I found a copy of this book at a pet store for 2.50!!!! It is worth much more than that however. Being a Breeder and fancier this book offers a wealth of information, especially on kennels and lines. I was delighted that the book featured many of the best dogs in the lines I am working with. As another reviewer put it, we should look to this book to see what shelties looked like when they were bred the to the standard, how they should look, unlike the current trends in sheltie today, that I feel are poor. If someone wanted to see some excellent example of the breed, I would tell them to look at his book, rather than go to a dog show. This book shows the great kennels and the great dogs, and is a necessity for any serious fancier. However, I do not recommend it for the casual pet owner, or anyone who is simply not intrested in lines or champions and simply wants a basic guide to learn how to properly care for their sheltie, and what to expect. For this person, I recommend "Shetland sheepdog: A Guide to a Happy, Healthy pet" by cathy merrithew. It is much more appropriate for a pet owner, yet still contains enough info on sheltie history to to be boring or too basic. The book of the shetland sheepdog is a valuable reference to any fanciers bookshelf. I refer to mine often. If you are serious about the sheltie, go buy a copy!

This book is an excellent resource for those who want to seriously develop a bloodline and are ready for the work required to research. With a wealth of pedigrees and pictures you should be able to find quality individuals behind your Sheltie. If you are new to the breed the pictures should give you an overall view so you can determine what type (and line) fit your expectations. Older pictures (less 'perfected' than modern photo work) honestly show where we came from. A worthwhile purchase for serious breeders or lovers of the breed.

I intend on buying this book sometime soon, when I can afford it. There are many pictures of my shelties line and I enjoy looking at them,over and over. Looking at the "old timers" I see what I love in the sheltie and will continue to look for, although modern breeders have altered their look drastically their has to be some that are true to the great champions. Maybe, the breeders of today should look to the past for the shelties future

I devoured Dr. Perricone's Wrinkle Cure book, so I was ecstatic about his latest book, The Perricone Prescription. His advice is so logical and easy to follow it was no wonder I shed weight and felt great, not to mention looking younger, too! His menu plan and anti-aging research is not to miss! The journal was such a helpful tool to follow my progress. That is why I have previously given up on other diet plans. This was easy to follow and successful, too! Thanks Dr. Perricone!

The Perricone Prescription Journal is the best tool I have ever used for a nutritional program and it has become as essential to my day as my home keys!! Not only can I follow a daily menu at a glance, but I can keep track of my progress as far as skin and body condition: (my weight, of course but important details too like my pore size and my stress level) as well as jot down my impressions and my feelings every day! Plus I love the fact that the book is light weight and spiral-bound. Extremely handy, full of zen-like sensible advice, I recommend it to anyone with a will to win the anti-aging battle!

Once I started writing in the Journal the effects were amazing. The daily reports motivated me to stay on the program and the results, noticable with every passing day have been wonderful. I've lost weight, feel great but best of all feel in control. I can honestly say that Dr. Perricone has changed my life for the better.

This book is the equivalent of an overly long and wannabe-contemplative VH1 "documentary." With the acknowledgment of how hard it is to capture the essence of the 60s' music and its society, this book then goes on to underwhelmingly live up to that observation. With self-important theorizing on the meaning of this-and-that, and hackneyed philosophizing on the significance of some banal lyrics or events, this book attempts to pass off various cliches as meaningful metaphors for other cliches. Nothing much is really said, nothing interesting is really brought out by his observations, and his attempts at capturing meaning leave one with the sense of "So What?".

This book is another in a tired line of works on the sixties based on repititious mythologies and platitudes. It's useful if you are looking for some form of validation; however, one would be better off sticking to VH1.

Just like to add that this book is also a joy to look at. Beautifully produced example of the book binders' art. Check out the multi-coloured threads holding the pages together, someone put a great deal of thought into the production values here. Congratulations!

This book is extraordinary at capturing the issues of adolesence in America, and how this intrinsically marginalized group has braved the challenge of being both insiders (adults) and outsiders (kids) with the assistance of drugs and rock in roll. In many ways I think that we idealize the 60's for their rebelliousness, the freedom of the times. But freedom has a price as is revealed in Bromell's Chapter', Ëvil¨is ¨live Spelled Backwards.' To question society, to question oneself, and the system is disettling, it is dangerous, there are no answers and how does one deal with that reality? Bromell captures these contradictions and complexities in a postmodern interdisciplinary style that is frighteningly penetrating. I may not be a child of the sixties, but his writing is so profound I think that it exceeds the limits of time.

In agreement with what other reviewers have said, I enjoyed The Quest for Corvo primarily because of the ways the book displays the author's quaint but intense enthusiasm for his subject. This is, to me, the most interesting aspect of the biography, for the most defining (and perhaps most important) thing about Fr. Rolfe was not his literary exploits (relatively few, mostly unnoticed) or indeed anything he ever accomplished, but rather his eccentricity of character. And Symons' enthusiasm for Rolfe's eccentricity is infectious, and it lends not only authenticity but genuine merit to his choice to structure the book as a "quest" instead of as hagiography.

Nonetheless, despite his intrinsically fascinating character, Rolfe should be approached first through Hadrian the Seventh, and not directly through The Quest for Corvo--if only because then the reader will be following in the biographer's footsteps.

As for the content of the biography, I found its wayward structure refreshing, but confusing, especially with regard to the author's depictions and analyses of Rolfe's literary output. A bibliography or chronology would have been quite helpful. Also, echoing other reviewers, Symons's reluctance to speak at length about Rolfe's homosexuality (especially the elements that might still be considered deviant today) leaves too much of Rolfe's character and contemporary reactions to him concealed.

One summer afternoon in 1925, A. J. A. Symons and Christopher Millard, each somewhat obscure and eccentric literary figures in their own right, were sitting in a garden discussing books and authors that had never received proper recognition from the arbiters of literary history. Millard asked Symons whether he had ever read "Hadrian the Seventh." Symons acknowledged that he had not and that he was unfamiliar with the book. "To my surprise, [Millard] offered to lend me his copy-to my surprise, for my companion lent his books seldom and reluctantly. But knowing the range of his knowledge of out-of-the-way literature, I accepted without hesitating; and by doing so took the first step on a trail that led into very strange places."

Very strange places indeed! Symons began reading "Hadrian the Seventh," a book written by Frederick Rolfe, also known as Baron Corvo, and originally published in 1904, and quickly felt "that interior stir with which we all recognize a transforming new experience." Symons went on to spend the next eight years of his life tracking down the details of the life and writings of Baron Corvo, one of the most eccentric, original and enigmatic English writers of the last one hundred years. The result was "The Quest for Corvo: An Experimental Biography," a fascinating book that has been in- and out-of-print since its first publication in 1934 and has enjoyed a literary cult following akin to that of the text ("Hadrian the Seventh") and the author (Rolfe, aka Corvo) that originally inspired it.

As one reads "The Quest for Corvo," it seems that Symon's text represents the outermost of three concentric circles of eccentricity.

The innermost, core circle is "Hadrian the Seventh," a strange and imaginative novel that tells the story of an impoverished, eccentric and seemingly paranoid writer and devotee of the Roman Catholic faith, George Arthur Rose. Rose, a brilliant, self-taught man whose candidacy for the priesthood had been rejected twenty years earlier, is unexpectedly approached one day by a Cardinal and a Bishop who have been made aware of his devotion and his shameful treatment by the Church. Rose is ordained and ultimately becomes the first English Pope in several hundred years. While a work of fiction, Symons' biographical investigations disclose that much of the story of "Hadrian the Seventh" closely parallels the life of its strange author, Frederick Rolfe.

The second circle of eccentricity is, of course, the life of Frederick Rolfe, Baron Corvo, himself. It is the telling of this life that occupies Symons in "The Quest for Corvo," and the result is a fascinating, if perhaps not always historically accurate, detective story cum biography. Starting with his obsessive search for information on Rolfe and his meetings and correspondence with those who knew him, Symons brilliantly recreates a life-the life of a strangely talented artist, photographer, historian, and writer who led a life of seemingly paranoid desperation, ultimately dying impoverished in Venice at the age of forty-five.

The third, outermost circle is the eccentricity of the author of the "Quest for Corvo," A. J. A. Symons, a founder of The Wine and Food Society of England, a collector of music boxes, and a master at card tricks and the art of forgery. Like Corvo himself, Symons died at an early age-he was only forty years old-and his life and his book is seemingly as eccentric as its subject.

"The Quest for Corvo" is one of those little gems that deserve a cherished, if perhaps minor, place in English literature and the literature of biography. Happily, it is back in print again, courtesy of New York Review Books. Read it, and then read "Hadrian the Fourth" (also brought back into print by NYRB) for a fascinating turn in the world of the imaginative and the eccentric.

In recent years we've been treated to many thoughtful and highly readable studies on the nature of biography itself, such as in Richard Holmes's FOOTSTEPS and Janet Malcolm's THE SILENT WOMAN. Symons's THE QUEST FOR CORVO could almost be a sketch for these later, deeper studies in its very metatextual approach to what it means to compose a biography of Frederick Rolfe, one of the strangest figures in fin-de-siecle British letters. Although later biographies took this work to task for its errors and omissions, that shouldn't dissuade you from enjoying how Symons juxtaposes differing perspectives on the quarrelsome and paranoid Rolfe's actions and behaviors, and his desire to get at the "real man." Greater drawbacks, I think, might be Symons's homophobia--which, while very common for its time, seems a bit hysterical today--and the fact that Rolfe (or "Baron Corvo," as he liked to style himself) as a person either enchants readers completely or eventually becomes as tiresome to them as he did to his contemporaries. Still, even though Rolfe's antics do grate on some people's nerves a bit after a while(as they did mine), the fascination of his personality remains quite compelling.

This edition features a beautiful cover and paper stock (as do all NYRB editions) and an intelligent and thoughtful introduction (which, unfortunately, they do not always).

I could not finish this book. Unlike the other reviewers, I was not the least bit impressed by the quality of the writing. The dialogue was stilted and the characters were one-dimensional. Save your money. Read Mike Tidwell's Ponds of Kalambayi if you're interested in a Peace Corps novel set in Africa. Tidwell's book is everything that The Road Builder is not.

I spent three years in the Congo. This book brought back so many memories, feelings, even smells to me. Although fiction, it is the book I fantasized about writing-- a personal journey, stories of realities of life in Africa now, an inside look at attempts by outsiders to do "development," and a romance to boot! Most of all I appreciated the honesty of Will's internal workings. I laughed a lot, too. I loved this book.

I am currently right in the middle of this beautiful novel and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. It's a pure pleasure to read: the writing itself is so sensuous, flowing over page after page of reflections and descriptions. The author does a great job of giving the reader a sense of what it is like to be in a remote part of central Africa - after all, he was in the Peace Corps in Zaire ( now it is called Congo, as it was before it was Zaire ) back in the 80s, and I was there in 1983 myself. Eighteen years ago, and yet the language of this novel brings back all these memories! Wow! That's the power of books for you! The story he tells here is powerful as well; I could really relate to Will, the main character. I am reading this book slowly, savoring the beauty of the language and the gentle unfolding of the story. It is one of those novels you wish would go on forever - and in a way it does in its timelessness, its universality of meaning. I hope this book sells well; I can't recommend it enough!

A more appropriate title for this book would be: The Absence of Peace: Palestinian Perspectives on the Oslo Peace Accords. This title would make clear that (a) this book presents solely the Palestinian perspective and (b) the scope of the book is relatively recent events. Thus, this book is not a good choice for those who are looking for an overview of the entire Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. However, for those who already have developed a basic historical and political framework for this complex arena, this book is immensely helpful.

In order to understand the repeated failure of the peace process, one must understand the Palestinian perspective. This author crafts an articulate and well referenced description of how Palestinian frustration, anger, and hopelessness have been fueled by Israeli actions. This book asserts that the Oslo Peace accords have exacerbated the on-going problems and presents a view of Palestinian life within the restrictions imposed on building, work, and travel within Israel. As a relatively neutral observer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I found it very helpful to have the Palestinian perspective described so succinctly and articulately.

The final chapter of this book provides recommendations of possible options for future resolution of the conflict. This chapter was the highlight of the book and will assist me in understanding the success or failure of future efforts.

A note about perspectives and bias. The author is clearly impassioned and highly critical of Israel and its leaders. Nonetheless, I found Absence of Peace to be well referenced and credible. For example, most of the criticisms of Israeli leaders are supported by direct quotes from these leaders that have been published in newspapers. Each chapter concludes with 3-10 pages of footnotes. I also cross-referenced some of the allegations made against the Israeli security forces with Amnesty International reports and found them to be consistent. However, it is clear that this book presents solely the Palestinian perspective. For example, the author is repeatedly critical of the limitations imposed on Palestinian travel, but never acknowledges that Palestinian suicide bombers have at least some causal responsibility in these Israeli actions. It is very likely that this book will enrage readers who hold staunchly Zionist or pro-Israeli perspectives.

Overall, Absence of Peace is a readable and important book. It provides an understanding of Palestinian perspectives on the Oslo Peace Accords that also informs the reader's understanding of the broader issues within Israel and Palestine.

I don't know what's more appalling: the vitriol that the anonymous reviewer from New Jersey saw fit to spew about Nick Guyatt's terrific book or his/ her claim that the expansionist policies of the Israeli government should be construed as "the legitimate achievements of the Middle East's only democracy".

In my view, the value of Guyatt's analysis of the conflict in the Middle East inheres in its thoughtful exposure of the notable illegitimacy of the Israeli government's actions; the bad faith in which it conducts peace negotiations; and the contribution that international organizations like the United Nations make to the continuing violation of Palestinian human rights under the Israeli regime.

I recommend this book very highly to anyone wanting an honest and illuminating account of the situation in the Middle East since Oslo.

Nicholas Guyatt's "The Absence of Peace" is a well-researched, thoughtful book on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Focusing on developments since the 1993 Oslo accords, Guyatt considers the causes of the peace agreement's failure. The author concentrates on the inherent difficulties in the accords themselves: for instance, that Palestine and Israel are inequitable authorities; that the PLO is only one quasi-authoritative body of Palestinian representatives; and that the United States, as permament member of the UN Security Council, is in a position to veto all UN resolutions criticising Israel's actions. I found Guyatt's analysis of Yitzhak Rabin's and Shimon Peres's political lives very helpful: for neither are so "dovish" as journalists have made them out to be, especially in light of Rabin's assasination, an act that made him the martyr for peace he really was not. Guyatt's treatment of Israeli-European relations was also very helpful. On the whole, I consider this book a very balanced criticism of Israeli policies toward the Palestine question. Unlike many other books on this topic, Guyatt's analysis refrains from conspiracist rhetoric while taking critical note of Israel's actions. Heartily recommended.

It was a pretty good overview of fire investigations. I was bothered by proofreading errors.

Readers of chapter 3 (p34) strained to understand how a fire could creep along a low incline rather than flame upward. They were told this was due to the "...so-called colander effect, whereby jets stick to walls." If they were imagining some sort of sieve, they were mislead. The effect which causes fluid jets to bend around gentle curves is properly called the Coanda effect, named after a hydraulics theoretician.

A few other minor errors like a "Kray-2" supercomputer mar the account, which is otherwise good reading.

I was happy to see a chapter discounting the widespread belief that crowds of people tend to panic in fires.

Very informative book. Needed to list more details of the actual forensics of fire and how it acts.

hi my name is chris j coombes and i love to red about fire behavior fire is vere dangeris and it can hurt you .if you are a firefighter you know how fire can burn fast and you have to be on the look out for a fire. we thank that fire is safe but it,s not fire can burn evere thing you have to the ground. thank you for your help chris j coombes...

The book's content belies its title. It has very little to do with Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas; rather, it is a study of how the pagan theme of the "wild man" has entered the myth, legend and folklore of many cultures. The 1st page of the 1st chapter leaves a very bad first impression, containing the glaring error of calling St. Nicholas a "Turk" (because he lived in present-day Turkey). However, that part of the world was Greek in St. Nicholas' day, so it seems highly unlikely that St. Nicholas was a Turk. To its credit, the book makes a very good argument that the origin of Santa Claus is not St. Nicholas, but his sidekick in Germanic lore known as Pelznichol "Furry Nicholas." However, I was expecting a study on the origin of Santa Claus and got a study of pagan myth and history instead. In another gaffe, the author quotes (on p. 30) a passage from the book The Children's Friend, but the author (Wm. Gilley) is not mentioned and the book does not even appear in the bibliography! The books ends very abruptly with a discussion of the Ainu and one final paragraph about Christmas; having presented lots of info it utterly fails to tie it all together at the end. In conclusion, although the work is apparently well researched, its title is highly misleading and it contains some errors and omissions uncharacteristic of a scholarly work.
If I could return this book, I would.

Santa Claus - Saint Nicholas, a patron of children and sailors of Greece. Traditionally identified as a 4th century bishop from the ancient city of Lycia. The city was visited was visited by St. Paul (Acts 27.5). Ruins include rock-cut tombs and Grecian sculptures from the 5th century. Please note that Santa Claus was a bishop and Saint - Turks and Ottomans never had neither. Ms Siefker's sin is that she is a revisionist of the first order.

about Santa Claus. A wonderful book that unearthes a forgotten past where Santa was quite more spooky than he is now, and has ties to our much deeper past than just the current neo-Christian myths we are fed each year. A great book, easy to read, highly recommended.

I bought this book because I was expecting to ID the brown recluse which has several variations. This book had one poorly drawn picture and 1 sentence about the Brown Recluse. I was disappointed to say the least. This is one of those little field guides for kids.
This would be a good field guide for someone about 8 years old.

This book has excellent pictures for identification, however it mainly uses scientific names. There is also limited information about the spider or types of spiders that are pictured. I use this book for identification by the pictures and another book (National Audubon Society's field guide to insects and spiders) to learn more specifics about the spiders attitue and lifesyle. These two books compliment each other perfectly. There are also pictures of spider relatives and insects commonly thought of as spiders, such as whipscorpions, ticks, and arthropods. This book is excellent for a reference!

Last week I woke up when a spider bit me on my forehead. It was a shallow, burning pain rather like someone had injected a weak solution of hydrochloric acid under my skin. About a third of my forehead was flushed red when I first looked in a mirror, but the redness subsided within a few hours, leaving a dime-sized lump that is still visible a week later.

I used "Spiders and Their Kin" to tentatively identify the mangled remains of the spider as a small Brown Recluse ('Loxosceles reclusa'). Just in case I needed to go see my doctor, I put the spider into a baggie and froze it. Luckily, my forehead didn't dissolve---according to the Levis, "In severe cases...the wound grows deeper and does not heal for several months."

At any rate, "Spiders and Their Kin" is a handy book to have around. I bought a copy for my sister when she found what she thought was a Black Widow in her garage, and I also got a copy for myself in order to identify the gigantic black and yellow spider that was hanging head-down in my Japanese Spiraea (it was---or maybe I should say, she was a Black and Yellow Argiope ('A. aurantia').

When I first bought this book, just looking at the cover made me itch. However, it is filled with fascinating little tidbits about Arachnids and their kin. I used to think that Hairy Mygalomorphs were the ugliest spiders on Earth (most especially the ones with ten inch leg spans), but now my vote goes to the Pirate Spiders ('Mimetidae'). Luckily, they are small spiders (4 - 6 mm), so you would have to use a magnifying glass to get the full impact of one of these hairy little dudes.

It is really rather impolite of me to make fun of 'Mimetidae,' since they help beautify my backyard by eating other spiders. According to the authors:

"Pirate Spiders invade webs of other spiders. The slow-moving Pirate Spider bites the web owner, which is quickly paralyzed and sucked dry through the legs, one after another."

Sounds like someone dining on crab legs.

The only fault I can find with "Spiders and Their Kin" is that it doesn't go into enough detail on the individual species and subspecies of Arachnids. And that's not a fair criticism to make, since Golden Nature Guides are meant to be used for quick identification, not detailed research.

Now, I've got to work up my courage, venture outside, and try to identify that big brown spider that has built her web from the house electrical line down to the clematis beside the porch door. Her abdomen is wider than it is long, she has striped legs, and she only comes out after dark...

By the way, "Spiders and their Kin" has a useful chapter on 'Collecting Spiders.' If you're an arachnophobe like I am, learning more about these critters might be the quickest way to cure yourself.

Now that I have made it I can tell you that this book had many mistakes. It doesn't give information on the different schools and the phone numbers that they do give were wrong. The advice on course selection was wrong as well. It devotes half a page to the MCAT and I can tell you this test is worth more than half a page of commentary.

I am definitely a non-traditional student. This book has taught me many things I would have never known about. Like the fact that I should volunteer, be a leader in school clubs, etc, etc. I haven't applied to med-school yet, but I definitely know more about what it does take to get in.

I gave this book to my daughter in the middle of her freshman year. She was a premed major and did not do very well her first term. after reading the book she changed her major, became a volunteer EMT, did research and joined a women's Rugby team at school. These positioning steps resulted in her being admitted to medical school early in her junior year. She is now a third year medical student and attributes the book to getting in.

we then gave the book to a family friend whos daughter had good grades but did poorly on the mcats. after reading the book and following the sugestions she was accepted by 4 medical schools.

The book really worked, twice.It is best to read thye book in your Freshman year.