I just got back from the Newman exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. and although I thought I had seen most of his work, I was stunned by the boldness of some of the photo collage work and color work which I had previously only seen in B&W. The book has all of the show and many more. It was $40 there and they were selling like hotcakes. The book is beautiful and has $1 million worth of images in it. Hard to pick a favorite. Certainly Picasso and maybe Isaac Asimov too.

I'm an amateur photographer, so when I heard an interview with Arnold Newman on NPR's Morning Edition, I knew I had to get this book. Newman is considered the inventor of "environmental portraits," in which the photographer uses surroundings to capture essential elements of his or her subject.

The photos collected in this volume span Newman's entire career and range from Senator John F. Kennedy to President Bill Clinton. The collection is mostly black-and-white. Leafing through the book, I've gotten many ideas for my own photography, but I've also gained a new appreciation for many of the historical figures Newman captured in his work.

The book is large and heavy, very satisfying to hold and look through, and will make an excellent coffee table book. Whether you're into history or photography, you'll really enjoy this book.

Colin Russell once made a television film for the UK's Open University in which he demonstrated some of Edward Frankland's work in a mock-up laboratory built in the studio. Under the powerful studio lights, and in the film itself, the glass apparatus gleamed seductively, leading me to reflect on the wonderfully photogenic nature of chemistry. The visual appeal and power of alchemical paintings, symbols and emblems was elegantly captured by John Read over 50 years ago in his splendid book, The Alchemist in Life, Literature and Art (1947). As far as the ideas and practice of chemistry are concerned, however, the economics of publishing has usually dictated that narrative should dominate over art. There have been attempts at greater pictorial generosity. The scholarly pre-war A Pictorial History of Chemistry (1939) by the pharmaceutical historians F. Ferchl and A. Suessenguth has long been a collector's item, but more recently the organic chemist and bibliophile, Arthur Greenberg, produced the light-hearted A Chemical History Tour: Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science (2000). (See rev. CH 19, Spring 2001) Primed by the deserved success of the latter, Greenberg again whets our visual appetites with a companion piece that provides another well-stocked gallery of pictures drawn from title-pages, tables and diagrams, cigarette/baseball cards and art works. These are used to illustrate three predominant features of the discipline's intellectual and experimental development -its myths, its medical connections, and its primary concern with materials.
Although one of the author's aims is didactic - to help non-scientists understand how science works and to show how chemistry was done before it became largely hidden in black boxes - the predominant purpose (as with the former volume) is to entertain. The format and style are identical to the Chemistry History Tour: 188 illustrations (19 in color) and 72 essays. However, whereas previously the essays were elaborate captions to explain the pictures, in this sequel the illustrations serve to illuminate the essays that form a delightful "random walk through chemistry's imagery." The generously-sized reproductions have been selected from his own library, as well as that of fellow bibliophile, Roy G. Neville, and the Othmer Library of CHF. The essays, roughly signposted from chemistry's spiritual and mythological past through the twentieth century, are essentially playful and satirical, and sometimes earthy in humor.
As with his previous book, there is material here in plenty for the chemist and bibliophile as well as for the "amiable historian" (Greenberg's wily term for the critical historian). In my own case, I was intrigued by his perceptive remark about a slower process of metamorphosis replacing stories of the instantaneous transformation of people and things in the twelfth century. I noted a primitive fume cupboard in a print from Johann Kunckel's Ars vitraria experimentalis (1679). There is a valuable comparison between affinity and periodic tables. It is challenging to have Greenberg's opinion that in 1853 Jules Pelouze and Edmond Fremy published the most beautiful textbook of chemistry ever written (Notions générale de chimie) in contrast to the awfully dull Chemia Courtata ("compressed chemistry", 1875) by the Montreal pharmacist A. H. Kollmyer. He also gives a much more complete discussion than I have seen before of the clairvoyant occult chemistry of the theosophists Anna Besant and Charles Leadbeater. As an old fan of Prout's hypothesis, I was also educated by Greenberg's observation that the speculation would never have been possible if the ratio of protonium to deuterium were 80:20 and not 99.98:0.014. Finally, I can't wait to find a copy of a novel new to me: Edwin Herbert Lewis, White Lightning (1923) whose 92 chapters are named after the elements and sequelled in order of their atomic numbers.
Idiosyncratic, self-indulgent and even corny, Greenberg believes chemistry to be fun. It is much to be hoped that The Art of Chemistry, like A Chemical History Tour, will find its way into school and college libraries and encourage a new generation of students to laugh all the way to the lab.

The Art Of Chemistry: Myths, Medicines And Materials by Arthur Greenberg (Department of Chemistry, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire) is an impressive, scholarly compilation of 72 outstanding essays on the history and nature of chemistry, ranging from myths about the origins of this fascinating area of science, down to great watershed experiments performed by dedicated pioneers in the field of chemistry. An informed and informative history which is superbly illustrated with 187 figures (including 16 full-color plates), The Art Of Chemistry is a truly fascinating survey and inquiry into the origins of a science that has substantially contributed throughout the years toward human advancement and civilization. The Art Of Chemistry is a very highly recommended addition to any academic Science History collection.

Of all the OS/2 programming books, this one is the best. It covers more topics, with more relevant details and sample source code, than any other book. Especially valueable are chapters like "Multithreading in PM Applications", which no other book covers. The majority of chapters covers topics specific to PM programming, but this book is still a must-have for any OS/2 developer.

This book is excellent if you have no experience with writing to a windowing platform. It is good to have a grasp on C and basic coding experience. The book is well written and gives many examples along with warning tips, common pitfalls and known bugs. The chapters flow from one to another much like a school text book. I recommend this book highly if you want to learn OS2 programming in C.

(Cue detective-style voice) Let me tell you about a book. It's a very ordinary kind of book, the kind with both a front cover, a back cover and pages in between. The kind of book in which anything can happen - and usually does. (End detective-style voice)

Generally, when you pick up an "Arthur" chapter book, you can rely on an amusing as well as educational story. Any story feature Buster in his detective mode, however, is in a class of it's own.

Buster gets a detective kit and starts looking for a mystery. He even gets really into the role, donning a coat and fedora. At first, though, he can't find a mystery. Then, Arthur is accused of stealing the quarters that he was collecting for the "Buy a Puppy For the Fire Department" project. Arthur knows he's innocent and so do we, so needs somebody to help him, giving Buster his first case. Solving mysteries though, Detective Baxter, soon learns, isn't as easy as it seems.

This book is enjoyable for readers of just about an age, assuming they've reached the reading level to read a 58 page story in chapter book format. For the best effect, watch the TV version of this story first and pay attention to Buster's voice when he's speaking as a detective. Then read the story using that style of voice.

This is a teriffic Arthur mystery. It has a good mystery, it has a smooth plot, and so what could be better? You have to read this book to see Arthur mysteries at their best.

I read Arthur And The Pen-Pal Playoff. I think this book is great. I think little boys and girls will want to read this wonderful book. This book is great for nine year olds to read.
Little kids will want to read this book over and over again, it's an adventure. This is a way to keep young ones away from the TV. I do recommend this book.

When Arthur talks up his basketball skills in a letter to a pen-pal that he was assigned to write for class, he feels that he's in over his head. His pen-pal writes back that he's a great basketball player as well and then he learns that his pen-pal is the lunch-lady's grandson. Next thing he knows, Mrs. McGrady (the lunch-lady) arranges them to play a one-on-one basketball game. The thing that's great about this story is that it's a situation that many readers can identify with. Eventually, Arthur's forced to face his situation head-on, but he's not the only one...

This is the last book of the "Arthur Good Sports" series. Whether any more books will be published in this series is not yet known, but the six-year 2001 set make a great addition to the "Arthur" series.

The stained glass window illustrations and simple, straightforward text allow readers to learn about young King Arthur. This book is a staple for me each year, as I read it to my second graders. Each year they love it! Sabuda provides a cool author's note too! Sabuda is a gifted storyteller/book creator!

This is, quite simply, a beautiful book. I wish it had been a little longer! The story, as the author admits at the end, comes right out of the Malory version of the Arthurian legend, which is perhaps the best known. This story, therefore, comes as no surprise to those of us who love King Arthur. The surprise here is in the illustrations. He has put us into the medieval tale in a new way by illustrating the story with stained glass windows. Well, that's how they look, anyway. And we are drawn through them into Arthur's time. Sabuda admits that he wrote and illustrated this one especially for the boys, and I can see how it would appeal to them. But there's nothing here that would turn off a girl's interest, either.

Sabuda is well known for his amazing pop-up books, and I have copies of all of them. I'm glad I've added this book to my collection. Although it's not a pop-up, it's a very interesting concept, and it's beautifully executed. I know the kids will love it! END

I love that Sparta's intelligence is what we see as her "super power" along with her technological "improvements". She is not a heroine who has "super strength" but rather super character. The plot is fast paced keeps you guessing and defineltly can hold even the video gamers attention. Only complaint; the book describes Sparta with blue eyes not hazel which is on the cover and her body is described not quite as thin and "top heavey" as on the cover.

I found this book to be a really excellent story. There were many places where I did not want to put the book down, so I made time to finish the section I was reading. Several times I exclaimed, "wow" aloud while reading on the Metro. It is easy to image-in what the author was writing, so I felt as though I was right there. I am looking forward to finding and reading venus prime 1 thru 5!

At first I felt put off by two things. First, the picture of the woman on the cover, while appealing, did cause me to refrain from leaving the book lying around for my 8-year old daughter to see. This book does not need sex to sell. Second, I was put off by the fact that Arthur Clarke was not authoring it. But I gave it a shot anyway, and I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised.

Arthur C. Clarke's component in this series is the inclusion of a number of his interesting short stories as the subplots with very little alteration of the details. (The original book titles were actually the names of the stories, eg. Breaking Strain.) These stories are seamlessly incorporated into the whole work.

What is added by Preuss is the style and setting - Sparta, a fragile but superhuman woman who has lost her past, searches for the people who made her what she is. In doing so, she becomes involved in the situations created in Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction. The "Venus Prime" series maps out her journey (as well as serving up great stories by Clarke). Preuss peppers the books with nice details of life in the near future (like logical extensions, interesting-but-plausible technology, and so on).

If you're looking for the original short stories, several appeared in the out-of-print collection "The Sentinel ; masterworks of science fiction and fantasy" (the title story is also interesting as the origin of Clarke's novel "2001 a Space Odyssey").

I just finished The Diamond Moon. Thoroughly enjoyed this fifth volume. I have always been a huge fan of Arthur C. Clarke and was skeptical when realizing he was a co-author, but have been extremely pleased with the masterful blend of true science fiction with an involving story line using mystery and engaging character development that I assume to be of Paul Preuss' design. This is not a book to be read on it's own, but to be enjoyed from the beginning and read through the end - (I'm going to get Volume 6 now).

I have been hooked right from the start - accolades to Paul Preuss and Arthur C. Clarke!

My 3 year old grandson loved this book. He had such fun lifting the flaps and putting on the stickers. He has removed the stickers repeatedly and they still stick back on the pages. He still loves to lift the flaps after dozens of times rereading the book. I will be looking for more books with lift the flaps and stickers included. This is a wonderful book for a 3 year old.

Our children, ages 5 and 21/2 love this book! They had a ball putting on the stickers (with a fair amount of parental supervision) and never tire of lifting the flaps on each page. I worried that after the "sticker fun" was over, they'd lose interest in the book, but they are still fascinated with their handiwork and enjoy the simple story of Arthur's Christmas. The artwork is fun and the book itself is quite sturdy - even in the hands of a toddler. We collect Christmas books and this is definitely one of the favorites for my kids.

I've owned Elgort's "Model Manual" for over a year now, and find myself coming back to it often for inspiration, reference, nostalgia, and a new experience each time. The art direction, layout, and of course, photography, make this book memorable and a worthwhile purchase. Models (professional and aspiring), art directors, and anyone interested and/or ivolved in fashion, beauty and design are encouraged to take a look!

Medicine is not an art or a battle between technology and nature - it is a war, war between computers. On our side: the cognitive human brain and increasingly intelligent computers it makes. On the other side: The noncognitive and simple RNA and DNA computers of human genetics and human cells gone bad. So far the latter have lost a ground, but they have done remarkably well and even gained back little territory via fast-action guerilla tactics (e.g. rapid adaption to antibiotics) The (not so surprising) ability of DNA/RNA to evolve countermeasures to today's primitive medical technologies has led many to conclude that cyber-revolution will sink into a stalemate. Not so -RNA/DNA will lose the war, as fast as the genetic codes may evolve, they are old simple systems whose basic level of performance plateaued epochs ago. Worst of all - they do not think. They have never seen the likes of the increasingly smart macro and nanocomputers that will be thrown at them in the next few decades. The technology is moving much faster than its targets, and the Information-processing speed of genetic DNA will soon be billions of times less than that of their attackers. Point is that humans will soon have creatures among them that make Christy Tulington look like Frankenstein's Bride and her wits equal to that of Minnie the Mouse.