My Grand Father was a President of Sears during the late 40s and early 50s. My father-in law R.H.Anderson was executive V.P. of Merchandising and Sales during Sears greatest years of growth and prosperity. And I was an employee in the stores, at territorial offices and at the home offices during the late 60's and seventies. Unfortunately, this book,'CATALOG AND COUNTERS by Boris Emmit and a newer version of Sears history, THE BIG STORE, miss this period when Sears was the absolute King of retail and experienced years of month after month constant growth in sales and profits yet to be realized even by Wal Mart. Perhaps the biggest missing chapter is about Bob Anderson and his contributions. He basically was that key individual that drove the company during its late heyday. Unfortunately, when he was told that he was too young to be President or Chairman and that his time would come if he would wait, he left the company and the restructuring and demise of the company position and power began. In the follow up sequal, THE BIG STORE Bob Anderson recieves only one line of print where he is called by his peers,"the legend." In a brief review and comparison of the two books the differences in the books also serves to point out the differences in the early success of Sears and the late problems of the same company. The lack of structure in thinking and merchandising, as well as a de-emphasis on customer service, replaced by profit seeking partnerships and policies of men that were bean counters instead of merchants gives a totally different view in the two books. The first, "CATALOG AND COUNTERS" is about the planning and growing years and "THE BIG STORE" is about survival,loss of direction and disenchantment by employees and customers.

I would very much like to be able to review this book, but unfortunately I doubt that it would be available in Australia.

However, I am sure it would contain the information that I require and which I am finding desperately difficult to pick up on the internet, and that is what is the name of Roebuck who started with Sears....was it Alva? And if so, can someone please give me some history on the company's beginnings and on the Roebuck side of it. Did Roebuck originate from England or was he born in American (date if possible), who did he marry and did he have children etc.

I know this most probably is not in your line to reply to this kind of request, but I would be truly grateful if I could just get a start on this subject.

My query is because my grandmother who was born in England, and was of course a Roebuck and I was always led to believe that there was a connection... not just the name.

Awaiting your reply with great anticipation and THANK YOU if you can help.

Yours sincerely Jennifer robjen@cobweb.com.au

Some people say that the Russian KGB was behind the September 11 attack. Well, terrorism is the KGB trademark. Was Arafat involved? Palestinians... Muslims from other Arab nations... Islam in general... Mr. Boris Zubry presented some interesting ideas. But what was wrong with editind? Rutledge Books, inc. did not do a good job.

The author has a great ability to skilfully develop a plot, keep the reader intrigued and fully engaged into the reading up the end of the story. Hope to see more books of this talented author.

Gambito turco es la segunda novela de Akunin en la que aparece Erast Fandorin, el muy joven y amable detective ruso, pero ahora en medio de la guerra entre Rusia y Turquía.

El asunto que Fandorin tiene que desenredar es uno de importancia nacional y en mucho el desarrollo de la guerra dependerá de lo que el logre descubrir.

En esta novela, Akunin nos presenta a un Fandorin joven pero encanecido y tartamudo, mucho más maduro e introvertido. Es desde luego menos ingenuo y se ha vuelto huraño, poco sociable. Quién haya leído El angel caído sabrá porque.

Como en la primera novela, esta segunda se caracteriza por su fácil y gozble lectura. Los capítulos son breves directos y nunca desprovistos de humor. Así, el Gambito turco es una excelente novela de detectives. Muy recomendable. Espero poder conseguir la tercera novela muy pronto.

This book, I wonder if it's translated into english - I've read it in Polish, is really good. It's a piece of a detective literature, which is good for anybody, not only people keen on that particular type of novels. It has good romantic plot, clever solution. Although I've preffered first Akunin's book - Azazel, it's quite good as well.

A fun adventure through the complex world of Levi-Strauss and his theory of Structuralism. It contains cartoons, pictures, and fun comments which bring Levi-Strauss' complex theory to a sort of clarity.

Although I still don't find any practical use for a theory that is based upon the Western concept of binary opposites and deconstruction of mythology and fiction to explain culture, I am at least better able to understand the theory.

Reading this was a hoot. It makes structural anthropology fun and understantable in lay terms, notwithstanding the dilution and simplification of key concepts that invariably results from this sort of watering-down treatment.

I'm not sure what the previous reviewer meant about L-S's "deconstruction" of myths--although Derrida is mentioned briefly in the book. However, the L-S method of interpreting the transposition and mutation of myths is briefly introduced.

A great read! The descriptions of the floating palace was done very well.But I think we should have gotten to it faster,instead of endless confrontations with boring tribes and plants.And for once I want the Lords to win once in a while.

First I should mention that it is my personal feeling that P. J. F. is the best living Fantasy writer. I think he is better than Rowling or Weis, and MUCH better than Piers Anthony or Tracy Hickman.

I suppose what I mean is that, of those authors I know, I like PJF the best...there is probably a fantasy writer out there I don't know who is better.

Moving on, The Lavalite world is a novel in the "World of Tiers" series that can actually be appreciated without having read all the previous books. I recommend it for anyone who likes fantasy.

Oxford is the standard. There is no better Russian-English dictionary available. Grammar forms are provided; examples and idioms are given. Appendices include abbreviations and geographical placenames.

The Oxford Russian-English Dictionary was my first real dictionary as a Russian Language student. Taking advice from a personal hunch I bought the book before I ever stepped into a university lesson in Russian about three and a half years ago. This dictionary has served me extremely well particularly in terms of translations excercises. I personally consider this dictionary to be a fabulous reference tool for anyone student or professor serious about the study of Russian with a focus on finding the most authoritative and accurate translation of over 80,000 words and/or phrases from Russian to English. Please consider purchasing this dictionary if you speak English as a native language and truly are serious about your studies of Russian. The only drawback to this dictionary comes from the fact that it forces the user to have a good sense of the meaning that he or she is after since it provides such a huge variety on certain translations from Russian to English which is quite understandable considering the difficulty in what many term {comparitive linguistics} i.e. (word to word) translation. I hope that anyone who wants to add to his or her vocabularly will consider purchasing this dictionary for I believe that it will help tremendously with this endeavor.

Russia's return to capitalism has caused economic collapse and political and social chaos. Kagarlitsky's book proves that workers cannot live under capitalism because it does not meet our needs. Stalin had found Russia a ruin and left it a great independent power. Gorbachev and Yeltsin found Russia a major power and left it in ruins: Kagarlitsky depicts this criminal and treasonous ruling class.

He shows capitalism's dire effects on Russia's economy, industry, the trade unions, the media, the intelligentsia, and systems of government. Capitalism ended full employment and free education and medical care. Between 1991 and 1998 overall production halved, and the population fell by 3.4 million.

He notes, "In the West, ... the bourgeoisie was being forced to wage a drawn-out positional war against the welfare state ... with the adoption of the Maastricht Accords, the advent of the euro and the establishing of a European Central Bank independent of the governments and the population." These international monetarist bodies ordered privatisation, to breathe life into a dying system.

As in Britain, the Russian working class cannot avoid head-on assault by capitalist forces; if workers don't fight, we won't survive: we will have no pensions, no jobs, no NHS, no education, no housing, no law, no order. In Russia, Kagarlitsky warns us, "A shift to compulsory medical insurance ushered in the collapse of the entire health care system."

He writes, "There is no capitalist solution to Russia's problems." In fact, capitalism is the problem. He calls on Russia's workers to make a new revolution. They must find a new way of survival and work out how to run their country again. They have to restore their organisations and fight for democracy and sovereignty.

As Kagarlitsky writes, "The American Revolution showed that democracy and independence are interlinked in the closest possible fashion. The essence of them is that a country's fate is determined by its citizens alone, and not by a parliament in Westminster to which the inhabitants of Boston have not sent deputies, and not by the International Monetary Fund, whose policies are not formulated in Moscow."

Ably translated into English by Renfrey Clarke, Russia Under Yeltsin And Putin by Boris Kagarlitsky (Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Comparative Political Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences) is a compelling contemporary political analysis of the radical changes that have reshaped the former Soviet Union during the last twenty years. From the influence of "Westernism" to the twilight of the "Second Republic" and the uncertain future of Putin's new government, Russia Under Yeltsin And Putin is a fascinating study, and highly recommended for Russian Studies supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.

I've been a big fan of boris' as long as I can remember. Ever since I picked up his book, "Fantasy Art Techniques" when I was a young boy, I've been hooked. So, when I heard of this book, "Sketchbook", I raced to pick it up. I'm pretty happy with what I've found. Which was a good supply of rough preliminary sketches, finished sketches, finished and painted works and even some life drawing aswell.

Now, Boris' present style on the other hand, is lacking that certain something. His work seems, to me anyway, a bit too comic booky. Don't get me wrong, some of the peices are very strong, but don't compare to some of his earlier works from the 70's and early 80's. Thankfully, those earlier works can also be found in this book aswell, next to his present day peices, making it a more well rounded catalog of work.

This is the first time I have had any exposure to Boris' wife, Julie Bell's work. Although not as good, it has a certain style of it's own and I plan on searching out more books by her in order to establish a more fair opinion.

All in all, it's a good book, worth buying. Even if your not a fan or haven't even heard of Boris Vallejo before, and just like to look at beautiful things, this book is for you.

I bought this book because I am a new fan of Boris and Julie, primarily interested in their work from an artist's standpoint, and it was more the idea of seeing their human figures in action, rather than looking at fantasy art, that got me to order. But, oh my gosh--I think I see now the attraction of fantasy art! You can feel the human spirit so strongly that it hurts. I think Boris and Julie could draw a piece of Tupperware and have it send chills down your spine.

With "Sketchbook" don't think "unfinished art." The works on these pages are masterpieces in themselves. You feel as if you are literally watching the drawings come to life. If you have any familiarity at all with Boris and Julie's work, you'll love seeing some of their classics in early concept form. And even if you don't recognize specific works, you will nevertheless feel the passion, the vibrancy, the raw, undiluted emotion that lives in the power of their art.

Whether or not you like the fantasy genre really isn't the issue with this book. If you do, of course, you're right in your element. But even if you don't, if you have any interest at all in the beauty of the human form, you will love this book. And if you don't appreciate the beauty of the human form, you will if you buy this book. I have a few other books by Boris and Julie, and they are all excellent. But I think this is my favorite so far.

I leave off a "star" only because viewing Kentridge's drawings can not substitute the experience of viewing his films. Indeed, looking the charcoal drawings I wonder at what stage of the sequence it is in. Is this the last step in the drawing? Looking at a drawing outside of its time base can also be a positive. I love searching the surface for smudge marks and erased hands and arms. His drawings end up being a record of movement (something that most single drawings fail to capture). For anyone who doesn't know, by the way, Kentridge animates his charcoal drawings using filmic stop motion techniques. The results are amazing. Anyone interested in drawing and painting, the birth of early film, and South African Politics: here is your artist.

William Kentridge is a white South African born in 1955. He is best known for animations, based on large charcoal paintings, which have as their subject the complexity of living a meaningful life in the warped society of South Africa.

Kentridge makes the films by working on the charcoal paintings, then clicking the film camera one frame at a time. He then walks back to the painting and works on it, before exposing another twenty-fifth of a second.

Kentridge is articulate and interesting and has established himself as a great artist in the tradition of Hogarth, Daumier and the German expressionists. His exhibition, which closed here in Los Angeles last week, was breathtaking. This book is the catalog of that exhibition.

I'm a tough critic, and I don't throw around sentences like "this is the best work of fantasy I've read in a year" without giving the matter some thought. But this is a really superb story. I cannot see where it could have been done better, and I don't say that often.

It's superb because it is told vigorously and plausibly. Assume for a few hours that gods and magic have been real, and that there can be magic bridges across time, and the actions of the characters make perfect sense. They are all intelligent problem-solvers - not only Ivan and his parents and Princess Katarina, but the witch-queen Baba Yaga and her captive Bear-god. At no point does Card feel the need to make a leading character into a dunce or a lunatic to shove the plot along.

Card also avoids many pitfalls which you might be afraid that he fell into, given the subject matter and the fact that he really succumbed to some of them in the "Alvin Maker" series. For example, he does not bog the story down in discussing contemporary post-Soviet politics, or in the fine points of culture and technology in tenth-century Ukraine, nor in determining who the real heroes and villains were in Eastern Europe then, nor does he clutter the volume with every Russian folk tale element ever recorded. Nor, although this book does elaborate on the "Sleeping Beauty" story, is it merely a self-conscious "retelling" of the kind that we fantasy readers have come to dread, often in connection with Arthurian legend. The present and the past are nicely balanced and interwoven, and the center of attention throughout is on the story rather than on its setting and provenance.

Furthermore, he manages to throw in a few surprising plot twists, which is difficult to do in a story like this, considering that you mostly expect that the hero and heroine are not going to get killed by Baba Yaga and it's mainly a question of how they will win. Nothing here is trite. Furthermore Card avoids the temptation to explain "everything" at the end or to develop a textbook on the laws of magic. He recognizes that some things have to be explained, but other things just work because that's how they work in fairy tales, and he draws the line between the two sets of things quite well.

You know how you know that a book has really worked? After you are done with the book - you find that you aren't really done with it. You leaf back through it and re-read some of the nicely done parts and recapture how you felt at the first read-through. Then you put it on your shelf along with your other favorite books, where you can pick it up in a few months or a year and read it again. Not all that much stuff by Card has made it onto that shelf of mine, but this one has.

When I first began reading this book, I was skeptical about how much I would enjoy it. The beginning is slow and seems to bog the reader down with "unnecessary" details, but as the novel progresses, it becomes an intriguing story that draws you into its complex plotline. Having read other Orson Scott Card books, I was not expecting such an intricate and romantic novel from this prolific science-fiction writer.

The tale focuses on the main character, Ivan, a modern-day student, and Katerina, a ninth-century princess. Card often alludes to classic Russian folktales to give the fiction book a more realistic tone. While he obviously does not have exact information about the more far-fetched elements of the book, he does make educated guesses about how the events would have played out if there were such a thing as witchcraft and bear gods of winter. Also, he uses Ivan's constant compulsion to do the moral thing when faced with important decisions as a symbol for humanity's timeless quest for righteousness. Lastly, Card often writes in the many languages that the characters speak. This provides the reader with a clear picture of the barriers that would have been faced by these people had they been real.

Overall, I felt that this book provides the reader with something to think about. The moral dilemmas that are faced by the characters parallel the problems that we often have in every day life. I think that Card's main purpose for writing this book was to show that the righteous human spirit will always prevail over evil. Using very believable characters and historical background information, Card has created a timeless literary masterpiece.

I thoroughly enjoyed Orson Scott Card's recreation of the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" in his book Enchantment. The main character, Ivan Semetski, discovers a beautiful young woman sleeping on a pedestal in the middle of a perfectly round chasm when he was 10 years old. After this experience, he can never forget that chasm, even after he moves away. He returns to the chasm as a college graduate and rescues Katerina. He then travels to her world in 890 C.E. and trains to become a knight so he can lead the people in war when he is king. During this time, Ivan learns about his fiance's culture and her contempt for him. Escaping an assassination attempt right after their marriage, Ivan and Katerina travel to his world in modern 20th century. Here, Katerina learns about people like Ivan and learns to love him. They then return to the Kingdom of Taina to try and defeat Katerina's country's worst enemy.

Card made this book a fun read through his use of words in describing different challenges to the protagonist, both moral and physical. His control of scenery and portrayal of characters is exceptional, although, like everyone, he has room to improve. His books make you want to try your hand at writing, to see if you, too, can produce such marvelous works.