Using poetry, fiction, photos, and essays, the book offers a colorful tour of the subtle and not-so-subtle influences Americans deal with every day, and it guides the reader through the process of 'reading' these 'texts' that make up our world. The texts include not just the written variety but also television, movies, popular music, and public space.
The readings include essays on 'Seinfeld,' 'The Simpsons,' and the Rosie O'Donnell show, in addition to choice works by Neruda, Langston Hughes, Chris Haven, Kate Chopin, and many others. I haven't found a dry one in bunch, honestly, though at first glance I was afraid the section on public space would be a snooze. Not so! It's actually pretty thought-provoking.
The book's pedagogical emphasis is on getting readers to find and analyze the subtexts that run through cultural influences of all kinds and to explore their reactions through writing. I think this aspect of the book is very well done and would be effective in getting students to think critically about the world.

The strange and beautiful (not to mention utterly surprising) thing about this work is that it makes for consistently fascinating reading despite its status as a composition/cultural studies text. I've been leafing through the selections for pleasure reading, and from that perspective, it's an uncommonly tasty collection.

As a reader for a class, I think this book would be tremendously effective, and were I to teach a composition or cultural studies class, it would be my first choice.

This is an excellent book!!! This book provides an intelligent, engaging and enjoyable perspective of reading, writing and understanding literature. What makes this book captivating is the personal tone of the book, it really has a unique approach to teaching literature and it's very lively copy. Captivating literature choices!!! I really enjoy this book, it not only teaches about literature, it also touches on the life around us and how we interact with that world. This book comes in handy for any stage of your writing and it is an enjoyable read. Intelligent writers, whose strongest asset is their own fresh thoughts they share with the reader!!! Highly recommend this book!!

Of all the many editions of the Haggadah that are in print,this is the one that I always keep coming back to. I have a largecollection of Haggadot (close to 100) but when I needed one standard one for everyone at my table I chose the Silverman Haggadah.

The Haggadah includes the traditional text with a more up-to-date translation. The english is gender sensitive and there are short commentaries and english readings throughout.

All in all I could not imagine going through Passover without this Haggadah.

I decided to read this book because of my interest in finding out more about what patients want when visiting their general practitioner. I was tired of patients taking ages with minor complaints and asking about serious urgent complaints as they left the room, and also I was noticing some dissatisfaction in the faces of some patients when I thought I was trying hard to deal with them sympathetically and thoroughly. Reading this book changed my method of practice overnight. Patients changed in the way they behaved. Work became fun and enjoyable. It is obviously written by people who know the exact problems that GPs experience. It is not patronising, but fully explains why problems arise, what the various solutions to these problems are and then gives the academic research behind their ideas. It amalgamates over 50 years of other peoples ideas and I found it by far the very best book that I have ever read on developing communication skills. I recommend it to every doctor that I meet.