Perhaps this is a bit unfair of me, but let's just take a look at two translations of one of Eluard's best known poems, "L'amoureuse."

Translation 1: She is standing on my lids / And her hair is in my hair / She has the color of my eye / She has the body of my hand, / In my shade she is engulfed / As a stone against the sky. /

She will never close her eyes / And she does not let me sleep. / And her dreams in the bright day / Make the suns evaporate / And me laugh cry and laugh, / Speak when I have nothing to say.

---

Translation #2: She is standing on my eyelids, / Her hair mingles with mine, / She takes on the shape of my hands, / She is the color of my eyes, / She is absorbed by my shadow / Like a stone against the sky. /

Her eyes are forever open / She doesn't let me sleep. / Her dreams in the light of day / Make the suns evaporate, / Make me laugh, cry, and laugh again, / And babble on with nothing to say.

---

I posted the two versions so you can judge for yourself, but it seems to me the first is far superior to the second. Not surprisingly, the first is by Samuel Beckett, and his faithfulness to Eluard is not only one of meaning but of rhythm. Alas, it is the second, wooden version that you will find in "Shadows and Sun," and the two translators' tin ears do ill service to Eluard throughout the book. The best thing you can say about this volume is that it contains the French original, and the literal translations should help people with a rudimentary knowledge of French to enjoy Eluard in his own language. But if you can't sound out the French to hear the sonorousness of Eluard's lines, then these translations will give you a very poor impression of the poems' lyrical beauty.

As for where you might find the Beckett translation... well, I don't know. I wrote his translation down in a notebook years and years ago but neglected to write where I found it. I believe it was in a collection of Beckett's writing and not of Eluard's.

I am intrigued by the speeches given during the resistance of WWII, after the first war, at the first surrealist exposition in London, and the 2nd surrealist manifesto of 1924 by angry young men who had seen too much suffering in the war and were looking for a "new language", a new consciousness to overcome the errors of romanticism and super rationalism that resulted in supernationalism and megalomania.

Eluard was a modest human being, in love with life, and love, and Gala, and primitive art. Read Premierement /First of All, admonishing Gala for keeping her "brain in its attic" and forgetting her commitment to her first love, or "She is standing on my eyelids"; or on justice, "Bonne Justice/Good Justice" and "Minuit", on a poor resistance fighter condemned to be shot; or on learning to see with Picasso in two essays and poems from the book "Donner a Voir."

The Historical introduction, Chronological Contents, definitions of surrealism, and bibliography make good reading in themselves. The translations are "seamless", straight forward, do not betray the poet, so provide a fine way to approach the originals on opposite pages.

Pablo Neruda was his good friend, and must have read Eluard long before he wrote "Walking Around."

Paul Eluard was the best beloved European poet of the first half of our century, which William Golding has called the most violent in human history. While illusions were destroyed, this writer wrote love poems, for which he is best known; as medic and infantryman in both world wars, wrote about (while Picasso painted) the devastating bombing of Guernica on market day in broad daylight, during the Spanish Civil War, and the German occupation of France, while he searched for a release from sentimental romanticism and "superpatriotism" held responsible by the Surrealists for the wars, as they recognized the importance of the subconscious and "desire", to find a new language that would help to achieve justice with mercy and release men from the constraints of false values. A historical introduction records this collaboration between writers and painters, who illustrated Eluard's books, with 6 here by Picasso, Chagall, Andre Lhote and Magritte. 6 intriguing prose pieces concern the idea of committed poetry (engagee), Picasso's role in teaching others to see, and the Surrealist Declaration of 1925. Neruda and many others followed the search of this seminal poet. A fine compilation of the poet's life work, with French and accurate, seamless English translations on opposite pages.

Although a bit eccentric, this is a must read for all of you out there who want a new perspective on life. Still very interesting even if you just want a good read. I couldn't put it down the first time I read it. Some comments are a bit off-the-wall, but all in all a very good book.

The book gives a very insightful look into why we have pain and why it's important for maintaining good health. I found it easy to read (I almost couldn't put it down!) and very informative. I think it's a must-read for anyone in the medical profession or anyone who suffers reccurent pain of any kind.

As a clinician who works with chronic pain, I found Brand's book to be truly inspiring. People who get negatively obsessed with (non malignant) physical discomfort face the challenge of reconfiguring their perceptions about pain. Dr. Brand not only lays the groundwork for changing the context and meaning of pain - He does a good job of exploring the modern day paradox that more (ie overindulgent, materialistic, obsessive pursuit of creature comforts) is often less (in terms of true happiness). A great read!

This is a detective novel in the spirit of Sherlock Holmes in an alternate history setting. The alternate history is fine, but the closed room murder mistery is lifted out of a very famous early detective story and should be immediately recognizable to any mistery novel aficionado. Still, it's a fun read.

Pasquale's Angel is set in Florence, in 1518, but history has not gone quite as it did in our own world. Leonardo da Vinci became interested in mechanics and science, not art; the Medici are not returned to power in Florence, and indeed Savonarola is still alive; and Machiavelli (spelled Machiavegli here), instead of falling from favour when the Medici return, as happened in our world, is brought down from power by the suspicion that he is a Medici sympathizer.

However, a reduced Machiavegli has opportunities he did not have in our world. Da Vinci's focus on science has brought Renaissance Florence technologies from the printing press to engines of war, and Machiavegli has become a journalist.

The protagonist, Pasquale, is a young artist, and art is big business and major politics in this world. A major figure is murdered, and Pasquale and Machiavegli get on the tracks of a conspiracy. Pretty soon the conspiracy is on to them, and the book is a fairly straightforward thriller after that.

The period detail is good, and the ways in which the new technologies have changed and yet not changed the world are well-imagined. The characters occasionally sound more like twentieth century actors wearing period costumes, but McAuley maintains the tone pretty well, and he's a clean, transparent writer, without clumsiness or affectation.

On the plot level, there are a couple of implausibilities. When you finally find out how the locked room murder was committed, a couple of fairly serious problems with the explanation will doubtless occur to you as they did to me. The conspiracy does seem a little hydra-headed and all-seeing; in places the book starts to sound like Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum", and not in a good way. But Pasquale is a good character, and the book is a satisfying though not exceptional read.

I don't know enough about Italian history (which is probably sad, being that I'm Italian) to say definitely where history went wacky and we got this book but I can say that this is definitely a book that can be worth your time. McAuley has turned into one of the more versatile and consistent authors around, especially in SF. He may not be world shatteringly exceptional but he rarely repeats himself and his writing is clear and concise, not relying on complicated narrative structure or knotted sentences. Here he presents a gritty, almost industrial age Italy where Da Vinci didn't really go into art but instead made lots of engineering feats and kick started a whole lot of things before they should have been kicked into starting. Pasquale is a young artist who happens to be drawn into the murder of one of the assistents of the "immortal" (ignore the book jacket when it says that, he's as mortal as everyone else) Rapheal. He is joined by a reporter who used to be a noted political figure before his downfall (I won't even try spelling his name) and together they try to piece together what turns out to be a large conspiracy that is apparently everywhere. McAuley does a great job of churning out a first rate murder mystery, plots and suspects rebound with apparent ease and your head is spinning by both his great attention to period detail and almost left field plot twists. However, at some point the conspiracy gets so complicated that it stops making sense at all and towards the end you're probably going to start scratching your head and wondering what the heck is going on. Don't fret, buckle down and keep going and while everyone might not be explained to your satisifaction, McAuley manages to pull a resolution out that makes everyone mostly worthwhile. McAuley's an author that instead of stunning us with one far out book, has steadily and swiftly built up a solid record of varied and entertaining science-fiction/fantasy, and if this book is any indication, his track record should hold long into the future.

I am a voracious reader with some knowledge of art history, but after attempting to read this book for the last six months, I am finally stopping at the half-way mark. It is certainly full of new facts and demonstrates an exhaustive amount of research, but I find Sweetman's narrative plodding and unorganized. Also, the book pre-supposes the reader's depth of knowledge on the subject -- the lack of which is quite obviously my problem in enjoying the book.

Brilliant biographer David Sweetman has created a masterpiece with his biography of Gauguin. I don't know how he did it; but I was in awe throughout the reading of this well-thought-out and researched book. Gauguin was a complicated man; and through his exhaustive research, Sweetman gives us the rare opportunity to journey with one of the most colourful and oft-misunderstood artists in history. There are so many new facts uncovered in this book... I could feel the spirit of Gauguin rise up and rebel... http://www.mystic-art.com

I am disappointed to see that this book is out of print but if you have any interest in Gauguin whatsoever, you should try to get your hands on a copy. This is such an excellent book! Mr. Sweetman has clearly done his homework and he writes beautifully. By the time you finish this book you will feel as though you knew Gauguin for, as much as such a thing is possible, Mr. Sweetman gets you inside the artist's head so that you know what he was thinking and what he was feeling at all the important points of his life. The author gives a very balanced view of Gauguin and of the important people in his life, including his wife Mette. Gauguin is not portrayed as a saint. Mr. Sweetman does not let him off the hook for the shabby way he sometimes treated his friends and family. In other words, this behavior is not excused just because Gauguin was a brilliant artist. On the other hand, Gauguin is not demonized for his irresponsible behavior either, as he sometimes could be a caring person and a good friend. Gauguin left notebooks and correspondence, so when Mr. Sweetman gives you his interpretations of the meanings of some of Gauguin's greatest paintings he is not whistling in the dark. Gauguin himself is oftimes present to tell you what he was trying to do. One of the nice things about the book is that it does not focus exclusively on Gauguin. You learn what what was going on in the Paris art world. There is interesting information given about other artists, such as Camille Pissarro and Emile Bernard and you also learn about some of the art dealers, such as Durand-Ruel and Vollard. You are given in depth information of what was going on in the French communities on Tahiti and in the Marquesas. Mr. Sweetman also provides a sympathetic and reasonable explanation for Gauguin's behavior following the death of Vincent Van Gogh. As Mr. Sweetman says in the book, the picture most people have of Gauguin is based almost completely on the portrayal by Anthony Quinn in the 1950's movie "Lust For Life". If you read this wonderful book you will get a much more well-rounded picture of what this very complicated man was truly like.

I am reviewing the 1st edition.

Dr. Stonebraker is a pioneer in the field of object-relational database management systems (ORDBMS). He writes with confidence and clarity; he knows the subject matter because he was one of the early innovators. The book is mercifully short and to-the-point. It is well organized, and it includes an index, references, short code samples, and plenty of diagrams.

The book assumes you have some background and experience with existing relational database management systems and SQL. It would also help if you have some basic understanding of implementation details like B-tree indexes and cost-based query optimizers. You should also have an understanding of OO concepts like inheritance and polymorphism, and some experience with an OO language like C++, Eiffel, Java, or Smalltalk.

Armed with this background, the book is an excellent overview of the motivation, architecture, design, and features of ORDBMS. I especially liked the chapters on SQL parsing and query optimization, and also the discussions of how inheritance affects query and trigger processing.

If you've never been exposed to the ideas and concepts of "object-relational," this is an excellent starting point. If you have the background described above, you will be able to read this book in a few sittings and come away with a basic - albeit incomplete - understanding of the field of ORDBMS.

I say "incomplete," because Dr. Stonebraker fails to write about the dark side of ORDBMS. For example, once pointer-like references are introduced, the system runs the risk of 'dangling pointers'- precisely the kind thing a purely relational system elegantly avoids. This issue is never once mentioned, and yet I know for a fact it is a danger that must be dealt with on one commercial implementation I have used. There are other issues to be confronted and understood. C.J. Date has written extensively on the subject. Although C.J. Date's writing is sometimes long-winded and pedantic, you won't truly understand the ORDBMS topic until you've read what he has to say.

The book is also a compelling marketing promotion for the product once sold by Stonebraker's now-defunct company. Given the "feature matrices" and other comparisons in the text, it is clear that his product was the hands-down winner at the time the book was written. This is all ancient history, however. The book shows its age and bias. First of all, Stonebraker's company Illustra (later renamed Informix) was recently acquired by IBM. Secondly, very little is said about Oracle, which has since implemented a very respectable OR system of its own. Lastly, most of the other vendors he mentioned have fallen completely off the radar map. These days, all the database vendors have most of their attention turned towards XML and raw OLTP throughput. So it seems like "The Next Great Wave" predicted by Stonebraker never fully materialized. Perhaps the 2nd edition of the book has updated the vendor list and features matrices.

I wish more was said about his early work on the "POSTGRES" system. If you're interested, you can find out much more about POSTGRES and its open-source offspring, PostgresSql, by using any Internet query engine. There is now a whole cottage publishing industry built up around PostgresSql. If you want to experiment and explore ORDBMS, PostgresSql may be a good choice.

Based on what I can see in the table of contents, the 2nd edition doesn't include too much new material. Dr. Stonebraker has added a chapter on application servers. I know from his other work that he argues that middle-tier application servers are wrong-headed, because business logic should reside in the database itself - where it is physically close to the data.

I rate the 1st edition of the book 3 stars because (1) It is dated (2) No space is allotted to the problematic issues of ORDBMS (3) "The Next Great Wave" never seemed to take off as predicted (4) it is overpriced, in my opinion.

Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile and useful book to read if you are interested in the topic. The 2nd edition will surely have an up-to-date comparison of the ORDBMS vendors as of 1999.

The authors have done reasonably well in presenting general design/architecture issues in the area of object relational database management systems.

Poor editing, however, abounds in this book. The reader must wade through paragraphs of opinionated comments, distracting (and often incorrect) pontifications and complaints. For example, hardware designers are roundly chastized for failing to support Multics-style protection-ring logic in today's microprocessors.

The text is heavily sprikled with superlatives such as 'explosive', 'incredible', 'astonishing', etc. It is irritating from a reader's perspective to be digging out good technical material betweeen snippets of pro-Informix marketing hype.

When not engaged in hype, the authors sometimes make curious and possibly false assertions. In one instance, they claim that Wal-Mart's huge data warehouse is utilized to 'rotate stock'. My uninformed suspicion is that they use it for much more than that.

Be prepared to read strange statements such as: "IBM is a hardware vendor - but they also happen to offer a relational database product".

Despite these destractingly spurious comments, I would recommend this text as good reading for those wishing to know more about object relational DBMS architectures.

The book describes in great detail all of the technology that surrounds the object relational approach. It describes in simple terms the trade-offs of different approaches and different techniques for realizing this type of database. I can hear Prof. Stonebraker's voice as I read the descriptions. This man is a true expert and has a deep understanding of all the issues and is able to make his points succinctly and clear. The book is not a sales job for a product, but an honest presentation of a technology and the different attempts to realize it.

I really didn't enjoy it too much, but it's good on a boring day.

This book tells the stories of the Bloomfield sisters and their path to love. Valerie, Steffie and Norah each find love in the most unexpected places. Debbie MacOmber draws the reader into her story with great descriptions and a wonderful plot. Anyone who likes the old romantic comedies will definitely like this book.

I Loved this book! I'm an only child and it made me feel as if I was a part of the story.The story about three sisters finding Love amist near tragedy will tear at your heart and make you cheer for each of the heroes and heroines. Makes you want them together from the first page.

I have read the other reviews and based my purchase on them. I was greatly disappointed by several big "holes". First, there is no full alphabetical listing of vowels and consonants, upper and lowercase letters. Second, there is no phonetic pronuciation in either the English or Russian halves. You would have to be a second year student to know the pronunciations already OR have to try and write out each word letter-by-letter. Not useful at all for carrying along on a trip to the CIS or Russia.

Easily the best Russian dictionary I've ever used, and I've been using them for 50 years. There are so many examples of how the word is used that it's fun just as a casual read. You'll learn a lot more than just a simple definition.

This dictionary is the best one available for all anyone who is studying the Russian language. It is easy to use and has all the abreviations and everything else you could need.

The French classic is preceded by a fine introduction by James Naremore, after which things quickly go downhill. Either the publisher doesn't have any editorial staff or the translator is inexperienced or both. ". . . the subjects pose themselves questions of which the least that can be said is that they are far from being trite . . The absurdity of a derisory destiny--such is the conclusion of this work by John Huston, his first" (The Maltese Falcon). "And this film is a sort of frenetic adieu on the threshold of a ten-year exile, since Sternberg will not direct again until 1951" (The Shanghai Gesture). That's a sample from one page (35). I want my money back.

After all the controversy over the constitution of film noir, it can only be edifying to read the perspective of classic-period French critics. Indeed, it was Gallic mentality that first recognized and recorded the phenomenon, and--if these writers are representative of their ethnic mainstrem--surmised that noir was born of an infusion of angst into the cinematic puritanism of the Anglo nations. While American scholars have often seen noir as a reaction to good times (as comedy is a reaction to bad), the authors site only the related relevance of World War II in its capacity to desensitize audiences to stark screen violence. Furthermore, they label only a handful of films as true noir and assess many other features--such as police and psychological dramas--as merely possessing qualities of noir. The book discusses a myriad of these movies in a colorful but easily comprehended style that avoids becoming parched with pedogogic discourse. A lengthy, up-to-1979 filmography, which also includes non-American films, has been added to the text--and is of particular interest in listing features not commonly called noir, such as cartoons and sci-fi thrillers. (I always knew Soylent Green was black!) Digression aside--for those with amour de noir, this book is de rigueur!

Succinctly translated into English by Paul Hammond, A Panorama of American Film Noir 1941-1953 is a remarkable and collaborative work by Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton which was originally published in France in 1955. A Panorama Of American Film Noir offers unique insights into the dark surrealism and ambivalent atmosphere of Hollywood's film noir glory days. A brilliant critique of classic movies and the American culture that created them; as well as a film noir chronology and filmography enhance this masterful work which is strongly recommended for personal, professional, and academic Cinematic Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

The fact that this book describes a "pattern" named PreciseAndReadable should tell you what you need to know. If you need to be told that use cases should be precise and readable, or that you should name them with active verb phrases (VerbPhraseName), or that they should describe things of value to the business people (UserValuedTransactions), or that you should involve those people in the process of writing them (ParticipatingAudience), or that you should stop writing them when they make those people happy (QuittingTIme), you'll certainly get some value from this book, but it's clear evidence that your problems run considerably deeper than this book will be able to address.

This represents 25 pages of fundamentally simple content spread across 200 pages, and in a thoroughly pretentious manner to boot. Avoid.

Patterns for Effective Use cases is a must read if you need to develop for a software application. The authors describe what makes for a good use case, and make the points memorable with stories, and examples. If you have lots of experience writing use cases many of the patterns will cover things that you already know, but the way the patterns are presented make for an effective tool to help you teach others how to write a good use case. The pattern language format makes it clear that any single practice will not make for a good use case, you need to take a number together, otherwise you may have something that looks good at first glance, but just does not work.

I recommend this book for anyone who is learning to write use cases, or for experienced people who want a refesher course.

The people who will be attracted to this book will be people who are really going to be involved in use case development, whether as actual writers, consulting engineers, subject matter experts, managers, or any other stakeholders in the process. Overall, I found the book to be well written, quite engaging, and, in the main portion where all the patterns are described, nicely organized to enable the reader to almost subconsciously understand how to navigate the pattern language. From a patterns perspective, the collection is more like a true pattern language than many other collections that make such claims and the interrelationships and movement through the language show that the authors did a great deal of work to make the language comprehensive while still keeping it lean. Although I am a veteran use case writer, in reading this text I learned many things that I wish I had known when I was in that practice. The authors have done a superb job at extracting what is the essence of good practice at all levels in developing use cases, and I think that the book could find a spot on many, many software professionals' shelves. Even more importantly, I think they would actually read it. In fact, I think they would study it. I know I did.

This book looks like a very useful textbook, but upon ovening the cover it does not help with the advanced concepts of Designer. Many sections, especially chapter 3, were fraught with errors, and it appears that the text was not edited for content.

As usual, the authors have produced a very useful and easily readable work. An absolute must to those interested in using this tool, especially if upgrading from earlier version. I would have recommended a little less on methodology (well-covered in their book on Version 1.x of Designer/2000) and a lot more on generation. Success with this tool normally is determined by the quality of the generated output of Designer.

I have significant experience in all aspects of system design using other tools (i.e. Visio) and am working toward an Oracle Master certificate as a Design Engineer, so I found myself bypassing many of the early chapters geared toward design methodology; however, for those with less experience they can be very useful.

The later chapters that get into the actual workings of the tool are well done and cover a good deal of information. I can agree somewhat with the other reviewers who say they would have liked to have seen a bit more on generation, but the Designer Generation book specifically does that. I definitely recommend the book--it's been quite helpful to me.