Though I majored in English, I never took a creative writing course while in college. When I started writing fiction a few years ago, I knew that I couldn't enter an MFA program because I'm a full-time attorney with a family to feed and a mortgage to pay. So, I decided that I should read as much fiction as possible to help teach myself the craft of writing. One of the books I purchased was the then-new 1998 Prize Stories: The O'Henry Awards. I couldn't have made a better choice! In this one volume, I read Lorrie Moore's heartbreaking "People Like That Are the Only People Here," Steven Millhauser's chilling "The Knife Thrower," Alice Munro's evocative "The Children Stay," among many other wonderful and powerful fiction from The New Yorker, Zoetrope: All-Story, Ploughshares, Harper's, and others. Larry Dark, the series editor, and the prize jury, Andrea Barrett, Mary Gaitskill and Rick Moody, did a wonderful job pulling together the best short fiction of that year. This collection not only gave me great joy as a reader, but also wonderful lessons in the art and craft of fiction writing.

Excellent collection of cutting-edge short fiction. If you want to see the extreme edges of today's scene and what, hopefully, is the future of short fiction, buy this collection every year. Extremely compelling work, wide variety of styles, and not the same old names.

As an avid reader of the O.Henry series, I felt that it was in a bit of a rut until this new editor, Larry Dark came along. Last year and especially this year, the O. Henry has become exciting and cutting edge, and Dark must be given all the credit. C'est magnefique Monseiur Dark!!

This book came highly recommended to me because my husband has Multiple Sclerosis. I was instantly captured by the title alone. As I dove deeper, I realized these "remarkable recovery" case studies could be my husband. I gained a great deal of insight about beliefs I already had, yet was struggling to fit them into our lives to help my husband heal, to help him get better, and hopefully some day, fully recover.

This book gave it all to me. It is well written and full of humor, which I found very enlightening when you are dealing with disease and death. I strongly & highly recommend this book to anyone who knows or cares about someone with any severe illness or life threatening disease.

I just finished this absolutely wonderful book & am buying 2 more copies for friends. I suggest you read it and do the same.

Here is a book to come back to time and time again... as I have. In the midst of my own cancer journey, I have made it a point to read and re-read portions of this book. In the darkness and uncertainty that accompanies Cancer, this book gave me hope. A guiding light, on a sometimes starless night. My dog-eared copy of this book will forever maintain a cherished place on my bookshelf.

I read this book before ordering it for a friend who has cancer, because I wanted to make sure it was the kind of information she needed. I thought it was absolutely wonderful. I'm a hard-science kind of person, not skeptical at all about the mind-body connection but definitely needing proof, and I got it here. I can't imagine a person with cancer--especially one with a poor prognosis but who's determined to do her or his best to get well again--who wouldn't feel better after reading this book.

A very compelling and informative book. Mr. Mansch has written a masterpiece. He has captured the life and times of early America and base ball. A must read for all base ball historians.

An excellent look at time when America was beginning its love affair with baseball. Larry Mansch did a wonderful job of bringing Rube Marquard to life, as well as providing an up-close look at baseball and America. I really enjoyed re-living the different pennant races Rube was involved in; particularly the unforgetable 1908 season. The author's exhaustive research, numerous quotes from Rube's peers and attention to detail made the book a real treat. If you love the early days of baseball, colorful characters and bygone America, you'll love this book.

Rube Marquard, The Life and Times of a Baseball Hall of Famer - An emotional read for anyone who grew up with the names Babe Ruth, Casey Stengel, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner, or John McGraw. A must read for anyone who wants to better understand the world in which their parents and grandparents grew up. Makes you want to tear down every domed stadium ever built and replace it with a sandlot field.

Rube provides an interesting comparison to today's professional baseball players. Surprisingly, there are many more similarities than there are differences. The players are more than players; they're stage, TV and movie personalities; they're national hero's and role models; and they represent America to the rest of the world. Contract disputes, holdouts and trades are an important part of the game. Salaries are unbelievable. And, of course, scandals erupt on a regular basis. Rube illustrates that baseball is a grand mixture of what goes on between the white lines and what goes on outside the white lines. This is baseball.

This was my first book I have read which is a narrative on what it is like to cruise for years in the Mediterranean on a 24 foot sail boat. I am planning on a 3 month cruise in the summer of 2002 and wanted info on what it is like. The Authors had a good mix of experiences from Lessons-learned, weather/seas in the Western/Central Med, and alot of good narrative about the people they meant in a variety of ports. It was just what I wanted to understand what the experience is like. I was a little disapointed when the book stopped short of the Greek Island which is where I am planning on going. Over all, if you are thinking of cruising and want a little feel of it with out ocean spray, this is the book for you...

This is the third book of the Pardey's four book Seraffyn series. Once you start them, it's hard to put them down. Lin Pardey has an easy, comfortable, writing style. One is really pulled into their travels.

I thought the book was well written even for someone that has never sailed. The book made me want to learn to sail and look for adventure like the Pardys. My only question would be if it would be the same sailing throught the Med sea today. i hope so!!!! I went out and ordered more of there books right way and I can't to explore with them again!!!!!

This book is a must-have for the drag racing historian or any car nut that missed out on the golden era of drag racing the 'family' car. Numerous photos depicting how the cars were set up and raced. A fun flashback!

What a book! Thank you Mr.Davis for taking the enormous amount of time to compile all this info in one place. With the wealth of unseen (by me) photos this book makes me feel like I was there even though I was too young in the 1960's to experience these cars live. The book is a great reference guide for me as I am now in the process of building a nostalgia super stocker of my own.

This is an excellent book for anyone who likes drag racing, street racing, etc. It is about the evolution of drag racing in the 60's. This book has great pictures and commentary by the author, who has really done his research. I recomend this book to everybody who has ever had a 60's-70's muscle car.

From law and order to sports and celebrities, They Said That! provides an entertaining look at "the wit and wisdom of modern celebrity culture." Engelmann's compilation of verbal slips and and insights from people like Dennis Rodman, Shirley Maclaine, Madonna, Monica Lewinsky, Bill Gates, Wayne Gretzky, and President Clinton will amuse and entertain you. Carefully researched and meticuloulsy organized, They Said That! is a pop-culture reference book and chronicle of our times. Guaranteed to make you laugh and ponder the absurdity of today's superstars.

A hilarious laugh riot, They Said That! exposes celebrities who choose to speak when their publicists aren't around to help them.

Could Carmen Electra be any dumber? Yes! With pages upon pages devoted to the verbally challenged who make up Hollywood's elite (in addition to dozens of atheletes, politicians, etc), They Said That! is sure to amuse. I recommend this book to all lovers of popculture.

Engelmann's They Said That! includes insights and verbal slips that will incite a "laughfest." This is a hilarious compilation that sheds light on more than two thousand celebrities. I highly recommend this book. They Said That! is a refreshing reference of pop-culture...a comical treasure of our times.

Lonesome Dove is one of the best books I have ever read. It has drama, action, love and everything that makes a good book good. The story begins with the author describing the characters and the story, and you really can connect with the characters. The main character is Gus McCrae, an ex Texas Ranger who is very lazy, and loves to drink. Despite this, he is an excellent ranger and his name is known all throughout America. The other main character is Call. He is a hard working, stubborn man who doesn't like ot talk alot. The story goes on from there. I recomend this book for advanced readers, who want a spellbinding story.

I have read "Dead Man's Walk", "Comanche Moon","Lonesome Dove" and am now starting "Streets of Larado". My only disappointment is that the books don't contain a map depicting the locations of the major events. I wish the author could post one, so I can track the events and better relate to the actual locations. I loved the books- I grew up in West Texas and can identify with much of the landscape descriptions.

Larry McMurtry has an easy-going, though smart, style, that I identify with deeply. He doesn't try to pummel you with big words and confusing sentences. He writes like it feels.

The book investigates the proper mathematical structure of probability and statistics (commonly refered as stochastics).

The author claims that the identification of probability as frequency is too restricted. He proposes its interpretation
as 'logic under uncertainty' where uncertainty means not randomness
but lack of full descriptions and data.

He says the second approach is much more powerfull.

One could say that the two definitions relate to two
different things that coincide in some cases. It is not
necessary that they are the same thing.

One also can observe that the deepest meaning of probability
is the dryest one: it is simply a function that allows the
calculation of time and space averages.

Once you define it like that you do not need to write any
big book about it. Probability is a special case of Analysis;
given a number of statistics you find a function that can
reproduce them. No need for repeated experiments or incomplete
knowledge and the like.

This book has been on the web in unfinished form for a number of years and has shaped my scientific thinking more than any other book. I believe it constitutes one of the most important scientific texts of the last hundred years. It convincingly shows that "statistics", "statistical inference", "Bayesian inference", "probability theory", "maximum entropy methods" , and "statistical mechanics" are all parts of a large coherent theory that is the unique consistent extension of logic to propositions that have degrees of plausibility attached to them. This is already a theoretical accomplishment of epic proportions. But in addition, the book shows how one actually solves real world problems within this frame work, and in doing so shows what a vastly wider array of problems is addressable within this frame work than in any of the forementioned particular fields.
If you work in any field where on needs to "reason with incomplete information" this book is invaluable.

As others have already mentioned, Jaynes never finished this book. The editor decided to "fill in" the missing parts by putting excercises that, when finished by the reader, provide what (so the editor guesses) Jaynes left out. I find this solution a bit disappointing. The excercises don't take away the impression that holes are left in the text. It would have been better if the editor had written the missing parts and then printed those in different font so as to indicate that these parts were not written by Jaynes. Better still would have been if the editor had invited researchers that are intimately familiar with Jaynes' work and the topic of each of the missing pieces to submit text for the missing pieces. The editor could then have chosen from these to provide a "best guess" for what Jaynes might have written.

Finally, there is the issue of Jaynes' writing style. This is of course largely a matter of taste. I personally like his writing style very much because it is clear, and not as stifly formal as most science texts. However, some readers may find his style too belligerent and polemic.

To "pure" mathematicians, probability theory is measure theory in spaces of measure 1. To the extent to which you remain a "pure" mathematician, this book will be incomprehensible to you.

To frequentist statisticians, probability theory is the study of relative frequencies or of proportions of a population; those are "probabilities".

To Bayesian statisticians, probability theory is the study of degrees of belief. Bayesians may assign probability 1/2 to the proposition that there was life on Mars a billion years ago; frequentists will not do that because they cannot say that there was life on Mars a billion years ago in precisely half of all cases -- there are no such "cases".

To _subjective_ Bayesians, probability theory is about subjective degrees of belief. A subjective degree of belief is merely how sure you happen to be.

"Noninformative" _objective_ Bayesians assign "noninformative" probability distributions when they deal with uncertain propositions or uncertain quantities, and replace them with "informative" distributions only when they update them because of "data". "Data", in this sense, consists of the outcomes of random experiments.

"Informative" _objective_ Bayesians -- a rare species -- ask what degree of belief in an uncertain proposition is logically necessitated by whatever information one has, and they don't necessarily require that information to consist of outcomes of random experiments.

Jaynes is an "informative" objective Bayesian. This book is his defense of that position and his account of how it is to be used.

"Pure" mathematicians will not find that this book resembles that branch of "pure" mathematics that they call probability theory.

Jaynes rails against those he disagrees with at great length. Often he is right. But often he simply misunderstands them. For example, writing in the 1990s, he said that pure mathematicians reject the use of Dirac's delta function and its derivatives, and related topics. That is nonsense; the delta function has long been considered highly respectable, and required material in the graduate curriculum. Unfortunately Jaynes's misunderstandings may cause some others to misunderstand him when he is right. Statisticians are more informed than "pure" mathematicians and will disagree with Jaynes for better reasons. _Some_ statisticians will agree with him.

Jaynes has many flaws, made all the more annoying by the fact that we need to overlook them in order to understand him. His message is important.

This is the workbook for We the People, a manifesto for problem solving as (r)evolutionary as any 18th Century founding document. It is to be used by communities, groups, or institutions in crisis or when they know in their hearts and minds that they need to rehabilitate their policies and procedures to make them genuinely of, by and for. A DIY of the highest social, political and moral order, it contains incendiary statements ("Democracy isn't supposed to work. We are supposed to work it."), inflammatory suggestions (consensual taxation) and tools for self-empowerment (forum media) such as make flag waving child's play. Senator Bill Bradley says that a healthy society requires the interwoven functioning of three sectors: government, market and civic. Currently, government and the market/corporate sectors are in cahoots, giving the planet, the Third World and Main Street the cold shoulder, busier building others' nations than rebuilding our own. Especially in the wake of 9/11, this leaves the civic sector up for grabs. It is the closest to home, where most of us can achieve our fullest potential, and retaking it is the purview of "Recreating Democracy."

In simple, accessible prose, it defines and delineates what progenitor Wells calls "Consensual Democracy," which is nothing less than voluntary, direct, inclusive, open-session, open-minded, non-partisan local self-governance. Because democracy is inherently neither Liberal nor Conservative, the book is neither. Or both. But both Consensual Democracy and this book are radically pragmatic. Herein are the principles (twelve of them), and the realistic procedures, structures, formats and sample documents for organizing from the bottom up. The book can be taken entire as a kind of gospel of community renewal or sections can be broken away from the text and adapted. (Portions would make great teaching materials for civics or social studies classes.) The support materials are a sort of "Everything You Needed to Know About Democracy But Nobody Told You." For readers to see how the effort to democratize plays out in real time and with real people, the authors offer a series of dramatic (roll-playable) scenes in which the citizens of Everytown (based on the fifty-year Chestnut Hill PA experience) determine where they want to go, learn to draw out and consider each other's visions and abilities, and decide how to get there in a fiscally responsible way: by creating a consensually democratic, hands-on Community Association. A complement to sovereign government, such an Association is capable of tackling economic, social, racial, land use, environmental, business, educational and leadership problems that sovereign government fails to, often cannot, address. It proves a contentious, dynamic, unpredictable, long-term, and exhilarating undertaking. Not easy, never virtual, it fosters self-awareness, widespread participation, and enlightened self-interest. As Everytowners align their separate visions into a shared one, they create a recognizable repository of social capital--trust, competence, independence, confidence, mutual and self-respect--that is both a means and an end of living democracy.

Consensual Democracy and this, its book, propose that the true test, task, and success of our collective future lie not only in material accomplishments, which are impermanent, but also in constructive, collaborative relationships created patiently, methodically, and deliberatively over time between people who live and/or work in proximity with each other and have concern for the common good. We the People have largely lost the habit of such commitment, cooperation and communality. Consensual Democracy revives the practices and, in time, the habits necessary for evolving such rewarding, life a-affirming and freedom-sustaining political and personal relationships. "Recreating Democracy" reminds us that such habits can be taught. Our kids will need them. Only healthy, self-organizing, self-renewing civic cells are immune to the viruses of terror, national disarray, economic decline and global chaos.

It has been suggested...that Well's and Lemmel's
Recreating Democracy be read as a companion volume to Robert Putnam's
Bowling Alone. .... What Recreating
Democracy provides is practical guidelines for citizens to create
contexts for political conversation and action. "Civic
engagement" as Putnam employs the concept, refers to informal
networks as rich civic resources, but these networks do not
necessarily inspire public debate and wider social questioning. Wells
and Lemmel offer "new tools and methods" that look beyond
individual concerns to their political and structural dimensions and
provide citizens with a blueprint for creating a means of engaging in
public discussion. If one is interested in creating civic engagement
that produces public-spirited conversation and action, providing
citizens with a public context to voice their political concerns, then
Recreating Democracy should be their handbook.

What is both
refreshing and unconventional in this book is not only the methods for
civic renewal but also the way in which they are presented. With a
highly pragmatic commitment to provide realistic and useful tools, the
authors take the reader through a detailed process of civic
conversation and action with chapters written in the form of
hypothetical yet entirely believable letters, memos, and
"dramatic scenes." These unconventional chapters are
accompanied by more traditional chapters on theory and practice.

The
conceptual framework for this book, what the authors call
"consensual democracy," emerged out of more than a
half-century of experience in community building in a community
outside of Philadelphia. Consensual democracy is defined as democracy
by consent (not consensus) deriving authority from the freely given
consent of individual citizens. This is contrasted with
"sovereign government," deriving power from public laws and
police powers.

Among the most useful and exciting tools of
consensual democracy are "the community catalyst" and
"consensual taxation." A community catalyst is a public
workshop designed to create a vision of a community's future and a
plan for achieving that vision through voluntary action. Consensual
taxes, along with a consensual tax bill, allows citizens to know
detailed financial information about budgeted community programs and
provides them with the opportunity to support or withhold support from
programs and expenses for which they are assessed.

Recreating
Democracy should be consulted by anyone interested in the civic arts,
as a primer not only for community renewal but for renewing the skills
of democratic citizenship. As John Dewey wrote in The Public and Its
Problems (1927) "faculties of effectual observation, reflection,
and desire are habits acquired under the influence of the culture and
institutions of society, not readymade inherent powers." Fewer
and fewer institutions in our culture inspire these faculties and
habits. Wells and Lemmel have performed a valuable public service by
providing tools for acquiring these habits of democracy as a means of
civic renewal.

Wells and Lemmel have created a rare book, one that actually offers a clear path towards an elusive goal. The question of how to create a better community is essential for any society. I'm not claiming that this book has the ultimate answer, but it does provide some very interesting ideas. The cool part is that it goes further then just ideas, it provides very concrete steps that should be taken to attain a better community. It comes complete with worksheets for town meetings, ideas on how to raise awareness for community happenings, agendas for meetings, even breakdowns on funding a community association.

Best of all the format of this book is straight-forward and easy to understand. I'm a 20 something computer profesional with very little background in civics, but this book made a difficult concept very easy to follow. It's actually laid out like a play, with simple characters representative of different personalities you probably have in your town. Add to that an impressive appendix of all the forms referred to in the play, and you have a book that really does make a complicated concept easy to digest.

All in all I'd highly recommend this book to anyone interested in their community and civics in general. It will introduce the complexities of building a community and offer a clear path on how to achieve that goal.

The Tacketts have achieved something remarkable with this book. Not only is the quality of the photographs consistently high, but the detailed information within the text is logical and accessible to any diver whether they be experts in marine biology or simply curious fish watchers.
This American husband and wife team seem to have lived many divers dream existence. Travelling the Indo Pacific for 13 years, they would camp on a beach with their own compressor and make three dives a day collecting sponge specimens for medical research.
The scientific information is clear and broken down into digestible chunks, enlivened by well annotated pictures - everything from mantis shrimps eating coral shrimps, to frogfish camouflaged against cup corals. Predation, reproduction, camouflage, feeding and mimicry are all wonderfully explained. And, in keeping with the mood of the times there is a final section on reefs in danger - overfishing, cyanide, pollution etc, complete with appropriate photos including a poignant shot of an octopus trying to cover itself with a piece of broken plastic audio-cassette.
A substantial glossary at the end of the book covers everything from allelopathy to zooxanthellae.
The strength and value of this book is that it is not just a collection of good underwater images, I suspect it will become an invaluable primer for any diver who wants to look at reefs in an intelligent way.

I have been waiting for this book! Burt Jones got me focused on the 'one metre' dive a few years back and I've been enjoying macro critters and muck diving ever since. In this awsome new book, the Tacketts bring you their personal experiences with the macro world and incorportate a great deal of useful information which can help all of us better understand the interrelationships amongst all the critters. That understanding is one of the keys to making better images of the critters.

If you are a diver and you really want to get acquainted with the underwater world, stop swimming and start looking. And this book gives you step by step pointers on how to go about looking and helps you understand what you are seeing.

An avid scuba diver and underwater photographer myself, I own and enjoy many "coffee-table-style" underwater books, as well as a fair collection of field guides to coral reefs and marine life. What I appreciate most about the Tackett's new book is the way it has combined beautiful underwater photography with valuable commentary, annotations, and even arrows defining particular points of interest. "Reef Life" represents a wonderful melding of the science and the esthetics of the marine environment. Equally appealing to adults and children, it has provided me with additional knowledge and appreciation. I now look forward to sharing this appealing new book with my young nephews.