While Wilson and Savory's "That's Some Pig" is good, the real reason I bought this book was for Edward Lee and John Pelan's "Charlie's Web". No Charlotte's Web here, this story would be at home in any of Jeff Gelb's Hot Blood series books. You'll never look at pigs and spiders the same way again. Trust me.

The role of mathematics at Oxford during the first eight centuries of its existence is defined by a curve with steep slopes in both directions. At times the level of rigor in the examinations was slightly more difficult than "How many letters are there in your name?". Yet, over the years, some very capable people have either taught or been educated there.
The historical context of England over the centuries provides an interesting backdrop to what occurred at the university. Through a civil war and other political contests for power, the society altering features of the industrial revolution and the creation and subsequent dissolution of a mighty empire, the university has survived. However, the changes have been as profound to the university as they have been to the surrounding society. Although two of the editors are currently at Oxford, the treatment here is not in any way biased or hyped. The changes and the reasons for them are put down with the dispassionate accuracy of a historian.
As mathematics became a more significant tool in the management of society, the quality of mathematical training has been modified to suit. Long standing institutions are often criticized as being adaptability challenged. While partly true, the events described here clearly demonstrate that universities can and do change. Any history of a university is ultimately a series of mini-biographies of the people who made things happen. The sections that described some of the personalities of those who served as professors or other ranking officials was the most interesting aspect of the book.
With a history that is staid, learned and sometimes stodgy and other times colorful, Oxford has survived and thrived through incredible changes. No doubt the next few centuries will bring even more interesting and exciting challenges in the arenas of mathematics and human existence. Hopefully, the book describing the next eight hundred years will be as good as this one.

This book, which has also been co-published simultaneously in the journal Social Thought (1999;19(2)), came out of a symposium at the St. Louis University School of Social Service at the sponsorship of the Doerr Center for Social Justice, Education and Research. The contributors to the six chapters with topics like Compassion, solidarity and empowerment; Welfare reform and foster care; Delinquency prevention; Collaborative practice in low income communities; Fostering resiliency in children and Ecumenical housing all came from authors within the field of social work. Data from the United States on poor children (The state of America's children yearbook, Washington, DC: Children's Defence Fund, 1998) has shown that three in five poor children are white, one in five live in suburban areas, one in three live in a family with married parents and two in three live in a working family. In 1973 14.4% of all children in America were poor, but in spite of a better economy that figure climbed to 20.5% in 1996. For young families in America the child poverty rate doubled from 20% in 1973 to 41% in 1994 and all these increases even though the federal government had implemented welfare reforms to prevent poverty. The chapter by Nancie Palmer from Wasburn University on "Fostering resiliency in children" based on her doctoral work from 1991 on exploring resiliency in adult children of alcoholics was interesting reading. She introduces the Differential Resiliency Model (DRM) as an alternative and non-pathological approach to the study of children and families, who are coping daily with adversity. She sees resilience as an evolving process and while one person can display one of four types of resilience (anomic survival, regenerative, adaptive and flourishing resilience) this person may develop growth through new challenges and through homeostasis, coping strategies, relationships to environment or the use of energy the person will be able to survive. This book is recommended for workers in social work or perofessionals working with poor or disorganized families.

Professor Joav Merrick... E-mail: jmerrick@aquanet.co.il

It is a great book to have for learning the principals of interventional radiology. I have read since I started my fellowship last year. Dyet's Textbook of endovascular procedures is a complete solution to getting up to most daily interventions,and also including recent procedures, like carotid angioplasty and stenting and uterine fibroids embolization.

This book is a collection of varied essays written about the Titanic over the past ninty years. It contains eyewitness accounts as well as essays that explore the cultural impact of the disaster. This book was entertaining as well as informative. However, I would recommend that readers who are not familiar with the story read something like Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" first to get their bearings.

Judith Delves and Selina Marsh-Hayden co-manage two exclusive but popular London based restaurants. Their Cafe de la Paix becomes so successful, the prestigious Gemini Group want to buy them to add to their growing chain. The two women refuse to sell, but their silent partners disagree. Selina's spouse Richard wants the money while Judith's lover Michael wants her to manage his country home.

However, the tie becomes irrelevant when someone murders Selina. The police lean towards Judith as the prime suspect. Only Fransesca Wilson, wife to one of the police officers, thinks the restaurateur is innocent. When Richard apparently commits suicide, the police close the case. Fransesca and Judith still believe a killer is free.

TO DIE FOR is an interesting British police procedural that fans of the sub-genre will find very entertaining. The story line moves forward at a rapid pace even though the motive behind the criminal activity is not revealed until late into the novel. Though the prime plot involving the investigation seems relatively light and scanty, the various subplots add much depth and expeditiously tie back into the main tale. Janet Neels continues to provide intriguing and complex relationship who-done-its.

Harriet Klausner

A very interesting read. This book focuses on the tragic end of Swilling's life and the events that resulted in his being jailed for a crime that he did not commit. The author carefully examines the evidence and goes to great length to exonerate Swilling, who may have been given a bad rap by other historians in the past. In this book we not only see Swilling as a significant individual in Arizona history, we also see him as all too human, with the frailties and personal problems that eventually lead to his downfall. A good book for anyone interested learning more about the history of Arizona and its pioneers.

A reviewer below states that Shakespeare's literary value is unquestioned. This is patent nonsense. Every year, untold numbers of people (students, etc.) are forced to read him by trained teachers and they still end up questioning his value. Let's examine the Shakespeare cult:
1) Any author who needs an interpreter, explainer, or support from the educational system to keep readers is simply not a vital author. If Shakespeare was a vital author, people would love him without the brainwashing and spoonfeeding of a vast educational system that insists on teaching these tired plays year after year because everyone has done so year after year.
2) Silly romances and boring dramas driven by improbable plots and vulgar jokes are not great literature. These plays are the work of a man who spent far too much time on scandal and trivial junk to be taken seriously.
3) The Shakespeare nuts want it both ways and they can't have it either way. On the one hand, they insist that Shakespeare be regarded with the reverence one would give to holy scripture. No one must dare question its greatness, truthfulness, or entertainment value. If you do so, you will be attacked as a philistine. On the other hand, when people believe this nonsense and stay away from Shakespeare because they do not want to be bored, the cultists insist that we are taking it too seriously and that Shakespeare is simply great theatre (when it is nothing of the sort) which can be enjoyed with as much gusto as a rock concert or a stand up comedy act (which is a lie).
4) Any book that needs a glossary for the reader in order to be understandable must either be abandoned as dated or translated into modern English. The Shakespeare nuts wouldn't insist that anyone read Beowulf in Old English or argue that its Old English language is so beautiful that we all must learn what is now a foreign language to us but they do this when it comes to Shakespeare. This is beyond irrational. Imagine being forced to read a viking saga in Old Norse with only a glossary to assist you because the professor happens to love the cadences of Old Norse. This is no different from the nuts who do the same with Shakespeare.
5) I judge literature on two, and only two, criterion: Is it intriguing? Is it entertaining? I don't give a fig about some academic telling me I need to read something because it is hitorically important. I doubt that Shakespeare's audience paid to see his plays because they had historical importance and neither will I. Alas, what was entertaining even twenty years ago seems dated and boring today, nevermind what may have been entertaining hundreds of years ago. Old jokes lose their punch, old romances become foolish and insipid with time, old dramas about historical figures become irrelevant and sleep inducing, old concerns no longer concern us. Shakespeare is dated, unfunny, boring.
And no amount of forcing the issue will change that. Free Shakespeare from the support of the educational system and watch him become forgotten as quickly as last years fashions. And I say, "good riddance" to an author who should have been relegated to the trash heap at least a century ago.

The very idea of reviewing or giving stars to Shakespeare in this format is superfluous: he is the epitome of English literature. The source and inspiration for many subsequent classics, the well from which many popular expressions have sprung, the basis for many brilliant (and not-so-brilliant) stage and film renditions of these classics -- Shakespeare's literary greatness lies universally ackwnoledged and unquestioned. In reviewing any edition of the man's works, then, the reviewer's task is not to comment upon the work itself, but the presentation. This Gramercy edition of The Complete Works (yes, that's all 37 plays -- comedies, histories, and tragedies -- as well as all of the poems, sonnets included) is the most popular and widely-available -- and inexpensive -- version available. Is it the best? Well, no. Other reviews of this edition have commented upon its shortcomings -- extremely small print; very tight and hard-to-read layout; no margins for notes; no footnotes or annotations; no background information on the plays; errors, typos, and generally questionable editing. That said, this edition may have what you're looking for. It does indeed contain the complete works; it also has a few other small incentives: a hard cover that looks great on a bookshelf, a built-in bookmarker, and various illustrations. Clearly, this is not an omnibus for the Shakespeare scholar. If you want an edition of the bard for in-depth study or for academic use, you are better off buying more expansive editions of the individual plays themselves, with plenty of background info, notes, annotations, and space for your own writing; or else one of the more expensive editions of the Complete Works. That said, if you are just looking for a Shakespeare book that has all of his works in one place, that is convenient and, above all, inexpensive -- or you just want a Shakespeare tome sitting on your dust-ridden bookshelf to impress friends -- then you could do worse than picking up this.

Few writers in history have been able to come close to matching Shakespeare's astounding flair for writing, and this volume is the perfect compliment to his talent. The engravings inside are beautiful, and the plays, even without their numbers and their footnotes, are still as incredible as they ever were. To those of you who say that Shakespeare is boring, you're not really understanding his work, or you are simply unable to appreciate anything this old. I highly recommend this particular edition

This book was a very detailed and interesting look into some of the most amazing military blunders in history. The author has obviously done his homework, and gives surprisingly intricate detail into each situation. He does tend to ramble on a little with his explanations, and injects a lot of theory based on the facts about why he thinks certain leaders didn't see things coming, but it's very substantiated. He also seems to hold a general dislike for the job that the United States and British intelligence services do. Maybe there's some hidden issues there.

Although this book would not rank among the unputdownables, it was interesting enough for me to read it from cover to cover over several days. The author has struck a balance between riveting story telling and details of who-did-what-when.

The title is a bit misleading as it was often not military intelligence per se that led to the blunders but the failure to appreciate or act on useful intelligence.

This is one the best books about military intelligence that I have read. Having spent many years working in the area, I find that most other books on the subject are written by outsiders who never quite fully understand what they are writing about, no matter how bright or well intentioned they may be. Few outsiders appreciate, for example, the details of the intelligence cycle, the multiple layers of intelligence collectors, the rivalries among collection agencies, the correct technical jargon, the practical effects on intelligence analysis of inter-agency battles for bigger budgets, etc.

Hughes-Wilson utilizes a case study approach. He analyzes nine different events or conflicts from World War II to the present. Having read about many of the conflicts before, I did not expect to learn much that was new. However, the author presented many new factual details about the events involving the Brits, in particular, that were fascinating. He was clearly a very informed observer and/or possible participant in many of the conflicts. His analysis of the American failure in Tet 1968 is one of the most incisive and dispassionate that I have read. He is no fan of official histories. He is blunt in his criticisms. His comments (actually a very minor part of his Pearl Harbor story)about the FBI's handling of Japanese and German espionage in WW II makes one seriously question the FBI's competence to work effectively as an intelligence organization at that time. But, then has anything really gotten better at the FBI?

Bottom line: As one other reviewer has commented, Hughes-Wilson's real message is that political considerations - whether those of a totalitarian regime or a democracy - often lead to what are called "intelligence blunders." His call for truly objective and independent intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination should be heeded, but it will probably be ignored. We will see more such blunders again.

A Review from BLACK PEARL: The Journal of the College of Thelema (Vol. I, No. 71, March, 2000). Copyright 2000, College of Thelema (permission by editor granted Amazon Books to use). With its campy sci-fi cover featuring a leggy woman, a rocket ship, and the Enochian alphabet, the tone is set for this long overdue biography of Jack Parsons, the man at ground zero of what we now consider the modern "arts" of rocketry, science fiction, and magick. In this treatment by John Carter (pseudo-nym), Parsons comes across as a compulsive and restless spirit who, in his short lifetime, attempted to reconcile these seemingly strange bedfellows - with varying degrees of success. Seeming almost gossipy at times, the book reads with deceptive ease for a biography, due in large part to its lack of in-depth background information on Crowley and related occult theory. Though brief histo-ries of the O.T.O., Enochian magick, and the like are given, the reader is wisely referred to other sources, thereby avoiding what could easily become a massive and confusing tome where the import of Parsons' contributions would be lost. This makes Sex & Rockets a treat for those with a knowledge of Thelema and the esoteric. By the same token, this allows the casual reader to enjoy all the "good stuff," supplementing their knowledge as they see fit. Ultimately, I am inclined to agree with the author that, at the end of the day, Parsons' contributions to rocketry are vastly underrated and those to the occult overrated. However, I think that Parsons' approach to Thelema, and the occult in general, was highly subjective and, taking into account his own personal demons, his methods may gain merit as time goes by and may even become considered innovative. The book culminates in the chapter "Death and Beyond," a veritable avalanche of tangential relation-ships and events as diverse as UFOs and Beat Culture, leaving one with much food for thought. Knowledgeable, well researched, with great photos, and not a little scandalous, this book is seminal. - GREG FIORINI

John Parsons made some of the most important contributions to science in the 20th century, yet he had a dark fascination with the occult. This book reads very much like Hollywood Babylon -- lots of juicy and shocking details -- but essentially it skims the surface and doesn't explore Parsons' psychology. Why would a brilliant scientist involve himself with the fantasy world of the occult? I myself have read The Book of Lies by Crowley, and some of his other work, yet none of it has convinced me magick is a worthwhile pursuit. Parsons himself never really got any of these rites to work, so why did he faithfully continue on this path? In spite of this book's lack of depth (or an answer to this question), I found it to be an enjoyable read. Always fascinated by the hijinks of the church of Scientology (not yet formed when the events of this book took place), it was amusing to read the true account (as opposed to the Churh of Scientology's account) of L. Ron's affiliation with Parsons -- also bravely told in Bare-Faced Messiah, now sadly out of print but available on the net. The book contains a good selection of photographs, but could use more footnotes. Anyone interested in Parsons, Crowley or Hubbard should find this book interesting.

Sex And Rockets: The Occult World Of Jack Parsons is the engaging, highly recommended biography of John Whiteside (Jack) Parsons, a primary architect of modern rocket science and co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Parsons (who had a crater on the dark side of the moon named for him) had dark, secretive interests which overshadowed his outstanding public career for Parsons underwrote Aleister Crowley's "Book of the Law", held numerous soirees celebrating science fiction, and performed weird black magic rituals under the eyes of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. After being investigated by the FBI and become estranged with the United States government, Parsons met his death when a mysterious explosion leveled his home. Sex And Rockets is riveting reading, enhanced with Parson's never-before-printed writings and period photographs.