"The Birds of Paradise and Bowerbirds" is not just a book; it is a work of art, and a book-lover's delight. Executed in the tradition of the great 19th cent. bird folios of John Gould and J.J. Audubon, Cooper's paintings must be seen to be fully appreciated. His birds live and breathe on the page, and one can almost feel the humidity of New Guinea and northern Australia as the background of each plate is studied. With expertly written text by Joseph Forshaw. Although this enormous book is difficult to find and expensive, it is well worth the money and effort expended in securing a copy

A FORGOTTEN BLACK WARRIOR, THAT'LL NEVER FORGET..

I volunteered and was shipped to Korea as a rifleman,to the 24th Infantry Regiment's 2nd Battalion, G-Company, 1st Platoon, 1st Squad. where I was to serve from Dec.4 1950 until Sept. 1st, 1951. The regiment originally known as the Buffalo Soldiers, and can truely state that it was one of the most outstanding combat units in the Korean War.

In my book WHAT'S A COMMIE EVER DONE TO BLACK PEOPLE?, I wrote of my experiences, it details the psychological effect of the war, on a 17-year-old kid, It also tells the story of a black man's fight in a racist United States army. A war where we black soldiers soon realized the bitter irony of our situation--supposedly fighting to protect the rights and freedom of an ethnic people, many of us had never heard of before; even as that freedom was denied us in our own country. My experience was a rude awakening to the realities, not only of life and death, but of politics. Writing this book was one of the most difficult decision of my life. But perhaps it along with books like, BLACK SOLDIER WHITE ARMY, will serve as an inspiration to other Black-veterans, to tell their stories, A TRUE STORY of our history. Reflecting back now, at age 66, and realizing the advancements we Americans, of African decent have made, I feel very proud of my participation; and privilege to share my experiences with the younger generation.. And Yes. perhaps, if I had known then at the ages 17, what I know now, I too might've stayed home and remained in school (war is not like those in movies). But I didn't. I chose the road of adventure, The Creator spared me, perhaps to add this chapter, to the history of African-Americans in the making of this our great country..

Hopefully BLACK SOLDIER WHITE ARMY will impress upon the now generation, that the freedom and opportunities we now enjoy, African Americans also fought and died for it. Freedom, indeed, was not Free..

PS; Even now, 49 years afterward, tears come to my eyes, when I recall comrades, Whites, Blacks, Reds & Yellows, that gave their very all..

For those who love Key West, this book will confirm that affection. It will also offer insight into what it's like for those who arrive, fall in love with Key West, and decide to stay. The twenty delicious stories include one called "Leaf Woman," by Margit Bisztray, a revealing oblique peep into the interior life of a woman who typifies one of the many young people who swarm to Key West to find the only work available is low-end drone jobs. The cover with the Key West row house with the rooster perched on the railing of the porch is quintessential Key West.

I have read this book , and once again the authors from key west have brought me back to the Island that I long to call home. Especially Bruce Weiss's piece " Chicken Wars " was fabulous In my opinion Bruce is one of the best new authors of our time , and I can't wait to see what his next novel to read. Also David Kauflet piece was also excellent. Once again proving that he still has a great depth of talent to pull from. Definitely a book worth reading.

The third and latest short-story collection by a diverse and dedicated group of Key West resident-writers continues to keep a finger on the pulse of this tiny, delightfully deranged island. Their latest offering is whimsical, entertaining and right on target.

When rating Shakespeare, I am rating it against other Shakespeare; otherwise, the consistent 4-5 stars wouldn't tell you much. So if you want to know how this book rates against the general selection of books in the world, I suppose it might rate four stars; it certainly rates three. The language, as usual in Shakespeare, is beautiful. Still, it's far from Shakespeare's best.

For one thing, this is one of those cases, not uncommon in Shakespeare's comedies, in which the play has suffered a great deal by the changes in the language since Shakespeare's time; it loses a great deal of the humor inherent in a play when the reader needs to keep checking the footnotes to see what's happening, and this play, particularly the first half of it, virtually can't be read without constant reference to the notes; even with them, there's frequently a question as to what's being said. At least in the edition that I read (the Dover Thrift edition) the notes frequently admit that there's some question as to the meaning of the lines, and there is mention of different changes in them in different folios.

But beyond this, as an overweight, balding, middle-aged libertine, I object to the concept that Falstaff is ridiculous just because he is in fact unwilling to concede that it is impossible that a woman could want him. Granted, he's NOT particularly attractive, but that has more to do with his greed, his callousness, and his perfect willingness to use people for his own ends, to say nothing of his utter lack of subtlety.

Is it truly so funny that an older, overweight man might attempt to find a dalliance? So funny that the very fact that he does so leaves him open to being played for the fool? Remember, it isn't as though he refused to take "no" for an answer; he never GOT a "no". He was consistently led on, only to be tormented for his audacity. Nor is he making passes at a nubile young girl; the target of his amorous approaches is clearly herself middle-aged; after all, she is the MOTHER of a nubile young marriageable girl. And given the fact that she is married to an obnoxious, possessive, bullying and suspicious husband, it is not at all unreasonable for Falstaff to think that she might be unhappy enough in her marriage to accept a dalliance with someone else.

If laughing at fat old men who have the audacity not to spend the last twenty years of their lives with sufficient dignity to make it seem as if they were dead already is your idea of a good time, you should love this play. I'll pass.

i've just finished reading/watching all of shakespeare's comedies and mww is one of the funnier ones. it is a lighthearted look at marital jealousy and features one of shakespeare's great fools, falstaff (of henry iv fame). the out-and-out funniest shakepearean play is still "taming of the shrew", imho, but mwv runs well ahead of the laggards, and certainly well ahead of such better known plays as "twelfth night" and "as you like it".

Shakespeare, considering he wrote this little gem of a comedy in a mere 14 days for the Virgin Queen, pulls off a play that proves both witty and fun. Unequivocally, The Merry Wives of Windsor makes for a more enjoyable play if seen live. Nonetheless, reading it is the 2nd best thing.

Sir John Falstaff is once again such a fool - but a lovable and hilarious one at that. Having read Henry V - where Falstaff ostensibly had met his end - I was pleased to see him so alive(pardon the pun) in this short, albeit clever play. It is no surprise that The Merry Wives of Windsor enjoyed such a long and successful stage run during Shakespeare's day and continues to be one of his most popularly staged plays. Recommended as a fun break from the more serious and murderous Shakespearean tragedies.

"Why, then the world's mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open." - Pistol

William James is undoubtedly a great thinker. And he undoubtedly loves life, and loves mankind. This much is clear in his work - his sense of humor, insight, and approach to his topic are all evidence of this. James, however, cannot rightly be called a philosopher. While his ideas are insightful, and the abundance of them proves him a great thinker, his method of presentation and discussion falls short of the demanding science of western philosophy. James does not create a foundation of simple ideas and build upon them; he simply introduces a broad idea, and then does not even support it, but assumes that it is self evident.

Despite his flaws as a philosopher however, his work is a pleasure to read and, knowing its flaws, one can enjoy this book for what it is - a series of ideas and thoughts that do form a rather elegant approach to life, if not a true philosophy.

In his 1909 book Pragmatism, William James attempts to reconcile the grim eschatology of empiricism with the noble incentives of religion. James sets the stage by defining empiricists as "tough-minded" realists, deducing truth solely from material experience, and rationalists as "tender-minded" religious types, virtuous but prone to dogmatic thinking and an unverifiable belief in oneness. His answer to what he calls this "present dilemma of philosohy" is pragmatism, a bridging doctrine that seeks to value a "scientific loyatly to facts, and willingness to take account of them,...but also the old confidence in human values and the resultant spontaineity, whether of the relifious or of the romantic type." James posits that in order for truth to be truth, it must have "cash-value." He states, "The true is the name of whatever proves itself to be good in the way of belief, and good, too, for definite, assignable reasons." Simply put, James feels strongly that there must be a verifiable correlation between what we believe and what we experience. A righteous starting point.
Pragmatism is a stimulating read, and with his background in psychology, James delves profoundly into the rationalizations of human thinking. Despite its bold statements, the book has a kindly tone, and the author's earnest attempts to convince are without academic snideness or scorn. But as perceptive as Pragmatism is at times, James inevitably comes off as just an empiricist with a heart, as sort of a materialist's "compassionate conservative." Robert Frost biographer Jay Parini says that James was "trying to have his cake and eat it too" and inconsistencies do arise. Although abhorring a priori reasoning, James writes in the last chapter, "In the end it is our faith and not our logic that decides such questions, and I deny the right of any pretended logic to veto my own faith."
As for reconciling empiricism with religion, James does so by what would be called in twenty-first century business-speak as "moving the goal posts." He refuses to consider salvation and truth as absolute or universal, but believes them to be melioristic, ever shifting and contingent of the efforts of men. James regards truth as more of a plastic process than a promise, and the belief in God as useful--if it has value. As straight forward and pragmatic as James aims to be, there seems to lie beneath his arguments the unsettling thought that religion is a self-duping but necessary enterprise--that religious faith is true only to the degree that it gives us moral support in a harsh empirical world. In the final analysis William James can't seem to shake the fervor of his age that empirical science would supply all the answers concerning truth and man.

Depending on who you ask, american philosophy is an oxymoron. But the pragmatic schools of James, Pierce, and Dewey are truly a challenging and significant to philosophy as a whole.

James has a very peculiar way of viewing experience, for a philosopher, and a sort of colossal respect for truth that rivals Kant's. This book approaches in a very systematic way the problems that we have dealing with truth and its inherent elusiveness. Both Empiricist and Rationalist philosophical attitudes run aground when dealing with reality; certain aspects of both are better at dealing with particular facets of experince. That is, some of the "work" better than other in certain situations. (As James notes, Hegel or Kant have done little to advance any scientific knowledge-- but a wholly empirical philosophy can give offer us no end to strive towards that we will find humanly compelling) James makes the middle road between the two, and offers the philosphically radical suggestion that the closest to any "Truth" as a big T we are going to get is going to be through our examination of how particular notions of truth produce for us better explanations of experience. In fact (as James later elaborates) the best philosophy we can find is one that will be able to unstiffen the mind an be able to deal with various different truths. Plural.

If you can't see from this outlook, James's notion of philosophy is profoundly democratic. His philosophy is one of the best attempts I've ever encountered to form some sort of coherent system that accomodates mutually exclusive forms of truth. And such a system, also, is American Democracy.

The reviewers below fall into an error on this account by saying James apologizes for scoundrels. He does not; in fact, he was thoroughly anti-imperialist and in case we havn't noticed Nazism and Stalinism are systems built on Monistic systems of Truth. Look it up. Read the book, it's a classic, maybe the classic, of American Philosophy. A fitting testament to james' enduring genius

For the serious James scholar, this book is indispensible. For those of you who are not too familiar with Jame's ideas and their background, this book is probably too much - and too boring at that. Even for scholars of epistemology, this book can be rather frustrating. Originally written for his grad students at Harvard, the book lacks much in the way of context, and it is completely theoretical. Furthermore, it is filled with many untranslated passages, from German to Latin. I gave the book four stars because it could use some editing. This is the modern era: Latin is dead - even for the most serious philosopher - and German is no longer the language of Philosophy. The passages should be translated, and some of the more abstract essays should come with introductions. That said, the book is still a valuable contribution to empirical epistemology, laying out James of view of "radical empiricism" - where subjects and objects collide. Indeed, the book itself is a pure experience!