This book can be tough going at times -- over 600 pages of text alone, densely written, finely detailed, full of endless descriptions of how early pianos were built in the great days of Cristoferi and Silbermann. Then why read this book? Because it is, simply, fascinating. There are chapters on the role of the piano in the works of Jane Austen, the piano as an aid to courtship, on Beethoven's paean to his Broadwood, on the quest for "brilliant but not difficult" music, long descriptions of 19th century mechanical devices of pianistic torture -- there is a great deal of interesting esoterica here, and much to learn. The book is a classic, and I'm glad it's on my bookshelf.

If you love music, especially that of the piano, then you should definitely make room on your musical bookshelf for this wonderful and comprehensive book. The author, Arthur Loesser, was a well-known concert pianist who was also a gifted writer, critic and annotator--shades of that earlier duallist, Berlioz! This dandy, thick book, detailing the history of keyboards, also includes many of the personalities involved in music-making through the centuries. The hard-cover edition--originally published in 1954--is long out of print, making this trade-paper version even more welcome. Once it's yours, you'll be in possession of nearly everything you ever wanted to know about these keyboard instruments--and then some! And, once you begin reading, you'll find it difficult to put it aside, even for a moment.

Each major country had its own beginnings with music and the keyboards that brought that music to life. This book is, therefore, a geographical as well as a musical tour. Beginning in about the mid-1500s and continuing to more recent times, Loesser informs us of the musical progression in Germany, Austria, England, France, and finally the US. Whether you begin with the English in the 1500s or the Germans in the 1600s or the French in the 1700s, you'll be intrigued by the variety of instruments unveiled in these pages for your delectation, as well as his humorous side trips into more human endeavors. (There's an entire chapter [Section Three, Chapter Eighteen] on the use of music in the novels of Jane Austen, for example.)

Loesser skillfully utilizes his dry and frequently wry wit in detailing the history and usage of keyboard instruments, as well as those who merely were the players of them. It's quite obvious that, to Mr. Loesser, the instruments themselves were the more worthy, and he skillfully educates the reader in the evolution of today's piano, including the advantage gained by the availability of steel framing.

There are many types of keyboard instruments, some more well-known than others, but none are slighted in this comprehensive retrospective. In addition, social history is also brought into prominence, as well as those artisans who have moved us with their performances.

Another bravura performance from this noted musician.

When it comes to the history of the piano, if it's not in this book, you don't need to know it. Loesser writes this "biography" of the piano with accuracy, detail, plenty of anecdotes, good judgment, and an abundance of humor. You'll be hooked after a few lively chapters--even if you thought you had only a passing interest the pianoforte.

From startup to INC 500 to FORTUNE 500, this book is a good first step in identifying what other pieces of information are needed to move up the ladder. Feels like a bird checking out the economic landscape. When you need to descend to the ground, this book will help you find which spot you have missed. Quite valuable as an entrepreneurial roadmap!

Jim Wood's book is for every person who has considered, is considering, or should consider taking themselves and their business above and beyond. Wood approaches the topic of "how to grow" as if he and you were sitting next to one another on an airplane. Casually talking about his experiences, all the while drawing you in to details only someone who has "been there, done that" can do. Read this book and expand your business and personal horizons. -- C.H. Mackey

I am a pt student and I found this book in our school library. I think it is realy usefull for begining level students as me. It has reaaly usefull summaries of all topics related to subject as anatomy and other basic sciences after it discuss the subject and gives a directions

This is a must have for any rehab specialist, particularly the physical therapist. This is a great reference tool for the PT student and should be a required text for all.

If your wedding music is great, then your wedding is great. This book helped us do that. We were able to create this wonderful emotional feeling at our ceremony and a great party at our reception by following their suggestions. Not only was the book full of all kinds of tips and info we didn't know about planning music, but the CD was fabulous as well. We used almost all of it. Some of our guests wanted to know what Cd it was because they all loved the music. There are new versions of some old wedding songs that are really beautiful, like The Wedding Song and Sunrise Sunset. I never heard them done like that before and probably wouldn't have used those songs because they usually sound so old-fashioned. But these were like they had just been done for my wedding. This was the first time I'd seen a music guide for weddings, expecially with a CD and I'm thrilled I found it.

I thought planning my wedding music on my own would really be easy. I didn't
realize how clueless I was until a friend showed me this book. I read it and
it was awesome! I would have made so many mistakes without it. She had
written on all the worksheets in hers so I got my own and even my DJ was
impressed. The CD was the icing on the cake. We used so many of the songs.
It's the best wedding CD I ever heard. I recommend this set to everyone
planning a wedding.

I was just about to add my "rave" review when I read the review by "Chicagoland." I can't believe what she said about this CD. Yes, there were a few songs from soap opera wedding scenes. But these are great songs written especially for weddings. One was even an Emmy winner. If you're looking for a song that not everone else will play, you will find it here - beautiful alternatives and yes, my fiance loved them also. The traditional favorites don't sound like all the others - they sound much better- not overblown and sloppy like so many wedding CDs. These were creatively and tastefully done. I'm using many of them. As far as the book, Chicagoland couldn't possibly have read it. There was so much helpful and unexpected advice I've never seen anywhere else. In fact my DJ loved it. He said he's going to give it as a gift to all his new clients so they can be prepared. As far as the author making reccomendations, I appreciated how interested she seemed to be in making my wedding wonderful.I guess there are some people you can never please and Chicagoland must be one of them. I agree with the raves. Both the CD and the book are great!!!

Don't get me wrong, this book is good. It reviews the four major subject areas tested on the MCAT, and does it well. The information is there and pretty well organized. But for me the key to doing well (I scored in the mid 30's) was working through the past MCATs provided by the AAMC (not the exercises provided by Kaplan). My advice would be to read this book, but to leave yourself at least two weeks prior to the exam to just work through the past MCATs. I bought all the practice exams..., but they were worth EVERY PENNY.

I suggest you time yourself as if you were taking the actual exam, it helps A LOT. I thought the MCAT was a relatively long exam given the time alloted. Working through the practice exams helped me work on my time management skills, which helped me tremendously on the day of the exam. Also, the exams helped me understand the style of questioning on the MCAT. Although I never found the same question repeated on any of the exams, the type and format of the questions were similar.

CONCLUSION: Read this book, it is a good review book providing the needed backgound information. But I suggest you spend at least a couple of weeks working through the AAMC practice exams, under timed conditions, and reviewing their answer booklets.

I wish I had this book when I was still un undergrad. student. After taking a course with Princeton Review(totally waste of time) and before taking the real mcat, I bought this book for extra practice. This book was easy to read with lots of neat tips. Even the test questions were similar to those on my actual mcat, unlike the crap on the Princeton Review practice tests. Practice questions at P.R. were so out of whack b/c they they had to be different from other testing publishers(kaplan, colombia, arco, etc.m,)No, I dont work for Princeton Review but I highly recommend this book to anyone.

I can't compare this book to other MCAT Prep books, because I didn't use any other one to study for the MCAT. I didn't need to. I sat down with this book for 4-5 days a week from December to April studying for the April 2001 MCAT. I didn't have enough money to take [an expensive] course, so I just bought [an inexpensive] book and scored in the mid-30s. You don't need to waste all that money on a course. You just have to keep your ultimate goal in mind, (which I presume is) doing well on your MCAT to get into med school.
After completing all of the premed courses, except biochemistry, I studied with this book for the MCAT and it provided a good review for the science subjects. The verbal sections also provided good practice, but I also reviewed plenty with AAMC's MCAT tests.
Don't waste [a lot of money]. Just budget your time.

If you're stressed out or overwhelmed, I highly recommend this book. It gives you simple, workable solutions that make a HUGE difference.

Only criticism is that parts of it are a bit too "new age-y", but overall, it's very good.

When I first starting reading this book, I was like "thats my book, thats my life that she is writing about" I loved her writing and examples and stories that she told from other people's experiences. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in people's behaviors and everyday life.

I read this book at a very low point in my life, with depression and a variety of physical symptoms related to anxiety. This practical, straightforward book helped me gain some control of racing, negative thoughts (Borysenko calls this type of thinking "awfulizing"). Borysenko's rationale includes the fact that your body can actually help your mind to calm down. She provides simple, gentle stretching/breathing to help this happen. For me, it was most valuable to realize that even if my thoughts/intellect seemed beyond my control, my physiology is the same as all humans. Therefore, breathing/stretching has to affect my body/mind the same way as it does other humans. I kept the book on hand for bad moments, and I found that using the exercises helped me to bypass the downward spiraling thoughts and begin to get centered. She includes theory, psychology, and spirituality which supports the intellect as well. I still needed help after I found this book, but it absolutely put me on a safer, stronger path. I have loaned this book several times, to others in need. There are so many books out there, it's overwhelming. This one is worth it.

If you have found Understanding Computers and Cognition by Dr Fernando Flores or the Tree of knowledge from Dr Humberto Maturana difficult to understand, this book is for you. Dr Budd does an excellent job of articulating some of the world's greatest thinkers of our time in an easy to read format. I have been studying this work for 15 years and think that this is an excellent primer. The fact that he relates it to solving health problems such as headaches, jaw and neck pain, insomnia, stomach and bowel problems, lack of energy, high blood pressure, anxiety, and depression is a bonus. Our language is inherently related to our health.

I wish I had read Dr. Budd's book earlier in my life. I came very close to dying once, lost a kidney, because I trusted the professional opinion of the doctor before I learned to trust my own feelings. Dr. Budd shows us how to have greater awareness and to take greater responsibility in our own healing process. The exercises in the book are important to move you from just reading to experiencing and beginning to change your life. This book should be mandatory reading at every medical school.

This book will show you how your language reveals the way you see the world and how this either opens or closes possibilities for you to be successful, to love and to be loved. This book can change your life, if you read it, do the practices and watch your language.

This book was suggested to me as a more reader-friendly look at narcissistic personality disorder. Unfortunately the author's high-flown textbook language often mired me in words more than ideas. Nonetheless, there is some interesting analysis given to such works as Tolstoy's Anna Karenina...among many others.

I have read this book, and know this Psychoanalyst. This book embodys much of his day-to day thinking and actual technique, and contains both some very interesting clinical vignettes, and also an underlying message: that Narcissistic behavior is ultimately self-defeating for the analysand's life project -- a very difficult concept to get through to patients/psychotherapy clients, particularly in a culture tht continues to worhship and encourage narcissistic pursuits, at all costs, and despite all the warnings of therapists, history, and the great religions. I heartily recommend this text as an adjunct to the more turgidly written, abstract tomes in the field, such as Kernberg's "Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism", for the former's more experiental approach to understanding and managing esentially the same spectrum of personality conditions. Reading Rothstein, one gets it, recognizes the subjects as dysfunctional, but recognizable, and somewhat familiar

beings at that. A Kerbergian read of the same clincial personalities regards them as "narcisstic aliens" whose psychodynamic structure, and whose formative psychodynamics are unlike anyone "we" know... Kernberg's hypotheses are academic and cerebral achievmnts, to be applauded, for sure, but Rothstein's treatise on the same patients is more understandable, accessable, and hopefully theraputically useful. A very good book.

This book provides a very useful introduction to key debates in and about behavioral genetics. A nice range of topics and perspectives is provided, many by leaders in the fields of biology, psychology, sociology, ethics, etc. Several articles (such as those by tobin, duster, and carson) are extremely insightful and informative, and purchase of the book is worthwhile for the articles alone.

(If only it were in paperback!)

But, like many edited volumes that cover "hot" topics, this book suffers from a lack of coherence. As noted by the professional reviewer, one must wonder to what "clash" the editors refer - even when contained in the same volume, authors of different perspectives seem to talk past each other rather than "clash," and the editors don't really put the debates in a perspective that illuminates the perceived relationship between the two constructs of biology and culture. Indeed, the book jacket reveals the focus to be quite different than advertised: "Throughout, [the authors] focus on two basic concerns: the quality of the science behind behavioral genetic claims and the need to formulate an appropriate, ethically defensible response when the science turns out to be good." While this is certainly a worthwhile topic, it is not nearly as intellectually challenging or interesting as the title promises. Nevertheless, some selections deliver.