I was enthusiastically interested when I saw the title of this book. I hoped for stories that were more in depth then children's books about teddy bears, with teddy bears that were not personified, but were still present in the stories. I see teddy bears as being charming and innocent, and expected stories that reflected that quality without being condescending to an adult audience.

What the reader gets in this book is a group of stories complied by Catherine Taylor. These stories were solicited from the general public in England. This mismatched group of stories do maintain a teddy bear theme, but that is the only thing that they have in common. Some of the stories are contrived, dark, and simply TOO adult for my tastes. Overall, the quality of the writing and text choices reminds me of college publications that solicit manuscripts from the student population in order to create a publication with many voices. In this case, teddy bears end up screaming the perceptions of the authors, and some of them are not seen with the compassion or tenderness that some people have for teddy bears.

The only reason I give this book 3 stars instead of 2 is because it seems to fill some market, and some adults may like the less-than-innocent themes. The British have a different relationship with their bears then Americans do, and they definitely have a different sense of humor, which also may appeal to some. A few of the stories did meet my expectations, and I found those few to be genuine and well written. However, I still prefer a well written children's book about teddy bears to this book for adults.

A similiar book of solicited compilations about dolls is "Enchanted Companions: Stories of Dolls in Our Lives" by Carolyn Michael and Friends. The writing is much better and the text is better presented. If you also like dolls, I would recommend it over "Teddy Bear Stories for Grown-Ups" until something better about teddy bears comes along.

this book will make you smile and giggle, as you relive moments you too have spent with a teddy bear, or growing up. Comforting and adorable stories for anyone with a passion for teddy bears.

The book has a good variety of stories some of which are light hearted while others are disturbing and unsettling. It was an enjoyable read.

I read this book in three days' time, and I could not stop it till I finished. In that sense, I liked it a lot.

I do agree with the previous review. "Myths of Power" is both a critical analysis of Norbert Elias' historical works and an interpretation of court life in early modern Europe. Jeroen Duindam submits Elias' interpretation to the test. The French court, the court of the Austrian Habsburgs, and several princely courts of the Reich provide the geographical basis of the discussion. One general conclusion emerges: Elias' approach to the early modern European court contains many misunderstandings, especially those connected with the much-heralded rise of the middle class and its inseparable companion, modernization.

In that sense, we may say that the rumours of Aristocracy's death had been greatly exaggerated. Quoting from Hillay Zmora, "until quite recently the reigning paradigm for approaching the various European nobilities has been one of a Crisis of Aristocracy. This paradigm is now itself in what looks like a terminal crisis... The state apparatus was as much an arena for the regulation of conflicts inside the ruling class as an instrument of class domination. The exploitation of the population to the mutual profit of rulers and ruling classes underlay much of the co-operation between them." Instead of declining, the nobility (a group that historians typically has avoided up to now) weathered the Early Modern period by being resilient and adaptable -- though the group was fundamentally changed, it still remained strong.

Other books that I would recommend to read would be "Monarchy, Aristocracy, and the State in Europe, 1300-1800" by Hillay Zmora and (covering approximately the 1815-1914 period) "The Persistence of the Ancient Regime" by Arno J. Mayer

Historian Norbert Elias' classic works Court Society and The Civilizing Process have presented a problematic view of the Early Modern court, and with it, a false view of Early Modern monarchy, according to Duindam. He confronts each of Elias' assertions with large amounts of evidence, and convincingly shows the flaws in his argument. Ultimately, Duindam seeks to dispel the myth of Louis XIV's absolutist power exercised through his court, and presents a more accurate view of monarchy, nobility, and court society.

I thought that Balmain Benny was a pretty good book explaining all the dramas that happened in his great career. It gave you a lot of statistics on him. It explained what he thought of things and unravelled all those stories that you've always wanted to know.

I believe this text exhibits a good, general, overall approach to the development of expert systems; but to me the best value was in the approach to what the author calls the Expert Systems Development Life Cycle, which is compared to the standard systems analysis and design approach. What could use more work in a future edition of the book is a treatment of hybrid expert systems with neural networks, and perhaps other systems. All-in-all, I believe this is a very insightful book

Casca returns from the Chinese empire and runs into Shapur II, the reigning king of the Persian Empire. Almost against his will, Casca joins the empire and becomes one of its greatest generals. As a whole, this story weaves good historical fact research with excellent military strategy. The battle scenes in this book are well planned and completely original. The major fallback to this novel is the woman whom Casca falls for. The story lacks a strong romantic base, and the romance detracts from the storyline and the series in general. All in all, this title lives up to the series name and Sadler's writing ability.

Now that Harvard and Radcliffe have merged, records about Radcliffe College become particularly valuable. Radcliffe College was a testiment to women's drive for educational access as well as a beacon of intellectual curiosity and excellence. Indeed, Radcliffe probably stood more for academic excellence than Harvard, where there has always been a greater tradition of anti-intellectual, clubby bonhomie amongst the student body. With ample photos and text this book faithfully records the development of Radcliffe from an abstraction to a full fledged institution. It also captures the beginnings of the College's dismantling in the 1970s. All in all, the book is a valuable resource to anyone who values the underappreciated gem known as Radcliffe College.

This report begins to look at strategies for raising the educational attainment of Latinos in California. The purpose of this paper is not to provide a comprehensive treatise on a particular issue, but rather to get the reader to start thinking about linkages that can occur across the different sectors. We need to not only consider the K-12 and higher education systems, but we must also look to preschools, economic development agencies, the private sector, community based organizations, and any other organization that can work with the community. This paper has 11 different sections and 33 contributors. Some sections include options for further consideration.

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Elias Portolu is a Sardinian peasant who has done time in jail, in Italy. One day he returns to the island, a few weeks before his brother gets married. Trouble begins when Elias starts to fall in love with his brother's fiancee. Being a loyal brother, he resists the temptation, and when it gets stronger, Elias leaves his home and goes to another village. But, as Goethe proved in "Elective affinities", love is not something we can control or decide, and so the story proceeds...

Grazia Deledda, a Nobel-Prize winner, has written a novel of great tension. No good nor bad guys here: just human beings with difficult lives, in possession of moral values as well as human weaknesses. Worth reading.

I am 17, and bought this book to learn more about growing into a beautiful (spiritually speaking) healthy woman, inside and out. I've learned a great deal from this brilliant book, and would recommend it to anyone, male or female, who wants to learn more about themselves or the women around them. It's a wonderful learning expierience.

I often like to adopt a syntopic reading approach to books in the same genre...partly because it is great fun and partly, I can get more leverage, in terms of learning points, out of the books in the ultimate reading process. I also get to understand and appreciate how two or more independent authors tackle a common issue with, sometimes, different and diverse viewpoints. (For an understanding of the syntopic reading process, get hold of Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book.)

In this particularly instance, I read Peter Sotiriou's Integrating College Study Skills syntopically with Jean Reynolds' 'Succeeding in College' book.

On the whole, I found that they can complement each other pretty well, although there are similarities in content as well as contrasts in approach. Both authors demand the reader to take a pro-active approach in the reading process.

Peter Sotiriou's book is more specific to the reasoning process embodied in reading, listening & writing. The many exercises in this respect are deliberately constructed in a cumulative, step-by-step fashion. This makes the book very helpful for the college student reader to follow. The author takes great pain to explain and illustrate the process of summarising and paraphrasing upon reading, which are two vital information gathering skills for college students.

Jean Reynolds' book is more comprehensive in the coverage of the overall 'study strategies' process. It is also more broad-based, as the author very skilfully uses many success stories of athletes, performers, professional men and women, and leaders in diverse fields to illustrate her points.

I particularly enjoy the author's creative treatment of critical thinking with the aid of the pencil. She recognises the pencil as an inexpensive thinking tool. A very interesting concept...practical, too.

In terms of introducing reading techniques, both authors did their job pretty well. Both provided ample exercises.

To sum up, both books can serve as useful strategy guides for college students. Both are designed to to help you enjoy and benefit from your college experiences.