Photographing Plants and Flowers by Paul Harcourt Davies belongs on the shelf of amateur and professional photographers for many reasons. It contains valuable information for photographing plants in both natural and manipulated settings. His photographs are very sharp and contain hints for photographing nearly every type of plant and flower imaginable. The stunning photographs alone make the book worth the purchase. He is able to create beautiful images from plants and flowers many people would miss. Though the book is primarily for photographers who still use film, it does contain some information on digital photography and using Photoshop. The book is inspiring, and more than likely readers will want to put the book down as quickly as possible and shoot some flowers.

The CD is a mostly just a copy of the book's web site. It doeshave some additional info, as well as being faster. But, I believe very few people will find even the free web site to of much value, let alone a paid for CD.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has put together a fine and thorough catalog of Prud'hon's studies and finished works of both charcoal drawings and paintings. This book is not only great for visual references but also complete in text explaining the purpose of each work and where Prud'hon was in his life at the time. If however, you are looking for emphasis on his drawings, I wouldn't recommend this book because though the drawings are in it, they are reduced with more emphasis on the text and so make up only a small portion of the entire book.

The Pig in a Wig is a charming picture book that cuts to the heart of the inanity and insanity that is called VANITY! Peggoty Pig thinks that she is beautiful and pink and perfect, until the other farmyard animals call her fat and pink and bald... Poor Peggoty is wobegone... the illustrations are intriguingly drawn to reflect the emotions and characters of this story...Peggoty finds a wig and parades with pride until she is terribly ridiculed... the picture of her with tears and a funny, curly wig is precious and heartbreaking! In the end, Peggoty of course, regains her self-esteem after hearing a mother coo and coddle a new baby who is pink and bald like Peggoty herself! Peggoty is redeemed and gladdened and she tells the other animals so... She says that she thinks that "pigs are born just perfect!" Sweet book, that I, as a Children's Librarian will read to kids and also recommend!

Pope John Paul II is the most widely traveled Pope, who redefined the role of Papacy through his pilgrimages far and wide. Within a few years of his election to the Papacy, his apostolic zeal took him to every continent with the Christian message of joy and hope. This book, "A Pilgrim Pope", is a collection of the Pope's messages given out to peoples of various cultures during the course of his travels beginning in Poland in 1979, up to Romania in 1999. Cardinal Achille Silvestrini who was the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, has edited this collection, giving a valuable introduction to each message from the point of view of the context and the relevance of the message. But the message itself is in the form of excerpts from the Pope's speeches. Cardinal Pio Laghi has written a forward to this collection. This book, as a whole captures the man and mission of this pilgrim Pope.

It is obvious that Paul Deloughery set out to assemble a book of highland bagpipe tunes catering to the beginner when looking at this collection. Many of the traditional embellishments have been made easier without diminishing the melody of any tune. The notation of all tunes has been done in an easy to read format unlike other "new" books of tunes.

This short book is based on lectures given by the author. While some of the scholarship and language is a little old-fashioned and some of Wiley's ideas have been questioned by more modern scholars such as McPherson, it remains useful. Wiley presents a refreshingly rational and balanced account of Southern daily life. The material on soldier life is a briefer version of his seminal work "The Life of Johnny Reb". This isn't a highly detailed study, but it will be a helpful and readable text for anyone wanting to improve their general knowledge of the subject.

Verlaine must be a big bad dog to translate. I'm going on faith here and assuming that the occassionally dippy rhyme scheme that pops up in some of the poems is a tragic result of the aforementioned difficulty. For the most part the work is lovely. (I mean what would you expect from possibly the greatest French poet ever?) Dark and troubled, you get a vauge sense of ominous hulking black shapes around you, with the occassional glorious bright spotof hope, the sensation of reading the work mirrors the nocturnal landscape in which many of the poems are set. It's sort of an interesting collection. It skips over several of Verlaine's better known works choosing, rather, to give sort of a life overview in 61 pages. The translator, along with going on and on about indeed how hard it is to translate Verlaine also talks a bit about his intentions in the selection. And, really, if you have some small knowledge of Verlaine's life, it does make the book more interesting. You can see the philosophical progression of Verlaine's life and follow the subtle sine waves of his unique despair. Claire de Lune, Grotesques, and Parables are some of my personal favs.

This book deals with the depth and power of Ted Hughes writing in a way which is readable, yet sufficiently technical to highlight the mechanisms being used. It draws on French theorists, notable Lacan and Kristeva, to expose the poems as being ultimately a search for meaning amongst an ostensibly wild and natural universe. The themes of myth and magic run deep through the book in a manner which matches Hughes' style very closely. I would recommend this book to all who are interested in looking more deeply at this poet's work.

This book presents the eugenics movement in a much more balanced manner than many of the other books from the socialist left. In fact, one of the most interesting facets of early eugenics as explained is that both the left and the right embraced eugenics. Yes, even the socialists new that any eugenic program could improve the quality of the state's people, and that generally socialism could only flourish in a homogenous state of like minded people. But as we all know now, the early eugenics program was overly ambitious, and relied on a purely Mendelian view of genetics--one that was far too simplistic and naïve.

The book also takes a fairly balanced look how pervasive and enduring the concepts of eugenics has been. Most books from the left would like one to think that eugenics was an epiphenomena of a racist agenda. But of course we know that most nations in the past have had concerns about the genetic or racial quality of their people, and in fact it was only during a very brief period of history, from about 1960 to 1980 that the radical environmentalists (Gould et al.) attacked eugenics as a pseudoscience. Though this political correctness still prevails in the media and in government policies, academics now that these old Marxists are the ones that are now sicking into the quagmire of pseudoscience, or science based on a purely political agenda. This book helps clarify much of this propaganda.

Also, contrary to other leftist books on eugenics, this book explains how with the legalization of abortion along with genetic testing, eugenics practiced by individuals is alive and well. And it is being openly discussed by numerous academics as the rising concern of a dysgenic trend and a falling of intelligence is starting to show up on the radar screen. And from recent work by numerous researchers, the heritability of intelligence is no longer in doubt. So eugenics is back and more vibrant than ever. This book gives a good overview of its history and some indications of where we are headed, at least from a socialist's viewpoint.