Vibrating plates, rods, membranes , their equations and the solutions are here in these books.
About the only real place that I've ever found anything on Chladni standing waves.
Since much of this work isn't his originally, presenting it in a way that even a beginner can follow is very much one of the master works of classic physics.
That the book could be more readable is my only complaint.

These books, published first in 1877, contain the fundamental and basic theory for all those who work with vibrations and acoustics. The first book covers mechanical vibrations and the second book covers sound. Rayleigh's principle was published here.

It's not too often that you get a Civilian view of the Civil War. This book shows how Seccesh and Unionists acted towards each other in a border state, depending upon who's troops were occupying the town of Lexington (Home of John Hunt Morgan). The diary was written by a homebound girl (she had epilepsy) with Union leanings. The area that she saw from her window still exists today, including her home and others mentioned and also show up on a hand-drawn map that is in the book. A very good book for those seeking something besides the same old worn out War stories.

A very good diary of the occupation of Lexington KY by both CS and US troops during the Civil War. Since the city was home to both Unionist and Secceshionist Civilians, it shows how each acted depending on who occupied the city at the time. It is a good illustration of Home Front activity.

I read this book when I was in the 6th grade and it was by far the most popular book among my peers at the time. The book tells the true stories of daring escapes from prisons and prison camps throughout history. Truth is stranger (and more interesting) than fiction.

I read this book when I was in fifth grade - - in 1969 - - and it left an indelible impression on me. I haven't seen Who Goes Next? since '69 but the one story that has remained in my mind was the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's rescue at the South Pole. Travelling with two others in inhuman cold, starving, dead-tired, the men insist they'd seen a fourth man. Could this be the "spirit of escape?" the author conjectures. I have never forgotten this, what's more, Shackleton read books like Who Goes Next? when he was young and they were formative for him.

John Giorno is one of the finest spoken word poets in New York City. He is also quite adept at getting the word down on paper, too. You Got to Burn to Shine is a great collection of poems. It even includes an introduction by William S Burroughs. Giorno writes poetry from the gut. It is free verse that swings with intensity. if you like a snifter of realism in your poetry then this book is for you. Giorno writes with a hard nosed frankness that is both poignant and refreshing without being overbearing. Poems like Stretching it Wider and (Last Night) I Gambled With My Anger and Lost are classic free verse. I read this collection with great delight.

I found this book to be powerful and truthful. The context and the langauge were delicate machines portaying the life of the author. It should not be read by anyone with a closed mind.

The Folger Library series are your best Shakespeare source. They specialize in Shakespeares' greatest plays and are quality books that are perfect companion and translator to Shakespeare. It is loaded with page after page of translation from the Old English expressions that are no longer in use to our modern talk, and pictures as well as historic background information on th Elizabethan era and Shakespeares' life. Hamlet is without question Shakespeare's greatest tragedy, remaining in our theatrical culture to this very day. It has become a conversation piece for English professors, dramatists and screen actors (Mel Gibson tackled the role in 1991) and even psychologists, who claim that Hamlet had the Oedipal complex, especially when they read the scene in which Hamlet is in his mother's bedroom. What makes Hamlet so great ? Why does this old play still come alive when performed on the stage in the hands of the right actors ?

Shakespeare, believe it or not, was a people's person and knew about the human condition perhaps more than anyone in his day. Hamlet deals principally with obscession for revenge. Hamlet is a prince whose father has been murdered under the evil conspiracy from his uncle Claudius and even the support of his mother, Queen Gertrude. Depressed, wearing black all the time, and very much as solitary as any "Goth" would be in our day, Hamlet laments his situation, until his father's ghost appears and urges him to avenge his death. The mystery still remains, is this ghost real ? Is it, as many in Elizabetheans thought, a demon in disguise ? Or is it simply a figment of Hamlet's own emotions and desire for revenge. At any rate, Hamlet's father appears twice and Hamlet spends most of the play planning his revenge. His most striking line that reveals this consuming need is "The play's the thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king!".

Pretending to be mad, he scorns even the love of the woman he genuinely loves, Ophelia, whose mind is shattered and heart is broken and who has an impressive mad scene. The deaths of Hamlet's friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, are also in Hamle'ts hands and a consequence of his revenge. The famous soliloquy in the play, is of course, "To be or not to be", taken on by such great actors as Lawrence Olivier and Orson Welles. Hamlet muses on the brevity of life and the suffering which can only cease through death, as he holds a skull and is evidently suicidal. Finally, the last scenes are the most dramatic. Hamlet duels with Laertes, Ophelia's brother, and with Claudius himself. The deaths of the main cast, including the Queen, goes to show how tragic the human desire for greed and revenge is.

This is Shakespeare's finest tragedy, and quality drama, best seen in a live stage performance, but that also works as a film. As for this book, as I said before, this is the Hamlet to have. You will become more acquianted with Hamlet and Shakespeare even more than taking a year's course with a teacher. This book itself is the teacher.

If you could read only one thing in your lifetime Hamlet should be that one thing. It is Shakespeare's best work by far, and within its pages is more meaning than you could find within the pages of an entire library full of books, or plays as the case may be. A mere review, a couple words, cannot do Hamlet justice. At times I realize that the language of Shakespeare can be difficult that is why I recommend the Folger version because it helps to make the images expressed by Shakespeare's characters clear to the reader, and allows them to get their own deep personal meaning from Hamlet, Shakespeare's greatest work, with out being bogged down in trying to decipher and interpret his antiquarian English. Don't just listen to what I say, or read what I write, read the play on your own outside the cumbersome restraints of a classroom and see for yourself what I mean.

Ah, yes. Hailed by many as Shakespeare's Magnum Opus (is that right?), this is certainly one of his most significant dramatic works. Hamlet is an atmosperic story of internalization - of feelings (guilt, love, hatred), of people, thoughts, and actions. Marked by indecision and a strong sense of self-pity and self-consciousness, Hamlet makes the slow transition from fear to determination in his quest to avenge his father's death. Oedipal complex, supernatural powers, royal incest, revenge - these are all explored in the play. Several famous questions are posed and thoughts explored - of existence, suicide, meaning, value. Hamlet is just packed with philosophy, psychology, and humanity. A must-read in which you will find many of the most famous soliloquies in all of Shakespeare. Thrown in Yorick's skull, poor Ophelia, good Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, you've got yourself one awesome play.

I had to read this book in school and at first I thought: "I believe in love and all, but how will I understand it?" Well, luckily, we had an updated version that put it in words we knew. And I must say, it really does deserve all the tv references it's gotten over the decades. Not only did I feel my heart break when Romeo died with tears running abundantly down his cheek, and when Juliet awoke hoping to be reunited with her love and instead finding his body on the floor, but I also felt crushed when Mercutio died. He was the one character I felt most similar to. Shakespeare knew how to break your heart right open. Each time I go back to that paragraph where Mercutio refers to Queen Mab and the way she makes dreams and when he talks about reputations being the determining factor of someone's character instead of personalities, I feel even more attached to Mercutio. I'm sure everyone can find someone with similar personality traits if they read Shakespeare. But this truly is one of the greatest love stories and anyone who's lonely and finds themselves wishing for love should read this. Romeo was that same sort of person until he met Juliet. But one has to wonder, was it simply an intense infatuation? This question has been posed before and I'm not so sure it's a wrong question. But perhaps it really was love. Only Shakespeare knows...And he took secrets like those to his grave...I also recommend this to people who have already found love as it is a chilling reminder that love can surpass anything and anyone in love should do anything in their power to make sure that the flame never goes out, even if it means death.

What would you do if you fell in love with the wrong person? Well Romeo and Juliet are in this same situation. The scene is set in Verona where two household families share the same social status. From the birth of these two enemies come Romeo and Juliet....P>This book was amazing. Once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. I felt as if I wanted to get in the story and try to fix all their problems. Shakespeare is a creative writer. He put in true life problems that teenagers deal with today. Shakespeare taught me never to give up and to accomplish my goals. In this book, Romeo and Juliet are not allowed to fall in love. Their parents band them from seeing each other and they wouldn't allow them to following their hearts. But they did it anyway. This book taught me to follow what I believe in and to think for myself, not to listen to what other people want me to do. If I did, then my life would have been miserable. The only thing I didn't like with this book was that it was so hard to understand because it was written in Old English.

I recommend the book, Romeo and Juliet, to anyone who loves to read tragic love stories, who is interested in reading Shakespeare's writings, or who is interested in reading an outstanding book.

Romeo and Juliet is a great tragic romance. The story is full of love, violence, passion and hate. It's an excellent epic poem in which Shakespeare tells this tragic story using a beautiful language, very poetic and lyrical. Try it, you'll never forget it.
This story is about a pair of two star-crossed lovers, which take their life in Verona. For years, the feuding of the Montagues and the Capulets has disturbed the peace of Verona.
It all began in a party in the Capulet's house in which Romeo and Juliet made their love vows, and Romeo proposed marriage to Juliet. After this marriage, everything was tragic.
Deaths and fights were constantly a problem in the two houses. So Romeo and Juliet would leave Verona to stop the quarrels, but this plan failed when Lord Capulet told Juliet to marry Paris.
Friar Laurence would make a new plan, to skip this ceremony. Juliet would pretend to be dead and afterwards, when wake up, leave Verona with her love.
This plan also failed because Romeo didn't get to know about this and killed himself when he saw Juliet lying on her grave. Juliet did the same when she saw Romeo lying beside her.
After these deaths, both families realised that hate between them caused lots of deaths. Capulet and Montague made up their quarrel. They promised not to fight again and make a golden statue about the two beautiful star-crossed lovers.

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is a moving tale about dreams and friendship. It beautifully depicts two friend's living some time in the thirties. The book begins with two men fleeing from an old job and about to begin a new one. The two characters are contrasting but interestingly compatible. The first man, George, is short, sensible and seems to be the mastermind of their plans. The other, Lennie, is tall, dumb and naïve, but charmingly innocent. It becomes obvious that Lennie is clumsy and unaware of his strength, when George takes Lennie's dead maimed mouse away from him. He is obviously the reason they are constantly fleeing and changing jobs. To cheer Lennie up George tells him of their plans for the future, a story that has obviously been told many times before. He tells of small farm that they would purchase once they have earned enough money, and they could live on there own schedules without having to keep changing jobs. In fact this would be their last.

The book is classic story that one can easily engage in. It includes great descriptions of the countryside, the farms and a friendship never to be forgotten. You get a feel for each character and there individual traits. The reader takes a step into the thirties and can see the lives of these men first hand through Steinbeck's careful and beautiful description. You feel as if you are witnessing the farm's laborers first hand. Aside from being intriguingly descriptive, Of Mice and Men is truly touching. You encounter first hand a relationship between two men that is indescribable. You truly feel George's conflicts with Lennie and can almost grasp Lennie's dreams for a better life.

Some say that Of Mice and Men is too melancholy to be truly enjoyed. Of Mice and Men is a very sad book. The sorrow that the reader feels, although overwhelming, is just an indication of the compassion that Steinbeck makes you feel for the characters.

The book Of Mice and Men is a classic which I would recommend to anyone that knows how to read. In the begining you meet Leni and George. They are two farm hands who roam together. They end up in a new farm to work. At this farm there is many different types of people, Slim is one the main farm hand who knows more about farming than anyone. As the story unfolds you meet Curley who is the bosses son and can get away with anything. He also has a wife who is very...easy, for lack of better words.The story tells how well it is going for the two fellows, George and Leni. They are doing great on the farm. This remains the same untilCurley's wife and Lenie meet alone together in teni is led to think that he has a chance with Curley's wife....This leads Leni into a world of trouble which ends with such a twist that no one could guess the ending.

This is a wonderful story about true friendship and strenth.It's great to get to know the characters. Icould'nt put it down, and I read it three times. I loved it every time.I recomend it just about anyone. Of Mice And Men is the perfect classic!

Non-fiction stories of a unique southern city are nicely interwoven by Esquire writer Berendt, who was lucky enough to live there.

Basically, it is a true crime novel, but it is written with warmth, humor, and a remarkable eye for detail. Berendt takes the reader behind velvet curtains and antique walls into a society where pedigree is based as much on lineage, wealth, and power as on quirky southern traditions like knowing how to serve a fine platter of tomato sandwiches.

Forget Eastwood's oddly disappointing film; this book is quite marvelous. True crime lover? You will enjoy the book's steamy setting and colorful characters, an almost poetic break from the repetitive and merely competant writings by the likes of Ann Rule. Aristocracy - watcher? You will savour the odd little schemes and intrigues exposed without any hint of malice. The tragic saga of one man's extraordinary ascent into high society is presented amidst many delicious (and often hilarious) vignettes of all levels of Savannah's class structure. The author beautifully describes Savannah's magic, mystery, and achingly sad decay. Really, it is a fine tribute to this historic city of likeable conmen, sexy ne'er-do-wells, conniving politicians, and obsessive hostesses.

It's a real page-turner, a good companion if you are planning to visit Savannah.

"Midnight In The Garden Of Good and Evil" is peopled with a human gumbo of high society hobnobbers, charming hustlers, sassy crossdressers, overzealous police and prosecutors, voodoo practitioners, coffee shop weirdos and lounge musicians. Author John Berendt paints the pictures along our strange odyssey with a hypnotic and lush vocabulary evoking the Savannahian enclave vividly. He does a great job on dialogue, tickling our funny bones with the idiosyncratic vernaculars of the inhabitants. I've had the pleasure of visiting Savannah, and during my stay, truly got a sense of the eccentric populace, the unique and gorgeous natural beauty of the place, and the abundant and spooky graveyards and houses overgrown with Spanish moss. Berendt succeeds wildly in his storytelling plan by laying down the xenophobic nature of Savannah high society, juxtaposing it with his own move to Savannah from New York, and focusing the main story on the iconoclast Jim Williams, a self-made mega-successful real estate speculator and antiques connoisseur, who shakes up business-as-usual with his lavish parties and refusal to kowtow to the deeply ingrained traditions of the place. The book is an easy, smooth and entertaining read. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is just that. A snap shot into the lives of the wealthy and privileged of the South captured in the pages of this novel by the more than skilled and nimble fingers of John Berendet. I almost did not want to reach the end. I fell in love with Savanah, with the wild, wacky and wonderful people that fill this book to the brim with a richness that could only be true. There is a reason that Midnight was the longest running hardback on the New York Times Bestsellers list. It was only recently made into a paperback so that it could reach another audience.

This is the story of wealthy and eccectric Jim Williams, who throws lavish parties, is the envy of all of Savannah and equally despised by the same people. During a wild party, one of many, the readers begin to glimpse the underbelly of Jim's world and then suddenly a shot rings out and a man is dead. Accident or murder?

How does a transvestite, a vodoo priestess and UGA fit into the picture? You will have to read this fantastically crafted book to discover the truth. If you love the book as much as everyone else - you should rent the movie (which does not hold a candle to the book) just to see the REAL Lady Chablis as she plays herself in the movie.

Enjoy this one - it is really worth the read!

Comedy, in the strictest sense, is concerned with ultimate forgiveness and reconciliation. In Shakespeare's play, "The Tempest," the protagonist, Prospero, must come to terms with his brother Antonio, who conspired to have him driven from his duchy in Milan, and with the world of social interaction in general.

Magic, Power, and Conspiracy are the foundational thematic elements through which Shakespeare effects Prospero's reintegration into human society. Thrown into a boat with his infant daughter Miranda, Prospero comes to live on a nearly deserted island in the Mediterranean Sea. Prospero's concentration on developing his proficiency in Magic caused him to become alienated from his political and social responsibilities in Milan, leading to his expulsion. His brother Antonio conspired with Alonso, king of Naples, and seized the power Prospero forsook for book-learning.

Prospero hears of a sea voyage undertaken by his enemies, and, using his Magic, whips up a storm, a great tempest, which causes his enemies to be shipwrecked on his island. On the island, Prospero exercises total power - over the education of his daughter, his slave, the deformed Caliban, and now over his enemies. He engages Ariel, a sprite, to orchestrate the division of the traveling party, and to put them through various trials to exact vengeance and ultimately, submission from them.

"The Tempest" is a fine effort from Shakespeare, but the power relations in the play are problematic. Prospero's insistent dominance over the action of the play is extremely troubling. Although he is presented as a benevolent character, Prospero's relationships with Miranda, Caliban, and Ferdinand, King Alonso's son, complicate his overall worth as a man and an authority figure. The dynamic between the slave Caliban and the drunks, Trinculo and Stephano, is also very unsettling.

Overall, "The Tempest" remains a whimsical flight of imagination, while exploring intriguing themes of education, political intrigue, and romance. Certainly, it is still a well-constructed and entertaining play after nearly four hundred years.

One of the best works by Shakespeare and also his final full play (most likely), The Tempest draws on many elements that Shakespeare used in his earlier works and adds a comic twist. Shakespeare doesn't spend much time on character development in the Tempest, other than Prospero and possibly Caliban (e.g. Miranda is the ideal chaste woman, Trinculo & Stephano are lowly schemers). However, Prospero is extremely well developed and the simple aspects of the other characters do not detract from the story at all. There are many different levels of meaning at work in the play...some see it as a pro-colonialist diatribe, others see it as Shakespeare's own swan song, where Prospero himself is based on the Bard, and Prospero's surrendering of his magical powers is representative of Shakespeare giving up his craft. I read it as both, and a million other things, and that is one of the great things about the play...it can be read in so many different ways. The structure of the play seems almost chaotic at first, with so many things going on at once. However, if you read the play over again, or read some of the essays contained in the Signet Edition, it becomes much more clear, although still open-ended. The Signet Edition is excellent, and Signets in general are. Buy this over the Folger Library editions...the footnotes here are much easier to work with and make the reading much smoother overall.

Yes, there is once again murder brewing in the play of Shakespeare but only in a comical way. Not able to claim to be a Shakespeare expert, I have only read four of his other plays. However, it is in my opinion that this be the best one, most likely because it is a comedy and is much lighter that his other plays. This classic play tells the story of the former Duke of Milan who was wrongly dethrowned by his brother. Using his magical power that originally expelled him from Milan, he is able to bring the King (Alonso), Alonso's brother (Sebastian),his own brother (Antonio) and other servants to the his mostly vacant island. Ordering about the spirit Ariel, he manipulates his way into an interesting and funny situation. There is much to gain from reading this wonderful play which is one of Shakespeares last. I recommend this book to Shakespeare lovers and even more so, to variety readers such as myself. You won't be dissapointed by the plays light mood which is much better than Shakespeares serious murder stories.

For anyone who likes history, this book is an uneven, but overall excellent and very enjoyable, series of exercises in "counterfactual" history. Not the silly, frivolous, or nonsensical kind, where Robert E. Lee all of a sudden is given a nuclear bomb, but instead serious, meaty (even highly PROBABLE) ones, like what would have happened if there hadn't been a mysterious plague outside the walls of Jerusalem, or if there had been a Persian victory at Salamis, or if Genghis Khan's drunken third son (Ogadai)had not died just as his hordes were poised to conquer (and probably annhilate) Europe, or if Cortes had been killed or been captured Tenochtitlan, etc.

The major flaw with this book is that the essays are of somewhat uneven interest level, style, and quality. Personally, for instance, I found the essay on the Mongols to be fascinating, sending chills down my spine! "D Day Fails" by Stephen Ambrose, on the other hand, didn't do much for me at all, nor did "Funeral in Berlin." In general, I would say that the essays covering earlier periods in human history tend to be better than ones covering more recent history. Possibly this is in part because the later periods have been covered to death. I mean, how many "counterfactuals" on the US Civil War can there be before we get sick of them? But a well-written, tightly-reasoned counterfactual which, based on events hundreds or even thousands of years ago, quite plausibly leads to a result where there is no Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, or Western culture at all, is absolutely fascinating in my opinion. If nothing else, books like "What If?" show how important CHANCE is in human history, as well as the importance of the INDIVIDUAL, as opposed to some Hegelian/Marxist-Leninist historical "inevitability." The bottom line is that it is rare that anything is truly "inevitable", and the aptly titled "What If?" gives us some excellent case studies.

Who hasn't wondered about a decision not taken or the string of uninterrupted causation that is required for any single person to exist? Think about your own life: the chain of events which resulted in your parents meeting; how you ended up in your current job; the college you attended; you never attended college; or how you met your current significant other. We are all shaped by historical choices, both ones made by ourselves, and those made on a scale that can alter history.

"What If?" gathers some of the world's foremost military historians to offer hypothetical counterfactuals, including: What If Alexander the Great had died in battle at the age of 21, before he had built an empire? What if the American Revolution had resulted in disaster? What if certain key battles in the American Civil War had changed? This is fun reading as it is always interesting to consider alternative paths not taken or paths unavailable by happenstance.

This book contains a number of excellent examples of counterfactual speculation, with only a few medicore essays. The authors examine how individual actions can have an impact as can the whims of weather.

This is an enjoyable book and, because of the broad area of military history, invites the potential for sequels. For example: One counterfactual I've always wondered about occurred in December of 1814 here in my home town of New Orleans. A prosperous son of Creole planters was awakened by the sound of British troops landing at the back of his plantation. Young Mr. Villere jumped out the window and headed for New Orleans, dodging a shot from a British sentry. Villere arrived in New Orleans and spread the alarm. Gen. Andrew Jackson gathered his forces and launched a surprise attack on the British. The British, unsure of the forces facing them, slowed their advance to give time to consolidate their forces. This gave Jackson time to throw up some defenses on the plains of Chalmette. Within 2 weeks the British had been defeated after suffering enourmous casualties attempting to storm Jackson's fortifications.

But what if the British sentry had not missed young Mr. Villere? Had the British continued their advance it is conceivable that these veterans of the Peninsular campaign could have won the Battle of New Orleans. Today people only remember that the Battle of New Orleans was fought after a peace treaty had been signed. But the treaty had not yet been ratified. Further, in the treaty the British recognized the status of borders prior to the war. But Britain had never recognized the Louisiana purchase, as the Spainish had violated a treaty with Britain when Spain secretly sold Louisiana to France. Britain could have attempted to keep New Orleans. This would have meant a widening of the war. It also begs the following question: Would there have been sufficient British troops to win at Waterloo?

As you can see counterfactual speculation leads to a never ending string of alternative possibilities. But it is enjoyble to speculate, as is "What If?"

What if George Washington had been captured on Long Island in 1776 and summarily executed by the British?? What if Robert E. Lee and his forces had achieved a decisive victory at Gettysburg in 1862? What if the Normandy Invasion (D Day) had failed in 1944? Your guess is as good as mine but the guesses of eminent historians are much better. Specifically, David McCullough, James M. McPherson, and Stephen E. Ambrose, respectively, who ask "What if?" in reference to these key situations in military history. Others speculate on, for example, "The Immolation of Hernan Cortes" (1521), "The Repulse of the British Fireships" (1588), "How Hitler Could Have Won" (1941), and "China Without Tears" (1946). Robert Crowley has done a masterful job of editing this anthology of essays. You may disagree with many of the answers to the repeatedly asked question "What if?" but I am certain you will be entertained as well as informed while reading this splendid book. My hunch is that the eminent historians had at least as much much fun formulating their speculations as readers now have when sharing them.