This is a great book to use in a pre-service teacher education program. However, I am a long-time art educator and I still refer to it because it has a wide range of information on issues we encounter every day. This year I am teaching the art class for undergraduate elementary teachers and it is proving a very valuable resource. It is written in a readable, highly practical way with lots of examples that make adding art into an elementary curriculum not seem so foreign or so daunting. I do feel that there is a need for other supplemental reading and resources to accompany this text, but it is a great overall art education text, especially for the generalist teacher.

Although no photographs by Ellis are provided, this book is helpful for therapists who are familiar with RET or at least cognitive therapy. It touches on many therapeutic topics, basically providing the handful of irrational beliefs that are likely to be encountered in each problem area. Of course, these are always variants on basic irrational beliefs or faulty thinking, but the book is helpful guidance for eliciting and working to change these irrational beliefs. The range of topics is the real value in this book: super-romantic love/obsessive love/jealousy, divorce, healthy lifestyle, substance abuse, excessive religiously-based concern with sin and guilt, and death.

Is Samuel Beckett's Eleutheria a failed play? Brodsky's translation's one. But Madame Krap:

MME. KRAP: (At the height of excitation) Let him leave the neighbourhood, the city, the county, the country, let him go croak in---in the Balkans!

and Dr. Piouk:

DR. PIOUK: I would prohibit reproduction. I would perfect the condom and other appliances and generalize their use. I would create state-run corps of abortionists. I would impose the death sentence on every woman guilty of having given birth. I would drown the newborn. I would campaign in favor of homosexuality and myself set the example. And to get things going, I would encourage by every means the recourse to euthanasia, without, however, making it an obligation. Here you have the broad outlines.

O connoisseurs!

This is a great book if you have already some notions on dynamics. I use it for two quarterly tutorial courses on hyperbolicity and found it very usefull. Not for beginers, contains a lot of importants ideas in the subject.

Good choice of contents which is quite comprehensive! The library is quite exhaustive.

Michael Albert's political writings are not well known, but this collection of articles from Z Magazine demonstrates that they deserve to be. Concentrating on foreign policy and economics but commenting as well on subjects from feminism to postmodernism, Albert analyzes the current obstacles to a just world, develops ways to overcome them, and urges us to think more about what institutions and norms we want.

Albert argues that most of our problems come from contemporary institutions, which are set up to reproduce privilege and maintain the position of those in power. It follows that organizing around specific issues, e.g. particular victims of the criminal justice system, a particular war, or a particular environmental outrage, will always fall short of the fundamental institutional change that is necessary.

But this recognition is not enough. Rather, Albert argues, we must offer a vision of alternative institutions that can accomplish goals of democracy, equality, diversity, and solidarity as well as the current ones defeat them. Albert's own contribution to addressing this "vision problem" is participatory economics, an alternative to capitalism that gets the job done without exploitation, poverty, or powerlessness.

Finally, Albert comments on how we get there. Asking nicely that those in power implement our program will never work: arguments are irrelevant to those who work only to maintain their privilege (and will believe only those arguments that serve this end). Confrontation is the answer -- we must "raise the social costs" for elites, steadily increasing our numbers and militancy, until they give in from fear. And then we must keep pushing until we're the ones making the decisions are there are no more privileged classes.

The book's nature as a compilation is somewhat unsatisfying as the subject matter tends to change every five pages and well-developed arguments are difficult. Some of Albert's arguments, particularly the idea that elites oppose things like universal health care in order to keep workers weak, are plausible but suffer from a lack of concrete evidence. In addition, the topics covered are somewhat dated. Yet these are minor complaints against an overall analysis and vision that is as compelling as it is rare.

Readers interested in Albert's thought might be better off picking up two books set to come out later in 2002 (The Trajectory of Change (South End Press) and an updated participatory economics book from Verso), or reading through the many articles by Albert on ZNet .... But without question anyone interested in economics, corporate issues, or left organizing can learn much from Albert's ideas.

This history text gives good data and fair inclusion of both a creationists and evolutionist theory of beginnings. The author treats the Bible as one reliable historical document to be included among all the rest. The reading is frequently dry. My older daughter consumed it, but my son has to be urged to get the reading done. This is a fine textbook.

I came to this book with no expectations and it turned out to be a wonderful gem. It is a different book, the language and the writing style are lean and pacy, just like the central character Jan Moro. You can't call him a hero. He reminds me of a healthier version of Ratzo Rizzo from the Movie Midnight Cowboy, as played by Dustin Hoffman. He is to all intents and purposes a little weasel, a man who exists upon the fringes of society. He is an idealist, a dreamer and represents the underculture of the homeless society around us.

There is a pathetic sub-theme to this character, that of someone with no resources, not even a home. He has no friends, only underworld aquaintences who are entirely untrustworthy. Moro has no access into our world and this struck me with a cold and frightening realization of the impotence of people like him.

However, this is not a book trying to make us examine our conciences. It is a fast and very funny read. There is something of the style of the gangster novel about it, the sparse and punchy wit (a car pulled up with a jerk. The jerk got out). Hard to get your hands on this book now, but well worth a read. Not great literature and it will never win a nobel prize, but then what would Jan Moro do with a nobel prize? Pawn it probably, for his next grand scheme.

I started this diet yesterday and I've lost 2 pounds already, but I'm debating whether I should switch to another diet.

Didn't your mom ever tell you to go easy on fruits? My mom did -- and she's right. She used to warn me that eating too much of certain fruits (pineapple, cherries, etc.) would give me a tummy ache. I'm remembering her words of wisdom as I sit here with stomach cramps after eating prunes and strawberries all day today.

I envy the success stories I've read of those who've completed this diet, but I'm not sure it's worth the health risk. I was looking up diet book reviews on the web and found a Good Housekeeping review of the book (see http://homearts.com/gh/health/67dietf1.htm). The GH review warns against this diet for the very reason that fruit binges aren't healthy and this diet is low on protein.

Just be careful!! Your body is a precious commodity, no matter how much you think you need to lose.

Oh, and in answer to the dieter's question about what to drink on this diet, Mazel recommends water, tea and coffee. If you drink alcohol, she limits the types you can have. (I'd say water is your best bet.)

Take it from a diet junkie....I've tried everything from fasting, daily workouts, diet supplements, prepared diet meals, and NOTHING took off more than about 2-3 pounds of the 40 that I had gained after quitting smoking last year. A friend of mine recommended this book to me, and it makes sense - you really are what you eat, and HOW you eat it. I have been on the diet for 6 days now, and logged a total weight loss of 10 pounds this morning. I understand that a lot of it is probably water, but isn't that the case with all diets??? Some days were pretty hard, but I kept focus on the days I could look forward to - like steak and shrimp tonight. I went from frustrated and depressed to actually looking forward to stepping on the scale every day. Granted, this diet isn't for every one...you have to be fond of fruit and willing to give up preservatives and salty, pre-packaged foods, but it is totally worth it. Even if you can draw from only one or two of the author's theories (like starting every morning with fresh fruit) and apply it to your favorite diet regimen. I did it, I know it can work for most everyone.

I think that this book really helped me to make the right choies about what i eat. Thank You Judy M.
In french it is, Je adores Judy!!!

I buy a product because I find it useful and if someone makes something better then I spend my money on that instead. There's a simplicity to that system I can understand. Instead, these guys say classlessness is more important, so dump the market and have a committee of self managing workers decide on the product's worth and then mediate and refine their desires in the light of feedback by other committees taking into account issues of classlessness, race and environmental impact. Pay will be decided on the basis of who has made the most effort and sacrifice in making the product. As far as books are concerned, the committee of self participatory workers will decide the worth of the book and whether or not it is worth making the neccessary sacrifice to make the book and then presumably send it to the printers so they can have a meeting as to whether they wish to participate in printing the book and send back their imput as to their desires and the commitee will have another participatory self managing meeting to take this into account and come to a mutually beneficial agreement on whether or not to proceed. This simpler system falls apart over one unanswerable question. What the hell are we going to do about Oliver Stone?

Is there an alternative to the exploitation,
boss domination, environmental havoc, dog-eat-dog
competition and other
ills of capitalism? "Well Soviet central
planning was tried and that failed," you say?
Hahnel and Albert argue that there is a third
alternative -- Participatory Economics or
ParEcon. (The other reviewer's description of
ParEcon is an inaccurate caricature.)
This book provides a concise introduction to
an economic model that is neither Soviet-style
central-planning nor based on the market. The
critique of both markets and central planning is
written clearly. At the same time, this book
contains formal proofs of the economic adequacy
of their model, and is therefore, in parts,
more technical than most of Albert and Hahnel's other
little books like "Moving Forward."