Provides a concise and creative discussion of the economic and political dimension of global financial reform. --David Hale, Global Chief Economist, Zurich Group

Examines G8 policy dynamics over the last 30 years with rare vigour and insight. Both a sensible blueprint for a new international financial system, and the definitive handbook for a new kind of governance within the G8 architecture. --Dr Yoichi Funabashi, Deputy Editor for Economic Affairs, Asahi Shimbun

A welcome addition to the literature on this important global network. Significant and accessible contributions to the study of the G7/G8. --Millennium: Journal of International Studies

Years ago I lived in Virginia, and this cookbook brings back a lot of memories of something rooted to the land. It's about the people, the hills, and the lifestyle -- all intertwined inseparably from the food. There's something rich going on here -- and I don't mean in dollars. The author's done a fine job. The recipes presented are not abundant (the first recipe doesn't appear until page 103), but they are as "American" as you can imagine, if not exactly contemporary. Included are country recipes with names that will intrigue many of us now: elderberry wine, pot likker dumplings, Cherokee hominy, Blue Ridge fried corn, cherrylog scuppernong pie, sorghum taffy, and mule ears. I don't know how many of these recipes I'll make, but boy do I love reading this book!

Great recipies and great stories. Truly reflects the relatinship between food, culture and the heritage of the region. Even if I do not want to make a particular dish, I enjoy reading about its local historical importance. I read this book to imerse myself in the "feeling" of the region. I have about 200 cookbooks, but this is one of my favorities -- I sent it to my cousin in West Virginia so that she can better understand the background of her neighbors. To summarize: I just love this book.

One of my true regrets in life is that I did not write down the treasured "old timey" way of doing things before my grandparents passed away. Things like making homemade apple butter and planting by the signs are now, sadly, a thing of the past. I want to thank the author for recording these things from others in my grandparent's generation. I am truly indebted.

This book has a wealth of information about a wide variety of bird topics. It has bird anatomy, songs, how to build a nest box, etc. The main chapter of this book, named 'The Habitat BirdFinder' is a field guide to about 100 of the most commonly seen birds in North America, and isn't in any specific order, but by which habitat it is most likely to be seen in. It is very useful, with a large photograph and colour drawings with text for each bird. The range maps are very clear and easy to use. In the back of the book there is a good selection of other books and resources, including local birding organizations.
If you are looking for a first birding book, to get you started and familiar with birds, then this is a great start.

This book has been an excellent addition to my library on birding. Splendid photography! Helpful tips!Interesting insights and all at a great price. The book is beautiful and is clearly of high quality. You won't be disappointed!

This is a wonderfully put together reference book for bird watchers. I also gave one to my father as a gift and he just can't put it down. The pictures are teriffic and there's a lot of information about each bird. I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys birds.

This is an absolute must buy. The story is totally delightful -- cat lovers, take notice! Lucy the cat migrates from the City to the country every week with her two big guys, and this story is about her (mis)adventures at their weekend party.

The fact that her big people are two men obviously in love and partnered is incidental to the story, which makes it almost unique (Anna O'Day and the O Ring is the only other one I can think of, and that story is pretty blah). The gay subtext is most amusing when one of the men is enamored of the adorable fireman who comes to rescue Lucy from one of her misadventures (while the other glares).

The illustratations are terrific! This book is on my holiday list to give to all kids in this age range.

Susan in Ann Arbor

Reviewed by Harriet L. Schwartz Recent news has confirmed that the battle over gay-related children's books in public libraries continues. Most recently, a Baptist minister in Texas attempted to keep "Heather Has Two Mommies" and "Daddy's Roommate" out of circulation by checking out and then buying the books, according to the Associated Press. However, publicity in the town's newspapers magnified local interest in the books, forcing the libraries to obtain extra copies. Soon, anti-gay advocate will have another book to battle when Alyson Wonderland releases "Lucy Goes to the Country"...a vividly illustrated book that follows the story of Lucy as she travels to the country with her "two Big Guys." Children will follow Lucy's funny encounters with birds, guests, and a dog, while adults will catch a second level of humor.

I thought no book about cats could equal May Sarton's marvelous "The Fur Person"...but I was wrong! Lucy is a rambunctious amber and white cat who lives in a New York apartment, which she shares with her two "Big Guys". The authors, the two "Big Guys" who are Lucy's family, paint a loving portrait of their favorite feline's adventures as she, in her dreaded red bag, goes to the Guys' country house for the weekend. Hilarious, charming, and beautifully illustrated, this book is a childrens' book but it'll appeal to anyone who loves cats, and appreciates loving families of all kinds. My partner and I just lost our 20 year old calico, Calliope, so this book was especially meaningful and touching for us! More of Lucy's adventures, please, Guys!

John Minford, one of our finer Sino-Anglo translators, here brings out a remarkably successful anthology of Chinese literature which stands together with the Norton's as a must-buy for lovers of Chinese literature. The book gives a comprehensive account of its beginnings from ancient classics (Book of Songs, Analects etc) to Tang luminaries Li Bo and Du Fu, using a collection of translations from Waley, Pound to Owen and Birch, while offering insightful annotations, readings and essays. There's a bit of everything: biographies, ballads, poetry, histories (a big genre in Chinese literature), and short tales, and a lot to delight the unsuspected.

Some things said in the last review seem so blatantly biased (and ignorant) I have to correct them there. There are actually very little difference between the Wade-Giles and the Pinyin system. Both are supposed to transliterate Chinese characters into Roman alphabets. So how can one makes Chinese more "beautiful, sonorous and elegant" while the other renders it like "gorillas"? What is important of course is how accurately they depict the spoken tongue. Pinyin does have an advantage over Wade-Giles in that it is more accurate: the poet Du Fu, transliterated as Tu Fu in Wade-Giles, is closer in Pinyin to the original, the Chinese character for "Du" pronounced with the consonant "d" (as in "death") rather than "t" (as in "tongue") in "Tu". The word "Beijing" is also better reflected (the two consonants, "b" in "bell" and "j" in "joke", are far more accurately rendered than "p" and "k" in Peking). It's sad that someone who obviously doesn't know Chinese tries to work his personal bias in others, and bringing out "critics" like Updike who doesn't know Chinese himself.

CLASSICAL CHINESE LITERATURE : An Anthology of Translations, Volume I : From Antiquity to the Tang Dynasty. Edited by John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau. 1176 pp. New York and Hong Kong : Columbia University Press and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000.

Sometime in the 1950's, a committee of bureaucrats sat down in the People's Republic of China to create a new system of transliteration for the Chinese language. As Chinese Communists, they shared an extreme loathing for traditional 'feudalistic' Chinese culture. In addition, none of them of course were native users of the Roman alphabet.

The monstrous and deformed offspring of their lucubrations, which was approved at the 5th session of the National People's Congress on February 11th, 1958, is the system known as 'Hanyu pinyin.' Although a system designed by Chinese for Chinese, it was eagerly fastened upon and promoted by certain benighted elements of the Official West, and is, sad to say, the system of transliteration employed in the present book.

Pinyin has been condemned by no less an authority than scientist and sinologist Joseph Needham, distinguished author of the multi-volume 'Science and Civilization in China,' who described it as "extremely repulsive." Others, too, have expressed disgust with it, including American author John Updike, a man remarkably knowledgeable about China, who finds it "grotesque."

In contrast to the familiar, beautiful, sonorous and elegant names produced by the Wade-Giles system of romanization - names such as T'ao Chien, Hsieh Ling-yun, Hsiao Kang, Ch'u Kuang-hsi, and so on - pinyin gives us names which sound like they belong to a bunch of gorillas. Meet, for example, pinyin's "Kong Rong" (page 418), a distant relative presumably of King Kong. Meet too "Cao Pi," son of "Cao Cao" (page 628), whose presence may account for the many instances of "dung" (or is it "ding" or "dong"?) scattered throughout the book. Meet them, that is, if you would rather visit Minford's Beijing than Waley's Peking.

Pinyin's uglification of China's past is bad enough, but it leads to a far larger and more serious problem. Sinologist Victor Mair, who in his own fine 'Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature' (1994) made the correct and sensible decision to employ Wade-Giles, cautions us that:

". . . the vast bulk of scholarly writing in English about Chinese literature employs Wade-Giles romanization. It would be terribly confusing and difficult for students without any background in the study of Mandarin (the typical student who will use this [i.e., his own] book) to try to follow up the readings with any sort of research if another sort of romanization system were chosen" (page xxxi).

So there you have it. PINYIN = Uglification + Confusion + a compounding of Difficulties, when anything to do with the study of China is already difficult enough. In other words, precisely what the Chinese Communists would have wanted : the beautiful made ugly, and the difficult made to look impossibly difficult to the general reader.

The only reason that editors Minford and Lau have condescended to offer us for the mess they have made in the present book is that pinyin is "now widely used internationally" (page lviii). In other words, dear general reader, it's trendy, and you're just going to have to bite the bullet and learn pinyin newspeak, or struggle with unpronounceables such as 'cen,' 'cuipin,' 'qiong,' 'xunzi,' or 'zhitui.'

A second problem with this book, since it lacks an index of titles, is that items can be impossible to find without searching through the entire 34-page Table of Contents. This difficulty is compounded by the Index of Authors, which is incomplete; amazingly it fails, for example, to mention Lao Tzu (Laozi), though extracts from the Tao Te Ching (but not its Chinese name) will be found on pages 202-206.

A third problem is that, judging by the pages of my own copy, there would seem to be a world shortage of printing ink. Instead of the print being crisp, clear, black, and readable, it's greyish. This makes it tiring and difficult to read (especially the footnotes which are printed in a miniscule font). It's rather like peering into a fog or mist.

A fourth problem is that there would also seem to be a world cotton shortage, since, despite its exorbitant price, the boards of this book are covered, not with cloth, but with mock cloth made of soft paper which is already showing signs of wear despite being brand new. But at least the printed pages are strong heavy stock, and the signatures are, as in real books, actually stitched.

As for the contents of this book (apart from their being liberally spattered with pinyin), they are, in a word, MAGNIFICENT! - Oracle Bones, Bronze Inscriptions, I Ching, Myths, Legends, Folksongs, Narrative and Philosophic Prose, Shamanistic Poems, Historical Wrings, Miscellaneous Prose, Women Poets, Drama, Literary Criticism, Ballads, Buddhist Writings, T'ang poets, Strange Tales, Zen and Taoist Poetry, etc., etc.

The book, in short, offers us a rich and brilliant selection of texts, in translations both literary (Pound, Waley, Rexroth, Snyder, etc.) and academic (Watson, Graham, Birch, Owen, etc.) - and contains almost every conceivable help and enhancement. These latter include full and informative introductions; extensive and useful annotations; numerous interesting black-and-white illustrations; seals; calligraphy; a few texts in the original Chinese; bibliographies; maps; an index of authors in both pinyin (full) and Wade-Giles (skimpy); and much else besides.

In sum, this book is clearly one of the richest and finest Anthologies of Classical Chinese Literature in English that we have ever seen. In terms of its contents it certainly deserves 5 stars. But in terms of the pinyin system which defaces those contents, a system which can be read with ease only by students of Mandarin - whereas if Wade-Giles had been used the book could have been read with ease by anyone - it deserves no more than a single star. Hence the 3 stars.

Who, after all, on opening a collection of writings by the refined, civilized, and highly intelligent ancient Chinese, wants to find instead a bunch of gorillas moving about in a mist ?

Nearly a thousand selections from the best translators of Chinese literature covers antiquity to the Tang Dynasty in this first volume, an essential anthology of Chinese literature important for any scholarly or college-level collection strong in Chinese works. This gathers the most important writings of poetry, fiction, songs, biographies, and early Chinese philosophy, with a chronological and genre arrangement which makes study easy. Chapters are introduced by quotes and introductions in this weighty presentation which includes individual chapters on early literary criticism and works.

To Buy or Not to Buy!

Educators, lovers of theatre and great literature--take note! Late in the 1990s, Harper Row began to release on cassettes the Arkangel Complete Shakespeare, all of which I reviewed in one paper or another. Using some of the best of the young theatrical talent in Great Britain and some of the older established stars of stage and screen, the producers gave us readings of every single word of every single play by Shakespeare, including the seldom-performed "Two Noble Kinsmen" which is partially by Shakespeare.

Well, hold on! Audio Partners has been contracted to release the entire set on CDs. The trick is that you cannot purchase the individual sets but are required to purchase the entire package of 38 plays for $600. That is 98 CDs in all with a playing time of just over 101 hours! Libraries and school departments take note.

Hearing them as they were released on tape in batches of four or five, I was impressed mostly with the enormity of the project but found some things to quibble about. Casting Oberon and Titania with a pair whose voices were South African or Jamaican (no Henry Higgins, I) made some sense in that it emphasized their other-worldly-ness. So did assigning Malvolio in "Twelfth Night" to an actor with a distinct Scottish accent, but giving Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet" to the same actor was absurd. Then too there is that sudden sound effect of a train pulling out of a station in the middle of "All's Well That Ends Well"! Granted there was a production current then that did place the play in more modern times, but when one is hearing a recording with no clue as to setting, the result was jarring and should have been omitted.

In the grander roles such as Hamlet, Othello and the like, the younger actors give modern readings which might strike some as slighting demands of the high poetry. And those who long for the grander readings can turn to the re-releases of the old Shakespeare Recording Society sets.

One great disadvantage to the cassettes is that you could locate a specific scene only with much fast forwarding. With CDs, of course, you can jump to any scene by pressing the Skip button on your player. When a scene continues onto another disc, the tracking list tells you at which line the scene picks up.

The price might be prohibitive to all but an institution--but I feel that every library should find its way to purchasing the complete set in much the same way that many purchased the complete set of BBC Shakespeare videos.

If you have to empty your penny jar, if you have to cash in your IRA, do so. Get this. These are absolutely superb recordings of some of the best English ever written and some of the most memorable characters ever created. So you don't recognize every word. Doesn't matter. The excellent actors carry you along and draw you intimately into the drama.

You can follow the play in text if you choose to -- they follow the readily available Complete Pelikan Shakespeare. But you don't need to -- if you aren't familiar with a play the brief four or five line summaries of each scene in the small fold-out accompanying each play are quite sufficient to know which characters are involved. It's possible to listen to these while driving, but you can't concentrate fully unless you're totally stuck in traffic. My number one recommendation is to take a Walkman and a pair of headphones to a hammock under a tree and indulge yourself. Second best is a comfy easy chair.

However you listen to these, do get them and listen to them. Or persuade your local library to get the set.

The price -- ...-- seems high until you figure that this is 38 complete plays -- less than the cost of the same play in paperback -- and there are a total of 83 disks, so you're paying just $5 per disk. Cheap! And these aren't some pop music you'll listen to once; these are a lifetime investment for yourself and your family.

Get it. Period.

These performances will keep you spellbound. There is something profound and amazing about listening to this Shakespeare, probably owing to the combination of perfect sound; nuanced, captivating, stellar acting; and fully comprehending the magic of The Bard's words. The quality of the recording is impeccable - there are no glitches, and the volume-level is consistent. Listening on my CD player at home, and following along with the text (not included with the CDs), I feel like I'm "getting" Shakespeare, and being moved by his words, like never before. I even find this listening more satisfying than seeing a Shakespeare play because I can better grasp and appreciate every line. The acting is first-rate (most actors are well-recognized RSC alumns, many of whom have become respected British film stars - ahem - Joseph Fiennes, Ciaran Hinds, Simon Russell Beale, Amanda Root, to name a few), and the clarity of the production picks up the most delicate subtleties of each performance. The background music complements and enhances each play, but isn't obtrusive. I wholeheartedly recommend this set - it will take you to a new level with Shakespeare.

The G8's Role in the New Millennium makes a significant contribution to our understanding of an important institution.

This publication is a succinct but authoritative primer on this organization's role as a potential policy-making alternative body for managing global financial challenges.

This book goes a some way to lifting the curtain on the secrecy that surrounds the operation of a body that has no charter, no headquarters, no secretariat. --Business Worldaware

I know understand myself, and others more than before. If you think this is some book that will help you control people's minds, this isn't what you are looking for. This will help you understand the sub-concious subtleties that everyone has. It also helps you to excersise your brain power to acheive excellence.

Of the many books published on Neuro-Linguistic Programming, this version tops the list. I say that because it does such an effective job of simplifying a complex set of processes and helps the reader understand its applications. Bandler and Grinder's earlier publications brought the concept to life; O'Connor and Seymour make it far more usable.

I do very highly recommend this book. It is enjoyable to read - considerably moreso than other books of it's kind. From this book you will get a very good background in the field. I believe this book serves much better for background information than to give you a set of techniques... if you want to learn techniques --- DO IT AT A SEMINAR --- nevertheless it is very useful to learn them ahead of time.
This book is a good precursor to The Structure of Magic and Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. both by Richard Bandler and John Grinder -- which go much more indepth into the linguistic portions of the NLP model.

I first read this book several years ago. I am a professional computer scientist/applied mathematician, and have no training at all in any social science aside from history, government and anthropology courses taken in college (lo these many years ago). My interest in this book arises from the illumination that its chapters on the English, the Irish, the Italians and the Jews (the main ethnic groups in the town in which I grew up) have given to otherwise inexplicable bits of my life. For example, I could never understand why one of my Yankee friends would go into paroxysms of anger when, after inviting his daughter to Sunday dinner, she would accept, and then call with a (legitimate) excuse on Saturday; or why one of my mother's best friends, a woman of Irish descent, drove me wild for over 40 years with her teasing manner, although she clearly meant very well towards me. The pathways of social and familial relationships passed from generation to generation through the filter of ethnic heritage appears to be remarkably powerful, even in these post-melting-pot days. Read this book with an eye to self-discovery if you don't believe me!

Ethnicity and Family Therapy is quite simply the best book that exists to any interested person as well as students and professionals with a good overview of important factors to understand when dealing with differences that exist in people.

I first became familiar with Monica McGoldrick about eighteen years ago. She has devoted her life's work to research and writing on the influences of ancestry and ethnicity in our contemporary lives. Every time I pick this book up (over the first and second editions), I find myself lost in it as if it is my first discovery of it and I always learn something new! A great book for a discussion group to consider.

I have been using this book and the earlier book in my practice for more than ten years. It has been vital to my work not only with other cultures, but my own (Irish)> I have often shared the readings with my clients who also found the chapters on their cultures to be acurate. If there was going to be one book on my shelf, this would be it. Got a copy to sell I would buy it as a back-up!

This is one of those books that can change your life. It was given to me by a dear friend , and I turned to it when my life made no sense. It helped me make sense of my life then, and it still makes wonderful sense today; 20+ years later. I have "passed it on" to many people and will probably do so as long as it's in print. I hope that this one will stay in my library, but if not, I know it will serve a purpose for someone that I care about - A great book to help you help yourself.....

For many years, I wondered why some people abruptly shifted their eyes away from my eyes. I also wondered how it would be possible for me to acquire the charisma that I admire in many public people.

This book is the answer.

People who shift their eyes from my eyes fear that if I notice who they are, and if I don't like who they are, they won't be accepted, because, to them, that is all that they have. I learned that those people have a self-concept that is based upon anticipating what others will think of them.

And to become as charismatic as those I most admire, I've learned that by first accepting everything about myself, I am free to emulate them, without losing myself.

This little book has so much information for anyone who desires to be their best.

Read this book to become more than comfortable in your own skin.

Any person who desires to understand himself in regard to personal growth and relationship with others must read this book. I have read and reread this book and use it to counsel others. Powell deals with the topic of human growth and development with acute precision and accuracy that informs a picture of the well-integrated, whole individual. He communicates this person in the honor of the image of God, not in a preachy tone but such as to reflect the dignity of humankind and his own vast understanding in religion and classical studies. He also touches at the nerve of why individuals mask themselves from others and the care and caution that we as counselors need to take in dealing with these people. His catalog of games and roles is so descriptive that even emotionally healthy persons can identify the weakend emotional tendencies that characterize their life. The principles in this book can be communicated to adolescent and adult alike. Simply indispensable.