Based on a lot of research and well-known ideas, McCarty's book is an excellent presententation of the "how" of learning. It looks into how different people learn in different ways (4 learning styles) and how we may use our knowledge about learning styles and brain-mind research to plan and create lesson plans/training sessions that enable use of the whole brain and the whole person (experiencing, reflecting, abstracting and acting). McCarthys 4MAT system is based on a lot of research in the "learning arena" (Dewey, Lewin, Bruner and her own research that seems to be quite comprehensive) and is presented in a way that really makes sense to anybody who is working with training/education. It is a book that may be read and read again and each time something new is discovered. McCarthy has just published another book, About Teaching 4MAT in the Classroom, that expands and further develops the ideas presented in this book. Another book I would recommend

As an undergraduate in Child Development and education certification back in 1990 Bernice McCarthy's work with the "4MAT" system of learning was at the very core of every lesson plan we had to create. We had to think her "4MAT" every time we developed a unit of study. I, now, as a Ph.D. student bless this background and understanding. About Learning reflects her more recent work with 4Mat and what she classifies as the "Learning Cyle". It is a wonderfully well written explanation of the cycle of learning that exists for all of us. It is a non-judgemental approach to meeting the needs of all learners. We, as educators, need to stop labeling children rather we must seek to understand and accept the different ways a child perceives and processes information. This book helps us understand. It includes beautiful, thought provoking, quotes to support its philosophy. I highly recommend this book to all educators and school psychologists who work with children and seek to create an environment for all to be successful, thriving, excited, involved learners; learners for a lifetime. Thank you Bernice McCarthy!!

This is a beauty-full, bounty-full, wisdom-full, wonder-full, joy-full book. With McCarthy's aphoristic and poetic writing style, as well as Carol Keene's complementary illustrations, this book can rest with the easy grace on the best of library shelves or upon any coffe table. In sum, About Learning conveys both the art and science of learning. McCarthy is obviously determined to instruct the reader by making adept use of the principles of her "4-MAT" system. here is a wonderful exercise in eclecticism, borrowing as she does from a wide range of sources. Indeed, her book would be worth the investment of treasure and time many times over for the wisdom drawn from so many sources. About Learning is a complete guide book, artistically rendered, packed with solid concepts and suggestions, possessing the power to help teachers and program developers create dynamic, balanced, holistic educational programs-and in the process, help teachers help learners in the use of their God-given or genetically-conferred potential: the ultimate learning state, or what, to use Ernest Becker's marvelous term, is: homo poeta, or "man as meaning maker." In addition to serving as a blueprint for holistic learning, this book is a browser's delight-reason enough to keep it always close at hand. There is no way McCarthy can be served up in a nutshell, but if placed under extreme duress, I'd settle for the following passage, taken from page 27: Unless we move out of experience,...into ordering our experiences, understanding what happens to us by classifying and naming, we nver learn, we never grow. It could be my imagination: If I just stop reading McCarthy's book and close my eyes for a few seconds, I swear I can hear the resurrected voices of John Dewey, Willam Kilpatrick and Leslie A. Hart. In a way this makes sense; Also, in an important sense, McCarthy is, after all, a "ghost writer" for these and many other pioneers of learning and human becoming. This is a landmark book in education. It deserves the widest possible audience.

This book helps one navigate the strange world of French wine - where the land is more important than the type of grape.

The books starts with several chapters on why French wine is considered such high quality, and what the history is behind it. Here's you'll learn about the history and categorizations of wine, as well as overview of the archaic & mind-numbing labelling system.

The second section covers France's high profile wine regions, including Bordeaux, Burgundy & Beautjolais. If all you know about Bordeaux and Burgundy is, "They ain't in Napa", you're in the same boat as me, and the book can give you some guidance.

The third part covers France's other wine regions, including a section on Champaigne. (Champaigne does count as wine - another lesson for me!) This is helpful if you're traveling in France and want to know what local wines to try.

The book closes with answers to commonly asked questions about French wine, as well as exposing one to the myths of French wine.

Overall, the book is a great primer and eduational tool for the novice at French wine. (Or wine in general!) It'll help you with the history and feel of the French wine industry. Perhaps it can guide you at the wine shop, though likely not as much as knowledgable individual.

It passes the, "Would I bring it with me to France?" test. (I did, and it helped me know what wine to try by region) It doesn't pass the, "Will I be any better ordering wine at a restaurant?" test. (I'm not)

This is an easy-to-read, yet not patronizing, book on French wines. Essentially, its the basics, but it gave me everything I needed to begin exploring and understanding French wines from my local package store. I've enjoyed some really good wines and had fun in the process. This book is easy to use and refer to when you need it. I don't recommend taking it to the wine store with you as you'll look really dumb, but the information is really helpful.

Ed McCarthy and his wife, Mary Ewing-Mulligan, began with "Wine for Dummies" in 1995, and they keep getting better at it as they work from big picture to small. After covering all of the wine world in one book they have narrowed their focus in subsequent "dummies" books on red wine, white wine and champagne. Now focusing geographically, they tackle French and Italian wines in two new books. The French book will tell the tale here because French is the most daunting wine for teacher and student alike.

That because almost all French wines are named for places (regions, towns, chateaus) instead of the grapes they're made from, which is the practice in most other countries. Thus your Bordeaux could be made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and most often is--but one of the most famous and most expensive Bordeaux, Petrus, is made almost entirely from Merlot. Not that you'd know from the label. You want Chardonnay? The French make it by the long ton but rarely label it as such, preferring instead something like Puligny-Montrachet. Then there is the collection of "cru" classifications for individual estates. This apparent perversity actually reflects the French belief that "where" means more than "what"; that the native heath marks wine and other foods just as a local accent marks you and me.

That's why this book is the test: Can the authors penetrate and even elucidate this maze? To their credit and my amazement they can and do. They are wine experts but primarily wine educators. They know this stuff cold but as want you to learn and love this stuff as much as they do.

In fewer than 300 pages they achieve a great deal--they encourage, instruct, dispel myths, point toward good buys, discuss changing wine-making styles, celebrate new discoveries and pretty much everything else except feed the hungry and clothe the poor.

So if you're interested in French wine or know someone who is, you'll be better of buying this book than almost any other. The price is great and the authors are good company--they can as well as teach.

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Bill Marsano is a contributing editor of Hemispheres, United Airlines' in-flight magazine, for which he frequently writes on wine. In 1999 he won a James Beard medal for writing on wine and spirits.

I must start by saying that I am a snob. I am also a lover of wines of all types. But I am NOT a "Wine Snob." I am not impressed by fancy talk, great names or, especially, high price tags. That being said, I think this book has a LOT of good information in it, but anyone who buys this book is selling themselves short, and a good many people will outgrow this volume in short order. Wine can be a "Highbrow" and intimidating subject, but that veneer has been eroding steadily over the past few decades as the Wine industry has been trying to increase its market share vis a vis beer, and the supply-side of the market has expanded exponentially. The fact is, wine is easy to enjoy and simple to understand at its basics,and the wine snobs of old have known this for quite some time. Great wines are affordable by most these days, availability is better than it has EVER been, and information about wines is practically dripping off each bottle. All of the info you need to understand the wine world is included in the "Big name" wine books these days, and it is as accessible as ever. I would recommend spending a bit more money for a new or used copy of the wine atlases of Oz Clarke or Hugh Johnson, (check online auctions)and every couple of years purchase a buying guide by the same authors. You will have much more information for the money, it will serve you longer, and you don't have to identify yourself as a "Dummy." Frankly, I think the term is relative and ought not be self applied. At any rate, you shouldn't be paying someone else to lable yourself as such, regardless of how well the moniker fits.

Liked the presentaion of the information - like most of the Dummy series, the book is well researched and useful even as a quick reference or to read through cover to cover.

What a joy. This quick, fun read is well worth your time.
Wine for Dummies is like having your own personal expert with a sense of humor.
I live in Europe and applied this book to my "studies" of wine by buying bottles and tasting. The lessons in the back are fun and fantastic.
Good reading and tasting!

In the first chapter of THE STONES OF FLORENCE Mary McCarthy weighs in against everyone who might want to know about Florence who deeply irritates her: casual tourists, Europeans who love Florence deeply... who, you might wonder, is the book intended for? But once she gets this out of her system (though not ever entirely--as the book continues she often takes little sideswipes at everyone, even including Goethe!), the book settles down to be a very idiosyncratic and informative study of a city Mccarthy loves and knows well. Skip the intro (or at least try not to let it get under your collar) and keep plugging along: this is a highly readable and fun little book.

McCarthy writes with wit about the history, current conditions(1964, when the book was published) and tourist attractions in Florence. Her advice is invaluable for finding little-known churches, and her descriptions of life in the city, and advice on when to go and where to stay, are vivid and helpful for any traveler in Italy.

There are several reasons to go for Mary McCarthy's THE STONES OF FLORENCE. You are about to go to, are in or have been to Florence, Italy; you enjoy the literature of travel; you appreciate a well-written book. I fall into the latter two categories and thoroughly enjoyed this idiosyncratic work. McCarthy wrote this in the very early 1960's when the very nature of Tuscany's chief city couldn't help but attract tourists at the same time it seemingly did everything to discourage them. She swiftly dispenses with the contemporary city and spends the book peering back into its Renaissance soul, primarily the 14th through the 16th centuries when Florence was the Western center of intellectual activity. What emerges is the picture of the greats-Dante, Giotto, Brunellseschi, Donatello, Fra Angelico, della Robbia, Botticelli, Da Vinci, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Cellini, and various Medici to name a few-functioning amidst social, political and occasional natural upheaval. As she suggests about one artist, perhaps the productivity was inspired by the need to make order out of chaos. That and no doubt the fact that the Florentines used and valued art in their daily lives in ways that it is not today. That science, engineering, architecture and art were closely aligned offered cross disciplinary assistance is also key-without the mathematicians, for instance, would artists have been able to as easily co-opt perspective and volume?

THE STONES OF FLORENCE is both direct and impressionistic. McCarthy's prose moves right along, never bogged down by a "perhaps" or the need to recite contemporary opinion. Her progress from the 14th to the 16th century is zig-zaggy, so that most of the Renaissance is spoken of as if on a continuum. There is a sly wit at work (in the personality contest, the score is Leonardo 10, Michelangelo 0) and McCarthy presents a strong spine-she is unequivocal about the decline of the Renaissance in the 16th century as the major players moved away from Florence and the populace fell into a "gee-gaw" mentality.

This is a travelogue and, after a fashion, an art history catalogue, and yet there are no pictures (in this edition). That and its not too chronological organization would suggest an abstract mess but it is nothing of the kind. I became very much aware of how much of the Renaissance was covered in my early education as every reference brought up old lessons and visits to museums out of the tar pits of memory. I felt at home, not at a loss.

I agree that this is a great book. It really helps me with my care plans and is easy to use. The only reason it only got 4 stars is that I HAVE seen more user friendly diagnosis books for beginning students, but for that same reason I can see this book helping me in my advanced studies down the road.

This textbook on nursing diagnosis is an indispensible guide in creating the nursing diagnosis. It is well organized and easy to read. The diagnoses are grouped according to the 11 functional health patterns. Interventions are simple and broken down into easy to apply format. Additionally, interventions are listed for adults, women, psychiatric, gerontic, and for the home health care situation making this text useful in a number of clinical situations. Rationales are included with each intervention saving precious time for the nursing student writing nursing process papers. This text does not link medical diagnosis with nusing diagnosis which may make it difficult to use for some students. I, and my fellow nursing students, have found this text to be an indespensible guide in developing our nursing diagnoses.

This is an very entertaining book, but it is also a good overview of wines. The book explains the types of grapes that are used, and reviews the regions of the world where wine is produced. Even though the book has a number of "snob alert" icons throughout the book, it is clearly aimed at the "better" wines. If you are interested in Gallo, Paul Masson, etc. type of "jug" wines you need to go someplace else since they are not covered at all! It seems a little odd that Gallo that sells say 100 million cases of wine a year is excluded, yet a French producer of 50 cases of White Burgandy a year is mentioned. The vintage charts for white wine is dated, but overall the book goes a long way to take the mystery out of wine.

It is a good book for someone who had no idea of white wine. It gives a general idea of different types of grapes and the vocabulary of "wine". Most important of all, it points out that a good wine difinition varies from a person to others. Now, I really enjoy to drink my white wine and try to determine the flavor, the acidity, etc.

Style, terrior of Rioja, production and influence, and the famous brand

I have always held a fascination for people who grew up with a real sense of religion that later fell away from the faith. I bought this book expecting something akin to the movies that are so prevalent nowadays about the catholic schoolboys smoking and getting caught by the nuns and hit with a ruler across the wrists. Instead, I was greeted with an amazing tale of Mary and her sad loss of her parents, pitiful existence with her aunt and uncle and twisted "saving" by her West Coast relatives.

The childhood she had was less than perfect, I agree, but the fact that she survived it and lived to create such a wonderful literary account of it almost makes me appreciative of her having to go through it. The chapter on her grandmother is so reminiscent of my own mother that I had to laugh out loud at times.

Well worth the read and the struggle through the many latin references and unfamiliar religious practices.

Written long before the recent memoir craze, this book stands as one of the best of that genre. McCarthy looks back on an almost Dickensian childhood with wit and discernment. Perhaps most striking is the lack of defensiveness; writing of abuse suffered at the hands of a misguided great aunt and her sadistic husband, she traces the way it shaped her character but never uses it as an excuse. Nor is she more sparing of herself than of her relatives: she not only gives us a portrait of a realistically foolish, self-conscious adolescent Mary--recounting the sorts of youthful episodes many of us continue to blush over as we remember them in adulthood--but in notes appended to each chapter she deconstructs her own memories, noting where she has given in to the urge to dramatize or where her recollections conflict with those of others who were present. A wonderfully honest, bracing book, refreshing in its lack of grievance and its unostentatious, unsentimental good humor.

As an off-again, on-again admirer of Mary McCarthy, I sometimes wondered if she ever had a childhood or just appeared full-blown, rapier-witted and sword at her side. While never doubting her talent, reading her was frequently as pleasant as drinking a glass of vitriol.

Mary indeed had a childhood, and unusual it was. I am sure it marked her forever to lose both her parents within a week of one another to influenza at age six. To add to the horror, the family was traveling by train to start a new life in Minnesota. Mary, herself, was deathly ill with the virus, and that colored her impressions of the tragic event.

Some reviewers and the book jacket describe her childhood as "Dickensonian," I presume referring to Oliver Twist. I disagree, as Mary came from a well-to-do family that didn't lack for the material things of life. She lived with an aunt and uncle from her 6th to 11th year and was tremendously unhappy, claiming she didn't have enough to eat, was dressed in hand-me-downs and frequently beaten. Yet all photos of this time depict a well-dressed, well-fed child. At age 11, she was taken to live with her benevolent, wealthy grandparents in Seattle. From that time on, she received the kindest attention and was expensively educated. My doubts about those five early years are because Ms. McCarthy all her life was an implacable, unforgiving enemy when her feelings were aroused.

The memoir is beautifully written with sharp and fascinating characterizations of her family. She appends each chapter with an epilogue taking an adult's eye-view of her childhood impressions. It is most effective. You are constantly reaffirming her brilliance. Well worth reading.

This is a good book but it is dated. I also purchased "Wine for Dummies" (WfD) by the same authors. I recommend that, instead (not necessary to get both, at least at first). The WfD book has excellent coverages of different countries and that information provides a great deal of groundwork. Only if you know all of that information cold, then consider this book.

Much of the vintage information is dated. The authors mention in WfD that vintage is much less important, yet they refer to it often, as in this book. This is to be expected, but not quite consistent with their theories. That being said, much of the date related information is old -- 5 years is past prime for many wines that we buy for drinking with our dinners. Hence, I think it is dated and it is much better just to refer to WfD.

This book is a good companion guide to "Wine for Dummies", with a more precise emphasis (as the title implies) on wine purchase. A wine-food chart is helpful for pairing wine varietals with meals. The book is smaller than "Wine for Dummies," so it can be thought of as a pocket guide that can be brought along on shopping trips. Overall, it is a precise, no-nonsense guide to wine basics. Wonderful for beginners, but probably nothing new to seasoned oenophiles.

I was not a dining out person. Never aquired a knowlege of wines. Or how to order them. Have read pamplets in liquor stores. But still can't pronounce many of the names of wines. I am hoping that Dummys will help me.

I bought this book because it was the selection in a monthly reading group for which I belong. I also bought it because I am a huge fan of Mary McCarthy and her straight-forward, no-apologies style of writing. However, I was deeply disappointed in this book.

To be honest, I never got past the first chapter. I just couldn't. Carol Brightman may be a brilliant biographer according to some, but to me she is akin to a Literature Professor with far too much time on her hands. She attempts to intellectualize a woman who lived by one credo: honesty in all things, no matter how ugly it is. Brightman uses heavy language and scholarly processes that bog the reader down and make it impossible to love a brilliant woman like Mary McCarthy.

If you want to know about Mary McCarthy skip this biography and instead, go read one of Mary's many books and enjoy.

Coming of age in the sixties, no women appealed to me more than Mary McCarthy and Hannah Arendt, both of whom I read, listened to, and met. Arendt's was always the mind I wanted to emulate, a mentor, and my mind was putty in her words. But Mary McCarthy was like a flame, and we were her moths. She raged against the Vietnam war in ways much less convincing than Bernard Fall or even I.F. Stone, but with an eloquent, almost treasonous passion, a self-righteousness that one could not ignore.

I did not know, until I read this biography, and then Brightman's edition of their correspondence, that they were the closest of friends. Biography which reaches in and reveals the essence of the person in all her complexity is well nigh impossible unless you are a Boswell to Johnson or a Craft to Stravinsky. Carol Brightman has taken her brilliant intellect and matched Mary McCarthy's (and Boswell's) in this tour de force, certainly one of the finest biographies written anywhere, anytime. McCarthy obliges Brightman with all possible source material. In her fiction, her essays, her autobiographical musings, her interviews, Mary McCarthy revealed all. She wrote everything, about everything, about herself in many ways. In her relationship with one of her husbands, for example, another great intellectual skywriter, Edmund Wilson, you see all of her, her self-doubts and climbing of the New York intellectual social ladder, her sexuality and coldness, her tenderness and betrayal, her passion and conformity, in short, her humanity. Caught in her own many expressions of fantasy and fact by a mind that sees all connections, McCarthy is peeled like an onion by Brightman for all to see. We love her, we are pained by her vanity and ambition, we are fascinated by her journey, overwhelmed by her intellect and ultimately disappointed by her failure to move as deeply as her gifts could have taken her, so caught up is she in being an intellectual peacock. Brightman uses this material with such force that the biography is riveting, a book impossible to close. Certainly it is one of the greatest pieces of non-fiction and the best biography I have ever read.

What a book! What a life! I've always been fascinated by Mary McCarthy, and have read much of her work. This biography enhances McCarthy's work by highlighting specific passages and relating them to McCarthy's life, which shows a true commitment not just to McCarthy, the person, but to McCarthy, the artist. The text is well-written but also objective and filled with intricate details that truly illuminate the author's subject. If only all biographies could read this way: engaging, astute, insightful, and smart. Bravo!

Venice Observed is not a travel log. Rather, it is a compendium of historical topics that, when brought together, illustrate the mosaic history of Venice.

Mary McCarthy writes with the confidence of a discerning Brussels diamond buyer. In her book McCarthy holds up Venice and asks the reader to observe the beauty, uniqueness, and flaws that time has formed over the past ages. She turns this city/state before you and by the end of her 150 page book, you will have examined a gem.

Her writing, while learned, can be convoluted, and the text should be read with a dictionary by one's side, i.e., "The other way lay universal odium" - odium?. A significant distraction is the lack of an index, biography and glossary. These aspects make the work difficult to engage. Yet, I pushed through the book because of the insights that Mary McCarthy gave to Venetian culture and history.

For those that are schooled in Italian history and have an interest in Venice then this book would be worth reading, for McCarthy's insights can be provocative as well as intriguing.

For the general traveler there is better and more "user friendly" books on this gem of a city. Conditionally Recommended.

Mary McCarthy's VENICE OBSERVED is neither history nor a guide book but rather a literary reflection written by a young 1950s "single" woman who has visited a beautiful place and now sits at her desk and muses over what she has seen.

McCarthy was a writer and an educated woman in an age when educated women were few. She probably wore white gloves and a little hat and visited Europe after graduation from college. One can picture the author of THE GROUP traveling abroad, continuing her education. As part of her formal training, she read James and Ruskin and then she visited the sights they described and wrote her own impressions. I found McCarthy's book intriguing because she was intriguing and women like her don't exist any more. I picture her looking a bit like Katherine Hepburn arriving in Italy in "Summertime." Maybe McCarthy wasn't a "career girl" as single women sans husband and children who worked for a living were called in those days, but this is how I picture her on reading VENICE OBSERVED.

I've just finished reading JJ Norwich's HISTORY OF VENICE and if you want history Norwich's book is the definitive history. VENICE OBSERVED is for women who want a bit of information to complement their education mixed in with another woman's reflections. VENICE OBSERVED is for educated women who travel alone.

McCarthy includes some history, but only as a backdrop to her real interests which are art and literature. She assumes you know who Tintoretto and Titian were and that you've at least seen pictures of their works. Where Norwich mentions Tintoretto in passing (Norwich is more interested in archtecture) McCarthy dwells on him.

VENICE OBSERVED is not an art book however. McCarthy's writing reminds me of James or Ruskin, both of whom she quotes. They observed various places, buildings, paintings, etc. but always assumed you had some prior knowledge of the thing they were discussing. VENICE OBSERVED is the sort of book you'd want to read after you have made your own visit to Venice. You could read it before hand, but the text would be overwhelming if you come to it with no prior knowledge. If you want to read a more contemporary book, I recommend ITALIAN DAYS by Barbara Grizutti Harrison.

This is one of McCarthy's most delightful books, although it may also be her least controversial. VENICE OBSERVED might be the best single travel book ever written on Venice, and MCarthy's tone is leisurely and informative, her style witty and engaging. Her asides about her personal experiences in the city complement her grander historical and artistic musings: you never feel alienated from her prose (the way you can in her earlier THE STONES OF FLORENCE). Her anecdotes about the doges, Tintoretto, Veronese, the Councils, etc. greatly enhanced one's understanding of the city, and her musings on the art are thoughtful and illuminating.