This book was beautifully and passionately written. It is a love story unique and philosophical. Do we choose our own fates? Alvina will tell you.

Just like SISTER CARRIE, THE LOST GIRL is about a young woman searching for her place in the world. Meaning, floucing from one man to another, flirting, playing, getting engaged then dashing away for fun. And just like JEANNIE GERHARDT, this old man gets herself in trouble.

But the most fascinating part of this book is it's glimps into her background. How she was brought up in a wealthy and rich household, only to try out different occupations against her father's wishes, then ends up as a lower classed female in life. Very tragic.

I recently got done reading this wonderful, yet forgotten novel of Lawrence's. Truly compelling in it's intricate details of a young woman trying to find herself. Literally. She goes on the 'universal' self journey and discovers that she was lost and finally finds her identity and sensuality in the man she loves. D.H. Lawrence has a wonderful way of not wrapping up the ending in a nice,neat little package. As always, Lawrence is the ultimate man of mystery, sensual needs and desires. A "must read" for those who love to read Lawrence and for those who never have!

Now in a newly revised edition that includes verses from "Elegy", Larry Levis' (1946-1996) final collection of poetry, The Selected Levis, gathers inspirational and moving verse whose lyrical, picturesque wording evokes an atmosphere all its own -- sometimes beautiful, sometimes bleak and dark. But some things are not possible on the earth./And that is why people make poems about the dead./And the dead watch over them, until they are finished:/Until their hands feel like glass on the page,/And snow collects in the blind eyes of statues.

I'd like to make a correction to my review--when I wrote this I was so excited about the collection that I wasn't thinking straight! There are no poems from his last full collection, Elegy in here; the Selected Poems ends with the Widening Spell of the Leaves. I didn't mean to misrepresent this volume. But if you've never read any Levis before, buy the selected, and buy Elegy, and work from there.

I think it was Michael Levenson who said that "It's easy to have an opinion, but so hard to write a sentence that counts." Nearly every one of Levis's sentences counted, through a deep and original sense of line and a voice that easily alternated between the fierce and tender. Except perhaps from his first book, nearly everything that Levis wrote resonated--he's one of the best, and sadly, one of the most underrated, of the poets of the 80s and 90s.

He did this by creating new KINDS of poems; the cadences (particularly in his later books) are singularly his, and tonally the poems can be elegaic, or funny, but they're not just "feelings put on paper." His poems aren't merely glib, vague confessional prose broken up arbitrarily into lines, as seems to be trendy lately. Tonally they might vary from the elegaic to the absurdly funny--but they are all part of a deep exploration by Levis of human experience. He is often rooted in regional soil (the hardscrabble California vineyards of his childhood) but he is not a "regional" writer; in other words, whatever his experiences in life might be, he uses poetry as a way to transform them, merely than just describe them. He can write a poem about Belgrade, and have the same type of unbounded imagery, rhythms, and lyrical force than he has writing about "home."

Perhaps the greatest poems here are the Elegies from his last book, in which the elegies themselves become kind of semiautonomous creatures in of themselves (the titles say much to this regard: "Elegy with a Thimbleful of Water in the cage," "Elegy with a Petty Thief in the Rigging," "Elegy with an Angel inside its gate," etc), and are probably the best sequence of poems I've seen in a long long time.

In short, this is a fine introduction to Levis's work--but if you're hooked, you're going to want all of his books anyway (most of which are thankfully in-print by both Pittsburgh and Carneige Mellon). It has been awfully hard to pin down in words what makes his work so special, because in many ways, just like his poems, it defies easy categorization. His poems don't necessarily provide nice morals at the end; they aren't sugar-coated. But I can't think of another poet--even Sylvia Plath, whose work I love--who I regret (grieve, really) had died an early death. With any luck a hundred years from now people will be reading, passionately, Levis's work.

I'll make this short...For anyone interested in Chinese history, literature, or culture, this volume is an absolutely essential collection of primary sources, and includes prefaces and explanations by China scholars. There is no one better than de Bary, and this new edition includes everything from the 1960 edition up through the Jiang Zemin era.

I've read a little of this and that about Chinese history and religion, and I needed a book to fill in the basics and the details. This was perfect.

First, the selections included excerpts of almost everything I'd ever heard of: Shang Oracle Bones, the Analects of Confucius and the Confucian classics including the I Ching; Mozi; the Tao Te Ching; Zhuangzi (who famously dreamed that he was a butterfly); Mencius; Xunzi; the Zuozhuan; Sun Tzu's art of war; all kinds of stuff about Chinese schools of Buddhism including the Lotus Sutra and the Flower Garden Sutra and the history of Guanyin and Wutai Shan; Li Po (Li Bo) and Tu Fu (Du Fu); and neo-Confucianism (which was so influential in Korea). In short, this is really, practically the "Eatern Canon" and the selections are deserving of such a label. I was in turns morally and intellectually challenged, uplifted, informed and surprised; but rarely bored and never disappointed.

Second, the introductory essays were exactly what I wanted to know: who might have written it, and when, and who read, and what it meant to them. For all that information, they were still brief and the bibliography was sufficient to help me chase the points that left me curious. An important thing these essays did was to cover the political, historical and social backgrounds (and foregrounds) of the texts, so I learned about Chinese history as well as literature and religion. If that is what you want to do, this book will serve you well.

The binding is excellent, and while the price might look steep I have to say it's a bargain considering what you get.

I didn't read Volume Two, and so I don't know if it is as good. It is certainly a lot smaller!

This second edition of a classic provides an update on a reference recommended for college-level collections specializing in Chinese literature. Sources of Chinese Tradition has been recognized already as a scholarly staple: in its new form Sources of Chinese Tradition has been extended to include the Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin eras of China and includes invaluable source readings on history and literature of the times, from the 18th-century Qing civilization onward.

A little boy had a set of tin soldiers that were made from a melted spoon. One soldier was missing a leg because there was not enough metal left over from the melted spoon.

Tossed aside by the boy, the one-legged soldier sees a paper cut out figure of a ballerina. She is poised on one leg and he feels an instant bond. He has found another one-legged toy and believes this to be love.

The steadfast tin soldier has a series of mishaps. He falls off the window sill into a stream. From there, he is transported to a rat infested sewer. He is swallowed by a fish and through an unlikely stroke of luck, winds up back in the boy's playroom with the other toys and the ballerina.

The ending is what gets to me every single time. A gust of wind lifts the paper ballerina up and she flutters into the fire place, winding up a charred heap of ashes. Devastated, the tin soldier joins her. The remaining metal that was once the tin soldier is a charred piece of heart shaped metal.

I still think this is a very sad story. The photographs really emphasize the feeling this story evokes.

I taught 1st grade for 4 years and all of the teachers in my grade passed this book around at Christmas to read to our class. I cried everytime I read it. It has a wonderful message and my kids in my classroom always loved it! I have now (finally) purchased my own copy of this book to read to my little girl. It is a classic and I know she will love it as much as I do. Every home should have this book to read at Christmastime.

This is a really good book. It has all the characteristic's that made the original a cherished and remembered fairy tale. It is a great gift for any young child, and can be enjoyed by adults too. It maintains the feel of the original tale, but is more like a poem. The art work on each page is beautiful, and the pictures are totally devine. I would recomend buying this for a different and fully enjoyable version of the original.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this anthology, but I found myself enthralled from beginning to end. Nnedi Okorafor's "Crossroads", Seth Lindberg's "Atropos", and James Dorr's "Madness" were special delights.

A great mix of chilling, horrifying, and otherwise entertaining stories.

This is a great compilation of magic, madness, culture and creativity. All of the stories were pretty satisfying, some of them terrifying! There are some writers here that are going to go places. Watch for the authors of the two longest pieces, Nnedi Okorafor (her story is called Crossroads) and James S. Dorr (he wrote a story called Madness).

This is an excellent book and can be used as a continuation of Introduction to Flight by the same author. This book focuses on airplane design and performance, but also gives a very clear introduction to propulsion and aerodynamics of airplanes. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in airplane design, as well as Daniel Raymer's book Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach. Both books I found to be extremely interesting and written in clear, easy to understand language.

This book was used in an upper level Aircraft Performance and Dynamics class that I recently took. I also found this book very helpful in my Aircraft Design class and my Aircraft Propulsion class. In short, a student of aeronautical engineering couldn't ask for a more well rounded book on aircraft design--covering all the aforementioned topics.

If only all engineering textbooks were so well written!

This is just an announcement from the Author. This book is now available. Feb. 16, 1999.

John Dryden's 1677 tragedy "All For Love" or "The World Well Lost" was based on William Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra." This would be a minority opinion, but I really think this Restoration Drama is comparable to the Shakespeare version in many regards. Of course "borrowing" from Shakespeare cannot be considered much of a crime when the Bard of Avon appropriated so many plots from other dramatists as well. Shakespeare's play covers ten years in settings scattered across the eastern Mediterranean, while Dryden confines all of his events to one day in the Temple of Isis. For me the dramatic highpoint of the Dryden version is the ugly confrontation between Cleopatra and Octavia, Roman wife of Mark Antony, but I also like the final death scenes better than what we find in Shakespeare. Just do not ask me to explain how "All for Love" reflects Restoration sensibilities rather than the Elizabethan values of "Antony and Cleopatra." I first read this play and decided to use it as the final play in a mini-trilogy of one-act that used Shaw's "Caesar and Cleopatra" and Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," and had no problem given Dryden the anchor position. Certainly classes studying English drama can benefit by having students read both the Shakespeare and Dryden versions with an eye out towards better understanding the works of both playwrights. If you are only going to read one play by Dryden, then the only other choices besides this one would be "Aureng-Zebe," his last and best example of the heroic genre or his comedy masterpiece "Marriage a-la-mode." But I would still pick "All For Love."

Dryden's reworking of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" is a great read, especially if you didn't fully comprehend Shakespeare's work. Dryden's language is concise, and his portrayal of historical characters is excellent; especially considering that he had to follow Shakespeare's lead.

I am a former Russian journalist and a documentary filmmaker who has also worked at NASA in the US.

"The Anatomy of Russian Defense Conversion" touches on many more subjects then just Russian Defense Industry. This is a very thorough, informative and important work that analyses the history of US and Russian Defense Industries, weapons exports and conversion, and possibilities of transformation from a militarized to a civilian economy in the new millenium.

The book also reflects on the current state of defense industries in the US and Russia, and "brain drain", or loss of intellectual capital in Russia and other countries after the Cold War.

I found reflections in Arkady Yarovsky's chapter "From the Culture of War to the Culture of Peace" very contemporary, especially in the light of recent events in the Middle East:

"Our time is unfortunately still characterized as "the culture of war." The culture of war is evident first and foremost in the hostilities between people and states, between nations and faiths, and in the inability to solve conflicts by peaceful means... Humanity has made it into the third millenium because the lust for power has been restrained by fear of nuclear war, but this restraint is not to be counted on permanently... The danger hidden in the separateness of people of different countries, unfortunately, remains a legacy for the next century... If humanity renounces the legacy of the culture of war, it can start down the road of cooperation, peaceful creation, and enlightenment. This is the only road leading to the culture of peace."

One can imagine that I, as a small child living in San Antonio, Texas, next to three Air Force bases and an Army base, living through the Cuban missile crisis, thought about the threat of the Russian military. I also met my parents' wonderful emigre' friends, and to this day have had warm relations with Russian people.

This book tells of the enormous cost to the Russian people of building and maintaining their war industry for so many years, a militarized economy where people got second best. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, defense industry just about shut down, but civilian industry has not grown great enough to support the population. There are horrendous unemployment, and terrible health and social problems. There is some danger that the path of least resistance for Russia, if we neglect the situation, could be to re-start weapons production, for export at first.

In my opinion, the United States also, to a lesser degree, has neglected the manufacture of quality consumer goods, importing them instead, and has let its physical economy deteriorate, despite much activity in the financial sector. We, too, have been insufficiently careful of the environment. This book provides some idea of what these trends could lead to, if carried to extremes.

Perhaps the involvement of United States companies in Russia, could lead to more of a recognition here, of the importance of the physical economy. Hopefully, both countries could also work to put industry on a healthy environmental footing as well.

There is awareness of the problem of Russian defense conversion, at high levels of our government. I hope this book helps educate people and sustain that interest.

Terry McGinnis patrols Gotham City as Batman. Drawn to an attack on a building, he flies down and sees Shriek. While they fight, Batman has to save a young deaf boy from falling rock. Batman tracks Shriek down, but their fight again involves young Tommy. Part of what makes Shriek evil is his own deafness, and Batman knows that.

Scott Peterson has written and edited several Batman stories for DC Comics. He's also written another Batman Beyond book for young readers: BATMAN BEYOND: NEW HERO IN TOWN.

Terry McGinnis patrols Gotham City as Batman. Drawn to an attack on a building, he flies down and sees Shriek. While they fight, Batman has to save a young deaf boy from falling rock. Batman tracks Shriek down, but their fight again involves young Tommy. Part of what makes Shriek evil is his own deafness, and Batman knows that.

Scott Peterson has written and edited several Batman stories for DC Comics. He's also written another Batman Beyond book for young readers: BATMAN BEYOND: NEW HERO IN TOWN.

BATMAN BEYOND: HEAR NO EVIL is written like a comic book. The use of panels and word balloons draw an early reader's eye on, and the layout makes the story fun to read out loud. The art is really well done, showing lots of action and color.

This book is recommended for young fans of the BATMAN BEYOND cartoon.

Simple, practical and it really work out for beginner to get into the .net world with good understanding. I think that it is good for the adcadmic institue to use this book for .net beginner class too.

As an experienced programmer in the IBM mainframe world I found David's book just the right blend of theory, humor, and practical examples. The code examples are clean and easy to follow and work! The extra attention to the setup of IIS, MSDE and WebMatrix was especially helpful. This is a great book to get started with ASP.NET technologies using a great tool "WEBMATRIX" . This book is for beginners so experienced ASP programmers will not find it advanced enough. And it is not a web HTML/CSS book....