North Carolina Crimes is the most important reference book in my arsenal of law enforcement materials. NC Crimes is very easy to read and follow, and is the authority when it comes to assessing elements of crimes in North Carolina. I highly recommend NC Crimes to anyone working in the Criminal Justice field, or studying criminal law in North Carolina. I use NC Crimes every day, and find it to be an invaluable resource.

Recommended in "A Basic List of Recommended Books and Journals for Support of Clinical Dentistry in a Nondental Library" in Bulletin Of the Medical Library Association, July 1997.

This publication is a must have for anyone dealing with pest of native conifers of California! It is the perfect size to carry in the field while looking at the health of your trees as it fits into your vest or pocket. The photos are excellent, and the guide is one that most anyone can use to determine just what is wrong with your conifers.

With the current catastrophic pest outbreaks in Southern California this is a book that everyone living in the forested areas should purchase, read, and follow up with the other references. It lists which agencies are involved and how to contact them.

A long overdue publication!

Brian Barrette, Staff Chief
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
Retired

Many interesting and readable chapters discussing numerous aspects of primate social life. There is one chapter for virtually every primate genus, and many more general chapters as well. As an actuary, I especially enjoyed the chapter on the demography of certain primate populations, particularly rhesus macaques.

This book was a visual journey into the lives of early 20th century black america. Many of the pictures could be termed as "dignified photo essays" of life in the black community.You feel as though you are right there behind the lenses of these photo's while they're being taken. They almost have an "ethereal beauty" about them. In these photo's you can see the dignity of a race of people who were considered low class at the time of the photographs, but in the way they are portrayed you feel like you're in the presence of royalty. "A visual treat for the eye's" is the best way to describe this book . It is also well worth reading as you enjoy the beautiful photography! I would highly recommended this book to african americans and those who enjoy a look into the past!

I must admit to being rather enamored with the work of Greene and Greene. I've visited a number of their homes in Pasadena, but have not yet had the opportunity to view the Blacker House (from the inside anyway). Over the last ten years, I have read about every book written on the brothers, and when I read the pre-release description of this book I was very excited. In particular, I was interested in learning in detail how this wonderful quality work was reproduced and restored by today's craftsmen. While this book does a great job covering the history and detail of the house, this is not new territory if you're familiar with the previous body of work. I really had my hopes up that the hammer and nails detail of this monumental restoration would be covered in such a fashion as to provide working information applicable to new design. The work of Greene and Greene carried residential detail design in wood and metal to it's zenith. With the structure exposed, this was really a magnificent chance to highlight the subtlties that set their work apart. This does not happen here. My comments may be a little unfair but this book ends up being another "architectural" reference. I was looking for something that broke new ground. This being said, I still love the book, and am glad to have it in my library.

I guess it's a small world, as I was also at the Blacker house on 6 October. (It was a Pasadena Heritage event. They play an important role in preserving the work of Greene and Greene and other outstanding architects in the Pasadena area.) While I agree that this is an excellent book on the Blacker House for those interested in Greene and Greene or in Craftsman architecture in general, I would recommend that anyone looking for an introduction to the work of Greene and Greene start either with one of Makinson's books on their work or with Edward R. Bosley's recent book. When you get hooked you can come back for this book.

A great deal has been written about the work of architects Charles and Henry Greene, but never before has such a detailed monograph been published about one of the homes that they designed. Randell Makinson's narrative provides a thorough historical background of the Blacker Family from their Ontario origin to their final home and its construction by the Greene brothers in the Oak Knoll subdivision of Pasadena. The story continues with the 1947 subdivision of the 5.1 acre estate into seven separate parcels and the eventual removal and sale of the original furniture, light fixtures and art-glass windows (all designed by the Greenes). The book concludes with a detailed description of the restoration process that began when the current owners purchased the home in 1993, and was basically completed in 1998.

Historical narratives, while full of useful and interesting information, are typically a little monotonous. That is not the case with this book. Mr. Makinson's obvious passion for the work of Greene and Greene, and for this house in particular, is evident. His description of the removal of 53 light fixtures from the house in 1985 left a lump in my throat. I could not put the book down until I read the happy ending about the house's restoration.

I had the privilege of visiting the Blacker House on October 6th, and viewing firsthand the results of the restoration effort. While nothing can quite compare to walking through this masterpiece and touching the magnificent woodwork, I can assure you that the marvelous photography of Thomas Heinz and Brad Pitt comes very close. The collection of photographs in this book is absolutely wonderful. The interplay of light and shadows, the warmth and depth that the colors bring to the images, and the visual compositions themselves cause me to rank these among the best architectural photographs ever published.

This is a must-have book for anyone interested in Arts and Crafts architecture. The contribution of Charles and Henry Greene to the American architectural vernacular can never be overstated, and this house is certainly one of their most important contributions to the art. Thank you Randell, Thomas and Brad for supplying a valuable addition to my library. I hope this is the first in a series of books about the "ultimate bungalows."

This book was used by my plant propagation teacher while I was at the university. It explains the basic principles of plant propagation in detail. All the information is back-up by scientific data. Very good for the professional grower or a plant science student; not very appropriate for the common gardener.

A very informative book with many examples of plant species and their specific propagation requirements. Very detailed but also useful for the beginning propagationist. Great chapters on tissue culture.

For fans of plant propogation, this is a must-read. I read it every night, and I can't get enough of it. Be sure to dog-ear the section about the "stigma fertilizing the stamen." It's hot!

There is hardly any significant fact about viruses that missed-out in this edition of "Fields Virology". Page after page, this sound all-inclusive reference doles out authoritative information on both viruses and viral syndromes. From taxonomy to etiology, metamorphosis to replication; the analyses of this text is grand. The same applies to its attached CD-ROM. Its practical outlook was intended to benefit both microbiologists and pathologists. Bernard Fields and his colleagues made their mark with this book. It is a great effort.
However, most botanist may not be pleased to know that little attention was paid to plant viruses. Again, many potential buyers may be demoralized by the rather high price that this virology-set demands.

It covers all fields of virology. Perfect and wonderful ! Easy to understand. I really recommend this book to who is involved in biology

Of all the editions of THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY that have ever been published, this may be the best for the general reader. The NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS CLASSIC edition wisely reprints the great 1932 Everyman's Library edition, with its wonderful introduction by the noted bookman Holbrook Jackson. (Readers are advised to skim or skip the rather pretentious new introduction by William H. Gass.)

Unlike the "all-English" edition referenced..., the Everyman/NYRBClassic edition gives the Latin tags as Burton scattered them through his work and translates each and every one, either in brackets immediately afterward, or (sometimes) in an endnote to each of the three volumes (now bound as one). I've tried to read the "all-English" edition, and it's disappointing, because it turns out that Burton wanted readers to read the Latin tags whether they could understand them or not. He included their syllables in the rhythm of his prose, so as you read this edition, you can almost hear him quote, then translate, then continue onward.

No booklover should skip this one, and this is the edition to have.

Don't be misled by the title of this book, nor by what others may have told you about it. In the first place, it isn't so much a book about 'Melancholy' (or abnormal psychology, or depression, or whatever) as a book about Burton himself and, ultimately, about humankind. Secondly, it isn't so much a book for students of the history of English prose, as one for lovers of language who joy in the strong taste of English when it was at its most masculine and vigorous. Finally, it isn't so much a book for those interested in the renaissance, as for those interested in life.

Burton is not a writer for fops and milquetoasts. He was a crusty old devil who used to go down to the river to listen to the bargemen cursing so that he could keep in touch with the true tongue of his race. Sometimes I think he might have been better off as the swashbuckling Captain of a pirate ship. But somehow he ended up as a scholar, and instead of watching the ocean satisfyingly swallowing up his victims, he himself became an ocean of learning swallowing up whole libraries. His book, in consequence, although it may have begun as a mere 'medical treatise,' soon exploded beyond its bounds to become, in the words of one of his editors, "a grand literary entertainment, as well as a rich mine of miscellaneous learning."

Of his own book he has this to say : "... a rhapsody of rags gathered together from several dung-hills, excrements of authors, toys and fopperies confusedly tumbled out, without art, invention, judgement, wit, learning, harsh, raw, rude, phantastical, absurd, insolent, indiscreet, ill-composed, indigested, vain, scurrile, idle, dull, and dry; I confess all..." But don't believe him, he's in one of his irascible moods and exaggerating. In fact it's a marvelous book.

Here's a bit more of the crusty Burton I love; it's on his fellow scholars : "Heretofore learning was graced by judicious scholars, but now noble sciences are vilified by base and illiterate scribblers."

And here is Burton warming to the subject of contemporary theologians : "Theologasters, if they can but pay ... proceed to the very highest degrees. Hence it comes that such a pack of vile buffoons, ignoramuses wandering in the twilight of learning, ghosts of clergymen, itinerant quacks, dolts, clods, asses, mere cattle, intrude with unwashed feet upon the sacred precincts of Theology, bringing with them nothing save brazen impudence, and some hackneyed quillets and scholastic trifles not good enough for a crowd at a street corner."

Finally a passage I can't resist quoting which shows something of Burton's prose at its best, though I leave you to guess the subject: "... with this tempest of contention the serenity of charity is overclouded, and there be too many spirits conjured up already in this kind in all sciences, and more than we can tell how to lay, which do so furiously rage, and keep such a racket, that as Fabius said, "It had been much better for some of them to have been born dumb, and altogether illiterate, than so far to dote to their own destruction."

To fully appreciate these quotations you would have to see them in context, and I'm conscious of having touched on only one of his many moods and aspects. But a taste for Burton isn't difficult to acquire. He's a mine of curious learning. When in full stride he can be very funny, and it's easy to share his feelings as he often seems to be describing, not so much his own world as today's.

But he does demand stamina. His prose overwhelms and washes over us like a huge tsunami, and for that reason he's probably best taken in small doses. If you are unfamiliar with his work and were to approach him with that in mind, you might find that (as is the case with Montaigne, a very different writer) you had discovered not so much a book as a companion for life.

This purports to be a medical textbook, and many of the obviously learned author's quotations are from half-forgotten late mediæval medical writers. A plausible translation of the title into modern terms would be "A Study of Abnormal Psychology." The application of Scholastic methods to this topic --- so similar, and yet so different, from contemporary academic discourse --- creates a curious impression. He invokes astrology and theology in forming his psychology.

But in fact, Burton uses this arcane subject to go off on a profound and lengthy meditation on the melancholies and misfortunes of life itself. The author, it seems, was easily distracted, and his distractions are our gain. The passages on the Melancholy of Scholars, and the Melancholy of Lovers, are themselves worthy of the price of admission.

His prose is unlike anything before him or since him. It has some kinship to the paradoxical and simile-laden style of the Euphuists, but his individual sentences are often pithy and brief.

This seventeenth-century classic ought to be read by anyone interested in the period, in early psychology, or in the history of English prose.

I just want to say this book has been the best help. I am a student of medical terminolgy and it has helped me so much. I recommend this book very highly. Thank you Kim

I used this book while in school for Medical Assisting and it was so helpful. I still use it to this day when someone in my family tells me what the doctor said in Medical Words and translate it into everyday language for them. It is a hady book to have even if you are not in a profession to need it.

In 1974 I took a class in medical technique for medical assistants. The teacher had a text to teach yourself medical terminology. I went to Pitt Medical book store while in Oakland and bought this book. I loved it and it came in quite handy as I was hired the same day by a surgeon to manage his office when I went for an appointment. The book is very portable and needs to be revised often as medical advances and new terms come into being. It is very easy to understand, as my degree was to work with children, not manage a doctor's office for which I had five days to learn how to do, and work with terms of a General Surgeon's world. I managed the office quite successfully, never having any experience in the field and I needed to work with medical terms handed to me to record the doctor's work correctly and file insurance forms accurately, a one person operation. This book was very helpful to understand exactly what the surgery was that the doctor did and I learned so much from this book to help me with a job I was little prepared for in advance. I loved my job and I became very interested in medicine, as the doctor embellished anything I wanted more information on that he did. I love this book. Mrs. Symmington