This winter break I went on a Shakespeare buying spree, and this book is one of the fine gems I found. A large, but fascinating book, this work of great scholarship and excitement takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of Shakespeare, even into rather obscure corners of his works (Trollius and Cressida, Timon of Athens). This book is a must read for any would be deep thinker about Shakespeare.

Shakespeare as Political Thinker is a must for everyone interested in the political thought of William Shakespeare. This reprint will finally allow new comers to become familair with a commonsensical approach to Shakespeare's plays. The introductory chapter by John Alvis is worth the price. Perhaps the best Shakespearean critic alive, Alvis has an uncanny ability to show Shakespeare's moral seriousness without making the bard an unquestioning adherent to any political school or theological creed. Many of the essays that follow are also well done: Jaffa's chapter on Shakespeare's entire corpus, Laurence Berns' meditation on Lear etc.

The second printing of Shakespeare as Political Thinker gives hope to those interested in relearning ancient wisdom and pays tribute to its inspiration, Shakespeare's Politics (Allan Bloom).

The second edition came out in 2001 and although my previous review is listed here it refers to the first edition. Professor Reiss sent me a copy of the second edition and I browsed through it to see what has changed. Except for the words "Second Edition" in the upper left corner of the cover page the cover is the same as the original. A closer look through the text shows that there are substantial changes. The original text was 316 pages long with 35 references and a CD Rom on the back page. The new edition is 443 pages with 51 references and a CD Rom on the back page (this is version 3.0 of Xtremes).

The preface to the second edition tells you precisely what is added. There are 8 new contributing authors who are Stuart Coles , Jurg Husler, Daniel Dietrich, Dietnar Pfeifer, Humberto Vaquera, Jose Villasenor, Pieter van Gelder and Dan Lungu and apparently the two main authors will encourage more contributors for a third edition. The authors are very much interested in demonstrating applications of extreme value theory using their Xtremes software and generously invite others to join in.

The structure and theme of the book has not changed. Section I on modeling and analysis has replaced the section on robust statistics with a section called heavy and fat-tailed distributions. The sections are slightly longer in the second edition. Chapter 2 has an additional section called the auto-tail-dependence function.

Part II on inference for parametric models includes a whole new chapter on Poisson Processes (Chapter 7). In Part III on multivariate methods, Chapter 9 on multivariate maxima includes a new section on the Gumbel-McFadden Model and Chapter 10 a new section on bivariate peaks over a threshold.

Part IV on topics in Hydrology, Insurance and Finance is totally revised and consists of Chapters 11-14 in place of the original Chapters 9-11. The old Chapters 9 and 10 are now Chapters 12 and 13 respectively.

In Part V there are again five case studies but they are totally new ones with the new authors that are acknowledged in the preface.

In the appendix they have replaced the description of the XPL programming language with the StatPascal language.

The software XTREMES was introduced by Falk, Husler and Reiss in their 1994 book "Laws of Small Numbers: Extremes and Rare Events". That book was mainly theoretical and the software was in an MS-DOS version for PCs. This text was published in 1997. For this text they supply a Windows (3.1 , 95, NT) version on a CD ROM.

In this book the emphasis is on applications in insurance, finance, hydrology and other fields. The first 10 chapters develop the theory and teach the use of XTREMES presenting dialog boxes and descriptions. The text is divided into 5 parts. Part I deals with modeling and data analysis, part II covers statistical infrence for parametric models, in part III elements of multivariate analysis are introduced, part IV emphasizes the application areas and part V is a collection of case studies using XTREMES. There are five case studies. One presented by Reiss but other presented by notable researchers including Tai Hsing, Jurg Husler, Ana Ferreira, Edgar Kaufmann and Cornelia Hillgartner. The appendices provide additional details on XTREMES. This is a very unique text that is valuable to anyone interested in doing research or applications of extreme value theory. Includes coverage of the parametric bootstrap.

"Thomas Jefferson: A Picture Book Biography" does an excellent job of providing a simplified yet well-rounded portrait of one of the more complex figures in American history. Instead of detailing Jefferson's long list of accomplishments, author James Cross Giblin takes a more anecdotal approach which treats his childhood and his private life on an equal footing with the things he wrote and offices he held in public life. This is a book that looks at Jefferson's first term as President in terms of the Louisiana Purchase and the mockingbird that kept him company in his study. Sally Hemmings is mentioned several times as an important house slave, but without bringing up the evidence she was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife or that she bore Jefferson several children after his wife died. However, Jefferson's affection for Maria Cosway is covered. The end result is an understand more of the man than of the political figure; for example, young readers will have no appreciation for how the Jeffersonian Republicans differed from the Federalists. The back of this book includes a list of important dates in his life, several choice examples of excerpts from letters written by Jefferson, and a two-page description of what a Visit to Monticello would have been like when Jefferson lived there. Michael Dooling's illustrations consist of fully textured oil paintings over which the text is printed. Ultimately, the illustrations in this Picture Book Biography take a back seat to the way the text presents the multi-faceted character of the man who might have been the third President, but who wanted on his tombstone inscribed: "Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statue of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia. When young students read over this biography, they will understand why those were the most important things in Jefferson's life.

My second-grader decided to research Thomas Jefferson for a school report. I ordered this book and was quite pleased. It has lots of good information without being wordy. In the back of the book is a two-page spread of quotes from Jefferson, as well as a timeline of his life. The illustrations are beautiful! Highly recommended.

...this is a two inch paperback book with 216 anecdotes, precepts and lessons from various Zen teachers of the Song Dynasty in China. Some interesting history and discussion appears in the 30-odd pages of the Translator's Introduction at the beginning of the book...Thomas Clary says of this period that Zen was "characterized by complexity of form and ingenious imagery with multiple meaning" and so, one finds many ambiguities in the lessons. And also there's much discussion on what the nature of Zen (Tang vs Song Dynasties) and what the way of the Sages should be. That should not, however, stop the modern day student (whether in business, politics or some other leadership position) from seeking some of the lessons offered in the book. In fact, Clary also translated Sun Tzu's "The Art of War", most recently found in corporate bookshelves.

It is said that there is nothing new under the sun. Certainly the issues facing leaders today are comparable to those that have faced leaders across cultures and throughout time. Human nature has not changed, and therefore the fundamentals of leadership -- the process of channeling human nature in a particular direction -- have not changed.

"Zen Lessons: The Art of Leadership" conveys this message in spades. In the format of a series of compact passages, it presents excerpts from the cumulative wisdom of thousands of years of experience with continual political society. The insights and lessons contained in this book are as poignant today as they were when they were first put forth; the reader will be astounded, gratified, and ideally energized to pursue a path of virtuous leadership in his or her personal and professional life.

This reviewer highly recommends this book for those in corporate, governmental, public or private positions of leadership, as! well as for the general reader. After all, it is the duty of the citizenry to expect great things from those it follows.

I run a group home for young men. I bought a copy of this book and after reading it, I went out and bought 5 more copies.

This is an extremely informative and educational book for teens, adults, gays or straight people. I strongly believe that anyone who reads this book will benefit greatly from it. This book has hundreds of answers to questions about the AIDS virus, how it's spread and prevention. It includes touching interviews with people who are infected. It's a real eye opener that provides facts. The book is well written and easy to understand.

The young men in my group home have commented about what a SUPERB and EDUCATIONAL book this is. They like that the book is geared towards people of all ages, sex, race and economical backgrounds. Too bad this book isn't in schools.

I strongly recommend reading this book and passing it on to your children, family members and friends. It is worth reading and after gaining this type of knowledge, might help save lives.

It was definately worth 5 points and more......

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in a historical view of Africans; in Africa, before the Americas, during and after slavery. It is very well written and was extremely engaging. A wonderful reference book ... an important read for all Peoples.

This book will numb your mind. It's absolutely incredible, as are all the books in the Princeton Reprint Series.

Michael Thomas is one of the best authors writing on financial fiction. I have read all his books and am a huge fan..His books have contained plots and sub plots and are certainly packed with descriptive tales of intrigue and deceipt. Bakers Dozen does not disapoint. H.A. Baker is a tricky character..a man with honor that would face you in a duel today if you asked. This book is a great read..thanks Mr. Thomas for several hours of fun!

This was the first book by George MacDonald I've read, but this one made me want to go out and get another to read. I read this one over about two days, and I can honestly say that I had to put it down very unwillingly. I particularly love Barbara, Richard's friend, and that she's completely free from all prejudice. It seems those around her could learn a few things from her! The end was completely believable, which made it seem as though the story could have taken place. The characters were likewise very believable which lent to a very smooth plot.

This book is an outstanding guide to the marine life found along the shores of the Pacific Northwest. Before I go further, I should note that it is NOT a pocket guide. But if you slip it into a daypack, you will be amply rewarded. Dr. Niesen has written a book that in very clear language helps you identfy what you are looking at, learn about its life habits, and learn about its habitat. Its emphasis on habitats, and arrangement by type of organism within each habitat, is extremely helpful. The black and white photos are usually pretty good, although sometimes dark, but the section of color plates is really good. What are really outstanding are the line drawings--David Wood, the artist, really captures the organisms in a way that brings out details yet preserves the basic nature of the organism.

The book also gives a great (meaning clear yet not too simple) introduction to marine biology for the Pacific Northwest, explaining tides, currents, the origin of the coast , and the basic biology of the major groups (taxa) of organisms. Furthermore, he provides tips on beachcombing.

All in all, a very handy reference. I will consider it for my Marine Biology class for non-majors (I'd use it with a majors course, too, if I taught one!).