This novel is in the form of an extended letter to the writer's supposed niece. Abby Zinzo plans to leave his exquisite jewelry collection to her and sets about telling her what it is and what it means to him. No doubt this sounds prosaic and a bit academic. Think again!

Abby has had an exciting, erotic life, and he is anxious to share the highlights. Right away, I was nervous---"is he really writing all this to a 13-year old girl?" Apparently, yes. Gender is a very slippery thing to Abby; so much so, I was confused most of the time.

His erotic tales of derring-do are intermixed with some solid history on gems and their owners. The dual emphasis made the story line jerky and fragmented. He speaks with two different voices, and they never seem to mesh. I wish there had been some color plates of the jewelry he was describing. There were some grayed out, fuzzy pictures that were worse than nothing.

While Mr. Klein shows considerable jauntiness in his writing, I felt I had boarded the wrong train. I had the feeling throughout, that I just didn't quite "get it." Other readers might find this more enjoyable than I did. There is no denying Mr. Klein's cleverness.

The narrator of this odd and compelling story is by turns wise, funny, catty, obnoxious, and downright fascinated by celebrity gossip. He's savvy regarding semiotics and the arcana (and meanings) of unconventional sexuality. Fashion, money, and French and German literature and philosophy are important, too. There are discussions of death and customs around it, and suicide, too. You will learn more about gems and jewelry than you might have imagined possible (including just why size really does matter, and in the world of gems, what it says about the giver and the wearer). There are hundreds of topics in this story that Klein somehow exhilaratingly ties together, including tattooing and piercing.

The narrator has chosen an heir in "Zeem," a young woman who will inherit his amazing trove of jewels. He doesn't know her, but he has plenty to tell her, in a variety of registers. He's by turns a fast-talking New Yorker, sometimes professorial, and sometimes almost naïve. He can be efficient and technical, and sometimes he writes with a luminous clarity and beauty. He talks about his personal sexual history, crossdressing, and the worlds of the transgendered - and jewelry and more jewelry.

There's a good variety of methods used (fiction, the essay, and a lot of direct quotation from other sources) to discuss famous women, famous jewelry, theories of gender, sexuality, love, language, style, and money - along with gossip, innuendo, and a lot of information (factual and/or prejudiced) about gems and adornment, and erotics - to make an assortment of points. There's an attention to detail that is sometimes a pleasure, and sometimes (as when discussing each of Elizabeth Taylor's husbands) tedious.

This story is much more than a catalogue of great jewelry and is never less than strangely interesting.

Sharpe's book is a detailed argument supporting the assertion that most of differential geometry can be considered the study of principal bundles and connections on them, disguised as an introductory differential geometry textbook.

Some standard introductory material (e.g. Stokes' theorem) is omitted, as Sharpe confesses in his preface, but otherwise this is a truly wonderful place to read about the central role of Lie groups, principal bundles, and connections in differential geometry. The theme is that what one can do for Lie groups, one can do fiberwise for principal bundles, to yield information about the base.

The informal style (just look at the table of contents) and wealth of classical examples make this book a pleasure to read. While its somewhat nonstandard approach and preference for classical terminology might confuse those who have never been introduced to the concepts, this is a perfect *second* place to read and marvel about differential geometry.

I very much enjoyed seeing this catalog. I only wish I had been in the country when the actual exhibit that took place in Connecticut. This book is small, but charming and the images showed a good overview of what had been just before the current massurrealist era that is now. Building upon the theme of mass-media & surrealism, Pop Surrealism showcased established artists works (in decent quality reproductions), and is a must for anyone's collection of contemporary art publications.

Richard Klein has written a book that must rank up with Ayn Rand's neurotic screeches as one of the most misguided of all time.

Klein's point can be summed up like this: We are neurotic for being obsessed with thinness, so let's celebrate being fat instead. As evidence in his favor, he cites other cultures who used a bodytype with greater girth as their ideal. But the fact that other cultures considered fatness desireable does not mean that they were wiser than us. It simply means they valued fatness, period. Said cultures also were wholly unaware of the medically-confirmed links between obesity and early death -- or lingering medical conditions which reduce the *quality* of whatever life you have (heart disease, circulatory problems, etc.)

Richard Klein's worldview is strangely reminiscent of the b.s. philosophy espoused by Tyler Durden in FIGHT CLUB: "Self-improvement is masturbation. Self-destruction might be the answer." The difference between Durden and Klien was that Durden was a prop of author Chuck Palahniuk, who was using Durden's fall-off-a-cliff-and-no-bottom-to-hit point of view as a mockery of nihilistic chic. Klein isn't kidding -- in fact, he takes his uninformed ideas seriously, which is all the more disturbing. Klein doesn't seem particularly interested in the hard facts about being overweight; he's in love with his romantic worldview in which everyone is just rounded enough to be sensuous, but not enough to be grotesque.

There are people who have legitimate medical problems with obesity. But they do not make up the vast majority of people who are overweight. Most who are overweight do not exercise regularly, and do not modify their eating habits to promote long-term weight loss. The best weight loss is gradual weight loss combined with judicious changes in lifestyle and activity, which is why all the fad diets in the world won't help you lose the pounds and keep them off. I'm no fan of anorexia, either, but books like this are not the answer to negative body images.

Bear in mind that this repulsive screed was written by a man who has also glamourized cigarette smoking as some kind of rebellious, life-affirming act -- when all it does is line the pockets of people who get rich by killing you with hundreds of inhaled poisons. Smoking isn't cool; neither is being obese.

Dieting has met its match. A tongue in cheek review of the futilities of the dieting craze in America, Richard Klein pokes fun at that four letter word...FAT.

The author of this book provides us with an impartial analysis of the history of how we have regarded fat. Public opinion can last for decades, so it is only with the perspective of history that we can more accurately assess the nature of something.

Richard Klein draws our attention to the fact that for most of human history being fat is a positive thing. When one looks at famous art, one sees voluptuous curves and full forms. Works of art that depict thin body forms frequently are associated with plague, war, and other forms of human misery.

He also helps us to recapture the essential sensuality of fat. One needn't fear intimacy with a robust person as one might with a thin, frail-looking shell of a person.

All of this plays very well with a recent PBS program that showcased "Fit and Fat." We're instructed that being fat doesn't mean you have to be unfit. And this undercuts the criticism of those who demean fat people. Historically, fat and thin alike had to work hard to remain alive. Today, this isn't true. So, part of the return to enjoying being fat is to adapt to the times by adding exercise and healthful living to the mix.

As a fat person myself (6', 250#), I work out to be fit and have earned the respect of my doctor who not only cannot fault my health, but says I'm a lot healthier than his thin/average clients!

This book provides substance and support to my belief that we fat persons are fine just as we are and have much to be proud of. Be informed. Enjoy your wonderful body--and Eat Fat!