For a location that gets a lot of birders there is very little in the way of recordings available for Costa Rica. Don't let the title fool you, a great number of the birds presented on this set are also on the Pacific Slope. The quality of the recordings is very good, and over two-hundred species are resented. I found it very helpful in learning the calls of the birds of Costa Rica

Want to train yourself to recognize the 25% of the Costa Rican birds species by its voices? Then, you have to listen both CD's. I heard them few months ago when my fauna teacher put emphasis in the bird identification (I'm a forestry student --Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica). Sometimes, when you are in a dense forest or thicket you can only hear the birds, so, you need a non-visual way to identify them....and here it is. I bought the "Indicator Birds of the Costa Rican Cloud Forest" (from the same Laboratory of Ornithilogy) and I hear it in my house to train my ears in the identification of non common birds.

Buy it, I'm gonna buy it too.

Marlene Dietrich, My Friend: An Intimate Biography is the only biography of Marlene Dietrich that has been written with her full approval, complemented by her own words - with the only condition that the author, her friend David Bret, should neither speak about nor publish her testament until after her death. Illustrated with a brief insert of rare black-and-white photographs of the famous actress, Marlene Dietrich My Friend is an absolute must for students of cinema history and film memoirs in general, and fans of Marlene Dietrich in particular.

Produced by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology as a companion to a field guide, this remarkable two-CD set is unlike any other nature guide yet published. It is an audio guide to mammals, and only mammals, of the rainforests of the New World.

As the hot spots of the world's bioversity, rainforests have gotten lots of attention from naturalists and adventurous eco-tourists, who want to explore these green worlds for themselves. There have been countless field guides (both printed and audio) to birds in various parts of the New World tropics, but this audio guide exposes the voices of rainforest mammals, many of them retiring and rarely seen in the thick foliage, for study and appreciation.

The first disc is brief (about 40 minutes), but sound recordings of a lot of these mammals are not easily obtained. Over 50 species give voice to their unique sounds. Opossums snort and grunt, jaguars make a sound like someone sawing on a log, tapirs whistle like birds. There is even a recording of a river dolphin spouting, the sudden explosive noise almost out of place among the other jungle sounds.

The second disc, longer in length, features the most vocal of the rainforest mammals, the primates. Some of these produce sounds that could easily be mistaken for the sounds of other creatures. For example, some of the smaller monkeys, like the tamarins, produces squeaks and chitters that are surprisingly birdlike. The night monkey, calling after dark when it would probably never be seen, hoots exactly like an owl. The loudest of the rainforest monkeys, the howlers, produce roars of such intensity that they will literally frighten anyone who visits the rainforest but does not know that these are the sounds of harmless vegetarians.

"Sounds of Neotropical Rainforest Mammals" is off the beaten track, to be sure, but if you are traveling to the tropics anytime soon, I strongly recommend it. Even if you're not, I recommend it anyway. You haven't really lived until you've startled your neighbors with the loud, cackling chorus of the dusky titi monkey.

Let me begin by saying that the rating I have given is not comparing Kennedy's volume to other kinds of works, but rather to the half-dozen or so popular textbooks that are similar and that anthologize many of the same works. All have particular strengths and weaknesses; they are all worthy anthologies.

For several years, I have been using the Kennedy anthology to teach the introduction to literature class to university students. I am reasonably satisfied with the current text, although the price seems rather high. I have had some reservations about the selections in poetry because Mr. Kennedy has insisted upon calling popular songs "poetry" and implied that a few of the pop songs by Run D.M.C., Paul Simon, Bessie Smith and Clarence Williams, and the Beatles are the equivalent of real poems. Sometimes a student will become angry because I will not accept a paper on a pop song.

This 60's kind of nonsense (like "The Poetry of Rock") should have remained in the 60's. Shamelessly, however, Mr. Kennedy and his publisher seem to pander to what is perceived as students' tastes. I note that at the back of the volume is a form soliciting students' opinions of the selections. There is no similar form for teachers.

I am especially disturbed by this new edition because the claim to "international and multicultural coverage" has evidently meant the deletion of a great short story, Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych." I guess, in the minds of the compiler and editors, the inclusion of additional "student essays" was more important than the inclusion of a great story. (Frankly,I--and I suspect many others--could do with fewer student essays and more essays by professionals.)

In a recent article in "The Chronicle of Higher Education" (Feb. 12, 1999), Professor James Shapiro (Columbia) laments, "When Brevity Rules the Syllabus, 'Ulysses' Is Lost." He goes on to say that because of the current demand for brevity, we can "forget about 'War and Peace'--'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' is fast becoming Tolstoy's representative work." If Kennedy's 7th edition of "Literature" is any indication, however, we can forget about Tolstoy altogether.

Maybe some caring people could get together and demand that Tolstoy be put back.

The Kennedy Anthology is a decent dependable sampler. I studied from it as an undergraduate and I now use it, as a grad student, to teach introductory lit classes (supplementing it, of course, with outside material)

I'm suprised, however, at the reviewer's comments above. Yes, Kennedy includes rock songs in the poetry section, but claims dismissing their inclusion are faulty for two reasons. 1)Rock lyrics, whether you're fond of them or not, do qualify as poetry (they are verse, after all and whether or not rock and roll lyrics stand as "good" poetry is a completely separate issue) and 2)Despite the fact that popular lyrics are included in the poetry section, the canonical giants are still well-represented (no need to fret, Whitman hasn't gone anywhere). In other words, if you dislike the rock lyrics, well, simply don't teach them.

More importantly, in a field as diverse and (usually) liberal as literature, I'm shocked that people still complain about multiculturalism and international literature "taking away" from established great texts. Isn't this PC debate over? Haven't we all now simply accepted the fact that including diverse texts isn't a PC issue but rather an issue of good old common sense? Does anyone really still question the validity of marginalized (yet talented) voices being heard? Hasn't liberal humanism (at least in its problematic manifestations) been successfully deconstructed? Frankly, I'm frightened to think how there are English instructors out there actually arguing AGAINST diversity. Then again, I'm also incredibly naive.

Lastly, I like lit textbooks that include examples of student essays. I employ a workshop method in my class and my students and I look at a variety of essays throughout the term--from established professionals, from students, and from me. Students are too often bombarded with "professional" examples of what they are expected to produce. Why not include examples of reasonable essays that are more or less within their rhetorical reach?

... First of all, it is massive and contains three books in one - fiction, poetry and drama. Each section includes a plethora of selections as well as longer works (like the full length plays of Hamlet and Macbeth). So one is really getting quite a library from this one book.

Even better, the sections are organized along themes in order to teach the student (or interested reader) how to appreciate the various forms. So the poetry section has sections on sound, figures of speech, rhythm, closed and open form, etc. I suppose this comes from it being a textbook for undergraduate courses - in any case, it pays off. I've learned a tremendous amount already. It's all in very easy to understand non-technical language, too.

At the end of the book, there is even a brief section on various forms of literary criticism. The book contains numerous student essays, brief author biographies, reflections by the authors on their own works (this is really great), and it reflects a really broad range of genres and time periods (unfortunately the section on haiku is plagued by bad translations, and there aren't enough examples of Chinese and other Japanese poetry... oh well!). There is also an emphasis on getting the reader to practice (and write for him or herself) what is being taught. So if you want to be a writer, this is great.

If you're a beginner interested in getting into literature, this is really a great way to do it. Don't be put off by the massiveness of this book - it's really a resource. Just start in one small place (I started in 'poetry') and work your way around. It will definitely increase your appreciation for literature.

This book had the feeling of being put together mostly from other articles and books. It's not bad for a quick fix of Morrissey info, and usually has a passing comment for each song and album, but I still don't feel that I've really read a biography of Morrissey.

After reading this book, I can assure you that the definitive biography of Tallulah Bankhead has yet to be written. The reader suffers through 250+ pages of garbled prose, which revels in the salacious details of Ms. Bankhead's life, only to find that he/she knows no more about the PERSON who was Tallulah than at the onset of the book. Furthermore, though Mr. Bret claims to have extensively researched his subject, the book conveys little firsthand knowledge of Tallulah or the people she knew. Most quotations in the book stem not from interviews, but from secondhand sources. The result is a laughingly bad work, on a par with any supermarket tabloid. Therefore, I beg you to save your money and buy the National Enquirer.

It is hard to imagine anyone leading a fuller life than Tallulah Bankhead. She did it all -- twice. The book jacket points out that she had 500 lovers of both sexes. She smoked 150 cigarettes a day and drank even while performing on the Broadway stage. The author has written a well researched book that points out the enigma that was Bankhead. She could be willful and spoiled as a child and yet keep people on her payroll years after firing them. Through all the tumult and excesses of her personal life, she still managed to give many engaging performances. In the end, her lust for life caught up with her and her lifestlye killed her at a relatively young age. Tallulah Bankhead is still a fascinating character and this book is a fascinating read.

Barbra Streisand is an interesting subject, and any book on her is inherently interesting. Unfortunately, though David Bret's book is well-written, it is filled with inaccuracies, myths, and wrong information. The book appropriately is filled with his opinions of her work, which are often quirky. Who would agree that her recent album "A Love Like Ours" is one of her shining moments? And he spends far too much time grumbling about her French pronunciations on "Je m'Appelle Barbra"--a beautiful album from which few listeners will be offended by Streisand's French (he must be British). There are good photos here, and the discography is useful, if again filled with inaccuracies. Hard to know if this was a product of the author, or just bad editing.

I didn't buy this book. I wouldn't buy a book about someone where the author couldn't make the effort to spell the subject's name correctly. Makes me wonder how accurate the rest of the book is...

This book is not worth paper it was printed on, pretty muchlike the rest of the books about Freddie Mercury. I guess, it isespecially difficult to write about him, because when he died, he did not leave an autobiography or, at least, some decent interviews. It seems like he rarely answered questions seriously and did not really like talking to the press. Nevertheless, everyone familar with Queen, must know that he was, indeed, "living on the edge" in all respects. So, this book does not say anything new or anything coherent. It lacks purpose, strength, and accuracy that should be present, when writing about such enormous genius like Freddie Mercury. Listening to his music, his own statements (however rare), and his jokes still beats reading lame bios about him.

Looking around me I see people living on the edge. But Freddie was to intelligent to understand where his limits were. When he found out that he had HIV he changed, but it was too late, He then realized life was going over the edge and there was nothing he could do to stop it. The Man was always ahead of his time in his thinking and his music. Although Freddie is gone to those who loved him he will always live on. I have bought every book I can find on him, and one of the most personal one about was written by his Lover Jim Hutton, it isnt easy to get your hands on either, i know it upset many people becasue it was more like a kiss and tell, but if you want to know what Freddie's last few years was like even up to the moment he died then find the book and read it.

This is the second most discredited bio of Valentino, in my opinion, trailing just behind Kenneth Anger's funny but spurious "Hollywood Babylon." The author claims to be in the possession of Rudy's private diary and quotes from it episodes of passionate homosexual love. Long ago that "diary" was proven to be a fake, written by a distempered mind. The French-Canadian author, Jeanne de Recqville, carefully explored every sentence of that so-called diary, and demonstrated its numerous mistakes. Let the buyer beware! You'll learn more about the author of this horrible book than you ever will about Rudolph Valentino. It is nonsense like this which cheapens the art of Hollywood biography and discredits the veracity of those who think they are contributing to cinema history.

All I have to say is that if you want facts read the first review. In my opinion a person should not right a biography unless they themselves have facts to back up their words. As for homosexuality, they don't have any proof. I'm sure most people would like to believe that he was at least both however their is no proof and you know what they say "the less you know the better off you." Mind your own business folks let the man rest in peace. What's it matter anyway. It's not like any of us would have had the opportunity to be with him.

The book is interesting in that it reveals Valentino's involvement with a number of male lovers, but it is frustrating in that no documentation is offered to support the narrative. David Bret fails to cite the sources for what he reports and quotes are likewise not cited. There are also a few factual errors in the text, such as referring to the California jail that Valentino was incrcerated in overnight as "the Tombs" (which is in fact in New York).

This poorly written, badly documented, sensationalistic approach to a life that was sensational enough without editorial help, turns Callas into a mix of Tallulah Bankhead, Imelda Marcos and Judy Garland with high notes. With fans like these, who needs ennemies ?

The book is a quick read. I doubt it took that long to write, actually. Having read more scholarly books about Callas, I found this book to be pretty sensationalistic and *probably* an inaccurate representation of this singer.

I have talked to people who knew Callas, and the general consensus is that she disdained profanity and was a rather private person. This book would have us believe otherwise. If you want to read a good Callas bio, try the one by George Jellinek, published by Dover. Also, I expect the one by Anne Edwards which will be published later in 2001 will be a good read.

Riddled with inaccuracies, sensationalistic, precious, this wholly useless book is best ignored. Even the photos are poorly chosen, and the adulatory tone surprises only by becoming more and more treacly and embarassing.