Behavioral Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach

Book Description

Intended for graduate and upper level undergraduate courses in behavioral ecology where students are already familiar with the basic ideas, this book continues to define the subject. A completely new set of contributions has been brought together once more to take account of the many exciting new developments in the field. Each chapter presents a balanced view of the subject, integrating a clear exposition of the theory with a critical discussion of how predictions have been tested by experiments and comparative studies. In addition, the book points to unreconciled issues and possible future developments. Edited by two of the most highly regarded experts in the field, this new volume contains contributions from an international authorship and continues the tradition of clarity and accessibility established by the three previous editions.

Customer Reviews:

A leader in the field.......2005-04-30

This book is highly regarded in the field of behavioral ecology, and its more of a new volume than an 2nd ed. It focuses on the most advancing areas of the field, so if you are interested in other areas not covered in this edition, like predator-prey dynamics, check out the previous edition. This is a technical book so of course it requires some time and lots of thought to get through, but its definately worth it. For a mult-authored book, this one has been beautifully edited with smooth transitions from chapter to chapter. My favorite chapter was the one on sexual selection. I was already familar with the topic but this account of sexual selection was quite inciteful. If you are seriously studying animal behavior or behavioral ecology (there is a slight difference), this book is a must. Rightly so, it focuses on the ecological and evolutionary aspects of behavior, but there are a few chapters on the proximate cause of behavior as well. Animal behavior has long been studied and described, but it is only with the rigors of evolutionary thought that they are explained and understood, as evident by this book. This field has progressed much in the last few decades, and most would be surprised at how developed and rigorous it has become. The mathematical models presented are for the most part simple to understand and they adequately synthesize empirical evidence. If you are looking for an introduction to the field, start with their book, An Introduction to Behaviour Ecology.

Adequate overview of the field, but too expensive.......2005-03-04

The book basically summarises, without going too much into mathematical modelling which is such a hit with behavioural ecologist seeking regonition of their subject as a HARD science, just like experimental psychologists were doing in the 70's coming up with all sorts if theorem and formulas predicting and quantifying the learning process (to no avail though), the latest developments (NOT adavnces, as most of the theoretical breakthroughs and insights were back in the late 70's) in the field, though I would suggest the money is better spent on the great works of William Hamilton, in 2 volumes, Narrow Roads to Gene Land, or the book Sperm Competition and Sexual Selection edited by Tim Birkhead, whereby you can have an in depth exposition on inclusive fitness and the evolution of sex.

Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach

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Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach
Sun
Manufacturer: Sinauer Associates, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Textbook Binding
ASIN: 0878934332

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Behavioural ecology: An evolutionary approach

Manufacturer: Sinauer Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Behavioural ecology: An evolutionary approach

Manufacturer: Sinauer Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Behavioural ecology: An evolutionary approach

Manufacturer: Sinauer Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Wildflowers of the Adelaide hills
Constance M Eardley
Manufacturer: Axiom Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Flowers | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007AV9Y4

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A recommendation.

Well-done indeed.

Open Lands, Closed Mind?

Great read

Worth a read - SLANTED, but worth a read

Open Lands : Travels Through Russia's Once Forbidden Places
Mark Taplin
Manufacturer: Steerforth
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Travel | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books
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In Siberia

The Other Side of Russia: A Slice of Life in Siberia and the Russian Far East

The Shaman's Coat: A Native History of Siberia

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Roaming Russia: An Adventurer's Guide to Off the Beaten Track Russia and Siberia

Accessories:

Ectaco ER3000 English/Russian Electronic Dictionary

ASIN: 1883642876
Release Date: 1998-09-01

Amazon.com

Mark Taplin went to Russia in 1984, a junior-level diplomat sent deep into Cold War land. He tells of the map he studied, colored green for the few cities where foreigners were allowed, and omnipresent red for "Stay Away." In 1992 Taplin returned. Russia and the U.S. had signed an "Open Lands" agreement allowing free travel, and Taplin wanted to explore the lands that taunted and haunted him from the map eight years before. The result is a book you can't put down, an informed look at a complex country. Russia requires more than a casual eye and pen to sort through the contradictions, and Taplin excels in both.

Book Description

"An extraordinary and beautifully written chronicle that combines the best of different genres: travel writing, journalism, and history . . . A modern classic tale of a foreigner’s travels through Russia."--Kirkus Reviews

VAST FORBIDDEN AREAS, once marked in red on official maps of the Soviet Union, were suddenly thrown open for travel in 1992 when the United States and Russia signed the "Open Lands" agreement which allowed free travel throughout both countries. For nearly 75 years whole cities and regions, roads, rail lines, and rivers, had been colored crimson on the maps, hidden from the prying eyes of foreigners by the secretive Soviet government.
Taplin interpreted the Open Lands agreement as an invitation to hit the road, visiting seven cities and regions – from the Arctic to the Caucasus, from Gorky in the west to Kamchatka in the far east – which had been barred to foreigners for decades. Taplin’s report of what he found, Open Lands, is an exhilarating, rugged journey into the world of ordinary Russians.
"While Open Lands does not pretend to be a scholarly work," wrote the Moscow Times, "there is enough research here to satisfy the historian. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read . . . a heartfelt evocation of lands and peoples struggling to come to grips with their past and their future."

Customer Reviews:

A recommendation........2007-03-10

I agree that this is very well-written, and would definitely recommend it others. Also, for a similar look, but a different time period, look at George Kennan's Tent Life in Siberia: An Incredible Account of Siberian Adventure, Travel, and Survival - it's terrific.

Well-done indeed........2004-07-14

As an American who has lived in Russia at various times over 4 decades, over 40 years, both under Communism and in the decade since the fall of the Communist regime, I can say "Open Lands" really resonates. The author has done an excellent job of conveying the feel of the place - the look, climate, atmosphere. Beyond that, he's done a very good job indeed weaving the larger political and historical context into the work, so that places are set in time and space. Beautifully written, sensitive, accurate, telling account with great eye for detail. Fascinating, and worth buying.

Open Lands, Closed Mind?.......2004-01-12

This is basically a time-warp report which punishes Russia about past tragedies, human suffering, and sly politics; written with a sort of morose satisfaction. It's not about the Russian spirit successfully striving to leapfrog from the 19th century Russian culture into the 21st century global culture. Readers will either rub their hands with glee at the sullen, false representation of Russia's lost century as still extant, or they will admire the spirit, creativity and willpower of a people strong enough to bounce from a 3rd world country to a fledgling 1st world country...in just ten years!

For the savvy reader, the book does provide a remarkable opportunity to read between the lines and compare new news with old history. The trap for the unwary reader is to take the author's second-hand descriptions of old Russian tragedies and past injustices as a blanket picture of present day. He lovingly describes the infrastructure conditions left over from an oppressive era; cracked buildings, ex gulag-prisoners' memories, hidden mass graves, cold trains, sheep's-head dinners, 1940-truck repairs, out-dated clothing, smuggling, mud, vodka, no bitumen, and so on.
All seems hopeless and the read can be a bit of a downer unless one slaps himself awake to realize that Russia is not starting from the bottom. It's not an apathetic, fly-blown, poverty stricken bog that can't feed itself. In reality, there is no-one starving, the trains are clean and do run on time. They have industry, science, medicine, atomic energy, universities, space travel, literature, art, agriculture, creative spirit, smiles and hope.
Otto von Bismark, the Prussian chancellor, once commented, "The Russians may take a long time to saddle their horses, but when they ride, they ride!"

I give the book three stars for reporting, with seeming relish, only the unsavory.There's an opportunity for the author to redeem his objectivity and do the trip again in present time for Volume Two. It would make a very interesting read. Except next time, interview the people who are remaking the country; shave, bathe and leave the back-pack at home.

Great read.......2003-10-18

A former member of the US embassy staff in the old Soviet Union, Taplin is able to walk you through the booze fueled transistion from communism to democracy.

It's not a blow by blow historical read but a time stamp of someone who was there when these events happened and chronicles the reactions of the average Yuri on the street to the countries tectonics.

The title is a reference to the agreement (the Open Lands agreement) signed between the US and Russia that allowed each others citizens unimpeded access to the areas of the respective countries. When Nikita Kruschev came to America he was irate at not being allowed to visit LA. It was closed. With the new open lands agreement Taplin journeys to the previously unvisited (by Americans) towns of Russia.

A great job.

Worth a read - SLANTED, but worth a read.......2002-08-23

A good effort, and most of it is interesting and entertaining. His description of the mood and conditions are quite accurate and illuminating.

Which is the rub - his bias gives the book a feel of one written at the height of the Reagan era, and not by a typical American travelling Russia in the 90s. An 'Information Officer' in the U.S. embassy, son of a spook... 'nuff ced. His description of Russian trains clearly show he's NEVER ridden on Amtrak, and his condemnation of 'soulless monumental Stalinist architecture' makes me wonder WHERE in Washington D.C. he was living.

The main annoyance with the book is his constant references to some mysterious pre-revolutionary golden age in Russia. Basically, he seems to feel that everything SINCE the Revolution was bad, and everything BEFORE automatically good (perhaps coming up with spin for the State Dept. has made it easy for him to ignore the pre-revolutionary 90% illiteracy, NO health care, serfdom, etc. - he doesn't seem to recall that the schoolkids he talks to wouldn't have BEEN schoolkids under old Nicky II).

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Usborne Internet-linked Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, The

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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The Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World Religions

The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia Of World History

ASIN: 0439438381

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The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (History Encyclopedias)
Gill Harvey , Struan Reid , and Jane Chisholm
Manufacturer: E.D.C. Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Encyclopedias | Reference & Nonfiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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The Usborne Encyclopedia of the Roman World: Internet-Linked (History Encyclopedias)

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The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt (Landmark Books)

ASIN: 0794501184

Book Description

Trees are a major component of the biosphere and have played an important part in the world's history and culture. With the modern challenges of global warming and dwindling fossil fuel reserves, trees, and in particular their wood, can provide solutions. Unfortunately, too little is known about the biology of these plants, due largely to a lack of appropriate techniques. In recognition of this, Wood Formation in Trees presents a variety of detailed techniques and protocols for the study of the cell and molecular biology of wood formation in trees. Internationally recognized experts, most of whom are the researchers who developed the techniques, speak with authority in this volume, and also provide first-hand tips and trade secrets to help the uninitiated master the techniques. The techniques reflect a hierarchical approach to the study of the developmental biology of wood formation: anatomical, biochemical and molecular-genetic. Trees are a tremendous but vastly under-appreciated natural resource. In an age where the natural product is so often modified to suit modern tastes and industrial processes, it is essential to understand how the natural product is made. The techniques in this book provide that essential information about the process of wood formation in trees.

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The Infra-red Spectra of Complex Molecules
L. J. Bellamy
Manufacturer: Methuen & Co.; John Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CJZYS

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The Infra-red Spectra of Complex Molecules
L. J Bellamy
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H4REC6

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The infra-red spectra of complex molecules
L. J Bellamy
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 047006417X

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The Infra-red Spectra of Complex Molecules
L.J. Bellamy
Manufacturer: Methuen & Co Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0416548008

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The Infra-Red Spectra of Complex Molecules
L. J. Bellamy
Manufacturer: Methuen & Co. LTD B19, Blue
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RL0VN8

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The Infra-Red Spectra of Complex Molecules.
L J Bellamy
Manufacturer: Methuen 1958.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CIVBW

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Infra-red Spectra of Complex Molecules. Second Edition.
L.J. Bellamy
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000V20U3O

Book Description

This book studies the problem of designing, at minimal cost, a two-connected network such that each edge belongs to a cycle of bounded length. This problem arises in the long-term planning of telecommunications networks. The book provides an in-depth study of the underlying polyhedron, proposing several classes of facet-defining inequalities that are used in a branch-and-cut algorithm. Several heuristics are also proposed in order to solve real-world instances of the problem, and extensive numerical results are reported. The polyhedral analysis is done in the best mathematical programming tradition. Results obtained here demonstrate how to use polyhedral theory for practical network design problems, and are therefore of interest for mathematical programming practitioners as an application of classical theoretical concepts. Moreover, telecommunications specialists can find practical solutions to real-world problems, as several heuristics are proposed that can be easily extended to related problems. Audience: Operations research and mathematical programming researchers, and telecommunications specialists.

ORIGINAL PRINTED PATENT APPLICATION NUMBER 17,564 FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ANTI-RHEUMATIC RINGS. (1910)

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ORIGINAL PRINTED PATENT APPLICATION NUMBER 17,564 FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ANTI-RHEUMATIC RINGS. (1910)

Manufacturer: HMSO
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HIEQEG

Ring Constructions & Applications (Series in Algebra, Volume 9)

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Ring Constructions & Applications (Series in Algebra, Volume 9)
Andrei V. Kelarev
Manufacturer: World Scientific Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9810247451

Book Description

This book contains the definitions of several ring constructions used in various applications. The concept of a groupoid-graded ring includes many of these constructions as special cases and makes it possible to unify the exposition. Recent research results on groupoid-graded rings and more specialized constructions are presented. In addition, there is a chapter containing open problems currently considered in the literature.

Ring Constructions and Applications can serve as an excellent introduction for graduate students to many ring constructions as well as to essential basic concepts of group, semigroup and ring theories used in proofs.

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Cabo One and Two Family Dwelling Code: Application and Commentary

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Ring-bound
ASIN: B000HCUYV6

Product Description

1995 application and commentary version, Eliminates conflicts and duplications among the regional model codes which results in national uniformity. Mechanical, plumbing and electrical code requirements are included along with construction and occupancy provisions.

Guide to Accounting Software for the Construction Industry and Requirements Analyst program

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Guide to Accounting Software for the Construction Industry and Requirements Analyst program
Sheldon Needle
Manufacturer: Computer Training Services
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Ring-bound

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ASIN: 0917429117

Book Description

This Guide and optional software needs assessment program evaluates leading mid-range accounting systems for contractors. The Guide includes a narrative critique of each package, ratings for each package against l000 feature/functions, and comparative charts on pricing, hardware, etc. The Requirements Analyst needs assessment program allows the user to prioritize his/her needs by entering a weighting of how important each feature is. The program then ranks the packages by the percentage of needs met to tell you which packages to focus on in the Guide. Packages evaluated are: BMS for Windows, BuildSoft, Capstone, ComputerEase, Deneb, Forefront, MasterBuilder, Profit Builder Millenium, Newstar Technologies, Sirius GT Accounting for Windows, Solomon IV for Construction, Starbuilder, The Construction Manager, The Contractor, Timberline Extended, Timberline Standard.

A unitized piston design for hydraulic cylinder applications (SAE)

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A unitized piston design for hydraulic cylinder applications (SAE)
Terry Rudd
Manufacturer: Society of Automotive Engineers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00072T9DU

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Poet's Pen: A Review of Claudia Rankine's Don't Let Me Be Lonely

A necessary book

Don't Let Me Be Lonely is an excellent book!!!

America in All Its Lyrical Truth

Very moving

Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric
Claudia Rankine
Manufacturer: Graywolf Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Plainwater: Essays and Poetry

ASIN: 1555974074
Release Date: 2004-08-26

Book Description

In this powerful sequence of TV images and essay, Claudia Rankine explores the personal and political unrest of our volatile new century

I forget things too. It makes me sad. Or it makes
me the saddest. The sadness is not really about
George W. or our American optimism; the
sadness lives in the recognition that a life can
not matter.

The award-winning poet Claudia Rankine, well known for her experimental multigenre writing, fuses the lyric, the essay, and the visual in this politically and morally fierce examination of solitude in the rapacious and media-driven assault on selfhood that is contemporary America. With wit and intelligence, Rankine strives toward an unprecedented clarity-of thought, imagination, and sentence-making-while arguing that recognition of others is the only salvation for ourselves, our art, and our government.

Don't Let Me Be Lonely is an important new confrontation with our culture, with a voice at its heart bewildered by its inadequacy in the face of race riots, terrorist attacks, medicated depression, and the antagonism of the television that won't leave us alone.

Customer Reviews:

Poet's Pen: A Review of Claudia Rankine's Don't Let Me Be Lonely .......2006-11-24

As a literary genre still fighting for a kind of ironic legitimacy, prose poetry received a Hail Mary the length of Doug Flutie's 1986 game-winning touchdown pass when Claudia Rankine published Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric with Graywolf Press in 2004. Not since I first discovered Carolyn Forché's "The Colonel" have a felt that I understood exactly what "real" or "good" prose poetry is, until reading this book.

Unlike other prose poets--including Lyn Hejinian's seminal "My Life," which would have better served its stated purpose if broken into traditional poetic lines--Don't Let Me Be Lonely needed to be written as a mixed-genre prose poem.

Some authorities debate whether prose poetry even exists as its own legitimate form, i.e., with structural guidelines and conventions. Reading prose poems by Hejinian, Forché, and Rankine, however, can provide such a working definition. Prose poetry: a) is poetry without--or uses a deliberate minimum of--line breaks, b) uses prosaic language, often including full sentences and sentence fragments, c) relies as much or more on vivid imagery as narrative, i.e., traditional prose devices such as plot and character development are sublimated to the elevated, imagistic language of poetry, and d) while imitating the form of narrative prose, appears without its traditional sequence.

The difficult thing about prose poetry is that it straddles the fence between poetry and prose, pushing the defined boundaries of both. (Ever hear of flash fiction? James Joyce? Baudelaire? Even contemporary fiction-memoir master James Frey stole a stylistic note from prose poetry.)

Far too many people are compelled to place a work in one category or the other, but prose poetry defies such categorization. Don't Let Me Be Lonely is no exception in this regard. The book uses a mixed genre style that will likely remain a lasting legacy for future poets. Rankine's long been known for experimental multi-genre writing. She seamlessly blends the poetic lyric, the essay, and the television stills in this politically charged masterpiece. The prose form allows her to create a tumbling, strangely open form. It flows organically, intuitively between the images and different writing styles.

Reading Don't Let Me Be Lonely is like watching someone throw metaphoric carbonic acid onto a Maya Angelou or Zora Neale Huston novel: the traditional form of prose has dissolved into an imagistic stream of consciousness, which reflects the narrator's dissolving sense of self.

Writing as an introduction for Ms. Rankine at a 2005 reading at the Pratt Institute, A.L.McFadden noted that "in a lot of ways, Don't Let Me Be Lonely reads like an autobiography, but if anything, it's the autobiography of American culture and not just Rankine herself." Her, and by inference America's, self-dissolution comes arrives as a result of the constant barrage of bad news, racism, and misleading rhetoric by 'uncaring', 'elitist' politicians, combined with a growing isolation particularly afflicting urban poor/working class single persons. The book's moral and socio-political criticism is as relentless as its language is personal and touching:
"I don't know, I just find when the news comes on I switch the channel. This new tendency might be indicative of a deepening personality flaw: IMH, The Inability to Maintain Hope, which translates into no innate trust in the supreme laws that govern us. Cornel West says this is what is wrong with black people today--too nihilistic. Too scarred by hope to hope, too experienced to experience, too close to dead is what I think."

Anyone who's been suicidal could write with the same pen as Rankine as she describes calling 1-800-SUICIDE in a moment of desperation:
"You explain to the ambulance attendant that you had a momentary lapse of happily. The noun, happiness, is a static state of some Platonic ideal you know better than to pursue. Your modifying process had happily or unhappily experienced a momentary pause. This kind of thing happens, perhaps is still happening."

Even those who have not cannot deny the power of her words and images. A Jamaican-American, Rankine's a storyteller in the old-fashioned sense in that her narrative is no more important than images such as "She was the kind of woman who liked to shrug; deep within her was an everlasting shrug. That didn't seem like a death." As I read the piece, I picture Rankine sitting in her dining room speaking the story of "Don't Let Me Be Lonely" to a group of her grandchildren. If I were one, I'd listen to it over and over.

Rankine's passages are frightfully alive; her cadence gorgeous. The words leap off the page into my mouth, pulling on my tongue until I speak them aloud. She seems a natural heir to the powerful African-American/Caribbean oral traditions, a kind of pre-history that can be traced back through ancestry, culture, and lineage to the beginnings of human civilization. The same spoken traditions that have given rise to modern cultural achievements such as the Black Arts literary movement, the Blues, Hip-Hop and Rap, Gospel/Soul, and Jazz, are hard at work in Claudia Rankine's unique voice.

A necessary book.......2006-06-27

This is one of the books that defines our times. Greatly humourous and pleasantly dark in that ache to release you into the way you know personally, it's a book that comes to us and makes us say "oh, yes, that's it, exactly"--Personal, political, TV culture, taking lunch with a friend, reading a book, sitting up nights with insomnia, reaching out or wanting to learn to again reach out through the divides that silence us, bar us within our American apartments, border us inside of our familiar yet often dreary patterns, make us wary of change, exception, risk, thus creating risk, enmity, division and the loneliness we are so wanting not to face. Rankine's deftly-written prose-poem-political-poetics-essay collection challenges notions of poem, of self, of genres, of culture as she embodies in these smartly written sections through her mobile pronoun use, her pop culture references, her reflections on self and other, the way we need to put out a hand and take the risk of reaching towards another even before they reach out to us: before being loved, to love. How necessary! I simply want to thank her for reminding me of this as I go back and back and back into these pages, always finding more there, deeper.

Don't Let Me Be Lonely is an excellent book!!!.......2005-09-29

This book is a wonderful example of truth in creative writing. I love how personal it is and how wonderfully the personality of the author comes through every page. I highly recommend this book to anyone, it's not like anything I've read before.

America in All Its Lyrical Truth.......2005-04-17

Image and word shape a unique poetry collection that only Rankine can deliver. The shape of this book initially drew my attention. However, I was not necessarily attracted to the book's front cover. Nevertheless, the selected photographs throughout the collection fit perfectly with the political nature of some of the poems.

The book itself has no index, thus making the entire structure of the book unconventional, a word describing Rankine's vision of America in all its "darkness." I would like to believe that the author intended for readers to read all of the poems as one (considering that there is no index), thus making a linear reading mandatory. However, I read pieces of some of the poems, especially the lists, without specific care.

The photographs grabbed me by the throat. For example, the photograph accompanying the poem on page 117 shocked me. Nelson Mandela wears an "HIV Positive" shirt. The image made me think about the labels used in reference to HIV/AIDS. His smile and the two words, printed on his shirt, spoke loud.

I would like to believe that each of the poems reshapes the way we see paragraph form. The use of illustrations and lists disrupt the linear or "organized" way in reading these prose poems. As reader, I find myself conflicted by reading these poems. I am lost in a sense and I want that completion to be there in my whole/complete/unified reading. The poems on page 99 and 100, for example, create that tension. Thus, the use of dialogue, lines, prose pieces and images create a cross-flow of interventions, which I read as subversive.

I love this poetry collection because it has given me the courage to experiment more with my prose poetry. I also love it because it uses images to radically critique and, perhaps, heal. What I find most interesting is the theme that image marks memory. Almost all of our senses are called to the surface here.

I am drawn to the way in which the poems make me think about many issues buried in the psyche. For example, the poem about Princess Diana made me think about scratching the surface of (an apparent) "universal" mourning and sense of loss. The poem on page 83 made a difference in terms of the law/Law and who protects us from terror/crime. Plus, it made me think about the who in that "us" equation.

In sum, Rankine speaks from a range of mediums that speak her poetry. They speak her voice. They shape her vision. Thus, is the brilliance of this poetry collection.

This collections is ideal for courses in Women's Studies, Feminist Studies, Ethnic Studies, Literary Studies, especially Graduate Studies in Poetry.

Very moving.......2004-12-08

I just got this book on a friend's recommendation and thought that I would glance through it before going to sleep but I couldn't put it down. I ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting and can't wait to go through it again. It is so beautifully written and complex and moving. It is not like a typical poety book in that it is structured more like essays but the essays blend together and fold into one another. It is like poetry in that the choice of words and phrases makes the work very emotionally charged and, well, I know this is a corny word, but I would say profound. It really is a work of art.

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