I taught this book to a class of thirty on saturday mornings and we were riveted by its depth. So often books fall into the shallow "how to" trap. This book moves way beyond the popular craze of "The Prayer of Jabez", to challenge the believer to stretch their prayers to reflect the mind of Christ. Rather than praying about what we want, Carson shows us Paul's New Testament Prayers and leads us to ask for what God wants in our lives. You will be glad you studied this book.

This is quite simply one of the best Christian books I have ever read, short of the Bible itself, and is one of the books I find that I keep coming back to time and time again, for new insight and for its continuing challenge and reminder to think about the way I pray.

In this book, Carson systematically works through all of Paul's prayers in the New Testament. For each one, he presents a careful exegesis - working carefully through the passage and explaining its meaning. He then goes on to show Paul's priorities in his prayer - which are inevitably caught up with Paul's focus on trusting God intimately and on his other-person centredness. Finally, for each prayer, Carson presents some background theology on surrounding issues and shows how this relates to our lives today.

In addition, Carson is extremely practical in the way he provides practical advice and pointers for the way we should be praying. He gives useful advice on what and how we should be praying, based on the passages he works through, but also on how to manage a daily prayer time.

If you are a Christian, you should definitely read this book, particularly if you are keen to think more about the way you should be praying or if you are looking for pointers on how to pray in a Biblical way. If you are not a Christian, this book will still give you a useful insight into what Christians are doing when they pray and why they do it. And you never know - you might even find it challenging and realise that there is something in this Christianity 'thing' after all...

This book is biblical, theological and passionate!! Dr. Carson analyzes the Paul's prayer and traces its cause. So the reader can learn the way Paul prays. The author does not stop here. He explores the applications for christians.

It is so nice that we have a book, written on a very solid Biblical foundation, provides a intelliectual way so that people can learn how to pray according to God's will.

This book puts all other pop-up books to shame. The colors are magnificent and the pop-ups are detailed and exciting. My 2-year-old is on his 2nd one because he loved this book when he was 15 months old and got a little too excited and ripped off some heads and tails. The story is cute and we love to make up our own stories. Buy this book - new or used, you will never regret it.

When I was little, pop-up books were simple, and had only one moving element per page. They were exciting, of course, but still, it seemed like more could be going on.

Fast-forward to 2002. My son got his first pop-up book, Dinosaur Stomp!, and wow, these books have undergone some changes from my childhood. The dinosaurs in this book literally leap out at you from the page. And you no longer have to do anything -- you just open each page and the pop-up action happens automatically.

When we first received this book, we were worried that it might make our son nervous. After all, he was only 17 months old at the time. What would he think of large 3-dimensional creatures baring their teeth at him from a book?

Well, we shouldn't have worried. Our son laughs as we read him the rhymes on each page, and he has already picked out a couple of dinosaurs that he enjoys seeing the most. He grabs my arm for one of the pictures (a big fat dino with really large teeth), but even then, he doesn't seem upset. Just excited.

The artwork is beautiful. Each of the dinosaurs is rendering in beautiful bright greens, yellows, purples, etc, making every page an eye-catching work of art. And the creation of each pop-up must be a talent unto itself. The creatures look like they shouldn't fit in the book, yet when you close it, they snap right back in.

Unfortunately, the book has the same problem that I remember when I was younger -- once you damage a pop-up, it's hard to get it to work correctly again. There is one page in our book that only has dinosaur bodies on it. All the heads have been ripped out. We've fixed this page numerous times, but each time, our son finds a way to rip it up again. I don't know of a really good way to avoid this, so if you have a child who likes to tear things up, take this into consideration.

So, do I recommend this book? Definitely! It's visually appealing, has great pop-up action, clever rhymes, and our son seems to love it! What more can you ask for?

Daughter got it for her 2nd birthday as a gift, and she could hardly put it down. The pop-up images are very cute, and she loves listing the colors and talking about what each dinosaur is doing. The verse is short but fun to read. This is definitely one or our most favorite books.

A solid translation of the fascinating and passionate story of Dionysus in Thebes, although it lacks the lyricism of other translations. Woodruff's version is meant to be performed aloud, and so it has more of the feel of a play to it. Students of literature and classics might want a different version; students of drama and theatre would be interested in this translation.

If, like me, you had Greek Tragedy down as an austere thing, full of parched plains, unswerving Fate and dour verse, then 'The Bacchae' might come as a pleasant surprise. It has these things of course, but the first quality that shocks is the vibrant, fervid excess of the language. The story concerns Dionysus, the God of wine, the Life Force, the Chaos of the Irrational etc., who inspires a possessed devotion in his acolytes, as they express themselves in high-flown, ecstatic rhapsodies. Not every one takes this proto-hippie's divinity seriously, in particular the family of his mortal mother, led by the impetuous teenage king Pentheus, who sees all this Bacchanalia in the woods and mountains in loose robes as so much lechery. Dionysus exacts such terrible revenge on these unbelievers that 'Bacchae' makes Shakespeare's 'Titus Andronicus' look like a Julie Andrews vehicle.
If Sophocles' 'Oedipus the King' is the first detective story, than 'Bacchae' might be the first police procedural - a central sequence sees Pentheus arrest Dionysus and interrogate him, a scene as tightly written and suspenseful as any thriller. But detection and policing, embodying the forces of reason and the Law, have no power against the Irrational or Unknowable, and Pentheus is soon made mad, his order and sense of self in tatters. The terrible grip of irony familiar from Greek Tragedy gives the play a violent momentum, but the most extraordinary scenes take place offstage, related in vivid and tumultuous monolgues by messengers - the whirlwind revenge of Dionysus' female followers on the forces of surveilling civilisation, and the cruel enactment of the God's revenge. This idea of hearing about improbable catastrophes but not being able to see them adds ot the supernatural terror that is the play's fevered life-blood.

I am a classical history major with a focus on poetry and drama. I have actually read Bacchae in Attic Greek and I have to say that I find this translation to be one of the most fluid and natural of any that I have ever read. I would highky recommend this to anyone looking for a well-written, very gory introduction to Greek theatre. This edition is also great for using as a script, wheras many translations are good only for reading. I just put up a production using this translation and my actors were very comfortable with the wonderful language Woodruff uses.

Because I am a physician, when I read the cover I was excited about a book that might dish up some dirt on the medical profession. Instead, I found a melodramatic and very ridiculous plot and some awful writing. The characters were one-dimensional, the villians were pure evil - I expected them to be tying a damsel onto railroad tracks at any second. I am mystified by all the good editorials this book has received.
Basically, I was disappointed by this book. For a better look at the real issues faced by doctors in traing (burn-out, cynicism) take a look at Samuel Shem's "House of God". You won't be disappointed.

"First do no harm," comes from the very famous Hippocratic oath that each and every doctor takes when they receive the M.D. after their name. Paul Auerbach takes you to a place where such an oath means absolutely nothing to a select few. Welcome to Branscomb Medical Center and School where bribery, blackmail, secrets, sex, and money are commonplace. Meet Drs. Smachtz, Ingleheart, Resnick, Waterhouse, and Mahnke, the ones with something to hide. One gave a patient the wrong blood and killed her. Another let a patient who had a heart attack lay in bed and die of a ruptured aorta. Another separated a car accident victim's neck from his spine. Another has some very interesting photos to hide, and another pops narcotics like M&Ms. These doctors obviously endanger patient care, but yet they are still on the payroll. Can two first year medical students and a dedicated doctor find out why? Or should they learn to leave well enough alone. This book is a work of absolute genius. I highly recommend this book because it is a definite must read. It has a little something for everyone; you cannot afford not to read it.

This was a great story that was well written. The characters were adeptly woven together in a story that built suspence with every chapter and left you with the desire to keep reading to find out what else was going to happen. There was even the "Feel Good" ending with the bad guys getting theirs and the good guys surviving. All in all, one of the better books I have read over the past couple of years.

Now I'm looking for the next book to be published.

I started this book, read the first two chapters. Then I had to start all over again a few days later because I forgot what was going on--it obviously wasn't all that important. I never finished this book and never will. I read the good reviews, but I guess I overlooked how few reviews there were for this book. The artwork was interesting (Darrell K. Sweet did it) and the idea was interesting, and I couldn't help but wonder why this didn't have BESTSELLER! screaming across the top of the book. Now I know why. The book is very obscure in the beginning. A man has been exiled, or something. A tattoo is mentioned. What's a Pelbar? Several characters are tossed at you in several dozen pages without really being developed. This is one of those books that could have been interesting but the author left an important ingredient out. If you do insist on reading it, go to a second-hand store so you don't end up paying full price for a book you might not like. It's fairly easy to find. Then, if you do like it, then you can buy it in a better paperback or maybe hardback if they have it. This book did not make a good first impression.

excellent, unique storyline, believable characters. I wish they would make movies of the whole series. I read the seies in the mid eighties when it first came out and just rediscovered it. Just as good the 2nd time around.

Too bad the reader from AZ couldn't read just a little bit further. Maybe he'll try again. I'm glad I did. I bought The Breaking of Northwall when it was first published but read a little and put it away--I just couldn't get into it. About ten years later I came across it again and gave it another shot. Now I've read the entire series at least five times and given the complete set as a gift several times as well. It's a superb series. I can recommend the entire series without reservation.

I am an architect. I live near Carmel and have a special fascination for these houses. Applause to the author. There are lots of beautiful photographs and the history is facinating. I would always like to see more diagrams, interesting details and floor plans, especially for the house called "Hansel". However, this is an excellent book, the best one available on the subject.

My wife and I traveled to beautiful Carmel-by-the-Sea in October. It was our first visit to that part of the US. I must say that we found all of the surrounding seashore from Big Sur to Monterey spectacular and unique.

During our all-too-brief stay in Carmel, we walked the tree-shaded streets and explored the white sand beach. We could see houses and cottages half-hidden behind spectacular foliage and vine-covered walls. They looked lived in and inviting. Of course, we strolled more or less randomly, following Carmel's narrow lanes where they would lead us.

At a local bookshop we purchased a copy of Cottages by the Sea. This excellent volume showed us what no uninvited guests could view on their own. We dreamed of being able to enter the gates that its author and her photographer did, and to view the warm interiors of the cottages whose exteriors we glimpsed. We were heartened by the author's quiet but firm thoughts about preserving Carmel, and villages like it from development and unplanned 'progress.'

We had not known about Carmel's 'artistic' past, and this book led us not only to Tor House, but to the poems of Robinson Jeffers, a volume of which we found in another shop. The illustrations in this book are wonderful. The text provides a brief history of a place that I can assume is like no other in America-or in the world.

We have one complaint. Some of the reproductions of documents and plans were too small to be legible. Perhaps they could be enlarged in a later edition? But all in all, this book added much to our experience of Carmel, and we highly recommend it to anyone who loves this type of modest domestic architecture. We have bought copies for our friends in the UK who plan to visit the US. And because of it, we hope to return to Carmel.

I keep this book nearby, like a bouquet, to look at from time to time for the simple pleasure of it. The pages convey not only the
architecture of a period and place, but the personality of an era.
This is a companion book; to be cherished forever.

I have now read this book twice. Not only have I read the book, I remember this time period as my company worked closely with IBM. One of the other reviewers said, "An amusing book that attributes IBM's success to a couple of lucky business decisions followed by endless blunders. Carroll makes alot of assertions about IBM but provides few facts to back them up..." Obviously, this person either works for IBM or did not know what was going on at that time. What Carroll says is true. Especially if you had ANY ties with IBM during these years, you will find this book fascinating. I have referred back to it many times.

This very readable book is the model that Gerstner should have followed. Elephants can do heavy towing, or push aside obstacles; they can't pirouette en pointe. This book is the viewpoint of IBM by an outside journalist. It lacks a table of contents. The book describes the problems, it does not tell when or why it originated.

Page 20 says IBM developed "a lush bureaucracy that prided itself on having a higher ratio of managers per employee than any other business around." Is this what they teach in business school? IBM's chairmen came from the sales force; if you can't sell it, there's no point in making it. The IBM PC was created from off-the-shelf parts so it could be quickly marketed; pre-defined interfaces too! Page 24 tells how Microsoft did an operating system: they licensed QDOS (a replica of CP/M), then bought it. It eventually made Gates the richest man in America.

Page 27 tells of the management problem in creating software. Architects spent months producing detailed designs for software. Then masses of programmers had a hard time deciphering the hundreds of pages of specifications. More time was spent in communicating than actually writing code! Isn't this a recipe for a project to be over budget and behind schedule? Estridge's habit of shunning meetings, not returning phone call, and ignoring unwanted advice could set an example of a well-ordered project manager who concentrates on the mission, not the housekeeping. Page 37 explains why standards for PCs began at birth.

Page 53 mentions the "fear of nuclear attack" as the reason for moving out of New York city. But other companies also moved out in the 1970s; the fear of a nuclear attack drained away after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Didn't IBM build a skyscraper in the 1980s only to sell it in the 1990s? Didn't AT&T do the same?

Page 87 tells how Gates got lucky when VisiCorp began to self-destruct. Those familiar with counter-intelligence operations may think of another reason (p.192). Page 97 says IBM never wanted to have too many people in one spot. Unstated here is the fear that nearly all could walk out to a new company (p.186). Page 101 tells that IBM used lines of code as a measure of programming; what did IBM use to measure its management? Microsoft rewrote IBM code to make it faster and smaller, then; how are they doing now? The last pages of Chapter 8 deal with the OS/2-Windows politics. There is no explanation as to why they didn't share the same application interface. Page 201 tells of developing a RISC chip; didn't CDC do this in the early 1960s? Page 208 describes the chip development problem in Burlington VT. Page 217 mentions the "golden screwdriver" and how quickly some machines were upgraded. Think ahead!

Pages 245-7 tell of the PS/1 project: crippled so it would not compete with PS/2. Would General Motors restrict the sale of Chevrolets to sell more Cadillacs? Page 281 suggests Microsoft moles reported on IBM's strategies. Pages 301-9 tell of the changes in Lexington under new owners. In political history, this is like a revolution that sweeps away the aristocracy and lets the farmers and merchants rise to power. Does the description of the IBM bureaucracy remind you of France before the Revolution? Will anyone write a book to cover the last ten years as well as this one does?

People who complain that this book is unfounded because IBM is growing and profitable forgets that over a decade ago, IBM was a stinker: the bottom had fallen out of the lucrative mainframe market, and IBM could not compete long-term in the rapidly growing PC/Workstation market. This book is a great lesson in how not to adapt to change.

Luckily, IBM has pulled itself out, but at what cost? Imagine if IBM had got the PC revolution right? There might not even be a Microsoft today and IBM could have retaken its position as THE corporate super-power.

Besides discussing poor management, I enjoyed the information and great anecdotes about IBM's relationship with Bill Gates and Microsoft. I cannot believe the number of opportunities IBM squandered to acquire, invest or eliminate Microsoft. It seems that IBM pratically pushed Gates to build Microsoft into the power it is today.

In a short, wild, and mostly unhappy life, Harold Hart Crane (1899-1932) became -- Hart Crane -- a major figure in 20th Century American poetry whose reputation has grown with time. His life became the stuff of legend. Hart Crane left an unhappy home at the age of 17 to live in New York City and follow his dream to become a poet. Without any formal education -- he did not finish high school -- he used his inborn gifts and wide reading to quickly become important to New York's literary culture and community. His first book, White Buildings, is a collection of short, difficult imagistic poetry. His second book, The Bridge, is a lengthy poem offering a mystic, highly personal account of America, its past and its future, using the Brooklyn Bridge is its chief symbol.

Crane's life was one of excess. From late adolesence, Crane drank heavily. He spent a great deal of time in underworld sex picking up sailors in the harbors of New York, all the while trying to conceal his sexual identity from his parents. Towards the end of his life, his behavior grew increasingly violent and self-destructive. He was jailed on several occasions in New York, Paris, and Mexico. Near the end, he did have what seems to be his only heterosexual relationship with Peggy Cowley, the divorced wife of the critic and publisher, Malcolm Cowley. Crane committed suicide when he returned with Peggy Cowley from Mexico in 1932 by jumping off the deck of a ship. He was all of 32.

Published in 1999, Mariani's biography commenmorates the Centennial of Crane's birth. It gives a good detailed account Crane's life. The poetic focus of the book is The Bridge. (some critics see White Buildings as the stronger, more representative part of Crane's work.) Mariani shows how Crane conceived the idea of his long poem and how he worked on it fitfully over many years. He also shows the difficulty Crane had in completing the work at all -- given his alcoholism. sexual promiscuity, difficulty in supporting himself, and bad relationship with his separated parents. But complete the work Crane did. It presents a mythic, multi-formed vision of the United States stretching from the Indians to our day of technology. There is much to be gained from this poem. I have loved it for many years and Mariani's discussion of the poem and its lenghty creation is illuminating.

Crane was a romantic in his life and art. Frequently, Mariani refers to him as the "last romantic", but this is an overstatement. I was reminded both by Crane's dissolute life and by his work of the beats -- particularly of Kerouac -- and the vision of America that they tried to articulate. With a Whitman-type vision of a mystical America encompassing all, the beats share and expand upon the romanticism of Hart Crane.

Mariani's book covers well Crane's tortured relationship with his parents. It includes great discussions of literary New York City and of Crane's friends. It shows well how Crane was captivated by New York. We see Crane going back and forth between Clevland, New York, Paris, Mexico and Hollywood in a short overreaching life. But most importantly, we see the creation and legacy of a poet. Mariani does well in describing the poems and in reading these difficult texts in conjunction with the poet's life and thought.

Crane's literary output was not extensive. Several of his poems are part of the treasures of American literature. These poems include, for me, "Voyages" (a six-part love poem from the White Buildings collection), "At Melville's Tomb" and other lyrics from White Buildings, The Broken Tower, Crane's final poem, and, of course The Bridge.

Mariani gives a good account of Crane. As with any biography of this type it is not definitive. I hope it will encourage the reader to explore and reflect upon Crane's poetry and achievement.

An extremely well written biography of Hart Crane, America's first great modern poet, recreates a fascinating time in the US when the artists of New York lived in cold water flats and drank prohibition liquor (Crane seems to have drank the most). The author deals with Crane's homosexuality as an integral part of his art (as it should be) which apparently has not been the case up until now. My only complaint is that there is too much made up dialogue between Crane and his friends. After awhile you begin to feel you have entered the land of fiction instead of biography. The author presents Crane's horrible relationship with his tyrannical father as the cause of much of his short life's misery.

I arrived at Mariani's 1999 biography after first revisiting his subject's poetry in THE COMPLETE POEMS OF HART CRANE (2000). As a literature student in college, I sometimes confused Hart Crane (1899-1932) with Stephen Crane (1871-1900), the author of THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE (1895). After reading Mariani's memorable biography, however, I doubt that I'll ever confuse the Cranes again.

Crane's life, Mariani observes, is "the stuff of myth" (p. 424). Crane lived in a "broken world," and was haunted with demons throughout his short life. He was the child of a troubled marriage, and spent "twenty-five years . . . quibbling" with his parents incessantly (p. 324), before being rejected by his "hysterical" and "nagging" mother (p. 301). Along the way to his rise as a poet in his twenties, Crane was a "slave" to one miserable job after the next (p. 67), and a voracious reader (p. 62). Mariani's book follows Crane, struggling with his writing, and "living the life of the roaring boy, drinking nightly and cruising the Brooklyn and Hoboken docks after sailors, only to jump from a ship at the age of thirty-two" (p. 424).

Eugene O'Neill, E. E. Cummings, Charlie Chaplin, Garcia Lorca, and William Carlos Williams make appearances in Crane's biography, and there are "shadows," too, in the "broken tower" of his life--Blake, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Hopkins, and "Brother Whitman."

Crane's poetry is not easy, but worth the effort, and this fascinating examination of Crane's writing in the context of his troubled life is revealing.

G. Merritt

I agree with the reviewer who said this book does not meet expectations.

I had hoped for a book that would help me manage my technology career and what I found was a book aimed at people who knew nothing about computers and introduced them to topics in Computer Science.

That's fine for students but not for professionals who need to know how much training is enough, where to get it, and how to manage their careers at their companies, or as independent consultants.

Use this book while working on your resume. Great for identifying skillsets required for various tasks in positions throughout the industry.

As a 3rd year student interested in the computer field, I found this book extremely helpful in identifing which classes to enroll in and how to educate myself to be more competitive in the modern work world. It is nice to hear from leaders in the technology field giving advice to students on how to better educate themselves. I would recommend this book to any student who is interested in a "cybercareer."

The book was easy to read and the little notes they posted out to the side to offset certain important points were helpfull and easy to follow. It was much similar to a textbook in that students can use the index and read only the chapters or topics that apply to them. While technology is changing and some topics in this book will become out-of-date, there are still some good fundamentals to be gleaned from this book.

Not a bad book, but it could be improved. The main problem with it is that it's got too much waffle. There is so much text and the density of ideas is so low that easy concepts are spread over pages. In my opinion, a couple of good sentences is better than a couple of pages.

As a differential equations instructor I used Boyce and DiPrima for many years. Its a good, solid presentation of differential equations and a great reference. However, I was always disappointed that my students ended up with no "feel" for differential equations. Also I became convinced that more methods were needed for nonlinear differential equations. After using a couple of other books which seemed to be slanted toward more qualitative approaches I came across Blanchard's book. I used it as a textbook for my class for several years now and I have found it to be a near perfect match to my goals. Some consider it wordy but I appreciate the motivation and insight the authors try to bring to the concepts. As a result it is not a good reference but as a textbook it is great. There are plenty of graphical tools. Quite suprising to me is how much the book illuminates DE's by simply analyzing the components of the DE, even before any solution is attempted. These features, along with some integrated applications, gives students much more of the "feel" for differential equations I have been looking for.

I used this book to brush up my sunken knowledge on differential equations together with a standard text offering a more conventional approach. Especially since I had no instructor around this book was exactly what I needed. The other book may be a more popular choice, but it really left out too many steps in the solution processes. I don't make my living in math and can understand that the verbal approach may be a waste of time for the professional, but I just loved this book. In addition, I would like to mention that a perspective that is based on first understanding, and then solving was very refreshing. Highly recommended.