I had been searching for a transcription of Handel's majestic Royal Fireworks Overture for the pipe organ for quite some time. Finding this book was a godsend. Thanks Amazon!

This is a good collection of literature from the Enlightenment to the early 20th century. Some of the choices were wuite interesting such as Wuthering Heights as the example of the Victorian novel, (I, myself, would have chosen Jane Eyre), but all in all this is a well put-together collection. The biographical information before each author is also interesting and puts the works into context. This is amust-have for English majors and literature fanatics alike.

A great masterpiece of science fiction explaining one man's search for the truth amongst many rearrangements of the false reality that he is led to believe. Although this book is exceeded by its two trilogy partners it does not lose its power to reach into your mind and allow you to picture the contents in detail. You get to see what you are reading in your own mind eye.

It is rather easy to dismiss a president who caught pneumonia during his inauguration and dies a month later, the shortest term of office in American history. I would have said I was already able to tick off the salient facts about It is rather easy to dismiss a president who caught pneumonia during his inauguration and dies a month later, the shortest term of office in American history. I would have said I was already able to tick off the salient facts about William Henry Harrison on the fingers of one hand: the first Whig elected to the White House, famous as the general who won the battle of Tippecanoe, his grandson Benjamin was also elected President, he was the first President to die in office, and, of course, serving the shortest amount of time in American history. The only problem with that list is that Harrison did not become a general until after the battle of Tippecanoe and unlike other famous generals who went on to the White House, such as fellow Whig Zachary Taylor (who also died in office) and Ulysses Grant following the Civil War, William Henry Harrison was a career politician with one of the most impressive resumes I have ever seen. Oh, and his fatal pneumonia was the result of a cold caught while doing his customary early-morning shopping in late March, not during the inaugural.

In this volume for the Encyclopedia of Presidents series, Christine Maloney Fitz-Gerald focuses on that length political career, along with its military highlights, since his Presidency is reduced to a few paragraphs describing his illness and the office-seekers who wanted jobs from the new President. William Henry Harrison might be the most forgotten President, but this informative juvenile biography will soon convince you this should not be the case. Given that his father was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, it becomes clear the Harrison were a major political family in this country. As for Harrison's political resume, while he did indeed start out to be a career soldier he resigned from the army to become secretary of the Northwest Territory before going on to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, appointed governor of the Indiana Territory, reelected to the U.S. House, then elected to the Ohio State Senate and then the U.S. Senate from Ohio, before being appointed minister to Columbia. His political career apparently ended by Andrew Jackson's election and the dictates of the "Spoils System," Harrison actively campaigns for the presidency as early as 1835 before joining the Whig Party and being elected in 1840. In the middle of this political career he had time to be a general during the War of 1812, so while he was a soldier, he was also a formidable politicians.

One of the most notable things about Harrison is that he actively campaigned for the presidency, actually trying to get the Whig nomination in 1836 before being elected four years later. Most readers have probably heard of the "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" slogan, but Fitz-Gerald goes into considerably more detail about the 1840 campaign and the book is illustrated with several choice examples of political broadsides, cartoons, and such from that period. While there is an early photograph of Tyler, the book does not include one of Harrison, although I understand he was the first sitting president to have his picture taken; however, I have yet to stumble across it. This is an informative volume that will allow young readers assigned to research this forgotten President to learn a lot more than they will ever find out about him in their history textbook.

Having heard M. L. Liebler read and perform his poetry with his Magic Poetry Band, it is hard to get his performing beat out of your head when you read, Written in the Rain. The poems in Written on the Rain are pure hard hat and lunch pail examples of the American working population. I love the poem Allan Ginsberg's Dead. It speaks to the heart of Liebler's poetry. A man who worked, loved and died without any recognition, but is the backbone of America's success. A Bag of Catsup, And I Ain't Never Going to see Bobby Rush No More and Bass Beat Blues are all poems that show the twenty-year journey Liebler has taken through life and with his poetry. His topics include Vietnam, Unions, Baseball and Christ. A must read for those of you with the Midwest in your blood.

Kathryn Harrison's lush and dark prose chronicles the dual tale of a doomed queen and a poor peasant girl, both victims of the Spanish Inquisition. THe book's descriptions of life in SPain during the INquisition seems well researched and the writing is compelling enough to keep you reading. THe many bodily fluids emitted by the characters, sperm, blood, milk, sweat, vomit, etc. would seem to be a metaphor for the cultural and spiritual "poison" of the times. However, most readers are likely to latch on to one character or the other as being more interesting.Both lives, those of the queen, Maria Luisa, and that of the peasant girl, FRancesca, are told by Francesca, but her obvious distance from the Queen's life does not allow her to carry it off. We know little of her thoughts and desires, she is thus denied any real dignity or persona. Harrison might have done better to let each tell their own story and then have them merge in some significant way, but each story never does intersect. Harrison is a master prose stylist, but the story is not quite able to carry the book. It actually could have been longer and given us more detail about the INquisition itself, which remains everpresent i nthe story, but always behind the scenes and hidden from view. Balancing life in the castle with life in the fields proves too difficult a task in this short a book (310 pages). Furthermore, the dual structure of rich and poor is further confused by the author's seeming desire to write both a darkly atmospheric setpiece of the era and a tribute to the power of love, Harlequin style. THe prose is rich enough, but the lines of the story are so obvious that the book, in the end, offers few surprises; we are not at all shocked by the sad ending to the story. A book for admirers of style over substance, or for historians of the era, but not recommended for the casual reader.

In "Poison," Kathryn Harrison impressed me with her masterful command of the English language. Thank to her crafty prose, I was immediately and completely plunged into the brutal times of the Spanish inquisition, from the dungeons of its torturers to the deadly intrigues of the royal palace. Swiftly changing between her two main female characters - a silk grower's daughter and the Queen of Spain, she narrates their life stories and compares and contrasts their fates without effort. The two women, so different in their station, are so similar in their doomed destiny that the book leaves you a little sad and helpless. Still a wonderful read.

The language Kathryn Harrison uses to tell this story is exquisite. Reading this novel was like running your fingers over a fine brocade; the novel has a rich texture and an intriguing plot. I love the way Harrison approaches the questions of religion and heresy, making these themes of the novel particularly important by placing her narrative in the time frame of the Spanish Inquisition. I have to take issue with those who dismiss this novel as a glorified romance novel. There's a lot more to Francisca and Alvaro's relationship than sex, and the juxtaposition of the situations of the two women highlights this difference.

This was the first Kathryn Harrison novel I ever read, and it made Harrison one of my favorite writers, deservedly so. This novel will remain one of my top ten all-time favorite books, mainly because of Harrison's gorgeous prose.

After checking out the book for couple hours in the Book store. I realized why some one would want to create a simple Window by writing extensive API code, which takes about 15 lines, when you can do it in delphi by visually creating it (Chapter 1). I was hoping they would cover Windows Messages as opposed to APIs which Borland takes care of them with their wrappers. I personally I find this book neither helpful nor informative at all.

I cannot find out for an expert trick or undocumented windows API. I expected more about this book ! Badluck for me :( But , It may OK for some beginner programmer , who know ?

I believe, it's on every Delphi programmer to concentrate on this book.

I love reading novels about Asian culture and I have read all of Amy Tan's books as well as such masterpieces as "Memoirs of a Geisha". This book,while seemingly well-written and promising at its onset, left me flat (and slightly confused and depressed) at the end. I found that while the general ideas of family relationships and Chinese cultures explored in this tale were somewhat akin to those topics explored by Amy Tan (one of my favorite authors), the characterization and story line lacked Amy Tan's depth.

May was the protagonist whose life seemed to begin with the cruel yet traditional binding of her feet when she was 5-years-old in China. If anything, Ms. Harrison brings to light the cruelty of this practice as well as Western ignorance of Asian culture. The foot binding was the only time I really felt sympathy toward May. ...And I didn't find Alice or any of the other characters terribly likable either.

If you are craving literature dealing with Eastern Culture of the past and present, better to stick with books like "The Bonesetter's Daughter", "The Kitchen God's Wife", or "Memoirs of a Geisha".

It seems to be the fashion among writers currently to be as non-linear as possible. For those of us who read for the story, not technique, this really is quite annoying! The Binding Chair by Kathryn Harrison is such a book. The primary story, of May-li Cohen, could be a fascinating immersion into a foreign culture a la Memoirs of a Geisha. Instead, we have hallucinatory prose, side trips to learn about unimportant characters, symbolism so blatant it's laughable. Especially grating to me were the graphic, kinky sex scenes. Do we really need to know where May-li's father enjoyed placing his wife's bound foot? And what he expected her to do once her foot was in place? Was it absolutely necessary to give the gruesome details of May-li's niece's (Alice) assignations with her Russian lover? They certainly did not add to the story in my opinion! The parts of the story that concern May-li, footbinding, & Chinese culture prior to 1900 are compelling. It makes the total novel seem like a waste, when these glimpses of what the novel might have been shine through. If The Binding Chair had simply told May-li's story from childhood thru her marriage to Arthur Cohen, it would be on a par with Memoirs of a Geisha. As it stands, it is simply an exercise in literary technique. Too bad.

Kathryn Harrison is one of those writers who make her readers squirm. And this novel, set in turn-of-the century Shanghai, London and Nice where colonial and Chinese culture come together. is no exception. The central character is May-li, who suffered the anguish of having her feet bound as a child. Married at 15 to a brutal sadist, she runs away and become a prostitute in Shanghai. She later marries Arthur Cohen, a gentle philanthropist who brings her into the opulent household of his sister, her wealthy husband and their two young daughters. Her niece Alice becomes especially important to her and their relationship is one of the themes of the book.

The story is sad, erotic and macabre. There is cruelty and passion, and a cast of fully developed characters who each have some sort of mental or physical disfigurement. Everyone suffers in this book and it's hard to read, but also hard to put down.

One weak point is the many the dream sequences which tend to stop the narrative. Another is the rather unsettling way it jumps back and forth in time. Also, the author has chosen to make the family Jewish, but yet the only thing Jewish about them seem to be their name.

Ms. Harrison is a writer with a fine talent and who is not afraid to probe deeply into the hidden abscesses of human behavior by using startling details to depict her twisted characters. It comes across as both disturbing and enlightening. I applaud her willingness to deal with the forbidden.

I recently enjoyed her 1995 novel, Poison, which was better paced and richer in texture. The Binding Chair, however, was perhaps written too quickly. This happens sometimes with popular writers who are on a deadline. Therefore, although I enjoyed reading it, I cannot give it an across-the-board recommendation although I do intend to read whatever she writes next.

It certainly seems to matter. Why, after all, should Japan have been be rich while Taiwan was poor, if culture did not matter? Or Denmark been a nation of farmers while Holland held dominion over the trade routes of the world? And why, as is asked in one of the most frustratingly tentative essays in this very variable volume, do different immigrant groups to the United States have such very different careers? Of course, it is unfashionable to ask such questions lest someone believe that to say culture matters is to imply that race matters: ie that members of wealthy races are inherently superior to members of poor races. Perhaps that is why the most compelling essays in this book are by an African development economist and a Latin American journalist who exclaim impatiently that of course culture matters and insist that the thing their nations need is to discover the cultural components of economic success and import some. Even more refreshing is the essay by Ronald Inglehardt who brings - gasp - actual measurable data to this debate. Not that anything is quite settled. We are still left with the big questions, like: Why Europe? Why not China? and What was so special about eighteenth century England? On those questions, permit me to recommend two other new books. Nathan Pomeranz's THE GREAT DIVERGENCE, which bends over backwards to prove that China could equally well have given us the industrial revolution, but for a few chance occurances that have nothing to do with culture. And BULLOUGH'S POND by Diana Muir, which, in the course of discussing a number of other things, does lead one to wonder if there may have been something about those Calvinists after all.

This book is a very good compilation of article on the role of culture in development. The compilation includes articles by a large number of premier authors on the subject, including the editors, Michael Porter, David Landes, Jeffrey Sachs, Francis Fukuyama, among others.

The articles deal with many different topics, though the common theme is how culture affect the success of a certain aspect of society, such as health, education, institutions, justice, etc. It does focus on blaming certain cultures for lack of success, but rather it tries to understand the themes that allow certain cultures to outperform others. The lessons do not blame a culture, but rather suggests somewhat modest (and often drastic) change that is necessary to permit a well functioning capitalist economy to exist.

As an economist, I found this book extremely useful in demonstrating the "transaction costs" that a culture may impose on a country, hence reducing its opporutnities for growth. In economics, this is usually studied in theory, but this book provides lively examples of how this is truly the case. However, I do believe that this book would be useful for practitioners in other disciplines.

The main premise of this book is, as far as I can tell, obviously true: a group's cultural values can make a difference in that group's success, prosperity and competitiveness. Is it really controversial to claim that cultural features of Western Civ have contributed to its success? It seems clear to me, e.g., that values associated with scientific rationality contribute to progress in technology, medicine, etc., and while not everyone has to admit that these are desirable things, the majority of the world thinks that they are. I mean, we couldn't have discovered a polio vaccine without the scientific method, and the scientific method is a cultural practice, so to the extent that everyone can agree that a polio vaccine is "progress," then it seems impossible to claim that culture doesn't matter.

Critics, including one of the volume's contribuers (Shweder) often say "but there's no such thing as objective progress." And they are correct in a sense - but so what? If you're determined to think that the polio vaccine is an awful thing, then ultimately no one can prove that you shouldn't feel this way - you can believe what you want. But the point of this book is NOT to arrive at some universal consensus about how to define "progress." That would be a waste of time, not just because it would be impossible, but because the authors are already assuming that many people in the world already agree about what progress is. This book is simply about how people can apply knowledge in order to achieve their ideas of progress. The message is: "if you decide that vaccines are good things, here's what you have to do to in order to discover more of them."

It may be politically incorrect to say that culture matters, but it may also be true. And if it is true, the costs of denying this could be high. It's not just a matter of political posturing to deny that culture matters - the more disadvantaged countries deny this, the more they will fall behind and the more their people will suffer. And the more advantaged countries deny this, the more their own cultures (and advantages) will decay.

This is an important book because it admits that culture matters and it begins the task of adressing how and why it matters. This is no easy task - every group's culture is a tangled bundle of traits, some "adaptive," some non-adaptive, some relevant to progress, some irrelevant, some detrimental. Discovering which traits are important to success is not easy - it requires careful thought and analysis, and explicit hypothesis testing whenever possible (this book is short, unfortunately, on hypothesis-testing). But just because the task is daunting, difficult, and, as one contributer (Glazer) fears, politically "dangerous," that does not make it less crucial or unavoidable.

I've been interested in Jack the Ripper for as long as I can remember. ...

So, I happened upon this book and read it with great interest. I must say that even then, I was skeptical, and by no stretch of the imagination did I consider this book to be the resounding final solution that some still hold it up as. ...they're all just theories...and none of them truly hold up against close scrutiny. But I was still fascinated by this book the first time I read it, and there is a lot of decent information on the killings...which is why I've given it the two stars.

Then there's the actual diary. Well, the people who still advocate the notion that this diary is authentic have a rude awakening in store. It's not. The more I read on Jack the Ripper, and the more times I read the diary, the more obvious it became that the diary was NOT written by Jack the Ripper...or even James Maybrick...but by someone living in the 20th century who thought it would be "cool" to elaborately pull the wool over the eyes of Ripperologists worldwide. Well, it hasn't worked. And here are the reasons that the Maybrick diary is a fake.

First of all, there are some anachronisms in language in the diary itself, giving it away as a modern .... That's pretty cut and dried, but not nearly as damning as other factors.

There are many errors in "Maybrick's" descriptions of the crimes, and the crime scenes. It's interesting to note that all of this erroneous information can be found in old newspaper clippings from 1888, when the murders were occuring. But, as was often the case in Victorian times, many of the newspaper stories were quite wrong about the details of the crimes. The newspaper stories don't match the reports of the police officials and/or medical examiners involved...the people who actually gathered the information. So, we can conclude that much of the "factual" information in the Maybrick diary seems to rely on old news clippings, rather than the firsthand experience of the murderer. Surely, if Maybrick WAS Jack the Ripper, he'd know exactly what organs were missing from whom, and where key body parts were located if they were removed and left behind. He'd also know that Jack didn't take the key to Mary Kelly's flat with him when he fled the scene, etc. Unfortunately, the person who forged this diary DIDN'T know some of those facts.

Also, it's interesting to note that there are many parallels between this diary and the "Dear Boss" letter (which gave Jack the Ripper his name). If you read the diary with the chronology of the Ripper's murders and letters in mind, you'll see that "Maybrick" uses the very specific phrase "funny little games" (which was prominent in the Dear Boss letter) twice BEFORE the Dear Boss letter was ever written or sent. This would mean that, were the diary genuine, Maybrick would have to be the author of the Dear Boss letter, as well. But the Dear Boss letter is commonly accepted among Ripperologists as a fraud, written by someone other than the killer (much like this diary). One high-ranking police official who worked the case even had a pretty good idea who wrote the letter...and that person was a young, aspiring journalist. Couple this with the obvious fact that the handwriting in the diary in NO WAY resembles the handwriting in the Dear Boss letter, and we've found yet another broken link in the chain of this hoax.

I could go on and on, listing reasons that I know this diary to be a fraud...but that would be self-indulgent, especially since the most damning piece of evidence against the authenticity of this diary is the most simple one of all.

Michael Barrett brought this diary to Shirley Harrison, claiming that it had been given to him by a friend. The friend had said "No questions asked," and given no reason on earth as to WHY he would give this diary to Barrett. Surely, if his friend had ever been in possession of such a book, he would have gone public himself, rather than GIVING AWAY what could have been the most vital (and valuable) piece of serial killer memorabilia/evidence ever uncovered. Conveniently, Barrett's friend was dead by the time Barrett decided to bring the diary to the attention of anyone...therefore, he could neither confirm nor deny anything Barrett said...and so, Barrett could say whatever he wanted. And what Barrett eventually said...after all of the debate and controversy, after Shirley Harrison had written this book, after countless researchers spent countless hours analyzing this diary of his...was that he himself had written the diary, and that his wife had handwritten it in the old scrapbook, using his typed notes as a guide. End of story.

So, due to all of the evidence against the diary's authenticity, including the admission of the actual author that he had masterminded the entire hoax, the James Maybrick Diary controversy can be put entirely to rest. Therefore, this book is interesting only as a curio, and as a source of some factual information on the Ripper murders (but none that can't be found in other, better Ripper books). Give it a read, but don't buy into it. The debate is over. And Jack the Ripper remains, as he always shall, unidentified.

Read the final chapter written by Paul Feldman before you try and judge the diary. This authour spent about 8 years proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that James Maybrick was defintely Jack. He concludes that anyone trying to debunk this diary needs to think about the issues of how there are all these family members out there that are still alive and related to either James or Florence who provide evidence to show that the diary and the watch were both in existence years and years ago. His book is excellent and I have to say that anyone who thinks the diary a fake needs to open their mind further and look at the conclusive evidence that Feldman brings to bear in this book.

I found this book to be a fascinating and interesting read. However, as to the diaries authenticity, it can be anyones guess. There are certain facts brought up in the book to authenticate the diary; but again, everyone loves a conspiracy. I won't go as far to say I believe that we now know the true identity of "Jack the Ripper", however; I will say that it is most entertaining....and does give one insight as to how a delusioned mind works. The reading can be spellbounding at times. The fact remains, however, that the true identity of "the ripper" himself is yet to remain a mystery. But...read the book and decide for yourself.