This writer should be in politics with his knack for making bad news enjoyable. The book is entertaining, educational, packed with information and evocative of Michael Moore's enthusiasm, even in the face of adversity. His chapter ending safety asides are sometimes side splitting - no injury pun intended! I'd recommend this book to anyone with a sociological curiosity or an industrial safety career or interest. You're bound to learn something new that makes the price of the book worth it!

The Burning Bed, a book by Faith McNulty, describes the life of a battered housewife and mother. Written from Francine Hughes' point of view, this book shows exactly why it is so hard to leave someone you love. The book doesn't try to convince you to take sides, it just states the facts and lets you decide for yourself. The book also goes into great detail about Francines' trial and her life after this crime. I would recommend this book to any reader, male or female. I think The Burning Bed is essential reading for everyone.

Beautiful color pictures on the front cover and a chance to read about and color the butterflies on the inside. You should buy a set of colored penciles for this color book. Your child can identify the butterflies by the picture on the cover and learn more about them in the book. A real nature guide, not your run of the mill coloring book. Buy the series and you can sneak in an education on nature while your child is having fun.

This Famous Artist book by Antony Mason serves as an introduction to the life and work of Paul Cezanne. These books are organized in a particular way for each two-page spread: On the left page there is an illustration of the artist's home or environment and the story of the artist's life, along with a painting and a small symbol used to indicate the size of the paintings relative to a person. On the right page there are more paintings (usually with a key section enlarged) with text about the artist's work at the time, along with a feature on the artist's technique (e.g., painting with a palette knife, using watercolor, showing depth) with practical projects to try. I have read a couple of other books on Cezanne and Mason certainly provides a better understanding of how the artist is a major influence in Post-Impressionist art and is called the father of Modern Art.

Of the several books look at the life and art of Cezanne this particular volume probably has the best balance between the two. This book will certainly give you the basics and in the back you will find a brief history of art that puts the Impressionist movement in perspective and a list of museums and galleries at which you can see examples of Cezanne's work, although much of it is in the hands of private collectors. Other titles in the Famous Artists series look at Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Monet, Picasso and Van Gogh.

Seldom as a public health workers, we look back and truly understand the meaning of "biological process in action." Though our good intentions have based our action to "help" the citizens of Third World countries, have we question ourselves enough, what will then happen to the "natural-evolutionary-event?" of the individuals? This book opens up that question and deliberately proposed a new way to think for those who work in public health fields. Of all the efforts to have a "better future," consequences awaits our responsibilities.

The book has some wonderful recipes for outdoor grub. Some are old and some don't use traditional units of measure. They are all great dishes, though. Stella also intersperses stories about camp cooks she has known, how they did things, what was important to them, etc. These stories are a great documentation of the western cowboy life. The section on sourdough is especially good.

Anyone who has done research on the Civil War approaches veteran's memoirs with a degree of caution. Memoirs are always self serving to some extent and often take too much advantage of hindsight. This work is remarkably free of such justifications. Rather it is the honest work of a soldier coming to terms with his war experiences. Philip Stephenson was a mere boy from St. Louis, age 15, when he followed his brother, Hammett, to Memphis to join the Confederat army. Hammett enlisted in the 13th Ark. and the underage Philip tagged along. He served as something of a mascot to his brother's company until he enlisted in the 5th Co. Washington Artillery. Until then he seemed to be free to come and go. Stephenson was present at or near most of the actions of the Army of Tennessee. He relates what he observed in great detail particularly in the last year of the war. Through his memoirs we see what he saw on the march, on the field and in camp. His descriptions of various Arkansans from officers to enlisted men offer rare insights to the boys which can be found in no other place. His observations on the men of the 13th Ark. are somewhat condescending, but he says, "All of them made as fine fighting material as the world could produce." The first one-third of his text covers the years 61-63. The greatest part of his memoirs discuss affairs that took place from 64 to the end of the war. From the Atlanta campaign until the war ends, his writing seems much more personal, more expressive of his emotions at the time. This coincides with the period when he served in the 5th Co. of the Washington Artillery and marked the first period of the war that he was not under his older brother's wing. From the moment Sherman attacked the Rebs at Dalton in early May until the Battle of Jonesboro on Sept. 1st, the men were in constant danger. Stephenson notes the horrors of trench warfare and the stress that it put on the men. The pressure became too great for some and he describes some of those who cracked. One member of his battery horrified the other members by taking his bayonet and jabbing out the eys of a dead yankee. Another deliberately walked between the lines to relieve himself as everyone watched in disbelief and the man was killed by a sharpshooter. Clearly this campaign had pushed many of the men to the breaking point. Perhaps no other participant has been as effective and honest in telling this story. Stephenson's account of the Battle of Franklin is very moving. His unit had been guarding a bridge some 30 miles away from Franklin and by forced march had arrived on the field between 9 o'clock at night just as the battle was dying down. Stephenson's one thought was the welfare of his brother and friends in the 13th Ark and he went among the wounded crying out "Where's Govan's Brigade." He finds his 3 best friends badly wounded and there on the battlefield they break into tears to find each other still alive. If there had been any thought of winning the war, it ended there. After Franklin, surviving would replace winning as the ultimate goal. Stephenson's memoirs are very personal. Through them we see how one survivor deals with his memories of both the best times and the worst times of his life.

Popa is one of the most amazing poets I have ever read. I am often skeptical about translations of Slavic poetry into English, but these are truly surpurb. Anne Pennington, the primary translator, worked very closely with Popa until her death in 1981 (in fact, the first poem is a tribute to her). She strove to communicate Popa's unique imagery and themes, not to hold on to rhythms and sounds solely belonging to the original. His poetry is metaphorically very complex, but as he oversaw nearly all of the translations, this volume is as good as you'll get without learning Serbian. I read about half of the 400-odd pages in one sitting. Absolutely wonderful.

I've never read any Mickey Spillane, but I imagine this is what "hard-boiled detective" was like! I LOVED the TV version of Mike Hammer, though, and Jay Hughes writes with that same, first-person voice-over. Written in an easy, film-noir detective style from the 40s, his smooth, sexy, sensual style makes this murder mystery a story worth savoring.

The hero, named after the author, gives the story a 'true confessions' sort of feel. And I felt much more comfortable with Jay this time than in 'Raven's Black . . .', probably since this story has a much lower sleaze factor.

Sure as shootin', Jay winds up in a murder mystery through no fault of his own. After all, he's just a newspaper editor, trying to take a class in computers so he can operate the ones in his office. How was he supposed to know that the teacher, Ann, was gonna turn out to be a babe and dig him the most? And who would of guessed that Lisa, that over-achiever from high school, would turn out to be a cop, the very one assigned to old Professor Davis' death investigation, and that she'd put the moves on him? And Carmen, the one he works with at the paper -- she was beggin' for it, too! How could a guy get so lucky?
Obviously, his skills with the ladies are par excellence. We are witness to many instances of that! He is genuinely surprised to have three women after him at once, that's what's endearing about this Jay. By Chapter 3, I am starting to find him attractive; by Chapter 9, I found myself considering one of those sessions on top of a filing cabinet!

The murder mystery wasn't so complex that I felt like the only one who couldn't figure it out; no-one will guess the ending with complete accuracy. (OK, OK -- so I DID have to read the last couple pages a few times to figure out who he winds up with . . .)

The three women all know about the others, and sort of compete for him. The sex is everywhere, with a low-key sizzle and smoke to it, but never with the sleazy or gratuitous feel of other 'erotica' I have read. I read this over 3 days, trying to savor it fully before it ended. It really seemed to me to be, well . . . unusually engaging! The story percolates along coyly as Jay struggles with the three women, who are all interconnected with the murder and refuse to let him in on any details of it.

This is SO not my usual reaction to 'erotic' writing, most of which leaves me feeling . . . unsettled. My positive reaction to this book? I am at a loss to explain! But I never felt the sex parts were put in to titillate, but were truly an integral part of this story. Do I recommend this one? Let me just say I'll be reading this one again AND checking out his back list!

This is an important book that is deservedly back in print and well worth reading at a time when we seem to be reliving the mistakes of the positivistic surge at the end of the nineteenth century, deja vu all over again. The crash of the Hegelian movement and the reversal of thought in the post-Hegelian generation saw many influenced by the (quite metaphysical) Comtean positivism, among them none other than Charles Darwin. The effect is practically cast in granite in the works of Marx who unwittinlgy signatures the trend. The tide of positivism carrying its distinct set of hidden metaphysical premises and limits was fairly well exposed at the time, but in the age of dominant Darwinism it has made a comeback in disguise. Hughes goes through the whole development tracing the stream of influences and gives us an significant portrait of intellectual history we seemed doomed to relive none the wiser. (Reviewed from memory, I think I got it right)