Robbins provides an interesting account of Levinas's early theories "about" literature that somehow never seem to become literary theory per se. This means that there are interesting philosophical questions raised about/from literary issues, but Robbins never really connects these to the basic problem of language. Particularly glaring is the omission of a discussion of the theory of "the Saying and the Said" from Levinas's OTHERWISE THAN BEING. In that book, L's theory of "substitution" practically provides the entire basis for Derrida's critique of language, but here we read little of use regarding that. However, you get a pretty thorough reading of TOTATLITY AND INFINITY, though sometimes Robbins seems to be making that infuriating philosophical obfuscation of conflating "art" with "literature." In short, philosophers of literature may find interest in this book, but those who seek to understand L's contributions to literary theory should look to Derrida and the journals.

Most of us English speakers had our first encounter with the Dominican Sisters of Bethany in Rumer Godden's 1979 novel, Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy. Mrs. Godden wrote an introduction to her novel, stating that the Dominican Sisters of Bethany really do exist, in France, and thanking the Prioress General for permission to write about her congregation. If, like me, you put down Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy, saying to yourself, "I must know more," what do you do to investigate this subject?

There are several answers. One is, Learn a language other than English, in order to study the existing literature or websites about the TWO Dominican congregations of Bethany (Rumer Godden chose not to mention that World War I split the congregation in two, in 1914, and both groups of Sisters of Bethany remain separate yet friendly.) Among European languages, French is your best bet. Pere Marie-Jean-Joseph Lataste OP, Bethany's Dominican priest founder, is the subject of an anthology, Precheur de la Misericorde (meaning Preacher of Mercy), from the French Dominican publishing house, Les Editions du Cerf. (Yes, the late great Mrs. Godden did her homework: it is easy to find her English translations of Pere Lataste's words and pull up the French originals in the Cerf anthology.) French is not your only Continental-language option: books have also been published in Italian, German, Dutch, and, recently, Latvian!
In English -- there's the rub. I review Hope Beyond Hope from the perspective of having read about the Congregation of Bethany in French and German. The bad news is: Hope beyond Hope is a far inferior book to the Bethany literature in the European languages. The weakest link is the translator, Jerry Hearne, whose English is clumsy, unidiomatic, ultimately difficult to digest. The author herself, identified as Emmanuelle-Marie, first wrote this book in Italian, then revised it herself and rewrote it in French; either of those versions are better-written than is Hope Beyond Hope, which is out of print. The other news is: That's all there is in English, to date, about the Dominican Sisters of Bethany. One has to have a point of departure, to start from somewhere, and Hope Beyond Hope is better than nothing. If God so wills, someday there will be books written in English about the Dominicans of Bethany that will be a better quality than is this one.

using this for a sociology class--mildly interesting, I would have liked to have more books to back it up for more detailed info, but overall a generally good book as far as basic info goes.

Proper Names is a fascinating collection of essays previously available only in French. The pieces range from discussions of ethical, philosophical and theological questions in the work of Buber, Max Picard, Proust, Derrida and, especially, Maurice Blanchot. These works will be of interest to anyone who is already familiar with the extraordinary work of Emmanuel Levinas, who is, in my mind, one of the most important and original thinkers of the 20th century. The texts allow one to watch Levinas engaged in acts of response/responsibility to and for the Other within the framework of his own ethical system. It is my experience that, if one is concerned with the possibility of ethics after Hegel or, more precisely, Heidegger, everything that Levinas wrote is worth reading. However, if one is not already acquainted with this writer, one should start elsewhere. Infinity and Totality is the best starting point, but The Levinas Reader and Otherwise than Being (the more difficult of these three works) are better starting points.

Subud is a very individual spiritual journey. Emmanuel Elliot takes you on his journey! Don't assume yours will be the same. A good story, you won't get bored!

This text is the industry standard for internationalization training, but this only shows how far the industry needs to go. The text desparately needed a good editor as the number of typos for a professionally produced volume is astounding. Much of the information is available from other sources and can be obtained without purchasing this book from sources such as Microsoft or Apple.

Much of the information is now out of date (although the principles are still good). One of the authors (Perinotti) has since produced some addenda which keep the text up to date, but a second addition that reflects the current situation would be a much better solution.

With some work this book could be a good addition to the library of an internationalizer, but until then I would recommend reading Sun Microsystem's manuals (if you can find them).

The writings of the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas are very stimulating and interesting. Unfortunately the treatment of Levinas found in this book is not nearly sufficient and relies on over simplification and reduction. The concept of ethics is not defined nearly well enough, especially considering that Levinas spends most of his works defining the complexity of the term.

Likewise Martha Nussbaum and J.Hillis Miller are very narrowly treated and the reader should be aware that the account of their work here is very much a selective abridgement for the purposes of the author's thesis. The reader is required to accept certain definitions and relationships between the writers mentioned before they can progress in this book. Unfortunately this involves leaving out much of what the writers have to say. If Nussbaum's 'Fragility of Goodness' is taken into account then the assumption that she is in some way the binary opposite of Levinas doesn't stand.

Readers interested in philosophy and ethics are highly recommended to look at the books of Levinas himself. This attempt to draw him into literary theoretical issues will be of limited use due to its lack of attention to the details of each of the figures it deals with. Furthermore, the author relies on awkward sounding terminology ('epi-reader', 'graphi-reader') which alongside all the literary, philosophical and theoretical influences makes for puzzlingly abstruce prose. Indeed, this kind of writing comes close to sophistry.

Perhaps the main problem with this book is the fact that Levinas does not sit easily alongside such very different writers as Nussbaum and Hillis Miller. In Levinasian terms the reader is unable to appreciate the Saying not only of Levinas but also of Nussbaum and Hillis Miller as well.

This book claims to be "Everything you need to pass". Pass what? Certainly not the PE exam or even the water resources section for that matter. It also claims that "Questions are designed around the new design format". The new PE test format is multiple choice and all the the test questions are in US customary units, but the few example problems in this book are all SI units. The author claims to provide "Time-saving power-study techniques" and "Expert exam tips". These tips and techniques must have been left out of my copy. It looks as if McGraw Hill tossed some water resources information together at the last minute and called it a PE Exam Depth Guide. The water resources section of the Civil Engineering Reference Manual by Michael Lindeburg has more information, better example problems, and a better lay-out.