not a bad book. I felt coverage could be much much better. Referencing would enhance the value of the text. Cost is too high for a simple Q&A book.

Fast final review just before boards. Probably picked up 30 additional questions that I would not have known.

"This book is intended [to provide an] attractive and workable compendium of flowering plant morphology ..." [quote from cover]. It certainly does this; in 341 pages richly illustrated with captivating color photographs and exquisite line drawings. An academic yet attractive overview of the immense variety of form that has evolved in Angiosperms.

First published in 1991, reprinted in 1993 (with corrections), reprinted 1998. This last edition, compared to the 1991 original, is printed on slightly yellower paper and is a little more 'black' in print, taking away something from the beauty of the photographs and the crispness of the printed text.

Dear Auther, I'm a Botanist in Egypt and I wanna buy your last edition of this book published by Oxford University Press but ther's nothing about its price or way to buy. magdy_gado@yahoo.com

Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, was one of the most significant religious leaders of the nineteenth century. His efforts sparked the rise of a new religious movement that has proven to be lasting and dynamic. But who was this man Joseph Smith, and what made him unique? That has been a subject of considerable investigation by many observers. This book collects some of the more thoughtful recent explorations of this theme. The fifteen essays in this volume collect several of those previously published in journals as well as adding three that appear here for the first time.

This collection is a welcome addition to the literature on the Mormon prophet neither for its exhaustive consideration nor for the insights offered, but because it collects in one place several important articles on the place of Joseph Smith in the history of American religion. Several of the leading scholars of early Mormonism-among them Richard Bushman, Jan Shipps, and Thomas G. Alexander-are represented in the collection, as are outstanding non-Mormon scholars such as Alan Taylor and Lawrence Foster.

Signature Books should be congratulated for their "Essays on Mormonism" series. Each volume gathers together important, even classic essays on a single topic in Mormon studies in convenient book form--essays that usually appeared in hard-to-find, rare periodicals. This book in the series is devoted to Joseph Smith, with essays that range from orthodox defence of the faith like that of Richard Bushman, to naturalistic disbelief like that of Dan Vogel. Other volumes in this series include "Faithful History", "Tending the Garden" and "Multiply and Replenish."

This exhibition catalog is beautifully illustrated, with many of the photographs extremely clear and all of very high quality. Most inscriptions are readable; larger objects are not just shown whole, but also in detail. It is a pleasure to see some many objects from Tanis included - King Tut has been over-exposed and the Tanis objects are less well-known.

The introductory essays provide useful background information; the catalog item descriptions are useful but of varying depth.

The Quest for Immortality now at the National Gallery in Washington, DC is an eye-popping collection of famous items and unseen wonders from Cairo's Egyptian Museum. With the images fresh in your mind of the originals use the catalog articles to expand your knowledge of Queen Ahhotep and her jewels or the beauty of Nakhtmin's wife.

Don't miss my favorites the charming Ptolemaic bronze cat votive and the lapis lazuli Goddess Maat from the Third Intermediate Period.

This might have been titled: An idiot's guide to the racing rules. It assumes little or know prior knowledge of the racing rules. It is organized by situations you will encounter in a race, applying the rules to various common situations at the start, upwind leg, rounding the windward mark, etc. All explainations are illustrated with cartoon-like diagrams that clearly illustrate the application of the rule. There are citations to the relevant rules for every situation, and the rules in full are at the end of the book. I'm just getting into racing, and found it to be very helpful in explaining a complicated subject. I'll refer to it again and again. Highly recommended.

This is a translation of the incredibly obfuscated ISAF rules into human readable form. Actually it tops that since it provides many examples and diagrams to illustrate the proper application of the rules in real racing situations. You might be a little bit surprised to find that at least 50% of the rules are of little or no application in the real world of racing. But you'll be happy this book didn't spend much time on the wierd esoterica. It's not a book on tactics but as tactical issues arise, due to the rules, the book expounds upon them. Bring this with you to your protest hearings, you won't regret it. If you should have to cite a rule precisely, the ISAF rules are included in the latter half of the book.

This was an interesting period of time; authors were still giving us the tried and true spy vs. spy and the USSR was on its last legs. This is one of those books, but it is very good. The author peppers the book with plot twists that keep the reader on his toes. You cannot take his work for granted; so much is going on that if you get a little complacent you miss things. The characters are also kind of cagey; they tend to surprise you at times. Overall, this is one of the better books from the end of the cold war.

The detail and brilliance Comrade Forbes goes into when writing his book is astounding. The twists have twists, shaded with the grim glow of realism.

If you're at all interested in the comic book "Strangehaven", picking up the graphic novels is definitely the way to go. The creator, Gary Spencer Millidge, is only able to crank out the individual issues at erratic and infrequent intervals, and he's lucky if he can push out four of them a year.

Consequently, it's difficult to maintain a sense of continuity. More importantly, though, there's no critical guiding story at the core. There are many references to the possibly murderous activities of some local crypto-Masons, and mysterious cutaways to a dead woman floating serenely in a giant fishtank, but there is no central plot as such. Rather, Millidge takes time to throw the many supporting characters into the spotlight in their turn, and to develop the history of the village of Strangehaven.

In a very general way, this is like an English take on TV's "Northern Exposure", but with more of an occult flavor. That is to say, Strangehaven is, like Cicely in Alaska, a remote village peopled with engaging eccentrics who have fled (or been subconsciously summoned from) the "civilized" world. Hence, this is where you will find a man claiming to be a stranded alien astronaut, alongside a white shaman from an Amazon tribe who is self-exiled from his adoptive clan.

The art is gorgeous (although I do think it's sometimes hard to distinguish one blond female character from another). Millidge clearly pours a titanic amount of effort into creating each panel and the covers, and he uses a variety of artistic techniques and innovative layouts to bring forth very striking and memorable imagery.

For some reason, Millidge's work reminds me of Neil Gaiman's "Stardust" (both the "word" novel and the graphic novel) and Robert Holdstock's "Mythago Wood". You might want to check those out, too.

If you have the patience to let the story slowly develop in its meandering way, and if you delight in taking unexpected side treks and explorations away from the main character, you'll find "Strangehaven" very rewarding.

This is the first collection of one of the best independent comic series being published these days, which unfortunately comes out too infrequently. With its excellent dialogue, character development and almost photorealisitc black and white art, it is like a light-hearted alternative to From Hell.

Combine the Prisoner with Twin Peaks, subtract all the secret agents and a lot of the darkness and add some romance and humour and you have Strangehaven. A normal guy winds up lost and enters a little villiage in the middle of nowhere filled with eccentric characters and can't seem to find his way back to "civilization". There is a murder mystery involving a cult clearly based on the Masons which has been slowly unfolding over the years, but so far this has remained largely in the background as we get to know each of the characters and their wonderful little quirks and histories (things only really take off near the end of Volume 2).
Frankly, I would be satisfied with the series even without the mysteries thrown in given the town's interesting inhabitants and their stories. Like me, I'm sure you'll find yourself wishing you could move to Strangehaven, a village filled with the beauties and delights of scenic small-town living but without any of the boredom. However, the mystery is a nice bonus that will keep you guessing and speculating (Who is the woman in the fishtank? Is that Alan Moore lookalike really an alien? Is Strangehaven really just a small remote village?)

I have studied subliminal techniques for 30 years and I started because I read Key's first book, Subliminal Seduction. This book has examples from his previous works and need not be purchased if you have read them. If you have not been introduced to the world of subliminal art and have not read Key, you should get a copy. Subliminal means those images perceived at the unconscious level. Great artists through the ages have included subliminal embeds in their work and the world of commercial art uses them constantly. There is no "hard" evidence that hidden messages can change our belief system or behavior pattern, but the fact that creative artists and advertising specialists continue to use them might indicate they ARE effective. You will have to understand the psychology of perception to appreciate the possibility that you can be manipulated by hidden messages in visual images to accept Key's premise. For example, why would commercial artists continue to do it if there were no evidence that it works? Simply put, sex,guilt,power,greed,etc. does sell! Try the book and read more and see what you think. It is worth the time and money.

Key has an uncanny insight into a subject that more people should become aware of. Most readers might say that it is difficult enough to control their own lives without having to worry about outside influences affecting their very thinking. This is where you will miss the boat so to speak by not taking the information in this book seriously. Nikolai Tesla compared most of humanity to "meat machines" and it seems he was right. The manipulation of our minds is more far reaching than even he could have guessed. What is being hidden from the machines (us)?

Having read H.G. Wells' classics WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE INVISIBLE MAN, THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, THE TIME MACHINE, and THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, I looked forward to reading what is often claimed to be his "best" work. TONO-BUNGAY is completely different than any of his Sci-Fi classics. TONO-BUNGAY is more of a study of class structure and class struggle in England during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The story follows the life of a young man, George, and his Uncle Edward. Edward invents an elixir called TONO-BUNGAY and hires his nephew George to help build the company. As the book goes George and Edward become quite wealthy. Throughout the book George makes numerous comments on his varying places on the social ladder. It seems that no matter how wealthy George becomes, he will never be accepted in certain circles because he is newly rich and not "old money." The story is well written and is generally easy to follow. I would, however, recomm! end the World's Classics edition of this book (published by Oxford U. Press and available from Amazon.Com) because there are some instances in which Wells makes comments about European literature, art, languages, colleges and phrases that may be of little meaning to the average reader, but for the six pages of end notes provided in the World's Classics edition. The World's Classics edition also claims to be the most accurate edition of the story, taking into account all of Wells' revisions of the story, many of which were made after the book was initially published in 1909 (TONO-BUNGAY was revised by Wells and re-released in 1925).

"Tono-Bungay" is an alleged tonic with dubious medical benefits; and the story is one of the brief fortunes of someone who manages to turn the worthless substance into a formidable fortune - for a while. By the time Wells wrote this novel he had already written books which might or might not be science fiction (witness "The War in the Air") and, all in all, "Ton-Bungay" probably isn't science fiction. But I should mention a substance called "quup" which is introduced towards the end of the book. (I'm not giving anything important away.) "Quup" is the first mention I know of of what we would now call radioactive waste, except that it's naturally occurring, and ... well, perhaps I should be discrete, but I can say that the scenes involving quup have a peculiar flavour which writers would find impossible to capture nowadays.

So you get an excellent double deal with this book: the best of Wells's social fiction of the 1910s, plus a dollop the fresh science fiction he wrote the previous century.

This is a great dictionary, but how much information do you really think fits into such a small book? I found it useful for my purposes as an undergraduate student, but I'd personally like to own one of those big fancy sociological dictionaries.

While there are other dictionaries out there that do a better job, for the price of this dictionary it is a great reference for Introduction to Sociology students. Definitions range from a few words to a couple of pages. Usually gives a reference to an author connected to the term and other concepts that might be important to the term. Still there are key concepts missing (for instance a definition of methodology) that make this book problematic. This book is not written from a particular standpoint, but at times the definitions are classical.

For any student of sociology, this is a welcomed addition to textbooks. The dictionary is also a good addition to the library of someone who just enjoys reading sociology books. It has a bit of a British flair because of its authors, but is really a well-rounded and insightful reference book.