I read about the Phaidon 55S series in Popular Photography and thought I would check out the volume on Mary Ellen Mark. I have been drawn to her photographs for years and had recently seen an exhibition of her work in NYC. She has Walker Evan's gift for capturing moments in people's lives and she finds the life beyond the smile or grimace of the subject.Her subjects are lively and a bit wicked at times, but there is supreme truth in her photographs. This series gets its title from the fact that each book has 55 photos by the subject. The price is excellent for someone who wants to collect some great art for a low price. Great introduction to a talented artist....highly recommended.

Summary: These black-and-white images are produced on wonderful paper and with great quality. They explore the underlying human qualities we all share. The work is introduced by a Maya Angelou poem, and is concluded by an excellent essay in which Ms. Mark explains her work. Her subjects are mostly people of the economic and social underclasses as they pursue their hopes and dreams, while dealing with their day-to-day problems. Viewing these photographs will draw you closer to people who, on the surface, are quite different from you. The models are often captured over time and in alternative settings to help explain their lives and personalities.

Content Caution: The images in this book contain a few involving minor female nudity that would earn its contents an R rating if it were a motion picture.

Review:

"I note the obvious differences

in the human family."

" . . . but we are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike." -- Maya Angelou

The theme of this poem nicely captures the focus of this book of loving photographic images. As Ms. Mark says, "I much prefer to photograph people I care about." She wants to "build a rapport with my subjects." In studying them, "I am guided by what moves and surprises me." That final element will affect you as well. Too often, we mentally pass by those around us. Ms. Mark's images make us want to reach out with our hearts and minds.

The book shows people from all parts of America over the period from 1963 through 1999. The photographs portray all kinds of races, creeds, colors, and political and sexual persuasions. Ideas that you may not like are portrayed involving people you will probably find appealing. That juxtaposition of people and issues will cause you to rethink how you relate to others. It will probably make you more modest and humble, and that's good. Special themes involve the mentally ill, twins, homelessness, beauty contests, political rallies, and families over time.

My favorite images in the book are as follows:

Santa Claus at Lunch, New York City, 1963;

Marky Mark concert, Jersey City, New Jersey, 1993;

Hot Tub, West Orange, New Jersey, 1999;

Bodybuilder, Daytona Beach, Florida, 1991;

Russell, Kansas, 1986;

Mary Frances in the tub, Ward 81, Salem, Oregon, 1976;

Jail, Houston, Texas, 1977;

Husband and wife, Harland County, Kentucky, 1971;

Jesse Damm, Llano, California, 1994;

Hurstie Laxton after the flood, St. Louis, Missouri, 1993;

Million Youth March, New York City, 1998;

Lakiesha, South Dallas, Texas, 1988;

Clinton Albright and his father, Santa Clarita, California, 1982;

Nightclub off of Highway 61, Michigan, 1991;

Vashira and Tashira Hargrove, twins, H.E.L.P. Shelter, Suffolk, New York, 1993; and

Tiny, pregnant, Seattle, Washington, 1985.

After you see these photographs, you will probably agree with Ms. Mark that she has been on "a long and blessed journey" that has opened her heart and ours.

Seeing these photographs should encourage you to become acquainted with people you see who you would normally not think to speak to. Try living that way for a day. If you enjoy the experience, keep on going -- taking it . . . one day at a time.

Find the common ground . . . wherever you go!

I was fortunate enough to see the exhibition of these photographs at the International Center of Photography a few days ago. If you can, go to see the show before it closes. If you can't, buy this book and get a glimpse at the power of a photograph.

Though no expert, I enjoy the art of photography. I am particularly interested in portraits of real people. Mary Ellen Mark has the ability to capture people with extra-ordinary depth and feeling. Almost without fail, her images are moving. With a skill beyond the normal artist, however, her images have the ability to be thought-provoking.

Consider a photo labelled "Aryan Nations, Hayden Lake, Idaho, 1986." Three pleasant-looking, smiling women--the cherubic face of the woman on the far right particularly draws the eye--set in counterpoint to their white supremacist garb. Or consider the series of photographs of Tiny who has clearly experienced many things in her life but who face, amazingly, holds the same soul in each image. Or consider the contrast between the photographs of Julie d'Aquili and Cynthia Galves despite their similar poses. Julie is a healthy young woman but her somber expression stands out starkly against the cancer-ridden Cynthia who still manages a smile.

I believe that I could write something about every single photograph in this collection. Let me instead just say that these photographs will grip you and hold your attention for hours. You will come back to them again and again. And, unlike reproductions of paintings in a book, photographs do not suffer from the process nearly as much. I would encourage anyone with an interest in photography to take a look at this book.

To all those who are looking for a photographic atlas of anatomy, LOOK NO FURTHER THAN McMINN's. This atlas has dissections and photos that are the epitomy of anatomical science. The book itself is beautifully organized into logical sections that integrate osteology, myology, and anatomy into a comprehensive package. After I read this book, I was ready for anything my professors could dish out on practicals. However, for written (theoretical) anatomy, you will need a descriptive atlas (I recommend Grant's). All in all, this book is extremely useful, and I recommend it to any allied health student who has to take anatomy.

The photos in this atlas could be exhibited in an art gallery: the dissections are pure class and the photography is breathtaking. I had no problems whatsoever identifying what was what because (1) there aren't arrows all over the place (the features are labelled with numbers) and (2) the size and resolution of the images are life-size or close (not those tiny pictures in other atlases and previous editions of this atlas). For the head and neck, no atlas can come close: the photos are exceptionally good (even for an atlas of this class) and show different perspectives of the same aspect in good quantity. Quantity however is the downside for the rest of the atlas. Although the photographs are great, there aren't really enough pictures for you to have a satisfying review session. It's probably this fact, and the high price of this book, that has caused Rohen & Yokochi's colour atlas to head the market in its stead. Rohen & Yokochi is a great atlas, but McMinn's is a GREAT atlas. If there were only more photos in McMinn's, all other atlases would be out of print.

This CD is just fantastic ! Being a medical student... I was in total awe when Professor Peter Abrahams presented this to our class. Never was my attention so focused on one thing. I highly recommend this CD to any person in the medical field and who is interested in having an excellent grasp on the Anatomy of the Human Body. This CD gives a 3D aspect on every aspect of the human body - bones, muscles, joints etc and that's just the beginning. This is definitely one you should have as part of your medical resources.

This book was great i read every one of his adventures. I got realy mad when i heard some librarys were banning the book. :(

I bought the original work of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn for my 8-year-old and while he reads on a very elevated level, the original had language too difficult to decipher. However, he was interested in the story so I bought this abridged version and he loved it.

Jack Lemon takes a rare and wonderful turn at narrating in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This adaptation of the Twain classic seems crisper, capturing the feel of youth. It has never sounded better. The spry Mr. Lemon breathes life into this worn classic. This is a keeper for all ages.

Charles Lummis is a very interesting person in American and Southwest history, but author Thompson goes way beyond what most biographers would do and produced a richly researched and highly readable story. I read this book in my car, under a streetlight, while my wife attended a Christmas function. Does that tell you how interesting it is? I've passed Lummis's home/museum thousands of times but never visited--now I will.

Mark Thompson's long & deeply researched biography of a forgotten, complex American born just before the Civil War, is fascinating. Over a long & restless life, Charles Lummis became a poet, prolific letter writer, journalist, photographer, archaeologist, editor, champion of Spanish heritage in the Americas, & Indian Rights advocate - the classic workaholic of the late 19th & early 20th Centuries.

It was his TRAMP ACROSS THE CONTINENT in 1884, which he weekly serialized in newspaper articles, that catapulted him into the public's eye. In time, as his assignments for the newly-formed Los Angeles Times, took him deeper into the Southwest which would capture his heart & soul, & closer to the American Indians for whom he would advocate mightily, he caught the ear of a President. Theodore Roosevelt came to consider Lummis a vital part of his "cowboy cabinet," & often invited him to Washington. Lummis enjoyed a life-long influence, via his editorials & many books, on the way Americans thought of themselves.

In this era of bland plasticity, AMERICAN CHARACTER, reminds us of how individualistic, passionate, offensive & charming our forefathers were. It also reminds us of how devastating was our impact upon the people & the land in a time when a man could bemoan the wholesale slaughter of buffalo & Indians, while not batting an eye as he shot other critters just for the thrill of it!

In the light of today's political correctness, Charles Fletcher Lummis' love life was as gilded with misogyny as you would expect from a man of his time - he kept his first marriage secret all through his Harvard years. As in every other aspect of his life, his thirst for affection & companionship was both utilitarian & fascinatingly eccentric.

AMERICAN CHARACTER: Charles Fletcher Lummis & the Rediscovery of the Southwest, has been named by the Western Writers of America as Winner of the 2002 Spur Award in the biography category.

Charles Fletcher Lummis was a phenomenon--journalist, poet, cross-country tramp, outdoorsman, hunter, newspaper and magazine editor, historian, archaeologist, folklorist, photographer, publicist, Indian rights activist, librarian, preservationist, museum founder, and prodigious lover of dozens of beautiful women. His life story makes for fascinating reading. This book is marred by some factual errors (a "new millennium" did not begin in 1900, and the territory of the Chiricahua Apaches was not "as big as Europe"), but the errors are mostly inconsequential (this is popular history, not a scholarly treatise). Thompson has told a great story, and he has done it very well.

Warrior Scarlet is one of my favourite Sutcliffs, and Knight's Fee is also a good read, but The Mark of the Horselord beats them both. It's one of those "Wow" books - ones that you keep thinking and thinking about for long after you've read it. Rosemary Sutcliff portrays excellently how a person, even coming from and living through some terrible situations, can rise to the occasion and truly make a difference in the lives around them, making choices not because they are comfortable, but because they are what must be done. I like characters whom I can really respect, despite our differences in situation.

I agree with another reviewer: We MUST reprint this book!

I have been an avid fan of Rosemary Sutcliff for at least 30 years...Her novel Sword at Sunset is,to me,the finest and the most believable of the accounts of King Arthur without all the romanticism attached to most versions..She has such a rare gift that I read this book at least once a year and never tire of it!...Mark of the Horse Lord comes a close second but I have read all her books...even junior novels like The Witches Brat etc...I will be forever grateful to Ms.Sutcliff !

I have read all three of the books in this collection, and they are all really wonderful. Warrior Scarlet is still in print here in the U.S. and is a marvelous introduction to Bronze Age Britian for young adult readers. Knight's Fee is still in print in the U.K., and I ordered it from an online dealer there. It is set in Norman England, and while it is not my favorite of her novels, it is well written and interesting.

I read Mark of the Horselord 30 years ago, and I have been searching for it since 1995. It is set in Roman Britian, and tells the story of a gladiator slave who becomes a king. This book was written for teens/young adults. It is much more challenging than the muck being written today. The characters are well-fleshed out and memorable (I remembered them for 30 years). It is simply the very best of her novels, and I have read them all. Why this book is not in print is a mystery to me. I know there is a market, at one point the only copy I could find was a paperback that was priced at more than $150.00.

I found a library bound copy through Amazon's Z Shops at a very reasonable price, and reread this book last week. The intervening 30 years has not robbed this book of it's power. I read it slowly, and savored every minute. Find this book. Harass publishers ( I have!). Let's get this book reprinted!

This book is so full of common sense wisdom that you may wonder why you haven't heard it all before. Yet the approach is unique, especially on dealing with addictions. Also, the use of client generated metaphors and imbedded suggestions is very well explained and interesting. I probably have enjoyed this book as much as any on hypnosis. Very enlightening!

The chapter on addiction was unique. The approach taken about the addiction fad was different than other books I have read on the subject. While the book covers a wide range of hypnotherapy topics, including a very good chapter on metaphors as client controlled, the chapter on addictions alone would have made the book worthwile. It is a must read, and was a pleasant surprise to me-much more than I expected!

A good treatise to help understand the very bases of hypno- therapeutic possibilities to help the patients. More a mature way of unserstanding than an elementary book for learning.

The literary criticism you can get from the Oxford edition (check your local library); the commentary is thorough (which parts did Twain write? which parts Warner?) and informative. My reasons for recommending this book have nothing to do with its literary value (spotty) and everything to do with its subtitle. Every now and then an old book teaches us that much of what we take to be modern and sophisticated is truly old hat. One of the best descriptions of the Cold War was written by Thucydides, and one of the best depictions of the go go dot.com economy was written by Twain. Substitute web sites for depots and bandwidth for rails and the conversations in this book could have been overhead on cel phones in San Jose. IPO's and bubbles are not twenty-first century innovations: as Twain shows us,it may be possible to get rich from hard work, but it's more tempting to get rich by looting the pockets of the uninformed. Senator Dilworthy's dedication to pork evokes Byrd, and we learn lecherous behavior in Congress didn't start with Condit. An entertaining validation of Ecclesiates: there truly is nothing new under the sun.

Moving stuff at the start, very funny in spots, and heartily American. The end wasn't all I'd hope for but there is still good stuff up till the end which is hard to do in any book. Like I said in the title, I liked it better than Huck Finn because Huck Finn is more of the kitchy journey story which is too easy whereas this one is not a road trip but a full fleshed tale.

This book, written by Twain and Warner, pokes fun at American society during what they called "the guilded age". This term has stuck and is often used by historians to describe the period 1877-1914. Twain and Warner see this time as one where men care only for money. These men will not work hard, but merely scheme and plot in order to strike it rich. The dialogue in the book is very snappy, the best being when Laura Hawkins arrives in Washington, DC and meets with the other high society ladies. I would recommend this book to anybody interested in United States History, or just those who want to read a good novel. The book can drag at times, but overall is very engrossing.

You are not a pharmacist until you read this book. Nor are you a doctor, lawyer or Indian chief. Every historian, military expert, and anyone with intellectual curiosity will feel compelled to read it.

Those who have read Ayn Rand, George Orwell and Plutarch will include this tome as a lifetime "must read".

Sadly, it is currently out of print.

I first picked up this book in the bargain bin at my college bookstore for only $1.00. It is probably the most interesting non-fiction book I have ever read. Even though it concentrates on the trials and tribulations of aspirin, it gives an interesting picture of over-the-counter drug marketing and promotion during the 20th century. The book is well researched, with liberal footnotes.

The main storyline for the book is about the story of Farbenfabriken Bayer (later IG Farben and Bayer AG) and Sterling Drug, the US owners of the Bayer name (they bought it during an auction of German properties during WWI) It well documents the battle between the two owners of the Bayer name for the Bayer tradmark; a battle that lasted well over 60 years.

One unexpected part of the book was the chapter regarding drug marketing in Latin America. The techniques used there in the mid-20th century closely resemble the patent medicine hucksters in America in the late 1800's.

About the last fourth of the book is dedicated to the recent surge in discoveries of aspirin's use for heart-attacks, stroke, and other clotting related disorders. This is probably the most dry part of the book, but it is still pretty good.

In conclusion this is an excellent book for anyone interested in the history of the drug industry or mass marketing.

Janeway's Immunobiology is probably the best immunology book that someone really interested in immunology should take to the mythical desert island. One can enjoy it by its clarity from the basic graduate courses, and then keep reading it when doing research and pursuing hypothesis on the most advanced immunological topics. Many times I have found better organized and complete information on this book (even the old editions!) than on the latest reviews on specialized journals. The intense and careful work displayed to promote the real understanding on the concepts and the relations between immune components is impressive. Even more, the success in explanation is such that the authour takes the risk to have his book neglected as "too easy" by first time readers. However, immunology researchers in contact with the often chaotic and contradictory immunological literature can really appreciate the incredible amount of critical work invested and the intellectual gift of the author (authors) to abstract complex immune phenomena into nicely designed and biologically precise "cartoons". The focus on the evolutionary and functional consequences/origins of the immune mechanisms and structures makes Janeway's book one of the most refreshing and valuable voices in a sometimes too-technically oriented discipline. An impressive accomplishment never praised enough.

This is by far the most well written immunology text I have encountered. Even the most difficult concepts are presented in the most understandable manner. This book is very extensive in the material it covers and is highly recommended for an advanced undergraduate student or as an introductory graduate text. By far the feature most appealing to me are the extensive images and cartoons used in this text, used quite effectively to elucidate even the most difficult of topics. This visual presentation style combined with the extensive and highly readble coverage of relevant material make this a must have for any serious student. The book is also updated frequently I believe a new edition is on the way slated to be publsihed in April 2004.

I really recommend this as an essential book for anyone studying immunology
in detail.- Its also a very useful reference for anyone studying medicine and wanting to
go into more depth.
.
Immunology at the best of times can be a difficult subject to grasp, both in terms of concepts
and details. Thank heavens for Janeway and Travers 5e which explains this challenging subject
in a simple way, without compromising on accuracy. What brings this book apart from the field is
its emphasis on fundamental principles: It defines these at the beginning of each chapter before delving into detail later on. Another great feature of its organisation is they way it draws parallels and connections between different aspects of the subject, helping the reader to gain an integrated and wider understanding of the subject. For example consider the unique way in which it compares and contrasts B and T cell development and functioning.

Information is also very accessible, since there are small subheadings for each topic, combined with
a very useful cross-referencing, though index and glossary. Plus its packed to the brim with useful colour diagrams which help to reinforce and add to points made in the text. Since it is written by recognised experts in the field, information is up to date and accurate, and it clearly differentiates between accepted 'facts' and theories.

In summary; after leaving many lectures bemused, bored and confused it's comforting to know that I can always turn to this book for guidance.

This book is not for everyone. If you believe what is happiness,
and you're happy w/ your life w/ no dought, skip this book.
If you doubt everything including your feelings (especially
happiness and satisfaction), then this book provides some idea
to fill up the hole (at least partially).

There is a book by the same author called "the Misterious Stranger" which is much easier to read. It's enjoyable. So I
recommend you guys to try out the misterious stranger first.
Then, if you like the story, and you'd like to know more
about the philosophy behind it, read this one

After having read the first few pages of What Is Man? I knew that I would not be able to let it go just like that. In the form of a dialogue Mark Twain raises a bunch of questions about Mankind and the way the mind works. And without revealing too much I can safely say that these are not regular everyday questions!

Whether or not one finds the questions and ideas raised in the book outrageous or greatly revolutionary, one will still be able to get many hours of reading satisfaction out of it. With his usual wit, Twain has created a beautiful dialogue that in many ways can be compared to that in Plato's The Republic. And I would be amazed if this book doesn't put your brain to work. In my case I spend hours, days and even weeks discussing the book with friends and family. I simply wanted to get other people's conceptions and opinions of the ideas raised.

What Is Man? is not just a great piece of art. It is a somewhat behaviouristic philosophy and a way of looking at Mankind. In my opinion a must in every personal library. In my own case I'll need it as an e-book on my laptop for when I'm on the road and as hard back on the book shelve when I'm sitting in my easy chair relaxing after a long day.

Do you wonder where your thoughts originate? Do you wonder what motivates your, or why you act or react to different situations, or just everyday life? Mark Twain, in the characters of the old man and the young man, present arguments that can change you way of looking at living. It is a must read book, that will cause you to pause...everytime a thought comes to mind and everytime you react to any situation. You will wonder who it really belongs to......take a new look into your own mind. See people from a new perspective..it is amazing.