This is a world of brilliance--but also with great weird humor.

Shippy puts the anti back in anti-poet. Daring and glorious.

Funny, eccentric, very smart. Tough, too. But I like my poems tough. ...

Pain On Their Faces has recieved the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award for 1999 because the authors of this book "contribute mightily to public understanding of the complexities of differance in North America."

The 1987-8 strike in Jay, Maine, was one of the most important labor struggles of the 1980s. As in other major strikes, a local union (with two others in AL and PA) tried to hold the line against the corporate offensive. Against extremely long odds, the strikers held their ground for what their values and their community. There simply are not many accounts of strikes that are written by workers themselves. The closest that most books come, like the Betrayal of Local 14--which is also quite good, rely on oral histories by sympathetic academics or journalists. If you want to know what it means to hold the line against corporate America for 16 months, and then get sold out by your own people, and still believe in unionism, this book is for you.

Truth in advertising: I helped work on the book (by getting it typed up and edited it for typos).

It is a wonderful book full of amazing illustrations!

This heartwarming children's book tells in story form of the life cycle of Hatchling, a baby Loggerhead turtle. Written with scientific accuracy, the book also enraptures young children with the endearing pictures and story. The perserverance of the Hatchling will inspire all who read this book. Would like to see more books by the same author.

Nerval's work brings us to a moment when the Western mind was losing faith and seeking a way out. Drifting through the "forest of symbols" in the mid 19th century, Nerval anticipated everything from Symbolism to Surrealism. Baudelaire and his children may have found many dark visions, but Nerval first illuminated the hidden path. "Chimeras" is a work that is both romantic and bitter. Goddesses are profaine and unattainable. The muse bestows a bitter blessing, for one of the great themes of this sonnet sequence is the inability to reconcile the real and the unreal. Many poets have mined this idea since, but this trailblazing work still holds its power. Few poems can match the unforgettable closing sonnet, "Vers Dorees", a fierce message to modern man. "Freethinking" humanity must humble itself, for it cannot control "life that bursts in everything". So charged is this poem, that the final line, "a pure spirit lies beneath the skin of stones", pushes the reader to the limits of reason.

I first came across this book last year when I was feverishly studying for my 4th year medical exams. What really excited me was that I could look things up in the index and actually find a paragraph or two explaining my query, no matter how obscure the reference. Textbooks like Harrisons baffle me; why would I want to spend 45 minutes looking at the ten different times my word has been mentioned when all I want to know is what it means and when its important.

Anyway I think this textbook is very well set out and thouroughly comprehensive. Obviously its not a bed-time read, but its really helpful when you're stumped by a fact in a multi-guess paper or you have some obscure fact to look up and present to your consultant.

I have no hesitation in giving it 5 stars. Right now I'm waiting on the next edition....I hope it comes in soon.

David Van Der Poorten (5th year medicine University of New South Wales) Australia

Uequivocally the best review on liver biopsy interpretation ever available. A must have for all hepatologists and pathologists.

I am qualified to comment on Marfan by Peter Reading because I live in Far West Texas and know most of the people and places Reading addresses in his poem. There is, simply, nothing so utterly surreal and yet completely real as life in the Big Bend. Reading's acerbic, outsider-as-insider observations of the contradictions of life there are wonderful. He juxtaposes visions of the baby Jesus on a tortilla with Border Patrol abuses, flaring sunsets with tumbleweeds, and hip, urban artists with donkey-riding transients. Reading, a poet from England, only lived in Marfa for a year, yet he manages to touch on the concerns of the people, especially the gradual encroachment of the outside world upon this somewhat forgotten and neglected area. This book-length poem is a compendium of observations, experiences, and musings. No doubt Reading had never experienced such a crazy place and it's unlikely Marfa will ever be the object of such a fun literary tribute again. Even though Reading thinks he's persona non grata in Texas, he's welcome back any time. We need the occasional reality check.

I read John Ridley's first novel, 'Stray Dogs' and was pleased. Beyond that, however, it didn't blow me away. It was nasty, compact and smartly written, but in the end I deemed it merely servicable. Thank God I picked up his sophmore effort to show me exactly how much Ridley has grown as a writer. Love is a Racket is smarter, funnier, edgier, more densely plotted and filled with a cast of deeply written characters. Plus, the ending was brilliant; both unexpected, and, if you think about it, the only way the whole thing could have ended up. All great writers get better with age; it's part of the evolution of their craft. With a second book this good, I can't wait for the release of Mr. Ridley's next book, 'We All Smoke in Hell.'

John Ridley's new novel put's him right up there in the company of America's greatest crime writers. His first novel, "Stray Dogs", was a smart, nasty little noir, all full of twists and turns that kept Ridley and his book at least one step ahead of the reader, but in "Love is a Racket" he tells a great story and he creates some of the most memorable characters you'll meet in any recent fiction. He's also got a wonderfully sly sense of humor . This is a novel where someone's always the brunt of a con or a good joke, the reader included. (Yep, and when you've been fooled by a master -- and Ridley is a master -- it's surprising how good it feels.) Read "Love is a Racket" and you'll be reminded that Elmore Leonard's just a pit stop on the way to better stuff.

John Ridley gets better with every book I read. I look forward to his novels with baited breath. I read Stray dogs (it became the movie Uturn, I believe) anyway The book was soo much better than the movie and then Love is a racket blew me away with the action and the things that can happen when you least expect it and then Everyone smokes in hell came out and I liked that even more, if he keeps it up he will be the only author I like enough to buy hardcover! if you like Quentin Tarantino movies you will like John Ridley's books even more. He is one of the best thriller/action fiction writers of his time.

Bonansinga's plots are culled from old movies, pulp thrillers and comic book style adventures then given a 90s spin. This wild action-filled story is a vast improvement over The Killer's Game and far more deserving of being turned into a film than his previous book. I found myself gasping at points and trying to outguess the characters as they attempt to piece together the true identity of John McNally. Once again, he leads the reader through a rapid, breathlessly paced story ending with an outrageous, nerve-shattering and preposterous climax. This pulp thriller has it all: amnesia, serial killers, train chases, car chases, and a very modern twist on the mad scientist and his creepy lab experiments.

The Kirkus reviewer must have lost a high-school love to Bonansinga -- there's no other explanation for such an off-the-wall review. Bonansinga's premise is a different twist, it engages straight into high-gear, and his dexterity with the word and the mind are like a master jazz musician's fingers working two lines, in counterpoint, into one perfect climax. Get this book. Get every one of them, in fact.

Head Case is a well written roller coaster of a page turner. Sort of like the Dean Koontz genre with its well liked characters and plot but definitely the author's own. The characters are well fleshed out, the amnesiac with an uncertain past and the strong female character who helps him make you care what happens to them. The plot kept me guessing and was rewarding and made complete sense with all its twists and turns and plot developments. I was never bored with it and the short sharp chapters worked with the fast-paced feel of the book. I highly recommend it! I would like to read the authors other books if they are as good as this one.