Bentley Reviews

This is the first of Trent's cases that I have read and I am not sure how many there were previously, but this was an enjoyable read. The characters are developed nicely, the plot flows along at a decent pace, and there are enough twists to keep me guessing. Of course, the solution comes from left field, but was rather interesting based upon the characterization of the deceased. A definite old time mystery without much gore and [sexual content], but interesting nevertheless! Maybe I'll read some of his earlier cases.....

Trent makes a lasting impression in this, his first, last and only appearance. Appearing in 1913, "Trent's Last Case" is among the first classic English country murder mysteries. It's all butlers, country houses, motor-cars and dressing for dinner, sprinkled with wry observations on the manners of the wealthy, country folk, inn keepers, servants upstairs and downstairs, police inspectors, husbands, widows, American secretaries and French maids.

We begin with our man Trent arriving in town to investigate a murder. The plot is brisk, without enough clues to make it a whodunit. Trent's an established painter with a national reputation as an amateur detective and newspaper correspondent. An amateur sleuth would be incomplete without a nemesis, so we have a long-time friendly rival, Inspector Murth. The presumption of a long history and the effortlessness of the characters' interactions was drawn beautifully. All is revealed through what the characters say and do, not by long narrative descriptions. I rather wish this was only the beginning for Trent and not the end.

Actually Trent's last case is his first - and his last: E. C. Bentley didn't write another full-length novel (although there is a disappointing collection of short-stories entitled 'Trent Intervenes', I think; the only edition of this I have seen was in the green and white Penguin crime classics). The importance of 'Trent's Last Case' is that it helped to shape a new paradigm in British detective stories: witty, social acute, conservative (to the point of looking down on 'trade'), and flippant bordering on frivolous. We have Bentley to thank for Allingham, Christie, Crispin, Hare, Innes, and Sayers; the alternative could have been more tedious imitators of the Great Detective, Sherlock Holmes.

The first part of the book gives an idea about gaylife in San Francisco at the glory days. No fear of AIDS, just 'concerning' being a top or a bottom and while kissing a man flirting with the bartender.
Then death comes to town. Kevin, the author, just describes he is missing his friends and in the meanwhile is still hungry for sex.

This book has no real message. It is a dating-report of twenty years full of sex. Like a pornmovie, that makes it quite boring after a few pages. On the other hand, it is very honestly and maybe that's the reason that you will read it to the end.

Kevin Bentley's remarkable memoir, Wild Animals I Have Known: Polk Street Diaries And After, is set in San Francisco during the late 1970s and is based on Bentley's personal diary. In 1997 he was 21 years old, bookish, exuberantly promiscuous, laughably romantic, terrified new arrival. A young gay man arrived in the "gay mecca" that was San Francisco, a place where he would stay until his fortieth year. Here detailed are the gay bars, baths, a quirky old financial district book store, a funky apartment building on Nob Hill, street fairs, and side trips to Monterey, Santa Fe, and even West Texas. But it is the stories of love, sex, self-doubt, friendship, and unapologetic partying that comprised the basic elements of the gay lifestyle that truly grab the reader's total attention. Wild Animals I Have Known is an autobiographical "picture window back through time" offering a dramatic, vividly portrayed, and legendary gay milieu.

The entries that Kevin Bentley has chosen to publish from his "Polk Street Diaries" of that era are primarily about sexual adventures, often comic misadventures. Anyone who does not want to read about men having sexual encounters with men should steer away from this book. Like Renaud Camus's TRICKS from the same pre-AIDS era, or Ricardo Ramos's FLIPPING about that time in San Francisco, Bentley was finding out who the men he met were through sex: what they did, how they did it, and the places they lived. It was often the books (or the total lack of books), the recorded music (LPs then),, and the artifacts in a trick's room or apartment that made incompatibility obvious.

"Getting laid" was a focus then and there for gay men (and for most young men most of the time in other eras and locales). However, it was necessary to make a living to have a place to live and to pay bar cover charges (and, perchance, to eat, bhough that was a low priority at the time). The gay novels of Manhattan/Provincetown/Fire Island sex, drugs, and disco elide this, leaving readers to guess how the characters acquired money. Something I particularly appreciate in Bentley's book is his chronicling the difficulty of making a living. It also chronicles what the Swedish investigator Benny Henriksson dubbed "the risk factor of love" (reducing "promiscuity" and having unprotected sex with an HIV-infected partner).

Like the fictional inhabitants of 28 Barbary Lane, Bentley paid no attention to politics (gay, HIV-prevention, or any other kind). Less sexually adventurous than Bentley, and writing in a "family newspaper," Armistead Maupin in his well-known "tales" only hint at what life was like for gay men during "the golden age of promiscuity." Written at the time (though culled recently), these diary entries tells it like it was--without apologies, without shame, and without the chauvinism of "lgtb pride."

This book is absolutely beautiful. A brilliant bedtime story with vibrant colors and gorgeous illustrations. Each page teaches a different color and the illustrations boldly burst with that color. ..., is how the book starts off and we are then led all around this color dreamland. ...The butterflies in the book are popped out and sparkly. As we turn each page the color butterfly we are reading about disappears. Each page mentions the color twice and an animal. The last page reunites all the butterflies and the colorful animals as we say goodnight...My daughter loved this book since she was 4 months old. The colorful illustrations keep her interested and she likes to grab at the popped up butterflies. A delightful story I enjoy reading again and again. I sometimes even read it to myself. The purple page is MY favorite.

My 23-month old daughter loves this book. The butterflies are pretty and sparkly, the illustrations are bright and colorful, and the text is flowing and poetic. She asks to read this book nearly every night. It's also a fun way for her to learn her colors!

What a book! Beautiful butterflies ...my daughter is captivated by them. This book is truly one of our favorites to look at together, especially sitting for a few minutes outside on the porch. I just love this book.
The pages are hearty, but not indestructible. But books will be books, and the real joy is in the wear and tear.
Other favorites: AWAY WE GO! A fun rhyming book about trolley cars, etc. Mama Loves, a beginning book. When Mama Comes Home
Tonight. The Hungry Caterpillar.

I loved Othello . Next to Hamlet it catches the attention and the heart of the reader . This play wraps one up in the world Shakespere recreated of Love Hate Lust Desire and Greed . I say Read it , think about it Tell a friend . I was especailly touched by the actions of Iago. Even though he was Evil incarnate one can find a little of him everywhere . Still this cant compare to the effect the drama gives one if they view it being preformed firsthand.

I have read Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar, and I consider Othello to be Shakespeare's greatest tragedy that I have read to this point. The villain, Iago, is unlike any other villain. His character seems to be pure evil and is, in my mind, the most intense villain created by a writer known for his intense villains. I believe this play has a more enduring value than other Shakespeare works and can still be enjoyed by all today. It puts a clear boundary between good and evil unlike any other Shakespeare tragedy. The play centers on Iago's attempt to ruin Othello after he is passed up for a higher position in Othello's forces for a young, inexperienced soldier, Michael Cassio. He hatched an elaborate plan of evil and Othello falls perfectly into his trap. It is painful to read the play, with the knowledge of Iago's plan, if you develop sympathy for the unsuspecting Othello as he gets closer and closer to the final trap. I find it unbelievably ironic that so small an article as a handkerchief could start off such a chain of death and sadness at the end of the play, but I won't spoil the rest for those who have not read it. If you have not read Othello, please do. It is a brilliant, passionate, tragic, timeless work by perhaps the greatest writer ever.

I bought this book because I am obsessed with England and wanted a coffee table book that portrayed that. The photographs in this book are gorgeous, exemplifying the beauty of England and the villages within. Of course, this book makes me want to travel to the UK and explore all of these historic villages!

I have been to England and its truly wonderful and every bit as lovely as the books pictures, show. I highly recomend this book to anyone who has been to England or planing a trip there soon. You will really enjoy the book...worth every penny. Happy Reading and Happy Travels.

Absolutely beautiful book! Wonderful photographs of the many lovely villages in England that make you feel as if you toured them yourself. Worth every penny.

I rushed out and bought this book after a friend sent me a Visio diagram of PRINCE 2 processes that someone had sent him. I was intrigued by the interrelationships among the PRINCE processes and the organizational structure of a PRINCE 2 project.

What I found between the pages was an eye-opening view of a project management methodology that has been used since the mid-1980s and is the UK national standard. What made this methodology so eye-opening, aside from the fact that I had never heard of it, is that projects are organized in such a manner that ensure that sponsors, business process owners and the project team are working in a consensual environment with clearly-defined lines of communications. In my experience, even on well run projects, this is rarely achieved, yet here is a mature, 15-year old methodology that appears to be in wide use outside of the United States that should be heavily borrowed from in the U.S.

As I read this book I found one best practice after another that definitely need to be incorporated into projects, especially IS/IT projects, which have an appallingly high failure rate. Among the practices documented in this book are: breaking projects into stages and phases (widely known, but unevenly practiced in my experience), basing milestones on deliverables (I've been on too many projects are based on schedules, resulting in 90% complete almost immediately and the remaining 10% takes ten times longer - basing progress on deliverables prevents that sort of sleigh-of-hand), and risk, configuration and change management processes that are totally integrated into the project (something else that's much talked about and abandoned early on, if attempted at all).

I personally found the writing style to be a bit obtuse, but I attribute that to the difference between American and British versions of English. Despite that, this book contains what I consider to be an effective approach to project management, and one that should be adopted on these shores because of the best practices that I cited above. I am reasonably sure that the PRINCE 2 methodology can be married to the U.S. standard, Project Management Body of Knowledge, without affecting the integrity of the PMBOK. I strongly recommend that anyone serious about running a project in an effective, smooth manner read this book and incorporate as many practices as corporate politics will allow. I give it 5 stars and hope we have another British invasion.

This book's main value is to Project Management Professionals (PMPs) and readers who are seeking a viable program management office (PMO) model. The reason for this particular audience is because PRINCE 2 practitioners almost certainly have a copy of Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE 2, which is the official reference for that project management methodology and its certification requirements. PRINCE stands for PRojects IN a Controlled Environment and is Great Britain's counterpart to the U.S. project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) that is the standard reference for PMP certification and is also the American National Standard for project management.

Why PRINCE? It nicely augments the PMBOK in a number of ways, all of which are covered in this book. The book begins with an introduction that explains PRINCE version 2 and its benefits. The next chapter covers the differences between PRINCE version 1 and 2, and can be safely skipped by the potential audience I cited.

Chapter 3 is a complete description of each of the eight PRINCE processes, which are: SU - Start-Up the Project, IP - Initiate the Project, DP - Direct the Project, CS - Control the Stage, MP - Manage Product Delivery, SB - Manage Stage Boundaries, CP - Close the Project, PL - Planning. A few clarifications are in order here: During start-up (SU) the key players are identified and preliminary plans and briefs are developed; during initiation (IP) the initial planning is done and project controls and administration is developed and instituted. Also note the emphasis on breaking down the project into stages (CS and MP), and on deliverables (MP). These are key elements of the PRINCE 2 approach, but can easily be incorporated into the approach outlined in the PMBOK's nine process areas.

The real difference between PRINCE and the PMBOK, and the value of applying the PRINCE approach to organizing a PMO, is the organizational structure, which is covered in chapter 4. The project board and well defined roles and responsibilities required by PRINCE 2 are described in sufficient detail to use the information in this chapter as the basis for a PMO as well as for organizing a project in such a manner that ensures proper communications are established and all key stakeholders are active participants. This organizational structure will go a long way towards a proactive project management posture and will also assure quality. Chapter 5 covers planning, which is fairly generic. It does address the deliverables-based approach and PMPs will find some useful information here. PRINCE 2 practitioners will find nothing new. Chapter 6 addresses project controls with a focus on roles, responsibilities and organizational oversight. This material will be invaluable to anyone setting up a PMO or who wants to run a tight project. Another key difference between PRINCE 2 and the PMBOK is the emphasis that PRINCE places on developing a business case. Chapter 7 thoroughly covers this aspect and also provides forms that will prove useful.

The PRINCE 2 approach to managing risk is covered in Chapter 8, and is nearly identical to the PMBOK approach. The list of risk analysis questions provided at the end of this chapter is complete and worth a careful read. Quality methods embodied in PRINCE 2 and covered in Chapter 9 is significantly different from the PMBOK approach. It does not conflict with the PMBOK, and can be easily integrated into a project run in accordance with the PMBOK. I strongly recommend using the best practices from PRINCE 2, which include developing a project quality plan, stage quality plans and instituting quality reviews as set forth by the PRINCE 2 method. Chapters 11 and 12 cover configuration management and change control in a lot more detail than is given in the PMBOK. Both are essential ingredients of product quality and scope management, and this book gives a thorough and straightforward treatment of both areas.

The appendix is a collection of 25 artifacts (see table of contents for a full listing) that can be tailored to meet your specific requirements.

Overall this is a valuable book that was ostensibly written for PRINCE 2 practitioners, but I personally believe it is of equal value to PMPs or any project manager who wants to learn and apply best practices in project management.

I thought that this book is well presented and very readable. It is what it purports to be but cannot replace the official book in terms of depth and advice. A good buy to keep in your briefcase or as last minute study aid for the examinations in Prince 2

So quickly does amnesia set in with age!

One generation is barely finished acting out the final throes of its rebellion before it turns to condemn the morals and values of the generation which follows. We see this today, of course, but it is nothing new, as Wedekind's play - written a century ago - brings to light with a startling clarity.

Abandoning any pretence of objectivity or realism, Wedekind's A Spring Awakening tells the timeless story of one generation's struggle to come to grips with the emotional and physical changes of adolescence, in the context of the earlier generation's social and sexual mores. As Wedekind makes very clear, it is not the natural impulses of youth that are corrupting, but rather the attempts of the adults to control these impulses by layering them with guilt.

Wedekind's exploration of these themes, while decidedly (and intentionally) one-sided, is a beautifully crafted piece of expressionist theatre. After seeing this play performed, I found myself thinking of it for days; after reading the script, further layers of both meaning and ambiguity came to the fore.

we are going to do this play in drama class, so I read it and was amazed. the plays we put up before were more classical like shakespeare and this seemed to be something a teenager can really relate to. I think every teenager should read this book with it's surprising ending.

Recently observing an adapted performance of Spring Awakening I was stunned at the confronting and amazingly written script of Frank Wedekind. Although written over one hundred years ago the issues involved are still plaguing the children of todays generation. The play is interesting and easily related to by teenage children aswell as older audiences. I thoroughly enjoyed myself while watching the play along with all my companions

W.A. Bentley spent fifty years painstakingly recording snowflakes, frost, rime, sleet and ice in all its forms. Even before "Snow Crystals" was published in 1931, his work was well known, and so popular that eventually a donor provided the (apparently large) amount of money needed to assemble this beautiful collection.

There is a small amount of text at the front of the book, which is moderately interesting. It contains a description of how to take these pictures for yourself, if you'd like to; and a classification of the kinds of snowflake and other ice forms depicted here. The bulk of the book, however, is made up of well over two thousand black and white photographs, the vast majority of them of single snowflakes. You can get an idea of what they look like by clicking on Amazon's image of the cover picture, above; in the book, the images are white on black. You may also want to visit snowflakebentley.com, which contains more examples, and more information about Bentley himself (there is almost none in this book). In most or all cases, Bentley went to the trouble of making a duplicate negative of each snowflake and then cutting out, by hand, the finely detailed image, so that the background to the picture would be pure black.

The results are spectacular. The snowflakes are ethereally beautiful, and the variety is just stunning. However, in case it's not clear from what I've said so far, this is a contemplative book. It's not a book to read: it's a book to browse through, put away, and get out again another snowy day. Children will like it, but just to glance at, not to go through steadily.

Recommended.

Bentley's work is a classic and shows that good science is persistence with attention to detail. Bentley's methods are reproducible by student scientists, professionals and the public.

The book helps challenge the stereotypical "snowflake" (a spatial dendrite) reproduced in K-12 classrooms and commercial store windows. The International Classification of Snow has 80 "basic" types of snow crystals. This book helps everyone make sense of all types. Snow is unique in that it is the most unstable substance on Earth - constantly changing while it is forming, falling and continuing to change once it reaches ground. Even those areas that never experience snow (falling during a storm or accumulated on the ground) actually receive much of their precipitation as snow - the crystals just happen to melt on the way down to the ground.

A 10-year boy once provided me with a simple explanation of what snow really is: "Dead clouds!" Bentley helps us see inside the clouds and inside snowflakes - a special, long-term gift.

I love this book because it gives me a unique feeling of spiritual unity each time I open it. It may be that you will appreciate it for different reasons, but for me, it is a graphic reminder that there is a creative and benign intelligence moving the Universe. Originally published in 1931 this unique book contains 202 black and white plates of snow flakes mounted and photographed with painstaking effort under difficult circumstances by W.A. Bentley aka Snowflake Bentley. Maybe you won't want to sit down and look at each and every one because, of course, they are nearly all the same even though each one is unique, but that's another reason I like the book. It demonstrates so simply and eloquently the unity in diversity.
The photographs are very beautiful and they will be interesting to anyone who is fascinated with weather or with graphics in art, perhaps for textile patterns or silk-screen ideas. The images are copyright free and you can use up to ten of them without fees, permission, or acknowledgement.
There is a very small amount of text at the beginning of this book that tells about the different kinds of snow crystals and a little bit about how the work to capture them on film was done. There is one nice photograph of Bentley at his camera which is charming, but for the most part, this book is dedicated to the snow crystals themselves. Anyone who has stood outside on a cold, crisp snowy day and caught snow crsytals on an upturned mitten and marveled at their exquisite beauty will enjoy this book. The crystals speak volumes and we have Mr. Bentley to thank for cummunicating their message to us.

Phillip Emmons, a pseudonym for horror author Bentley Little, is the author of the serial killer novel "Death Instinct". Published early in Little's career, this one is different from the horror novels that have made Little a household name in the realm of horror fiction. While not a fan of the serial killer novel genre, I found "Death Instinct" to be very entertaining, but not difficult to determine/guess the identity of the serial killer.

The story involves a series of gruesome murders in Phoenix that has police baffled. They can't seem to find any clues and only begin to realize the truth when being tipped off by someone romantically involved with a member of the force. A young boy is actually the one who first suspects the killer. It's difficult to give many details about the book without giving away key elements of the plot and/or clues to the killer.

Needless to say, the identity of the killer shouldn't come as a surprise. It might be a bit farfetched, but the explanation behind the killer's motives is logical. If you enjoy serial killer novels and can locate this one (it's been out-of-print for many years), grab it and enjoy it.

The overall premise of this book is intriguing. A vicious serial killer (the only killings that rival these are the ones in Messiah) is stalking a small area in the city of Phoenix, and between killings we are introduced to Cathy (the novel's central character), her (so mean that its unrealistic) father, Allan (the local know-it-all cop who's hunches are always correct), Jimmy (the nice neighbor kid who's alchoholic father doesn't care about him), and the weird lady and her mentally retarded son who just moved into the haunted house across the street. As the story develops and the characters are intertwined (I bet you don't have to read any more than the list of characters in this review to realize who gets romantically linked. Half of the book is an effective who-done-it, but when we finally find out who is behind the killings, the brakes are slammed on and the reader is forced to ask his or herself "Could _____ actually do that?" The answer is probably not, but the story is still quite chilling and the prerequisite "visit to the expert on the subject" scene is very good. Its hard to write an effective review without placing spoilers all over, but I would recommend this book to anyone who loves the serial killer horror genre. It's an interesting twist on the convention.

Horror writer Bentley Little moonlights in the suspense genre under the pseudonym "Phillip Emmons." Gruesomely original with the most politically incorrect serial killer ever committed to paper. The final setpiece in a Phoenix hospital, is a nail-biter.

I bought this book for a research project I'm doing for college. I thought this would be a great book considering that it had so much of the lost books in it. When I started trying to do my research using this book I couldn't understand it at all hardly. The format was confusing in that stuff was all over the place. I also couldn't tell at times when it was the translators words or the real words from the books. I also think that the translator omitted much of the words and changed things. I would not buy this book again. The only thing that was good about it was that it did have so many of the books in it.

This really has two separate parts. Firstly doctrines of the Gnostics are reconstructed from the viewpoint of those who wrote againsts them, such as Ireneus. These early anti-heretics were for most of the last two millenia our only source of knowledge about the Gnostics. The second part consists of writing by the Gnostics themselves unearthed around 1900 at Nag Hammadi in Egypt and written in Coptic.
The Nag Hammadi writings contain sayings attributed to Jesus that are not identical with those in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These collections of sayings have sometimes been referred to as Gospels, most notably the Gospel of Thomas, although they do not contain anything like a biography of Jesus.
This raises a problem for Christians who believe in the inerrancy of scripture, although none of the sayings contradicts what the Bible says. Conservative Christians, and, I think, the Roman Catholic Church, reject the possibility that the Gospel of Thomas is a old and as authentic as the New Testament. Many scholars believe that they may be from sources as close to Jesus as our Four Gospels are.

Bentley's "Gnostic Scriptures", while it may not be as complete as the Nag Hammadi Library, is for me the more useful volume. The introductions are very detailed, and many conventions of this arcane type of literature are clarified. I don't really understand some of the complaints in the other reviews. Books are grouped by school of thought, and the order seems very logical to me. Many writings are fragmented, and those who wish to read this kind of thing need to learn to deal with brackets. The translation job is generally quite a bit more illuminating than other translations of the same material I have read. This is an excellent resource.