I understand that some people below were shocked at finding the photo of a severed leg in this collection. They all promptly seem to have demoted the book's worth to a single star. That doesn't seem an appropriate response to me. The book is almost 1000 pages long and there's a single photo showing what was unfortunately a very common site that day. I'm not suggesting that the publishers should have added more gory photos to the book. I'm saying that an honest portrayal of September 11th shouldn't shy away from accurately depicting the real horror of the event. What happened that day was horrendous, the acts, despicable, so let's not try to whitewash what happened by requesting a G-rated depiction.

This book is stunning in the literal not the sensationalistic sense of the word. I read it cover to cover the day I got it and was provoked to remember the day (as we sometimes need to) all over again. As others have pointed out, this is not a sensationalist tome at all. No captions accompany the photo, neither are the names of photographers provided with each photo. No, the focus is entirely on the subject matter.

If you don't want to remember, don't pick this book up. I'd argue, however, that for the sake of our children and our society, we all need to remember this event and remember it well.

Like so many other reviewers of this book, I truly think this work stands out among the post 9/11 bunch. Admitingly, shortly after the terrorist attacks, I began searching out photography books. I purchased a fairly large one put out by Magnum Photographers which indeed seemed praiseworthy--considering the time they had to compile all the images. Some other books included The New York Times Portraits which, though incomplete, is an honorable testament to each victim.
A couple reviewers, however, seemed so disgusted at the inclusion of a picture showing a severed body part in this book, that they promptly returned it to the store. I have one thing to say in response: This book may very well be packaged nicely with an outer shell box and lovely matte paper inside, but it by no means claims to be trauma free. What are you people thinking? This is a "Democracy of Photographs," and the editors have no reason to sugarcoat the pages with less offensive material. I've seen much more disturbing scenes in Newsweek magazine and even on the cover of the New York Times--THE NEW YORK TIMES!
September 11th was probably one of the worst days of my life. I will never forget the sight of people jumping out of the towers and even seeing a couple holding hands falling to their death. And the purpose of this book through its moments of frozen time is to accomplish just that--never forget.
Although the book seems to take on a logical progression with several "pauses" from start to finish, one can certainly open to any page and sincerely be struck with feelings of rage, fear, despair and even hope. Except for the beginning and a little near the end, the lack of text only emboldens the book's strength. If you've held off this long to purchase a 9/11 book, this is the one to consider most worthy of your interest.

There are now many books about the attacks on 9/11, many of them commemorative photo books, but if you are thinking about which one or two ought to be in your library, HERE IS NEW YORK is one you must have. The experience of seeing this storefront exhibition (which the book represents) was endlessly fascinating and moving. Thousands of photos were solicited by both amateur and professional photographers, and all were tacked up in seemingly random order all over the walls of a small shop. These charted the World Trade Center from its glory as a New York City landmark through the aftermath of the attacks. Virtually every photo was evocative, many were beautiful, and when taken together they created a staggering portrait of that day and those that immediately followed. Many experiences and points of view are represented. To enter this exhibit was an amazing experience, and when it was housed in a storefront on Sixth Avenue off Bryant Park in Manhattan, I found myself drawn there again and again. This book can't exactly recreate that experience, but it does come close to recreating the slide show that appeared on plasma screens in the exhibit, which invariably transfixed dozens of visitors at a time. To characterize the experience of thumbing through this book (even in the hurly burly of a bookstore) as riveting, moving, human is not really enough. It struck this New Yorker as an important and definitive document and one well worth having.

I borrowed this book as a courteous jester (not wanting to offend, from a lady in our church) and it's changed my life. The resounding message was one of health and welfare at a pretty simple price - eating mostly raw fruit's and vegetables and getting daily invigorating exercise. The simple and straight forward writing style of these men coupled with the many testimony's to the fact that it worked for others, was enough to inspire me to try it and get results from it like many others have experienced. I lost over 50# and feel better physically, emotionally and mentally than since I can remember. Since purchasing my own first copy I have purchased and given away more than 15 copy's to others, hoping it would provoke them as it has me to take a simpler approach to health by eating simply GOD'S best!!

If I could recommend just one book to introduce someone to the rawfood approach to eating this would be it. It is a well written, bible based book but with plenty of scientific evidence demonstarting why it is best to eat this way and why cooking destroys most of the nutritonal value of food. It also has hundreds of personal testimonials of those who have improved their overall health and many who have overcome so called "incureable" diseases using this method. Since adopting this approach to eating along with juicing a few months ago, I have lost almost 15 pounds and have experienced a wonderful surge in energy. Without reservation I will suggest this book to anyone looking to improve their health and quality of life. An excellent companion book to this is "The Juiceman's Power of Juicing" by Jay Kordich which does a great job presenting the benefits of juicing and has many good juice recepies

This book has changed our lives. Eating fresh vegetables and fruits enables us to have living enzymes enter our bodies and obtain optimum health and plenty of energy. We have been applying the principles in this book into our lifestyle and have seen great benefits and many health problems just leave along with a good weight loss. This book is full of truth and gives a plan for a long life full of vitality. We highly recommend it for anyone who is serous about obtaining good health. We are so grateful to George Malkmus for helping us and many others to leave the SAD diet for an easy and simple lifestyle free of diseases.

I found this book while I was reading my way through the library's fairy tale shelf. I didn't understand any of the symbolism at the time, but I still liked it. I don't understand all of it even now, but the more I read (especially of C.S. Lewis, who admired MacDonald's work), the more interesting the book becomes. I like the way the shadow-lands idea seen here gets more fleshed out in C.S. Lewis' Narnia book The Last Battle, and both are probably derived from the cave allegory in Plato.

Some people will probably be turned off by the allegorical aspect. I think of it as an interesting little puzzle.

Afterward by W. H. Auden. This "great work" as C.S. Lewis described The Golden Key, tells of a boy and a girl, and their mysterious journey. J.R.R. Tolkien said "The magical, the fairy story . . . may be made a vehicle of Mystery. This at least is what George MacDonald attempted, achieving stories of power and beauty when he succeeded, as in The Golden Key." I heartily agree as did my children!

Since the story "The Golden Key" can be found in several collections of MacDonald's fairy tales, this book's main strength lies in Maurice Sendak's illustrations. These black and white drawings by the creator of "Where The Wild Things Are" add a touch of whimsey to this rather obscure short story by the Victorian novelist/pastor/poet. Like all of MacDonald's fantasies, this adventure about a boy and a girl who are looking for the land where the shadows fall can be read and enjoyed on multiple levels.

This was another fine story. This book occurs late in the war, right before Napolean abdicates the throne the first time. Hornblower has been a lord for several months, however has been recuperating from an illness. He is sent on a mission to capture a brig that has mutinied and is threatening to surrender to the French.

Hornblower is successful in the mission and at the same time lands himself right in the middle of political intrigue in a major seaport on the French coast. He is able, with the help of several leading citizens, to capture the town and have it reaffirm the old French King as the successor to Napoloean when he is defeated.

Of course, Napolean is not to happy about this situation and he send an expedition to fight the rebelling city and throw the English back into the sea. Hornblower expects this and send to England for help. Who should arrive? None other than Captain Bush, Hornblower's close friend.

Bush sets off inland via a river to intercept the oncoming seige train and wreck it while it is still in transport mode. He is successful, but at a terrible price. Around that time, Bonaparte abdicates and is exiled. France is returned to the Bourbons. Hornblower sets off the visit the Compte de Gracae that helped him escape when he was captured two years before. During his visit, Bonaparte escapes and reclaims the thrown.

Hornblower is deep inland at this time. He helps a local partisan movement. However, his small group of 30 guerillas is hunted down by several thousand French soldiers. He is eventually captured and sentence to be executed. On the day befor the execution, word comes from Paris that Bonaparte has been defeated at Waterloo and has again abdicated. Hornblower is released.

Not a lot of sea fighting going on this book. Most of the action takes place ashore in France. A lot of political intrigue. C.S. did a fine job of depicting the political situation in France at the end of the war.

It is 1813 and Lord Hornblower has been given the task to rescue Lieutenant Chadwick from the mutinous crew of the Flame. Force does not seem to be the answer, but if Hornblower does not do something the crew threaten to turn the ship over to the FRENCH! And THEN he has to deal with a Prince of France and his wife Barbara meets his mistress Marie!

I'd like to answer the British Columbia readers question. There are 11 novels in C.S. Forrester's Hornblower saga. Additionally, at least one publisher has books that contain up to three of the novels in one volume. Interestingly, Forester didn't write the 11 books in chronological order. Consequently, some publishers elect to place numbers on the spine of each book to indicate where a particular title falls in the chronology. The current US printing (1999), by Back Bay Books, a division of Little Brown and Co., is not complete. At least the last three chronological titles (Commodore Hornblower, Lord Hornblower and Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies) will hit the shelves later in 1999. I can't wait. Each book stands on its own and every one is addictive.

The book 'KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING' (c.1935, 1956) by George Orwell, i.e. Eric Arthur Blair, reads as a monologue which followed the life of one Gordon Comstock; a thirty year old poet working in a self imposed dead-end job, first at a small book store in 1935 London, then another poorer paying book shop after being fired for a night in jail.

It is a simply written and rather pointless novel littered with transparent metaphors; weak analogies; self-contradictions; blatant leftist doctrines; a whopping tautology; and a visible conclusion. George Orwell didn't seem to pay much attention to his own advice found in 'Politics and the English Language'.

The main character, Gordon Comstock, a struggling poet, lived in self-inflicted exile of poverty and decay to flee from the 'Money-God' and to rub elbows with his fellow working class heroes. Living in hovels, eating swill, falling into debt, dressing in tatters, working minimum wage jobs, allowing himself to become slightly malnutrishined, Gordon Comstock had romanticized the proletariat to the detriment of his health, social life, and career. He didn't seem to understand that these conditions are a dibilitating and not a fortifying aspect of working class life. Conditions despised by the very people he tried to emulate.

The simple Aspidistra, a potted plant, is Gordon's symbol of the middle class value system he detested. But the plant appears to be ubiquitous as it is found on every window sill of middle class family homes in England, from which Gordon is trying to flee. Then Gordon had a revelation that the middle class were the working class who had kept themselves respectable - had kept the Aspidistra flying. (This is a theme that occurs in later Orwell writings.)

Anyone with a college course in psychology would recognize that the character Gordon Comstock displayed symptoms of chronic depression; latent homosexuality; anxiety neurosis; bi-polar mood disorder; and obsessive guilt.

If, as some critics have suggested, this work is autobiographical of George Orwell, then the observation made by one of his biographers that, "The British are the only people who spend a lot of money to send their children to school to become emotionally damaged", was a process that afflicted George Orwell.

But who was this book written for? It would seem the author's fellow socialists. The author had to communicate his proletariat values somehow to his international fellow travelers! It always appears that socialists try to out-do each other's counter-bourgeois experiences. And KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING came across as a chronicle of leftist one-upmanship: the - I'm more working class than you are - attitude, by living shoulder to shoulder with the poor, then leaving when bored. (We call this 'slumming' in my working class neighborhood, and its annoying!). What is so original or novel about a struggling youth living his dream? KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING is more of a socialist polemic than an original story with a moral.

A good book to compare with 'KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING' is: 'WANDERER' by Sterling Hayden. Schooner captain Sterling Hayden gave a similar account of working class privation as he fled from a middle class background, then tramped around the U.S. following his nautical dream during the great depression, and was deeply influenced by American socialists of the time. Yet Sterling Hayden's poverty was real, not self imposed as Orwell's.

I found 'KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING' somewhat disappointing, but required reading as a fan of George Orwell.

It is a bit difficult task to place George Orwell (pen name for Eric Aruthur Blair) in the history of the 20th century English literature. A novelist? A journalist? A critic? Or just a guy who loved propaganda? Whatever it is, he is and will be remembered as the one who wrote "1984" and "Animal Farm." Still, before he wrote these famous works, he wrote a pretty good book of novel, and that is what you're looking at now.

"Keep the Aspidistra Flying" one of the most starange titles you ever see, is about a "poet" (and formerly a copywriter for advertizing company) Gordon Comstock, who, with sudden desire to be free from the curse of money, left this good job and starts the life of an aspiring artist. As he had previously a book of his own poems published (the title "Mice"), and received a review from The Times Literary Supplement, which said "exceptional promise," why not pursue his way as an artist? And his next project "London Pleasure" which must be the next Joyce or Eliot will be completed soon, probably next month, or next year perhaps....

As his misadventure starts, Rosemary, his long-suffering but always faithful sweetheart, naturally is dismayed, and it takes a long time for him to realize that his happiness, whatever it is, is possible with her presence. But aside from the romantic aspect of the novel, which in itself is well-written with good portrait of independent Rosemary, the book attracts us with the author's satire on the middle-classness of England, which is represented by those ugly, die-hard aspidistra decorating the windows of every house. Gordon's loathing of respetability is deftly turned into a dark comedy that attack the parochical mind of some people, sometimes including Gordon himself. For instance, Gordon, no matter how poor and disheveled he becomes, never lets his girlfriend Rosemary pay the check of lunch because, in a word, it is not proper. Those who are interested in Englishness might find something amusing in this book, I assure you.

As is his satire, Orwell's English style is always full of power, brisk and lively, and never lets you bored. The only demerit is, as time has changed since then 1936, some names are no longer familiar to us; once hugely popular novelists like Ethel M Dell is mentioned with derogatory comments from Gordon, and her bestselling novel "The Way of an Eagle" is clearly treated as trash in Orwell's mind, but in the 21st Century whoever read them? Hence, some part of the book is lost on us if you don't know these names like Dell or Hugh Walpole, but never mind. Such part consists only small part, and if you don't get it, just skip it.

At the time of publishing, "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" was never a commercial success, and in Orwell's lifeime it was never reprinted, but these facts should not discuorage you from reading it. It is wickedly funny book that makes you, if not smile, at least grin not a little.

The book was made a movie in 1997 as "The Merry War" starring Richard E Grant and Helena Bohnam Carter. The film, more inclined to romance side of the book, is also a good one. Try it.

Having completed "Keep the Aspidistra Flying", I have now read all of the novels of George Orwell. I can say with such authority that this one may be his best. George Orwell was, first and foremost, a Socialist and this book is his examination of being a Socialist in a Capitalist world. His hero, Gordon Comstock, is mired in a dead-end job that is just middle-class enough to require proper dress and behavior but not enough to enable him to afford any but the most essential living expenses. We sympathize with him. Or at least we do until we realize that his disdain for the pursuit of money has pointed him in the opposite direction. He is so anti-capitalist that he purposely keeps himself in his lower state. He quit a previous job because it paid too much. He won't strive beyond his current status because then he would enter a higher social status. He is convinced of the righteousness of his beliefs even though he has bled his sister dry "borrowing" money from her over the years. She "lends" him the money because the family always had such high hopes for this erudite young man. Gordon complains, to those that listen, that money is the root of all evil yet he is so ready to be victimized by it. He complains to his girl-friend that she measures him by his net-worth. This isn't true but he can't see that the problem is that HE is measuring himself by his own net-worth. He talks the talk but can't walk the walk. Well, money leads to one disaster of his own making and ends up as the solution to another "disaster" of his own making. I'm sure the prospective reader would prefer to read the book to see how his story ends so I won't go into any more details here.

This novel is enjoyable on many levels. I found myself, like most, getting upset with Gordon Comstock for his self-destructive "nobility". I was ready to rant and rave about it until I remembered my post-college Bohemian days and realized that I went through such a stage myself. I'm sure many of us have and so I think there is a personal connection that will appeal to a lot of readers. For pure literary merit, this is a hard 20th Century satire to top. Orwell scared a lot of people with his futuristic novels "Animal Farm" and "1984". He tried to indoctrinate many a reader with his Socialistic essays including his half-novel/half-essay; "The Road to Wigan Pier". I have a feeling that he was poking fun at himself in "Keep the Aspidistras Flying". Maybe that's why it works so well.

A children's story that may be read on several different level's, North Wind is a timeless work of literature. Eagerly anticipated and listened to by the children I read it to, the story also strikes deeply at our adult sense of spirituality. This is the kind of writing that brings back the rewarding closeness of reading aloud to others. Too bad we don't do more of this.

This children's book has had a profound impact on my faith and spirituality. It is a book I have read and re-read over the years, especially when I am struggling with my faith. The story, Diamond's relationship with the North Wind, satisfies one on an almost mystical level. Its simple, beautiful story leaves one knowing that no matter what happens in the world, God is God; and we can rest assured that He is in control. We can be at peace, in spite of the pain and evil in the world.

Don't look for answers. Simply read the story and let it wash over you. If you have the faith of a child, you will not be unaffected.

This enchanting classic is as lively and moving to read as the day it was written. There is no Victorian stodginess or moralizing here. I remember reading an essay where Simone Weil lamented over the difficulty of portraying goodness in literature--in fiction evil seemed to dominate. Well here in the character of the lad Diamond is one of the most convincing evocations of human goodness and saintliness in literature, childrens' or adult. One is reminded of St. Francis of Assisi when contemplating Diamond; his purity, innocense, and unselfconsciousness float right off the page. I especilly call your attention to the dialogue between Diamond and his mother on the beach as she tries hopelessly to explain to him that now they are poor. His sublimely worldly (and yet otherworldly )responses are both hilarious and deeply moving. One of MacDonald's core beliefs, so often and passionately stated throughout his writings, is here given flesh and blood: goodness is truth.

This is a great book for students...because it's not heavy! Seriously, the chapters are short and concise,heavenly stuff when you're cramming the night before exams.The writing is clear and focused...it doesn't meander off into extreme details. The illustrations are self explanatory...and the pictures are graphic and gross...like they should be in a infectious disease textbook. Too bad there aren't more of them!

This book covers every medical microbiology topic that is needed for class exams or the USLME. The book is intensely filled with very elaborated information that any medical student needs to pass his or her exams. My study group and I also used the following for class exams and the USLME and found it extremely helpful. I also purchased this book on amazon which is the following:
Microbiology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers by Patrick Leonardi (ISBN: 0971999635)
The questions in this study guide were on target with my class exams and was an excellent reference for the USLME. Buy both books. Most definitely!!

The first thing to understand about this book is that it is a textbook and a difficult one. The difficulty for the beginning student or general reader is not a fault of the authors. Rather it is because medical microbiology itself is a daunting subject full of organisms that can only be seen fuzzily with an electron microscope, if at all, organisms involved in processes and behaviors that are foreign to our everyday experience. Add the fact that most of the material covered here is not part of a non-specialist curriculum either in high school or college, and effectively speaking the untrained reader is starting from scratch.

Well, why do that? First of all, because the material itself--how viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other infectious organisms enter the body, replicate, and cause disease--is fascinating and of immediate relevance to our lives. Second because (to my knowledge) there is little or nothing else available to the general reader that goes beyond a sketchy introduction to the subject. One is forced to read a text book. Fortunately this is a good one and it is thorough.

The text covers the range of infectious disease from viruses to tapeworms. The amount of technical information presented is daunting, and the sheer expanse of terminology a challenge (why is there no glossary?). The text is lavishly illustrated with photos and electron micrographs of the pathogens, as well as numerous schematic drawings showing how microorganisms cause disease, how they replicate, their chemical structure, their morphology, etc.

The instructional schematic drawings I found less valuable than the electron micrographs, but I suspect for the student of microbiology it might be the other way around.

What you'll get out of this handsome book depends on how much time and energy you are able to devote to it. I started reading this in the hope that I would, perhaps by osmosis, pick up some feel for life at the micron level, and I did. Obviously if I had been able to study the text with the help of an instructor, I would have learned a lot more.

Which came first: the anti-gentile or the anti-semite?
A semite is a racial type: kinky hair, aquiline nose, olive complexion.

The Arabs and Jews both are Semites, while many converts to Judaism are blond straight-haired, pug nosed people.

Sarte's book is confusing.

.
There is an implied racist ideology in the Chosenness theme of Judaism. Chosenness is a form of ethnic (and economic) supremacy, as is clearly revealed in The Torah.

Exodus 22:25: If you lend money to any of My people (Israelites, Jews) who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, you shall not charge him interest (as you would to Gentiles).

Leviticus 25:43-46: And as for the male and female slaves whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves . . .and they shall become your property. And you may take them as an inheritance for your childdren after you to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your permanent slaves. BUT REGARDING YOUR BRETHREN, THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, YOU SHALL NOT RULE OVER ONE ANOTHER WITH RIGOR.

Thus, The Torah, the Jewish Law, well establishes the ethnic and economic supremancy theme of Judaism. It is the Anti-Gentilism of Judaism that has traditionally provoked mistrust of people who do not embrace Judaism.

Sartre has borrowed the concept of "authentic" and "inauthentic"
from Martin Heidegger, a German Nazi, who used the term inauthentic to describe an alienated German worker, who was exploited by capitalist industrialist-bankers.

The Nazis and the Arabs, as well as some radical Christian groups have so resented the Chosenness theme of Judaism that they have turned the tables on the Jews of Judaism and declared themselves the "chosen people."

Anti-Semitism is not created by Gentiles. It is created by the philosophy of Judaism, which designates the Jews themselves as appointed by God (as revealed to Moses) to rule the Earth. Any Jew who denies this is in my opinion guilty of what Sartre himself calls "bad faith." Bad faith is when one lies to himself about the true meaning of his own acts.

Freud used the term projection, an ego defense mechanism in which one attributes one own unacceptable impulses or attitudes to others.

Once again, it is not the Gentile that has created anti-Semitism, but the pervasive chosenness theme of Judaism, which is undeniably fascist. There is no getting around it!

One more point might be made, that it is the Arab, who is also a Semite, who is indeed one of the greatest foes of Judaism.

Sartre seemingly can't see the forest for the trees!

The so-called anti-semite is a figment of the imagination of Sartre, Freud, and others like them. The philosophy of Judaism is based on the Law of Moses, which designates the Israelites as the Chosen people, with the Moses-given right to enslave the other nations of the world, as is clearly revealed in Leviticus 25:43-45.

Today, such a philosophy endorsing ethnic supremacy (which is the real meaning of Chosenness) would very appropriately be designated fascism.

Sartre's Anti-Semite & Jew is an exercise in what I would call Jewish paranoia, which in my opinion is a mask to conceal
the Anti-Gentilism of the Jew! It is sort of an exercise in what Freud himself called "projection," an ego defense mechanism in which one attributes one's own unacceptable impulses or attitudes to others.

And as other scholars have already said, Sartre shows a blatant inability to comprehend the psychodynamics of the Jewish religion and of Jewish history. To use his own term, "bad faith," Anti-Semite & Jew is indeed an exercise in bad faith.

"Bad Faith" is when one lies to one's self about the true nature of one's actions.

Sartre borrowed the concepts of "authentic" and "inauthentic" from Martin Heidegger. Interestingly, Heidegger was both a German and a Nazi, and Heidegger used the term to describe working class German workers who were exploited by industrial-capitalists and bankers. However, Sartre use of the words is in my opinion inappropriate. In other words, the Jew's problem is that he refuses to accept the FACT that it is his identity with an implicitly fascist social-political philosophy that understandably provokes the mistrust of others.

The problem for the Jew is that he wants to have his cake and eat it to.

When we launched our Six Sigma journey, many of our top managers had heard of mixed results with other initiatives. In fact, the methodology described in this book has allowed us to make such major strides that the results have made all our people become advocates. As a Berkshire Hathaway company, prioritizing projects around ROIC, as espoused in Lean Six Sigma, supports our corporate objectives. The integration of Lean on a foundation of Six Sigma tools described in this book has equipped our Black Belts to successfully attack virtually any business problem. Lean Six Sigma is a book every executive and manager ought to read.

This book provides the linkage between the two most powerful continuous improvement tools currently available: Lean and Six Sigma. It also provides a clear approach to prioritizing projects to maximize shareholder value. In creating Value Based Six Sigma at ITT, we knew that we needed the Six Sigma infrastructure and quality tools, that was clear. But what really makes a change in factories and other processes are the Lean tools. This book synthesizes the concepts of Value Based project prioritization, Six Sigma quality, and Lean process speed into an integrated and logical structure that applies to any company or process. I recommend the book to the executive who is contemplating launching a continuous improvement process to support their corporate strategy.

At Caterpillar, we require that Lean Manufacturing tools be embedded within our 6 Sigma methodology. 6 Sigma provides the overarching infrastructure,and we supplement its quality methods with the Lean tools to accelerate process velocity. We have worked with Mike George throughout our deployment and have read the drafts of this book while it was in preparation. With the help of Lean Manufacturing enrichment modules from George Group, we have been able to fully integrate Lean with 6 Sigma as our Unifying Framework. 6 Sigma and Lean are great complements for driving process excellence. Mike's book, Lean Six Sigma is a detailed and proven implementation approach. It's an outstanding book and a must read for anyone committing to improving corporate performance.

Dave Burritt
6 Sigma Corporate Champion
Caterpillar Inc.

Ostensibly a novel, this book is Orwell's thinly fictional account of a time he spent "slumming it" in Paris and London. Orwell had read and greatly admired Jack London's book, "People of the Abyss" (1902), which chronicled his time spent among the wretched poor of London at the turn of the century. In the prewar '30s Orwell followed London's journalistic example, and voluntarily entered the ranks of the barely surviving in Paris. His account is rich in it's evocation of sights, sounds, and characters of this day-to-day existence. When he isn't unemployed and pawning his clothes, he works 12-18 hour days as a "plongeur" (dishwasher/gopher) at various hotels and restaurants. It's a pretty awful never-ending cycle of poverty to be caught in, as Orwell's books amply demonstrates. He ends his Paris section by speaking directly to the reader about the reasons for such poverty. Rather than claim any kind of nobility in poverty, he points out that the terrible jobs he and his friends perform are largely useless work and can be easily made obsolete. Later he moves over to London and joins the ranks of the homeless tramps. This section is less vivid and strong, and is better as a simple sociological study of homelessness in Edwardian England. He somewhat awkwardly inserts a lot of info about slang which is interesting, but somewhat tangential. The extreme policies he decries here have been replaced by the modern welfare state economy. Altogether, it's an interesting journalistic/sociological exercise with some strong statements.

In his semi-autobiographical work "Down & Out in Paris and London", Orwell first takes us to Paris in the late 1930's where the narrator (who bears a striking resemblance to Orwell) is living in squalid hotels and desperately trying to get by. Unable to find work as a writer, he gets jobs in hotels and restaurants, working long hours as a plongeur/dishwasher. His accounts of what occurs in the kitchens and back rooms of fine dining establishments make one think twice about dining out. The narrator shares accounts of others he meets living a similar life and how they survive by continually pawning their belongings to buy scraps of food. In the second part of the book, the narrator, sick of life in Paris and longing for the familiarity of Britain, moves back to London to begin a job. The job does not begin immediately so he spends time as a tramp moving from shelter to shelter. The system and policies of these shelters was very enlightening.

I personally enjoyed the Paris part of the book more than the London part. The writing in "Down & Out in Paris and London" is simple yet wonderful and sharp. It is a relatively easy read and highly informative. As you read the book you begin to understand what it must be like to live a life of poverty.

"Down and Out in Paris and London" is Orwell's compulsively readable account of the time he spent among the poor and destitute in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

In Paris, he sought work as a "plonguer", trying to stave off starvation, and encountered a range of characters of various nationalities who occupied what might be termed the basement of the Parisian working classes. The descriptions of what it is like to be without any means of support - particularly the tedium of it all - strike true, but the most stomach-churning sections were those devoted to life in the kitchens of the hotels and restaurants.

In England, Orwell lived for a time among the "tramps" - dispossessed itinerants, who according to Orwell were forced into that way of life by the antiquated system of poor relief.

One can contrast Orwell's experiences in France and England, and examine the differences (as indeed Orwell does himself), but in all, this book is a savage indictment of the exploitation of certain sections of society and the damaging effects of the lack of effective poor relief. Even if one takes the view that the poor will always be with us, Orwell's book is a warning that none of our lives are really unaffected by it.