i LOVED the first Union Square Cookbook, and use its recipes regularly...and i have been SO disappointed with this one...i have not made ANYTHING that i liked from this cookbook...spare yourself

Sometimes the ingredient lists are a bit daunting,especially if one lives outside of a major metropolitan area, but it's worth the effort. The impressive thing about the recipes included in Union Square Cafe's second cookbook is that the various flavors are distinct while working together. For example, a pasta dish with gorgonzola and fresh corn requires that you simmer the husks in a broth--what an odd notion and what a great result !
I would say that the procedures are straightforward, but time-consuming. These are recipes that you have to plan for; they are not last-minute, just home-from-work desperation dinners. With that in mind, these are tasty, perhaps even mind -(not to say waist-) expanding recipes.

Some of these recipes are a little difficult to follow, but overall this is a good cookbook. The entrees are crowd pleasers at dinner parties!

Hedda Gabler lives in an absolute prison. Her idylic residence is a prison, her marriage to a hopeful "ilustrious intellectual" is a prison, but above all, she lives imprisoned by herself, trapped by the social parameters that demand her to live the way she does. Hedda just can't figure out how to get out of that tedious state. She's intelligent, cold, severe; Gabler has an almost prodigious capacity to obtain all the information she inquires about the people around her; she manipulates them, she seems to get involved, but she simply tries to take advantage of the situation. Apparently, she doesn't feel much, but in reality, Hedda is in constant turmoil - her involvement has to do, almost exclusively, with what she just cannot allow herself to do.

For this woman, being able to have some sort of "power" over someone becomes the most exciting of all experiences, however - there's a point when she no longer will be able to manipulate the situation on her favor, she will realize how many forces have power over her; therefore, she will simply do the most congruent and coherent of things, as unexpected and shocking as the outcome of this play could possibly be.

Hedda Gabler is a wonderful story of a woman desperately trying to have control over her life. Married to a husband she doesn't love and pregnant with a child she doesn't want, Hedda seeks comfort in an old friend. There are enough surprizes in this play to keep it interesting throughout. Ibsen uses his brilliant writing style to capture the very essence of Hedda. I highly recommend Hedda Gabler as well as other works by Henrik Ibsen.

Hedda Gabler is a play filled with tensions and the theme of power play. Personally, I feel that Hedda Gabler is a reflection of a woman trapped in the wrong time. She is one who wants power but is denied of it due to her gender and also her status in the society and all that she needs is to just sit at home and recieve visitors. She has no aims to look forward to and I believe that it is suffocating for this woman. If she had been born in this time of the century, I believe that she would not land up in that patathic end.

I chose this book to read and analyse a couple of years ago. It seemed to have simple meaning, but the more I tried to analyse, the more outstanding I found the book, and far from simple.
Helen Alving is a widow and is keeping a secret. One day she tells her friend Manders and he's quite shocked. It all has to do with some money from her dead husband that she doesn't want her son to have. Oswald, her son, comes home from abroad with very sad news. He is ill, and there isn't a cure for him. When Mrs. Alving is told that it was most likely inherited, she tells her son the secret too, and that changes his view on his father. As the book goes on, the intriques grow bigger...
Ibsen is probably more known for his play "A Doll House", but this one is just as great. He was very critical of the society and most, if not all, of his books often has a somewhat hidden story where he debates social matters and also morals. He use symbols and mostly contrasts to give the play a certain atmosphare and meaning. I believe this is one of Ibsen's greatest plays and strongly recommend it to anyone.

Although Henrik Ibsen is the first great modern dramatist, his play "Ghosts" ("Gengangere") bears a strong similarity to ancient Greek drama, where the "tragic flaw" of the protagonist lives on in his children. However, in this story the curse on the Alving family has a medical basis. Published in 1881 but not performed until the next year because of its controversial subject matter, "Ghosts" deals with the impact of congenital venereal disease on a family. "Ghosts" strongly reflects Ibsen's desire to attack hypocrisy and conventional morality and caused even more of a furor that his previous drama, "A Doll's House."

Helen Alving is building an orphanage as a memorial to her late husband and the night before the dedication she confesses to her old friend Parson Manders that her husband had been a "degenerate," and she is building the orphanage using her husband's "dirty" money so only her own money will pass on to her son, Oswald, who has just returned from living abroad. But then Oswald confesses he has a debilitating, incurable disease that the doctors believe was inherited. Even from beyond the grave, the "ghost" of Captain Alving ruins the life of his family. Mrs. Alving has to confess her husband's past to their son, destroying the young man's idealized view of his father. Knowing he is dying, Oswald wants to seduce the maid, Regina, so that when he enters the next stage of the disease she will give him poison. Oswald does not care that Regina is really his half-sister, and in the end it will be his mother's decision whether or not to give her son the poison when Oswald begins to have his attack.

The ending of the play constitutes a Rorschach test for the audience, with Ibsen refusing to let them off the hook. "Ghosts" is probably the Ibsen drama that relies most on symbolism, from the heavy use of light/dark imagery to the purifying aspects of fire, to the obvious symbolism of ghosts. Consequently, I think this makes "Ghosts" one of the easier plays by Ibsen for students to analyze. Final Argument: Reading Ibsen's plays in order has greater benefit than usual. If you read "A Doll's House," "Ghosts," "An Enemy of the People," and "The Wild Duck," then you will see the playwright struggling to find a play that will reflect his deeply held beliefs and also find widespread critical and public acceptance. The relationship between each set of plays in the progression becomes insightful, as Ibsen either extends or reverses elements of the previous drama. For teachers of drama there might not be a better quartet of plays to study to show the growth of a major dramatist.

If a great dramatist did not challenge the binding social restrictions back in late 19th century, it would probably have taken longer for us to break the chains of convention. Ibsen contributed to the liberation of society and its rules using dramatic pieces like Ghosts. I don't want to give out the plot, but basically it's about a catastrophe created when the characters adhered to outdated social norms instead of following their hearts. The play is written after the classical Greek style of tragedy, so there's a strong taste of Sophecles in Ghosts. The play begins less than 24 hours before its end, and Ibsen's greatness is clearly shown by his ability to pack so much plot and message in so few words. When read today, the figures in Ghosts may seem ridiculous, for they strictly follow outdated rules that we all belittle today. But had not Ibsen had the courage to attack them, we might still be living under those rules now. Definitely a great piece.

Before you purchase, make sure you get the right book. This is not for students, just for instructors (ISBN 0312403038).

This book is wonderful for developing ananlytical thought and critical literature development for both young men and women and older generations. This anthology contains: Poetry, Short Stories, and plays. The subjects range from the conflict between the interests of a parents and their child, growing up and discovering the world, and romance. This anthology contains such legendary works as: The Glass Menagerie, A Doll House, and eternal A Rose for Emily. Overall, I highly recommend this book as an edcational tool for an High School classes or as a nice collection of short works to read.

Clear, concise and accessible book on the law of WTO though rather expensive in price. Cover all major agreements of the WTO law in a succint manner.

A must-read book to understand México's post-modern conscious. Meyer and Beezley are right when they wrote that a mix of Catholic dogma, medical advances and poverty had been the pillars of México's current population (about 100 million). The analysis on the indigenous matter is brilliant. It's a reminder on how México hasn't solved the indigenous problem even after almost 200 years as an independent country. The authors dissect the socioeconomic web that gave birth to the concept of the modern Mexicano.

this was truely a great book and i enjoyed reading it, however i desired more interpretation on "the secret sayings of the living Jesus." i thought the authors would elaborate in depth the sayings they've discovered, but rather they were just presented. I'd recommend buying the book, that is for sure, but you should research the gospel of Thomas deeply before you undertake the reading.

Urban Transportation Planning is well written and well organized. Complicated modeling techniques are explained in detail. The process flow charts and bubble graphs simplify complex relationships between transportation, land use, planning and politics. Strengths and weaknesses of different modeling strategies are discussed in detail.

Extensive chapter bibliographies are useful for students and professionals seeking detailed discussions of topics covered in the text.

In the nineteenth century Central Asia was as much a Terra Incognita as inner Africa, and early this century was still largely unexplored by Europeans. This book is a sweeping coverage of European exploration of Central Asia as part of the great game.

Interestingly, the authors seek to tell their story through a series of vignettes, built around the colourful characters who conducted the daring expeditions into the unknowns of the Tarim Basin or the high plateau of Tibet. This breathes life into the history, but somewhat at the expense of historical analysis. Insufficient space is devoted to explaining the wider significance of these expeditions.

What really lets the reader down is the irritating writing style which sees inexplicable changes of tense between one paragraph and another, or changes from the third person to the first person plural.

Add to that somewhat poor proofing (the battle of Waterloo did not occur in 1814) and one begins to lose confidence in the accuracy of other material presented.

This is a shame. The book is much needed, and the authors have done an immense amount of research, but the book fails to hang together as I had hoped.

As someone who knew little of the history of Central Asia and the Great Game, I found this book to be a very enjoyable introduction to the topic. The authors basically devote each chapter to a prominent event or person of the time, and then use that topic to fill in a very general history of the era. The writing style is light and anecdotal. While sometimes the sheer number of characters floating in and out of the picture can be overwhelming, I did not find the book to be bogged down in minutia, as one reviewer mentioned. I agree with many of the reviewers that the maps are insufficient to help a reader trace the course of the narrative. I also did not notice the bias against Sven Hedin and others that one reviewer mentioned. Hedin received a full chapter on his exploits, about the same as most of the main characters in the book. If you approach this book as a series of 20 or so short, light biographies on some major players of the era, and as an introduction not a deifinitive account, you should be very well pleased.

Brysac and Meyer wrote a wonderful introduction to the "Great Game." Presented here, in readable prose, through the eyes of the men who participated, is the ultimately futile effort of the great powers to gain control of central Asia. The authors focus, not simply on the places, dates, and statistics, but on the motivations and personalities of the central characters.

While I read this book several months ago, recently I found myself rereading it. It serves as a wonderful reminder of the trials, difficulties, and cost in blood and treasure to those who have sought to hold sway over central Asia. While many people have at least a passing familiarity with Russia's failure to conquer Afghanistan in the 20th Century, few understand the rivers of Russian and British blood that were spilled in previous adventures in past centuries.

More than such military warnings, the authors also do an excellent job teaching the reader about the conflicting cultures of east and west. The disasters that result from misunderstandings of language and custom are presented in a riveting fashion. While the text is almost entirely about the 19th century, many familiar forces are at work. Multinational corporations, jingoistic nationalists, spies, glory-seeking officers, popular national pride, all play a part in this unfolding story.

I would offer one caveat in my praise of this work. The text lacks maps, which would have greatly increased my enjoymnet. In the end, I just read it with an atlas always in reach. It made it easier and more enjoyable. Despite this strange flaw, I highly recommend this work. If you are interested in this topic, I would suggest Bernard Lewis's work on international power politics in the Middle East as well.

A collection of thoughts, insights, anecdotes, exercises and real life examples of applying creativity to business. If this is a structured approach, as the authors imply, the structure is hard to detect. However, the exercises are intriguing and the anecdotes are inspiring. Nice section on destroying the Voice of Judgment that shoots down creativity. I'm baffled by the other reviews that describe this as a "new age" or "occult" book. It is well-documented that creativity and intuition go hand-in-hand, but I guess this is just too esoteric an idea for most business people.

A collection of thoughts, insights, anecdotes, exercises and real life examples of applying creativity to business. If this is a structured approach, as is implied by the authors, the structure is hard to detect. However, the exercises are intriguing and the anecdotes are inspiring. Nice section on destroying the Voice of Judgment that shoots down creativity.

When I picked up this book, I expected something more structured and similar to many of the other business books I've read. To my surprise, the authors have approached their subject by integrating Eastern philosophy into Western business. In my 25 years in business, I have experienced many of the concepts they mention, so it's reaffirming to understand some of the scientific explanations and similar experiences other successful business people have had. Business creativity requires this type of "out of the box" thinking. This is a terrific, mind-opening book - highly recommended.