This is one of my favorite operas but unfortunately this recording stinks. Scarpia probably had a hand in the engineering. While the performance is of high quality the dynamics are very poor. Whoever mixed it was playing the magic flute or intoxicated with the elixir of love. The quiet passages are recorded at such low levels that I have to increase the volume to hear them, but only to find myself forced to rush over to lower the drastically over amplified loud passages. As I have a much better recording (Caballe-Carreras-Wixell on Phillips) I end up looking at this book and playing the other. This was most disappointing since I also have the companion La Boheme and Butterfly and those are excellent. Save your money on this one.....

The score in this book is perfect, it's a copy of an Ricordi Edition, if you are a conductor you can use it, don't confuise with the comment of the hardcover edition, the hardcover dosn't have the full score of the opera only this book. it's a good edition, if you like this opera buy this book.

It was once said that Puccini's "La Boheme" was all music and no drama, while "Tosca" was all drama and no music. Yet, at least to modern listeners, "Tosca," with its resonating themes, its incredible orchestrations, and its compelling story line of love, lust, loyalty, and betrayal continues to fascinate. The full score will aid the discerning listener in enjoying the scope of Puccini's genius as music and drama come together in a breathtaking rush of melody, aria, and incredible pathos. One of opera's most detestable, yet evilly engaging, villains, Baron Scarpia, stalks with regal ominousness. Floria Tosca sings one of the most poignant arias, "Visa d'arte. Visa amore." And as the plot thickens, the listener is carried to new heights of musical drama as the lovers plan their escape. But Scarpia's evil hand reaches from beyond the veil of death to thwart their flight to love and freedom. Puccini's orchestrations, his soaring melodies, and his sense of place and time have thrilled audiences for generations. Enjoy it again with the full score, and your favorite recording!

This book put me to sleep. Normally I love reading books about rock stars, etc. However, I did not find this "thesis" on Bruce fans entertaining. Rock and roll is not science and in this book the author relies on quotes from psychologists and sociologists to back up facts that we already instinctively know--Bruce fans are passionate about their "BOSS."

If you are curious about this book, check it out of the library or find a used copy. Don't waste 18.95 on it.

The book arrived from amazon yesterday and I never put it down. Having been a Bruce Springsteen fan for the last 15 years it was uncanny reading. I could relate to almost every aspect of this work as if the author was describing me. The experiance of being a Bruce Springsteen fan has never been easy to relate to people, I no longer have to, I will just lend them the book. Being a New Zealander it has been a mammoth excercise keeping up with Bruce Springsteen, seeing shows, waiting for albums and the like, we are just so far away, but this book showed me that the experiance of being a fan is the same world-wide. Imagine a book which describes you and your experiances and passions so well that you begin to wonder if someone has been following you for the last two decades taking notes...freaky.

This book came to me as a gift from a friend who knew of my fanaticism for the Boss's music. It is part scholarship and part testimonial, written in the style of the best New Yorker journalism: not quite high brow but a cut above ROLLING STONE et al. It's just great to know that there are deep and abiding tramps like us who can publish a book that talks the talk of ones who have walked the walk, from Asbury Park to L.A. . . . and back again. And now that Bruce & the Band are going to hit the road again, this is JUST the book to prepare for a summer of staying in line for tickets . . . as long as it takes. If you love the Boss and you love good writing, you'll love this book. Thanks Bunny! m.d.

Unfortunately, the first section of this book is written with "document" cut and pasted with "web design", so the relevance of what is said is limited for a web designer. The CSS guidelines are good, and the text as graphics section adequate.

An excellent book on beginning typography in general and typography using style sheets specifically. More comprehensive explanations of the use of type and less on the design would have been in order - The average Web designer won't be interested in creating his own font but definitely needs to know how use fonts correctly. All the advocates of graphics intensive (weighty!!) Web pages will definitely be surprised at how a page with few graphics but excellent use of type can be just as visually pleasing. If you don't have a degree in Graphic Design or wouldn't know PhotoShop from the Home Shopping Network, this book is definitely for you

This book is both comprehensive and understandable in relating both the importance of typography in web communication and using type/fonts correctly in composing a web site. It gives clear and insightful information about the design and use of typography in some of today's most widely used software. I enjoyed it very much as well as finding it very useful in designing my web pages.

This is a couple of articles padded out into a book. The potted histories of the USSR, Poland etc. are completely superfluous. The only original work is in the last 3 chapters. Even there, however, there are lots of problems, including more secondhand histories for no reason. Social Democracy is dismissed in a few pages as "in crisis." This allows him to make the case for revolution instead of reform. When we finally get to the argument, he makes no attempt to respond seriously to potential objections. In short, very heavy on rhetoric and cant, and very light on careful analysis.

In an US idiom, Singer brilliantly analyzes the way capitalism has run amok. Globalization of attacks on human rights, dishonest pay for honest work, and privatization of unemployment insurance, social security, and other hard-won benefits for the average guy are all placed in their proper context. Singer is the son of a prisoner of Stalin's gulag. He proposes ultrademocracy in all major public sectors, starting with unions, not ignoring the central banks and their international arms. Singer is a clear, gracious, brainy advocate for human decency above the cruelties of the market, not excluding US executives and speculators getting 400 times the pay of the average wage earner.

Daniel Singer's newest work is a brilliant analysis of contemporary capitalism and a direct and convincing challenge to the notion that "there is no alternative" to the current social system. Singer's defense of the classical Marxist view that capitalism is incapable of providing a meaningful and secure existence for the majority of the world's population is accompanied by an equally merciless critique of both the former bureaucratic regimes in the USSR and Eastern Europe and western social-democracy and liberalism. For Singer, the alternative to both the barbarism of modern capitalism and the failures of stalinism and reformism is a mass, democratic movement of working people. Only such a movement, beginning in the workplaces and extending its challenge to all aspects of social life under capitalism, could have the power to overthrow the existing system and create a humane and democratic socialist alternative.

As an old fan of the Tintin adventure series, I was curious to see whether this was another adventure I had never heard of. It is actually part of a new series based on diaries Tintin may have kept during his travels.

The "diary" provides interesting facts and beautiful photographs which give the reader an intriguing glimpse of a continent which remains a mystery to many people. It depicts another world, especially in this age of technological advances.

The diary touches on the geography, culture, customs and the heritage of Africa. It also highlights the plight of Africa: poverty, famine, drought and political unrest.

I liked this book because any child would find it a fascinating introduction to a great continent. The format is fun and the information concise. Adult readers will want to add it to their collection of Tintin adventures to pass on to their kids.

On the one hand the format of "Tintin's Travel Diaires," which are organized around thirty key questions designed for young readers, seems rather limited when you are dealing with the entire continent of Africa. True, this volume looks at Sub-Saharan Africa, which goes back to the original 1930 adventure of "Tintin in the Congo." That is one of the rare early works by Hergé that is not reprinted as part of the seven volume set and which was revised substantially by the author. In 1930 "Tintin in the Congo" was slanted towards Belgium as the colonial power. However, in 1946 when Hergé prepared a color version he did away with that perspective and the attendant stereotypes and changed the story into something more in keeping with his respect for other cultures around the world.

Of course, today the Belgian Congo no longer exists, so do "Tintin's Travel Diaries: Belgian Congo" is not possible. However, this volume remains true to both Hergé's original story and his revision by asking questions such as "Who were the Slavers," "What can be said about Colonization," and "What is 'apartheid'?" Overall, the questions raised are pretty good, touching upon geography, anthropology, culture, architecture, and other topics. The emphasis is on the geographical to be sure, but the end result is still a fitting companion to the original Tintin adventure. Each two-page spread addresses a particular question ("Where Was King Solomon's Mines located?"), and juxtaposes Hergé's original cartooning with photographs showing the country today. The goal is to be educational in a fun way, and "Tintin's Travel Diaries: Africa" succeeds and should convince young readers to continue to enjoy the Adventures of Tintin and these excellent companion volumes.

This book will be of tremendous use to you only if you manage to take it as a whole. People don't like that these days, they want instructional books as a collection of easily digested factiods. Alexander's book matches the conception of the human self that it describes: it cannot be broken down into different parts but must be dealt with as a whole. You come to understand more and more as you read, but you don't really see what he's saying until you can consider the whole book in retrospect. So it takes some work, but in that regard it's a brilliant analog to the ideas it contains: you must read this book holistically, just as you must deal with your self holistically.

F. Matthias Alexander was certainly one of the great creative geniuses of this century, although he is still comparatively unknown. In part his obscurity is due to the novelty of his ideas and in part to his very difficult writing style. This book is a very lightly edited version of his second book and still makes for fairly difficult going. On the other hand, time spent digesting the material in this (and Alexander's other books) is well worth it. And the book includes an introduction by Professor John Dewey, a great admirer and supporter of Alexander.

If you don't know much about Alexander and the Alexander Technique, I'd suggest one of the many other introductory books as a first read. Body Learning by Michael Gelb, Fitness Without Stress by Robert Rickover and How to Learn the Alexander Technique by Barbara Conable are all excellent choices.

The two most important concepts I came away with from this book were: 1) You should apply some logic to any outsourcing decision, and 2) You should only outsource what you understand completely today. The author presents a mathematical formula that, although complex, helps the reader to understand how to make decisions for the organization on outsourcing IS. Although there are some good principles presented early in the book, about half way through most readers will be lost by the indepth mathematical formula's. Understanding what you are outsourcing is the most important point. Most organizations today believe they can outsource IS and the problems will go away and costs can be reduced. This is not the approach one should take to outsourcing.

Es un buen texto para alguien que quiera empezar con el concepto, tiene una buena metodología y es una buena referencia. Debería tener ejemplos de casos exitosos de outsourcing

This is a very balanced book on animal rights. Cohen explains both sides of animal rights, and lets you decide what to believe. Cohen does not express any opinion himself, but simply tells you what both sides think about the issue. A pretty good book, if you like balanced books.

I like this book because it does have a great perspective on animal rights and gives plenty of information on the sucject. He however allows you to decide your opinion on the subject and doesn't give his.

It's more like utter junk. The author obviously wants to make a splash, but his amateurish writing, while trying to be showy, seems more adolescent than skilled. Why anyone would have wanted to publish this is beyond me. What happened to publishing standards?

I found Buckman's novel to be a terrible beauty, a painful story of lost men that I wished I could put down and ignore, but simply could not. He has the gift of making the morally reprehensible human, and reminds us that even the most violent men are children of God. There is no MFA pretense here. Buckman has a solid handle on the darkness that lives beneath our national fantasies of race mending, just wars, and economic prosperity. Readers looking for an antidote to the liberal "decorations" of Stuart O'Nan and Michael Chabon, and all novels written in university offices, will greet WATER IN DARKNESS with screams and shouts. Someone must take over from Harry Crews and Cormac McCarthy and let it be Buckman.

I have always been a fan of Larry Heinemann's work, especially "Close Quarters," the first-person novel about twelve months with an infantry unit during the Vietnam War. However, until I read "Water in Darkness," I never thought to ask the question: what was it like to grow up as the son of Larry Heinemann's characters? If Heinemann is the novelist of the Vietnam War, then Buckman may well be the novelist of how that war affected our national psychology by destroying the "good" warrior myth forever--a mythology that the History Channel is trying very hard to resuscitate. "Water in Darkness" is a worthy read and fine debut novel.

If you are in college and like to read technical documents, hey, it's probably the book for you! If you're like me, a high schooler, and you really like and remember documentaries from the History Channel but have a hard time reading extensive historical info, don't get this book! You'll end up spacing out from boredom because it gets too complex and you have to reread each paragraph 3 or 4 times just to remember it for the next 10 minutes.

This book is so boring that I often find myself staring blankly at the page for long periods of time wondering why I even signed up for Dual Enrollment Western Civilization (we use this book, unfortunately). The text, which bombards you with facts, dates, names, and geographical locations one after the other unceasingly, is enough to scare anyone away from a history major. It has numerous maps (one every couple pages), but geez, the book is the cure for insomnia for crying out loud! Two words into the text and I'm out like a light! It is far too technical. It also talks of things as if you already knew what they were talking about, like it's supposed to be a refresher for us.

As an 11th grader on block schedule, I have already taken World History (1 year ago), and I have to say, I remember more from THAT textbook right now (which wasn't fun either) than from that which I read last night from this textbook. Lists of dates and names don't cut it. It doesn't give interesting info, and some areas are surprisingly summarized into only a few sentences while others are unmercifully long winded; and should not begun to be read past 6 PM! God forbid a battle come up, it's like a list of geographical locations: so and so fought at the [insert place], whereafter they fought at [name] and so forth until I can't even clearly distinguish from the text WHY the battle even started in the first place. The Persian War and Peloponnesian War are what we've covered on the war fronts, and they listed what the militaries did and where they fought. It was like a manual. I'm sure that's great reading for a historian, but for the average Joe, it's equivalent to staring at a blank wall for 10 hours- you don't accomplish or remember anything.

That's a high schooler's take on the book. For a high schooler, this book equals doom! For older people, it might be a pleasant read....(*yeah, sure...)

This is a well balanced study guide with a variety of questions and answers. There are no tips or model answers for the considerations of specific documents, it would help to also have an orientation. Just as there are answers to multiple choice, true false, and completion it would help to have answers on further consideration of the documents section. The Map exercises should also have there answers in order to benefit from such exercises especially when your working with distances between cities, locations. Take the case of Chapter 14, how long would it take to reach the Moon on a mountain bike, with a car, on a jet, or a cruise ship, it all depends on the speed that you may assign to the vehicle. This is like playing TRIVIA, pag. 143. Suggestions for further consideration should have a model answer unless you require just an opinion.

The book looked brand new. It arrived in about a week. I would recommend to anyone!