I'll make this review brief:

Cather didn't know how to write very well when she put this novel together. I have read iher style here as being comparable to Henry James... no way. This novel is too short, too abrupt, and too lacking in the details needed to pull off decent character motivation, somethng I find vital to novels dealing with infidelity and love.

The scenes read as disjuncted and they do not develop very well. If you want a short Cather novel that is better and want to avoid the commonplace Death Comes for the Archbishop, then try "My Mortal Enemy" This shows Cather off at the better end of her career.

Light on plot, heavy on symbolism, and a little predictable, Cather's first novel (a novella, actually) still contains moments of brilliance, especially in its strong characterizations and occasional flashes of wit. The story concerns a Boston architect who is contendedly married but suddenly embarks on an affair in London with an old flame from his youth. He soon becomes tormented over his double life but finds himself unable to resolve his conflicted feelings. Heavily indebted to the Gilded Age novelists, "Alexander's Bridge" reads like a typical first novel from a writer who shows a lot of promise.

Later in life, Cather wrote an essay entitled "My First Novels (There Were Two)," as close to an apology for a first novel as most writers ever make. She admitted that most of the "younger writers" in her peer group followed the manner of Henry James and Edith Wharton, "without having their qualifications"; she "thought a book should be made out of 'interesting material.'" Only while writing her next novel, "O Pioneers!," did she realize that "taking a ride through a familiar country"--the rural Nebraska of her youth--was "a much more absorbing process." Nevertheless, "Alexander's Bridge" hints at the virtuoso novelist she was later to become, and it's certainly better than many writers achieve in an entire lifetime.

This was Willa Cather's first novel, and, while showing glimpses of her later talent, is mostly disappointing. The metaphor of the bridge--the conduit to both the past and the future--figures prominently in this story of a Boston architect torn between his ongoing "mid-life" crisis and his energetic, passion-filled past.

The story contains some heavy-handed symbolism (e.g., the bridge), melodramatic action ("With one [hand] he threw down the window and with the other--still standing behind her--he drew her back against him), and awkward phrasing: "'He was simply the most tremendous response to stimuli I have ever known.'"

Still, the story moves along well, and there is an interesting Henry James-like contrast of Europe and America. The beginning nicely portrays the Boston upper class, and the dramatic conclusion includes passages of great strength and imagination. It is in this last chapter, especially, that her skills are most evident. Willa Cather is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "O Pioneers!" "My Antonia," and other great works. Definitely recommended for those with an interest in her work.

The author does not explain how to design, nor even the basic elements of design. Her instruction boils down to "look at what the professionals have done." For instance, on the subject of designing your own stained glass pieces, she suggests re-drawing any (or all!) of the 84 designs included in the book. Just keep re-drawing them until you get a feel for proper design. And on the subject of reinforcing your pieces, she suggests looking at how professionals have reinforced their works, and then experiment with different methods and products until you figure out what works. This is not helpful advice from a professional, this is the type of advice you might get from a novice pretending to know what they're talking about. Keep looking for a good design book.

The book covered some of the basic principles of design pretty well. I found the section on shapes that should not be used to be rather helpful. I was expecting there to be more on blending different textures of glass, working with light sources, using color and line, and other principles of design, but this book did not cover these subjects. I also thought the patterns were a little disappointing -- some of them were nice, but others (such as the Spiderman and motocyclist patterns) seemed rather dated.

This book weaves useful bits of knowledge about tools and techniques into its text. It is a substantial leap above the average 'how to' stained glass book.

I am the same Tom Cai who reviewed this book about 1 year ago, and feel it is necessary to review it again. I admit Dr. Freeman has written many successful detective stories, but they can not be credited to this particular one. This book holds a place in the history of detective stories, because it created Thorndyke, but as a detective story, it is definitely not a very good one. It borrows various parts of Holmes and then pieces them together with a slightly different character and slightly different narration, then the job is done.

Many people disagree with me, because the thumb mark is made in a way different from the Norwood builder's. But this is really a minor issue. Once the author decides the thumb mark is fake and actually conveys this idea to the readers, it is no good to spend much pain on how it is made. A detective story is not supposed to be a science story. The former emphasizes on DEDUCTION rather than profound science knowledge, because not every reader is a PhD or MD as Freeman. Even if someone is, he might well be in a different discipline. Doyle is in no way less educated than Freeman, but he always applies the most practical method with the least scientific knowledge in the conducting of a crime. This makes Doyle's story not only full of surprises (Watsons would say: ah, it's that simple), but also more read-able than Freeman's lecture. Even in the view of science story, people would question whether Polton's (Thorndyke's assistant) various patents are realistic.

Nevertheless, I can't deny it is helpful for Freeman's future career, which makes Thorndyke a distinct character rather than a mimic of Holmes. The only difference between Doyle and Freeman is that the former is a genius while the latter is just talented.

Edwardian London: a city of squalor, pea-soup fogs, and primitive detective work. Into this city, is introduced Dr John Thorndyke, a pathologist, who appears as an expert witness in court cases for both the defence and prosecution. He is also a detective who seeks to solve cases.

In this first Thorndyke story by R Austin Freeman (the first of many in the series), Thorndyke takes on a new assistant Dr. Jervis. Dr Jervis is the foil to Thorndyke, just as Dr Watson is to Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Thorndyke also explores more than just the case, by having Jervis fall in love. Dr Jervis' love affair is an interesting diversion in how it reveals middle-class values at the turn of the century.

The basis of this story is interesting: can forensic science be wrong; can you fake fingerprints on evidence ? The book is not a 'who dun it' in the conventional sense. Most readers will identify the obvious villain early on. The challenge is to work out how the crime was done and then to prove that it was done that way. Of course, Thorndyke frees the innocent man in the end.

Thorndyke is a more scientific detective than Holmes and achieves surprising results, even within the primitive knowledge and techniques of his day.

The Red Thumb Mark is the novel that introduces to the world one of the greatest "scientific" detectives in all literature: Dr. John Thorndyke. It is rightly regarded as one of the all-time classics in mystery fiction. Raymond Chandler, for example, who typically hated British detective fiction for its consistent implausibilities, found Austin Freeman's work and The Red Thumb Mark highly entertaining and readable.

The novel concerns Thorndyke's attempts to clear the name of a young man accused of stealing diamonds from a safe. A thumb mark (finger print) near the scene of the crime is the only evidence against the young man, but it is decidedly damning. Add a little romance, a sinister villian lurking in the background, and you have the ingredients that make up this story.

I found the work to be wonderfully exciting. Watching Thorndyke break down the evidence against the young man is a fascinating expereince. Though a person could argue that too much detail is given to the "science" aspect, you have to understand that these scenes are the backbone of this type of detective story.

In a day and age of corporate villiany, brutal crime bosses and hideous serial killers, The Red Thumb Mark might seem to some readers as painfully old-fashioned. Freeman's writing is similar (and often compared with) Conan Doyle, and there's little doubt that Freeman found inspiration from the Holmes canon. However, the novel's old-fashioned flavor is the very reason to recommend it. It's fun to walk the streets of Edwardian England, to see the sights, to hear the gentlemanly discussions, to share the thought processes of one of the great detective minds. This is the real magic of the novel.

Sadly, most of Freeman's work has long, long been out of print. I would recommend hunting among the used book stores for his other great mysteries, especially The Silent Partner, The Eye of Osiris, and my all-time favorite Mr. Pottermack's Oversight. These great novels are as highly recommended as The Red Thumb Mark. Someday, I hope the world rediscovers this highly talented writer and that he is placed along side with the other great names where he belongs.

Misleading Title- This book covers only designs from Keramic Studios. No depth and no inspiration. I would rate it 0 stars. A waste of money and in the trash it goes.

Authentic Designs from the American Arts and Crafts Movement has proven to be a very helpful and inspiring publication. Luckily, it turned out to be just exactly what I was looking for! I have used several of the illustrations as inspiration to create logos or spot illustrations for brochures and business cards. The illustrations in the book are well-drawn and easy to see. The halftone screenings of the originally full-color illustrations are a little flat, but they are still nicely reproduced. If there were more full-color illustrations, I would have granted this neat book 5 stars. Thanks for the concise collection of many great design ideas.

I thought I would like this book more based on the other review, but decided to return it instead. It was not what I was looking for. It did have many designs, but I felt they were common and basic.

This is a strong design book, among the best I've used. Beautiful, decorative, imaginative. I will use at least 85% of the designs, which seems rare for a book like this. If it had a CD-rom, it would be perfect.

I would be surprised if there is a worse Italian language learning tape on the market. A phrase is said in English, then once in Italian. Some are long and complex, and some are obsolete. The tape was originally recorded in 1958 or thereabouts, and includes vocabulary for such items as the milliner's shop and brushless shaving cream.

I came across this old program at the library... The format is almost the same as the modern "Learn in your Car" series where you hear a sentence once in English then in Italian for the entire duration of the recording and comes with a booklet containing the complete transcipts. The only difference is on this tape, the Italian is spoken only once instead of twice like on the "Learn in your Car" series. And of course, this isn't meant to really "teach" the language, but instead to present the right phrases a traveler would find useful to get by on a trip.

Since this is a much older program and recording (from the 50's), it's only natural that a few phrases will be outdated, overly-formal or simply not applicable in today's world. But I gave it 4 stars because personally I found that aspect very interesting compared to today's programs which I usually find boring and repetitive. And another big reason for the rating is the slow and very accentuated enunciation of the Italian speakers. It really makes the phrases "stick" more than other programs I heard, and of course many beginning students need a solid foundation in the right pronunciation and inflection (often very overlooked by people).

The only negative is that the Italian speakers in the recording for some strange reason pronounce the s the same exact way throughout. Anyone who knows Italian will tell you the s changes
from the "s" sound we know to a "z" sound when it's between 2 vowels... so the word "Inglese" is pronounced "een-gleh-zeh" and NOT "een-gleh-seh". As a matter of fact, the transcript which shows the written pronunciation for every word of every sentence does correctly indicate the "z" pronunciation when called for.

Also related to the first problem, the speakers pronounce certain "ce" sounds as "sheh" instead of "cheh" which is how it's supposed to be, like in the word "piacere" (pee-ah-cheh-reh.. NOT pee-ah-sheh-reh). Could it be the speakers have a reagional accent that uses a slightly different pronunciation?

I'm sure some people will be immediately turned off by some of the outdated phrases and production and assume that means the entire program is useless. But while it's true that in Italy you may not ever need to say to a dentist "I've lost a filling", if you really love the language and want to learn new words not used in most other programs then definately give this one a try.

I bought this book after having found out about it in Daniel Boorstin's "The Discoverers". I thought it was amazing that a firsthand account of the first voyage around the world had survived and yet appeared to be of so little renown. I thought that the reviewer from Lexington, KY's remarks about its readability had to be wrong, I mean, what a find this had to be!

I was wrong. This book is far from arresting. I, too, had to struggle to read more than a few pages a night. The book is not really about the circumnavigation of the globe, it was written as a present to Kings and Queens who, at that time, were mostly interested in the spice islands, where they were, and what their minions could expect to find once they found them. Accordingly, the great majority of the book is concerned with the Moluccas, the islands to be found around them, and descriptions of their respective peoples and customs.

As the KY reviewer pointed out before me, the endnotes are mostly a hindrance to the generalist, consisting almost entirely of really picayune differences between the "Yale MS" and several others. Only a handful of this type of endnote are helpful to the generalist. No attempt is made to separate the endnotes that would help a layman sort out the sense of a confusing passage or word from these others. The introduction is mostly a discussion of the differences between extant manuscripts.

This edition is also poorly constructed -- the text is near the binding so you want to open it wide, but the glue is so hard that you're afraid that you'll crack it, so you end up reading the sections near the binding at an angle. The illustrations reproduced have no geographical value and so much of what would be interesting about them is lost because they are reproduced in black and white.

I only give this two stars because Pigafetta's text is inherently interesting and I don't want to dissuade anyone from reading it. ...

This is an amazing detalied account written by one of the men who sailed on Magellan's voyage to the spice island of Molucca (1519-1521). This is also the principal first-hand source that we have today. Good in its descriptions of actions and thorough, all things considered, in anthopological details. It reads somewhat more like a log than a story. The translator fails sometimes to explain enigmatic wording, which is not easily conveyed to a modern reader, and expends a great number of the footnotes pointing out differences between this translation of the French MS and the Italian MS which may have better been executed with brackets. However, it is a difficult book to give a star-rating to. Even with the tremendous significance of the voyage that led to the first circumnavigation of the globe, and the details including collections of native words, I found this book lacked grip as a reading experience. For what amounts to only about 100 pages, I found it work to get through a couple chapters in a day. 48 chapters total, and 28 black and white maps from the French edition. But don't let this impression stear you away if you have a genuine interest in the event. This is the book to get for that.

I buyed this book wishing for advices on a skin disease I have. I am no a physician, and I found little use on the text. Its too much technical.
Maybe its valuable for somebody with a medicine degree.

While the information contained in the book is very helpful, getting to the information itself is another story. For example, I looked up "bump"--nothing; "red patch"--nothing, nothing under "red" and nothing under "patch." I wish they would have done a better job cross-referencing their index to make it easier to find what you need.

If you are at all trying to find sources for Japanese art, this is NOT the place to do it! Not only are the designs in the book non-Japanese they are worthless if you are using them for illustration or any reference to draw from. If you are looking for a source book for tattooing like I was, this is not it. To say this book was weak is a compliment. The biggest waste of money I've spent in a long time!

As a previous reviewer has noted, Clarence Hornung's "Traditional Japanese Stencil Designs" is not the book to purchase if you are seeking inspiration for tattoos. It is, however, of exceptional value if your interests include Japanese aesthetics in general and textile motifs in particular or if you are seeking sophisticated patterns that can be manipulated and reproduced as graphic designs.

The stencils included were originally designed for monochromatic printing on cotton textiles but are also typical of the patterns imprinted on deer-skin goods and traditional Japanese wrapping papers. More than any other volume in Dover's generously-sized library of books on Japanese design, Hornung's testifies to the Japanese genius for manipulating a few design elements into subtle and classically beautiful patterns. Some of the patterns are abstract and without specific meaning, but the overwhelming majority are rich in symbolism. Hornung's introduction discusses the most important of these symbolic meanings. However, the usefulness of the introduction is compromised by his failure to number the stencils and then identify for the reader precisely which plates represent each thematic motif.

The title is more grand than the projects. If you are an experienced crocheter, this book is a disappointment, to put it lightly. I could imagine that perhaps children aged 8-10 yrs would find these projects appropriate to their skills in crocheting, otherwise the designs are just dull and unpleasant. I am truly very sorry to say this, but this book is a waste of money.

Excellent selection of simple and quick crochet ornaments. Don't be deceived by the rather "unfinished" look of completed items on the covers. The pieces work up well and the Ruffled Wreath is stunning and a real eye catcher. Includes a clever stocking pattern and several different fans. Very clear line drawn crochet basic stitches with good explanations. Crochet instructions are clear and I found no typos. Excellent for beginning thread crochet.