Gives a detailed explanation of the different properties needed for environmental modeling and even for chemical engineering design. Very well written, thought a little boring (is imposible to be funny with this kind of material). Puts you in the right track immediatly.

This millennium edition of Leslie's One Shot Review is an excellent reprint returning a classic to new audiences. Originally published in 1960, this volume provides work by some of the finest 20th century authors from Allen Ginsberg and Kenneth Koch to Terry Southern. Also included: Fidel Castro's 1960 address to the U.N. This millennium edition contains a narrative poem by the author commenting on the origins of the original Hasty Papers. A keepsake literary work in an oversized presentation, packed with black and white photos and illustrations.

Great intro of characters and use of sight land and mother nature. A dedication to his works and singular friendships.

The best work I've seen on the subject yet. A must read.

New Mexico, and the Taos area in particular, has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. John Nichols captures this beauty perfectly in his first of the Taos series, "If Mountains Should Die." Accompanied by heart-grabbing photographs, this book describes his first few years in Taos as a transplanted East-Coaster. Nichols not only captures the raw beauty of the land, but also the people that occupy it. Along with this, he describes the disturbing and continous struggle to keep it alive and free from suburbanization. His personal and touching accounts of his own struggle with the place and the people bring it alive in unexpected ways. There is also plenty of respect here, along with a deep anger for what is being done to the land, the people, and the unique way of life found in Taos Valley. As this is a very special place in my heart, I found it easy to cry and laugh along with him.

Often overlooked in favor of the more explicitly political of his contemporaries (most notably, Lu Xun), Shen Congwen's work is richly textured, complex, and lyrical. Shen is a writer who brings the China of his past and present alive without the overburdening and unreal pressure of trying to save it. Nostalgia breathes through his pastoral countryside scenes, and his urban landscapes reveal a fractured, paradoxical consciousness--both unsure and hopeful. In many ways Shen plays the anthropologist to Lu Xun's politically ultra-conscious social engineer. And in this sense he seems more real to a modern reader. He approaches his subjects with less judgment, and with much less baggage. While others try to give life to Chinese society through social change and self-criticism, Shen is more invested in the life that is already there. Certainly he expresses his opinions about many aspects of Chinese culture throughout his stories, but he avoids the beat-you-over-the-head approach. In many cases, it's difficult to really assess what he thinks, which makes exploring his work a more challenging, and satisfying, adventure.

The translations in this edition are smoothly rendered and very readable, although the edition suffers, I think, from its diverse group of contributors. Without a single translator it is difficult to achieve a continuity of style and substance. But all in all this collection is a tremendous addition to the English-accessible literature of modern China. Shen is brilliant and poetic, but in a subtle, understated way. The entire collection is infused with a cocktail of profound nostalgia for the past, hope for the future, and, most of all, the beauty and innocence of the living present.

The Integral Years is the third volume of The Crooked Lines of God: A Life Trilogy, the collected poems of William Everson. Each of the three volumes reflects a major stage in the life of the poet and the thematic nature of his verses. Everson, who was known as "the poet of the San Joaquin," died at his home on Kingfisher Flat in Santa Cruz County, California, in June 1994. He left behind 52 books of poetry and 10 books of prose. He was a member of the Dominican Order of monks between 1951 and 1969, writing poetry and giving public readings of his verse as Brother Antoninus. Time magazine referred to him as the "Beat Friar" during this period, though Everson was not, strictly speaking, a member of the Beat Generation literary movement. According to Stanford's Albert Gelpi, however, Everson was "the greatest religious poet of the second half of the twentieth century." Everson's "A Canticle to the Waterbirds" is a masterpiece of religious verse and puts Everson on a plane with Francis Thompson and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Everson's "religious verse" is published in Volume 2 of the trilogy, The Veritable Years.

Everson's early poetry was highly secular and pantheistic. Much of it was written under the influence of Robinson Jeffers, whom Everson regarded as a mentor. The early poems are contained in Volume 1, The Residual Years.

Everson left religious life in 1969 to return to the secular world and marry Susanna Rickson, his third wife. Everson's later poems, published in this volume, show his maturation as a poet and a man. He has returned to nature, and much of his verse is both confessional and erotic.

The three volumes of the trilogy were actually planned by Everson during his life time and carried through to completion posthumously by the dedicated work of Allan Campo and Bill Hotchkiss, lifelong friends of the poet who edited the collection. They also collected Everson's unpublished verse and uncollected poems, which are published in the volumes as appendixes.

"It Was Good-Making Art to the Glory of God" brings forth many struggling topics and themes that Christian artists are challenged with. These essays are writing by some of the most important Christian artists today (i.e. Makoto Fujimura, Theodore Prescott, and Edward Knippers.) The book discusses issues looking at our fallen world with a realistic point of view. It teaches to face evil head on and to point towards the grace, the hope, and the glory, namely Jesus Christ. As God's children it explains our need for art in the church and in our communities. It also depicts the problems of Christian art, with topics such as GOOD, ("The efforts of most artists who attempt to present a picture of 'good' tend toward dishonest, sugary sweet propaganda. They ignore the implications of the fall and paint the world as a shiny, happy place." -Ned Bustard, "Good"), EVIL, and IDENTITY. It is hard being both Christian and artist. It seems no one understands you in the art world and no one understands you in the Christian world. This book praises our gifts of creativity and imaginations, in which we learn to integrate both our faith and art, and return these gifts to praise Our Father. "It Was Good..." should be essential to your book collection. I once had a discussion with a friend of how we can meditate on a single passage for hours. These essays have been so inspirational that I have spent some nights restless, because I could not wait until the next day to work on my own art. It is such a blessing to know, in this generation (so full of narcissistic and meaningless art,) that this book is out there to help other Christian artists. I personally feel doubly blessed because I am still an undergraduate in art school. I feel a great comfort to apply and develop these ideas into my own critiques. But this book goes way beyond the ordinary art school critique and grows toward my relationship with God and towards his people.

Interesting, very intersting. If you have ever wondered what made J.R.R. Tolkien write his epic master piece, or are curious about what he was like growing up, this book is a must fo you. Of course being a biography it can be a bit dull at times, but so what that how life is boy! This book afirmed that the respect and admiration I have for J.R.R. Tolkein was not just me blowing his importance out of proportion, for he truly always has, and always will be, a master of fantasy!

"Oct. 22nd, 1837. 'What are you doing now?' he asked, 'Do you keep a journal?'-- So I make my first entry today." Thus begins Thoreau's Journal, made up of more then two million words and covering about twenty-five years of his life. No other work of Thoreau's better exhibits his discipline as a writer and his devotion to the natural world. In the Journal can be found the fragmented foundations of masterpieces such as Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, and Cape Cod. But what is perhaps more interesting to a reader of Thoreau's Journal are his thoughts and insights on topics such as friendship, love, religion, nature, bravery, heroism, war, slavery, the art of writing, and, most important to Thoreau, the art of living. Anyone with any interest in Thoreau will find his Journal to be an invaluable aid in understanding and following the life of one of America's most profound prose writers