Albert Einstein lived the last thirty years of his life in the United States and passed away in 1955 in New Jersey. He wrote three great papers in 1905 at the age of 26.

This book is the only thing ever coming close to an autobiography that Einstein ever wrote. Needless to say, offers of money and prizes were offered to him, unlike the millions offered to ex-U.S. presidents to write a book. He never accepted any of these offers. The only offer he accepted was from Professor Schilpp to write an intellectual autobiography of himself.

Incredible and Timeless is only ways to describe this book. Einstein labels as his "obituary", for a man who was considered the "Person of the Century" by Time Magazine.

Friends, his own "obituary" in his own hand is a worthy read and cost of the book. It is not a "personal" life but his "thinking" on science and of course on physics. We all know the two great theories of physical was created in the early 20th. century: the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Einstein alone created relativity and was also one of the founders of the quantum theory. We also know now that Einstein never accepted quantum theory till the end.

Here, Einstein fully describes the failure of classical mechanics and the rise of the electromagnetic field, the theory of relativity and of the quanta.

Of note, Einstein's "Evolution of Physics" is a general lay discussion of the same issues. This is Einstein's technical discussion of the evolution of physics.

"When I was a fairly precocious young man the nothingness of the hopes and strivings which chases most men restlessly through life came to my consciousness with considerable vitality" This comment alone is worth price of the book.

The essays sections includes writing of the great scientist of the 20th century. We only read about them in textbook but here they are in their own words: Niels Bohr, Louis De Broglie, Arnold Sommerfeld, Max Born, Kurt Godel, Hans Reichenbach and Wolfgang Pauli. One only sees their picture in physics textbooks.

This book really belongs in all who are professional scientists or are interested in science. Unlike Newton "Principia" or Darwin's "The Origin of Species" Einstein papers are scattered everyone. This is the only definitive book on Einstein by Einstein himself.

Moreover, it is a scholarly and scientific book, so it should last for a long time and of value to all future generations.

This is an interesting way to learn about a person. I took a passage from one of Al's writings in this book and read it during my weekly puppet show. The part of Einstein was played by a stuffed squirrel I bought at a yard sale. I added the traditional wacky hair and tweed jacket. The kids were confused at first, but squirrel puppetry soon broke down barriers. Next up is Hawking! If I can find a mini-chair and a look-a-like squirrel.

Here, Einstein clearly shows the world that he was a first-class intellectual and scientist.

--Lonnie R. Gardner (Math Teacher)

From 1941-71 Classics Illustrated comics introduced millions to abridged, comics-style version of literary masterpieces. Classics Illustrated tells of the birth of this popular medium, founded by Russian Jewish immigrant Kanter whose operations saw both the heyday and decline of the golden age of comics. The focuses on artists' creations is particularly involving.

The thing I appreciate most about this book is the soberness (with no lapses into pretentiousness or portentousness) the author brings to his subject. A survey of Classics Illustrated, to be sure, could have very easily elicited yet another visually engaging pretty-picture book saddled with a stridently jokey, throwaway text --ala Chronicle Books. We can be thankful that the tone here is intelligent, the level of detail scholarly, and very few, if any, stones are left unturned. The author has done all his homework, giving all known writers, editors, artists of the series coverage commensurate with their contribution.

This is a thoughtful, caring volume that is so much more than a tribute to a long-gone comic series, although it could be read as that too. One can't help but feel this is a primer on the way more books about popular culture really ought to be written.

About every five or ten years, when the nay sayers are about to bury Classics Illustrated again, they bloom from the earth like the Phoenix rising from the flames. And now, Willian B. Jones Jr has taken the baton for this decade, for this century, and brought new and exiciting joy to the legion of Classics Illustrated collectors. How much more new information is there to be found on the wonderful illustrated stories that Al Kanter first brought to us in Octover of 1941? The answer is that we will never know but we keep on finding more and more. We can speculate about Red Majic, Action Play Books, Red Projectors, Tatoos, Classics Boxes, Pen and Pencil sets and many other yet to be explored items of the Classics Illustreated lore. But here, Bill Jones has filled in a tremendous gap for all of the ages to enjoy. What a tremendous effort! What an overwhelmingly comprehensive peeling away of the darkness to open the lives and tribulations of anyone who ever picked up a pen, pencil or brush to bring us Classics Illustrated. As the acknowledged Father of Classics Illustrated collecting it brings unbrided joy to my heart to read and reread the wonderful stories that Bill weaves on every page about the men and women behind the comics we came to love as Classics Illustrated. His effort is now in a second printing and deserves many, many more. My Classics Illustrated collectors friends are buying this book whenever they can. It is a joyful six hour read to be then put aside and opened randomly again and again with refreshing illumination with every new opening. Buy this now! You will not see the likes of this ever again. Raymond S. True, Classic Comics Library

Horton and others clearly delineate the dangers which face the Church of Jesus Christ, and if you're looking for fluff or easy reading, here, find another book like Max Lucado. This is meaty reading and worthy of the purchase. Highly recommended.

Some of the conservative church's greatest ambassadors deliver a great message in this book. Some very godly and inteligent men deliver a warning to the church of the future. The books basic theme is that the church must be circumspect so that it does not drift away from biblical dependence. The present day church has come to depend on so many sources for their theological understanding when ultimately scripture should be the only recognized voice. This book defends the traditional evangelical faith while giving and understanding of obvious needs of reform. Readers of this book will become acutely aware of the problems and solutions of the modern godly church.

With regard the authority of Scripture, most Christians would agree that the Bible is our authority in some sense. But in exactly what sense does the Bible claim to be our authority? I think evangelical Christianity is in serious trouble in that matter. In fact, it is facing big challenges for keeping Biblical faith. Some present-day evangelicals do not believe more in the Bible. The Scripture becomes just a very important thing, but not more a sufficient an inerrant Word of God. In their opinion, we have other sources to learn about God and his will for the Church today. So, if you are considering that questions into your heart, I would like to recommend you to read this book and The Compromised Church (from the same general Editor).

Saussure is important as a linguist (although many of his theories have since been put out to pasture) ... but he is most important for his contributions to the theory of Structuralism (and, later, Poststructuralism). His idea that you could not study language as individual units, but rather had to examine it as a structure and study how the units interacted within the structure, was enormously influential in modern and postmodern philosophy.

This book is not particularly difficult; it's a bit dry, but what can you expect from a linguistics class? If you read it carefully, you'll have no problem grasping what he is saying... and, when you are done, you will be well on your way to understanding what people like Lacan, Derrida and Foucault are trying to say. (You'll also be well along your way to understanding Claude Levi-Strauss, who attempted to do for anthropology what Saussure did for linguistics). If you want to understand modern philosophy, Saussure is as indispensible as Marx or Freud. Combine this with *Saussure for Beginners* and you'll pick up Saussure's train of thought in no time.

This book is the manifesto of structural linguistics. But it has been widely read outside linguistics for it served as corner stone of structuralism. It was not intended to be published. In fact Saussure never wrote any book. It was principally a lecture. So lines of the book are easy to follow and clear-cut. But the power of the statement could be felt even now. It set off the mighty paradigm.
As Foucault said in his work, ¡®The Order of Things¡¯, the history of thoughts is the history of models. For example, the biology, in particular Darwin¡¯s evolutionism, served as model to thoughts of the 19th century: beliefs in progression of Marxism and liberalism drew on the analogy between society and evolution of organism. Functionalism in social sciences also utilized that analogy. The 19th century is the age of biology. The linguistics of that time also took the organic model as the fountain of inspiration: the language is a organic entity which evolves though time. Phoneme and word change, in other word evolve over time. In Saussure¡¯s term, it¡¯s the diachronic aspect of phoneme and word. The linguistics of the 19th century was the history of them. But Saussure contended that phoneme and word have no memory: at any point of ¡®parole (the language in practice)¡¯, each word has only one meaning. In everyday life, etymology doesn¡¯t make sense at all. The reality of language lies not in diachrony but in synchrony. This is the point where Saussure redefined the linguistics: the object of linguistics is not diachronic (or historical) fact but synchronic system (langue, in Saussure¡¯s term).
Phoneme and word make sense not in their own, but against systemic background like grammar. The object of the linguistics is not phoneme or word in practice (parole) but the system that gives meaning them (langue). Phoneme and word have meaning only in the way how they are different from each other. The langue is the system of that difference. Here comes in the very concept of structure that give rise to French structuralism. Structuralism is the thoughts based on the model of language which Saussure redefined, that is the system of difference

Ferdinand de Saussure and his students in Geneva at the turn of the century articulated in notes, critical insight attributed to Saussure in that "The sole object of study in linguistics is the normal, regular existence of a language already established." A tall order no doubt. Taking Saussure's insight as an assumptions, we are compelled to examine the system itself and guess as to its characteristics. In this, Saussure's most influential work is the Course in General Linguistics (1916), a compilation of notes on his lectures. In this book Saussure articulates a simple way to describe language in that it is a system, involving at least two people, who transmit conceptual material from the mind of the speaker to the mind of the listener. Taking it one step further, saying that it is a system which accomplishes this task through the oral articulation of sounds and the auditory interpretation of those sounds. From this point of view, the process is opaque, it is a process by which the mechanisms are obscured from our sight and we are compelled to guess how it all happens.

Here is an attempt to understand the process outlined in the book. There are two spots where a mental process is taking place: "A", which is somewhere between the "mind" and the mouth, and "B", which is somewhere between the ears and the "mind". We can really only speculate as to the process by which this is done. The next best approach is way to take notice of "WHAT" the process "IS". This is where Saussure and his students are are their finest - both the process in A and the process in B is a pairing between a sound and a concept - A is a process changing concepts into sounds and A is a process changing sounds into concepts. "What is the process by which sound signals are transformed into conceptual information?" This question could be said to be at the very core of just about every sub-discipline in present-day linguistics and Saussure's notion of the "linguistic sign" seems to be the foundational assumption.

The key to understanding Saussure is to view the linguistic sign a process rather than a thing. It is a mental relationship between a sound pattern (Signal) and a concept (Signification). Other literature would say Signifier and Significant - but in keeping to this literature we will stick with Signal and Signification. To Saussure, the "linguistic sign is not a link between a thing and a name, but between a concept and a sound pattern. The sound pattern is not actually a sound; for a sound is something physical. A sound pattern is the hearer's psychological impression of a sound." It is the link between the signal and the signification that comprises the sign. It is not just a relation, but a relation from an abstract entity to an abstact entity. It is easier to understand the abstraction if you take into account that the signal and the signification to be processes rather than things.

Language function in the realm of a community. Saussure takes language, "considered in itself and for its own sake", to be the "only true object of study in linguistics." Okay, then the linguistic sign is a helpful device in explaning language, but it does not represent the wholeness of language, which is the object of study. Here is where the community aspect comes in - "individual, acting alone, is incapable of establishing a value", there should be some larger system to which linguistic signs belong - a framework. Saussure posits that to "think of a sign as nothing more would be to isolate it from the system to which it belongs.

Another key area of consideration that I will not endeavor to explain but count as important for future consideration is the relation of synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Saussure distinguished synchronic linguistics (studying language at a given moment) from diachronic linguistics (studying the changing state of a language over time); he further opposed what he named langue (the state of a language at a certain time) to parole (the speech of an individual). Saussure is foundational in understanding the methods of Structuralist and Post-Structuralist like Claude-Levi Strauss and Michel Foucault. To engage in these realm without having the foundation with Saussure is only making things difficult for yourself. I recommend this book highly.

Miguel Llora

As a former crisis intervention worker I am impressed with the all-inclusive nature of this book which covers crisis intervention across multiple populations and practice settings with sensitivity to cultural diversity. As a current social work faculty member teaching crisis intervention course content, I am impressed that Dr. Robert's book is grounded in clinical research with contributing authors who are the experts in this field. A must read for all crisis workers and an outstanding book to incorporate into the classroom. Very impressive!

This vitally important and comprehensive handbook provides informed citizens, healthcare specialists, and mental health professionals with everything they need to know about crisis episodes and crisis interventions. This compelling, yet practical book is vitally needed and provides the most comprehensive information to date on everything from school violence, date rape, 24-hour mobile crisis units to hospital emergency room crises. This book is a rare gem for every graduate student and practitioner in the human services field.

Dr. Roberts' newest edition of the Crisis Intervention Handbook will be an exceptional resource for all mental healthe professionals. However, the first ten chapters which combine Roberts' seven step model of crisis intervention and solution focused brief therapy will be especially useful to school counselors. Counselors will refer to this book time and again when school and family crises occur. I highly recommend this book.

When I first saw the book, I was transfixed. I must have spent quite a number of hours going through the pages, standing up, the world dissolving around me. My particular favorite is one picture of Gary Oldman lying in a coffin. It captured him perfectly. I don't know much about photography, but the beauty of his works is that it can be understood and loved by anyone - there is a human association within every shot. For a while I was reluctant to buy it - the price was a bit too much for me, but I kept on returning to the bookstore to see it, taking a half an hour bus ride each time at the other side of the city. I grew restless when I didn't take the ritual visit. Eventually I did get it - and I finally feel complete. He captured perfection.

Not much to pay for a book that is this outstanding. The photographs themselves are really beautifully reproduced, very high quality printing supporting how good the photos themselves are. Fascinating layout also. Great photos. This is one of those books that you keep going back to and still enjoy. You will be happy that you got this book.

Albert Watson's images in this book are quite simply some of the best images of Black & White photography in any book! They are technically perfect and arrestingly beautiful. His images are powerful, moving, creative, and always well composed. Furthermore, the printing in this book is one of the best I've ever seen.

If you appriciate masterful black & white images you would probably be happy with this book even if you had paid 5 times what this costs!

This book is truly a must-have for anyone who appriciates great photography

Alejandro is lonley living in the desert. By accident, he learns that if he plants a garden, animals come for the water and shade and Alejandro's lonliness is lessened.

But later, Alejandro learns that gifts given (the garden) makes the gifts received (the company) all the more sweeter.

"Alejandro's Gift" is a quiet book - no need for funny voices or wild antics. It makes a great bed time story or a great "snuggle with your kids on a rainy day" book.

This can also provide a nice way to discuss nature and preservation with your children.

There are lots of interesting things to look at in the illustrations. I read this to a group of school agers and they all enjoyed looking at the pictures and trying to identify all the different animals. We live far away from any desert, so many of these animals were unfamiliar to us.

This is a good book and I definitly recommend it.

Having lived on the west mesa outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico I am certainly familiar with the flora and fauna of the southwest. In "Alejandro's Gift" we meet an an old man who lives in a small abode house besides a lonely desert road. Alejandro has a well, with a windmill to pump the water, and his only real companion is a burro. With visitors a rare treat, Alejandro busies himself by planting a garden to keep him self occupied. But as the days go bye and his garden starts to blossom, Alejandro finds a ground squirrel has come to visit him. The lonely man hopes that squirrel will come again and indeed it does, bringing other small friends of the desert. Enjoying his little visitors, Alejandro thinks of why they have come to visit him and what he can do to make his new friends more comfortable. The idea that forms in his mind becomes the gift of the book's title.

Author Richard E. Albert wrote pulp Westerns in his younger days and wrote "Alejandro's Gift," his first book for children, when he was eighty-three years old. What he has written is a book that is as much about living in harmony with nature as it is about the importance of friendship. The detailed illustrations by Sylvia Long show an understanding of both animals and the great outdoors. The back of this book contains an illustrated list of the over two-dozen animals who enjoy "Alejandro's Gift." Since most of them are not identified during the telling of the story, this will allow young readers to go back and identify everything from the Arizona Pocket Mouse to the White-Throated Wood Rat. However, be warned: if your children live anywhere near nature, where animals are frequent visitors to your backyard, then do not be surprised if they suddenly want to do something special after reading this book.

"Alejandro's Gift" combines a story by Richard E. Albert with illustrations by Sylvia Long. Together they tell the story of Alejandro, a man who lives in an adobe house beside a lonely desert road. His only companion is a burro.

When Alejandro plants a vegetable garden, his home is soon visited by small animals who drink from his irrigation furrows. Delighted by the appearance of these creatures, Alejandro conceives a project on a slightly larger scale.

The realistic illustrations of this book are full of life. The animals and plants, as well as Alejandro himself, are captured beautifully. Alejandro's gentleness, thoughtful nature, and hard-working spirit are wonderfully brought to life. The pictures and text together offer a good message about respect for nature.

The book ends with a short "mini-encyclopedia" that names and illustrates animals and plants of the southwestern United States: mesquite, saguaro cactus, the sage sparrow, the collared peccary, and more. An educational and heartwarming book.

Who doesn't love a great mystery? I know that I do. The reason I love this book is that it is suspenseful and gripping. I was immediately drawn into the plot and the details that the author describes in the book. Not only is it a great mystery but it provides Roman history for its reader as well. It gives us a look into the Roman citizen and his life.

If a writer wants to introduce a new series in the somewhat crowded field of Roman mysteries, he'd better have a unique twist. Albert Bell has done that. Instead of fictional sleuths, he uses historical characters, Pliny the Younger and the historian Tacitus, in the first of what promises to be a fine series. Bell combines historical knowledge, witty writing, and a plot with just enough complications and suspects to lead to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion. Pliny and Tacitus have to find out who murdered a man travelling with them while also protecting a beautiful young slave girl who may be the killer's next victim. I can't wait for the next one!

The field of mysteries set in ancient Rome is a bit crowded, with Davis, Saylor, and Roberts, but this new entry deserves to take its place at the head of the line. It features an historical character, Pliny the Younger, with his friend the historian Tacitus playing the Dr. Watson role. While traveling back to Rome in a caravan in 83 AD, they stop overnight in Smyrna. The next morning they discover that a member of the caravan has been brutally murdered. Suspects abound: a gambler who was in debt to the victim, a group of women who may be involved in occult practices, an abused slave, and several others. With no Roman magistrates on the scene, Pliny takes charge of the investigation. He soon realizes that the case is more complicated than at first appears. He must find the killer because he himself may have been the intended victim. First rate!

This is the only book that I've come across that presents the full spectrum of Albert Paley's work in crisp B/W and color photographs and that details a biography of the artist. My introduction to Paley came unexpectedly when at a function in the Wortham Center (Houston) I was greeted by his soaring Stairway Scuptures, which are included in this book. Paley goes beyond creating sculptures that stand as isolated works of art. His scuptures enhance the spaces in which they are placed and are themselves enhanced by those spaces. The author does a superb job of describing the experience of entering a vast architectural volume and the impact that Paley's monumental sculptures have by their positions within it. This book is the next best thing to having that experience for oneself. If you love Gaudi and other artists of the Art Nouveau movement, you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

An excellent reference book concerning the work of Albert Paley. This book really drives at the esence of the sculptor's medium. Many fine examples of the artist's work are illustrated in black and white as well as full color pictures. This book does a great job of representing the scale of Paley's later public sculpture pieces and is a must have for any artist blacksmith.

One of the most inspirational metal artist's of the century. Very complete in it's cataloging.

Makes you want to go out and pound steel.

A great book! Full of action and adventure

This is a wonderful book, very easy to read, and full of emotion and angst and drama. Written in the first person, the reader is invited into Pagan's world, and an interesting place it is too.

There are 4 books in the series, this is the first, I highly recomed the others.

Her most recent book, 'Eye To Eye' is also excellent!!

Catherine Jinks is the finest author for this age group around.

This fast paced story will be sure to bring a smile to anyone's face, as our narrator and main character Pagan Kidrouk wittily tells us of his adventures. Set in Jeruselem when it was under Christian rule in the 12th century, Pagan is a half Arab, therefore a half enemy for the suspicious minded, a fact that can cause him trouble from time to time. Previously enrolled with the city garrison (and involved with some of the city's low-life), Pagan owes money and is therefore forced to enroll elsewhere. He went to the Knights of the Templar, or Knights of God. Hillariously told through his eyes, Pagan must learn about being the page for the knight Lord Roland deBram. As time and events wear on, these two build their friendship, and as the Turks threaten the holy city, Pagan is faced with losing that friendship, and so pushes his luck one more time in an effort to save it.