Vollmer obviously loves Pittsburgh, and readers familiar with the city will probably enjoy this good-natured book. It works best as a set of sociological, journalistic and personal sketches. It's less successful, though, as book of poetry; the artlessness of her approach, the shapelessness of many of the poems, the frequent clumsiness of line, the congested diction and the predictability of the language, together with an overbeholdenness to several unconcealed and imperfectly assimilated influences, give much of the book a disappointingly slapdash quality. Many of the pieces read like works in progress rather than finished poems. It will be interesting to see whether Vollmer will explore similar material again, but with much more artistic control and without as much overdependence on her models, which puts her at a remove from her subject matter. Overall, VOllmer is a promising writer who may emerge with a voice uniquely her own. The blurb comparing the book to O'Hara is unfortunate and irresponsible; any lover of "The Day Lady Died" or "Second Avenue" is going to be disappointed by this book.

Judith Vollmer is perhaps the greatest Pittsburgh poet that ever lived. Like a character, the city is both memorable within moments and devestatingly ugly at its worse. As a Pittsburgher, I know these places Vollmer writes about, and more importantly, understand what it's like to be surrounded by city. She also touches on many of the things that shaves so close to most Pittsburghers: ethnicicity(perhaps not the safest subject to write about by a white woman in todays academy). Her family and her history rolls along the book like so many of the city's hills. The narrative poetry stretches, swings and challenges readers with its dark music the same way Marina Tsvetaeva managed to do. Vollmer can take me on a tour any day -- I know I will come out both exhausted and revived in the end.

It's probably easier to read this book now that we have a new Browns team in place. It makes me a little more understanding of what Modell went through before his grievous decision.

It is fun to get an insider's look at some of the issues over the years: Kosar's release, Belicheck, etc.

Author Poplar gives an insider's view of the financial crisis that caused American's Team, the Cleveland Browns, to move to Baltimore. It shows how Modell's formation of the Cleveland Stadium Corp. caused him to take out millions of dollars in loans to pay for stadium upkeep and upgrades. Then the city/county gave the Indians and Cavs multi-million-dollar playpens, while leaving Modell to find ways to compensate for the loss of Stadium Corp.'s major tenant, the Indians. This resulted in even more loans. Then came free agency, and Modell had to go to the banks again to get cash to pay big bonuses to stay competitive. From his perspective, maybe Modell eventually "had no choice" to move. However, he is not absolved from his most tragic mistake: not being forthright with the fans and the public about his financial straights and asking for help. A good read for Browns fans who want to know more about what happened to their heritage.

Although this book specifically catalogues the armor collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art -- issued to commemorate the Museum's splendid renovation of its legendary Armor Court -- this is a fine, intelligent, and comprehensive overview for anyone interested in how arms and armor were made, used, and venerated from the Middle Ages through the Baroque period.

The only reservation I have about this book is the author's curious reluctance to fully acknowledge the real purpose of these items. Yes, arms and armor can be beautiful -- and the examples provided here surely are -- but it cannot be forgotten that they are at their core instruments of war, meant to kill, maim, or at the very least, intimidate. This book implies that arms and armor are merely fashion statements, much as we venerate the clothing designs of Versace, Armani, Ralph Lauren, Geoffrey Beene, etc. today. It's pretty to think so, but an overly romanticized viewpoint.

This reservation, however, is not enough to prevent me from highly recommending this book.

I found this book enlightening. It's a small book with lots of information. It reviews forcasting call volumes using quantative and judgemental approaches. It discusses call center basics such as the nature of an incoming call and the Pooling Principle. It touches on staffing and getting the people where they need to be at the right time. For a call center veteran like me, it help to reinforce and improve my knowledge. For anyone new to a call center, it's a great book to learn the dynamics of call center operation.

12 Feb 2000

Dear Sirs,

A landmark in the writing of banker history for Citibank, a nation's most influential commercial and investment banking.

After reviewed the book, it's my gracious to know the name of National City Bank be renamed to Citibank and Citicorp by Mr. Walter Wrision? The Author do not express further the name of Citibank achieve from? Why must Mr. Wrision renamed the bank to Citibank and Citicorp group and not other names? it the renamed name significance to the background of the center of the nation's banking system?

Thank You

Harry Tan

This is a new book, published in 2003, a companion of sorts to the Intensive Review of Internal Medicine built as a study guide for the Pediatrics Board Exams.

The book is broken down into 5 major categories, including General Pediatrics, GI, Nephrology, Endocrinology, Neonatology, Cardiology, Allergy, Neurology and Child Development, Genetic and Metabolic Diseases, Adolescent Medicine, Infectious dissease and Immunology, Hematology-Oncology, Pediatric Surgery and Board Simulation. In addition the book includes a small set of color thumbnails for photos of common pediatric diseases and skin conditions.

Overall, the readability of the book is excellent and many of the topics are explained very clearly, for example, the endocrine chapter explains the spectrum of adrenal diseases in under 5 pages, highlighting the important points of Adrenal Cortical Deficiency, Adrenal cortical failure, etc. Each major topic includes epidemiology, pathophysiology, history and physical, diagnosis and treatment sections that makes each section very readable.

The chapters are subdivided into major topics, that cover topics in short, succint, easily digestible paragraphs, and are supplemented by many graphs, tables and charts. I did find a few of the graphics in the cardiology chapter a bit dated, and it would have been nice to have seen a more consistent graphic style throughout the book. In addition, since most of the photos are in black and white, some of the finer details are difficult to see, especially chest x rays and skin findings.

Some chapters seem more geared toward patient care than board review (which doesn't mean they not well written) and spend more time in detail that is not likely to be emphasized on the boards. It would have been nice to have included "boards pearls" or "hot topics" or "frequently tested material" more heavily highlighted in a book that is written for board review. Most of us are looking for a "First Aid for the Boards" type of book for Pediatrics, and this doesn't quite fit that mold. (There is probably no easy "shortcut" type book on the market,yet)

At the end of many of the chapters and sections are a handful of review questions to grill you in the basic subject areas. While most of these test relevant material, the question style is not exactly in line with the style of the Pediatric Board Exam.

That being said, this book makes a terrific general study guide. There is currently no other book available that does so much in as little space. You're not going to be able to read or carry around a Nelson's when you study for the boards, so this book is good for the major topics of each subspecialty.

In addition, this book provides many easy to read a chapters that highlights many important subspecialty areas. More available on the Medfools website. This quality makes it a great "pre-read" before each subspecialty elective in pediatrics that you may complete during a Pediatrics residency.

This is a good crime novel set in Cleveland, OH - probably late '90's. Have several Cleveland co-workers here that say Roberts knows his town. In fact am handing off a copy to a friend from there who is of Slovenian/German Ohio ancestry. Normally I am a Paretsky/Chicago crime authors buff.

Milio is Slovenian/American - the characters in the book are Serbian/American so it references the news of today on some of the background material with a part of the plot tied to WWII actions in the then Yugoslavia.

It moves well, Milo Jacovich is not a superhero of a detective but has all the buddies and side characters that any good mystery should have - to help flesh out the plot. Cleveland sounds like New York City on a smaller scale but with similar ethnic turf in the neighborhoods woven into the plot.

I read it in 1 night - albeit a long one - but it kept my interest up and I will buy more "Milo" books. This would adapt well to a TV movie, too, I think.

Buy it!

FAntastic Book. Very relevant, concise, practical and almost encyclopedic listing of the huge numbers of ethnic restaurants in Cleveland.

Baseball and photography grew up together with the still photo reinforcing the memories of the game. Every year seems to bring more books of baseball photographs -- a trend that began with Don Honig's evocative collections and continued through a series of fine art collections like thos of Charles Conlon.
David Borsvold has lovingly compiled a collection of photographs of the Cleveland Indians from the archives of the now-defunct Cleveland Press. The photos cover the heyday of the Indians from 1920 to 1982, the year that the Press folded. The text summarizes the Indians performance by decade (and Cleveland was as successful as any team could be facing the Yankees from the 1920s through the 1950s) while the photographs are the spectrum of daily newspaper fare. There are some rarely seen faces (when's the last time you saw a photo of Wally Westlake?) as well as images of better known players, managers and owners. The action photographs are notably illustrative of the period when cameramen were often a few yards behind homeplate to capture the action.
The book is part of what the publisher is billing as its "Images of Baseball" series. "Cleveland Indians: The Cleveland Press Years, 1920-1982" is a solid beginning to the series.

I have been a Cleveland history buff for years and have taken plenty of "Then and Now" pictures on my own. I have been waiting for a book like this to come out for a long time. I have other then-and-now books for other cities and I'm glad one had finally come out for cleveland.
The old photos used are not the same tired photos you find in other Cleveland history books or in the papers. While some of the angles in a couple of the pictures are not quite right, this book provides an excellent perspective on how busy some of Clevelands neighborhoods used to be as well as what was lost through development, urban flight, and "progress". I think this book unintentionally helps demonstrate how disposable American society is and makes one grateful for the preservationists who try and preserve what is left. Newer isn't necessarily better.
The only fault I could really find with this book is that it could have been twice as thick in order to cover the West Side and other neighborhoods better. If your a Cleveland / history buff, this book is a must for your library.