I ordered this quite a long time, and don't understand what took me so long in reviewing it.

As others have said, this book is amazing. The photographs are simply timeless and beautiful. I can't quite describe the vibe that it captures or conveys, but I found myself somewhat saddened by the book. The pictures kind of struck a whole "Dead Poet's Socitey," "Carpe Diem" mood with me. At the same time, they conveyed the beauty of a time in California (or for that matter, the U.S.) that is forever lost and will never be recaptured. A time of innocence and naivete, before everything became so tainted, jaded, and overcrowded.

I don't know, maybe that's just a crock. At any rate, as a surfer of 20 years, this book really touched me. I think it will touch any fellow surfer, or for that matter, ocean lover.

Definitely pick this one up before it goes out of print (as these things so swiftly seem to do).

The faces and images have me so stoked! I have new found repect for the pre-war surfers, they paved the way, building on Duke's foundation.It also gives such a good historical perspective on the pre-war So. Cal. surf scene. It's bittersweet to see that so many of these lives and times were to be selflessly lost in the impending war. It also shows what a utopic place it must have been before the yuppies & developers destroyed so many fabulous spots. Something that magic can never last, it seems.A must for any surfer or red blooded Californian. A delight!

I've had this book for a while, and I'm ordering more for Christmas gifts.

I recently got the wonderful "Riding the Rails," about teens during the depression who hopped freights to go Huck Finning. My father did this and wound up hanging out at "The Big Rock," which wasn't in San Onofre, but in Malibu. But conditions were similar: then, you really could camp out on the beach.

Like an idiot, I let my Dad pass on before asking him the details of those years. Now, the best I can do are secondary sources. But these help me reconstruct a picture of that world of his that ended with World War II.

Around the world, there is a stereotype of Southern California, which is immediately dashed upon visiting Hollywood Boulevard. However, the stereotype isn't so much lie as anachronism.

There really was a world that matched the current anachronism that is still the image of Southern California. Get this book, and you'll understand what I mean.

Donald Bartlett and James Steel's book, "Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes" is an excellent example of journalistic reporting converted into book form. The book is simply fascinating. The authors accomplish the gargantuan task of separating fact from fiction in the very complex life of Howard Hughes. "Empire" is impeccably researched and documented; It is a bona fide biography that reads more like fiction than real life-such was the world of Howard Hughes.

"Empire" traces the rise and tragic fall of Howard Hughes; a man who wore many hats, he was an aviator, Hollywood movie producer, Las Vegas hotel/casino owner ... and a recluse. For one brief shining moment, Hughes was considered one of America's premier aviators, breaking flying records, but then falling out of grace with government and the aviation industry for breaking contract deadlines. In the long run, Howard Hughes would become a grand failure in the world of big business.

Bartlett and Steel show the reader a man who had everything to live for, good looks, fame, fortune, power and prestige, but he was unable to triumph over his social and physical phobias that led to psychological, emotional, and physical illnesses and to his final descent into the dwellings of the insane. Hughes' deep mistrust of all people-even family, worked against him and led to his demise and the lose of his billion dollar empire by the very people whose job it was to safeguard him and his empire.

By the time I finished reading "Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes", I was much more accepting of my status as a non wealthy individual. Although Howard Hughes had everything a man could possibly wish for, he was underprivileged in peace of mind.... The authors do a superb job in separating fact from myth in the life of Howard Hughes. The book is worth reading.

"Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes" is indeed an empire within itself. This book manages to expose the life of a very seceretive and private man of power who lived in his own unique way in the world. An incredible book about an incredible man...

This is the first book I had read about Mr. Hughes. A wonderful book. At times slightly more detailed than I would like.. Buts lots of great information about truly one of the most interesting characters of the 20th century.

I already have "Take Care of Yourself" and I worried that it would be essentially the same information-- trust me its not, this is an excelent resourse for a home with children. It also includes a section on Parent Skills which covers Pregnancy, Labor, newborn care, growth and development, personality development, school, finding a health care provider,staying healthy and your home pharmacy. Then theres the section of common complaints (emergency, injury, poison, allergies, fever,ect.) And the third section is a space for family records. I'm glad I have both books, but I'm most glad I have Taking Care of Your Child. It was definatly worth it.

We too, received an earlier version of this book back when our first child was born. We have used this book so often the pages are worn down and out and we needed a new copy. We were both surprized and happy to see many more editions have been released and updated since our copy. We had absolutely no hesitation in purchasing a copy. We have used this book more often than anything and is a constant companion, also when we go on vacation. This is a great gift to give a first time parent and is very basic for the non-medical people in your household. An all round great book for reference and reading. Each area describes in detail the symptoms of common medical problems. The hospital should give you a copy of this book to every parent when they leave the hospital. I guess we will wear out this book too any buy another in 12 years.

I was a typical new Mommy in May of 99. I would panic at the smallest things in my son. This book lists various symptoms of ailments and has a decision tree as to when you must call the doctor. This prevented me from making unnecessary calls to my advice nurse and doctor's office. I LOVE this book and will give a copy to all my friends who are expecting or already have a new baby.

This beautiful little book contains just a few of Borges' best works from his 1944 work Ficciones (also widely available in the 1964 collection of English translations entitled Labyrinths).

It also includes important later works of Borges, Nightmares and Blindness (transcriptions of two lectures from 1977).

His own worst nightmare involves discovering the King of Norway, with his sword and his dog, sitting at the foot of Borges' bed. "Retold, my dream is nothing; dreamt, it was terrible." Such is the power of describing, of reading this father of modern literature.

In Blindness, he examines his own loss of sight in the context of examining poetry itself. In a story right out of, well, Borges, he discusses his appointment as Director of a library at the very time he has lost his reading sight. (Two other Directors are also blind.)

"No one should read self-pity or reproach
into this statement of the majesty
of God; who with such splendid irony
granted me books and blindness at one touch."

This lecture is a moving (and brief, just 15 pages) ode to poetry . If one wants ironic context, just consider that these lectures on Nightmares and Blindness were delivered in Buenos Aires at the height of the State of Siege of the Argentine Generals.

...

It seems alternately true and false that Jorge Luis Borges lives inside each of his writings in a completely symbiotic or photosynthetic way, feeding off his own product until the man and his work are indistinguishable; the man never seemed to be able to detach himself from his story and simply write, and yet at times his expected voicing disappears and one might believe another author has usurped Borges' pen to complete another metaphysic tale. Borges wore many masks, and that fact is acknowledged by the man himself here, in the tiny, fascinating "Borges and I," in which Stevenson is both invoked and mentioned, crafting a Jekyll-and-Hydean bit of self-awareness with the unmistakable tango twist of Borges' playful Argentinian idiom. Everything and Nothing is a sampler of Borges' finest work from his fiction and nonfiction batteries, which are almost indistinguishable. They overflow with Borges' fascination with logic, labyrinths, language, and the relation between the three (for a fine nonfiction work in this vein, read Poundstone's Labyrinth of Reason) and how they figure in philosophy and metaphysics. For a more whole view of Borges, try the new large collections of his work, but for a tiny glance at the genius of this literary superstar, Everything and Nothing is perfect.

The indefinability of the self and the multiplicity of personal identity are the main lines of thought connecting these 11 pieces of excellent literature, among the finest of Borges's. An author of short fiction stories, essayist and poet -though perhaps too much of a thinker for poetry-, Borges is, without hesitation, one of the greatest writers of all time. This careful, well-thought selection gives a brilliant account of one of Borges's conspicuous, recurrent themes: the difficulty of defining self-identity, since a man's distinctive features, whether mental, physical or even metaphysical, are not unique to him. As in some of the most noted masterpieces of literature, the philosophical substrate provides the background for fascinating and intriguing stories, frequently trespassing the fantastic or the bizarre. So, we witness the struggle of an early 20th Century French novelist to write The Quixote -not a contemporary version of Cervantes's renowned work, but the original -- and succeeding! We have the occasion to come to terms with the strange world of Tlön and its uncanny understanding of reality, as shown by its diverse, odd languages. The Lottery of Babylon gives every man the opportunity to become rich, powerful and exultant...or appallingly miserable and abject -by chance? The Garden of Forking Paths is a legacy of innumerable futures -which, however, does not include all of them. Death and the Compass displays the confrontation of a detective with his murderer, whom he is chasing, in a labyrinth of clues spread throughout space and time. The brief historical and literary essays concerning the elusive and somewhat contradictory character of the Emperor of China, builder of the Great Wall and destructor of books, and the precursors of Kafka, paving the way for something they ignore and being later re-created, explore the indefinability of man's essence, in much the same way as the previous fiction stories, since one never knows quite what are the limits between fiction and fact, both inside and out of Borges's work. Borges and I and Everything and Nothing -the latter is the original title by the author in English, though the work was written, as the rest of the compilation, in Spanish- express succinctly the core argument of the book, raising an uneasy metaphysical question: Whereas man may not know exactly who he is, does God know? Finally, two conferences given by Borges close the volume, turning to episodes from Borges's own life, in order to resume somehow the book's contents by invoking the fantastic worlds of dreams -rather, of nightmares- and of blindness, that suggest a vaster and more weird reality with perhaps blurrier limits than we can possibly understand. However, there is space for man if we are able to accept what we cannot understand, as a starting point for creating our own-made life.

Since 1977 the small group of North American Christian monastics, monks and nuns, have established exchanges with non-Christian monastics, principally Buddhists but also with Hindus and Moslems. Attempting to identify both similarities and differences in practice rather than examine dogmas, this Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (MID) group sponsored speakers, programs and publications, and eventually engaged in sending small groups of members to visit the exiled Tibetan monastics, followers of the Dalai Lama, in India, and brought representatives from India to visit American and Canadian monasteries.
The Gethsamani Encounter was designed to extend the mutual understanding these former programs had developed to a still deeper level. It lasted almost a week. Participants were restricted to twenty-five Christians and twenty-five Buddhists from all parts of the world. The site chosen was Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky, a Trappist monastery whose most well-known member, Thomas (Brother Louis) Merton had died just twenty-five years earlier. He was one of a small group of pioneer Christians interested in Buddhism and died just shortly after having met the Dalai Lama. This confluence of place, history and dates made Gethsemani ideal for this meeting.
This book presents all of the Buddhist and Christian papers presented in multiple sessions daily. Often a group of papers would cluster around a particular theme (meditation; training) and would not only expose the common themes but especially the distinctive notes of each special group--different Buddhist lineages; various Christian groups. Presenters came from the U.S. and Canada, Europe, India, Burma, Cambodia, Japan and other areas giving presentations which inspired, informed and clarified. They also exposed questions and themes still needing more penetration. Consequently the contents of this publication are not only unique but they also supply a high level watershed from which further clarity and mutuality can emerge. The editors, themselves participants in the encounter, James Wiseman, OSB and Donald Mitchell are specialists who make the contents of the papers accessible to the uninitiated and informative to the specialist. This book is without parallel and is meaningful for both the person seriously interested in Buddhism, Christianity, monasticism and East-West exchanges and those who are unfamiliar with the material but ready to become richly informed.

The Gethsemani Encounter was perhaps one of the great overlooked religious moments in the past decade. In the hills of Kentucky, in the oldest Trappist monastery in the United States,monastics from all over the world gathered to dialogue,to learn,to agree and disagree.The meeting place was suggested By The Dalai Lama,who in a moving afterword says"And so for the rest of my life,the impact of meeting him will remain until my last breath."The him is Thomas Merton, who met with the Dalai Lama on his final journey through the east in 1968.The talks in this book are broken up into sections{Journey and Dialogue,Prayer and Medidtation,Method and Expierence, Growth and Development,etc.} with speakers from both Buddhist and Christian monastic tradition sharing their expierence and strength. Some of the participants are truly moving: Ven. Maha Ghosananda of Cambodia speaking briefly on THE HUMAN FAMILY,the dalia lama on THE BODHISATTVA AND SOCIETY,,PRAYER AS PATH by Pierre-francios de bethune`Mary Margaret Funk,OSB on Lectio DIVINA,and many more. An over used term, treasure trove is quite appropriate. This is a collection to return to, to glean ,to nurture the soul.TO Open This volume isto enter a holy place . Truly magnificent.

SET IN MERTON'S ABBEY IN TRAPPIST, KY, THIS BOOK FINDS THE BASIS AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN TWO PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES THAT ARE USUALLY THOUGHT TO BE DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED. A NEW LOOK FOR MATURE RELIGIOUS THINKING.

First of all I should note that this is an interactive CD Rom, not a book. It is however based on the Sybex text of the same title. I recommend using this product in conjunction with MCSE Windows 2000 Pro. for Dummies. I found they complimented each other rather well, as the Dummies book was based more on the Authors real world experience as opposed to the CD's facts and figures. The CD features an array of practice questions, assessment tools and of course interactive animation. The only downside to the product is that it is riddled with spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and the occasional misprint. Overall, I found this product to be of great benefit. If you're looking for value for money, I strongly recommend adding this item to your shopping basket (but don't put all your eggs in the same basket, especially if you're new to MCSE).

This is all you need to obtain your certification, there is no need to purchase an additional book. But it is helpful for the times you are away from your computer. I spent 2 hours a day for 2 weeks and I aced my exam!

This is a computer program. I tried doing a search through software and it would not show up. While it is great to have this under books for searches, and I agree it should be there to, but first and formost this book should show up under a software search.

A new 8th edition has been published. But this is definately the Bible of Respiratory Care.

This is the "Bible of Respiratory Therapy" as once said by my professor. It's a great learning tool that should be used at all colleges offering the respiratory program. I'll always keep this book around no matter what.

The Egan's manual for respiratory therapy is the most benificial learning tool and reference manual that I have come across in all of my career. The information in this book is not only easy to understand but layed out in a manner that makes finding what you need an easy task. It gives a thorough review of all the important clinical data and physical characteristics needed to become a competent practitioner. The information in this book is explained in a very simple form which makes it easy to understand and retain the material that is covered. I would recommend this book as a refence tool to any student pursuing a career as a nurse, respiratory therapist, or physician. While this book may apply specific emphasis to the respiratory related field, it will reinforce your nursing or medicinal background by examining disease processes from a cardiopulmonary standpoint. This book has been a valuable learning tool and greatly aided me in both respiratory and nursing related classes and God willing as medical student. Best wishes to all and I hope you enjoy your read.

James Wright was of course one of the 20th century's great master poets. Each poem in this book bears his stamp of completely precise, beautiful communication. His writing can teach about the art. It does, though, seem kind of pretentious to me the way this one approach to poetry, which has its sense in it, is the only way for the words to be poetry, which James Wright must have believed or he wouldn't have done it that same way every time.

This collection of Wright's work includes his experiments with formal blank verse, translations of German poets, experimental prose pieces, and characteristic free verse that made him one of America's strongest national poets with a regional identity. Wright's topics range from the pastoral landscape of people, wildlife, and industry near his Ohio hometown to the philosophical challenges of individuality, death, renewal, and union. The gray mountains, coal trains, steel bridges and murky Ohio River take their places beside docile horses, musical insects and colorful characters. But never does Wright falter to the mere reporting of a landscape through his poetry; the vision is always fresh, exacting, tense, and redemptive. I have used his work with many of my English students, and the feedback is celebratory. If you are a fan of poetry or a student of the craft, familiarize yourself with this book. Donald Hall's wonderful preface does justice to one of America's most fondly remembered poets.

James Wright's mastery of the traditional formal elements of poetry coupled with his contemporary and timeless themes makes his collection of poetry one of the best I have ever read. The first reading of his works leaves the reader wondering. The second brings comprehension. The third and any subsequent readings mesmerize as Wright's web of imagery and contemplation becomes more intricate. It is a shame that more readers do not know of his fascinating works.

When I first read this book by James, I was preparing to write an essay on Melville and his "isolatoes." James gives ample evidence for establishing the reasons why some of the protagonists appear elusive, enigmatic, and, of course, reclusive. I found this text quite helpful in its explanations of why Melville portrayed his male characters the way he chose; perhaps James own exile for passport violations sets up the framework for presenting his theories on the characters he analyzes. The work is a fine read, although the socialist commentary remains controversial.

C.L.R. James's analysis of Moby Dick brings the book to life and makes it understandable for a 21st century audience. You'll read "Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways, and want to immediately run out and read Moby Dick and Melville's other classics. James argues that Melville used the novel to explore dramatic changes in the fabric of American culture including the rise of industrial capitalism, the international working class, and the increasingly savage character of political and industrial life and leadership.

C.L.R. James wrote this book while he was interned with the newest generation of "Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways" on Ellis Island awaiting deportation. James's fate--that of a foreigner who offers the finest existing interpretation of one of America's greatest books and is still deported--serves as a cautionary tale for our own times. James concludes, "What the writing of this book has taught the writer is the inseparability of great literature and of social life."

This book is more than a little bit of early Postcolonial writing. The intoduction by Donald Pease is new, and the last chapter - an autobiographical sketch and personal appeal by James - was omitted from a previous edition. In terms of literary criticism, this is what Pease has to say about James and his writing: "He was one of the few critics who emerged from the Third World in the 1950's and traveled throughout Britain and the United States generating what are now called post-colonial readings." The real value of this book however is in its brilliant reinterpretation of MOBY DICK.

Rather than see Ahab and Ishmael as representing respectively "totalitarian" and "American" cultural themes as critics in the 1950's saw it, James offers a vison focused on the Pequod and its crew. A view in which the MARINERS, RENEGADES & CASTAWAYS of the ship were at the mercy of their Captain. In James' interpretaion the Pequod is a factory ship and the crew are the workers. Ahab is no longer a mere sailor but is now illustrative of a "Captain of industry."

I agree with the reviewer from New Haven regarding the peculiar situation James found himself in. The established interpretation of a Cold War allegory was in keeping with the times in the 1950's. If James or Melville himself were writing today, the interpretation on offer here - rather than something to be persecuted for - would be considered far more plausible than the narrow and blinkered view of the 1950's mainstream critics.

Its amazing how quickly we forget our leaders. After serving 31 years in Congress, running one of the most likeable Presidential campaigns in history, and nearly getting elected majority leader of the U.S. House of Represenatives, Democrat Morris Udall's political career was cruelly and tragically brought to a halt by Parkinson's disease. Once famed as perhaps the wittiest man in Congress (as well as one of the most effective), Udall died seven years after his retirement -- his sterling wit permanently silenced as the disease robbed him of his ability to speak. Most tragically, this man who -- with his brother Stewart -- co-founded both the current conservation movement and America's first Mormon political clan, died a forgotten figure, remembered only by a few political junkies like myself. Fortunately, however, Donald Carson and James Johnson have produced a wonderfully engaging biography of this man that gives us a warts-and-all portrait of a remarkable public servant. While giving ample reason why the man was so beloved, they also don't flinch from revealing why Morris Udall ultimately remained a mystery to even his own family. Unlike other political biographies, this book neither sets out to debunk or canonize Rep. Udall but instead stands as a sharp portrait of a complex man whose public service -- whether you agreed with his liberal politics or not (I certainly don't) -- made this country a better place.

Written in a breezy, conversational tone that still manages to maintain a proper biographical distance, Mo follows Udall from his strict Mormon childhood in Arizona to his first election to the U.S. House. While a great deal of the book focuses on Udall's legislative achievements -- Udall was an environmentalist before it become trendy -- the best of the early chapters deal with Udall as a liberal upstart setting out to reform the stodgy House. As Udall himself would often wryly point out, his political life was often a bizarre tragic comedy of second-place finishes that ultimately became victories for others. Both of Udall's insurgent campaigns for both Speaker and Majority Leader ended in failure but sparked the revolution that overthrew (however briefly) the Congressional seniority system. The book's highlight is the detailing of Udall's 1976 campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination where he managed to finish second in a record number of primaries without ever once finishing first. If Udall didn't set the electorate on fire, he did distinguish himself by revealing himself to be one of the most genuinely witty Presidential wanna-bes to ever pop up on a primary ballot (or, as one columnist put it, "Is Morris Udall to funny to be President?" That's the 70s talking. As of late, some genuine and intentional humor in American politics would be a bit of a relief, I'd think.) The campaign made Udall famous for his wit but as this biography reveals, that wit often concealed a rather distant temperment that so focused on work that even his own children grew up calling him "Mo." As a politician, Udall was that rare thing -- an honest and sincere compassionate liberal who actually saw big government as a way to help the downtrodden. Yet this same man who dedicated his life to helping strangers drove one wife to divorce and another to alcoholism and suicide. The dichotomy makes for a fascinating read and Carson and Johnson explore these issues without ever descending into lurid muckracking. The book concludes with a touching (and quite frankly heartbreaking) section dealing with Udall's final, brave, and tragic battle with Parkinson's Disease (which, as I read it, was also sadly reminicent of Ronald Reagan's -- another politician never given the respect that was his due -- current battle with Alzheimer's; another nefarious disease that, like Parkinson's, cruelly robs men and women of their dignity without reason or warning.)

Despite the fact that, politically, I'm probably about as far to the right as the late Congressman Morris Udall was to the left, I still find myself mourning the comically tragic failure of his 1976 campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination. As the election was the first post-Watergate election and the Republican Party was going through one of its periodic near-deaths, the election of a Democrat was pretty much assured. All Udall had to do was win the nomination and, for four years at least, a one-eyed, 6'5, former probasketball player and nonpracticing Mormon named Mo Udall would have been President. Of course, the nomination didn't go to Udall but instead went to the far less witty Jimmy Carter. Considering the way the world was in the late 70s, its doubtful Udall would have had any a better time of it than Carter but instead of hearing that America's problems were due to "malaise," a President Udall would at least find time to tell at least one corny, Ayatollah joke. And, even if the voters didn't realize it at the time, America would have been better off for that joke. Just as its now better off to have this book to remember Morris Udall by.

Every student of U.S. politics or Arizona history should read this book. Carson and Johnson thoroughly and brilliantly chronicle the life of a man who profoundly influenced the course of America in ways that politicians of greater renown never did. The authors reveal how Mo Udall could champion the most liberal causes and yet gain the respect of someone as conservative as Barry Goldwater. Read this book and you'll wonder what turns America might have taken had Udall fulfilled his dream of becoming president.

This meticulously researched and scholastically outstanding biography of Morris Udall follows his life and political times, focussing on his career, his 30-year congressional history, and his radical challenges to seniority systems. Recommended for anyone studying contemporary American politics in general and House/Senate politics in particular, Mo is a "must" for the legions of Mo Udall supporters and admirers.