This was my favorite book when I was ten years old (I'm now 38!). I recently dug it out of my cedar chest and pored over it with satisfaction -- it really was as lovely, compassionate, adventurous, and lively as I remembered. I am entirely delighted to see that it is available through Amazon. I intend to get copies for a few special kids in my life -- the contemplative and imaginative, the odd little loner who might identify with the young artist who is the main human character of the book, the frisky mischievous ones who will delight in the adventures of the squirrel characters. The story is about a young man, learning to oil paint, who is a little alienated from other youngsters. He likes to roam alone in nature, he understands the language of animals, and he meets the ghost of a Native American man who suffered a terrible sorrow in the colonial era. He makes friends with a family of squirrels taking up residence in an unused summer cottage, and sympathizes with their squirrel's-eye view of life. As the young man paints a beautiful piece of Maine coast island scenery and struggles to recover a rosary for the ghost, the squirrels face their own struggles in the form of skunks and weasels determined to destroy them. They enlist the help of a skunk-eating owl and soon all is well. The young man recovers the rosary and finds a friend in a kindly priest who recognizes his artistic talent and vision.

What appears to be a nature story at first glance, becomes a mystical look at the island's past involving Native-Americans and colonial settlers. This book, authored by Alfred Noyes, best know for his narrative poem, "The Highwayman," is on the Catholic Junior Great Books List for 5th grade.

Dr. Price gives an excellent account (and photos!) of the rare spitfires that you can't find in other books. Great reference for modelers and other enthusiasts. I particularly appreciated the many photos of the "Speed Spitfire" and many interim prototypes not typical to any mark number. (I am referring to the second edition -- the author added new material that had come out of the woodwork after the first edition.) The author is also kind enough to caption photos with the plane's code so that a modeler need not wonder what number is hiding behind a fuel truck, mechanic, parked plane, under a shadow or whatever. Money well spent.

This is by far the most detailed Spitfire book in my collection ( and I have quite a few! ). This excellent work gives a very comprehensive, mark by mark history of the Spitfire's development. Each chapter details the development of a given variant, including the background to that marks genesis, descriptions of combat, and overall impact upon the air war. Moreover, Alfred Price's eloquent text makes for a thoroughly enjoyable read and never makes his subject "dry". Greatest of importance, the appendices following the chapters give by far the MOST detailed performance information I've yet seen in any Spitfire tome ( or any other book on combat aircraft ). The data includes not just the common "top speed" and "rate of climb" information which is so often quoted, but also gives the top speeds and rates of climb at varying altitudes, as well as the critical "time to height" data up to the planes service ceiling. Detailed combat comparisons with various Axis & Allied types are also included! This is the sort of information which the dedicated aviation buff always desires to see in a book of this sort, but all too often we are dissapointed. This is the big exception! An absolute MUST have for any fan of the Spitfire in all it's many guises! The general and WW2 aviation buff should not miss out on this work either. Truely Outstanding!

Lovers of poetry, give your ear to Alfred Corn! Collected here is the cream of his poetry, and whether you favor the silkiness of Corn's language or the way he almost stalks his subject matter through the stanzas, you'll be impressed by the kernals of wisdom contained in each piece. If you get to hear Alfred (known as "Pop" to his friends) read his own poetry, you won't be disappointed. His husky voice lends an aura of authenticity to the work, and he's usually happy to field questions after the reading.

A great poet, in my opinion, offers what anyone might recognize as beauty and truth. In Mr. Corn's poems, I have found prized gemstones for everyday use. What I enjoy most about his work is that he presents his stories and still lifes with equal skill, achieving that rare balance between a keen eye and a trained ear. Many of his poems are like those small and perfect clementines which, when you take them apart, delight you with each equally perfect segment - any one of his lines can stand on its own feet. Yet, Mr. Corn moves beyond his aesthetic achievements to reveal motifs in the places he has lived in and visited / people he has lived with and visited. His is such a reliable and refreshing sensibility that I am always hopeful he will shine it on new subjects, larger or smaller, and over the years, I have been grateful for his range. There is virtue in Corn's circumspect and gentle approach to his subjects, but never sanctimony or cant. If you want archness, bitterness, idiosyncrasy or obsession, best to leave Corn's collection on the shelf. But if you want wisdom acquired through patient practice, begin on page 1. You will find what good readers expect of poetry but seldom receive in such rich shares.

Most of the short stories in thi s volume are also reprinted in "Virtual Unrealities" but, if you can find this volume, it is much better because of the introductions and essays that Bester wrote. They help to create the feeling that you actually know the man. The stories themselves are among ht ebest science fiction short stories that I have ever read.

I really can't believe there are no reviews for this book. I would have to say it is one of the best I've ever read. I really enjoyed Alfred Bestler's writing in this book, and found the stories highly entertaining. I highly suggest it (although this says it's out of print :).

I got a copy of this book long time ago and still remember almost as if happens yesterday. The positive effects of this book have in my life are unforgetable. Actually one of the reasons I decided to became a scientist was because the way Francois Jacob found his way in hard times. The book details his experiences during the second world war and after. In these days, we are in a new century and it seems that we haven't learn much about peace and respect and we have quite similar hard time as Francois Jacob describes. However, I totally believes that this book will be a positive hit for all students in Jr college and high schools and for sure will encourage the scientist of the future to take over this activity. The future of those that identify themselfs with Francois Jacob's life will be significant as time advance.

Even though I am a molecular biologist, I began reading The Statue Within with a bit of prejudice that it would be good for me but not necessarily interesting. I figured it would be beneficial to learn more detail about the work of one of the founders of my field. Boy was I surprised! What I got instead was the examination of a complex and vivid personality, a life filled with great flux, confusion, but most of all, a passion for knowledge. Dr. Jacob started off as a reluctant medical student, went to England to escape the Nazi takeover of Paris, signed up with DeGaulle's unofficial French army and served as a medic in a messy, confusing war. Afterward he returned to Paris and his medical studies, but, lacking direction, found himself in the midst of new and interesting biological research about genetics. Fascinated and obsessed, he pestered and cajoled his way into a top laboratory at the Pasteur Institute and began to experiment. His work of course was fundamental to the understanding of the mechanical functioning of genetics, and he went on to win the Nobel. But the beauty of the book is that it isn't about the glory and accolades - it is about the thirst for knowledge and the collaborative bonds that form between bright minds. It is very good for a scientist to be reminded of the essential nature of curiosity and the trial and defense of ones hypotheses. I will be reading this one for the rest of my career!

After a long and enjoyable relationship with all of Whitehead's works, I am well aware of the very real problems of interpreting his thought. I remain convinced of two things: (1) Whitehead was the equal to Heidegger and Wittgenstein in every way, and ranks with them in the triumvirate of original and brilliant philsophers of this century, and (2) he is under-read mainly because of the difficulty one encounters in understanding his thought, oddly enough much like Heidegger and Wittgenstein. Heidegger has long been the patron saint of contemporary continental thought, and analytic thinkers still read and teach Wittgenstein, though they have trouble with some of the mystical elements that keep creeping in and spoiling a good syllogism. By and large, no one reads Whitehead with any consistency, except theologians (and not all, or even most, of them). More's the pity, since his thought, like that of Kant or Plato, always brings new things to the discussion each time it is encountered.

This little book could do its small part in changing all that, though I doubt it. I envision philosophers world over reading the book and saying, "Oh, THAT'S what he meant!" Whitehead studies will take the fore, and we usher in a new age of creative speculation in philososphy. Until that happens (and I am not holding my breath), read this book so that you'll be ahead of the game. Because, I assure you, if you are new reader of Whitehead or an old hand, you too will have at least one "So THAT'S what he meant" moment in the course of reading this book.

If you are a student looking for textbooks, buy this one if you are reading Whitehead, and read this book before (long before, actually) you try to plow into Process and Reality. Hosinski will not steer you wrong, and, unless your prof read this book too, you might actually understand better than she does. You have probably come across Sherburne's Key to Process and Reality. That is the standard intro, but I actually like Hosinski's better. He explains the concepts, the "why," of Whitehead, and once you have that, you don't need a "key." Once you have figured out Whitehead's language, like that of Hegel or Heidegger or Derrida, reading him is a joy and actually not that difficult. Like all good philosophy, it is poetry; it has its own language, and you have to know how to read it.

If you are a professor teaching Whitehead and have not read this book, shame on you. If you are a professor not teaching Whitehead because you think you know what Whitehead was all about ("oh, he was the last metaphysician, a ultra-modernist system builder like Hegel without Hegel's staying power), maybe you should read it again. Then read any of the play-ful postmodern or even deconstructionist philosophers, and see if Whitehead's event-ontology (like Heidegger's, its closest relative) and his "fallacy of misplaced concrescence" seem familiar. If it does, you have understood well. As this book makes very clear, in formulating his thoughts Whitehead emphasized play, not rule; action not stasis; fallability not airtight systems; creativity not tradition (except where that tradition serves as a lure for creative transformation); objective uncertainties (to use Kierkegaard) not wretched complacency (to use Nietzsche); and above all revisability not dogmatism. Speculative philsophy is just that--imaginative construction. It must always pass the test of adequacy. After all, since Heidegger announced the death of metaphysics and Derrida buried it, speculation for the sake of speculation is useless. Whitehead's philosophy--and Hosinski's wonderful book, which I cannot recommend more highly--is useful. Read it, then use it.

Alfred North Whitehead is, without question, the most original philosopher of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, his most important work, Process and Reality: An essay in cosmology, is almost impenetrable. This is not the first attempt to make Whitehead's metaphysics more understandable, but it is the best to date. Although Whitehead's goal was to uncover the structure of reality as revealed in human experience, his insights have been laregely overlooked, in no small part because of the difficulty of his text. Hosinksi has accomplished what many may have assumed to be impossible, namely, to make Whitehead's speculation accessible. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in metaphysics.

From the turn of the last century comes this surrealistic novel that will make you laugh at the Patriarchy and its obsessions with Technology and Phallocracy. The great Poet and Pataphysician Alfred Jarry could see, using hallucinogenic insight, the foibles and evils of his own enculturated hyper-masculinity. What a vision. Not to be missed !!

One often takes French proto-surrealist literature with a grain (or spoonful) of salt, perhaps due to the hollow stigma which Breton and others rendered the word 'surrealism.' This novel by the maniac Jarry was a helpful reminder that he and Apollinaire and a few others were really getting at something compelling. Jarry's Supermale is an hyperbolic monster of masculinity, riding 10000 miles on a bicycle at the speed of a locomotive to proclaim his desire for a certain woman, with which woman he proceeds, in order to prove a point, to copulate a total of 82 times in 24 hours. However, Andre Marceuil is clearly a self-portrait; descriptions of him read uncannily closely to Jarry's own physiognomy. Marceuil is a man intent on living his art, without pretentions or assistance. The sex that occupies the latter 40 pages of this rather short novel (80 pages total) is surprisingly sensitive and crazy, especially during a launch into a poetic hymn to Helen of Troy. Altogether a touching and inspirational nugget of strange virtuosity. Read it and regain your faith in the true surrealism. (if you have lost it.)

Superstuff! is now out of print. The author used much of the material and brought the book up to date in Techno-Matter: The Materials Behind the Marvels, Twenty-First Century Books, Millbrook Press, 2001. That book won the 2002 American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award for books intended for young readers. It was also designated best grade 7-12 science book for 2001 by the Society of School Librarians international.

Excellent book, has good simple language and clear explanations of modern materials

comprehensive, philosophical tarot background with Jungian interpretation of the major arcana. Archetypal story progression of 0 through 21 in major arcana and memory key for minor arcana. Outstanding overall presentation on formal tarot use. Great, especially used in conjunction with similar texts.

I've read this book several times it's on my web site as a recommended for beginners book. I plan to re read it if I ever get the time.

With all the resume books in the market, it is refreshing to find a book that is actually useful. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a tool to improve their resume. This book has helped the quality of my resume, and given me plently of great ideas.

A must read for technical professionals. Especially helpful for those seeking work abroad.