I was hooked from the very first sentence. A beautifully written, poignant story of a desperate but pure love.

This book has a particularly fine and comprehensive review of the advantages and disadvantages of the various natural textiles, particularly as the cloth's qualities relate to use in home furnishings. Information on sun-resistance, soil-resistance, resistance to abrasion, absorbency, strength, and so on makes the first section of the book exceptionally useful. Without that first section, this would be a fairly standard book on making soft furnishings such as cushions, chair covers, curtains, blinds, table furnishings, etc. I would only suggest a section on sources for materials (for example, the author mentions 108" wide linen!) to elevate this book to a five-star treasure.

The story is about a little boy who wants a clarinet but his family cannot afford one. A friend passes down a harmonica and Dexter practices playing it until he can play the blues.

This book is packed with useful information and facts about the Porsche 924, 944 and 968. Do not let the small format of the book put you off as it is a real mine of information. Michael Cotton's writing style is fluid and easy to read. I could not put it down and am forever diving back into it to learn something new. The images showing the early development and design models are fascinating, as are the Porsche personalities we meet throughout the book. Rare models are covered in good detail and the author is not afraid to talk about the less successful developments. Readers who are interested in Porsche's racing history will be treated to an in depth account of how this model was campaigned. This is a very good book which could have only been improved by some colour photographs and more detailed production information. For anybody interested in this model, I fully recommend this book. The author has done a superb job of proving what a 'real Porsche' these cars are and packs the book with excellent advice for the first time owner.

Trail-blazing Mrs. Cotten was inspiring to a lot of folks long before me. She succeeded in helping to transform the way women think of themselves... and so opened the door for so many more possiblities for all women.

A great book.

This book offers a humorous look into the world of shoes. With funny pictures ranging from shoes with wheel heels to mile high platforms to giant shoes to heels stuck in storm drains, it is instant entertainment. While it may not give as much in-depth information as other serious shoe books out there, it offers a more unique and funny look at shoes over the years. To the Rocky Horror Fans out there, check this book out for an great picture of Tim Curry as Frank N Furter wearing his glittery platform heels.

Honig writes a very organized book with a clear purpose and provides a good understanding of the multiple facets of the women in the cotton mills. Her book is good for someone who does not have much background knowledge about Chinese history or industrial culture. Yet it is also a worhtwhile read for someone who already has a background in Chinese history, as it provides valubale information about the Green Gang and Communist mobilization. Honig does a good job of examining how women from different backgrounds came to and fit into the Shanghai mill environment.

Ralph Snodsmith has a down-to-earth style of writing that makes his recommendations easy to understand and apply. While being practical and realistic in problem-solving, his emphasis is on solutions to gardening questions which are basic, natural, and simple. His wealth of knowledge is evident, and it is based on his own experience, with both gardens and indoor plants. While the size of this book does not allow it to be entirely comprehensive on such a large subject, it not only makes for entertaining and educational reading, but is an often helpful resource for one's gardening questions as well.

Slavery - the crude ownership of a person and his exploitation like a beast of burden - has two major venues in the contemporary world, Sudan and Mauritania. The Sudanese practice results in large part from a war conducted by Muslims against Christians; when the former conquer the latter, they frequently enslave them (and often convert them to Islam). Mauritania has no war and no religion other than Islam-it close to being a purely Muslim country - but it does have a racial divide of (light-skinned) Arabs and (dark-skinned) "Negro-Africans," as they are known. Out of a total population of some 2 million, some tens of thousands of Mauritanians are enslaved. When Cotton, a graduate student at Columbia University and part-time journalist, learned about this situation, it horrified and absorbed him. His short but intense trip to Mauritania in early 1996 showed him first-hand of the existence of this foul institution; and as a black American, he felt the servitude of the black Mauritanians with special poignancy. Cotton began his researches as a reporter, thinking that the mere exposure of facts would affect other African-Americans much as they did himself, as they startled at the racism and servitude in Mauritania, somewhat akin to the experience of their own ancestors. But they did not. He found that black leaders (Louis Farrakhan, mainstream black American Muslims, former congressman Mervyn Dymally, and academics at Howard University) not only pooh-pooh the issue but in many cases actively apologize for the slave system. So he became an activist. Thus far, he has found, even his seeming successes, such as passing a NAACP resolution condemning slavery, turned out to have no operational significance.

Cotton's account of the Mauritanian scene is harrowing, his personal story moving, and his report on African-American reactions depressing. Some two centuries after the great American abolitionist effort, a new iteration is needed, this time focusing on the Muslim world.

Middle East Quarterly, December 1999

Samuel Cotton's account of his own awakening to the issues of slavery in Africa falls into four sections.

1/ The commissioning of a journalistic article, which leads him to examine available documentary evidence about slavery in Mauritania,

2/ A trip to see for himself,

3/ His return to the US, where he delivered evidence to a US Congressional sub-committee.

4/ A call to arms.

An African-American, his commitment is plainly sincere ("I had found my history. I had found my future. I had found myself.") He has achievements to show for it - his own anti-slavery organisation "CASMAS", and success in changing official US policy through a Congressional resolution based on evidence gained from his field trip.

In giving voice to the people that he met in bondage in Mauritania and Senegal, he has borne witness to lives that need and deserve all the help they can get.

He also accurately identifies the failure of so many Muslims of otherwise good standing to put pressure on regimes that nod and wink at the practices of slavery. Sudan is an appalling offender through its sponsorship of slave-raiding militias that attack the black, Christian South.

But it is Sam Cotton's very emotiveness - understandable as it might be - that weakens his argument. He is guilty of extreme sloppiness. At one point he accuses the US Ambassador to Mauritania, among others, of having their silence "bought" by "plenty of envelopes passing under the table" from the Islamic government. This is a scandalous charge, which if proven would have the Ambassador doing time in jail, but Cotton offers no evidence whatsoever to support it. It is purely an expression of his frustration.

And while he resolutely stands by his evidence that Arabs still persist with chattel slavery in Mauritania, he quickly dismisses evidence that black Africans also keep black African slaves. "It is a thing of the past...a charge that does not stand up to inspection," he insists, refusing to apply the same tests (are they paid? are their children educated?) that he applies to the "slaves" of Arabs.

On the material Cotton (and others before him) have gathered, Mauritania certainly has a case to answer that slavery still exists. Furthermore, it should be required to answer it, and the world should not tolerate any fudging.

Cotton has added something to the fund of knowledge, and deserves acknowledgment for that. But his writing is too cliche-ridden, too unexamined, too hasty in seeing what it wants to see. And Cotton, inexperienced in African conditions, also overlooks another reality of life on that continent. People do what they must to survive. Millions work in terrible conditions for no cash return. Millions of their children go without food, let alone education. I little doubt slavery exists in Mauritania. I have seen it myself, and written about it, in Sudan. Beating it, however, requires a discipline of approach that is not enough in evidence in this otherwise worthy account.

Samuel Cotton has displayed in this book what many poeple around the world ignore-truth, anguish, submission, and power. Contaray to what some readers may think, Mr. Cotton did not just take a trip to Mauritania and say "Oh I wanna exploit slavery here, I heard about yeay", he does much more with this information. He does a great job at explaining the previous research he sought out about this issue and the inner emotions that were embedded into his heart and mind throughout his life connecting to the African Struggle. I believe that any person that stands for any ideal on this planet should confront this book. I found it to be most inspiring and beneficial as a woman interested in politics, society, and the benefit of our brothers and sisters all over the world not just in Africa. Government officials should be challenged with the facts that Mr. Cotton has exploited and try to figure out an answer to why this tradgedy continues to occur in this part of the world along with any other nation (even the USA). This book is true, it's real. Why else would a man risk his life?

This was one of the best book for inorganic chemistry, but this edition is very different from the previous ones. Many useful chapters have been done away with; they have been replaced with chapters rather poor, especially those about catalysis.
I advise the fifth edition, which is much better, even if it's quite old: the updates of new edition don't offset its flaws.

The 5th edition of this book had been compulsory reading during my undergraduate inorganic chemistry courses: it was the inorganic chemistry bible. This edition fails to reach the high standard of its predecessor. In fact, it isn't even a good advanced inorganic chemistry text. Much of the really useful stuff that forms the basis of an understanding of inorganic chemistry has been omitted in favour of niche topics. The book would be better called 'Advances in Inorganic Chemistry' or 'Selected Topics in Inorganic Chemistry'.

With this edition of "Advanced Inorganic Chemistry", Albert Cotton and his co-authors have proved that they kept track of all the recent developments in the field.
This text provides clear and balanced coverage, as it applies to Inorganic Chemistry. Every branch of the course was browsed, and with generous details too. In addition to the general principles and laws, there are updated information on: Atomic Structures of elements, Chemical Bondings and related associations; as well as Chemical Equilibria and Enthalpy.
Together with its insight in Nuclear Chemistry, the details this book provided on inorganic elements and compounds is worthy of praise. It is a fine textbook, which anyone who has the basic knowledge of elementary chemistry should be glad to read.