Every Christmas Eve, I set aside a few minutes to listen to my CD of Dylan reading "A Child's Christmas" in Wales, placing the special emphasis only he can on the frustrated Mr. Prothero trying to put out a fire in his house, the neighborhood St. Bernards who bellow "Excelsior!" over the town, and the churchgoers who, with taproom noses, go scooping over the ice. The older I get, the more I need this little piece. As friends and family are, for one reason or another, lost with the passing years, it gets harder and harder to laugh, even at Christmas, but Dylan Thomas gives me a good giggle every time.

Growing up, my father had a copy of the original vinyl recording of this from the 1950's. Every Christmas it came out and was played, and now I can't think of Christmas without it. After being unavailable for decades, I'm delighted to see this record once again available. Few people know that Dylan Thomas gained fame in his lifetime as a radio personality, and the dry, droll voice of his takes his fantastic prose and breathes a life into it that the simple words themselves cannot demonstrate. A classic, recommended to all.

Dylan Thomas has, well, how can I put it - a way with words. This is a delightful and extremely droll prose poem, without which Christmas just wouldn't be the same for me. And the author's reading voice is nothing short of magnificent.

Improving on his '96 Waterdance, Schatz provides glorious images made magically possible in that altered dream-world where all things are possible and more beautiful. This book will undoubtably provide us with more Schatz images that continue to re-shape the related worlds of film and advertising.

Absolutely beautifully photographed book. Schatz captures the God given beauty of the models under water with perfect taste. This is his best book by far. Yes far better than his most recent book Nude Body Nude.The dancers and models in this book appear to be much more natural and have a graceful beauty that almost makes you forget their nude; as opposed to the cliche "sexy" look that is typical of other models.

As a photographer, choreographer and dancer myself, I tend to be a tough sell on books which hype a photographer's mastery of the human form, particularly where dance or dancers are concerned. But such is my appreciation, and awe, of what Schatz has accomplished in his water studies that I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw that he had published "Pool Light."

Less a book about dancers than about the incredible beauty of the human body, "Pool Light," transcends the very things which frustrate us as movers. In this book, the photographer and his models make us believe in both flight and fantasy. They inspire us to see shape unihibited by gravity or earthly confines. And they succeed in taking nudity, within a photographic environment, out of the controversial realms of "indecency" and restoring it to art in the way the great painters have seen it.

Technically, the work is nothing short of a marvel. Great photography, like any great art, deceives the viewer into believing that what they see is so easy, so natural, as to be routinely simple. In "Pool Light," we see none of the sweat, none of the frustration and aches (and presumably water-logged participants), which must certainly have gone into each image. Instead, we are invited simply to see that most classic of forms, and ancient of muses, the human figure, shown, through the most contemporary of techniques, in a way which celebrates both even as it transcends our sense of their limitations.

"Baby ER" is an incredibly dramatic story of hope, fear, miracles, and joy. For parents like myself who have experienced this situation, it will be like revisiting an unforgettable time in our lives. For those who have had the wondrous luck of never having walked in those particular shoes, it is an eye-opening account of a world known to a few. I appreciated the fact that Humes drew from his own first-hand knowledge of what the parents go through during this stressful time. In documenting the stories of three different families during their stays from the critical first hours of life to the unforgettable conclusions, he tells each story with sensitivity and compassion, as a father who has been there should. This is an outstanding book that should be shared with anyone going through this situation, and with every doctor, nurse, and other health-care professional who might be connected with the care of children.

this book is great! it follows the real life happenings of a nicu in california. it follows the cases of several families, through their ups adn downs, and everything in between. there are babies that recover fine, some that recover with problems, adn some do die. it also talks about things from the doctors and nurses perspectives, and gives some history of neonatology. a great book for preemie parents, non preemie parents (i am not, and just loved this book), doctors, nurses, etc. very good read.

Once you have started the emotional roller-coaster ride with these families and their sick children you cannot stop and put the book down. You are there...right there in the NICU with these families. Your stomach is churning and your heart is breaking as if it is your child that you are looking at through the glass, unable to hold or even touch. From genetic disorders, to drug abuse in expectant mothers, to no explanation... it just happens... you feel the days turning into what seems like a lifetime for these parents(and in some cases literally is a lifetime). The author pulls you in and does not let you go until you have experienced every set-back and milestone imaginable in a newborn's life. Because of the dedication of the doctors and nurses who go above and beyond and their remarkable ability to save these precious lives, you are left feeling hopeful, having shed a lot of tears, but smiling throughout. Read this book and the next hug you give your own child...Oh, what a feeling and a gift!

Bloodstones fills every need that a sword and sorcery reader has. The character,Kane, is truely the hero or un-hero, your choice, that we all seek to follow. Sporting the triple "B's", Big, Brutal, and Brilliant he shows the reader survival and success techniques that apply even in today's market arena. I am constantly amazed at the intricate flow of intrigue Wagner created. I have read the book three times and then lost my copy. I am now on my own quest for the "bloodstone" and the power of it's story.

If you liked Bloodstone, the rest of the series is a must read. Wagner has managed to create the near perfect anti-hero. I would also recommend "Killer", a book he co-authored with David Drake. Not a sword and sorcery tale, but good sci-fi.

In the book a worrier name Kane who seems immortal and ageless, finds an ancient relic in the booty of a bloody raid. With this relic he seeks to unearth and awaken an ancient power with which he will rule the earth. It is a gory tale of a man part savage, part sage, with a touch of satanic seasoning, and lust to rule the planet he is doomed to stride for eterity. If you loved Kane you should try and read some of Wagners other tales of Kane Like : Dark Crusade, of Darkness weaves both excellent, and they give hint to his past.

There are two separate matters to consider here: the nature of this volume of Auden's collected poems, & the poetry itself. To tackle the first issue: this is not a _Complete_ but a _Collected Poems_, & this is a crucial difference. Auden was a perpetual reviser & assembled his canon with care. As with Robert Lowell his revisions are sometimes bewildering attempts to remake himself & his work in a very public manner. Auden grew to hate many of his best & most famous poems, notably "Sir, no man's enemy", "September 1, 1939" & "Spain 1937", & these are all excluded here, along with countless others. Late in his career Auden massively revised & pruned his canon, a project that was apparently prompted by his horror at the unprincipled use of his most famous line ("We must love one another or die") by Lyndon B Johnson in a notorious 1964 t.v. ad. (He was right to distrust that line's easy quotability: in the wake of Sep 11th the poem has enjoyed renewed popularity, which is pretty bizarre for a poem with lines like "Out of the mirror they stare, / Imperialism's face / And the international wrong.") Thus this volume presents a drastically lopsided view of Auden's work, & for this reason I cannot recommend it to anyone as an introduction to Auden's work. Nearly half of this book's 927 pages is taken up by work from the late 1940s up to Auden's death in 1973, & only the most ardent admirers of Auden will be able to find much of value in the final few hundred pages, facile, prolix & chatty verse which greatly disappointed Auden's contemporaries in his lifetime & which reads no better now. Anyone actually interested in the poetry that made Auden an important & influential poet should turn to the _Selected Poems_ & _The English Auden_. The former reprints the earliest printed texts of poems; the latter the texts as they stood when Auden left for the USA. This is an important distinction, especially for one of his most famous poems, "Spain". In the _Selected_ this appears in the 1937 version, which contains a stanza referring to the need to commit "the necessary murder". Orwell viciously attacked this line in a pair of essays, dishonestly distorting it into an apologia for Stalinist purges in "Inside the Whale". Auden, probably in response to the earlier of the two essays, altered the stanza in the 1940 version (entitled "Spain, 1937"), & eventually deleted the poem from his oeuvre. Auden nonetheless (rightly) defended the original version of the line, arguing that it was an honest attempt to speak of the possibility of a "just war", against the absolutist pacificist position that all wars are wrong, while nonetheless not downplaying the brutality of war.

About the poetry I can't say enough within the space of a brief review. Auden is probably the most influential English-language poet of the 20th century, & depending on your perspective must take much of the credit or blame for the midcentury retreat in the UK & US from the modernist & avantgarde styles of the early 20th century. (For good polemical histories of this shift, take a look at Jed Resula's _The American Poetry Wax Museum_ & Keith Tuma's _Fishing by Obstinate Isles_.) Auden was probably the most technically accomplished poet of the century, & yet this is not enough: by the end the verse fell into an obsessively genial & cozy facility carefully gutted of the urgency of his earlier work. His canon is still rather in need of a strongly revisionist survey: his most famous poems are sometimes justly so (the sublime "Lullaby", one of the century's great love poems) and sometimes in need of demotion ("Musee des Beaux Arts" for instance opens with one of the most fatuous lines in all of modern poetry: "About suffering they were never wrong, / The Old Masters."; & the elegy for Freud is like other of Auden's poems disfigured by nursery-talk & condescension). This volume makes me ultimately rather sad, that a poet with such enormous promise (the work he wrote in his early 20s is still utterly astonishing in its accomplishment & daring) never quite made good on it, & even came to hate much of his own best work. Turn to the _Selected Poems_ to get a better measure of what Auden was as a writer.

"Collected Poems" brings together Auden's greatest poetic work, which was abundant, diverse and always masterful. It's difficult to describe the breadth of his work -- emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, technically. From a purely technical standpoint, however, I've never seen as many first rate sonnets, sestinas, classical odes by one poet in one place. Auden is the only poet I've ever encountered who seems incapable of writing badly. In my humble opinion, no one surpasses him in the 20th century in the English language.

Auden is at once one of the most interesting and heartfelt poets of the 20th Century, whilst being quite underrated as one of the world's best. This volume does an exceptional job in capturing Auden's works in the way that he himself wanted them to be seen. While there are a multitude of purists who cannot abide by any poet's natural tendency to revise his works as life experiences mold his perspective, that Mendelson made the relatively bold decision to publish the augmented Auden is quite refreshing, in my view. These are the works of a man who transgressed the need for set structures, and didn't sacrifice substance for the sake of style. In essence, his poetry was the truest expression of his ideals.

In regards to the book itself, it was tastefully put together, and is a definite asset to any poetry collection. The font and paper stock are smooth and refined, making the poetry easy to read in varying degrees of light. The poems are arranged in a roughly chronological order...once again, the way that Auden himself preferred.

Considering that I own a number of old volumes of Auden's poetry --including first editions-- I can assure any potential buyer that Mendelson took no liberties with this volume. I wish other collections could claim the same.

"Ah, to find a book of a certain Wystan Hugh,
Is to find a gem in a field of residue;
It has been a long time coming, but in my hands I hold
A paper book of Auden, worth its weight in gold"

John Marshall defined American law, politics and power. This book paints a vivid picture of who Marshall was, and why he is still important today. The author does an excellent job stating the facts and letting the reader decide for her/himself whether or not Marshall did the right or wrong in the very important decisions he made. This book is enlightening and well written. Marshall's life is wonderfully told through the authors use of clear and concise writing. This book is excellent. It clarifies many misconceptions of this great man who came out of a generation that claims many great men. Marshall may be the least understood of them all, but he certainly is no less important than any of his contemporaries in forming and defining the United States of America.

Those who decry the current state of judicial affairs in this country will be interested to learn that our modern court system has changed very little since its inception back in the 18th Century. This, along with many other scholarly insights, is the compelling undercurrent running through Jean Edward Smith's John Marshall: Definer of a Nation.

Smith, no stranger to scholarship himself, guides the reader in painstaking detail through the rise of one of the most renoun jurists of early American history, John Marshall. Marshall, who served his country first as a soldier under General George Washington and later as the first truly influential chief justice of the Supreme Court, is a figure ripe for investigation at this particularly legal-oriented period in our history. For it was Marshall who, in his landmark decision, Marbury v. Madison, first gave rise to the notion of judicial review, the concept that suggests that the Supreme Court indeed has final say over the constitutionality of a given state action.

What is fascinating about Marshall's life is how bitterly he had to fight to establish what we today take for granted, the Court's supreme authority. Marshall's relentless pursuit of a powerful judiciary was often at odds with the vision of his fellow founding father, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, who pushed for a small, decentralized federal government in a largely agrarian America, was constanly at odds with Marshall, and the tale of their stormy political battles resonates throughout the pages of Smith's biography.

Of course, the philosophical musings and feindishly political battles of our founding fathers may not make for interesting reading for everyone. Smith's book is chock full of obscure anectdotes and oftentimes difficult-to-get-through detail. All the same, the interested reader seeking to understand just how our current court system got to be this way can do worse than pick up Smith's tome for some insight. For, in the end, the battles fought between America's early political titans bear a strong correlation to -- and perhaps even explain -- blips on the judicial radar screen now called things like "O.J."

The author acknowledges up front that the book has little to say that is critical of the great Chief Justice. Nevertheless, the author presents a balanced view of the man and his times. As befits one of the greatest writers in legal history, Smith's prose is clear, precise and entertaining. Given Marshall's long tenure on the Court and his many accomplishments and associations with great historical figures, this book should be of interest to anyone with a serious interest in American History. One is left with the strong impression that Marshall's role in shaping the government has not been fully appreciated.

Lee the last years is a great read on the life of ROBERT E LEE after the war between the states.
My only complaint is that I would have liked just a little more reaction to lee's death around the South,and north ...

It is good that someone write about Robert E. Lee's final years after the U.S. Civil War. Charles B. Flood has written a fitting summary of Lee's final years (1865-1870) from the surrender at Appomatax to his final years at Lexington, VA. Lee is portrayed as a silent, thoughtful, regretful, gentleman who may have chosen to rebel against his former army, but still is a proud and dignified man. Flood is to be commended in bringing out the characteristics of the private, distinguished gentleman that Lee was. From his dealings with his family to the students at Washington University, his thoughts, motivations and insights are given with honesty and clarity. This is the definitive work of the last quiet years of Robert E. Lee, and is highly recommended for all U.S. History/U.S. Civil War History enthusiasts.

This book shows a side of Robert E. Lee that seems to have been lost in the history books. After the end of the Civil War, we hear little or nothing about General Lee. In truth, he died five years after the war ended, but he made the most of that time in trying to repair the damage done by the war. This book is an excellent chronicle of those years.

Lee lost most of his property during the war. He was a career soldier, and didn't have many prospects for employment. He hoped to move onto a farm and to live quietly in the country.

However, other plans were being made for him. The trustees of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, voted unanimously to offer him a job as president of the college. Lee was not a professional educator (although he had served as superintendent of West Point), but the trustees believed that his leadership and integrity were just what the college needed to survive the harsh economy left by the war. For his part, Lee saw this as an opportunity to help young Southern men to become productive citizens.

The college's wager paid off. Enrollment grew each year that Lee spent at the helm. The college developed new programs, and Lee's stature and good reputation were such that Washington College received large donations from philanthropists, even in the Northern states. Lee took a personal interest in the students, learning to address them by name and taking responsibility for disciplinary measures.

Yet Lee's last five years were not years of unabated bliss. His health declined steadily, his wife was an invalid, his brother died, and his reputation suffered from some unjust attacks in Northern newspapers. Throughout it all, Lee held his head high and maintained his dignity, his character, and his principles.

Lee put much effort into healing the wounds left by the war. He appreciated the esteem in which he was held by his fellow Southerners, but he encouraged them to be loyal citizens of the United States of America. He never said a word against General U.S. Grant, and even rebuked an employee of Washington College who did. One of the most fascinating (and mysterious) episodes in the book is Lee's trip to Washington, D.C., to visit President Grant in the White House. No one else was present for the meeting, and so no one really knows what they discussed.

The book ends abruptly with an account of Lee's death, without going reporting on his funeral and his family's life without him. Even so, this book makes great reading and has fascinating insights into the private life of an American icon.

For more than 30 years, I've been searching for a copy of The Witch Family. It's been in libraries but I couldn't remember the proper title or author until one day last year, I stumbled upon listings for Eleanor Estes quite by accident. I quickly grabbed up a beaten up copy (which was very comforting....it looked just like the one I used to repeatedly check out of the library back in the 1960's!). I stood there and hugged the book and then rushed home and tried to explain to my husband that I was 8 years old again and I had business with Amy, Clarissa and the little witch girl to attend to. Why is this book so special? I don't know...Maybe because I moved a lot and always had to make new friends, where Amy and Clarissa were inseparable best friends. Maybe because of the wonderful imagery and fantasy level: the fear and fascination of witches and the idea of a sweet baby witch girl conjured up by the girls' drawings. There was also a mermaid and baby mermaid...what little girl wouldn't be in heaven with all these characters? I think another attraction of the book is that it's virtually adult-free. There is a wicked old witch but even her actions are controlled by Amy and Clarissa. I believed in this book wholeheartedly. I could picture the girls trick or treating on Halloween, I could hear the effect their stopped up noses had on their voices when they had to stay in because they had colds, I believed that if I looked closely at the moon, I'd see the little witch girl, baby in tow, on her broomstick. I love this book. When I finally re-discovered it, I was returned to my childhood.

When I was a little girl I loved all books having to do with magic, and especially witches. This book was my all-time favorite. I checked it out of the library so many times that eventually the card in the back was filled up with my signature on both sides!

This book is about magic, but it's also about the power of imagination. The Witch family, all though very real in their own right, have been created out of the mind of little girl who's mother first introduced her to them. Amy appoints herself caretaker to the witch family, and through the pictures she draws of them she can keep tabs on all that is going on in their world "up on the great glass moutain".

A benchmark of good childrens literature, this book holds up under the test of time. I have re-read it as an adult and still enjoyed it very much. I can't wait until my own children are old enough for me to share it with them.

It has been 30 years since I have seen this book--I never owned it, and it was a non-circulating book in the local children's library-- but the summer I turned seven, I spent hours reading this book day by day in the children's section of the library at Lincoln Center while my parents did their graduate work upstairs in the adult collection. I still vividly recall the characters: Amy with hair the color of moonlight whose mother gave her a lambchop for lunch each day, Clarissa with hair the color of sunlight whose mother gave her spaghetti for lunch each day, Malachi the Bumblebee, and, of course, the make-believe characters Hannah and her baby sister and the Old Witch and the mermaids who lived in the Big Glass Hill. Back in those days, we did not have any super-heros (no female ones, anyway), no Wonder Woman, no Warrior Princesses capering across the TV in their undies, not even Sailor Moon and co., and so if you wanted to make believe you could fly, Hannah the Little Witch Girl was all there was. My friends and I used to pretend to be Hannah and Amy and Clarissa in a gem-studded forest landscape taken from James Thurber's The White Deer. On imaginary broomsticks, we careened around stuffy apartments full of couches and dining chairs holding loquatious, boring adults. The book also holds appeal for the child with a systematic mind--the sort of child who types out alphabetical lists of dinosaur species will also enjoy writing out alphabetical compendia of all the runes spoken in the story!

I whipped thorugh this book in two days. It provides an excellent exposé of an alternative natural way to prevent and cure cancer throug nutrition, and the forces in government and in large pharmaceutical firms that are fighting to keep the secret from us. This book serves as an eye opener to anybody who has ever wondered why there has been so little progress in the fight against cancer, despite the vasts sums of money being invested.

I have cancer and I believe that had I read this book before my surgery, I probably would not be paralyzed. This book goes into great detail on the big cover up for the cure for cancer. I am in the process of getting what I need to fight this thing that is inside of me. I am also refusing radiation and chemotherapy. The only reason that I did not give this book 5 stars is because I believe that the author is a bit too detail. He really does get his point across because he mentions names and places where things took place and was discovered. If you have cancer or someone you know has cancer, then you need to read this book. It is a shame that people are dying because of other hungry people for the almighty dollar.

This book has changed my entire perspective about cancer, medicine, politics, and big business. No one needs any longer to become victim to the ravages of cancer, traditional cancer treatments and the greed of the cancer industry. This 2 part book first gives the layman an insiders powerful understanding about cancer from the earliest pioneers and heros of cancer research to the practical cancer-free life available today. Second, this well-documented expose of the billion dollar cancer industry will leave chills running down your spine. Finally, the author's quick and rivoting style effortlessly engages the reader - leaving no excuse for anyone to ignorantly fall prey to the deadly deception of cancer conmen!

I have a few E.E. Cummings books of poetry, but quickly despaired of every finding them all. This collection is a terrific resource for someone who simply wishes to have all the poems collected in one volume.

Typography was preserved very well (with Cummings this is critical), and I find the order of appearance by date helpful in charting his growth as a poet; the first few poems are radically different from the later ones.

Of course, acquiring his individual issues has its own appeal, but if you simply want to have his work easily at hand, this is your only choice (the indexing at the back is extrememly good at helping you remember a poem by its first lines).

ee cummings is a magnificent poet - almost as much of a visual artist as writer. His poems fall and flow and jump and dance, their patterns and punctuation adding so much more to the words and essence of meaning. I have tried reading cummings' work aloud: it never quite works. He has an exceptional turn of phrase, and with one line (give or take a pattern or two) can bring about powerful emotive responses.
This book is fantastic - I had quite a lot of difficulty finding collections of his poetry, and although I'd found a couple of small volumes, this one was exhaustive. I reread it - or at least parts thereof - more often than any other poetry book I own, and always seem to discover another nuance or aspect or pattern that I hadn't seen before. cummings wraps you in words, and the best way I can think of to describe how I feel after reading his works is to steal a quote from one of his poems - "such strangeness as was mine a little while."
Worldwords. And he is the creator of my favourite quotation of all time...
"listen:
there's a hell of a good universe next door:
let's go."
And there is.

e.e. cummings is a master of the English language. The way he uses words to paint a picture will leave you breathless and touch your heart. These are not poems to be read lightly...you will need to think about what has been written and how, but I think that each poem in its own way will reflect a part of your own life once you figure out exactly what is being said. His combinations of words are unique and beautiful and create a melody of poetry that you will fall in love with. "rain fell(as it will in spring) ropes of silver gliding from sunny thunder into freshness as if god's flowers were pulling upon bells of gold" How could you not want to read this?