It is now just over 7 months since I first read Thackeray's appallingly poor "The History of Henry Esmond." Though it has been nearly 2 YEARS since I last read "Vanity Fair," I still retain a reasonably good working knowledge of that novel; sadly -- or, perhaps, not so sadly after all -- that does not hold true for "Esmond." So poorly conceived, so poorly executed, and so very slight, this novel ultimately makes no real claim on your memory. I simply CAN'T remember anything about this wretched book other than its remarkable level of wretchedness. To some -- and you know who you are -- it may seem as if I am engaged in some kind of vendetta against this book and Thackeray in general. To those persons, I can only respond with an Everlasting Yea! Go forth and read Mrs. Gaskell -- a writer who actually wrote novels worth reading (except for "Ruth," which is inexplicably awful). Yes. Go do that.

Although for some reason forgotten by the US public, "The History of Henry Esmond" is one of the finest books ever written in English language. May be it has lost its luster because it offers no excess of blood-spilling and sexual adventures, but instead finds its way to describe the deepest and most vulnerable chambers of the human heart. I have read a handful of books, be it in English, French, German or Russian, that described the human strengths and weaknesses while tying them to a character one can relate to with such skill. People who do not like it, it seems, are just shamed by the morals offered in such a book, and are quick to forget it. I read "Henry Esmond" when I was a young boy, and now, half a century later, it hasn't lost a beat.

In the minds of some, justifiably the finest novel in the English language. The neglect this novel has suffered is appalling. Requirement: a mind for detail, a sympathy for history, an artistic sensibility. Read it at least twice. Only one reader in a thousand will remember the button reference on the last line. A pity that this book should be out-of-print. Pater thought it a perfect work of fiction. Trollope thought it was unsurpassed.

Dr. Arthur Guyton and Dr. John Hall fail in offering a comprehensive molecular understanding of physiology. Although the general presentation of subjects is decent, it does not offer a thorough understanding of molecular events that occur to create what is observed macroscopically. The diagrams are weak utilizing ancient graphs that do not serve to clarify difficult points, and the book is in desparate need of some schematics and flow charts. Tip to Guyton and Hall: today's medical students need more than just a cursory glance at the molecular basis of physiology. And I would suggest to those reading to check out Berne and Levy and Ganong, the latter of which offers up much more detail than Guyton despite being a review text.

As a general practitioner, I don't recommend this book for professionals who want to improve in advanced knowledge in physiology. It is a STARTER book on the theme, for medical students only, not for practicising doctors. I've got frustrated.

This book states clearly in the preface it is NOT meant to be an advanced molecular physiology text. I am neither a doctor nor a scientist, just an interested mature student of biology, and this book is exactly what I was looking for. Physiology texts seem to be either sophmoric, very basic overviews or dense comprehensive surveys used as reference by researchers / professionals. This book, to me, is unique in providing depth and detail missing from basic texts, without being overwhelmed by minutia only selectively interesting. Highly recommended for the curious who feel their intelligence is being insulted by most introductory physiology texts.

Unfortunately, this Yale edition leaves out about half of what Newman himself published in 1873 as the definitive edition of THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY. Published here are only the nine "Dublin Discourses" from Part I on "University Teaching" and but four of the ten chapters of Part II, "University Subjects Discussed in Occasional Lectures and Essays." For the hundred-page displacement of Newman's essays, the editor substitutes five interpretive essays supposedly inquiring into the relevance of Newman's book for today's higher education debates. These interpretive essays have major inconsistencies and repetitions among themselves and are of mixed quality, with inaccuracies and serious misunderstandings of some of Newman's central ideas. As accurate forays of the Newmanian mind into the twentieth- and twenty-first century university, only the engaging and intellectually challenging essays by George Marsden and George Landow succeed. (COMPLETE paperback editions of Newman's IDEA are available from Loyola University Press, 1987, and University of Notre Dame Press, 1982).

A wonderful work, too bad that this edition by Regnery is chock full of glaring typographical errors. Detracts from Newman's otherwise brilliant prose.

Newman's work is not only an eloquent, erudite, and careful defense of the virtue of knowledge and the value of a liberal education; it is also a brilliantly reasoned and felt argument for the prevention of hubris on the part of any particular branch of knowledge.

Newman's sound warnings against the overreaching of scientific fields and the triumph of smug materialism and positivism are still urgent, of course. Newman is also careful to point out that the liberal arts and even theology may attempt to establish a single, inadequate framework for the discovery of truth.

Newman's complex epistemology does not fall prey to the heresy that truth is not one, but reminds us that in our present state, truth present various aspects and that the tyranny of any particular branch of knowledge is the victory of ignorance.

[***] makes a Waterhouse calendar that is better in the quality of paper and graphics. The people who make it specialize in Waterhouse and truly understand and appreciate his art.

Beautiful, crisp photos of this master artist's most famous works. Very cool buy for 2003!

I look forward to Pomegranate's JW Waterhouse calendar every year and buy it faithfully - this year being no exception! Great choice of pictures, and great quality reproductions. I keep the calendar in my office and it's a great excuse to daydream of bygone dayes whenever I catch a glimpse of it...

Garth Ennis' work on Hellblazer is some of the best in the medium, but this trade horribly dissapoints. Any no name writer could spin this tale of John Constantine, it's suprising to see the Ennis name on it. Constantine himself loses most of what made him so cool in other Ennis works... He becomes an everyman in this book, a nobody with nothing so cool about him that someone would want to write a book about. But sadly enough, Ennis has done it, and it's a stinker.

I am sad to say that I didn't enjoy this as much as other Hellblazer TPBs that I have read. The art was OK, but the storytelling was jumpy. I love the character of John Constantine, though. They shouldn't 'Americanize' him with Nic Cage in the movie.

I have to believe that whoever didn't like this collection either doesn't get it or refuses to accept it. To be fair, the opening story is a little out of the ordinary for the usually London-based Constantine. Whereas Garth's other spectacular book PREACHER embraces the American Myth, "Damnation's Flame" thouroughly reveals it for what it is...a myth. Caught in a sliver of Hell, John encounters slaughtered Indians, soldiers who died for nothing, streets covered in crack, and a positively wanker of a president.

The other stories aren't earth-shattering, but they are enjoyable. John visits his old friend Brendan and meets Kit in a flashback to his days at Ravenscar (the mental hospital he was in and out of for three years). John also meets Brendan, now a hard-drinking ghost, in the present. And back in London, Chas tells his mates about one of the many times Constantine was apparently killed, and how this time there was even a funeral for him. The entire Ennis cast was present (Header, Kit, Brendan, Rick the Vic) as well as the Delano cast (Ray, Chas, Ritchie, Cheryl), and Moore's little-seen Emma.

By the way, if the sight of John F. Kennedy walking around with his hand pressed against the hole in his head to keep his brains from falling out isn't enough incentive to buy this book, check out his best line from the story:

"To be seen in a historical context as the conscience of the United States is not the honor one might think. It is, in fact, a burden, and one that I was...at the time...loath to shoulder. My chief concerns were, to set the record straight, immediate political survival, and regular extramarital sex with as many women as possible.

I picked up "Scare Tactic" after finishing William Castle's very engaging memoirs, "Step Right Up! I'm Gonna Scare the Pants off America." There is very little original material in John Law's book... most of it is just a rehash of Castle's memoirs, in which Law re-tells Castle's anecdotes, sometimes refuting them. (Mostly on minor details like dates.) Law offers a few terse observations and insights of the man's life, but not really until the very last 10 pages of the book. The most glaring and offensive thing about this book is how poorly it is edited: simple mistakes (like spelling "Ursula" "Ursual" or "their" instead of "there") dot almost every single page, making this book seem even more amateurish. I suggest picking up Castle's memoirs instead... they're much more entertaining and better written.

The author's obvious love of Castle's horror work comes through. While the book doesnt offer great detail of Castle's other works, his horror classics are well detailed. There is some overlap with Castle's own autobiography, but there's some great touches with some of the lousy film reviews the director got which Castle himself rarely admitted to and some item Castle never discussed in his own book, like the fact that Joan Crawford was not the original star of Strait-Jacket. The book also has some rare photos and is a great option since Castle's own autobiography hasnt been in print for years. In fact, this is actually the only biography ever done on Castle.

While certainly not the complete word on William Castle, there's so little written about the filmmaker that this book is a welcome addition. Castle's own book is filled with stories that are half-true, so it's nice to have another look. Book offers details behind many of his classic B-horrors and is a pretty easy read. It even offers some new and unusual bits of info and photos that were seriously lacking from the republished version of Castle's autobiography. There's still room for a really good biography on William Castle, but until it's done this is worth a read for any Castle fan.

I've spent a lot of time in this industry, and I was disappointed to see the lack of accuracy with many basic details. Clearly the guy has a lot of experience with this subject area, but his manner of encapsulating his knowledge should have been done more at arm's length, rather than attempting to come across as a one-size-fits-all solution, again, because it looks like it took a serious toll on accuracy. If you're looking for pictures and tidbits, then go for it, but what about the bigger picture? Perhaps his next release will cover this. One other thing: I found lots of typos and grammatical errors. Again, perhaps the next releast will fix these too. I would wait until then.

Lots of cool pictures. I've spent hours looking at them, but I really wanted more info like how I can place a value on matchcovers. Also looked for tips on how to take care of matchcovers, but I didn't see much. I think this stuff is important, so I had to buy another book by someone else. To bad this book doesn't cover that stuff. If you don't care much about reading and just want the pix, the book is OK.

Let's see, I have matchbooks with matches and matchbooks without matches. Some have front strikes some have back strikes. Some of the matches have a design on them when the cover is opened. Some have 20 matches some have 30 matches...what to do? Well, I ordered this book and quickly, some 900 matchbooks of different sizes, shapes,ages and colors all began to come together with order. I even had some of the exact matchbooks described and pictured in the book. I recommend for the novice who finds him/herself with a sudden collection of firestarters from yesteryear.

As a user of Zofran(Ondansetron) and someone who has researched this drug extensively I find the information inadequate and out of date. For instance the oral form (8mg tablets) has been available for some time now. It was originally investigated as an anti-psychotic drug and tested as an alcohol and cocaine/methamphetmine deterent for which there was no clear cut outcomes as to efficacy. Dr. Michael Liebowitz at Columbia/New York Psychiatric Institute has done the most recent research on Zofran for Generalized Anxiety Disorder with positive results, however Glaxo has stopped clinical trials/research into Zofran for psychiatric uses sometime in winter 1996. There are some studies (small populations) showing efficacy of Zofran in Parkinson patients to control dilusions and hallucinations. The authors seem to have neglected to do a complete medline search on this medication which has been investigated since approximately 1989! There are significant side effects to this drug which should not be taken lightly. The literature recommends the medication be taken no more than two days in a row without medical supervision. It is extremely difficult to find information regarding appropriate dosages for the oral form in treating mental health problems (for which it is quite effective-without eps side effects). The few pages in this book are so general and uninformative as to make it almost useless. Zofran is available only by prescription and then primarily for use with chemotherapy. It is also difficult to get IV Zofran unless you have cancer or an extremely enlightened physican. Zofran tablets at the pharmacy (US) cost approximately $23 each and most HMO's limit patient to 9 (8mg) tablets at a time. At this time it is not available in smaller dosages, although the tablets can be broken in half trying to get a smaller dose is extemely difficult. Attempts at getting information from Glaxo-Wellcome the manufacturer have been extremely difficult. If the authors have been this lax in obtaining information about this drug it makes me suspicious of the thoroughness of the information researched for the other drugs. Remember there is no free lunch especially when dealing with pharmaceuticals. Weigh carefully potential side effects against possible benefit. This is not a "natural" product but a highly concentrated anti-psychotic, anti-emetic drug.

Although this contains a lot of information about anti-aging drugs in the world, but we might have to be suspicious about what they are insisting here. They seem to be trying to be objective by reciting academic papers, but we ought to be careful about using these drugs. It might be possible for you to have obsessions about taking these drugs. Be careful.

I followed the protocols outlined in the book and eventually formulated a smart drug regimen that worked well for me. It is a combination of deprenyl (5 mg) and piracetam (1200 mg). Purchasing these substances has been much easier than I expected. And the results have been nothing less than a total transformation. My life has come together finally and I am advancing in my work. I really do feel that this has been the key I've been looking for all my life.

I was very surprised when I ordered this book and found out that yes, indeed, it was merely a very tiny portion of what I had expected. I suppose I should have known from the price, but the description (at least at that time) did not make it clear that it wasn't the entire dictionary.

While this may be a very thorough source for the words it covers, it should be noted in the basic information that this is ONLY 128 pages of a 15,000 page work. The description above is very misleading.

itz a dictionary. what more can i say

I thought that the book was rather stupid and based on false informatio

I thought this book was very one-sided. I am a history major and non mormon but have studied actual events and this book is obviously meant to push an anti-mormon agenda. There is no proof that Brigham Young was ever a murderous person, or would have any reason to orchestrate such a terrible event. I don't think its a good idea to look to disgruntled ex-members of a religion (like previous reviewers) to get information on such sensitive subjects as this one.

A publisher will usually print the most glowing and/or most prestigious reviews of a book on the outside back jacket. The fact that those willing to be quoted in review of this book should have led me to look elsewhere for a beter account of this terrible event.

The emotive loading of descriptions of "stares" and "looks" by Mormons as these poor souls made their way from Salt Lake City to Mountain Meadows is but one example of poor hyperbole (with no adult survivors, you have to wonder where these, and other, descriptions came from).

Did the LDS members participate in these murders ? Absolutely. Did the LDS Church do anything to prevent the event or to investigate it afterwards ? Certainly not. Did the LDS Church order these murders ? The consensus of mainstream historians is probably not but you wouldn't know that by reading this book.

This book is more about the author's concerns with the LDS Church and less about the actual murders at Mountain Meadows. The LDS have much to be ashamed for relating to the murders without having someone "piling on".

I would suggest Juanita Brooks' book on this subject for a better read.