This is undoubtably the worst text I have ever seen used at the freshman chem level. It is poorly organized, does not give the student a good grounding in the basics before moving on to more detailed areas and printed with ink and glossy paper that makes reading very difficult. The margins are cluttered with distracting diagrams, flow charts and pictures that have little relavance to what is being discussed in the text. As to organization, it is absurd to introduce thermodynamics in chapter 6, discussing only enthalpy,leaving out entropy and Gibbs free energy, placing them piecmeal in later chapters. This fragmented approach only confuses the student when they can't see the interrelationship between entropy, enthalpy and free energy. The same applies in discussing molarity at the end of chapter 3 instead of leaving it with acid-base and solution chemistry. The fragmented approach is very distracting for both student and instructor. This is my first and hopefully last semester to use this text. For a good text use McMurry-Fay or Davis, Whitten and Galey. Don't use this text if at all possible. I gave it one star because that was the lowest available.

This is a very useful chemistry textbooks for a science student who studies independently. I like this book for several reasons: (1) It is comprehensive, (2) It contains detailed explanatins of WHY and HOW things happen,(3) The book includes numerous worked-out problems, and (4) The book is written in a very readable manner, containing straight-foward language and excellent graphic explanations. I am studying biochemistry now, and I go back to this text very often for the explanation of certain topics, eg. buffer problems. The coverage of organic chemistry is very basic in Silberberg's book. For in-depth coverage refer to Organic Chemistry: Structure and reactivity by Seyhan Ege (ISBN 0395902231), a very good book that emphasizes understanding, not memorization. A note: solutions to all problems in Ege's book are in the study guide.

While I would hesitate to recommend this to someone who had never taken high school chemistry, as a second year high school book and a science majors' level college text, this book is fantastic. Comparing it to an old version of Brady & Humiston, and Zumdahl's Introductory Chemistry, Silberberg wins hands down. Fantastic layout and detailed explanations of most topics. Not good for the most basic topics (don't even think about learning oxidation-reduction reaction balancing from this text).

All of humanity is but wind racing over the plain of life, never to return. What we have in the poetry of Catullus is an echo of deeply felt love from long ago. Catullus had what I would deem a very un-Roman view of the world. His voice of passion rises, if only briefly, above the usual din of duty and "the good life." It is a wonder to think on the paths pages must make to descend to future generations. It is a happy coincidence that these fascinating pages by a man with a unique voice have come unto us.

Catullus is one of the poets who first kindled my love of poetry, and I was delighted to discover this excellent recent translation. Martin beautifully conveys Catullus' many faces and moods, from the mock-sweet lyric about his mistress' dead sparrow, to the spare, anguished syllables of odi et amo...much recommended...

The flamboyant poet from Verona, Catullus, who lived most of his life in Rome (84-54 BC), is probably one of the greatest personalities that stands out in Latin literature. His bold and skillful invective, summed up in witty epigrams, and his gallant love/hate relationship with the famous Lesbia all bring forth sharp reflections upon human emotions and ultimately surface Catullus' own personality. In these 116 poems, the reader will undoubtedly find something to relate to, even though they were written just over two thousand years ago. Many of the themes found here are relevant to the modern mind and condition, and seldom are boring and obscure archaisms found in the text. This complete collection of Catullus' poems, translated by Guy Lee and furnished with a parallel Latin text, is a great edition and indispensable addition to the classical library.

I have got to stop giving my old books away. I probably have a small fortune in out of print volumes. Every time I look up a book for a gift I reach the same section, "sorry." "13 Crimes" is one of those entertaining books that probably started as a coffee shop conversation. "Hey Joe, you notice there aren't any SciFi detective stories." "Can't be done Fred. Too easy. The Gumshoes could just come up with some gizmo to see fingerprints, or track shoe size. It can't be fair. For along time this was the case. Then someone got the idea of making rules. What if you had a world of the future, but no surprises? Any technology you want, but the reader has to be let in on it. A hundred years ago crime stories were just laid out. Today it's different. You have to give the reader a chance to figure it out along with the detective. "13 Crimes" does this masterfully. It takes the 13 types of mystery stories, the loc! ked room mystery, the hard boiled PI mystery, etc., and puts it in a SciFi setting. The result is a collection of authors and stories that will satisfy both the SciFi AND mystery fan. Or a least it would if you can find it.

Authors do not develop new stories, they write new twists on old ones. While a science fiction setting does provide additional possibilities for a mystery, it is also very limiting. To be effective, the science fictional aspects must be important, yet secondary. For example, it would be a very dull tale if a locked room mystery was solved by a principal character simply using a device to step into the fourth dimension at a critical moment.
These thirteen stories of crimes are well crafted. Each follows one of the basic themes of crime stories: hard-boiled detective, psychic detective, spy, analytical detective, whodunit, why-done-it, how-done-it, inverted, locked room, cipher, police procedural, trial and punishment. The science fiction aspects are necessary, yet do not overshadow what is a tale of suspense. My favorite stories are "Mouthpiece" by Edward Wellen and "Time In Advance" by William Tenn. In "Mouthpiece", the personality of a gangster is loaded into a powerful computer and the programmer who did it becomes an unwitting pawn of the gangster who wants to avenge his assassination. "Time In Advance" is aptly named, as in this story, the human race has expanded out to other planets and colonists are badly needed. A solution is to have people voluntarily serve a sentence for murder before the fact and then in the unlikely event they survive, they have the right to commit one murder.
These are thirteen of the best combinations of crime and science fiction stories that have ever been written. The editors made their selections well and I enjoyed each one immensely, even though I generally do not read crime stories.

This is a Dover picturial archive book, so almost the entire book is black/white designs. Many are very flowery and detailed. Many would make either good fabric or better wallpaper designs. I bought the book for ceramic tile designs and had to weed through for something that would work. Most of the designs were too much for my purposes. Still a very good source of inspiration, as all Dover books are!

i've got this a bout 2 month ago and used it a lot, for both art, graphic works and just as somthing nice to look at, unlike the full color pictoral archive this is a very thural book, it has a lot of designs of allover patterns.

it's not one of those alboms you buy just to look at, it's a proffesional usful book for people who uses those designs for either decoration of wall or tiles and probebly decofague, quiltings, needle point and so on, for me patters is somthing i use a lot in my painting and this have proven to be useful in many oppertunities.

This book is very colorful and has lots of interesting items. It has pretty fair organization but if one looks carefully and has knowledge in the area of homefront collecting, many fake and reproduction items abound. Nothing is more deceiving than smuggling in fakes to augment a collection that wasnt large enough to complete the project. Also you can see where Jacob's has reused items in different shots to once again make up for an inadequate pool of resources for publication. Overall I'd buy it but be on the lookout for the fakes like the bowling pins on the back cover!!...

This is the ninth of Robert Opie's Scrapbooks and the first using material not from his vast collection, appropriately this covers the US war years while his first book covered the British war years. An amazing 1500 items, mostly printed ephemera, from the collections of Charles Numark and Martin Jacobs are displayed in the still-life photo style that Opie created for his wonderful Scrapbooks.

The book opens out to spreads fifteen by twenty-one inches wide. Each one has a large themed still-life photo covering, Pearl Harbor, Home Front posters, ads, comics, greeting cards, magazine covers, movie posters, civil defence, V-mail, newspaper front pages, victory gardens, kids games, sweetheart jewelry, patches and medals, tobacco products, popular music sheets and more. It can get a bit overwhelming with so much material to look at but this is why I love these Scrapbooks, you can return to them again and again and still find something new.

Another book, 'United We Stand', with patriotic material from Richard Perry's wartime collection covers the same area but unfortunately it is rather badly organised and only has three hundred items but a book that will perfectly complement 'America's Wartime Scrapbook' is Stan Cohen's 'V for Victory', an exhaustive photo record of the Home Front. If you lived through the war years both these books will be instant nostalgia.

Having not read a great deal about Bormann I gained a good amount of knowledge about him as well as the various theories of what happened to him after the war. The author details these very well and leaves you feeling that each siting of Bormann must have been real. Then at the end of the book you find what the author believes to be the truth (and the evidence is convincing) and you feel a little let down. But if the evidence bears this out, it is simply a fact of history and not the author's fault that the mystery wasn't as great as it seemed for 30+ years. The book is enjoyable and informative and worth reading if you are interested in this era of history.

I found this book enjoyable. It's an easy read. The author's conclusion puts an end to the mystery of the disappearence of Martin Bormann.

This book is fun, but more than a bit pretentious. To be passionate about a sport is one thing, but delusions of expertise suggest a rather pervasive sense of inferiority. Fishing is fishing. If you enjoy, so be it. Worry not what others think. Those who fish with worms are no worse or better than those who fish with caddis flies. The idea is to enjoy the outdoors. I love to flyfish. That is all that matters!

I certainly have not read all the books in print on fly fishing but I have read many dozens. "Trout Fly Fishing: an Expert Approach" is the finest, most authoritive, concise text on the subject I have read. It cuts through much of the unnecessary detail and mystique. Wonderfully organized and well illustrated

The statements from an earlier review, "To be passionate about a sport is one thing, but delusions of expertise suggest a rather pervasive sense of inferiority" and "Fishing is fishing" and "Enjoying the outdoors is all that matters" seem to be more reverse snobbery than review of the book and it's intent.

The authors are true bonified, recognized authorities on fly fishing. For those who wish to improve general understanding and tactics of fly fishing, this book is my first recommendation.

As a freshman nutrition major, this book was required for my English 101 class. I found it to be boring, unhelpful, and plodding. The author's instructions for activities leave you depressed and annoyed, and teachers have to jump around a lot to instruct properly.

This might be a good reference book, and perhaps even a book for secondary/high schools, but not for a college English class.

I also teach "post-secondary English" but I have found the St. Martin's Guide to Writing to be a very useful resource because it gives students (and me) much support for the writing process, interesting readings for writing models and discussion, and, given the current high cost of college textbooks, its comprehensiveness means I don't have to require students to purchase more than one book! St. Martin's includes a writing handbook to review foundational writing skills. Chapters on taking tests and building a portfolio are also helpful, but what I like best about this book is its careful attention to supporting how we write with step-by-step explanations and examples. This care to detail is very useful for my students who are entirely online!

I consider this book to be one of the best how-to-write books I've read. I'm not a college student, but a writer who wants to sharpen skills, and I have found many sections of the book to be extremely helpful--the section on writing profiles, for example, and the one on writing autobiographical essays, just to name two. I've also found the information contained in other sections--such as Narrating, Illustrating, Comparing and Contrasting, Field Research--to be invaluable. I'm so glad I came across this book! I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a detailed plan for learning to be an excellent writer.

A good book of letters should bring its subject to life for the reader. This book is dry to the point of being brittle. At no time time during the reading of this book did I get any sense of what Oppenheimer was feeling or experiencing. Oppenheimer was involved with one of the pivotal events of this century and the whole experience comes off like a trip to a neighborhood store. The recollections mentioned in the title are not those of Oppenheimer but of friends and family. Like the rest of the book their thoughts and memories add little to the understanding of Oppenheimer's life and work.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was better at keeping himself hidden than most people, and you won't learn a lot about him from these letters, but it does a give a rare, patial glimpse of a very mysterious person.

This book is not meant as general reading. For more colorful writing, see Smith's _A Peril and a Hope_. Letters and Recollections is, however, an incredibly valuable resource for those of us researching the time period and Oppenheimer. There were letters, interviews, and insights that I simply could not have obtained anywhere else. Smith has a personal connection with Los Alamos, and that shows in her writing and sources. She gives an side to Oppenheimer like no other book I've read (and trust me, I've read a lot of them). Thank you, A.K.S.!

The Stories taken from the "Tales of Terror and Mystery"tion are good but the others are quite horrible. Also the version I have has 1 story missing "The Confession" and a fantastic tale from "T&M" is not part of this collection. Production values average. Buy that collection instead. A much better deal.

Writing in the early part of this century, Doyle (best known for creating Sherlock Holmes) created a series of horror stories with a bent towards spiritualism and mystery. The selection is a good range of work with some very strong entries. "The Case of Lady Sannox" and "The Leather Funnel" are particular stand-outs. Some of Doyle's is more dated than others, but still definitely worth a read.