Some of the other reviewers have faulted Luria for not noticing the resemblance bewteen his subject's memory techniques and those used in the Middle Ages. With all due respect to those reviewers, the point of this book (clearly stated by Luria in the introduction) is to examine the effect of such a remarkable capacity for memory on the development of the subject's PERSONALITY. The key is in the approach: to examine how personality structure may hinge on a feature of psychic activity. This book does NOT concern itself specifically with the mechanisms of memory, although, of course, these are discussed as a preliminary to the discussion of memory's effect on personality development.

Fascinating concept and much-heralded innovation in psychological analysis could have been woven into a classic but the result falls short. As a prior review points out quite helfpfully, S. (the subject of Luria's analysis) uses ancient mnemonic tecniques of which the author seems ignorant, although the most cursory research in the field of memory would have revealed them to him. Readers should not repeat Luria's error; read Frances Yates' "The Art of Memory" after finishing this book.

In addition, Luria relies far too often on the subject's self-description and analysis even in matters that could have been tested or at least observed. As a result, the impact of the subject's psychological condition on his day-to-day life is addressed but only descriptively; the subject is not brought to life or "humanized" as commentators claim. The subject could have written this book better himself.

It is indeed a very interesting story of a man
with (apparently) a limitless memory. Where
vivid visual imagery helps him remember, but
handicaps him as well, as he (e.g.) can't
read a single line of text without evoking
a lot of images, somehow not singling out what
is most important in a sentence.
Images those provides both an obstacle and
an aid to learning. A sentence like
"the work goes under way normally" gets difficult
to grasp because each word produces a separate
image that distracts him - still he is a great
mnemonist because of these same powers to produce
images.
Enlightening. Still, there is a lot more to be
learned (and said) about memory
and how it actually works, than what is found here.
But it is a start.

-Simon

Ambrose Bierce is as famous for the circumstances surrounding the end of his life as for his bitter fatalistic prose. Bierce was a journalist/author and a Civil War veteran. In 1913, after the breakup of his marriage and the death of his sons, he set out for Mexico to meet Pancho Villa and observe the Mexican Revolution at first hand. He wrote to a friend:

Goodbye, if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think it a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico--ah, that is euthanasia!

With that, he disappeared into Mexico and was never heard from again, fueling wild speculation about his fate (i.e., Carols Fuentes' novel The Old Gringo). A fitting end for an author whose works combined a bleak view of life with elements of mystery.

Bierce's Civil War stories are bleak little tales of death and destruction. There's one here that nicely captures his cynical world view--most of us saw a film version of it in grade school--An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Peyton Farquhar is a Southern planter captured behind Union lines on a spy mission. As the story opens, he stands upon Owl Creek Bridge with a noose around his neck thinking of the wife and children he will never see again. But when the Union soldiers try to hang him, the noose slips and he swims off downstream. He flees across country until he finally reaches home and as he approaches his open armed wife...the rope snaps tight and we realize that he had imagined the whole episode on his way down. Here in one tidy package is the brutality of war, the futility of life and the bitter wit that characterizes his work.

He's not for all tastes, and I'm not generally big on short stories, but I like him.

GRADE: B

Ambrose Bierce's most famous story is An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and many of his stories follow that same kind of pattern: an event is related with some surprising or revelatory twist at the end. The stories of the Civil War are especially interesting as they are not at all typical writings about war. Bierce does not see the battle so much as one of North against South rather he sees the war as the child sees the war in his story Chickamauga, his attitude is one combining fascination at the spectacle and utter disgust. Life is an unresolved jumble of confused forces and mixed emotions for everyone in Bierce's haunting tales that read like dreams but dreams informed by much contact with reality as Bierce was wounded twice(once in the head)in the war he describes. The descriptions of Civil War battles are told with great precision(and alone make this volume worth having) though there is always an additional element to make them more than war reportage, Bierce turns his accounts into stories because he sees through all the cannon smoke to the small detail which encapsulates the essential thing about an event. In one of my favorites, Killed at Resaca, a courageous captain gallops across a field to deliver a crucial message only to find the field is impassable because of a deep gully, instead of turning around however he merely waits for the enemy to shoot him. Going through his personal things a fellow soldier, the narrator of the story, finds a letter which explains this resolve. The letter reads:"...I could bear to hear of my soldier- lover's death, but not of his cowardice." Later, when the narrator has a chance to return the letter to its author he is asked by her how her soldier-lover died. "He was bitten by a snake,"is the narrators reply. Bierce's pen was dipped in wormwood and acid said H.L. Mencken. His stories of soldiers and civilians are told with a bitter and venomous clarity. His humor was always of the sort aquainted with the gallows. He said at age 71,"I am so old I am ashamed to be alive." And so he rode off to Mexico. It's hard to imagine Stephen Crane existing without the example of Ambrose Bierce just as it is hard to imagine Bierce without Poe. What a strange tradition of independents we have.

Ambrose Bierce was the one of the 2 writers of major significance to fight in and survive the Civil War (the other being Sidney Lanier). He was bitter to begin with, but the experience changed him into an even more cynical man. An eloquent writer, his best subject is fear: his ghost stories are dark and spooky - the civil war stories are as well, but with the added horror of a very real war and fear of battle. "Chickamauga" is one of my favorites - Bierce was actually at the battle but the story is fictional, and adds a supernatural angle to an infamous time and place. His writings are ghostly and vivid tales of America in the mid 19th century. The horrific experiences encountered in his tales are both real and imagined. If you are a ghost story fan or an American history/Civil War buff, you'll enjoy Bierce.

This is not only a good anthology to read for entertainment, but also a necessity for anyone who wants to write literary fiction. The New Yorker is the cornerstone of American contemporary literature, and this book captures a good sampling of the stories which have appeared in its pages the last 50 years or so. I particularly liked DEisenberg's story, and the fact that JCheever's story appears first. I think the book should have had a few more lighter pieces, and wonder why McInerney was skipped over.

John Cheever, Woody Allen, and Bernard Malamud wrote my favorite stories in this wonderful collection about life in New York City. Three quick thoughts: (1) While the dynamic captured by some authors seems a little dated (Dorothy Parker), most of the stories resonate with characters, experiences, and social groups that are common today in New York. (2) The collection offers 44 stories and 44 authors. This helps a reader see how these authors are great in different ways. (3) This collection ends, once and for all, the impression that all stories in The New Yorker are the same. Buy this book!

This collection of New York stories shows both why writers have been fascinated with the Big Apple for so long and also why The New Yorker has been the hallmark of short fiction. The collection begins with Cheever and ends with Perlman, which pretty much sums up the golden years of the magazine. The pleasures here range from a story of lingering urban dread by William Maxwell to a hilarious tale of an intellectual loser by Jonathan Franzen. Updike's story both paints a true picture of New York in the snow and returns to his favorite theme -- infidelity. Philip Roth has a hilarious entry about a famous writer hounded by a game show contestant -- even funnier if you've seen "Quiz Show." The collection made me homesick for New York. It's one of the best books I read in 2000.

I agree with the reader from Ann Arbor, MI. This is most certainly not the best book on fasting and may, in fact, be the worst that I have read. Many are superior. Lest anyone think that I am prejudiced against fasting, I am currently in my fourth day of a fast following the guidelines of Paavo Airola's HOW TO KEEP SLIM, HEALTHY, AND YOUNG WITH JUICE FASTING, a MUCH better book.

The book gets 1 star because it does, at least, give some background on fasting and can serve as an introduction to the concept.

i am a orthomolecular- nutritionist, and generaly my system is not exactly in the direction of fasting,but the only rule is that there are no rules. sometimes i do recommand to my patients a few days fast,( especialy to my very severe allergic patients). eventhough i admit that i didn't ordered toany of my patients to fast more than 5 days, i am convinced that some cases can benefit from this book.the actualy 2 books combined together explains the mechanisms of fasting, and teach the reader what really happens in the body systems while you are on fasting for 3 days,a week, 2 weeks, and 3 weeks,andwhen and how to understand what and when it became a starvation, and when it is just a cleansing fast. the exact way of introducing yourself back to foods are discovered with great details, and what kinds of illness and diseases are not alowed to do the fast.this is why i said in the begining that this is a responsable book. it is very recommanded!

I was totally skeptical of fasting, but reading this book helped me overcome my reluctance. I now fast 2-3 times a year or whenever I feel out of control with eating. I find fasting much easier than dieting, and this book showed me the way, for which I am grateful.

We are accumulating a wonderful little stack of books related to second homes as we plan a getaway of our own. This one is a favorite because of its dreamy photography. I also highly recommend SECOND HOME: Finding Your Place In The Fun, which is a new book that mixes dreamy photos of real homes with some helpful tips on finding a location as well as buying, building, remodeling, or decorating a second home. Like Family Houses, Second Home is a larger hardback book. Gorgeous.

I received this book for my birthday last year and still enjoy looking at it. In fact, I was getting ready to order it for a friend for the holidays when I saw an earlier review of this book that also mentioned another vacation home book called Second Home, I bought it, too. I highly recommend both books. This is wonderful dream book, as is Second Home. Second Home also includes pointers (throughout the book) on deciding where you might want to have a second home, real estate shopping tips, and ideas on building and decorating, too. Second Home is as inspiring as Family Houses by the Sea, but it offers the bonus of being practical and talking directly to me about what I can do to actually realize my dream of having a weekend house.

And therein lies the beauty of this book. Yes, some of the homes are older & some are rustic-but there's the sleek & contemporary too. In other words, something for everyone who loves to live by the water (or wishes they did). Buy this book to appreciate the different ways to express loving the natural light & atmosphere in a home that is reflective of the sea. You may not get Decorating Lessons 1-100 - but thats not the point. You can escape thru this book, dream thru it, share it, admire those who have created beautiful spaces in beautiful places - without displaying every obvious "seaside" nic-nac but with much good taste & class. Buy it for those pleasures & of knowing that kind of life does exist & can be lived by those to whom it means the most. To the authors - a beautiful volumn - thank you for seeking these places out & creating an arm chair trip to some incredibly beautiful spots by the water.

Even though this book is somewhat dated, it provides valuable information on assessment. Most of the information will always be useful. It continues to be a useful tool alongside more recent texts. It is very easy to read and very practical in its orientation. Will always remain a classic in the literature on child psych and assessment.

I used this book as the text in a class I taught for graduate students working toward their Master's in Special Education. In the last eight years many tests have been updated and a new perspective on alternative assessment is important to consider. I await the next addition

I used this as a text in graduate school and I still refer to it on a regular basis in my clinical practice! A must for anyone interested in psychological assessment of children.

Very little to do with dance, this book is mostly personalities and scandal. The not-very-subtle subtext is Robbins' homosexuality, and its relation to the HUAC affair. Strictly for celebrity hounds.

I basically enjoyed the book, but I wish it had been about a hundred pages shorter. I would have preferred a book that really focused on the Broadway career. I have very little interest in ballet and a lot of the book was about ballet. It assumes the dancers mentioned are household words, but aside from Villella, Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Suzanne Farrell and a couple of others, I had no idea who these people were and what they said was not particularly interesting. This is an ambitious book and I admire its ambition, but Robbins was a part of many worlds and in order to do all these worlds justice the whole is diluted. It could have been several books - one dealing with his early life and Jewish heritage, another dealing with his sexual nature, another with his Broadway career, another with his career in dance, and yet another dealing with his early flirtation with and later repudiation of Communism. This book tries to cover all the bases and ends up being exhausting. As I said the ballet part didn't really interest me and it took up most of the last half of the book. As a result I found the last hundred pages really tough going. But I did learn a lot that interested me, like how Robbins wanted John Latouche and Arthur Laurents to write the lyrics and book for ON THE TOWN. Bernstein wanted Comden and Green. ...

Greg Lawrence is less an author than a complier of an oral history of the life of Jerome Robbins in Dance With Demons. This is by no means a true biography but it does fill a certain need until that volume is written. It gives almost everybody Jerome Robbins met in his life a chance to speak, sometimes briefly and sometimes at length, about working with or knowing him. No aspect of his life is left untouched. This book is almost less about Jerome Robbins as a person than it is about the ways in which he touched people. All the nastiness is there but also all the good things people had to say about him. There is nothing defintive about this book but it makes for a fascinating read and is a testament to power of this difficult genius.

In Three Seductive Ideas, Jerome Kagan attacks the conventional wisdom of modern psychology. Asserting that psychology is only 100 years old, he goes on to compare many leading ideas in the field to the ideas in physics just 100 years after Gallileo. For Kagan, modern psychology is far too primitive.

Kagain in particular attacks three central notions: 1) that the human mind or personality has certain permanent features, essential characteristics like intelligence that do no vary over time or across situations, 2) that the human mind is permanently altered by experiences within the first three years of life, as though each hug or toy produced irrevocable synaptic changes, and 3) that the human mind is primarily driven in the seeking of pleasure, independent of social acceptance or moral righteousness.

Kagan's central point, that psychology is young and ought to be received only skeptically in making prescriptions for our day to day lives is well taken. However, the book has three major weaknesses that prevent my recommending it to others.

1) At each point in the book, Kagan replaces the "seductive" ideas with his own assertions. He says, for example, that intelligence is more properly divided among numerous tasks and talents than one general measure such as IQ. Although he takes time to attack the notion of IQ, his substitution is given short shrift. He does this throughout the book, attacking one idea only to replace it with another, equally young or new idea. Presumably in the next 100 years, Kagan hopes to see his ideas accepted and tested. However, we should remain as skeptical of Kagan as he urges us to be of the ideas he attacks.

2) I found Kagan's evidence lacking. In particular, he cites the now discredited peppered moth studies in his allusions to evolutionary theory. If he still believes in those studies, how can I be sure that the evidence he cites in other parts of the book outside my experience are accurate? Even if he is up to date and this is the only error in the book, it is fairly prominent and should have been caught by reviewers before publication.

3) Overall, Kagan has I think bitten off more than he can chew. Each of his three seductive ideas deserves a book of its own, tracing the history and philosophy of the idea as well as the state of the present evidence. It is a fine thing to attack essentialism, or infant determinism, or the pleasure principle. It is a sign of scattered thinking and shallow analysis to attack all three in the same book.

Each of these themes has other books with better explanations. If you are interested in essentialism or intelligence, read The Bell Curve and the Mismeasure of Man. If you are interested in infant determinism, read The Nurture Assumption and The Myth of the First Three Years. For an overview against the pleasure principle, read The Moral Intelligence of Children, or The Biology and Psychology of Moral Agency.

Three Seductive Ideas is a fair synopsis of some major issues in contemporary psychology. Those looking for a more detailed explanation or theory should avoid it and seek more specialized books.

Three seductive ideas is a must read for psychology majors or anyone interested in the field. The book gives an important look at several flaws in psychology and well needed changes in the field. It does not cover all angles but it is a good start. Kagan poses the problems but rarely presses any reasonable solutions.
No one (hopefully) will agree with all of Kagan's arguments but the general acknowledgements are important and interesting.

After a hundred years of trying to understand human behavior in scientific terms through very different fields, we are left with a confusing array of largely unconnected theories. Science is about finding unifying principles among diverse but compatible ideas, but our temptation is to settle too quickly for the next simple theory that comes along and sounds plausible and compelling.

Kagan starts with the perspective that physical sciences have been around for three hundred years, but psychological science as such for only a century, placing psychological science at the historical place where physical sciences were in the 17th century. While the analogy is questionable, the point that psychological science is, for all its vitality and productivity, truly in its infancy, is made powerfully between the lines throughout this book.

Kagan informs this situation elegantly by not only pointing out our need for telling simplifying stories but also showing how some of the grandest simplifying stories, which theorists often take for granted: (1) the notion of essential individual traits, (2) the early influences on the formation of the mind, and (3) the asssumed root of motivation in pleasure seeking, underlie roadblocks in our understanding of ourselves.

The book points out that we apply ideas like intelligence, fear, and consciousness to a wide variety of different agents, situations, and classes of evidence, prematurely assuming that we have found essential qualities in these things. That many of these abstractions are not so broadly applicable in the same way is demonstrated by a select set of experimental and clinical observations that make the point clearly.

While "Three Seductive Ideas" is oddly disappointing for not providing its own grand simplifying theory for human behavior, it does make specific suggestions for addressing the current assumptions he believes are mistaken.

In response to our passion for abstraction and premature creation of psychological essences built on a house of sand, Kagan emphasizes more rigorously specifying the agent, context, and class of evidence when we talk about these qualities. The experience of fleeing from a predator is not the same thing as the experience of worrying about a mortgage payment, even though the same drug might mitigate some of the "fear" in both cases. The situation and the history are in fact important in understanding what is going on.

In response to our tendency to emphasize the role of very early experience, Kagan emphasizes how we are more influenced by what is discrepant than what we expect. This limits the degree to which the adult mind can be meaningfully influenced by very early experience.

In response to the widespread assumption that we are motivated to seek pleasure, a quality believed held in common with animals, Kagan illustrates how human beings are also motivated by a broad range of socially relevant and more uniquely human feelings, such as guilt, shame, and pride. We not only anticipate pleasure, but even more, we are motivated to avoid risk and thus act in ways that are socially rewarding and bring feelings of virtue. In a meaningful way, human beings are not just hedonistic but also moral animals.

No easy answers here, but a shift in emphasis that may inspire better psychological science and open up currently blocked paths to understanding human beings more deeply.

Jerome Hines is a very colorful and engaging writer. Reading this book is like sitting down with an old drama queen, telling you about his glory days and the wisdom he has accumulated, despite the opposition. However, maybe because I am not yet an advanced singer (as his humorous and typical "warning" in the front states I should be before reading this book), I found the advice mostly unhelpful and unclear, and frankly mostly geared toward the male voice, with the female voice as an afterthought. I disagree with his contention that we must think of the voice as many different voices, and that we should "switch gears" when moving between each one. As with much of what he says, I think this is an overcomplication of something that can be much more simple and direct.

It is an entertaining read, and his personality certainly shines through, but as for help with singing, I don't think there is much to be had here for people who already have a technique. And for those looking for one, I hope this is not the one they adapt!

I must say that Mr. Hines has done a fabulous job again. This book is easy to read, especially considering the content. Hines had me glued to the page. However, it is important that if beginning, aspiring, or amateur singers read this book, they do so under the supervision and discretion of a capable voice teacher. This discusses very advanced technical concepts that to a person with the proper background, could easily seem incorrect, even to someone with a moderate amount of classical voice training. Hines brings in aspects of technique that are very moldable, and can apply to a wide range of individual technical and stylistic preferences. I would recommend this book to teachers, and college level classical singers. I also highly suggest reading "Great Singers, on Great Singing" first, as Hines establishes many of his ideas from this book in his first book.

One reviewer commented upon the idea of there not being `four voices' and said Mr. Hines is making the subject too complicated. In one way, the reviewer is correct- it can be a useful method to try and work the `chest' voice as one register. However, it is also my experience that learning how to do this is almost impossible without working the `registers' first- simply to find out what to do with them and find out what they feel like. Trying to hit a high note by using the same `register' as your low notes can be an interesting experience.
It also will likely be excruciating to your ego and to your vocal production.

When one tries to `place' the voice in certain ways, one can find their voice extending its range, depending upon the placement. Listen to recordings of such different singers as Jerome Hines, Nicolai Gedda, and Yma Sumac working the furthest limits of their ranges and tell me there are no such things as registers and different types of voice in one singer. Sumac demonstrated a range of five or more octaves. If you or anyone wants to try and emulate her range while not using registers and head voice, then good luck. Trying to make `one register' out of the voice, without knowing something about how registers feel can cause problems. Eileen Farrell said she never sang with registers, but how many people, including opera singers, have voices approaching hers? And other great singers with great voices have different stories to tell.
How does a singer combine a good top, good middle, and good bottom register in the same voice? It is not easy to do, but Jerome Hines has done it and has been doing it for over fifty years... in front of paying customers. If you bother to listen to him sing, you'll quickly find that he knows what he's talking about. As a student of singing, I've run across reams of good advice... and more reams of horrible advice. One teacher almost destroyed what voice I do have and his `methods' have caused problems for me ever since. On the other hand, Mr. Hines' methods seem to work for me. And know this: he has done extensive research into singing... period! Not just for the bass voice.

Want good examples of his singing? Get Otto Klemperer's wonderful recording of Handel's Messiah, if you can get hold of it. Also, if you can find any of his recordings of sacred music, you will find a resourceful singer, with a great variety of dynamics and tone color. Maybe Jerome Hines has lasted as long as he has because of an iron constitution, but he has outlasted a number of basses with similar voices, and, one would suppose, similar constitutions. I believe he has a lot to say here that is good for the voice. To those who find a book on the technicalities of singing to be too technical... well duhhhhhhh! What the heck do you EXPECT to find? Recipes for fried chicken? Anyone wanting to learn to sing opera who expects to find an easy way to do it had better think again. If Jerome Hines or anybody else puts out a book which claims to do that, then anybody and everybody should take their `wisdom' with a big grain of salt.

If none of Mr. Hines' advice works for you, then you'll have learned something. Maybe you will have to find a different method. Why not?

The information in this book is very good; but, in my opinion, the organization was just terrible. As far as I could tell, the book's relevant information could have been written with one-third to one-half less words, and been much better for it; and the organization and format of the information was bad enough that it was a good thing that I was sufficiently motivated to make it through the book, because I think it would have discouraged me significantly if I had not been so.

As a high school teacher I often felt frustrated attempting to teach seemingly intelligent students who repeatedly did not complete their work. This book finally convinced me these students are not "lazy" - they are work-inhibited. These students have associated work with negative emotions. For example, think about the food you hate the most. For me it's brussel sprouts. For work-inhibited students, school work is like being asked to eat brussel sprouts in every class. One might be able to choke down a few for a well-liked teacher, but after a while even the thought of brussel sprouts conjurs up negative emotions. The good news presented by Bruns is that work inhibition is easily identifiable and the sooner apppropriate intervention is begun, the better the chance of reversal. Bruns has writen individual chapters for parents, teachers, counselors and psychologists with positive,workable solutions to address this problem, which affects as many as 20% of students. I'm mailing copies of this book to 2 families ASAP.

This book transformed my attitude toward my son's behavior and opened my eyes to things my husband and I have done to contribute to the situation. The book includes specific examples of what parents say and do that is unhelpful, and suggests alternate phrases and actions that are more effective. I immediately applied some of the insights I gained and can see a change already. The author includes chapters specifically for school administrators, teachers, counselors, and parents, with concrete suggestions for each group. I am buying multiple copies of this book to hand out.