I bought this book thinking it would give my mischievous 5yr old a good way to think about right and wrong. Instead, it encouraged her to do more devious acts (the girl in the story puts pencils up her mother's nose, having her parents clean the chimney with their tongues and makes her father shave all of his hair off. I can only wonder what went wrong in this author's childhood to give him such a bizzare mind.
The illustrations are attrocious.
I did not find any redeeming value in this book. I hope I can sell it at my next yard sale.
My 12 year old daughter read it and thought that "the little girl in this book is a schizophrenic whacko in great need of a certified therapist".

My six-year-old daughter fell madly in love with this book the first time she heard it, so much so that she wanted me to read it to her several times a day. At first I was a lot less enchanted with it than she was. ItÕs about a nice little girl who gets tired of being pushed around and lets the monster inside her come out. Literally. The monster is a green creature with bulging red eyes and black fingernails. The pictures of her are truly ugly. The monster gets more and more demanding and out of control until finally the nice little girl canÕt take it any more and comes back out. ItÕs got a good ending, but for me the monster-girl was a little disturbing. I guess I just usually like gentler childrenÕs books.

But the more IÕve read this book (and IÕve read it a LOT!), the more IÕve realized how psychologically acute it is. My daughter is a lot like the "good little girl" Ð most of the time sheÕs neat and polite, and tries very hard to please adults. Those are wonderful qualities, but they can get in our way, too. Less polite kids shove you aside. Adults may overlook your needs because youÕre not loud or insistent enough. Life can be tough for "good" girls. The need to learn to be assertive without letting "the monster" get out of control. And I think the reason my daughter loves this book is that itÕs helping her to do that. In the end, when the good little girl comes back, sheÕs not a pushover anymore. SheÕs still nice, but she tells her parents very clearly and firmly what she wants.

IÕm still not wild about the illustrations in this book (although I must admit theyÕre growing on me), but I now think that for a nice, quiet little girl, this is a perfect book.

Wildly original, I bought this after reading the author's other children's book -Beetle Boy. The Good Little Girl should not be overlooked. It's a great story about a sweet, nice, well-behaved girl named Miranda. But her busy, busy, busy parents (sound familiar?) just don't keep all their promises. And eventually, Miranda's alter-ego Lucretia takes over. And Lucretia is fantastic! She tortures her parents in hilarious ways that every kid will howl at. Far from being a guilt-trip for busy parents, this is a great, fun book that all working families can relate to and will enjoy. It's great when a book for kids doesn't "talk down" to kids or feature bunnies worrying about the rain. This is a hip, modern book that's really in touch with today.

I throughly enjoyed reading "Need". This was my first time running across Lawrence David. He is a gripping author, who makes you relate if you like it or not. I recommend this novel to anyone looking for a work worth the time. I don't think you'll be dissapointed.

I came across Need looking for a different book also called Need. Even though it wasn't the book I was looking for, I bought it anyway. It's amazing. It's not a "feel good" novel, that's for sure. But it's great and so well written. I looked for more books by the author, but there's only one and it's out of print. I hope he writes more books.

Need is at once tiny and vast. It is through the smallest of details that author Lawrence David allows the reader to not simply witness, but truly enter, the large and fascinating world of psychotherapy and love gone wrong. So much of life is made up of the very small. And this is exactly the strength of this powerful novel. This is what makes Need sometimes disturbing, sometimes funny, sometimes painful and always very human. Need is emotionally expansive and honest. It's eccentric; and yet at its core is someone trying to be so very, very normal. Need is a page-turner; a book you begin before bed and lose a night's sleep over. Need, in all its detail, is nothing less than brilliant. I look forward to more from this gifted writer.

knowing the reputation of this novel, i was curious to find out what the fuss was about. but i found that the best thing about the novel is the description of his family, especially in the first part. his writing is simple and direct, and part one paints a very vivid picture of working-class life in england circa 1900. the other thing that surprised me about the book is the euthanasia at the end. i wasn't prepared for this and quite honestly was shocked to read about paul and his sister annie 'gliggling' and they prepare the morphium od for their mum. paul's love for his mother is also disturbing. his last kiss of the beloved cadaver is completely morbid. frankly, i'm surprised this aspect of the novel didn't cause more controversy. in comparison, the sexual material is pretty tame, granted i am 100 years removed from the book's first appearance.

the structure of the book is based naturally on the biography, but still, the story is a little shapeless. there are characters and incidents introduced that are never taken up and resolved. paul's brother arthur, for example, makes short appearances from time to time, but he doesn't figure in the story at all. you can argue this is like real life, and maybe this is what lawrence was trying to achieve, but by the standards of a traditional novel, it is sloppy.

i also never really got into the book. usually, i race to the end to find out what happened, but with 'sons and lovers', i coasted. at first, i thought this was because of the book's shapelessness, but there's no reason a biographical work of fiction can't be well structured. i realized the reason is that paul morel is just not your typical 'hero' of a biographical book. in fact, he's no hero at all. he has too many worts and he doesn't try to cover them up - i think this unlikeableness or aloofness of the main character makes the book itself unlikeable and hard to get into.

nevertheless, lawrence does write nicely and the novel has some very interesting moments. worth a read.

3 1/2 stars

Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence dwells on the quintessence elements of life. These elements include love and marriage, religion, and filial love (carnal or platonic?). Each of these elements are conveyed by the behavior and choices of each character and the consequences that result from these decisions. Sons and Lovers is considered a quasi-autobiography of Lawrence, and it is Paul's cogitations on marriage (e.g. "Nothing is as bad as marriage that's a hopeless failure" 136), religion (e.g. "God doesn't know things, He is things" 258), and his indefatigable obsession with his mother (e.g. "Paul loved to sleep with his mother. Sleep is still most perfect, inspite of hygenists, when it is shared with a beloved" 72) that connects the reader to the realism of Sons and Lovers. Paul, the protagonist, is despondent as a result of his indecisive gallivantings. Much of it appears to be influenced by the passive and inattentive rearing of his father--Walter Morel. Paul is the ideal character to pyschoanalyze. At one point in the book, he says "It's not religious to be religious" (257). It is about his agnosticism, or arguably his atheism. His mind is convoluted with callow perceptions of life. He is a bead left on a spectrum with open ends. Paul Morel is not a believer; he is a pseudo-transient gallivanting through life afraid of commitment. It can be concluded that Paul's filial attachment (whether carnal or platonic, you decide) to his mother is a result of an impassive father figure; his aversion to religion is a result of Miriam's devout and fervent gnawings. In the end, Paul is alone when he could very well have joined Miriam.

"She [Miriam] believed that his chief need in life was herself. If she could prove it, both to herself and to him, the rest might go; she could simply trust to the future" (236).

Like his collier father, Paul succumbs to the recursive hole that has imprisoned his father. Quandaries can be resolved, but Paul has no lexicon (figuratively speaking) of his own. With the death of his mother, he is left spiritually unclad, depraved, and in dire need of the love that he once relished from his mother. When Paul walks away in the end, there was an oddly lackadaisical inflection to his disposition, and the void was apparent. Here's a final quote from the book that speaks for itself.

"There's always a kind of intensity. When you laugh I could always cry; it seems as if it shows up your suffering. Oh, you make me knit the brows of my very soul and cogitate" (195).

Note: The page number reference "Everyman's Library" Hardcopy edition. I couldn't find this edition in Amazon.

This is really a book of psychological analysis. It's not exactly an autobiography but Lawrence makes a good deal self-eveluation of his childhood.When you read the novel you feel in an instant that someone who can describe human conditions that successfully,must have lived it all himself.Paul's excessive attachment to his mother and how his life became unbearable after her death shows the human helplessness.He tries over and over to LOVE someone other than his mother but each time he finds some missing part which is fullfilled by his mother. He really loves Miriam but somehow love also falls short to live happily-ever-after. When I first started the book I felt that the main character was Mrs.Morel. I was mistaken. Lawrence used all of the characters with nearly equal emphasis.Of course the leading one is Paul. On the other hand you take lots of things from other characters by his clear depiction. Paul,thus Lawrence, is a good psychologist.If you like to find your own thougts and feelings told by an author you should read Sons And Lovers.I finished it in a week.

I usually cringe at the thought of writers writing about how hard it is to write, but Dyer pulls it off with frequently hilarious results.

Quotes frequently help me to decide whether or not to read a book, so here's one of my favorites:

I asked why a red light on the dashboard was flashing.

'Is to tell me I am not wearing seat belt,' Ciccio said. An EU ruling meant that all new cars were fitted with this warning device. A stupid and dangerous idea, he thought. The flashing distracted and could make you crash. But there was someone he knew who going to disconnect the wires so that he could ride in comfort without his seat belt and without this flashing light. Wouldn't it be easier just to wear the seat belt? I asked, but that was beside the point. The point was that there was a way around this edict. Italians enjoy exercising their ingenuity to trivial ends. To use ingenuity for some loftier purpose is somehow to diminish it. The more pointless the end the more vividly the means of achieving it is displayed. The further south you travel, the more extreme this tendency becomes. The ingenuity of the romans, for example, is as nothing compared to that of the Neapolitans. Ciccio even knew someone who sold T-shirts with a diagonal black band printed across the chest so that the police would be deceived into thinking you were wearing your seat belt.

Dyer is at his best at moments like this. When he starts dishing out actual insights into literature, he can occasionally get pretentious and windy, and most of ideas seem ripped of other thinkers - Barthes, especially. Whining about how hard it is to write his book would be insufferable if Dyer didn't have a lovely comic touch, and wasn't such a good writer (I recommend his book on jazz highly). His digressions about Rilke, Camus, and Nietzsche were occasionally interesting, but more often seemed unnecessary and (as is perhaps inevitable in such a book) pretentious.

If the book was any longer, it wouldn't work; you can't sustain such an exercise for very long. But as it is, it's worth a lot of a laughs, a couple of insights, a wonderful portrait of the author and a passable portrait of D.H. Lawrence.

I suppose one could only write a really decent, insightfulreview of Geoff Dyers' genre-defying Out of Sheer Rage by followingthe same wonderfully tortuous path taken by the author himself:procrastinate, delay, evade and travel to the far-flung places as Mr. Dyer once did, while constantly examining and re-examining one's own unique array of neuroses. Perhaps, like Geoff Dyer, by failing to write a solid review, one succeeds by taking a circular route, never diving straight to the heart of the matter and recognizing the triumph inherent in such a futile enterprise. Having said all that, one must keep ones' day job after all and what follows will have to pass for a circular route. Geoff Dyer's Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence is a book within a book about trying, failing and succeeding at writing a biography of D.H. Lawrence (in a roundabout way) while simultaneously (quite by accident) employing one's personal and literary failures to gain access to one's own true self. Dyer leads the reader on a dizzying ride, we travel along with him and his long-suffering, multilingual girlfriend Laura in an effort to gain inspiration by way of the ritual of movement and a sense of place. We visit Italy,(Taormina, Rome)New Mexico, (Taos) Mexico (Oaxaca) and Oxford, all places where Lawrence once worked and lived. Nothing tangible realized there except some brilliant discoveries about the author's interior life. Observations usually unearthed by quoting Lawrence himself; "Freedom is a gift inside one's soul, Lawrence declared, you can't have it if it isn't in you." Dyer observes in a moment of self-awareness; "A gift it may be but it is not there for the taking. To realize this capacity in yourself is a struggle." And a further quote from Lawrence about getting to the core of one's own capabilities (or lack thereof) "Let a man fall to the bottom of himself, let him get to the bottom so that we can see who he really is." Dyer pulls us back into the past, then headlong into the present with beautifully written observations about the self, coping with depression, Nietzsche and the vagaries of his relationship with his girlfriend, Laura; " For Laura it is always 'together forever', for me it is always more like 'together whenever." (For arts' sake ? the reader can only guess). On falling in and getting out of depression; "All I felt was: I am depressed. I am depressed. And then, this depression generated its own flicker of recovery. I became interested in depression." And some Nietzschean philosopy to ameliorate despair; "Nietzshe wrote that the thought of suicide had got him through many a bad night, and thinking of giving up was probably the one thing that's kept me going." And inevitably, insights on the uselessness of giving up, of recognizing that what makes life so unbearable is that those things which seem so unbearable are in fact bearable; " The only way to give up totally is to kill yourself but that one act requires an assertion of will equal to the total amount that would be expanded in the rest of a normal lifetime. Killing yourself is not giving up, it's more like a catastrophic fast-forwarding." Out of Sheer Rage is an ultra-vivid mosaic whose parts can only be glimpsed whole from a distance; one could read, re-read and write endless reviews and still not quite grasp its' true essence on either an individual or general level (which may in fact be its' true essence). But a few stray thoughts may yet be relevant when considering Out of Sheer Rage; to paraphrase Dyer: "One is really one's true self when believing that one is not one's true self." And this final, uplifting endnote; "One way or another we all have to write our studies of D.H. Lawrence. Even if they will never be published, even if we will never complete them, even if all we are left with after years and years of effort is an unfinished, unfinishable record of how we failed to live up to our ambitions. The world over, from Taos to Taormina, from the places we have visited to countries we will never set foot in, the best we can do is to try to make some progress with our studies of D.H. Lawrence." Out of Sheer Rage is both a gift to the reader and a virus that needs to be spread; once read, it begs to be re-read and passed along to anyone with the ability for even momentary self-reflection. So please read this book, then give it to someone as a gift so that they too can spread what cannot or should not be cured. END

Dyer has written an entertaining, informative, imaginative, and philosophically-revealing view of his struggle to motivate himself to write a book about one of his idols, D. H. Lawrence.

I felt an immediate closeness with Dyer when he said on p. 16 that "The Complete Poems" was probably the single most important book of Lawrence's. I have always been drawn more to DHL's poems and essays than to his novels. And yet in Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, DHL is referred to as a "British novelist," and not as a "British author."

As the work goes on, it becomes clear that Dyer's preferred source of material are DHL's Letter. The most positive aspect of the book is the nine-page index given at the end of the book, mostly to quotes from Lawrence's letters. Dyer's description of trying to pace himself through the seven volumes of letters is a minor masterpiece of hilarity. Also humerous are his descriptions of sitting across from a lady with a cold on the train, and his childhood health problems. I have never read a book when I burst out laughing as often as in reading this one.

Dyer likes to draw parallels between himself and DHL, physically as well as emotionally and spiritually, because DHL is one of his heroes. Or is he? How could he have made the statement on p.207 that "...once I have finished this book...Lawrence will become a closed book to me. That's what I look forward to: no longer having anything to do with Lawrence." Or is he, in the heat of his authorship, lost in one of his mazes of contradiction.

Dyer says his favorite photograph of DHL is one of him sitting under a tree "doing nothing." That is not the DHL of history; Lawrence was one of the most "do-something" authors in the history of the planet. His myriad works in his short lifetime attest to that.

This book is definitely a funny first read, especially to authors who have writer's block. Dyer's circuitous, contradictory analyses of the predicaments of life are amusingly original. But while I am grateful to Dyer for bringing the content of DHL's Letters to my attention, I grew weary of his constant wish to "do nothing." And I think Dyer is weary of it himself.

The fact that this book was designed for researchers, who are involved in experimental (clinical) trials, makes the basic knowledge of statistics essential.
Using an interactive multidisciplinary approach to investigation, this handbook embraced all aspects clinical and paraclinical survey. It is very easy-to-follow, and divulges its methodology in concise manner. "Fundamentals of Clinical Trials" is one book that will help alleviate the rigorous chores of epidemiologists. However, an advanced or versatile researcher may complain that some of the information in it are too summarized.

I used this book for a class that I took last semester on clinical trial.

The authors do a good job of giving a good overview of the topics of interest, in particular: sample size calculation, use of DSMBs, trial design, choice of endpoints, randomization and issues in data analysis.

The chapters on sample size estimation and use of safety monitoring boards are quite heavy on the statistics. If you've never had an intro class in statistics, then these chapters may be way over your head.

There are a few topics that the authors didn't cover so well that I thought should have been more prominent: Choice of primary endpoints in FDA trials, general requirements of the FDA and regulatory information in general, the calculations of meta-analyses.

Overall I am quite happy with this book and will keep it on my shelf as a good reference.

This book is a very good place to start for those who want to learn about the design and analysis of clinical trials. However there is a heavy emphasis on statistics - a basic knowledge of stats is essential.

The story is offbeat and rather touching: The chickens who live on the Tweedy Farm are doomed to be made into chicken pies if they stay there much longer! Ginger, a clever hen desperate to feel of green grass under her feet, hatches escape plan after escape with no luck....until Rocky, a dashing rooster, literally flies into her life! Will these chicks ever escape the evil farm with their feathers still intact?

The book is a simple retelling of the irreverent film and is easy reading for the younger set. It's sweet, gloriously silly and a wonderful companion to the film. I especially enjoyed the claymation pictures which do a wonderful job of capturing the moment with just one glance. I'd read it to you kids at bedtime.

One side effect though -- don't be surprised if your kids refuse to eat poultry after reading this book!

I find this book refreaching,and that the whole family can enjoy reading it together. I would recomend it for young and old alike.

Ok, I have not "yet" finished Dr. Bergman's compilation. However, I must say that I have a unique insight into its origins, namely its editor, Thomas Bergmann. As a student of Northwestern Health Sciences University, I am privilaged to attend Dr. Bergmann's Methods III lecture and laboratory several times a week. I also am fortunate enough to sit in on his Principles and Philosophy of Chiropractic lectures. These experiences have taught me a great deal about Chiropractic science and practice in just a short few weeks as a trimester 3/10 student here at NWHS. I have learned a lot so far and continue to learn more every day. I believe Dr. bergmann to be a giant in the field of Chiropractic Technique. While my opinion may be swayed a bit and my history in the field limited, this is my opinion. Don't believe me? Buy the book!!!!!!!

This book is in use for the Chiropractic course in Odense, Denmark, as a textbook on chiropractic technique in the 5.th and 6.th semester of the 10 semester university programme. Great book with nice illustrations, allthough there are a few mistakes or typing errors. This is a great book for teaching manipulative therapy.

In " The Captain's Doll" the reader experiences a relationship that is not well-accepted by society. The Captain Hepburn and his mistress Hannele. The love in an affair is not a twosided love, usually one person ends up giving themselves more than the other person involved. Hannele questions herself throughout her relationship with the Captain and the intergery of their love. He does not want to love her and all she wants to do is love him. The story is very easy to read and short. It is a great book and I truly recommend it.

I had to read this book for a literature class, and it was chosen to be our favorite by far. The discussions deepened from lesbians, co-dependancy, and control. Of the three main characters we actually found five. Each lady has a different personality depending on what name she is called by. We may be reaching but it was interesting backing it up with the text. If you enjoy D.H. Lawrence you will love this novella.

I have just finished reading this book and to be honest I found it quite tough going. Recommended to me by an academic of Lawrence's work, he had to concede afterwards that perhaps it wasn't the ideal introduction to a new reader. What this story lacks mostly is a good old fashioned yarn, but instead seems to be a vehicle for the author to convey many of his thoughts on relationships between men and men, men and women and politics in general.

I can't be too specific on the authors ideas as I freely admit that much of this went "in one ear and out the other" as I frequently found after reading certain paragraphs I was left thinking "I have no idea what he was just talking about". Concentration therefore was fundamental to enjoying this book, and on the few occasions when I was truely focussed and emmersed, some of the ideas were interesting and rewarding.

This is a semi autobiographical account of Lawrence's own experiences in Australia, but strangly I found the most interesting part of the book was the "Nightmare" chapter, dedicated to the character's account of being in England during World War One. This too, mirrors the authors own experiences during this turbulent time.

Maybe I should go for the better known novels next time...

Tnis was the book that made me realize just how clever Lawrence was. His spiritual and analytical insight into the nature of a bastardized and inconquerable continent is just breathtaking, and it truly is a work of a supremely sensitive and perceptive individual.

Lawrence explores such depths that there are sometimes sinister truths and realizations that erupts from Lawrences mind, in the guise of the main character. This is a haunting and sad book, that pulls your mind completely into the wonder of Lawrences intellectual capacity and genius for seeing the imperciptible, where so many fail to. I love you Lorenzo, thank goodness for your genius.

I successively declare each Lawrence novel I encounter to be the best I've read, but in my opinion, "The Rainbow" is especially brilliant in its painstaking and accurate depiction of the universal experience of adolescence...and especially noteworthy in its spot-on description of the evolving feelings and thoughts of adolescent girls. Lawrence's feeling for and understanding of his female characters is astounding, particularly when compared with that of other writers of his time.

This work is sometimes criticized because of "repetitiveness" in the writing, but I find the repeated phrases add to, not detract from, the power of the novel. As in Lady Chatterley, he also manages to work in many brilliant and cutting observations of the price of progress in an industrial society, and document in careful, keen-eyed accuracy the varying responses of his characters--and, through them, archetypal human responses--to that society.

Make no mistake: I would not have read this book unless I was compelled by, say, a teacher. And compelled I was. After finishing it, I think it's a great book and I'm glad that I read it, but paradoxically, I don't think I would do it again.

The only way to describe "The Rainbow" is that it would be more of a masterpiece if you didn't have to read it. If there was somehow a method in which you could absorb this book without cutting through Lawrence's prose, this would be undoubtingly be one of the greatest books ever [not] written.

Unfortunately this is impossible, because the style is inextricably connected with the thematics and direction of the book as a whole. So we as the reader must deal with the prose, because the text is as close as the reader will ever get to the novel, although I think that one of Lawrence's central themes is that the text cannot itself represent life. Hence you have text that attempts to depict life, text that knows implicitly that it will fail at this task, yet text that will try as hard as it can to draw out this picture of three generations of a family.

In class we listed a few adjectives that would describe Lawrence's style for "The Rainbow":

+Repetitive
+Lyrical
+Oppositional
+Fecund
+Slow-motion
+Translated
+Intense

...and the list goes on. If you are very patient and can deal with the text beyond the text, so to speak, you will like this book. If you are like me, you will not like this book, but you will be glad that you read it.

Lawrence's fame (or notoriety) rests on his sexual frankness, but what a lot of readers overlook is how well he wrote about parent-child relationships and family dynamics. The beginning of this novel is absolutely brilliant: Tom Brangwen and the Polish widow marry in haste, then find that they still haven't worked out their relationship. Her young daughter is an uneasy third party, and the child's sensitivity to the unease in their household is beautifully described, as well as her stepfather's gentle efforts to befriend her. As Lawrence continues the family history, his usual obsessions surface. But in general, it's a good story: sex is an organic part of his characters' lives rather than the mainspring of the whole plot (as in some of his other novels). And the characters come across as multi-dimensional human beings rather than talking heads (or other organs) for Lawrence's comments on life. A good novel for people who "don't like D.H. Lawrence."