Although the work itself is magnificent, this particular edition of it is very disappointing. It looks nothing like what's pictured here (and I checked the link to make sure I ordered the right one). The one I received is an oversized purple volume. It appears that someone just xeroxed an earlier edition of the work and bound it together. Also this edition has almost no footnotes or translation, and some of the medieval text is a bit difficult to understand. I'd recommend the penguin edition.

A very interesting description of a contemplative discipline conveyed intimately from an unknown teacher to an unknown student. The text is a mystic exploration of the divine that rejects the use of the intellect and the imagination, preferring an inner knowing, like a numinous experience based on feeling, a gnosis of the heart. An important theme is the difference between the active and the contemplative personality; others include the awareness of self, death of the ego, and advice on leading the contemplative life. Although this writing is deeply embedded in Christian tradition and I disagree with many of these beliefs, I still admire the author's gentleness and sense of humor. All spiritually-minded people will benefit from a study of this almost poetic text. The most beautiful sentiment is this: "For it is not what you are nor what you have been that God regards with his most merciful eyes, but what you would like to be."

This is a beautiful translation of one of the most exceptional surviving mystical works.

What words can capture the breadth of a mystical work that, five minutes into reading it, brings forth tears of ecstasy running down the reader's cheeks?

Whoever wrote these words was most certainly one close to God, and Underhill's translation is incredible.

Read it. The scope is breathtaking.

Oh Heavenly Father, I beg you: fill me with your Being!

Blessings,

Stephan Vrudny

How to stop snoring: see your doctor, lose some weight, exercize, don't drink alcohol or caffeine in the evening. There. That's the book. Saved you [$$$] + P&H.

Buy this book if you snore--or if your bed partner snores. It will change the way you sleep and feel. Everyone over age 30 should read this--and prepare ahead of time for the "snoring years" at midlife. Excellent book and scientifically sound.

Superb book on how to stop snoring--and how to know if you may have OSA (sleep apnea). I bought this book because I was SICK AND TIRED of being TIRED all the time--my husband has snored for 9 years. For the first time--in a long time--he is NOT snoring and I'm sleeping 7 long hours without awakening!!! That's great! Buy this book--your sleep will thank you.

Paul Laurence Dunbar's novel "The Sport of the Gods" describes the experiences of an African-American family in the years following the abolition of slavery. According to the introduction by William L. Andrews in the Signet Classic edition of the novel, "Sport" first appeared in "Lippincott's" magazine in 1901 and was published in book form a year later.

After a disturbing turn of events, the Hamilton family leaves their home in the southern U.S. and makes their way to New York City, where they try to start a new life. But the pressures of urban life have serious consequences for each member of the family.

"Sport" is a story about injustice, innocence, and temptation. As he follows this family's story, Dunbar looks at many different relationships: parent/child, husband/wife, black/white, etc. Particularly interesting is his look at the relationship between the media reporter and those who are the object of media reports. The book also presents an ironic view of artists and their connection to larger society.

"Sport" is a dark, moralistic tale. Although the characterizations are fairly shallow, Dunbar's narrative moves along effectively. I actually found the most intriguing character to be Skaggs, a white reporter for a "yellow" newspaper. This novel serves as an ironic complement to those slave autobiographies (such as the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass") which depict a flight to the north as a liberating experience; the north in "Sport" is a cold, amoral place full of dangers for black people. Overall, this is a compelling book that I regard as a significant milestone in African-American literature.

Have you ever wanted to yell out to the heroes of your favorite movie "DON'T DO THAT YOU IDIOT!!"? This book is sometimes frustrating because you, the reader, can see where the plot is going and want so badly to help the story's characters avoid what seems to be the inevitable. A naturalistic picture of life, and an often-missed text which deserves more attention. It doesn't make you feel good-- but it does make you want to be sure that people have choices, that this sort of thing isn't allowed to happen, that life isn't a series of "sport" that the gods (a vindictive type of gods) play with us. Powerful, powerful writing, vivid details and characters you just want to smack. Read it!

My point being if we're going to require our nation's youth to read Huckleberry Finn in public schools, it is a shame that this book is often left off of the course syllabus. Perhaps because African-American literature doesn't receive as much attention as it should expains this oversight, but regardless of which authors you consider early American classic writers, this book will appeal to all demographics.

An interesting story revolving around a black family that is forced out of the South after being falsely accused of crime. The story is a narrative of their actions and reactions to a new lifestyle in urban New York City. Great philosphical moments such as the bartender teaching the young man the ropes of life.

An interesting and quick read. It's hard to put down this book.

Dragon Steel is one of the most excellent books written by Laurence Yep.
I chose this book to read because we had a book assignment and I like stories about Dragons.
The story is about a princess that turns herself in to a dragon so she can get her house back in an under sea world from the evil Civet along with her two sidekicks Thorn and Indigo. Indigo is a girl. It is hard for her to admit that she can make any sort of mistake. Her mother died shortly after they went to the palace and Indigo said it was of heart failure. Then four years later her father died. I don't have anything about Thorn except that he is a boy because it really didn't tell much about him. In the middle of the book Thorn, Indigo, and Princess Shimmer get captured and thrown in the dungeon but the princess is tied up a wall with chains that is made from dragon steel that can't rust or bend because it has a spell on it. Also in the story is Lieutenant who is mean because he said that Indigo should be with her own kind and not with Thorn. Another Character in the story is the Grand Mage who is on the bad side and he tries to take the mirror from Indigo because she might break it and then it would be chaos in the vault.
I thought what magical thing worked the best is Princess Shimmer turning herself in to a dragon. What I thought was weird is Monkey spit on hair from his tail and turned in to many small monkeys. Another thing that I thought was weird is when the flame bird approaches the ocean and the ocean swell swept underneath and put out the fire on the flame bird that had neither flesh nor blood. My favorite part of the story is when Indigo and Thorn became very close to each other like brother and sister.
What surprised me is Indigo became a bit more talkative about her past when she and Thorn were in a storage room near her old home. One more thing that surprised me about Indigo is she became mean when she threatened to take off the paw of the dishwasher with a meat clever who had tried to steal her dinner.
I thought the book turned out to be really good with many surprises.
What I learned from the book is that you can become best friends with your worst enemies and that you have a reason to get mad if someone tries to steal from you.
One of my favorite characters in the book is Monkey because he does many different kinds of magic tricks like turning a needle in to a rod.
To find out if Princess Shimmer is going to save her house and the undersea world you'll have to read the book.

This book is the sequal to Dragon of the lost sea. I Liked this book better than the Dragon of the Lost sea because it had more adventure.I read this book right after the first book. I liked this book and would recomend this to people who like fantisy and adventure books. I thought this book was easy reading and very entertaining.

I just read this book for school and I love it.I think it is the best magic related book out there,Harry Potter is O.K. but I like this book a ton better because it is a fight of what you believe in and Pincess Shimmer trying to restore her home with the help of Thorn and Indigo mainly and Monkey and the Lord.I like how they can change shapes and look like other people and or dragons.FACT-It is the #1 magic book ever!

Before reading this sly piece of revisionist propaganda the reader would do well to re-acquaint him or herself with the FACTS of WW2 on the Eastern Front. Remember: the Germans marched into the USSR intending eventually to exterminate 30 million Soviet citizens for "lebensraum"; the German occupation succeeded in fact in killing 10 million Soviet civilians; the Germans killed at least 2 million of these people in anti-partisan operations; Soviet partisans killed maybe 50,000 German soldiers and far less civilians; and finally that some Kalmyks, Chechens, Tatars, and Ukranians willfully collaborated with the Germans. Reading this book and especially watching the companion TV series one is left with the impression that the Germans and Soviets were morally equivalent. With a tricky editorial slight of hand the author/s make it seem that civilians in occupied territories suffered as much from partisans as Germans (based on anecdotal testimonials); that the Ukranian nationalists and others fighting the Soviets weren't collaborators (again based on anecdotal testimonials from those selfsame nationalist/collaborators) and that the deportations of Kalmyks and Chechens and other ethnic groups with a history of collaboration was equivalent to the Holocaust (when in fact the US did the same thing to Japanese-Americans with NO history of collaboration). The impression is given that the ruthless Soviet fight to liberate their own country was as evil as the German invasion and occupation. Remember when you read this book that 95% of the civilian victims in the USSR were killed one way or another by Germans and that the Soviets were not the Nazis.

In the last decade or so there have been a number of excellent works emanating from historians regarding the nature of the conflict between the German and Soviet forces during Operation Barbarossa. This provocative, entertaining, and very well written history based on the popular BBC series and written by by Laurence Rees of the German assault into the Soviet Union and the ensuing war along the Eastern front employs a wealth of information released from Soviet archives in the last ten years and emphasizes the enormous struggle in terms of the fate of the Nazi state as well as the enormous contribution of the Russians to the Allied effort. Like a number of other recent works such as Richard Overy's "Russia's War", Glantz and Houses' "When Titans Clashed", and Alan Clark's classic "Barbarossa" it emphasizes Soviet strengths and attributes as central to the eventual result. Unlike earlier efforts that argued that blame for losing the war belonged to the Germans, all of these books argued that one must recognize the massive strengths and military cunning of the Russians in winning this campaign, which he terms to be the "battle of the century".

Like the TV series it is based on, this book is a spellbinding read! All the basics found in the other recent works is here in spades; a tragic misinterpretation of Soviet strength by the German high command, especially of the Russian troop reserves and manpower resources, which were a whopping three times as large as believed, the curious notion that by simply crushing the troops massed between the border and the Leningrad-Moscow-Crimea salient the German forces would thereby crush the communist government and send the country into anarchy, chaos, and ruin, and the profound German arrogance in believing they could master and quickly dominate this gargantuan nation of several hundred million in a short savage campaign lasting only a single season. Hitler and the German General Staff were consistently shocked and amazed by the continuing tenacity, resourcefulness, and endurance of an army they had presumed to have already beaten in the opening weeks of the campaign. As in the other tomes, he marvels as to how the Russians, after losing two million men in a single two-month period could rally itself, reorganized, re-outfit, and send another two million into combat so quickly. In so doing, he treads on well-covered ground.

Yet he also broaches other aspects of the war between the Soviet forces and the Wehrmacht not so well covered in the other books, and this adds immeasurably to the value and entertaining qualities of the book. For example, he makes the curious argument that it was the defeat of the German forces at the hands of the Russians that led to the Holocaust. The argument is curious given the fact that the systematic murder of both the indigenous and German Jewish populations in both Poland and elsewhere (including within Germany itself) had already begun in earnest before the turn in fortunes along the Eastern front. Of course, it appears to be true that the particular manner in which the Nazis approached the issue of the extermination of the Jews and others was profoundly influenced by the exigent circumstances caused by the disastrous campaign along the Eastern front, it seems specious to argue that it would not have happened had the Germans been victorious.

In matter of fact, it was a central canon of Nazi ideology that the Jews were central to the Aryan struggle, and it was this rabid belief in the reputed world-wide Jewish conspiracy against the Aryan race that was motivating them to exterminate the Jewish population, not the Wehrmacht's impending defeat at the hands of the Soviets. The primary reason for proceeding with Operation Barbarossa in the first place was to systematically exterminate the indigenous population through a three-pronged operation involving murder, slavery and starvation and subsequent use of the conquered land for future German settlement. Therefore, although one must admit the particular character of the Holocaust was influenced by what was happening along the eastern front, one wonders as to the reasons for this misguided and wrong-headed line of argument.

Rees is absolutely correct, however, in arguing that the nature of the conflict was biblical in its magnitude, ferocity, and endurance. The climatic conditions, including the most severe winter fighting ever recorded, were unprecedented. The lack of supplies and the consequent hunger, hand to hand fighting, in which the Germans soldiers were aghast at the willingness of the Russians to fight with almost bestial ferocity, and the intense continuing artillery barrage used by both sides all support Rees contention that this was the battle of the century. My recommendation is that your read this along with the books mentioned above. Doing so will leave you with a much better understanding of the war along the Eastern front and better appreciated how the Russians did so much to help win the European theater of the Second World War. Enjoy!

I would like to add a short paragraph to my review of Oct.12:

In the first editions of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" he wrote: "If Germany ever gets involved in a war with the Soviet Union, that will be the end of Germany". He was right, of course, and the sentence was deleted in later editions. Why did he start the war? He believed it to be inevitable, so he attacked when the Russians were unprepared.

Shames once again puts together a passable-but hardly noteworthy-South Florida thriller in the vein of Carl Hiassen, Elmore Leonard, et al. This time he trots in the tired specter of Russian mafia types running tawdry tourist t-shirt shops as a money laundering operation for the big bucks they make as brokers for ex-Soviet art and weaponry. Against these cardboard villains are arrayed an ex-Wall Street type who left it all to forget about his divorce, take care of his father, and renovate an old hotel; a Jersey transplant called Suki who's stuck in a dead-end job, two creaky old men, and two nice semi-homeless guys. Through it all there's a kind of stumbling, bumbling good naturedness-which serves to heighten the nastiness of the Russians. The outcome is hardly surprising, but it passes the time and is slightly more successful than two other of his books I've read, The Naked Detective and Scavenger Reef,

Laurence Shames is a very enjoyable writer if you are alive and well living in this decade. The way he sprinkles anecdotes about society into the fabric of his characters is both fascinating and an all around "hoot." The only thing this book lacks that the others have is more situational comedy. Nevertheless, an enjoyable experience!

I had really liked Florida Straights, so I decided to give this one a try. And I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard! I kept waking my girlfriend up I was laughing so hard in bed! This book has the kind of wry sense of humor that is so hard to find. It also has sweet, likeable characters. And Shames has left out a lot of the violent nastiness a lot of other writers in this genre go so heavy on! I can't wait for my next trip literary trip to Key West!

In this book you will find NO answers to questions like "How the airline business and the aviation markets of this century will look like". Instead of future aspects and ideas you can read all about the very basics in airline economics. But that's not enough. Most of the facts and figures are from the mid 90's. Poor! Bottom line: The title doesn't match with the content at all!

This is the first academic book on the airline industry that I read and I still consider it the most readable one. However, as other reviewers have correctly pointed out, the book's title is blatantly misleading: This is by no means a manual delineating airline strategies for the 21st century but rather a thorough introduction to the airline industry and to the U.S. airline industry in particular. Apart from the odd subtitle, though, the book does live up to the expectations by brilliantly explaining the basics of airline management, and some chapters - especially the ones on airline economics, planning and price - are written so well and are so easy to understand that I would like to recommend Mr Dempsey and Mr Gesell's work to any student aiming to make himself familiar with the peculiarities of the airline industry.

Still, there are two minor omissions in this book that deserve to be noted. Firstly, the book having been published in 1997 only scarce mention is being made of the internet's role as a competitive tool used to enhance direct distribution within the industry; considering that nowadays more and more airlines are relying on internet technology in order to contain their operating costs, this is a point that truly needs to be updated. Secondly - and as has already been pointed out - the book's industry analysis focusses on the situation in the U.S., thus for the most part leaving aside the European and Asian markets where the airline industry tends to be heavily regulated and where the challenges airline managers are up against can be very different from the ones in the U.S.

All in all, however, this book offers a detailed and surprisingly readable introduction to the airline industry, and anybody who as yet has not read anything on the subject will not be disappointed in choosing the work by Mr Dempsey and Mr Gesell.

This book went into great detail regarding the economics, finance, and other managerial perspectives of the airline industry. Included were several helpful tables, graphs and statistics. This book complemented an airline operations course I recently completed at college, within an aviation management program. This book serves as a great reference and will not collect dust on my shelf! Dempsey exhibits remarkable expertise throughout the chapters in this book. Anyone planning on going into any kind of aviation career should read this to remain knowledgeable of current situations within the airline industry. Overall, this has been the best aviation textbook I've read throughout my undergraduate training.

I enjoyed this book, so I do not want to say it is not an enjoyable read, but I have to state a couple of facts. First, I don't really think of this as a look at 'grassroots general aviation.' So much of the book covers aerobatics - and some of the deaths that followed a couple of people in that pursuit. One of those deaths was pure pomposity, and another was high risk taking run wrong. If people thought this was general aviation, everyone would be afraid of small planes (actually most people already are anyway). I think the author focuses on these aspects because he wants to sort of glorify his own involvement in aerobatics. That's fine - I think anyone who does aerobatics deserves to get to tell some stories about it. But one should understand the crux of the book before buying it.

"One Zero Charlie" doesn't have much of a plot, being more of a collection of vignettes from the recreational pilot lifestyle. I obtained this book from the public library, but I enjoyed it sufficiently that I intend to purchase a copy for my own library. If you are a weekend pilot, or if you have enjoyed similar books like "Zero Three Bravo", "Weekend Wings", "Flight of Passage", "A Gift of Wings", etc. etc., I think that you would probably enjoy "One Zero Charlie" as well. The book does discuss two or three fatal accidents, all of which occurred during aerobatic practice. The author makes it clear that aerobatics is an inherently risky - but deeply satisfying- hobby.

This book covers the material masterfully. He explores the dark underbelly of what drives us to fly. He also reminds us of the people who forget "THE LECTURE". I don't recommend it for the person you wish to coax into the air, but for yourself, read it again, and remember the dangers. Use it to remind yourself that the urge must be controlled or else, like Amos, you will be sacrificed to it.

When you first read this book you think to yourself how insightful and unique its contents were. Upon further analysis, however, you realize how absurd and useless the information really is. Lets give credit where it's due, this book captures you, so much in fact that you forget to question anything being written and assume as truth whatever Rickels is trying to say. This author makes it seem as though he is just trying to "sound smart" if I may resort to grade school type critique. The analysis is ridiculous and the complexity of the style in which it was written is unnecessary. I do not recommend this book to anyone studying vampires unless they are insane.

I bought this book along with several others because I was researching vampires. This is a great book but very technical. I believe it is written more for college students and people who would understand university 'lingo'. The book goes in depth into the psychological theories concerning vampires, why people believe in them, and even certain books like Dracula! I would recommend this book for any college or university level student or graduate who is interested in vampires.

I have always liked academics such as Carl Sagan or Stephen Gould who could take the mysteries of the universe and explain them to neophytes such as myself. Hearing Gould explain evolution in terms of baseball batting averages is as good as life gets. "The Vampire Lectures" by Professor Rickels is in that tradition, although the subject matter is not exactly top drawer. Ultimately, you will find his musings either insightful or at least provocative. But there has to be some sort of "deep meaning" behind our fascination with vampires and Rickels will at least getting you thinking about them in ways you probably never thought about before. What more could you want?

English class has never been my favorite class, but poetry has always been one of my better topics. This year - Sophmore High School English - I was required to buy Sound and Sense for class. This is the worst poetry book I have ever read. While the collection of poems is wonderful, the text written by Arp is terrible. Arp comes off as condescending and mean spirited, making the reading of the book a chore. His definitions of the various poetical terms are solid, but you could just as easily get them out of a dictionary. Arp tells the reader that poetry cannot be beautiful unless it concers the perfect love, flowers, or fuzzy animals. He equates the reading of poetry to listening to a radio, and says that if one does not like a critically aclaimed poem, one's tuner is on the wrong station. He leaves nothing to free will, preferring to lead a flock of sheep into an abyss of bad writing over allowing someone to disagree with him here or there. Chapters on "Good Poetry and Bad" do not leave the reader with a love of poetry, nor does the book as a whole make me want to spout sonnets. There are many better collections of poetry around. The poems within Sound and Sense can as easily be found in the Norton or another anthology. As for its educational value, I find that it offers very little by the way of insight, and instead gushes half baked opinions. Do yourselves a foavor and skip this one. You'll learn more about poetry from Dr. Seuss.

I've been nibbling away at a 20 year old edition of this book for a few years in my spare time, and almost every bite has increased my abitity to appreciate poetry. I like the examples, most of them seem pretty old, Frost is about as modern as he gets, but thats ok with me. You might find this book a little annoying if it was required reading in a course, sometimes it asks more questions than it answers.

I came across an earlier edition of Sound and Sense a few years ago. At first glance the slighty yellowed text appeared foreboding with chapters like denotation and connotation, imagery, figurative lanaguage, allusion, tone, rhythm and meter, sound and meaning, and so forth. I found it hard to imagine a less lifeless approach to poetry. However, the text did seem to contain a sizeable anthology as an appendix and poetry was abundant in every chapter. I reasoned that I could skip the poetic structure discussions and simply read the poetry.

But from the beginning I found Perrine's style and approach to be stimulating, rather than analytical. Throughout we are immersed in poetry, great poetry, familiar poetry, unfamiliar poetry. Perrine argues that poetry needs to be read and reread carefully for full understanding and appreciation. We need to learn to think about poetry with some seriousness, but not in a cold, calculating manner. We approach new poetry with our eyes and ears open, our senses alive.

Yes, as other reviewers point out, Sound and Sense is structured and does methodically explore poetic forms in some detail. But this is not a drawback. It is actually an aid to understanding. Perrine manages to achieve his instructional objective without diluting his central message - poetry is to be enjoyed. He never forgets that his subject is poetry, and not poetic form and structure.

I have since learned that Perrine's text is still in use today some 45 years after publication of the first edition. How can that be? Few textbooks achieve nine editions (nine editions, not just nine printings). Even the title change signifies respect; it is no longer simply Sound and Sense, it is "Perrine's Sound and Sense". I highly recommend Perine's text to anyone willing to invest a little time and study to poetry. The return will be worthwhile. I give Sound and Sense five stars.