I really like this book - perfect for beginners and almost beginners who want to develop and maintain their own fitness programs without the use of a personal trainer. There are many different programs to choose from, ranging from very easy up to fairly challenging. They all seem very realistic and require modest committment of time (30 to 60 minutes daily). Each program has a stretching, strength and cardio component. One program requires no special strength training equipment and there are a couple of programs suitable for a fully equipped gym. The rest fall in between - perfect for those of us with a very modest home gym. The programs focus is on fitness, not body building, and is really geared for the average person. There are clear illustrations of how to do the stretches and lifts and lots of good ideas on a variety of cardio fitness activities. I also like the ideas on hotel room workouts for us business travelers.

I have two criticisms of this book. First, I felt that many of the ab excercises were not realistic for a beginning level of fitness. I felt that some of them were too stressful on the lower back so I made substitutions. The second is that although Burke is a former cycling team coach, he really didn't give much information on cycling. I choose that as my form of exercise and I would have appreciated a specific progressive program for cycling. He does have a 10 week progressive walking program for beginners though.

For someone who is not physically fit at all, I thought I'd be intimidated by any literature that may even elude to working out. This book, with its helpful illustrations & detailed instructions, is a wonderful starting point for anyone trying to get into shape. It will take you step by step & explain why the steps are there in that order. Very helpful & valuable!

This book offers a common sense, practical approach to getting into shape. It focuses on the basics: stretching, lifting, and moving. It provides 8 levels for gradually increasing your fitness. You start on a "Program Before the Program" if you haven't been exercising or if you are recovering from an illness or surgery. You start on "Basic Program 1" if you are in good enough shape to do so. Once you start the Basic Program, you begin using weights to increase your strength. Moving can be walking, cycling, or swimming. A different set of stretching exercises is offered for each program. The book also provides a number of specialized workout programs, such as a "hotel room workout," exercises for back pain, and ones to fine tune specific muscle groups. The book also includes simple, common sense information and advice on food, choosing a gym, and other fitness-related topics. The book is well written, clearly organized, and has superb, easy-to-understand illustrations. It is ideal for almost anyone who wants a practical, common sense guide to getting into shape.

A versatile and engaging anthology of stories about gay relationships. Some author names included here will surprise you (Henry James? but his "Pupil" is one of the most amusing and engaging stories), others will delight you (W. Burroughs' "Wild Boys."). Edmund White, a prominent gay writer, thankfully included his own short story, "Skinner Alive," into this collection, and I fell in love with his lyrical style. He displays great taste in editing this collection, and provides an insightful foreword. Every story here brings an interesting nuance to the genre, and each one holds surprises for the reader. This isn't just a book for the collection of short gay and lesbian fiction... this is a book of great short fiction - no more definition needed.

This review is primarily an endorsement of Anna Otto's December 5, 2000 review of this book. I don't think her review could be improved upon except perhaps for one quote from Christopher Isherwood's 'Mr. Lancaster' which holds forth the promise of universality: "What I am has refashioned itself throughout the days and years, and until now almost all that remains constant is the mere awareness of being conscious. And that consciousness belongs to everybody; it isn't a particular person." Mr. Lancaster's statement is surely a promise to gay people of all ages, and to the friends and parents of gays.

...I don't think her review could be improved upon except perhaps for one quote from Christopher Isherwood's 'Mr. Lancaster' which holds forth the promise of universality: "What I am has refashioned itself throughout the days and years, and until now almost all that remains constant is the mere awareness of being conscious. And that consciousness belongs to everybody; it isn't a particular person." Mr. Lancaster's statement is surely a promise to gay people of all ages, and to the friends and parents of gays.

Kabir does a good job in presenting some of the basic information on Sufi mindfulness. However, if you have spent any time becoming familiar with other contemplative traditions (Buddhism) or practices (meditation) then this book will not have that much to offer. Much of what the author says are common themes in other approaches besides Sufism. Other Sufi authors such as Hazrat Inayat Khan or Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee may be better reads to get a deeper understanding of the perspectives unique to Sufism.

This book deals with more than Sufism per se. It is an distillation of ancient spiritual psychologies as applied to todays world and needs. Helminski draws deeply from the Gurdjieff 4th Way traditon, Zen and Sufism. But mostly the 4th Way - if you've read In Search of the Miraculous, Views from the Real World you'll see the parallels.

The insights into the human condition and what needs to be done about it are excellent and is a very good primer into spiritual psychologies. They apply across religous boundries and would be of great use to anyone who is contemplating pursuing an spiritual path. Especially the western religious traditons were the concept of an spiritual psychology is all but lost or not understood.

The reason I did not give it 5 stars is that it is an primer and not an how to book. Though any decent book on Vipassana style meditation will help here - which really forms the foundation for what Helminski is talking about in the book.

the book leads the reader from the apparent ,which we all call and understand as real to that understanding which is indeed real and the very essence of life on this earth. a must for any one seeking a true understanding of LIFE

If you're a fan of the works of Wright, and have experience with detail oriented hobbies, you will likely find this a challenging but "do-able" project. For example, I've built plastic model kits for over thirty years, and it took me about three and a half months to complete the house, working on the standard hobbyist schedule (i.e. nights and weekends when I felt like it). Be aware that even with careful assembly, the finished product reflects the limitations of card stock - the long, thin pieces (notably, the wall around the front of the house) tend to become a bit wavy when folded and glued. Still, if you have the patience, and are comfortable with the investment of time involved, you'll end up with a nice replica of an architecturally significant home.

I worked diligently according to the instructions but when I reached piece 57 (of 130+ total pieces), I found that the instructions for assembly were wrong, or that the piece was printed incorrectly -- very frustrating experience!

Agree with other reviews. Emphasize that this is for an advanced modeler with modeling patience. Card stock is difficult when use to other material. Some of the referenced difficulties may be avoided by careful and thorough scoring. No idea as to the modeling accuracy, but the presentation looks real good. Especially when presented with the book, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S ROBIE HOUSE.

My first impression, upon picking up this biography of Edmund White, was that the Stephen Barber's writing is terribly over-wrought -- the introduction of the book, in which Barber tries to explain White's importance to contemporary literature, is some of the purplest prose I've read in a long time.

But Barber's writing improves markedly when he begins telling the story of White's life. The most interesting aspect of the book, to me, is Barber's descriptions of White's early fictional efforts, and his writing habits; you'll read about the novel White wrote in high school; you'll learn that White was often drunk or stoned when he wrote his early novels, and that even to this day White generally limits himself to writing a few pages per day in the expensive blank books he purchases from a Paris stationer. You'll read about White's encounters with writers as diverse as Michel Foucault, Vladimir Nabokov (who named White as one of his favorite young novelists, much to White's surprise), and Michael Ondaatje (whose own writing habits are similar to White's). Your impression, gleaned from White's novels, that he is an extremely decent person who is quite fallible but gifted with an immense talent, will be confirmed by Barber's account. Also surprising is Barber's description of how sexually voracious White was from a very early age. Apparently White felt the need to tone down his self-depiction in "A Boy's Own Story," to make his character seem more representative of typical adolescents.

In summary, this is a worthy biography of White, once you get past the somewhat amateurish writing style (which is why I'm giving it only four stars). But you shouldn't order it unless you're very interested in White -- otherwise, you will learn enough about White from his own novels.

Edmund White: The Burning World, by Stephen Barber

Edmund White's iconic status within a gay ethos extends far beyond those defined boundaries to his acceptance by the literary world as one of the major writers of our times. White's elegantly stylised novels, each employing a language particular to a time and place, as well as his non-fiction preoccupations as biographer to Genet and Proust, have led to the creation of an integral body of work. White's writings are as individual as they are vital to our reading of mortality in the late 20th century.

Stephen Barber's exceptionally well-pitched critical biography of White is both a work of literary merit and the ideal companion to its subject's life and achievements. Barber has for several years been one of our best critical writers on the nature of the modern city. The Burning World is creative criticism at its best, and Barber's understanding of the city and its sensations as determining creative language is central to his thesis on White's fiction.

During his formative writing years in a 1960's New York, White wrote five unpublished novels before Forgetting Elena was accepted for publication in 1972. Barber interestingly points to Fire Island being the inspirational site to this work, and to White's obsession with islands in general as representing the precinct in which to set a novel. Two more of his books, Nocturnes For The King of Naples, and Caracole, were to be less specifically identified with place, but to occupy undisclosed insular settings.

Barber rightly sees White's first four novels, with their rich textured poetic prose, as 'a unique document of the imagination in its compulsive interaction with the human body.' It was the third of these books, A Boy's Own Story 1982, which won White not only critical acclaim but a confirmed gay readership.

Crucial to Barber in the development of White as a person and writer was his move to Paris in 1983, the city in which he continues to live and write for half of each year. White, who was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1985, for a while considered his death to be imminent. Yet he found Paris sufficiently psychologically regenerative to encourage him to form new relationships, and to write new books. One of these was the elegiac The Beautiful Room Is Empty, a novel in which White first employed the medium of stripped down communicative prose which he continues to use today.

Another legacy of White's Paris years, begun in 1986 and completed seven years later was his monumental 700 page study of the French writer and criminal Jean Genet. Barber is profoundly insightful on White's grand Genet biography, and provides an illuminating commentary on the interactive chemistry triggered by one great writer overhauling the other's complex and elusive life.

Barber sensitively highlights White's most enduring relationships, including the one with Hubert Sorin, whose death from AIDS in 1993 was to leave White devastated. White's ability to keep on endlessly recreating himself, and adapting to the survival measures necessary for a gay man to outlive an AIDS generation, proves the pivot on which Barber's study rests.

This is a book to be recommended, not only to Edmund White's many readers, but to those who care for the valency of a new critical language finding its rapport with a constantly exciting subject.

Jeremy Reed

This is a great literary biography. It combines solid research into the life and work of Edmund White, one of the most imaginative and passionate gay writers of the last half century, with the kind of human touches that bring biography alive. Stephen Barber moves effortlessly from White's life to his work and back again, painting a fascinating portrait not only of White's own adventures and career, but providing the reader with profound insights into the bigger picture of gay life and culture in America and Paris, from Stonewall to AIDS and beyond. The discussion of White's writing stays fresh and relevant to his literary ideals and the context of his life - it makes you want to go back and read his books all over again. The book is also fairly balanced - it avoids taking sides in the bitter debates that have raged over what gay male culture and identity should be, and instead tries to present a range of different perspectives and possibilities. Readable, entertaining, informative and thought-provoking - I highly recommend this book.

"Racism became an essential, if unacknowledged, ingredient of the republican ideology that enabled Virginians to lead the nation." writes Edmund S. Morgan in 1975, and ends this book with the rhetorical question: "Is America still colonial Virginia writ large?"

These are deeply disturbing questions - questions one is compelled to ponder as one reads this lucid and dispassionate presentation of the how primitive accumulation in Virginia at the beginning of the 17th century was replaced a century later by an orderly and opulent society based on slavery. The answer to such questions is not made easy by the realisation that the only other successful republican experiment - the Athenian democracy - blossomed too on a bed of slavery.

Do these questions matter today? Have we not moved on from racism? I'm afraid not. Again the voice of Morgan: "In the republican way of thinking, zeal for liberty and equality could go hand in hand with contempt for the poor and plans for enslaving them." Sounds eerily familiar? Just as today's language used to describe terrorist threats is redolent of the rhetoric that once surrounded the lynching of black bodies. Racism (albeit globalised) is re-visiting the land today, and so are republican virtues and values.

The book is long, and in some ways, too detailed. Morgan delights in the telling particular, and at times one wishes he would not linger on some specifics. But this has a purpose. He wants to show the imperceptible and surreptitious mechanisms by which a society acquires its ugly and immoral traits until they become so natural as to be invisible. Step by step, event by event, law by law a construction emerges that would have horrified its founders. Yet, at the time, it seamed the logical, and the right thing to do.

A strong point in Morgan's narrative is the links he highlights between the developments in Virginia and the Britain's commercial interests, migration policies, population growth and control, state revenue, and political history or thought. One can better appreciate the import of Virginia for Britain and the mother country's fixation and fascination for the North American colonies.

Brash and brutal, Virginian slavery stood openly as godmother at the foundation of the American Republic. Other aspects of slavery also contributed significantly - but as they were indirect, they remained veiled and are hardly recognised even today. New England benefited greatly from its cod trade to the Caribbean, where the product that was found to be unfit for European markets was fed to the slaves, thus freeing up land that otherwise would have been used to sustain them. When will we get a total picture of slavery's import for America's economic foundations?

This is an excellent, in depth survey of Virginia's colonial experience, with an emphasis on how the seemingly contradictory institutions of slavery and equalitarian republicanism developed simultaneously. Indeed, Morgan argues that Virginians' definition of freedom, and their very ability to establish a republican political system, rested upon the creation of African slavery. Morgan shows that institutionalized slavery did not necessarily have to become part of British colonization; the earliest Englishmen to dream of a colonial empire hoped for the establishment of a utopian community in which natives could benefit from enlightened English governance that recognized the inherent rights of all men. Early English explorers even helped to organize revolts against the Spanish by their slaves in Latin America, and while they were motivated by their own interests in doing so, they clearly were willing to treat their slave co-conspirators as equals. However, the utopian phase of colonization died with the failed settlement at Roanoke in the 1580s. The founders of Jamestown quickly learned racism towards the Indians, whom Morgan speculates they goaded into warfare out of frustration at their own inability to support themselves.

The settlement eventually became prosperous as the colonists learned to produce tobacco for market, but it was hardly the ideal society envisioned by the founders. Labor shortages were endemic, as to make a profit planters needed to control a large number of indentured servants. Unfortunately (for the planters), laborers needed only to serve for a limited period before setting up business for themselves, and thus creating competition for the planters. To check this competition, planters made it difficult for freedmen to buy lands of their own (land was plentiful, but acreage with access to shipping had been almost totally monopolized by the large planters), which resulted in freedmen foregoing planting, and becoming lazy, shiftless, and at times rebellious. Moreover, planters treated their indentured servants so poorly that as news of their condition drifted back to England, fewer of the mother country's poor were willing to indenture themselves, especially as the burdens of overpopulation were being reduced at home.

By the 1670s, conditions were ripe for the importation of African slaves, as planters had accumulated capital from past harvests, the supply of indentured servants had slackened, life expectancy had increased to the point where buying a servant for life was cost efficient, and the increasingly rebellious nature of English freedmen convinced the colony's leaders that to encourage growth in the ranks of Virginia's poor could be disastrous. At first, African imports faced restrictions no different from those of white servants, except that their terms of service were fixed for life, and poor whites and black slaves even formed friendships, recognizing the commonality of their interests. This sense of camaraderie alarmed the colony's leaders, who early in the 18th century sought to differentiate the interests of black and white laborers, codifying special discriminations against blacks and fostering a racist attitude towards them. Lower class whites were now allowed to rise in social and economic status, since planters needed them to think in terms of the unity of whites as a social class, rather than in terms of economic class. At the same time, the new emphasis in England upon legislative supremacy and the 'rights of Englishmen' carried over to Virginia, leading planter-legislators to curry the favor of lower class voters.

Popular political participation provided the roots of republicanism, as racial slavery allowed whites across social classes to see themselves as political and social equals. Poverty was seen as a threat to republicanism, since the poor would owe their votes to their creditors and benefactors, and must therefore be kept out of the political system. Racial slavery was the perfect way to identify the poor and keep them subdued and out of politics, thus ensuring the liberty of property owners of all economic levels. Blacks took on (at least in the eyes of whites) the attributes that had always been assigned to England's poor, and identifying those negative qualities with race only made it easier for committed republicans to justify their inequality. Thus, in Virginia, contempt for the poor became contempt for blacks, and while northerners could decry slavery, they could also accept that republicanism rested upon keeping the poor and landless down.

This scholarly examination of the roots of slavery in colonial virginia connects its development to the social economic and political environment as it evolved over a century and a half. Very interesting reading on a complex subject.

I bought this book on the strength of his previous book Retire Early and Live Well, which I thoroughly enjoyed, though I did wonder about his sources and conclusions.

This book, on the other hand, I don't trust at all. I'm contemplating returning it for a refund.

In the first section he tells you that the goal of this book is to match the reader with their investment type - saver, investor, speculator. Are you the cash & bonds type, or are you the type to invest in IPO's?

The problem is he repeats himself worse than a Victorian novel. Why does he need to repeatedly tell you what he's going to tell you? Why not just get to the meat of the book already?

The second part of this book is a breakdown of the different investment types and various investments that make up each of the three types. He focuses heavily on the negatives of each investment type.

"Marketed as simple and easy to own, stocks are actually the most complex and emotionally challenging of all asset classes. Powerlessness, unmanageability, regrets, fear, social pressures, herd behavior, and complexities galore are the norm."

"The purchase of CDs and money market funds can lead to confusion and complexity. CDs have different interest rates and different maturities. Unpredictable forces including the Federal Reserve, the economy, and inflation undermine the interest rate on CDs, money market funds, and savings accounts."

"Unmanagability is a big issue with municipal bonds."

In fact, nearly every investment type is portrayed in this light with the exception of Real Estate and Real Estate Investment Trusts.

In fact, the Real Estate section starts with "Many groups and individuals have a vested interest in keeping you in stocks, including financial journalists." He goes on to say "A sense of powerlessness, unmanagability, and helplessness are infrequent with real estate. Stock prices move quickly. An individual stock can lose half or more of its value in minutes. Real estate prices change slowly."

And for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) it's the same: "REIT investors experience less powerlessness than stock investors. REIT returns are less volatile than stock returns. The worst year for REITS since 1970 was negative 17 percent. The worst year for U.S. stocks was negative 26 percent. " Etcetera.

And here comes, what I believe is the crux of this book: "My REIT report, REITs for the New Decade, explains everything you need to know about REITs in less than 100 pages." There it is, the book is an ad for his REIT report.

I actually had to chuckle at the transition from REITs to Corporate Bonds.

"The biggest emotional hurdle with REITs is a sense of bein out of sync with your fellow investors.... You must have the self esteem to run outside the herd to be happy with REITs. Those who need the herd to push them along will not stay in REITs very long.... Corporate Bonds... Unmanagability is the main issue here."

The change was so abrupt and obvious from his sheer praise of REITs (oh and by the way, buy my report) to more doom and gloom for anything that wasn't REITs.

The third section is a series of questions that "any serious investor should answer" along with several sample responses, which, by the way, show people who went from bad investments to - you guessed it - real estate.

Todd: "He had great success with real estate, and no success with any investment that was trendy or could be purchased on a whim."

Dillon: "Twelve years ago, I had about 75 percent of my money in stocks and 25 percent in real estate, REITs and oil and gas. Today my ratio is opposite."

While this is one of the few books to address investing as an emotional and potentially addictive (read: 12 steps) activity, it's heavy handed scare tactics are unwelcome. Since we'll all be living off of our investments one day (when we retire), it's important that you understand the process and risks of investing and your emotions regarding investing. I just don't think this is the book to help you with it.

Much more well rounded are The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need (Andrew Tobias) or The Millioniare Next Door (Thomas Stanley).

Useful as Gillette Edmunds' other book ("How to Retire Early and Live Well") is, I wished it had been possible to read this one first! For anyone who's been duped into believing stock funds are the only viable long-term hedge against inflation, who's been sold a "conservative" asset allocation and then watched it lose 25% of its value, this book is a lifesaver.

Simply by working through the steps here and understanding what mixture of "saver," "investor," and "speculator" you are will result in greatly increased clarity and vastly lower stress. Belongs at the top of the list of books the typical financial advisor would prefer you not know about!

Gillette's latest, Comfort Zone Investing, provides a sound, practical guide for removing the inherent "flip the coin" jitters that many lay investors I and my clients (I'm a CPA) both experience as we save for retirement or other major life events (college funds, weddings, etc.). I particularly liked his grouping of investment vehicles into "savings", "investment" or "speculation" and his down to earth analysis of each. I would highly recommend this book for first time out investors as well as those who have alrady built a sizeable portfolio.

Fitzgerald is to be congratulated for her frank portrayal of her father and uncles. Even so, I felt something was being withheld. After all, the Knox brothers were part of the Waugh generation and lived through an incredibly revolutionary period in world history. As interesting as each of these brothers is, it's hard to believe they were as domestic and tweedy as she wishes to think of them. One needs to look elsewhere for the dirt on these fellows (but, alas, I know not where).

My interest was primarily in Ronald Knox, the youngest of the children (the Knoxes had two daughters, as well, but neither of them seems to have made much of an impression on their neice). As a young man Ronald converted to Roman Catholicism, to the chagrin of his father, an Anglican bishop of Evangelical leanings, and of his brother Wilfred, an Anglo-Catholic priest. Although Fitzgerald does not sidestep religious issues, I sensed that she herself was not very religious and that she never quite understood why dogmatics could be so divisive in her family. Ronald wrote so-so detective fiction. His great achievement, however, was the translation of the Latin Bible into modern English for Roman Catholics (sadly at a time when the Roman Catholic church was just about to realize the importance making Bible translations from the original Hebrew and Greek). I wanted to know more about Knox's process of working and the public response to the finished translation. But Fitzgerald, ever bouncing from one Knox brother to the next, gives very little information on this subject.

Fitzgerald doesn't waste much ink, either, on examining sibling rivalry (it must have been strong--not one Knox could be considered a slacker) or on psychoanalysing family dynamics. There are no lessons here to glean about family life in general, nothing that could serve as a mirror to one's relationships with one's own siblings. The Knoxes seem to have been truly unique, and are probably best appreciated as accomplished individuals.

Those looking for juicier portraits of bright young Brits in the years leading up to World War II, should turn to Humphrey Carpenter's "Brideshead Generation: Evelyn Waugh and His Friends" or Martin Green's "Children of the Sun: A Narrative of 'Decadence' in England after 1918."

Why read biographies? Several reasons come to mind: to get a glimpse of a vanished past, to live vicariously through glamorous and interesting people, to learn truths about the good life that survive those vanished pasts and apply to even the unglamorous.

All of these apply in spades to _The Knox Brothers_, novelist Penelope Fitzgerald's 1977 biography of her father, Edmund ("Evoe") Knox and his brothers, Ronald, Wilfred and Dilly.

The most famous of the Knox brothers today is Ronald, a famous British convert to and apologist for Catholicism. His conversion is well-detailed by Fitzgerald, along with the strife it caused within the family: his father was an Anglican bishop, and remained essentially unreconciled to his convert son, and his brother Wilfred also became an Anglican clergyman. Evoe, who also achieved great fame as editor of the humor magazine Punch, was an indulgent agnostic, but Dilly was rigorously atheistic.

Despite such differences, mutual love and respect prevailed among the brothers, and as Fitzgerald writes, "one would think it must have been as clear then as it is now that if human love could rise above the doctrines that divide the Church, then these docrines must have singularly little to do with the love of God." The humane perspective that would later distinguish her novels is on ample display in this biography, as is her wry humor.

Perhaps most fascinating and unusual of the four brothers was Dilly, who served in both world wars as a codebreaker, and played an instrumental role in cracking the German Enigma machine during World War II. Fitzgerald describes his work in generous detail, and places it in the context of the family's general fascination with language and wordplay.

I highly recommend this biography, which like the lives of its subjects is briskly paced and rich in variety. One caveat: if you have no place in your heart for Anglophilia, you may find the personalities of Fleet Street and Oxbridge rather tiresome.

Penelope Fitzgerald produced some of the finest short novels written. Before she started her career as a novelist she wrote these collected biographies of her father and his 3 brothers in 1977. It seems appropriate that this collection of familial histories was updated and placed in its final form by Ms. Fitzgerald shortly before her death.

For those that believe Genetics play a role in the hereditary talent of later generations, this book certainly will reinforce that view. Whether when reviewing her Father's life, or that of his 3 brothers, all these men were exceptional in there own manner. There were characteristics they held in common; amongst them were brilliant wits, and integrity. The latter trait would seem redundant, or perhaps should be one we hope someday will be for all men like her Uncle Wilfred and her Uncle Ronald. Both of these men were Priests, but even here these Brothers maintained their own identities. Wilfred was an Anglo-Catholic Priest, and his Brother was a Priest of The Roman Catholic Church. The History of these men's lives are all of great interest, however the differences in the Religious Denominations, at first so similar to the ear, and then so different theologically, provided some of the more interesting aspects of the book.

Father Ronald went beyond the normal duties of his calling, and expanded his talents not only into journalism, but I believe rather specially as an Author of Detective Novels. All this was in addition to being The Chaplain At Oxford, and a man who translated a revised form of The New Testament, so that so many more could enjoy the writings.

For readers familiar with World War II, the word Enigma has a meaning in excess of the dictionary definition. Enigma was the machine that the Germans used for enciphering their communications, had it remained a secret, the War if nothing else would have been lengthened, perhaps dramatically. Uncle Dillwyn was repeatedly promoted and was critical to "finding a way in" to Enigma, and was credited with contributing to several strategic victories that without the understanding of Enigma could not have taken place.

Her Father was again a man of many gifts, but it is his time as Editor of the legendary "Punch Magazine" that seemed to best define the man's many traits. He too was a writer, journalist, humorist, and devoted Husband and Father. He may or may not have foreseen that a short 6 years after his death his Daughter Penelope would begin her own literary career with a book that paid tribute to he and his brothers.

Ms. Fitzgerald does honor to the memories of her family members without appearing to lose objectivity, and succumbing to fawning over her subjects. If you have read her books, or the interviews she gave none of this will come as a surprise. She was a woman of great talent, minimal ego, and she happily, for readers, shared all her gifts.

I have read and viewed the major English language texts on Sundials. These being 1.Waugh, 2. Mayall & Mayall, and 3. Rohr.

The Waugh text has good, mostly clear, intructions and gives both graphical and equation based methods of constructions. Mayall and Mayall perhaps has better graphical constuctions but Waugh excells in the variety of tables in the appendix. Waugh also has the clearest explanation of determining the declination of a wall. This is very important as many buildings are aligned along magnetic north (& south & east &west) rather than true north ( south etc...).

A shortcoming of the almost every book including Waugh, is the lack of clear instruction on how to draw other types of hours. Most importantly of these interesting alternatives types of hours are babylonian and Italian hours. These hours are still useful today. So far I've only found the Rohr text to have any attempt of explaining how to draw these lines. However the Rohr text simply doesn't match the clarity and breadth of Waugh and Mayall and Wayall.

Waugh (and Mayall and Mayall) both could do with an update on trigonometry. With the easy availability of scientific calculators, the need for log versions of equations and the use of things like "cot" functions is not needed and simply makes the calculations clumsy to perform on a key pad.

The book by Cousins is an excellent higly detailed text if you can get it, but it seems to be out of print. It is useful if you really want to get into the maths of spherical geometry and it wouldn't be the best book you'd want to read first. It makes you appreciate the wonderful elegance of the graphical solutions but it may convince you that it is all too hard when it actually isn't in a practical sense. Just about anyone can make a simple sundial.

The text by Rohr also has a good section on how to do hour lines on just about any shaped surface (bowl, sphere, plane etc..) if you have a rod for a gnomen. This is about the only strength of this text over the others.

So to conclude Waugh would be the best first text, very closely followed by Mayall and Mayall, then Rohr. The text by Cousins is excellent but at a much higher level that isn't needed for the construction for the standard types of dials.

I agree with the other reviewers...This is a very clear and concise treatment of the theory and practice of sundial construction. It is a very easy read, (anyone over the age of around 12-13 should have no difficulty with it at all,) and entertaining to boot! It has a few items that some of the other 'classics' on sundials do not. (Rene Rohr,s book "Sundials:History, Theory and Practice" and Mayall & Mayall's "Sundial's:Their Construction and Use".) The only thing this book really misses, (and the same holds true for virtually every book on sundials!) is the link between sundials telling time, and their potential use for navigation. Apart from that, this is a great book, and I highly recommend it.

This book not only covers everything from time itself to noon marks to fancy sundials, it is well written and fun to read - a rare combination in a "technical" book.

When you are buying a novel or a biography, the content of the paperback edition is likely to be identical to that of the hardback. Unfortunately, when you are buying a dictionary, the paperback is usually a different book entirely! Consider, for example, that the hardback version of this book claims 120,000 words and phrases, while the paperback claims only 70,000--just 58% of the words and phrases contained in the original. Consider also that the hardback appears to be written in 9- or 10-point type, while the paperback type is a point or two smaller. The paperback's faded print on gray paper is also hardly equal to the hardback's sharp print on white paper.

The main advantage of the paperback is that it is more portable, but at 3 pounds, the hardback is hardly bulky (unlike the 5+ pound Oxford Spanish Dictionary, Second Edition, which is excellent, but even for being nearly twice as heavy and twice as expensive, is not even once as good as the American Heritage for precise and correct translations--though the Oxford is more up to date, and better for slang and colloquialisms). As paperbacks go, this is probably one of the better ones, but the hardback version is the only one I feel comfortable recommending.

Here, for example, are words included in the hardback but excluded from the paperback:

meadowlark, meagerness, meagre, mealie, meal ticket, meanness, mean time, measureless, measurer, meat loaf, meat market, mechanical drawing, mechanical engineering, mechanist, mechanization, mediacy, mediaeval, media event, Medicaid, medical examiner, Medicare, medicine man, medievalism, medievalist, mediterranean, Mediterranean fever, medium of exchange, medulla, medulla oblongata, meerschaum, megacycle, megalith, and megapolis. These are the words missing from one-page's worth of the paperback edition's 616 pages.

Here, for comparison, are the entries for "below"; first, the paperback's entry:

below ([pronunciation here]) I. adv. abajo; (in a text) más abajo II. prep. (por) debajo de; (on a scale) bajo (b. zero = bajo cero).

And now, the hardback's entry for the same word:

below ([pronunciation here]) I. adv. (beneath) abajo; (downstairs) abajo; (farther down) más abajo; (in hell) en el infierno; (on earth) aquí abajo; (in a lesser rank) por debajo de; MARIT. en una cubierta inferior II. prep. (beneath) debajo de; (lower than) por debajo de (b. sea level = por debajo del nivel del mar); (lower in degree) inferior a, bajo (temperatures b. zero = temperaturas bajo cero); (unworthy) indigno de.

It should be clear from these examples why I recommend only the hardback edition--not the paperback!

The main disadvantage of this dictionary is that, because it was published in 1986, it is missing the terms that have become current since then--most notably, computer-related terms. It is, however, so well-edited and precise that I still highly recommend the hardback edition. My only wish would be that American Heritage (Houghton Mifflin) and Larousse would someday put out a new, updated edition of the hardback.

I am 13 years old and learning spanish. I have found it to have every word you would ever need.If you are in spanish or considerind learning Sapnish then this book is for you

The American Heritage Spanish Dictionary is one of the very few books for which I actively seek out opportunities to recommend it. It does what all bilingual dictionaries should do, but what many do not do at all and the rest do not do well. It allows the user to distinguish among all the possible translations of the word without having to flip back and forth between the English and Spanish sides, looking up the back-translation of each possibility. Whereas some dictionaries might define "leaf" as "hoja; hoja, página; folio; lámina," sending you back to the Spanish side to find out which one you wanted, the American Heritage definition of "leaf" looks more like this:

BOT. hoja; (foliage) follaje m, hojas; (sheet of paper) hoja; (page) página; (folio) folio; (sheet of metal) lámina; (of table, door, shutter) hoja; . . .

making it much easier to find the proper translation quickly.

The American Heritage Spanish Dictionary is also one of the few to emphasize American English and Latin American Spanish. It also gives the gender of words even on the English side in cases where the gender is not obvious. The main shortcomings I have encountered are that on occasion a word will appear on one side but not the other and that, because it was published in 1986, it obviously lacks some of the computer terms which had not come into widespread use by then. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this dictionary above the other dozen or so on the market for anyone who needs a well-designed and easier-to-use tool for translating between English and Spanish.