When's the last time you just had a really good time reading a book? Have you ever finished an anthology and thought, "I'd really like to hang out with those guys!"? If it's been far too long -- for instance, if your answer was something like never -- you're long overdue for a treat. Fortunately, if you're in the mood for a bit of fun, Quantum Musings is just what you need.

Gallant, Coulombe, and Goyette are the minds behind the monthly web-zine Quantum Muse, a particular favourite among internet denizens. This is the hip side of science fiction, fantasy, and alternative fiction -- a judgement that is borne out by Rebecca Kemp's sassy portrait of their Muse that graces the site and the cover of the collection. One look at that tongue-in-cheek graphic and you know in an instant that you are not setting out on your standard genre venture.

That's putting it mildly.

Take a look at Michael Gallant's offerings. "God Picks Up the Tab." Come to think of it, I'd say that title speaks for itself as well as Gallant's slightly twisted sense of humour does. The dry wit and fatalistic attitude of the narrator makes "Staring at Bruno, Waiting to Die" far more poignant than a quick synopsis could possibly convey. The story stands out as one of the most impressive selections in the book. "Alternative" tales would appear to be Gallant's true calling, outshining even his science fiction and fantasy in Quantum Musings.

Now, Raymond M. Coloumbe has a decidedly wicked and skewed way of looking at the world. What he sees is not like Gallant's view, or Goyette's, or yours, or mine. What it does seem most similar to is the way life actually is, if we had the guts to really examine it and see the truth for ourselves. Who really wants to dig deeper into something like "Government Myths"? If you're not going to appreciate the answer, Coloumbe points out, maybe you shouldn't ask the question. If "Death in Haiti" leaves you with one less thing to blame for your troubles, maybe you shouldn't venture there.

In the science fiction portion of Quantum Musings, Timothy O. Goyette's "The Swami of Time" is the showpiece. The interplay between the relatively human hero and the much more likeable squib is a priceless glimpse of the "odd couples" possible when we finally meet up with someone or something completely unlike ourselves. "Human Factors" takes an unflinching look at our all-too human characteristics. Only "The Wishmaker's Magic Box" hints that there might be some of us worth the trouble of saving.

Three different authors with their own styles and outlooks, but the joining is almost seamless. Like their quirky Muse, none of them takes life too seriously, or dismisses it too lightly. The combination makes for a captivating read and a thought-provoking after-read. Not to mention just barely whetting your appetite for more of the same...

The publishing world is changing - slowly, perhaps so slowly that it's hard to notice - but trust me, it is. POD (that's "Publishing on Demand" for you non-biz people) is really starting to become a viable means of presenting the work of both established and up-and-coming authors in an easy, efficient, and, best of all, cheap manner. So don't scoff at Internet publishing just because it doesn't smell of binding glue. Keeping this in mind, checking out this book is a must if you want to see the future of science fiction. Brought to you by the three men who brought you www.quantummuse.com (one of the top-rated new sites for science fiction), "Quantum Musings" is a wonderful collection of stories from the website. What makes them such great stories, in my not-so-humble opinion, is that not only are these men writers, they're gigantic fans of the genre, and that helps a lot - they know what works and what doesn't, and their critical minds and knowledge of convention help make for great stories. Of course, sometimes convention gets tossed out the window, and that's all right as well - every genre needs a little shaking up on occasion. And, in the midst of all this, they don't take themselves too seriously, which is an utter blessing. The humor is rampant through the book, both in the stories and sidenotes - trust me, you'll spend a lot of time laughing when you pick up this volume. I guess my only complaint is that it isn't bigger - but I guess that if you take my advice and buy this book, we can expect to see more volumes in the future of some of the best new voices in sci-fi, fantasy, and alternative literature.

These writers are crazzy, they are just the kind of people I would love to hang out with and talk about everything. I could not put this book down, and I highly recomend it to anyone who not only wants a good laugh, but wants to read what is lacking in many of writings of our day...wit, and intelligence. Do yourself a favour and read something that wont let you down...this collection of stories. Good job Muse!

The reviewer who said that this was the best book of its kind on the subject is right. I use this book to teach a college course in Religion in America to freshmen, and they find it fascinating. While most books of articles have a few winners and a lot of articles that are not very engaging, each offering in this book is so interesting that I occasionally reread them for pleasure. Hackett and the authors of the articles have keyed in on issues central to the religious experience of Americans from many traditions.

David Hackett is an unaturally gifted writer, scholar, and dude. The Reader became an instant favorite of mine upon having the desire to rekindle my days of studying the sociology of religion with Dr. Hackett at the University of Florida. Each chapter provides insight into Americans as religious folk living in a secular world. For all those interested in American religion, culture, and society; Religion and American Culture : A Reader is much more than a competent professor's ladder climbing to tenure. It is a masterwork.

I had the privilege of studying Religion and American Culture with Dr. Hackett. This text was effective in its presentation of American Religious History, and made a special effort to include scholarship that focused on forgotten/ignored aspects of American Religious History, including African-Americans, Women, and Native Americans.

While it is of the most benefit to those engaged in formal academic study, it should prove insightful to most any reader with an interest in the subject matter.

If you are looking for a fun and interesting commentary on the "evolution" of our current educational system, you will enjoy this book. It is tongue in cheek while hitting the mark about trends in the educational system. This book comments on everything from religion to marriage to economics to afterschool programs.

The characters Wayne and Peddiwell are wonderful, especially after they down several tequila daisies.

Don't let the 1959 date fool you. Or the reference to curriculum. We have yet to learn and employ the lessons this book provides in education, in the military, in the analysis of clinical trials, and in socal policy. (Aren't we about to build a multi-trillion dollar missile system to keep out knife-wielding terrorists?)

Paleolithic education will still be fashionable in the 21st century if educators of today are not going to do some reflections.

A wonderfully written book that will interest anyone that has visited one, or more of the many old forts up and down the East Coast of the United States. This book will be extremely fascinating to anyone with the least bit of curiosity about old forts. The author is very knowledgable about the subject matter and does a brilliant job of conveying information in a way that makes it understandable to an amateur, while still being insightful to a professional in the field of coastal fortification history.

Ray Lewis has provided a super walk through the history of seacoast artillery in America. Nobody has done it better.

In the thirty years since this book was published, one always hoped another would equal or surpass it. None has, or perhaps ever will. It is a marvelous history of the Forts along the American Seacoast, both Atlantic and Pacific, and even the Phillipines. Any Fort enthusiast MUST read this book. The author captures so much information, so many views, so much perspective in so few pages, the book is breathtaking. It is easily the finest book on its chosen subject, which is why it never goes out of print. If Forts interest you, Read it. Period.

The photographs from the author's collection, the army's files, the National Archives, etc. are worth its price. But the text, the clear delineation of the periods of Fort Building since 1794 in the US, and the differentiation of the periods, are so worth while.

Ray manages to be both terse, and pithy. It is a great tribute to any author to say that.

This is a MUST read for anyone interested in the subject, even one only interested in their own local Fort, and how it relattes to the defense plans of the United States when it was built.

There is NO better book to read on the subject. None.

This little book is awesome !!! I find it hard to leave this book alone since i got it.

Gypsy Fortune telling Features: Palmistry, Tea leaf reading, Dice, Poker Card, Tarot Card and others.

My favorite has always been the dice method, which is easy and accurate and the palmistry section, which is very informative and i hope that this section could be expanded.
This little book is worth the money and the time.
Overall, excellent and clear illustrations, definitions and explanations on every method. Ray gave good instructions in this book.
i only wish that every section in this book could be more elaborated.

This cute little inexpensive book offers a lot of information on methods of divination different than the tarot and runes. I especially enjoy the section on die casting; although most of the questions are about love, I found the answers to be amazingly accurate. The rest of the book contains hand reading, tea leaves, crystal gazing, card reading, dominoes, moles, fire reading, gemstones, knives, and omens. A good resource for those who wish to try their hand at divination.

This book had many ways of divination in which to use. It had great areas in which you could apply the divination. I have read this book so many times the pages are falling out! That is how much I loved this book!

Here are six essays by John Ashbery about six of his favourite minor poets, ranging from John Clare, born in 1790s England, to David Schubert, born 1913 in New York. John Brooks Wheelwright and Laura Riding are included, from the early 20th century, as is Raymond Roussel (a French precursor to anti-novelists, a specialist in parenthetical labyrinths, and endlessly detailed descriptions of bottle-labels). We have, too, the doomed author of "Death's Jest Book," the 19th-century poet Thomas Lovell Beddoes.

These essays are engaging and readable, informed and informative without being pedantic. There are anecdotes, too (about Riding, most notably, who is aptly diagnosed by Ashbery as "a control freak"). We notice that half of the authors are homosexual or possibly so, most either committed suicide or had a parent who did so, three were affected by mental problems, and the majority were ardent leftists (Riding being an exception).

To this reader, the two Johns, Clare and Wheelwright, are the most immediately endearing, and David Schubert's disjunctive colloquial tone does fascinate. Some of the comments about the gang of six do shed some light into Ashbery's curious methods: Clare's mucky down-to-earthiness and Beddoes' elegant, enamelled "fleurs-du-mal" idiom both being "necessary" components of poetry, in Ashbery's view. Some of Wheelwright's elastic sonnets have a Saturday Evening Post-type folksiness that is often found in Ashbery's own poetic inventions; Schubert's poems (in Rachel Hadas's words) "seem(ing) to consist of slivers gracefully or haphazardly fitted together." An aside: Look at the first two lines of Schubert's "Happy Traveller." Couldn't that be John Ashbery? About Raymond Roussel, whose detractors accuse him of saying nothing, Ashbery mounts an impatient defence that reads like a self-defence: "If 'nothing' means a labyrinth of brilliant stories told only for themselves, then perhaps Roussel has nothing to say. Does he say it badly? Well, he writes like a mathematician."

We learn that Ashbery is not fond of E E Cummings, and he is unconvincingly semi-penitent of this "blind spot": Cummings, with his Herrick-like lucidity, his straightforward heterosexuality, and his resolute nonleftism, would not appear to fit nicely into Ashbery's pantheon. Ashbery even takes a few mischievous swipes at John Keats -- rather, he quotes George Moore doing so. Ashbery will doubtless forgive his readers if our enthusiasm for the poetry of Keats and Cummings remains undiminished.

There is much in the poetry explored by "Other Traditions" that is dark and bothersome; but there are felicities. These lectures form a fascinating kind of ars-poetica-in-prose by one of America's cleverest and most vexing of poets.

Every once in a while, I come across a book that opens up new doors for me. They introduce to me to areas of life that I otherwise might never have encountered. Other Traditions by John Ashbery is just such a book.

I have always had a love for, but limited knowledge of, Poetry. It was Edward Hirsch's great book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry that first introduced me to Ashbery's work. He is, in my opinion, one of the greatest living poets. Therefore, I jumped at the opportunity to read Other Traditions.

Other Traditions is the book form of a series of lectures given by Ashbery on other poets. Ashbery writes about six of the lesser-known artists who have had an impact on his own life and work. All of them are fascinating. They are:

-John Clare, a master at describing nature who spent the last 27 years of his life in an Asylum.

-Thomas Lovell Beddoes, a rather death obsessed author (he ended up taking his own life) whose greatest poetry consists of fragments that must often be culled from the pages of his lengthy dramas.

-Raymond Roussel, a French author whose magnum opus is actually a book-length sentence.

-John Wheelwright, a politically engaged genius whose ultra-dense poetry even Ashbery has a hard time describing or comprehending.

-Laura Riding, a poet of great talent and intellect who chose to forsake poetry (check out the copyright page).

-David Schubert, an obscure poet who Ashbery feels is one of the greatest of the Twentieth Century.

The two that I was most pleasantly surprised by are Clare and Riding.

Clare has become (since I picked up a couple of his books) one of my favorite poets. He is a master at describing rural life. I know of no one quite like him. Ashbery's true greatness as a critic comes out when he depicts Clare as "making his rounds."

Riding, on the other hand, represents the extreme version of every author's desire for the public to read their work in a precise way--the way the author intends it to be read. Her intense combativeness and sensitivity to criticism is as endearing as it is humorous.

Other Traditions has given me a key to a whole new world of books. For that I am most grateful.

I give this book my full recommendation.

This book is much smaller than I thought it would be, but this only enhances its gem-like charm; from its rich cover to its finely homespun interior. I thought at first I had heard it all before from Ashbery, in his short Schubert and Roussel essays, and in comments dropped in Reported Sightings; but even when covering the same ground he subtly brings forth new worlds. It's refreshing to hear him talk of these beloved poets, like a tour through the comfortable rooms of his mind, which of course also offers countless insights into Ashbery's own career of poetic journeys. I recommend this book to both literary scavengers of the past and arcane poets of the future, but especially to the intriguing combination of both living a dream right now.

I thought this short story was very good! It is about a man(with an unknown name) that is sent to the spanish inquisistion and is stuck there for many nights. One night he later awakes and is awoken by a swinging pendulum coming down to slice him. The only way out is through a never ending pit or to be killed by a spiked pendulum...which way will he choose...read it and you will find out!

I really enjoy very much Poe's short stories, mainly those where he gives us only a glimpse in some part of his main character's life.

"The pit and the pendulum" has almost no begginig and no end. It's the story of a man condemned to death by the Inquisiton. This death is not a simple one, since he is thrown in a dungeon with no light and lots of dangers.

This short story is full of anguish and told in an almost hysterical way. The reader discovers the horrors of the dungeon together with the main character. We don't know his name, we don't know what he did to be condemned, we don't know where he came from, we don't know nothing at all about him. And yet we keep turning the pages to see whet's going to happen next.

Poe had a dark style of writing; he could toy with his reader's minds as well as with his character's minds, and that's what makes him a master of romantic-gothic storytelling.

Read with the lights on.

Grade 9.6/10

I think that this was a very exciting book. It's one of those books where you need to keep reading to find out what happns next and it's like you can't stop. The narrator is stuck in the Spanish inquisition and he discovers a pit--no one knows whats down there, but you can guess by context clues. Then he awakens to a pendulum swinging over him, that comes down so slow. Will he be cunning enough to escape? Read and find out!

This is a wonderful textbook for the practicing statistician, process engineer, or anyone who works with data on a regular basis. This book finds the right mix of statistical theory and practical applications of the statistical concepts to process troubleshooting. "Process Quality Control: Troubleshooting and Interpretation of Data" will be appropriate for a course taught to statistics majors as well as anyone in an engineering field, and it will also be a very valuable reference to anyone working in industry who is tasked with using data to make decisions about their processes.

The book is very thorough, covering everything from the basics of visualizing data (histograms, box plots, etc.) through basic DOE and SPC all the way to more sophisticated SPC concepts such as narrow-limit gauging, acceptance control charts, and cumulative sum charts. I cannot think of a topic in basic SPC that is not covered in this text. A great bonus is the CD that comes with the text that includes answers to all of the exercises and an add-in for Excel that performs Analysis of Means, making this great graphical tool for summarizing results of statistical analyses even more practical to use.

All in all, a very thorough text with many examples/case studies that would be useful to anyone in industry in charge of controlling and improving processes.

One of my prize possessions is this book, a copy of the original 1975 edition, signed by Professor Ott himself.

When I first got a job in Quality Assusrance, this was one of the books I consulted in my local college library. I soon found it was the best of the lot for its clear explanations, practical examples and sheer readability. When I came back into QA after working in another field, one of the first things I did was procure a copy of the book from a bookfinder - the 2nd hand copy I was delighted to discover also had Ott's signature!

It is great to see an updated edition is now on sale and that Ellis Ott's name is not forgotten, for he (as far as I can find out about him) is one of the unsung pioneers of Statistical Process Control. Ott is not longer with us, but the co-authors have sensibly decided to update a classic, rather than starting from scratch. The examples in the older book are as relevant today as they are then.

From what I can see, this book sticks to the philosophy of the earlier editions but has modernized its approach in some respects, especially in the notation of Experimental Design and in the use of Excel, which I also remommend as an easy-to-use PC tool. Highly recommended for practitioners of Statistical Process Control.

I recommend that this very well written text belong to every statistician who works in industry. Others such as mechanical, electrical, chemical, etc., engineers and scientists will also find this book to be a valuable reference. The book covers the breadth of useful statistical methods that industrial practitioners would likely encounter. Some topics such as implementing statistical process control, design of experiments with two or three factors, and troubleshooting with attributes and variables data are discussed extensively. Many real life examples from various industries are used throughout to illustrate the statistical concepts. All topics are well referenced enabling the reader to explore more thoroughly their areas of interest. The book also features a CD-ROM for the PC which contains datasets and solutions to practice exercises. An Excel add-in program is included for Analysis of Means [ANOM] of attributes and variables data the results of which are presented graphically.

The book is divided into three sections: Basics of Interpretation of Data, Statistical Process Control, and Troubleshooting and Process Improvement. The first section reviews many basic statistical concepts familiar to most statisticians. The second describes many facets of SPC some of which, such as Precontrol or Narrow-Limit Gauging in Process Control, the reader including myself may not be conversant, but will find useful in their own line of work. The last section describes what are probably underutilized but often very useful troubleshooting techniques. ANOM, for example, is a powerful way of analyzing data from industrial experiments with two or three factors resulting in graphics that can be used to clearly communicate conclusions to managers, to other engineers and scientists, and/or to operators on the shop floor.

I really enjoyed reading this book and am finding it to be a valuable reference to which I refer again and again.

Hank W. Altland Senior Project Engineer, Statistics Corning, Inc.

August 26, 2000

Over the past few years, re-engineering has gotten a bum rap. At best, it's been trivialized as a Dilbert-ism; at worst, it's a code word for layoffs. But as "The Re-engineering Handbook" shows, re-engineering is a very real -- and very sensible -- tool for evaluating and enhancing workplace productivity and competitiveness.

The book provides a concise overview of business process re-engineering. The exact process that the book uses (Rapid Re) is straightforward and manageable, especially when compared with other approaches such as Six Sigma. And no, the book doesn't simply recommend layoffs (in fact, it emphasizes job reassignment and re-training over wholesale terminations). The book is informative enough so that a workgroup with minimal re-engineering experience could at least get a healthy start into the process without first turning to a pricey consultant, though more background into specific techniques such as project management and process mapping are needed.

Written in the pre-Internet era, parts of the book seem dated. But the core techniques remain sound. "The Re-engineering Handbook" should be at the top of the reading list of anyone who expects to get involved with a re-engineering effort.

This book is essential for anyone need to involve with BPR.

Manganelli and Klein posit a process reengineering methodology that they call 'Rapid Re(TM)'. It consists of five phases: Preparation, Identification, Vision, Solution, and Transformation. The book explains each of the five phases and breaks them down into a 54 step action plan. Successfully communicates how their strategy should work and provides a number of concrete tools and examples for implementing this kind of project.

I've been saying this Novena for almost 20 years. It has been a source of comfort and strength to me and anyone I have recommended it to. The only place I've been able to find this book in recent years is at Amazon!

This book is a wonderful way to increase our awareness of the power of prayer and to help us realize that Our Blessed Mother always listens to us. I am glad I could finally get another copy!

This is a long Novena. It is 27 days of asking and 27 days of Thanksgiving. My mother has been saying this Novena for years. Not until I was over 30 did I borrow hers. I believe in this Novena. It is very powerful. As the book states, "A laborious Novena, but a Novena of Love. You who are sincere will not find it too difficult, if you really wish to obtain your request."