This book is the most informative book I've found on individual tall buildings. The photos are absolutely beautiful, and after reading the book, I felt as if I had really toured some of the world's best skyscrapers. Though, some of the buildings' heights are contraversial such as the Sears Tower which is more often claimed to be 1,454 feet. The book says 1,450 feet. Also, Miami's Southeast Financial Center is said to be only 738 feet, yet I've heard from several sources it is 764 feet. The CTBUH put a lot of research into the making of this book, and I can't blame them for slight errors.

I am a 6th grade math teacher. Every year my students need to research a building anywhere in the world. This book provides the information I require them to find about the year built, architects, height, and location. It also has wonderful photographs of each building that will enable students to write summaries of the observable geometric properties.

This book talk about a standard wavelet multiresolution analysis can be defined via a sequence of projectors onto a monotone sequence of closed vector subspaces possessing certain properties. It also propose a nonlinear extension of this framework in which the vector subspaces are replaced by convex subsets. These sets are chosen so as to provide a recursive, monotone approximation scheme that allows for various signal and image features to be investigated. Several classes of convex multiresolution analyses are discussed and numerical applications to signal and image-processing problems are demonstrated. Therefore I recommended.

Singer's book studies abstract convexity, and it will appear to mathematicians with an interest in approximation theory, general topology, lattice theory, or convex analysis---especially those interested in generalizing duality theory from real vector spaces to convexity systems, etc. I'll register one complaint: I cannot find the definition of "complete lattice" in the book! (I hope Birkhoff's definition is intended.)

Singer is a gifted expositor who has previously written books on Bases in Banach Spaces and Approximation Theory, which often exhibit virtuosity in "hard analysis". In contrast, this book is quite abstract, although a nice introduction reviews convex duality and quasi-convex ("surrogate") duality as motivation.

A related book is A. M. Rubinov's Abstract Convexity and Optimization (the title may be slightly wrong), which has been published by Kluwer in its Nonconvex Optimization Series. Rubinov's book would make collateral reading for researchers in global minimization algorithms.

I wrote this review to warn that the previous reviewer must have been writing about another book, apparently in signal processing!

Shake out old notions of how things must be done. The main value of this book is that it shows there is another way. Children don't have to go to school. In fact, the world may become a much better place if they don't.

After reading this book for the big picture, go read John Holt (Teach Your Own, How Children Learn, Learning All The Time) to see how the details can fit in.

This is one of those books that will change the way you see the world and yourself. It's difficult for us who were "successful" in government schools to look back at the process objectively, to remember the wasted time, the cartoonish simplification of everything, and the process' lack of applicability to our lives. You may need this book to help you reconsider that which has become so large a part of your own feeling of self-worth. You will then see why it is almost impossible to discuss true school reform with people - they still have their blinders on.

An anthology of about 70 short works, there's no more economical way to sample such a wide range of comic book talent today. The standouts in this collection are by Dave Choe, Craig Thompson (Good-bye, Chunky Rice), Chris Ware (Acme Novelty Library), and David B.

$7 for 352 pages is a steal.

Except your credits are bit off.

All of the editors you've listed are actually artists who contributed the art, comics and articles to the book.

The editors of Expo 2000 were Tom Devlin, Chris Oarr, Christian Panas, Jeff Alexander, Karon Flage, Greg McElhatton and Charles Brownstein.

The book is an annual anthology produced by the Expo/SPX in conjunction with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund as a fund raiser for the CBLDF. Oni Press is not the publisher.

You did get the ISBN number right.

The story behind 'Ivan The Terrible', Sergei Eisenstein's last masterpiece, is the stuff of cinematic legend. Approached by the Kremlin to make an historical epic emphasising the paralells between the first true Russian Tsar and Stalin, Eisenstein intended his film to be a trilogy. Part 1, narrating Ivan's consolidation of absolute power, was well-received by its patrons, and Eisenstein was awarded the Stalin Prize. Part 2, which focused on Ivan's rule of terror and his increasing reliance on a ruthless secret police, so enraged the hierarchy that it was shelved until after Stalin's death. Part 3 was never made, and Eisenstein, never directing again, died two years later.

This is not the story Yuri Tsivian chooses to tell in his study of 'Ivan' - he is not interested in its historical context (conceived in the heat of World War 2, finished as the USSR emerged as one of the world's two superpowers). He does not discuss 'Ivan' in terms of Soviet culture at the time, the contemporary world of art, or film history in general. He doesn't even really place it within Eisenstein's oeuvre.

'Ivan', though much admired, is probably Eisenstein's least popular film. Its apparent staticness, pictorialism and theatricality seem precious compared to the dynamic energy of silent films like 'Strike' or 'Battleship Potemkin'. Tsivian attempts to galvanise that staticness, to show how the film moves - not by a conventional, linear story, but through ideas, motifs, patterns, correspondances. By using Eisenstein's diaries, notes, production memos, sketches and essays, he traces the contours of the two 'Ivan's - the complete one envisaged in Eisenstein's head, and the abandoned one left to posterity.

This book is too dense to synopsise in a couple of sentences, and the very act of reading it (preferably with the film at hand, although the book is impeccably illustrated) provokes the act of understanding. But there are three basic ideas:

1. Each frame in 'Ivan' has a number of sources from Eisenstein's intellectual canon, be it the writings of Rabelais, Shakespeare, Balzac, Freud or Bakhtin; the art of the Renaissance or Russian murals; the traditions of folklore, alchemy or the carnivalesque; or American films by the likes of Chaplin. These sources feed into the complex system of correspondances that comprise the movie, each character, gesture, location, lighting set-up or composition repeated again and again, but always transformed. Despite this formidable cultural arsenal, the audience is not expected to intellectually grasp all this in one sitting; rather, the film, as all art should according to Eisenstein, uncovers 'primitive' memories buried in our own and in the collective unconscious.

2. Although it is nominally a historical epic, dramatising the major events and characters of their time, and their relationships to one another, 'Ivan' is truly a 'monodrama', Ivan's 'inner monologue', with all other characters and events functioning as doubling aspects of Ivan's self, persona, symbolic matrix or whatever. Tsivian works through Eisentein's complex theories about bisexuality, language, prenatal memory etc. to explain how this works.

3. Eisenstein's old practice of montage, where contrary elements were bound together by editing to create new meaning, is replaced by montage within the image, where contradictions are held in tension in mise-en-scene and acting style.

'Ivan' is a dense and difficult film, and this study is a dense and difficult book, reliant on bold speculation and seemingly capricious connections. If you are new to the film or Eisenstein, I would advise you to start with something more user-friendly (e.g. David Bordwell), and then come back to it. Tsivian is eager to analyse the film's mechanisms and origins rather than its meaning, giving his reader the tools with which to 'work' this forbidding film. In spite of his valiant effort, though, his approach actually makes the film appear even more static: by focusing on the various steps leading up to each frame and its components, he makes it seem like one of those 16th century paintings full of recondite emblems that have to be decoded by an expert before you can understand them. It makes 'Ivan' seem like fine art, not cinema; and, to be frank, that is the experience of watching this awesome but dislikable film.

At the opening of this book Tsivian cites "Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II" as one of the most complex films ever made. by it's end, he has justified that statement. His book is a dense, incisive, and deeply insightful look at a great film. Also, it is a very fast read (I recieved and finished it in a period of a few hours). Above all the book serves as a telling detail of Eisenstein's brilliance. He was, after all, a director who's films were always difficult to approach, harder still to understand, but hardest to appreciate. If only Tsivian would write a similiar companion piece to "Alexander Nevsky."

I ordered a new copy of this book after losing my original from university days. I have found it occasionally invaluable in engineering for twenty years - basically "everything you ever wanted to know about math" in a relatively compact text, without being one of those huge and awful multi-author collection "handbooks". The fact that it is still in print from the 1960's bears out that I am not the only one with this opinion.

An invaluable instruction to Applied Mathematics as the language to approaching the essence of Physics and Modern Engineering. A balance to the today overcomputerized mathematical methodology.

A reviewer before me said Turgenev came in the footsteps of the other great Russians. He might have been after Gogol, whom was the first master of fiction to turn to realism, but he was basically a frontrunner of both Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky (and Chekhov). At Gogol's death in 1852 Turgenev wrote an eulogy on Gogol and published the short-story cycle "A Sportsman's Sketches", and was banished to his estate. After this he went abroad and spent most of his time in Paris, where he more than anybody made Russian literature known to the outside world. His greatest novels were "A Nest of Gentlefolk", "On the Eve" and of course "Fathers and Sons". "A Month in the Country" is a pleasant and amusing play of the day, and his very best. One that later also highly inspired Chekhov. Further reading recommended: "The Essential Turgenev".

In the footsteps of other such amazing Russian authors comes Turgenev, and his wonderfully written play 'A Month in the Country.' If you love Russian literature of this time period, and you like Love triangles, and plays, then this story can not go wrong.

Bunin won the 1933 Nobel Prize for Literature, but we all know that the Literature prize is primarily a political statement (in this case against the Soviet Union that had banned Bunin's work). Bunin's stories are beautiful, lyrical, like poetry written in prose form. In fact, many of his shortest stories are nearly written in blank verse. However, there is a reason why Bunin is "underappreciated." His stories are highly melodramatic and frequently are artificially infused with explicit sentimentality. If Rachmaninoff had written short stories rather than piano concerti, this is how they would have looked. These stories lack the emotional and psychological subtlety of Chekhov and Turgenev, writers to whom Bunin is frequently compared. They are as socially reactionary as they are mushy: The story considered to be Bunin's masterpiece, "The Gentleman from San Francisco" is a patronizing fable about how the (particularly American) bourgeois habit of purchasing nobility is futile. It's like Citizen Kane with a nasty dose of anti-American bourgeoisie bashing. After all, Bunin believed that the nobility were the source of all good in Russia, and the American super-rich were nothing more than pretentious fools. Though the imagery can be lovely, you never get passed the idea that Bunin forced much of what he wrote.

American and English readers don't generally know the the works of Ivan Bunin, although educated Russians know and love his poetry and short stories, and often can quote them by heart. These stories, unobtrusively translated anew by Graham Hettlinger, vary in length from a couple of pages ('Summer Day', which neatly limns the cruelty arising from boredom) to the seventeen pages of Bunin's best known story, 'The Gentleman from San Francisco.' Most of them, some appearing in English for the first time, are really little more than sharply-etched vignettes which adroitly catch humanity in its variety; sometimes you'll catch your breath with the shock of recognition. If you respond to Chekhov's stories, you'll like these.

These selected short stories include Ivan Bunin's better known 'Gentleman from San Francisco' along with over twenty other newly-translated stories - some for the first time in English. Bunin's language is filled with sparkling descriptions and metaphors: vivid images fairly leap from the page as individuals and circumstances spring to life. His vivid descriptions are not to be missed.

After introducing my students to art with "The Oxford First Book of Art" by Gillian Wolfe and deciding to do a project based on Van Gogh's "The Starry Night," my sixth-grade students wanted to know more about who Van Gogh was so I went to my local public library and found this book, handily available in both English and Spanish editions, which is of great benefit in a bilingual classroom. While the color paintings of Van Gogh and some of his contemporaries are beautifully reproduced in this book, the language level of the text is well beyond primary classrooms (1st through 3rd grade) and was very difficult for most of my intermediate (4th through 6th) students as well.

The book showed Van Gogh's development as an artist well and didn't gloss over some of the more controversial aspects of Van Gogh's life (he cut off one of his ears in a fit of depression and presented it to a local prostitute). Luckily for many of my ESL (English as a Second Language) students, the captions were brief enough for many of my students with developing English skills. The discussion of "The Starry Night" was particularly interesting since the book described Van Gogh's stay in the hospital (where he was while he painted this masterpiece) and what the painting may represent.

I recommend this book as a great introduction to Vincent Van Gogh and his art.

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

Después de introducir a mis estudiantes al arte con libro "The Oxford First Book of Art" por Gillian Wolfe y el decidir hacer un proyecto del arte basado de la pinture "The Starry Night," de Van Gogh mis estudiantes del sexto-grado desearon saber más sobre quiénes era Van Gogh así que fui a mi biblioteca pública local y encontré este libro, disponible en ediciones inglesas y españolas, que está de gran ventaja en una salon bilingüe. Mientras que las pinturas del color de Van Gogh y algo de sus contemporáneos se reproducen maravillosamente en este libro, el nivel de la lengua del texto es bien más allá de los grados primarios (1ras a 3ro) y era muy difícil para la mayoría de mis (4tos con 6tos) estudiantes intermedios también.

El libro demostró el desarrollo de Van Gogh. Afortunadamente para muchos de mis estudiantes de ESL (ingleses como segunda lengua), los subtítulos eran bastante breve para muchos de mis estudiantes con desarrollar habilidades inglesas. La discusión de "The Starry Night" era particularmente interesante puesto que la estancia descrita libro de Van Gogh en el hospital donde él estaba mientras que él pintó esta obra maestra y qué la pintura puede representar.

Recomiendo este libro como gran introducción a Vincent Van Gogh y su arte.

Review por: Maximillian Ben Hanan

My 12-year-old son brought this book home from his school library as a source for a report on Van Gogh. I've always been intrigued by this artist's work, but knew only sketchy details of his life. I soon found myself immersed in this book. Brilliantly written and formatted, it is also chock full of examples of Van Gogh's work from youth until his tragic death at age thirty-seven. Included are the finer details of his life: his close bond to his brother Theo, his introduction to other masters such as Renoir, Pisarro, and Monet, and eccentric ways (he cut off the lobe of his ear and presented it to a friend at the local house of prostitution). His life was a sad irony--he was deeply religious yet mercurial and angry in his quest for acceptance--the quintessential mad genius. This book covers it all in easy to read text, superb illustrations, and the beautiful full-color examples of Van Gogh's work and a few of his contemporaries as well. I highly recommend this book for children and adults alike; it is informative, yet never heavy-handed. It will make a wonderful addition to your library.

Having read all of Turgenev's major works, this would be the best one to close one's odyseesy of Turgenev works as it provides his finally achieved view of the desparate situation of then Russia and the skepticism toward the revolutionary movements aiming at social re-engineering. Story is very simple, and no significant action was involved, but a minimum knowlwedge of Russian literature, changing revolutionary movements and intelligentsia situation is required to grasp the width of the topics and issues covered.

Although this book definitely stands on its own, perhaps not as good as Fathers and Sons however, I enjoyed it much more immensely having lived in Russia for a time. Knowing a bit about the Russian people, way of thinking adds immeasurably to the pleasure and understanding of the novel (as it does for all Russian novels). In other words, I can vouch that Turgenev is right on! He truly captures the Russian character, the essentials of which have not changed much since this novel was written over a hundred years ago. Virgin Soil is concerned, among other things, with problems encountered by young revolutionaries when they go out and try to spread the word among the "people." Well, surprise, surprise, this is the same thing I saw when I lived in Russia in the early 90's - why a swift wholesale transition to capitalism did not happen smoothly. You can change economic, political etc. systems but you CANNOT change a people's mindset just like that! So ... read Virgin Soil for Turgenev's wonderful descriptions of nature and his individual characters, but read also with this in mind - that you are getting a glimpse into the Russian character. It all rings true, from the long conversations to the vodka to how world view is influenced by social class.

Encompassing social commentary, a (albeit fairly simplistic) love story, and a homage to Russia's beauty, this work does not fail the lover of Turgenev. Certainly this might not necessarily be the best work with which to begin one's odyssey through Turgenev, but this very effectively pulls together all the familiar elements of his writing. Turgenev is not known for his plot development, and this is again the case here: very little actually occurs. The absence of plot and of action, however, is not to say that this dry, boring drivel. Rather, Turgenev's material, this work in particular, becomes a pleasant marriage of the classic novel with the novel of ideas.

His commentary, both political and human, is both trapped in the amber of history and universally relevant (a lovely dichotomy) to the human condition. "Virgin Soil" is a very fine story, and the translation is flowing and literate (having no Russian, I cannot speak to how accurately this might reflect the original).