I understand that some people below were shocked at finding the photo of a severed leg in this collection. They all promptly seem to have demoted the book's worth to a single star. That doesn't seem an appropriate response to me. The book is almost 1000 pages long and there's a single photo showing what was unfortunately a very common site that day. I'm not suggesting that the publishers should have added more gory photos to the book. I'm saying that an honest portrayal of September 11th shouldn't shy away from accurately depicting the real horror of the event. What happened that day was horrendous, the acts, despicable, so let's not try to whitewash what happened by requesting a G-rated depiction.

This book is stunning in the literal not the sensationalistic sense of the word. I read it cover to cover the day I got it and was provoked to remember the day (as we sometimes need to) all over again. As others have pointed out, this is not a sensationalist tome at all. No captions accompany the photo, neither are the names of photographers provided with each photo. No, the focus is entirely on the subject matter.

If you don't want to remember, don't pick this book up. I'd argue, however, that for the sake of our children and our society, we all need to remember this event and remember it well.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this book is worth almost a million words. 860+ pages chock full of pictures... and no words. I could not get down to southern Manhatten to view the "Here Is New York" exhibit, but this book is the next best thing. A nice hardcover book containing images of all of New York's best - NYPD/police, firemen, paramedics and other emergency workers, volunteers, and many of the everyday common folks like you & me that just happened to be in or near the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11/01. Many pictures show incredible bravery. Others show tired confused lost souls, people in shock & disbelief, people covered with ashe... and there are a few pretty intense pictures of the aftermath and loss of life. If you weren't in NYC on that incredible day, this book will bring you there. "Here Is New York" is a haunting book that you will find yourself going back to again and again. ** Note: Another good book on the same event featuring about half of all those that perished in NY that day; check out "Portaits 9/11/01" by Howell Raines.

HERE IS NEW YORK: A DEMOCRACY OF PHOTOGRAPHS is based on a museum collection of photographs taken by anyone who had access to "ground zero" during that tragic day, as well as the following days.

At first, it almost seems a little morose to be interested in looking at a book of such pictures. But the truth of the matter is that it helps us to "integrate" the whole traumatic experience. As the tragic events unfolded that day back in 2001, none of us knew "what was next." Now that we know how it unfolded, what came "next," it is helpful to retrace the steps. It helps to create a continuum.

On another level, it is not an easy book to look at because it was not an easy day to live through. September 11th, 2001, was probably the most difficult day any of us will experience in our entire lives. The most difficult images are those that concern graphic depiction of dead bodies and people jumping to escape the horror inside the towers. Such images are rare, however. Most of the photographs concern the collision of the planes with the buildings, the chaos that ensued on the streets below, as well as the clean up efforts of the following days.

Not an easy book to read by any stretch, but it is an important book.

This started it all for me around January. A good friend recommended this book after she beat breast cancer by changing her diet! I knew then I had to understand the link between diet and health. I wasn't satisfied to read just this book but many of the others listed in the bibliography and others on biological medicine and others relating to the acid/alkaline balance within our bodies. I've been able to help my mother gain control of her arthritis and hopefully get her off methotrexate for good. I've been able to help my mother in law lower her cholesterol since prior strokes have made this an issue. And my wife and I have lost the weight we couldn't seem to shake and have been able to improve all aspects of our health and physical well being. If you have any loved ones who's quality of life you want help improve this book is a great start.

This book started it all for me. Given to me by a good fiend who was able to beat breast cancer by changing her diet. I knew then I had to understand the link between diet and health. Since then I've been able to help my Mother-in-Law to lower her cholesterol, my Mother to relieve her arthritis, and my wife and I to lower our weight and enhance almost every aspect of our health and well being. It's ironic that cutting edge medicine and biological medicine is now rediscovering what was the plan all along. If you want to check the science just start with the bibliography.

After being told about this book by my daughter, my wife and I read it and decided to incorporate the eating and lifestyle changes recommeded by Dr. Malkmus. What a difference in our lives. I have lost almost 15 pounds and my wife has had similar results. More important however, we both are feeling so much better with more energy. Not bad for only 25 days on the new eating plan. This book should be considered by anyone with health problems.

I found this book while I was reading my way through the library's fairy tale shelf. I didn't understand any of the symbolism at the time, but I still liked it. I don't understand all of it even now, but the more I read (especially of C.S. Lewis, who admired MacDonald's work), the more interesting the book becomes. I like the way the shadow-lands idea seen here gets more fleshed out in C.S. Lewis' Narnia book The Last Battle, and both are probably derived from the cave allegory in Plato.

Some people will probably be turned off by the allegorical aspect. I think of it as an interesting little puzzle.

Afterward by W. H. Auden. This "great work" as C.S. Lewis described The Golden Key, tells of a boy and a girl, and their mysterious journey. J.R.R. Tolkien said "The magical, the fairy story . . . may be made a vehicle of Mystery. This at least is what George MacDonald attempted, achieving stories of power and beauty when he succeeded, as in The Golden Key." I heartily agree as did my children!

Since the story "The Golden Key" can be found in several collections of MacDonald's fairy tales, this book's main strength lies in Maurice Sendak's illustrations. These black and white drawings by the creator of "Where The Wild Things Are" add a touch of whimsey to this rather obscure short story by the Victorian novelist/pastor/poet. Like all of MacDonald's fantasies, this adventure about a boy and a girl who are looking for the land where the shadows fall can be read and enjoyed on multiple levels.

This was another fine story. This book occurs late in the war, right before Napolean abdicates the throne the first time. Hornblower has been a lord for several months, however has been recuperating from an illness. He is sent on a mission to capture a brig that has mutinied and is threatening to surrender to the French.

Hornblower is successful in the mission and at the same time lands himself right in the middle of political intrigue in a major seaport on the French coast. He is able, with the help of several leading citizens, to capture the town and have it reaffirm the old French King as the successor to Napoloean when he is defeated.

Of course, Napolean is not to happy about this situation and he send an expedition to fight the rebelling city and throw the English back into the sea. Hornblower expects this and send to England for help. Who should arrive? None other than Captain Bush, Hornblower's close friend.

Bush sets off inland via a river to intercept the oncoming seige train and wreck it while it is still in transport mode. He is successful, but at a terrible price. Around that time, Bonaparte abdicates and is exiled. France is returned to the Bourbons. Hornblower sets off the visit the Compte de Gracae that helped him escape when he was captured two years before. During his visit, Bonaparte escapes and reclaims the thrown.

Hornblower is deep inland at this time. He helps a local partisan movement. However, his small group of 30 guerillas is hunted down by several thousand French soldiers. He is eventually captured and sentence to be executed. On the day befor the execution, word comes from Paris that Bonaparte has been defeated at Waterloo and has again abdicated. Hornblower is released.

Not a lot of sea fighting going on this book. Most of the action takes place ashore in France. A lot of political intrigue. C.S. did a fine job of depicting the political situation in France at the end of the war.

Hornblowers 2nd to last book details his actions and the Napoleonic wars finally draw to a close. Several loose ends in the series are tied up.

We start with Hornblower summoned to quelch an uprising on a British Brig and end with a Chase through the French Countryside during the hundred days.

Hornblower is as ever both dynamic and self doubting. His bursts of temper give the book some style as he tries to cope with post war life with Napoleon safely at Elba...

...or so the world thinks. This side of the character which is expanded on in the final book is just as interesting as the rest of the books which shows that good character development and fine writing make a series. Not just roaring guns.

Of course the roaring guns don't hurt either...

I'd like to answer the British Columbia readers question. There are 11 novels in C.S. Forrester's Hornblower saga. Additionally, at least one publisher has books that contain up to three of the novels in one volume. Interestingly, Forester didn't write the 11 books in chronological order. Consequently, some publishers elect to place numbers on the spine of each book to indicate where a particular title falls in the chronology. The current US printing (1999), by Back Bay Books, a division of Little Brown and Co., is not complete. At least the last three chronological titles (Commodore Hornblower, Lord Hornblower and Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies) will hit the shelves later in 1999. I can't wait. Each book stands on its own and every one is addictive.

It is a bit difficult task to place George Orwell (pen name for Eric Aruthur Blair) in the history of the 20th century English literature. A novelist? A journalist? A critic? Or just a guy who loved propaganda? Whatever it is, he is and will be remembered as the one who wrote "1984" and "Animal Farm." Still, before he wrote these famous works, he wrote a pretty good book of novel, and that is what you're looking at now.

"Keep the Aspidistra Flying" one of the most starange titles you ever see, is about a "poet" (and formerly a copywriter for advertizing company) Gordon Comstock, who, with sudden desire to be free from the curse of money, left this good job and starts the life of an aspiring artist. As he had previously a book of his own poems published (the title "Mice"), and received a review from The Times Literary Supplement, which said "exceptional promise," why not pursue his way as an artist? And his next project "London Pleasure" which must be the next Joyce or Eliot will be completed soon, probably next month, or next year perhaps....

As his misadventure starts, Rosemary, his long-suffering but always faithful sweetheart, naturally is dismayed, and it takes a long time for him to realize that his happiness, whatever it is, is possible with her presence. But aside from the romantic aspect of the novel, which in itself is well-written with good portrait of independent Rosemary, the book attracts us with the author's satire on the middle-classness of England, which is represented by those ugly, die-hard aspidistra decorating the windows of every house. Gordon's loathing of respetability is deftly turned into a dark comedy that attack the parochical mind of some people, sometimes including Gordon himself. For instance, Gordon, no matter how poor and disheveled he becomes, never lets his girlfriend Rosemary pay the check of lunch because, in a word, it is not proper. Those who are interested in Englishness might find something amusing in this book, I assure you.

As is his satire, Orwell's English style is always full of power, brisk and lively, and never lets you bored. The only demerit is, as time has changed since then 1936, some names are no longer familiar to us; once hugely popular novelists like Ethel M Dell is mentioned with derogatory comments from Gordon, and her bestselling novel "The Way of an Eagle" is clearly treated as trash in Orwell's mind, but in the 21st Century whoever read them? Hence, some part of the book is lost on us if you don't know these names like Dell or Hugh Walpole, but never mind. Such part consists only small part, and if you don't get it, just skip it.

At the time of publishing, "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" was never a commercial success, and in Orwell's lifeime it was never reprinted, but these facts should not discuorage you from reading it. It is wickedly funny book that makes you, if not smile, at least grin not a little.

The book was made a movie in 1997 as "The Merry War" starring Richard E Grant and Helena Bohnam Carter. The film, more inclined to romance side of the book, is also a good one. Try it.

The aspidistra plant is symbolic of the statis quo to our belligerent anti-hero Gordon Comstock; of common British middle-middle class stock; a family that "nothing ever happened to." His battle against the aspidistra and money and making good is existential but he doesn't know this having never read THE STRANGER because it hasn't been written yet. This narrative of all the things wrong with a consumer/free market/capitalist society between world wars could easily be written now by some starving young writer in any large city here in the United States of America. Here is a man who realizes early on that "Faith, hope, money --only a saint could have the first two without having the third." Yet I found myself rooting him on, wanting him to win his battle which is really impossible to do because even if you are on the fringes of a society you are still inescapably part of it. In this way THE STRANGER is the book with the happy ending despite the declarations on the jacket of KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING of an "upbeat ending".

In a capitalist society, there is no way to escape the rampant worship of money. Or is there? This is the central dilemma of Geore Orwell's Keep The Aspidistra Flying.

Keep The Aspidistra Flying is the story of Gordon Comstock ("common stock"?), an idealistic young man who leaves a respectable middle-class job in an effort to free himself from what he sees as the stultifying greed of bourgeois exsistence. Like that other great English novelist, Charles Dickens, Orwell trots out a varied cast of eccentric characters to keep us entertained as he makes his points. While lacking the history-stopping power of later works such as Animal Farm and 1984, Keep The Aspidistra Flying posseses a dry wit and a heartfelt charm that is all its own. Recommended to idealistic young men (and women) everywhere.

A children's story that may be read on several different level's, North Wind is a timeless work of literature. Eagerly anticipated and listened to by the children I read it to, the story also strikes deeply at our adult sense of spirituality. This is the kind of writing that brings back the rewarding closeness of reading aloud to others. Too bad we don't do more of this.

This children's book has had a profound impact on my faith and spirituality. It is a book I have read and re-read over the years, especially when I am struggling with my faith. The story, Diamond's relationship with the North Wind, satisfies one on an almost mystical level. Its simple, beautiful story leaves one knowing that no matter what happens in the world, God is God; and we can rest assured that He is in control. We can be at peace, in spite of the pain and evil in the world.

Don't look for answers. Simply read the story and let it wash over you. If you have the faith of a child, you will not be unaffected.

This enchanting classic is as lively and moving to read as the day it was written. There is no Victorian stodginess or moralizing here. I remember reading an essay where Simone Weil lamented over the difficulty of portraying goodness in literature--in fiction evil seemed to dominate. Well here in the character of the lad Diamond is one of the most convincing evocations of human goodness and saintliness in literature, childrens' or adult. One is reminded of St. Francis of Assisi when contemplating Diamond; his purity, innocense, and unselfconsciousness float right off the page. I especilly call your attention to the dialogue between Diamond and his mother on the beach as she tries hopelessly to explain to him that now they are poor. His sublimely worldly (and yet otherworldly )responses are both hilarious and deeply moving. One of MacDonald's core beliefs, so often and passionately stated throughout his writings, is here given flesh and blood: goodness is truth.

This is a great book for students...because it's not heavy! Seriously, the chapters are short and concise,heavenly stuff when you're cramming the night before exams.The writing is clear and focused...it doesn't meander off into extreme details. The illustrations are self explanatory...and the pictures are graphic and gross...like they should be in a infectious disease textbook. Too bad there aren't more of them!

This book covers every medical microbiology topic that is needed for class exams or the USLME. The book is intensely filled with very elaborated information that any medical student needs to pass his or her exams. My study group and I also used the following for class exams and the USLME and found it extremely helpful. I also purchased this book on amazon which is the following:
Microbiology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers by Patrick Leonardi (ISBN: 0971999635)
The questions in this study guide were on target with my class exams and was an excellent reference for the USLME. Buy both books. Most definitely!!

The first thing to understand about this book is that it is a textbook and a difficult one. The difficulty for the beginning student or general reader is not a fault of the authors. Rather it is because medical microbiology itself is a daunting subject full of organisms that can only be seen fuzzily with an electron microscope, if at all, organisms involved in processes and behaviors that are foreign to our everyday experience. Add the fact that most of the material covered here is not part of a non-specialist curriculum either in high school or college, and effectively speaking the untrained reader is starting from scratch.

Well, why do that? First of all, because the material itself--how viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other infectious organisms enter the body, replicate, and cause disease--is fascinating and of immediate relevance to our lives. Second because (to my knowledge) there is little or nothing else available to the general reader that goes beyond a sketchy introduction to the subject. One is forced to read a text book. Fortunately this is a good one and it is thorough.

The text covers the range of infectious disease from viruses to tapeworms. The amount of technical information presented is daunting, and the sheer expanse of terminology a challenge (why is there no glossary?). The text is lavishly illustrated with photos and electron micrographs of the pathogens, as well as numerous schematic drawings showing how microorganisms cause disease, how they replicate, their chemical structure, their morphology, etc.

The instructional schematic drawings I found less valuable than the electron micrographs, but I suspect for the student of microbiology it might be the other way around.

What you'll get out of this handsome book depends on how much time and energy you are able to devote to it. I started reading this in the hope that I would, perhaps by osmosis, pick up some feel for life at the micron level, and I did. Obviously if I had been able to study the text with the help of an instructor, I would have learned a lot more.

Which came first: the anti-gentile or the anti-semite?
A semite is a racial type: kinky hair, aquiline nose, olive complexion.

The Arabs and Jews both are Semites, while many converts to Judaism are blond straight-haired, pug nosed people.

Sarte's book is confusing.

.
There is an implied racist ideology in the Chosenness theme of Judaism. Chosenness is a form of ethnic (and economic) supremacy, as is clearly revealed in The Torah.

Exodus 22:25: If you lend money to any of My people (Israelites, Jews) who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, you shall not charge him interest (as you would to Gentiles).

Leviticus 25:43-46: And as for the male and female slaves whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves . . .and they shall become your property. And you may take them as an inheritance for your childdren after you to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your permanent slaves. BUT REGARDING YOUR BRETHREN, THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, YOU SHALL NOT RULE OVER ONE ANOTHER WITH RIGOR.

Thus, The Torah, the Jewish Law, well establishes the ethnic and economic supremancy theme of Judaism. It is the Anti-Gentilism of Judaism that has traditionally provoked mistrust of people who do not embrace Judaism.

Sartre has borrowed the concept of "authentic" and "inauthentic"
from Martin Heidegger, a German Nazi, who used the term inauthentic to describe an alienated German worker, who was exploited by capitalist industrialist-bankers.

The Nazis and the Arabs, as well as some radical Christian groups have so resented the Chosenness theme of Judaism that they have turned the tables on the Jews of Judaism and declared themselves the "chosen people."

Anti-Semitism is not created by Gentiles. It is created by the philosophy of Judaism, which designates the Jews themselves as appointed by God (as revealed to Moses) to rule the Earth. Any Jew who denies this is in my opinion guilty of what Sartre himself calls "bad faith." Bad faith is when one lies to himself about the true meaning of his own acts.

Freud used the term projection, an ego defense mechanism in which one attributes one own unacceptable impulses or attitudes to others.

Once again, it is not the Gentile that has created anti-Semitism, but the pervasive chosenness theme of Judaism, which is undeniably fascist. There is no getting around it!

One more point might be made, that it is the Arab, who is also a Semite, who is indeed one of the greatest foes of Judaism.

Sartre seemingly can't see the forest for the trees!

The so-called anti-semite is a figment of the imagination of Sartre, Freud, and others like them. The philosophy of Judaism is based on the Law of Moses, which designates the Israelites as the Chosen people, with the Moses-given right to enslave the other nations of the world, as is clearly revealed in Leviticus 25:43-45.

Today, such a philosophy endorsing ethnic supremacy (which is the real meaning of Chosenness) would very appropriately be designated fascism.

Sartre's Anti-Semite & Jew is an exercise in what I would call Jewish paranoia, which in my opinion is a mask to conceal
the Anti-Gentilism of the Jew! It is sort of an exercise in what Freud himself called "projection," an ego defense mechanism in which one attributes one's own unacceptable impulses or attitudes to others.

And as other scholars have already said, Sartre shows a blatant inability to comprehend the psychodynamics of the Jewish religion and of Jewish history. To use his own term, "bad faith," Anti-Semite & Jew is indeed an exercise in bad faith.

"Bad Faith" is when one lies to one's self about the true nature of one's actions.

Sartre borrowed the concepts of "authentic" and "inauthentic" from Martin Heidegger. Interestingly, Heidegger was both a German and a Nazi, and Heidegger used the term to describe working class German workers who were exploited by industrial-capitalists and bankers. However, Sartre use of the words is in my opinion inappropriate. In other words, the Jew's problem is that he refuses to accept the FACT that it is his identity with an implicitly fascist social-political philosophy that understandably provokes the mistrust of others.

The problem for the Jew is that he wants to have his cake and eat it to.

At Caterpillar, we require that Lean Manufacturing tools be embedded within our 6 Sigma methodology. 6 Sigma provides the overarching infrastructure,and we supplement its quality methods with the Lean tools to accelerate process velocity. We have worked with Mike George throughout our deployment and have read the drafts of this book while it was in preparation. With the help of Lean Manufacturing enrichment modules from George Group, we have been able to fully integrate Lean with 6 Sigma as our Unifying Framework. 6 Sigma and Lean are great complements for driving process excellence. Mike's book, Lean Six Sigma is a detailed and proven implementation approach. It's an outstanding book and a must read for anyone committing to improving corporate performance.

Dave Burritt
6 Sigma Corporate Champion
Caterpillar Inc.

When we launched our Six Sigma journey, many of our top managers had heard of mixed results with other initiatives. In fact, the methodology described in this book has allowed us to make such major strides that the results have made all our people become advocates. As a Berkshire Hathaway company, prioritizing projects around ROIC, as espoused in Lean Six Sigma, supports our corporate objectives. The integration of Lean on a foundation of Six Sigma tools described in this book has equipped our Black Belts to successfully attack virtually any business problem. Lean Six Sigma is a book every executive and manager ought to read.

When we launched our Six Sigma journey, many of our top managers had heard of mixed results with other initiatives. In fact, the methodology described in this book has allowed us to make such major strides that the results have made all our people become advocates. As a Berkshire Hathaway company, prioritizing projects around ROIC, as espoused in Lean Six Sigma, supports our corporate objectives. The integration of Lean on a foundation of Six Sigma tools described in this book has equipped our Black Belts to successfully attack virtually any business problem. Lean six Sigma is a book every executive and manager ought to read.

Orwell's foray into two separate worlds of utter poverty is definitely fascinating. In Paris, he writes clearly of restaurant scutwork and the lives that are wasted in such brutal conditions. The pettiness and sweat that comprise the days are remarkable for their constancy, and Orwell does an excellent job conveying the mind-numbing exhaustion that accompanies 18-hour days. Alternating such long days with periods of job searches, this section provides a still-relevant look at those who live a single paycheck from homelessness.
London has a different pace, as Orwell spends a month tramping about while waiting for a job to come through. His happiness at being back in England is obvious, and regular comments about the friendliness and pure spirit of the English people get a little repetitive, but he uses those feelings to make an important point. Closing the chapter is a short address that speaks of poverty and English laws that made it extremely difficult to establish any sort of regular life; he brings the still-present plight of the homeless into sharp relief. His points about certain institutions "stinking of charity" are fantastic food for thought for anyone employed in the social services.
With such insight into poverty, his casual rascism is jolting. Easy and frequent references to Jews, Irish, Russians, and pretty much everyone who isn't a native Englishman are abysmally in key with the times the book was written, and it gets tiresome. Ultimately, it is disappointing that a writer can be so passionate about overthrowing the stereotype of the "tramp monster", and yet so thoughtlessly perpetuate the idea that all Jews have large noses, wiry black hair, and cheat everyone they have dealings with. These attitudes will lessen the overall value of this work for some readers, but there is still much to gain from giving it a try.

In Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell brings to life the tales of people experiencing poverty in Paris and London.
I thought he beautifully described his life in Paris as a plongeur at Hotel X where he worked in a filthy 110 degree cellar for long hours, only to be paid about 20 francs a day. He had to trade his clothes into a pawn shop just to eat.
In London, Orwell lived his life as a tramp, living in hostels called spikes and suffering from complete boredom. There he meets a man named Paddy, who lives in the spike with him, and Bozo, who teaches him about street beggars.
Overall this was a great book. I love it how Orwell adds true stories from other plongeurs or tramps in order for us to further understand life in poverty.
"It is altogether curious, your first contact with poverty. You have thought so much about poverty-it is the thing you have feared all your life, the thing you knew would happen to you sooner or later; and it is all so utterly and prosaically different. You thought it would be quite simple; it is extraordinarily complicated. You thought it would be terrible; it is merely squalid and boring. It is the peculiar lowness of poverty that you discover first; the shifts that it puts you to, the complicated meanness, the crust-wiping." -G. Orwell

In his semi-autobiographical work "Down & Out in Paris and London", Orwell first takes us to Paris in the late 1930's where the narrator (who bears a striking resemblance to Orwell) is living in squalid hotels and desperately trying to get by. Unable to find work as a writer, he gets jobs in hotels and restaurants, working long hours as a plongeur/dishwasher. His accounts of what occurs in the kitchens and back rooms of fine dining establishments make one think twice about dining out. The narrator shares accounts of others he meets living a similar life and how they survive by continually pawning their belongings to buy scraps of food. In the second part of the book, the narrator, sick of life in Paris and longing for the familiarity of Britain, moves back to London to begin a job. The job does not begin immediately so he spends time as a tramp moving from shelter to shelter. The system and policies of these shelters was very enlightening.

I personally enjoyed the Paris part of the book more than the London part. The writing in "Down & Out in Paris and London" is simple yet wonderful and sharp. It is a relatively easy read and highly informative. As you read the book you begin to understand what it must be like to live a life of poverty.