From an anorexic snake to a myopic kangaroo to a bloated akita, from the tricky diagnoses to the hopeless cases, this captivating paperback tells of the perilous situations that have occurred at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. Is it really right to spend all this time and effort on animals when some people lack food, shelter, and proper medical care? The veterinarians who unveil their heart-warming and emotional stories in this 194-page book, Animal ER, by Vicki Croke (copyright-1999) show us that the world is meant to be shared by animals and humans.
Each chapter of this brilliant book displays and describes a different animal/pet and its unique problem. Biology plays a major part in this book because it's about the science of studying and curing living things. It exposes the drama of life in the emergency ward of a veterinary hospital, which is a biology-related occupation. The first chapter summarizes the atmosphere of the Intensive Care Unit at Tufts; it's sad and yet successful too. The next eleven chapters of Animal ER present various animals and their life-threatening problems. Some require complex surgical procedures, while others are solved by unexpected and simple means. The last chapter returns to the Intensive Care Unit and reveals what the animals teach the veterinarians. The main idea expressed at the closing of the book touched my soul as tears rose to the surface like a newly found spring. Vicki Croke wrote that the animals who are cared for seem to teach simple lessons about life. "Animals continue to surprise me with their patience, their level of tolerance, and their strength," Nishi says, "but most of all, with their ability to forgive" (194).
I would strongly recommend this brilliant book to my friends or those people who are thinking of going into the veterinary field of study. Since I've never had a pet, I cannot relate to the owners of these sick animals; however, I can see this book as a slice of a veterinarian's life. It captures the essence of the Intensive Care Unit during first examinations, x-rays, surgery, and post-operative care. It is clear to see, as they treat animals, that Nishi Dhupa, Dr. Mark Pokras, Dr. John Berg, and other staff members at Tufts have the "healing touch". So even though some people don't have their primary needs met like food, shelter, and clothing, animals have a right to our care and concern.

Animal ER is a marvelous book for anyone who has an interest in animals or the world of Vets. Most of this book showed how these vets work everyday, but it also touches on the emotional side of the proffession. Vets have to decide when to put an animal to sleep and when to give them extra treatment . They also have a responsibility to comfort the owners. Find out more about the world of the vet by reading this fantastic nonfiction.

When my sister lost her beloved Great Dane, I mourned for her too. I'm a cat person, and this big black incredibly sweet baby was the first dog I ever loved. When I visited my sister last year and she showed me this book, explaining that the author had been there in the Tufts Vet ER with her when Azaria was brought in, I was amazed. I continued to be amazed as I saw my sister's very special love for my doggy-niece through the eyes of a total stranger. It would have been very easy to dismiss how painful losing a pet can be, very easy to miss the ties of love between a pet and her owner. My sister loved her dog, quirks and fears and vet bills and all. I loved her too. Thanks, Vicki. Your gentle presentation of their story is the finest tribute Zari could have had.

I'd been looking for an art noveau tattoo design for quite some time, and I ordered this book to see if I could find something interesting in it. I was not disappointed, to put it mildly. The book has got the most beautiful art in it, and I've got my tattoo now! If you want art noveau patterns and borders, this is the book to buy, TRUST ME!

This book was well worth the money. It is packed full of beautiful and ornate frames and borders. Most are elegant, but a few are on the whimsical side. Since they are all copywright-free, I plan to use them for newsletters and scrapbooking. All of the images are printed in black ink. To use them, they will definately need to be photocopied or scanned. This is a nice book to be added to your clipart collection.

Milhone meets a young man struggling with the effects of brain damage resulting from a car crash in which a friend was killed. He thinks someone is trying to kill him(....).
The publication date is 1986 and the action follows on that of B for Burglar (which may sound obvious but Grafton does not always have the plots in the series sequential and all are set in an eighties time-frame).
There's lot of Ross MacDonald in this. It's as much about families as about murder. The mother of Bobby the victim has been married twice before. Her latest husband, an idle foolish alcoholic, brings his daughter Kitty, an anorexic druggie, from a previous marriage. The Henry sub-plot is particularly strong in this (Henry is Kninsey Milhone's octogenarian landlord). I understand the abridgements of these novels leave Henry out. In a way it's a distraction but it neatly counterpoints the other family, as also does the family of Rick Bergen the boy killed in Bobby's first crash. A problem with Ross MacDonald was the way the book consisted of interview after interview and Grafton avoids that by breaking it up with the Henry plot.
I was a little surprised by the amount of socialization with a family by their doctors; not only their children's psychiatrist, but the forensic pathologist who autopsies family members. Maybe they do these things in California. Grafton is always accurate in her medical expertise. (The symptoms of traumatic brain damage are well-described here).
What is it that makes Grafton so great? I don't think it's primarily Milhone's character, memorable though that is. Her trademark is careful scene-setting. Her action moves quite slowly but we don't notice that because what holds it up is meticulous description of every place that Milhone is in and every character she meets. Detail is piled upon detail to create an exact picture that we can almost touch and feel. There are great writers who manage without this (who knows what an EM Forster character looks like) and there are poor writers who bore us with longwinded descriptions. Grafton is on her own.

I started reading the Millhone books in order and I just finished "C is for Corpse". I think it was a great book. It kept me going all the way to the end, and then let me have it.

Gustav Dore illustrated books and magazines in the 19th century, and these are a collection of his woodcuts from several different publications. The recreations are fantastic, from the Bible to Poe to Dante, Dore traverses grand stories of faith, humor, and fantasy all without missing a beat. It's amazing that these are glorious reproductions of handmade, woodcut images. Dore rarely made the woodcuts himself, but sometimes drew them directly to the wood it was to be cut from. Dore is brilliant, and a forgotten Master of book illustration. Many illustrations elicit a sense of Tolkien's works; though long before Tolkien.
Any of these could be easily removed from the volume, (though that would be sacreledge), and put into a frame to make a beautiful piece of art to hang on your wall. If you do commit this sacreledge, I recommend "The Empyrean" from Dante's "Divine Comedy" as a favorite.

This book is really great because it provides the reader with an extensive view of Dore's work. It displays more than a hundred high quality full-paged engravings for a very low price. I was utterly delighted when I found this book : I am French and though Gustave Dore is a French artist, it is at present impossible to find here such books as the Dore series published by Dover Publishers.

I would not call myself a avid quilter, but I am a pretty good one. One of the books I started out with was this one.

In the introduction one will find a crash course in beginning the quilt, types of materials to use, fabric cutting, sewing, setting, blocking and finishing the quilt, as well as preparation of the top, quilting and binding.

The things I liked were the full size templates, color charts, and easy to follow directions. Not to mention it precisely telling you how much of each fabric is needed.

This book is simple enough for the beginner, yet challenging enough for the avid quilter. I'd recommend it without any qualms.

Windmill, Eight-Pointed Star, Kitty Corner, Steeple Chase, Compass, Ship's Wheel, Flower Basket, Tulip, Wild Goose Chase, Log Cabin, Duck's-Foot-in-the-Mud, and Little Red School House.

I am an avid reader of mystery novels from the time I was a little girl - being the only girl in my group of friends to read mystery. I loved Lew Archer stories but was not really knowledgeable about the author. When I came across the book in the library, I checked it out and thoroughly enjoyed the book. His life was so wonderful yet pitifully sad. I thought Tom Nolan did a great job doing his research and his talent for writing made the book one that I could not put down until I had completely finished it. I can identify with some of the things McDonald's daughter went through. Her life hit a nerve and I believe Tom Nolan did an excellent job describing that part. I am an aspiring writer myself and I was amazed at the time and effort Tom put into this book. Hats off to him and I will be looking to read other books by him. The photograph of the author is very familiar to me. I feel that I may have known him. Strange.

A good biography defines for the reader the complete subject. An exceptional biography not only defines the subject but offers insights and generates feeling for the subject. Nolan has done a truly masterful job of offering us Kenneth Millar, without ever once inflicting any kind of authorial (hence subjective) opinions on the material.

As someone who, to this day, can remember many of Millar/Macdonald's exquisitely crafted lines and scenes, and who loved both his work and that of his wife Margaret Millar, it was a wonderful experience to read this book. Since they were so integral to each other's lives, author Nolan has wisely, and quite fully, included Margaret in this biography in order to give us a full perspective on their life together--a pair of (ultimately) enormously successful writers who happened to be married.

Margaret comes across as a clever, difficult, quite damaged woman, often hiding behind throwaway quips and quite caustic remarks; not at all sociable, undeniably gifted, and possessed of a humor that was frequently cruel.

Millar, on the other hand, is shown to be, first and foremost, a generous, thoughtful, kind, and immensely gifted man with a fine, fine mind. His long struggle to achieve the success he so richly deserved is, in some ways, very contemporary; in other ways, it's reflective of the times (the late 40s through the late 70s).

Rich, too, in physical detail, what I particularly liked was Nolan's comprehension of Millar's sense of being an alien in America. Despite his American birth, having grown up in Canada, Millar brought to his life and to his work a kind of interior chill that is so very much a part of Canadian life. A very tricky thing to describe, yet Nolan does a masterful job of highlighting the difference in sensibilities between Canadians and Americans. It's no small achievement. We Canadians are not Americans, but articulating why--and defining the cultural niceties--can be exceedingly difficult.

To learn that a mind as fine as Millar's is destroyed, ultimately, by Alzheimer's is achingly painful to read. To "see" the man begin to falter and then fail is harrowing and, finally, heartbreaking. Millar redefined the mystery genre, bringing it forward into the mainstream of literature with consummate skill and a peerless talent. Nolan does his subject proud. This is a book that would, undoubtedly, have pleased the shy and unpretentious Millar enormously.

Read every Ross Macdonald book you can find. And then read this splendid biography.
My highest recommendation.

This exhaustively researched book is not so much a biography of Ken Millar (real name of "Ross Macdonald") so much as a history of Millar's career as a writer, and as such it is extremely valuable to anyone who dreams of being an author.

Millar examplifies the classic situation of the genre author who achieves "overnight" fame after publishing 18 previous critically aclaimed books. This book makes it clear just how much work and how much frustration is involved in the life of the genre novelist, as well as portraying how complex it can be to deal with success when it finally comes.

What is particularly interesting in this story too, is the fact that Millar's wife, Margaret, was a successful mystery writer long before he was. The way that these two authors, with their quirky, authorial personalities, supported each other through their life's journeys and tragedies is particularly poignant, though Nolan, unfortunately, takes a very negative attitude--unjustified by much of the data he himself presents--towards Margaret's personality and achievements.

Today's novelists often look back with envy at those who wrote in the "Golden Age" of the pulps, before TV had ended the brief Age of Literacy of the first half of this century. Reading this book will dispell much of that envy. The tiny numbers of books sold in that "golden age" (3,500 being a typical hard cover sale of Ross Macdonald's first 16 books) and the pathetic sums paid him for paperback rights to books that had gotten enthusiastic NYTimes reviews show us that if anything today's genre writers are doing better(in adjusted dollars), not worse than those of Millar's day.

Having read many of Kozol's previous books, I have developed a great admiration for him and his lifelong dedication to social justice and poor children, and his eloquent arguments on their behalf. I've wondered at how he has managed to spend nearly 40 years of his life in this pursuit. This book shows us why--he truly enjoys and loves the children he advocates for. Like Savage Inequalities and Amazing Grace (both must reads) the children's words themselves move you with their honesty, their innocence, and their hope. I can still see Elio moving his arms to "catch one of God's answers to his prayers". But this book also gives us some insight into Kozol himself--his struggles with the failing health of his parents especially. While his earlier books often were suffused with anger at the inequalities of the public education system and social framework, this book is filled with hope and joy. and a little bit of sadness too. And, surprisingly, it is just as effective.

Some might describe Jonathan Kozol's "Ordinary Resurrections" as a softer, more positive book than his past attacks on the inequalities of education. While the story-telling style often presents the "warm, fuzzy" experiences Kozol shared with young children in the South Bronx of New York, the primary message is still an alarming exposure of stark inequity in the availability of educational institutions, personnel, and resources for children in the public schools of New York City. The setting for these experiences is a neighborhood known as Mott Haven, one of the most impoverished areas of the city. The majority of Kozol's time is spent visiting with children, parents, teachers, and workers who are connected with an "after school" program housed at St. Ann's, an Episcopalian church in Mott Haven. Children attending St. Ann's after school program have a major advantage over others in the South Bronx; the dedicated volunteer workers who feed them, help them with homework, offer special programs, and often care for them as closely as their own family. Mother Martha, St. Ann's priest is an active participant in all of these activities, as well as spiritual instruction and guidance.

Kozol shares bits and pieces of the children's' lives, which include stark realities such as a large percentage of absentee fathers, many who are in prison, an extremely high rate of asthma due largely to poor environmental conditions, a high incidence of AIDS in relatives, gangs, shootings, hunger, lack of health care, and eviction. The term "apartheid education" is used in describing how skin color and class origin still determine curricular provision for these children, limiting their educational resources and their future. Stories shared indicate that expectations are set lower than other areas of the city and children's dreams for the future are effectively stifled. They are encouraged to plan careers as hairdressers, nurse's aides, or technicians, rather than professionals requiring a college degree. Kozol urges us not to impose "global preconceptions on a multitude of diverse personalities and motivations in a given group of' children".

The stark reality is that the money spent on children's' education per capita is much less in South Bronx than other areas of the city, and even miniscule compared to the amount spent to incarcerate men in the nearest prison. When Kozol is challenged with the question of whether money really is the only answer to the problems faced by schools serving poorest children in our cities now, he responds, "I think it is fair to answer, No. It is not the only answer, but it is often a precondition for most other answers."

Despite the disheartening facts of life and lack of resources, there is a bright side to Kozol's reflections. He describes with wonder at times of "the deep, inextinguishable goodness at the core of creation" evidenced over and over again in the children of Mott Haven. While many term these children resilient, Kozol argues that word does an justice the true qualities that help them prevail, such as ingenuity, courage, love, and especially spiritual faith. "Ordinary resurrection" is a term used by an Episcopal priest named Robert Morris who speaks about the commonplace and frequently unnoticed ways that people rise above their loneliness and fear. He states, "We all lie down. We all rise up. We do this every day. The Resurrection does not wait for Easter." This is the life of the children at Mott Haven. How they rise up every day is the heartwarming encouraging part of Kozol's book. Why they have to do it is the heart-disturbing part that makes the reader want to agree that something needs to be done to invest in these children's' futures, that they deserve a chance at something better. As Kozol asks, "why not give these kids the best we have because we are a wealthy nation and they're children and deserve to have some fun while they're still less than four feet high?"

As the end of the book drew near, I knew that I did not want it to finish. Through Kozol's descriptive, real life language, I felt as if I knew the students and wanted to continue along life's journey with them. I became frustrated, because I want to know what happens to the individual children. Are they able to remain strong with the help of the people at St. Ann's? Or do they fall into a life filled with crimes and drugs? Although I am upset, it is good, almost like a passion that is a direct result of Jonathan Kozol. Within an instant, he invites his readers to come along with him into this world in the South Bronx, a world that many people have not entered and maybe never will. Therefore, I believe Ordinary Resurrections is extremely powerful, for it has the capability to extend its arms and touch many people; there truly is no limit to the people who Kozol may affect. This idea of having no boundaries is crucial in today's society, because people should take the time not only to acknowledge, but help those who are less fortunate. It's a frightening world, especially for our youth, which is why they need our guidance and assistance to make sense of it all and find their own path.

Say it isn't so! Jake Grafton, Stephen Coonts' hero of at least two other novels, has reached the pinnacle of naval aviation by becoming the CAG on the "United States" . . . and now age is catching up with him? He's a career navy officer, has a terrific wife, but he may have to quit flying because of a silly little problem with night vision? With all of the problems that Stephen Coonts weaves in the Middle-East, it doesn't take much imagination on the part of the reader to guess that we haven't yet seen Jake's final flight.

Stephen Coonts has outdone himself in "Final Flight." The character and plot development are superb. Jake and his wife Callie are again at the center of the story, but there are plenty of other interesting people. I'd like to read more about Toad, one of the F-14 weapons officers who flies with Jake - and that Judith! -- wow!

If you only read one Stephen Coonts book, this is the one to read. The book easily stands on its own for readers of all interests. (If you're into aviation, you'll want to read "Flight of the Intruder" and "Intruders" before reading "Final Flight." These two books will give you some very good lead-in information about Jake.

Final Flight is one of the best thrillers I've come across in a long time. The story (especially the last hundred or so pages) contains megatons of action. The one portion of the story which was never made entirely clear(probably due to a mistake on my part) was: which country were the terrorists from? But thankfully that fact does NOT hinder the storyline, which accelerates at supersonic speed to a smashing (read and you'll know what I mean)and powerful conclusion that kept me wanting to read more Coonts. Well done, Stephen!! I wish there were more thrillers like this one

This book had all the making of a best seller. A great plot exciting and doesn't let the reader go. I personally found this one of Stephen Coonts best books ever. The reality of the events of this book almost makes it seem like a real event.

This book has everyone involved. The US, Christians, Arabs, Jews, Atheist, and the rest of the world are all in trouble. The Arabs are after the US again. This time they are trying to capture one of their nuclear weapons. They are shown as experts in black mail as they "recruit" the people they need to complete their mission. They plan to use it to destroy all the religions that oppose them. They infiltrate the supercarrier USS United States. Jake Grafton is losing his vision and his pilots as problems start to occur on the planes. Still the problem falls on him. The Arabs make it into the carrier and take hostage the Admiral using him they get 7 nukes in to the coppers and fly away. It is now Jake's job to catch and destroy the Arabs before they can use the nukes. The ending is one of a kind.

Recently I needed a new company logo for my Real Estate firm. After recieving several different logos from various advertising firms I happened to glance thru this book and found just the perfect logo I was looking for. I use it everyday. It was then I made a fatal error and lent it out to someone and they lost it. I called the publisher of the book who in turn led me to Amazon.com. What a life saver! I typed in the book # in the search engine and it immediately popped up. I strongly suggest this book as well as Amazon.com

This inexpensive book and CD-rom does exactly what it says it will do which is produce great decorative letters. You can choose from approximately 25 styles of each letter in the alphabet.The images are easy to reference and are perfect for direct cut-and-paste. I'm not real great at deciphering most cd instructions but this is very simple. I wish more companys would take the hint. Simplicity is good.

I found this fun and easy to use! There is considerable variation in the letters, and I had no trouble finding uses for them, and expect I will find more in the future. It is inexpensive and hassle-free. I would recommend it!

I would not want to be Thomas Steinbeck. Imagine: you spend half of your time explaining who you are, the other half explaining who you aren't, and wait for the inevitable question, "Do you write, too?" Steinbeck has blazed his own path, acquiring large if quiet success as a photojournalist, cinematographer, and screenwriter. And, yes, he does write, too. And quite well.

The conundrum one encounters when approaching DOWN TO A SOUNDLESS SEA is approaching it on its own terms without using John Steinbeck as a reference and comparison point. Steinbeck could have avoided at least a portion of the dilemma by writing in a specialized genre, such as science fiction or horror and thus rendered intergenerational comparisons moot. He instead meets the problem head on; the short fiction collected in DOWN TO A SOUNDLESS SEA are Steinbeck's literary transcriptions of tales he grew up hearing from his father and from others who dropped by his household. Steinbeck wisely avoids disclosing to his readers who some of these "others" were, but anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of John Steinbeck's friends and contemporaries can easily guess. The settings for these stories --- Big Sur and the California coast --- were also frequently used by Steinbeck the Father. Thomas Steinbeck, however, has found his own voice, and his own words. He passes, and surpasses the "John Smith" test: if DOWN TO A SOUNDLESS SEA was written by John Smith, it would be worth picking up, and reading.

DOWN TO A SOUNDLESS SEA consists of seven stories; if there is a common thread it is one of men following dreams and remaining true to their internal vision, though not always wisely, not always successfully. Thus, in "The Wool Gatherer," a young John Steinbeck, retained by a rancher as a wrangler for summer work, finds his attention from the job distracted by his sighting of a giant bear, supposedly extinct. His efforts to find the bear, again, result in his wages being docked and his summer effectively wasted. Yet, there is a nobility found in the story that rings true for its time. The ending to this little tale resounds quietly but is writ large, so that it is not so much an entertainment but more a tacit lesson, not sugarcoated but nonetheless easy to swallow.

"Blind Luck," one of the two longer stories in the book, encapsulates the life of Chapel Lodge, whose childhood was so devoid of love and caring that he at one point believed his name to be "Hey you! Boy!" Possessing an innate, canny intelligence, Lodge comes to believe that his luck --- if it is to be had and utilized --- is to be found not on land, but on the sea.

"The Night Guide" is, perhaps, a tale of the supernatural, but more so it is the story of a quiet, but indestructible bond between mother and child, a fable and a history. It does not seem like much, at first, but it echoes with the reader even as the other stories herein are read and digested. The same is true of "An Unbecoming Grace," a deceptively simple little tale involving a traveling physician who plays inadvertently a most important role in the lives of three people, and in the happiness of two of them.

In "The Dark Watcher," meanwhile, an unassuming, untenured college professor sets out to make his academic mark and succeeds in a way that he did not anticipate. "The Blighted Cargo," one of the shortest tales in the book, is also the weakness, though, it is a fine enough entertainment, being a story of an ill-fated venture in the slave trade where the individual involved is, as is said in some parts, caught in his own juices.

The undisputed gem of DOWN TO A SOUNDLESS SEA is, however, "Sing Fat and the Imperial Duchess of Woo," the final story in the book. Almost one hundred pages long, this tale of romance and traditional Chinese engagement between a young widow and a student apothecary is practically worth the price of admission in and of itself. A quick reading of Steinbeck might leave the reader with the feeling that he takes two long to get the point of his stories and then dispenses with it far too quickly. Such an impression misses the point; every building, no matter how beautiful or utilitarian, is no stronger than the foundation upon which it rests. So too, with Steinbeck's short stories, and particularly with this last one, in which we come to know young Sing Fat, and to a lesser extent his erstwhile bride and the Imperial Duchess. It is unfortunate that stories like this or so rarely written in these politically correct, supposedly liberated days; it makes the beauty of this one resonate all the more strongly.

Steinbeck is reportedly working on his first novel. It will be interesting to see what he is able to do when given the room, and the inclination, to stretch his stories out to cover a larger canvas. He will certainly, on the basis of DOWN TO A SOUNDLESS SEA, have an audience ready, and waiting, to greet him on his own terms. Highly recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

After all that is why we read. It doesn't get any better than this. I just purchased the book the day before yesterday and only read 4 of the 7 stories. "Blind Luck" was great and "An Unbecoming Grace" had me laughing out loud at the end of the story.

I wish T. Steinbeck had several voulmes like this, looking forward to his 1st novel-

Don

When I put the book down I thought, Thomas Steinbeck uses words like Monet's brush.