I don't study Insects proffesionaly, I am simply curious about living things around me. I have several Field Guides that offer very little information about the Insect in question (which I suppose is all to be expected from a small book) and I wanted to know more. For instance how do the mouth parts work, what are the different body segments and what do they house or what is their function.Well here it is in "Black and White" litteraly... If you want pretty color pictures this is not the book for you. The figures in the book are however, very detailed, expertly drawn and all body parts are labled. So far every answer I have sought has been answered by this book.I believe that this book is well worth the high price tag. Remember this is only MY opinion, I could be wrong...

I had to purchase this book for a class in my undergraduate work. However, as a graduate student, I use this book every semester. I am presently working in a lab and i.d many samples of insects. Some common, some not. I often reach for it to get to family so I can key to genus and species if I need to take the i.d. that far. The numbered keys are great! They reference forward and backward, which really helps if a mistake is made. Definitely a good one to have on the shelves.

It is the most appropriate book I have seen for graudate student who want to be an entomologist. It have a comprehensive knowledge on how to study the insects.

For anyone interested in the lives behind the novels and poems of the Beats, Joyce Johnson offers a priceless glimpse at the realities of a world most of us can only imagine. Delineating a love affair that was short but tremendously influential on both of them, Johnson reveals something of her own personal growth during a time when being a young woman on her own was an act of rebellion in itself, as well as the impact of sudden fame and fortune on Jack Kerouac's already fragile psyche. Although the insensitivity to Johnson that shows through in Kerouac's letters to her will come as no surprise to those who are already familiar with his personality, his letters do feature a rare directness with one who knew him well. If his carelessness with money and women and his blind devotion to his mother remain as striking as ever, both his letters and Johnson's interpretation of them give us something of a better understanding of how these characteristics came into being.

Along the way, there are images aplenty of the stage the affair played out on: beatnik parties, Village pubs and restaurants, jazz concerts, and New York suburbs back when they were distinguishable from the city itself. Other important figures, notably Allen Ginsberg, appear throughout the text in candid shots we would never find in their own work. Johnson discusses them all in the style of one who knew them personally. For this reason among others, this book is not a very good starting point for learning about the Beat Generation, but it is an excellent complimentary piece for anyone who already has some familiarity with and interest in that era.

Beautiful and elegant. Any woman who's ever been in love with a difficult man will appreciate Joyce Johnson's bittersweet romance.

early AM, just finished Jerce's book...lovely, thoughtful and sensitive, this is a must for all lovers of Jack! Carpe Diem!!

be in prison for life (abused woman or not).

My heart aches terribly after reading this book. I'd hoped I'd feel differently. Because of all of the media and hype I was hoping there was some 'normal' explanation to this tragedy. Maybe a typical story of a battered woman who coulnd't respond.

BUT, this couple were sado-masochist, crack-heads who participated in cults and sexual perversity. I hoped I would read a simplier explanation of Lisa's death. This book didn't help my phyche at all; it made my pain worse.

I kiss my child much harder every night after she's asleep after reading this 'tale of hell'.

My prayers go on for Lisa.

I agree with the author that Hedda Nussbaum is just as guilty of Lisa's abuse and death as was Joel Steinberg. There are some facts about the birth mother that were incorrect (See her own book "I Wish You Didn't Know My Name" by Michele Laudners). Over all, "What Lisa Knew" is a good book. It gives insight to a very sick, disturbed man.

This book is excellent. The story behind it all is totally repulsing and I believe that Joel Steinberg AND Hedda Nussbaum should have been put behind bars for their lack of love that they gave to Mitchell and Lisa and the home that they raised their children in...I'm sure that homeless people raise their children in a more sanitary fashion.

I believe JCO is arguably the best writer to emerge in America in the second half of the 20th century. That said, I read this biography with much interest and found in it plenty of information about the elusive, invisible persona of JCO. However, as much as I appreciatted Mr.Johnson's obvious labour-of-love research and detailed account of the life and times of JCO, I found the whole thing somehow biased as a overly soft and timid portrait of a mysterious, enigmatic woman. I found many of the elements mentioned in the book suggested tremendously interesing points of entry into JCO's personal and psychological universe. None of them were explored. It seems like Mr.Johnson always stops at the threshold of the dark cave and then points his typewriter at some nice, peculiar social event. As I was reading, I felt Mr.Johnson limited his approach to recount little know facts with admirable accuracy and attention to detail, but reading any novel of JCO tells us more about her mind and soul that recounts of many dinner parties at Princeton. If you're interested in this wonderful writer, this book is surely helpful in reconstructing the outside of her life, and most interesting in its depiction of the inner workings of the literary world mafia, but I'd say very far from being the truly meaningful journey into JCO's mind that I'd like to read. I wouldn't like to discourage anyone interested in JCO to reads this, because it is a worthy and valuable read and Mr.Johnson deserves credit for taking on a difficult subject and rendering a never faltering narrative, but I believe JCO, and her readers, deserve even better (and specially braver) and will feel wanting for it. A good first look at this fascinating writer, sure, but she remains as invisible as she was before we opened this biography. Since JCO is after all still very much alive and kicking (her last BLONDE proves she as good as ever or even better), maybe it is a matter of time and perspective. Maybe Mr.Johnson himself, given time and distance, will offer us a deeper reading of JCO. He is surely an able writer and a keen researcher. I'll surely be there to check all the fascinating stuff about one of my favorite authors that this time, somehow, proved invisible, but smellable.

Invisible Writer is throughly researched and well written. I found it very readable, even though I was not a fan of JCO's. I'm still not a fan of hers. Greg Johnson manages to create a fair portrait of JCO as a human who is sometimes prickly and vain. I understand other reviewers' comments that he's too soft on her, but I see it as him being careful to be fair in writing about someone who is still producing some of her best work. Oddly I didn't find that his treatment made her more likeable, only that it made JCO someone with whom I can empathize.

After reading this book, the greatest question remaining about JCO is the violence, especially sexual, in her work. A childhood sexual incident is mentioned, but it seems rather mundane. Johnson refers to some of the hardships suffered by JCO's family, but those hardships doesn't seem to explain well enough how this quiet, intellectual woman lives in such another world in her writer's imagination. Perhaps that's the intrigue of JCO.

This biography exhaustively plumbs the life and career of Joyce Carol Oates. Although not a biography I would normally seek out, since I've read only a few of her books, "Invisible Writer" was named a "Best Academic Book of the Year" by the American Library Association and received glowing reviews, so I was curious about its content. I was immediately taken in by this sweeping, thoughtful, and superbly written account of a consummate writer's writer. Although Johnson does not shrink from criticizing his subject--her controlling behavior, her tendency to depict "friends" in her fiction in unflattering ways, even an occasional veiled threat of revenge to an unfriendly reviewer--he presents on the whole a fair, balanced portrait of a writer for whom art is almost her entire life. This should be read by anyone interested in writing or writers.

Helpful for any novice nurse out there! Includes the basic skills.

Straight out of view is by far one of the best books of modern poetry I have read in a long time. Joyce Sutphen has an incredible ability to express everything from the simplest feelings to the many of the most complicated problems that have ever plagued my mind. The only danger inherent in buying Straight Out of View is the possibility that you may never want to put it down.

There's a reason why Stephen wasn't the main character in "Ulysses." While his hypersensitivity, acute intellectualism and quasi-pretentious ideas about the aesthetics of poetry and Shakespeare are attractive from a distance, his callow arrogance and sarcasm are ultimately off-putting. Leopold Bloom, for me, is the greatest character in 20th century literature because his age has brought him qualities that the post-adolescent Stephen can only ponder or mock: humility, inquisitiveness and a love for his wife that can withstand the challenges of Blazes Boylan.
I don't mean to disparage "A Portrait" by claiming its worth lies primarily in its position as a precursor to "Ulysses," but it really is dwarfed by that book and Joyce's masterpiece, "Finnegans Wake." Here, the prose experiments are clumsy and frustrating: take, for example, the romantic drivel about birds, dew and Eileen in chapters four and five; while Joyce might have intended this second-rate Yeats impersonation to demonstrate how Stephen's naivete is struggling with new ideas, it's fairly embarrassing nonetheless. The journal entries are kind of cool as a taste of what would soon come in "Ulysses," but they come off a bit dry.
I found Stephen much more likeable before his decision to repent in the third chapter. Before, he had to struggle with the conflict in his soul between the pleasures of the brothel and eternal damnation. This was also before he became stubbornly confident in his own self-righteousness, and I can believe that the feelings he describes are painfully real. Afterwards, he briefly becomes a priggish repentant, and then the climax of the novel comes when he throws off the yoke of the priesthood and embraces the sight of Eileen stroking the sea-water "hither and thither" (a delicious reminder of the much more appealing ALP in the "Wake").
Eileen is now kept in the distance as Stephen prattles endlessly about Aristotle and Aquinas, his precious individuality and his oncoming exile. His friends are intelligent but boorish and scornful. By the end of the novel, Stephen is ready to embark on his artistic journey, but I couldn't help noticing how cynical his final journal entries sounded.
Joyce is the master novelist of the past century, and even his mediocre work is woven with the threads that would continue in his two final novels. "A Portrait..." remains a fascinating though curiously empty tale of a young man growing detached from his senses and beliefs.

A Portrait of an Artist was a surprise to me. I read it as a school assignment but I actually
enjoyed it a little. It was a thought provoking book and was very well written. James Joyce's'
fictional but semi- autobiographical novel was very creative. It was written in a style that I have
never read before. It wasn't first person or third person, but it also wasn't quite a third person
omniscient. It was a new style to me but James Joyce made it work.
It is a novel about a boy, Stephen Dedalus and his struggles to grow up, break away from
the confining restrictions of church, family, and country (patriotism), and to ultimately find
himself as an individual and artist. Most of these struggles are very similar to things that all of us
have gone through(with exception of becoming an artist). I think many of the problems he faced
were a little amplified, and that helped show what kind of person Stephen was. He was very
thoughtful and he tried, like many of us to fit into many places that he didn't naturally fit.
All through the book Stephen changes schools and is never accepted by the other kids at
the school. Eventually he decides to stand up for himself by talking to the school master after
being punished unfairly. He is rewarded for his bravery and begins to be accepted by his peers.
But he still doesn't quite fit in.
The thing that stuck out most to me was the jesuit priests and how they preached about
hell and damnation. I thought it was an extreme way to try and control the way the kids act. It
seemed as though they were trying to scare them into being good instead of having them do it for
the right reasons. Ultimately scaring people into something rarely works. If you want them to do
something they have to do it for the right reasons or they will not continue to do it in the future.
One of the most interesting things for me was seeing the way Joyce used the imagery, he
is so good with words. I enjoy reading the vivid descriptions he uses and find myself forming a
mental picture much easier than I do when reading other books. One thing I disliked about this
book was the lack of plot. I t was difficult to find a story line to follow. While the creative style,
imagery and wording of the book interested me I did find it hard at times to continue reading
because there was nothing that made me want to continue to the next chapter. Nothing that
caught my attention and made me want to find out what happens next.
Overall I would recommend this book because of it's creative style and great word usage.
I think if you read this book through and give it a chance, then you will be satisfied. With this
book you do have to read all the way to the end or it will seem like a waste of your time.

"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is James Joyce's autobiographical novel, first appeared in book form in 1916. After over 80 years it is still read and studied all over the world highlighting the place it has received in literature. It portrays the early and teenage life of Stephen Dedalus. This is the same character who later appears in 'Ulysses' (1922) as a matured adult.

Joyce walks us through the life of Stephen Dedalus in five stages written in a third-person narrative. Anyone interested in Joyce's intellectual, spiritual and physical journey of life should read this great classic which is the prelude to 'Ulysses', one of the best novels ever written in the 20th centaury.

As Ezra Pound correctly predicted 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' would "remain a permanent part of English literature" for centuries similar to the place 'Ulysses' has reached in literature.

Ulysses is great fun. It takes a bit more work to read than most books, just as it takes a bit more work to play tennis than it does to play catch. You shouldn't feel compelled to put the work in, any more than you should feel compelled to learn an unusually difficult sport. But people who do put the work in and who have a good time doing it shouldn't be made to feel guilty about it either. It's a pleasure to follow the interweaving lines of the Sirens chapter, for instance, and anyone who does it will see that the chapter is alive in a way that almost nothing else is in literature. Joyce is a terrific comic writer and a terrific creator of vivid, complicated characters. But he requires the reader to put in some extra effort to enjoy how good he is, and I can't blame anyone who gives up after a few pages and refuses to go any further. On the other hand, I've noticed that people who don't like Joyce's approach seem to want to attack people who do. This is silly. Again, it's like hating people for playing basketball just because you prefer skateboarding. Both the Joyce lovers and the Joyce haters should lighten up a bit.

There is not a book out there that is more frustrating than James Joyce's Ulysses...unless, of course, it is Joyce's Finnegan's Wake. The problem lies in the fact that this novel is such an amazing piece of art that the reader can feel like Joyce forgot all about him. It is almost impossible to read by oneself with it's seemingly garbled maze of words and phrases and madness. However, this is what makes it such a joy to read. Imagine that an author decided to do away with any and all rules concerning fiction and to write a book that was it's own entity, showing you what it wanted to show you, telling you what it wanted to tell you and acting like its own character. This is what Joyce has accomplished with Ulysses. I was fortunate enough to read this book in a class, four months of nothing but Ulysses, and I have to warn would be readers that I don't think I would have made it through without expert guidance. I would advise anyone wishing to tackle this literary giant to gather some book loving friends, and a guidebook or two for Ulysses, and to take it very slowly. Read a chapter a week and then meet up with you group to discuss and puzzle out what you have just read. I am willing to bet that your weekly conversations will be a greater work of art than any book out there, and I think that Joyce would have liked that, would have enjoyed sparking debates and conversation, its probably the main reason why anyone creates anything; for it to be enjoyed and shared. The story line is simple, you have two main characters, Stephen Dedalus, the brilliant but alienated loner. You have Leopold Bloom, a simple man who is as alienated as Stephen, but not for his mind, for his cultural background and meek manner. The entire book takes place over the course of one day in Dublin, and after the first three chapters the entire book simply follows Bloom around during a day when he knows that his wife is having a romantic meeting with her lover. It is hard to sum up such a giant book in a few sentences like this, but basically Bloom is trying to set his life back on track, trying to reconcile himself with his wife's betrayal, and trying to reach out to Stephen who he feels could use a loving family. Of course, you could read this book and not find any of what I am saying in there, but the beauty of Ulysses is that I would love to hear what it is that you found in this novel as much as I would love sharing what I found.

It's great fun to observe the rancorous--at times vicious--debate this book has engendered among and between its admirers and detractors. Whatever else might be said of "Ulysses," it's clear that everyone who has read it (and even those who have not) has an opinion about it. But for those who are leery of beginning a book of this size and complexity without some guarantee that it is as "GREAT" as its admirers proclaim it to be, I offer these words of advice: take it slowly, don't get overly bogged down by the unorthodox style, and make a diligent effort to understand what Joyce is trying to say. It's easy to treat his ramblings as the workings of a drunk or inscrutable genius, and to "force" one's way through the book without getting anything out of it. I read "Ulysses" for the first time last summer, without annotations and with only a brief on-line summary of each chapter as my guide, and I'm sure I missed an awful lot. But I loved "Ulysses" nonetheless. The inventive style, the devious puns, the poetic prose--all of it amounts to a reading experience that will reward the patient and persistent with a tremendous intellectual and aesthetic (if not emotional) payoff. While it is not my favorite book of all time, I agree with those who say it's the most important novel of the twentieth-century. It so completely altered the literary landscape of its day that, 80 years after its publication, its effects are still being felt (but not always acknowledged) in the works of contemporary writers.

If you want to read this book only because you've been told it was "great" or to tell others you read it (and thus sound "intelligent"), pick up the Cliffs Notes and save yourself some time. If you honestly want to understand *why* this book is frequently cited as the best of the twentieth century, dig in. I plan to revisit "Ulysses" myself in the not-so-distant future.

I have never received this book because you cancelled my order. Although, I really would like the book, it is impossible for me to order again. Your computer tells me that I have odered it already and will not exept any additional orders for this item. I gave the 1 star rating because otherwise the computer will not send this message.
If you have this book again, please send me one; I am still interested.

This large format softcover book has beautiful pictures of various locations in the Mediterranean, as well as great pictures of almost every dish for which there is a recipe. The recipes are easy to follow, measurements in English and metric, with a helpful notation about the recipe at the start of each one. More importantly, they are useful dishes that you can acutally cook, not one of those books with 20 different ways to cook octopus. Where a particular local indgrediant is probably not available stateside, a creditable alternative is given. The book looks tasty to the eye, and the recipes are tasty as well. I am particularly fond of Turkish food and this cuisine is well represented, just as the other Mediterranean countires are.

I loved this book, but it was one of many that was damaged in the floods of 1998. Many of the dishes were very easy to make too. I've been waiting for a reprint since !

"Mister Johnson", by Joyce Cary, is a tale of an intriguing, quixotic native character, set in colonial Nigeria. Cary draws on his own experiences as a colonial official in Nigeria, drawing a rich, topical, authentic picture of the country during the early thirties. The eponymous anti-hero, referred to only as "Johnson", is a pathetic creation who sees himself as an enthusiast for Empire, a champion of progress and civilisation, with the King of England numbering among his friends. In reality, he is despised by his European boss, Rudbeck, as a member of an inferior race. Johnson's life, his attempt to to become more English than the English, is set precariously between these two extremes -- the urgings of superiority and the reality of degradation, eventually leading him to the gallows. The story's culmination, involving larceny, treachery and murder, sees Johnson emerging as a pathetic but genuinely human creation, whose plight is an illustration of a genuine human dilemma.