This is an excellent book, both for reading and as a resource. Hulse gives an incredible amount of information in an easy to understand format. This book is invaluable in helping to understand the connections between various cultures and their methods.

This book and its companion: "The Eastern Mysteries" provide a wonderful compendium of cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary information. They make it possible to understand the deep connections between all peoples of the world.

Definitely a "must-have," whether novice or expert.

I was given this book by a friend in 1984 when my grandmother died. I did not read it then. But, when my father died in 1994, I finally picked this book up and read it. The revised version (which you can purchase now with the additional poems, etc.) is even better than the old version I received in 1984. It's tremendous and very spiritually uplifting and healing when you have just lost a loved one. I now send a copy along with a sympathy card to all of my close friends and family members who "Lose A Loved One." I've mailed two of these books (in the last five months) to friends of mine who lost a parent. I highly recommend it!

I have not read this book, but I read a poem from one of Helen Steiner's book at my father's funeral in 1998, it was about "My Dad" or a similar title, I thought it was in the book "Somebody Loves You" but it isn't can somebody help me find it please. Many thanks

After the death of our 16 yr old daughter we were given many books to read and groups to join for comfort. Out of 8 books that we read only this one "When you lose a loved one" by Charles Allen offered us comfort and peace. I have shared this book with the newly bereaved and the feedback is always "thank you, it really helped me". No book will ever take away the pain but this book gave me an inner peace that helped me to go forward as a christian. I have recommended this book to Compassionate Friends in our area in California and they have also had positive feedback. M.Burrin

This volume contains many gems, including Trotsky's introduction to the first Afrikaans version of the Communist Manifesto and his memorial to his son, murdered by Stalin's agents: "Leon Sedov - Son, Friend, Fighter". But there is something else the reader can gain from reading through this and the other "miscellaneous" Trotsky Writings collections, that you don't get from Trotsky's major books of the 1930s: the picture of a revolutionary leader dealing day by day with every challenge, with issues big and small ranging from world politics to party organisation, providing a political lead in response to revolutionary opportunities and other explosive events as world war II approached. In the early 21st century, with depression conditions and class polarisation extending relentlessly, these lessons from the 1930s become ever more relevant to class conscious fighters seeking a way out of capitalism's terminal crisis.

Isaac Deutscher, the great historican and biographer of Trotsky, called these years "The Hell Black Night." Then these were years Deutscher, then a Polish Trotskyist, used to slink away in fear from Trotsky's revolutionary perspectives, the only delegate to vote against the founding of the Fourth International. Read these articles, speeches, and interviews and you will understand why during the height of Stalin's purges when the victims were not only comrades, people he fought the Russian revolution with, fought Stalin with, but his own dearest son and closest political collaborator, that Trotsky extended the vision of a new revolutionary international, that Trotsky led his movement to new growth and expansion, politically and numerically on a world scale. Read here how to fight Stalinism and fascism, see here as Trotsky builds a movement on principle. see the faith in history and the revolutionary potential of working people that allowed Trotsky to understand there would be new revolutions, revolutionary communists like Che and Fidel. revolutionists like Thomas Sanakara and Malcolm X. Read the basis for victory for working people around the world.

The article on the death of his son, Leon Sedov, is heart-rending and inspiring - a father who must write his child's obituary, a leader who salutes another leader and faces his loss. As always with Trotsky's writings, a rich mixture of political clarity - like the article explaining the difference between the economic foundations of the Soviet economy and its perfidious government - and nuggets of insight - such as the single page on art and revolution. Includes simple, short exposés of the Moscow Trials. Gives the reader a feel for deep, historical truths learned during the Russian revolution that drove Trotsky to keep fighting as the world crumbled into World War II.

Being a Y2K project director, I have talked to numerous people and poured through massive amounts of written material. I found "Y2K Survival Handbook for the Urban Family" to be well written and easy to read and understand. This book also provides "Down to Earth" advise for preparing for Year 2000, without going to extremes. It is important for all of us to prepare for Y2K just as if we were preparing for a hurricane, tornado, flood, ice storm or any other natural disaster. This book provides a good roadmap for making these kinds of preparations. I would recommend this book to anybody looking for a good, common sense guide to Y2K readiness.

This book provides a broad range of information and guidance in how we can personally deal with the Y2K "problem" when it affects each of our lives. The matrix of risks and the checklists are particularly useful for all kinds of disaster planning. This is an excellent guide to practical solutions in the protection of you and your family for the year 2000 and beyond.

This book is one of the best guides I have read for practical advice on how to prepare your home for a likely disaster as we approach the year 2000.

THIS IS A VERY GOOD ACCOUNT OF THE MEMBERS OF THE 500 CLUB. EACH PLAYER IS PROFILED BRILLIANTLY. THEIR CARRERS ARE WELL TOLD AND A READER GETS AN APPRECIATION FOR EACH MEMBER. THE AUTHOR DOES A GOOD JOB ON THIS BOOK. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS TO ANY FAN WHO WANTS A LOT INFO ABOUT EACH MEMBER OF THE 500 CLUB.

In baseball every pitcher dreams of winning 300 games in a career for power hitters it is the mark of 500 home runs that drives them to excel. This book, The 500 Home Run Club, takes you inside baseball's exclusive fraternity that only has 15 members.

Watch baseball history come alive as you read about the power of Harmon Killebrew of the grace of Henry Aaron. Watch baseball's magical wizardry in the story of Babe Ruth, or the trials faced by Jimmie Foxx. See how Ted Williams missed 5 years and still hit 521 home runs.

The game covers some many different eras, from early baseball with Mel Ott, to the 50's with Yankee great Mickey Mantle to the 80's with the raw power of Mike Schmidt of the Phillies. So many of the true legends of this game are here in this book.

You'll also read what other players had to say about these 15 great hitters, all of which are in Baseball's Hall of Fame. For the serious and true baseball fan in your life grab copy of this book, you won't be disappointed.

I think that this book by Bob Allen and Bill Gilbert is an excellent book to read and see the many and the few(which ever way you want to see it)great hitters who have been lost in all the Babe Ruth and the Hank Aaron Home Run Derby. This book goes into detail about the life and careers of all of the 500 home run hitters. Do you remember the name Eddie Matthews or Mel Ott because they both hit 500 home runs. And how about Harmon Killebrew, second only to Babe Ruth in American League home runs. I don't think that Willie McCovey gets the credit that he deserves for hitting as many home runs as Ted Williams. I for one am glad that these two guys wrote this book to let you know how great of hitters these guys really were.In conclusion I feel that any real baseball fan should go out and get this book to remiss about the old times of baseball.

This book has it all. Mr. Bolyog and Mr. Young really know how to tell a good story. This was a true page-turner for me. I always wanted to know what happened next. The action scenes are so easy to picture because they are described in such fine detail. Another great thing happening in this book is the character development. Throughout the story the characters are always growing, allowing the reader to learn more about each individual. I think that's what kept me up into the early hours of the morning reading this book. It's great and I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Although the basic plot of the book is similar to role-playing-games, the nuances and surprises raise it above many in the genre. The characters are believable, despite their chimerical circumstances. Even in the most deadly of situations, they retain their wit and charm. The descriptions are vivid, making you feel as if you are in the small town or surrounded by monsters yourself. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy or adventure.

The book hooked me on the opening page,and then only got better! I loved the Characters! Especially MayeTwiste and Ted the Yellow! What a name

This is a beautifully written and comforting book, concisely written, not long winded - not a word is wasted. It is entertaining to read using many illustrative stories. It is a faith building, scripturally based book that re-enforces the power of prayer and how to do it effectively - as well as what to expect from it and from God. It was extremely comforting to me after the death of a friend, and I have since bought quantitys of these small, inexpensive books and give one to anyone I encounter who is down-trodden or in emotional need, and every one of them has thanked me and found it helpful.

Wonderful book. Very positive and upbeat. A great gift for anyone. I purchased a copy for my two college children. It would make an inexpensive graduation present for either high school or college students that would be treasured for years to come.

I had dated someone for 8 year,was about to marry him and he left me for another. I was at the end of a line and this book gave me strangth to move on;It helped me to understand the differance between my will, others will for me and GODs will; I came to a deeper understanding of life as a whole; And through proper prayer, how God can change your life and how you see it. I am stronger than ever. The book dosn't stop there though. You name it, it encompasses all of life and deaths questions. You will learn the power of prayer, what the lords prayer is about,Gods will,how to seek Gods help. And much more!

This perhaps the best latin grammar out there today. Everything you ever wanted to know about this complex language is here. The grammatical points are clearly explained and numerous examples help clarify these points. The book also contains several sections on syntax as well. In fact the book is half grammar and the other half is syntax. Every serious student should own a copy, it is that good !

My 5-star review is for content only. The paperback copy I have gets a 1-star, because it is in pieces. I am tired of these expensive paperbacks falling apart. This book should come in a clothbound edition. Reference works should ALWAYS be available in a hardcover or clothbound edition - because they get such heavy use ! Publishers wakeup !

Dear latin students in the U.S., this may be one of the best latin grammars ever written and now put into the Internet.During last decades, latin teaching has become more difficult, even in a french-speaking culture, as the quality of grammars has decreased. What's more, is that the prices of these bad grammars have climbed and have to be paid by students without a proper income. It is only by Internet that one can prevent such inadequacy. For those who have therefore given up studying one of the most amazing languages ever spoken, I only recommand to visit the Allen & Greenough Latin Grammar Site.

Marc WILMES Luxembourg

Contains all forms, usages, and syntax. Every archaic form and all odd uses for all tenses, declensions, and conjugations. A great resource for any Latin student, including the most advanced of Latin scholars.

Allen Shawn's book is clearly a labor of love. This is remarkable, given that Schoenberg is notoriously difficult to love! I strongly recommend the book to anyone interested in one of the most influential composers of all time. Shawn is a composer, and presents careful treatments of several major compositions, complete with excerpts from the scores. He includes some fascinating biographical information, but the focus is the music. Schoenberg pioneered "atonal" music in the years right around 1910 parallel to Kandinsky's pioneering abstract painting, and in fact the two were friends and collaborators. Here is an amazing quote from Schoenberg:

"It has never been the purpose and effect of new art to suppress the old, its predecessor, certainly not to destroy it. ... The appearance of the new can far better be compared with the flowering of a tree: it is the natural growth of the tree of life. But if there were trees that had an interest in preventing the flowering, then they would surely call it revolution. And conservatives of winter would fight against each spring. ... Short memory and meager insight suffice to confuse growth with overthrow." (p. 141)

I don't understand musical notation, but when Mr. Shawn goes into detail, his inspiration is transmitted to me, and I want to go hear the work.

Schoenberg is tough, true. But I hope people will read this book and see he was human and passionate.

It's really silly that I haven't had the opportunity to hear one of the greatest composer's music in concert. Will that change?

With more advocates such as Mr. Shawn, I can hope so.

Thank you, Allen Shawn, for putting Arnold Schoenberg in the light that he deserves to be viewed in.

This book is basically a manual for Unicode 3.0. It is not a light read but well worth the price and then some just for the glyphs from all of the various scripts that Unicode supports.

At 1040 large (8.5 x 11) pages it is the ultimate guide to unicode. With information on scripts and glyphs I had no idea even existed.

However if you are just getting started with Unicode I would recomend you get Unicode a Primer written by Tony Graham from M&T books. If you understand or feel you are starting to understand Unicode then The Unicode Standard Version 3.0 is the best comprehensive reference on the subject out today.

Consider it an overview of the developing UNICODE standard. As such, it will serve the engineer working on software in English and many other European countries rather well. It will be a good _starting_ _point_ for engineers developing software for other languages.

This book is essential for software engineers, at least for the next ten years or so. All programmers should understand characters, and UNICODE is the best we have for now. Even if you don't need it in your personal library, you need it in your company or school library.

The standard is flawed, as all real standards are, but it is a functioning standard, and it should be sufficient for many purposes for the near future.

The book itself is fairly well laid out, contains an introduction to character handling problems and methods for most of the major languages in use in our present world as well as tables of basic images for all code points. Be aware that these are _only_ basic images. For most internationalization purposes, be prepared for more research. (And please share your results.)

**** Finally, UNICODE is _not_ a 16 bit code. ****

(This is well explained in the book.) It just turned out that there really are over 50,000 Han characters. (Mojikyo records more than 90,000.) UNICODE can be encoded in an eight-bit or 16-bit expanding method or a 32-bit non-expanding method. The expanding methods can be _cleanly_ parsed, frontwards, backwards, and from the middle, which is a significant improvement over previous methods.

Some of the material in the book is available at the UNICODE consortium's site, but the book is easier to read anyway. One complaint I have about the included CD is that the music track gets in the way of reading the transform files on my iBook.

This is not just a reference for computer people, but for anyone interested in alphabets, symbols and character sets.

Central to the book, taking up the larger part of it, are the tables of the characters themselves, printed large with annotations and cross-references. If you enjoy the lure of strange symbols and curious writing systems then browsing these will occupy delightful hours.

For the Latin alphabet alone there are pages of accented letters and extended Latin alphabet characters used in particular languages or places or traditions: Pan-Turkic "oi", African clicks and other African sounds, obsolete letters from Old English and Old Norse, an "ou" digraph used only in Huron/Algonquin languages in Quebec, and many others, particularly those used for phonetic/phonemic transcriptions.

The Greek character set includes archaic letters and additional letters used in Coptic.

Character sets carried over from previous editions with additions and corrections are Cyrillic (with many national characters), Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Arabic (again many national and dialect characters), the most common Hindu scripts (Devanagari, Bengali, Gurmukhi, Gujarati, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam), Tibetan, Thai, Lao, Hangul, Bopomofo, Japanese Katakana and Hiragana, capped by the enormous Han character set containing over 27,000 of the most commonly used ideographs in Chinese/Japanese/Korean writing. Then there are the symbols: mathematical/logical (including lots of arrows), technical, geometrical, and pictographic. You'll find astrological/zodiacal signs, chess pieces, I-Ching trigrams, Roman numerals not commonly known, and much more.

Scripts appearing for the first time this release are Syriac, Ethiopic, Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, Cherookee, Runes, Ogham, Yi, Mongolian, Sinhala, Thaana, Khmer, Myanmar, complete Braille patterns, and keyboard character sets. And yes, there are public domain/shareware fonts available on the web that support these with their new Unicode values.

There are very good (and not always brief) descriptions of the various scripts and of the special symbol sets. Rounding out the book are some involved, turgid (necessarily so) technical articles on composition, character properties, implementation guidelines, and combining characters, providing rules to use the character properties tables on the CD that accompanies the book. After all, this is the complete official, definitive Unicode standard.

Of course this version, 3.0, is already out-of-date. But updates and corrections are easily available from the official Unicode website where data for 3.1 Beta appears as I write this. My book bulges with interleaved additions and changes. And that's very good. Many standards have died or been superceded because the organizations behind them did not keep up with users' needs or the information was not easily accessible.

Caveats?

The notes on actual uses of the characters could be more extensive, particularly on Latin extended characters. More variants of some glyphs should be shown, as in previous editions, if only in the notations.

Some character names are clumsy or inaccurate (occasionly noted in the book), because of necessity to be compatible with ISO/IEC 10646 and with earlier versions of the Unicode standard. For example, many character names begin with "LEFT" rather than "OPENING" or "RIGHT" rather than "CLOSING" though the same character code is to be used for a mirrored version of the character in right-to-left scripts where "LEFT" and "RIGHT" then become incorrect. And sample this humorous quotation from page 298: "Despite its name, U+0043 SCRIPT CAPITAL LETTER P is neither script nor capital--it is uniquely the Weierstrass elliptic function derived from a calligraphic lowercase p."