The author has done a most commendable job researching and developing his central thesis: That Mr. Karloff was indeed not only a fine actor who was truly dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in his craft, but also a concerned and active gentleman who pursued a dignified union to protect the profession he loved. This book is highly reccomended for not only the existing fans (who will already know much of the information present in this volume) but also to the new Karloff fans as well as anyone interested in the history of acting and Hollywood. The author also makes a strong case that Karloff needs to be rightly placed along side the other greats of Hollywood and Broadway history. A good entertaining and enlightening read.

I long have been a fan of the great actor Boris Karloff, but I now have an entirely different perspective of him as a HUMAN BEING after reading Scott Allen Nollen's BORIS KARLOFF: A GENTLEMAN'S LIFE. One always thought of such stories as rumor, but Nollen's book PROVES what a WONDERFUL man Karloff was, while simultaneously scaring the hell out of us! Anyone interested in the power of film should read this book. What a fascinating life, as well as film career!

Much has been written about Boris Karloff in terms of the characters he played. Until now,very few have known, much less understood, Karloff's passion for the craft and vocation of acting, his profound work ethic, and the dedication, depth and humanity he brought to even his least celebrated roles. Until now, virtually nothing was known about the man's personal life and loves.

Scott Allen Nollen fills a deep gap in the legacy left to us by the distinguished British actor, who was instrumental in the establishment of the horror genre of film, the Screen Actors Guild, and even the popularization of television as an entertainment medium. And he does it beautifully.

"Boris Karloff: A Gentleman's Life" takes us behind the outlandish makeup jobs, the B-movie schtick and the "official" histories, to the place from which the essential humanity of Frankenstein's "creature" comes. It reveals a truly gentle - and genteel - soul, whose love for the theatre and for film was the source of both his greatest joys, and greatest sorrows.

This is a very important book for Karloff fans, film buffs, and readers who appreciate solid biography tastefully done. A breakthrough book for an emerging author whose time has come.

As the mother of an autistic son, we have had a great deal of difficulty in getting him to enjoy reading. He doesn't understand a great many words, but has a few "subjects" he really enjoys. Star Wars,Episode 1 is one of them. This book has been a real find that he loves! I am getting more of them, as they don't "talk down" to kids, really explain the movie in detail, and help kids understand many things (in life, as well as the movie!) better. We are really looking forward to the next Star Wars movie this summer- as well as the books that will follow it!

DANGERS OF THE CORE takes a section of the movie 'Phantom Menace' and, step by step, breaks down the action that flies by so quickly on the big screen. This makes it easy for children to follow. The excitement starts with the first sentence and never lets up!

The illustrations are expressive and dramatic; nicely done.

DANGERS teaches children to respect all living beings. Qui-Gon Jinn is the epitome of patience (especially with Jar Jar!), and remains calm, steady and in control even in the midst of danger. Excellent life lessons for children!

Another plus: The story doesn't 'talk down' to children. It assumes an appropriate level of maturity and intelligence.

I'd take off half a star because Jar Jar's speech is impossible for some children to understand when reading the book on their own.

Nevertheless, all the children to whom I read DANGERS OF THE CORE just loved it! And with such a variety of characters and emotions, it's fun to read out loud, too.

Highly recommended for children as well as old fogeys who are young at heart!

"Dangers of the Core" is a great beginning reader, especially for a boy. The book carefully summarizes the underwater chase from the Episode 1 movie into easy-to-read language that captures a boy's attention. I have had trouble finding interesting early readers that my son will read; but when we found this book, he would not put it down. He read it TWICE in the first day--without prompting! Thank you for sparking his interest in reading!

This book is rather elementary for the graduate level, but does a great job at explaining concepts clearly, concisely, and eloquently, using laymen terms where appropriate. I also deeply appreciate the occasional comedy implemented by the author. I would personally recommend "The Essential Collection of Elegant Solutions for Doctoral Physics Qualifying Exams," by Shijun Liu (2000).

This book contains physics problems from many great universities and is a must for all students in Physics. The problems are all very original and the solutions given are very elegant. I will recommend this book to all people who enjoy solving Physics problems.

Relativity Par

This book is a comprehensive overview of modern dynamical systems that covers the major areas. The authors begin with an overview of the main areas of dynamics: ergodic theory, where the emphasis is on measure and information theory; topological dynamics, where the phase space is a topological space and the "flows" are continuous transformations on these spaces; differentiable dynamics where the phase space is a smooth manifold and the flows are one-parameter groups of diffeomorphisms; and Hamiltonian dynamics, which is the most physical and generalizes classical mechanics. Noticeably missing in the list of references for individuals contributing to these areas are Churchill, Pecelli, and Rod, who have done interesting work in the area of both topological and Hamiltonian mechanics. No doubt size and time constraints forced the authors to make major omissions in an already sizable book.

Some elementary examples of dynamical systems are given in the first chapter, including definitions of the more important concepts such as topological transitivity and gradient flows. The authors are careful to distinguish between topologically mixing and topological transitivity. This (subtle) difference is sometimes not clear in other books. Symbolic dynamics, so important in the study of dynamical systems, is also treated in detail.

The classification of dynamical systems is begun in Chapter 2, with equivalence under conjugacy and semi-conjugacy defined and characterized. The very important Smale horseshoe map and the construction of Markov partitions are discussed. The authors are careful to distinguish the orbit structure of flows from the case in discrete-time systems.

Chapter 3 moves on to the characterization of the asymptotic behavior of smooth dynamical systems. This is done with a detailed introduction to the zeta-function and topological entropy. In symbolic dynamics, the topological entropy is known to be uncomputable for some dynamical systems (such as cellular automata), but this is not discussed here. The discussion of the algebraic entropy of the fundamental group is particularly illuminating.

Measure and ergodic theory are introduced in the following chapter. Detailed proofs are given of most of the results, and it is good to see that the authors have chosen to include a discussion of Hamiltonian systems, so important to physical applications.

The existence of invariant measures for smooth dynamical systems follows in the next chapter with a good introduction to Lagrangian mechanics.

Part 2 of the book is a rigorous overview of hyperbolicity with a very insightful discussion of stable and unstable manifolds. Homoclinicity and the horseshoe map are also discussed, and even though these constructions are not useful in practical applications, an in-depth understanding of them is important for gaining insight as to the behavior of chaotic dynamical systems. Also, a very good discussion of Morse theory is given in this part in the context of the variational theory of dynamics.

The third part of the book covers the important area of low dimensional dynamics. The authors motivate the subject well, explaining the need for using low dimensional dynamics to gain an intuition in higher dimensions. The examples given are helpful to those who might be interested in the quantization of dynamical systems, as the number-theoretic constructions employed by the author are similar to those used in "quantum chaos" studies. Knot theorists will appreciate the discussion on kneading theory.

The authors return to the subject of hyperbolic dynamical systems in the last part of the book. The discussion is very rigorous and very well-written, especially the sections on shadowing and equilibrium states. The shadowing results have been misused in the literature, with many false statements about their applicability. The shadowing theorem is proved along with the structural stability theorem.

The authors give a supplement to the book on Pesin theory. The details of Pesin theory are usually time-consuming to get through, but the authors do a good job of explaining the main ideas. The multiplicative ergodic theorem is proved, and this is nice since the proof in the literature is difficult.

This remarkable book is by far the best rigorous introduction to many facets of the modern theory of (chaotic) dynamical systems. It introduces and rigorously develops the central concepts and methods in dynamical systems in a hands-on and highly insightful fashion. The authors are world experts in smooth dynamical systems and have played a major role in the development of the modern theory and this shows througout the book.

The book starts with a comprehensive discussion of a series of elementary but fundamental examples. These examples are used to formulate the general program of the study of asymptotic properties as well as to introduce the principal notions (differentiable and topological equivalence, moduli, asymptotic orbit growth, entropies, ergodicity, etc.) and, in a simplified way, a number of important methods (fixed point methods, coding, KAM-type Newton method, local normal forms, etc.). This chapter alone is worth the price of the book.

The main theme of the second part is the interplay between local analysis near individual (e.g., periodic) orbits and the global complexity of the orbit structure. This is achieved by exploring hyperbolicity, transversality, global topological invariants, and variational methods. The methods include study of stable and unstable manifolds, bifurcations, index and degree, and construction of orbits as minima and minimaxes of action functionals.

In the third and fourth part the general program is carried out for low-dimensional and hyperbolic dynamical systems which are particularly amenable to such analysis. In addition these systems have interesting particular properties. For hyperbolic systems there are structural stability, theory of equilibrium (Gibbs) measures, and asymptotic distribution of periodic orbits, in low-dimensional dynamical systems classical Poincare-Denjoy theory, and Poincare-Bendixson theories are presented as well as more recent developments, including the theory of twist maps, interval exchange transformations and noninvertible interval maps.

This book should be on the desk (not bookshelf!) of any serious student of dynamical systems or any mathematically sophisticated scientist or engineer interested in using tools and paradigms of dynamical systems to model or study nonlinear systems.

This remarkable book is by far the best rigorous introduction to many facets of the modern theory of (chaotic) dynamical systems. It introduces and rigorously develops the central concepts and methods in dynamical systems in a hands-on and highly insightful fashion. The authors are world experts in smooth dynamical systems and have played a major role in the development of the modern theory and this shows througout the book.

The book starts with a comprehensive discussion of a series of elementary but fundamental examples. These examples are used to formulate the general program of the study of asymptotic properties as well as to introduce the principal notions (differentiable and topological equivalence, moduli, asymptotic orbit growth, entropies, ergodicity, etc.) and, in a simplified way, a number of important methods (fixed point methods, coding, KAM-type Newton method, local normal forms, etc.). This chapter alone is worth the price of the book.

The main theme of the second part is the interplay between local analysis near individual (e.g., periodic) orbits and the global complexity of the orbit structure. This is achieved by exploring hyperbolicity, transversality, global topological invariants, and variational methods. The methods include study of stable and unstable manifolds, bifurcations, index and degree, and construction of orbits as minima and minimaxes of action functionals.

In the third and fourth part the general program is carried out for low-dimensional and hyperbolic dynamical systems which are particularly amenable to such analysis. In addition these systems have interesting particular properties. For hyperbolic systems there are structural stability, theory of equilibrium (Gibbs) measures, and asymptotic distribution of periodic orbits, in low-dimensional dynamical systems classical Poincare-Denjoy theory, and Poincare-Bendixson theories are presented as well as more recent developments, including the theory of twist maps, interval exchange transformations and noninvertible interval maps.

This book should be on the desk (not bookshelf!) of any serious student of dynamical systems or any mathematically sophisticated scientist or engineer interested in using tools and paradigms of dynamical systems to model or study nonlinear systems.

Geneticly different, they can not live without reading. As you might expect, some hate, some despise them for that. Those that "have a life" pitty them...

The book's style resembles the "traveling writer" style of some of the Hemmingway (sp?) books.

This book is part of another one by this authors: "Hromaja Sud'ba", but I'm not sure if it's already translated.

brilliant.best thing ever written.Ihave no words to describe it.humour...the humour in this book is sharp,wery sharp.and if you know the stupid life in the soviet union you will get the humour.

This is not an easy reading. There are no space battleships either... A great book about humans and their place and relationship with Nature.

I read it in Russian, and can not speak about this translation...

Amazon is incorrectly displaying only a single author -- the book was written by both brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatskij.

I bought this book because it was cheaper than 'SQL: The Complete Reference' and I am using it mainly as a reference tool, syntax, structure, inner/outer joins (I always forget how it works), etc.

I needed to do an Update and wanted to find out the correct structure and looked it up in the Index, which had this listing:

'updating. See modifying'

I am being picky, but I would expect the index to have an actual page reference to the Update Statement, instead of having to go to another section. I am concerned about other short comings within the book.

I was not interested in learning just SQL per se, I also wanted to get some RDBMS experience. This is what had drawn my attention to SQL Bible: it concentrates on three major RDBMS packages (with all due respect, I can't imagine making decent living with Open Source databases like MySQL : ) ), makes comparisons, explains THEIR implementations - just what I needed (do not believe anyone who tells you that ANSI SQL is all you need to know to work in the field!) I installed DB2 Personal Edition (included with the book), and the installation was a snap! All I had to do was to follow very detailed and clear instructions in Appendix D; again, following instructions I have created a database and installed all authors scripts. The scripts were in the place where the book says they should, and I have not encountered a single problem running them... I was pleasantly surprised because this is where the most books fail: missing files, confusing "best-case-scenario" instructions... Not here! It's a shame that Oracle 9i installation was not included; I had to download it separately following instructions in the book (p.638.) Oracle 9i takes over 1.5 GB of space - 3 (!) CDs. It took me awhile, even with my cable connection speed... The only glitch I found so far was that the CD claims to contain MS SQL Server, but has DB2 8.1 for Windows instead (just as it says on the book's back cover.)

I picked up this book because of unparalleled comparative coverage of SQL amongst RDBMS implementations (SQL Server / DB2 / ORACLE); and I am programming for all these, plus Access and FoxPro. If you need to get up to the speed working in heterogeneous database environments - get this book!

Titans mainly covers the art Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell produced for the Marvel Masterworks trasing card series in the mid-80's, with a few covers and misc. art thrown in for good measure. While it's nice to see the art at a larger size, the limited variety of poses gets old after a while. Boris and Julie use each other as models, so most of the faces look alike; The ones that don't look like them are based on bodybuilders, so the female characters have a very hard look to them, facially speaking. The colors are gorgeous, though. The real problem with the book is the text, by Nigel Suckling, who manages to live up to the first syllable of his last name. The book is riddled with spelling errors (Ogum, instead of Ogun), characters have the wrong names attatched to their paintings (Mariko and Yukio's names are transposed, as well as Yukio being called by the wrong name). The text passages show that Suckling didn't bother to get more than a passing familiarity with the comic characters; He describes Spider-Man as being bumbling...? His passages about Boris & Julie's views on time-travel & Geography are hilariously bad.

Titans is a nice book for fans of Boris & Julie; I would have liked more information on their techniques, and their opinions of the pieces, though. Anything to save me from Suckling's turgid prose....

I didn't buy this book for the big names of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell. I bought this book because of the art of the comic book characters. I have been extremely pleased with my purchase.

This book is a collection of some of the most breathtaking art images of comic book characters. Most of the pictures are of Vallejo and Bell's work on Marvel and DC's masterpiece trading card collections. There are also some miscellaneous art pieces added, but these are also of the comic character nature. Since the pictures are much larger, you can appreciate the detail much better than anything you'd see on a little trading card.

The book is bound well, with thick high gloss pages. Most of the pictures are accompanied with a brief description by Vallejo or Bell. The book is also split into chapters to try and give a logical order to the collection.

Titans is a must for any comic book enthusiast as the art brings much more life to the characters. I would imagine that this would be a good book for any Vallejo or Bell fan as well. However, I have not seen much of their work outside of comic paintings. So, I cannot speak much on the comparative aspects here.

Titans provides original paintings of superheroes from Marvel Comics, gathering the complete collection of these artists' paintings under one cover. Fans of either the artists or Marvel Comic scenes will consider this indispensable for a fantasy collection; packed with full-color and full-page fantasy images in all their drama. Highly recommended: a fine gift choice.

One of the delightful gifts I got this year was the new Vallejo and Bell Fantasy Calendar. A friend who enjoys strong, sexy women, and who thinks of me as such, gave it to me. If you like said women, you will enjoy having this calendar.

The pairing with his wife seems to have brought a softer edge to the muscular women that I've seen Vallejo portray in the past, and I enjoy the strong-but-not-overwhelming body forms these women have. The theme for 2002 is The Return of the Goddess. The women shown each month portray victory, victim, warrior, sorceress, spirit and more.

The imagery is neither overly violent, nor overly sexual. The functional part of the calendar includes clean boxes with large print numbers. Special notations include the basic UK/US holidays.

Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell's art is breathtaking! This is a great wall calendar that will add beauty to your room. Everyone that sees the calendar on my wall has to thumb through it. They are fascinated with their work, and so am I. I highly recommend!

If you know a little about mythology it will be interesting to read about the same tales in the point of view of the goddesses. I liked the story from the eyes of the gorgons epsecially. But if you are looking for a great collection of art by Boris Vallejo, I suggest getting yourself "Mirage" or "Fantasy Art Techniques". "Ladies" only has about 10 colored paintings and maybe 20 pencil drawings. The paintings aren't nearly as beautiful as in his other books. (but you may like them more if you are interested in mythology) Many of the figures have big 80's-looking hair that just doesn't look good. (as do several figures in "Dreams")They do not look well-planned. But if you are a fan of Boris Vallejo, you should get this book to add to your collection.

I love fantasy books of any kind and this was a book I thoroughly enjoyed

This book has magnificent drawings and paintings and the stories are well-written. Definitely a choice for Vallejo fans as it is a good sampling of his ability. "Deianira" is my favorite for sure, and the reader will find Persephone, Gorgon, Ariadne, Coronis, Medea, Circe, Eurydice, Arachne, and Pandora. Some consider Vallejo's drawings sexist, but I consider them to be symbolic of the beauty and complexity of women, and that is true in the fantasy world as well as reality.

The title alone "Arrogance of Truth" leads one to ask and ponder, "what truth", "whose truth"? Can people agree on any one definition of "truth"? This is the dilemma and this, also, is where the reader finds the humor on which the author builds his stories.

The stories are based on the author's extensive experience while living under Communism (socialism) in the former Soviet Union. They are also based on his travels and unique life experiences. The author is a keen observer of the human condition which he describes with a dead-pan, biting sense of humor. His stories, poems and thoughts provide the reader with a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns describing human follies.

The first story, "Ballet" is absolute tops. In this story, a graduate of a 'sports college' is selected by the infinite wisdom of the Communist party to attend a presentation of "Swan Lake" at the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. His job, as a radio broadcaster, is to review this famous cultural event for "the working class" (via the radio, which is funny in and of itself, as "ballet" is a visual art). His interpretation of this classic ballet, with references to politics and the socialist viewpoint, is hilarious. The scene where he describes the "exploitation" of the swans who are later "liberated" is truly outstanding parody. "Confession" is another classic tale, based on the modern tendency to reveal some "hidden defect", weakness, tendency or fault *because* it shows "everyone/everything is acceptable", "equal" on this common denominator base level. The absurdity of modern politically correct behavior is mirrored before us. "Eyewitness" is very funny. It shows how human beings seek to make heros out of any event, *even* a "nonevent". This story is a gem. "Honorable Shame" is a thoughtful treatise, which asks deep questions. It is a play on words about honor, innocence, and shame, the last one of which is no longer a valid emotion in the modern world. "International Matchmaking" is a witty and humorous piece of writing based on the desire of a former Comunist party member to marry a "rich" American bride. He uses all kinds of persuasive techniques while revealing his avarice. He provides us many details of his life which are intended to show what a worthy person he really is ... His knowledge of how to exploit the American system is amazing. "Manifest" is an amusing imaginative piece of writing describing how "Bony People" are conspiring to take over the world - it will leave you in stitches, laughing out loud. The free-verse poem "Money" hits home, questioning, what is really important to a human being. The tongue-in-cheek irony of the essay, "Minorities", will leave some readers uncomfortable and squirming, possibly even accusing the author of having gone too far. However, read with the spirit in which the author intended, the story reveals just how far government and politics have interfered in the lives of the majority and limited *their* liberties. I have concluded, it is time I learned Spanish, and the sooner better!!! "Personal Touch" is a story with universal appeal. We learn that the selection of a Funeral Home is a *very* important "personal matter" which requires choices that reveal the distinction and uniqueness of the loved one and his family. All are shown off to their best advantage, so-to-speak. The speech, "Secretary General", brings forth some of the best writing by the author. It contains parody, satire, and historical facts twisted and turned, as can only be done by someone totally familiar with the hypocrisies of living under Communist rule. "SGS & S. Co. Kettle" is a charming tale, a highly imaginative and creative endeavor which describes the "dos and don'ts" of properly using and caring for a kettle manufactured in Japan.

I thoroughly enjoyed the the satirical essays, stories, and poems in this book. I feel the last section "Brief Thoughts, A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That" should be omitted in future editions. They appear to be disconnected ideas, not creative "satirical writing". The majority of the book is thoroughly engrossing and shows what a complex mind the author possesses. It reminds me of Mark Twain's book "Letters from the Earth", also considered controversial but a very creative and imaginative endeavor, too. Erika Borsos

Do you like to look through the shiny surfaces of life to the dark underside? Do you question what you read in the newspaper or hear from your government? Do you wonder what goes through the mind of an executioner? Do you hear of people "coming out of the closet" and wonder what closet you could come out of? In short, are you a bit cynical, a person who questions anything and everything? Then you should rush out and order The Arrogance of Truth by Boris Zubry. In fact you can do it right here on the amazon[.com] site. Do it today.

Author Zubry, who recently published Miles of Experience, is an engineer, a soviet emigre, a world-traveler, a gifted story-teller, and probably a genius. In this book, he allows himself free rein to explore the dark side (of everything!) and to express his thoughts. He doesn't hold back or censor himself. Out it comes--brilliant, hilarious, sometimes silly, sometimes upsetting. Always a new and different perspective. Dark, satiric essays, comic sketches, poetry, aphorisms. Everything is here.

Arrogance is not my favorite Zubry work. Some of the pieces are too long and should have been ruthlessly abridged. I think a good editor could have done wonders with it. And I would probably have eliminated most of Zubry's poetry. He is a brilliant essayist, not (in my opinion) a poet. Still, it's a work worth reading. If curmudgeonly satire is your cup of tea; if you like Andrei Codrescu or Andy Rooney, you are sure to like Arrogance of Truth. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

"Arrogance of Truth" is made of three parts: Biting satires, poetry, and musings on the human condition.

One particularly amusing satire is a Russian's description of "Ballet." He has never seen or heard of a ballet, and yet, being a good party member, he is doing his job for the benefit of the people by describing it (albeit more like a sporting event than an entertainment).

"International Matchmaking" concerns a Russian man seeking an American Green Card - oops - I mean "wife"). It is a humorous look at one (perhaps more than one?) man's efforts to go to America to live the good capitalistic life.

"SGS & S Co. Kettle" is a parody of the overly-complicated and silly instructions that sometimes come with Japanese products.

Most of the stories are told in the first person, by people who sound completely rational, but are, in fact, easy targets for ridicule. Russia and the late Communist regime are frequent objects of derision. The author is constantly playing with words and their meanings, questioning the reader's beliefs, and putting our shortcomings under the microscope.

Readers who enjoy thought-provoking and sarcastic reflections on life will certainly enjoy "Arrogance of Truth" by Boris Zubry.