The photographs by John Bigelow Taylor are wonderful, but this book has a paucity of explanatory text. I don't just like to look at pretty pictures. I want to know about the jewelry. Who made it? How was it made? Who wears it? How is it worn? Why was it worn? What is the human history behind it? I particularly want to know all this about ethnic jewelry. You won't get it here.

No people are shown wearing the jewelry, so the book is sterile. There is no cultural context. It's a lot to pay for no additional knowledge about ethnic jewelry.

This is, indeed, a very beautifully photographed book. The represented pieces are all exquisite.

Though, it's true that there could have been more background information provided, giving the book a rating of one star, as the first reviewer did, is grossly unjust - an act of spite rather than of informed criticism. Clearly, the book was never meant to be a exhaustive examination of all the ethnological aspects of each piece (though there is ample annotation); such a book would have run to 2000 pages rather than 250! So the Splendor of Ethnic Jewelry is not a doctoral thesis but rather a stroll thru a museum; in this case, the Ghysels Collection. A coffee-table book if you want, but beautiful none the less and of the highest standard.

If you have previously had no interest in ethnic jewelry per se, this book will open your eyes to the extraordinary artistry of these ornaments created by the world's non-industrial peoples. Each object in itself says much more than an accompanying treatise ever could, and I cannot imagine anyone coming away from this book without a desire to learn more.

A second copy purchased for a friend who deals in ethnic jewelry was very much appreciated.

This is a HUGE book filled with georgeous close-ups of really inspirational jewelry. A favorite of mine!

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who already owns an introductory physics text such as Halliday and Resnick or the Feynman Lectures...the quantity of material beyond the scope of those books is very disappointing. The authors seem more interested in pretty pictures and impressive graphs than content. The only chapter I found useful was the chapter on nuclear physics. If you can find this book used for a bargain, it might be worth the money, but at the full price, purchase at your own risk.

A clear, historical and contamporary book

Caveat emptor: nothing later than 1922 in this collection - i.e. nothing from 'The Hollow Men', 'Ash-Wednesday', 'Ariel' poems, the Four Quartets, etc. etc. A seriously deficient selection.

Excellent selection of poetry and poetry-related essays by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. NOTE: previous reviewer seems to have confused Coleridge with Eliot. Coleridge DID NOT WRITE The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, or Ash Wednesday -- THAT is why those are not in this book. He DIED in 1834!!

I probably should have expected it, given the title, but I was hoping for something a bit deeper from Augustine. This doesn't have the mystery and imagination of Confessions. Here describes his understanding of Genesis 1-2.9 point by point in a severely neo-Platonic manner. And Augustine is a devoted disciple of Plato; if one hasn't read any Plato it will be tough going indeed. This is thick stuff and I found I often had to skim some portions and reread others six times. Perhaps half of Augustine's analysis of Genesis is based on the idea of the Perfect Forms, and how God created the forms in the first chapter of Genesis, and they only actually became reality in the second chapter. Literal Meaning of Genesis is valuable on a historical basis, for understanding an ancient world view, but has little theological value today because so few now follow Plato's thoughts, and our culture is more Augustinian than anything else.

Even the style of the writing is Platonic, becoming a dialectic of Augustine with himself, as he raises and questions different possibilities, accepting them or dismissing them, coming to a Hegelian final result, and sometimes, no result at all, determining that something is unknowable. I caught a lot of the feel of Montaigne at times- as if Augustine was figuring this out and determining truth as he went along. The positive aspects of this are expressions of humility, openness to possibilities, and a real feel that there is a person behind this writing.

Literalness can have value in exegesis, but in something as deeply allegorical as the Genesis stories, Augustine would have been better off keeping with analogy and myth for explanation, as do the Eastern Fathers he so often decries throughout his text. He does stoop to allegory at times for explanation- Augustine believed that this was suitable only if the literal meaning was unavailable.

One central example: for Augustine the literal meaning of the "days" of Genesis 1 holds no value- what could it mean that God created in a day, when there was no sun or moon, no person to see it, and even when there is a sun it is always on one side of Earth or the other, with darkness at one place when there is light in another? A "day" has no meaning- and God is outside of time anyway. He does not create in a day, nor need anytime at all to create. And so the evening and morning become spiritual light and darkness, referring to the Perfect Form and the actual result. Augustine lacks the benefit of our present understanding of anthropology, for we know the Hebrew concept of Day began in the evening, and so he spends many chapters trying to puzzle out why darkness comes first and to which day each evening belongs- the day prior or the day after.

The occasional stoops of metaphor and allegory provide the real gems in the work, and if one skims through it, it's worth the read for those. Like the idea that not everything was written down that happened in The Beginning, but only what the author needed to communicate his theological points, and to prophesy. Or that there are at times more than one valid explanation of the Bible, and if we hold on too tightly to our own belief, we end up seeking to have the Bible conform to our belief and lose Truth in our very pursuit of it. Or that Christians, when talking about the Bible and Genesis and in the process speaking nonsense about science, bring shame upon the belief and keep the unbeliever from coming to the Truth, because most unbelievers know a thing or two about science and the nature of reality, and they have no interest in believing nonsense.

First, this work has been published in two volumes, which Amazon has mistakenly listed as being different editions. To find both volumes, click on the "All Editions" link.

Although it is published in two volumes, readers should not be intimidated by this. The work proper is only about 400 pages long (a third the length of Augustine's "City of God"), and reads quite easily.

As to why it was broken in two volumes, the answer lies in the 300 pages supplemental material, which would have made it quite bulky had it been published in a single volume. The quality and readability of this material, mostly presented in notes to the text, is quite high, and I found that it made an already enjoyable and interesting work even more so.

As to the work itself, it is concerned with the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis, ending with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. The subjects addressed through this work are biblical exegesis, God, the angels, Satan, heaven and earth, man, the soul, and the fall.

Augustine began his work on the subject of biblical exegesis - how scripture is to be interpreted. He proposed four senses: "the eternal truths that are taught, the facts that are narrated, the future events that are predicted, and the precepts or counsels that are given." In this work, Augustine focused on the second of these - the facts that are narrated, which he called the literal sense. It is important to understand that although we tend to think of a 'literal' reading of scripture as one taking the words to have their most obvious meaning, that is not what Augustine meant by it. For Augustine, a literal reading meant only that the text was referring in some way to events that actually occurred, without any implication that the reference might not be very obscure. For example, Augustine understood morning, day, and evening in the days of creation to refer not to a particular times of day, but to a particular phases in the angelic knowledge of creation - the phase in which the things are known directly from God (morning), the phase in which they actually exist (day), and the state in which they are known from the senses (evening). In fact, Augustine held that in terms of time the six days of creation were actually simultaneous and included the creation of time itself.

Of course, the problem of how to interpret Genesis, particularly with regard to scientific knowledge, is very much a live problem today. It was however, a question even in Augustine's day, and his take on it is of considerable interest, especially for those who do believe in scripture as revelation and are unsure how to read Genesis. In his reading, Augustine on the whole was a scientific agnostic, he neither believed nor disbelieved much of what his contemporary science said about the world. He did, however, offer suggestions as to how this or that passage could be reconciled with this or that scientific belief, in order to take into account the possibility the scientific belief might well be true. If a passage seemed to him to be particularly mysterious in light of its scientific possibility (the reference to a spring that watered all the earth was one such passage), he neither sought to use scripture to determine scientific truth nor concluded that the passage was therefore false - for Augustine, a passage in scripture must be true, but it was perfectly possible for it to be true in a sense he did not understand.

If the first half of the work is concerned with the creation of heaven and earth, the second half is concerned with the creation and fall of man. The bridge between the two are the sections on the creation of man's body and soul. Augustine was not terribly interested in the creation of body, but the creation of the soul was another matter, one that Augustine pondered throughout his life. Were the souls of all men created at the beginning and sent to bodies later? Were souls created at the beginning and reincarnated in new bodies? Were they created by God directly at the start of each person's life? Were they generated from the souls of the parents? Were they generated from the body? While some of these positions Augustine regarded as certainly false, with regard to others he was never sure.

One issue that came up with regard to how the soul was created was the problem of the transmission of original sin. In Augustine's view, original sin was the decision to disobey God and eat from the tree of knowledge; the tree itself had no significance other than that God had forbidden it; by disobeying God, Adam turned man from God's grace, necessitating the sacrifice of Jesus to redeem man. While Augustine was anything but blind to metaphorical readings of the story, he also believed it to be history as well - there was a real tree, and a real man named Adam really did eat of it.

Augustine ended with a rather odd consideration of a short comment made by Paul in Corinthians concerning a man's (whom Augustine takes to be Paul himself) having been taken up into the third heaven and whether that heaven is the paradise from which Adam fell. It is an interesting piece, but an odd way to end a work on Genesis; but then Augustine always felt free to digress when writing, but he was seldom less interesting for having done so.

The 4th edition of this "Collectors Handbook" is a reprint of earlier editions rather than a much needed rewrite.

The background information provided in this book IS very interesting and helpful. HOWEVER, the first question asked on the back of this book is "What is the value of an Audubon Print?" This book answers that question with print by print price information (almost 1/3 of the book) that is over 20 years old. NO price information is even given for the Octavo prints.

As a guide for collectors looking for current value information for Audubon prints this book is worthless.

For those who are interested in Audubon prints, this book is a good introduction, but if you are serious about collecting or very interested in Audubon, it could raise more questions for you than it answers. Don't expect a comprehensive or 100-percent accurate treatment of Audubon or Audubon prints from this rather short book.

Unfortunately, some of the areas of weakness are important to collectors. For instance, the approach to authentication is simplistic and by no means comprehensive. The book doesn't really address how to distinguish hand coloring from printed color, or the fact that hand-colored reproductions of Havells exist. The authors barely mention plate mark, which is an extremely valuable tool for authenticating Havells. In spite of these shortcomings, the book provides a nice overview of all the major editions of Audubon's prints with a good mix of biography, history and nitty-gritty details.

Beware, however, that brevity comes at a price -- this book has some gaps. Bannon and Clark do not mention the second issue of the Imperial Folio edition of The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, or the existence of a restrike of the Imperial Folio plate, The White Wolf. (You can find more information on both topics in the recently published book, John James Audubon in the West, edited by Sarah Boehme).

Information in Bannon and Clark is not always accurate -- e.g., the later edition octavo dates. (Try Ron Tyler's book, Audubon's Great National Work, for a more detailed account of the octavo Birds). There are also more significant errors. For instance, the number of prints from Nagel and Weingaertner in any given octavo quads set varies; the set that Bannon and Clark looked at just happened to have seventeen plates by Nagel and Weingaertner, but they give that as the number for all sets.

The price information in this book is out of date even though the authors include some appendices that attempt to give an idea of price inflation. Still, the lists do provide an indication of relative prices. As long as you realize that these lists represent a single dealer's opinion and experience, and that other dealers do not necessarily rank the plates in the exact way that Clark ranks them, you should find this information very helpful.

In the end, I have to say that I like this book, and often find myself turning to it for background or price information. Right now, it is the best book -- really, the only book -- available that is specifically geared towards Audubon collectors. Although that will change over time as more books come out, I doubt that Bannon and Clark will become superfluous...it is a good addition to any Audubon library.

This handbook fills a void in the vast library of Audubon publications. It focuses on the various publications of Audubon and his family, such as the double elephant folio, the imperials, the miniatures, and the Bien edition. Accurate dates of publication are given along with very helpful clues to distinguishing between various editions. Our 1998 copy contained welcome revisions to the pricing of the double elephant, Bien, and imperial prints. I have found that in the few years since publication, the prices of the larger images have about doubled, and smaller images are about 15 to 20 percent higher in price than what is stated. In fact, whereas a complete folio sold for about $4,000,000.00 as correctly stated in Addendum C, page 128, (back in 1992), a complete folio recently sold at Christies for about $9,000,000.00. One should use this handbook as a handbook. We make regular notes in the margins in the price pages. For example, plate 376 (Trumpeter Swan) was valued at $30,000 in 1997, when I assume the information in the book was assembled. A plate 376 sold in 1999 for $93,250. We have entered this corrected information in our copy.

We highly recommend this handbook for any who wish to collect the work of a master artist/naturalist. The information will assist you in making intelligent purchases from sites such as eBay.

John Taylor may be well worth studying, but this book is not the way to do it. I can't imagine why anyone would think of publishing this book again today. It was probably a great series of writings at the time, but it's long since outlived any usefulness, and it's hardly gained any historical intrigue.

John Taylor of Caroline was the most brilliant political thinker among the Jeffersonian Republicans (including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison). Unlike some of the others (such as Jefferson and Madison), he was a successful farmer whose primary interest was, well, farming. This book is about 40% political theory and about 60% practical (and now outdated) advice on farming. Read it for the thoughts of one of Jefferson's top lieutenants on the likely effects of the new American constitutional and economic order on agriculture, as well as for "Old Republicanism" (of which Taylor was the leading exponent, despite himself). I give it three stars only because the book will be of interest almost solely to historians and those of a historical bent.

Arator is a series of essays that link farming and American politcs. Taylor's use of farming as a vehicle to discuss politics predates a similar move made 100 years later by the Nashville Agrarians (see I'll Take My Stand). I agree with other reviewers who state that Arator no longer gives practical advice on farming. But the sections on *why* farming is important should still be read. Students of Haiti/Haitian history should also read Arator. Taylor's discussion of slavery hinges on his perceptions about the Haitian revolution. It should be noted that the essays in Arator were serially published the same year Haitians defeated the French. And Arator was first collected into book form (widely read and went through many printing runs) at approximately the same time Haiti was becoming a united nation. So students of politics, of history, of the South, and of Haiti will find something valuable between the covers.

The author has a wonderful respect for the ADHD "disorder," but absolutely no respect for the CHILD with the disorder! Over and over, my thoughts kept returning to the idea that there was little attention given to the child. The child is often referred to as lacking focus and proirities or acting with no apparent direction. To the ADULT in the scenario, there MAY be little rhyme or reason to the child's activity, but the author seems to forget that the CHILD may have a very valid reason for his behavior and we just may not see it! There was little evidence that the author supported the idea of getting into the CHILD'S world and attempting to understand the ADHD from his/her point of view. I was horrified by the fact that, as an educator, I KNOW that some of the behaviors and indicators the author used to identify ADHD were developmentally inappropriate! (Exactly how many 18-36 month old children share and play co-operatively? In the authors mind, inability to share and play this way AT THIS AGE is a classic sign!) A parent just confronting ADHDand using this as a resource would feel there was only ONE option in the world MEDICATE MEDICATE MEDICATE! This book actually presented the chapter on medication before all other options simply because it was what the author perceived as the most popular way of "dealing" with ADHD. Once this medicating was well in hand the author suggests using the dreaded Fiengold Program and LIMIT the diet.

I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to anyone as more than a resource for understanding the "disorder." I would NEVER suggest reading this as a means of trying to "help" your child! This program will do NOTHING for your children. It will make life more conveinient for you but will limit and frustrate your child. If you are looking to read a wonderful book on ADD/ADHD and these amazing bundles of intelligence and energy, I would HIGHLY recommend "The ADD Book" by Dr. William Sears as the ultimate CHILD centered ADD resource.

If you could buy only one book to assist you in helping an ADD/ADHD child, this would be it. Taylor has a real knack for "getting inside the skin" of these children. He has a genuine empathy, and is one of the few authors who can explain them in a way that makes sense.
Even after years of working in this field, I find that I gain new insights and practical information in each chapter. For example, he writes, "Poor depth perception results in clumsiness, awkwardness, and occasional stumbling and running into things." It's a lot easier to sympathize with the klutzy child when you look at it from that perspective!
Rather than simply list and catagorize symptoms, as do many books on the subject, Taylor digs into the issues, demystifying them and offering practical, hands-on suggestions for both professionals and parents.
His understanding of the physiology of ADHD is clear in his description of food cravings. The child who craves salty and highly seasoned food, he explains, is deficient in minerals; the excessive desire for cheese shows a need for amino acids. Similarly, itchy skin and rashes occur because, "Basically, their bodies have lost some natural moisturizers in the form of essential fatty acid derivatives and are suffering from a form of dehydration."
He covers many underlying and related conditions. Taylor has clearly done his homework and is aware of the newest research on conditions that include Asperger's syndrome, autism, PDD, etc. The stakes for these children are very high, and it's essential that a parent be well educated in all the various areas that are involved. The areas include: the use of medicine, the role of nutrition (not the politically correct nutrition du jour, but that which is backed by solid research), and those behavior modifying techniques that really work.
Taylor is unique in that he is an undisputed authority in all of these areas. His gift to the reader is that he offers a wealth of information in a way that can be absorbed and put to use quite easily.

This book has beautiful pictures, but not enough info & absolutely no help on figuring out values.

I really like many of the designs that Kenneth J. Lane has produced over the years and loved having a reference book of all his different styles and periods. The prose is of a chatty style that I usually am not too fond of but Mr. Lane is so upbeat and aware of the good fortune that has blessed him that you can't help but like him. The photography is wonderful and it is fun to see photos of celebrities wearing his jewels. The book could have been stronger if it has an addendix of technical information about the creation of costume jewelry or had a reference as to current pricing of some of Mr. Lane's vintage pieces. But I had many a fun evening looking and reading and will definately keep this book available for several more readings.

Mesoamerican archaeology is a little world by itself - I know, because I used to live in it. It has a very cosy relationship with museums and the "art" collectors who buy the objects that are looted from archaeological sites, which lie destroyed, torn into shreds under the forests all over Central America and Mexico. But it has almost no touch with reality any more. The things they say about the ancient Olmec are almost fantasy, because in truth we know so little about these people. Almost all the objects in this book were stolen from Mexico, ripped from the archaeological context that might tell us something about their real meaning. These are probably religious articles - we may never know. But imagine trying to reconstruct the rich life of rennaisance Italy by looking at reliquaries in Catholic churches! If you are still persuaded by the "mysterious Olmec" propaganda spouted by Coe and his looter buddies, go read Flannery & Marcus in the first 2000 issue of the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, and think it over.

The Olmec World is an amazing resource for those who study or have an appreciation of early Mesoamerican Art. At its most basic level The Olmec World is the catalogue of the 1996 Olmec Exhibition at the Art Museum at Princeton University the first comprehensive show of Olmec art in America. Drawing upon nearly all of the major Olmec museum collections in North America from Dunbarton Oaks to Princeton's own expansive holdings, the exhibition also drew heavily from many private collections never before shown to the general public. For instance, John Stokes' amazing collection of ceramic babies and jade masks are showcased in this catalogue. However, almost as impressive as the pictures are the essays in this collection. Michael Coe has done a marvelous job of soliticing and editing a myriad of papers on the mysterious Olmec.

This book has been billed by White Wolf as one exploring vampires as a sexual metaphor. Apparently their idea of what that means is different from mine, because when I look at my copy of this book, I see lots of sex but no metaphor. Reading the "word from the developer" on pages 8 and 9, it seems they merely took the development of the connections between vampires and sex as an opportunity or an excuse to publish some more vampire erotica of their own. I guess I just had a little more detail and allusions in mind when I ordered this book.

In the story itself, I found the truth behind the event which prompted the reverend Emmet's vampire hunting to be a bit of a stretch. Also, some of the events in this book would make many readers queasy, if not offended. Personally, I don't mind that at all, but if one has any interest at all in this book, I would also recommend the other material the developer himself mentiones in his foreward (i.e., _Dracula_, Lord Byron).

This book gets two stars because I guess I can see the developer's point of view, kind of, even if this book doesn't exactly push any envelopes, or even give one a little nudge. Plus I got a color picture of my favorite signature character from the World of Darkness, Sasha Vykos.

Well, it's possible that I didn't read this book as thoroughly as I thought I did, but I don't remember ANY sex or B-movie stuff. I seem to remember a fairly interesting exploration of what it means to be a Prince in the Camarilla, including quotes from Machiavelli....I recommend this for anyone who is NOT a hack and slash fan, somebody who actually role-plays and is interested in the political side of V:tM.

A smorgasbord of thrilling horror and stunning erotica! As a fan of White Wolf's game system and their vampire books, Lucy taylor here has launched a masterpiece for any VAMPIRE fan to relish...from incredible ART, and sensual sex,coupled with bloody vampirism,to the characters no cable tv would dare portray for an audience...I love it! Ah, my favorite LUCITA....PRETTY ISABEL GIOVANNI, written by Ms. Taylor in such a way that it's like you are right there with them! This is my favorite Vampire book to date! Please tell me there will be a sequel! Ken Knight(author of CRYPTX,a horror novel) I may be reached at jobfaster@aol.com