Hayflick's book "How and Why We Age" is an excellent, first hand account on the research that has been conducted up to now on the biology of aging. It is of note that Hayflick is one of the pioneers in the field. The book is well written and can be enjoyed both by the scientist and the layperson. One flaw, in my opinion, involves Hayflick's personal- and highly biassed- account of the supposedly erroneous conclusions of Alexis Carrel regarding the immortality of cells cultured in vitro. After presenting what seems conclusive evidence opposing Carrel's claim, Hayflick describes a conversation with a technician who worked at Carrel's lab in New York in the thirties, who discloses highly questionable procedures, and describes threats to her when she reaised issues with the lab directors. It is clearly suggested that there was scientific negligence and even misconduct, and yet, the identity of this technician is not revealed, and the accusations, half a century la! ter, are foggy and impossible to challenge. This is a very serious issue, as Hayflick himself claims to have proven Carrel wrong, through his discovery of a fixed maximum number of divisions in cells grown in vitro. However, some even more recent experiments suggest that it is Hayflick who is wrong, because the cell culture conditions he uses are highly artificial, while Carrel's more primitive, but also more robust method (cultivating a chunk of tissue) are closer to physiological conditions. The issue at stakes is by no means trivial: are cells intrinsically immortal, ageless, or do they age and die like whole organisms?

The best part about this scholarly book is Palmer's development of the somewhat constricted literary language of Classical Latin out of the wider context of the dialects and varying usages of Latium and its environs. Readers should be aware that this is a historical survey of Latin, not a reference grammar or a book to learn the language from. Prior knowledge of the basics of Latin grammar is assumed.

In tracing the history of the language, the book necessarily gives a history of Roman literary styles, from the age of Cato and Ennius to the Christian period. While this is not a comprehensive treatment of Latin literature, it is informative.

The extensive etymological and comparative information in this book, on the other hand, is somewhat dated, since it was written in a period before the laryngeal theory had thoroughly penetrated Indo-European studies. Its treatment of Latin among the Italic dialects fares somewhat better.

The book's theme was deeply personal for me, the prose engaging, almost like easedropping. The narrator's writing, thought provoking and poetic, did not ring true. The young man spoke like a middle-aged woman, not a man deeply affected by his mother's affair. I found the book engrossing and could not put it down, yet all the while I wanted it to be longer. Let me hear more of Kevin's voice, I would think. Act like a 17 year old, Henry! Do something impulsive, demand that your mother do something, anything, to make this story have a reason to be told. I have read 2 other Jane Hamilton books and I will continue to read more, but it's as if she was on a deadline and decided to finish the book almost before it began.

Jane Hamilton has perfect pitch! Each word, each sentence, each character is in perfect harmony. The Shaw family of four is disobedient in terms of middle-class, upper-midwest morals. Elvira, the 13-year-old sister and most colorful character in the book, a cross-dressing civil war living historian, seeks every possible opportunity to get it wrong. The father, an amateur historian and professional teacher, lacks passion and presence. Elizabeth, the mother, recreates period music on the piano, has an affair with a violinist, and arranges trysts for Henry, her 17-year-old son. Henry reads his mother's e-mail. Sometimes, even great signers choose odd operas and inappropriate roles. Ms. Hamilton's choice of a seventeen-year-old male for her first person voice was odd. Certain scenes were nearly perfect. Most seemed much more like the son's voice as imagined by the mother. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina works. Hamilton as Henry doesn't. If you're looking for a book about a seventeen-year-old boy becoming a man, don't look here. If you're looking for some of the best writing in America, buy this book. Jane Hamilton is among the best writers in the country.

Jane Hamilton came to Eau Claire, Wi in November promoting this book. After hearing her read the first chapter, I knew Disobedience had to be my selection for our January book club. Upon reading everyone else's reviews, I feel the major point of the book has been missed. The central theme is "deceptions". The deceipt of each character is woven into the fabric of the story: Beth Shaw's affair, Elvira Shaw's cross dressing, and Henry Shaw's spying on his mother through reading her email. One begins to wonder what Mr. Shaw's deception is......I feel that Jane Hamilton has surpassed herself with this novel. Each chapter slowly unveils the untruths of her character's lives. And of course we get only a one sided picture of each family member as seen through Henry's eyes. I can only wonder how fascinating this book would be if each character had a chapter and retold the story. We are given a glimpse of this in the Chapter on Shiloh. Henry relates the "outing" of Elvirnon in quite a different manner than his friend Karen does. I have read each of Ms. Hamilton's books and this one by far is my favorite. I love the construction of her sentences, and how she is able to convey so much meaning with so few words. I am definitely recommending this book to all of my friends, and anticipate our book club's get together.

To draw the most from this new book, you need to know already quite a bit about occupied France. The authors trace in detail academic perceptions of Vichy since 1945. Regime apologists tried to maintain in the 1950s that Petain had played a clever game in seeming to collaborate whilst plotting to maintain French independence. We now understand this was nonsense: Petain and Laval may have been interested in collaboration, but Hitler's only concern was booty. But equally in error was the Gaullist position that forty million Frenchmen supported the Resistance against a tiny number of traitors. The editors demonstrate that more recent research has shown how fragmented both the pro and anti Vichy groups were. For example, it was possible to be faithful to Petain whilst being anti nazi. Many ordinary French people, both in the cities and in the countryside, adopted an eclectic attitude according to "how the wind was blowing" in their area. The book suggests new lines for research on Vichy, especially a comparative approach with what was happening in other occupied countries such as Bulgaria and Hungary. The book is largely a tribute to Robert Paxton who wrote a ground breaking study of wartime France in the 1970s. This reviewer found the continuous adulation of Paxton, however merited, somewhat repetitive. You will enjoy this new volume if you really want to explore in depth the meaning of Vichy over the past sixty years. Given that France was still prosecuting men for war crimes in the late 1990s, Petain's regime is still a hotly debated topic in that country's academic establishment.

This book is an essential text for anyone interested in the history of of France during the Vichy regime. It offers a superlative compilation of the latest scholarship in the field, contributed by some of its most important writers, people like Michael Marrus, Jean-Pierre Azema, Henri Rousso, Stanley Hoffmann, Philippe Burrin, etc. etc. The introduction by Fishman and Smith is a thorough map of the entire contents of the book which, again, provides a rich collection of articles destined perhaps not for the general reader without any background on the subject, although the book itself is reader friendly....

This book is good for the inspiration for anyone who want's to build a log home. It is lacking in photographs, no colour in the book. Before you start though, buy as many back issues of "Muir's Original Log Homes magazine" as you can afford, latest issues being the best. And there is a couple of good books on building with logs that you should buy. These will help you prevent some very costly mistakes.

This was a great book of one family's learning experience in log home building. Williams shows you how to build your own log home from his experiences for very little. It was great to know it can be done! I liked his floor plan and am using a similar plan for our home.

He explained everything in enough detail you would only really need this book to build the same home he built. All the way down to the kitchen cupboards.

If you haven't heard of Douglas Coupland, he's been hailed asone of new Generation X authors. What that exactly means, I havelittle idea. I read one of his other books (although I can't remember which one), and wasn't that impressed by it to be honest, but I decided I'd try another.

And I think I've had just about enough of him. Part of the book, around the first half, is pretty good. The main character's girlfriend lapses into a coma, and it shows how the character and girlfriend's family cope with it. But then the girlfriend awakens from her coma, and then everyone in the world dies but these six friends and... well, the rest is a real snooze.

The author tries to make the point that Gen-Xers are shallow, live for their gadgets, and need to grow up and experience the real world, but he does it so badly and haphazardly that, even at less than 300 pages, the book is a chore to get through. Sorry, Mr. Coupland, you can write your books for your other fans; I'm not interested.

Coupland writes a book in which the ghost of Jared -- dead teen football stud and the mouthpiece from which the majority of the big, important "messages" spew -- and we're told (since we associate so much with the main characters, don't we?): Question everything. Okay... Why was this book written? Why was this book published? Can't Coupland do any better than repeat himself? Why has he delivered this lame hybrid of "The Celestine Prophecy" and an episode of "Friends"? Why didn't his editor(s) re-direct this effort? Do we really need another tale about the woes of middle-class children in adult bodies and their valliant struggle for...optimism? Aren't there people in the world who face more difficulties than Coupland's characters? Wouldn't their stories deserve our respect more than these? Has this author -- who borrows his title for this work from a Smith's song -- ever heard another song by lead singer, Morrissey called "Reader Meet Author"? If so, why doesn't he question his credibility in writing this story which aims to enlighten us but comes from what seems the shallowest background possible?

I have read all of Douglas Coupland's books (except Shampoo Planet) and this was my favorite Coupland book to date. I admire Coupland's style of writing simply because he has a way of portrying the thoughts and that fill many of our minds. At first the SEEMINGLY shallow and trashy plot nearly kept me from reading, but as soon as I started I could not put it down! As they say you can't judge a book by it's cover and I'm certainly glad I didn't. As a 17 year old I may view the world differently than some of you critics out there, but I stand by my ratings, this book was excellent. Through the obviously fictional apocolyptical events that unfold, Coupland questions the meaning of life and our purpose on this rapidly desensitizing planet. I thoroughly enjoyed and I advise anyone else out there who questions their own exsistance to read this novel!

I was looking for a book that got into the heart and soul of New Mexico and discovered America, New Mexico at my local bookstore. It had a great title, a great cover, a writer who could write...and unfortunetly enough new age retoric that at one point I wanted to send the book back to the University of Arizona and ask why tax dollars were being spent on such endevours. So read at your own risk. At one point the author claims that the only reason Europe developed instead of Native Americans in North America was that gunpowder had accidently made its way to Europe first. Humm. Want a good book about the heart and soul of New Mexico try the Toby Smith's "Stay Awhile."

This is a lyrical treatment of New Mexico, for the most part well-written and enjoyable. But it was marred for me by the gullibility of the writer, who says about the alleged UFO landing at Roswell that he "can testify without reservation that, yes, the extraordinary visitation took place". Unfortunately the Roswell "visitation" has long since been debunked as a weather balloon.

Reid says about the lack of photographs of Crazy Horse, "Perhaps the science of photography is inadequate for capturing certain images", as if the laws of physics and chemistry would magically have certain exceptions. Does Reid really doubt that a functioning camera would have succeeded in taking a picture of Crazy Horse? This is mysticism at the expense of believability.

Reid describes a friend who claims that certain Native Americans can really take to the sky and fly like birds. He is my friend, Reid says, and I believe him. But why? If this event has never been captured on film, if humans simply lack the muscle power and lift necessary to fly, if Native Americans continue to take jets like everyone else to get around, isn't it far more plausible that Reid's friend was lying, or pulling his leg? We *know* with certainty that people lie and indulge in practical jokes. We *don't* know with certainty that they can fly like birds. Reid needs to get his Occam's razor sharpened up a bit.

Nevertheless, if you can overlook this New Age silliness, the book is enjoyable, even beautiful in places.

Open your heart, your mind, and your ears to this almost lyrical work by Robert Leonard Reid as you explore beautiful and quite possibly unique New Mexico either firsthand or vicariously. Not as thoroughly exploratory, meticulous, and encyclopedic as Timothy Egan's Pacific Northwest book(s), not as critical and pessimistic as Robert Kaplan, and not as negative as Paul Theroux---Mr. Reid is of a different writing caliber. It is delightfully insightful, at times painfully verbose and overdescriptive, but his book on this different part of America is a pleasurable experience nonetheless for resident, visitor, or armchair traveler.

While giving exact statistics, the interpretation is such as to gloss over the difficulties entailed in getting into Veterinary School. The author plays fast and loose with language, switching from students to applicants, never giving the number who actually make it into that first class. As a better source, check the book on admission requirements.
The chapter on the history of veterinary medicine is specious, spurious, highly imaginative, and anachronistic. Check the Oxford Classical Dictionary if you're really interested and want the facts.
The rest of the book is, as your blurb says, pretty complete and up to date. I think deciding to become a Veterinary Technician after two years at an unaccredited school earning $17,000 a year in order to play with kitties and puppies is a total waste of time. Go find a different profession, earn a decent living wage, leave the door open so you can transfer a 2-year-degree to a 4-year-institution 20 years from now, and with your increased earning power, indulge your madness of kitties and puppies on the side.
Considering there is nothing much else with hard information available, the book is worth a read. Buy it in conjunction with the Admission Requirement book, read statistics carefully, and it will be enlightening.

Well, first off, this book contains the VOCAL SELECTIONS, not the script. The blurb is a bit misleading, but if you look closely at the cover photo you can sort of make-out "Vocal Selections" at the top. As with many vocal selection books, many of the songs have been transposed. The choice of selections are pretty good, but there are some misleading statements on the table of contents page (such as title changes) which do not coincide with the CD recording. Since the CD was recorded after the production closed, it's possible that the vocal selections came out while the show was still running, and therefore the contents page explains changes from the original production. However, since that production is long gone, and all we have left is the cd, perhaps a re-print is in order??? I was hoping for a story synopsis or photos from the Broadway production, but they are non-existant. Hopefully this review will at least clarify some of my own questions prior to purchase.