This book is an excellent reference for pianists and music lovers alike. It covers a vast amount of piano literature, essentially all classical and modern piano music heard today and also lots of music little heard. For each piece, organized by composer and period, a short review is presented, intended to give the reader an idea of the piece's artistic value, technical difficulty, etc. Although only to be used as a general guideline, these comments are valuable. Well worth the money!

Irwin's award winning book is a stimulating application of now traditional 'new' literary criticism/analysis and more recent and trendy (read: quasi-post-modern) devices. The result is a frequently absorbing study of the labyrinthine minds of Poe and Borges, as seen principally through their related six detective pieces. Unfortunately the sutures as well as the strivings-for-effect from Irwin's foundational lectures stand too proud, making for greater appeal to academics than to even highly motivated general readers. Irwin's work would find and deserve more cover-to-cover readers, rather than citation researchers, if a second edition were edited for repetitiveness and prolixity.

In what may be his most ambitious non-fiction work to date, Mr. Irwin has tackled a truly daunting task - an anthology of Arabic literature. I give him four stars. The fourth star is for attempting the effort in the first place.

Theoretically, there is no reason why it should be any more difficult to prepare an anthology of Arabic literature than it would be for, say, Chinese literature; rather the contrary. However, I suspect that preparing an Arabic anthology is much harder. First of all, the traditional themes of Arabic literature - religion, romantic lament, fate, panegyric - on the whole have little appeal for Westerners, especially compared to a literature like the Chinese, which seems so secular and "modern" in theme by comparison. Secondly, most truly great Arabic literature is poetry, which is notoriously difficult to translate, and what's worse, the canons of poetic taste that govern it are almost entirely untranslatable into anything comparable in English.

Despite these handicaps, Irwin has done an admirable job. One notices that there is a great deal of commentary. The selections tend to be short, with a great deal of explanation in between. There is so much commentary, in fact, that the book sometimes seems more a literary history than an anthology. However, this approach is necessary if the reader is to develop any appreciation at all of the material. Quite frankly, Arabic literature is a closed book to most readers, even in translation, and without a large amount of explanatory material the average reader would be lost.

Irwin also resists the impulse, very common in specialists in a given literary area, of putting in a large number of his own translations. He does an excellent job of selecting the translations, in fact - a difficult task in itself, because there is an incredibly large number of bad translations from Arabic; for many translators, the attempt to be faithful to the Arabic models simply results in English doggerel. You will find no examples of this type in the book.

If there is little to be said about the period after roughly 1300, there is a good reason for this: most of the truly great literature produced in the Middle East after that time was written in Farsi, and to a lesser degree in Turkish, both of which are not part of the subject matter for this book. In doing so, Mr. Irwin perhaps handicaps himself, but his intent is obviously to focus on Arabic literature. Outside of specialists, very little Arabic literature is known, whereas a great deal of Persian literature is readily available.

Certainly, it will be a long time before the names of Abu Nuwas or Mutanabbi are houshold words. Before that can happen, however, there must be an appreciation of the literary environment that formed Clasical Arabic literature. Mr. Irwin's book is admirable in its attempt to convey that environment. To the reader sincerely interested in deepening his knowledge of Arabic civilization, it will be rewarding. To the reader whose goal is not that lofty, the book admittedly may be a bit of a chore to get through, but that does not impugn the effort.

I bought this book for my husband's elk hunting trips. The book is only 1/2-inch thick, yet it gives lots of ideas for healthy cooking at camp (or offshore) when you reduce your cooking gear to only one pot or pan to save weight and space. The recipes are sorted by the type of pan best suited for them (fry pan vs. pot).

It discusses what mixes or preparation can be done before leaving home, how to pack the food for hiking, and how to rig a bear bag to keep the food safe from varmints. Mr. Jacobson even shows how to build an oven from a 3-pound coffee can. My husband likes the checklist of essential kitchen tools and spices.

For the non-cook, Mr. Jacobson has included recipes for scrambled eggs, hard-boiled eggs and fresh coffee. However, this little book also includes more exotic recipes such as Calcutta Chicken and Red-Eye Stew.

Mr. Jacobson's fare is geared to a 2-night outing, allowing him to carry fresh food rather than rely on dehydrated food.

It's a useful little book, one that stashes easily in the truck or boat. Camping out doesn't have to mean hot dogs and beans!

This is a thorough overview on operations management. It's usefull and remarkable but lacks a deeper mathematical analysis in some issues and oversupply cases to work on (without solutions or guidelines). I have read the international student edition.

The book may be 15 years old, but nearly every litigator could benefit from reading it and adopting the author's recommendations for clear and direct court papers. Law students and new lawyers, too, would be better off in the long run if they started their careers by mimicking this book and the forms it suggests.

It covers complaints, answers, discovery documents, motions, briefs, orders, and more. The text is easy to read and is tied closely to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The author is an experienced litigator with lots of practical advice to offer.

I recommend this book, but it does need to be updated to reflect both the current version of the Federal Rules and a more contemporary writing style.

as an importer of mexican pottery I have been to most of the places depicted. The book is great,. factual, I need a copy to find new areas to import from for my mexician pottery business. however the book does need to be updated as it does not refelct the expansion of new styles and new locations of pottery in mexico.

The book is well organized but it is very expensive. There are a lot of examples and explanations included.

REVENGE OF THE SON OF THE WORLD'S TACKIEST POSTCARDS is indeed tacky. I had no idea that the world was peppered with postcards such as these. In here you'll see hilarious cards from the 50's and 60's and find yourself asking, "why would someone send a postcard about chopped Balkan horse hearts?" Just be glad someone did, otherwise your everyday boring life would be deprived of such campy, pointless humor. This is a book you'll pick up periodically for years and laugh ferociously every time. I promise. A BONUS: The postcards are perforated and ready to send! Certainly a must!