The interrelation of gravity and spacetime is a formidable subject to describe; the author does so with excellence. The diagrams and charts reinforce the understanding.

Unfortunately when a key subject left me rather clueless, (Boundary of a Boundary) I spent quite a few frustrated hours being uncertain on whether or not to continue reading without the support of the material on those pages. As it turned out, the subject became clearer once I read on and returned again. I never did grasp it as completely as the rest of the book.

The book contains the most enlightening description of transverse wave propagation I've ever seen. It also helps solidify one's understanding of interval and relativity.

Not a book to be read overnight.

This author is one of the most briliant, the most optimistic, and the most enthusiastic writer in all of physics, and in this book, his competence as a physicist and his deep fascination with the physical world is brought out dramatically. He is clearly a man who is feeling a powerful sense of exhiliration of the discoveries now taking place in all areas of knowledge. His foundation and his theme in the book is a simple geometric principle, namely that the boundary of a boundary is zero. He then guides the reader, assumed to have a rudimentary knowledge of mathematics, in a splendid presentation of the power of this principle in gravitational physics.

The first chapter is an overview of the history behind the subject, via the work of people who contributed to our current understanding of gravity. And then, with a masterfull use of diagrams he gives the reader a taste of the simplicity of the equivalence principle and the need to tack on an additional dimension (time) to the 3-dimensional space of everyday experience. The Pound-Rebka experiment is discussed as one that illustrates the idea of the spacetime interval, and the role of time dilation is discussed via the possibility of practical space travel. And such enthusiasm in his dialog: "the universe will grow ever more exciting", he says, and looking at the developments now taking place in today's science, he is indeed correct.

Chapter 4 gives a fascinating overview of what the author calls the boomerang, which illustrates the action of curvature on nearby test masses. This thought experiment involves the motion of a spacecraft through an imaginary tunnel through the Earth. The author analyzes the motion from the standpoint of Newtonian physics and general relativity. Curvature as the "grammar of gravity" is the topic of the next chapter, with illustrations of the paths of ants on spaces of zero, positive, and negative curvature. A very intuitive treatment of parallel transport around a closed path on a curved surface is given. The tides are discussed as a natural manifestation of the gravitational influence of the Moon on Earth.

Must difficult for a layman to understand is how spacetime acts on masive objects, but the author explains it brilliantly in the next chapter, taught via the concept of "momenergy". This entity is a 4-vector, and the author uses it to show how its creation in a spacetime region can be written as the sum of 8 terms, reflecting the fact that the "boundary" of a four-dimensional block in spacetime consists of eight three-dimensional cubes. That the contents of these cubes sum to zero is the famous "boundary of a boundary is zero", which is discussed in the next chapter. This chapter is one of the best explanations ever given (at this level) of the physics behind spacetime curvature and massive objects. The actual mathematical quantification of curvature is detailed in chapters 8 and 9, using elementary mathematics. The author discusses nicely the famous Scharwzschild geometry.

Concepts of a more concrete nature are discussed in chapter 10, wherein the author discusses the famous Pound-Rebka experiment and planetary motion. This is followed by a discussion of the elusive gravitational waves in chapter 11. Again with a clever use of illustrations, the author explains the transverse property of gravitational waves, and compares gravitational waves with electromagnetic waves. The role of the quadrupole moment in the creation of gravitational waves is brought out briliantly by the author. He discusses briefly various attempts to detect gravitational waves.

Black holes are the topic of chapter 12, wherein the famous Penrose process for extracting energy from a black hole is discussed, and the "no-hair" theorem for black holes. A neat symbolic representation of the Bekenstein number of a black hole is given. The role of the Hawking process, connection quantum processes with the physics of black holes is briefly discussed. The author ends the book with a look at the expansion of the universe, the missing mass problem, and another very interesting topic that has gained much attention recently: the concept of gravitomagnetism. This is a "weak-field" prediction of general relativity, and predicts that the rotation of the Earth should influence the motion of orbiting satellites. This topic is currently bringing together ideas such as the quantum Zeno effect, Mach's principle, and the notorious "frame dragging" effect in general relativity. Experiments do measure it are currently in play and in the proposal stage, namely the LAGEOS and LAGEOS II experiments, which measure the gravitomagnetic orbital perturbation, which is known as the Lense-Thirring effect.

This is truely an amazing book. Wheeler does for General Relativity what Hawking did for Cosmology in "A Brief History of Time", and in some sense they are similar books. However Wheeler has a unique, quirky style of writing that makes the book an entertaining adventure to read.

Wheeler is able to pull off a major accomplishment: He explains Einstein's General Relativity in a clear, straightforward manner, with a minimum of math. It's "conventional wisdom" that General Relativity is seriously serious stuff, the domain of hardcore Physics geeks. That doesn't faze Wheeler. He leads the reader along, gleefully pointing out the scenery, making it all look quite simple and understandable. And then all of a sudden, when you least expect it, you find he's derived and presented Einstein's field equations with only a teensy-tiny bit of algebra! Even if you know this stuff already, his presentation makes you think about it with a new perspective.

And did I mention the illustrations? They are really exceptional.

If you have any interest or dealings with GR, ya gotta have this book!

Lonely Planet guides are the best out there, by far, at least for people who travel with a budget and only a pack on their backs, stay at hostels, and like to really experience a new location without being so touristy (Fodor's guides, for example, are the opposite of Lonely Planet's and are written for the upscale traveler). The California/Nevada guide is no exception, but it's just too outdated (published in 1996), and I wouldn't recommend buying it and instead would recommend waiting until the come out with a new one, whenever that will be. That's the only reason I wouldn't give it 5 stars. They did just put out a new San Francisco one though ...

This is the first lonely planet book I've bought, but I'm very attached to it. It had lots of great listing from things to do to places to stay. I particularly linked to range of places to stay. It's organized into moderately priced to cheap options so you can pick what's right foryou... I used the 2000 edition.

Every Lonely Planet guide gives lots of tips for what to see, places to eat, and the "must-see" things when you travel. This guide explains the history of California and Nevada very well, and always has good suggestions of interesting places to visit. I am a native Californian, but I don't travel anywhere in the state without this guide.

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This is a valuable text for the economical traveller who wishes to enjoy the people,customs and natural beauties of this country.

It has all the usual features many have come to expect from the 'Lonely Planet' guides.Good area/city maps,travel details, pointers for the culinary delicacies of particular areas,good information on inexpensive places to stay,as well as fascinating sights,places and people to visit,a brief introduction to the(amazingly simple and easy to learn)language,and interesting cultural,religious and other useful notes.

This edition and it`s excellent predecessors have played a major part in assisting me in all of my travels to Indonesia,in both the planning and research stages,and during the travel itself.I am certain that I would not have travelled to some of the unique and rarely visited places that I was privileged to see without the aid of this weighty and at times indispensible tome.

However,the most important thing to take with you is an open mind and heart,a friendly nature,and a desire to get to know the people and their customs.(Language is a great help too.)These ingredients(and the book !)tend to make for a most memorable and enjoyable stay. Bon Voyage !

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This is the most detailed book for a big place like indonesia. Indonesia (outside of Jakarta/Bali) is a perfect match of lonely planet's specialty in off the beaten track and/or budget traveling. Every part of Indonesia is covered, except for the small islands between Sumatra and Kalimantan that might be cool to check out. Its not the Riau - that's covered in detail. It has minimal coverage of the Natuna islands. I'm interested in the islands further south - Tambeian Islands, Dadas Isalands, and Pulau Pejantan. Once they add coverage to these islands then this book will be perfection. This book also a lot of information on Indonesian culture, about a 40% overlap with the culture shock indonesia book.

So far I plan a 2 month trip to indonesia. Fly to hong kong, spend 1-2 nights there. Then fly to malaysia or jakarta (whichever is cheaper). Then take a boat to Pontianak, spend some time there and sinkawang (probably a week). Check out the islands between kalimantan and sumatra (1-2 weeks). Then go to the todgean islands, getting their via ujung padang to ambon and then spend the rest of the time (probably a month) chillin and snorkeling / scuba diving. Then go back trhough jakarta or malaysia, spend another 1-2 nights in hong kong, and then come home.

On planning a trip to indonesia I found this guide book from the Lonely Planet Series. I was attracted by the clear concept of the book that makes it easy to find the information, that you need. It provides all the necessary information for a traveller who wants to get of the beaten trak, but also includes the "must see" sights. Specially the Places to Stay and Places to Eat sections are clear and give good and reliable information. It made my trip to indonesia easy and worth a while. I strongly recomend a Lonely Planet book if you like to travel and you want to see as much as possible.

A good guide from a good company. Not too much has changed from the previous edition though - there are some more detailed maps of Colombo.

This well-organized, chatty yet meaty guide book is all you need to assist you on a trip to Sri Lanka.

We went to Sri Lanka in the high season (February, when the place is full of Germans and other Europeans) and the only reservation we made in advance was two nights at the Galle Face Hotel (see Columbo chapter, where to stay, top end), a fabulous old relic of colonial architecture. With the help of the Lonely Planet, we "winged" everything else: train tickets to Kandy, car rental, dive trips & bungalows on the southwestern beaches. Sri Lanka is a diverse, fabulous place to explore, and the Lonely Planet made it super easy.

Great historical chapter "Facts About the Country" makes for good reading while you're waiting for your cold lassi to come to the table.

This book goes into deep detail about Sri Lanka. Being a Sri Lankan myself resideing in Australia. I found this book defintely worth taking on your trip. The best thing about the book is, that as new devolpements come, the Lonley Planet website allows you to upgrade (free of charge) the information in it, by you downloading the new revised pages. As long you keep the book updated the book will always have the latest information. This is not-only this guide book, but for all of Lonley Planets guide books. Normally I would give this book 4 stars, but for this feature alone 5 stars is worth the effort.

In 1870 a heartbroken Megan McQuarry returns to her hometown of Primrose Creek, Nevada after two years of trying to become an actress with nothing to show for her efforts. Unlike her happily married sister and two cousins, Megan has no land to go back to after selling it. Ironically, the first person she meets is Webb Stratton, who owns her former land.

Somehow, deep in his gut, Webb knows Megan needs a friend and a bit of help. He offers both and she accepts them. She becomes his housekeeper. As she learns what values matter in life, Megan and Webb fall in love. However, before they can consider a lasting relationship, he must revisit his past and rectify his mistakes.

MEGAN, the final novel in Linda Lael Miller's Primrose Creek series, is a warm tale of redemption that emphasizes the author's belief in what really matters in life. The story line is fun due to observing Webb and Megan struggle with their pasts, their love, and their future as both learn the core values of people. The three previous novels (see BRIDGET, CHRISTY, and SKYE) are tender western romances, but MEGAN's story is the most sensitive and compassionate of the quartet. Ms. Miller provides her audience with a beautifully touching Americana romance.

Harriet Klausner

"Megan," the fourth book about the McQuarry women. Megan McQuarry, the last of the bunch, redheaded and courageous. Upon her return to Primrose Creek, Megan is determined to make a go of it. Although, penniless, she still has grit. Megan meets Webb Stratton at the stage depot. Webb now owns Megan's share of the land. However, as time goes on, Webb not only owns the land, but Webb is also owner of Megan's heart. Little by little, Webb gets a portion of Megan's heart, but in return, Megan also steals Webb's heart.

"Megan" is not only Megan's and Webb's story, but it lets the reader know the secrets of the McQuarry girls. It is Ms. Miller's conclusion to the McQuarry saga and a very informative conclusion. I loved the way "Megan" was a revelation of the McQuarrys. Good work, Ms. Miller.

I loved this book. Being a frequent traveler I normally read during take off, work on my laptop till the battery runs out, and read until landing. I grabbed this book in the airport and read it until I was finished. I absolutely loved the relationships between the characters. Being a Binchy, Plain, and Pilcher fan I think I've found a new author. I felt like I was there, exactly what a good book should do!

If you are looking for a diversion on a rainy afternoon, this is the book for you. I bought the book in an airport when I was stuck waiting for a delayed flight, and it really made the time fly. The characters were realistic and not at all like the usual "oh, he is so handsome, so I will fall for him" sort that so many romance authors seem to create. The characters really seemed to struggle with the issues including Chauncey's need for revenge against the man she thought caused her father's death and Delaney's curiosity at her distance. The end was exciting, though the very end seemed to just lose a little steam. If you are looking for a diversion, this is a worthwhile escape for a few hours.

This was a wonderful series! I think this is my favorite of the four. Delaney and Chauncy were meant for each other. You fall in love with the characters from the start. She is determined to seek revenge on Delaney for her father's death and falls in love instead. No matter what happened in the past Delaney is there to find out who is trying to kill her and their love and passion is very strong!

I love series books. You get to become friends with all the characters, and this series is terrific. This book was a real knuckle biter. I loved it! Onward to number three!

Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's musical is something that all countries around the world should read. Sometimes, though, the lyrics may seem a bit tooooo sophisticated for such a universal play. But, it is probably one of the best books for a musical you could find.

"Pacific Overtures" is the political euphemism used by Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 when Japan was persuaded to open up trade relations because of the display of naval power put on by the United States. The clash of cultures as the "Floating Kingdom" was forced to end centuries of enforced isolation is the subject of this unique musical, which dramatizes Perry's expedition to Japan.

John Weidman's original idea, which first came to him in a Harvard lecture hall in 1966, was realized a decade later when director-producer Harold Prince decided to adapt various Japanese theatrical techniques and conventions, and Stephen Sondheim was brought in to write the music.

The cast of "Pacific Overtures" was entirely Asian or Asian-American, a casting commitment that makes "Pacific Overtures" a rare musical to see in performance, which is a shame because of not only its presentation of history but because of its imaginative use of Kabuki. Among the Kabuki traditions adapted to the show were the use of males to play the female roles, the Reciter who comments on the proceedings, stage hands completely clothed in black, and on-stage musicians. Act I ends with a Kabuki lion dance, which provides the image for the album cover.

While it would never be a very popular show, this musical is certainly a fascinating attempt that is of much interest to the Westernization of Japan as it is to devotees of the American stage. Ultimately, Prince has a bigger impact on the show than Sondheim, which takes some doing to be sure. That is why it this book might be an even better way of approaching this show than listening to the CD, although the best approach, of course, is to do both.

Incredible piece of avant garde musical theatre. Best when seen, but great to read and listen to the cd too! Seldom produced, it combines the techniques of Kabuki Theatre with Western Musical Theatre in a way that only Sondheim could conceive.

"In this very life" radically changed my life. Its greatest strength is that it demystifies the process of awakening. When it is presented by Sayadaw U Pandita, the process of awakening is like a mathematical proof: one step follows inevitably from the previous ones. This is one of the very few books in any genre that makes complete sense to me.

It's taken me over a year to read partly because it's so dense, but also because parts of it only made sense after I had been meditating and struggling for a while.

I had been practicing meditation seriously for about a year when some friends recommended it to me. Before I read it, I had only vague notions of what I was doing. I knew that I wanted to be totally committed to understanding reality--that this was the only worthwhile thing in life. But wanting this, knowing how to do it, and doing it are three separate things. This book tells you how to do it.

This book also answers the questions: What can humans achieve? We all know that life can be lived in an all-too-human way. Is there any way to live that overcomes our heritage of craving, anger, and ignorance? According to this book there is. There is a way to live free of fear, stress, suffering, and all the things that drive us to behave ignobly. There is a more civilized and peaceful way to live.

The first chapter starts at the very beginning for the complete beginner: what to do when you sit, and how to provide yourself with conditions favorable for making progress. The beginning meditator could read the first chapter and follow its instructions for months before needing to read the second one. For me, the first chapter was very helpful in clearing up things that I was unsure about in the meditation process.

Once you have the basics down, the book goes into more refinements of creating favorable conditons for yourself to make more progress and the things you need to overcome. If you've been meditating, you can know from experience that these are indeed things you need to overcome.

The fourth chapter is perhaps the most important. The basic message is "keep going." Keep applying mindfulness to everything no matter what. And Sayadaw U Pandita explains how to apply this mindfulness: take mental aim at the object, and get the mind to in some sense rub up against it. To do this, moment by moment for your entire life takes courage since the mind inevitably rebels and wants to lose itself in a fantasy, and because pain can arise in different ways. So much of what is written here inspires this courage.

The fifth and sixth chapter describe in detail the progress of insight and where it all leads. When I was reading these chapters I realized that with heroic effort, a kind of ultimate knowing is something that is attainable by almost anyone. This was very heartening to me and gave me hope--that with enough hard work I could achieve this in this very life.

The fourth, fifth and sixth chapter are conveniently summarized at the end of the book, and there are study aids, glossary and index in the back as well.

It is the ultimate self-improvement book. Along the way, one becomes morally and mentally healthy, mentally concentrated, self-disciplined, joyful, happy, content and peaceful.

I think that any meditator would want to be taught by an person who has been awakened. It's clear that Sayadaw U Pandita has been, and has also helped numerous people to experience this as well. By reading this book, he can become your teacher. The greatest veneration you could give to him would be to read it, understand it, apply these instructions in your own life, and awaken yourself.

This is a book that is excellent for beginners, intermediate and advanced students. For the beginner, it sets a framework for understanding meditation that will be useful as a frequent reference. For the intermediate and advanced students, it seems to address issues that they will experience in their own meditation practice. It also provides a vast amount of information that is worthwhile to learn about, whether one is able to experience this in their own practice or not.

The book increased my desire to practice and experience what I was reading about. It should be the foundation for any meditator's library.

This book packs an enormous amount of material into a well-organized exposition of vipassana and buddhism generally. It is informed by a very rigorous practice and comes about as close to dharma as words can.

It is highly recommended to experienced meditators who might find very basic books repetitious, and for earnest invididuals who want to learn a whole lot more about buddhism.

This is a difficult review to write. On the negatice side, there are simply an unacceptable number of typographical errors--including some baffling errors/ editorial decisions(????) in the chrestomathy. This text book is in dire need of a second edition to correct the numerous publication errors that have found their way into the text.

That being said...

This is arranged and set up as a VERY nice introduction to the Syriac language. In organization and grammatical treatment, it does indeed represent a large step forward from Robinson's grammar. It presupposes no prior knowledge of Semitic language, is clear in its presentation of grammatical concepts, and does a very good job of balancing vocalized forms (in transliteration) with their (as will almsot always be encountered) unvocalized forms in Syriac script.

I fully recommend the use of this grammar--however, because of the fact that numerous errors have crept into the published version, it should only be used in a class taught by an individual with a good knowledge of Aramaic and Semitic verbal morphology.

I'm now in my second read of the book, and can actually read my Peshitta (although very slowly)! This grammar uses a great and easy teaching method, and it's easier to use than most other Greek/Hebrew grammars. It's also very affordable, compared to other Syriac/Aramiac grammars and language tools.

After having tried to learn Syriac (without too much success) from a number of texts (Healey, Ungnad, Muraoka, Robinson), this grammar was like a breath of fresh air! For me, the Syriac script was the major sticking point. Professor Thackston gets the student past this obstacle by using unpointed Estrangela, and by giving transliterations of all paradigms, examples, and vocabulary. In a clear introduction to the sounds and script, he covers the complexities of syllabic division, accentuation, and spirantization in a succinct and understandable manner. There are twenty lessons, and the methodology is similar to that of Lambdin (Biblical Hebrew, Coptic) and Huehnergard (Akkadian): several grammatical points explained clearly, with examples; vocabulary (in Estrangela and in transliteration); and sample sentences / reading exercises. Although I'm only on Lesson 3, I find this book stimulating and thoroughly enjoyable. I'm certain that after completing this text, the conscientious student should have no trouble tackling the New Testament with the aid of a dictionary, or going back to the other works (cited at the beginning of this review) to get extra practice in grammar and reading. The only thing that I feel would have improved this text is a key to the exercises. What I'm doing is to translate the Syriac sentences into English, and after a day or two, translate them back into Syriac, and compare them with the original. This, along with a careful reading of the grammatical principles, gives good feedback. Professor Thackston saw fit to publish a key to his "Introduction to Koranic and Classical Arabic"; hopefully we'll see a key to this work some day as well. But all in all, a pleasure and a wonderful resource.