I first purchased this book when I was a freshman in college seven years ago. It is without a doubt the best and easiest reference guide to writing I have ever read. I love the plastic tabs that mark each section. This guide is easy to read and follow it is organized in basic steps that are categorized accourding to section. So for example if you need to find out how to cite a web page or a video tape, etc using the MLA style you just flip to the section called doucmentation clearly marked with a plastic tab. I have since purchased an updated guide for myself and also bought one for my brother - a freshman in college. I really wish I had this book when I was in high school. I highly recommend this book to any high school, college, graduate student or writer. I especially recomend this book for students with learning disabilities, I myself have ADD and before I got this guide I could not understand how to write a paper in the MLA style or in any style other than a book report. I promise this is the easiest reference guide to writing ever published.

This book is the best on the market - I highly recommend it to all students in high school and college -- and it is a must for every person who writes in business! It has everything you need to know about professional writing from the sentence to the essay or research paper, as well as resumes and letters. It should be added to the desk collection along with the dictionary and thesarus. I love the way it opens and lays flat; I love the tabs for easy recognition of sections; it has large enough print and enough whitespace to make it very easy to read; it has great explanations and examples, and the MLA section is complete and easy to follow. It even has a section for people who speak English as a second language and are dealing with the special problems related to English. This is a must have book !

This handbook gives you all the information you need to know when writing at college level and above. A must for all writers.

Originally a series of three lectures in the History of American Civilization at Harvard University in 1994, divided as before.during/after the war (WWII), this book covers a lot of ground in 152 small pages. He mixes his own life from being a scrambling book reviewer during the Depression, to being some kind of cultural attaché to the US military machine in England during and immediately after World War II, to being a literature professor at various Eastern Seaboard Universities after it with analyses of many writers., many of whom he knew, and about whom he supplies insightful recollections .

Although it sounds patently implausible, Kazin has interesting things to say about Hannah Arendt, Saul Bellow, John Cheever, Hart Crane, Theodore Dreiser, William Faulkner, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, Czeslaw Milosz, Edwin Muir, Flannery O'Connor, George Orwell, Katherine Anne Porter, Henry Roth, Delmore Schwartz, Allen Tate, Simone Weil, Edmund Wilson, Richard Wright and/or their writings in this short space (originally, short time), along with apposite quotations from Flaubert and Proust, and reflections on Mark Rothko.

The vignettes and condensed analyses are pithy, but I don't really understand how Kazin supposed they cohered, or what their cumulative point is. I think that the past tense of the title contrasts with more recent worship of theory and political correctness instead of contemplating the universes written in what was the canon of the 1950s (with Eliot expelled, Wright and Milosz added). Kazin was an engaging mandarin, judging by his performance here, as well as from his longer books.

I can only add my voice to the words of the previous reviewer; I think this wonderful book endears itself immediately to most readers simply by being so humble. Kazin mourns the current state of literary academia, in which it seems that criticism can exist only as a political philosophy or as an elitist game of celebrity-making. Rather, Kazin aspires to (and fondly remembers) literary criticism as a effort of love by one writer for another. As he says in this book, "what brings us closer to a work of art is not instruction, but another work of art."

If you love books, and especially if you dislike the elitism of the academic establishment, you will love Kazin. "Writing Was Everything" is also a great introduction to Kazin. It is very slim--I read it in one sitting--and is very readable, as it is as much autobiography as academic cri de coeur. Even this short work is peppered with pithy insights, and is helpful in understanding a number of the important novelists and poets of our time. "Writing Was Everything" is well worth the few hours it takes to read, and will likely be your invitation to reading others of Kazin's works.

Alfred Kazin's death last year robbed America of a rare character in the world of arts and letters: a humble critic. WRITING WAS EVERYTHING offers the reader a glimpse of that wonderful mind that spoke to the reader, not to the theorist. Kazin mourned the days when litersture "was held sacred". This delightful little book is the perfect summation of a near perfect observer of American writing.

I love to play cards with my children but can never rememberthe rules to my favorite games. This book has solved that problem forme :) It's amazing how a deck of cards and a rule book can bring a family together...

"101 Best Family Card Games" is a clear, consise and informative book. It explains the rules and course of play for many card games. The best part of the book is the section on why families should play together. I also found the card games explained in the "For the Family with Young Children" to be a great guide and a wonderful source for my young children.

this is the book that tells you how to practice all of adlerian great techniques. just buy it, plus hardcover and great paper.

Im reading this book for a Graduate class in Adolscent counseling. Sweeny touches on all the basics of the adlerian approach to counseling. I havent seen many other books on straight adlerian type of counseling so look around first.

I must agree with the other reviewer, Christopher Finan has done a superb job. Not only does he chronicle Alfred E. Smith's life -- from his humble beginning on the Lower East Side, his four terms as NY Govenor, his 1928 run for president, his work overseeing the construction of the Empire State Building -- but he illuminates what was behind this spectacular statesman's soul. The Democratic Party will never be the same, nor will any of us thanks to Alfred E Smith. Any one who wishes to explore the origins and successes of urban politics needs to read this book. Al Smith and his troop of "Happy Warriors" made sure that when times were hard, you weren't left berefted and destituted. That good government helps business and citizens build better societies.

Though I only a year ago, on Feb. 2, 2002, read Robert Slayton's biography of Al Smith, I have now read this work and find it just as well done, and in some respects better than Slayton's book. This study seemed to concentrate on the things about Smith's life which are of abiding interest, and dwelt less on minutiae of New York local public affairs no longer of interest or concern. The account of the absorbingly interesting political efforts aimed at the presidency which were pursued in the 1920s are told with verve and clarity. Especially well-done is the account of how the fierce but unsuccessful bid in 1924 for the Democratic nomination turned into the cakewalk to that nomination in 1928. The account of the 1928 campaign is also well told, and one, in hindsight, is amazed by the confident optimism existent in the Smith camp till election day in 1928, in those innocent pre-scientific polling days! Finan also tells the story of the relationship with FDR in the years from 1928 to 1932 with a somewhat different take, showing that what so offended Smith was actually a tactic deemed helpful to FDR's drive for the 1932 nomination. The sad story of the Liberty League connection and the January 1936 "walk" is covered with insight, and what I felt was the appropriate outlook. While the bibliography is a bit thin, and the notes could also have been fuller, this does not detract from the readability of the book. I found few errors, and those minor: on page 203 Senator Marcus Coolidge of Massachusetts is referred to as a Republican, whereas he was in fact a Democrat; on page 255 the implication is that Senator Tom Heflin of Alabama was defeated on Nov. 4, 1930, but his loss came in the Democratic primary much earlier in the year. Anyone who revels in political history of absorbing interest will enjoy this excellent book. I did.

The ever-growing catalogue of Radio Spirits boxed sets is now richer by one more: on 4 audio cassettes or 6 CDs. Each tape holds a one-hour dramatization and a half-hour one; each CD a single one-hour show or 2 half-hour ones.

The first of the one-hour shows is The Screen Director's Playhouse version of "Lifeboat" (11/16/50) with Tallulah Bankhead recreating her original role. "Spellbound" (1/25/51) on the same series offers Joseph Cotten and Mercedes McCambridge in the Peck and Bergman roles; while Studio One's "The Thirty Nine Steps" (3-23-48) stars Glenn Ford and Kathleen Cordell in the leads. Academy Award's "Strangers on a Train" (12/2/51) gives us Ray Milland and Frank Lovejoy in the roles created by Farley Granger and Robert Walker. All of these are extremely well done, forced (of course) by time considerations to leave out certain events shown in the film (such as the actual murder of the wife by psychopath Bruno in "Strangers").

The half-hour shows are not nearly as satisfying, being forced to rush the plots almost to the point of mere outlines of the originals. There is the very first airing of a Suspense show, "The Lodger" (7/22/40) with Herbert Marshall, Academy Award's "Foreign Correspondent" (7/24/46) with Joseph Cotten, The Screen Guild Players "Rebecca" (11/18/48) with John Lund and Loretta Young in the Olivier and Fontaine roles, and Academy Award's "Shadow of a Doubt" with Cotten in his original role.

The acting is mostly very good in all eight of these broadcasts; but as I said, you will find the longer versions more satisfactory. Still they are all part of the best of old-time radio's golden history.

The ever-growing catalogue of Radio Spirits boxed sets is now richer by one more: on 4 audio cassettes or 6 CDs. Each tape holds a one-hour dramatization and a half-hour one; each CD a single one-hour show or 2 half-hour ones.

The first of the one-hour shows is The Screen Director's Playhouse version of "Lifeboat" (11/16/50) with Tallulah Bankhead recreating her original role. "Spellbound" (1/25/51) on the same series offers Joseph Cotten and Mercedes McCambridge in the Peck and Bergman roles; while Studio One's "The Thirty Nine Steps" (3-23-48) stars Glenn Ford and Kathleen Cordell in the leads. Academy Award's "Strangers on a Train" (12/2/51) gives us Ray Milland and Frank Lovejoy in the roles created by Farley Granger and Robert Walker. All of these are extremely well done, forced (of course) by time considerations to leave out certain events shown in the film (such as the actual murder of the wife by psychopath Bruno in "Strangers").

The half-hour shows are not nearly as satisfying, being forced to rush the plots almost to the point of mere outlines of the originals. There is the very first airing of a Suspense show, "The Lodger" (7/22/40) with Herbert Marshall, Academy Award's "Foreign Correspondent" (7/24/46) with Joseph Cotten, The Screen Guild Players "Rebecca" (11/18/48) with John Lund and Loretta Young in the Olivier and Fontaine roles, and Academy Award's "Shadow of a Doubt" with Cotten in his original role.

The acting is mostly very good in all eight of these broadcasts; but as I said, you will find the longer versions more satisfactory. Still they are all part of the best of old-time radio's golden history.

The Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds

That is the title that I think this book should be because there is another mystery going on at the same time that eventually involves the Three Investigators with the mystery of the moaning cave. The plot is trying to see how or what is making the cave moan only at night and not in the morning. I really liked this book because it kept me reading, even when I wasn't supposed to be reading the book.

The tenth (10th) installment in the "Three Investigators" series finds the boy sleuths travelling to a ranch to try to solve the mystery of 'Moaning Valley'. They uncover clues leading back to an 18th century bandit, and object of local folk legend named 'El Diablo'. The legend says El Diablo used the cave in Moaning Valley as his hideout, and disappeared into the cave 80 years ago... But suddenly there are stories that he's returned! The cave gives off an errie moan that terrifies anyone who hears it. The boys do a bit of scuba diving, and see an odd creature in the water on the western bank of the mountain where El Diablo's cave is located. The conclusion is both satisfying, and fun as they tie up all loose ends, and help the authorities solve a mystery at the same time. I re-read this story to my 6 year old son last month - still one of my favorites in the series.

I first read this book about seventeen years ago. As a young child, I was drawn into it immediately and was unable to put it down. The plot line was enjoyable and I found the fast pace and action preferable to all other juvenile mysteries. Within a year, I had read the entire Three Investigators mystery series twice and continued to read them as they came out. Now that I have a young son of my own, I re-read the Mystery of the Talking Skull and quickly discovered that it is still a great book! I recommend it for any child and any parent... it's just too bad they've gotten so hard to find!

This was a great book. I liked it so very much. A quick review of the plot. The teens that we all know and love, Jupiter Jones and his Friends Bob Andrews and Pete Crenshaw buy a strange trunk at a auction. Needless to say the mysterious trunk brings them action and suspense to the reader: A. an $100 offer for the trunk. B. visits to Gypsies, the police station, and other places, C. A capture by a gang, and a slick spy on to them. The whole thing dissolves into a funny yet satisfying ending. This is a Heavily Recommended Book. What a great mystery this is. Read if you like any kind of mysteries. The 3 Investigator stories do a great job of combining aspects of a great mystery book. Mike Lee (A heavy mystery reader)

This is an excellent collection of Tennyson's poems,
very representative, very inclusive. In order to make
room for so many poems with full texts, the editor has
chosen not to include an Introduction. This, of course,
for the non-Tennyson reader or person wishing to know
more about him presents something of an obstacle. However,
a bit of rambling to one's own library, or a municipal
one, can solve that.
There is included a Chronology of important dates and
events concerning Tennyson's life. From this, a few of
the important facts seem to be: 1809--born at Somersby,
fourth son of Revd George Clayton Tennyson, Rector of
Somersby; 1816-1820--pupil at Louth Grammar School,
subsequently educated at home by his father; 1827--
publishes _Poems by Two Brothers_ with his brother
Charles, also enters Trinity College, Cambridge University;
1829--meets Arthur Henry Hallam, also a student at Trinity,
who was to become Tennyson's close friend and the fiance
of Tennyson's sister Emily, also wins the Chancellor's
Gold Medal with his prize poem "Timbuctoo", and becomes
a member of the "Apostles," a Cambridge debating society;
1830--publication of _Poems, Chiefly Lyrical_; 1831--death
of Tennyson's father, he leaves Cambridge without a
degree; 1833 (September) death of Hallam, his close
friend, from a cerebral hemorrhage while on holiday in
Vienna; 1840--beginning of almost a decade of depression
and ill health for Tennyson; 1850--marries Emily
Sellwood, appointed Poet Laureate of England; 1852--birth
of first son whom he names "Hallam"; 1883--accepts offer
of title of Baron, taking his seat in the House of
Lords in March 1884; 1892--dies on 6 October.
The poems in this anthology come from the major
publishings of Tennyson's poems. The first two:
"Timbuctoo" was published in the _Cambridge Chronicle
and Journal_ (1829) --and "The Idealist" was not
published during Tennyson's lifetime [this information

comes from the very good notes supplied by the Editor
Aidan Day at the back of the volume].
The poems included in this volume which the scholar or
general reader might wish to know are here collected
in one edition [full texts], along with many more
than these mentioned, are: The Lady of Shalott; Oenone;
The Palace of Art; The Hesperides; The Lotos-Eaters;
Morte d'Arthur; Ulysses; Locksley Hall; short poems
from _The Princess_; IN MEMORIAM, A.H.H. (1850);
MAUD (1855); Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington;
The Charge of the Light Brigade; Tithonous; Lucretius;
To E. FitzGerald; Tiresias; The Ancient Sage; Locksley
Hall Sixty Years After (1886); Demeter and Persephone;
Crossing the Bar. These poems are presented in
chronological order in the text, and the very good
Table of Contents in the front of the book tells
the poetry collection and its date from which the
poems come.
Tennyson is one of those interesting poets that take
a bit of time (at least for me) to get used to -- to
want to read, to really listen to. Having had the
experience of being required to memorize some of
Tennyson for my early academic training in school
at least got me acquainted with the more accessible,
but somewhat less deep poems. But it has taken several
years, much experience, and depressed grief over the
loss of a beloved, to bring me into synch with
the deeper poetry...or at least, being able to hear
it with deeper understanding, deeper reading.
From these poems it is hard to pick "favorites," and
that almost seems too trite a word. Maybe "meaningful"
would be more appropriate as a term. The two I would
select out would be "The Palace of Art" (1832; rev.
1842) and IN MEMORIAM, A.H.H. (1833), on the death
of his dear, beloved friend Arthur Hallam.
From "The Palace of Art," these lines resonate:
* * * * * * * * *
And with choice paintings of wise men I hung
The royal dais round.

For there was Milton like a seraph strong,
Beside him Shakespeare bland and mild;
And there the world-worn Dante grasp'd his song,
And somewhat grimly smiled.

And there the Ionian father of the rest;
A million wrinkles carved his skin;
A hundred winters snow'd upon his breast,
From cheek and throat and chin.
......
And thro' the topmost Oriels' coloured flame
Two godlike faces gazed below;
Plato the wise, and large-brow'd Verulam,
The first of those who know.

-- Arthur Lord Tennyson.
* * * * * * * *

This is an eminently readable collection of Tennyson's most memorable poems. Both the price and the content are of great value to today's readers. Our present times reflect stress and change which parrallels Tennyson's world. The poems are timeless and language is no barrier for a new millenium reader of this valient poet. For those looking for guidlines to courage and consistency, I recommend that you read and enjoy this book. Your gain will be ten-fold the price.

Robin Blake's Anthony Van Dyck could also have been featured in our arts section but is a powerful biographical sketch which should not be missed by any interested in biographical history. Van Dyck was a portrait painter who saw his own works passed over in favor of his contemporaries, although they were compared to Titian and Rubens. Blake examines Van Dyck's life and art with an eye to revealing the underlying influences on his works; in the process imparting a fine bit of history. Recommended for any student of portraiture.

Diane C. Donovan Reviewer

This is by far the best bio on van Dyck in print today. I purchased it a year ago, from Amazon UK, and am very glad to see it available in the States. If you have the catalog from either the recent show in London or the Washington DC show from '90, use the images from that to go with Robin's text and you're in for a real treat. Bravo Robin!