This book simplifies clinical neurology. I have read some books that are hard to understand. You will love neurology after reading this book.

This is a fine book for a clinician who is not at the entry level of competence. I recommend it for neurology interns and advanced medical students, mainly because there is not a better one in print. I think it lacks many therapeutic details, is too long for the student looking for a quick read power review, too limited for the advanced clinician.

Aminoff et al have produced a very readable introduction to Neurology. Most chapters are exceedingly well written, for the 'introductory' level. The only criticism that I would make is that therapeutic details are slightly thin...if these areas are muscled out it would be nice.

My colleagues and I selected this book for a team-taught course on the 20th Century, reasoning that multiple authors would give us multiple perspectives. Alas, it also gave us multiple standards of quality, and an overall lack of focus. The students voted with their feet and gave up on the book perhaps half way through. We stuck it out to the bitter end & concluded that the students were probably right, although there are periodic flashes on insight & interest throughout. The second time around we used Roberts' 20th Century history & both we & the students were much happier.

I remember that history was one of my least interested and weakest subjects when I was in junior secondary school. It's not until recently that I started to realize I should know more about what's going on in the world. And I bought this book.
This 450-page book consists of 27 chapters, grouped in 5 parts, namely The Framework of the Century, The Eurocentric World 1900-1945, The Cold War 1945-1900, The Wider World, and finally Envoi.

Part 1 is an overall review of the century from different points of views, science, technology, economy, politics, culture and art. This gives you a very brief yet concise idea of what the century is like, what happened, and what were eventually the consequences.

Part 2, a very exciting part, tells about the politic and military situations in the two world wars.

Part 3 is on the post-war period after the second World War. This tells you about the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and its influences.

Part 4 is dedicated to the development of areas other than Europe and the U.S. If you are interested in the history of a specific area other than those dominant countries in the century, or if you would like to look wider than just those countries, this part surely gives you what you want.

And finally Part 5 concludes the 20th century and looks forward to the 21st century.

This book did a very good job in trying to gather different opinions. The 27 chapters were actually written by 26 leading professionals, including Nobel prize winner Steven Weinberg. As each chapter is dedicated to one particular interest, you can easily jump to where you are interested - if that's what you prefer.

In conclusion, this book is a very good choice for anyone, who want to widen their world view and know more about the 20th century, a remarkable century in human history that makes today's world the way it is.

I enjoyed reading this one-volume survey of the events of the 20th century, whose stated editorial objective was to provide a literate and understandable survey of the panorama of change and tumult that so characterized these last hundred years. Given these very real limitations, this essay-driven approach featuring a whole drawer full of celebrated historians is a very satisfying and entertaining way for a reader to gain an interesting, thematic, and absorbing overview of the events of our century. This is a useful reference book that provides authoritative historical sources describing the momentous events as well as significant themes of the 20th century.

It is organized both by period and by geographical areas, and commences with an excellent social, economic, and political snapshot of the world as the new century dawns. By employing a number of different essayists to describe various aspects of the unfolding drama, it provides the reader with relatively concise overviews of salient topics without having to muck about in the mind-boggling details some more expansive histories would. In essence, the text neatly describes the major events and phenomena of the century, discussing the various aspects of each, and analyzing the particulars of both social disruptions via shifts of power as well as the remaining elements of social cohesion and continuity. As the reader soon discovers, however, the former far outweigh the latter in the events and trends characterizing the times.

Indeed, when one considers the radical departure between what existed throughout the world at the onset of the century as opposed to what prevails at its close, one is moved by the sense that the world had been literally transformed over the hundred-year span. Where once proud and autocratic kings, tyrants and potentates ruled with despotic indifference, now indifferent democracies, uncertain dictatorships, and benignly ignorant despots rule the stage. We've moved from unreliable telegraphs to instant wireless phones, from horse and buggy to space travel, and from death to an early age to whole societies of seniors planning to live well into their eighties and nineties. Where once people lived in splendid isolation from the outside world in a sphere only painfully connected from one community to another by mail, telegraph, and slow travel, we now have instant awareness of all that happens around the globe. So, if some of us are not entirely convinced of the progressive nature of this change, even we have to admit that W. B. Yeats captured the kernel of the times by warning things had "changed utterly".

As I mentioned above, this book provides the reader with a quite handy reference tool and a terrific overview, and is organized both in terms of time periods, geographical area, and also thematically around several key master processes that were instrumental influences in the century. It is expressly not the sort of expansive, detailed, and authoritative source for understanding or researching particular events such as the Depression or the Cold War. For those kinds of discussions one must turn elsewhere. But for its intended purpose of providing the serious student with an approachable, readable, and useful guide to understanding the main currents and highlights (or perhaps low points) of this explosive century, this is a wonderful book that belongs on every 20th century history student's bookshelf. Enjoy!

As a CA-2 Anesthesia Resident, I have found this book to be comprehensive and convenient as I have passed from Cardiac to Thoracic to Vascular experiences. It has offered me a large knowledge base and more adaptability as inter-staff variability tries my patients. This Book is a happy medium between painfully extensive texts and abreviated/incomplete handbooks. It offers deepth to all aspects of pathophysiology and monitoring. Its weakness is in clinical applications such as CPB weaning, which is similar to other books of its kind. Regardless, this book is one of my favorites, one I have read from cover to cover and use as a reference frequently.

... I personally think this book is the right choice for all the cardiovascular anesthesiologists and students who want basic to update knowledge for 3 areas(cardiac, pulmonary&thoracic and vascular anesthesiology) as rapidly as possible within a single book. This book let us see the point among the wide and complicated area, and also let us review our knowledge from perioperative assessment(Chap. 1) to postoperative ventilatory support(Chap. 40). Nicely arranged, easily understandable tables and figures(adapted or maden) will help you to study, lecture and practice.

55 Celebration Doughcraft Designs offers advice on how to make, bake, paint and finish dough crafts. This book offers designs that make the perfect little gift for almost every occassion you can think of. To help you master the techniques, there are full-color illustrations throughout the book.

If you are looking for a family activity that every one will enjoy, pick up this book. The kids get to play with dough and the parents might can save money by making their own, original gifts.

This book is in the sperit of the others in this series, The feeling for the time period is fantastic. The mystory is not to deep but the action and wit is enough to keep you reading late into the night. These books are very good and fun reads.

I throughly enjoyed this book. It was a refreshing read about a young man who ends up having it all..his faith..his one true love and wealth. H Anthony has a real flair for writing. I look forward to reading more of his books

This is very funny cookbook for those familiar with the Mormon (LDS) culture. It does not make fun of the religion only the culture so Mormons and non-Mormon will enjoy it equally. It has recipes. Includes such things as the Jello-Matrix for all occassions.

Considering that the 1978 Yankee team is my all-time favorite, it was disappointing to realize that the first 200 pages of a roughly 360 page book was NOT really about the 1978 season. Kahn spends those first 200 pages talking about other "miracle" teams and great seasons, the origin of the Yankees, and Yankee owners and players pre-1978. If I hear about the "dreary CBS Yankees" one more time...

If you already have some grasp of baseball and Yankee history, that makes those 200 pages mostly a wash. That stuff, as well as mini-bios of 1978 Yankee ownership, executives, and players, should have been put into the first 10 pages or better integrated into an account of the '78 season.

Beyond that, Kahn seems a bit pompous and playing for history.
He has unfavorable things to say about more than one journalist from the era, while getting in things like how "The Boys of Summer outleaped (the New York) Times Snide and went to the top of the best-seller lists." (p. 247)

Great, Roger, but I was hoping this book would be less about your reminiscing about baseball, Yankee (and some Dodger!) history and more for the educated fan of the 1978 Yankees. "The Bronx Zoo," by Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock, while not up to the standard set by "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton, is still your best bet when thinking about picking up a book about the 1978 Yankee squad.

This is a terrific book that I could not put down.

I was so surprise by it's contents. Most sports books about a certain event, there is the obligatory "Background chapter" where a brief history is given and then a great deal of detail about the event. Not so here.

Mr. Kahn first presents a detailed history of the Yankees, a history involving money, sports and racism. In learning about the early Yankees and their special relationship with and the Red Sox, Mr. Kahn presents lot more pieces to the Babe Ruth Acquisition than I had known.

It was fascinating to read about the previous owners, their relationships with their Managers and General Managers. There are reminders of the days before free agency, when the owners virtually owned the players.

But more than just one pennant race, one great season, this is story about people. It is story about the self-destructing Billy Martin, the Powerful George Steinbrenner...it's a story about Thurman Munson, Reggie Jackson, Al Rosen and so many others. Its about how a baseball team is run and it is also a story about the reporters who covered them.

If you like baseball, if you like the Yankees this behind the scenes look at a century, a decade and especially a year is compelling. Just remember: The 1978 World series is the conclusion of a great tale, the book is about so muc more than one year.

Roger Kahn, who I consider the best baseball writer of all time, has done it again with October Men. In his gifted, wonderfully unique style, Kahn takes us through the zany 1978 season with the New York Yankees. But the book also gives us insightful backgrounds into the main Yankee characters and an interesting, informative historical perspective on the Yankee dynasty. By far this is his greatest work since The Boys of Summer (and he has had many great books since that 1971 classic) and is a MUST read -- not only for Yankee fans -- but for all sports fans in general. A truly great work from a truly great author.

While parts of this book devoted to the popular description of concepts of modern physics and mathematics hold a pedagogical value for a lay reader, the rest of the book is really poor. The author makes an extremely loose connections between completely unconnected problems, and with surprising immodesty puts forward an extremely contrived theory of mind without providing any semblance of logic, let alone proof. For any scientist familiar with both quantum mechanics and some basic knowledge of biology of the CNS, the main thesis of the book that consciousness is somehow connected to the quantum mechanics of the brain function should certainly look ridiculous; it's a completely arbitrary connection, and no proof is even suggested. The author in effect attempts to employ a very cheap trick to solve two of the greatest problems of modern science and philosophy, the problem of consciousness and the problem of (apparent) ambiguities in the formulation of quantum physics, by deciding to cancel them against each other, linking them with an arbitrary mental construction. How convenient! The suggestion that Godel's theorem proves that human thought is non-algorithmic is laughable; while the theorem is one of the greatest achievements of modern logic, it is only relevant for symbol-based computation, and our brain certainly isn't a purely symbol-manipulating machine: most neural-network computations are not based on applying symbolic rules, although they can be implicitly algorithmic. Besides, to suggest that humans can never encounter a statement that can be neither proved nor disproved is almost humorous in its arrogance: the problem of consciousness alone holds lots of such examples; problems of ethics is another great example. Penrose's argument will only be applicable when we discover a theory of everything and there will be no philosophical questions left to be solved for humanity; only in that case one could say that there are no contradictory statements for a human mind. ...I could go on and on, but this is too long already. I personally find it fascinating that an undoubtedly talented scientist like Penrose, one of the greatest mathematicians of our times, can come up with something as absurd. I guess this can teach the rest of us something about how the human brain works, after all...

No, I'm joking. This is by far the best exposition of...what ? Basically, all the stuff, ranging from AI & algorithms to classical and quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and basic tenets of Big Bang cosmology, is densely packed in 480+ pages & rushes vertiginously the the author's central interest- brain/mind problem & his particular answer to the "why consciousness" mystery. On the strong side- Penrose has most lucidly expounded classical and quantum paradigmata ( plus thermodynamics and orthodox cosmology ). I think his finest writing is contained in these chapters/passages. Chapters from 1-4 ( with the possible exception of chapter 3. ) are a dry read & not illuminating at all. Frankly, I'd say the entire AI, the Turing machine & computability "mythology" is just a scholiasts's fodder, a scholastic verbiage lacking in true cognitive strength.

Ultimately: where does Penrose stand ?

Evidently- he is a "refined" reductionist/epiphenomenalist. I'd say his "consciousness" theory ( he's done not a few papers with Stuart Hameroff on Orch OR model ) is not a breakthrough at all. For better works on quantum physics, one should consult David Bohm's works ( apart from classical textbooks of Landau, Messiah or Sakurai ); for a more thought-provoking "brain" musings- Jean Pierre Changeux & his L'Homme Neuronal. So, although the author has not shown much conceptual audacity and originality, I'm giving this book 4 stars for excellent exposition of chunks of physics for laymen.

The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose is thought provoking and absorbing. Not being a physicist, I thought this work was going to be daunting, but to my surprise the author made the subject readable and understandable.

The physics and mathematics within this book is not hard to understand, but as a layperson quantum mechanics and quasicrystals were rather complex concepts. There are mathematical formulae in this book, but as the author points out read the words and the formula will play out...in other words if you understand the concept the formula only confirms the logic. But as I understand, Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle also tells us that when we try to measure both position and momentum of a particle, not only are we incapable of measuring both simultaneously, but far more incomprehensibly, both the position and momentum cannot exist at the same time. Now, the implication here is that such properties, which we are inclined to think of as inherent properties of the particle, do not exist until they are measured, the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics. Particles are really nothing more than probability wave functions that expand infinitely across the universe. So, in the terminology of quantum mechanics, the act of measurement collapses the wave funtction... counter intuitive.

Artificial intelligence will some day match a human mind... awareness and understanding, but to understand the human mind first is what Penrose is trying to explain.

If you have a serious interest in physics, mathematics, philosophy, and artificial intelligence you will like this book.
White and black holes, the structure of the brain and understanding the physicial processes of consciousness all come into play.

This is not light reading, but read it.

To understand the mind, is to understand mankind

Andy Lane's book is the ultimate in Babylon 5 guides and the "A-Z" index is also a required reading to backup the former. What this book stands for ? It is a non original book (using the above two ones as reference) but provides the reader with enough backstory and technicalities to tie-up all the above into the Babylon 5 station itself. It can fascinate the reader with tech specs and photos of all known ships, guns, etc. plus all other procedures of living in Babylon 5 station. Also a nice insert are the VIP criminal records, the known space grid, a.o. As a publication is perfect making it the last required book for those dedicated Babylon 5 fans. If only it was a novel idea...

Very detailed, with a lot of information. Of course it could be larger, with much more information on other ships, aliens, etc., but it accomplishes everything it promises.

This is an excellent book! It shows all the workings of Babylon 5 and it also gives you a perspective of the day-to-day lives of the secerity officers. It gives you information from firing a PPG to handeling a diplomatic incident. I think this is an excellent book because it tells you everything you need to know about Babylon 5 and alien races. This is a must have for all Babylon 5 fans!