Bourbon St., Mardi Gras, etouffee...every tourist who visits New Orleans likes to think he's experienced the "real thing." But almost no one really understands the city--the one place in American where the races (black, white, brown, what have you) actually commingled and carved out a culture that celebrates the best of its disparate influences. Author Rod Davis is the exception to the rule. He brilliantly explores New Orleans' multi-cultural world in "Corina's Way," a transcendent novel about love, voodoo, Gospel singing and yes, even Jazz Fest. Reviews of Davis' book have compared him to Southern literary icons Walker Percy and John Kennedy Toole. That's heady company, but Davis has done something even more unique. Percy and Toole wrote about white protagonists like themselves, and they never explored the world of black or mixed-race people. Davis dives into that world with both feet first and writes a novel that opens our eyes to other worlds. "Corina's Way" is a great book.

Bourbon St., Mardi Gras, etouffee...every tourist who visits New Orleans likes to think he's experienced the "real thing." But almost no one really understands the city--the one place in American where the races (black, white, brown, what have you) actually commingled and carved out a culture that celebrated the best of its disparate influences. Author Rod Davis is the exception to the rule. He brilliantly explores New Orleans' multi-cultural world in "Corina's Way," a transcendent novel about love, voodoo, Gospel singing and yes, even Jazz Fest. Reviews of Davis' book have compared him to Southern literary icons Walker Percy and John Kennedy Toole. That's heady company, but Davis has done something even more unique. Percy and Toole wrote about white protagonists like themselves, and they never explored the world of black or mixed-race people. Davis dives into that world with both feet first and writes a novel that opens our eyes to other worlds. "Corina's Way" is a great book.

Andrew Davis is a craftsman in both poetry and woodworking. The 64 sonnets that make up this book are linked by the story of his coming into his own in both constructive activities, his learning of his craft. The word "craft" implies for him both skill and cunning in the making of things and poems, but happily escapes implications of the lofty attiudinizing that has too often become associated with the self-proclaimed "Poet" on the theme of his life as an "Artist." Emerson claims that words are signs of natural facts and that natural facts are signs of spritiual facts. Davis makes us realize that Emerson leaves out man-made facts and their spirit, most especially here tools and their products. Davis asks most generally, "What is the relation between words and things?" His answers are most often serious and stimulating while maintaining a workman's good-humored mixture of pride and modesty in the face of the difference between his artifact and how it might have been still better. In his last sonnet he imagines God's being stimlated in just this way when he looked upon the world and found in good, not perfect. He eyed it with his head cocked on one shoulder;/ Then realized that he'd fallen in a trap/ Tempted by a blaze of preconceptions,/ And dazzled by the image of his mind,/ He'd sacrificed the perfection of inexistence/ For a compromised incursion into time./ This sestet provides a fair example of the poet's prosody--loosely and sometimes tightly iambic, generally pentametric, with (sometimes) rhymes, near-rhymes, or off-rhymees at the end to polish up the production.

Reading the poems in CRAFT, I could not help but think of the WTO protests and those regarding China's entry into that organization. Loss of jobs and manufacturing bases, national security, child labor, pay priority: all valid concerns. But nowhere did I hear discussions of the nature of work, of making stuff, of using one's hands and what of that might be lost. Somewhere people will continue ro make things, and where that happens there will be a community of hand and mind--and, I think, community. At such a site will be Andrew Davis, pen and chisel at hand.

This is a fantastic book on creating a wide variety of great collage projects. It covers numerous collage techniques including using paper, mixed-media, fabric, decoupage, photomontage, computer art, found and three-dimensional objects. The beautiful galleries after each collage type are sure to inspire you.

In addition to the collage techniques you also get the basics of papermaking, papier mache, marbling and batik as well as painting and dyeing fabric. There are step-by-step instructions accompanied by demonstrating photos for all the techniques and projects. Don't expect to make exact replicas of the projects since your sources and materials will vary. Rather, the author expects you will follow her assembling directions to create a unique masterpiece of your own.

Some of the sixteen projects include a gorgeous butterfly lampshade, a painted paper fruit bowl collage, a clock decorated with magazine scraps and nature objects, and a sewn fabric book cover. Another great project is an easy to make yet sophisticated looking Japanese box covered with scraps of yuzen or chiyogami papers.

This book filled with fresh and interesting ideas is sure to help you create gorgeous collage artwork.

I wanted to explore collage as an aspect of other paper crafts I'm trying to learn. I picked this one first and I really like it. Many other collage books are meant for people narrowly focused on collage who see beauty in their collages ..... that is truly not obvious to other people - so esoteric it appeals to a very narrow audience. The Crafter's Complete Guide to Collage is different. It's visually attractive. The samples of collages have much broader appeal. The excellent how-to photographs are tremendously helpful and NOT intimidating. It opened my mind up to more than paper possibilities - it discusses collages of paper, found objects, mixed media, fabric, multi-dimensional, decoupage, photomontage, even computer collage. Its a treat - I think you'd enjoy this book!

Very engaging reading about foreign students lives prior to their education here. It's a revealing look at what they brought with them in life experience compared to what they saw in the average American student. They contend with the clash between the beliefs and values of their upbringing and the shallow nature of the sheltered American student. A very well written, thoughful response to the blending of their prior experience, their expectations of study in the U.S. and the self discovery that results.

Enlighteningly refreshing look at American and specifically Ivy Legue culture. International students reflect on their lives abroad and their experiences in Dartmouth College and the surrounding New England community. The students and alumni that have contributed their short autobiographies to this compilation contemplate their diverse backgrounds and grapple with the American culture, to which they are compelled. Some of the stories are hilarious. Some are heartbreaking. But all are profound. The students take good aim at social and philosophical questions imposed by their new community and search for their identities in a place that canonizes monotony and conformity. This book can not be put down until it's finished.

The literature on enterprise responsiveness is rather limited, but this book is an exception and had a lasting impression on the reviewer in that it ignited an abiding interest into the nature of responsiveness and characteristics of responsive enterprises.

This is the only book that I am aware of that dwells on the nature of 'responsiveness' and that too from the perspective of a customer! But the real significance of Davis's approach to 'responsiveness' is revealed only when one applies this to understanding the nature of the IT services firms. I have always been puzzled by the apparent contradiction between most of the received wisdom in management literature on such firms and my experiences of working with such firms throughout my professional career. But, put on Davis's lenses and all contradictions simply disappear!! Out comes consistent explanations for capability/ capacity/ core competency, best-practice guidelines, multi-skilling, centers of excellences, network of delivery firms specializing in different areas, the essential tension between the scope versus specialization, or, assignment/ control of projects versus project deliveries, percentage of resource utilization, yield management and so on, and, above all the phenomenon of outsourcing!

I recommend this book to anyone interested in customer-centricity -- which is almost everyone! Read this book for its declared purpose of 'customer responsive management', but if you are one of the thousands of IT professionals trudging along the information highway, this book is a must - this maybe your only handbook to make sense of this crazy industry.
Destined to become a CLASSIC of the 90's; for this reviewier its a prized possession.

The concepts in this book will change the way you do business. Davis and Mandrodt teach us how to respond and develop offerings unique to each customer. No longer will you view customers as nameless, faceless masses (look out marketing, its about time). The examples are clear and valuable. A must!

I remember meeting Jon Davis at a reading in Salt Lake City. I don't exactly remember the place, but I liked the way he shifted his stance while reading his poems aloud to the crowd of dying soldiers. He tore through the air, a warrior escaping the arrows that flew at him like pigeons in search of the worm of an apple. Jon Davis' words are neither apple nor worm. They're the seeds of our bodies erupting as candles on the bridge to the other side. I recomend this book to anyone who seeks enlightenment in a supermarket checkout line.

I'd just like to attest to the power of these poems. I've not come across a poet as strong as Jon Davis in years.

If it ever comes back into print, it's well worth buying.

Superb! Bill lifts the veil off of a very difficult subject and explains in plain English the things that every emergency responder in the world ought to know about autism.

Parents... Buy this book and force it into the hands of your local police/fire/rescue departments. The more you educate your community about autism, the less risk your autistic child will face in the instance of an emergency.

This is an invaluable resource...

Joe Peifer

Bill Davis does it once again with Dangerous Encounters. If you have a child with autism, young or old, this is an invaluable book for your family. The book is an incredible resource on how to make your child(ren) and family as safe as possible in many different situations.

If there was a fire in your home, would your local firefighters know how to respond properly to your child? What about the police if you were in an accident and your child was unable to speak?

Bill provides plain and simple answers to the questions none of us want to answer or think about. But when the unthinkable happens, you need to be prepared and so does your community.

Get a copy of this book today and visit Unlocking Autism's website ... to get a safety packet as well!

I have been a chemotherapy nurse for years, and find Davis's Guide to IV medications to be an excellent resource book. Compatibilities as well as incompatibilites with other drugs are listed, as well as patient teaching, lab considerations, side effects and much more valuable information. This is the only IV drug reference you will need.

I am a pharmacist at a large hospital in TN and find this book is indispensible. It is very easy to find information and lists accepted usage not just info from a package insert.

I have been a Critical Care nurse for more than 15 years and find this book to be one of the best at delivering the facts in a percise and readable manner. I have been recommending it to "new hires" in the Unit at my facility since I first found it.

I am a BSN nursing student who has a multitude of books containing information needed to complete clinical paperwork, dragging all of these books back and forth to clinicals was back breaking, this book is a must for any student, it's pocket size and wealth of information is worth every penny paid. I wish the authors would come up with a book like this for every area. I highly recommend this book, and will look forward to others of it's kind

I first encountered this book while researching a term paper on the public games of the Roman Empire, and I liked it enough that eventually I acquired my own copy through Amazon. Davis herein did not formally cite his references or include a bibliography, so the book's value is more that of supplying a mental roadmap of and feel for the setting rather than as a formal scholarly work. (Davis covers himself on that score in his preface, however, by outlining generally the sources drawn upon, emphasizing the major Roman writers of the period.) Davis wrote at least 2 other books in this vein: _A Day in Old Athens_ and _Life in Elizabethan Days_. I can say definitely that while the latter has a similar structure, _A Day in Old Rome_ scores over its Elizabethan sibling in that herein Davis has confined himself to a real city and real historical characters rather than creating a composite setting to better illustrate his points.

As the author says in the preface, the book describes Imperial Rome on a spring day in 134 A.D./C.E., as seen if the reader were magically transported there and provided with a competent tour guide. That date was picked because the Empire was architecturally near completion, the Empire was prosperous but not yet decadent. Davis deliberately avoids unusual events; he's tried to construct a run-of-the-mill day; the emperor Hadrian isn't in the city until he formally arrives in the last (13th) chapter.

Chapter 1, "The General Aspect of the City", gradually shifts from speaking *about* the city and the surrounding countryside to a viewpoint from a height near the Campus Martius, to obtain an overview before descending into the city. (Nice touch: English translations of place names are provided parenthetically when the names are introduced, providing a flavor of how a contemporary would have heard them, e.g. Ostia, "River Mouth".) Davis' details are interesting; readers may not have realized how advanced Roman architecture really was, wherein impressive buildings were mostly concrete with marble facades, and cheaper buildings were of brick or building stone - not wood, with its increased risk of fire.

As our tour guide, Davis doesn't jump straight to the famous "sights" that would crown a tourist's visit, but works his way inward and upward to the heart and heights of the city, beginning with chapter 2, "Streets and Street Life", a good example of the kind of detail provided. Davis not only mentions that most streets were too narrow for two vehicles at once, and that traffic laws banned most wheeled vehicles between dawn and 'the tenth hour'. (Note the time given in Roman style, only parenthetically translated to 4 pm.) From a pedestrian's point of view, most streets were worn slick, only main roads being kept clean, with special stepping-stones inset against the rainy season. We even get samples of Roman flyers posted on walls (actual text, noted as found in Pompeii, from 'to rent' notices to announcements of upcoming gladiatorial combats) and graffiti, as well as descriptions of typical street processions and crowds' behaviour in public.

Chapters 3 through 6 come in off the street, dealing with "Roman homes", "Roman women and marriages", "Costume and personal adornment", and "Food and drink". Housing covers the gamut from insulae (tenements that ought to be "islands" with space around them to prevent the spread of fire) to great houses of the wealthy, including on the low end the expected rental price in sesterces (with a parenthetic conversion into U.S. dollars where each money amount is mentioned, a convention followed throughout the text). Example of nice touches of detail: the Calends (July first) was the regular moving day, when deadbeat tenants were evicted. Furnishings being skimpy in the slums of Rome, details about higher-class housing treat Roman furniture in more depth, although expected furnishings are covered for the low-end insulae as well.

"Roman women and marriages" focuses on betrothal customs, marriage ceremonies (when there were any), and divorce, which was easier in Empire days than it would be for many centuries after the Empire's fall. A couple of stereotypes are drawn: that of a frivolous woman who might collect gladiators and suchlike, contrasted with the tomb enscription of an archetypal 'good woman' by her mourning husband.

A bit of trivia about costume: the word 'candidate' comes from 'candidati', "extra-white" - office-seekers used to specially bleach their togas so as to stand out in a crowd. Basic things in life never really change.

Chapters 7 and 8 cover the social orders (slaves receiving an entire chapter). Davis then moves on to professions, education, and commerce before finally arriving at the fora, the Palatine and the centers of government, and the imperial war machine. The courts, baths, and public games are covered before Roman religion is addressed. A separate chapter on "pagan cults" ends with the most disreputable cult of all, from a Roman point of view: Christianity, including Roman popular beliefs about how debased Christian practices were. (For a more detailed view, set a couple of decades earlier, see Barbara Hambly's well-researched mystery novel _Search the Seven Hills_.) After digressing to "the Roman villa" and the grand finale of the Emperor's return to Rome, a final note on where people are in the Roman night ends in the catacombs, with a brief flash of the Christians through their own eyes, holding services while keeping a lookout for watchmen.

NOTE: The paperback edition before me reproduced the colour plates in black-and-white, unfortunately, but otherwise the book is unchanged. The old hardcover edition illustrations consisted of 1) black-and-white line drawings, 2) occasional photographs, and 3) colour plates of illustrations painted by Von Folke, reconstructing various landmarks in their heyday and showing (for example) a scene from a chariot race. (Incidentally, Davis in a footnote commends Lew Wallace's novel _Ben-Hur_ on its accuracy, adding the caveat that Messala, being of high rank, would have considered driving his own team beneath his dignity.)

This is one of those rare history books that should never go out of print. It tells you so many of the details of Roman life. Did you ever wonder what Romans wore under those togas? They wore a tunic, which is a thing like a night shirt. Upper classes were allowed (encouraged, actually) to wear a purple stripe down their tunic (wide ones for Senators, narrow ones for Equites), and that's how people knew if you were or were not upper class (I mean besides all those slaves running after you). It's a very complete picture, describing houses, tenements, public eating houses, the public baths, schools,what a Roman banquet was like, the pots and pans in the kitchen, and even sandals. Did you know the proper number present at a Roman banquet was 9? Why? The couches held three people and there were three couches, ergo 9 people. That was tradition. Just about everything you'd want to know about day-to-day Roman life is in this one small book. It's great. You'll love it. I've got to have "A Day in Old Athens," now. By same author.