Book Description
The definitive history of the cigarette, the product that shaped twentieth-century America--from modern advertising to science, from regulatory politics to our sense of glamour and style.
The industrial manufacture of cigarettes began in the late nineteenth century, but it wasn't until the invention of the modern consumer, advertising campaign--pioneered by cigarette brands--that the product really took off at the turn of the century. The cigarette became an indispensable accessory of glamour and sex appeal: from Marlene Dietrich to Humphrey Bogart to Anne Bancroft, we have imagined stars with cigarettes in their mouths, and imitated them.
The cigarette--the ultimate icon of our consumer culture--serves as a vehicle for historian Allan Brandt to explore critical aspects of American life. From agriculture to big business, from medicine to politics, The Cigarette Century shows how smoking came to be so deeply implicated in our culture, science, policy, and law. In this magisterial book, Brandt demonstrates how the cigarette reflects the most powerful debates of our time about risk, responsibility, and human health. The Cigarette Century reaches across many disciplines to form a broad and compelling synthesis, showing how one humble (and largely useless) product came to play such a dominant role in our lives and deaths.
Customer Reviews:
An Ominous Precursor.......2007-09-08
Given the size of the book, I was sure I was going to be perusing it only. However, the similarity to what I have seen with the wireless industry made me go back and read it in detail...disturbingly familiar detail. Read this to get a preview of its inevitable sequel...The Cell Phone Century.
death by smoking.......2007-08-19
This is the story of how smoking, once a socially acceptable, pleasurable behavior, became a disgusting habit for the smoker, a danger to non-smokers, a crime for cigarette makers and a financial windfall for some smokers, lawyers, and state governments. The book is well written, well documented and very readable but we know where the author stands. He tells us that 400,000 or 500,000 people are "killed" every year from smoking. Death by gunshot is instant and violent. This happens to about 30,000 people a year and no manufacturer is criminally responsible. Death by smoking can occur 20 to 45 years after smoking begins during which time the smoker could have abused his body in other ways but if not, aging and genetics contribute to death. Even though smokers choose cigarettes for pleasure with full knowledge of long term health consequences, the author concludes that abusive smoking that leads to disease is the criminal responsibility of tobacco companies.
A consequence of education, litigation, and the high cost of cigarettes is that fewer people smoke today. However, there has been a surge in obesity and obesity related health costs and shortened life spans. Mr. Brandt, if people are addicted to fatty foods and feed fatty foods to their children should Krispe Kreme and McDonalds be held criminally responsible as more and more people are diagnosed with diabetes and other diseases related to abusive eating? I wonder how many people are "killed" every year from abusive eating?
Completely unbiased masterpiece! Five stars.......2007-08-08
This book provided a completely unbiased look at this demon weed that has been plaguing this evil nation from its advent! Tobacco! This may seem strange to hear a liberal bashing a narcotic and crying for it to be made illegal, especially since they are so desperately pushing for legalization of marijuana, the products evil twin, but trust me it all makes sense when Mr. Brandt breaks it down for us.
Brandt begins with the first use of tobacco by our pilgrim ancestors. Brandt informs us that they got the Indians hooked on tobacco as kind of a way to enslave them and get land from them. They got them addicted so they would have to keep buying it.
How did America get those huge land grabs, like the Louisiana purchase, at such little money? They offered this deadly hallucinogenic tobacco weed to them and had them sign the papers under the influence!
They tried to get the hippies to smoke it, but the hippies had the very pure and healthy marijuana weed which made them smarter so they knew not to smoke it.
In short, I now realize that we have to, I mean it is imperative, that we get tobacco illegal and marijuana legal.
Excellent, readable, and more widely applicable beyond tobacco.......2007-06-20
This is an excellent book, and not just about cigarettes. As evidence of the "persistence" part of the title, candy-flavored cigarettes have a clear target market (
<18 year-old). RJ Reynolds agreed in 2006 *not* to call them luscious names like "Twista Lime", "Mandarin Mint" ... but they can still *sell* them.
So, 40+ years after "The Surgeon General has determined..." in 1964, this is still an issue. SG Luther Terry's political skillfulness in getting that report to happen added him to my list of heroes.
This book is much more widely applicable, because it ably chronicles distortion and obfuscation of science by economic and political interests.
Some kinds of scientific proof depend on long efforts to accumulate evidence, need good statistical analysis. Such are not amenable to simple lab experiments, and even when they are, may well not be ethical. ("Here: try this: we want to see if you get cancer" is properly not done.) Topics whose science is of this sort can be prone to long, drawn-out fights, especially when the scientific results threaten strong interests whose best approach is controversy and confusion.
The conflicts over sulfates:acid rain and CFCs:ozone depletion resemble smoking:disease, but the clearest parallel with the latter is the battle over CO2: human-induced global warming.
In both cases, there were:
A) people who believed something (and sometimes exaggerated) well in advance of the science (anti-tobacco moralists, global warming alarmists), and sometimes irritated others by their stridency.
B) people who had economic interests (tobacco companies, oil companies), who took very strong (but opposing) positions. These were sometimes joined by people with ideological reasons for minimizing government regulation.
C) Scientists, who take years to collect good evidence, are careful in their conclusions, but who struggle to be heard though masses of disinformation generated by B), and sometimes wince at exaggerations from A), even as scientific results starts to approach A)'s views.
In both cases, industry funded think-tanks, lobbyists, and a tiny handful of scientists to cast doubt on the science, using similar tactics, and often, employed by the same organizations and people.
As a result Brandt's book is a dandy case study on the twisty interactions of science, economics, and politics, and its lessons may help us analyze other contentious issues as well.
One of the best books of the year.......2007-06-17
Allan Brandt's new book, "The Cigarette Century", is as comprehensive a study on one subject as I've seen in a long time. Written crisply and authoritatively, Brandt covers the tobacco industry from the end of the nineteenth century through today with cigarettes as his main focus. What he has researched, uncovered and passed onto the reader in an expansive (yet truly condensed) form is terrific. His book is a blockbuster.
Cigarettes have been around for a long while in the United States but not until James Bonsack's rolling machine came into play in 1881 (churning out 200 cigarettes per minute) could they be distributed on a wide-scale basis. It wasn't until World War I, however, that the national demand for the product really took off, and did it ever! Brandt's book is a parallel study of American sociological history of the twentieth century as cigarettes have been at the center of so much of our cultural life. Women began smoking in earnest in the 1920s and Hollywood added its own weight with countless movie stars puffing away in countless films to remind the public of the "joys" of smoking. Advertisements abounded and cigarettes were here to stay.
Along came the 1950s and things began to change. This is where Brandt's book really takes off as he begins to shape the "controversy" between the industry and those determined to warn Americans of the risks of smoking. The Surgeon General's report of 1964 declaring smoking to be hazardous to one's health (later packaging warnings reminded the smoker of the same) was a big first step as the public was beginning to question the safety of cigarettes. While more and more research on the dangers of cigarette smoking was made public, the tobacco companies fought tooth and nail to assure Americans that all was well. Lawsuits began to be filed on an increasing level yet the industry was always one step ahead of its detractors. Tobacco companies insisted that safety was a primary concern, but being "remarkably effective in resisting serious health initiatives", they were not. Brandt concludes "we now know a good deal about how this goal was achieved: a careful mixture of reassurance, half-truths, innovative public relations, disinformation, and deception." Calling their actions "the crime of the century", (the title of his epilogue) the author has, by this point, made a careful and compelling argument for that chapter's title.
In my lifetime there have been three major social changes that I've noticed, one being that there are many fewer smokers today in the United States than when I was being raised. Yet, as Brandt points out, tobacco companies learned that if they can't sell as many cigarettes at home they'll export them...with no regard to the health of other nations' citizens. The industry seems to be winning again at the expense of those whose health fails after using their product, creating a pandemic just under the radar screen.
I highly recommend Allan Brandt's "The Cigarette Century". It's an eye-opener, extremely well-written and well-paced, and will either give you a new angle at which to look at cigarettes or reinforce the thoughts you may have had already. I think it is one of the best books of the year.
Book Description
Access today's best guidance on the diagnosis and treatment of digestive disorders with the new edition of this best-selling reference! International experts provide evidence-based perspectives on all clinically relevant topics, explaining step by step how to apply the latest advances in practice. Succinct yet comprehensive discussions provide just the right amount of clinical detail. Plus, a consistent organization and full-color art program enable you to quickly and easily access the information you need.
Book Description
The Eighth Edition relies on the Total Person approach to prepare students for the workplace by highlighting disparate factors such as phsycial fitness, self-awareness, emotional control, integrity, and values orientation.
- The text looks at diversity in the workplace as a broad concept encompassing more than just race, ethnicity, and nationality—such as age, income level, education, and different styles of communication.
Customer Reviews:
Effective human relations? - You bet!.......2000-10-17
I think this book is well layed-out, and easy to read. It is also full of examples from companies you know, and deal with. Lots of graphs help to illustrate the ideas, and relationships.
Book Description
Nick Brandt depicts the animals of East Africa with an intimacy and artistry unmatched by other photographers who choose wildlife as their subject. He creates these majestic sepia and blue-tone photos contrasting moments of quintessential stillness with bursts of dramatic action by engaging with these creatures on an exceptionally intimate level, without the customary use of a telephoto lens. Evocative of classical art, from dignified portraits to sweeping natural tableaux, Brandt's images artfully and simply capture animals in their natural states of being. With a foreword by Alice Sebold and an introduction by Jane Goodall, On This Earth is a gorgeous portfolio of some of the last wild animals and a heartfelt elegy to a vanishing world.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful photography.......2007-09-27
I bought this book as a gift for someone who had just visited East and South Africa. They were thrilled with the absolutely beautiful photography and the memories it evoked of their trip.
Just Stunning.......2007-08-31
I own many, many photography/art books and this one without a doubt is my favorite.
The photography is simply stunning. Brant shoots his work on medium format infrared film and that is a great combination to use.
Don't even think about not getting this book, just do it.
Africa, my love.......2007-06-27
Having travelled extensively in Africa and being a keen photographer myself, I was happy to find this title in one of the Dutch photography magazines. The book is apparently not for sale in Holland, so I bought it at Amazon's.
My collection of photography books consists mainly of black and white photography. I am sure buyers will love the images in this book as much as I do, allbeit some pictures are a bit over the top, due to the infrared film used. Nevertheless the photos are just overwhelming; it feels like standing there yourself!
Next to 'The Great Migration' by Carlo Mari (which has a different approach) and 'Pink Africa' (also by Carlo Mari, and obviously in color) this book is among my favorite books on wildlife in Africa!
Images of untold beauty and magnificence........2007-05-31
Nick Brandt is one of the most talented and sensitive photographers of the 21st century.
His vision and technique is unmatched.
The patience involved in capturing these sometimes rare creatures is incredible let alone to produce such aweinspiring images.
Moments of recognition!.......2007-02-18
Great photo's of, for us, familiar parts of Africa. Shows the game in a different light.
Every new page is an inspiration! Not only for photografers but for travellers also.
Erik
The Netherlands
Customer Reviews:
Much more than a catchy title. .......2006-05-02
It was the title of this book that initially drew my attention, in fact I purchased it without ever opening its cover.
The book deals with change and though originally published in 1996 remains a valuable read today. Real world examples support reasoning and are most interesting.
Systems, rules, tradition and simple laziness lead many to misapprehend the need for change. It seems that these persons actually find comfort in their efforts to avoid the chaos of change. Certainly, it is true that change will happen whether or not we embrace it. This book offers a message designed to put leaders in charge of change and, from my way of thinking, offers reminders of traits necessary for all workers in our economy who must have the skills to cope with what seems to be an increasing rate of change.
A great book for managing change........2004-04-08
This book is an excellent tool to get people thinking again. Businesses that realize that by embracing change, they can differentiate themselves from their competitors have a distinct advantage. Those that don't or are slow to come around are in deep trouble.
One of the tools in the book that I found very insightful was the Change-Ready Assessment. The Change-Ready Assessment is a survey that every organization should use to evaluate new and old employees' ability to adapt to a culture of change.
Real-life examples make this book a winner!.......2003-03-30
Robert J. Kriegel is rapidly becoming one of my favorite
business authors . . . I've previously enjoyed two of
his other books, HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS
WITHOUT WORKING SO HARD and IF IT AIN'T BROKE,
BREAK IT . . . so I figured it was time to get hold of
one of his earlier efforts, SACRED COWS MAKE THE BEST
BURGERS--written with David Brandt.
I was definitely not disappointed!
Kriegel and Brandt examine why people cling to outmoded
beliefs, practices and processes as if their lives depended
on them . . . but more importantly, they present ways to
inspire a desire to bring in the new.
I particularly liked the use of real-life examples . . . although the book was written in 1996, it is still amazingly current; i.e., most of the ideas the authors present still make sense today . . . also, they can be applied to virtually any size or type of organization.
There were many memorable passages; among them:
* But you'll actually do more and better by learning to slow down when everything around you is speeding up. John Wooden, the great UCLA basketball coach who won an unprecedented 10 national championships, offers this advice: "Be quick, but don't hurry. If you hurry you make mistakes."
* You may not be a beginner, but you can learn how to think like one. Take real estate agent Michael Young, for instance. He was his company's most successful agent in northern California but he couldn't make the leap from
selling houses in [one price range] range to those[in a higher price range]and up.
"I don't get it, " he said. "I'm using the same prospecting strategies, making calls in the evening to people at home, giving them advice and telling them about the market, and I'm in the same marketplace. But it's not working."
"Think like a beginner, forget your old strategies, start fresh," we advised him. "Look at the business like you're a novice. What can you do to break into this market?"
Instead of competing with other brokers, Young spotted an untapped opportunity in the high-end market. He discovered that many listings expire before the house is sold. So he developed a strategy for buying old listings and sharing commissions. The technique brought in so much business that he formed the Michael Young Company in San Francisco. Now brokers
call him unsolicited.
Want to know something? We're all in the same position as Young. You may think your market is the same as it was last year. But it's not. Everything is changing: people's life and work styles, their jobs, their expectations, their attitudes, their family situations-everything. And technological
advances have only accelerated the situation.
With business in a perpetual state of flux, we need to keep reinventing our game plan every six months. To do that we have to look at things through fresh eyes.
* [Sam] Walton had 10 rules of success, most of which revolve around giving great service, top-quality products, and treating you people right. But it's his 10th rule that sets him apart from his competitors. Walton called it the most important one: Break the rules.
If all of your competitors are doing it one way, Mr. Sam used to say, "do it exactly the opposite," and that's where you'll get the edge.
Unfortunately managers haven't read this book.......2001-11-26
Its very good book and managers should read this book like taking oath before taking management job. No offense, but very few managers have ever read this book or similar book, at least those under whom I have worked for
Involved in Change Control or Project Management? Get This!.......2001-05-23
Don't let this book's title through you off. Give it a chance, because it does a great job of detailing how an organization can change and make business processes work better.
Kriegel and Brandt show ways in which remaining caught up in a given mode of thinking about one's business can often lead to missed opportunities for growth and success. It offers an interesting array of anecdotes that can assist in expanding one's thinking about the everyday processes we take for granted. An excellent resource for managers and others who feel their organization is caught in a rut and going nowhere.
This book can guide managers in the steps needed to eliminate outdated business practices and routines that drain time and money. It offers ways to redesign the rules of an organization and instill a capacity for change in their management teams and employees. A good resource that shouldn't be overlooked by anyone involved in change control or project management.
Book Description
The Final Chapter in the FBI's Greatest Mafia Sting—with Shocking Declassified Details from the Donnie Brasco Operation and a Timeline of the Fall of the Mafia. When FBI Special Agent Joe Pistone began what was supposed to be a six-month operation infiltrating New York's Bonanno crime family in 1975, he had no idea what was about to happen. Posing as jewel thief "Donnie Brasco," Pistone would spend the next six years undercover in the Family, witnessing—and sometimes participating in—the Mafia's gruesome activities while gathering enough evidence to send over 200 gangsters to jail. Pistone told his story in the 1988 book Donnie Brasco—a New York Times bestseller and later a feature film starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino. But because of pending trials at the time of publication, many details of the alleged crimes were omitted. Now, in Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business, Pistone for the first time reveals with great detail the horrific deeds of wiseguys Tony Mirra, Lefty Ruggiero, Sonny Black, and the rest of the cold-blooded Bonanno crew. He puts the operation into historical perspective, detailing the timeline of Mafia trials from 1981 through 2005 that crippled the New York City crime family. He also recounts his experiences after the operation, his time on the Hollywood set with Pacino and Depp, and other undercover operations through present day.
A tense, thrilling account of the greatest infiltration ever by a federal agent into the most brutal gang of killers in the world, Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business is the final chapter in the story of a real American hero.
Customer Reviews:
Fuggedaboutit!.......2007-09-06
I missed the first book, so this is tying up ends I didn't know were still loose. Even if you didn't read the author's original book, this sequel is still full of enough fun Mafia tales to keep you entertained. I saw the movie so long ago, I can't recall it now. But this made me want to take a second look. If you like true crime and La Cosa Nostra inside looks, then this is for you.
A well-delivered conclusion to the Donnie Brasco operation.......2007-07-24
Pistone delivers a strong follow-up to his original book on the Donnie Brasco operation. Of course, there is a good deal of overlap from the original book, but with the conclusion of the mafia cases stemming from the operation, Pistone has been freed to deliver new information on his deep undercover operation as Donnie Brasco. Pistone also covers his life after the FBI, including the time he worked for a supervisor at the Bureau who almost jeopardized the prosecution of the Donnie Brasco defendants.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about organized crime, the FBI and/or Donnie Brasco. This is not a comprehensive examination of the mafia, and as Pistone says there are many things he cannot and will not disclose regarding his days as Donnie Brasco. Nevertheless, this book serves as an excellent account of the Brasco operation and the takedown of the mafia as it existed prior to the 1990s.
A Clash of Two Enforcement Cultures.......2007-07-18
An easy introduction by Charles Brandt, who wrote "I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES", wets the taste for Pistone's eye-opening chronicle of his risky undercover assignment. Fascinating descriptions (and photos) of key mobsters and related events during six years of deep undercover work are as colorful as some of its startling aftermath.
Pistone's candid account of working relationships with key mob figures and ordinary street thugs is very engaging. It extends beyond dangerous criminals to his encounters with respectable luminaries. Among such figures are well-heeled lawyers, Hollywood actors and former Governor Cuomo. The reader also learns enough about an "enemy" within the F.B.I. to resent the unidentified bureaucrat.
Readers will absorb knowledge of the crucial R.I.C.O. law gradually. For some of the key criminals, the very threat of this law resulted in their premature obituary or hundred-year prison sentence. For others, it facilitated witness relocation.
Those interested in Mafia culture and its underlying authority to enforce rules and mores in quasi-governmental fashion should be immensely delightened by DONNIE BRASCO: UNFINISHED BUSINESS.
Eye Opening.......2007-07-08
This book includes a lot of interesting details that could not be included with the first Donnie Brasco book. The author had several close calls and only his quick wit and ability to stay cool under fire kept in alive with mobsters who kill simply on the account of the wrong body language.
The reader will have a better understanding of how the mafia operated under a centralized hierarchy called The Commission. It was the Commission, comprised of the leaders of the five major mafia families, that sanctioned violence and imposed a rigid discipline to prevent any young upstarts from trying to unseat older, established leaders. Bucking this Commission could get one "whacked". Numerous mob wars and civil wars within families broke out after all of the Commission members were convicted under RICO.
Although the Sicilian Mafia is a shell of its former self, the Donnie Brasco operation forced the mob to change its rules to better weed out informers and undercover agents.
I finished the book wondering if this operation really accomplished anything. It didn't eradicate organized crime by other ethnic groups. The power vacuum is being filled by even more ruthless organized crime gangs like the Jamaicans, Colombians, Asians and Jews from Russia and the Ukraine.
RICK SHAQ GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "IF YOU LOVED DONNIE BRASCO THE MOVIE, THEN YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!" "FUHGETABOUTIT!".......2007-06-14
Before, I share my review with you; I want to make sure that all of you who watched, and loved the movie, "Donnie Brasco", realize it was a true story! The author of this book, Joe Pistone, is/was Donnie Brasco. To keep from confusing some of the readers, who have trouble juggling two balls simultaneously, I will refer to Joe as Donnie, and Donnie as Donnie, in this review. HOO! HA! If you movie lovers (Who knew Donnie was real.) wondered what ever happened to good old Donnie? This book is your answer in spades! As a student of criminal psychology/serial killers/Mafia, subject reader; Donnie's latest book, illuminates his activities before, during, and after, the famous movie. Since, I have read so many non-fiction books, of this genre, (See previous and future Shaq reviews!) I know that, what he details on these pages, is true and accurate, no matter how unbelievable. If you really get in to his character, as you read this book, it is more inspiring, than any movie could possibly be. This man is a hero. Not only is he a hero, but he is a very unique creation. Let me give you an example. You're growing up and a friend of yours, becomes a heart surgeon. Personally, you can't see how your friend doesn't feint, when he cuts a person open, and holds a patient's life in his hands. And your friend the Doctor, is standing there, holding a living, pulsing, heart, in his hands, like it's an everyday occurrence. Well, now think of Donnie in a similar light. He went undercover within the Mafia, where every single "minute"! Every single "minute!" Not just everyday! Where one, miniscule, slip up, meant his life. This isn't like watching a TV movie. There is documented evidence, that just "disrespecting" a "made" man, got you two bullets behind the ear. Not maybe! Not later! But "BOOM"! Right now! Donnie had to go to many meetings, with "made" men, where he had to accept the fact, that he might very well, be on the way to his death, with no questions asked! And with that knowledge, he still had to attend that meeting, and act normal. I couldn't even keep my composure, waiting for my Dad to come home from work, when I had a bad report card. I might have been anticipating being punished, but I knew I wasn't getting two behind the ear! There are tons of facts here, about Donnie's work (I almost said adventures.) that have never been made public till now. That's because of all the open criminal cases, that Donnie was the linchpin in. The massive, disabling, of the Mafia machine, in its heyday, could not have been done without Donnie. Also instrumental in the legal victories, was none-other, than Prosecutor Rudy Giuliani. A lot of people don't realize, that Donnie was undercover, for SIX YEARS! SIX FREAKING YEARS! (The longest undercover stint in FBI history!) Can you imagine, that 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for six years, one mistake by Donnie, and he would have been dead. And I guarantee you, it would not have been a pleasant death! The pictures included in this book of Mafia chieftains, and murdered "made" men, add to the power of this book. I found myself going back and forth, from what I was reading, to the pictures, as certain characters, came in and out of the story. The only small negative in the book, was the constant description, of the criminal ranks, and family affiliations, of all the players. Boss's, capo's, lieutenant's, "made" men, soldiers, friends, etc. It was more complex, after a awhile, than the organizational chart, and reporting lines, of General Motors. If you're into true crime and criminal psychology, then your studies, and library, cannot be complete, without this book. And last, but not least: "Remember, you're not watching a Soprano's episode, this was real life, and I don't know how Donnie made it!" Joe Pistone, you're a hero, I tip my hat to you! "L'Chaim!"
Book Description
The ninth in the Edgar(r) Award-nominated series featuring midwife Sarah Brandt and Detective Sergeant Malloy in turn-of-the-century New York City.
Sarah Brandt has made her uneasy way to Chinatown to deliver a baby. There she meets a group of Irish women who, completely alone at Ellis Island, married Chinese men in the same predicament. But even as a new century dawns, New Yorkers still cling to their own kind, scorning children of mixed races.
When the new mother's half-Chinese, half-Irish niece goes missing, Sarah knows that alerting the police will accomplish nothing, and seeks the one person she can turn to-Detective Sergeant Malloy.
And when the missing girl is found dead in a Chinatown alley, Sarah and Malloy have ample suspects in her murder-from both sides of Canal Street.
Customer Reviews:
Great thriller.......2007-07-27
Victoria Thompson has done it again with the new Murder in Chinatown. This thriller has great character development and is a well written book you'll love from the beginning. Good subplots that make it a fun summer read. I highly recommend.
Frustrated that I solved mystery before detectives.......2007-07-22
I love historical mysteries and Victoria Thompson did a great job writing about the time period. However, I solved the mystery less than halfway through the book and it became frustrating for me to get through the rest of the book as Detective Malloy and Sarah seemed to miss some very obvious clues. I'm usually not good at solving mysteries and part of my enjoyment is being surprised by the ending. All in all, for me, the book was enjoyable as a period study but disappointing as a mystery.
A "work of art" from the cover to the end.......2007-07-20
Victoria Thompson is the author of numerous historical novels. Murder in Chinatown is part of her Gaslight Mystery series.
Sarah Brandt is a widow, an adoptive mother, a nurse/midwife and a part-time sleuth--much to Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy's dismay. That dismay makes for a nice, yet uneasy alliance between him and Brandt.
Brandt travels to Chinatown to deliver a baby. The neighborhood abounds with Irish women who entered the United States through Ellis Island, are alone and have married Chinese men.
While in Chinatown, 15-year-old Angel goes missing. She's half-Chinese and half-Irish. It appears she's wasn't willing to participate in an arranged marriage with a much older Chinese man and ran away. Brandt begins to help the family in their search for Angel and when Angel is found murdered, she brings Malloy into the case.
It's up to Malloy and Brandt to penetrate the private world of Chinatown to solve the murder and bring the murderer to justice. It's a delicate job that just might get Brandt or the people she cares about murdered.
This is my first mystery by Victoria Thompson and it won't be the last. While I'm not always fond of historical mysteries, I found fascinating the historical perspective of the police taking reward money from victim's families. I had no idea there was a population of New York Irish women who married Chinese men and had no idea of the issues they and their children faced.
The characters are believable, interesting and unique and the plot is compelling. I don't think I've ever mentioned a book cover in a review before, but Murder in Chinatown's cover is a work of art. People will pick up the book just because of the cover, and I suspect it will add to the author's sales.
Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommended.
Good research, so-so plotting.......2007-06-13
I guessed the business of the pigtails early on, so the plotting has to be average (I usually miss all the clues).
Not as good as Thompson's other books in this series.......2007-06-10
I loved the first three quarters of the book, it was well written, interesting & concise. After that though, I thought the dialog briefly turned into muddled script for an Abbott & Costello movie (think "Who's on First"). Thompson spends a lot of time developing her wonderful characters, historic details & setting the perfect atmosphere, yet somehow I think she could do a better job of obscuring the villain. I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but I've yet to be surprised by any of her resolutions.
Average customer rating:
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Vertigo and dizziness
Thomas Brandt ,
Marianne Dieterich , and
Michael Strupp
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Book Description
After headache, vertigo and dizziness is the second most common complaint of patients. Vertigo is not a disease entity, but rather an unspecific syndrome consisting of various disorders with different causes. Most syndromes of vertigo can only be correctly diagnosed by means of a careful medical history and physical examination of the patient. The majority of these cases have a benign cause, a favorable natural course, and a positive response to therapy.
This short and concise, clinically-oriented book and accompanying DVD with 65 video clips of case histories is for physicians of different specializations who treat patients with vertigo including neurologists and ENT specialists. Easy-to-use, it has an overview of the most important syndromes of vertigo, each with explanatory clinical descriptions and illustrations.
Target market: Physicians of different specializations who treat patients with vertigo including neurologists, neurootologic specialists, neuroophthalmology, otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, ophthalmology and ENT specialists, and general medicine practitioners.
Customer Reviews:
The authoritative work on bicycle wheels.......2007-08-09
Despite Jobst Brandt's engineering background, the book is written in a pleasent, easy to understand, straight forward style. The illustrations are plentiful and beautyfull. Layout, illustrations, typography, subject matter and writing style are matching each other very well.
This book is not only about building bicycle wheels, but also about understanding how the wheel works, and why some wheel designs are better than others. Jobst Brandt has performed a lot of experiments and therefore dispels a lot of myths based on research.
The book is too terse in my opinion, regarding spoke length calculation and hub measurements. It is not that the information isn't there, but complete beginners, who perhaps aren't using math equations very often, must find it intimidating.
In that regards, Roger Musson's ebook "Wheel Building" is much more practical and easy to understand.
But Jobst Brandt's book is still better than any other source on wheelbuilding I know of.
Finally, the most important myth Jobst Brandt dispels is that you have to some kind of special talent to build wheels. Jobst Brandt demonstrates that wheelbuilding can be easy and that everyone can do it with good results. So go get a truing stand and a spoke key and start to build your own wheels.
No idea how to rebuild your Bikes wheel, this book will help.......2007-05-19
Having taken apart my mountain bikes wheel thinking it would be easy to fix, clean, and put back together, I found it an impossible task. This book solved that problem almost instantly, two attempts and the wheel has been rebuilt and it's working perfectly. That said, if you only need like I did to build/repair a wheel, thats only one chapter. The amount of technical detail contained is way over the top, and probably unneccessary for most people, not to mention the pages at the back of pure numbers, which I readily admit to having no clue what they relate to.
Was great in 1993!.......2007-02-14
I've had this book for well over a decade. Way back in the early ninties it was a great book. However, things move along and even if one does not like nor agree with the current deep dishes and low spoke counts the fact is that the upper end of the market has gone this way. And the low end of the market will seek to follow, abliet with many many more wheel failures than the high end. So what is my complaint? This is a book for the purist whom wants to put a wheel together from first principles and have a deep understanding of the what they are ridding on. While I commend those that wish to go that way and am myself not an advocate of counts below twenty-eight and deep dishes, the bicycle wheel is evovleing (or is it devolving?) and as such it is comon to buy paired and completed wheelsets. So even if these new wheels have quite a finite life span when compared to the "ultimate bicycle wheel" they are still "bicycle wheels" all the same. Thus in 2007 the "Bicycle Wheel" should cover the gamut of what is available and how to deal with the new (but perhaps "silly").
Good but I'd like an update and correction.......2005-06-09
Unlike some reviewers who would like to see Brandt describe and bless novel spoking patterns, I concur with his recommendation of traditional spoking. The traditional tangent tension-spoked wheel is one of the most elegant and efficient structures ever devised. A wheelbuilder may choose a rim, hub and spokes at will and so, construct wheels of many kinds that are not available commercially. With skill and care, an amateur may build wheels of professional quality. The traditional wheel may be built to the desired degree of ruggedness vs. weight, and if damaged, can often be made usable with an emergency repair or adjustment.
Brandt's advice faces challenges from within the bicycle industry, which is always looking for a new selling point. Wheels with low spoke counts, trendy now (2006) are more tolerable with deep-section aero rims than with shallow rims and can make sense for racers, who are willing to sacrifice reliability for a very slight increase in performance -- but for most bicyclists, it is much more important not to get stranded or crash than to increase speed by half a percent.
Some of the newer types of wheels may sell because they look different, but provide little actual advantage. Wheels with thick aluminum or polycarbonate spokes decrease weight slightly but at a major expense in air drag. Graphite spokes have a very poor record of reliability and safety, though graphite-epoxy composite material has been used successfully in rims and in single-piece formed wheels. Still, brake shoes wear graphite-epoxy quickly, so a metal braking surface is preferable. Don't get me talking about paired spokes, which make a wheel look as if it has fewer spokes -- but require a heavier rim, because longer rim segments are unsupported. The inward pull of the spokes is, after all, about 10 times the lateral pull.
I have built some wheels with radial spokes, but I caught one with a cracked hub flange quite by chance shortly before it would have caused a nasty crash. Since that time I have been very careful which hubs I will spoke radially. As usual, Brandt is correct with his warning on this topic.
There is one serious error in Brandt's book, and I am astonished that it has not been corrected through 3 editions. A graph, on page 39 in the 3rd edition, shows the change in spoke tension with lateral loading of the rim. The left spokes are shown to go into compression. They can't, as they simply flex once they are slack. It might also be asked whether this graph reflects the influence of spokes that are differently stressed as the load is applied at the bottom of the wheel. To do so would require a more complicated mathematical model than I think Brandt was able to command.
I also disagree with Brandt's advice to tension spokes until the rim begins to deform. It can then deform further due to increased stresses during riding, and loosen the spokes. I have seen a new wheel which failed after a few miles for this reason. Spokes should be tight, but should leave a margin of safety. If the rim deforms before the spokes reach their optimum range of tension, then they are too thick for it, or it is too weak for them.
I would really like to see this book updated with today's more sophisticated finite-point analysis, including analysis of stresses in the novel low spoke-count wheels. But for people who are willing to build conventional wheels -- the better choice anyway for most cyclists -- this book is a valuable and fairly comprehensive reference.
The Bible.......2005-01-15
Jobst Brandt may be an extremely cranky on-line persona, but this book is the best guide to how bicycle wheels work. The section on theory is clear and easy to read. I was able to lace, true and ride a wheel based on the instructions found here.
Book Description
The Construction Manuals from Edition Detail are among the most important reference works in the specialist literature. The latest volume shows the potential of the material concrete and documents comprehensively the technical principles of using concrete in construction. Chapters cover the history of the material, the properties of concrete, reinforced concrete, and prestressed concrete, the treatment of its surface. Also covered are the basic principles of statics for large and small structures, and the building requirements with respect to heat, damp, sound-proofing and fire protection according to the most recent norms and standards. Finally a large number of built examples are presented from illustrations of the complete structure down to detailed plans, showing the broad spectrum of applications for concrete in contemporary building. All plans have been specially produced by the editorial department Detail for this book and for ease of comparison, they have been drawn to the same scale.
Customer Reviews:
German through and through.......2003-05-29
Craftsmanship is to the Germans what style is to the French, tradition is to the British, or independence is to the Americans, and it shows in these books: the drawings, coated paper, printing, and so on are all head and shoulders above the competition. The basic format for all the books is the same--history, followed by science and engineering, followed by examples. In this book, the technical section emphasizes structural matters, with a large chapter on precast construction. There's nothing on reinforcement requirements because they're covered in building codes. Shell structures are discussed, and another chapter covers surface finishes. The translation to English is OK but lacks the nuances that make for pleasant reading.
Too bad there is nothing for the US architect of this quality, because all the technical references are to German or European standards. But they're educational nonetheless.
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