A amazing, fantastic, and real review of the normal and abnormal aspects of heart sounds.

This book extrapolates that a popular rumour of 1630s France was true, Queen Anne of Austria was the lover of Cardinal Richelieu. Richelieu, typically portrayed as a selfish or evil figure is shown in this book as a master statesman, a brilliant politician and a reluctant, if successful, member of the Catholic church. His rise to power is more of a by-product of his goal, to united the disparate factions and provinces of France into a single, powerful authority under the king. Unfortunately, Louis XIII is a weak-willed child figure dominated my his mother Marie de Medici, who resists Richelieu's efforts to reform the state. In the end, Richelieu defeats all of his enemies except for himself. In Anne of Austria he finds the one weakness that he shouldn't allow himself, but one he must satisfy. For her part, Anne is a spoiled, selfish and politically ignorant girl. Having been raised and pampered in the Spanish court, she expects much of the world. She, however, is disappointed by her new husband, Louis, who enjoys the company of his favorite, Cinq-Mars, more than his queen. Richelieu is smitten with her, despite his better sense, and confesses his feeling for her early on. She is greatly offended, as he is a man of the cloth, and she is a queen. She has seen Richelieu exile Marie de Medici and have her lover executed, so Anne merely smoulders.

Rejected by her, Richelieu redoubles his efforts, putting down a near civil war championed by Phillippe, Louis' younger brother, who desperatly tried to enlist Anne in the effort to depose her brother. Finally, through careful statesmanship and personal maneuvering, Richelieu protects Anne from being found a part of the revolt, sparing her life for becoming her lover. It is the final break of her will that she succumbs to his mastery of her world. Initially, his visits are polite meetings, but ventually she sees him for the great man that he is, and returns his love equally. Anne, through her association with Richelieu, grows in wisdom and maturity, becoming worthy of the title of the Queen of France. When she finds herself pregnant, Richelieu even manages this well, prompting the king to make the attempt to sire an heir, assuring him of the queen's love. The visit goes well enough, for to everyone's satisfaction, Anne gives birth to Louis XIV.

This novel will forever change your perceptions of characters that you remember from popular films; although the 1972 version of the Three and Four Musketeers captures much of this book's Richelieu and Louis XIII.

This book is exactly what it says it is, full life size duck decoy patterns. The book contains 16 different patterns of the more common ducks. The patterns can be taken out of the book and used as templates. The patterns give you a good starting point to begin carving.

The book is a large sized book primarily designed to give minimal instructions for carving decoys of common ducks. This is NOT a "how to whittle" book by any means. The writer assumes that you know how to use a carving knife already. The pages are of rather heavy paper that can be cut out or the staples removed so that you can use them to make your own patterns to carve the birds. Which is fairly standard for many books of this type. I used a photocopyer to copy the patterns so that I did not destroy the book ( I have a phobia about destroying books! Too many readings of Ferenheit 451 as a child I guess) I started by carving a Mallard and a wood duck. The Mallard took only a few hours of whittling with my X-Acto to get to reasonable completion level. The scale is about right for hand sized carving. A pocket knife or X-acto is perfect. The only place the book "fails" for me is in the design of the coloration of the birds. I know little about wild birds and would like some bettter guidance in this respect, though he has included two paces of color plates of completed carvings and suggests that the reader research the birds in other books. Not a bad idea at that. If you are interested in carving, this is a pretty good way to start in with miniature decoys. For the more mercinary of you, in my travels last week, I saw a slightly larger decoy in a store priced at $125. Where's my carving knife?

All Hillman books are big carving aids. Patterns are b & w, & there are color photos in front & back. Get yourself a 2nd, color book of bird photos to help if painting realistically is your goal. No seagulls here - a surprise to me.

This book is crucial for any who want to participate in casino tournaments. Generally, in these tournaments you are not playing against the casino, but against other players. Since this is very different than normal play, it is very different. This book gives you a much greater advantage than the other players with whom you are competing. With thousands and thousands of dollars available in prize money, the cost of this book is insignificant in comparison to the gains it can potentially earn you.

Cassell's Spanish Dictionary has been a tremendous resource for me throughout my years of studying the Spanish language. It has suited me perfectly from middle school all the way through high school. With a variety of conjugations and a list of common expressions provided for each entry word, the dictionary is very easy to use. It is particularly important that the Spanish-English and English-Spanish portions are equally detailed. This dictionary is a wonderful tool for anyone involved with the Spanish language in any way. ¡Buena suerte!

The story of the young illiterate Japanese fisherman who is shipwrecked, rescued by an American ship and eventually brought to understand a totally different culture is based on strict historical fact. However, Castaways is illuminated by Ibuse's poetic sense of detail and delicate humour. The other novella, the tale of a geisha in love with a persecuted would-be modernizer of XIXth century Japan is filled with references which are sometimes unclear to a Western reader, yet conveys a sense of melancoly and romantic devotion.

It seems unneccessarily complicated riddle to solve to us, sociologists. actually Giddens's writing style in this title is not that easy to grasp judging from sociological convention. and worse he cited too many names like Saussure, Hegel, Levi-Strauss, Heidegger, Husserl and even Derrida and Wittgenstein! those that makes readers wandering around jargons from philosophy. because this book stem from the controversial atmosphere of 70s when French Structuralism prevailed over intellectural map. Giddens wanted to conter their assertions. we can see he was right at 80s when structurism collapsed into trendy postmodernist jargons. Anyway I recommend to read this title if u read 'The Constitution of Society'. which title is not that hostile to reader like this title. but something lacks on it. You can find what miss in later masterpiece. This title is somewhat earlier endeavor to clarify his theory of structuration. so thorems were not that clearly founded. it makes it the way to hostility to readers but sometimes this kind of imperfection is more valuable to portray one's image of theory.

There is little doubt that this book is not a comprehensive account of the life of Charles, the Prince of Wales as its contents had to meet the approval of certain people, but one should not go so far as to pass it off as being total ... Were this the case, then it is clear that some of Charles' perceived short-comings would have been glossed over; but instead, we do get a fair sense about the man who will be the future King of England. He is by no means a gregarious, powerful figure, and, unfortunately and quite unjustly, he has been criticized for this, and some, including his now deceased ex-wife, have gone so far as to suggest that he is not suited for the job. Unfortunately, the people suggesting such things have succeeded in instilling some doubt in the minds of the British people as to whether this is in fact the case, but it is quite evident from what I have read that this is complete ... Granted, Charles does not fit the bill of the warrior king, but there is no doubt that he is a sensitive, well-educated and benevolent person who will undoubtably be well suited for the role of King in this current day and age. One thing that struck me as notable about Charles is his passion for certain causes and ideals, including organic farming and architecture. His opinions on these subjects has raised a few eyebrows and no doubt gave his detractors some fuel for their arguments. But his opinions on these, and other issues, are quite sound and indicate that he is a man well versed in modern issues and could prove to be a quite progressive monarch. Unfortunately, many are blinded to this aspect of the man by a superficial devotion to his deceased ex-wife, whose unfortunate behaviour during the latter years of their relationship succeeded in fooling many people.