This is one thorough, authoritative tome on Fortran90. It is about as dry as one would expect of a reference manual, and yet it is not exactly succinct. I guess its wordiness is an unavoidable consequence of Fortran's longevity (backward compatibility with earlier versions of Fortran requires many a lengthy explanation).

"Foundations of Psychodrama: History, Theory and Practice" is an excellent introduction to psychodrama, an action method founded by Dr. J.L. Moreno, an European-born physician, in 1921 that has gained worldwide attention. Although Moreno's writings -- perhaps due to the fact that English was his second language -- is frequently turgid and challenging, Blatner's clear writing and thoughtful commentary make Moreno's complex and important ideas accessible to practitioners, students and all variety of helping professionals and educators. Blatner does a very good job in explaining how this action method is useful in many fields, not just psychotherapy, and the importance of having adequate training with this powerful tool.

This book turned my brother and me into "nuts," about the Adams diggings. Nothing stirs a person's imagination more than a real mystery. Richard French does a great job of telling the story of his (and others) efforts to understand and solve the mystery of the lost Adams diggings - a fantastic gold strike made and then lost in the Southwest. This book will really make your mind work... and dream.

Sometimes you need to let go and allow the garden to become. I like McClure's ideas of getting away from row gardening and instead focusing on less fussy beds, for instance using self-sowing plants. I also recommend this author's other book, The Herb Gardener. It's a good manual for those wishing to explore herbs. -Linda Fry Kenzle, author of Gathering

FRESH BREAD COMPANION was written to capture a place, a time and a feeling. As I tried each bread I felt as if Liz Clark was my companion. As I tasted each one I thought of a place, time and feeling of memory. When my niece tasted the Prune and Almond Whole Wheat Bread, her statement was, "This is like eating a memory." "This smells, tastes, and feels like Granny's bread." Although the recipes reflect current local tastes and European rather than standard fare from the good old days, it is that essence of "Home" as a dynamic place of warmth in memory thatis conveyed to the reader. The book arrived recently and had my mouth watering. I wanted to rush into the kitchen and fire up the oven after reading through recipes like Sour Dough French, Rustic Baguettes, Cracked Wheat, and Olive and Walnut. Now that I have tried them I hope to be Liz Clark's companion through other cookbooks.

This is one of the great masterpieces of Jewish Bible scholarship. Cassuto is thoroughly original and always illuminating. The opening part of Genesis is among the most difficult and misinterpreted sections of the Bible; Cassuto is a sure guide, explaining difficulties and resolving apparent discrepancies. He is a firm opponent of the Documentary Hypothesis, rebutting its arguments comprehensively. On the other hand, he never falls into the trap of slavish fundamentalist interpretation. It is a tragedy that Cassuto's commentaries only cover Exodus and part of Genesis, but for the limited area they cover they are essential reading.

Nancy Newhall was (and continues to be some 29 years after her accidental death) one of the best writers on photography I have read. She was a confidant of such luminaries as Alfred Stieglitz and Ansel Adams (she was his first biographer), the acting curator of the Department of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art in the 1940's, a driving force in the influential magazine and publishing concern Aperture, and an avid writer of photography books.

The writings collected in "From Adams to Stieglitz: Pioneers of Modern Photography" represent a wonderful cross-section of her work. Her knowledge of the history of photography is amazing as she writes about the motivation driving the development of the medium. Two of the pieces are remarkable:

"Controversy and the Creative Concepts," written in 1953, compares and contrasts the photographic style of the "Parisian School" as represented by Cartier-Bresson and the "Western School" represented by Group f/64, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and Helen Bourke-White. Worlds diametrically opposed, each equally valid. The article presents an important overview of 20th century photography.

"The Caption: The Mutual Relation of Words/Photographs," written in 1952 for the first issue of Aperture, looks at the different types of captions that can be attached to a photograph (if any: Stieglitz refused to put caption on his work) and how one should write them. This essay provides nice insight into the practice of photographic writing.

Anyone with an interest in 20th century photography will find this book an essential part of their library. Her writing style is unique and wonderful, an absolute joy to read.

I love history and romance and this book had both. Informative historical facts on Persia(Iran) which gives you a lot to think about. The research on this book reminds me of the research Mary Jo Putney does, ie Veils of Silk. I have read all of Mary Jo Putney's books. She is one of my favorite authors.

I've been reading on the topic of hypnosis for about 15 years now, both formally and informally as far as education goes. In this book Adam Crabtree has given the best education on the topic I have ever encountered -- so much so, that I realized with some degree of horror how UNeducated I was about the subject, despite all these years of interest and study.

Crabtree does more than just present the yawningly-dull textbook aspect of history here -- HIS book IS an interesting read, despite being so educational. He also presents the personal, social and cultural dynamics that have played out throughout the history of this topic and with the personalities involved. The book gives important attention to the many qualified individuals who studied, practiced and wrote about the topic from Mesmer's era onward. Modern day authors and textbooks that cover the topic of hypnosis and related psychology tend to mostly-ignore anything more than a few decades old, with little more than a mention, as if only "modern" science is important (and there is always the unspoken inference in modern education that Mesmer, despite that he was well credentialed for his day, was some kind of idiot to go on about "magnetic fluid from the stars" and such).

What Crabtree demonstrates by unwinding the tapestry of this history is that by not paying more attention to the history, we have in fact failed to see what got lost in the politically correct shuffle of time, what got ignored in the West's attempt to find answers that could be explained solely by biochemical, and what got rewritten and UNwritten in the history which has been, as always, written by 'the victors' -- in this case, the party-line of Western medicine.

In this book, Crabtree does not once utter the word "chi." Never does he even hint that this "discovery" of Mesmer's MIGHT have been the West's actual discovery of pranic work (chi, or energy) -- attendant with its many variable focuses (some physical, some psychological, etc.) and the resultant confusion that brings for a culture unused to considering those things all part of the same spectrum, and which is trying to nail down a "thing" that it "is". And yet the inclusion of excerpts from the writings of Mesmer and many others in the pre-James Braid days makes it so patently obvious (to ME in any case) that this is what they were talking about that I couldn't help but exclaim out loud. Taken from that perspective (by anybody with a little bit of knowledge about Eastern medicine et al.) the history takes on a new richness and the subject a whole new wonder. This is my take on it though; one can't say that Crabtree ever said any such thing. This is just what I got out of it.

Anyway, the book is an excellent education about hypnosis, its development, the people involved, and the fascinating topic of what it's been used for, how and why and what some of the fascinating results were. Like any good book, it leaves you with as many ideas about questions as it does facts and answers (often about things you never even thought to ask).

I recommend the book highly. It's probably not a general-public book, in the sense that one needs a brain and an attention span to enjoy it -- it's a "serious" book. But for anyone interested in this topic, and especially those educated about it via modern schools, I strongly recommend it. I enjoyed it a great deal.

Frommer's has lots of great information, from where to stay, where to eat, best sites to see and very interesting tips and tricks. It's unfortunate that there isn't a later edition--the Frommer's for $50 a day or less has some more recent information that I found very useful as well.