I checked this book out at my local college and kept renewing it so I could finish more chapters. Finally I ran out of renewing times and decided I really needed to own my own copy.

The book is detailed and precise. It is relatively hard yet light on math and what there is is explained well. It has great graphics and clear explanations that make the most advanced topics easy to visualize and understand. The problems at the end of the chapter are great for review.

It's the best introductory chem book I've ever seen. Better than any chem course.

This book is excellent for the Bioorganic chemistry. I went into my class terrified and overwhelmed. I was actually able to follow along better with the book than my actual teacher. The diagrams are clear cut and gives many examples. I love the factual clips in every chapter about nature or medicine and how this all relates to bioorganic chemistry. I found the clips a breather and a break from the complicated matter. This book finds a way to explain one thing in many different ways so that even the beginner can comprehend it at an advanced level. This book got me through the class with an A.

The rather cutesy dialogues and the mysticism might be off-putting to some people. But Brown perceptively analyzes why people are conflicted about money management, and provides practical, level-headed advice on how to overcome these conflicts. The equation works both ways: money problems are often a symptom of a deeper spiritual malaise; but learning to manage money successfully can have profound effects on one's sense of self-worth and competence. Brown writes a weekly column in the Santa Fe New Mexican, and I hope he either collects his columns into a book or writes another one -- what he has to say is helpful and important (and a lot more realistic than the "one size fits all" money management techniques promoted by books such as "Your Money or Your Life"!).

Day of the Jackal is not just Frederick Forsyth's best book; it's the best book in it's genre. A political killer code-named "The Jackal" is hired to assassinate Charles De Gaulle, president of France. He is the best, not appearing on any police file. But through one small twist of fate, the French authorities learn of this plot, and set Claude Lebel, their best detective to find The Jackal. From there, the race is on, and Forsyth gives the reader front-row seats. He has created a sizzling rivalry between the cold-blooded assassin and the one policeman talented enough to stop him, and the suspense never lets up. Through deception, betrayal, and luck, Lebel tracks the killer throughout Europe, ending in the climactic assassination attempt itself. Based on true events, the obvious outcome doesn't take away from the thrill of the chase. This is the book that set the standard for others to try and follow

This book is brilliant. I chose to read it after we got it for homework in school. I read a few thrillers and mystery. But this book is on my list of top five books.

It's about an assassin whose codename is the Jackal. He is hired to kill the French president de Gaulle. You follow him when he brilliantly plans the murder. You see how he thinks, how he choose the perfect weapon, gets false passports etc. You end up liking him and whish him good luck, while you sometimes might want him to fail. How does Forsyth do that?

We meet many other characters through the reading, about fifty. Even if they are too many in a book of over 300 pages, it is not quite hard to follow the plot. Who are then the main characters? Well, the Jackal is one of course. The villain is the Jackal, but who is the hero? Is it Lebel, Rolland or Thomas? In a strange way, you find that the plot is the real main character. All things that happen in the book is just analyze of the attempt of murder on de Gaulle. Everything that happens is important and manipulates the ending of the story. This makes the story very complex and brilliant. You won't waste your time reading 150 pages with nothing happening. Every page is important.

Read it, or you'll regret it.

I will very soon see the both versions of the movie.

What can I add to 69 other reviewers? Simply this; I first read the book 25 years ago, and I still regularly take it back down off the shelves and dip into some part that jogs my memory, and enjoy savouring the detail afresh, as with a great piece of classical music or a Jane Austen novel. I am not normally a reader of thrillers; but this is equally much a great detective story and a mind game, and the writing style and the language are also superb, as is the evocation of the French setting. It starts quite slowly but accelerates all the way to the end. It is fascinating to compare it with the great 1973 film (NOT the Bruce Willis version). Scenes from the film like the final assassination attempt create an even more vivid picture in the mind as you read the book again. On the other hand, the detail of the planning, or the moment of Lebel's realisation of how the Jackal has got a gun through the apparently impregnable police screen, or seeing how all the different threads of the storyline fit together, can only be captured in the book. Every word and every nuance count at the climactic moments. Read the book, then see the film, then read the book again. It may not be as pacy as some modern all-action thrillers, but it is never contrived and virtually every bit rings true.

A crime has occurred, often (though not always) a murder. As authorities and observers attempt to solve the mystery, often arriving at a false solution, meekly in the background is a humble, unassuming priest. Using his knowledge of the criminal mind, and often bringing to bear theology (because unsound theology is the basis of moral failure), the unnoticed priest arrives at the solution. Each time one comes to the end of these short mysteries, the reader realizes that there is some small detail that he or she missed, which was not missed by Father Brown. Thus is displayed the power of quiet observation. These short stories make for some good bedtime reading, and even profound theological reflection. The only reason I gave this volume four stars instead of five is that mystery is not personally my favorite genre. Even non-mystery lovers can enjoy these stories much as I have.

In the genre of the finely crafted English detective story, Chesterton's "Father Brown" stories are wholesome and stimulating detective tales surpassed by few others, except perhaps Doyle's legendary Sherlock Holmes. In contrast to the arrogant Holmes, however, Chesterton's protagonist is rather quiet, unassuming and modest, and makes an unlikely hero - a catholic priest. Father Brown's simple manner makes you quick to underestimate him, but the startling flashes of brilliance that spill from beneath his humble exterior soon make you realize that he has a firm grasp on the truth of a situation when you are as yet frustratingly distant from it. His perceptive one-liners make it evident that he has a clear insight into something that you see only as an apparently insoluble paradox.

Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox", and the Father Brown stories are a clear testimony of his fondness for paradox. Ultimately it is not just crimes that Brown must solve, but the paradox underlying them. In fact, not all stories are crime stories - among them are mysterious situations that do not involve criminals, and it is the perceptive insight of Father Brown that is needed make apparent contradictions comprehensible by his ruthless logic. Father Brown is not so much concerned with preserving life or bringing a criminal to justice as he is with unravelling the strands of an impossible paradox. In fact, Chesterton's conception of Father Brown is itself a paradox - both a cleric and a crime-fighter, a priest and a policeman, a representative of God's mercy and an instrument of God's justice, a proclaimer of forgiveness and a seeker of guilt, a listener in the confessional and a questioner in the interrogation.

How a priest could possibly play the role of a detective is explained in the first story, "The Blue Cross". Brown apprehends the confounded criminal Flambeau and explains that his knowledge of the criminal mind is due in part to what he's heard at the confessional booth "We can't help being priests. People come and tell us these things." When Flambeau retorts "How in blazes do you know all these horrors?" Chesterton allows his humble priest to attribute his insight into human depravity to his experience as a priest: "Oh, by being a celibate simpleton, I suppose, he said. Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil."

But both Chesterton and Father Brown have insight into much more than just human depravity - they are both champions of Catholic orthodoxy. This gives the Father Brown stories a depth not found in Brown's compatriot Holmes. In the course of Chesterton's stories, we are treated to philosophical discussions about catholic theology, such as the relationship between faith and reason. We do not merely meet an assortment of cobblers, blacksmiths, magistrates and generals, but atheists, legalists, secularists, pagans, Presbyterians, Puritans, Protestants and Catholics, all with varying and vying affections for superstition, naturalism, rationalism, scepticism, agnosticism, materialism, anarchism, nihilism, or cynicism. Along with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton was one of the few writers in the twentieth century that made an important contribution to English literature that was stamped by Christian principles instead of the prevailing secularism of the day.

Readers who do not share Chesterton's theological convictions will not concur with all his insights, but they must concede that they are enjoyable, profound and stimulating. Somewhat surprising is the occasional use of blasphemous expletives such as "O my God", although generally from the mouths of others than Father Brown himself. And Brown does seem to degenerate more and more into a mouthpiece for Chesterton, with a sermonizing tone not present in the first stories.

But on the whole these are exemplary models of the English crime short story. The Penguin edition contains all the stories from all five of Chesterton's published Father Brown collections. Among my favorites are "The Blue Cross", where Father Brown follows a mysterious trail of clues and engages in some bizarre behaviour and fascinating theological discourse to apprehend Flambeau. "The Hammer of God" is also an outstanding whodunnit, as Brown solves the murder of a man who has been crushed by a huge hammer outside a church, seemingly the recipient of a divine thunderbolt of judgment from heaven. In the process Chesterton shares some thought-provoking insights, such as the memorable: "Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak." Also unforgettable is "The Blast of the Book", which recounts the mysterious disappearance of five men whose only crime was to open a seemingly magical book. Father Brown is quick to unravel the paradox by explaining it as the work of an ingenious prankster.

Father Brown's tongue never fails to produce profound paradoxical gems such as "The point of the pin was that it was pointless." And: "I never should have thought he would be so illogical as to die in order to avoid death." It is Brown's unique perspective that allows him to see what others do not see. When his compatriots are awed at the eloquence of a magistrate's thundering sermon in "the Mirror of the Magistrate", Father Brown remarks: "I think the thing that struck me most was how different men look in their wigs. You talk about the prosecuting barrister being so tremendous. But I happened to see him take his wig off for a minute, and he really looks quite a different man. He's quite bald, for one thing."

With the finely crafted prose, depth of theological insight, and brilliant combination of perception and paradox, Chesterton has created in Father Brown a noble and enduring character, a worthy successor to Sherlock Holmes and in some respects his equal and superior. The Father Brown stories are unquestionably worthy of their designation as classics.

Father Brown is an intriguing and refreshing fictional detective. In addition to providing short glimpses into criminal puzzles, this book includes fascinating looks at the time period in which it was written (Father Brown meets the Futurists). Much more intelligent than many of the other entries into this genre, it also wasn't as dogmatically religious as I'd been lead to believe. I really enjoyed this book.

This book contains beautiful photographs of Hart's sculpture and wonderful essays. The copy I ordered from Amazon arrived only yesterday, and after leafing through it, I was stunned by an egregiously poor design choice by the publisher.

The full color photograph of "Ex Nihilo", perhaps Hart's most moving piece, is centered between 2 pages! Split down the middle by the binding! How in the world can a fine art book publisher do this ? Other art texts, National Geographic, even Playboy (for pity's sake!) publish large format photographs using a fold-out leaf. Yes, fold-out leaves are more likely to become torn, or detached with use; but the reader's enjoyment, not preservation concerns, should drive layout and design decisions.

I was also disappointed that no full color photos of the finished "Daughters of Odessa" were in the book. There are photographs of studies, and a b&w photo in the catalog raisonne, but the effect is not the same.

I probably will keep this book; but I certainly won't be buying an art book from this publisher again! If I had it to do over, I would check the book out from the library.

Hart's West Facade of National Cathedral on the subject of Creation is the most famous piece of American scupture. ("Liberty," after all, will always be French.) The name of this piece is "Ex Nihilo" -- from nothing. The book has a wonderful photograph of "Ex Nihilo." Of course, our local rag The New York Times published a full magazine-page copy of this picture with left and right reversed and artificial green-tinted coloring. Typical New York always-in-a-hurry carelessness. ------ The work itself is astonishing. Everything given, nothing held back or calculated to please a critic. All driven by faith. A return to what is meant by the term masterpiece. Hart's personal items and the items of religious expression are sampled with his own favorites. ----- Enjoy ! This is a sweet book.

This book offers readers a complete overview of the world's most well renowned sculptor. Frederick Hart, who passed away suddenly last month, August 1999, created such famous works as the "Three Soldier's Bronze Sculpture in the Washington Public Gardens," "El Nihilo," the three phase triangular scluptures over the entrance to the National Cathederal, in Washington D.C. Maybe the most controversal sculpture Mr. Hart completed, "El Nihilo," was featured in the movie "Devil's Advocate" and was depicted in a lured, and distastful manner. The Hart Foundation sued the production company of "Devil's Advocate," with Al Pacino, the Hart Foundation won it's legal suit, and a disclaimer was placed on all Devil's Advocate's videos disclosing the "El Nihilo" sculpture was not used with The Hart's Foundation approval. Frederick Hart also created and invented the art technology of "double embedded lucite sculpture." This process involved creating a three dimensional free form floating sculpture "floating" within the lucite sculpture itself. Anyone who has ever viewed one of Mr. Hart's three dimensional sculpture's, know the incredible beauty and art that lay within his limited production of sculptures. The book can not honestly show the amazing detail of the "three dimensional double imbedded process" that Mr. Hart created. He and his work will be forever remembered as the finest bronze and lucite sculptor in the world to date. This book is a tribute to his master creations, depiction of his artwork, and ultimately a truly inspirational attestment to one of the world's greatest artists of all time.

This is an excellent review of basic pain management assessment and treatment---one that can benefit physicians and psychologists alike. A very well organized presentation.

This is a lively, well-written biography of Emile Zola which I found a pleasure to read, albeit a long one! I felt that the author got the balance right: that is, the balance between descriptions of Zola's domestic life, his friendships, his social and political interests, his working methods and his novels. For a large part of this book, Brown uses the Rougon-Macquart series of novels as temporal stepping-stones, which seemed logical to me given the fact that they dominated Zola's creative life as a novelist.

Zola lived in turbulent times. France faced profound social and political divisions and faced major upheavals - war, labour unrest, government instability, state repression, challenges to the rôle of the Catholic Church, and anti-Semitism to name but a few. Yet France was also producing an extraordinary flowering of culture: Zola counted Cézanne, de Maupassant, and Manet (to name but a few) as his friends. Brown describes these contexts well - Zola was so interested in and engaged with his world, it's impossible to appreciate his work fully without that background: for example, the contemporary controversy over many of the novels in the Rougon-Macquart series was due to the fact that although they were set in the Second Empire, they raised uncomfortable issues for readers living in the Third Republic. Brown also does a decent job of summarising the Dreyfus Case - not easy given the complexity of the matter and the fact that it has been the subject of books in its own right.

I found that Zola's work is of mixed quality. Certainly before "L'Assommoir", but after it, I thought that some of the Rougon-Macquart novels were real duds. Brown accepts that the success of "L'Assommoir" stimulated interest in Zola's earlier novels, but perhaps was not as critical as he could have been, even though I realise that it's unrealistic to expect an author to produce works of such importance as "Germinal" on a consistent basis, and that there might be an argument that autobiographer's main job is to relate the life of his subject rather than engage in a sustained analysis of each of his works.

G Rodgers

THIS BOOK WAS THE WORST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ. I DONT KNOW WHY IT WAS PUBLISHED IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SUBJECT OF THE TITLE.IT DID HOWEVER TELL YOU WHAT CHEMICALS TO USE TO FRY YOUR BRAIN BUT THAts just not for me