I'm not a big reader of literary criticism, but this book really helped me. I loved Master & Margarita the first time I read it, but there are several references that just escaped me. This book, coupled with the new Vintage/Ardis edition which has copious endnotes, helps clarify things that would normally escape a non-Russia unfamiliar with life in 1930's Russia.

Cyrus Townsend Brady, an 1883 graduate of the US Naval Academy, went to the west to seek adventure and prosperity. Instead he initiated a series of works which highlighted his gift for brisk exciting narratives about the Old West. This work presents several rare, first person, revealing accounts of soldiers and Indian Chiefs, all veterans of the Nez Perce and Modoc wars. Brady also revisits and re-examines the history of the engagement at the Little Big Horn, the subject of his previous work, "Indian Fights and Fighters."

This book is about a job evaluation plan that provides research-based answers to the foregoing questions. questions pertaining to the relative worth of jobs are faced by organization in both the public and private sectors.
It's mention how to development of the technology for quantifing the worth of jobs.

While Richard Hoyt seems to me not quite in the leagues with James Hall, Michael Connelly, and Dennis Lehane, he can still captivate and entertain, and his books are always worth a look. Snake Eyes, like so many Elmore Leonard novels, is not really so much about who-done-it.... as much as it is about the characters and their observations on the situations in which they find themselves. In this book, two people are murdered and cattle are deliberately infected with anthrax--it doesn't take a genius to figure out from the very limited number of possibilities who is responsible, but along the way we have the delight of sharing the company of John Denison, who seems rather like a private eye from the beat or hippie generations. His Indian (Native American) partner Willy Prettybird doesn't play much of a role in this book except to set up the speculations on the Great Hoop of Life and do a bit of tracking that those redskins seem to do so well. It's not offensive, but it seemed to me to be the weak point of the book that Prettybird didn't play a larger role. There is almost no resemblance to Tony Hillerman's works, which fully engage one in the culture he writes about.

If you like this one, I'd also recommend the other Richard Hoyt books, particularly Fish Story, Trotsky's Run, and Siskiyou. It's a shame his work is not more well known.

After almost 50 years, Boll looks back at his teens from 15 to 19, from 1933-37 in Germany, coinciding with Hitler's rise to power. Boll writes about the importance of books and intelligence in his childhood. These are not just the books in class ("Yes, school, I know -- I'll get back to that."), but more importantly outside reading: Dostoevsky, Dickens, Haecker. His family made every effort to provide his reading. Present in this account is his sense of humor (despite the foreboding of Hitler and the Hitler Youth), as well as the fighting of the meaningless bureaucracy; for example bribing to keep his brother from participating in any of the Youth activities. This includes the Boll we see later, watching "Hands in pockets, eyes open, street hawkers, peddlers, markets, churches, museums ...". From classroom efforts to condense Mein Kampf, Boll learned brevity; perhaps the only positive thing about the Nazi's during this oppressive time. Boll stands as an individual against the totalitarian climate. I think we are all pleased that Boll pursued a career of "Something to do with books".

The whiskey trade was a significant, albeit largely illegal commercial enterprise focused on Montana and southern Alberta. It had a major impact on the lives of the Plains Indians, particularly members of the Blackfoot confederacy. Although Dr. Kennedy could have focused on the archaeological studies she has made on this enterprise, she choses instead to try to build a more inclusive picture of industry by bringing in documents and oral history. The history of selling alcohol always brings out interesting characters and questionable ethics. You should read this if you think rum-running began with the prohibition or you are interested in the early commercial and First Nation's history of the west.

Where are all the stars coming from? I bought this book, and I was highly dissapointed. I was looking for useful information on diet, light therapy, vitamins, etc. that would actually help you survive the real winter blues - seasonal attitude diplacement disorder. This book was written for someone who doesn't have a life and needs to be told stupid little things to do to keep from being bored. All you 5 star people - get a life! P.S. If you look real hard you might find vitamin info in a one liner somewhere in this book. Otherwise it's mostly nonsense.

I read the two other reveiws and I'm guessing this is in the "I love it" or the "I'd leave it on the shelf" kind of book. I bought it for my wife a year ago and she picks it up again and again. It is a very silly book. The stars are for those without enough silly in their lives. It's a good laugh and I'd like to see another like it. It is worth every smile.

I saw this book in an on-campus bookstore and was feeling impulsive. It turned out to be a wonderful investment. I have seasonal affective dissorder and reading the lighthearted tips and observations of this winter blues survival guide made me a happy lass. I liked it so much that when I accidently left it in a school cafeteria I had to run out and buy another one right away. :) Alli Arnold's illustrations are fabulous, as well.

Coming out of the Heideggerean tradition of confusing wannabe academics into thinking you know more than they can grasp, Derrida has been stringing his following along for decades, getting into innumerable literary criticism and philosophy and language study classrooms and scaring kids away from what can truly be rewarding fields of study. Certainly his ideas on "differance" and the de-centered center are neat and they are developed out of a broader philosophical tradition. But Derrida's work is the perfect example of why so many people are turned away from philosophical study. Certainly, I am not advocating that everyone break their works down into catch-phrases and self-help books, but there should be a recognition that if the concepts cannot be elucidated in plain language, if the arguments cannot be followed without a strong background in phenomenology and structuralism, then they are of little use. Hume wrote his Enquiry, Kant the "Prolegomena", Sartre delivered his Existentialism & Humanism talk, etc... these were all attempts to make somewhat clear, the ideas entrenched in their dense treatises. That attempt needs to be made. If the work remains solely in the hands of the elite, who have made their way through all of the academic hoops, it grows stale. I think we can already see that happening. Or is it all just a game? A bunch of intellectual posturing? I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt and believe that's not the case. But I'm still waiting for someone to prove it.

Arguably one of the most convtroversial philosophers within the Continental tradigion, Derrida's work either heralds a revolution in philosophy or its utter destruction.

Derrida cites two important pedigrees (as the title suggests): Husserl and (tacitly) de Saussure.

Using the "course in general linguistics" of de Saussure, Derrida notes a certain degree of freedom, a "jeu," between the words-as-symbols and the thought contents they produce. Exploiting de Saussure's note that the relation between the sign and the mental content is arbitrary, Derrida questions the validity of any text (where the notion of text includes, but is not limited to, books, magazines, commercials, art, sex).

Derrida sees behind any "text" its entire recursive history, the weight of all the words, the mental experience of the reader.

At the point he considers the reader's experience he starts to deal with phenomenology - the study proposed and defined by Husserl himself in his Vienna and Paris lectures. A short definition might be that Phenomenology is the study of how man mentally relates to the objects of his experience(I admit, debatably so).

This book proposes Derrida's famous example of "différance" and its effect upon the Gallically trained ear and mind. So if you want to seem witty and "with-it" this introductory tome shall suffice.

As far as my own deconstruction / critique of the work. As an introductory work it is dense. Derrida is often criticized for losing himself in intellectual crevices, being prolix, and employing poor stylistics. These are not unmerited. Yet for the reader who wishes to move beyond the fashionability of tossing "deconstructionist" out at cocktail parties, this is a must read. It is certainly part of the 20th century canon.

My own conclusions are mixed. In his later works Derrida becomes truly absurd, laughable, silly, and occasionally brilliant. Yet his work never fails to move its readers either to agree that he is either an idiot, a bad writer, or that philosophy as we know it has long been dead. Perhaps like a Socratic gadfly, Derrida is moving us to an entire gestalt shift vis-à-vis our relationship with philosophy and social institutions.

A solid background of Kant/Hegel, as well as a familiarity with lingustics (the aforementioned course in general lingustics of de Saussure) greatly ease the difficulty in penetrating his work.

Derrida, for all the supposed density of his writing, is a simplifier. Deconstruction owes much of its popularity (in America) to the fact that it says: philosophy is not all that complicated, just see how the inside and outside collapse into one another and you can tear any text at its seams. Derrida follows the same procedure with poor old Edmund: the entirety of the LU shamble if Husserl is unable to maintain the integrity of silent thought, in which no Anzeichen point toward anything. Unlike the canals on Mars, which may point to intelligent life, silent thought is unmediated and not supplemented (to use a Deriddaism) by a sign. The collapse (or rending) of inside and outside by the supplement mark the presence of absence: the word, a mere supplement to the presence of silent thought, separates and joins the "life" and "presence" of consciousness with absence, repetition, and death.

Don't judge a book by its cover (or size). If ever this statement was true, it is now. At first glance, Billy Budd by Herman Melville looks like at quick easy read at only 80+ pages. Once you get through the first few paragraphs, you realize that you just might have bit off more than you can chew.

The character Billy Budd seems to be a stand up guy. Though quiet, he boosts the morale of his shipmates with just his presence. Melville himself calls him the, "Handsome Sailor." He appears to be almost perfect in every way, although he does have one fault. He stutters when he is overwhelmed by many feelings he cannot express. I like this about Billy. It shows that he is human and does have imperfections. Another character, Captain Vere, is a little bit creepy for my taste. His obsession for Billy, whether it be sexual or not, is a bit strange. A specific instance of the odd obsession is in the scene in chapter 10 in the mess hall. It is the well known "spilled soup" scene. The detailed description Melville gives to a small section dealing with spilled soup on the floor is a bit extreme. I agree with most people saying that there is much homoerotic content in Billy Budd.

Overall I give this book a low score. I do like the idea behind the story. A well liked sailor who doesn't cause trouble is set up by his commanding officers. Billy is portrayed as a hero to his shipmates. A young man, murdered because of his innocence. If it wasn't for the idea behind the story it would get a much lower rating.

Herman Melville's Billy Budd is a classic which should be used more often in the High School ciricullum in order to make students more apprciative of the genius, Herman Melville. Melville incorporates a mix of biblical, mythological, and classical symbolism that is so profoundly genius in his development through each character in Billy Budd. I would recommend this book to every High School teacher to use as an introductory into Melville's works, especially Moby Dick!

This novella is difficult to read, with long and complex sentences and perhaps unnecessary diversions. But its power and depth reward the effort it takes to read it.

"Billy Budd" is an allegory of a young seaman who strikes and kills a superior officer when the officer's cruelty and treachery become unbearable. The focus of the story is the debate over whether to execute the seaman (Billy Budd) for his crime. With passionate and terrifying logic, Melville (through the voice of Captain Vere) demonstrates that human perfection is impossible - not because we humans are weak, but because perfection simply does not and cannot exist in this world. To make decisions based on our notion of "divine justice" is not only impractical and foolhardy, according to Melville, but even immoral.

If you like to think of yourself as an idealist, then reading this book will leave some unanswered questions in your mind, possibly for the rest of your life. I first read this story more than thirty years ago, and it still affects the way I think about almost everything to this day.

John Dennison, Seattle private eye teams up with his darts-throwing Cowlitz Indian buddy, Willie Prettybird, to investigate a Cowlitz claim to Native American salmon fishing rights. A judge is murdered and dismembered parts show up in Seattle's Pioneer Square. All take a tour of the Seattle underground. Gets convoluted, loses focus, and doesn't end very neatly. Found this copy in the public library.

But I'm pretty certain it started well, and entertained me some.

One or two of the characters were a little odd, but that's OK, people are in real life too. (Will re-read and review again)