As a photographer, choreographer and dancer myself, I tend to be a tough sell on books which hype a photographer's mastery of the human form, particularly where dance or dancers are concerned. But such is my appreciation, and awe, of what Schatz has accomplished in his water studies that I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw that he had published "Pool Light."

Less a book about dancers than about the incredible beauty of the human body, "Pool Light," transcends the very things which frustrate us as movers. In this book, the photographer and his models make us believe in both flight and fantasy. They inspire us to see shape unihibited by gravity or earthly confines. And they succeed in taking nudity, within a photographic environment, out of the controversial realms of "indecency" and restoring it to art in the way the great painters have seen it.

Technically, the work is nothing short of a marvel. Great photography, like any great art, deceives the viewer into believing that what they see is so easy, so natural, as to be routinely simple. In "Pool Light," we see none of the sweat, none of the frustration and aches (and presumably water-logged participants), which must certainly have gone into each image. Instead, we are invited simply to see that most classic of forms, and ancient of muses, the human figure, shown, through the most contemporary of techniques, in a way which celebrates both even as it transcends our sense of their limitations.

Absolutely beautifully photographed book. Schatz captures the God given beauty of the models under water with perfect taste. This is his best book by far. Yes far better than his most recent book Nude Body Nude.The dancers and models in this book appear to be much more natural and have a graceful beauty that almost makes you forget their nude; as opposed to the cliche "sexy" look that is typical of other models.

A magic delight to any person with or even without sensibility.
A must see for photographers and artists. It is a source of inspiration for my paintings and sculptures.
The beauty of the human body as if we were still in Eden.
After this book I was hooked on all Schatz books.
Do not miss it.

As the mother of a multi-handicapped child, it's difficult to describe to others the roller coaster of our daily lives. This book captures it all, the doctors, nurses, therapists, parents, and always the babies. Impossible to put down as you follow the infants ups and downs, learning the history, politics, and management of the modern NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). This should earn Edward Humes another Pulitizer. I'm buying it as a present for my own daughter's neonatologist/pediatrician.

Once you have started the emotional roller-coaster ride with these families and their sick children you cannot stop and put the book down. You are there...right there in the NICU with these families. Your stomach is churning and your heart is breaking as if it is your child that you are looking at through the glass, unable to hold or even touch. From genetic disorders, to drug abuse in expectant mothers, to no explanation... it just happens... you feel the days turning into what seems like a lifetime for these parents(and in some cases literally is a lifetime). The author pulls you in and does not let you go until you have experienced every set-back and milestone imaginable in a newborn's life. Because of the dedication of the doctors and nurses who go above and beyond and their remarkable ability to save these precious lives, you are left feeling hopeful, having shed a lot of tears, but smiling throughout. Read this book and the next hug you give your own child...Oh, what a feeling and a gift!

"Baby ER" is an incredibly dramatic story of hope, fear, miracles, and joy. For parents like myself who have experienced this situation, it will be like revisiting an unforgettable time in our lives. For those who have had the wondrous luck of never having walked in those particular shoes, it is an eye-opening account of a world known to a few. I appreciated the fact that Humes drew from his own first-hand knowledge of what the parents go through during this stressful time. In documenting the stories of three different families during their stays from the critical first hours of life to the unforgettable conclusions, he tells each story with sensitivity and compassion, as a father who has been there should. This is an outstanding book that should be shared with anyone going through this situation, and with every doctor, nurse, and other health-care professional who might be connected with the care of children.

If you liked Bloodstone, the rest of the series is a must read. Wagner has managed to create the near perfect anti-hero. I would also recommend "Killer", a book he co-authored with David Drake. Not a sword and sorcery tale, but good sci-fi.

Bloodstones fills every need that a sword and sorcery reader has. The character,Kane, is truely the hero or un-hero, your choice, that we all seek to follow. Sporting the triple "B's", Big, Brutal, and Brilliant he shows the reader survival and success techniques that apply even in today's market arena. I am constantly amazed at the intricate flow of intrigue Wagner created. I have read the book three times and then lost my copy. I am now on my own quest for the "bloodstone" and the power of it's story.

In the book a worrier name Kane who seems immortal and ageless, finds an ancient relic in the booty of a bloody raid. With this relic he seeks to unearth and awaken an ancient power with which he will rule the earth. It is a gory tale of a man part savage, part sage, with a touch of satanic seasoning, and lust to rule the planet he is doomed to stride for eterity. If you loved Kane you should try and read some of Wagners other tales of Kane Like : Dark Crusade, of Darkness weaves both excellent, and they give hint to his past.

There are two separate matters to consider here: the nature of this volume of Auden's collected poems, & the poetry itself. To tackle the first issue: this is not a _Complete_ but a _Collected Poems_, & this is a crucial difference. Auden was a perpetual reviser & assembled his canon with care. As with Robert Lowell his revisions are sometimes bewildering attempts to remake himself & his work in a very public manner. Auden grew to hate many of his best & most famous poems, notably "Sir, no man's enemy", "September 1, 1939" & "Spain 1937", & these are all excluded here, along with countless others. Late in his career Auden massively revised & pruned his canon, a project that was apparently prompted by his horror at the unprincipled use of his most famous line ("We must love one another or die") by Lyndon B Johnson in a notorious 1964 t.v. ad. (He was right to distrust that line's easy quotability: in the wake of Sep 11th the poem has enjoyed renewed popularity, which is pretty bizarre for a poem with lines like "Out of the mirror they stare, / Imperialism's face / And the international wrong.") Thus this volume presents a drastically lopsided view of Auden's work, & for this reason I cannot recommend it to anyone as an introduction to Auden's work. Nearly half of this book's 927 pages is taken up by work from the late 1940s up to Auden's death in 1973, & only the most ardent admirers of Auden will be able to find much of value in the final few hundred pages, facile, prolix & chatty verse which greatly disappointed Auden's contemporaries in his lifetime & which reads no better now. Anyone actually interested in the poetry that made Auden an important & influential poet should turn to the _Selected Poems_ & _The English Auden_. The former reprints the earliest printed texts of poems; the latter the texts as they stood when Auden left for the USA. This is an important distinction, especially for one of his most famous poems, "Spain". In the _Selected_ this appears in the 1937 version, which contains a stanza referring to the need to commit "the necessary murder". Orwell viciously attacked this line in a pair of essays, dishonestly distorting it into an apologia for Stalinist purges in "Inside the Whale". Auden, probably in response to the earlier of the two essays, altered the stanza in the 1940 version (entitled "Spain, 1937"), & eventually deleted the poem from his oeuvre. Auden nonetheless (rightly) defended the original version of the line, arguing that it was an honest attempt to speak of the possibility of a "just war", against the absolutist pacificist position that all wars are wrong, while nonetheless not downplaying the brutality of war.

About the poetry I can't say enough within the space of a brief review. Auden is probably the most influential English-language poet of the 20th century, & depending on your perspective must take much of the credit or blame for the midcentury retreat in the UK & US from the modernist & avantgarde styles of the early 20th century. (For good polemical histories of this shift, take a look at Jed Resula's _The American Poetry Wax Museum_ & Keith Tuma's _Fishing by Obstinate Isles_.) Auden was probably the most technically accomplished poet of the century, & yet this is not enough: by the end the verse fell into an obsessively genial & cozy facility carefully gutted of the urgency of his earlier work. His canon is still rather in need of a strongly revisionist survey: his most famous poems are sometimes justly so (the sublime "Lullaby", one of the century's great love poems) and sometimes in need of demotion ("Musee des Beaux Arts" for instance opens with one of the most fatuous lines in all of modern poetry: "About suffering they were never wrong, / The Old Masters."; & the elegy for Freud is like other of Auden's poems disfigured by nursery-talk & condescension). This volume makes me ultimately rather sad, that a poet with such enormous promise (the work he wrote in his early 20s is still utterly astonishing in its accomplishment & daring) never quite made good on it, & even came to hate much of his own best work. Turn to the _Selected Poems_ to get a better measure of what Auden was as a writer.

"Collected Poems" brings together Auden's greatest poetic work, which was abundant, diverse and always masterful. It's difficult to describe the breadth of his work -- emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, technically. From a purely technical standpoint, however, I've never seen as many first rate sonnets, sestinas, classical odes by one poet in one place. Auden is the only poet I've ever encountered who seems incapable of writing badly. In my humble opinion, no one surpasses him in the 20th century in the English language.

Auden is funny, sad, strange, wonderful. Here's a selection from of my favorites:

'When it comes,will it come without warning/ Just as I'm picking my nose?/ Will it knock on my door in the morning;/ Or tread in the bus on my toes?/ Will it come like a change in the weather?/ Will its greeting be courteous or rough?/ Will it alter my life altogether?/ O tell me the truth about love.'

Auden talks about not only love but also truth, justice, every part of the human experience. Here's a short part of "Musee des Beaux Arts":

'About suffering they were never wrong,/ The Old Masters: how well they understood/ Its human position; how it takes place/ While someone else is eating or opening a window or/ just walking dully along.'

I cannot find words strong enough to convey how powerful, and how human, this work is.

By the way, in his original 'selected works' Auden re-edited several of his most beloved works - many critics said for the worse. In this particular edition the editor included all of the poems that Auden selected as his best, but in their original forms.

Those who decry the current state of judicial affairs in this country will be interested to learn that our modern court system has changed very little since its inception back in the 18th Century. This, along with many other scholarly insights, is the compelling undercurrent running through Jean Edward Smith's John Marshall: Definer of a Nation.

Smith, no stranger to scholarship himself, guides the reader in painstaking detail through the rise of one of the most renoun jurists of early American history, John Marshall. Marshall, who served his country first as a soldier under General George Washington and later as the first truly influential chief justice of the Supreme Court, is a figure ripe for investigation at this particularly legal-oriented period in our history. For it was Marshall who, in his landmark decision, Marbury v. Madison, first gave rise to the notion of judicial review, the concept that suggests that the Supreme Court indeed has final say over the constitutionality of a given state action.

What is fascinating about Marshall's life is how bitterly he had to fight to establish what we today take for granted, the Court's supreme authority. Marshall's relentless pursuit of a powerful judiciary was often at odds with the vision of his fellow founding father, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, who pushed for a small, decentralized federal government in a largely agrarian America, was constanly at odds with Marshall, and the tale of their stormy political battles resonates throughout the pages of Smith's biography.

Of course, the philosophical musings and feindishly political battles of our founding fathers may not make for interesting reading for everyone. Smith's book is chock full of obscure anectdotes and oftentimes difficult-to-get-through detail. All the same, the interested reader seeking to understand just how our current court system got to be this way can do worse than pick up Smith's tome for some insight. For, in the end, the battles fought between America's early political titans bear a strong correlation to -- and perhaps even explain -- blips on the judicial radar screen now called things like "O.J."

The author acknowledges up front that the book has little to say that is critical of the great Chief Justice. Nevertheless, the author presents a balanced view of the man and his times. As befits one of the greatest writers in legal history, Smith's prose is clear, precise and entertaining. Given Marshall's long tenure on the Court and his many accomplishments and associations with great historical figures, this book should be of interest to anyone with a serious interest in American History. One is left with the strong impression that Marshall's role in shaping the government has not been fully appreciated.

John Marshall defined American law, politics and power. This book paints a vivid picture of who Marshall was, and why he is still important today. The author does an excellent job stating the facts and letting the reader decide for her/himself whether or not Marshall did the right or wrong in the very important decisions he made. This book is enlightening and well written. Marshall's life is wonderfully told through the authors use of clear and concise writing. This book is excellent. It clarifies many misconceptions of this great man who came out of a generation that claims many great men. Marshall may be the least understood of them all, but he certainly is no less important than any of his contemporaries in forming and defining the United States of America.

Lee the last years is a great read on the life of ROBERT E LEE after the war between the states.
My only complaint is that I would have liked just a little more reaction to lee's death around the South,and north ...

This book shows a side of Robert E. Lee that seems to have been lost in the history books. After the end of the Civil War, we hear little or nothing about General Lee. In truth, he died five years after the war ended, but he made the most of that time in trying to repair the damage done by the war. This book is an excellent chronicle of those years.

Lee lost most of his property during the war. He was a career soldier, and didn't have many prospects for employment. He hoped to move onto a farm and to live quietly in the country.

However, other plans were being made for him. The trustees of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, voted unanimously to offer him a job as president of the college. Lee was not a professional educator (although he had served as superintendent of West Point), but the trustees believed that his leadership and integrity were just what the college needed to survive the harsh economy left by the war. For his part, Lee saw this as an opportunity to help young Southern men to become productive citizens.

The college's wager paid off. Enrollment grew each year that Lee spent at the helm. The college developed new programs, and Lee's stature and good reputation were such that Washington College received large donations from philanthropists, even in the Northern states. Lee took a personal interest in the students, learning to address them by name and taking responsibility for disciplinary measures.

Yet Lee's last five years were not years of unabated bliss. His health declined steadily, his wife was an invalid, his brother died, and his reputation suffered from some unjust attacks in Northern newspapers. Throughout it all, Lee held his head high and maintained his dignity, his character, and his principles.

Lee put much effort into healing the wounds left by the war. He appreciated the esteem in which he was held by his fellow Southerners, but he encouraged them to be loyal citizens of the United States of America. He never said a word against General U.S. Grant, and even rebuked an employee of Washington College who did. One of the most fascinating (and mysterious) episodes in the book is Lee's trip to Washington, D.C., to visit President Grant in the White House. No one else was present for the meeting, and so no one really knows what they discussed.

The book ends abruptly with an account of Lee's death, without going reporting on his funeral and his family's life without him. Even so, this book makes great reading and has fascinating insights into the private life of an American icon.

This was a passionate story of the last five years of the life of one of our greatest American heroes. Finally, we have a look at what Lee accomplished AFTER the war! From the first chapter to the end, I was enthralled with the story of Lee's dedication to God and country. The author used interesting stories to detail Lee's character which made the book easy to read and immensely enjoyable. I judge this to be one of the very best biographies I've ever read.

I have cancer and I believe that had I read this book before my surgery, I probably would not be paralyzed. This book goes into great detail on the big cover up for the cure for cancer. I am in the process of getting what I need to fight this thing that is inside of me. I am also refusing radiation and chemotherapy. The only reason that I did not give this book 5 stars is because I believe that the author is a bit too detail. He really does get his point across because he mentions names and places where things took place and was discovered. If you have cancer or someone you know has cancer, then you need to read this book. It is a shame that people are dying because of other hungry people for the almighty dollar.

After I read Griffin's "The Creature from Jekyll Island" (an amazing book), I had to read this one too. I was not disappointed - It is amazing to think that something this important has been downplayed, undermined, and relegated to the realms of quackery by conventional establishment-medicine.

It should be no surprise to any of us that the modern era has pushed us all into some highly unnatural living conditions. Nitrogen-farming, sedentary lifestyles, our neighbors are complete strangers, hours of unmeaningful interaction with our beloved televisions (and internet). World Without Cancer taps into this modern-day insanity with a straightforward argument that cancer is the result of nutritional deficiencies. Even if this premise is overly-simplistic, it's a viewpoint that everyone should consider. Personally, I think Griffin and company are onto something significant.

The only reason this book gets 4 stars instead of 5 is that most of the research listed on the topic is from the 60s and 70s. In the world of cancer research and microbiology, 30-40 yrs ago was the dark ages compared to the advances made since that time, as noted by my brother who holds a PhD in Microbiology (who also read the book). This is not to say that the research Griffin lists is incorrect or faulty, but I feel like Griffin needs to update the book to reflect Laetrile research done in the last 20 years. It's true that Laetrile's time under consideration and scrutiny occured 30 years ago in the States, but surely more research has been done in other countries where it is legally used and accepted (including countries in Western Europe). I would like to see Mr. Griffin give this book a major overhaul.

Regardless, it's a great book, and written about a topic that will undoubtedly affect all of our lives at one point, sooner or later.

As a physician, trained at one of the premier medical schools, I applaud this book. Only several decades ago, private medical research went to distant lands to find out why certain tribes never died of cancer. These researchers found that seeds, almond, apple and others were full of a vitamin: B-17, which is totally absent in our American diet due to processing. These researchers were silenced and the major pharmaceticals, Rockefeller, et al, lead any further research, thus ending independent research as we know it. Small groups of doctors exist and believe in the anti-aging concepts of preventive and nutritional health as a prevention for many of the maladys facing man today. Seek us out - we are there - still fighting.

Along with being a poet, cummings was a visual artist-chiefly a painter and sometimes an engraver. With his poetry, he made the attempt to arrange the words of his poems in something of an image. He also achieved this end with the words themselves: if he was to say a leaf falls, he might say: a l e (fa l l s) a f His poetry is not straight forward-if you want something easy to read, look elsewhere. But if you want to be exposed to a new and innovative style, and some exquisite writing and subject matter cummings is for you.

ee cummings is a magnificent poet - almost as much of a visual artist as writer. His poems fall and flow and jump and dance, their patterns and punctuation adding so much more to the words and essence of meaning. I have tried reading cummings' work aloud: it never quite works. He has an exceptional turn of phrase, and with one line (give or take a pattern or two) can bring about powerful emotive responses.
This book is fantastic - I had quite a lot of difficulty finding collections of his poetry, and although I'd found a couple of small volumes, this one was exhaustive. I reread it - or at least parts thereof - more often than any other poetry book I own, and always seem to discover another nuance or aspect or pattern that I hadn't seen before. cummings wraps you in words, and the best way I can think of to describe how I feel after reading his works is to steal a quote from one of his poems - "such strangeness as was mine a little while."
Worldwords. And he is the creator of my favourite quotation of all time...
"listen:
there's a hell of a good universe next door:
let's go."
And there is.

e.e. cummings is a master of the English language. The way he uses words to paint a picture will leave you breathless and touch your heart. These are not poems to be read lightly...you will need to think about what has been written and how, but I think that each poem in its own way will reflect a part of your own life once you figure out exactly what is being said. His combinations of words are unique and beautiful and create a melody of poetry that you will fall in love with. "rain fell(as it will in spring) ropes of silver gliding from sunny thunder into freshness as if god's flowers were pulling upon bells of gold" How could you not want to read this?

Edward Ricardo Braithwaite To Sir, With Love is one of the most infinitely rewarding books I have ever read. The story is about a man, Ricky braithwaith, who after getting out of the Service looks for a job in the growing technological field in which he has exceedingly good qualification. But when he returns to England to look for a job he soon remembers, after numerous shutdowns, that his skin color is impeding on his career chose. But he eventually finds a job as a teacher of a tough group of lower class youngsters who have made many a teacher turn tale and run. But with amazing perseverances our hero is able to tame these children and show them and all the others at the school that there is an other side of life.

First things first. I am not related to E.R. Braithwaite. I teach high-risk students in one of the most impoverished schools in the United States, not in the United Kingdom. I am an author--my debut mystery is in its initial release. With those disclaimers in place, I want to clearly state my unequivocal admiration for TO SIR, WITH LOVE. It is a must-read book for any teacher worth her classroom. It tells the tale of Mr. Braithwaite and his struggles to teach poor teenagers on the verge of adulthood in one of the poorest neighborhoods of London. His story rings true. Being a non-Latino teaching Latino students, I understand the racial tensions in the story. The difficulties in getting students to focus on goals more distant in the future than the upcoming weekend are also painfully true. The need for creative and heartfelt approaches to these educational challenges is additionally made clear. And, of course, the inspirational tone of the book is exactly what is needed in this day and age. TO SIR, WITH LOVE should be more widely read than it already is, and I hope every teacher has similar inspirational tales to tell, as does E.R.Braithwaite and this reviewer.

A lot was heard about this book. The term also was used by people around me very often. That got me looking into this book when I picked it up. To be honest, first few pages gave a felling that I should stop reading this book. But as the pages progressed, the interest arose, and the beautiful story of human endeavour in face of prejudice and preconceived notions started to unfold.

While what was achieved by the author in that school in poor and improvised neighbourhood might appear trifle, but under the circumstances in which the author had to work and inculcate the pride and positive individualism in those children who had themselves to support and look up to, makes the achievement a far superior endeavour of an individual who himself became victim of prejudices.

It is a story which every one must read to understand the achievement of the author in that school and the difficulties thereof, and also to enjoy a simple straightforward and from the heart narration of this amazing tale.

If you have not read it, you have missed some simple but precious reading.