I love deceptive books.

Example: _Our Paris_, by Edmund White and Hubert Sorin, is ostensibly a series of short essays, written and illustrated in a fairly direct style, pertaining to life in the city. But in a stunning, disarming preface, White alerts us to the real subtext: his partner's slow death from AIDS. It's this subtext that transforms the book from a pleasant travelogue to a devastating account of loss.

Lurking beneath the book's shimmering surfaces, and within its numerous lacunae, is the emotional life of a couple threatened by the fast-approaching specter of death. An attentive reading of White's text and Hubert Sorin's illustrations reveals the mauvaise foi, the daily negotiations, the implicit contract of domestic denial that enables an endangered couple to keep death at bay for just a little longer.

_Our Paris_ looks slight, as if it were merely a pleasant evening's worth of travel anecdotes and gossip. But if you take yourself into this book's confidence, it will reveal unexpected secrets.

I picked up this little book for a return flight from Paris to LA. It looked like perfect plane reading -- short, gossipy, topical. And although it lived up to each of those expectations, the devastation implicit in the book (and explicit at the end) hit hard. The book is not easily forgettable -- and probably no less memorable for the passengers and crew of American Airlines flight 45 who watched me become a sniffling, tear-stained disaster.

It's very intimate, shockingly un-French. White and Sorin invite you into their lives. You feel as if you're at a dinner party listening to them recount(even bicker a little about) their recent mundane adventures. But this intimacy also means that you feel very close to the heartbreaking loss that is the real subject of the book.

It's a beautiful, touching book. The illustrations complement the text (or the text complements the illustrations) perfectly. But if you want to avoid the mess entirely, try The Flaneur.

This is a sweet collection of short pieces, quirky and personal, about a tiny Parisian neighborhood, Paris itself, the French, lots of friends, and a great dog named Fred. Most of all: about Edmund White and his lover Hubert Sorin. Economical yet enjoyably gossipy, kind-hearted, opinionated, informative. Achingly sad, though, because Hubert is dying of AIDS, and in fact does die at the book's end. Definitely worth reading -- especially for fans of Edmund White. Engagingly illustrated by Sorin, who was trained in architecture and took up drawing when he became ill.

The typical Vegetarian book takes one of two paths: (1) tofu and granola or (2) vegetable as art. This book, however, takes a different road and rethinks cooking with vegetables from the ground up. The recipes are of medium difficulty and there are no pictures, so some cooking experience is desirable. If you can appreciate the full variety of vegetables and think of them as building blocks for creating meals, you will enjoy.

My husband and I have loved every recipe we've made out of this book. I especially loved the potato gratin stuffed with collard greens and leeks, which I'm also going to try stuffing with spinach. And the caramel parsnip cake was fun and beautiful to mix together, as well as delicious, like a spicy-sweet carrot cake. The vegetable kabobs with peanut sauce were the big hit of our best barbecue ever.

The organization of the book, by ingredients and by method, makes it easy to find the kind of food (or type of cooking) you're in the mood for. And the author's stories are understatedly hilarious. (Don't miss the chapter about the Seventh Day Adventist ladies teaching the author to make seitan.)

Visually the book is pretty unappetizing, with no photos and printed in purple, gray, and black - the colors of decay, or a bruise? But please look past the design and try this book. I haven't tried a single recipe in it that wasn't imaginative, fun to make, and delicious. This book is a gift to cooks everywhere.

I recieved this book as a birthday present from my sister. It covers a very wide range of vegetarian cooking, with a DEFINITE emphasis on non-traditional approaches to some "old favorites". Some of the recipies are quite humble, with simple ingredients and preperation, and it ascends all the way up to high-style gourmet. A number of recipies are meant to be shared with others, and will yield numerous servings, which is great if you love having dinner parties! The layout of this book is eye-pleasing and easy to understand; it is categorized by main ingredients (such as Vegetables, Rice, or Tempheh, Seitan, and Tofu) and then SUB-categorized into preperation methods (braised, fried, baked, etc). However there are no illustrations or pictures, and often the specific ingredients or preperation methods are somewhat exotic, so a refrence manual might be useful to those who are not professionals. Many of the ingredients are VERY ethnic, and thus it might be difficult for those who don't live in or near a large city with a variety of markets. And some of the ingredients aren't "truly" vegetarian- such as bonito fish flakes, or fish sauce. However these are usually called for in small amounts and a substitute should be found easily enough.

However, don't be intimidated by this book- the absolute #1 reason that I love it so much is because it is PACKED with little stories and personal details from the author- how she got the idea, trips to places near and far, stories about other cooks that inspire her. She draws inspiration from her midwestern family's cooking, and will mix it up with ethnic influences. The author's love of food and the culinary lifestyle come through almost effortlessly, in these moments as well as in the recipies themselves. One gets the idea the recipies are MEANT to be experimented with! This book is very inspiring and is sure to fire up the imagination, even if you don't prepare a single recipie.

There are several things that make this book very enjoyable. One is the collection of folklore and "hoodoo", obtained from first-hand information. Ms. Hurston went to Florida for several months to gather her collection of folklore, and then to New Orleans for several more to study under various witchdoctors to gather the "hoodoo" information. Another is that she details her trips to these places. The stories aren't just written out and numbered; you know exactly who told them and under what conditions. I found this really helped me identify with the story much more. Finally, I'm from small-town Florida, and several of the places mentioned were very familiar to me. It's always nice to read a fellow-Floridian's work.

A fantastic collection by Zora Neale Hurtson. Includes spells, and superstions, witch craft, and some of the best short stories around. She gathers up the urban legends of the 1930-40's rural south and connects you to a culture and way of thinking that is both delightful and intriguing. At times amusing; it is written in the way of oral tradition, where people gather around and tell stories, the more outlandish, the more unique the better. Her work is simply wonderful. A great book, and good for those bad weather days.

This audio tape recorded by Ruby Dee of Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men absolutely makes the case for audio-books because of Dee's extraordinary performance. I seriously doubt that Hurston could do better herself. It is so great that this is the third time I am buying it. The first two copies are owned by my Mom (artist Faith Ringgold) who is bi-coastal and keeps a copy loaded in the tape player ready to play, day or night, on each coast, and the third is for me because now from listening to my Mom's tapes I am as addicted to it as she is. This is becoming true of a lot of her friends. Whether you are doing something else or just listening, it fits in perfectly, and it is full of wisdom and laughs. It is absolutely the best, and I would buy anything else that Ruby Dee ever had anything to do with because she is the glue that makes it work.

The book is comparable with Machiavelli`s book The Prince,
bye the exception it has short "stories" like the old testament.
The stories tells of good and bad deeds and what a ruler shall do to govern a country. It`s in a way "The art of war" by Sun Tzu concerning foreign ambassadors and representatives. It`s in a way concealing the stat of the government and to welcome them in a proper way when he crosses the border of the country.
It is very well chaperized and writen and i can see the Choran`s influenze since it was written around 1100 century.....in doing good deeds.....

But it`s a little bit expensive, i would have given 5 stars ìf the price was lower.

Synopsis:
Nizam-Al-Mulk drew up a set of protocols for the governance of the empire called the Siyasat Nameh under Malek Shah. After administering the affairs as a vizier for Malek Shah for some thirty years Nizam-Al-Mulk was overthrown and impeached after he had rashly declared that his cap and ink-horn, the badges of his office, were connected by divine decree with the throne and diadem of the Sultan.
On Deliverance of Justice:
Justice is the most important virtue, and Nizam al-Mulk recommended the king hold court on two days of the week to hear complaints personally and redress wrongs so that oppressors would curb their activities from fear of punishment. Tax collectors should take only the amount due and with civility. Officers should be investigated secretly and if impropriety is found, they should be removed from office and be replaced by the learned and pious.
On Generosity:
A ruler should be generous in his acts. nothing is better than generosity, and kindness, and hospitality. Any peasant in need of oxen or seed should be given a loan to keep him viable. The story is told of how Sultan Mahmud, afraid that he was not handsome, was advised by Ahmad Ibn Hasan to take gold as his enemy so that men will regard him as their friend. Mahmud then became generous and charitable, and the whole world adored him.
On Knowledge and Wisdom:
Luqman the Wise noted that knowledge is better than wealth, because you have to take care of wealth, but knowledge takes care of you. Nizam al-Mulk believed that sound judgment is better for a king than having a powerful army. Nizam al-Mulk believed it was the perfection of wisdom not to become angry at all; but if one does become angry, intelligence should prevail over wrath. The wise have said that patience is good, but it is even better during success. Knowledge is good, but it is even better with skill. Wealth is good, but it is even better with gratitude and enjoyment.
On Armed Forces:
Nizam recommended having different races among the troops so that they would compete with each other to excel. He described Alp-Tegin's rise to power from a slave and page of the Samanids to a commander. He punished a page for taking hay and a chicken from a peasant without paying for it as he ordered. This made other soldiers afraid, and the peasants were safe. His justice led the citizens of Ghaznain to take Alp-Tegin as their king. Because the Samanids tried to destroy the worthy Alp-Tegin, they declined and were overcome by Alp-Tegin and his successor Sebuk-Tegin, who founded the Ghaznavid empire.
On Appointment of Ministers:
He wrote that two appointments should not be given to one man nor should one position be given to more than one person. He complained that many worthy people remain unemployed when some persons are given several positions each. He lamented that it used to be that those hired followed the Hanafi or Shafi'i teachings and were from Khurasan or Transoxiana; but now Taj al-Mulk wants to economize by reducing 400,000 men on the pay-roll to 70,000 in order to fill the treasury with gold. Nizam argued that a larger empire required more employees and that even more men would enable them to govern India too.
On Qualities of King
He believed the Sasanians fell from power because they entrusted important affairs to petty and ignorant officers and because they hated learned people. Thus instead of having wise officers, Buzurjmihr said he had to deal with incapable officers. Buzurjmihr Bakhtgan advised the king to banish the bad qualities from himself, which he listed as "hatred, envy, pride, anger, lust, greed, desire, spite, mendacity, avarice, ill temper, cruelty, selfishness, hastiness, ingratitude, and frivolity."The good qualities he should exercise are "modesty, good temper, clemency, forgiveness, humility, generosity, truthfulness, patience, gratitude, mercy, knowledge, intelligence, and justice."
Nizam cited the early caliph 'Umar's response to the last Sasanian king Yazdijurd Shahryar to show that the latter's empire was declining, because his court was crowded with complainers; his treasury was full of ill-gotten wealth; and his army was disobedient.
Conclusion:
Nizam told stories from history to show that a sick era replaces good times when a just king does away with evil-doers, has right judgments, and a vizier and officers of virtue; every task has the proper worker; heretics are put down, and the orthodox are raised up; tyrants are repressed; soldiers as well as peasants fear the king; the uneducated and base are not given positions; the inexperienced are not promoted; advice is sought from the intelligent and mature; men are selected for their skill, not because of their money; religion is not sold for worldly things; everything is ordered according to merit; thus all people have work according to their capability; and all things are regulated by justice and government by the grace of God.

What can a man offer about a book for women? Well, as a husband who does his fair share of cleaning and dishes and child-rearing I can tell you that not only has my wife benefitted from this book, but so have I.

I have benefitted in that not only is my wife a more content mother because of the advice offered, but I am a better father.

I'm better because she is more content, and I am better because the book's advice and prayers are beneficial to housewives and househusbands weary from the drudgery of daily housework.

The author demonstrates that housework and childcare can be a path to holiness. Finding the spiritual and the sacredness in our everyday tasks can make us Saints.

I highly recommend this book, for both housewives and their husbands. It is a short, easy read. The very practical and honest prayers at the end of the book are alone worth the price of the book.

Wow! Holiness for Housewives offers genuine, understandable, and practical guidance for mothers! This is a helpful--and hopeful-- book for women who wish to grow their spirituality within the context of their daily routine. Van Zeller truly edifies the day-to-day tasks of stay-at-home moms and offers very specific ways that these tasks can lead one to a deeper relationship with God. Rather than trying to deepen one's spirituality IN SPITE OF the daily chores and child-care duties, he discuses how one might offer the busyness of the day as a prayer in and of itself. He calls this "practicing the presence of God." This process places incredibe value on both one's personal realtionship with God and on mothering. I've often thought of these two endeavors as somewhat mutually exclusive--or at least as competitors. But Van Zeller provides a method in which they can fit together in a way which enriches them both.

This book will be very helpful to pilots who want an "intuitive" understanding of aerodynamics. It will allow them to apply the information that is only touched on in other beginning piloting texts. I am considering using it as a textbook for a community college pilot technology curriculum. His explanation of wing lift does not emphasize Newton enough and seems to over emphasize Bernoulli, but this is not intended as a highly technical or mathematical approach. It is real world information for the pilot.

Unless one has considerable experience interpreting mathematical formulae, it may be worth their while to consider a book such as this before reading a university level aerodynamics textbook. The textbook will be made somewhat more comprehensible knowing the basic principlew which a more descriptive book, such as this one, can teach simply. Most textbooks in the subject, even those meant as introductory, give a painfully mathematical and theoretical treatment with insufficient verbal explanation. They are meant for complete school courses, where a teacher can qualitatively describe the physical principles.

Without the benefit of professors, a book like Smith's isrequired to provide the intuitive capacity which then makes the textbooks useful. The Illustrated Guide to Aerodynamics was not prepared as a university textbook, hence its semi-quantitative, largely practical, explanation of aerodynamics principles, but students will still find it valuable in reducing the effort needed when they turn to their textbooks. The important concepts are all covered and explained well, along with aerodynamics terms and design considerations. Use this book to help you understand, the others to help your grade point average. Smith's book would also be understandable to those who are not students, but do want to know about the physical principles involved in aircraft flight. Many diagrams and graphs explain the subject matter in pictures. A knowledge of basic mechanics and basic fluid mechanics is required, however.

My only complaint is the author's use of English units on an SI continent. English units are somewhat forgiveable however, since aerodynamics and fluid mechanics are areas which continue to resist complete conversion to SI. In any case, the formulae in the book are meant mainly to illustrate cause and effect relationships. Though the book was for the topic of flight, some basics in materials and structures would have been welcome too.

Thank you, "Skip", for writing a comprehensive book on aerodynamics which is enjoyable and comprehensible. You have taught us to read aerodynamics.

I found Skip Smith's book to be an excellent layman's introduction to aerodynamics. Fluid mechanics does not usually make for interesting, easily comprehensible reading, but Dr. Smith's book is clearly the exception. I'm constantly irritated by the very inaccurate descriptions of aerodynamics given in many flying magazines and instructional books. This book has none of those common errors. Reading this book should greatly increase the average pilot's knowledge of how his plane flies and what huge design constraints aeronatical engineers have to live with. Highly recommended reading for all those who are interested in learning more about the principles of flight.

I found this book to be an important and valuable resource while researching a possible Ph.D. thesis topic on interactions of DNA with enzyme pathways. Having previously studied about 95% of the math and spent a month as a Visiting Scholar in the most mathematical of the genetics labs at Harvard Medical School, I feel pretty confident that I can recommend the first half of the book to those seeking to build or broaden their professional knowledge of applied mathematics in the biological and biomedical sciences or in bioengineering. Despite its obvious importance to calculating the information content of proteins, protein folding, and cell-to-cell signalling, information theory is rarely covered in the standard biomathematics texts at all. § I think Cambridge University Press ought to ask Yockey to add text material on traditional subjects like Lottka-Volterra population studies, Turing diffusion models, Hopfield networks, and the like. Also, the book needs more exercises, so it would be easier to use for teaching. And wouldn't it be great if it were packaged in Mathematica or MatLab form! § I wish I could say something intelligent about the applications to molecular biology in the second half of the book, but I don't think I've gotten enough biochemistry and molecular genetics yet. One thing's for sure, though, it's written clearly enough that any molecular biologist familiar with the state of the art ought to be able to gauge its worth pretty quickly. Yockey's math is so good it's pretty hard to imagine he flopped on the science. § Maybe some of my own work will arrive in the 2nd edition. I can hope, can't I?

Dr. Yockey is an extremely clear thinker, and has apparently been thinking about the connections between genetics and the mathematics of information theory for some time (1956 at least). This book, probably a difficult read for the layman, is nevertheless written in an entertaining and unbiased style. Although he slyly sneaks in references to the Bible ("...through a glass darkly...", "...stones that must be rejected by the builder...", etc.), he illuminates with equanimity both creationist and evolutionist theories with the cold light of mathematics. Ultimately, he concludes that life did not happen by chance, although he admits that he has no scenario to explain its origin. He speaks as a pure scientist and should be greatly respected for this.

Biological literature is full of confusions stemming from using different concepts of entropy as if they are the same or related.
Thermodynamic entropy and logical (information) entropy don't correlate, and as an interesting recent example of one way that they don't, Rolf Landauer has shown that "there is no umavoidable minimal energy requirement per transmitted bit."

Yockey gives an insightful treatment of this subject, forcefully pointing out how different types of entropy are unrelated. For instance, he explains that Shannon entropy and Maxwell-Boltzmann-Gibbs entropy have nothing to do with each other, and shows how Shannon's information form of entropy makes no distinction between meaningful DNA sequences that encode life and random DNA sequences of equal length. Concluding, that evolution does not create any paradox for Shannon entropy.

Critic Roger Kimball called Delacroix's Journal "perhaps the greatest literary testament any painter has left." See Roger Kimball, "Delacroix Reconsidered," The New Criterion, Sept. 1998, p. 10.

This journal is a surprisingly accessible account of Delacroix's life. It has been well edited and covers a time frame spanning his early years, then his later life. Within these pages he includes his observations of Paris and the French countryside in the mid-nineteenth century, the people he knew like Chopin and Georges Sand, as well as his passionate reviews of works of art that influenced him. He offers sublime meditations on the nature of creativity and ruminates over ideas he has for new works. His outpourings capture the essence of the romantic movement. As an artist, even though separated from him by over a century, I found him to be a kindred spririt.

In order to get something worthwhile out of reading Delacroix's Journals, the reader should know something about Delacroix other than that he was a 19th century painter of the first rank. Ingres found Delacroix's work execrable and cast aspersion upon him by saying that: Delacroix was an apostle of ugliness who had come to 'end' painting as the French and the Europeans in general knew it. Today, Delacroix's work occupies a huge chunk of the Louvre's halls -- outstripping Ingre's portion. The fact that Delacroix in fact did fulfill Ingres' curse/prophecy may say something about the nature of death/life and rebirth/resurrection in art.
I read this wonderful book over ten years ago and so powerful was the impact of Delacroix's insights into the nature, perception, creational origin, and fate of art that much of it still remain with me. Delacroix in his day was not revered as he is today. He did not have people knocking down his doors to see his work, nor did he always have it easy trying to show it publicly. One day, after a bad review, to console himself, he wrote that (I paraphase) a great work of art in history is like a plank of wood held under water -- it is kept down when the powers-that-be hold it down. But that power ('political agenda' in contempo art-babble) does not last forever and must sooner or later let go of the plank whose nature is to float to the surface for all the world to see. He seem to have had the same intuition about the nature and fuction of art as the Greeks did: that art is light, that which shines of its own, and by which power that which 'sheds lights' and 'explains' what is around it rather than something that needs to be explained.
He never married but was looked after by a doting housekeeper. Not exactly a recluse, but most certainly a man of breeding descended of a noble stock who was careful about the company he kept, Delacroix spent much time, as artists and thinkers do, with his own thoughts and feelings, and expressing them. He was famous for his cordiality and urbanity, and among his friends in town (Paris) were Chopin, Georges Sand, and other individuals who would leave a mark (or in some cases, a mountain) in the arts one way or another. In other words, Delacroix was an agreeable man and as sociable as any thoughtful man would be but no more. Delacroix's social life is visible in these pages as is the Parisian milieu in which he lived and worked.
But the really great thing about Delacroix's Journals is that one gets to see something about how a great artist sees and feels things. Although he is over a century removed from us, his work and thoughts serve as a reminder that art is not always about anything socially or politically itchy; that art is just art; and that art is not something one needs to get hysterical about or merely a medium to carry an agenda. The fact that, historically, art was always commissioned by the aristocracy, and executed by those who were aristocratic in feeling and sensibility is one that is largely ignored today. Read this and see the significance of this fact, and why the term democratic art is ultimately an ugly oxymoron. Those who would champion the 'demos' sometimes think too highly of art and the need for "the people"'s participation in it.
In my humble opinion, if Delacroix were alive today, I think he would have loved Rauschenberg's and Jean-Michel Basquiat's work and their strong democratic origins but he would detest the democratization of art as such as found in Van Gogh umbrellas and calendars so loved by those who "love" art. He wouldn't go to Mozart Festivals either.

I read "Sam 7" and didn't think too much of it since it's quite old nowdays. It's a book for people who lived to find airports invented.
Try reading something by Tom Clancy. That's more contemporary and far more thrilling.
About "It could happen tomorrow", it did. Notice the PAST sentence.

I read this book several years ago but it has not left my mind since. It had such an impact that I actually travelled from Canada to London, England to see the area where the book was written about and the specific train station. With everything that is happening in the world today, Cox wrote with amazing foresight and knowledge. To anyone who reads it at the least you will be entertained at the most if will keep you thinking about it for years to come.

N

If you can track this novel down, then it comes highly recommended. Richard Cox has researched the subject matter well as regards technicalities, how the emergency services cope with a disaster like in this book and locations. THe story is of a fanatical group of Arab terrorists, Abu Youssouf 7, who are on the trail of Israeli diplomat Ben Maier, who is returning to the States with important documents carrying details of a proposed Middle East peace process. In order to stop him, they shoot down the plane he is travelling on, a DC-10 - as it is flying over London on its final approach to Heathrow. The terrorists use SAM-7 missile launchers, shoulder-fired, hence the book's title. The strike hits the DC10, which plummets out of control, crashing down on London's Victoria railway station, causing massive destruction and loss of life. The story focuses then on police commander Robert Thompson, fire chief Mick Melville and air crash investigator Jim Donaldson who strive to bring the disaster under control and find out the truth behind the crash before the wrong people(i.e pilots) are implicated. Although this was written in 1977 and much of Victoria station and its surroundings have slightly changed, the disaster portrayed is something that could still happen. Altogether, an exciting and highly dramatic read! I dare you to read whilst flying . . . definitely not a plane read!