ý bought this book with enthusiasim and paid lots of money.but its so insufficent that ý now think its only for students. it doesnt have detailed knowledge about new oncological surgical pirincipals and thecknics.

My review is slightly influenced by the fact that Dr. Bloom has performed two unrelated surgeries on me. Both were for liposarcoma, the first in 1995 was imbedded in the small muscle in my axilla (underarm between the bicep and tricep), and the second in March, 2001 in my trapezia(shoulder). Dr. Bloom was recommended to me and my primary physician by a local surgeon in Danbury, CT as one of the top two soft tissue cancer surgeons in the New York area. These operations were both on my right arm, the last being March 20th and I played an hour of tennis yesterday with very little pain. As far as his book, from a layperson's view it is quite interesting to see the incredible detail that the surgeon encounters to ensure not only that the cancer is eliminated, but that the person can still function in the best possible manner once they are healed. My mother had both a colon and liver resection 6 years ago, and now I can visualize what she had done. It is still mysterious to me but I appreciate it more nonetheless. If you are going to have cancer surgery, you may want to consider sending your surgeon an anonymous copy of this book! If you are a surgeon or practioner, this has to help your craft. The price may seem a bit steep, but when you consider the quality of the artwork and that the book will probably not make the NY Times bestseller list, it is well worth it.

IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT I GET IN TOUCH WITH DR. NORMAN BLOOM. IF ANYONE HAS AN EMAIL ADDRESS WHERE I CAN REACH HIM, PLEASE SEND IT TO ME AT :dcent50@aol.com

This Book begins using something called horizontial statments and then in chapter 5 switches to regular T accounts thus confusing students completely, I have yet to find a student that tells me the book is easy to understand or useful. It would be helpful if there was a solutions manual. Our school will change books next semester. It's not even good enough to make dorm furniture.

I've read the reviews stating that this is a confusing book. I disagree completely. Although the author does not immediately delve into traditional T-accounts, the introduction of the "horizontal model" serves as a good foundation for building the awareness of the accounting equation that should be second nature BEFORE tackling T-accounts. The text's preface states: "A horizontal financial statements model replaces the accounting equation as the predominant teaching platform. The model enables students to VISUALIZE THE SIMULTANEOUS EFFECTS OF A SINGLE BUSINESS EVENT on the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows." I felt as though this methodology was very effective for my learning style. Recording transactions in T-accounts came almost as second nature after mastering the horizontal model.

The "Working Papers" (a separate workbook) makes doing the assigned problems easy by providing a ready-made template for each problem. If you've had to draw your own T-accounts or your own journal in a notebook before, you will definitely appreciate this.

This text serves as a good introduction to the skills necessary to master financial accounting.

This book is an excellent book to go with a Financial Accounting course. Everything is laid out in plain English, and shows you in diagrams and models exactly how each kind of transaction works. I recommend for professors everywhere to adopt this book for their clases. I'm glad mine did!

One often wonders, when one hears everyone and their brothers spouting superlatives about a poet from a historically repressive country, whether the superlatives are based on the poet's actual work, or whether they're in some way based on the poet's admirable-- but irrelevant-- ability to perform within a culture that is repressive to the poet's art. In some cases, the superlatives are justified, for example Vladimir Holan's stunning book-length poem _A Night with Hamlet_, written while Holan was officially a non-person in Hungary in the sixties.

Akhmatova has been called "the greatest Russian woman poet ever, and perhaps the greatest woman poet ever." I can't help but think those lauding on these kinds of laurels are looking more at her life than her work. There are certainly flashes of great brilliance here, but to put Akhmativa's work up against that of, say, Elizabeth Bishop, Deborah Allbery, or even the underrated Dorianne Laux would quickly reveal many of its flaws.

This is not to say that Akhmatova's poetry is completely without merit, and one must be forced to consider the viability of the work of any translator who would consider "He, was it, through the packed hall/Sent you (or was it a dream?)" to be the best way to translate anything, much less poetry. And thus, perhaps, the original is far more eloquent than what we receive here. That taken into account, there is still the problem to contend with that much of Akhmatova's work is, for obvious reasons, overtly political, and makes no attempt to convey its message artistically; worse yet, a good deal of that work is imagist, impressionist. The end result is something that's thick, sludgy, and impossible to read.

However, every once in a while a good line will shine through, and occasionally we find ourselves staring at a poem that seems to exist well outside the boundaries of this particular collection:

* * *

Voronezh

And the town is frozen solid, leaded with ice.

Trees, walls, snow, seem to be under glass. Cautiously I tread on crystals. The painted sleighs can't seem to get a grip. And over the statue of Peter-in-Voronezh Are crows, and poplars, and a pale-green dome Washed-out and muddy in the sun-motes. The mighty slopes of the field of Kulikovo Tremble still with the slaughter of barbarians. And all at once the poplars, like lifted chalices, Enmesh more boisterously overhead Like thousands of wedding-guests feasting And drinking toasts to our happiness. And in the room of the banished poet Fear and the Muse take turns at the watch, And the night comes When there will be no sunrise.

* * *

Unfortunately, there's too little of this and too much of the rest. Giving the benefit of the doubt where the translation is concerned, I can still only manage ** 1/2.

Anna Akhmatova was one of the century's greatest lyric poets. D. M. Thomas has selected a fine overview of her poetic accomplishment, and translated the poems stunningly: both lyric cadences and the quality of spoken speech come through in his refashioning of the poems into English. (The Hayward/Kunitz tranlations are also fine, but for a brief introduction this is a wonderful book.)

The volume contains her "Requieum," a ten pagel lyric sequence which is my choice for the greatest poem of the twentieth century, as it combines personal lyricism, social witness, historical density, a primal narrative moment -- in poems which are stunning, one after another.

Perhaps only Yeats has rivalled Akhmatova's exploration of love in modern times, and there are many moments when her symbolism, her brevity, her song-like qualities are reminiscent of the best of Yeats.

This is a wonderful book, a fine introduction to a great, powerful, haunting poet.

This book is simply the best I've seen on this topic to date. The authors present the material in order of the systems development life cycle, which I feel is of great value. Another thing adding value is the use of an adapted version of Zachman's framework.

When I used this to teach class, I emphasized the development process, from the survey phase on. This book helped me do that well. Using the SDLC as a framework, the authors present specific and relevant skills, so a certain amount of repitition is unavoidable, even necessary. The chapter outlines of chapters 4, 9, 17 and 18 provide the life cycle framework. The chapters in between present the specific techniques and templates that are used to fill in the blanks.

But there are opportunities to improve the book. There should be complete examples of all the important documents, not just outlines. A complete example helps the student visualize what the real deliverables will look like. The process modeling chapter should cover IDEF0 activity modeling and process mapping. Data modeling needs to mention relevant modeling tools like ERwin. (And there were a few errors here in the example.)

Even so, this is a fine work that seems so lucid and well-structured that I still use it as a reference book.

This very important book will earn you course credit and also apply toward a valuable ICCP ACP or CCP certification, the standard for US Armed Forces and Government Agencies. This is not an easy certification to master or achieve, so pay attention to the detail in this book. The book terminology is relevant to the industry today, and the repetitive approach is geared toward an important cognitive technique: that you are more likely to remember something if you hear it or see it more than once. It's a wonder why somebody would bother with education, who is calling such important material 'garbage' or 'hi-tech dribble.' These people should re-examine why they are in school, why they are taking this class, and why they are reading this book? And it shouldn't be because mom or dad or anybody else wants you to. This book is designed to be interactive and therefore layered with repetition to enhance learning. It should be to LEARN as much information and technique as possible before getting a real-world job, where these skills make the difference. I was a software engineer, multi-level trained in the systems analysis and design standards of James Martin and Edward Yourdon, still applicable today.

I was introduced to the 1994 version of this book during a Systems Analysis and Design class as part of a Master's Degree program. I was impressed with its thoroughness, and although, not necessarily written at an "entry-level", it is understandable to people possessing some background & experience in the systems development arena. I am a Quality Improvement Manager for a major telecommunications and system/software development company and I use it almost daily. This new version expands and updates information supplied in earlier versions of the book and incorporates a very thorough indoctrination into Object-Oriented (O-O) methodologies. I've seen this book being used as a text book in Mid-West and East coast Universities and colleges--in various areas of educational pursuit!! This is a cornerstone reference book in my library. Anyone serious about learning and maintaining sound methodologies, processess, procedures, and techniques in systems analysis and design should keep an updated version of this book handy--I do!

I rarely don't finish a book once started but I just couldn't get into this one. Gave up at page 96. I'm sure there are others that enjoy it, but I'm not one of them.

The Greek god gave 6 year old Billy a magic stick that could heal or kill.He made bad things happen to his Granny and his brother. Bad things happen to his parents and he lives with relatives whose daughter has Billy's son, Judge, a crazy. Billy becomes a Doctor and finds a cure for Aids but creates a far worse plague, ORVIDS. Bad things eventually happen to Billy and Judge takes over and I can't believe I really waded through this book.

Its funny but its true it takes a while to enjoy this book but after a while i really liked it.
So many things happen in the book, Disch made me wonder what would happen if there was really something like a magic staff.
What would i do with such power.

For me it is a book with some really new interesting things and plots.
I am sure i will read this book again and again

This is the only book i have read by Disch but if he has more horror stories like this i will definitely read them.

groetjes from Holland

It says Lilith Prints.It is a 12 page litany of God having intercourse with Lilith... Very disappointing.Only 2 images ....

"Lilith Prints" is a pornographic, poetic re-telling of cosmic creation with God, Lilith, Adam, Eve and Samael as the creative energies of the universe. If you are interested in an alternative creation story and have an open mind, this is the book to read

I hated this book almost as much as I disliked The White Hotel. The holocaust is used as a thematic device for Thomas to twist; there is no empathy here for concentration camp victims. Indeed, his main character -- in the guise of a jewish camp doctor (psychiatrist) in the first part of the book -- hates his jewish peers. By the tilt of Thomas's pen, this doctor comes to "treat" the bad dreams and visceral discomforts of the camp commander; he cures him so that the camp commander can continue the killing mission of the camp without discomfort.

There is an abrupt transition after about a third of the book; no longer in Nazi Germany, the scene changes to England after the war. The cast of characters however, does not really change. Instead, Thomas cleverly disguises their identities. Now, the concentration camp commandant is a prominent, ailing psychoanalyst. The trick of the book is to figure out/pair the war-time identities with the postwar characters that flitter in and out of scenes with the ailing shrink. But the characters are despicable; so really, who cares.

After reading this book, I was curious as to how other people received it. I remember the problems many people had with the White Hotel and I wondered if similar issues or concerns would be repeated again. The first reveiw I read was from Kirkus Reviews. They hacked the book into pieces and, unfortunately, didn't understand it. The sole review of this book for Amazon was also hasty and spiteful. I suggest that the reviewers re-read the book and take into considration how D.M. Thomas juxaposes art, psychoanalyisis, and the empty dramas of everyday life to history. These juxtapositons have the affect of emptying out the over importance we give to our daily troubles, accidents, and deaths, as well as the art that we exalt to represnt them. This indeed is the pastiche that Kirkus Reviews points out. However, this pastiche is not a matter of circumastance or evidence that this is a "trashy novel" (as Kirkus reviews argues) it is the pastiche that emerges against the unthinkable historical "event' called the Holocaust. (I suggest they read Fredric Jameson's reading of "pastiche" vs- "parody" in his book Postmodernism or the cultural logic of late capitalism p. 16-18). Furthermore, Thomas brings out, through his brilliant juxtapositons, the failure and perhaps death of psychoanalysis, a death that people have yet to mourn with the other inventions of humanism and modernity, inventions that are obsessed with totality, with explaining, humanising, and "demysitfying" everything including death (but not including senseless mass murder). J.F. Lyotard likens the Holocaust to an earthquake that shatters all instruments that try to measure it (psychoanalysis and humanism included). Of all the books I have read on the Holocaust, I have to say that this is one of the best. It stands amongst books like See: Under Love. The Painted Bird, Survival in Auscwitz, The Messiah of Stockholm and Maus I and II. I have taught these books in the universtiy and if I were to teach a class on the Holocasut again, I would include this title as well. D.M. thomas asks us, as the above authors do, to take seriously the fact that any writing that approaches the holocaust must articulate the tension between history and art and the limits of representation. In the PostModern world, Pastiche is one way of marking these limits. To miss this, as these reveiwers have, shows a lack of understanding the challenges that art and fiction face after the Holocaust.

If you have not been near a Biology syllabus in a while, this is the book for you. The authors do not assume that you know everything. The chapters cover all the major topics (the only supplementation you may need is diagrams such as those of plants). I found that the practice tests could have been better structured because the Ecology tests are separated from the Molecular tests without the common core section that's used in the actual exam. All in all, a good book - using this book alone I earned a score of 660!

Infection and immunolgy is changinig everday.The book is very elegently designed and written, but it has to be renewed according to recent observations.

Although the questions sometimes get too detailed for purposes of Step 2 - type exams, the explanations are excellent and tend to cover more basic facts. This atones for the occasional question that states, "current research states ..." and puts it in the grasp of most medical students. This is a good book to cover (or at least sample) if you are taking NBMLE shelf exams.