Mr. Letcher's letters were written in a style that gives the reader a "visual" description of pre World War II China. Although some of his opinions may not be politically correct by todays standards, I think he honestly expresses his feelings of the people and surroundings at the time. Some of his predictions regarding the upcoming war are almost right on--however his prediction that California would eventually be captured by the Japanese happily did not come true. Regardless of Mr. Letcher's personal opinions, his letters are well written and gives the reader the feeling of being there. A good story. The editors did a great job of keeping the story on track, and the footnote information was very informative (Their references led me to several other publications which I subsequently read). The copy I read was from the public library. I plan to buy the book for my collection in the near future.

This book is essential for general surgery board review, and helpful for the intern to study.

Buy this book --- it's the real deal --- It's the 25 year-old-version updated beautifully. (I had the old one, but lost it along the way) All the fine line drawing are here, plus many colored faux wood-block illustrations.
Contents are as follows --- Foreword. Introduction.
Chapter 1 -The Meaning of Self-Sufficiency. Chapter 2 - Food from the Garden. Chapter 3 - Food From Animals. Chapter 4- Food From The Fields. Chapter 5 - Food From the Wild. Chapter 6 - In The Dairy. Chapter 7 - In The Kitchen. Chapter 8 - Brewing & Wine-Making. Chapter 9 - Energy & Waste. Chapter 10 - Crafts & Skills. Chapter 11- Things You Need To Know. Contacts & References. (many of these) Glossary. Index.
John Seymour also passes along much new wisdom, such as finding and working with other like-minded persons and urban gardening information. It's an absolutely excellent book, all 312 pages of it. It's a positive and uplifting expression of self-sufficiency that the world sorely needs.

It would be difficult to improve or even to add much to a book which covers so many aspects of not just self-seffiency but the basic tenents of good land husbandry. Every aspect of what you may require to manage a 5 acre or 1 acre property with the minimum of outside influence is here. Managing your own small holding is a life-time affair with the land. All the advice on how to go about it is written in this book. I live on seven acres and it is indeed my bible for the land. It also makes very interesting reading even if you cannot be self suffient.

I first ran across this book in, of all places, a small bookshop in Florence, Italy during a "backpack tour" of Europe in the late '70's. As I paged through the book in that stuffy little store I began to sense that I was on to something very important. I ended up carrying that book all over Europe for 2 months and reading it over and over again and memorizing everything. Prior to the purchase of this book, I was a confirmed techno-geek, with the conviction that high technology would save the world. John Seymour changed all that. His step-by-step descriptions of everything from growing food to understanding traditional crafts and skills convinced me that there was a better way to live your life than what my professors were telling me. It's safe to say that almost every aspect of my life has been influenced by Seymour's book. It occupies a special place on my bookshelves, and I still take it down regularly and refer to its detailed drawings and lively text for inspiration in my gardening and woodworking. It's been a wonderful guide to "the big picture" of my life, and I believe its timeless message of sane and rational living belongs in every home.

First read this book while working on an organic farm in New Zealand,it changed my way of thinking completely.10 out of 10.

If you ever wondered why you didn't "get it" in a hated school subject, even though you seem to "get it" in other parts of your life, read this book. Pappert discusses learning, teaching and the liberating role that technology--if done right--can play in the classroom and out of it.

As other reviewers have pointed out, papert does a nice job of going through how humans learn and setting up the case that the current education system does not fit our learning process very well. However, this book does little to give teachers specific on how to properly use the computer in the classroom. LOGO, while a useful tool for learning, does not translate well to a classroom setting or for teaching the necessary curriculum.

This is the best book I have ever read on how to assist people to learn for themselves. Papert began his work by collaborating with Jean Piaget, and then applied those perspectives in a self-programming language designed to help children learn math and physics.

Papert explains Piaget's work and provides case studies of how the programming language, LOGO, can help. He provides a wonderful contrasting explanation of the weaknesses of how math and physics are usually taught in schools.

I learned quite a few things from this that I did not know before. People are very good at developing theories about why things work the way they do. I knew that these theories are almost always wrong. What I did not realize is that if you give the person a way to test their theory, the person will keep devising new theories until they hit on one that works. What is usually missing in education is the means to allow that testing to occur.

An especially imaginative part of this book were the discussions of how to create theory testing solutions that are much simpler and easier to apply than any school problem you ever saw in these subjects. Papert works from a very fundamental and deep understanding of math and physics to reach the heart of the most useful thought processes for applying these subjects. It is thrilling to read about what you have known for many years, and to suddenly see it in a totally different and improved perspective.

Another benefit I got from this book were plenty of ideas for how to help my teenage daughter with her math. She is very verbal, and Papert points out that math seldom teaches a vocabulary for talking about math. As a result, she memorizes a lot and gets dissociated from the subject. I got a lot of ideas for how to encourage her to personalize the concepts and problems by moving her own body. From that I realized that I often solve the same kinds of problems by recalling physical situations I have been in. But I have failed to help her make that connection because I was unaware of it on a conscious level.

If you want to improve as a learner, help others learn better and faster, or simply want to understand more about different ways to think, this is a great book. I hope that all teachers get a chance to read and apply it.

Enjoy learning more!

Seymour and Girardet's book is a good beginning place for people who want to learn more about environmental problems and how they can tread less lightly upon the Earth. The text is clearly written at a level the average person can understand and a large number of drawings illustrate well the various systems and cycles they discuss. One of my favorites is the four-page spread (58-61) showing how food gets from the farm to our tables. One suspects that if more people followed the book's Six Principles for Good Housekeeping (18), the world would be in much better shape.

Readers must read critically, however. Several times I found the authors overstating their case. One wonders, for example, if more widespread paper recycling programs would really make this industry, "hugely profitable, and the scourge of paper litter would vanish." (90) I was simiarly skeptical of their discussion of the Borana tribe, a people who "live almost entirely on milk--with a little meat from time to time" but do not suffer from heart disease usually associated with a high fat diet. (70-1). These and similar exaggerations, perhaps made with best intentions, are dangerous ammunition for opponents who wish to discredit environmentalists.

Heather Drake
Bloomington, Indiana

This is a great book. I have become more aware of my actions toward our Earth.

After looking around for a while, I must admit that it is the best book about training I've found (as long as you're not involved in the classic education). The book offers a good and complete overview of what training is all about. If you know something about training, you will find out how much you already know. A nice feature of this book is its use of brain maps to offer a section overview, and really each chapter ends with an overview, offering the key points. My conclusion? If you want to know about training, get this book! If you want to get training in training, follow a seminar!

see www.7eq.com/books for more NLP book reviews

I got this book when I went to see Rex Steven Sikes in November, 1997 at his Trainers Training at IDEA SEMINARS in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
I used it when I was training call center Advisors at GM Onstar
for Sitel Corporation
I particularly like all the mindmaps in it.
This book is an easy read for people in human resources and sales
or even computer trainers who are trying to
become good at standup delivery.
Its also good for managers
who need to train others and develop
exciting training for high technology companies such as
the Big 3 Auto Companies.
Elegant NLP basics covered with a customization
for people who train, teach and empower others.
If you manage people this will enhance your mission.
If you want to learn about NLP and Training this is the book
to have for your collection.
I'm currently using this material develop my teaching
lessons at the University that I'm teaching Computer
Science Courses.

When you go through the different mathematical Schaum's Outline books, you will see quite a few of the topics get covered in more than one place. For instance, here vectors, matrices, and probability (among other things) are covered here and in their own book. How do you choose? You have to ask yourself how much information you need. This book is not as detailed as others are.

There are lots of solved problems here to help you learn to work the various problems. The explanations are fairly easy to follow. There are also supplementary questions for you to check you knowledge, and the answers are printed at the end of the chapter. You can either work from the answer to the question or work towards the answer from the question, whichever helps you.

A very helpful book, but if you have other books from the series, you may be duplicating topics.

Author Hersh has done a good job of presenting an objective thesis. During the Camelot years, the public was fed a bill of goods. The mythical Camelot of musical fame had a mythical counterpart during the JFK administration. This book covers the president's position on issues and, unfortunately some of the more questionable decisions he made regarding his private life.

Robert Kennedy, on the other hand was the man who worked behind the scenes. From all accounts, the young lawyer and later Attorney General sublimated his own interests, needs and identity so as to push his brother forward. Robert Kennedy was the clean up man, the one who from many accounts shielded his brother to the best of his ability.

When President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, people mourned the loss of Camelot. Sadly, what I think people during that era were really mourning was the loss of the illusion of the "picture perfect" White House world.

Robert Kennedy literally came into his own following his brother's tragic death and, it is he who inadvertently "left the lights on" in Camelot. He was the man who, in his own inimitable fashion exposed the myth of Camelot to the light of day during the LBJ White House years. It was Robert Kennedy who actively campaigned for Civil Rights issues and who, along with Johnson (interestingly, these men were at sword's points) forced the world at large to confront some harsh societal ills that the illusion of Camelot omitted.

Seymour Hersh, one of America's most respected journalists, and a Pulitzer Prize winner, does his homework here in exposing the Kennedy presidency. He carefully researches and documents the exploits of JFK and the Kennedy family, from the numerous sexual conquests (JFK makes Bill Clinton look like a boy scout) to Kennedy's political errors, including the failed assassination of Fidel Castro, the Bay of Pigs, the October missle crisis, and the Kennedy family's involvement with organized crime. Kennedy lovers won't like it, but everything is carefully footnoted and documented. A well written book and highly recommended.

As a child of the 60's, I grew up adoring the Kennedy family and like millions of others, wept when JFK died and Camelot was shattered. Life went on and we kept our fond memories close to our hearts. Then came Seymour M. Hersh. THE DARK SIDE OF CAMELOT is a perfect title for this book. It is very well written and most certainly is a "page turner" investigation of the Kennedy's before and during John's presidency. JFK was charming, charismatic, rich and the most powerful man in the free world. That is a deadly combination - especially when the press (unlike today) turn their backs or do not report everything they see and hear. Mr. Hersh has written a book that exposes the warts and moles of the Kennedy clan without bashing. He simply presents the information as it was told to him by the people who were there. It's been a long time, we've all grown up and it's time to see how it really was. Does the book change my feelings about Camelot? Not in the least, and I don't believe that was Mr. Hersh's intent. It's just history.

the editors boast themselves as modern .in the 6 edition authors did not even mention h. pylori in the pathology of peptic ulcer whereas harrison' 13 edn discussed about it. also the urology chapter is badly written with not even a mention on CA urethra ,peyronie's disease.also the treatments are incomplete.also the concept of GE reflux &its relation to standing & lying is totally wrong(infact opposite).go for a greenfield or asabiston instead.

Surgery as a field, is wide and developing rapidly, probably publishing textbooks is not a good idea anymore. This book hits and misses in trying to collect the basics for surgical knowledge and more.
You'll find many missing points which you can fill from the internet or from magazines or other resources.
Most of the chapters are excellent and are probably all what you might need for your college study like those on trauma, diseases of the thyroid and parathyroid, metabolic response to injury etc.. but there are some which are disasterous like the chapter on breast conditions, but probably the subject itself is complex and controversial anyway.
The text overall is very well written and the structure and design of each chapter is very logical, some figures are not so great though, plus the book needs an update. you might consider supplementing it with Surgical clinics of north amarica for some of the chapters you read.

It's new and more . but It's expensive for medical student in the devloping country such as Thailand . however it's a reference book for most surgeons in the world.