Well, I really don't have much to say about the book. However, this Jonathan Pollard has caused me a great deal of embarassment over the years. I will be grateful when he is forgotten. When the news media distributed stories of his capture, an erstwhile friend of mine who was living in London at the time called my mother and expressed shock at my arrest. My mom was a bit shocked by the news, too, considering that we had just had lunch the previous day and I hadn't mentioned any big news - such as imminent arrest! Good riddance to Jonathan Jay Pollard!

Jay Pollard for some reason is one of only a handful of spies that most Americans heard of. Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen being the others. Pollard was given a life with parole sentence. But at that time, no American who ever spied for an ally was given more than 8 years. People who had spied for the Soviets have been paroled from prison. There seems to be a double standard. Apparently, the US was upset that close friend like Israel was using a mole in Naval Intelligence. It seems they punished Jay Pollard to punish Israel. The ironic part is that there are Israelis serving time for spying for the CIA. Pollard was wrong in what he did. It's true that US Intelligence was withholding intelligence information that it had promised to give Israel. Pollard felt this wromg and gave the informtion to Israel himself. He should have gone to the Naval Inspector instead. Pollard it was shown had a lousy lawyer. Pollard agreed to a plea bargain as recommended by his lawyer. The problem was the plea did not set a determinate sentence. It was open ended. He could have gotten as little as a year or as much as life. This was the lawyers fault. What kind of lawyer plea bargains for an open ended sentence? The worst is that his appeal in which his new lawyer said that Pollard had his rights violated was rejected because it was filed late. Pollard was wrong in what he did. He deserved to go to prison. He does not deserve to be labled Americas worst spy. There are least 15 Americans who gave secrets to the Soviets who deserve that honor.

MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE
VS. "INFINITE JUSTICE"

The bitter irony of the life of Jonathan Jay Pollard, U.S. Navy spy for Israel, is the haunting, tragic message of Miscarriage of Justice: The Jonathan Pollard Story (Paragon House, c. 2001) by Mark Shaw. This former criminal defense attorney thoroughly captures the countless flaws in the judicial maze that has left the entire Pollard family distraught and millions of Pollard supporters worldwide desperate for justice.

More than any other human being, Jonathan Pollard is responsible for attempting to avert the current American war that was initially called "Infinite Justice." During 1984-85, Jonathan alerted American and Israeli military authorities to the looming threat of biochemical terrorism by militant Arab and Islamic factions. Years before the Iraqis used poison gas air raids in murdering and disabling over 10,000 Kurds, Jonathan brought the issue to the military leadership of the U.S., to no avail. He was told that the Jews were overly sensitive about matters involving poison gas, so he decided to save as many human lives as possible by providing Israel with U.S. intelligence on chemical weapons factories in Arab countries and plans for Arab terrorist attacks.

Jonathan Pollard potentially and intentionally saved millions of human beings in the Middle East and worldwide from excruciating deaths and painful lifelong physical disabilities. Although he never had a trial and was never convicted of a crime, he is the only person in U.S. history to receive a life sentence for friendly-nation espionage, a common practice of allies.

Jonathan's remarkable story begins with his extraordinary family, especially his devoted Jewish mother, Mollie, and his prominent father, Morris, a renowned international leader in prostate cancer research. Morris had sometimes assisted American intelligence agencies and has devoted his life to serving America as a preeminent scientist at Notre Dame University. As a boy growing up in an anti-Semitic town, Jonathan was the daily target of verbal and physical assaults, which made him resolute in his commitment to protect Jews everywhere, and especially in the Jewish homeland, Israel.

For decades, Jonathan's grotesque mistreatments in prison after prison have only served to highlight the malicious, malignant miscarriages of justice against the man who saved human lives en masse, at the expense of his own safety and personal health. For most of nearly 17 years behind bars, Jonathan has been locked up in solitary confinement, suffering countless and pointless "cruel and unusual" mental and physical punishments in prison cells two stories underground, with temperatures ranging from 30 degrees to 107.

At the hands of Iran-contra figures like Caspar Weinberger, the Secretary of Defense who was indicted on five felony counts, Jonathan's life sentence was a direct retaliation for his efforts to expose Arab threats to the world, while American officials were secretly engaged in supplying arms and chemicals to militant Arab and Islamic nations. Weinberger still insisted for years after Jonathan's life sentence had begun that Jonathan should be shot.

The essential question that Miscarriage of Justice answers is how much punishment is enough, no matter where you stand on the Pollard case. The book boldly concludes that "Enough is enough"; and when the judicial, political, and penal systems inflict gross mistreatments, the American conscience must intervene to demand restoration of the constitutional guarantee against "cruel and unusual punishment."

The aftermath of this miscarriage of justice is the needless deaths of thousands of Americans through merciless terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, Pentagon, postal stations, media, and more because of heedless American leadership. The final image of Miscarriage of Justice is the pitiful mental picture of Jonathan wasting away in prison, as a political pawn of the Reagan-Bush administrations, which busily conducted the covert, illegal Iran-Contra operations with terrorists, and of the Clinton presidency, which bestowed a presidential pardon on billionaire financier Marc Rich instead of poor, penniless Pollard.

This could easily be rated only two stars if you don't have the right frame of mind. However, the Enquirer specializes in poor taste so if you are inclined to consider buying this book, presumably you have a morbid curiosity about its contents. Therefore, let's not be hypocritical and cast harsh judgments as to the subject matter of the volume. In presenting poor taste in a big, glossy coffee table volume, this is a great five star effort.

Superficially, this volume is beautiful; it truly rivals the Time Magazine coffee table books in layout and colorful photos. However, as is the case with the weekly Enquirer, this book picks up where People magazine leaves off. How tasteless is a full topless photo of Nicole Simpson? How about open casket photos of dead celebrities such as Bing Crosby and River Phoenix (and no, River did not look like he was just sleeping)? Years ago I kind of thought Xaviera Hollander (the Happy Hooker) was a babe. Well, there is a photo of her at well over 200 pounds in a skimpy bikini. Guess what? According to the photo's caption, Hollander says a lot of men like her that way.

Want to see a photo of Richard Gere skinny dipping? I didn't but I'm sure many of you do. Well, it's there in this volume. Do you want to see Michael Jackson's disintegrating nose in bandages? Just open this volume and you'll find it. In short, this book is great for those of us too full of ourselves to buy the Enquirer at the supermarket. However, a beautiful volume from top name booksellers; ah, now that's respectable.

The New York Times boasts that it has all the news that's fit to print. The National Enquirer prints the rest, and the photos that illustrate their untold stories provide a record unlike any other. Here folks you get Elvis, no longer shook up, finally finding peace in the valley (or at least the music room at Graceland) in the dramatic "last photo." You also get John Lennon and Steve McQueen on slabs in the morgue, "Happy Hooker" Xaviera Hollender looking like a blimp, and Michael Jackson looking like a freak. Okay, he always looks like a freak, but the fact that he looks no less freaky in the pages of The National Enquirer, where everyone looks like a freak, says something profound. This stunning coffee table style collection is a photographic monument to the dark side of celebrity, and an absolute must own for every American.

The Enquirer is infamous for its shameless portrayals of American celebrities (and the odd royalty living elsewhere). This amazing collection of photography though is something even more rewarding than the weekly grind-out of the delightful tabloid. The images are juxtaposed SO skillfully, and with great humor. A dumpy, potato-like Xaviera Hollander and beau just across the page from slender and youthful Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear - a horrible, prophetic Dorian Gray vision of the future! Plenty of foreshadowing photos of relationships doomed to failure, a gallery of mugshots and coffin shots. The famous Elvis casket photo is easily eclipsed by the very gruesome River Phoenix shot. If I had to pick one shot as a favorite, it would be the Christmas cheer of Anna Nicole Smith and her 90-year old sugar daddy, the expression on her face instantly confirming the nation's worst speculations of that relationship. The best cross-page pairing is aging-but-sexy Joan Collins in her bikini across from a braid-wearing Sean Connery in HIS futuriffic bikini from a 70s Sci-fi movie. Can anyone possibly think he's the sexiest man alive after seeing THAT??? The book also maintains that peculiar and annoying quality of the Enquirer that some soccer-mom favorite celebrities are somehow "untouchable" - Oprah and Rosie O'Donnell are visions of personal triumph and noblesse, never to be shown in an unflattering manner. Despite that minor gripe, you can't afford to miss this photo treasury of everything beautiful about the supermarket years of the Enquirer. I'm hoping they do a companion volume of the best of the Enquirer's "shock value" black & white early years.

"Never As Good As the First Time" made for interesting reading. My husband's boss gave it to me saying how good it was. Once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. I asked my husband if I had to give it back.

The book was great. I am not a person who loves to read but when I read this book, I read it in one day's time. This book is really good. When you start reading, you wouldn't want to put it down. That's just how good it is.

The book was excellent!! I was really shocked at the two best friends half the book but I guess that's what happen to some where the women knows more about ones needs than the man. Jake and his baby's mother trying things again is fate because fake has it's way of coming back around when the timing is right. All the events that took place caught you really off guard but kept you reading more and more. I have recommended the book to several at work and they have read it and enjoyed so keep up the good work and can't wait for the second book.

Buy this book before it goes out of print for another thirty-five years!

If Golding's Ovid is not, "the most beautiful book in the language," it's among the top two-dozen "most beautiful books" you can find in English. I've searched for a second-hand copy of the 1965 Simon and Schuster edition since the late sixties, ever since I read Pound's ABC of Reading. I never had any luck finding it, though I did come across a non-circulating copy in a university library once. Its title page explained that only 2500 copies had been printed and that the previous edition -- the one Pound must have used -- was a small, deluxe Victorian production, itself unattainable by 1965.

After all my years lurking in second-hand bookshops, Paul Dry Books has finally done the decent and brought Golding's Ovid out again, this time as a beautifully printed, well-bound, but inexpensive paperback. I grabbed up my copy at first sight.

Is this an "accurate" translation of Ovid? As a previous reviewer has said, if you really want accuracy, you should read Ovid in Latin and leave the wild Elizabethan translators alone. Unlike that reviewer though, I'd say that, if you want Ovid in perfectly accurate modern English, with his poetry and voice included, you should read him in Mandelbaum's beautifully rendered version; but if you want an accurate modern English translation -- the type of thing your Latin prof would give you excellent marks for -- then read him in Melville's able, though sometimes sightly flat translation.

But if you love Elizabethan literature, then you should read Golding. You read his Ovid for the ripe, quirky, full-on Elizabethan English, deployed in his long, rambling fourteeners. Golding's metre was becoming antiquated in his own day but, as with a good deal of his rustic vocabulary, he didn't seem to care much about literary fashion. Reading him now, I find it's his joy with his original that matters. Open the volume anywhere -- at the Cyclops Polyphemus singing to the Nymph Galatea for example -- and there is Golding rolling magnificently on:

"More whyght thou art then Primrose leaf, my Lady Galatee.
More fresh than meade, more tall and streyght than lofy Aldertree.
More bright than glasse, more wanton than the tender kid forsooth.
Than Cockeshelles continually with water worne, more smoothe."

Where "forsooth" is outrageous metrical padding, and "forsoothe/smoothe" was probably a forced rhyme even in 1567. But who cares? Golding's music carries the reader past any such concerns, and the beauty and energy of the thing are undeniable.

So buy the book! Make sure it sells tens-of-thousands of copies! Give the publisher a reason to keep reprinting, so it never disappears again.

I'd like my review to correct what seems to be an over-hasty, unreflective lionization of Golding's translation by the other reviewers. Yes, it is a "great translation," in the sense that Marlowe's translations from Latin are, or Motteaux' Don Quixote is, or Pope's Iliad, or Robert Lowell's Imitations, or Pound's Chinese "translations," or even Ted Hughes' Tales From Ovid: that is, it is an powerful, compelling, wholly literary work in its own right, but it is nowhere near the original in terms of accuracy. The Latinless reader would do much better to buy Melville's excellent Oxford translation (which lacks nothing in poetic splendor) or perhaps Allen Mandelbaum's. As for the poetic "quality" of Golding's verse, that's of course subjective, but I could easily think of at least ten Elizabethan poets who are more satisfying to my taste. Golding's chief literary interest, as Nims points out, is his absolutely odd-ball English; attentive readers will find him a veritable storehouse of strange, funny, quaint Elizabethanisms that didn't quite make it into Shakespeare or the other mainstream writers of the period. (Much of the same joy can be found in Chapman's marvelous translations of Homer, reprinted by Princeton.) And the much-quoted Pound maxim comes from his wonderfully cantankerous ABC of Reading, certainly a fascinating book, but one in which Pound indulges in various critical pronouncements that seem, at times, merely whimsical or rhetorical. Much of Golding is rough, much dull, much of its interest is linguistic rather than poetic. He also adds a lot to round off his fourteeners (which I can't imagine are palatable to most readers for long stretches): his additions are fun, but they're not Ovid. Golding "Englished" Ovid to a great degree: his imagery often comes from English culture, not Mediterranean. Of course, any translation is fallible, and Golding's faults as a translator are, in my view, his greatest strengths as a poet, but he's definitely not a good place to start reading what is certainly one of the world's greatest books. This is a fine book, well worth the five stars, but emphatically NOT for the reasons cited by my colleagues. If you want Ovid, go for the original; failing that, Melville's your man.

This edition presents the Arthur Golding translation just as it would have been read at the time of its publication (1567). The Elizabethan spelling is maintained but is not an overwhelming problem (and really not very difficult at all and really adds to the charm of the translation (poetry) itself...) The print of this edition is also perfect in look (black print) and size and is the type of print that gives words a more substantial look...(that's not a small thing in a work like this...) Arthur Golding was not only a Protestant in times when faith was very political, but he was a Puritan...(he also was famous for translating John Calvin...) This edition reprints his preface where he justifies his efforts in translating Ovid. It also reprints his Epistle, or, dedication... I noticed on the copyright page that this is a reprint of an edition that was published back in 1965 by Simon and Schuster which interested me because I've been looking for an edition new or used of the famous Golding translation all my reading life (which began well after 1965...) and had never had any luck, so I would say if you come across this edition or it's not out-of-print by the time you see it here on amazon.com and you've always wanted to read it (I, by the way, had never been able to find the Golding translation in any libraries either...) then don't put-off aquiring it... Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses is really a basic book (there are only about 40 of those at last count...don't ask me to document that though...) Why is Golding's translation of this work so intriguing...? It, for one thing, looks on the page like sunlight looks when it's dancing and flashing off the water of a running brook...

This book has vivid, exciting, colorful illustrations and wonderful langauge. As an inner city elementary school reading specialist, I look for engaging books with a creative use of language. This book has rhythm and rhyme that may inspire many children to try to emulate the style and write their own book. Also, the language is rich and lends itself to a study of synonyms and words that appeal to all five senses. I took it out of the library and now I am adding it to my own.

Heard this book on NPR Saturday edition 10 days after the twin towers bombing. This book was among the first things that provided healing of the shock--allowed me to get my mind off of terror and sadness and onto my child and life going on (like the seasons). Daniel Pinkwater's rendition is priceless and I plan to use this book to read to my son and treasure forever.

happy and fun!! imaginative lyrics and drawings that spill right off the pages and into the dreams of the little ones who spend the afternoon reading this book with their loved ones.

a great book.

I must have had my dad read these stories a million times at bed time. I remember always bugging him to read one more story. It has been so many years since then and I can't wait to read them to my own children, although i don't think I can do the voices quit so well. The illustrations in the hardcover edition were beautiful and i would spend so much time pretending with my little sister that we lived in rootabaga country. It will be a pleasure to reread all the stories of my childhood. When i would pick rootabaga stories at bedtime even over everybodies all time favorite Winnie-the-pooh.

Carl Sandburg, winner of Pulitzer Prizes both for his biography of Abraham Lincoln and for his COMPLETE POEMS, explores another genre in ROOTABAGA STORIES, fairy tales that he wrote for his daughters. When asked how he wrote the stories, Sandburg replied, "The children asked questions, and I answered them."

The ROOTABAGA STORIES are unconventional in almost every way. Unlike traditional fairy tales, they have no perfect princesses and evil witches. They are American fairy tales with a rural flavor and, in fact, they have no evil characters. The settings, though fanciful, include images that defined America in the 1920s, when the stories were published: the railroad, which "ran across the prairie, to the mountains, to the sea," and the skyscraper.

In Rootabaga Country the railroad tracks go from straight to zigzag, the pigs wear bibs (some checked, some striped, some polka-dotted), and the biggest city is the Village of Liver-and-Onions. Characters in this fanciful world are equally peculiar: Please Gimme, Blixie Blimber, Eeta Peeca Pie, and dozens of others. Children and literary critics alike would be hard-pressed to explain (even symbolically) the events that occur in the stories. Nevertheless, meaning comes through and truth is revealed. For example, in "Three Boys with Jugs of Molasses and Secret Ambitions," ambition is defined as "a little creeper that creeps and creeps in your heart night and day, singing a little song, 'Come and find me, come and find me.'" Who would expect that "The Two Skyscrapers Who Decided to Have a Child" would have an absolutely poignant ending?

Although the events of the stories may not be explainable, the stories are replete with concrete images. Sandburg provides both visual and auditory description with musical, repetitious phrases and novel juxtaposition of words ("a daughter who is a dancing shaft of light on the ax handles of morning"). Occasionally he invents words, such as "pfisty-pfoost," the sound of the train's steam engine, and "bickerjiggers," the buttons on an accordion.

ROOTABAGA STORIES are wonderful for reading aloud. They provide an opportunity for readers and listeners to delight in language and revel in truths revealed in a fanciful world.

Sometimes it is late and you want to read your child something short so you naturally will reach for this book - where most of the stories are 4 pages or less and they are not really connected - the problem is: you can seldom stop at one and if you are not careful you will read the whole book! My 10 year old is just as mesmerized by Sandberg's words as my 8 year old was 2 years ago, mostly because Sandberg's choice of words and fantastic plots and settings are continually unexpected and surprising. I'm mesmerized too, but I won't reveal my age.

I just finished "Base Instincts: What Makes Killers Kill" and I am adamant that our society shows so much more monetary respect for crime and punishment than early childhood education. We have had recent headlines about men, here in Austin, spiking babies and toddlers like footballs after a touchdown, in anger, killing or maiming them and ending up in prison for life. While this outrage is profoundly disturbing, professionals dither at whether or not early childcare intervention is ethical, cost effective or necessary in our society. Paying attention to parenting of the young child uplifts not just that family, but our societies future well being. Child abuse is the single most important determinant of future violence, and it is endemic and epidemic in our frontier based national mind set. We need to launch an all out campaign to raise the national consciousness about the importance of the nurturance of women, and the children that they in turn nurture, in the first three years of life, and beyond.

"Base Instincts: What Makes Killers Kill?" by Jonathan H. Pincus, MD, ISBN 0-393-32323-4 pbk, Norton & Co. 2001: a 225 page disquisition plus 13 pages of notes by a NYU Professor of neurology & psychiatry and graduate of Columbina CPS who investigated some 150 murderers over a 25-year period and tenders his unified theory that "killers kill for the same reasons," regardless of their classifications (single, mass, serial, & perhaps genocidal).

Pincus observed that killing arises in the milieu and troika of disturbances which generally discloses (1) childhood abuses (sexual, verbal, physical), (2) frontal lobe damage (birth trauma, chromosomal, genic, infectious, toxic as alcohol & drugs), and (3) a medley of mental (neuro-psychiatric) impairments e.g. bipolar depresssion, paranoia, ADHD, CD, ODD, etc. He hypothesizes that single, mass, and serial killings have similarities with the Nazi/Hitler's paranoid anti-Semitism, Gaza Strip atrocities and various terrorist factions of more recent vintage.

He opines the only feasible remedy would be prevention of child abuse and cites pilot studies underway, and also specifies factors impeding implementation of other remedies including treatment of convicted murderers. He details his basic neurologic testing format including specific tests directed at eliciting impairment of the frontal lobes, the latter being somnething he states most/many neurological examiners fail to do. Dr. Pincus has worked successfully on a number of defense cases aimed at getting death sentences switched to life without parole.

The treatise is not overly technical, the writing style is a bit wordy, and very minor detractions were noted (i.e. XYY in not a chromosomal deficit but a chromosomal excess or defect; Trisomy 21 is no longer referred to as mongolism but Down's syndrome; and this reader is skeptical that someone could & would drink a 12-pack of beer and a pint of whiskey in 45 minutes (one can every 3.75 minutes & not counting the hard liquor).

This study is an important contribution to the study of homicide and it provides engaging thought-provoking commentary on what makes murderers murder and also a workable solution to the problem of homocides. This book gives ample graphic grisly details of physical & sexual abuse, sans pictures, which some readers will find disturbing, but so then is murder. This is a must read.

The point of this fairly slim volume is to convince the reader that many (perhaps the vast majority) of our most dangerous criminals have neurologic impairments, and that brain dysfunction, along with child abuse and paranoid thinking, is at the heart of much violent behavior. This is not an entirely new message, but it is one Pincus approaches with a great deal of authority -- he's a professor of Neurology at Georgetown, was formerly at Yale and has studied dozens of death row prisoners along with his colleague Dorothy Ortnow Lewis.

Dr. Pincus clearly decided not to risk alienating readers with scientific terminology or complex explanations of brain physiology. The book follows the familiar "casebook" true crime format used by various ex-FBI profilers, coroners, and cops. Most chapters focus on a particular criminal Pincus had dealings with (many of them in his role as an expert witness) and what that criminal's life story shows about the origins of homicidal violence.

The coversational writing style (and oddly cheery alliterative chapter titles) stand in contrast to the horrific nature of much of the material. The crime scene details will be familiar to any reasonably hardened reader in the literature. What really stood out for me was the descriptions of childhood abuse endured by many of the perpetrators Pincus has studied. As a former inner-city teacher, I taught kids from pretty screwed up homes, and had some friends from abusive families while growing up. But the stories Pincus recounts (corroborated by siblings and others) remind us that there is almost no downward limit to the depths of human depravity.

What's rather odd about all the better works in the study of violence and homicide is the sense that this field is under-funded, under-appreciated and obscure. Pincus and other pioneers in the field have answered some important questions, but their work raises hundreds more. If, say one percent of the money our government has spent trying to prove that marijuana is dangerous were instead spent on studying the roots of violence, perhaps we'd have more answers.

As other reviewers have mentioned, this book has many wonderful reproductions, including a lot of "extreme close-ups" (if you'll allow me to lift an expression from the movie "Wayne's World"!). The close-ups are great...you can see details of how Velazquez achieved certain effects- such as concentrated spots of pigment to represent the glitter of jewelery, or applying a transparent black "wash" over the white pages in a "book", to give the impression of writing in a book. Additionally, Professor Brown provides a nice biographical sketch of Velazquez in the first 20 pages of the book, and he writes very well indeed. The commentary that accompanies the plates contains a lot of fascinating historical information- we learn a lot about the "court" of Philip IV, the roles of dwarves and jesters, etc. The author goes into the symbolism included in the paintings- for example, the importance of showing the king in control of a horse (which implies he is a good ruler as well as a good horseman). One of the most fascinating plates is the portrait of Mariana of Austria, who was Philip's second wife. Professor Brown explains that Philip's first wife, and his only son, had died and the king needed to remarry and produce a male heir. Unfortunately, Mariana was Philip's niece. As you might expect, the only surviving male heir of their marriage, Charles II, proved incapable of ruling and also of having any children of his own. With his death, the Habsburg dynasty of Spain came to an end. But the physical act of painting the picture also ties into this sad story. Velazquez was a very "economical" painter (some might say lazy). He wasn't very productive, and he also didn't like to waste canvasses that he had worked on! In this case, he had started a canvas of Philip IV. The physical resemblance between Philip and his niece was so great that the artist was able to paint Mariana's face over Philip's. In close-up, Professor Brown even shows how you can see where Velazquez covered up the area on the upper lip which had contained the king's mustache! Many of the plates have similar interesting bits of information contained in the accompanying text. I felt that the book only deserved 4 stars rather than 5 for two reasons- after awhile, some of the technical information becomes boring for the lay reader....too many descriptions of the various pigments used in the "ground" layer of each painting and of the sizes of the additional strips of canvas added to the paintings, for example. The second reason is that Professor Brown is a little too free with the word "genius". He claims that Velazquez was capable of doing things that other major artists weren't able to accomplish. I'm not qualified to say whether or not Velazquez was a genius but, in general, I think the word is overused. The author fails to explain WHY Velazquez was a genius, and what exactly he could do that other important artists couldn't. Still, this is a fine book, with a very nice mixture of beautiful reproductions and lively, informative text.

The book consists in essence of two parts: The first 20 pages cover briefly Velazquez's life, career, techniques, and materials. The rest of the book comments on the artist's works.

Concisely, the author discusses the artist's choice on (painting) supports, pigments and colors, and composition and execution, as a prelude for in-depth discussions of the artist's works that follow.

Common art appreciaters will enjoy beautiful paintings (of in general not-very-beautiful people) in which face expressions and body language are deploited ingeniusly by the artist to convey drunkeness, retardation, sovereignty, self-importance, etc...

As for readers who are artists, an in-depth discussion on each painting reveals (with the aid of radiograph) techniques and procedures Velazquez used to create his work. In essence, a majority of Velazquez paintings were prepared with a layer of flake white as foundation. Over the underpainting, the artist applied pigments of different homogeneity and thickness to render desired effects. In addition, close-up pictures of painting details allow readers to understand better the secrets of creating luminosity in the paintings of this painter.

Perhaps as interesting is that mistakes and corrections made by Velazquez in his masterpieces are also unveiled, indicating the fact that although ingenius, the artist did have certain "imperfections" in his art maneuver.

This very fine book on the painter Velazquez is full of historical details, details of the master's painting techniques, and many photographic details of his masterpieces. The several close-up detail reproductions of each painting in the book show the artist's brush strokes and the weave of the canvas as the text describes the pigments used. This extraordinary art book deserves close examination.

This is pretty close to the best book I have ever read on Wireless JAVA. Easy to read. Some of the code is a little tricky to follow. Good code to learn. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn Wireless JAVA. I really enjoyed reading this book. A very good investment.

This book is excellent. I wish many more books were like this one. I cannot express how much I enjoyed this book. There are just too many books out there that are just flashy, bulky, in-your-face, and just bloated with fluff. Not this book.

First of all, this book assumes that you know Java. That is rule 1 that many books fail to observe. This book is about wireless Java so it does not waste space teaching you Java. If you want to learn Java, you'll read a book that is written specifically for that - and you'll likely find a great one too. So why redo it in a way that will suffer anyway?

Second, this book gives you useful information, and only useful information. No space is wasted. Every chapter is concise, to the point, and specific. I've never read a book with such a high percentage of useful information. I'll gladly pay about the same price for a 200-page book with 190 useful pages instead of a 1000-page book with 90 useful pages. The presentation is clean, clear, and consistent.

Third, well, the topic is wireless Java, so I'll also tell you that I picked up this book knowing Java but not J2ME, and after reading it I know everything I need to know to writing Java programs using J2ME. I've looked at all the Java wireless books and I truly believe that this is the best one. You'll learn about how J2ME is partitioned, how MIDP fits into CLDC, what parts of J2SE are included and left out, how to write MIDlets and user interfaces, how to work with persistent storage (micro-databases), networking, performance optimization, XML, and security.

The author and his team (because a book does not come to exist by only one person) should be applauded for boldly going against the trend of selling books by weight.

One last note: this is the ONLY book for which I thought even the appendix was useful!

Enjoy it and enjoy trying out J2ME.

The latest revolution in Java (the micro revolution) has begun within the release of J2ME. However, the revolution has just started and most of the specification is still being defined within the Java Community Process. The one part of J2ME that is available to developers is the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP), the specification for devices such as pagers, mobile phones, and small PDAs. This is the focus of this excellent book by Jonathan Knudsen. After a brief history of J2ME, the author introduces us to MIDlets, which are the applets of Mobile Information Devices. Comparing J2ME with J2SE, the author shows us how to leverage our Java skills to make coding for MIDP devices a breeze. Each step of the way, the author uses working code examples to demonstrate the capabilities of MIDlets. Starting with developing forms, the author explains how to interact with the user and code event handlers. He then demonstrates how to interact with servlets over the Internet using HTTP. Maintaining persistent storage, handling cookies, and programming a game interface are all demonstrated. Performance tuning, which is a critical issue on MIDP devices, is discussed. As long as we are going to be on the cutting edge, a chapter on XML is included. Security and cryptography are critical issues on MIDP devices. Knudsen is the author of "Java Cryptography" and as expected he does an excellent job with these topics. All of this information is well covered in a concise 175 pages. (...)

The system that worked so well for the original DC Superheroes game has its FIFTH edition, but now its called Blood of Heroes Special Edition. Rules wise, it has everyting needed to play all sorts of superheroes, as more powers, skills, and common sense is involved in this edition. However, the reason I only give this 4 stars is because of the new setting that Pulsar games had to use because the DC liscense was unavailable to it. Without established heroes, the game settings just fall thru. Still, it is not that hard to find old DC sourcebooks in used-game bins at gaming stores, so you can still use that setting.

This would also be the ideal book to use in creation of a Transformers RPG setting, as the exp[onential system would work well when dealing with those in power level from Bumblebee to Fortress Maximus.

Note that this system would be lousy to use if everybody just played pure humans, as the skills just do not diversify other characters from your own.

Still, a great RPG.

Other than Godlike, I've seen every damn SHRPG out there, and they all suck. The rules are too heavy (Champions), the system is inherently flawed (Abberant), or you feel like you need to do the hokey-pokey (MSH). DC Heroes (the same product as this) changed my mind about the entire genre. MEGS definately hit the nail on the head when it comes to SH gaming. My only prob is this: the new rules in BoH are sometimes fraudulent (fake new powers that any moron could have made out of the old powers, and the fact you can now play villians-the worst gaming experience possible. Imagine robbing a bank, only to fight superheroes, then robbing another bank. There's barely anywhere to go). Still beats the pants off the other SHRPGs, so I give it the highest praise.

In the old days, back when we only had the New Kids on the Block as a boy band, and there were only two brands of Star Trek, Classic and New Trek, Mayfair came out with the Mayfair Exponential Gaming System. A sleeker, more streamlined, play-wise, version of the Champions game - though it's easier to build your own Champions character.

However, MEGS has far more comprehensive rules for roleplaying, suggestions for awards, and lovely things like hero points for last ditch efforts, and its powers are even more customizable than Champions, if such a thing is possible. The Blood of Heroes adds even more refinements to what weaknesses there were.

My only complaint was that they always wrote Superman as impossible to touch, especially when the dude had the Superspeed Power which accounted for his extreme dexterity stunts. Give this game a try. You'll find it's worth it, especially for the exciting new characters.