One of the greatest cellist of any time, Piatigorsky relates the state of music as seen by a poor peasant in Russia whos only gift was his great talent. He had to survive the Russian Revolution, escape to the west, and survive in post WW 1 Germany seeking a career. He was befriended by Artur Schnabel and became official first cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic under Furtwaengler. He turned soloist and migrated to the United States with Valadimir Horowitz and Milstein. He was a frequent guest with all of American major orchestras, playing with Toscanini and Koussevitzky. His stories of music, musicians, and composers adds much insight and background to what otherwise would be colorless resitals of many great musical events of the 20th century. Piatigorsky truly believes in the power of music as a force for good in the world.

While Wagner was writing his opera Siegfried, Cosima von Bulow left her husband to join Wagner. From that day until he died, Cosima (soon to be Cosima Wagner) kept a detailed, daily journal of life with "R" (as Cosima calls him).

This book is an abridgment of those complete diaries, and a mere 1/4 the length of the original.

Martin Cooper, who translated the full length original, did the editing for this abridgment, and he did an admirable job. He captured the "important" stuff, while leaving out all the detail. If you just want to read about Wagner, but are not interested in all the fluff, this book is for you. Learn about Wagner the man without all of the usual hyperbole.

Those who are interested in the diaries but are put off by its 2000 pages now have a good alternative. It can be highly recommended to everyone except specialists. If you are a Wagner aficionado, however, you will want to get your hands on the full-length original.

We have long come to expect polish from Debora Greger, but we find much more than that with this collection. Here we not only have the wit and intelligence we expect from Ms. Greger, but a sense of urgency, the personal. These poems deal with the testing of the materials used to make the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, foreign travel which becomes a self-exile, and the need to reconcile the disparities found at every turn throughout the book. A masterful collection that gives us the poet at her best. A stunning book.// C. Dale Young, Associate Editor of NEW ENGLAND REVIEW

This book told everything from start to finish! It never twisted the truth! I f only more books were done like this.

I just love Indiana Jones adventures. This one's a must have for everyone

I have read the internet version of the book. The book is unique in its stile. It blenders physics' teaching with web site programming technique. The book will be a pioneer in high school and college teaching.

All of Kant's works are outstanding, but what makes English versions of Kant's works good or bad is the translator. Since this book is the only complete translation of both parts of this book I had doubts about its quality. But, as I found out. This book has been translated superbly. What I like about Mary Gregor's translation, is her use of footnotes. For example she footnotes Latin phrases and for words she had trouble translating she put the Original German word in the footnote. Also, she annotates explanations of some main ideas, which expand and clarify the ideas presented in this book. The footnotes are not excessive; they are done perfectly, and this makes this book more comprehensible than it would be if she didn't have any footnotes.

Mendel was a reductionist in the Galilean tradition of physics who got genetics right and thereby started the only mathematical science (falsifiable models) within biology. Darwin, in contrast, followed the Aristotelian tradition of observing qualitatively and trying to explain phenomena in the absence of experiments or systematic mathematical observations. Darwin imagined an 'integrated' picture of heredity that was completely wrong.

In reality 'holism' is impossible as science: every model that can be constructed is an example of reductionism. If it is good reductionism, like cell biology, then the model can be falsified. Creationism, of course, is not science because it does present us with falsifiable propositions. Darwinism is a bit weak in this respect as well, but evolution at the cellular level is observable, saving the day for Darwin's basic idea.

After losing his wife Elizabeth to cancer, Gregor has taken early retirement from the FBI, and has returned to his old neighbourhood in Philadelphia in time for Christmas. Just as he's adapting to the urban renewal that has revamped Cavanaugh Street, he finds that his old reputation won't leave him alone...

Father Tibor, Cavanaugh Street's Armenian Orthodox parish priest, has been approached by Robert Hannaford, with a proposition for Gregor. If Gregor will attend a family dinner at Engine House, Hannaford's mansion on the Main Line, Hannaford will make a generous donation to Father Tibor's church. Why would an old-money, elderly financier want an expert on poisons and serial murder to attend a quiet Christmas dinner with his wife and grown children?

Gregor's boredom with his retirement is cured, as he reaches Engine House to find the police investigating Hannaford's murder.

This is the first Demarkian Holiday Mystery (Christmas) and introduces Bennis Hannaford (one of Robert's daughters) and her dysfunctional family. The cast of characters of Cavanaugh Street introduced here includes Father Tibor (who escaped from the Soviet Union in the bad old days of the 1980s) and Donna Moradanyan. Donna's boyfriend, Peter, has disappeared since Donna became pregnant, so Gregor is enlisted to find Peter for her as the Hannaford case unfolds.

There are a number of interesting subplots, not necessarily related to the murder; at least one for each of Hannaford's seven children. Anne Marie, the only one of the seven still living at Engine House, is falling apart while taking care of their mother, who is dying of multiple schlerosis. Chris and Bobby might both qualify as compulsive gamblers, in different ways, while Teddy has gambled (and lost) that his university's faculty would never find out that he's been plagiarizing his students' work. And so on...

Haddam (a.k.a. Orania Papazoglou) concentrates on character development in this volume, particularly Bennis' family background (which is essential to the plot). If necessary, you can read the other books first, since she's careful not to name the killer in the other volumes of the series, even when discussing the events of this volume, but this one really should be read first. Cavanaugh Street changes over time, since the breakup of the Soviet Union and the consequent liberation of Armenia as an independent nation occurred while the earlier volumes were being written, and a number of immigrants move to the neighbourhood as a result.

Should definitely be read before _Feast of Murder_ and _Bleeding Hearts_, since a few of the suspects for Robert Hannaford's murder can be eliminated if you've read them prior to _Not a Creature Was Stirring_.

Darwin started the ball rolling in discussing evolution but his ideas were vague and imprecise. Even now, 'competition, selection and adaptation' are not precisely-defined terms. That is, Darwin presented us with a stimulating new idea but not with a falsifiable theory or model. Mendel closed the gap and made evolution a scientific subject by showing how it works at the genetic level. Mendel was trained as a physicist, studied under Doppler and taught experimental physics in Vienna. His discoveries, which form the basis for cell biology, reflect the continuing success of the Galilean method.