This winter break I went on a Shakespeare buying spree, and this book is one of the fine gems I found. A large, but fascinating book, this work of great scholarship and excitement takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of Shakespeare, even into rather obscure corners of his works (Trollius and Cressida, Timon of Athens). This book is a must read for any would be deep thinker about Shakespeare.

Shakespeare as Political Thinker is a must for everyone interested in the political thought of William Shakespeare. This reprint will finally allow new comers to become familair with a commonsensical approach to Shakespeare's plays. The introductory chapter by John Alvis is worth the price. Perhaps the best Shakespearean critic alive, Alvis has an uncanny ability to show Shakespeare's moral seriousness without making the bard an unquestioning adherent to any political school or theological creed. Many of the essays that follow are also well done: Jaffa's chapter on Shakespeare's entire corpus, Laurence Berns' meditation on Lear etc.

The second printing of Shakespeare as Political Thinker gives hope to those interested in relearning ancient wisdom and pays tribute to its inspiration, Shakespeare's Politics (Allan Bloom).

This is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best self-help books ever. The message is clear that the reader must not only listen to what the book says, but then must go out and actually implement the tactics in everyday life. And that's the problem with most self-help books. They aren't that persuassive.

Well, this one is. Mr. Weber convinced me so rapidly of trying to change my normal routine and break out of 'who I was' I can't thank him enough. Like the other reviewer of this book, I wasn't scared to change, and this book was one of a few that confronted the problem. Therefore, it seems to me that Mr. Weber has taken his time to dig deep in the psychology of shy people. As one myself, let me tell you he hits the nail right on top of the head.

The biggest problem with most personal advice books is that they tell you to just ignore your problems - if you're afraid of something, just don't care, go out and do it. This kind of approach doesn't always scare me off more, but it's definitely not encouraging either.

At the first glance, one could say that this is just what the authors are doing in this book. The message of the book is very clear from the beginning - go out and do it. On the other hand, however, this book is incredibly motivating. I really can't tell you how they do it, but the more I read the book, the more I started to feel the readiness to go into situations that would normally have scared the hell out of me. I noticed a significant attitude change in a few days.

It's still much less than what I would need, but at least it's some kind of a beginning. Though this book doesn't contain a final solution to your shyness, it's the only book I've seen that has been of any kind of help at all. I advise every shy person to try this book first. Maybe you're also interested to know that several other books by Eric Weber I have seen (including the don't-know-why famous How to Pick Up Girls) are quite useless, failing to deliver what is promised.

Being a psychology student whose thesis was on sleep and dreams, I am bit bias to be writing a review of this book. I really loved it and think that most people would, weither they know anything about the process of sleep or not. It's very informative and presented interestingly, with lots of pictures and a little humor too. Hobson is one of the leading sleep scientists, so he knows what he's talking about. I would definately suggest that anyone who sleeps should have this book!

This book offers more information and factual data, then first assumed. You'll learn about sleep disorders, and all of the latest research. For example, did you know that the sleep attacks of narcolepsy occur at periodic intervals of 90 - 100 minutes, during waking, a frequency that collides with the onset of REM during sleep. Not only is this and other interesting facts presented in a clear manner, but the reason behind this is explained in such a concise and constructive way, that you cant help but to consider this a better page turner than most works of fiction. I recommend this to anyone to wishes to learn about the human brain, dreaming, or just sleep in general.

I'm a graduate student in Boise Idaho. I'm in an Advanced Children's Literature class and I've been asked to write a review of a newer children's book for this website. I chose The Snail House by Allan Ahlberg and illustrated by Gillian Tyler. This is a story about a Grandmother telling a fantasy to her grandchildren. All of my grandparents are deceased, but as a child my grandmother used to tell us stories. This is much of the reason that I chose this story. It sort of brought me back to my childhood. The book starts out with Michael, Hannah, and the baby. They all climb onto Grandmother's lap to hear the story of a boy and his sister and their baby brother who suddenly become so tiny that nobody can see them. They decide to leave their home to live for a little while in a home that fit their new size. This home was a snail house. They have everything they could possible need; a door, windows, a kitchen, tables and chairs-everything. In this house which is also a moving house they have a number of adventures; an earthquake, the baby disappearing, and the thrush who would like to eat their house. Along with this wonderful story told by Grandmother are enchanting illustrations that draw the reader further into the story. This is a great read for the ages of 4 to 10, however I'm 27 and I enjoyed it immensely.

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"The Snail House" will take everybody back to that safe warm world, where you sat on Grandma's knee and had stories told to you.

It is both a fantasy and a reality for children to see the world around them at different size scales. This might have something to do with little person's low-eyelevel perspective. Most young children play in a miniaturised world, Little boys with the toy cars and trains, or little girls with their baby dolls. Playing on the floor or out in the garden, small things look large, and big things look huge.

In this story, Grandma transports the children to a world where they live in a snail's shell house. They have three adventures. The great earthquake when the apple fell; baby gets lost when she climbs the dandelion; and the day the thrush almost got their snail but was scared away by a cat.

One of the charms of the book, is the way the children interrupt their Grandma as she tells the story, and ask questions and make suggestions. Does that sound familiar?

We are never that far from the real world. On each page, outside the frames that contain Grandma's story we see the children with their grandmother or shown scenes close by her house. We are reminded that traffic is humming on the distant road and "headlights are gleaming in the gathering dark".

This is one of those rare picturebooks where the story and illustrations mesh perfectly. The story within the story is a neat device, perfectly matched and supported by the illustrations, which show both the "real world" at Grandma's house and the "story book" micro-world of the adventures with the snail.

Gillian Tyler's portrayal of the miniature scenes in the garden is superb. The details and activities going on beyond the written story will intrigue and capture the attention of all youngsters.

There is just a hint of mystery in the story. In the last scene, we see young Hannah out on the verandah "standing yet, gazing into the muffled blackness of the garden".

"The Snail House" shows us that gentle, lyrical writing, and charming and soft but detailed pictorials still have an important part to play in making a children's picture book work successfully. It is a refreshing change from a lot of the garishly, overly styled, supposedly smart and sometimes very cynical children's books that we often see.

It is the best book because it helped me to get the highest score of my class.If you got one you won't be disappointed.

good fine excellen

spooky kids is spookier than R.L Stine's GOOSEBUMPS. It is sadly true; but scary! Siskel and Ebert gave it 1,000 thumbs up. It makes Goosebumps look like snail!!!!!

My teacher reads these to us all the time,and they`re great. What makes it even better is because it`s about kids. Totally creepy, and intereresting if nothing else.That is if your into that supernatural sort of thing like me

I felt chilled reading this collection of Poe's all time best stories. I especially loved the eerieness of The Cask of Amontialldo and the insanity of the narrator in the The Balck Cat, all so frightly believable. The illustrations top it off by adding a magical touch of frightful imagery to the collection.

I read this book about a year ago and loved it. I'm the type of person who reads before they go to sleep and I had to put this book down because it was so frightening. I loved the way Poe drew me into the story and kept me begging for more. I was always curious to know what happened next, even if I was terrified. My favorite of all the stories was the "Cask of Amontillado". It was so creative how you became almost like a part of the story.

Edgar Allan poe can write mysteries like no other writer. I love mystery books but this one no other writer can compare to. Each mystery has a porpose, a meaning and a moral. Another great thing about the book was the wide time scale that the mysteries were placed on, in-fact one of them happend in the stone age and another in the 1920's. Over all it was an ecellant book and I would definatley recomend it to any mystery lover.

This is a collection of some works by Edgar Allen Poe. The book includes: The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, The Pit and the Pendulum, A Tale of the Ragged Mountains, A descent into the Maelstrom, The Black Cat, "Thou Art the Man," and Matzengerstein. It has been some years since I read the book, but I do remember enjoying it.

Ten in a Bed is an excellent bedtime storybook. Each chapter contains a slightly twisted version of a classic fairy tale. The book is ingeniously written to make the stories sound more concrete than your average fairy tale. Too many people are convinced that childrens books are only for children, but most adults will enjoy reading this book, if they have the time. Most American children may not understand some of the British terms used in this book, but adults will definitely appreciate its dry humor. The book does not have many illustrations, but the authors implemented great descriptions and word imagery to create a rather interesting and modern setting for fairy tales. Every kid should have this book read to them at least once, and every adult should read this book to at least one child.

This book is a guaranteed favorite for young preschool children! The repetition of the text makes this book a winner! I read this book several times each day. I teach Pre-kindergarten and my children beg for more!!!!!! This book has been an asset in my classroom for teaching counting skills and number sequencing. I highly recommend it for any parent or teacher of young children. Also you can incorporate singing to the text. It's a GREAT book

I am writing this the day after Thanksgiving. The first Thanksgiving for which I was entirely responsible myself. I don't cook, I'm the "order takeout" type of person. So you can imagine the jitters I had when facing the challenge of what to cook for the first Thanksgiving at my house.

Thankfully, Williams Sonoma's Thanksgiving recipe book saved the party. Not only saved it, but made it a huge success. The recipes were laughably easy and most of all very quick to make, yet everything I fixed had a definite festive touch - not your everyday homecooking at all. The book features beautiful color pictures of all dishes, along with the clearest of instructions for even the most unexperienced cook like me. There are plenty of recipes to chose from - from simple to more sophisticated, from traditional sweet potatoes and green beans to more unusual side dishes, but all are very manageable. However, not only side dishes are listed here. There are various turkey recipes to chose from, as well as desserts.

The book also addresses essentials like how to make turkey stock, gravy and cranberry sauce (I highly recommend the one with ginger and fresh grapefruit juice/zest!) and comes complete with recommendations for different menu courses from simple to elegant. Of course, there is also a section on recommended cooking and serving tools.

My summary: I have no experience whatsoever with cooking, but everything I made yesterday tasted simply delicious. Thanks, Williams Sonoma! I might be a chef after all!!! Now, if I could just decide whether my favorite were the yams with pecan nut topping, or the sauteed corn with chipotle peppers. Or maybe the Brussels sprouts with orange zest and hazelnuts, but who could forget the green bean salad with the caramelized onions and goat cheese...

This book has become our family tradition for Thanksgiving. We like a traditional meal, and this book has all the foods we want to prepare with nice variations. Every year we pull it off the shelf and select recipes for the year. Along with plenty of recipes to choose from, it has all the vital information you need for Thanksgiving in a nice compact form. Turkey roasting times, carving instructions, checklists, and timing guides are all included. It is convienent to have all of the recipes in one book. Each year we cook some of the same recipes and we try a couple of new things. Every recipe has produced excellent results. Our favorites from year to year are the shrimp grapefruit cocktail, the sausage, chestnut and apple dressing, and the caramel nut tart. You will find everything you need from the turkey, to the cranberry sauce, to the sweet potatoes, to the pumpkin pie.