A very well written book. The mathematical level is hard, but always such, that with a good graduate background, one can follow the proofs.
The subject matter of course is very special, a lot more special, than the editorial introduction seems to suggest.

If one either enjoys mathematics, or if one is interested in the subject matter, it is a recommendable book.

Eilenberg's book opens the complex and fascinating topic of intellectual property, in addition to providing brilliant readings of the major poems of these two seminal Romantic poets.

Fr. Taylor presents a fair and even-handed comparison of Catholicism and Mormonism from a Catholic perspective. Missing is the bitter polemics which characterizes too much of the comparative religion genre aimed at lay readers. The book's main strenghts are eight chapters which briefly present Mormon beliefs and then compare and contrast those beliefs with Catholic beliefs on the same subject. Fr. Taylor is careful not to disparage Mormon beliefs when he describes them. This, along with his refusal to slander Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, set his book apart in its field. Written by a faithful Catholic this book aims to educate lay Catholic readers on the basic beliefs of Mormonism. This book is not an exhaustive treatise or inacessable scholarly tome. Nonetheless Fr. Taylor does an outstanding job presenting the basics of Mormon beliefs in an organized manner for the average reader. In the end Fr. Taylor explains why he has problems with the Book of Mormon. The Mormon reader will no doubt be frustrated with this if he or she does not take this book for what it is: a fair and charitable comparison from the Catholic perspective. Hot-blooded partisans from both the Catholic and Mormon faiths will dislike this book. One camp because Fr. Taylor writes honestly about the differences, the other camp because he shows respect for those who have beliefs different from his. This is a book written by a man of good will for people of good will. I recommend "A Tale of Two Cities" rather than spending time and money on "When Mormons Call" by Isaiah Bennett. Mr. Bennett is strident and uncharitable in his writing style. Without question Fr. Taylor has written the best introductory comparison of the two faiths available today for the lay reader.

The main contents of the book,please

A wealth of valuable insights into the workings of the new global economy. Halal, Taylor, and their contributors have laid bare the type of world we will soon be living in. I can't praise this book enough. Buy it!

This collaboration between Wordsworth and Coleridge signaled the beginning of Romanticism in English poetry and announced all the important themes and techniques of the movement: the healing power of nature and art, the importance of "ordinary" man and woman, the pervasiveness of the supernatural in everday life, etc. The book also broke old rules by incorporating prosaic, common language in the poems.

Sometimes the poems are mawkish and strain for effect, but for the most part they are powerful and moving. Most famous of Coleridge's contributions, of course, is "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", with its admonition to respect ALL of God's creation. But even lovelier is "The Nightingale", a paen to the restorative power of art.

Wordsworth's most famous contribution is "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey", but he also submits several excellent narrative poems with supernatural themes.

In contrast to some of the other editions of the complete works of Shakespeare, this book really is value for money. All plays (and poems, etcetera) are printed in a lavishly, pleasing way, very easy to the eye (one of the biggest drawbacks of some editions is that they use a very small font to keep the number of pages to a minimum). As others have commented, not much can and should be commented on the works themselves, they have stood the test of time, and the (normal) spelling that is used in this edition makes each reading an enjoyable experience. All the plays are given a brief (and somewhat succinct) introduction, which is, at best, okay. The strange things, in this book, are, for example, the order of the plays, the way King Lear is printed in two versions (that differ only in small details), and the inclusion of fragments that are attributed to Shakespeare (a bit controversial to say the least). Still, if you want to buy a good, thorough, and well-researched edition of the complete works of Shakespeare, you will not go far wrong with this book.

Pretty much any edition of Shakespeare deserves 5 stars for content. I think the question most people must have is "Which edition?"

I purchased "The Complete Pelican Shakespeare" because I wanted a relatively portable, high-quality book featuring text that benefits from modern scholarship (including brief notes and glossary). I wanted an edition to read and to treasure.

I should say that I didn't need extensive commentary with the text (as in the Arden paperbacks). That bulks it up considerably, can be had in other places, and can be left behind once one has read a play once or twice.

While I'm no Shakespearean scholar myself, this edition seems to meet the editorial criteria quite well. The text appears to benefit from modern, authoritative editorship, the introductions are brief but useful, and archaic terms and phrases are defined on the page where they occur.

The binding is high quality, as is the paper.

This is the most portable of the modern hard-cover editions I've found, with the possible exception of the Oxford edition, which is thicker, but smaller in the other two dimensions. I decided against the Oxford because the binding is of lesser quality and Oxford has a relatively idiosyncratic editorial policy with which I don't entirely agree.

Sadly, this is still a pretty big book, just small enough for a good-sized person to hold up and read in bed, and too much for an airplane or trip to the park. I wish someone would make a truly portable version! There is no reason that the entire thing couldn't be compressed into the space of a smallish bible (for those with the eyes for it!).

This weighty tome brings together authoritative versions of the complete works of Shakespeare. The excellent and informative introduction provides the historical context for the plays, the author and the folios. It also explains well how the plays tended to evolve with re-writes and performances. I have not read all of the plays and sonnets, but of the Shakespeare works Henry V and Hamlet, for example, provide high drama with stories that are compelling and language that is unique, beautiful and powerful. While the Taming of the Shrew and a Midsummers Night Dream provide humor, and other plays provide tragedy and pathos. A thousand phrases from these great plays and sonnets have probably carried into modern usuage. Shakespeare is best enjoyed first as a play by fine actors, such as those of the Royal Shakespeare company, that can give life to the often archaic and unfamiliar words, phrases and language constructs that come late 1500s. Once you have been captivated by a good live performance, reading the text becomes a joy and the strange language an exquisit pleasure. Some movies based on Shakespeare are more interesting than others (Kenneth Branagh has been quite successful, while Mel Gibson and Sir Lawrence Olivier were less so to my mind) but a live theater performance is far better and the written word is probably a close second. If you are interested in Shakespeare then this is a wonderful book - the only one you need really. If you have children then you really should get this and encourage them to read it. I have started reading selected passages with my 5 year old son and he loves it, he is absolutely enthralled with the language -- be bold, try it.

In 1922, director William Desmond Taylor was found shot to death in his home, and two celebrated stars fell under suspicion. The case was never solved, and lingering questions about the crime spelled finish for the careers of the brilliant comic actress Mable Normand and the popular ingenue Mary Miles Minter. But in Hollywood, old sins cast long shadows: the case continued to be investigated off and on over subsequent decades, providing considerable fodder for the tabolid press. In time, it became a legend, and in the the late 1960s director King Vidor--who had been acquainted with most of the individuals involved--began his own investigation in hopes of developing the story into a film.

Vidor eventually set his findings aside, and after his death biographer Sidney D. Kirkpatrick uncovered his extensive notes on the Taylor case. The result is A CAST OF KILLERS, a book which purports to solve the case for once and for all. Although he writes with a somewhat superficial tone, Kirkpatrick spins out his story with considerable conviction. What emerges is an extremely distasteful portrait of greed. According to Kirkpatrick, the studios decided to protect themselves even to the extent of implicating innocent parties while the Los Angeles Police Department preferred to extort money from the killer instead of bringing the case to court. But more disturbing than this is the portrait Kirkpatrick paints a profoundly dysfunctional family, the head of which was dominated by a need for money, fame, and absolute control.

Ultimately there is no hard proof for Kirkpatrick's conclusions, but--and in spite of several errors that have crept into the work--he makes an extremely convincing case for their validity. While A CAST OF KILLERS is far too popular in content to satisfy students of the crime (described as Taylorologists), it is largely in line with current theory re this famous murder, and it makes for a fascinating read. Recommended.

King Vidor was a legendary film director largely forgotten by Hollywood at the time of his death. Sydney Kirkpatrick came to Vidor's home after his death to research a well deserved biography but instead discovered a buried box full of notes for a project planned but put aside by Vidor due to the explosive nature of his findings. This book is based on what Kirkpatrick found in that box. It is full of mystery and murder, love and lust, and in the end, sadness at the solving of one of the most famous and sensational scandels in the history of tinsletown. It is a mesmerizing journey into the early days of Hollywood and the lengths it would go to to cover up its secrets.

In 1922 the murder of director William Desmond Taylor was so filled with scandel it ruined careers and nearly destroyed Hollywood. If the absolute truth had been known, it might have. King Vidor had been a part of this Hollywood in its formative years and planned to make his comeback film by telling the story of it. Kirkpatrick could have turned this into a pulp type expose but instead, and to his credit, takes a respectful and nostalgic tone, both for Vidor and a time gone by. He uses Vidor's notes and findings to let this murder mystery unfold just as it did for Vidor.

For every film buff with a fascination for old Hollywood this is a book you can't put down. It is juicy but never tawdry, Vidor sifting through the misinformation of Hollywood and the corruption of the police to slowly get a picture of the truth he himsef couldn't yet tell because some of the players were still alive. The homicide and the aftermath is filled with names like Mabel Normand, Alan Dwan, James Kirkwood, Gloria Swanson, Claire Windsor, and Charlette Shelby and her waif like daughter Mary Miles Minter, an early rival of Mary Pickford.

Vidor's reputation and the fact he had been a part of this Hollywood way back when gave him weight and would prompt many to open up and talk to Vidor in a way in which they would not have someone else. He would even get to look at police files that would contradict most of what was reported at the time, raising even more questions. As Vidor plays detective in order to write the screenplay that he hoped would put him back on top Kirkpatrick lets us see a man who was once a vital part of the film industry fighting to be remembered. During his investigation he would come into contact with old flame Coleen Moore, a lovely silent star with a fine career of her own. It was a happy coincidence and would force Vidor to make decisions affecting the rest of his life.

A Cast of Killers is a fun, fast read tinged with sadness, as Vidor somehow knew it would be. Before beginning, Vidor himself likened it to an old bottle of wine. If you love a good mystery, and or Hollywood, this is one you have to read.

'I realized it was vintage stuff-the rarest vintage of all: a murder that has never been solved. One opens such a bottle at his own peril.....'
King Vidor, 1967

Author Sydney Kirkpatrick traces pioneering film director King Vidor's efforts to research and write a script about one of Hollywood's most notorious unsolved mysteries. In doing the research for the book after Vidor's death, Kirkpatrick discovers why the film was never made - Vidor actually solved the crime years and years after the police had given up. Since innocent people were still living who could have been hurt by the revalation, Vidor sealed his files and dropped the project.

The murder of William Desmond Taylor is filled with intrigue, scandal, and coverup. The most important stars and mogels of silent Hollywood are involved, including the legendary commedienne Mabel Normand ("Mack and Mabel") and screen ingenue Mary Miles Minter.

Who could be better qualified to write about the hearts, minds and souls of dogs than Elizabeth Marshall Thomas? Not only is she the celebrated anthropologist who was the first to chronicle the lives of the Bushmen; not only has she studied and published scientific and popular articles on animals from African elephants to Arctic wolves; but she quite literally grew up among dogs. As we learn in the first captivating sentences of this splendid, surprising book, one of her most attentive caretakers as a child was a Newfoundland dog, whose job, as the dog saw it, was to keep the helpless human child from drowning in the sea while the dog's group, her family, lived at the beach. The dog was actually her nanny, writes Thomas--the sort of insight that at once makes perfect sense and yet takes one's breath away, and the sort of insight that characterizes this book. The Social Lives of Dogs is as wide-ranging and as deep as Thomas' best-selling The Hidden Life of Dogs. That book asked the simple and profound question: What do dogs want? The answer: other dogs. But the social grace of dogs is such that they are capable of forming deep, lasting, complex and highly individualized relationships with many species other than their own (including birds, who are, as Thomas points out, more closely related to dinosaurs than to dogs), and this is the fertile ground explored in this riveting new book. In it, we meet a great new cast of characters: brave, stoic, soldierly Sundog, a former stray; Misty, a victim of AKC breeding who grew up in a crate and didn't understand grass; curly-tailed Pearl, who made an art of barking. The Thomas household is, as she writes, a "churning cauldron" of (at its high point) five dogs, a dozen cats, five parrots and a varying number of people. There's a dog-chasing cat named Rajah and a cat-biting cockatoo named Carmen. These animals don't always behave in the ways we think they "should"--they are far too creative, inventive and individual. And that's the delight of their keenly-observed stories--stories which collectively form a rich biography of their relationships with one another. Although The Hidden Life of Dogs was highly praised by some of the world's top animal behaviorists, including George Schaller, in some circles the book was controversial, as The Social Lives of Dogs will surely be. A few scientists still consider the mere suggestion that animals think is "anthropomorphic." But for the rest of us, who know that non-human as well as human animals may enjoy rich inner lives, this book offers profound evidence that our closest animal friends still surprise us--and have much to teach us about social graces.

For those who are already fans of Elizabeth Marshall Thomas and her fine anthropologist's approach to studying animal culture, THE SOCIAL LIVES OF DOGS may be the finest jewel in her crown of works. This book chronicles an approximate fifteen-year study which included, in the order that they came to live in the Thomas household, Sundog, Misty, Pearl, Ruby, and Sheilah--dogs of varying breeds and mixes. Thomas tells, in her own beautiful and compassionate way, the story of each dog's incorporation into the lives of the other dogs, people, cats, and birds in her home. She succeeds beautifully in her sincere effort always to explain her animal observations and then to try to understand and interpret from the animal's point of view. What more could one ask of an anthropologist/ethologist?

For me, Thomas taps into something very deep and important--something that's difficult to find words for. But I know that it has to do with a message that says it's okay to feel deep emotions about your animals, to talk to them and hear their answers, and to sense and acknowledge their deep feelings. Even though many of us have known and felt this intuitively, it is neither the message that our Judeo/Christian tradition nor our Linnean scala natura science of classification has wanted to deliver to us.

In the introduction she poses the questions: "Can we understand the mind of an animal? . . .[do] animals have consciousness?" and then proceeds to say that for some scientists . . . "the view that animals are incapable of conscious thought, or even of emotion, has acquired an aura of scientific correctness, and at the moment is the prevailing dogma, as if some very compelling evidence to the contrary was not a problem." This reader is happy to say that her own experiences with animals have certainly provided "compelling evidence to the contrary."

On a final note, THE SOCIAL LIVES OF DOGS, even though written around the lives of the canines concerned, reads a little bit like Thomas's personal memoir. She puts a lot into perspective in the excellent epilogue, which I found to be the real icing on the cake. Even as Thomas finds "grace" in canine company, so does she tell their story with much grace. This book is a wonderful read!

This is an excellent book about dogs, readable even by those who do not like them. Elizabeth Maxwell Thomas writes fascinating stories about daily life with her pets, anecdotes both humorous and sad. As I read about her wonderful dogs--the incredibly intelligent Sundog, sweet Pearl, confused Misty, and goofy Ruby--I found myself looking at my dog, wondering why she wasn't nearly as interesting as Thomas's. (If I had to choose a favorite dog from the book, the human-like Sundog would be my choice.) There are also scientific bits about how wolves gradually became domesticated and why, dogs of Third World nations, and so on. This is a great book, one that everyone should read.

To call "Varieties of Religious Experience" a classic is an understatement. What I find really amazing is that it was written in 1902. James was first known for his work with "functionalism" in psychology, essentially making him the first modern psychologist --- moving psychology away from the realm of philosophy. Thus, we have psychology becoming an empirical science. The empirical methodology was used to explore items of interest in psychology and religion.

Many books on religion express an interest in religion from the point of view of a theologian or person who studies religion from the point of view of religious institutions. To many people, religion means different things. It could be from the point of view of a "born-again Christian," or it could be from a more personal point of view. We come to see religion as an existential phenomenon. We learn that it is an incredibly personal relation between the individual and his concept of the Divine. There is a definite emphasis on the personal aspects of religion.

With experimental psychology, we deal in matters that are seen and are easily quantifiable. In the psychology of religion, we deal with how the individual deals with the reality of the unseen. We have a feeling of the presence of God. Some people can feel a mystical experience, whereas others have a more rational approach. People experience the divine in different manners - on the one hand, it can be impersonal and transcendental, and on the other hand it can be solemn, personal, and passionate. The religious tell us that religion can have the result of "healthy mindedness" -- in fact, it leads to a systematic sense of "healthy mindedness" diverting our attention from disease and death. This is more than just "faith healing," but rather a prescription for a life of action. It leads to practical effectiveness. Another area of interest is sin and the "sick soul", and the healthy effects of "redemption." Other areas of interest are conversion, religious "back-sliding," saintliness and living the good life, empiricism and skepticism, mysticism and philosophy, and aspects of religious worship service.

I found that this book should have interest not just to students of the psychology of religion. It also has appeal to the religious, and those who want to find out more about the religious experience from a point of view that is a different from the views expressed in Church and Sunday School. The point of view is one that will appeal both to religious conservatives and to religious liberals. Its presentation is sensitive and logical. For some people, it may even produce the "aha!" response that they are now seeing religion with greater perspective. (This is a review of the paperback edition.)

This book is heavy going. Its like slogging up a beautiful mountain and on the way seeing all the beauty nature created on the way.

If you can grasp this book, and try to distill all the collected wisdom as presented by James, you will see that the essential religious experience is effected through surrender.

This book is not meant to be read at one sitting; no one will find it all captivating; but just finding one part - " But since, in any terms,the crisis described is the throwing of our conscious selves upon the mercy of powers which, *whatever they may be, are more ideal than we are actually*, and make for our redemption, you see why self-surrender has been and always must be regarded as the vital turning-point of the religious life, so far as the religious life is spiritual and no affair of outer works and ritual and sacraments.

Wonderful book;well worth reading.

I am always surprised when I am cruising around Amazon and take a look at a classic and find just 1 or 2 customer comments on a book such as James's masterful "Varieties". So, I just had to say something. This is one of the greatest and most readable books ever written on the subject of religion. Don't be surprised at what you find. WJ is not making a "case" for belief here, or any case for any particular religious "system". He is studying religious experience, trying to get to the bottom of what brings it about and what it means for human beings. Thus, he pays little attention to what we call "organized religion." He spends his time, rather, with the various ways that people have experienced God or the supernatural or the spiritual. James's style is very subtle, ornate, and powerful. Just let yourself soak in it for awhile and then try to learn. His metaphors are so stunning as to be memorable for the rest of your life. His discussion of the healthy-minded, the sick soul, and the mystic will entrall you and thrill you with his erudition, and they will become touchstones in your own religious experience and your own study of religion for the rest of your life. Religion is a living reality for WJ. He gives a powerful analysis of what it can, should, and does mean to men and women in the modern world. If you wish to understand modern thought on religion, by the way, you must read James, for much of it springs from his thought. Lastly, James is the kindest thinker who ever put pen to paper. For those of in the William james Society, this is why we love him so. He never chides or derides or condemns. He gently disagrees, looks for the best from every idea and every experience and every person, and lavishes praise on what he finds excellent and meaningful. His thought and writing and philosophical depth and style are an inspiration. Spend some time with one of the greatest thinkers ever. You won't regret it.