This book is one of those lateral amalgams that makes you feel like it's christmas. There are little nuggets for fascination from all of the sciences, strange facts, etc. And there are a lot of dictionary style illustrations and a whole color spread in the back. A great weird-coffee-table-book.

Dr. Emmy Werner's lastest book, in her ongoing research into the resilience of children who face adversity, probes the experiences and impressions of children who lived through the terrors of World War II. With even-handedness she quotes Japanese children who survived the world's first atomic bomb, English children who saw and felt London crumble from their air raid shelters in their gardens, German youngsters who watched Dresden burn. Besides showing the devastating effects of wartime violence, however, she also tells tales of English POWs who treat burned German children, or German POWs who are kind to the children of the families where they are housed. Her overriding message is that individuals must--and do--care for others, regardless of national politics, right or wrong. This work, while full of sadness, is a heartwarming affirmation of hope.

Assuming you have had a first class in vibraions, Professor Soedel explains shell vibrations in a clear understandable way, while including many interesting historical notes.

This is a real masterpiece of a book about one of the greatest masters in architecture: Beautiful details of Mies van der Rohe`s splendid functionalism and clean sense of beauty. The inspiring features of German Bauhaus meet the pragmatism of Japanese functionalism. A true "must" for lovers of modern architecture and design...

Tanka is an ancient form of poetry originating in Japan. There is a growing number of English-language tanka poets and this an excellent collection of their work up to about 1993. In Japanese, tanka follow a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic pattern; in English, it's more typically a short-long-short-long-long pattern of at most 31 syllables. There are examples here ranging from strict adherence to 5-7-5-7-7 to extremely minimalistic. An example of the latter is Sheldon Young's:

food / shelter / sex / i am so / cold

Love is a frequent topic of Tanka. Pat Shelley's poem is an example:

Wind, do not tease me / do not muss my hair / my joy is too large for the house / and I cannot go in / to await his coming

This is arguably the best English-language tanka ever written. While love is a frequent focus of tanka, the only true limits are those of human experience. Jane and Werner Reichhold are to be commended for collecting and publishing this delightful anthology.

Word-By-Word Translations of Songs and Arias: Part I German and French by Coffin is an excellent resource for literal translations of both German and French Songs and Arias. In many cases the exact translation is awkward due to its syntax. In these cases, Coffin also offers a translation in English format. This book is an excellent resource for both teacher and student.

The "Writing Clear Essays" book is used at Opp High School in Advance English classes and I had the privelege of getting to use it. It helped me with outlines and showed me how to improve on alot of skills that I already had. The book helped me overcome many obstacles in papers that I had to write and also on my term paper. The book is a great asset to all classes and for many ages.

This book is amazing! I worked in Guatemala for around 8 months in community development, with a rural indigenous pueblo. We tried to get in as many doctors as possible, but when that failed, we could always use this book--the diagrams of each disease (especially the skin diseases, prevalent in Central America) helped us to decide how to address each person's health concerns. I only wish there was a copy in K'iche' for the community leaders to have to use!

The forms included in the book for basic check ups and keeping medical records will be helpful in the future when we set up a clinic. I can't emphasize what a straight forward, useful, and practical book this is. If you intend to work anywhere in a developing country, with health or not, you need this book.

When we visit my wife's village in Ghana, this is almost the first thing that we pack. Anyone travelling to the less developed parts of the world should take a copy - and leave it there with someone who can use it. This is probably the most widely used medical reference book in the world - it has been translated into 80 languages. Its simple language, clear explanations and illustrations make essential medical knowledge accessible to anyone with basic literacy. The diagnostic charts are very straightforward and make it easy for a lay person to distinguish between diseases which can be easily confused. The treatments described are completely appropriate for village conditions. There is considerable emphasis on preventative health care and on health education. Anyone familiar with village life in underdeveloped countries will acknowledge that this book is an extraordinary achievement. For those who complain that it is not relevant to the United States: the book was written for "those who live far from medical centers, in places where there is doctor". However there is plenty of information which *is relevant* to a North American audience, particularly the section on nutrition. Anyone backpacking or camping in the more remote regions of the US would benefit from taking this a long.

Excellent book for people traveling to relatively undeveloped countries to help people there. Not the best book for do it yourself medicine unless you will be very far out in the wilderness and have almost no previous nowledge. This books deals with things like basic hygiene, and how to avoid cavities by not eating sugar and instead eating a balanced diet. It can be used by someone who is semi-literate in English.

Brilliant. No, not the plot, which is certainly above average, but mostly typical of a good suspense thriller. What's brilliant about Robert Harris' "Fatherland" is the concept. The events of this suspense thriller are set in 1964, in post World War II Germany. Nothing unusual so far. Until you realize that Germany has won the war, Europe is dominated by the victorious German reich, and that celebrations are underway for Hitler's 75th birthday. It is this alternate history that makes "Fatherland" a thriller that stands out from the average.

Is it plausible? Harris is well-qualified to write such an alternate history, having written a well-researched non-fiction book on Hitler. In fact the events of "Fatherland" are mostly rooted in history, as Harris notes at the end of the book that many of the characters whose names are used in this novel actually existed, and many of the documents quoted in the text are authentic. The novel centers around the historic Wannsee Conference of 1942, where Hitler's top men met to decide on a permanent solution to the Jewish question: extermination in the horrific gas chambers in places like Auschwitz.

The plot itself is credible and fast moving, although those who are offended by vulgar language, blasphemy and immorality will find these occurring rather too frequently. Xavier March is a criminal investigator who is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery around the body of an old man found floating in a lake outside Berlin. His investigation leads him to discover a series of deaths of high ranking officials. Together with Charlotte Maguire, an American journalist, he uncovers the chilling truth and the heart of the dark conspiracy behind these deaths. But can March and Maguire escape the German reich with a story about a secret so horrible that Hitler's men have done everything possible to remove all trace of? And if they are caught, can they withstand the torture that is sure to follow?

The concept of a political cover-up, government conspiracy in at the highest level, and those threatening to expose it being silenced with death, is not a new concept. But by dressing this concept in new garments of an alternate history, Harris has created a novel that surpasses the average suspense thriller. The alternate history is in many respects fictional, but at its core it is about a horrible reality that is just as shocking today as it was when it was conceived in 1942. In producing "Fatherland", Harris has fathered a novel with a concept so brilliant, that the chilling non-fiction aspects of its story become all the more shocking. And that's why this is a novel not worth missing.

Berlin, 1964.
20 years have passed since Germany's victory over the Allies in World War II. Adolf Hitler has been in power for 31 years, his 75th birthday nears, and a summit meeting between the Fuhrer and President Kennedy has been announced.
This is the intriguing scenario presented by British journalist-novelist Robert Harris in his first novel, Fatherland.
Harris' novel, unlike Peter Tsouras' Disaster at D-Day: The Germans Defeat the Allies, June 1944, doesn't offer us a very detailed 'alternative history' of the Second World War, which perhaps would have been the easy way out for a lesser writer. Instead, Harris smartly teases us with little glimpses at how Germany could have won the war while still losing its collective soul.
Fatherland's plot revolves around Xavier March, a former U-boat skipper who has joined the German police, which has been under SS control since the mid-1930s. On a rainy April morning, March has been called to investigate what seems to be a routine incident ' a corpse has been found in the Havel River near the area where high Nazi party officials have their mansions.
Of course, if you have read political-police thrillers such as Gorky Park or Archangel, you know there will be nothing routine about this investigation. For this corpse's identity is none other than Doctor Josef Buhler, one of the earliest Nazi party members and former state secretary in the General Government, the part of Poland directly annexed by the Third Reich during the war. Before long, March (who is not a Nazi party member, just a dogged investigator) will follow Buhler's seemingly routine death down a dark and winding path that will lead him to Germany's darkest and best kept secret of all.
For history buffs, this book is a fascinating look at what a mid-1960s Nazi Germany might have been like. Harris paints a chilling portrait of a country still at war with what remains of the Soviet Union while in a cold war with a nuclear-armed United States. Berlin is imagined as Hitler and his architect Albert Speer would have rebuilt it at war's end (in the frontispiece there is an artist's rendering of Hitler's vision for his capital), and readers will shudder with horror to see how far the Nazis' indoctrination of children extended.
Harris keeps things going at a brisk pace, never boring readers or insulting their intelligence. His fictional characters interact with historical characters (although, of course, their fates ended up differently in real life, thank goodness) in a believable fashion. Of course, this type of novel requires willing suspension of disbelief, but it is well-written and, in the end, eye-opening.

I was immediately intrigued with the premise behind Robert Harris' novel Fatherland. What would have happened if Hitler's Germany had won World War II? The reader is taken to Berlin, 1964, which has become a sort of Shangra-la for Europe. U.S. President Kennedy has agreed to come to Berlin for a peace summit, and the capital is swarming with tourists and citizens ready to observe the 75th birthday of Hitler. During all this, though, the body of a high-ranking Nazi is washed up on a shore. Detective Xavier March, a former U-boat captain and SS Sturmbannfuhrer, is dispatched to investigate. His investigation uncovers an old conspiracy among high-ranking Nazis. March, who is not the cold, unhuman Nazi that is common in his country, teams up with an American Journalist, Charlotte Maguire, to find proof and escape alive.

There were many good things about this book. Its setting is very realistic and depressing, its characters range from the intrepid March to the evil Globus, a former Concentration Camp commander who is determined to end March's investigation, to Maguire, the journalist who wants the truth. Although I enjoyed the book very much, I would have liked more details on the resolution of the war, but this book will both frighten and delight. I loved this book and think that you will love it too.