A specialist book with good taxonomy and excellent line drawings. Still the reference text after 50 years.

This book is completely readable - I just gobbled it up. Although he may not be a scientific expert on the physiology or behavior of desert wildlife, his intimate contact with the desert animals over many years provides wonderful anecdotes and observations of their habits. It's certainly not a field guide or a comprehensive list of facts, but it's a real person's experience of these fascinating creatures. I especially appreciated the section on the quirky habits of roadrunners. This book makes up in a small way for the fact that I can't immerse myself completely in the desert, but only get glimpses it of on weekends.

Edmund Ruffin, who claimed the distinction of firing the first shot at Ft. Sumter, was a zealot, white supremacist and exact opposite of John Brown. Ruffin was a diarist of detailed descriptions of his daily life and that of his family and the southern United States before the War Between the States. This is a sometime revealing look at a man who strongly believed slavery was right, and not a demeaning way of life. I am looking forward to reading Volume II of this wordy diary. I would strongly recommend it to anyone interested in US history, southern life and politics or genealogy of the Ruffin and allied families.

Well researched and full of lively detail that only ten years plus worth of in-the-field experience could command, Disparate Diasporas is a thoroughly satisfying ethnography of one of Nicaragua's least understood ethnic groups.

The book is valuable not only for its insightful ethnographic and political observations, but also for its compilation and consolidation of useful and hard to find ethnohistorical information about Nicaragua's coastal Creole populations.

Activists, scholars, and others familiar with the turbulent Nicaragua of the 1980's will find the perspective presented in this volume to be useful. While the book is not a political analysis, its description of events, and, more importantly, Creole interpretation of those events, should provide many "lessons learned" for those interested in re-evaluating what went right and what went wrong in 1980's Nicaragua.

i think this book is informative &shows a lot about his life and family. it contains informative graphics. i recomend it for anyone above the age of 10, or enjoys reading information books or has a good concentration span. GO AHEAD AND READ IT!

Because of his ability to capture the complexity of human life in drama without filtering it through his ego, Shakespeare has often been called a mirror in which critics cast their own prejudices and preoccupations. Something similar could be said of Edmund Burke, whose timely thoughts on politics and government often illuminated timeless truths through which commentators could reflect on their own concerns.

Burke is best known for his opposition to the French Revolution of 1789, which he described in Reflections on the Revolution in France, and for his opposition to aspects of British imperialism in America and India. Even those who disagreed with his politics considered him a man of profound imagination; in fact, his early interests leaned to the literary, as in his treatise, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. His works suggested a literary sensibility that surpassed his contemporaries'. Largely due to the work of Russell Kirk, Robert Nisbet, and Irving Babbitt, Burke has been considered a major influence on modern conservatism.

Burke's writing, though aphoristic, quotable, and of high literary merit, can be difficult. Daniel Ritchie's intent with this anthology was to introduce the general reader to Burke's major themes by a variety of commentators. Consequently, the book has been divided into five sections: the literary imagination (Coleridge, Arnold); revolution (George Watson, Russell Kirk), constitutional and party government (Harvey Mansfield, Alexander Bickel); the radical mind (Raymond Williams, Conor Cruise O'Brien), and the conservative mind (Irving Babbitt, Robert Nisbet). In each case the critic tends to project his own interests onto the texts, which I consider less a shortcoming of the critic than an indication of Burke's transparent genius. Babbitt, for example, saw in Burke the quintessence of the humane man of letters who could balance opposites in an unsystematic world view.

Some of the essays here will probably try the patience of the general reader. I would have put Steven Blakemore's essay in the "radical mind" section of the anthology, given that I consider his deconstructive approach to be much more in line with radical literary fashion than with traditional explication de texte. But I general I found this to be a useful volume. As I have in the past, I would direct the reader toward the essays by Kirk, Nisbet, and Babbitt for their encapsulation of Burke's themes into plain, yet graceful, English.

The categories of the sublime and the beautiful seem, on first contemplation, an 18th-century distinction with little meaning for our own time. I read this book while preparing a course on J.S. Bach's "Goldberg" Variations and Beethoven's "Diabelli" Variations. The idea was to find a way of talking about the difference between the two pieces. At first brush, the Bach is "beautiful", the Beethoven "sublime", but only a little thought leads to a more complicated view. Both pieces have aspects of both qualities. Nevertheless, my students found the question a fascinating one.

Of course, the book goes well beyond the characteristics of the two qualities. It focusses on the interesting question of how human nature leads us to experience the two qualities. To me much of Burke's discussion of this point seems quite contemporary.

Burke's preference for the sublime over the beautiful reflects his time at the beginning of the Romantic period in literature, and anticipates Goethe's (and Beethoven's) celebration of the individual and direct appeal to the emotions. His essentialist views of the beautiful as a feminine characteristic seem gratuitous.

I wonder what Burke would have found to say about, say, the Goldberg, with its formality and artifice. These characteristics would seem to place the piece in the beautiful rather than the sublime. But the piece is clearly not merely a frill, nor is it at all sentimental.

Burke's book is well argued and challenging to the modern reader. Give it a try!

Ever confused with prices and functions of the different options and accessories of your loved truck to buy? Does it make you wandering how much the dealer want to profit with a specific option? This book can answer all these questions. It provide a comprehensive list of these options and accessories-- their function, description, invoice price and MSRP price. Also extremly useful is the review section for each model. It is very helpful for me as a novice to truck. But I think even if you have a long experience, you will also find the review section a good assistant for deciding your next truck to buy.

Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, was required reading for my English Renaissance Literature class this semester at my University in Southern California. We were only assigned to read Book I of the Mutability Cantos, so my review can only apply for Book I. I enjoyed reading this story of Red Cross Knight and his quest for Holiness. Being a Christian myself, I enjoyed relating to Red Cross Knight in all his struggles with sin, as well as his quest for holiness. The language of the story was a bit confusing at first, but I appreciated the fact that the Introduction to the book contained summaries for each of the Cantos. This helped explain the actual plot of each Canto just in case I missed it while trying to figure out the language. Each Canto was very poetically put together, and I was impressed with Spenser's ability to come up with three separate rhyme patterns for each Canto! One of my favorite things about this book was the Parade of the Seven Deadly Sins. The creativity used in describing how each of these characters lived up to thier respective sin was amazing. The analogy of Lucifera riding in on her 'Seven Deadly Sins carriage' features Idleness leading the way. How ironic and yet so appropriate for laziness to lead the way for all the other sins. I really enjoyed this scene because the words Spenser used to describe each sin was so eloquent. The personification of each sin created an image in my mind as to what this parade might have actually looked like. Spenser did a great job tying these seven sins into Red Cross Knight's character flaws. It was also encouraging to see Red Cross Knight visit the House of Holiness and receive encouragement for his upcoming fight against the dragon at the end of Book I. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to use thier imagination and can appreciate the eloquence of Spenser's words without getting too confused by them! I think this story would be best understood if it were read outloud because some of the words actually have meaning in the way they sound.

Dr. Andracki has done it again! This time he uses his medical expertise to put together a mystery of intrigue and adventure. And, its timeliness is uncanny with our recent anthrax scare and the continuing threat of bioterrorism."Fatal Prognosis" is a gripping, readable account that examines the threats posed by a horrifying, lethal disease. The book gives the non medical reader a glimpse into hospital labs and research centers. It allows one to experience the ambitious crusade of finding cause and cure as well as the frustrations and disappointments that surround the dangerous common ground where humans and microbes meet.I highly recommend the reading of this novel.