The role obsession plays in the problems of of drug and alcohol abuse, overeating, gambling, sexual promiscuity, etc. is explained and suggestions made for overcoming such obsessions.

Ms. Hardy's book on the "forerunner of Lenin" did not examine the indebtedness of Leninism to the Jacobin-Blanquist Tkachev (1844-86), whose writings Lenin thoroughly assimilated by 1902. This fact was ignored by the Lenin Cultists after L.'s death. Her reading of Lenin-period literature on Tkachevism is limited. For some odd reason, she ignores the first book in English on Tkachev, Albert L. Weeks's earlier, more comprehensive THE FIRST BOLSHEVIK A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF PETER TKACHEV. The latter was attacked by Soviet ideologues while Hardy's book was faintly praised by being ignored.

This is a brilliant and insightful discussion of the elegy from Hardy on down to the present, written on the boundary between psychology and literary criticism. Marred only occasionally by some academic ostentation, it is a wonderful look at what our wisest poets have to say about grief and mourning, and it also shows how real people in the world read -- and use -- poetry.

When all the books about program management or project oversight start sounding the same then try this one. It definitely was unlike any other books I had read on the subject. It was brief but pointed; at times is was a total rant against organizational policies that hinder the very programs they are working on. The kind of book you might give your boss for Christmas.

Hardy has essentially written the same story twice here, with a few significant variations in the second version. This makes for a rather peculiar experience, as the reader will encounter identical passages in both versions. Nevertheless, I am haunted by this work and the insights it supplied. It explores the life of a man tormented by desire for an ideal love. Much to his chagrin, the ideal (referred to as the well-beloved) inhabits the bodies of a series of women, and never for long. He lives his life in anguished pursuit. What is truly upsetting is his total reliance on physical attributes, which becomes a source of humiliation as his life progresses. Hardy helped me understand how men approach women in a way no other writer has had the courage to explain. Once again, I am overwhelmed by his brutal honesty and unrelenting power. He will force you to open your eyes.

This is a great book for those of you who want to learn the works of the great Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. It was written by G.H.Hardy, who intorduced Ramanujan to the western world of Mathematics. 12 subjects are discussed, as written by Ramanujan, with comments. The layout and printing of the book are excellent. This edition corrected a number of errors of the previous editions. I expected a little more comments by the editors for people less proficient in Number theory. You will need a copy of "An Introduction to Theory of Numbers" by Hardy and Wright, to follow this book. If you want to know more about Ramanujan, some great books are: "The Man who knew infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan" by Robert Kanigel (the best biography of Ramanujan) and "A Mathematician's apology" by GH Hardy et al.

What Shays did for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in *Achilles in Vietnam,* Dr. Jane Lilienfeld does for alcoholism in her new book, *Reading Alcoholisms.* Lilienfeld's book reviews some familiar works of English literature dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries through the lens of what we have come to know about alcoholism, both the "disease process" itself and its somewhat predictable effects upon alcoholics, their families, and others close to them. At the time the works Lilienfeld focuses upon were written, there was no body of alcoholism theory; nevertheless, the authors of these works reproduced in painful detail what would later become familiar trajectories of personal and familial decline. One of the points Lilienfeld scores is to show that alcoholism as we understand it existed BEFORE we understood it. However crude and ineffective present treatments for them might be, alcoholism (and, by extension, other addictions) are hardly the iatrogenic diseases some occasionally claim. Lilienfeld allows her readers to think inductively about evidence in the texts. One might sometimes wish for her to validate our thinking by drawing more conclusions for us. But that's a small gripe. This is a fine book.

This is quite a nice compilation of the writings of differentAfro-American philosophers. The book covers a wide array of differenttopics, such as racism, feminism, and philosophical theology. With each essay, the editors present study and discussion questions. The negative points: there is no index, [and] no bibliography...

Once again, Hardy displays deep thoughts on the workings of magic.The third in the series flicks the protagonists through a series of parallel worlds, each providing a clue toward solving the riddle.

The characters are appealing and the description of various worlds and their inhabitants is well done.

What has happened to this author? I bought Riddle several years ago and would like to purchase more of his books.

"Road Pirates" is a good mystery story for kids. Frank and Joe go undercover to investigate a hijacking ring and end up investigating something bigger than they thought.