The book had wonderfully simple, step by step directions on how to raise a lot of money through events, including how to create a budget, how to recruit participants,and how to make your cause compelling. The information in the book could apply to almost any event. Very practical, yet powerful information. I would recommend it without reservation to anyone interested in raising a lot of money...from a small school to a large nonprofit.

"Extinction" is the story of Franz-Josef Murau, a wealthy Austrian gentleman living in Rome as a private tutor in German literature. His tastes run to the esoteric and philosophical, and his relationship with his student, Gambetti, is intellectually mutual. He has just returned to Rome from the wedding of his younger sister, Caecilia, to an "obese wine cork manufacturer," held at the family estate in Austria, called Wolfsegg. At the wedding were his parents, older brother Johannes, and his other younger sister, Amelia.

He receives a telegram in Rome: "Parents and Johannes killed in accident." For the first half of this 320-page book (each half being one unbroken paragraph!), he describes his life, and his narration becomes a deep reflection on his childhood and life to date. He delivers a marvelous psychological portrait of himself, as well as the family members who have just died, and his long-dead Uncle Georg, whom he remembers with great fondness. He hates his family deeply, and the feeling is mutual. He is a philosopher, they are down to earth. He is an aesthete, but they are simple folks. He is a scholar, but they are hunters and farmers, despite their fantastic wealth and their prosperous family estate. Only Uncle George understood him, artistic, free-spirited, and educated. Franz-Josef reflects passionately on his current situation, and tells us many stories of himself and his family.

For the second half of the book, he describes the funeral at Wolfsegg. Lacking parents and older siblings, he is now the master of the estate. His sisters look to him for leadership. He must now decide what to do with the estate. Will he move back to Wolfsegg in Austria, a land he loves, but an estate he hates? Will he pass it to his sisters and remain in Rome, a city he cherishes more than any other? Bernhard will stun the reader with the beauty of the resolution, but will do it in his own literary fashion.

During the story, we learn Franz-Josef disdains Catholicism and National Socialism (i.e., Nazism) in equal parts. His mother had been having an affair with a Catholic Archbishop in Rome, a relationship which was supposedly secret, but which all her children seem to know of. The Archbishop is a close family friend, and will certainly visit the estate for the funeral. His father had many Nazi friends, unbelievably still openly Nazi all these years after the war. He tells us of the fun times he enjoyed playing at his estate's Children's Villa, and how disappointed he was when it was shuttered. He vows to open and restore it when he is master. He tells us of the five libraries---five!---scattered about the estate, similarly shuttered up, collecting dust despite a half-dozen generations' worth of valuable books stored within. He tells us childhood stories of his parents, his brother, and his sister, all disdainful, and heaps contempt upon his brother-in-law, whose name he cannot even bring himself to utter, in generous proportions. At one point, he bathes in his father's bath, and wears some of his clothes. Is this a metaphor for his feelings? We learn that he blames his father only for being such a simple man, but hates his mother passionately, for dragging his father into the mud.

We struggle with the idea that this is an unreliable narrator, and we are only hearing one side of a two-sided story, but unlike Italo Svevo's masterpiece, "Confessions of Zeno", it is clear that despite this narrator's one-sided story, there is no reason to disbelieve him. He is as critical of himself as of others, and he demonstrates the pettiness and crudeness of his family in many different ways. We trust him, not only because he is self-critical, but because despite his self-confidence, he is not a fool. We also learn some untoward truths about his family, and a few hidden secrets, which cannot be dismissed, even from the most unreliable narrator. His angst comes from a simple sentiment, expressed early on: "I can't abolish my family just because I want to." He struggles to resolve the question of extinction: Must he extinguish himself to satisfy his family? Must his family be extinguished to satisfy himself?

Finally, after a rollicking narration of heartfelt emotions and deeply-help philosophies, Bernhard's narrator demonstrates how he chooses to reconcile his thoughts and feelings, his inheritance and his sisters, his legacy and his future, and all the elements demonstrated through the length of the novel braid together like a jewel. Bernhard's prose is difficult for those unfamiliar with experimental or cutting-edge literature, but actually not very difficult once one tries. Curious readers will greatly enjoy engaging their mind with this book. If they wish to sample a smaller work before digging into this one, Bernhard's "Yes" is another masterpiece of style and depth. Both are rewarding, brilliant works from a literary master.

There is great joy to be had from this wonderful book. Its first joy is its prose - sparkling in its clarity, musical, effortless - which carries one along on a journey through the thoughts and feelings of Viennese 48 year old Franz-Joseph Murau. Intellectual resident of Rome, alienated by choice from his Austrian family, friend to Archbishop Spadolini(who is also his mother's lover!), he receives a telegram that his father, mother and brother have died in a car accident making him at one stroke inheritor of the family's wealthy estate. He is now MASTER OF WOLFSEGG. The first half of the novel THE TELEGRAM concerns his recollections of childhood and relationships and events that shaped his life. Example: " At first we always tell ourselves that our parents naturally love us, but suddenly we realise that, equally naturally, they hate us for some reason - that is to say, we appear to them as I appeared to mine, as a child that didn't conform with their notion of what a child should be, a child that had gone wrong. They had not reckoned with my eyes which probably saw everything I was not meant to see when I opened them. First, I looked in DISBELIEF, as they say, when I stared at them, and finally, one day I SAW THROUGH THEM, and they never forgave me, could NOT forgive me.(p 76)" The second half of the novel THE WILL concerns his attendance at the estate where he oversees the funeral and greets and reflects upon the range of visitors paying their respects.

Example: "In ROME I often lay on my bed, unable to stop thinking of how our nation was guilty of thousands, tens of thousands, of such heinous crimes, yet remained silent about them. The fact that it keeps quiet about these thousands and tens of thousands of crimes is the greatest crime of all, I told my sisters. It's this silence that's so sinister, I said. It's that nation's silence that's so terrible, even more terrible than the crimes themselves.(p 231)" This bare outline of the two parts cannot prepare you, dear reader, for the experiences of this novel. It is as if one becomes privy as another Viennese Mr Freud did, to the real secrets of the heart of an individual, an individual nevertheless, shaped by the world in which he was born but determined to realise some truths about that world. WE are privy then to the feelings, equivocations, doubts, fears, guilt and searching. It is a revalatory experience, scaldingly honest, which provides one man's analysis of 20th Century Austrian culture, including National Socialism, the class system, religion, architecture, cuisine et al. Sometimes mocking, sometimes self excoriating, sometimes savagely funny, we travel with Mr Murau through his thoughts and feelings at this turning point in his history. In the end, Mr Murau makes a stunning act of redemption which concludes his statement and rounds off this wonderful work of literature on a joyous note. Please accompany, or perhaps follow,this novel with a large dose of HAYDN. Most modern novels pale into the ordinary compared to this work.

This was his latest novel to appear in English. It is masterfully constructed,elegantly disturbing and satisfyingly challenging.

Hey everyone! Don't even bother paying ANY attention to the ...peter kline spouted in his horrendous review of The Spanish Tragedy. Shakespeare wrote Kyd's masterpiece? Give me a break! And I suppose you're also going to say that Shakespeare secretly wrote Marlowe's plays as well, right? Kudos to Mr. Richard for being a well-informed reader of the English Classics! And as for Mr. Kline, you should do some research ...

J.R. Mulryne's edition of *The Spanish Tragedy* is without a doubt the best that may at present be bought: informative, helpful, intelligent and accurate in introducing the text, presenting it, and glossing difficult words and phrases where necessary. The play is among the most exciting and artistic of its period. Kyd writes, and constructs his plot, with a level of skill comparable to that of Shakespeare, who was much influenced by *The Spanish Tragedy*, particularly in writing *Hamlet*, which is possibly yet "richer", but undoubtedly less clear and focused. Kyd shows us in an extremely sophisticated way the workings of revenge, both at an earthly and at a supernatural level. From the beginning the audience knows, in a way that the characters do not, that the supernatural world will insist on revenge. The pain of those who suffer injustice here on earth and clamour for revenge is painful to behold. Ultimately, however, in a baffling way, evildoers are punished: Hieronimo, the main character, manages to take matters into his own hands after exhausting all other possibilities, and thus ironically enacts the wishes of the higher powers. The FORM of Hieronimo's revenge is extraordinarily interesting: under the cloak of art - of a theatrical plot - he manages to kill his evil opponents quite easily. The tension between "art" and "life" is thus handled by Kyd in a very innovative fashion which still shocks modern spectators and readers. The role of language, too, is called into question: much of the play demonstrates that in real life finally action does speak louder than words, which often do not make their point or simply get ignored. Any reader who wants to get a notion of the superb quality of plays written by Shakespeare's contemporaries is certain to admire and enjoy this striking work of art. - Joost Daalder, Professor of English, Flinders University, South Australia

I reviewed this play a year ago; my purpose here is only to correct some of the astonishing misinformations given by Mr. Kline for fear that some students or others interested in Kyd might be misled.

First of all, there is no evidence that Shakespeare wrote a word of this. The play was ascribed to Kyd by Thomas Heywood in 1612, when Shakespeare was still living. The Spanish Tragedy is not mentioned in Francis Meres's list of Shakespeare's plays made in 1598; and at the very latest The Spanish Tragedy was in existence by 1592, when it was published, and performed as an old play by Henslowe. And how anyone who has read Shakespeare could possibly think the style of The Spanish Tragedy is his is beyond me; both Kyd and Shakespeare possess very distinctive styles, to neither's demerit.

The existence of the earlier version of Hamlet is not doubted. It is mentioned by Henslowe in 1594 as an old play, and alluded to by Thomas Nashe in 1589 and by Thomas Lodge in 1598 (I think). Nashe links the old Hamlet to Thomas Kyd. The fact that its text did not survive is not extraordinary; most plays in the Elizabethan period have been lost as well. The date of Shakespeare's Hamlet is almost universally accepted to be 1600 or 1601.

It is incredibly absurd to even suggest that Henry V may have been written at the same time as TST. Because of a reference to the Earl of Essex's expedition to Ireland, Henry V can be securely dated to the spring or summer of 1599. The Spanish Tragedy was at least 7 years old by then, and probably 12.

I agree that the Spanish Tragedy is worthy of frequent theatrical performance. Just don't pass it off under the mock-guise of Shakespeare.

thomas mails' honesty and humility in recognition of the potent and vibrant personality of fool's crow allows him to become a nearly transparent medium for this account of a shaman's personal methods and rituals.

at their most effecftive, shamanistic rituals use p[hysical symbols to trigger and continue cycles of effect and reaction between the individual practitioner and the world-system as a whole. this book doesn't go into great depth in presenting the fundamental metaphysic of the native american heritage that fool's crow continued, but provides a rich and meticulously detailed account of demonstrations of its practice by a healer, teacher and leader.

this book may tempt immitators and pretenders; they might find themselves playing with fire. this volume should not be taken as a single source outside of the greater context of the heritage it celebrates and partially describes, but it can be a valuable supplementary resource for a careful student, or the agile and humble explorer.

The legacy of Fools Crow is his wisdom & power as a Lakota medecine man. The path he walked, as a man called to serve his people & the Great Spirit, is recalled in this book. His simple message is that all of us can be "hollow bones" for the Great Spirit to work through. The reader learns that the power & wisdom of Frank Fools Crow's life was in his detachment from ego and submission to a higher force. Some readers may only be interested in the ceremonies & rituals described in the book. However, the message is the spirit of the man & his committment to his God & to his people. I can not imagine that any reader can walk away from this book untouched.

This is one of the most remarkable books I have ever read! If you want a book that will draw you closer to God, regardless of your religion or beliefs, this is the book. Frank Fools Crow will teach you by his example what a holy life truly is and the power that will naturally flow from living this type of life.

The beauty of the traditional way of the Sioux is also captured in this book. Yet Fools Crow reaches to the heart of all people with the love he freely gives. Fools Crow's many gifts are laid out here - his healing ability, his compassion. It is made clear these are gift's that come from God, not man, and as are to be shared with all.

As a battery engineer, I've found this handbook the single most useful technical reference in battery design, application, and troubleshooting.

The chapters are divided by battery chemistry, and each is written by an expert in the field. Most chapters include detailed technical descriptions of chemistry, electrical characteristics, construction details, applications, and pros/cons charts.

The 3rd edition features significant changes, including updates to older sections as well as new sections on progress in advanced battery systems, and an immense new section on lithium-ion batteries.

My only complaint is the lack of uniformity across chapters in terms of informational content and format. This can make comparison of battery technologies difficult. Some chapters go into too much technical detail, while some others leave out critical considerations.

These are relatively minor quibbles, however, and do not make the Handbook any less valuable to anyone dealing with batteries or other energy storage systems.

a very good book on tips of batteries. if i had never even read it, i would have died of an electrical shock my sister almost gave me.Read this book, it could save your life.

electricity and machines , generators and so on.

I used the 23rd edition of Stobo for my internal medicine rotation as a 3rd year medical student and also as a quick reference for several other rotations. I think it is the best mid-size medicine text I have seen. The content is broken down into bite-size chunks that are easy to read in one sitting--the short chapters make it easier to retain the material. Each section begins with an introductory chapter that gives a concise overview of the approach to take when evaluating a problem with a particular organ-system. Each chapter also ends with a list of summary points that are very helpful. Excellent tables are easy to reference. The actual information contained in the book is in more than enough depth for MS3 level, and the text emphasizes pathophysiology in many chapters, which helped me learn to integrate what I had learned in basic sciences and apply it to seeing patients in the clinical setting. The last section also has some good summary chapters for things that fall outside the realm of each organ-system section. This is a truly outstanding book. I highly recommend it, and I can't wait for the next edition.

Easy to read, contains pertinent info in a concise fashion. Great to study from, easily read during a clerkship.

I started my 3rd year medicine rotation with Appleton and Lange's Current Medical Diagnosis and Therapy but soon found this book to be more appropriate. It clearly and concisely explained pathophysiology of disease as well as clinical aspects, such as presentation, diagnosis and treatment. I also really enjoyed how each organ system began with a general approach to the patient. I am now using this books counterpart for my surgery rotation.

This book has been such a great help to me in shifting my practice. It's like having a trusted advisor seeing you through a shift with lots of brilliant ideas. Get it!

I loved this book. The author does a terrific job of inspiring the reader to find innovative ways to be successful as a psychologist in business. He's very reassuring and very helpful!

I became a somewhat fan of Dale Jr in his rookie season, so this book was a boon to me. I read all of Dale Jr's Nascar insights before ever knowing that he had written a book, and was impressed by his ability to convey emotions and humor in his writing. Now, this book is not about sappy emotion by any means. Dale Jr seems to write just as he seems to live. He's a young man with much potential. He loves to party, flirt, and drink with his buddies. But he seems so down-to-earth in his telling of it, that you can't help but get drawn in. He does a wonderful job in this book of revealing a little more about Dale Jr, the young man and race car driver, all the while dispelling everyone's notion that he is going to be a second Dale Earnhardt. He tells in this book that he is his own man in his own right, paying tribute to his dad for getting him there, but not taking over his personality.

This is a wonderful read for all NASCAR fans even if you are not a Dale Jr. fan. I was glad to find that Dale Jr. divulged emotions regarding the death of Dale Sr. appropriately and respectfully while conserving the privacy that he and all NASCAR drivers fight daily to preserve. As a twentysomething NASCAR fan I naturally related to his new millenium attitude and approach to the industry, his career, and often complicated issues such as media infringement, sponsor committments and unstable fans. Additionally, this book provides the reader with fantastic play by play descriptions of the races along the NASCAR circuit of his Rookie season with driver oriented explanations of various technical issues of the cars and tracks.
Overall, I rated this book 5 stars for its easy readability and attention keeping entertainment factor. By the end of this book you'll be ready to invite this guy over for a cold Bud!

Driver # 8 is simply one of the best books I have read in a long time. This book is not a biography. It is about Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s rookie season in the Nascar Winston Cup Series.

Dale Jr. proves that he is as good of a writer, as he is a driver. There are several moments in this book that will make you laugh out loud.

This book is good for the new Nascar fan, as well as the long timers, as it provides a fascinating look into an entire season of the Winston Cup Series. Dale often talks about the highs and lows that the teams go through. He also explains several things about the cars in layman terms so that the non fan can understand it.

Overall, as a long time Nascar fan, I got a lot of enjoyment out of this book, and I believe you will too.

Highly Recommended!!

The Title of this story is Blackberry's in the Dark. The authors name is Mavis Jukes, and the pictures were done by Tomas B. Allen. There's a little boy named Austin. He goes to his grandparent's house every summer. He's not so happy this time, his grandfather past away not so long ago and so this time it's just his grandmother and him. He goes to pick some blakberries by the riuer. His grandmother comes up later with some fishing gear. His grandfather was going to teach him to fly fish that year, but now the grandmother is going to try to teach him even though she doesn't know how, she was thinking maybe her and her grandson could try to figure it out together. Here's a phrase to help you see how they talk in this book. "I didn't Know" began Austin. His grandmother drew him near to her. "Nobody knew, Austin." She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Nobody knew that would be the last summer we'd all have together." She pressed Austin's cheek against her sweater and they stood there for a few minutes, roking back and forth. After a while she asked..." I would recommend this book to some people. I liked it because in a way it was touching but in a way it was fun. I woudn't recommend this book to someone that just really doesn't like calm books, they mostly like action books. I haven't read any other books like this one yet. It's good!

Mavis Jukes' Blackberries In The Dark tells of a family tradition of blackberry picking summers challenged by a grandfather's death. Grandma is alone and Austin feels his summer has lost its special magic - it's up to them both to make new traditions in this warm story of death and change, with black and white drawings by Thomas Allen.

Probably the best young children's book on the subject of a death in the family.

Very beautifully written, tears will almost definitely flow from the adult reading it. One might then ask, why bother with this book if it's about death, a heavy subject my kid hasn't been exposed to? Well, actually, it is a very uplifting story about life itself. No psychobabble or religious references, just a simple story of family, bonds, and tradition. Jukes' writing is beautifully crafted, making this simple story very meaningful. Death itself is dealt with matter-of-factly, and there is nothing scary in the book.

Though tinged with sadness, it is truly wonderful, and there are even a couple of good laughs. (Like life itself, no?)

Highly recommended.

For those of you who don't know, Vital Signs is the continuation of Cook's character Marissa Blumenthal from Outbreak.
In this novel, we find Marissa married and wanting a child. However, Marissa is barren, and it is the conspiracy behind her (and many other women's) infertility that is the basis for the rest of the novel.
First of all, Marissa's new husband received no introduction whatsoever. Not being mentioned in Outbreak, he seems like a character thrown in there to make the plot work. I hate characters like that...no soul, just a name on a piece of paper.
Second, what little personality of the characters that existed was so inconsistant from one scene to the next that it was annoying.
The plot was thrown together quite carelessly. Except for the medical knowledge present in the novel, I got the feeling that Cook didn't spend too much time worrying about trivial things as advancing a plausable plot. His characters are unbelievable...
good guys or bad.
As always, Cook's prose is awkward. Anyone should be able to tell he wasn't an English major. However, his style is easy to read, which is probably where much of his sucess stems from.
Anyway, if you want an intense read, read somethign else. If you want something to fill the time, this will do just fine.
Vital Signs is nothing spectacular (or even mediocre), but if you are bored this should cure it.

I like Robin cook because he makes medical thrillers not police or mafia stories, in this book you will read everything but medical things, and at the end Marissa discovers why so many women can't have children and you don`t know why or how.
Every writer must know what to write, and Dr. Cook must write medical thrillers, not other kind of books.

And very predictable. I've read quite a few of Robin Cook's earlier books and this one started out promisingly enough. He does stretch credulity somewhat though when his characters break into a medical facility and are able, within minutes, to access confidential medical information on other patients.

Mr Cook is also a lot more at home in Boston. I suggest he keeps his future books located there. His bloopers regarding Australia were legion and the idea of two caucasiaan doctors going to Hong Kong with the idea of getting information from one of the triads there was naive at the very least.

I will persevere with some of Mr Cook's later books and hope that they are an improvement on 'Vital Signs'