This book provides helpful tips to high school students or collegiate beginners to American Literature

This book is very helpful in cheirology, however it leaves out some information. For beginners wanting a complete knowledge of palmistry, this book is a good start. Very easy to read!

"The Pride of the Confederate Artillery" provides a well researched look into the experiences of a group of volunteers that went off to defend their state during the war of Northern aggression. It is not overly detailed as to the movements of the unit, but does provide a well thought out and insightful look at the sufferings of the soldiers as they do their duty. Mr. Hughes also points out how the class differences between the bourgeois cannoneers and the lower class drivers and teamsters dissolved during battle only to resurface after. This book is highly recommended.

This book packs a lot of good information in a small package. Bronner bridges some very sensitive areas (enemas) with succinct honesty and humor. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in starting a fast. The author discusses only water fasting, and I would have liked a little more information on juice fasting (for fasts longer than 3-5 days, I have a problem with water fasting).

This tape is very informative and motivational, but I did find it a little brief (about 1 hour). I was feeling good listening to it ... but it left me wanting to know more.

The Bible is the most widely read and influential book in the Caribbean; the Bible seems to be everywhere and in everything. The Bible has been used to name, claim, oppress, and exploit natives and the diaspora populations in the Caribbean, and it continues to define Caribbean reality and morality in the twenty-first century. In this anthology, Caribbean scholars and scholars of Caribbean studies analyze the most fundamental assumptions and practices derived from different readings of the Bible at different epochs in Caribbean history. From the doleful slave narratives and missionary misreading of biblical text in the 1700s to the modern militant chant of Rastafari; from the Jamaica Maroon uprising to the Grenada Revolution; from Indo-Guyanese women's reality to Rastafarian "Sistren" spiritu-ality; from the quiet waters of Anglo-Barbadian cultural experience to the high seas of Latino American relations, the anthology tells a grip-ping tale of the struggle of ethnic peoples to find meaning, "existence," and reality in a world they did not create. In a region charac-terized by colonialism and now functioning as a postcolonial environment with a dominant presence of Christians, Hindus, Muslims, and Rastafarians, the possibilities with all their complexities are infinite.

I'm sure most of you have heard of the book by Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Scarlet Letter". Hawthorne weaves a tale of hardship, struggle, and victory as we follow the life of Hester Prynne, a woman who has had a child out of wedlock, whom she names Pearl. She is shunned from the community, refuses to confess the identity of Pearl's father, and is forced to wear a letter "A" on her dress, the symbol for adultery. Fighting against the stifling and hypocritical ways of Puritan life, Hester rebels in her own way, first by embellishing her letter with fine embroidery. This book gives us a look at what it is like to live in Puritan America from not just a woman's point of view, but a so-called "sinner's" point of view as well. As we read this book, we come to see how the letter becomes a symbol of strength and freedom for Hester, in a fight against facades of piety and hypocrisy. A very good novel, and Hawthorne does a wonderful job in the portrayal of his characters. Another little known fact, Hawthorne's grandfather was a judge at the Salem witch trials and Nathaniel was so embarassed by the affiliation, that he changed the spelling of his last name to distance himself from his grandfather and what he stood for. A very good novel, definitely something that everyone should read. Besides, don't you want to know the identity of Hester's lover? Go and read this book!

This book is my introduction to Nathaniel Mackey. His poetry is very multicultural - Siberian, Ancient Egyptian, Bedoin ... and draws from music, religious practices, myths ... as such is is demanding of a reader. The poetry has a rhythm very skillfully controlled by the poet - sometimes traditional, sometimes natural, and at times very delibrately jarring. Repetition is another poetic tool he uses skillfully and subtly. The poems are closely interwined - many being parts of series of poem - giving the collection a sense of wholeness often missing in poet's booksized publications - so intertwined I was surprised at the quantity of prior publications of the poems.

The subject matter is frequently mystical but sometimes social. In all the poems need to be read multiple times and read with a holistic mind not a linear, verbal mind ... but the effort involved is well rewarded.

Nat Willis-- a man of his times, a man for our time? I loved this roguish tale! Baker has slavishly peeled away layer upon layer of this most American onion, this slice of the American pie, this antibellum antihero whose antics and excesses are still a hoot in our 'modern' society. Couldn't put it down. Expensive, though-- and too bad the pictures weren't bigger.

After just barely discussing Dr. McClintock's work in my genetics class, I just had to know more. This book is very insightful, and it discusses her work thoroughly. Her use of corn plants in the discovery of jumping genes (transposable elements). Truly an interesting topic and an incredible geneticist who's discovery has no doubt changed all of genetic research. This book gets a bit more in to detail than people may want for just background information. It includes some diagrams of her work, etc. A great book in all that I will add to my library.