I found this in the Rizzoli bookstore and had to slit the shrinkwrap to see what the book was like. Then sat down in a soft chair to browse through it but after a half hour decided it made more sense to just buy it and read it at home. Not disappointed. The book covers everything in great detail - lots of text - with pictures of hotels from the Chilean Andes to London and Paris and New York. A "must have" for people interested in travel and hotels and architecture.

WOW! I have a copy of the 1980s version of Rutes and Penner--this is a totally new edition, all new photography, etc.--and consider it the 'Bible' for hotel design. But the new edition is twice as big and full of current examples and information. It has 32 pages of gorgeous color photos of great hotels and resorts from around the world. The text is in three main sections: Hotel Types (downtown, resorts, conference centers, luxury hotels, casino hotels, etc.); Design Guide (planning and design information for all areas of the hotel); and Development Guide (feasibility, programming, future trends). In addition, there are lots of appendices and sidebars from such people as Ian Schrager, I.M. Pei, Robert Stern, and John Portman. I've looked at other hotel design books in the stores and there isn't anything that is so complete or current. There are other books on boutique hotels, with lots of pictures, but nothing with this global coverage of all types of lodging properties. With well over 400 pages, this book will be the new Bible for hotel design. I can't imagine a better choice for anyone involved with the hotel development, architecture, or interior design.

According to a January report form the National Center for Policy Analysis, the wealthy pay more than their fair share of taxes. For the year 1975, based on government statistics on taxes paid by percentile of income, the top 1% of taxpayers ($59,338 or more) paid 18.7% percent of all federal income taxes. The top 50% of taxpayers paid 92.9% of all income taxes that year, leaving just 7.1% paid by the bottom 50%. The most recent information from the IRS was made public in January and released by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Those figures show that the share of total federal income taxes paid by the top 1% of taxpayers has doubled since 1975. In 1999, they paid 36.2% compared to just 18.7% in 1975. The trend is noticeable for other percentile groups as well. Between 1975 and 1999, the amount of income tax paid by the top 5% percent of taxpayers increased from 36.6% to 55.5% of taxes, the top 25% percent rose from 72% to 83.5%, while and the top 50% went from 92.9% to 96%. The bottom 50% of taxpayers went form paying 7.1% down to just 4% now. Now you can understand why any tax cut will affect the wealthy the most since they pay by far the most taxes. It is just that simple.

Do not miss the chance to take advantage of tax strategies for US tax planning. It is still not too late to start seriously planning on how to ease your US tax burden for this year. If you would like more information about tax planning, this book is a good place to start.

This book is really fantastic because it will really boost your morale especially when times are hard and you're feeling hopeless. This book widens my horizon, gave me hope and reminded me of God's unfailing love and kindness.

This book is the single most influential book I've ever read! (I'm an avid reader) The concepts are very simple yet mind blowing and life changing. I found this book by chance but it was definately one of the greatest finds of my life. I'm giving a copy to everyone I care about so they can start experiencing positive changes in their lives now also.

I was amazed at the way this author teaches kids about their bodies, but keeps coming back to how "you are NOT your body". It encourages being a friendly and helpful person. In other words, it is about "who you really are" not about your body. A great message to give kids. It also introduces information and gives room for discussion about puberty and death (two difficult subjects for some parents). This author handles it beautifully!!!I like it that the book is spiritual, but leaves room for every faith to teach their child accordingly. I highly recommend this book!

Specifically written and illustrated for young readers ages 4 to 12, I Am My Body, NOT! offers a unique, effective, and very highly recommended introduction to major philosophical and physiological issues including the external physical body; the body's internal systems and their function; the distinction between body and the individual or spirit; the changes of puberty; the death of the body but not the spirit; and the naturalness of human diversity. Written in a "kid friendly" manner and devoid of sectarian proselytizing, I Am My Body, NOT! has the added value of building up a young reader's vocabulary within contextual definitions.

I found this book to be a wonderful meditation on the many ways in which we do (or do not) perceive God.... I was especially struck by the fact that reflections were included from those who did not believe in God. I think as we search for our own spirituality, especially in these dark times, it is thought-provoking to take into account all the different paths that people take. This book is a powerful source for meditation and a deepened understanding of your own image of God. The soft black-and-white photography is a fitting match to the tone of the book. This will be a book I return to often.

This book contains wonderful photographs of people representing all cultures, ages and beliefs who share their personal ideas of God. Ideal for people searching for an understanding of God, especially for those who have been raised in a "one correct belief" system. Published by Hazelden for those seeking recovery. Books of comparable quality usually cost much more.

Although published in 1978, this book could be used as an introduction to the theory of operads and other recent work on homotopy theory and vertex operators. Vertex operators are not discussed in this book, but the theory elucidated herein is good background material for their study.

The author does a great job in motivating the subject in chapter 1. Loop spaces are function spaces of maps from the unit interval to a space with a chosen basepoint, with the property that each map sends 0 and 1 to the base point. The mathematician Jean Pierre Serre introduced the path space in order to study loop spaces, resulting in the famous Serre fibering. The nth homotopy group of the loop space can be shown to be equivalent to the (n+1)-th homotopy group of the original space. The homology of loop spaces can be calculated for some types of spaces, such as wedges of spheres. Infinite loop spaces are essentially sequences of spaces such that the nth element of this sequence is equivalent to the loop space of the (n+1)-th element. This sequence is also known as an "Omega-spectrum" and has the infinite loop space as its zeroth term. The name "spectrum" comes from general considerations involving sequences of spaces where the nth term is equivalent to the loop space of the (n+1)-th term; equivalently, where the suspension of the nth term is equal to the (n+1)-th term. The author reviews how a generalized cohomology theory yields an Omega-spectrum, giving two examples involving Eilenberg-Maclane spaces and complex and real K-theory. One can also start with a spectrum and construct a generalized homology and cohomology theory. Spectra and cohomology theory are thus essentially equivalent.

Chapter 2 is an overview of techniques needed to construct a category of spaces with enough structure so that the infinite loop space functor yields an equivalence from the category of spectra to the category of certain spaces. An example of the latter is given by the Stasheff A-infinity space, and its now ubiquitous property of having a product which is strictly associative. This property allows one to prove that a space is equivalent to a loop space if and only if the space is a Stasheff A-infinity space and that the zeroth homotopy of the space is a group. The Stasheff A-infinity spaces are also used to motivate the construction of 'operads'.

The next chapter the author is concerned with the concept of a space being like another one without being equivalent to it. He discusses the use of 'localization' in homotopy theory, an idea that is analogous to the one in algebra. The use of localization in homotopy theory is due to D. Sullivan, and involves use of the notion of a space being 'A-local', where A is a subring of the rationals. Remembering that a Z-module is A-local if it has the structure of an A-module, a space is A-local if its homotopy groups are A-local. Examples of the use of localization in constructing certain spaces are given. The author also discusses the use of the 'plus construction' that allows the alteration of fundamental groups without affecting the cohomology groups. Then after the construction of the Quillen higher algebraic K-theory groups in this regard, the author describes the relation between a topological monoid and the loop space of the classifying space of this monoid. This involves the notion of 'group completion', which is essentially an isomorphism between the homology of the path components of the monoid and the homology of the loop space of the classifying space of the monoid, but in the (infinite) direct limit.

Chapter 4 introduces the concept of a transfer map. A very elusive idea at first glance, the transfer map is motivated via the n-sheeted covering map of a space on another. The (singular) simplices of each then get matched up by the covering, and the transfer map between the spaces is then defined so that it is equal to the sum of the singular simplices of the covering space. It is in fact a chain map as shown by the author. The transfer maps are related to homotopy classes of the 'structure' maps of chapter 2, and the author gives a few examples of how they are used.

Chapter 5 is a quick overview of the Adams conjecture, which is essentially an assertion that the image of KO(X) in KF(X) can be characterized explicitly. Detailed proofs are omitted but references are given for the interested reader.

In chapter 6, the author restricts his attention to the K-theory of spectra. The treatment is concerned in large degree with the question of the existence of infinite loop map between infinite loop structures, and finding such a map, checking whether it is unique. This question is answered for particular types of spectra, via the Madsen, Snaith, and Tornehave theorem. Also, the Adams-Priddy theorem is proved, showing that one can construct on a space a unique infinite loop space structure. The reader gets more examples of the use of localization, in that some spaces can become equivalent as infinite loop spaces upon localization. The origin of K-theory in this chapter comes from the replacing of spectra that are not known by ones that are (namely the ones in classical K-theory). The author shows how the Madsen-Snaith-Tornehave theorem works in the context of both complex and real (periodic) K-theory. Detailed proofs are given for all of these results.

Reading this book made me excited about infinite loop spaces, which I had always imagined to be a very dry topic. Adams informal style reads as smoothly as a purely expository work, but gave me enough understanding and insight to make me feel like I could fill in the details myself if I needed to. Even if this isn't always literally true, it certainly oriented me well enough to be able to make sense of the literature. I especially liked the discussion of A_infty spaces.

Great series covers several high-yield "vignettes" that appeared on my exam. Very happy I used this series before the test, as my USMLE exam was nearly all long vignettes in the same format as this book. Well written and very high yield!

Great vignettes, which were all over my step 2 exam. I got this series as a gift from my parents, otherwise I probably wouldn't have been exposed to it. In retrospect (and even as I was reading it), I realize that this series helped me more than any other source I used for step 2 review - and I used all the typical books (First Aid, NMS question book, Blueprints). I strongly recommend this series to all those preparing for Step 2.

Richard Adams unique collection of fables is intriguing and thought-provoking...to see ourselves and others in each is a rewarding challenge -- well worth the effort! Also, I must mention that the illustrations in this book are absolutely exquisite -- something the previous reviewer made no mention -- a rarity in this day and age of simple graphics and line drawings.

This Book is not a story, but a collection of some interesting and little-known fairy tales. Some of them are good, some of them not so, but in general, this is a very good book and worth reading. As you can see, it is out of print in English, but it is still available in German (Der Eiserne Wolf: phantastische Märchen).

Quality over quantity is the theme of the day here with author Lorilee Cracker's foray into the crowded field of baby name books. Sure, there's only about 125 names profiled in this book (as opposed to list books that offer 20,000+ ideas), but all the interesting detail the author provides makes this book heads and tails above the rest of the field. I don't expect to have a baby any time soon, nor do I read the Bible, but if the converse of each of those statements was true, this book would be "da bomb" even moreso than it already is! And it could be for you, too!

A is for Adam is the ultimate Bible names book. Author Lorilee Craker picks the best and most interesting Bible names and gives readers a brief history of the name, famous people with that name, and myriad other interesting details. Her book, however, goes beyond just names. Included are lists of popular names, brief essays by parents who have chosen a particular name, and interesting historical details. Craker's humor adds to the appeal of the book as well. Why should you buy it? Because you want the most meaningful and unique name for your wonderful and unique child. A is for Adam will help you find it.

After reading this well written biography, I experienced the sorrows, joys, and accomplishments in the life of one of our country's greatest statesmen.

Lynn H. Parsons has written a biography that is blessedly free from 'academic speak' or the sense that he is only writing for other historians. This is definitely a biography for even the most casual lover of history. Parsons' familiarity with JQA allows him to introduce us to that prickly character as one would introduce an eccentric friend--always aware of the eccentricities but never apologizing for them. Adams (and his father) are two of the greatest of America's early statesmen and two of it's worst politicians. Parsons presents the genius and the folly and allows us to weigh our opinions--tho' its clear where Parsons' affections lie. It is hard to imagine that anyone will (or could) write a better one volume popular biography of JQA. Parsons clearly could tell us much more, but he chooses not to bog his narrative down in the kind of historical detail that glazes the eye of the casual reader. For serious historians this is a valuable book because it doesn't get lost in its own importance--the writing is direct, succinct and keeps the reader aware of the difference of the attitudes of Adams and his contemporaries to our current sensibilities. Parsons ends with a note that JQA's only monument in Washington is a small plaque in statuary hall in the Capitol. I would argue that Adams' best monument in DC is the one he would be proudest of--the Smithsonian Institution he fought so hard to help establish. I highly recommend this book.