This is a book that will capture your heart and soul. I spent nights crying for Otto, and often wanted to put the book down, but found that I couldn't until I saw him through to the end. His ultimate successes were a real tribute to the strength that can be found within the human soul. This book is spiritual and inspiring and will not leave you.

I could not put this book down I wanted to find the author as a
little boy and even now as a vulnerable adult and hug him and congratulate him that he managed to survive mostly intact through
a very harrowing childhood and for many years an extremely lonely
adulthood.

This book was written after the author's mother passed on. All
of the memories of a traumatic childhood growing up in Vienna,
Austria w/ the threat of Hitler and his domineering mother came
flooding back and are told beautifully in this sad but inspiring book. It was wonderful.

I found this a fascinating, informative and enlightening book. It would make a great Christmas/Hanukkah gift because of its' originality and intelligibility.

If you have an interest in classical music, then the name Otto Klemperer will be well known to you. Here is a beautifully presented two volume biography, very much a labour of love on the part of the author. A great read, and I particularly like having the notes at the foot of the page, not in an appendix.

Both volumes can be bought separately, but together come in a handsome slipcase.

I have read many biographies of famous conductors, and this ranks alongside Richard Osborne's book on Herbert von Karajan, and (best of all) Michael Kennedy's masterly and moving 'Barbirolli, Conductor Laureate', which I fear may be out of print.

Amazon dot com gives no credit for my earlier reviews.... I wrote the first review without thinking or spell checking, fast. There are still parts of this book I can't duplicate! And parts that are just written so bad no one can understand them, but most of it stands the test of time, like Mandelbrot's article. This will probably be a classic in the future! I think the free Fractint documentation is probably better for a beginner or Hans Lauwerier's " Fractals".

I spent all last evening reading snippets of The Beauty of Fractals (those few paragraphs that a layman could understand) and admiring the sheer beauty of the diagrams/maps. I had not realised there was an aesthetic component to mathematics, and I certainly did not know that aspects of what is generally thought of as a dry science can be so visually appealing, not to say stunning.

I cannot understand why some people would argue the intrinsic artistic merit of something computer-generated and 'unnatural', when the results speak for themselves.

Beauty, true, is perceived, and lies in the eye of the beholder. It can be very subjective. But there are certain aspects of visual appeal that go beyond that. One would think that a symmetry of form, the complementary use of colours, the balance of shape and form, light and shade, arcs and curves--all these combine to give an objective, irrefutable fact of beauty that transcends thought and emotions, if not the senses.

In a couple of the chapters, it was said, and here I paraphrase:

The two modes of analysis and intuition as human means of understanding the natual world--need they be considered at opposite poles? Do they not complement one another? Are the thinker and the dreamer not one?

I find that very intriguing, just as I find the idea of chaos and order existing together in natural, dynamic processes being actually TYPICAL of Nature.

The word 'Chaos' has such negative connotations, implying confusion and destruction, but if I were to replace it with the word 'Disorder', then things begin to fall into place.

There can be no Order if there were no Disorder, for how then would we know the difference? In fact, one of the writers go so far as to say that it is the very existence of Disorder within Order that confers the essence of beauty found in Nature.
That is so true. It is the very non-linear aspect of Nature, that which mathematics, up till Mandelbrot, have been unable to map, that is so appealing in the visual sense.

In Nature, which, apart from abhorring vacuums, also has no place for a straight line (oh, how the poor, innocent straight line is maligned in the preface), beauty is inarguable, irrefutable, and only after that does it have history and context, different to and for each beholder.

So both Chaos/Disorder and Order co-exist in Nature, hand in hand. Order alone, rigidly disciplined, artificially-imposed, seems to require Disorder to breathe life into it.

Taking this a step further, our perception of beauty in all things is affected by Nature.

In yet another chapter, someone quoted someone else and here I go
paraphrasing again.

Beauty in science is the same as beauty in other disciplines-art, music,literature, what have you. 'A fog of events, and suddenly you see a connection. It expresses a complex of human concerns that goes deeply to you, that connects things that were always in you that were never put together before.'

The thinker and the dreamer co-exist within each person, just as the analytical and intuitive modes of thought co-exist, not at opposite poles,but complementing one another.

Intuition and analysis complement, rather than confound (or they should, gods-willing).

The artist and the scientist complement each other, i.e. Art and Science are not the opposing polarites of disciplines as some would have us think.

The thinker and the dreamer ARE one.

And this book has shown that the essence of beauty lies in the marriage of Art and Science.

(Disclaimer: Mere thoughts from a layman.)

Although one of the earliest titles to bring fractals into the mainstream, 'The Beauty of Fractals' isn't as visually exciting as the follow-up, 'Chaos and Fractals', and it's a very dry read - in 1986 complex dynamics were an esoteric field of mathematics that had yet to transfer to student posters and rave videos. At this price it's restricted to people who absolutely need it, although along with 'Godel, Escher, Bach' it's one of the seminal hackish coffee-table books.

this book is jam-packed with primary sources concerning the life and works of r.b. woodward: journal articles, unpublished speeches, photographs of the man, drafts of his papers bearing hand-written corrections. it also includes some commentary from colleagues and family. an excellent resource for anyone interested in the history and process of organic chemical (and scientific, in general) research.

The local barmaid at the Jellied Eel finds herself in a romance with a dashing rich man, who just may be a serial killer. This is a deft and gripping mystery by Peter Lovesey, and very nicely read by Barbara Rosenblat. There are enough twists and clues in this story to keep you engrossed and guessing until the very end.

If you like mysteries, especially English mysteries, and are looking for something to occupy your time on a road trip; I recommend this book on tape. It's perfect for short trips, as it's only 2 hours long. It keeps you interested, and is nicely presented by Barbara Rosenblat.

A FAMILY IN ICELAND is a look at the family of Kristjan Finnson, a farmer. The book was published in 1985. I think many children will look at the book and balk at the odd clothes styles and the unusual decor. Actually, everything about the book looks like the 1970's to me. Then again, many children won't even notice those details, and will be happy to learn about Iceland regardless of the book's dated style.

In any case, it's a nice little pastoral depiction of this family. The parents don't even give the children allowances. Each child gets a farm animal (I think it was a sheep) for his or her birthday each year. A child can sell a sheep if he/she wants. I'm sure this family is just a family of wonderful hearty folk, but this is not your average family in Iceland.

Iceland is very much a modern, materialistic nation. Iceland is (with so much of the population living in Reykjavik) not so much a nation of small farmers who live such a pastoral life and want to pass along a farm to one of the daughters.

There is some nice background on Iceland. The information about the family is cute, and they are interesting people. However, it could have easily been written about a family in Iceland before World War II. Since that time, life has changed greatly for most folks in Iceland, and the book doesn't really reflect that.

I happen to be reading a travel guide about Iceland, and generally this A FAMILY IN ICELAND depiction of the Finnson family does not seem to be representative of a modern Icelandic family.

It's a nice book for a child to have as an introduction to the country, but it surely should be balanced with also looking at Jonathan Wilcox's book ICELAND (from the Cultures of the World series)or another book on the subject.

ken32