The interviews and photos in this book are overwhelming. They provide the truth of death and dying, not some glamorized performance of celluloid "heroic death."

Having Multiple Sclerosis, I deal with a chronic debilitating disease every day of my life. I know that I get extremely tired of having movies, works of fiction, and well-heeled "personalities" tell me how I should respond to the uncertainty that MS provides. While MS is not termed a life threatening disease- it is the leading cause of death of folks that have my form of MS. This book has helped me to see that the wide range of emotions I go through, and the mood swings my family and friends go through, are the "normal" reaction to such illnesses. The common everyday people like me go through the same thing as I do. We may not be Eric Roberts in It's My Party- we are ourselves. Not lavishly wealthy with access to the best health care and support the world can offer. We are simply humans trying the best we can, doing the most we can with a situation we did not choose for ourselves.

The people in this book are brave, they are heroes, and their stories deserve to be told. It helps all who read it and/or discuss it understand that death is a part of life, it is inescapable, and in the barest of moments we are all going to have death as an extremely personal experience.

Thank you Dr. Blau, a deep, and profound thanks to those who opened their everyday lives to Dr Blau and showed us the humanity of illness, of death.

I found this book very useful as a resource for good advice on advertising. In my opinion, this unknown classic stands up there next to salesmen as Zig Ziglar to admen such as David Ogilvy.

Dr. McMahan hit it right on the nail with this book of short stories. I finished the book in two days. The stories not only focused on imaginary situations but everyday real life issues that face black men and boys in today's society.

I enjoyed the scriptures that began at the beginning of the chapters. My favorite story was Metro-Man. Alexander was a man who had everything going for him and had made it to the top. An unlikely metro accident left him in a situation that forced him to re-evaluate his materialistic life and focus on other less fortunate black males and their plight in American society. It is a real eye opener for anyone who thinks that once you make it, it is a done deal.

Look forward to the next book.

While I was growing up in Chicago, one of my greatest pleasures was listening to classical music while reading the latest selection from the Readers' Subscription Club to which I belonged. That was almost 50 years ago (!) and yet how vividly I recall pouring over brief but brilliant essays in the latest edition of The Griffin (the monthly bulletin) to select titles to order and then, several weeks later, reading those selected as soon as they arrived. (By the way, I found Bach's "Goldberg Variations" to be an ideal companion to my reading, regardless of subject matter.) In this volume, with a Foreword by Jacques Barzun, followed by an Introduction by editor Arthur Krystal, we have a rich and varied selection of the uncollected writings of W.H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling who, from 1951 until 1963, served as editors of the Readers' Subscription Club which later became the Mid-Century Book Society. As I began to read this book, I recognized only a few of the 45 essays which Krystal has organized as follows:

Biography and Belles Lettres (e.g. Barzun's "The Artist as Scapegoat")

History and Social Thought (Auden's "Apologies to the Iroquois")

Novels and Novelists (e.g. Trilling's "A Triumph of the Comic View")

Music, Theater, and Fine Arts (e.g. Barzun's "Why Talk About Art?")

Poetry (.e.g. Auden's "T.S. Eliot So Far")

A Round-robin (i.e. all three editors collaborated on "The New Auden Shakespeare" and "Jameschoice for January."

Krystal then provides an "Editor's Note," followed by two appendices: Complete List of Essays and Reviews from The Griffin and The Mid-Century, and, Essays from The Griffin and The Mid-Century Published Elsewhere.

After reading all of the selections in this volume, I now realize and appreciate what I did not (and probably could not) so many years ago: the three erudite and eloquent authors of the selections never "wrote down" to their readers while providing an intellectual, aesthetic, and (at times) social context for each of the authors and works discussed.

In the Foreword, Barzun explains that "As critics we had one trait in common: none of us applied a theory or system. Apart from this unifying mode, our tendencies and backgrounds differed widely, surely a desirable diversity for the purposes of the club." He goes on to point out that they were guided by "the principle of what Trilling was the first to call 'cultural criticism,' that is, criticism inspired by whatever is relevant to the work. Its genesis, form, and meaning have roots in the culture where it appears, and it is also unique through its author's own uniqueness. To us, none of this was new. We were cultural critics with no need of a doctrine, for the essence of culture is inclusiveness." In the Introduction, Krystal then provides a brief explanation of how and why the Club was founded, what happened throughout its eleven years and six months of existence, and what he views as its unique contributions. Auden, Barzun, and Trilling "were like those classical musicians who, upon leaving work at the symphony, head downtown to play jazz all night in a smoky club." No small part of the "pleasure they derived from playing together...lay in the knowledge that they were performing for a literate audience who had come expressly to hear them." This simile is apt.

Who will most enjoy reading this book? Certainly those who were once a member of either Club and have so many pleasant memories of their own associated with the monthly interaction with the three editors as well as with the subjects they discussed. But countless others, "non-members" if you will, who will also be intellectually stimulated while thoroughly enjoying the pleasure of the three editors' company. Jacques Barzun was right: "The essence of culture is inclusiveness."

This is the best introductory work on hospital visitation. A must read for those wanting to serve in the hospital ministry. Lays a good foundation for appropriate and sensitive visitation. Should be part of any hospital chaplain's library

The world we live in is dependent on credit and this book gives a very insightful and tremendously useful guidance in understanding the laws that governs our financial rights.

There are a whopping 28 songs in this little book, which was many more than I expected for the price asked. There are very few pop songs that the Cat did that aren't in this book. Unfortunately they got away with this by using VERY small print fonts, dropping the piano scores from the music, and only putting one line of lyrics with the music. What you do get are all the words (though the second verses on are printed as blocks of text on the bottoms of the pages), the melody lines, and the chord box notation above the lines (Circles with teeny-tiny finger numbers inside.) There is also a nifty strumming chart at the top of each song to give you a feel for the rythms involved. Nice touch. They squeeze 7 lines of music with up to 10 measures per line on each page, which is tough on the eyeballs. The advantage of this is that a whole song fits on one or two facing pages, with no page turns. If you can read the chords without the finger notation detail, and don't get lost moving from music to lyric sections this is a great book for performing from. From a content point a view, a definate 10. From a printing point of view, a 6. Overall a 9.

Managing a team, a section, a department or an entire organization is both a science and an art. It's a science because there are certain basic concepts that have been proven successful and can be applied where applicable. It's an art because so much of the success of a manager lies in the personal manner in which that manager relates to the people he or she supervises.

In this book you will find the answers to most of your questions on both the science and art of human resources management. You'll pick up tips, techniques, suggestions and information on every aspect of dealing with your people from the first contact with prospective employees, through orienting and training them, compensating them, motivating them, dealing with their problems, all the way through their separation or termination.

This book is an easy read for a busy manager, loaded with specific examples anecdotes from real life HR situations. Whether you are an experienced manager or just beginning your career in management, this book will serve as a roadmap to successful leadership.

While everyone is familiar with Murphy's famous axiom, Bloch has culled the laws of physics, common sense, and "stuff" happening into one ever-expanding volume. Reading many of the laws brought smiles to my face, because there's so much truth to it.

A nice diversion, and highly recommended.