Susanne Hirzel's memoirs were long overdue. She was a fringe-of-the-fringe member of the White Rose resistance movement, never involved in the inner circle of leaflet writers and revolutionaries. She surrounded herself with musicians and artists, in a vain attempt to block out the horrors of Nazi Germany.

When Hirzel's brother asked her to do him a favor and mail a couple thousand White Rose leaflets from Stuttgart, she considered saying no, or burning the leaflets in her furnace. If she were to be arrested mailing them, she would likely be executed. If she were caught with just one in her possession, she could count on a long prison sentence.

She did mail the leaflets and nearly got away with it (her brother assumed responsibility when he was arrested). They found her out, and arrested her, due to a quirk of fate: The postmarks on the leaflets mailed from Stuttgart were after midnight, so her brother could not have taken the train he said he did.

Yet this information is less interesting than Hirzel's profound inner struggle that she puts square on the table. The book provides context (something I find critical in any historical genre). You get more than a sense of chronology, you understand what was going on in the world around her while she made the decisions she did.

My first reading of this book, I thought, "What a self-serving tome! How dare she talk about apple trees in Ulm while her Jewish neighbors were being dispossessed of their property?"

The second reading, I understood. For as awful as it sounds, life did go on, exactly while the most despicable, depraved acts were being executed. Hirzel allows us a glimpse of that world, offering no excuses, whitewashing nothing.

Her brutal honesty leaves you with more questions than answers, and that is the only way to write about those twelve years.

I love this book because it gives me a new version of world. It makes me think differently. I also read his other book "mama, papa, I and she." I love his books and introduce them to my friends. I believe you will love his books when you give yourself a chance to read it!

This book really helps for children and even for adults too! This book is fun and interesting and not the type of "yellow pages and small writing" type of book. Sometimes when ur teacher teach u sumthing outside the school syllabus, u might not fully understand. BUT, this book makes u understand the whole situaation of waat ur teacher's saying. E.g ur teacher might say sumthi like prime numbers, but in this book the number devil ( a character ) calls it prima donnas!Its really fun! This book is actually teaching u math, but in a story way!

The Number Devil is one of the best books I have ever read. I am only 11 years old and even though it explored mathematical theories, I thought it was an amazing novel which was unputdownable. Robert is the main character in the story, and each night he dreams of the number devil. The number devil teaches Robert different mathematical aspects in a way which is simple to understand. Most of my maths class at school has read it and they also agree that it's a great book. I highly reccomend this for anyone from 10 plus.

I was sitting in the school library while my teacher was reading another book.I was daydreaming and then spotted The Number Devil book.
The title seemed interesting so I checked it out. I started reading it and it became very fascinating so I kept on reading.

My interest in Math has increased since reading this book.
I really liked it and couldn't put it down.

Susanne Beck superbly changed the generally accepted view of inmates. The author success in making the inmates and their cause look good. Even though, the plot is hard to believe, when it is carefully considered, I was struck until the final scene. The only drawback is its cover. The publisher should give more energy into it. It looks like a cheap porno.

I have to admit that I've gone back to write this after finishing all three books in this trilogy, but that's because Beck has managed to write such a compeling series that it made me want to write a review. Redemption is about two women who meet in prison, the only real resemblance to The Shawshank Redemption that another reviewer mentioned. Angel is in the Bog for killing her husband. She doesn't deny doing the crime, although he was in the process of raping and abusing her when it happened and she only intended to "stop" him with the bat. She comes into contact with an amazing cast of characters, from Corinne the librarian, known as the "Black Widow" for the several husbands she quite joyfully murdered, and the Amazons, a group of women who live by a code of honor and try to keep the peace in the prison between the gangs and the guards. Then one day, the founder of the Amazons is brought back to the prison. Ice is an amazing collection of characteristics. Raised by artistic parents until their untimely deaths, she has been turned by life into a cold blooded killer with a highly developed sense of honor. She can snap your neck with the same talent that she uses to cultivate bonzai trees. Prison life runs in her veins while she reads books in the original Chinese and Russian. She is feared, admired and worshipped by convicts and guards alike. Framed for a murder she did not commit, Ice has allowed herself to be convicted because of the murders she has committed and can't be convicted for. Ice has to be one of the most complex characters created in modern literature. And she and Angel love each other with a passion that is frequently breathless. Beck has a real ability for writing erotic love scenes that are realistic and not crude. The book is a fascinating vision of prison life, not something that I originally thought I would find interesting. You can read just this book for a terrific story, but the entire trilogy (Retribution and Restitution are the other volumes) tells a compelling story. These characters seem like real people. You'll wish they were just so you could meet them.

Wow. I have no words for the feast my eyes have just dined on. It's got to be the single most amazing and beautiful love story I've read. Suzanne has crafted a masterpiece in this one. Her words are well thought out and flow together like nothing before. The story carries a realisticism and so make the characters more believable.

It is the story of Ice and Angel (cute names eh?), two women who have fought long and hard to come to terms with their respective lives in a women's penitentiary in Pittsburgh, called The Bog (named for the many acres of swamp land that surrounds the prison). Both women come from broken families and so find theirs within each other. Oh yeah, and there's a couple mobsters and crooked officials running around making trouble to ensure your full attention.

Make sure y0ou have a whole night free when you sit down to read this one. Trust me, there's no putting this one down for anything- sleep included. I particularly recommend this one for people who enjoy drawing out the first time experience (mmm...yum, seeeexxxx...) well into the story.

Very good overview.. wish they would have spent more time on mid-century modern leaders like Edward Wormley of Dunbar fame.

Those in the know -- seek out Wormley for a clear viewpoint on the essence of modern design.

Turn up the stereo and pass me a martini...

Read through this book, let me know how great is the designer is. In fact, i'm not so familar to the chair. i started to learn how to appreciate those design.

This book has pictures of 1000 different kinds of chairs and is a great resource. It has adequate information about Eames chairs which have become known worldwide. It has many other kinds of chairs including some very exotic chairs.

Langer's book, An Introduction to Symbolic Logic (3rd edition) is the first book I used to teach myself. At first, symbolic logic can look really difficult, if not scary. Fortunately, this book cashes through so much information that by the time you begin to look at many of the theorems, it is not so bad after all. This book covers forms, what are propositions, propositional form, generalization, relations, and much more. One of the most important symbols that this book covers is the "included in" symbol: "<" (or implication). In doing so, the author discusses Boolean algebra, postulates, classes, deduction, class-calculus, abstractions, and prepares you for Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica.

In the back there are appendices on the logic of syllogism and a brief discussion of truth-tables. To end her work, Langer writes: "It is no exaggeration, I think, to claim that every philosopher should be not only acquainted with logic, but intimately conversant with it; for the study of logic develops the art of seeing structures almost to the point of habit, and reduces to a minimum the dangers of getting lost amid abstract ideas" (333-334). I think this is a good introduction to symbolic logic if you prefer to teach yourself rather than take a whole course on it.

On the other hand, this book has its short-comings. It is a bit old, and thus takes it that Principia Mathematica is the most important work of the 20th century: this is not the case. Philosophers of mathematics have almost universally rejected "logicism;" that is, the derivation of mathematics from logic. It seems to be the case that Langer's work endorses such a view. You will find as many people today endorsing logicism as endorse logical positivism: basically no one. And so, though this book is a good introduction, there are better introductions (i.e. Copi's). If you are not interested in spending a lot of money on some of the better and more up to date books, this book is a nice place to begin.

This is a great introduction. It progresses clearly so you can always understand the new stuff in terms of the previous stuff.

This is the book that introduced me to logic. It enthused me so much that I became a professional logician, a career that I have pursued for 35 years. Langer points out that, once one becomes acquainted with modern symbolic logic, one can go on to do groundbreaking research. This is true.

Being a pug dog afficionado, I was looking forward to a better developed, planned-out book. The price was a bit high, the photograghs were what one would expect to see in a scrapbook. The content of the book was interesting, but nothing that hadn't been written about before. If the book retailed for less, I may not have been as disappointed.

As someone who doesn't even own a dog, to say nothing of an apparently inimitable pug,this book makes one want to go out and get one! The author has created a delightful read with many charming pictures. the writing is very witty and clever. The historical perspective and pug trivia adds a great deal of interest. All in all, this book was a fun read and is highly recommended.

Other books may mention the history, but they usually get the names and dates wrong. This book accurately depicts the historical personages who owned pugs. But it is also brimming with fun pug trivia. PugSpotting contains information and paintings that I've never read nor seen anywhere else, and I think I own every pug book that's out. This is clearly a subject the author loves. Its appeal is in the details. And in the images of the pugs themselves. Personally, I found it such an engaging read that I couldn't put it down!

THE FORTUNE CATCHER is a love story set during the Iranian revolution, with all the requisite elements -- romance, danger, separation, suspense, some really vicious villains, some wonderful good guys -- in other words, a real page-turner. But the best part is author Susanne Pari's handling of the cultural material -- the holidays and customs, religious conflicts, history, politics, and the place of women within each culture. A "fire-jumping" celebration at a traditional Persian New Year's party in the opening scene becomes a metaphor for all that the Iranian/American heroine, Layla, must endure as this nerve-rattling story unfolds. Pari compares and contrasts Muslim, American, Farsi, and Israeli characters of every stripe, revealing their complex backgrounds and motivations with an incredibly deft hand and clear eye. The novel is beautifully balanced, deeply informative, and so vivid, you can see the varying landscapes, smell the air, and taste the food. If you love books that pay attention to cuisine, you'll find THE FORTUNE CATCHER an especially delicious read. Page-turner that it is, I found myself frequently pausing to re-read a particularly sensuous description. This book is one to savor!

I loved reading this book! It's intelligent, action-packed, and enlarged my horizons. I learned so much about what life is really like for women living in the Middle East from this book. A great and suspenseful love story, which kept me on the edge of my seat. Edgework Books released a new edition in 2002, so it is easily available for readers. I recommend this book for anyone who likes to read intelligent fiction set in exotic lands.

Although this book is technically fiction, it has many factual elements within it. Not only is it a fast paced love story, drama/thriller filled book that keeps the reader's attention, but it also incorporates integral facts about the Iranian culture as a whole while giving it's reader's cultural understanding through it's well thought out characters. I am an avid reader this is a good one!

The recipes in this book were authentic but all of the ones I tried seemed somehow flawed, even though I followed them to a "t" on the first try and then tried to fix the problems on successive attempts. For example, the arancini di riso was very authentic in taste - I've tasted the same thing in Sicily many times, however when I tried this recipe, the arancini kept falling apart and wouldn't stay in the ball shape... I chopped it all up and served it that way (everyone loved it & no one knew the difference, but it was still disappointing). Another example is the Cassata. This was authentic looking (not frozen, thank goodness!) however when I first made it the filling called for a sugar syrup (!!) instead of dry ingredients (sugar without water) to sweeten the ricotta & when I added it, the filling was too loose & watery to stay in the cake. (And yes, I used imported dry ricotta, not the watery American kind). My cassata became a puddingy trifle which again everyone loved but still was disappointing to me, even if no one knew what the dish was supposed to be like! I then altered the recipe to use drier ingredients for the filling and it came out... well ok... but not great either - I have a better cassata siciliana recipe from my grandmother, so I'm sticking to that...
Finally the last complaint I have about this book, which may sound insignificant until you try a recipe, is that the order of the ingredients listed is not the same as the order in which you use them. This caused me to read directions such as "add sugar and flour" and then have to go back to the list of ingredients to find out how much of each to add and when I did I would find sugar in the middle of the list & flour near the bottom - the order was completely random and it was frustrating to have to search for *every single item* because they were not listed in the order that they were supposed to be used! I know, I know, this sounds small and petty, but it really was incredibly annoying & time-consuming. I sold this book to someone else (with a warning) because it was just too irritating to cook from because of this seemingly tiny organizational problem. Would not recommend this book at all (even if the pictures were gorgeous) but if it comes out in a 2nd edition that fixes the problems I'll try it again...Hope this helps other cooks out there! Ciao!

this cookbook is by far my favorite in my collection, from di medici to hazan and all in between. i love it.tho i love their recipies too. i am so pleased with this book. try the osso bucco,mmmmm! even the biscotti was great.now i am italian so i always add my "extra" stuff but you do not have to.when people say "i wish there were more picture's in my cookbook" well there all here! and pics of italy as well of coarse.buy it ,try it,and enjoy it.it will be your main reference cookbook!

I adore this coobook because it appeals to so many levels of cook. Just when you think you have a handle on Italian cuisine, this book reveals little known facts about each region that will surprise even the most experienced cook. Consequently, it provide the "best of the region" recipes that are not as intimidating as you might think (if the recipe won't get you to try them, the photgraphs will!). It really opens up culinary doors by exposing the novice cook to Italian cuisine beyond pizza and spaghetti by giving the reader a hand-held walk through every region.

I consider myself a knowledgeable cook, but by no means a chef, and nearly every recipe screams "Make me!!!". I particularly enjoy the comprehensive approach to revealing the culture behind the cuisine of each reason.

Body Toxic, the memoir of a poet, is a great book. Instead
of having us laying in her hospital bed taking her medications
and reliving her miscarriages in detail on every page, Antonetta
almost dances around her illnesses in order to bring awareness
of the contamination to earth that is killing everyone.
Michael Klein said "Poets write the best memoirs." Three years
ago I questioned that statement; after reading Body Toxix, I agree.

While "Body Toxic" is an environmental memoir, it is debatable whether the accent should be placed on the term environmental, or on the term toxic. In all probability it should be toxic, because that term is more apropos to the disfunctional maternal side of the family whose emotional problems, while apparently exacerbated by the environmental conditions Antonetta describes, predate them.

As the book starts, it is reminiscent of "A Civil Action", and reader becomes caught up in the environmental devastation of what was a seemingly benign seaside vacation retreat. However, the work deftly becomes more of a family memoir, periodically interwoven with descriptions of the environmental devastation of Ocean County New Jersey which, ironically her mother's family refused to recognize, just as they suppressed acknowledging their family's many aberrant behaviors and personalities.

While perhaps a trite comparison, the family reminiscences are reminiscent of the writing of Jamaica Kincaid in terms of the cadence, and occasions of repetition. Perhaps this is no coincidence since Antonetta focuses on the family's Afro-Carribean roots (or perhaps I subconsciously looked for such a similarity).

This is an important, beautifly written, and bittersweet work. I highly recommend it.

Written in a style both haunting and poetic, this book captured my attention immediately. Susanne Antonetta examines the environmental and political issues of radioactive waste, nuclear reactors and chemically poisoned water supplies, blended with excerpts from her memoirs as a child, growing up in New Jersey in the 1950's when silence and family secrets were sacrosanct.

Spending extraordinary summers as a child in a bungalow built by her grandfather, facing the small inlet of Barnegat Bay, the author blissfully picks berries and runs through wide open spaces, taking in the colors, sounds and smells of the area, oblivious to the horrific danger all around her. This book is so personal, so beautifully descriptive and so painfully honest, I am reminded, once again, that the real heroes are walking among us.