This book is very academic and plodding. I enjoyed the class but not this book. It was hard to read and boring. I had to force myself to get through it.

(I wrote a review of this back in early April, but for whatever reason it has not been posted here. So I'll resubmit it.)

"Sir Thomas More" is a play originally written by Anthony Munday about 1594, but it failed to pass the censors; accordingly, in c. 1600-02 the play was reworked, and some scenes occasionally rewritten, by Thomas Heywood, Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, and William Shakespeare. It is for Shakespeare's involvement in this play, consisting of no more than one scene and a short soliloquy, that "Sir Thomas More" is really remembered at all.

The first two acts of the play are, as a whole, strong and dramatically effective. As the play opens long-simmering resentment of native-born Londoners against foreign French "straungers" living in the town is boiling over, and the mounting tension leading up to rebellion is well-executed, leading up to the climactic "Ill May Day" scene, written by Shakespeare, in which all the tension is diffused by More's pacificating address to the rebels (and Shakespeare's passionate plea for the common humanity of the "straungers," reminiscent of Shylock's "Hath not a Jew"). The rabble-rousing revolutionary John Lincoln cuts an attractive figure, despite his xenophobia, and Doll Williamson is a feisty and entertaining character that a modern actress could have great fun with.

After Lincoln's execution at the beginning of Act 3, the play loses its dramatic thrust and goes all over the place in search of a plot, in a hit and miss fashion. The most noteworthy scenes of the latter half of the play are the episode of Jack Faulkner and his "shag hair," Lady More's graphic and poignant dream of the "whirlpool," and when More speaks "like Moore in melancholy."

"Sir Thomas More" is not a masterpiece, but it's worth reading and probably ought to start being printed complete in collections of Shakespeare's work. In every collection I know of, Shakespeare's "Ill May Day" scene is printed alone, but I never fully appreciated it until I read it in its context in "Sir Thomas More": there is great tension in that scene, which Shakespeare masterfully diffuses with humanity and the voice of sanity, but that tension can only be appreciated if you read the non-Shakespearean scenes which came before it and set it all up.

This book relays the Story of Susan B. Anthony with great detail. I was amazed with the history of Susan B. Anthony and her battle. The author includes actual newspaper quotes from the time of Susan B. Anthony. I would recommend this book as a research tool for the life of Susan B. Anthony.

This volume collects selected interviews covering Mr. Soderbergh's career from his first feature film through his Oscar win for "Traffic." Most of the interviews are brief, and the book an easy read; however, most readers will find it unsatisfying and even tedious. The main problem is the amount of repetition across interviews. I doubt that's the fault of either the editor or Mr. Soderbergh--probably the nature of the beast. The journalists tended to ask the same sorts of questions, and of course, Mr. Soderbergh has the same answer each time. To be sure, thought-provoking hints about the filmmaker's ideas, methods, and aesthetics occasionally surface, along with a few technical details, but there are no deep insights into the artist or his work. Still, fans of Mr. Soderbergh's work will find the collection informative enough to spend an hour or so with it. The general reader, though, would do better to pick up Mr. Soderbergh's own books--his published screenplay-with-journal for "sex, lies, and videotape" or his "Getting Away with It, Or: The Further Adventures of the Luckiest Bastard You Ever Saw," a series of conversations with filmmaker Richard Lester interwoven with more of Mr. Soderbergh's journals. Better yet, just watch the films.

It's a comprehensive guideline for anyone who is in the business and want to render a professional business presentation. I esp. like the part of "Learning what Makes Executives Tick".

This is a peculiar novel. The Christian hermit, St Antony, endures a disturbed (and disturbing!) night in the desert. Beset by self-doubts regarding his vocation, he also has to contend with challenges to his Christian faith and to the very concept of God.

This is not a novel to be read for pure entertainment. It is replete with characters from history and mythology: some are familiar (for example, The Queen of Sheba, Buddha, the Greek Gods), but others are far more obscure. I found most difficult parts to follow were the references to and appearances of many obscure Christian heretical sects.

The style of the writing is more akin to a play than a novel - long sequences of dialogue between the protagonists interspersed with comparatively short descriptive passages, which almost read like stage directions.

Of the final message? I suppose each reader will need to make his or her own mind up whether St Antony's faith survives in suffient strength, or whether any of the other characters has made a more convincing case.

the nice thing about the book is that it has a lot of interesting information and much of it is full of positive vibes, baby. Which is a nice thing. much of the information about color is very interesting as well. that's the up side of the book. the down side of the book is that there's a bit of that groovier than thou-ness going on. on one hand the book claims to be about healing and love and on the other hand it kisses up to some of the very things in our society that keep many people, women especially, quite sick-- such as the fashion and beauty biz machine and all the images it plays into (these glam industries, which tony and tina have gotten in bed with, breed anorexia and self-image disorders). Another big yuck is the over the top ego- tripping of tony, which can be extremely off putting. the arrogance and attitude that comes through via his ramblings shows that he is on a delusion trip in his head-- believing himself to be a new age god (and by the way, how can you be into healing when you're a heavy smoker and drinker? )

As a bond trader, I find this book highly academic in its content rather than be a sort of trader's manual. It sounds more like the stuff to be r4ead by bank managers and portfolio managers but not too interesting for the average options speculator.

It therefore provides an education into how the market works. The difference can be seen by comparing a manual that tells you how to drive a car and another one that describes all the parts and tell you how what works.

Therefore purchasers of this book should know what they want. For an academic treatment, it is probably the best book. From a trading standpoint of practical use it may be useful but less than some might expect.

First of all, this book (a graphic story) is based on the story of the same name in Koontz's Strange Highways anthology. And while the story is well-written and exciting, the graphic story version is not as good. The graphics themselves are excellent, but like novel adaptations to movies, this adaptation seemed to be missing something. The pace was too quick and suspense was absent throughout much of the book. The dialogue translated well into word bubbles, but much of the details and description were not left to the imagination. And much of the same were just omitted. So overall, I liked the book, but I would much rather read the story without the pictures. Prose is Koontz's forte, not scripting comic books.

The old plot ploy, the same story but two versions, this time a manuscript is send anonymously to a publisher, supposedly a diary of a former wife the publisher may have murdered in the Middle East...what happens next ? Well plotted, Good descriptions of the Middle East and a good interplay between the thoughts of this mismatched couple. "You're not much help as a wife, are you ?" asks the husband, when she has in fact scored a small triumph...a Kiplingesque interplay between the UK and the Mideast...Then at the end..the story from the third person's point of view. Satisfying mystery and many truths about human frailty.