I picked up this book years ago when my children were small and found it to provide inspiration for parental responsibilities in child rearing and comfort for the challenging times involved in parenting. Mr. Murray's essay touches the heart of any parent who is blessed to read it, particularly when the true meaning of parenthood gets lost in the day to day chaos of parenting tasks. I have looked for years to get additional copies, even to the point of writing the publisher. This is a perfect gift to share with prospective and new parents. Actually, I believe it a treasure for grandparents, also. Just a joy to read. Quick, easy reading - delightful photos (of the author's children, I believe). Almost to be considered a "Bible" for parents.

What a pleasure to read this book. I love the heroine - a strong, unpretentious woman. Her adventures in the search for the Chinese Treasure introduce some unexpected plot turns that kept me glued to the book. I'm looking forward to reading more in what looks like the beginning of a great new series.

A charming book for lovers of Needlepoint and Nantucket. Filled with delightful pictures and colorful needlepoint patterns evoking the many charms of a quaint New England island and delightful Claire Murray designs. And as a bonus, wonderful prose about the island appears scattered among the pages. This is book ranks among the very best of my vast needlework book collection!

Although this book mainly focus only in Italian Renaissance, it contains enough issues must be addressed for this fascinating art reflorishing period as a whole. The analysis method used in this book is full of sparkling, with a perfect combination of technical points as well as passion. I began to love the classical art because of this book. And, believe me, when now I'm interested in photography, still I can find my viewpoint be influenced by this book, say, which combination of light and construction of the picture will render a BEAUTIFUL feeling. Any top art book should combine ration and passion. And here is a perfect example.

In my humble opinion Jim Murray is the world's best whisky writer. He demonstrates that clearly in this book on Blended Scotch Whisky. He has a very positive view of life and whisky in particular. He has tasting notes and comments for every known brand of scotch blends (how can one man manage to taste all these whiskies ?). He is very analytic and detailed in his description of the different brands and if you read his descriptions you are no in doubt that this man lost his heart to whisky. And it is a big heart: There are only a few blended scotch whiskies he doesn't seem to have a love affair with.

Hopefully this book can help giving Scotch Blended Whisky the top status it actually deserves.

Scotch Single Malt is not the only whisky worth drinking. Sometimes a blended whisky is better. Try it yourself.

If you care just a little bit about whisky, this book is a must!

It seems that most authors on the finer spirits tend to take an antiseptic view of their work. They may simply chronicle the historical background of some of the largest distilleries and review the high-end labels. But Mr. Murray writes with a distinctive passion about his favorite of all spirits (his admission on a radio talk show in Scotland). If you enjoy bourbon but have been afraid to plunk down the cash for a high-priced bottle, check out this book and then go for it! You won't be disappointed.

To the Ancients (mostly Greeks and Romans), the main
literature to be talked of was Poetry, but Poetry was
not merely what we tend to think of it as being. For
the Ancients, Poetry was primarily Drama (both Tragedy
and Comedy), because their dramas were written in
poetry, Epic poetry, Lyric poetry (shorter song poems),
Love Poetry, Choral songs, and Sacred Poetry
(Odes and Hymns).
The sources of inspiration for all of this creativity,
in their belief, was the god Apollo (Master of the Lyre,
a type of arm-balanced harp to be plucked with the
fingers of the non-holding hand)and the 9 female
divinities who served under his tutelage and protection,
the Muses. Most of the Muses came to be the specific
inspirers of some specific type of poetry: Euterpe
(Lyric poetry); Thalia (Comic drama poetry and idyll
poetry about shepherds and flocks and countryfied
lovers); Melpomene (Tragic poetry); Terpsichore
(Choral song and dance); Erato (Love poetry);
Polyhymnia (Sacred Poetry); and Calliope (Epic poetry).
The major home where the Muses were believed to reside
was Mt. Helicon in Greece, but occasionally they were
also thought to live on Mt. Parnassos (also in ancient
Greece). The Romans especially liked to think of the
Muses as residing on Mt. Parnassos.
This volume is a collection of what is considered to
be the best writing about "literary criticism" -- or
rather, poetic criticism from the ancient Greek and
Roman world. The pieces by these ancient authors
are presented in the chronological order of when the
author lived and wrote -- thus, the line of order
for the pieces is Plato (with the dialogue *Ion*,
and sections from the work *Republic* which deal
with poetry and poets, what part the arts should
play in the education of the citizen of the republic,
and the possible effects of poetry on the ethics,
morality, and lifestyles of the citizens of the republic);
Aristotle (with his work, *Poetics*, mostly dealing
with tragic-drama poetry, its purpose, its effects--
and epic poetry, and a comparison of tragedy and
epic); the Roman poet Horace (his verse[!!!] epistle
discussing poetry-*On Poetry*), and Longinus with his
treatise *On the Sublime*, which discusses works both in
poetry and prose --and style: the manner in which
the work is presented, its choice of poetic or prose
type, its use of language, its use of artistic effects
[and affects]--Longinus gives us the beginning of
real, total literary criticism of a work, analyzing
not only the "parts", but the effect of the whole
as a work of art.
This is certainly going much farther and deeper
than merely today's "instant" criticism of two
thumbs up or two thumbs down...or do I like it, or
don't I like it. This is bringing to bear intelligent,
insightful, self-examining criteria as well as turning
the critical examination upon the art work as well.
Its is a combination of philosophical examination of
aesthetics (what is beautiful? why is it beautiful?
what does it have or do that makes it beautiful? how
does it produce its effect of beauty upon the
beholder?) -- as well as psychological examination
of the beholder and what is going on inside him or her
as a result of beholding, perceiving, "participating"
in interaction with the work of art. Then, we
really get into some delicious waters--for we are
not mere "observers", but also are hooked-in participants
with the art work and its magic effects (our responses
to the work are a part of the artistic creation, too!).
In conclusion, Horace says many wondrous things
in his work, I will quote only this: "Poets aim either
to benefit [enlighten, bring about insight, understanding,
compassion], or to please [delight with effects of
engaging, subtle ideas, words, sounds, images]. ***
The man [or woman] who has managed to blend usefulness
[not practical utility, but intellectual and spiritual
deepening and eye-opening understanding] with pleasure
wins everyone's approbation [applause, cheers, seat
thumpings, sighs of admiration...], for he delights
his reader [listener]as he instructs him."
-- Horace, *On Poetry.*
* * * * * * * * *

Specific suggestions and tips help teachers solve common organization and management problems *Case studies at the elementary level provide teachers with realistic expectations of what they will encounter in the classroom and how to deal with a wide range of different situations. *Case studies give teachers real-world examples on managing cooperative learning, literature-based and whole-language learning, and inclusion classroons. *The authors have increased the coverage of diversity in student populations and have added new suggestions for working with special needs students.

I use this book as the text for one of my classes at Vanderbilt University. The students always love it. It is one of the most practical textbooks that I have seen. This book contains everything beginning teachers need to make a smooth and effective start on their journey as a teacher.

This book is helping me a lot with my Ph.D. dissertation. It includes a lot of important results on hypercomplex analysis not usually found in the standard monographs on the subject (Brackx, Gürlebeck, Shapiro,...).

Its contents are: Clifford algebras, Dirac operators and Clifford analyticity, representations of Spin(V,Q), constant coefficient operators of Dirac type, Dirac operators and manifolds.

Presents motivation for each section and extensive references. A must-reading to become a speciallist in this area. Suitable for graduate students and researchers.

Please read the rest of my reviews (just click on my name above).