These math problems are ones that were given in competitions in the UK to adolescents. There is always an "A" part and a "B" part, but the 2nd part is MUCH harder! A good part of the book is that they give hints for if you get stuck. A good book for someone who actually wants to do math and not just read about it.

This is the best book you want to get if you easily get discouraged by 500+ pages books. It is almost identical to Biacco's book (from page 256 on) but with much less details about Real Estate deals, that somebody not really interessted in Real Estate will appreciate.

Being an avid admirer of Manet and of the paintings in which Victorine Meurent appeared, I was happy to see a book about her. Finally, I would be able to learn something of her and her life! I learned that she was a Lesbian and died in 1927 and not as a destitute alcoholic as written in some rather sketchy histories of her. but that is all I learned. The book is actually more about the author and her trying to make peace with her past and her mother than anything else. If you want to learn about Victorine, you must find another book. If you want to know about Eunice Lipton, this is the book for you. Also very few facts in the book; the author puts Victorine in some situations and conversations, but these are all imaginary. Definitely would not recommend. Author was self-indulgent and apparently not very concerned with her subject.

Lipton seems reluctant to deal with the facts she can recover. Instead, she prefers to create a fiction which is more of a projection of her own neurosis than anything which is supported by her sources. All the primary sources agree that Victorine Meurent was a destitute alcoholic for some time before she dies, but Lipton prefers to imagine her as a proto-feminist heroine. She seems so blinded by her own prejudice that she can only lash out at anyone who presents her with information which paints Victorine in less than favorable colors. For a more balanced view of the same material, find a copy of Otto Freiderich's Olympia: Manet and the Paris of his Times.

This book is more autobiography than the "art history mystery" I had expected, but it's an engaging story, and well worth reading. When the missing diary, or some such document, which will tell all about the real life story of Victorine Muerant fails to materialize, a fictional version is inserted in chapters. I was dissappointed by this because it gives more weight to the story Ms Lipton invented and hoped to prove, than to the facts she worked so hard to reveal. The research is tedious and discouraging, and the results will not rock the art history world. The true reward for the author is not the tidbits of information she aquires about her subject, but in her own growth both as a blossoming writer and a woman. Her finest writing is in the descriptions of the things she knows best and experiences first-hand: the great food in Paris, her past life, her present feelings, her beliefs and self-realization. It's encouraging that Ms Lipton has chosen now to be a writer, and not an art historian, and I will look forward to her next effort.

I love stories about wise old women--the kind who are brave and as clever as they are caring. I was hoping this would be a book full of stories of such women, but I was disappointed. Only half of the tales featured a wise old woman as a main character, and although they were well-told, none of the stories were very compelling. As a collection, this book seemed to lack focus due to poorly chosen tales.

However, one element in this book is outstanding. A mural-of-sorts runs along the bottom of each page--a different mural for each tale. These murals tell the tale in minature and are a joy to explore. I found myself skipping ahead just to see what each new mural would be. This unique feature makes this book worth a look.

Paris during the reign of Louis Napoleon was a fascinating period, and its figures were larger than life: Napoleon, Eugenie, Berlioz, Wagner, Hugo, Zola, Manet, Monet and the "great horizontals". Americans, English, Germans, Italians and Russians went to Paris for culture, art and, let's face it, a little bit of sex. Unfortunately, this period needs a first-rate historian and Otto Friedrich is not that. You read "Olympia" in spite of the writer, as the history of a fascinating time and the men and women who made it great.

Very disappointing. Much of the narrative spits out facts that everyone already knows. Most of the rest is decoration, trite commentary and superficial philosophizing. The piece on Bill Gates is typical. It was delivered in a contemptuous tone, skipped the exciting history of Microsoft, and even dismissed "The Road Ahead" as trivial! Similarly, Iacocca's piece on Henry Ford does not even mention Ford's infamous bigotry. In fairness, I must say that I did learn a bit about the lesser known people, and enjoyed the imaginative piece on Gandhi. On the whole, though, if you've ever heard of Winston Churchill, this CD will probably bore you.

This audio presentation of "People of the Century" is I'm afraid mostly a dissapointment. Dan Rather serves as the overall narrator briefly mentioning the 100 people included with a select few of these people given an expanded presentation written usually by a famous author or personality (i.e. Lee Iacocca writing about Henry Ford; Salman Rushdie about Ghandi,etc.).

My criticism lies in the fact that some major figures were briefly mentioned while some lesser lights were highlighted. Examples of this include only brief mentions of people like Ronald Reagan and Ray Kroc(founder of McDonald's)while questionable figures like Margaret Sanger, Watson and Crick, and Charlie Chaplin are given expanded treatment.

There is of course the fact that many of these articles are slanted ideologically and that some articles are written by unabashed fans of the historical figure (i.e. Arthur Schlessinger on FDR)while other articles are written by critics (i.e. Richard Shickel on Walt Disney) thus furthuring to unbalance the presentations.

The Best Inclusions in my view: Rushdie on Ghandi, Iacocca on Ford, and Elie Wiesel on Adolph Hitler.

While you might learn something from this work, you would be better off reading individual biographies of these people

It¹s countdown time whether we face it or not. And the bestsellers prove it. We¹ve encountered books predicting happenings for the millennium we¹re about to greet and books listing people, businesses, music, inventions, events that have made impacts during the millennium we¹re leaving. In addition to Life: Our Century in Pictures and Russell Ash¹s The Top 10 of Everything 2000, there are seemingly 1000 collections about these 1000 years. One book worth looking at is PEOPLE OF THE CENTURY with a forward by Dan Rather of CBS and an afterward by Walter Isaacson of Time Magazine. The compilation features 100 men and women who influenced the century, rather than the millennium.We reunite with leaders, artists, and intellectuals who gave us rock Œn¹ roll,jazz, flight; shopping malls, existentialism, bytes; splitting the atom, penicillin, cloning of sheep, and Bob Dylan. Those writing the profiles with reputability include William F, Buckley, Rita Dove, Molly Ivins, Roger Rosenblatt, and Deborah Tannen. Descriptions of the contributors appear in the index along with photo credits, nicely referenced. We readily expect some profiles: Henry Ford, Anne Frank, James Joyce, Rosa Parks, Theodore Roosevelt, and Igor Stravinsky, We might have forgotten others: Sigmund Freud (as profiled by Peter Gay) and Leo Baekeland, the maker of plastics who moved to the U.S. from Belgium in 1889. We ask ³why?² of others. For example, Hitler is included, as is Bart Simpson. Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel bluntly admits how frightening it was to write of Hitler. And some readers might bluntly admit how foolish it is to read about ³forever 10,² make-believe Bart Simpson. Others might question ever-lovin¹ Oprah being among the 100, but the criteria put her on the list. PEOPLE OF THE CENTURY concerns people who ³cast a long shadow.² We are refreshed by some inclusions: Emmeline Pankhurst, for instance, reminds us of the women¹s-right-to-vote, which she achieved for England in 1918 (2 years before America¹s in 1920.) The book is arranged chronologically, beginning in 1903 in nearby Kitty Hawk and moving poignantly to 1989 with the ³unknown,² lone ³everyman² in Tiananmen Square. In this compact history, people are profiled as well as pictured with a ³life-at -a glance² bio. The index needs improvement ( so that readers can more easily locate people by their fields) and so do Dan Rather mixed metaphors. ( The new age is ³taking flight² and becoming a ³rough draft.²) Also Paul Rudnick could use poetic sensitivity when writing about Marilyn Monroe. He callously groups her with American commodities of Coca-cola and Levis. Isaacson¹s afterward reminds us of the century¹s lessons: ³freedom won² and not the pursuit of ³material abundance² but the nurturing of ³the dignity and values of each individual.² Obviously some of these lessons were learned the hard way. PEOPLE OF THE CENTURY reminds us to repeat the goodness of our history, repel the other, and to think as we close this year, this century, this millennium.

If you are looking for a well-written, picture-laden documentary on one of the most famous of U.S. warships, I think you'd better keep looking. B.F. Cooling's "U.S.S. Olympia: Herald of Empire" was a HUGE disappointment. For those of us who are used to well-illustrated ship's biographies in the manner of the Squadron series or some of the other books in the US Naval Institute Series ("American Battleships 1886-1923" comes to mind), this volume will NOT satisfy. There was not a single ship's plan, elevation, rigging diagram, or side-by-side comparison; not a single map, not a single illustrative drawing--only a dozen or so poorly-reproduced, tiny, and fuzzy photographs of the ship and some of the men that served aboard her. Ship modelers beware--you and the Revell "USS Olympia" model are still on your own. In addition, the prose was overwrought and burdened with useless minutiae and excess detail, plus quote upon quote from diaries, news accounts, and personal recollections without streamlining or editing--all just thrown together. Most of this stuff was not needed and certainly not engaging enough to include. And the price of this book--way too much for what you get. My advice--steer clear of this one.