I was so disappointed in this book! We love Arthur, but a few lines in this book are totally inappropriate for young children. "[Mr. Ratburn] sleeps in a coffin and drinks human blood." "A big black car drove up. 'Who died?' said Francine. 'Maybe Mr. Ratburn!' said Arthur." This story is about lying and cheating. These lines could have been changed to more appropriate language and the moral of the book would not have been affected at all.

Arthur and the True Francine Book Review

Arthur and the True Francine is a really good book. Arthur finds out who really copied the answers on the test. Marc Brown is the author and I like the way he writes. I liked the different characters. My favorite characters are Arthur and Buster. I learned from this story that copying answers is not a good thing.

...

As a children's librarian, I must say I'm not fond of many series books. We are always trying to get children to read OTHER books. However, I grew up with Arthur and I do enjoy the books in his series. This is one of the best. It's an excellent story about honesty that portrays children realistically. I hear them talk to each other daily and this is how they talk about their teachers, each other, and school. This one's well worth the read!

I wanted to like this book, dealing as it does with a poet who more than anyone else discovered the boundaries of language, and then redefined it in a way which has since been much imitated, but never equaled. This book is beautifully produced and written in a chatty and engaging, if a little defensive, style - Benjamin Ivry does seem too intent at times at forcing Rimbaud into the role of militant gay icon when this was only one aspect of his life - and the photos and bibliography are excellent.

However, there are several unforgivable errors, ranging from the glaring (Rimbaud had his right leg amputated, not the left) to the merely annoying (quotes from a couple of poems are misattributed). Also, Ivry seems at times so carried away with his subject that he relies too much on supposition to prove a point: for example, there is absolutely no evidence that Verlaine commissioned Rosman's famous painting of a bed-ridden, gunshot-wounded Rimbaud.

What I did like about this book was the final chapter, a fascinating collection of quotes from gay artists, poets, writers and film-makers through the years, proving that, as Eugene Borza once said about Alexander the Great, there are as many Rimbauds as there are those who profess a serious interest in him.

In the early 1950s, Rene Etiemble published a doctoral dissertation of monumental proportions, "Le Mythe de Rimbaud", which enumerated the numerous, variegated and, ultimately, misleading and false mythologies which had been propogated about Rimbaud in the decades following his death in 1891. Etiemble devoted more than twenty years to researching and refuting these myths, including the myths of Rimbaud the seer, the Catholic, the Communard, the homosexual, the scoundrel, and the martyr. As Enid Starkie suggested in her definitive biography, Etiemble's work had a salutary effect on modern approaches to Rimbaud by showing that "no single one of these descriptions accurately fits him." The result, among other things, was to shift the focus of Rimbaud studies from hagiography, on the one hand, and demonization, on the other, to an exploration of Rimbaud's revolutionary poetic language and expression.

More than fifty years after Etiemble's watershed dissertation, Benjamin Ivry has written "Arthur Rimbaud", a brief, fascinating, but ultimately somewhat disingenuous biographical gloss on Rimbaud's life. Ivry's book is the first in a series of books to be published by Absolute Press, books intended "to explore and portray the various and often unexpected ways in which homosexuality has informed the life and creative work of the influential gay and lesbian artists, writers, singers, dancers, composers, and actors of our time." It is, in other words, a book which has an agenda--an agenda which once again seeks to fit the enigmatic nature of Rimbaud's biography into a mythology, this time a mythology of Rimbaud as a founding saint of modern gay culture. Thus, Rimbaud's brilliant, complex and poetically difficult masterpieces, "Une Saison en Enfer" and "Illuminations", works which are laden with symbol and mystery, with a radically innovative poetic vitality, are reduced by Ivry to the product of Rimbaud's erstwhile homoerotic relationship with Paul Verlaine. Every aspect of Rimbaud's brief life as a poet, in Ivry's depiction, is driven by Rimbaud's "gayness", by his love for Verlaine, by his presumed disinterest in women. Never mind other aspects of Rimbaud's biography--his severe mother, his absent father, his religious upbringing, his revolutionary poetic work itself! Moreover, while the book contains a useful bibliography, it is devoid of footnotes, so it is impossible to ascertain the veracity of the speculations which permeate Ivry's text.

Having said all of this, I also must say that Ivry is an outstanding writer--his prose sparkles--and this little book is definitely worth reading if you have an interest in Rimbaud because it provides fascinating details on Rimbaud's relationship with Verlaine and others. In particular, the book extensively discusses the gay aspects of Rimbaud's life and poetry and Rimbaud's influence on subsequent writers from Cocteau to Kerouac to Jim Morrison. These are aspects of Rimbaud's life which are not explored very closely by Starkie's definitive biography and, if you read Ivry's book with some degree of skepticism, it provides a fascinating and provocative complement to the standard treatment of Rimbaud's life

Benjamin Ivry's short, but informative tome is a refreshing outline on one of France's most controversial poets. Rimbaud (1854-1891) was a L'enfant terrible, writing all his major works before the age of 20! In Ivry's illuminating biography, the reader gets to understand the motivating factors behind his wrenching verse. Unlike many Rimbaud books, Ivry's book delves into the torrid, temultuous affair the young poet had with the older poet, Paul Verlaine. Their stormy affair is one of the most renowned in gay literary history. Ivry pulls no punches in his description of their near fatal relationship and through this understanding, we see where the pain and the power of his verse emanated from. He offers a fount of information on this rarely understood young artist and the demimonde of French literary society at the turn of the century. He also deconstructs many of Rimbaud's most infamous poems, so that even the novice can understand the power of his words. Stocked with rare photos and art, this wonderful little book also has an extensive bibliography!

This book is really pretty bad. The index is TERRIBLE. Buy the Lippman book.

This is an excellent book, and it's sad that it hasn't been updated with a second edition. I certainly expected to find one by now, as I've had my copy for several years.

As an 'old timer' C programmer looking for a conversion course I found the book to be written at just the right level. When C is brought into the picture it is to compare and contrast, and not as ab initio text. So the book is not at all suitable for beginners, or for those who do not have hands-on experience with C. In fact it is exactly what it says it is in the title, and a refreshing change from some lesser texts that promise more.

I particularly like the way this book explains the underlying mechanisms of C++, but in a machine independent way. I've had no problems using the examples with Borland C++ Builder (in a command line environment), and found the best way to learn C++ was to modify, and play with, the extensive code examples.

There are a few typos, but these are fairly obvious and don't detract too much. Contrary to other reports I've found the index to be quite adequate, and I have used it (and continue to use it) extensively. Because of the typos and the failure to update I'd like to give it 4.5 stars, but will have to settle for a good 4.

As to whether the book is good value for money: Well admittedly it is not as thick as some tomes, but there is little padding, and almost every page has been useful at some point. My copy cost the equivalent of about $40 in England, and that was $40 well spent!

The authors are excellent educators and extremely knowledgeable of the C++ subject matter. This is an excellent text book for anyone wanting to gain a explicit knowledge of C++.. Relative to comparable texts available on the C++ paradigm, the listed price of $51.00 seems to be out of line with most contemporary literature on this subject. Unfortunately, the listed price is definitely a deterent for purchasing this item

If you are looking for a book dealing with the history or beliefs of the Cathars, look elsewhere. I have the horrible feeling that this book would have been wonderful if only the author had simply told the story instead of explaining every thought along the way and using a sort of daily entry or diary format. The story is fascinating, about a woman who has a rememberance of being a Cathar during the 1300's. Unfortunately, the writing style is so poor that the story is all but lost and the reader spends much time just trying to remember who all the characters are. Keeping track of the story line is all but impossible. Too bad. It could have been a good book but I wouldn't recommend it as it is.

I found this book a bit difficult to read, but very well worth the trouble. That's because, assuming the author did his homework honestly and accurately (as I do), this is a record of spontaneous (not hypnosis-induced) memories, recorded by a credentialed psychiatrist, for which there are corresponding detailed historical records (records she was very unlikely to have known of, especially when she wrote down her memories as a school-girl). Not one historically-recorded person only, but several people mentioned in the patient's recollections are verified as having actually existed, along with places. This has been done before, but rarely so completely.

The book also gives a very good sense of what the Cathars were like, and it brings up an interesting question--which group was the more "heretical"--the Cathars, or the politically dominant Catholic Church which persecuted them?

And its companion question: does might always make right?

This is a clear and lucid description of events written by a doctor and psychiatrist involving a subject that has so often been weighed down by generalizations and cliches. The fascinating details develop into a lively, convincing and extremely well researched work. Dr. Guirdham is one of the few authors to have done so thorough a job of detective work as to have passed a threshold of proof for the truth of reincarnation. His research has even taken him into the archives of the inquisition for corroboration. This book is certainly a classic.

While helpful to some, standardized treatment planning tends to limit the responsiveness of the patient

This book makes the difficult task of treatment planning easy. I don't have to struggle anymore.

I'd rather help my patients than fight with managed care companies about the OTR's. This little book not only gave me a few new ideas about treatment techniques, but saved me tons of time in preparing treamtne plans.

This book is certainly Reed's interpretation of Rimbaud. I found his interpretations to be a bit far reaching, and at times absurd. Reed often goes on into his own "poetic" rantings and all too often describes what he see's to be comparisons between his own life and that of Rimbaud. I had to force myself to finish this book. It was very disappointing. Any one interested in Rimbaud would do much better reading - Rimbaud- by Enid Starkie, or -Rimbaud- by Pierre Petitfils. Both are excellent.

"delirium" is nothing less than a work of creative genius, and i personally would be reluctant to criticize it for being 'self indulgent' when reading it is the linguistic equivalent of dropping acid or shooting up. it is that intense. after you finish it you immediately want another book by reed, or at least i certainly did. the source of poetry is free subjectivity and imagination, and there are parts in this book that are truly transcendent poetically. reed is interested in rimbaud when he was the 'god of adolescence', the period in his life of total rebellion and artistic frenzy. he does a near flawless job of showing that while verlaine and his somewhat cruel and hateful companion may have had a physical and shallow emotional bond, rimbaud was far above him on the spiritual and intellectual plane. this is a necessity for any admirer of rimbaud and surrealism.

Although this study of Rimbaud is, admittedly, a trifle self indulgent, it is, nevertheless, a poem in itself. Maybe not in the sense that the author had intended, but in terms of its unadulerated representation of the chaos that is the source of all poetry, it is a promethean breakthrough. I highly reccomend it.

I ordered this book after my husband was hospitilized with diverticulitis. I was hoping for some real life diet and lifestyle information. Instead, fasting, a basically vegetarian diet without spices, "cold sponge down and friction rubs", daily enemas, herbal laxatives, and "toilet drills" were advised by the author. I laughed through this book, because many of the suggestions were ridiculous.

Once you set aside the Author's rantings about Science, Food Manufactures and the Medical Society, this book is GREAT.

It conirmed some of the action I had already taken regarding a fast during a bout, but the most important and revelationary information I got is the "Toilet Drill" and "Abdominal Ecercises". Never had I ever been told how to empty my bowels to avoid stress on the stomach. That information alone, was well worth the book.

Dont give up on the book, the 104 pages was information I already knew, but the last 14 are worth it.

While I'm not a big fan of self-help books in general, I found this little gem to be worth its weight in gold. I've read it and re-read it, and I've even thought of writing to the author to thank him for writing such an important book for those of us who have long suffered with diverticulosis/diverticulitis and have run into a wall at our doctor's offices.

I had been suffering off and on for the past four years with all the pain and discomfort an "attack" brings and repeatedly received no more help from my doctors than tests and prescriptions. During the visit before I turned to Dr. White's little book, after tests again had failed to show why I felt so very sick, my too-busy doctor wrote out a prescription for yet another drug and, when I asked her what to do about the antispasmodic I was already on, she said,"Huh? What are you on, now?" This was a drug I had been taking for over two years, which she had prescribed, it had unpleasant side effects, and my doctor had completely forgotten (with the file right in front of her)! That's when I decided to accept the challenge of Dr. White's book -- the challenge to cure myself, natually.

The first thing I did was to go off the drug I'd been on. Until I read this book, I had never had the courage to do such a thing, because I feared even worse pain. Within 24 hours, the mental confusion and clouding I had been experiencing for 4 weeks had completely disappeared, and I launched Dr. White's regime with firm resolve. As I fasted for three days and followed religiously Dr. White's instructions, I felt better and better. The pain in my gut lessened and lessened and is now, two weeks later, almost entirely gone.

When I first bought this book I looked at it and put it aside, because I wasn't desperate enough to give up food, alcohol, and caffiene for three days. I just didn't think I could do it. But, along with my doctor's indifference, the pain of this last episode convinced me I had no choice if I wanted to feel well again. Well, I now feel I have my life and my health back, and I've learned a whole new respect for my body. I'm happier, calmer, nicer to be around, and I have energy for the first time in many, many months ... all because of Dr. White's little green book.

Dr. White writes well and intelligently about the workings of the body (he is a D.O.), and his advice is easy to follow. Inasmuch as he's English, some of the terms he uses are a little odd, but I actually enjoyed that quirkiness.

If you or someone you love suffers from diverticulosis/diverticulitis, you should buy this book now. It can change your life, too.

I am a big fan of A.C. Clarke, and admittedly, I have read more books by him than any other author. I was in the euphoric wake of 3001 when I found Dolphin Island in a used book store, and since it was only 140 pages long I thought it'd be a quick and enjoyable read. Well, I ended up finishing Paul Cook's 341 page "Fortress On The Sun", before I finished Dolphin Island.

It appears to me that while Dr. Clarke was exploring the Great Barrier Reef and being mesmerized by some of the sea's most intelligent creatures, he decided to combine his observations into one descriptive essay. However, as that may have been too boring and definitely quite uncharacteristic of his personality, he decided to put a couple of characters together and make up some sort of a story. Unfortunately, he spends so much time on describing how the corral reefs look like that the pace of the story slows down to a crawl. There are as always lots of interesting ideas proposed and he has always been in the forefront of future technologies but none of the characters like Johny Clinton, Mick, or Dr. Kazan ever develop enough to become memorable. In fact, the dolphins (Suzy and Sputnick) are better developed than their human counterparts. Therefore, this book is not quite up to par with what I'd call the Clarke standard, but if you've ever wondered what the Great Barrier Reef looks like, then you should give this book a try; if you can actually find it!

When I first read this book I was young, in my early early teens. I found the book took me along with it. Hiding away as a stowaway, burning in the sun and thirsting desperately after the crash.The dolphins miraculous. The wonders of the reef spellbinding and wonderous. I could go on but dont want to give away the whole story. I found the book excellent reading material, and while my taste now borders on the more intricate, this is high adventure and good reading for our young people.

Dolphin Island-A Story of the People of the Sea is a wonderful book! This futuristic tale seems like a reality, and the characters have vived personalities. You are drawn into the story. The ending leaves you yearning to read more! It's a Must Read!

This is a great book explaining how you don't always want to be the same as everyone else. It talks about how Arthur wants to have an original costume, he dosen't want something like his friends have. A great book for kids!

Arthur's Halloween Costume is a very cute book. It describes Arthur and his friends as they prepare for a Halloween party a school. Arthur tries to find a unique costume that could when him first prize. What I like most about this selection is the imagination shown in making their own costume from things around the house. It really inspires creative young minds to come up with their own ideas for dress up fun!

It's about these monkeys that are having a halloween party at there school and Arthur wanted to be a ghoast until his sister told him there are three more ghoast at school.Then he couldin't find any thing to where or his homework and if he didn't have his homework he couldin't go.

What is most illuminating about this gossip-ridden compendium of neo-conservative arguments against the brilliant collaboration of famed sociologist C. Wright Mills ("White Collar", "The Sociological Imagination", "The Power Elite") with his long-time friend and fellow University of Wisconsin graduate student Hans Gerth is the fact that it is an obvious attempt to discredit the now famous work of these two scholars. The two collaborated to successfully translate for the American academic and intellectual community many of the heretofore-unavailable works of famed German sociologist Max Weber. In what one of my former professors would refer to as the "carbuncle theory" of history, these two authors attempt to discredit Mills and Gerth by engaging in a vicious (and totally uncalled for) smearing of their admittedly difficult and sometimes stridently competitive combined efforts.

As with the famous carbuncle theory, which was a notorious attempt by conservative turn of the century scholars to explain away Marx's brilliant observations regarding the way in which social forces act as the motive force of history as simple dyspepsia due to his chronic affliction with carbuncles. Of course, the professor's point is that, in the last analysis, Marx's theories must be judged based on their rational and intellectual merits, not on some silly emotional attempt to discredit the author without considering the weight of his or her intellectual argument. So, too, here, we must keep in mind that however messy and unpleasant the process, the fruit of intellectual labors must be judged based on their results rather than on the personalities or character flaws of the individuals involved. Sad to say, it appears that these two authors are all too willing to sully their own academic reputations by engaging in such gossip mongering.

Another reviewer admits to shock and surprise regarding the ways in which petty egos and aggressive careerism affect the ways in which the gentlemen in question behave. Might I suggest he read James D. Watson's own surprising autobiographical accounting for similar shortcomings, personal ambition, and pettiness among the several Nobel laureates who jointly discovered the helical nature of DNA in "The Double Helix"? Perhaps it is time for such naïve people to grow up and recognize the fact that the stuff of science and research is often a messy and unpleasant business, and not at all the stiff, pristine, disinterested, and sanitized search for truth that appears monthly within the carefully arranged type-set pages of "Scientific American" magazine. Noted scientific luminaries like Albert Einstein admitted as much in their own memoirs, and perhaps the reading public should realize that anything as worthwhile as meaningful scientific research doesn't necessarily emanate from people who always chew with their mouths closed. Bad people may in fact do brilliant science, and it matters not a rattler's damn whether we like these people or not.

Therefore, regardless of what these two sociologists say in their shameless attempt to rake over the ashes of the dead in this mean-spirited effort to make their own academic reputation here, the fact remains that both C. Wright Mills and Hans Gerth published widely recognized and acclaimed works during their very fruitful careers, and the efforts they made to collaborate on "From Max Weber", "Character and Social Structure", and other tomes has stood the test of time, and are all still in active use. Moreover, there is a new resurgence of interest in C. Wright Mills work in particular, and one suspects that the two authors writing this book are attempting to capitalize on his newly resurgent cache (witness the new publication of his collected letters) in order to make their own bones and to sell some books of their own. I do not recommend this book. It is a pathetic and singularly unscientific attempt to discredit some of sociology's most prolific and productive authors by deliberately sullying their characters and personal reputations.

As Oakes and Vidich state in their introduction, this book is an anaylsis of the ethics of academic career management. It is NOT a study of how scholars' career choices are affected by the historical conjuncture in which they find themselves, nor is it meant as an assessment of either Gerth's or Mills' contributions to sociological scholarship. Instead, we get an analysis "built close to the ground it covers." In nearly exhaustive detail, the authors paint a devastating picture of one man -- Gerth -- whose undisciplined brilliance left him nearly totally dependent for his academic achievements on another man -- Mills -- who proved to be totally and ruthlessly pragmatic in his own career choices. Although Oakes and Vidich claim not to be taking sides, Gerth comes across as a tragic, bungling, and ultimately self-destructive emigre who was no match for Mills' amibitions to become a "big shot." Mills himself used that telling phrase to describe the people he admired and whose tactics he copied.
Who should read this book?: Graduate students who've not yet made up their mind about going into an academic career, as well as junior faculty whose sensibilities have been jarred by their dawning recognition that "success" is not going to be solely a function of their "talent." Oakes and Vidich's own assessment of what a reader can learn from the book is summed up in their last sentence: "The path to a successful scientific career is traced by the fine line between overweening ambition that inspires doubts about honesty and a diffidence or restraint that disqualifies its possessor from participation in the contest for priority." They make their case very well in this engrossing portrait of the relationship between Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills.

Many of Max Weber's early English translations were created through the joint efforts of H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills. When the secrecy, paranoia, and intrigues surrounding their work are carefully examined,it is revealed that two of sociology's notable minds are shown to have all too common shortcomings. Essential reading for those concerned with the ethincs of scholarhship,the work may also be an eye opener for those engaged in collaborative academic research and writing. When one

considers the effort and intellectual rigor requiredto produce important scholarship, and the paltry sums and ego wars typically involved in academic publishing, this book inadvertently gives newmeaning to the notion of a lumpenprofessoriate: a professionally insecure band of academics and their apprentices who diligently toil in a garden of the mind that is sadly overrun with the weeds and detritus of a university system increasingly dominated by a careerist tone--and which can sport a commercial logic and a backbiting spirit that the denizens of Wall Street might envy.

This study serves as a warning to scholars presently working to establish themselves in an academic career and to their keepers, as well: all that glitters,indeed, may not be worth the candle if it distorts the collective norms of scholarly inquiry to the point where they become warped and corroded by the potential of winning a bit of praise from "the marketplace". The danger imnplied throughout the book is that lesserlights may not have the academic gifts of Gerth and Mills--thus anticipating the current academic scene.

Oakes and Vidich are insightful and thorough, but some comparative data would strengthen their argument. Too bad that none are provided. Were Mills and Gerth more similar to,or significantly different from, others in like-situated cohorts of American students and emigre scholars from the Nazi era? If they were different, why? If there was a pattern,why not explore its significance? Such a curious and devastating omission is quite ironic, given the extensive treatment of CHARACTER and SOCIAL STRUCTURE--the thrust of which champions Mills's quest to identify the structural determinants of personal troubles. That Oakes and Vidich are so steeped in biographical specifics that they should stress the individual trees of idiosyncracy (which are located in the PERSONALITY) and ignore the structural forest of the academy, strikes me as odd, at best, for a sociological work,and as being overly psychological, at worst.

Without an interpretive structural framework it is simply impossible to know whether Gerth and Mills were merely examples of STRANGE FOLKS, i.e., wayward individuals, ofifthe issues touched by their distinctively opposed, yet mutually reinforcing, academic styles suggest the emergence of an uncomfortable order of social fact that may come to dominate the modern academy. That two Weberian scholars should miss this is

unfortunate. otr