The prize is an unfinished short story, "The Admirable Anglewing", at an immediate stage of note-taking on index cards. It's an intriguing dead end, identifiably a two-strata Nabokov, but with a strikingly scientific directness not elsewhere seen.

The bonus is an unpublished continuation of The Gift (tr. Dmitri Nabokov), which formulates a general expression of evolutionary theory in a clear and useful way, as it relates to a larger understanding of problems in taxonomy, probably omitted for the same reason "The Admirable Anglewing" was dropped.

Notes for The Butterflies Of Europe, much of Nabokov's lepidopterological work (Russia obviously lost a lepidopterist of genius), "butterfly" excerpts from the fiction, and much, much more.

"From the age of seven, everything I felt in connection with a rectangle of framed sunlight was dominated by a single passion," wrote Valdimir Nabokov. "If my first glance of the morning was for the sun, my first thought was for the butterflies it would engender." This was certainly an unusual way in which to view the world and one that not many readers, even those who adore Nabokov, have shared.

In fact, the ferocity of Nabokov's obsession with butterflies has only just begun to become clear with the publication of this gorgeous new book, a volume of heretofore unpublished and uncorrected writings on the subject of butterflies, edited by Nabokov's biographer Brian Boyd, together with Michael Pyle, an expert on butterflies. All translations were done by Nabokov's son, Dmitri, who has lavished his time and talent on his father's work for several decades.

Even those of us who cannot get enough of Nabokov and cannot praise him highly enough may find more than 700 densely-printed pages on the subject of butterflies a little much. As much as we love Nabokov, do we really want to read page after page of his highly technical descriptions of the various species of butterfly? Are these writings really important, from a scientific viewpoint? Is there any connection between Nabokov's passion for butterflies and his extraordinary fiction?

Although most people would probably answer "no" to the first two questions, the answer to the third is a surprisingly enthusiastic, "yes."

In his wonderful introduction, Boyd begins to elucidate the connections between Nabokov the writer and Nabokov the lepidopterist. We come to understand the novelist more completely and precisely by coming to understand that science that gave this unique author "a sense of reality that should not be confused with modern (or postmodern) epistemological nihilism."

It was while dissecting and deciphering his butterflies that Nabokov came to the conclusion that the more we inquire, the more we can discover, yet the more we discover, the more we find we do not know. The world, Nabokov says, is infinitely detailed, complex and deceptive.

Nabokov's important writings on butterflies are reproduced in this volume, but thankfully, in reduced form. And other kinds of writing by Nabokov have been blended over the scientific prose, beginning with the luminous meditation on butterflies from Chapter Six of Speak, Memory.

The poems, memoirs, letters, diary entries, criticism and fiction that make up this beautiful volume cover a period from 1941 to 1947, when Nabokov was at his most obsessive...as far as butterflies are concerned. This obsessiveness, however, is gorgeous to behold, as in a letter from Nabokov to Edmund Wilson about a lecture trip he made to Sweet Briar College. "The weather...was perfectly dreadful and except for a few Everes comyntas there was nothing on the wing." It always came down to butterflies.

Nabokov's interest in butterflies went far beyond sorting out and naming them. He was much more than a mere tabulator or categorizer. There is something exquisitely metaphysical, even mystical, about his approach to butterflies, something that also tells us of his quest to plumb the depths of nature's complexity. In his obsession, Nabokov sought to understand the sense of design that underlies the the physical world, and he also took enormous delight in the mysteries God chose to hide from human beings, leaving to them to seek them out or not.

As Boyd notes, Nabokov "preferred the small type to the main text, the obscure to the obvious, the thrill of finding for himself what was not common knowledge." His scientific writings overflow with minutiae, with obscure details, lovingly searched out, sorted, underlined, displayed. This preference for the complexity of life also underscores his writings, most notably his massive commentary on Pushkin's Onegin, the gorgeous and imaginative Pale Fire and Ada, a late masterpiece in which Nabokov's penchant for complexity reached spellbinding heights.

While only a small percentage of readers may want to study the scientific articles in this book, their very presence operates in the most subtle of ways to remind us that Nabokov, who referred to himself as VN, was also a student "of that other VN, Visible Nature." In his magnificent fiction, Nabokov offered the world a complete view of the complexity and richness of the human spirit. He might not have been so meticulous and so thorough were it not for his passion for the intricate world of butterflies, so beautifully on view in this book.

12 Exotic Brazilian Butterflies In a high Quality Frame 12.5" x 8.5" (Current bid: $65.00) *12 Exotic Brazilian Butterflies In a high Quality Frame 12.5" x 8.5" (Current bid: $65.00)

I sincerely hope that these other items you recommend to potential buyers of this book, are NOT butterflies that were caught in Brazil and shipped to the USA, nor ideally even butterflies breed in the US especially for the purpose of later gracing someone's wall. Not very environmentally sound at all if the former, and karmically, still just as bad if the latter. I do not think that the editors of Nabakov's Butterflies would support this at all, even if they are all avid butterfly enthusiasts. Leave the butterflies in peace!

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Excellent, The Race Against Junk Food is a wonderful way to teach kids, parents and grandparents (like me) about healthy eating habits. My 5 year old grand girl loves this book. It's colorful characters and great story keep her interested from start to finish. She even tells other people about the book, and wants all her friends and family to order a copy right away. I highly recommend this book and encourage everyone to read this colorful guide toward good nutrition.

I have a 2 year old and a 5 year old and it has been a bedtime favorite for a couple of months. The story is fun and the characters are cool and colorful. Since the characters are fruits and vegetables, the book furnishes you with a fun way to talk about healthy eating.

My 3-year-old loves this book. He now tells me what food is SNAK Posse food and what food is junk. We work together to find SNAK food that will help him run fast, jump high and win races.

I highly recommend this book!

PS - I loved it, too!

This book touches my heart. It is so typical of the many children who are lost through the cracks by our educational system. It shows real courage on the mother's part for never giving up on her son even in his darkest moments. The family was drawn into Brian's World as victims of circumstance.
So many children and their families suffer because their child has learning disabilities and most educational systems seem to turn a blind eye as our precious children turn to drugs and suicide to escape the torment and torture that awaits them inside our schools and at the hands of peers and authorities alike.
Brian was a bright young man who learned to cope the best way he knew how as he drifted through the cruel world in which he lived. I laughed at his antics and cried with his mother as she struggled to save her precious son.
I believe this is a book for all to read from 12 to 99 and especially for educators. I think Brian's short life has a message we need to hear before it is too late for yet another of our young people.
A must read to add to your summer list of reading materials you won't be able to put it down until you finsih. ...

"Brian's World" by far is one of the best written true stories I have ever read. Throughout the entire reading I felt the author was sitting beside me and telling me her story. She writes as though she was talking directly to me and you can feel it comes right from her heart with total honesty. Throughout reading "Brian's World" I found myself not being able to lay it down for any length of time; when I did lay it down I was right back with it in my hand and reading, just wanting to know more about this fine young troubled youth whose mother loved him unconditionally from the beginning of his life to the end. I recommend "Brian's World" to all parents around the world.

Catherine Roberts writes courageously about her struggle to protect, support and encourage her son from illness in infancy through learning disabilities to drug and alcohol addiction. Catherine faced the many challenging situations in raising a learning-disabled child with grace and dignity and ALWAYS with her son's best interests at heart. She shares with us hers and Brian's tale, honestly, truthfully and frankly. The book is chock-full of emotion and interspersed with pain and humour.

Worth every penny!! Used this as my main reference to study for the hand examination.

This book is wonderful.It was worth every penny. This is my main resource that I use when I have a question on any hand problems. The book is very thorough and informative.It is a "must have" for any hand therapist.

I doubt anyone can pass the CHT exam without this book. If I only could read one on the list, this would be it.

This book has become a mainstay in my children's library. I read this book to them over and over again. My 3 daughters never tire of it. The way the tale is written allows the reader to inflect his/her own creativity in delivering the story to an entranced child's ears. You can choose to sing parts of the tale, you can inflect tonality and create the dialect as you see fit, as well. Along with the wonderful, unique artwork, this book will become a classic children's tale for generations to come!

My children sat spellbound as we read this book. We loved this story for the original plot, the strange dialect (not too heavily used), and the unusual art work.

I am a fifth grade student at North Hills Traditional Academy. And,yes, I like this book. I like this book because the pictures are pretty. I like this book because the words are beautiful. I like this book because it tells a sweet story. This book is for people who are caring.

Full of interesting, charming, and humorous anecdotes gathered from letters and diaries, Roberts accomplishes the elusive task of making history informative and entertaining. Roberts repudiates the notion that the forty-niners were predominately working-class folk, explaining instead that most forty-niners were actually of middle-class origin (pointing out that the trip to California was expensive). These middle-class forty-niners, Roberts illustrates, joined the gold rush as a "rebellion against certain middle-class values; this revolt, in turn, was largely carried out by middle-class individuals." The gold rush provided an escape for those who sought freedom from the confines of Victorian mores.

Few books have as much to teach about the history of Californians or the United States. I recommend American Alchemy highly to anyone interested in innovative books about American history and culture.

Conan O'Brien is one of the funniest men alieve and this book proves that!This book evolved from a sketch on the show(one of the best, other than Pimpbot 5000). He and the Late Night Writers are amazing,they come up with so many diffrent sketches that its not even funny. If you have ever wondered what celebrities babies looked like this book is a must have.
HAIL CONAN!

heart,
ivy the barbarian

The book is funny with hilarious pictures and commentaary. In my opinion Conan O'Brien is the best show between the hours of 12:30 AM and 1:30 AM on nbc.

This is definately a must have for any Conan O'Brien fan. Late Night with Conan O'Brien is simply the best show ever. Conan O'Brien is the funniest man alive and he along with the Late Night writers have only shown that with this hillarious book. I can't wait until In the Year 2000 comes out. Conan O'Brien is truly a genius when it comes to truly hysterical, unique and orginal comedy, I give this book Five Stars. Read over and over again.

Jack Aubrey falls upon hard times, beginning with the apparent failure of his luck when a long, long chase across the Atlantic from the West Indies after a privateer ends with the quarry slipping into port just ahead of him. The old SURPRISE is for the knackers -- she's been living on borrowed time for the past two volumes -- and Jack seems headed that way, too, after falling into a cunning trap that ends with him being roasted in a political show-trial for trying to manipulate the stock market. Stephen Maturin's fortunes, on the other hand, seem to be rising. He has found himself unexpectedly wealthy and he comes into information that answers the disturbing questions arising in his recent intelligence operations. As always, O'Brian shows himself a master of the details of early 19th century British society, language, and general style, . . . but his plotting is unfortunately becoming almost pro forma. A pretty good story, but far from his best.

The eleventh installment in Patrick O'Brian's excellent series of naval adventures finds Aubrey and Maturin back in Britain as their journey to the Pacific, begun in the previous book, comes to a conclusion. Aubrey, always a minnow among land sharks when he has money in his pocket, finds himself innocently ensnared in a complicated stock exchange scam that may have been set up by Maturin's enemies in the intelligence game. The complex case and courtroom scene, O'Brian assures us in a note, are based on a real case. The pillory scene is powerful, as Bonden gruffly clears the square of all but sailors, and officers and seamen of all stripes come to show Jack their love and respect.

After several books at sea, "The Reverse of the Medal" brings readers back to the Admiralty in London with its complicated and layered intrigues, back to Ashgrove and Sophie, and back to Maturin's espionage machinations. As always, O'Brian's wonderfully intelligent prose and satisfying grasp of historical nuance captures the reader in little pockets of 18th-century Britain. The entire Aubrey/Maturin series is great, and this installment is no exception.

I find Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series a challenge to read, albeit an excellent, well-connected long novel. I could not put down the eleventh in the series, The Reverse of the Medal, once I began it. Although most of this book occurs on land, where Captain Jack Aubrey is naive and awkward, O'Brian exploits this: the force of the plot is as strong as the earliest, more typically naval stories in the saga. The climax brought tears to my eyes, and the last chapter's denouement evoked a cheer for Maturin and his dear friend. I went right to the Web to order the next two novels.

This book takes strategic planning off the shelf and into the realm of implementation. It makes strategic planning an inclusive, usable, adjustable tool to manage the growth of an organization. Too often, we hear the complaint that organizations have spent considerable time and money on creating a sophisticated strategic plan only to have it sit on the shelf for years without any action taken. Simplified Strategic Planning is just that, a process that retains the complexity inherent in creating a comprehensive plan for an organization while breaking it down into small, clear, actionable steps. Perhaps the best part of this book is that in addition to creating a strategic plan, underlying the process is a deep understanding of how to involve people in the work of gathering data, analyzing the data and then creating a customized strategic plan.

This book, the product of extensive work by its authors with small and medium-sized businesses, presents straightforward, concise guidance (right down to hardcopy/softcopy templates) and a rational sequence for developing a strategic plan without a large staff. It draws heavily on the academic work of leading researchers James Brian Quinn (Dartmouth/Tuck) and Michael Porter (Harvard). Its hallmark, though, is its firm grounding in the environment of businesses that cannot ignore daily operational requirements for the sake of planning.

"Simplified Strategic Planning" presents particularly clear, explicit guidance on selecting a corporate focus amid operational chaos and the temptation to serve all comers.

I highly recommend this book for managers at businesses of any size. It will inspire a discipline and sequence--and therefore a useful result--in planning.

Finally, a book on strategic planning that makes sense! Bradford's process for helping organizations think about, plan for and implement strategic planning is straightforward and completely accessible. Whatever size your oganization, and whatever your background in strategy, this one is a must-read. Bradford offers an action-oriented approach that allows you to customize the process to meet your needs. In these days of leaner budgets, take advantage of this gem--it's almost like having Bradford in your company as you work through the process. His focus is on results, and his success with all kinds of organizations is very impressive.

It has been awhile since I've read a book in this series, but returning to it I felt like I had never taken a break. Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin have become my good friends, and O'Brian swept me away with their exploits instantly. Even thought the style is decidedly un-modern, O'Brian's narrative thrust is irresistible. In this, the third volume of the series, Jack is still in debt due to the Admiralty refusing to honor a war prize based on a technicality, thus putting his engagement to Sophie in danger. Maturin is in real danger as the new Lord governing the navy broadcasts his name in a public meeting, thus raising possible questions about his role as a spy. Stephen's heart is troubled as well; he still moons over Diana Villiers, from the events of the second book.

How can you possibly dislike a book that contains a line such as this: "Jack, you have debauched my sloth." Yes, O'Brian has a certain amount of levity, although it is often hidden underneath the layers of the manners of the time. His style is somewhat like that of Jane Austen, where the most cutting of phrases are being said in the nicest of ways. You either like this sort of thing or don't. I like it, when I catch it, but I yearn for annotations, just knowing that there are some subtleties that are escaping me.

This is the third novel in the Jack Aubrey-Stephen Maturin series, and the story just keeps rolling right along. It's difficult to maintain the pace and the reader's interest for more than the first couple of volumes in any sort of fiction series, but O'brian certainly has the knack. This time, the newly-posted but still heavily indebted Captain Aubrey is detailed to ferry a diplomat to the court of an Indian prince . . . having been the unknowing beneficary of Maturin's leverage at the Admiralty. He's impatient at being out of the principal theater of the war with France, but happy to have any ship at all -- especially the frigate SURPRISE, in which he had served as a midshipman. Besides helping his friend, Dr. Maturin has his own reasons for visiting India -- Diana Villiers has gone there in the company of a wealthy merchant from the City and the East India Company. For O'Brian spends as much time on the details and development of his characters' personal interrelationships as he does on naval maneuvering and battles. And the descriptions of rounding the Cape of Good Hope are mesmerizing!

I read HMS Surprise several years ago, and I've read several others in this wonderful series, but I backtracked and read this novel again at the same time I listened to most of it in the audio version with Patrick Tull as the reader. It was a great experience. HMS Surprise comes close to being a perfect novel. From the rescue of Stephen in Port Mahon, to the scene on St. Paul's rocks, to the gale as they went round the cape of Good Hope, to Stephen's tragic adventures in Bombay, to the incredible battle with the French squadron, to Stephen's tragic relationship with Diana Villiers, to Maturin's duel in Calcutta, to whether Sophie would be waiting for Jack, every scene is near perfection.

Patrick Tull is a perfect narrator for O'Brian's work. He has the various voice down to perfection and you can tell he loves what he's reading.

Each book in this series has much to recommend, but his one stands slightly above the others.