As a young girl I was totally fascinated by paper dolls. Not only did I buy all those that came out, but I made my own also. A big favorite of mine was Katy Keene, the comic book fashion model. Imagine how thrilled I was to find reproductions of this very popular paper doll. The cut-outs are faithful to the original. Even if you are too young to remember Katy, you will love her. She was the Barbie of my day. This is a small price to pay for hours of fun for you or your daughter.

I bought this book in California when I went in November 99 and even though I didn't actually use it there I found it very useful for identifying animals I'd seen before. At the back of the book is a card with the most common and recognizable species of mammal and page numbers so if you see an animal, you can look at this card and find out what it was and confirm your identification in the book itself. Although a beginner's guide (it doesn't feature many other North American mammals that other field guides do) but it simply shows the most common ones that you're likely to find out in the field. I give this book 5 stars.

This is a must buy for all singers. The pieces are all reknown and tt is always good to perform pieces in which your audience can be familiar with. Also, these pieces are performed so frequently that people hear them done poorly at times and it is your chance to do it well and make an excellent impression on your audience. There are songs for everyone in this book. This kind of Baroque music has its own unique ability to engage and gtouch the hearts in the audience.

This book is the best book for young children to actually visually see what money does and what it looks like in different countries. Very good educational book.

I have an older version of this book. The latest has added a section on shared currency. The cover on the older version has more exotic coins such as heart cutouts. However any version of this book shows a lot of colorful pictures of script and coin. There are simple descriptions of the making of and measuring of money. If you are a coin collector the descriptions help enhance the collection by telling what the symbols represent on the coin as well as some tog the history. My only disappointment was the lack of information on porcelain notgeld. This makes you wonder what else may be missing. Well you can not stuff everything in to 64 pages with pictures.

I'm a teacher and I find the Eyewitness books highly educational. I like the way the concepts are presented in a form without backgrounds. This gives clear facts to the reader without over taxing the attention span. The books are highly informative, presenting difficult concepts in comprehendable chunks that stimulate interest. I have almost the whole collection for my own children and they LOVE them!

Having just finished this over this past weekend. I think that it is a great read if you can get around the toss around the author makes of past and present in the story. That is the only reason that i didn't give it a 5. The story is about a young man who join the USMC and became an aviator and flew during Vietnam. The other story here is one of the same man 20yrs down the line in a defense contractor and realizing that his boss is robbing the government and the company with some future aircraft that can't preform the job. In both he faces tough choices of going on or quitting. A lot of humor in here as well. Good for a few laugh.

I just put aside everything to read John Keene's "Pettibone's Law". I wanted to finish it before his memorial on January 28th, 2000.

The book was complicated and sad, quirky and smart, packed with intelligence...much the way I remember John Keene when I met him briefly over twenty years ago.

It's been said that the Viet Nam war produced the best war literature ever written, mainly because some guys who fought the war were also able to really write about it. Well, John Keene was one of those, and he scores right on the target with "Pettibone's Law". It's written with humor and pathos and confirms what I always suspected about that war, but never knew.

It's a good read, and it's not lightweight so if you're looking for fluff, skip it. It is a must-read, though, for anyone who's interested in a good book that deals with truth and abandoning illusions about war. Yes, it's fiction, but which great fiction isn't based on truth?

Thank God "Pettibone's Law" got written. The book shares a kinship with "Catch 22", etching into our consciousness what it was like being a fighter pilot in Viet Nam. You can't help but laugh, you can't help but cry.

Oh yes, there is one chapter towards the end that's philosophical and a bit difficult to read, (I guess John wanted to have his say about a few things) but when I finished the book a few chapters later I cried genuine tears for Old Jack Rawlins with his pork "hanging out".

I recommend this book without hesitation.

Keene tells the story of a F-4 jock in terms that only one who has "een there -- done that"could write it. Some of the best humor encountered in ages, mixed with true pathos many Nam vets will recognize and wish they could have put their finger on it with such stark clarity.

Keene often refers to "he other war."A vet's personal war within, and it is in this capacity that Pettibone's Law touches so many nerves. A really excellent read for both the witty humor and the mirror it holds up for any combat veteran -- but especially the Nam vet.

Pettibone's Law is the SEA veteran's "atch 22,"and is every bit the classic that is Heller's WWII-based masterpiece.

BDA (Bomb Damage Assessment) 100% from a Nam FAC who may have, unknowing to both, controlled John Keene in a different world and life so far away, yet so everpresent still. Pettibone's Law is dead center and a top shelf keeper.

This book provides a fascinating journey through one man's experience with reincarnation. Whether you are a "believer" or not, Jeff Keene's carefully written personal account of his past life experiences as a confederate general are interesting. He also provides a different type of historical perspective on the Northen war of aggression through both pairs of eyes: Confederate and Yankee.

Mr. Keene's writing style is straightforward and clean, making this a pleasure to read. And he gets extra credit for meticulous historical annotations, and adding several appendices that provide valuable background on General Gordon.

If there was a weakness, it may lie in Mr. Keene's projection of reincarnation onto others through comparing old photographs from the civil war to contemporary images of his co-workers. While the physical similarities he illistrates are striking, they pale in comparison to his own remarkable personal journey of discovery.

This book will make a great summer read for teenagers and adults-and is a must-have for anyone interested in past lives.

Imagine you are someone not remotely into the supernatural. You're well-grounded in the physical world, have led a fairly normal life and have no belief in reincarnation. Then one day you are confronted with a series of inexplicable "coincidences," all of which lead to the inescapable conclusion that you have lived a previous life as a particular confederate general in the American Civil War. What would you do?

"Someone Else's Yesterday" gives the account of what Jeffrey Keene did when he found himself in that very situation. In a sense, it is a real life detective story, but the case to be solved has implications of the utmost importance to all of us. In the balance lies the issues of life after death, and the existence of the soul.

The book is sure to appeal to all those with an interest in reincarnation and/or the Civil War. The author comes across as rational, intelligent, honest, sincere and humorous. It's not written in the flighty, fuzzy-minded style of some new age books nor in the dry, boring style of some of the scientific studies of reincarnation. It's just a down-to-earth, good and fascinating read. I highly recommend it.

Keene's book is perhaps the most important book you will ever read. Period. If you want the best and the strongest physical evidence for the existence of life after death, Jeffrey Keene's book will provide it to you. If you have doubts about reincarnation, this book will remove all your doubts. Keene's excellent book documents his amazing discovery of his past life as a Civil War soldier. After reading the verifiable evidence he presents, you will forever be a believer in life after death. His ground-breaking discovery and research is so fascinating that it was profiled in an A&E cable documentary. What makes his account so unique is that he did not discover the evidence for a past life using hypnotic regression like others have. Keene had no choice between accepting the reality of a past life or not accepting it. Keene's discovery of his past life came from his own life experience that involved a series of unusual synchronistic events. He did not seek this experience. This experience sought him. Over time, Keene's amazing life experience would continue to reinforce the reality of his connection to the past, even before he became convinced of it himself. He was not given the luxury of choice in this matter and this is one reason that makes his experience and evidence so credible. Whether you are a believer in reincarnation or not, you will find Keene's book to be one of the best books you will every read. It is filled with hope and filled with facts that strongly suggests that life continues after death. I highly recommend this book!

Kevin Williams, "Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife", ...

My voice teacher insisted I purchase this book and I am glad I did. We use it each week for development work, vocalizing, and learning new pieces. These songs are incredibly useful for working out the kinks you may have with other pieces, as well as just being a pleasure to sing for their natural beauty. I have a second copy of the book with the CD; I agree with the other reviewers that the CD accompaniment is way too fast. I have Cecilia Bartoli's CD, referenced by another reviewer, also and I have used it to help learn or refine some of these songs. Even so, the accompaniment CD has been useful for me in practice since I can't accompany myself. If you have a choice, I would get the version with the accompaniment CD. If you don't like the CD, you're not out more than a couple of extra dollars over what you pay for just the book.

This is the quintessencial collection for vocal studies for the medium high voice. A real tradition.

I own both this 26 song book/Cd as well as the 24 song book/CD from John Keene and Schirmer. I use the John Paton 26 song version in order to read the excellent one page introductions it provides for each song.. However my singing teacher feels that the piano accompaniments in the Paton book are pretentious, and he prefers the piano accompaniments in the Keene/Schirmer book. So, I use the CD and music from the Schirmer book but I do my research via the Paton book. The Keen/Schirmer book has a lot less melody ornamentation than the John Paton book. In my opinion, which is the opinion of a beginner, the ornamentation added to the melody in the John Paton book is excessive and is also confusing in that he never explains how to reconcile all the little notes he added, to the larger font melody notes that often seem to be at odds with the tinier notes. What is deeply, desperately need, I strongly feel, is a recording of tenors, sopranos, and baritones actually singing all 24 (or 26) of these songs! Please, if anyone knows of the existance of such as recording, post it in a user review. It would be a tremendous help. Also, note that in both the Keene/Schirmer version and the John Paton version, the piano accompaniment often does not include the melody. So, it can be "dicey" when trying to learn one of the songs to figure out the melody if the only resource available is the accompanying CD. Personally, I record the melodies into a sequencer program on my PC via a midi attached digital keyboard, but the average singer is not likely to have the technical expertise to do that. It would have been very helpful if the accompanying CD's had recorded each song twice, the second time with the melody superimposed on top of the accompaniment. My singer teacher tells me that these 24 (or 26) songs are the "bible" among singing students. Thus, a singing student really has no choice but to buy at least one of these two editions.

How does one write a generic autobiography? Keene has given us an example. In telling of his upbringing in St. Louis, we learn of the flight of whites from the suburbs into which Afro-Americans had moved, we learn of the heritage of the city as multi-cultural, of growing up with an alcoholic parent, of growing up gay etc. Only occasionally is the narrative "personal" in the sense of revealing something about the narrator which we could not know without the self-revelation of the narrative. The result is wonderful prose, interesting structure, and literature that exists only for itself - never revealing something new, specific about the human condition.

This anorexic novel (I tried stuffing mashed plantains in between the pages) is a minor masterpiece. It's small, and you can use it to slide it into the jamb of your door in case you get locked out. Another good use: you can slice someone's head off with it. There's a lot of big words here, words that were like elephants being stuffed into a sandwich bag. You can hear the words grunting in agony as you read the book. It's divided into several chapters with long paragraphs without any speed bumps in them. Whenever there's a red light Keene doesn't let up, he goes right through and ignores the ominous white policeman on the scooter trying to hail him down. I think John Keene is a tiny genius. He can live in a mousehole with a Mrs. Mouse. But he needs to write a bigger book, something that matches the density of a phone directory, something a midget can sit on if the table is too high. Only then will the flora and fauna of his verbal fireworks (illegal in most tropical enclaves) will truly have a chance for a decent stretch exercise.

Have you ever been reading a book and wanted to know what was going on somewhere else in the story? Or earlier? Or later? Or in the author's head? *Annotations* gives you the sense that you are looking out over the story and deep within the characters at the same time. Such a patient, delicate, tight weave. Tight, so there's a firmness to this writing, too. On the one hand, we get to see what's going on inside as we see the surfaces of things. The narrative is not left vulnerable to readers' whims, though. The constantly shifting perspectives teach us not just how to get through the book, but also what to make of it.

Close observers of the Iran have long puzzled over the paradox of the anti-Western Khomeini founding a republic based on a constitution that represents the nation via the decisions of a parliament which is chosen through popular elections-for these are all Western concepts. In a exquisitely detailed and revealing study of Iranian politics, Schirazi (a researcher at the University of Berlin) makes this paradox the center of his research and provides an important new understanding of the ideas that have dominated Iran for nearly two decades.

In particular, Schirazi notes two giant contradictions at the heart of the Islamic Republic: a government that supposedly rests on the pure principles of Shi'i Islam in fact draws heavily from Western secular sources entirely alien to the Shari'a (Islamic sacred law); simultaneously, its authority also rests on the authority that derives only from God but also from the will of the Iranian people. The author shows the historical roots of these contradictions (in 1906 the mullahs looked to a constitution to make the government more Islamic), then devotes the bulk of this fascinating book to the practical working out of the dilemmas they create and showing how these have molded contemporary Iranian life. In a word, secular defeated Islamic, God defeated the people.

Middle East Quarterly, Sept 1997

I admit it: I ordered this book on the basis of its title. I was researching the Republic of Iran for a comparative government class, and the university library is woefully short on books about non-Western civilizations.

Schirazi is the sort of professorial writer who needs an editor as good as his ideas. He is comprehensive, but not exhaustive, in explaining the contradictory origins of the written constitution that resulted in its inherently flawed nature (the very idea of a Republic is Western in origin, which is hard to reconcile with the "Islamic" nature of the Republic.) He writes like an academic, and would benefit greatly from having an outsider to reorganize his work and challenge him to pare down his ideas to make them more manageable. I don't think that the translation is his problem.

Schirazi certainly does bring up several points that were nowhere else in my reading (and I read A LOT of books for an undergraduate paper); a great example is "maslahat," the legal practice of meeting necessity instead of traditional or "feqh" law. Khomeini's attempts to press the clerics into using maslahat, in order to build a judiciary that could be both Islamic AND run a modern state, is emblematic of the picture of Khomeini that emerges from other authors. Abrahamian's "Khomeinism," for example, establishes rather well that he was not a fundamentalist at all, but a pragmatist; Schirazi ties this surprising truth to the actual CONSTITUTIONAL practices of the state.

Schirazi does not closely examine the parastate in this work, which I would argue is its main fault. One cannot understand the institutions of the clerical state without understanding that the real power has always lain in the bonyads, control of the paramilitaries, and the informal structures of the Majlis. I hope that the renewed sense of openness in Iran will spur closer examination of the parastate by political scientists, sociologists, and others.

Otherwise, Schirazi and his translator have done something sorely needed in America: they have brought a poorly-understood, under-studied government of great geopolitical importance to better light.