Social Sciences Books

the book was brand new and arrived in about 2 days. i am very pleased with my purchase.

This book was required reading for my granddaughter when she went into the 3rd grade. Once she began reading, she couldn't put it down till she finished it. I can remember when I used to have some of the authors books written for adults and how much I enjoyed them especially one she wrote many years ago about turning 40.
My granddaughter said to give this one a "thumbs up"
thanks
Connie NC

I think that Mrs. Kelly is nice. In the beginning I did not like her. The story was very interesting. Andrew was funny. Sharon was mean. Nickywas mysterious. I thought that Nicky liked his freckles, but he did not like them. My favorite part was when he drank the feckle juice.

I liked this book.I liked it because it was funny.It was funny when Sharon made a super-duper frog face.Other kids should read it because it is a good book.I think Freckle Juice is a good book.

I think Freckle Juice was a really good book. When I read the recipe I was about to puke myself.That was nasty.It was funny when he stuck his tounge out at Sharon.NOW THAT WAS HALARIOUS. Andrew was jealous of how many freckles Nikki had.

Almost every example and story Mr. Greenberg relates in this book has some sexual/romantic/dating overtone to it. I found this quite funny actually.
As it's title suggests, it's a read about how to reduce stress and learn to relax and smell the roses. There are chapters on meditation to spirituality to biofeedback and of course different forms of stress. He begins most chapters with experiences that he's either had or know of someone who has experienced it.

Fantastic! A book that teachs effective ways of managing stress with out all the mumbo jumbo. I love the assessments provided at the end of each chapter; they help you learn more about yourself (how you handle stress, your personality, and how you react to others). I was required to use this book in a college stress management class, the text definitely help me understand relaxtion techniques and all of the components of stress and relief. It provides plenty of information that is clearly stated and easy to read and understand. I recommend this book to everyone wanting to find more effective and healthy ways of living life.

This book is good if your taking this course in college because my professor allowed me to use since there really was no change but just another small chapter. The newest edition is about 100 dollars so if you can first ask your professor if you can buy this one to use in class. It is a better value than spending a lot on a new edition without much change.

I cannot seriously believe that this book is supposed to be a text for college students. I think this one paragraph sums it up:

"Hey, Harry, here comes another shipment," said Joe Saliva to his brother. The Salivas live in the mouth and, when food enters, they help break it down to small manageable pieces. These pieces are then mailed by pneumatic tube (the esophagus) to Phil Hydrochloric Acid who lives in Stomachville. Hydrochloric acid (HCl) activates enzymes that break the food down even further so it can pass into the small intestine. Another town, Liver, sends Bobby Bile to help break down the fatty shipments. Once these shipments (food) are made small they can be placed in local post offices for delivery to various other cities (body parts). The pieces without ZIP codes are unusable and are discarded by being sent via the large intestine through the anus into space (that is, flushed into another galaxy).

There is nothing I can add to that.

I purchased this book for about $75.00 and noticed that it is also for sale in a paperback version for about $12.00. I don't feel like I got my $75.00 worth, but if I paid $12.00 I would have had lower expectations.

What I liked about the book is that it was comprehensive in the sense that it touched on a lot of different areas. It also had excellent references. In fact, this is probably the best reason to own the book.

Unfortunately, there were several inaccuracies in the stress psychopysiology chapter and I think the author could have been more clear in his explanations. This shocked me given that the book is in it's ninth printing! I must admit the author lost some credibility with me when I hit this chapter, but the rest of the chapters seemed solid with respect to content.

The other chapters were more clearly written and I liked the roadblock model of stress that was introduced. This is certainly a useful model to use for thinking of stress intervention despite its apparent simplicity. This was probably the most interesting chapter to me. The other chapters had useful information, but they were rather superficial. They were good in terms of raising awareness about a particular topic, but they left me hungry for more information.

I did not like the author's tone and the way he delivered advice. I found that he made stress management and the solution to stress related issues sound too simple. His approach came across as stress management was simply a matter of applying his formula in an easy and mechanical way. In short, this seemed like a naive approach without mentioning the cognitive complexities that intefere with applying the formula!

If you are only looking for a survey of stress management and light coverage of the most common interventions, then this book can help you with that. However, if you want an in-depth look at the biology, I would consider "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers." Be warned, however, that this other book goes into a fair amount of depth on the biology side. However, it is extremely well written and I'm not aware of ANY book that covers the health implications of stress in a more eloquent (and often humorous) fashion.

With respect to psychological interventions for stress, I think there are many books that might serve the reader better. One book to consider that is good, but more specialized is Full Catastrophe Living. I would also look at books that explore the cognitive aspects of stress management. There are a lot of them out there.

My bottom line on this book is that for $75.00 you can buy "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" and four other books that cover the same territory much better. However, for a survey course accompanied by complimentary readings, it would probably be adequate.

If I saw this book on the shelf of a bookstore, I would probably pass because it wasn't exciting to read and I think there is better stuff available. However, at $11.00-12.00 it would be tempting to buy it just for all the references.

Many readers focus on the Theogony, which is the ancient Greeks Creation Story, and which Hesiod articulated masterfully. The descriptions of the battles between Zeus and the Titans made for vivid and stirring oration in the hands of a great speaker, as he boasts that he was by citing his awards. However, I was more intrigued by Works and Days. The advice of Hesiod was, indeed, sagacious: "It is good to take from what is available, but sorrow to the heart to be wanting what is not." And I liked this one: "Right gets the upper hand over violence in the end." At times he seemed like Thoreau incarnate preaching industry and self-reliance from his little cabin on Walden Pond: "Avoid shady seats and sleeping til sunrise at harvest time, when the sun parches the skin. At that time get on with it and gather home the harvest, rising before dawn so that your livelihood may be assured. For the morning accounts for a third of the work." Or this one: "For property is as life to wretched mortals." Some of his advice is quaint, as when a man should take a wife. The thing of it is that so much of what passed for wisdom in ancient days would still pass for it today.

I found this book quite interesting. It provided alot of good information for someone who was interested in learning about other religions.

"Theogony" is one of, if not "the", original sources of Greek mythology. Hesiod tells us the full genealogy and origins of the Greek gods, and how the hegemony of Zeus was established after bitter fights and prolific intercourse with godesses and human females. Perhaps the most impressive part of this poem is the story about the god Typhoon. Hesiod depicts a horrific set of disasters that happened to the Earth, with Typhoon apparently being an unimaginable electric storm. Scholars like Immanuel Velikovsky have taken this episode as proof that many centuries ago, Venus and Mars, then wandering cosmic bodies, came very close to each other in a location near the Earth, which presumably caused our planet's rotation to stop, with the following earthquakes, electric storms and the like. In fact, reading that passage by Hesiod strongly seemed to me to be the writing of very old memories of a defining catastrophe that left an indelible mark on human memory. Be that true or not, the poem is very powerful.

"Works and Days" is a very different story. After Hesiod's father died, his apparently indolent brother Perses tried to rob him of part of the inheritance. We all know how bitter fights among siblings can be, especially about inheritances. So Hesiod decided to write a book to teach his brother some lessons, beginning with a little history and theology, and then some practical advice on how to make a decent living by hard work and honesty. The result is a simply wonderful account of some important myths, like the ages through which man has passed (Golden, Silver, Heroic, Bronze and our own), as well as Pandora's myth. He also tells us about Prometheus, the Christ-like figure of the Greeks. After that, Hesiod tells us how a Greek farmer should plan his activities for the year, with delicious depictions of the seasons and very concrete information about their way of life.

It is a very pleasant experience to go down to the very sources of our culture, especially when written in Hesiod's light, brief and humorous way. A very old masterpiece whhich is very important for how much of it we have carried to the present day.

This is the 4th translation of the Theogony that I've read over about 40 years of interest. I always felt that Hesiod's "Descent of the Gods" was cosmogony as much as theogony, and that "myth" provided a basis, perhaps unconscious, for much of what came later with the "materialist" pre-Socratic nature philosophers. The other translations were by Caldwell, Brown and Lattimore. I prefer Caldwell's for the detail in his footnotes and interseting Introduction, but this one is easily readable. Caldwell's version is in fact based upon the work of M. L. West, the author of this one. West is considered by many to be the authority.

Some of the other reviews offered with M.L. West's translation of Hesiod's "Theogony" and "Works and Days" for the Oxford World's Classics actually refer to Dorothea Wender's verse translation of the same works, plus a charming version of the collection of lyrics attributed to Theognis, published in the Penguin Classics. That is a worthwhile version -- although the joining of the peasant-oriented Boeotian Hesiod to the mainly aristocratic, and partly Athenian, "Theognis" corpus is a little odd.

West's version of the two main Hesiodic poems is, however, in prose, and offers the latest in textual and historical scholarship -- although this is not very obviously on display. West, who has edited much (perhaps by now all) of the "Hesiodic" corpus, with substantial technical commentaries (along with a good deal of Homer and the "Homeric Hymns"), offers here his best reading of the two long poems which seem most firmly attributed Hesiod. (Although some, including Wender, would prefer two poets, in addition to the problem of interpolations).

West's commentary, although useful, is surprisingly sparse, given what he could have offered; a lot of detailed argument has been converted into the translation itself.

"Theogony," for those not familiar with the work even by reputation, is the story of the origins and struggles of the gods of Classical Greece. Although the meter and basic style are those of the Homeric epics, and the gods are mainly the same, many details are different (Zeus is a younger son, not the eldest, for example), and the struggles between various generations are the foreground story, not a long-concluded background to the reign of Zeus. We meet Heaven, and his sons and daughters, culminating in the rebellion of the Titans, then the Olympians, who wage war against their father and his fellow-Titans, and so on. It is an extremely violent story, full of abusive parents, mutilations inflicted by rebellious offspring, divine cannibalism, and a whole succession of other behaviors the Greeks themselves considered repellent. The philosophers had real problems with this work -- one can understand from it why Plato wanted to ban poets from the ideal state.

Interspersed through the action are a number of catalogues of nature-deities, which are variously regarded by critics as interpolations or key structural elements. Many readers simply find them boring; it helps if you are using a translation which interprets the Greek names, which are usually charmingly appropriate for the natural element being personified.

"Works and Days" contains several important mythological passages, expanding and altering "Theogony," but is in the main a sort of sermon on how to be prosperous and righteous. It is packed with details of daily life, which readers will find either fascinating or tedious. and are sometimes rather opaque. West does a good job in making readable this combination of a sort of pagan equivalent of an Old Testament prophet with an Iron Age Farmer's Almanac, and his notes do help with some of the knottier passages. (Note that there is one recent translation-with-commentary of the "Works" which is dedicated almost entirely to making detailed agricultural and ethnographic sense of it; West clearly offers a more literary approach.)

The latter part of the twentieth century has seen a number of translations of the main Hesiodic poems, by Apostolos N. Athanassakis, R.M. Frazer, Richmond Lattimore, and, as noted above, Dorothea Wender (Penguin Classics), to join the old Evelyn-White bilingual edition for the Loeb Classical Library edition, with numerous attributed fragments. (A new Loeb edition has announced). There are also translations of single poems, by Norman O. Brown and by Richard S. Caldwell (both of the "Theogony") and Tandy and Neale ("Works and Days"). West offers a substantial alternative to the others, based on an exceptionally close knowledge of the textual problems.

This author is a very good writer, her ideas are wonderful, and the book is very developed. However, if you are looking for a happy love story, this is not the book for you.

I read this title in less than a day, I wouldn't move from my bed until I finished! The characters are different and more believable than anything you'd find in Twilight. Melissa Marr has a fresh and appetizing way to introducing and keeping us in the world she has created. It's dark and forbidden and keeps me thinking about the book long after I've finished.

Okay, I really loved Wicked Lovely, so I was looking forward to Ink Exchange. The writing was fine, and I loved the ideas behind the story, but I just didn't love the story. It's just a matter of personal taste, but I just didn't like it much.

Warning: SPOILERS This book was a big WASTE OF TIME. The "heroine" was drugged by her brother & raped by his drug dealers, which of course, makes you sympathize with her and hope that she can overcome her problems and take charge of her life. She does none of this. She is getting a tattoo which is causing her to see a fairy realm, which is cool, but she doesn't even know what's going on until the last 5 chpts of the book (I'm thinking, finally!) but all that happens is that she willingly becomes some sexy fairy guy's sex slave. O_o I am not kidding. Through the whole book something will happen when her tattoo is finished and that's what happens. In the last chapter, she decides to leave him (but he could have easily made her stay -_-) & goes to college. The end. She didn't deserve what happened to her, but clearly she is a stupid girl who lets men run her life. She certainly didn't do anything to prove otherwise.

Love the book. It was in perfect condition. It even had that new book crack when you first open a brand new book. Thanks very much !

The depth of Benjamin's pessimism has, I think, been underestimated.

"The story is told of an automation constructed in such a way that it could play a winning game of chess, answering each move of an opponent with a countermove. A puppet in Turkish attire and with a hookah in its mouth sat before a chessboard placed on a large table. A system of mirrors created the illusion that this table was transparent from all sides. Actually, a little hunchback who was an expert chess player sat inside and guided the puppet's hand by means of strings. One can imagine a philosophical counterpart to this device. The puppet called "historical materialism" is to win all the time. It can easily be a match for anyone if it enlists the services of theology, which today, as we know, is wizened and has to keep out of sight." Walter Benjamin, First "These on the Philosophy of History", p 253.

One can measure how far the contemporary Marxist (better said, the post or semi-Marxist) left has fallen by how many books have appeared, since the fall of the USSR, enthusing over the radically Universal and allegedly 'Progressive' nature of early Christianity. Walter Benjamin, who was first to place the wise but ugly dwarf (Theology) in the beautiful puppet (Historical Materialism) would be amazed (or perhaps not, see the letters between Benjamin and Scholem) to learn that puppet and dwarf are on the verge of switching places! That is, now the ugly dwarf (historical materialism) wants to hide in (and of course direct) the beautiful puppet of Christian theology. ...Crazy, you say? But even Habermas, the Keeper of the Flame of Critical Theory, has on occasion made somewhat similar noises. The best place, btw, to start reading about this new 'political-theology' probably remains Jacob Taubes.

But perhaps this emergent trend is really not so crazy after all. The only reason the Church became so cozy with Capitalism was its fear of Atheism. The collapse of the Soviet Union ended that fear. Now Christianity faces Capitalism alone. Or not, if the detente being proposed between the left and the Church is actually consummated. But every detente is a conspiracy of enemies to destroy an even greater enemy. The Church was with Capitalism because it had to defeat atheism. Now it is likely that the Church will join (a moderate) Socialism in trying to contain the 'soul-destroying' ravages of capitalism. This is only another move on the chessboard of History. ...But what did Benjamin think of History?

"A Klee painting named "Angelus Novus" shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress." BENJAMIN, Ninth Thesis on History, p 257.

Picture this Angel, wings pinned back by the wind, shoulders forced back because of that - the Angel of History is almost in the position of the Crucified Christ; except that this crucification does not end. It is this tone of almost ontological despair that was new to the left. This Crucified Angel is the perfect image of the left-wing theoretical pessimism pioneered by not only Benjamin but also Adorno and Horkheimer that split the intellectual left into two camps: the revolutionary and the cultural. And though no one is likely to admit it, the cultural left has quietly come to think of revolution itself as but another 'progressive' force piling up bodies.

It is one of the little ironies of history that this despairing fantasy described contemporary reality exactly. The Angel of History is the image of dialectical knowledge. Rather than seeing disconnected events this Dialectical Knowledge grasps History as One (single catastrophe). Always facing the past ('the owl of Minerva takes flight at night', Hegel said; meaning that dialectical knowledge is retrospective) the 'contemplating' Angel is overwhelmed by historical action - the storm that has been blowing since the expulsion of humanity from paradise - and can never Himself achieve effective action. His knowledge grows in lockstep with the accumulating horror, but each new historical event only results (i,e., gets 'caught in the wings' of our Angel) in more contemplation. So we see how theory (our Angel) is 'irresistibly' propelled into the future. And we also see that the Knowledge dialectical theory gains is precisely equal to the debris the storm hurls at our Angel's feet. With an irony that strives to be equal to the wind blowing from Paradise Benjamin ends this meditation by calling this storm progress.

This is perhaps why Benjamin insisted over 50 years ago that the dwarf Theology must guide the puppet Historical Materialism. Theory can never be equal to action; circumstance piles upon circumstance so rapidly that theory cannot effectively act, and if it does act (presumably) it only adds to the debris. Thus theology (myth) must guide materialism's hand because theoretical knowledge is powerless to help. Benjamin quotes the following remarks of Willy Haas, with approval, in his large Kafka essay;

"'The object of the trial', he writes, 'indeed, the real hero of this incredible book is forgetting, whose main characteristic is the forgetting of itself [...] The most sacred ... act of the ... ritual is the erasing of sins from the book of memory.'
What has been forgotten - and this insight affords us yet another avenue of access to Kafka's work - is never something purely individual." (Benjamin, Franz Kafka, p 131.)

(The last sentence was Benjamin's own.) Theology is a non-individual forgetfulness. Thus myth (theology) is the only forgetfulness worthy of the name. What needs to be forgotten by all of us is the unsurpassable fact of the futility of theory...

It is difficult for most to look such despair in the face.

I have nothing to add to the reviews below except to note for scholarly interest that the essay 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' included in this collection is not Benjamin's final version. (Neither is this title a good translation of the German: 'Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit'. Zohn's translation in the selected writings is better: 'The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility'.) The text in this collection is the 1935 manuscript, as originally published in 1936; the text collected in the Selected Writings, Vol. 4 is the final 1939 version that, as far as I can tell, was not published in Benjamin's lifetime. The difference between the two texts is slight, consisting mainly of some additional sentences here and there and some changed words. At least one of these revisions is, I hypothesize, the result of Adorno's criticisms of his letter to Benjamin of 18 Mar 1936.

Otherwise, for most purposes, this is the best collection of Benjamin's essays available for an introduction to his thought. This volume collects some of the best of his essays that are otherwise spread throughout the selected writings published by the Harvard U.P.

Benjamin is arguably the twentieth century's most important thinker--if there is anything left to say about our lives, it is surely in this book.

In 1940 Walter Benjamin committed suicide at the Franco-Spanish border fearing that he would be unable to escape the grasp of Hitler's regime. He left behind perhaps one of the finest collections of literary theory of his era, complete with lucidly brilliant essays on Kafka, Proust, Baudelaire, and general Marxist theory.

In this wholly excellent collection of essays, a remarkable introduction to Benjamin's life and work is provided by the late philosopher Hannah Arendt, who overviews his political formations and literary output. It's a model form of critical essay writing.

Perhaps the most famous essay in this collection is Benjamin's `The Task of the Translator,' widely regarded as one of the most important and thoughtful contributions to the field.

"No poem is intended for the reader, no picture for the beholder, no sympathy for the listener."

He argues that translation is a mode, and that the translatability of the work is the primary concern in the process.

Also included is an analysis of the philosophy of history.

I picked up this book primarily for the purpose of reading Benjamin's critically acclaimed essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", as well as for his darkly poetic - and even apocalyptic - "Theses on the Philosophy of History". These essays are among Benjamin's most highly esteemed and are the last two selections in the book; regardless of whether you start with them or with the first essay, "Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting", you are likely to be drawn into Benjamin's literary world quite quickly.

In many ways, Benjamin's writing style is quite unassuming; reading even his most profound insights is like reading a letter from an old friend. His writing comes in layers; one must make time to savor his presence. This book covers a range of subjects, from critical literary essays (the aforementioned "Unpacking My Library", as well as essays on Kafka, Baudelaire and Proust), to more hermeneutical reflections ("The Task of the Translator"), to straight up philosophy/theory ("The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and "Theses on the Philosophy of History").

The 51 page introduction by Hannah Arendt is absolutely fantastic. It does not simply provide an overview of Benjamin's life, but sets that life within the culture of early 20th century Germany, focusing especially on the time between the two World Wars. She notes the influences of Zionism and Communism (and Marxism) on Benjamin's thought, as well as the broader cultural influence of a quasi-secularized Judaism in a culture where non-baptized Jews were still kept out of university teaching posts. Her introduction, like Benjamin's own writing, contains deep touches of the intimately personal (she selected the various essays that make up this volume).

In many ways, Benjamin was a deeply religious thinker. A friend of Gershom Scholem's (the founder of the modern-day study of Jewish mysticism), Benjamin and Scholem corresponded for a number of years. Although this particular volume pays little attention to his religious thought, "Theses on the Philosophy of History" (the final selection in the book which, in light of Benjamin's suicide, gives Illuminations a bit of a haunting finale), witnesses to Benjamin's poetic-religious insights:

"The soothsayers who found out from time what it had in store certainly did not experience time as either homogenous or empty. Anyone who keeps this in mind will perhaps get an idea of how past times were experienced in remembrance - namely, in just the same way. We know how the Jews were prohibited from investigating the future. This stripped the future of its magic, to which all those succumb who turn to the soothsayers for enlightenment. This does not imply, however, that for the Jews the future turned into homogenous, empty time. For every second of time was the strait gate through which the Messiah might enter."

Highly recommended.

This book is very informative and the personal assessment at the end of the chapters will make you really look at yourself. This book also has an online site that is helpful.

This book is practically written to reinforce common sense stuff dealing with health. Unfortunetly many of us choose to forget these things soon after we learn them. this book for many of us is not a "fun read" rather a requirement for a class.
You can read this book in about 5 hours and pass the class. I did!

I wish I was aware of this insightful study on women when I was in high school or even junior high--it might have saved me some adolescent grief!

Anyone who wishes to better understand women would benefit from reading this. Simone de Beauvoir's thinking and writing is lucid--she explains things exceptionally well. There are a few literary and philosophical references that are over my head because I'm not familiar with a certain author, nor do I have a philosophy background, but that is a minor distraction.

Some have complained that this work is dated. To my mind, it is only dated from the time she wrote it. Sure, some things have improved for women in the last 60 years in varying degrees, but it's not enough. If it were, why are there still such grave problems related to gender inequality around the world today, in the 21st century: domestic violence, violence against women with impunity, spread of AIDS, poverty, pay inequality, sexual harrassment on the job, etc.? The issues she raised are as relevant today as when she wrote them.

She clearly describes and explains contradictions that women feel in love, marriage, and work. She writes of the ways in which women's frustrations with men--and vice versa, manifests in destructive ways in relationships, and how women's anxiety about work due to parental and societal expectation hinder progress, etc. Much of what she wrote I could certainly relate to!

Her historical, biological, mythical, and literary chapters in the beginning of the book provid much food for thought and helps me to understand how many ideas about women came about. Every chapter in the book seems to flow seamlessly into the next. Whatever thoughts or doubts I had growing up and have now--she has helped to clarify, from the standpoint of societal views and expectations.

I am deeply passionate about women's issues and I LOVE this work. I intend to read it again more than a few times...there is so much to learn and digest!

I found this book enlightening in a number of ways, but especially to understand our contradictory feelings towards marriage and children. This book should be obligatory reading, at least for Argentinian women!

Pleased with the book. We got what we paid for and what we expected. Arrived in a timely fashion.

In "the second sex", de Beauvoir is conducting research to determine how females came to occupy a subordinate social role to males; she turns to biology, historical materialism, and literature where she finds undeniable differences between men and women and countless examples, but no clear reason or justification for woman's implied inferiority.

By walking us through the stages of female's life, de Beauvoir tries to prove that women are not born feminine but shaped by external forces into dependent inferior creatures, or as she put it in her own words:" One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman". Maternity caused society to label women and rob their individuality during youth. Labeling women and forcing them into certain roles inevitably results in women living lives of incompleteness and immanence. Age and the subsequent loss of reproductive ability ends woman's purpose and in turn her identity and usefulness.

Great work, great research but the only reason I'm giving this work three stars is because of the mixed feelings I have about it: I agree with some of de Beauvoir's conclusions: the importance of financial independence for every woman, female character is a result of her situation not the opposite, the difficulty of breaking free from the myth of "femininity", and most importantly, women's own role in reinforcing their dependency and otherness. I strongly disagree though with the claim that being a mother or a wife are unfulfilling roles that exacerbate a woman's inferiority. For me, asking for absolute "equality" and taking away woman's motherhood is as cruel and dehumanizing as depriving females of subjectivity and turning them into objects.

Not to criticize de Beauvoir's personal life, but her fixation with resisting the myth of feminine inferiority drove her to the extreme position, rejecting marriage and having kids. Even though de Beauvoir was committed to her relationship with Sartre, she didn't want to marry him and allowed him and herself marginal romantic encounters with males and females.

The paradox of de Beauvoir loving some body and allowing herself to be with somebody else, to me, is as damaging as what she criticized in her work. It is exactly acting like the men she criticized for treating "the other sex" as objects.

Anyone who is interested in women's issues needs to read this book!
To me it appears to be the best discourse on feminism ever written. Well researched it gives a bilogical, historical ,psychological and philosophical persective of so called feminie condition across the centuries and outlines it with great accuracy and professionalism. It deals with various aspects of woman's life , her roles in the family and the society , her psychology and sexuality. Sure, women's condition changed since the book was written, but it's message still seems shockingly revolutionary. No wonder that its publication almost 60 years ago caused so much fear and hatred.

This book makes very interesting reading not only as a text book, but as general reading material. It makes the reader think about how communication is affected by culture and opens the mind to deeper thoughts about who we are.

I have always been fascinated by hospitals and reading this book allowed me to indulge my fascination. It basically depicts a year in the life of the administrators, doctors, social workers, and other personnel at a very busy Brooklyn hospital. Salamon depicts these characters so vividly, you'd think she was writing a novel. Her subjects definitely come alive on the page.

The primary function of the book is to depict the complexities of running a hospital. The secondary function is to depict the relationship between the hospital and the community it serves, which is traditionally centered on orthodox Jews. Thus, the book is also a fascinating study of orthodox Judaism, at least as lived out in Brooklyn. The area surrounding the hospital is increasingly multicultural (e.g., Chinese, Pakistani) and Salamon also does a great job of depicting these cultures with both clarity and sensitivity.

I have only a few caveats about the book. Much of its focus is on the hospital's cancer center, so it is very "heavy" reading material. It will have you thinking a lot about your own mortality. In no way is it a beach or bedtime read.

There is also a small section of the book concerned with "partial birth" abortion. I thought that it could have been more objective. (It seems clear from reading the section that Salamon is pro-choice, though she spares no gruesome detail in describing the procedure.)

Overall, though, I recommend this book. It packs a lot of interesting material into a reasonable number of pages. It will be a read you won't be able to put down.

Hospital is an amazing book, both as an stand-alone story and a exercise in the art of story telling. You'll enjoy "Hospital" if you enjoyed Salamon's "The Devil's Candy," only instead of experiencing juicy, morbid fascination via a Hollywood bomb, you'll experience a new sense of admiration for hospital workers and the author's talent.

In the beginning, I wondered whether it was possible for someone to bring a hospital to life. They're big, lifeless institutions that lack the drama and personality of similar organizations like a big business (Apple) with a rich history, right? Gay Talese was able to create magical stories about the Brooklyn Bridge and the New York Times, but he's Gay Talese. People loved those books and they helped form the foundation of his reputation. In my opinion, Salamon has reached that level as a storyteller with "Hospital." This is not an easy, cut-and-paste story. She pulls it off and proves she can write well about anything. Anything.

A great non- fiction book makes people do more than read to the end. With this one, I found myself searching out the origins of Hasidic vs. Orthodox Jews, and googling image after image of the characters. I HAD to see what Pam, Dr. Astrow and the others looked looked like.

Salamon became a word doctor, someone able to give life to what I considered to be nothing more than a lifeless institution. Anyone in the health care industry will relate to the travails, and those of us outside it will find a very informative snapshot into this world. As for Salamon, reading this story is like seeing Lenny Kravitz perform live; it's witnessing someone who was born with a gift and using it.

A great read. not only does this book give us an insiders look at healthcare in new york, but also shows us the struggles of new immigrants, and the problems that are facing our hospitals dealing with different languages and cultures. I think Ms. Salamom is a gifted writer and at the end of the day, you really beleive that everyone is trying to do the right thing, inspite of the red tape, bad behavior, money god and yes, diversity on steroids. Kudos to maimonides for allowing this to happen and giving us this wonderful opportunity to learn something new.

Although I was fascinated by the subject - having had relatives in the hospital, and I know many of the people mentioned, I found the book very hard to read.
There was no unifying theme, the book jumped from one subject to another. There was not a compelling narrative nor story line.
I was very disappointed!!

Do not buy this book. It makes patients look like a mass of whining, ungrateful people. Everyone from doctors to administration to hospital workers range from cynical to dissatisfied. Based on this book I would never go to this hospital.