This little book packs a powerful punch. It's got everything, and it's presented concicely. Definitely a "buy" recommendation!

This book provides accurate, concise information about the legends associated with several mythical beasts. It's both a great quick reference for writers and an enjoyable read for fantasy fans who want to know more about the origins of their favorite creatures.

This is an absolute value! Most of James's published writings including the hard to find "Pluralistic Universe" and "Essays in Radical Empiricism" are here. As well, we get the compolete "Pragmatism", "The Meaning of Truth" and excerpts from "Varieties" and "Psychology".

Before reading this collection, I'd read quite a bit of James. I bought this primarily for "Essays in Radical Empiricism" and "Pluralistic Universe" as this edition is cheaper than buying them seperately. I decided, though, that I'd read this one straight through and I'm glad I did. James is an amazingly astute, extremely relevant (if to some, troubling) thinker.

Unfortunately, James has been somewhat ignored. His goal as evidenced by most of this volume was to break the dualism prevelant in philosophy of an exagerated empiricism and an equally exagerated rationalism. James devoted most of his career not to building a solid and reductionistic philosophy (the activity of todays preferred philosophers) but to wiping the slate clean, being realistic about what we can know versus speculation, and reporting how things really are rather than what makes us comfortable. While James' commitment to radical empiricism and pragmatism made and make philosophers balk, they are also why we need to read and discuss him today.

My only complaints (for which I don't subtract anything) are: 1.) that the book does not go from one book in its entirety to another. Rather an essay from "Psychology" may be followed by one from "The Will to Beleive" and vice versa. This annoyed my because I did want to read them as they were meant to be read (chronological essays). Still, the divied up essays are good for continuities sake (as the editor did a good job sequencing them.

2.) As James probably did not intend for any one person to read all of his essays, he repeats himself (in ideas and words) frequently. In fact, in James' essay collection "The Will to Beleive" he apologizes in his preface for repeating paragraphs verbatum during various lecture/essays. Imagine that X 10. Oh, well! MInor compaints for such a great collection. Also, recommended is the "Writings of John Dewey" also put together by McDermott.

The title is accurate: this is certainly a comprehensive edition of the work of William James. Included are several hundred pages of essays that lay out in complete detail the psychological and philosophical ideology of William James. You can not buy a better James work, and especially not for $25 or less.

I read this book as part of a German Lit. in Translation class. Wolf was by far the best author we read. The book pulls the reader right into the story so you feel like it is happening to you. Wolf challenges readers to think about the way we are treating our world and question whether we are making the right decisions. What is particularly interesting about Wolf is that she is so blunt about the world's problems but she still has hope. The book left a strong impression on me.

A fine work that accurately and truthfully talks about and displays the truth about the Phoenix Program. The author obviously spent a great deal of time on thorough research with operatives who were actually there. This book shows Phoenix for what it was, an effective grass roots campaign to root out and capture the Viet Cong Infrastructure.

Most other books I've seen on the subject have largely been the delusional fantasies of wannabes who were never there. The types who clog VA centers claiming PTSD for top secret commando missions they were never on. This book only interviewed real Phoenix operatives.

Hats off to Mr. Andrade. Job well done.

Fuller's "The Best of Jackson Payne" is an ambitious novel. Were it concerned with a man's life and especially a jazz life, it would be interesting. The fact that Fuller tackles some harder questions of philosophy in a fluent literary wrapper, makes the book remarkable, and a remarkable achievement. Some of these questions include: How can we know another person? Is "truth" a composite? What explains great art?, and the great question of aesthetics -- is the life of an artist relevant to an understanding of his art?

Slowing down to wrap the reader in the reality of these issues, never so bluntly posed, Fuller brings to life Jackson Payne, a composite rendering of a saxophonist, and full-featured, full-blooded man in the world. We find in Payne a Faustian character at once difficult and sublime, no matter where or when we find him. He is a hero in Korea, later deep in heroin addiction, in prison, performing at the top of the jazz world, betraying some, loyal to others, complex, conflicted, modern, an enigma to himself. A Bronze Star, "that should have been Silver," seems a small reward for the wounds that Payne takes from Korea. If jazz is the symbol of Payne's existence, so is Korea. The hard side of Payne -- Korea, junk, prison, his murder or assisted suicide, always stand in balance to his achievement in art -- some great records, some good relationships, some great performances, a cult around him as a supremely gifted experimentalist.

Jazz fans will puzzle more over who served as the model for Payne than the manner of his death, which Fuller builds to full-blown mystery status by the final pages. Certainly Payne is drawn from several jazzmen's biographies, and to have made him anything other would have denied Fuller the opportunity to explore generally the jazz life, especially that of the 1945-75 era of which he writes. It is hard to escape the belief that nonetheless the author had someone in mind, just as love songs are said to be about a particular person. Clues are scattered throughout the text, for example, Payne has a low point where he opens for some sixties rock groups - music "so bad that it shouldn't even be heard through a wall." Sounds like Archie Shepp, or Pharoah Sanders, just as earlier passages suggest Dexter Gordon, Coleman Hawkins, or Sonny Rollins. But there are just too many other clues --- an R & B background, mastery of every playable scale, rhythm, syncopation, extended solos (some lovely, some excruciating) the reach to the sublime spiritual level, and a wife a lot like Alice -- to make it that hard to hazard a guess. If Jackson Payne isn't mostly John Coltrane, his music has got to be the closest suspect. For jazz followers this is satisfying to a great degree. Fuller allows Payne to live another 10 years beyond the life of Coltrane, and projects what direction his music might have taken. In Payne he hints, toward the sweeter, certain of its roots, self-referential but not arcane, with a profound human touch. We have always wondered where Coltrane would have taken jazz, in Jackson Payne, Fuller gives us a sophisticated, informed guess. There is a lot of jazz criticism laced in the book. Fuller dismisses Miles' late experimentation with rap beats, which provides another clue that jazz development suffered the end of its most interesting evolutionary line with Coltrane's death.

But this is all conjecture. The recreation of Payne's life is all conjecture. After Joyce, and Gide, and William S. Burroughs, time-splicing, multiple points of view, and the unreliable narrator are no longer pioneering literary novelties. In the post-modern narrative these techniques are no longer employed for effect, but for thematic purpose. Fuller uses all of these approaches to build his largest theme, a theory of knowledge, within several sub-texts, not the least interesting of which is the nature of jazz, its origins, and its "meaning." Jazz is, and is not, a metaphor in this book. The time-splicing, syncopation, lyricism, painful and blissful reality of the tale are difficult to mistake as an extended literary solo that literally builds on the basis of Payne's life in the first 200 pages, to the free form explosion of the final third of the book.

If "The Best of Jackson Payne" sounds like a compilation CD, so in fact it is, --- a distillation of a complicated, pained, sad, but ultimately triumphant life. Fuller reaches across race, age, class, gender, and truthfulness in the narratives of the informants he quotes in the book. The remarks of his alter ego, Quinlan, a musicologist who is stiving to re-create the life and death of his hero Payne, are italicized in the latter part of the novel. Un-italicized replies and commentary comes from informants who for the most part have been introduced earlier in the text. Some informants are not introduced, but their identities are intuited. The reader begins to understand the reference and the shifting points of view. Now you are playing jazz with the master.

One ought to forgive the author his day job. He writes convincingly of shooting galleries, jazz charts and clubs, and has an ear for the profane end of the world where pain and suffering turn to art. We forgave Charles Ives and Raymond Chandler their careers in insurance. Fuller runs the risk of being mistaken for a Pulitzer-winning editor and publisher of a major newspaper and not the very great novelist he has become.

If you know someone who watched Ken Burns' "Jazz" and now wants to know what jazz is REALLY about, or if you want a companion to Ashley Khan's "Kind of Blue," if you don't have a CD player but want to hear jazz, are interested in philosophy as literature, or literature as literature, this is the place to start.

This is what I want from a travel guide. As I'm considering a lengthy trip to Arizona, and to Phoenix specifically, I want to know the what's what on the what-to-see. "The Best of Phoenix and Tucson: The Ten Best" has that, with a hearty dash of personality.

Lots of travel guides take a similar tack: list the top ten of the usual categories. What makes this one different is that the writers have avoided becoming lackeys to the hotel of entertainment industry. Instead of being crammed with corporate logos, they focus on their opinion. I like that.

No one will be surprised to read most of the lists: dining, resorts, romantic vistas, but nice to see were lists like, "The Ten Best Other Ethnic Restaurants." Naturally, they have a number of general and Hispanic restaurant lists, but I was pleased to see the authors really did their homework. Now I know I can check out "Peter's European Cafe" and taste their Hungarian palacsintas (stuffed crepes).

Phoenix and Tucson are neighbors. Anyone visiting one community is likely to visit the other, but they are not twin cities. Therefore, the writers wisely create separate sections for each city. Anyone willing to make the 110 mile drive will be ready.

A tourist will love this book, but I suspect any local will discover things about his home city previously hidden deep in the phone book.

I fully recommend "The Best of Phoenix and Tucson: The Ten Best" by Don W. Martin, Betty Woo Martin.

Anthony Trendl

Boss Cox's Cincinnati: Urban Politics In The Progressive Era is a scholarly and meticulously researched examination of late nineteenth century big city politics as exemplified by the political structures of Cincinnati, Ohio under George B. Cox's political machine. Zane Miller (Charles Phelps Taft Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of Cincinnati) carefully explores both the nature and the significance of "bossism" and how it and municipal reform were both essential components of the political system in a the time of labor and ethnic unrest, election violence, rising crime rates, political innovation, and civic achievement. Boss Cox's Cincinnati is a highly recommended addition to political science reference collections and reading lists.

a beautiful book that captures the awesomeness of this important landmark of phoenix..read it before the climb and then again afterwards and found it so much more meaningful. a great gift for any climber .. it will wet your appetite to make the ascent... wonderful history on preserving this mountain too...

Leland J. Hanchett, Jr. takes you back to the old west when the stage coach first rumbled on Arizona's dusty trails. New roads were built between Prescott and Wickenburg, Wickenburg and Phoenix and then Phoenix to Prescott via the Black Canyon to accommodate the new stage line. Hanchett uses the actual transcripts from the Prescott Miner newspaper to help delineate the many triumphs and woes of these new roads.

You'll meet true western personalities such as Darrel Duppa, Henry Wickenburg and Jack Swilling. These men are emblematic of Arizona's rich history and Hanchett does a nice job of portraying their character.

Don't miss 'Catch the Stage to Phoenix" if you are even remotely interested in Arizona history. I found myself reading it twice because I was afraid I missed something the first time around. This book is also full of interesting pictures and maps. This book is a winner and will make you want to read more of Leland J. Hanchett.