I could not give this book a proper rating because it is written entirely in German. It is a short paperback written in a story format-probably fiction. If you were looking to learn the history of Oktoberfest or to plan an event, this is probably not the right book. My year of German 20 years ago did not help me here. It could be used in a German classroom setting since it has a test at the end.

This book probably deserves 3 1/2 stars but since I've got to go with round numbers I'd say 3 is closer to the truth than 4. I may have been influenced by the fact that I have read an awful lot of stuff on Cezanne, but I don't think so. This book was put out to coincide with an exhibition that has "finished/unfinished" as its theme i.e.-when is a painting truly "complete". The idea wears a bit thin after 400 pages. The book starts off with essays by about 5-6 people that take up the first 120 pages. The last couple of essays are interesting and contain some good ideas but the first several essays pretty much say the same thing over and over (many of Cezanne's paintings that were not actually finished are "complete" from an artistic standpoint) and if a couple of these essays had been left out no harm would have been done. The same point is hammered home in too many of the "mini-essays" that accompany each painting and sometimes the contributors get a bit carried away in seeing genius and "completion" in even the works that are clearly failures not only by Cezanne's own standards but also, I think, by the standards of the intelligent layperson and probably also of many art historians. The book does get high marks, though, for many high quality color reproductions and the Cezanne lover will be sure to find his/her favorite genre well-represented. You get many portraits as well as landscapes and those luscious still-lifes (my particular favorite). One of the interesting ideas contained in the book is that the reason the still-life seems to be the category where Cezanne really excelled is that the subject was the one best suited to his temperament. He was an extremely slow worker and did not like changes in the "motif". For example, he did not like it when human sitters would move and he did not like changes in the weather and in light conditions as the changes would make him rethink what he was doing and oftimes start over or have to make corrections. With the still-life Cezanne could arrange things just the way he wanted and could use artificial flowers that would not wither as he worked, etc. Also note that the book contains many works in watercolor, which is a medium that Cezanne excelled in. If you are not familiar with his watercolors I think you will be pleasantly surprised...

"Shark! Shark!" itself isn't bad, and provides an interesting look at sharks through the eyes of an experienced shark hunter.

NOTE: This book is frequently found advertised in searches of antiquarian books as "by Felix von Luckner" - be aware that only the introduction (and a short one) was written by Graf von Luckner. Don't buy this as a von Luckner book or you will be disappointed. Buy it instead as a fairly well writen book about sharks and the Pacific islands of the early 1900's, and enjoy it for that.

This book is very easy to read, although it is difficult to find. Tony Palmer recounts the OZ trial--one of the longest obscenity trials in history. The background and the trial itself is described very well. My gripe about the novel is that it IS a biased account of the trial, so one cannot form his or her own opinions about the obscenity of OZ magazine--Schoolkids Issue. For those with no background on this trial, it arose from OZ 28, the Schoolkids Issue. Kids, 14-18, edited, wrote, and illustrated for one issue of OZ. Neville, the publisher, allowed the adolescents to express how they felt. Many people found this offensive (because they thought he was targeting children). Although this novel is biased, it does give one information about the trial--since there is such limited imformation about it. Another novel to check out is _Hippie Hippie Shake_ by Richard Neville.

Long out of print, this reprint (new intro) represents older scholarship. The book is nonetheless the only book that deals at length with the Battle of Mill Springs, KY (a.k.a. Fishing Creek, a.k.a. Logan's Crossroads). It's also the main work on Brig. Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer, CSA. For anyone with any interest in the battle, in Gen. Zollicoffer, or in the history of the this region of KY, this book is an absolute must-have.

it was very very hopeles

The book may be interesting both to long-time fox lovers and to those only beginging to like them. The book talks about how the fox kits are raised, breeding,how they mark there territories and other types of comunication used by foxes. The book uses color photos and words to teach children about foxes.

Paul Ehrlich, the mouthpiece of the enviromental movement, once bet Julian Simon - an anarcho-capitalist $50 in 1980 to see whether overpopulation would cause the Earth's resources to become more rare, and thus, more expensive. Simon let Ehrlich pick the five commodities - Oil, Tungsten, Iron, Gold, and Natural Gas. All 5, ten years later, were either the same - adjusted for inflation - or LOWER in 1990. The world population rose 50% in this time, and the world's per capita income, 20% (really 70% to account for the population). Here in the beginning of 2000, seven years after this book was written, Youth Crime is down (despite the media frenzy over Columbine), the market is way up, unemployment is the lowest since the post-Vietnam recession, and everything is looking hunky-dory. Another "The Sky is Falling" book by another socialist... put this under religion, because no matter what the scientific evidence, the 'scientific' socialists just can't let go of their pet theory.

Capitalism Vs. Capitalism is a book about history that is devoid of history. Individual achievement, far from being the source of any of our current societal woes, is the very source of the modern progress that allows paupers in the West to live better than the emperors of Antiquity. Eighty years of socialism in Europe and the United States has proved unable to squelch the natural aspirations that individual--as opposed to collective--achievement serves.

Capitalism is now without competition : it must find in itself the reasons for being THE economic system for the third millennium. Are we shure it coldn't use some influx from europe ?

This book is the story of the Acadians being exiled from Canada and how they landed in Louisiana. It is written as if a Grandmother is telling the story to her grandchildren.

Here are my big problems with this book-
First it really isn't directed to a younger age group because of the language (high vocabulary words). It is almost too childish for an older age group. About the only group that it might be appropriate for is the middle school age child. However, they wouldn't tolerate the sugary words.

It is too sickly sweet for my tastes. Open any page and it reads something like this 'My dear children, he said 'my good friends, our hopes have been dashed and our hopes were illusory.' Or 'They vied with each other in their kind offices with so much grace that it only added more charm'.

It is an interesting read if you want to learn about the Acadian exile. However, there are other books out there that I feel do a credible job without all the sugary words.

While it was probably fascinating at the time it was published, the science in this little book has become increasingly dated, and the conclusions Mann drew from it sound increasingly strange as a result. Mann was one of the first Westerners to become truly intrigued by acupuncture, but this treatment of the subject comes across as misinformed and somewhat arrogant or patronizing, almost thirty years later. A vast amount of research into the physiological effects of acupuncture has been published since this book's first printing. Acupuncture Efficacy, by Birch and Hammerschlag, is a relatively current survey of controlled studies.

Mann's book has introduced many to the subject of acupuncture. Too bad that it's so far from presenting acupuncture on its own terms, and that it hasn't been updated to include current research. Kaptchuk's "the Web that Has No Weaver" contains less specifically acupuncture-oriented information, but it is probably still the best general introduction to Chinese medicine, of which acupuncture is a part.

This is the only source I know for F.A. Hayek's essay "The Creative Powers of a Free Civilization." Most of the remaining essays are indifferent, but the Hayek one is very important.