This text is one of a number of environmental pleas which are variations on a speech written by a european american in the early 1970s for a film. The speech was erroneously attributed to Duwamish/Suquamish Chief Seattle ?-1866. An article purporting to be the text of a speech from Seattle to Territorial Gov. Isac Stevens in 1854 appeared in a Seattle newspaper in 1878 - It is accepted by many scholars, including the Suquamish Tribal Museum, as an Americanized translation of an actual oration. Probably, this text was the inspiration for the 1973 film script speech, but the two have nothing in common and are frequently in direct opposition. The 1854/1878 text is not an environmental treatise. The 1973 text is not "another Seattle speech" - it is patently bogus, since we know its origin and it includes things (railroads in washington, buffalo slaughter from trains) which hadn't happened in 1854, indeed until after Seattle's death. This is a great text, but it does no service to environmentalism, scholarship, or the memory of this Puget Sound leader to sell books having nothing to do with him by attaching his name. Incidentally, this mis-attribution has been known for years - why do reputable booksellers continue to promote it?

Does it make any sense to discuss whether the speech is originally written by Chief Seattle or not? The most importent sense is to get thoughts we - the Europeans and the Not-native Americans - have lost in organizing our modern civilization and technics. By the speech of Chief Seattle we can find back to mankind's roots.

The great speech by Chief Seattle is in pointed contrast to the slanders of uptight white males who want to pretend he didn't say these things. As a feminist who is challenging patriarchal oppressions of the enviornment, I find Chief Seattle's words a great inspiration to me.

I normally love these books, especially the dry wit. This one was a bit dull and very disjointed. Why did Shinko have much more press than Claud? Lots of loose ends not tied up and just not as amusing. Caca de chiens is a bit harsh, but perhaps fitting.

While at Dulac's luxury hotel in Auvergne, Monsieur Pamplemousse learns from police Inspector Lafarge that the owner has been attacked, and that they are looking for, "two midgets-identical twins most likely.." (Note: The rest of his explanation had me laughing so hard, that I woke my wife.)...

Anytime Henri LeClercq, the Director of Le Guide, returns from America, the staff expects the adoption of all types of weird business practices. This time Henri brings back the concept of survival courses to maximize the inner self and raise each individual's capabilities. This works only in America and now LeClercq insures it will in France too. Pamplemousse and Pommes Frites have successfully avoided the fate of much of their peers until this morning when the media caught him "molesting" a Mother Superior. Though he explains the unfortunate events that led to his picture (lying on top of the nun alongside a seemingly laughing Pommes Frites) making the paper, Henri decides to exile the twosome until the media frenzy stops.

Pamplemousse and Pommes Frites travel to Auvergne to judge whether Chef Dulac is worthy of Le Guide's Golden Stock Pot Lid award. However, instead of a quiet escape, Pamplemousse and Pommes Frites become embroiled in a situation that could destroy not only the reputation of Le Guide, but also the international esteem that French cuisine deservedly has. Placing a TV camera on Pommes Frites, Pamplemousse expects to learn the truth behind the efforts to demolish reputations.

For fans that enjoy humorous satire, the release of a Monsieur Pamplemousse and Pommes Frites tale is always a time of rejoicing. The latest novel, ON PROBATION, is an extremely amusing story that as usual takes comic shots on anything that accidentally steps in the way of the dauntless, likable lead duo. Michael Bond uses irony to provide his audience with a wild spin through the kitchens of France and will send tourists seeking previous tours conducted by the dynamic duet.

Every page is filled with apologetics for Islam. This is a waste of time for the objective reader. However, if you are just concerned with building a system of flimsy apologetics for Islam, then this is the book for you. Otherwise, don't read it.

Though a short book, the Koran is like all scripture and enormous topic to tackle. For a book as short as this, it is inevitable that the work will only scratch the surface. Cook does a good job of putting in secular language how one can approach the Koran as a book and as the centerpiece to the Islamic faith. He writes in inverse chronological order, starting with the modern and ending with the opaque early history of the Koran. This is neither a guide to reading to the Koran nor an interpretation of its contents, but rahter, an anecdotal presentation of many topics relating to its contents. For an introduction to the Koran, it is rather disappointing in the end in terms of offerring a strong list for further study focusing on various topics. Much of this is not Cook's fault so much insofar as few interesting works address the Koran at a layman's level and usually tend to be quite technical and assume at least a cursory knowledge of Arabic. Also missing unfortunately is a good summary of some of the modern trends in literary and historio-critical approaches to the Qur'an though some mention is made of Wansborough (about a paragraph). Overall, it's an accessible read that is likely to inspire further study... There are good collections of scholarly articles by the polemicist ibn Warraq that one can buy as well if one is looking for something with more details.

Let's face it: most of us who've lately been reading books on Islam and the Qur'an are doing so to understand a religion we for the most part ignored prior to 9/11. We're putting ourselves through a crash course on Islam and Islamic culture in the hopes that we can figure out what Islam's basic tenets are, and how it is that the Taliban and al-Qaida can claim the religion as their justification for repression and terror.

Obviously one of the first places to start is with the Qur'an itself. But to Westerners who've never opened it, the book can be intimidating and arcane. Michael Cook's little volume on the Qur'an is a decent introduction to its structure, basic principles, interpretation, and history.

Some points in Cook's book are of more immediate service to the beginner than others. Cook's discussion of the difficulties encountered in translating the Qur'an's Arabic into other languages may not be of great interest to the beginner. But his overview of the various Muslim schools of exegesis or interpretation certainly will be, for this discussion begins to reveal to the reader that there's no more of a uniform way of reading the Qur'an than there is of reading the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. As a consequence, Qur'anic verses can mean different things to Muslims coming from different exegetical traditions. Cook illustrates this point in Chapter 4 by discussing the "sword verse" (Sura 9:5) and the "tribute verse" (Sura 9:29). These two verses are frequently appealed to by commentators on Islam's attitude to "infidels." Cook does a fine job of showing that the verses can be read either as harshly intolerant or as live-and-let-live, depending on how one parses the text.

One of the many merits of this short book is that Cook encourages us to think about the meaning of "sacred scripture" in general. Whatever else scripture is, regardless of the religious tradition we're talking about, it's fluid and living and multi-layered. To condemn a sacred text on the basis of a cursory reading and a literal interpretation of a few ambiguous verses is a rush to judgment.

i purchased this book based on the on-site reviews. although it must have worked for some, not this cook. i enjoy the kitchen a lot and consider myself pretty good at it --- just a bit bored and restless with my current menus. this was just way too stuffy. or perhaps the new phrase is "way too martha". yick. the menus are dated and boring. oh well, i tried.

The photos in this book are really gorgeous and the recipes do work. However -- there is NO WAY one person could make any of the full menus in just an hour! I would say that each individual dish takes at least an hour -- doing a whole Martha menu is a major undertaking. Another problem -- many of the ingredients are hard to find (even in the sophisticated greater Boston area!) and she relies heavily on fresh herbs in practically every recipe, which is just not practical for me. Not only is fresh sorrel unavailable in any store I know of, but even sorrel SEEDS, so you can grow your own sorrel, are hard to find!

I didn't know how to cook to save my life when I bought this book...this and the Silver Palate cookbook were the first I ever used. I found the recipes here easy, and have had great results...the only downsides are that some of the ingredients are expensive and hard-to-find if you don't live in a major city, and, even 10 years later, they still take longer than an hour to prepare.

But who cares? I'm a sucker for cookbooks with lots of glossy photographs, and I don't care what anyone thinks, I love Martha. If you do, too, then you will enjoy this book.

This book is heavily slanted towards books that appeared in the last year or so. Some haven't even been published yet--which makes me suspect that one of the authors is plugging books which s/he edited and will profit by.

Most of the information in this book can be gleaned for free from catalogs like *Jessica's Biscuit.* What's most disappointing about it is the bland prose and uninspired selections. I had hoped to learn about unknown gems or at least find new appreciation for some of my own favorites. No such luck with this p.r. approach to cook book criticism.

I am a freelance cookbook editor, and I could clearly see how Wyler and McLaughlin worked on this volume. It is not their fault that so many wonderful cookbooks have short lives and end up out-of-print before their time. There are an awful lot of cookbooks out there, and it does little good to highly recommend ones that are difficult or impossible to find. There are few "hidden gems" in the cookbook business--most good books stay in print. Also, many of the newer cookbooks are better than their older counterparts because public tastes change. You would be surprised at how badly some books have aged, especially in the visual department (oh, those photos!) As for the inclusion of barely-published books in the list, the explanation is simple. There is an A-List of people who receive advance promotional copies of cookbooks before publication. As McLaughlin is the cookbook buyer for a very reputable chain in the South, he would have get advance copies. I would think that readers would be thrilled to be on the inside track. I agree that Wyler and McLaughlin did themselves a disservice to put their own books in the list. Even though it doesn't look kosher, I have to admit that they are excellent books. How could they leave out Wyler's Simple Stews when it had been nominated for a Beard Award? I've cooked from Wyler's Cooking for a Crowd for years, and many of McLaughlin's wonderful books didn't make the list because they are out-of-print. Anyone who has cooked from their cookbooks will be more generous and forgiving in their evaluation of Great Books for Cooks. VERY serious cookbook collectors can search for out-of-print Time-Life series of cookbooks and treasure their old copies of Vincent Price's excercies in gourmandiese. Give me Wyler and McLaughlin's practical approach.

Susan Wyler, one of the authors of this book, has had six of her own cookbooks published. Also, she served as food editor of "Food & Wine" magazine for ten years.

You can be pretty sure that cookbook publishers deluged "Food & Wine" magazine with review copies, over the years. And you can be pretty sure that Susan Wyler saw much of this stream of books. So she's an ideal choice to be an author of this book.

Michael McLaughlin, her co-author, is author or co-author of at least twenty cookbooks, including "The Silver Palate Cookbook," which was inducted into the James Beard Foundation's Cookbook Hall of Fame. Very importantly, Mclaughlin is cooking and life-style book buyer for Cookworks, a gift and gourmet chain in New Mexico, Florida and Texas. So you can be pretty sure that he sees a giant stream of cookbooks too.

The result of the authors' skill and experience is a valuable book. It's not one that you'd read at a few sittings. Rather, it's a book directory for dipping into, now and then. It offers a paragraph of description of each cookbook, plus it recommends a selection of recipes from each cookbook.

It puts each book into one of these categories: general interest cookbooks, regional America cooking, ethnic and international cookbooks, vegetable and vegetarian cooking, low calories, reduced fat and spa cooking, single-subject cookbooks, cookbooks from chefs, restaurants and TV personalities, cookbooks featuring grilling and other techniques and equipment, breads, baking and desserts, good reads, references and cookbook series.

Tremendous numbers of cookbooks come into print and go out again, quickly. The authors were smart to concentrate on books in print and smart to look upstream at books about to be published.

While the recipes are very interesting and good, they are not necessarily kosher. There were pareve cookies with butter and a meat dish with sour cream!

Most of the recipes I tried in this book were pretty good. I've had rave reviews for my moroccan salads, and my family love the lamb/chicken dishes. I didn't have much success with the salmon croquette, so I'm just sticking to prepared gefilte for now. I do like the photos, and the instructions were clear and simple.

A book for those who think that kosher cookery is based only on the recipes handed down by your Mom. Containing a wonderful collection of simple-to-prepare, mouthwatering, international gourmet recipes which strictly adhere to dietary laws. A beautiful gift, but buy it for yourself!

This book is not a biography of Muhammad; the Prophet's life is covered only in Chapter 2. It is rather an account of Muhammad in his historial context, with emphasis on pre-Islamic Arabia, the traditions of monotheism, and the sources for early Islamic history on which it is based.

The main flaw in this book is that it presents as authoritative information which is in reality quite controversial. For example, his chapter on Muhammad's life includes a brief phrase about the satanic verses incident (without calling it that) that fails to describe differing points of view on the subject. The whole chapter on the Prophet's life, and much of the rest of the book, has perhaps also been too much influences by anti-Semitism in the Middle East arising after the founding of Israel. He also reports lots of traditions outside the mainstream (such as Ishmaelite Arabs who followed Jewish law) without giving a clear indication of how they might have fit into the larger scheme of things.

His chapter on "The Sources," while perhaps the most controversial, does give a fair presentation of the dilemma scholars face as to whether the Islamic tradition about the Prophet is fundamentally correct or fundamentally a later invention. I disagree with his conclusion, but it's his book. Here he presents enough of the evidence for interested readers to make up their own minds.

Given the contraints of this series, Cook may have done all he could. This is an interesting work, but there are probably better ones out there.

This book provided a view into the Warm Springs Reservation, whether or not it is a realistic view remains to be seen. The "voices" the authors chose to include in the book were not the best "voices". Some of the people interviewed were newcomers to the reservation, had only lived on the reservation for a short period of time years ago, and a couple were bigots who lived in the border town. Since the authors seemed to focus a lot on educational issues and youth issues, it would make sense to include interviews of youth. None were included. Also lacking in the book were the "voices" of tribal elders and leaders. Where were they? The authors give no explanation for the lack of these "voices". I believe that they would have provided important and informative viewpoints. Perhaps if the authors had included a list of interviews they tried to obtain, I might not have such a harsh opinion of the authors and their work.

I bought this book because I am in the market for a Jag and I am new to the make. I wanted some specifications, history, options, problem areas to look for ect. I was extremely disappointed. This book is very lacking in content. It only list a very very few specification for a few models and gives hardly any detail on options that were available through the years. The same could be said for any reviews on the cars. The XJ12 info was especialy lacking, and this happens to be a model of particular intrest to me. There was no mention of problem areas for this model, such as where they rust, what common mechanical problems they have ect. The last two books I have bought in this series were disappointments. From now on I will review the book more before I decide to throw money away.