from the last three decades with the happenings in the art market, which in turn shaped part of the movements. Anthony Haden-Guest was and is part of this world himself, so you're getting a first person account, not merely a list of events accumulated by a researcher. Haden-Guest very nicely places all the major happenings and people in a row and relates them to eachother. Entertainingly written too! Even if you already know all about who was who in the artworld, this is still a fun read.

Good, if a tad witchcraft-centric, introduction to general Paganism. The book is slightly unstructured, but an easy read. Looking at Paganism from the perspective of a British male is good too.

Blessings.

This is an excellent book about the modern religion of Paganism and Witchcraft. Those who are looking for spells and quick magical fixes will be disappointed, this is a book about what witches do, the belief system behind it etc. It's great for people who want to seriously study witchcraft and also a good book for Pagans and Witches to give to friends and family to explain the religion.

This anthology is the first of its kind in breadth and subject matter, and is a welcome addition to classrooms and bookshelves. However, I am only giving it three stars because the editors chose to parcel out each of these women writers to individuals, ranging from top-notch translators, to graduate students. The result is a mish-mosh of translations, sometimes brilliant, sometimes lackluster, sometimes not even heeding the original form of the poem. Worse still, it has been summarily edited--presumably for the sake of consistency--in such a fashion that there is a certain staleness to the sections. Nonetheless, it is as yet the only book of its kind in English, and therefore a necessary and important addition to the scholarship.

This anthology has been long in coming and long needed. An impressive accomplishment from a number of perspectives, its 891 pages are organized into two sections, Part One: Poetry, pages 1-666, and Part Two, Criticism, 667-804, and followed by extensive notes and an impressive bibliography of the Chinese and English Languages sources for the selection. Each section is then organized chronologically by Chinese dynasty so that the reader can flip from the Poetry to the Criticism within a particular dynasty. Within each section, there are both short biographies of the authors and selections from the poetry of more than 150 women, with critical notes. Thus the anthology offers a wealth of literary and historical information and a breadth of coverage for translations of the many Women poets of China that has not been seen in the past.

The anthology ends with the early 20th century, and represents largely poetry written in classical or literary Chinese. While some of these poets have appeared in general anthologies of Chinese poetry, and will be well known to scholars in the field, there has never been such a comprehensive work in English before this one. I was delighted to discover among my old favorites like the empress Wu Zetian and the Sung poetess Li Qingzhao, large numbers of female poets, especially from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) through the beginning of the republican period in China (1911). It was also delightful to find that the criticism of some of these poets, and male counterparts who commented on women's poetry, were translated, many for the first time. As near as I can tell, they have been exhaustive in their attempts to select from a broad range of titles by individual poets and the overall result is that one can no longer credibly present women as minor contributors to the literature of this vast and ancient country.

The text described above is not the earliest attempt, but it is the most complete for a scholarly audience. The earlier anthology addressing female poets of China, edited by Kenneth Rexroth, and it was a thrilling introduction when it first came out in the seventies, but Women Poets of China (first published by Seabury Press as The Orchid Boat, 1972). New York: USA New Directions, 1982, which is still in print, offers both many fewer poets and much less context for their work. While Rexroth and Chung should be applauded for their service to the scholarly community, they serve as only a taste of the wealth to be found in this new 1999 title.

As I am sure is by now clear, this anthology includes all the scholarly framework that make it an excellent addition to any academic library purporting to deal with world literature, and a potential candidate for a course book. In fact, one could present undergraduates with a decent history of Chinese poetry by using it to introduce the periods and types rather than a more traditional anthology.

However, Women Writers of Traditional China is so well organized and readable that it is also appropriate for most public libraries as a solid, readable, general introduction to women in Chinese poetry. The translations are poetically rendered, the periodization gives them context and the bibliography locates the texts in a corpus of Chinese poetry. This book is well worth its price and highly recommended. Cloth, 891 pg., Notes, Bibliography, Index of Names.

Jan Bogstad, Reviewer

This book has some great ideas on how to make a difference in the world. Some are very easy to incorporate into our lives; others require us to consider making drastic changes in lifestyle and career. All, however, have the potential to help meet the basic physical and spiritual needs of the people in our world. There was not much background information on of the problem of poverty- instead, it is directed toward upper middle-class Americans who are already aware of this problem and are looking for ways to help. Ronald Sider's book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger is a great book to read to learn more about it.