The Improved Binoculars: Below me the city was in flames, the foremen were the first to save themselves. I saw steeples fall on their knees, lovers held short of the final spasm, their elbows held back by giant escorts of fire. .... An agent kicked the charred bodies of an orpanage to one side, marking the site carefully for a future speculation. All this I saw with my improved binoculars... This poem is the poem which gives the book its title. Very strong poem and almost makes one taste the bile rising in the throat... A MUST READ!!!!!!!!!

I was in Oklahoma City the day of this incident, arriving within hours after the bombing and am more intimately familiar with many of the events connected with it than those who were not there. The plane I arrived on was full of people from many Federal agencies who were going down to investigate the event, as well as press on their way down to cover the story. It's a day I will never forget. What I found most touching about this book were the individual photos of those innocent 168 people who were executed for no good reason with a brief personal statement about each, e.g., the adorable 14-month old who "loved to have her picture taken," the 6-month old who was just beginning to crawl and had just learned to say "Dada," or the lovely young woman who had just been married for two months. It makes me want to cry all over again, as I did that day. I just came back from there earlier today and, last night, went to visit the site again (my third time), and was just as touched this time as the first time I went there. And the best thing is that the proceeds go to help the victime.

One of the biggest problems that you face trying to study the scriptures is to produce something that feels completed and worth saving. This book is about such a method called the 'analytical chart'. You write down the portion of scripture you want to study and start marking it according to Jensens method. Besides that the book also contains useful information about studying the bible in general. I've worked as a bibleteacher for two years and this book is one that I've carried with me around the world. As a matter of fact it has been so useful to me that I've embarked upon a project of transfering this graphical method of study to a windows application for my PC. If you want to own just one book on this subject this is the one to get!

Mary Ellen Mark is an outstanding photographer. This is among her best work. Her superb technique complements her incisive portraiture. She has studied the circuses of India carefully and captured something of the soul of her subjects. Many of the performers that she photographs are young, and for all intents and purposes are indentured servants. Their lives are filled with pathos, but also with immense pride in what they do. It is impossible not to be moved by this wonderful book. I recommend it highly.

This title is actually one of the earliest in a very successful list of Golden Guides. It quickly brings the reader up to speed on the subject of insects in general and proceeds to lure him onward with fascinating information about each of the referenced insects in turn. When I arrived in New England, after an early childhood of city dwelling, my forays into woods and field, guidebook in hand, were some of the most educational times of my young life. I still have my original, ragged, copy of "American Insects" and treasure it.

This book will keep you glued to your chair. Best new author since Arthur Conan Doyle!

:)

I continue to be fascinated by this modest-looking book, perhaps because it is where I discovered Milton Hindus. Half the essays concern Irving Babbitt, the literary critic and founder of American Humanism, while the other half address issues that preoccupied Babbitt, namely the condition of American democracy and literature's role in it.

Hindus gives some biographical info about Babbitt in "Masters of Modern French Criticism," also the title of Babbitt's critique of nineteenth-century French literary critics. Although Babbitt wrote this book in 1912, his method is just as applicable today, as Hindus points out, because of its attempt to restore the word "criticism" to its original meaning of judging literary works.

A scholar of the Sanskrit language, Babbitt had a lifelong interest in Buddhism. His translation of Buddha's Dhammapada was published posthumously. In Buddhism one can see principles Babbitt cherished: the inner check, the need for self-restraint and self conquest, the tending of one's own garden, the limiting of politics to its proper sphere, and the high value placed on modesty and humility.

Hindus, too, repeatedly demonstrates fine judgment that is grounded in humility. His recognition that Babbitt has a feeling for the "main tendency" of his time is a way of giving the critic the benefit of the doubt. That is, although one might put Babbitt and Rousseau on opposite sides of the bookshelf, each gets his due for providing what each thought his age demanded. Why choose between them when each had something to offer? As Hindus puts it, we Americans are a "both-and" culture rather than "either or."

In addition to being a charitable literary critic, and an acute reader of Babbitt, Hindus is a keen observer of democracy who reads the Federalist Papers every year. The inner check praised by Babbitt has its analogue in the American institutions analyzed in the Federalist Papers, such as the separation of powers among the three branches of government.

I found new respect for President Bush after reading the essay "Autobiographies of Van Buren, Reagan, and Bush" and still find it after repeated readings. Rivals depicted Bush as a preppie weakling, summing up their disgust by the childish repetition of his name, George Herbert Walker Bush. For his part, Hindus finds it rather charming to have had a president named after the seventeenth-century poet, George Herbert, himself one of history's most decent men. Hindus calls Bush an ordinary man of extraordinary sensitivities; Reagan he considers equally decent and every bit as clever as his detractors, though less intellectually pretentious. Both knew not to take themselves too seriously. Equally remarkable is the thread that Hindus traces from of an episode in Van Buren's autobiography, through Ezra Pound's depiction of it in the Cantos, to its modern analogue in the Bush autobiography. All three presidents -- Van Buren, Bush, Reagan -- are praised for the virtues of humility and restraint.

Surely this is criticism of the highest order: readable, generous, and measured, of the sort I would like to accomplish myself someday. I will miss the contributions of Milton Hindus, who died a few years ago without fanfare. I hope that others will discover his work.

Author Edward Jablonski has written a very thorough book covering the life of Irving Berlin. This is the third biography I have read on Irving Berlin and in many ways it is much the same as the other two. One thing I did notice in this book is the detailed plot explanations of Berlin's plays that he wrote over the years. I did not necessarily care for all this detail, but it does provide the reader with information he may or may not care about. As an introductory book on Irving Berlin I would recommend "Irving Berlin--A Life in Song" by Philip Furia. Author Jablonski's book "American Troubadour" or Laurence Bergreen's book entitled "As Thousands Cheer" would be best read for someone who already has some introductory knowledge of Irving Berlin.

Great book for anybody interested in Penn's wor

Irving Penn has, for decades, been one of the most remarkable fashion photographers, submitting clothes to his own crystal aesthetic in ways that bring their most interesting details to light. He is the perfect man to photograph the work of Issey Miyake, whose clothes demand an inventive and piercing eye to capture their astonishing detail and structure on film. This book, collecting dozens of Penn's photographs of Miyake clothes, spanning from the early 80s until now, shows that when Penn photographs Miyake's clothes, it is truly a collaboration (although Miyake is never present at the shoots and Penn has never been to a Miyake show), and the resulting photos are more perfect for the cooperation.