This is a disturbing book. Citro never fails to deliver a well-written, well-thought out, plausible thriller. I would have given this book 5 stars, but I took one star away because I did not think the computer theme worked very well. Also, the illustrations were amatuerish and should be abandoned in any future books. However, those are minor quibbles. This is a terrific read and will spook you in ways you've never been spooked before.

For those who refer to Joe Citro as the "Vermont Stephen King" apparently have not read Joe's work. The only way to describe this talented writer is to call him Joe Citro. He follows in no one's footsteps, and is paving his own road into the Macabre and Bizarre. Read his work, both fiction and non-fiction, and you will see what I mean.

There is hardly any significant fact about viruses that missed-out in this edition of "Fields Virology". Page after page, this sound all-inclusive reference doles out authoritative information on both viruses and viral syndromes. From taxonomy to etiology, metamorphosis to replication; the analyses of this text is grand. The same applies to its attached CD-ROM. Its practical outlook was intended to benefit both microbiologists and pathologists. Bernard Fields and his colleagues made their mark with this book. It is a great effort.
However, most botanist may not be pleased to know that little attention was paid to plant viruses. Again, many potential buyers may be demoralized by the rather high price that this virology-set demands.

It covers all fields of virology. Perfect and wonderful ! Easy to understand. I really recommend this book to who is involved in biology

Usually read for his one hit novel (Red Badge), Crane produced a score of great stories & a gritty novel about prostitution (Maggie) and some very modern poetry that still reads well today. Put it up against his contemporaries of the 1890's and he sounds remarkably modern. (He even looks modern is some later portraits... I see him hanging out with Brautigan, learning about horses with McGuane, hanging in the streets with...)

Crane does not waste words. Each poem moves quickly to the point, offers you this, and this. In school there may be a couple Crane poems in an english book, but not near enough. From "In a desert" (#3?) to Intrigue, his poems are near perfect and his words still hold strong meaning today, from 80 to over a hundred years after they were written.

Although Stephen Crane has earned his place in the American literary canon largely on the basis of his novel "The Red Badge of Courage" and his psychologically compelling short fiction, he was also a master of the art of poetry. "The Complete Poems" is a superb tribute to that poetic genius. In addition to collecting all 135 of Crane's known surviving poems, editor Joseph Katz has written a substantial introduction which places Crane's poetic achievement in context.

Most of Crane's poems are written in a free verse using simple, yet quietly powerful language. His words are full of irony and paradox; his vision is sometimes sarcastic and often dark, yet frequently surprises with gentleness and compassion. Reading Crane, I get the sense of meeting an ancient sage on a barren, wind-swept plain. His poems often have an oddly scriptural flavor to them; these are verses that invite return and reflection.

Stephen Crane writes, "I have a thousand tongues / And nine and ninety-nine lie." Nonetheless, in "The Complete Poems of Stephen Crane" the attentive reader will discover a reservoir of disturbing truth.

A fascinating story and worthy tribute to Joseph Bazalgette, an underappreciated Victorina-era engineer responsible not only for designing and overseeing the construction of London's huge sanitary sewer system, but also the construction of Victoria, Chelsea and Albert Embankments, forever changing the face and character of central London. We take so much of our modern cities for granted, not realizing that entire rivers are flowing under the streets, blissfully unaware of the level of vision and committment required to create an infrastructure that provides health and convenience.

The writing style is breezy and lucid, although the author has a distracting habit of repetition. Certain factoids, such as "the embankments reclaimed 52 acres of land" are repeated over and over again, and several favorite quotes are repeated at least 3 times.

I won't ever look at a modern city the same way.

While the title implies the book's focus will be London's "Great Stink" of 1858, it is in fact a short biography of the eminent Victorian civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Less remembered than his fellow engineers Isambard Brunel or Robert Stephenson, Bazalgette was the Chief Engineer of London's Metropolitan Board of Works for some 30 years.

During his tenure, he oversaw the construction of the great intercepting sewers of London which effectively removed the recurring threat of cholera from the city even before that disease's transmission mechanism was fully understood. In addition, the great Embankments along the Thames were designed and built by Bazalgette which make the modern waterfront as we know it today. He also built three bridges still standing across the Thames and designed many of the modern thoroughfares of London.

This book focuses on the long political battles waged in Parliament, the press, and within the City itself to solve the massive problem of human waste disposal in the world's largest western metropolis of the day. Although ostensibly about a civil engineer, there is not much engineering in the book - making it highly accessible to the layperson. Copious contemporary illustrations out of "Punch" and the "Illustrated London News" along with lengthy quotations from "The Times" make the Victorians' view of this smelly problem come to life. It's fortunate that this is not a scratch-and-sniff book.

The main chapters include those devoted to the invention of the water closet (a sewage nightmare), cholera and sanitation, and the building of the embankments. Throughout the book, small sidebars give potted biographies of key players and interested parties of the day such as Dickens, W.H. Smith, Gladstone, Dr. John Snow, and others. These are great little tidbits on the people featured in the main narrative and they are liberally sprinkled with caricatures from "Spy".

The book does touch on Bazalgette's early endorsement and use of Portland cement as a technical innovation as well as the quality assurance testing techniques that he enforced during his projects. So engineer, take heart! There are interesting bits for you as well.

If dark places under the heart of the metropolis is your area of interest, see also "London Under London" by Richard Trench & Ellis Hillman for sewers, the Tube, and more subterranean passages. And if you simply must have olfactory re-enforcement to imagine the past, try "Victorian Vapours" by Mary J. Dobson.

Halliday's book tells the story of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, Chief Engineer to the Metropolitan Board of Works (London's first metropolitan government) from 1856 to 1889.

His greatest achievement was building for London a sanitation system of unprecedented scale and complexity. Throughout history, the main cause of death has been the contamination of drinking water by sewage. In particular, cholera spread when the faeces of sufferers contaminated drinking water: cholera epidemics in London killed 6,536 people in 1831-32, 14,137 in 1848-49, and 10,738 in 1853-54.

In the long hot summer of 1858, the stench from rotting sewage in the Thames drove MPs from Westminster. The 'Great Stink' forced them, belatedly, to act. Bazalgette was charged with building a system to prevent sewage getting into Londoners' drinking water, which he did. The 1866 cholera epidemic killed 5,596 people in the East End, the sole part of London that had not yet been protected by Bazalgette's intercepting system. After the system was completed, cholera would never again kill Londoners. Bazalgette had turned the Thames from the filthiest to the cleanest metropolitan river in the world and added some twenty years to Londoners' lives.

But this was not Bazalgette's only success. He constructed the Victoria, Albert and Chelsea Embankments, where he introduced the use of Portland cement. He laid out Shaftesbury Avenue, Northumberland Avenue, Charing Cross Road, the Embankment Gardens, Battersea Park and Clapham Common. He built the bridges at Hammersmith, Putney and Battersea. He introduced the Woolwich Free Ferry and designed the Blackwall Tunnel.

In 1889, the London County Council replaced the Board: Bazalgette's successes had proven the value of local government for great cities. Roy Porter wrote that Bazalgette stands with Wren and Nash 'as one of London's noblest builders'. John Doxat wrote, "this superb and farsighted engineer probably did more good, and saved more lives, than any single Victorian public official."

This book is a listing of every Old Aramaic inscription, papyrus, stele, or any other sort of writing found before the date of its publication. It is VERY thorough. Only short inscriptions of a few words are printed in this book (in the quadrat script). Larger inscriptions and texts are simply noted with the museum that posesses them, any printed editions that have been made, any translations that have been printed, and any scientific articles and monographs that have discussed them. The book is well suited to hardcore researchers and students wishing to build their own libraries of Aramaic material, but it is not simply a selection of texts that a student can practice reading. The book lists great numbers of such anthologies however.

Before I read Baksheesh and Bramhan, all I knew of Campbell was that he was an author of formidable intellect and also engaging wit (if the print version of Moyers series is to be believed)with a deep understanding of Oriental faiths. Campbells' account of his encounter with the land of these faiths - India - is at once insightful of the man and India in the 1950s. Confronted by the actual India - ancient, prudish, theieving, an emerging nation seeking a semblance of pride, low on self esteem, spiritual - Campbell is all at once the fastidous Westerner at odds with a culture he has admired from afar, charmed by its exoticism and occasionally getting bang on and incisively the actual reality of India. This book is an easy read and essential for anyone who has ever admired Campbell's work. Also a must read for anyone who wants to hold up a mirror to the new Indian nation and how far and how less that nation has travelled in the 50 odd years since. Campbelll's acerbism on fellow American travellers make for marvelous diversions.

One small observation and this must stem from being an Indian - that India is a hospitable nation is clear from this book. I am sure a lot of Indians would attribute it to Campbell being white, but there is something in here of hearts and houses being thrown open to a stranger.

After several years of study I decided to read a text book on the current views,opinions, and changes about drug use and abuse. My choice for this book was originally based on the most current copyright date and edition. This book with its blunt title and layout in the table of contents assured me that this is what I was searching for. The information is spot on, and the background, history, and unknown trivia about the use and abuse of drugs made this book an enjoyable read. Packed with knowledge and concise description this book is a must read and useful addition to the book shelf at home, school, or office for anyone seeking knowledge on the subject of drugs and how they affect American society. I'm glad I found it.

A collection of essays by scholars of Apocalypticism. Good cites, interesting reading. Would have given it 5 stars, but the book contains no index, which would have been very useful to me.

Thanks for scholars like Nicholas Delbanco who hunt down biographical details that enrich our knowledge of famous authors lives. Here is a book that offers a savory meal for the literary gourmet. Henry James liked donuts. Stephen Crane chain smoked. Conrad the English stylist spoke with a thick Polish accent. Ford Madox Ford embellished his recollections with untruths. H. G. Wells treated offers of help with cocky independence.

The author contends that for a certain interval these men associated with and admired each others literary accomplishments. "South of London in 1900, a galaxy of talent assembled that beggars in accomplishment anything the English language has since produced." He provides quotations and photographs that demonstrate social intercourse between the big five. Between the initial overview and the concluding summary, three chapters provide respectively a view of Stephen Crane on a visit to England to meet the other masters of ficti! onal prose, a study of the collaboration between Ford Madox Ford and Joseph Conrad, and an examination of one of English literature's most famous disputes - James vs. Wells.

I found the book informative and interesting and recommend it to any admirer of any of the five writers singularly or in combination. About those we admire our curiosity is insatiable. Did Shakespeare like his eggs over easy or sunny side up? We have his Hamlet, his Lear, isn't that enough? Some might say no. We have Crane's "Open Boat", Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", Ford's *Good soldier, James' *Ambassadors, Wells' *Time Machine*. Still, it's natural to inquire about the virtues, quirks, and foibles of their creators. *Group Portrait* gives us a taste of the traits that rounds out these illustrious authors.

A sad epilogue to which Mr. Delbanco refers in his lead chapter is that this literary summer was so brief. Crane died in 1900. Eventually the other associations wither! ed. By 1906 the friendship between Conrad and Ford had coo! led. *Boon* published in 1915 dissolved Wells' ties to James with its ridicule of the latter. For a while there was Camelot albeit a loose confederacy of brilliant writers. A genius needs a tough ego to sustain him for the long haul to fortune and fame. An alternate lesson from *Group portrait, perhaps one not intended, but nevertheless patent, is that collaboration must eventually give way to ego.

I found this book to be completely outdated and useless. I had expected to find some state of the art data, or at least recent information. When it came to the best modems, 2400 baud was the best available but 14,400 baud might offer some potential.

It was my fault for buying this dog as I had assumed that it was updated as of 1997 - it was only copyrighted then.

The title is accurate. If you want to learn about telephone electronics, this is a great book. It's easy to read, comprehensive and well structured. No, it doesn't go into great detail about state of the art modems or attempt to teach the finepoints of wireless telephony, but it does cover basic fax, modem and telephone electronics very well.

It coverd all telephone basic