As I was reading the weekly issue of The Onion on their website a month ago, I saw this new book advertised. I've bought their first two books, so I picked it up on ... a little after it came out, and finished reading it yesterday. Unfortunately, we have another case of sequelitis here...

Don't get me wrong, this is a great book, but it's not as quite good as the original. However, it still contains tons of laugh-out-loud, tell-all-your-friends humor that will keep you occupied for hours. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Onion, imagine if South Park and SNL teamed up to write a newspaper with such articles as "Fox Defends Airing of 'When Jews Attack'" and "Fun Toy Banned Because of Three Stupid Dead Kids." These make for hilarious reading, but not if you're offended by (lots of) swearing.

So if you enjoy The Onion, yes, definitely buy this book, it's well worth it; but if you're new to the publication, let me direct you to "The Onion's Finest News Reporting" before you get this one.

While just about every single word in this volume is reprinted from the weekly editions on The Onion's website, you still gotta love this book which you can take anywhere, and make people wonder while you're laughing so hard. Most people think The Onion is merely a political satire and humor magazine, but the way they make fun of current events is surprisingly deep and the dark, observational humor is often ingenious and even disturbing.

Headlines of note in this book are "ACLU Defends Nazis' Right to Burn Down ACLU Headquarters" in which The Onion finds the contradications in so-called political correctness (lest you think The Onion is all bleeding-heart leftists); "Columbine Jocks Safely Resume Bullying" in which The Onion can see the uncomfortable truth that nobody else wants to admit to; and "Hershey's Ordered to Pay Obese Americans $135 Billion" where we can see the irony and hypocrisy in lawsuits that people use to blame others for their problems.

To alleviate the heaviness, many of the articles are just plain slapstick humor, but always with an intelligent edge, like "Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs", or "Casual One-Nighter Gives Strom Thurmond Change of Heart on Homosexuality Issue."

Whether the stories are just lightweight social satire, or downright disturbing and deeply insightful, they're mostly hysterical in the true Onion tradition. Even the pieces by the "guest columnists" can be deeper than expected. But in light of recent events, watch out for the stories "Terrorist Annoyed by Delayed Flight" and "Arabs, Israelis Sign 'Screw Piece' Accord". Some of this humor isn't for the easily disturbed or offended, that's for sure.

The problem with satire is that the person writing it frequently has an axe to grind. As a result, it will inevitably be offensive, and hence unappreciated, by a significant portion of the population. The Onion has rather ingeniously avoided by this conundrum by mocking everyone and everything. I don't care what group you choose to affiliate yourself with, you're not human if you aren't laughing out loud, with tears streaming down your face, by the third page of 'Dispatches from the Tenth Circle'.

What the brilliant 'Our Dumb Century' did for the 1900's, so too does this book for current events. Through the medium of newspaper 'articles', political leaders, musicians, actors, sports heroes, popular culture, etc. are lampooned with brutal accuracy. Most amazing is that in a book that contains literally hundreds of articles, almost all of the entries are remarkably literate. I can only describe them by suggesting that the reader imagine what it would be like if Dennis Miller edited the New York Times. Even when the humor turns lowbrow, as it sometimes does, it is so matter of fact that one can't help but laugh. There's no pretense, no embarrassment, just a deadpan delivery of frequently surreal material.

This book is not for the easily offended, so if you hold your views and idols sacrosanct, skip this one. However, is you can stand to have that which you hold most dear skewered, and laugh about it, you will not regret purchasing this book. In fact I think former VP Al Gore's (I'm a registered Republican, so you can see what strange bed-fellows this book can make) statement on the back cover puts it best: 'This publication is destructive to our shared values. Read it yourself and you'll see what I mean. Seriously, what else could make me laugh - much less laugh uproariously - while being offended week after week.?'

I love the Onion. I have read it online for the past 3 years, and I never miss a week. Ever. But over the course of those 3 years, I have gone from a rabid "every Wednesday is like Christmas Day, and I must email stories to my friends to proselytize them to the cult of Zweibel" Onion fan to a casual "check out the the headlines, smile broadly, and maybe read one story through with a chuckle" fan.

Don't allow the NASDAQ-like diminishment of my zeal for the Onion make you think that the writing has deteriorated. The Onion is the same as always: off-the-charts ironic, profoundly cynical, coolly misanthropic, cheerfully profane, and very funny. It's just that after reading for a while you realize that the punchline of each Onion story is presented immediately in the headline and then repeated "Ad Nauseum" in the copy, the journalistic equivalent of a Satuday Night Live skit. That's not to say the punchlines aren't clever and funny, because they are. However, once you have read the headline, there's not much point to being clubbed on the head with the same joke in the 500 words that follow it (barring a particularly acute case of ADD). Similarly, there isn't much need to plunk down ($$) for a book of jokes you caught the first time around.

The Onion has done it again!

After three hysterical releases of Our Dumb Century, Finest News Reporting, and (my personal favorite) Dispatches From the Tenth Circle, The Onion has published a cry-out-loud-it's-so-funny book filled with satire on many subjects-ranging from September 11th (Hijackers Surprised to Find Selves in Hell) to religion (God Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder) to fast food (Developmentally Disabled Burger King Employee Only Competent Worker). However, if you are easily offended, don't buy this book. Somewhere or other within these 264 pages of sheer brilliance, you will get offended. Otherwise, buy it without a doubt, as well as the other Onions. You won't be disappointed.

What can I say? This book has literally made me--and my friends--laugh out loud. I just about exploded every time I read it. It was my main source of happiness, laughter, and joy.
Unfortunately...
I made the devastating mistake to leave this book downstairs when eating breakfast. My mother found it, and I asked her where it was. She told me that she had taken it away from me because of looking in it and reading some of the articles. That brings me to the only drawback to this book: profanity. Despite being absolutely hysterical, The Onion is filled with bad words. Sex is occasionally mentioned too. Why can't my mother understand that there are hardly any funny books that don't have at least a few swears here and there? But, anyway...
You'll chuckle at the headlines. You'll giggle at the STATshots. You'll practically bowl over at the headlines mentioned on the sidebar (whose articles aren't in the book anyway). However, the real gem of Ad Nauseam is the series of articles where the only sentence is "Passerby were amazed at the unusually large amounts of blood". Most of these articles have a caption written in those little caption boxes that articles have. Instead of the normal quotes, there will be something like "All the good priests are either saying married women or gay", "I'll do anything easy to lose weight", or "I don't know *which* boatload of sailors I love!" and a lot more.
And, who wouldn't love the horoscopes? (I ADORE them). You've just got to like the People's Opinions section, and the lists.
If you don't mind profanity, get Ad Nauseam today!

Fabulous rendition of this popular tale. The clay artwork brings the story to life in the way that Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer's three dimensional story does on televison. My only sadness is that on the page where 'sugarplums dance in the childrens heads'--there aren't any sugarplums dancing!! (as a child I was always partial to that particular image). Other than that this really is a beautiful book and the nicest one I've seen of this story.

THIS WAS JUST A WONDERFUL BOOK. I HAD PURCHASED IT FOR MY CHILDREN AROUD CHRISTMAS, AND WE READ IT 10 TIMES DURING
CHRISTMAS AND WHEN CHRISTMAS WAS OVER I WANTED TO PUT THE
BOOK IN THE ATTIC AND MY 8 YEAR OLD SON STOPPED ME WANTING
TO READ IT ALL YEAR LONG.ITS JUST A WONDERFUL BOOK FOR ALL
YEAR LONG!!

I don't think I'm alone in viewing essays as members of a somewhat lower caste than novels and non-fiction books. Maybe it's because I associate the essay with newspapers, and people like George Will who pretend to know more than their readers. I think the editors of this essay collection understood that popular conception, and tried very hard to fight it. In line with that fight, one of the organizing themes of this book seems to be ``Essays About Individual Experiences." True, many of the essays take individual experiences and move into a more general realm, but they're always grounded in the author's experiences. Contrast this with George Will - Trinity College undergrad, Princeton grad school in political science - writing essays about poverty and policy. There's more legitimacy - in my mind, anyway - in Richard Wright writing an essay about ``The Ethics of Living Jim Crow."

Many of the essays in this book, like Wright's, are on the subject of race in America. We have Zora Neale Hurston's ``How It Feels To Be Colored Me" (``Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How *can* any deny themselves the pleasure of my company! It's beyond me."); Alice Walker's ``Looking For Zora," on her attempts to find Hurston's lonely, abandoned, unkempt gravestone in Florida; Maya Angelou's ``I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" (later part of a book of the same name); Martin Luther King's ``Letter From Birmingham Jail"; and so forth. As the editors suggest, race has been one of the longest-running struggles in the United States; it shouldn't surprise us that it has produced works of such power. The autobiographical format of these essays particularly fits with their subject matter. That format works a lot better than, say, a collection of statistics (however truthful those statistics might be).

_Best American Essays_ is far more than a book about race, however. It contains some hilarious essays, like S.J. Perelman's ``Insert Flap `A' and Throw Away" (on his attempts to put together toys for his kids); an essay on bullfighting (Hemingway's ``Pamplona in July"); essays about suicide (``The Crack-Up" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, William H. Gass's ``The Doomed In Their Sinking", Edward Hoagland's ``Heaven and Nature"); Stephen Jay Gould on why humans seem to need to divide a complex continuum into a discrete beginning and end (``The Creation Myths of Cooperstown"); and on and on. All of them are almost crystalline in their density of information. All of them left me, after 10 or 12 pages, reeling as though I'd just set down a novel.

I'm particularly fond of William Manchester's essay memorializing the battle of Okinawa (``Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle Of All"). I normally enter essays about war with a large dose of skepticism and revulsion, and this one was no different. ``Great," I thought, ``Manchester was a vet, so this will be another essay about the glory of armed combat." It is nothing at all like that. To use a nice vogue term, it is a deconstruction of what war really is, and what war has become over the centuries. It turned from 15-minute battles around the time of Agincourt to 10-month-long subwars of attrition during World War I. But let's look at those minutes-long battles, says Manchester:

``The dead were bludgeoned or stabbed to death, and we
have a pretty good idea of how this was done. ... Kabar
fighting knives, with seven-inch blades honed to such
precision that you could shave with them, were issued to
Marines ... You drove the point of your blade into a
man's lower belly and ripped upward. In the process, you
yourself became soaked in the other man's gore. After that
charges at Camlann, Arthur must have been half drowned in
blood."

The essay reveals war's pointlessness and the revulsion that mankind must feel in its presence. Coming from someone who fought on Okinawa, it carries more weight than all the world's pundits could ever bestow. The entire volume holds this authority. Since its contributors are also some of the most talented authors that the U.S. has ever known, there's no reason not to buy this astonishing work.

Since I am studying to be an English Teacher, I found the reading of the essays to be very useful in my studies. They helped me to gain a better understanding of an essay. I was able to picture where the reader was and to feel their pain or joy in what they felt as they wrote the essay. I especially loved the essay from Langston Hughes and Mark Twain. I recommend this book to all, not only those who want to teach but also to those who want to enhance their reading and knowledge.

Many would regard the task of selecting "The Best American Essays of the Century" as a most daunting honor, to be approached with much nail biting and trepidation. Whatever you choose, dissenters will howl. Oates, no shirker when it comes to hard work and firm opinions, offers her choices with confidence. "My preference was always to essays that, springing from intense personal experience, are nonetheless significantly linked to larger issues."

Arranged chronologically, the essays lean heavily toward reflections on the human condition within American culture. The writing is, without exception, eloquent and insightful. Race is a pervasive theme and inspires the most powerful pieces. The best essay in the book is James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son;" visceral and intimate, full of pain, bewilderment and searing honesty, whole of heart and intellect. Pieces by Maya Angelou, Richard Wright, Martin Luther King, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Langston Hughes, no matter how familiar, still shiver the soul with the conjunction of powerful intellect, soul-searing experience and the intimacy of an articulate voice.

My second favorite essay could hardly be more different. John Muir's "Stickeen," has it all: adventure, peril, pathos, the passion for nature and exploration, and the curious relationship between man and dog; a rousing good story.

Other themes place the writer in his contemporary culture; F. Scott Fitzgerald wrestling with despair, Jane Addams contemplating the downtrodden old women who comfort themselves with myths, Katherine Anne Porter internalizing the atom bomb, Tom Wolfe escorting a settled man to his rebellious son's slum apartment, Randolph Bourne exploring how his crippling disabilities have shaped his life, Mary McCarthy confronting anti-Semitism in a railroad club car.

Some find a kernel of sharp insight in a childhood memory: James Agee recalling his undefined place in the tableau of a summer night, Eudora Welty on her early reading habits, E.B. White facing mortality while revisiting a boyhood camp with his son, Edmund Wilson taking stock of the old stone house in the bleak Adirondacks only to discover he has carried it with him all his life, Cynthia Ozick devouring books in her parents' depression-era drug store, Vladimir Nabokov probing the awakening of consciousness in his Russian boyhood.

There are literary essays, but they are not the strongest: T.S. Eliot on tradition in literature, Robert Frost on sound and meaning, Susan Sontag defining "camp." And there are gaps. Joan Didion's "White Album" explores the confusion of the 60s, but there are no real political essays. The women's movement, save for a didactic Adrienne Rich piece, might never have happened, ditto for Watergate and even World War I. There are only two war pieces: harrowing Vietnam reportage from Michael Herr and William Manchester's thoughtful response to the Okinawa War Memorial. The immigrant experience is represented by Richard Rodriguez' reflection on the pain and promise of becoming Americanized and Maxine Hong Kingston's poignant story of a shunned Chinese aunt, a long-ago suicide. Science is almost completely absent, save Stephen Jay Gould on the creation myth and Lewis Thomas' famous, brief essay "The Lives of a Cell." There's no political satire and no history, except as autobiography is history. But there are two essays dealing with suicide (William H. Gass, Edward Hoagland).

This is one person's careful collection of a century's important voices. All of the writers are well known, all have published at least one collection of essays, all of the pieces have been collected at least once before. Although there are a few humorous pieces (Mark Twain, S.J. Perelman, James Thurber), this is a sober and reflective collection, each essay the product of long thought.

The book would be a rich and valuable reading experience at any time, but is especially comforting during these somber, grieving days. This is paradoxical, since the best pieces are those that lay bare the country's worst injustice - racial prejudice. I expected to have trouble reading these painful essays, not wanting to feel angry or ashamed about my country right now, but it wasn't so. The unparalleled eloquence, the intimacy of these articulate voices, stand in such stark contrast to the vicious ignorance they've endured, that they hearten the reader by proving the strength and durability of the human heart.

I found this book when I was buying the Captains table book. It was one of those, "if you like this, you'll like these too" lists Amazon gives us. Hey! It looked great! Pictures of three Starships, a Revolutionary war schooner, and a Aircraft Carrier! "The History of the Enterprise!" It says. I am a Star Trek Fan. I have been from when I was very young. I watch and read Trek books for the adventure and action. There is very little of that in these stories. These stories seem to be morality plays more than adventure stories. I feel it only deserves 2 stars because only 2 of the stories in this book are OK. And they are stories about the Starship captains you hardly ever hear about. Lastly, these are extremely short, short stories. Not barely worth the price. Before you buy on-line, go see it in a store, and look it over and read some of it. Then decide.

...stuck on jury duty (sigh). Read this last summer (2000) and enjoyed practically all the submissions tracing the history of the Enterprise Captains, from the first Enterprise (during the Revolutionary War) to Picard. Some very imaginative entries, including Capt. Harriman (Enterprise-B) and Capt. Garrett (Enterprise-C). Highly recommended...

Star Trek: Enterprise Logs edited by Carol Greenberg is an anthology of adventure and exploration spanning six centuries and ten captains of one proud tradition the appellation known as Enterprise. I found that this book to be both historical and imaginative. Historical in the sense that one Enterpise fought in the Revolutionary War for America's freedom to the command of Jean-Luc Picard on U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-D.

This book covers both seafaring to spacefaring vessels all with the same name and a compelling story with each captain trusted to bring her to battle and back home again. As this is an anthology, the captains are very interesting to read about. Captains Irrael Daniel Dickerson, Osborne B. Hardison, Robert April, Christopher Pike, James T. Kirk, Will Decker, Spock, John Harriman, Rachel Garrett and Jean-Luc Picard are all accounted for here with an interesting tale to tell about the ship they command.

Since this is an anthology we have different authors lending their expertise to each story giving the reader a feel that each captain is speaking. The authors are: Diane Carey, Greg Cox, Jerry Oltion, Michael Jan Friedman, Diane Duane, A.C. Crispin, Peter David, Robert Greenberger, and John Vorholt.

I found this book to be very enjoyable, readable with a flowing narrative, and intriguingly engrossing. The first two stories were right out of America History focusing on the captain of the ship, thus, giving the reader insights into the noteworthiness of these historical figures. As the other stories, imagination rules the story with a heavy dose of the humanity.

The book is a very fast read with enjoyable adventure.

There are 60 illustrations, excellent paintings, with the accompanying text that inspired it. The colours are very well down, and each painting is brilliantly done in terms of publication. There are nine artists represented. These are:

Inger Edelfeldt: 7 paintings

Tony Galuidi: 2 paintings

Roger Garland: 10 paintings

Robert Goldsmith: 2 paintings

Michael Hague: 7 paintings

John Howe:10 paintings

Alan Lee: 10 paintings

Ted Nasmith: 10 paintings

Caro Emery Phenix: 2 paintings

My personal favorite is John Howe. He brings out a lot of dark imagery. I don't know why, but Hague's stuff just does not appeal to me. I have seen him do Lewis's Pilgrim's Regress, and some other stuff, and I just don't like his style (also saw his illustrations for WIZARD OF OX). His are of THE HOBBIT. Galuidi has almost a computer generated quality, and his work is especially intriguing, although there are only 2 of his paintings in this collection. Lee is good. All in all, this is a fair book, collecting the paintings of artisits brining about their own vision of Tolkien's classic saga. Over all, a four star book (bumped up one star because of Howe's supreme quality).

This is a collection of 50+ paintings based on various works by Tolkien, which fans of Tolkien will no doubt enjoy. It may be of speial interest to those who watched the movies (and who hasn't, who read Tolkien...) as you can clearly see how some of these paintings are replicated in Jackson's movies; it takes but a moment to catch it in the film, but if you see the pictures enough you'll recognize it.

The quality of the paintings are uneven, and each one has its favorite. Like many people, I find Hague lacking, but also Edelfeldt, who isn't bad but whose style is not unique enough in my opinion.

My favorites, on the other hand, are Howe, Garland, Nasmith, Lee and Galuidi. Garland, my favorite, has a unique and glowing, almost 'mystical' style that does the book justice. Howe's pictures are also intriguing and beautiful, and feel true to the book (and thankfully, he seems to dominate the book in terms of the number of contributions). Nasmith has some splendid landscape pictures, though his vision of the characters leave something to be desired (especially of a fat, distorted Boromir!) Galuidi's sci-fi, computerized style may not appeal to some, but I find them interesting. Finally, Lee's soft watercolors are very appealing, and his vision of the characters is near-perfect (especially Galadriel and Gandalf).

"Tolkien's World" is a very handsome book: large, hardcover, sleeve-cover, fine print and paper. It consists on a serie of paintings divided by books (The Hobbit, LOTR, Silmarillion, etc.) printed in the largest scale possible and with great definition. Beside the picture there is the passage of the book which inspired the painting. In the end there are one-page texts about or written by each of the artists, explaining their influences and relation with Tolkien works. My favorite artist is, without a doubt, Ted Nasmith, that draws very realistic pictures. Second place is John Howe, with his dark and intriguin style. All in all, a pretty nice book. I was very satisfied with it and it helped me to figure the places and events of LOTR. Be aware that there's a book that is kind of a sequel to this one: "Realms of Tolkien: Images of Middle-Earth", which I'm planning to get. It is written on its purchasing info that the author is Ted Nasmith, so is the cover authory. Lucky me.

Let me first echo the sentiments expressed by others and comment on what a beautiful edition the Univ of Nebraska Press has produced. The margins are indeed wide and the type very readable. This edition is easily held, the illustrations nicely complement the text and the binding is quite durable. The introduction by Joyce Carol Oates is helpful albeit pedantic. Also, those who've read the Univ of Calif Press edition of Frankenstein will notice some overlap between this introduction and the one that Ms. Oates wrote for that particular edition. Nonetheless, the introduction is valuable.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is one of those stories, like Frankenstein and Dracula, that seemingly everyone has heard of and believes they understand("mythopoetic " in the language of Joyce Carol Oates). Much like the aforementioned works, the actual details of the story may come as a surprise to those who assume they know the story based solely on the popular understanding. For that reason alone I think the book is worth reading.

Dr. Jekyll is a respected if somewhat reclusive London doctor who has, through the course of years of experimentation, managed to create a solution which brings to the fore his evil alter-ego. Unlike many gothic literary villains, Hyde is not imbued with superhuman strength or exceptional gifts of any kind. In fact he is of a smaller and less imposing stature than most men. What he does possess however is a complete lack of compunction with regards to others. Hyde for example ruthlessly runs down a small child who gets in his way. As is the case with Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll creates something that he can't control and which eventually destroys its creator.

The inhumanity that the fictional Hyde displays can be seen in the non-fictious world on a daily basis. As such, there is a realism to the story which is missing from many horror stories past and present. The fact that such a short and captivating work exists in an attractively packaged edition makes this one classic that will be a joy to read for all.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a clasic so, naturaly, I had high expectations. I certainly was not let down. It has a totally unique style with much detail and extensive writing. Yet, this novel is a very quickly read novel, unlike other excessively detailed books like Dracula. This book is not boring. This book is fun. It doesn't ruin the plot with too much detail like other books. Other fantasy books are usually not even close to realistic. Whereas Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is close to being conceived realistic. This book has a general morbid feeling to it where other fantasies are sometimes cheerful and happy. Robert Louis Stevenson is a realy good writer in my opinion.
He uses a very wide range of vocabulary. Stevenson uses many 19th Century terms that seem weird and different to me.
One thing bad about his writing is his punctuation. He uses way too many semicolons and comas. He makes one sentence out of six or seven sentences.
This book was not the best book I ever read, but was not the worst either. it was mediocre. however It was miles ahead of Dracula. Dracula is boring, whereas Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is fast paced, quick, and fun to read. its pritty morbid which is kind of a down side, but Since it is very short it is a good book on my list.

The University of Nebraska Press edition of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is beautiful! The illustrations by Barry Moser, woodcuts that progress chronologically through Dr. Jekyll's life as it is described in hints throughout Robert Louis Stevenson's story, are atmospheric and evocative; a picture of a boy being guided by his father, for example, echoes Dr. Jekyll's comments that he has a "fatherly" interest in his alter-ego, Hyde, while Hyde has a son's "indifference" to the father; the cover illustration is a portrait of Dr. Jekyll's father destroyed by Mr. Hyde on a rampage.

Joyce Carol Oates's introduction is worthwhile, especially for those readers who know the story, as most English-speaking people do, in its basic framework, but who have not yet actually traveled the dark road with Dr. Jekyll and his friends.

It is a pleasure to read a classic book in such a carefully crafted edition. Too often books such as this are printed in cheap editions with narrow margins and lousy type; this one fits comfortably in the hand and is easy on the eye as the reader is drawn into this allegorical nightmare.

This review refers to the University of Nebraska Press edition only.

This book was great. After doing much research, I've found that finding information on donor insemination is difficult. I knew so little about DI (donor insemination) that I wasn't even sure what questions to ask. This book gave me a lot of information and enough knowledge to make a list of good, informed questions to ask my doctor. I do agree with one reviewer that it focuses a bit too much on the emotional aspect, but DI is an emotional decision. I disagree with the reviewer who said this book pushes parents to not tell their child of their DI origins. I found it to be the opposite and it seemed to me that the authors were for telling the child of their conception.

I gave this book 4 stars because, even though it is a very good information source, there is a lot more they could have added, and a good deal they could have left out. More information on the medical and financial aspect of DI and fewer anecdotes would have given this book a 5 star rating in my opinion. All in all, it's an excellent book for someone just beginning the DI process and needing a basic guide.

This book was an ENORMOUS help to my husband and me. I agree with some of the other reviewers that it is focused more on the emotional aspects and couples dealing with male infertility and may not be such a great help to single mothers and lesbian couples. But there ARE those of us out here in that category of couples with male factor infertility. My husband and I had already tried unsuccessfully to conceive through ICSI and could not afford more attempts. Donor insemination was our only other option besides adoption. This book focused on EXACTLY what we needed. What are the pros and cons, tell or don't tell others, tell or don't tell the child (I felt they were pro-telling, but discussed the positives and negatives of each choice), known donor or anonymous? These were some of the many issues we were concerned with. I didn't need a biology lesson to learn how it's done - I had other books on infertility to explain that. I didn't need a cost rundown - it varies so much, my clinic could answer those questions. After FOUR years of agonizing over whether or not to do this, this book FINALLY helped us make our decision and decide how we would handle all of the ensuing choices. I felt the authors did a great job of presenting all sides of the issue in an honest and fair way. I highly recommend it to other couples in our situation.

If there was only one thing I could say about the book Helping the Stork it would be "Why did it take so long for this book to be written?" Carol Frost Vercollone and Heidi and Robert Moss have written an excellent guide for those thinking about using donor insemination to build their families, and also for those who already have their famlies through DI. This book was written for others to explore the issues surrounding donor insemination and to help them come to their own decisions about this common but not openly talked about form of family building. The added bonus is that it is also written for families, friends and health professionals to help in their understanding of the concerns and the issues that DI families face. The authors, from their own personal experience with DI and through counselling others want to provide reassurance that DI can be a wonderfully positive way to build families. This book has an easy to read style and is filled with numerous personal anecdotes from others who have either gone through DI or have some knowledge of it. I felt this was the best part of the book, the connection with others, their advice, fears, thoughts and honesty which can only come from people directly involved with this process. For those of you thinking you are alone in using DI, this book can certainly offer some comfort in the personal stories of others and the authors obvious intimate knowledge of this topic. The book goes through the various steps of DI, the decision making, issues of privacey and disclosure, and how to go about initiating the DI process. The authors are careful to try to cover issues concerning all individuals who may be using DI, including married couples, lesbians and single women. Also valuable in the book is the resource list and the bibliography. I'd like to share this passage from the book which I felt was it's strongest message. "Our goal, both in writing this book and in our counselling, is to change social attitudes toward DI so much that if you do tell, you can feel more confident that your child will ultimately view this news positively, not negatively. It may never be OK that there was so little donor information provided or that your family began with such suffering for the parents, but you'll certainly get across just how wanted your child was." Helping the Stork has been a long awaited for book that will hopefully do just that.

I like math & from the other reviews I thought this would be fun. I just could not get into this book. I don't know what the others saw in what they were reading.

This book is the all-time, no-question-about-it mother of all calculus texts. Period.

If you have despaired of learning not just the tricks, but also the trade, of calculus, this book will amaze you; you know alot more than you thought, and are alot better at both differential and integral calculus than you may even have hoped.

I learned calculus to MY OWN satisfaction using this book. It is immaculately clear in presentation, and not only holds interest but also reader confidence, (very much in an a la Feynman sort of way).

I have neither seen nor can even imagine a better primer.

Points: 1. The book omits all the rubbish about "proofs"; it obviously works, why bother? Only (sadistic?) mathematicians value such hieroglyphics. Strugglers DO NOT want to even SEE it;

2. Numerous well-worked examples abound throughout, and all exercises have answers in the back of the book. There are few things in this world more irritating than a (sadistic?) mathematician who puts problems without solutions in a calculus primer;

3. This book demystifies the terminolgy and techniques of what, at least in the rudimentary stages, is really not so difficult a topic. The presentation starts at ground zero, (slopes and limits in plain talk), and concludes with a very clear chapter on multiple integrals.

You will acquire alot of familiarity with calculus, and lose alot of pent-up dread. You will also be able to derive, from first principles at a moment's notice, the formula for the volume of a sphere - much to the amazement of friends and family.

In a former lifetime as a science postgraduate student, I couldn't help noticing how leery many of my peers would become when even the word "calculus" was mentioned. To these, calculus was a dreaded schoolmaster, ready to slap their palms with a pandybat. To me, it was an old and much appreciated friend - alot more clever and eccentric than (even) me, but generally understandable, if you take the time to bear with him...

If you need or want to understand basic calculus, the buck stops here. "Do yourself a favor".

As a professor of Physics and Engineering, I frequently get questions and complaints from students taking a traditional Calculus class using a traditional Calculus text about one point or another that escapes their understanding. Since Ash & Ash came out with The Calculus Tutoring Book, I simply have them look up the same topic in their text. Universally, they have been so impressed that they ask where they can buy a copy for themselves! Such a student response is the best endorsement any textbook can achieve. I regularly recommend the book to my Physics and Engineering students as a necessary addition to their personal library. I highly recommend the book to any serious student of the Calculus, particularly if Science or Engineering is their main interest.