This book tells us the psycological meanings of the myths. The myths selected here include ancient Greek gods, King Arthur legend, Oriental religion, and so on. All of the stories give us useful lessons about our daily life. For example, Greek myth of "Hera and Hephaistos" teaches us how parents' selfishness hurts their childlen. But it also leaves us hope that the childlen can heal their early wounds by themselves and forgive their careless parents. Another Greek story about "Zeus and Hera" shows a good example of eternal love triangle. A man always looks for a new love affair, but he cannot endure the life without his jealous wife. Even the people who are not familiar with these myths could enjoy the whole story.

Takes myths from several cultures (Greek, Native American, Polynesian, etc) and links them to topics affecting all of us such as coming of age, loss, marriage, etc. Each myth begins with a short explanation and ends with a commentary. Beautiful illustrations.

I read along with Moore's Original Self which is also based on various classic literary authors--Ovid, Dickinson, Yeats, Zen and Buddhist writers.

Two great approaches to universal topics

The one thing that appeals to me about this book is that this book has timeless appeal. That I can read it now and 10 years from now and I will still be able to benefit from it.

It is beautifully presented with artwork included (not bad indeed!).. It allows you the option of reading the myth only or myth with commentary.

The great thing about the commentary is that it does show you how an "ancient" myth can still relate to us (in some way) in this modern "urban" time. The commentary also allowed me to think about the myth in a way I never thought before.. hence making it every more relevant to me.

I like how it is has sections .. hence I can pick this up 10 years from now, go to the relevant section and learn. Or even "hand on" this book to others.. hence the appeal will be generational.

Not a heavy read - so if you're looking for a "dry" book, go elsewhere. This book _is_ for everyone, in my humble opinion.

At last! A book that tackles this potentially dry subject with intelligence, wit and fun! I cannot imagine a reader (tekkie or not) who wouldn't both enjoy and learn from "How Did They Do That?". The author's humor, experience and vast understanding of the subject enfuse this book with richness and playfulness. I have learned and continue to learn many new ideas about motion graphics. The illustrations and photography are beautifully done. In short, Mr. Greene's book is very enjoyable, highly educational, and entirely satisfying.

This book helps me EVERY time I need help on a new project. It demystifies so many different processes and techniques, I feel more gutsy when I take on new design challenges. A few of my clients also notice that my work has come up to a new level of excellence -- and I know that this book has helped make a difference. Yes, the pictures are awesome, PLUS the writing style makes it so easy understand and even PLAYFUL, which makes studying fun and gives me more confidence in client meetings and when I'm off on my own turning around a project on tight deadline. Also, I find that when I explain technical stuff to clients now, I'm a better communicator because of this book -- and my clients love that, of course. When a book makes a difference like that, it's a rare gem.

Well, *I * really enjoyed this book. It's not just pretty pictures; there is real substance here. It's got an excellent sampling of projects from a wide range of disciplines ranging across Film, Broadcast and New Media. I especially enjoyed the scope of the book in assembling work from both domestic and international artists. The book's strength comes from the quality of the projects and the crisp writeups. It 's fascinating to see where other designers have taken their
creativity and how they have approached their work.

As for the project writeups, they worked for me. The book is written "high level", i.e. no tips and tricks, but is definitely informative and insightful. It's great for quickly understanding how a project was approached from both a creative and a production perspective. All in all, an excellent source of information and inspiration.

This is an anthology of detective stories in Victorian era, when Holmes and Watson were actively investigating. However, Holmes fans will still be rather disappointed because most are featuring rather commonplace detectives showing off in front of the dumb. Nevertheless, there is still some intelligence in the detectives, which is rarely found in their modern world collegues.

Sherlock Holmes stands as the paramount Victorian era fictional detective. Indeed, he serves as the standard by which to judge all detective fiction. Douglas Greene includes "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" as the representative Holmes story. A young lady, much in need of work as a governess, comes to Holmes for his advice on whether to take a position with a rather disagreeable gentleman. Holmes senses danger, but the offer of a fabulous salary defeats any misgivings. Holmes and Watson must later spring to the aid of the damsel in distress, and the reader encounters a surprise or two as the climax unfolds.

When Holmes and Moriarty went over the Reichenbach falls, Arthur Morrison sprang into the breach with Martin Hewitt, an amateur detective who enjoyed a better relationship with Scotland Yard than Holmes ever did. In "The Case of the Lost Foreigner," Hewitt and his adoring biographer unravel a mystery reminiscent of (but not nearly as mysterious as) the mysteries confronted by Holmes and Watson

Move over V.I. Warshawski, Loveday Brooke, lady detective solves a corker of a mystery in "The Ghost of Fountain Lane," a story in which modern readers will find themselves at a disadvantage. Some of the clues depend on knowledge of turn-of-the-century religious practices.

We also find a Rudyard Kipling opus, "The Return of Imray," a mystery solved more by accident than design.

Kalad Persa, a Hindu mystic who sits smoking a hooka in the back room of a London detective agency, solves mysteries by divination. In "The Divination of the Zagury Capsules," he listens at a peep hole as the client tells her story and then tells the leg man what to do to solve the mystery. It reminded me somewhat of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Although Persa's directions come trapped in mysticism, it's easy (at least by 20/20 hindsight) to see the chain of logical deduction that leads to the "divination."

Baroness Orczy, the creator of the Scarlet Pimpernell, also created the Old Man in the Corner. In "The York Mystery" the Old Man sits in his Corner at the restaurant and solves the conundrum of a scandalous murder merely from reading the newspaper accounts. The working out of the murderer's identity is a nice piece of deductive and inductive reasoning.

In "The Haverstock Hill Murder," Dorcas Dene, another lady detective, undertakes to clear a man arrested for murder on seemingly conclusive evidence. The task seems hopeless, but . . .

Dr. John Thorndyke has the honor of being probably the first truly scientific detective. In "The Dead Hand" he uses his knowledge of marine biology and marine geography to prove up a murder and capture the criminal. The plotline is a "Columbo" style inverted mystery in which we watch the villain perpetrate the seemingly perfect crime. Then Dr. Thorndyke goes to work and unravels the Gordian Knot. This has to be the best story of the lot.

Miss Florence Cusack, the foremost lady detective in Victorian England, solves the case of "Mr. Bovey's Unexpected Will" and finds his hidden legacy in a quite unexpected place.

"A Perverted Genius" presents a caper story in which the reader ought to easily discern the bad guy far ahead of the constabulary, but what happens next is quite paradoxical.

G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown, of all the detectives except Holmes, is the one a modern reader will most likely have heard of. In "The Eye of Apollo," Father Brown deductively solves an ingenious murder, but the case would never stand up in court. How can the villain be foiled and justice prevail? Read the story. Interestingly, Father Brown has a sidekick. He's a Scotland Yard detective named Hercule Flambeau! Now where have I heard a name like that before?

"The Purple Emperor" may be the only murder story where the central characters are butterfly collectors and a knowledge of butterflies is essential to solving the mystery.

Jacques Futrelle created "The Thinking Machine," an armchair detective whose deductive powers exceeded those of Mycroft Holmes. Futrelle's story, "The Tragedy of the Life Raft," is the last Thinking Machine story, written shortly before Futrelle's death on the Titanic.

One of the big mysteries of this collection is how "The Story of Baelbrow" got included. It's a ghost story, and not a very god one. The one sour note in the book.

Having spent years combing the used bookstores from Maine to Florida for Victorian era detective fiction, I can vouch for the superlative quality of this collection. You would probably have to time-travel in order to find so many intriguing stories all in one place-including a rare gem by R. Austin Freeman which apparently has never been published before in the United States. The editor is Edgar award-winning author Douglas G. Greene, considered by many the foremost authority on classic detective fiction today. The introductory essay alone is worth the price of the book. Thanks again, Dover-and thanks again, Douglas Greene.

In Graham Greene's novel, "England Made Me," twins Kate and Anthony Farrant are opposites, but they are bound by their past, devotion, and on Kate's side--a sense of guilt. Kate is both the secretary and the fiancee of Krogh, a wealthy European industrialist--a driven man who functions like a machine, devoid of emotion and devoted only to his megalomaniacal urges. When Anthony experiences yet another bout of bad luck (and his life is full of bad luck stories), Kate comes to his rescue--yet again--and offers Anthony a job in Sweden with Krogh.

Anthony, a Nihilist, vacillates between giving up all the small pleasures he gains from living in England against the possibilities that may be gained from steady employment from his rich soon-to-be brother-in-law. Finally it is Kate's dominant willpower that prevails. Anthony leaves for Sweden, and so begins a chain of events which pit Anthony--the useless--although ornamental product of a corrupt British public school system in the last throes of Empire, against the vast, solid, immovable and unstoppable power of Krogh's financial empire.

The best things about Greene novels are the relationships between the characters. Greene always manages to place characters in the wrong spot at the wrong time. And Greene characters who have spent a lifetime acting or avoiding certain situations, are forced to confront those issues in Greene's created worlds. In "England Made Me, " Anthony's relationship with his sister Kate is bordering on the incestuous. Kate realises that she possesses all the traits that are good if they exist in a male, but are somewhat socially inappropriate--and even unattractive in a female. If forged together, Anthony and Kate would form a healthy, whole human being, but separately, Anthony is "too human to live"--weak, feckless, and an effete. Kate seems slightly un-human. Her very desire to 'help' Anthony, only encourages his dependence.

Anthony forms a relationship with Minty--a shabby, middle-aged, British newspaper reporter , who refers to himself in the third person. Minty and Anthony have a great deal in common--both men are "black sheep," both men are friendless (although Anthony is far more affable and charming), and both men are abject failures. Anthony's optimism and lack of introspection prevent him from arriving at this conclusion, however, for Minty is what Anthony could become if he ever stuck with one thing long enough. Anthony remains the most interesting character in the book--he's at once complex and yet shallow--happy to blackmail Krogh for the corrupt outrages he feels Krogh shouldn't be allowed to get away with, and yet, he's too vague to actually try and stop the man.

This is not the best Graham Greene novel I've read. The point of view shifts back and forth from first person (a variety of narrators) to third person omniscient, and there were several stream of consciousness passages that were hard to follow. It took a while for me to really get into this book, but when I did, I was riveted. This book is rated against other Graham Greene novels--displacedhuman--Amazon Reviewer.

A short, yet interesting novel set largely in Stockholm. The Englishman Anthony Farrant, through the good offices of his twin sister Kate, gets a job with the Swedish businessman Krogh. What follows thereafter is a slow exposure of the different sets of values held by Krogh and the other characters (who are mainly British residents in Sweden).

I thought that "England Made Me" is a deeply anxious work: the British (with one notable exception) are, for all their faults, fundamentally humane but lack any willpower. Krogh however is inhumane, shallow and yet totally driven. I reflected that perhaps Greene was intending this to be an allegory: the mid-twentienth century British lack any self-confidence and fall back on a mythical idea of decency derived from their spurious public school traditions, whereas Krogh represents the stark face of (then) modern capitalism - utterly lacking in compassion, amoral and foreign.

An interesting period piece.

A novel about the black sheep of a British family, England Made Me is an indictment of the "solid morals" that English society held fast to in the early twentieth century, and an incisive look at what "doing the right thing" actually leads to.

I found this book somewhat disappointing. It lacked content, and neglected a lot of the WHYs in a blended family. I left this book feeling unfulfilled. However, _Keys to Successful Step-Mothering_ does contain some good content on coping skills and would be a good read for the busy mom or stepmother. This book is a good companion to other, more in depth, step parenting books, but I found it doesn't stand well on its own.

This fairly brief book doesn't spend a lot of time on the philosophy of stepmothering, but instead, gets right to the practical, nitty-gritty information that the reader can use immediately. The real-life stepmom stories that appear on almost every page are both enlightening and inspiring, spoken directly from the heart.

The book covers many issues, ranging from second weddings to money to the ex-wife. The "Tips for Merging New Families" aren't new, but it can help sometimes to take a very basic look at how you're approaching your role. There are also several helpful chapters on discipline.

The "Stepchild's Point of View" chapter is helpful, too, and and full of insight straight from the kids. The book also touches on holidays, vacations, stepsiblings and more. While it doesn't spend a lot of time on any one topic, the broad range it covers provides some quick guidance for the new or inexperienced stepmom.

The "Survival Tactics" are up to-the-point and a good reminder of how we're responsible for our own behavior and feelings. You'll probably also learn something from the questions and answers at the end of the book.

This is great resource for stepmothers. It has many helpful suggestions about dealing with blended families in healthy ways and the importance of keeping your marriage a priority. It dispels myths about stepparenting and encourages stepmoms to set expectations at a realistic level.

Graham Greene's 1955 novella, "Loser Takes All," is a clever thought experiment in which love, morality, and ethics are all brought to bear on the early days of a married relationship. One of Greene's most appealing moves in the book is his delineation of character. The people who populate the novella are character types struggling to become characters - to find individuality and meaning in a world whose sole virtue seems to be money.

"Loser Takes All" begins in Monte Carlo. An English couple, Bertram, a fortyish accountant with a dead end career; and Cary, his twentyish fiance are on the verge of marriage - but they've been sidetracked. Initially planning on a small church service, Bertram is called into a meeting with his abstracted and unapproachable boss, Dreuther. Although Bertram isn't well-off, Dreuther talks him into moving his marriage plans to Monte Carlo, where Dreuther will rendezvous with them, and bring them back to England on his yacht. The action of the novella shows how this change of plans affects absolutely everything in Bertram and Cary's lives.

This is a short work, but it is packed with important and compelling themes. Greene was an absolute craftsman of language and situation, and the major themes that his longer works explore are found even in this short entertainment. Human relationships are central to the novella - the central relationship between Bertram and Cary is affected by Bertram's relationship with Dreuther, Dreuther's with 'another' of the firm's shareholders, Blixon. Greene asks how sympathies are constructed and maintained in good times and in bad.

Money and chance are also extremely important to the overarching theme of gambling and roulette. Characters like Bertram and character types like Phillippe and Bird's Nest illustrate the tensions in viewing life's progression as a matter of necessity or one of chance. Again, "Loser Takes All" is a short work, and is valuable as a kind of synopsis of the issues Greene's impressive literary corpus consistently engages with. The three star rating is because, in the context of Greene's body of work alone, "Loser Takes All" is a good piece, but not a great one.

Obviously Graham Greene is a great storyteller. There's a lot of sarcasm in his writing, which I love. This is about a mediocre accountant, Bertram, marrying for the second time to a women much younger than himself. They are both stranded in Monte Carlo, and much to his new wife's chagrin, he becomes obsessed with a gambling system which starts to work for him. "Loser Takes All" has a good twist at the end. Actually, I was surprised by the end of this book, not only by what happened, but how the tone seemed to change completely. I fully expected something different.

Maybe the story itself didn't interest me all that much. I wouldn't say it was fantastic or anything. It was all right. Still, this was the first Graham Greene book I've read, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Bertram is a middle-aged accountant employed by a large firm when he comes to the attention of the company director, Dreuther. Bertram has a nice quiet, modest wedding planned followed by a honeymoon in Bournemouth--this is all that he and his fiance, Cary can afford, but when Druether hears of their plans, he offers to send them--at his expense--to Monte Carlo. The plan is that Bertram and Cary will marry in romantic Monte Carlo, and then board Dreuther's yacht for an extended honeymoon around the coast of Italy. Bertram pressured to provide a honeymoon that is the equivalent of the one endured in Paris with his first wife, "Dirty," accepts Druether's offer.

The plan goes horribly wrong when Dreuther fails to arrive in Monte Carlo as arranged. Bertram and Cary rapidly run out of money, and Bertram, with his fascination with numbers, develops a system for playing roulette. Their relationship and their love is tested--first by the poverty they are immediately reduced to, and then by Bertram's winning streak as his "system" at the roulette wheel begins to work. But as Bertram carts off big winnings from the table, he discovers he is about to lose something very, very precious.

This slight novel (just over 120 pages) fascinated me to the very last page. Greene analyses human nature using the seductiveness of money, and shows how the corrupting and insatiable hunger for money destroys love, faith, character, and prudence. The amoral Dreuther is one of the most fascinating literary characters I've discovered in recent years (he reminds me very much of a character from a Balzac novel), and his role in this novel is both chilling and sublime.

After reading this book and contemplating just how seriously Mr. Greene takes the Planet of the Apes movies, I can only say one thing: his premise would make for a great magazine article. :-)

Eric's book is a marvel of academic analysis. The way in which he relates the Apes series, in all its incarnations, to the political and racial strife of the day is nothing short of amazing. I highly recommend this book.

From beginning to end this is the study of the Planet of the Apes series that everyone of the series' fans have dreamed of and that academics who never took the series seriously will learn from and hopefully teach.In addition to being an enjoyable read, Greene has a politically-minded scholar's insight that helps lift the series from trivia into concrete seriousness. I think it is a model for future works of film scholarship and appreciation.

After the hulabaloo of the recent film version of The End of the Affair, William Cash's book was a timely arrival, and a refreshing one. Like Cash, many Greene scholars feel that Greene's works are too frequently confused with his life. Art and life are distinct enough with most writers, but Greene more so, as he himself made many requests to his reading public to please not confuse his fiction with fact. Neil Jordan's film, however well-done, fell into this confusing fact with fiction trap, and even went so far as to cast Julianne Moore in the role of Sarah because she so resembled Catherine Walston (despite the fact that she does not fit the description of Sarah Miles). Cash's book blows open the doors that have been shut too long on the real story of the 'end of the affair' and shows us how different, in fact, Greene's relationship was from Bendrix's.

Cash's research, which was carefully and meticulously done, is written out in a clear and readable style, and his collections of anecdotes and new stories (so much, after all, has already been written) makes the book a goldmine for a Greene scholar. Cash's interview(s) with Vivien Greene, in particular, are valuable in what they tell us about their marriage and about Greene as a person - Greene's faults are laid open for us all to see, and while some of what is revealed pains the reader, it is helpful, all the same, in putting Greene's work in perspective to his life.

An impressive piece of writing overall and a much-needed contribution to the vast field of Greene scholarship. However, the main shortcoming of the book is that it lacks an index, and should a second edition be in the works, it would much behoove Cash to compile one.

I am a lover of Greene's books and one of my all time favourite books is the End of The Affair so i enjoyed this immensely. It really made me appreciate what a complex person Greene was. I found myself being drawn in on what are at times quite mundane facts but nonetheless facinating. Catherine Walston remains a mystery to me. Well worth a read if ,like me you read the End of the Affair and wanted to find out more about the real story behind it. Very enjoyable

I'm a Graham Greene addict and have just really enjoyed Gloria Emerson's "Loving Graham Greene". I liked the Neil Jordan film of The End of the Affair and read a rave review of this true account of the real life love affair between Greene and his American nymphomaniac mistress Catherine Walston in The London Spectator whilst visiting England earlier this year for an antique fair. I got a signed copy at Hatchards and read it on the plane on way back to New York and loved it. The book is a sort of literary detective investiagation into the importance of adultery to literature, played out against a background of Ireland, Paris, London, Rye, New York --- where i have family -- and Cambridge. Catherine Walston is one of the most intriging muses of modern literature, like Slyvia Plath only more erotic and dangerous. How Greene managed to still write his 500 words a day i have no idea. Anyhow, I'm giving this book as Christmas presents to several of my literary friends...Pity their are no pix in the book, other than on the cover.

I bought this book on the basis of a National Public Radio story which promoted it in an in-depth study of the devestating 1900 hurricane that killed thousands in Galveston, Texas. The radio spot spared no expense with the sound of hurricane force wind surrounding the historic taped voices of survivors describing a night where death pounded on the door. It made a much better radio show than it does a book. The problem is, the eyewitnes accounts are all in cloudy retrospect, some were taped seventy-plus years afterwords and are shaky historic accuracy. The book is a compilation of various communications from victims and survivors; personal letters, weather reports, diary entries, newspaper headlines and the mighty storm soon becomes as redundant as a 'Weather Channel' report. If the authors had found a grocery list of a victim, it would be included. Surely this hurricane which killed over 5000 people in an American coastal community in 1900 was more horrific than the drab, hearsay accounts given here. There is no journalistic quality. Even the photographs show page after page of what appears to be the same pile of wooden rubble.

This is the best book available on the Great Storm of 1900 and its effect on Galveston, Texas. An unbelievable amount of research obviously went into it. Very well written. Highly recommended.

This is a must-own book if you're interested in the great storm of 1900 or Galveston history generally.If you're going to buy just one Texas history book this year this is definitely the one to get. Despite the fact that the scholarship and research that went into this book is first rate,it is highly readable and you can almost hear the voices of people who experienced first hand the tragic events of this greatest of American natural disasters.The pictures and maps in this book are also woven together in a marvelous fashion. The Rosenberg Library in Galveston is to be commended for using its collection to put together this extraordinary book, which tells a powerful and moving story.This is history at its best.

Ed Cotham Author of Battle on the Bay: The Civil War Struggle for Galveston

I've been running for 35 years and coaching for many so I expected to pick up a book that would give some insight into a young runner's mind or some biomechanical needs of a young runner. The book is a cursory view of coaching and training. It's fine if you are just starting out with no background. But where's the meat and potatoes?

I liked how this booked emphasized how important mental training should be integrated into a good, solid training prog. The scientific aspect is easy to understand though not nearly as thorough or complex as Martin and Coe's book. The training is very conservative, but the strength training advice was very helpful.

I am a Cross Country Coach for Lakeshore Middle School in Stevensville, MI and am building a program. I found the "Training for Young Distance Runners" book to be very helpful. I have found the section on Psychology right on target. I have a son that runs High School Cross Country who runs year around and after a successful summer road racing season started the Cross Country Season doing very poorly. Using the Psychology section helped me get him back on track. The Nutrition section has also been helpful for some of my runners. I give the book a two thumbs up.

kandssteve@qtm.net Steve Nielsen