This is an excellent bok that you will never want to stop reading! It is about two gangs, the Sharks and the Jets. The Jets are Americans and the Sharks are Puerto Ricans. This novel takes place in New York City. Both of the gangs attend a commuity dance to plan a fight, and Tony, an American that used to lead the Jets, falls in love with Maria, a Puerto Rican. Maria's brother is Bernardo, who is the head of the Sharks and despises Tony. How will they solve this? This book is basically a modern version of Romeo and Juliet with changes in characters, and it is definitely something that you should read!

West Side Story has always been one of my favorite musicals. The tragic love story of Tony and Maria touches me in many ways. I, too, have had a forbidden romance, which is why I marvel at the earnestness of the story. Set in New York City, it introduces two groups.

The Jets: an American gang.

The Sharks: a Puerto Rican gang.

The gangs attend a community dance in which they plan a fight. Things take an interesting twist when Tony -- the former leader of the Jets -- falls for Maria, Bernardo's sister. Bernardo happens to be the leader of the Sharks, and he doesn't want his sister involved with his rival.

This is, without a doubt, the urban equivalent of Romeo and Juliet. The stories are very similar, but West Side Story has an irresistible urban appeal, an appeal that has captured audiences and readers for many decades. I am so glad I have read the novelization of this popular musical. If you're in the mood for a timeless love story, read West Side Story. Satisfaction is guaranteed!

West Side Story by Irving Shulman is an excellent book about two rival street gangs in New York City. The Jets are the white gang; the Sharks are the Puerto Ricans. Barnardo, the leader of the Sharks, has a younger sister named Maria. Problems arise when Maria falls in love with Tony, a member of the Jets. I've seen the movie and read the book. I love them both.

When I first picked up this book, I expected it to be a "sugar coated" writing by one more musical artist, trying to wax eloquant, when actually doing little more than delivering a half-hearted self-gloification piece. Not so with M.Smith's book. Granted, his true talent is better captured in both his songwriting and his vioce, the book never the less delivers a well thought out message. It is clear from the book, Michael dearly loves those he sings for. His inspiration comes from God, his reward is evidenced in his acknowledging the impact his songs have had on others. While M.Smith writes about the impact, he also reminds us how music can both bring us closer to God and to strengthen our relationship with Him. M.Smith takes us beyond the comfort of being a mere listener of music, he wants us to see music as a way of advancing the Gospel but also as a ministry unto itself.

It's Time to Be Bold is an excellent read for anyone who wants to believe in and preach the Bible, but feels it is irrevelant to today. Through personal stories of his own and those of his fans, Michael W. Smith creates word pictures never thought of before. You will see church as the best hang-out on earth and the Bible as awesome as any romance or action novel. The bottom line: Smith is real. He realizes that young Christians need to evangelize more than ever in today's society and that with a few basic rules you can do it. This is a must read and, believe it or not, even more inspiring than many of his songs!

This book has many spritual messages for young and old alike. Based on some of Michael's own life experiences, he gives incredible first impressions about his experiences and touches the heart of the reader. You too will find it "It's Time To Be Bold" to stand up to face the challenges that life seems to present. Some of his experiences are near the same things I went through and can relate to. He really spoke what was on his heart and touches the reader.

This book is a historical exploration into the question of how the deaf should be educated, through sign or through oral speech. I wouldn't call it "a comprehensive history of the deaf" as advertised on the back of the book, and I wouldn't even call it "the history of relations between the society of hearing-speaking people and the community of deaf-signing people" as Lane suggests in his foreword. The book stays almost exclusively on the topic of education for the deaf, which in itself is quite interesting.

To me, the book had a unique and rather odd approach, in which the author related the history through the vantage point of Laurent Clerc (the French deaf teacher brought to the US by Thomas Gallaudet). Throughout the first part of the book, the story is told entirely in the first person, as if Clerc wrote it, and Lane simply was the translator. But judging from the extensive footnotes, only a 20th century author could have had access to so many primary sources, so Lane must have been the author after all. But I was never 100% certain about the authorship, and that was a bit annoying. In addition, if Clerc wasn't the author, then Lane stretched his historical research a bit far in projecting attitudes and opinions into Clerc's voice that we really have no way of confirming, and would probably be unlikely for people in the 19th to have. Overall, the historical details are incredibly rich, often perhaps too much so, yet there is not a great focus on dates or chronology, making it difficult in places to identify when specific events took place.

The book makes an extremely strong argument for educating the deaf through sign rather than orally. More than that, the argument is that the deaf are best educated in residential signing schools, at least from a 19th century vantage point. It would seem that Clerc would most likely argue against modern-day mainstreaming as well.

I think most deaf people who read this book would agree that sign language is extremely important for all facets of life, especially education. Nevertheless, hearing parents of deaf children who are trying to decide how to educate their children may still cling to the idea of oralism in the hopes of helping their child better adapt to majority society. But as argued in this book, a deaf child who is mainstreamed and taught lip reading is handicapped, having curtailed abilities to interact with peers. Meanwhile, a deaf child who attends school with other deaf children is completely normal within deaf society. The choice between oralism or sign is really no less than choosing between making the child normal or handicapped - which would you want for your child?

As a hearing person, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do a college exchange at a school which had a large number of deaf students. In fact, most of the students in my dorm were deaf. Almost immediately upon arrival, I began to observe the importance of sign language for communication. Deaf students who had not been exposed to sign language until their teenage years had obvious communication difficulties, and I was told that many of them probably never would develop the language skills that native signers had. It was obvious to me how much the deaf students at the school enjoyed being there and succeeded in their studies because they were supported with sign. These experiences convinced me that the best place for a deaf child to study is in a school with many other deaf children to sign with. On this point, I agree completely with Lane (and Clerc).

As a deaf person who has struggled long and hard to get my PhD in science and science education, this book with its history comes as no surprise to me. Harlan Lane is a hearing person who has taken up the cause of those in the deaf world with a vengence, and I do mean with a vengence! Dr. Lane has a tendency to write with immense vigor and sometimes his books tend to go overboard in stating the case. However, this book is a classic and is definitely one of his best written ones.

The history of the deaf in the United STates is strewn with great minds and small minds. We have had people who supported our education, and those who mistakenly viewed us as being less worthy of the normal needs and desires of life. This includes having a life, getting an education, living in society, being able to find gainful employment, getting married, and having children. The research of Dr. Lane is impeccable, and I have found it useful to refer to him in papers and use his references/bibliography for my own work on discrimination against the deaf in science education. Even if I sometimes do not agree with Dr. Lane's biased outlook on history of the deaf, I certainly appreciate all that he has done to bring the sometimes terrible prejudices and misdeeds to the attention of the hearing public. Yes, the deaf were and continue to be discriminated against, just as other differences are whether a disability or racial/cultural minority. Those who wish to understand the extent to which this discrimination went, should definitely read this book. To an extent, those of us with life-long hearing differences are learning to advocate for ourselves, and take pride in our accomplishments. It is thanks to people like Dr. Lane that we have been able to reach this point over the past 40 years. Karen Sadler, Science education, University of Pittsburgh

I picked this book up after reading Oliver Sacks's When the Mind Hears, and I am very glad I did. Without it, I might very well be blind to one of the world's most infuriating injustices: the attempt to gloss over deafness and discredit sign language. Moreover, the book is beautifully written and provides tons of information on the people and places involved. Everyone should read this book, because everyone who does will be motivated to help right the situation.

I know it can't be Christmas all year long, but there are some of us who wish it could be possible. This is a great collection of Christmas stories, an idea that is long overdue. I think editor David Laurents did gay men a favor by finally having these stories published together. These are hot holiday stories by the likes of noted authors; Jameson Currier, Matthew Rettenmund, Leigh Rutledge, and many others. They are all very erotic holiday stories that will warm any December night or Christmas in July!

There are a few errors in this book, pages numbered incorrectly, and a story missing; that I'm sure will be corrected in the revised edition. I was looking forward to Felice Picano's story which was missing. All in all, this is a fun, holiday book that is perfect for any gay man for any season.

Joe Hanssen

This is a pleasing (in more ways than one) collection of holiday-themed stories: some sweet-and-hot, some just hot; some touching, some *about* touching... And yes, the Santa-Daddy on the cover is very, um, well, "nice and naughty," I guess. There's one glitch, though; the book lists Felice Picano among the authors, but his story "Xmas in the Apple" isn't in the book. Not in my copy, anyway. The table of contents lists it, but the page numbers for it and subsequent stories are a bit messed up, so it looks as if the story was dropped at the last minute? It's a lovely little bedside (or fireside) book anyway, but if you wanted it for the sake of the Picano story, you're out of luck!

What a great holiday treat this was to find under the tree. I didn't get around to reading it until a few weeks later, but man, some nice pieces here. I like smut but this theme has a nice way of carrying you along.

By the way, I emailed the publisher about the "missing" story and was told that it was an error in the typsetting (the page numbers are [messed] up too) and that if/when they go back to press for more copies, the story will be added back in!

This is the book that sparked my interest in WW1 uniforms. This is a fantastic resource for people interested in what the uniforms really looked like, and how they were worn. The use of in-depth descriptions of the various pieces of equipment is a method that all uniform books should copy. As with many others, I wish that they had shown Ottoman or more Austrian and Commonwealth uniforms. However, this is another great edition from a fantastic series.

If any publishers are reading this, PLEASE produce more books about WW1 uniforms. This is a sadly underrepresented topic.

This book has uniforms from most combatants (excluding, as noted in a couple of other reviews, the early Austro-Hungarian and Balkan Armies) from early war right through to the end. For those of us who paint historical miniatures it is an invaluable resource.

This is an excellent reference for anyone studying the frist world war. It is one of the few books that covers Belgian and Russian troops, it also covers our Black troops, who are so often ignored by the mainstream history books, but I would have to agree with the gentleman from Brazil, I too was disappointed that it did not cover early Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and Balkan Armies. It does do an excellent job in what it does cover.

Art @ Science is a collection of articles by artists and scientists who -some of them long before multimedia and the Internet made it fashionable- have worked in the interface between the "two cultures". [...] The collection, which includes essays by such luminaries in the field of techno-art as Jeffrey Shaw and Peter Weibel, aims to help overcome the deep art-science fracture which has resulted in two mutually uncomprehending and sometimes hostile cultures. These have traditionally been caricatured along the subjective/objective axis of emotion/reason, the spiritual versus the material- in the case of art struggling, anti-industrialist (post) Romanticism, and in the case of science a well-funded Faustianism.

This cultural bridge-building is attempted either through learning the skills of the "other" or through collaborative projects between artists and scientists/engineers (for example as Donna Cox points out in her essay on IMAX film, through large-scale computer graphics animation). She notes that this kind of collaborative work is not totally innovative: "teams of artists and scientists in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries produced classic advances in botany and anatomy; their published works are milestones in the history of science." [...]

Citing the case of the Institute for New Media in Frankfurt, the editors point out that new and progressive institutes still receive little support from the educational system -they are often forced to operate as private schools that have to seek their own funding. The editors note the importance of such institutes being integrated into and supported by the broad educational sector.

Springer have spent a lot of money producing a thought-provoking collection on good paper with high-quality illustrations.

This book is an important milestone in cross-disciplinary publishing and anyone interested in the current trends of art and science research collaborations will benefit from it greatly.

Before reading Art@Science we did not know there was such a thing like art and science collaboration; they seemed two completely divided areas. Especially for students in media art this book provides a good introduction of Ôthe who-is-who of art & science,Õ with great illustrations and a useful bibliography.

This recent addition to the classic Babar series is somewhat less whimsical than the original set of books but enjoyable nonetheless. The pictures are nice and have the same spirit as the originals; my 6-year old boy likes the way that the pictures are drawn. However, the story is a bit choppier. The lessons are carefully and explicitly made: (1) be careful what you wish for as you might be surprised and (2) that life is mixed between good and bad just like succotash is mixed with beans and corn.

If you're looking for the classic Babar stories by Jean de Brunhoff, then this would be a second choice.

If you are like me, Babar stories are among your favorites. Hopefully, they are your children's favorites too. This is a new story from Laurent de Brunhoff. As much as I like the story, I must say that I like the illustrations even more. This is one of the most beautifully illustrated of all the Babar stories.

One night in Celesteville, Alexander (King Babar's and Queen Celeste's elephant son) awakens. Drawn by the bright light coming through the window, he walks out onto the terrace to look at the moon. But there is no moon. The light is caused by a beautiful red and gold bird with sparkling feathers. The bird says, "Tash! Succotash! What are you doing here so late?" Alexander replies, "I can't sleep." The bird says that he is a wizard, and asks Alexander if he wants to play parachute or swing-swing. Alexander doesn't know what either one is. He chooses swing-swing, and soon he floating in the air, swinging gently back and forth and left to right. Alexander loves it. The wizard eventually returns Alexander to the terrace and persuades him to return to sleep.

Since Alexander has had such a good time, he wants to know if the wizard will come back to play with him again. The wizard says that he may, but issues a warning. "But remember, there are good and bad wizards, and sometimes it's hard to tell friend from foe."

The very next day, the elephant family goes for a walk and Alexander spots another bird, this time a brown one, that says "Succotash!" And the adventure begins in a new direction.

The moral of this story is that life is full of right and wrong mixed together, like succotash is "lima beans cooked up with corn." Youngsters need to be on the look out.

All humans are inclined to draw patterns in their minds that may or may not be present. You have a wonderful time with a new friend, and expect that the next time will be exactly the same. But you may have met that person on the happiest day of his or her life, and the next time you see the person is the saddest. Also, because your aunt and uncle are nice, that doesn't mean someone else's aunt and uncle will be, too. I thought that this book was unusually good in helping a child establish a sense of skepticism and distinction, rather than extrapolating blindly from the last experience. If this lesson can be learned well, your child's life will be much happier and more successful.

Nice writing!

After you finish enjoying this story, I suggest that you think about where you and your child may be drawing false conclusions from incomplete or misleading evidence. For example, if you and your child went to the aquarium on a day when it was crowded and she or he was sick, perhaps you had a bad time and have avoided the aquarium since then. If so, perhaps you should try again on a not-so-crowded day when both of you feel terrific.

Look for the best and worst, and embrace the best!

All little kids are garunteed to love this book.

This book had many positive qualities and a few negative ones. It was a well-written book, with comprehensive coverage of the topic. However, it was longer than necessary and contained to much filler.

The concept behind the xhtml 1.0 spec is relatively simple. You must perform the following: close all your tags, include the xhtml dtd, use all lower case letters, use CSS instead of the deprecated formatting tags, and put script in cdata sections. The book required 304 pages to make these points, as it showed how each would impact 12 different browsers. On the positive side, this book was very concise and well written. At one sitting, I completed over 200 pages. It was truly enjoyable to read and the topics retained my interest.

Overall, I give this book four-stars. The only negative being the large quantity of filler content. The book was perfect otherwise.

this book is full of good information, particularly if you don't know much about xml but know a lot about html. the first 10 chapters are great, particularly the sections on the document type definition (dtd) -- you can see where the W3C defines html and how much of that definition is missing or added to by the different browsers. unfortunately, the book is not laid out very well. there are a lot of references to later chapters that leave you wondering what they are talking about until you get there. this book is written by two different people, and it seems obvious who wrote what chapters. i give 4 stars, not 3, because there is enough useful information in this book to make it worth reading and having for the html expert looking to make the move towards xml.

An excellent resource for anyone who knows HTML and wants to learn XHTML; a critical component for future Business to Consumer commerce systems.

This book provides a snap-shot of film-making at the end of the century. The story of Star Wars episode I's crafting in 150 pages. Packed with detail. Short quotes from people involved, from cast to crew, pepper the text adding colour and information. Well illustrated, clearly told and attention grabbing. Thorough in its scope and ecomomic in language, good reading and eminently collectible. A suitable companion to Thomas Smith's, Industrial Light and Magic: The Art of Special Effects (1986), which covered much on the special effects of episodes IV-VI. A contribution to the myth of Star Wars.

I'm a super Star Wars fan, so this book was great! There were great pictures and some things I really didn't know about Episode 1. If your a Star Wars fan, (as I am) read this book, it is a great book.

This book along with the making of Jurassic Park is one of the best books of fimaking, it truly reveals all the secrets of this dazzling film, its a pity that this one didn't include the story development (for that you'll have to buy the Art of Star Wars), You most read this book if you wanna know more of this film. And realize how much digital scenes they used; believe me there are more than you can imagine.

Arthur Laurents, by chance and by design, has been near the center of theatrical landmarks like WEST SIDE STORY. Thank God he lived to write this memoir.

The most fascinating character revealed is Laurents himself, a highly intelligent, ambitious writer driven and sustained for decades by anger, political self-righteousness, and sex.

The passages (there are many) about his busy love life come across too often as the barroom boasting of a man chronically insecure about his looks and physical appeal. Laurents tells us again and again how beautiful his lovers were, and how great they were in bed, etc. etc.

A gentleman would withhold most of this, but Laurents doesn't pretend to be a gentleman. He throws acid on everyone who ever crossed him or disagreed with him politically. For a man angered above all by "injustice", he shows little concern for the names or reputations of colleagues and friends he trashes on nearly every page. All this settling of old scores makes lively reading, but one is surprised that such an angry, vengeful, judgmental guy has any friends left at all.

Like so many in the arts, he uses leftwing politics as a substitute for personal morality. In other words, he may lie, cheat, deceive, and lay waste in his personal life, but his Leftist convictions automatically make him feel superior to everyone he knows.

All this adds to the psychological interest of Laurents' self-portrait, which reveals more, I suspect, than he knows. That said, it's a fine book, an important book, and should be read by anyone with an interest in 20th century American theatre, especially musical theatre.

I was about 20 pages in to this wonderful autobiography when I found myself thinking, "Man, I'm going to like this". All 380 other pages, I was right. Actually, I wish I could give it four and a half stars, because I do have one small complaint about it -- Arthur Laurents in many places in the book seems to be writing to people who know him already and are, so to speak, looking for themselves in the index. The story leaps around from place to place and time to time and age to age fairly randomly, and in more than just a few places people's first names appear with the apparent assumption that all of us are going to know exactly who it is that Arthur is talking about. That said, there are also lots and lots and lots of people that everyone knows about, and it is sort of gossipingly wonderful to read interpretations of Katharine Hepburn as being sort of weird, Lena Horne as being sort of wonderful, Jerome Robbins as being sort of way too much about himself, etc., etc., etc. Beyond all that there is this man, Arthur Laurents, himself. The flyleaf to the book says that he has had a "rich life", and that's putting it mildly. There is not only the magnificence of the body of his work, but there's also just a guy who lived life to its way-beyond fullest. He smoked dope (and, unlike Bill, inhaled and liked it), he slept around because he found lots of people sexy and attractive, he did what his heart called him to do in his profession, he bitched with a lot of people and made friends with lots of other people -- in short, if that's not necessarily who I would want to be myself, it sure enough is somebody I would like to be friends with and know. This is a wonderful autobiography even for someone who has never heard of Arthur Laurents, because it is all about people you've known all your life, but it is also a wonderful autobiography because few people who write autobiographies ever let that much of themselves show. I loved it, and I think you will, too.

Original Story by Arthur Laurents is an excellent autobiography by a very talented man. His talents include screenwriting, directing, playwriting. His story is told with candor and humor. He is very upfront about being gay and his various affairs in Hollywood and New York, noticeably his long affair in the late 40's, early 50's with Farley Granger. The book takes you behind the scenes of the movie industry and the people who ruled Hollywood. He is frank in his opinion of the people he worked (and lived) with. A Marxist since the thirties, he shows no affection for director Elia Kazan who blew the whistle on many of Hollywood's greats during the '50s. Laurents has wonderful stories about working on Broadway with West Side Story and Gypsy. His priceless vignettes about Ethel Merman are worth the price of the book alone. Many other celebrities are mentioned throughout his book.He has lived a very full life and it is very evident in this entertaining book. And he's still going strong at 83.