Understanding Surgery By Doctor Joel Berman Presents Medical Info for Families!

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I highly recommend Dr. Joel Berman's Understanding Surgery for your home medical reference bookshelf! I was pleased to be asked to review the 2008 second printing of this major effort, and found that, just as the title says, it is A Comprehensive Guide for Every Family!

One thing I want to quickly point out. Although this book is geared toward Surgery; i.e., Dr. Berman provides complete information that is needed as you are considering surgery, I found that the book is so well presented and written, that it is easily also a wonderful overall medical reference manual. For instance, if you have something that is bothering you in your chest, there is an extensive index that can be used to find different issues to review. Also, since there is no way to totally eliminate the use of hard-to-understand medical terms, Dr. Berman has included an extensive glossary that is written in easily understandable words.

I admit that I'm one of those individuals who is afraid to hear "the bad news" because I find it hard to understand and thus fear interactions with doctors and potential surgeons. However, right from the start of the book, Dr. Berman has taken the time to make readers feel more comfortable--he has written silly, funny, and sometimes outrageous limericks to start each conversation. Then he moves very professionally into describing exactly what is involved and what the patient and family needs to know as they explore the option for surgery.

The manual is divided into two parts. The second part includes a single chapter on anything and everything that may be operable (and even a little about what is not). Dr. Berman moves from his own "general surgery" area, which includes such things as gall bladder, appendix, and transplants. Then he moves into areas for which specialists are normally sought, moving through various parts of the body from head to feet, (including plastic surgery) describing what may be problems, and then what can and would be done through surgery. Each narrative includes detailed diagrams of the affected body area, clearly marked for use in understanding the actual process.

While Part II will be the more important part of this reference manual on an ongoing basis, I found Part I to be very informative. Oftentimes, professionals, especially specialists, are brought in to handle a specific task, or surgery. While we, the patients are grateful, we have no idea what has actually taken place!

Dr. Berman, in Part I, has taken care of this problem! He begins with a brief history of surgery, education of the surgeon and then specialties that have been developed. He talks about the details that we, the patients, wouldn't immediately think about if we were in pain, but that would be very important to us, if we weren't seeing the individual for an immediate medical reason. The book includes what questions to explore with the surgeon(s).

Part I takes us into the surgeon's office, into the operating room and/or an outpatient surgical center, as well as the emergency room. He ensures that we need to talk to our surgeon, consider second opinions, credentials, and qualifications of the individuals involved. Then the issues of postoperative care, complications, infections and antibiotics are covered.

The potential use of lasers or laparoscopy (a method of operating which uses only a few small openings into the abdomen) are, first, explained, and then reviewed as options. The importance of rehabilitation is covered thoroughly. Then more detailed information on problem areas, such as hemorrhage, the issue of diabetes and surgery and problems with wound healing, as well as the importance of anesthesia and the professional in that area are discussed.

In fact, as I reviewed the book, I could not think of anything that I could want to know that was not at least mentioned by Dr. Berman. And, if more information was suggested, then he also provided references, including his first book, Comprehensive Breast Care.

Unfortunately we oftentimes do not think about valuable health-care information until it is too late to spend time reading and learning what we want to know. For this reason, I consider this a must-read/home library requirement! Spend some time right now and prepare for responding to life-threatening issues!

Understanding Surgery: A Comprehensive Guide for Every Family

By Dr. Joel Berman

Branden Books

ISBN: 0-8283-2061-6

496 Pages

G. A. Bixler is co-owner of an online review site of Independent Professional Book Reviewers. She has over 40 years experience in educational administration and publishing. New or well-known, self-published, or small press authors are all welcomed! Compare our prices to other professional book review sites!

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Online Oxford English Dictionary

The most popular and widely accepted dictionary all over the word is Oxford English dictionary. There were two editions of this earlier and the third one is about to launch. The head of the Oxford university press, Mr Nigel Portwood said that the third edition of the dictionary will only be in electronic form. The online version of the Oxford English Dictionary was a great success and this was the inspiration for them to publish the third edition electronically. The first edition of Oxford English Dictionary was printed in 1928 and in the year 1989 the second edition was printed.

There are many benefits for the online version. The online version is more economic. Usually the printed edition was sold for about nine hundred and ninety-five dollars and the online version is available for two hundred and ninety-five dollars. It is always easy to use your desktop or lap to check the word meaning rather than checking the big book with your hands. The space for keeping the book in your shelf can also be saved if you are subscribing the online version.

There are frequent updates provided to the online version which will not be available in the printed version. The printed version contains the meaning of the word, its usage in the history, the proper pronunciation and the etymology. About eighty lexicographers are working for the third edition of Oxford English dictionary. The revised entries will be updated to the online edition every three months. The Amazon has reported a great hike in the sales on online books. Therefore it is sure that the online dictionary will be accepted wholeheartedly by the language lovers. But still then there are many people who prefer to buy the printed version still sticking to the traditional way of reading. But during the time of power loss everyone will be thinking of having a printed edition of the books.

Online Oxford Dictionary [http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-Online-Oxford-English-Dictionary-602.aspx]

Book Review - "Reading Like a Writer," by Francine Prose

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It may seem like ridiculously obvious advice, but it's one of those bits of ridiculously obvious advice that bears repeating over and over again: In order to be a great, or even good, writer, you have to read. Read a lot. And read good writing. In Francine Prose's recent bestseller Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them, she suggests going a step further and reading in a more careful, thoughtful way. After all, what good is recognizing that Virginia Woolf wrote beautifully complex sentences if you don't understand how she pulled them off?

Prose takes the reader chapter by chapter through various elements of writing that can be examined upon a close reading of a text. And they're not all as simple or common as character arc or the use of active verbs. For example, how often have you thought about paragraph breaks? How does a paragraph break affect a reader, and how should you decide when to break them? I get the feeling that most writers, especially new writers, don't think about this at all. If they did, they might say something like "they just break naturally" or "when a new thought begins."

But the point of Prose's observations is that books and stories don't write themselves. Every letter and comma is the result of a decision by a writer--a decision that could have been made differently and changed the meaning of an entire sentence, passage, or story. Try taking a piece of your own writing and playing with the paragraph breaks. Free yourself from the constraints of your first draft; you can always restore it. See how breaking differently makes the text read differently. As Prose puts it, "merely thinking about 'the paragraph' puts us ahead of the game." She makes the following lovely analogy: "The paragraph could be understood as a sort of literary respiration, with each paragraph as an extended--in some cases, very extended--breath."

It's difficult to describe a book such as this by quoting its author, since her entire purpose is to convince you to read other authors. You may not see a paragraph as a breath; you may see it as a story or a question or a piece of information. But in order to discover what role paragraphs play in your own writing, it's useful to read as many other writers as possible, and stop to see what paragraphs mean to their work.

Prose cites mostly older, classic works (though some are fairly obscure), and some more contemporary examples would have been nice--but they also would have caused a nightmarish situation in her publisher's permissions department. The classics, of course, have plenty to teach, and studying them is less likely to make you think, "But I don't want to copy [insert dead white male here]." But in the rather overwhelming "Books To Be Read Immediately" list at the end, you'll find Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son and Alice Munro's Selected Stories alongside Austin and Hemingway.

Let's say you're writing a thriller, and the last thing you want to do is be seen as just another Dan Brown want to-be, so you're staying as far away as possible from anything remotely related to The Da Vinci Code. That doesn't mean you can't attempt to emulate its page-turning style. Read it closely, and look at the paragraphs. The sentences. The chapter breaks. Read other thrillers you like as well, so you'll feel less fear of copying one particular author... but if you have your own story to tell, and your own style, that won't happen anyway. Good writers can learn from one another's work without committing plagiarism or losing their own voices.

In the opening chapters of Reading Like a Writer, I found myself frustrated that Prose was bombarding me with examples without providing quite enough explanation of why she chose them. But, as she might have predicted, this bothered me less as I continued to read--because I found myself more and more able to follow her advice and read carefully (a nice experience for someone who's used to rushing to finish a chapter before the next subway stop).

A few final notes:

Learning to read carefully doesn't mean you have to do it all the time. You can and should still lose yourself in a good book without stopping to analyze the effectiveness of its use of gesture. But just as architects can both study the construction of great buildings and admire their beauty, writers can study the construction of great works, and apply some of the techniques they see to their own writing, without giving up the joy of reading. If you want only the latter, you're not willing to work hard enough to be a successful writer.As its subtitle suggests, Reading Like a Writer is not only a book for writers. I've recommended it to friends who are avid readers, because people who read a lot and like to discuss what they read are also eager to understand why they like what they like. Prose's writing is accessible and engaging, not pedantic or dry. She's expressing, more than anything, her love of great literature, and that's not a feeling exclusive to writers.Francine Prose really, really likes Chekhov's short stories. She devotes an entire chapter to why she likes him so much, one reason being that he was skillful enough to break every "rule" she's ever heard of in writing, including some she's mentioned previously in her very own book. I agree that he's a master of the short story; you should find out for yourself. If you already know you aren't a Chekhov fan, skip that chapter. But read the rest. And then go read all the books on that "Books To Be Read Immediately" list.

Lisa Silverman is a freelance book editor and works in the copyediting department at one of New York's most prestigious literary publishing houses. She has also worked as a ghostwriter and a literary agent representing both book authors and screenwriters. She founded BeYourOwnEditor.com in order to provide writers with free advice on both writing and the publishing business.

You Should Read the Dictionary - I Know it Sounds Crazy, But You Will Be Glad You Did

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Who on Earth would bother to read the dictionary? Well, you are reading an article about someone who did and has read several dictionaries from cover to cover, and I must say has learned a lot along the way. And just in case you think I am crazy, did you know Bill Gates read the entire encyclopedia? Do you think Bill Gates is crazy? What is it that people who read reference books gain? Hmm, well, I think you ought to find out that answer to that yourself.

In fact, I am going to recommend that you read the dictionary, no, not the unabridged Oxford version that is one foot square and ten inches high, yes, I have one of those. It does have just about every word you'll ever read except for the create-a-word blogging bandits vocabulary. Rather, I am going to recommend that you read a smaller version with adequate print. My choice is the;

"Webster's Dictionary" with over 50,000 entries for home, school and office. Edited by John Gage Allee, Ph.D. 1978.

Why do I recommend an older version? Well it does not have all the new buzz words or recent words that you already know, so you are do not have any silly distractions. It's only 446 pages and that is not much bigger than a long novel. Yes the print is smaller than a novel, so maybe its equivalent to a 892 page book, but you can handle that, you are a grown up now. And even if you read only one letter per day you will finish in a month without breaking a sweat and your mind will have more time to soak it up too. Go for it.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Blog Content Service. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance Winslow's Bio

Practical Poetic Anthology

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The A to Z's of poetic styles is a teaching tool every poet should own. It is also extremely entertaining. With Pat Simpson at the helm, the project began.

Patricia Ann Farnsworth-Simpson put out the call to poets from all over the world to poets who knew how to write in particular forms to submit them to this book.

It did help that Patricia is partners with Daveda Gruber and together they own their own poetry site, Poetry with Passion.

Many of the Poets-World-Wide group began submitting poems done in specific poetic styles. This book took time and energy from many poets who worked very hard to produce poems that would entertain the reader while showing the different styles.

Not only is there a genuine glossary, but examples of how to put the tools into effect. This book could help students of poetry and should be available in libraries.

The diversity of the subject matter and the forms used to portray them has brought about a book superior to most. The poets you will find within the pages are talented and some of the best of this generation.

The writers involved are most definitely a 'who's who' in the poetry world. Daveda Gruber, Patricia Ann Farnworth, Tina R. Jussaume, Joseph Spence Sr., Erich Goller, P. F. Kosack, Helen Mcmanus, Joe Hartman, Jacquelyn Sturge, Michael L. Schuh, J. Elwood Davis and Mary Ann Duhart (winner of the best poem for 9/11 competition presented by Poetry with Passion) are just a few of the published authors within the covers of this teaching book.

With pride, the Poets-World-Wide group, have once again, combined for a an outstanding accomplishment.

Physics Reference Book For the Scientist - Book Review

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Most Americans have a pretty good understanding of physics. After all, we all understand gravity, and we know what happens when we turn on the stove and boil water. We also know when we go around the corner too fast in our car everything leans to one side. And most young men have played baseball at sometime in their life so they have a pretty good idea of force, power, kinetic energy, and object's trajectory. All this is "physics" of course.

Still, what if you are a scientist and you understand all that but you need to know or all there is to know, all the mathematical formulations and exactly how everything affects everything else in a scientific way? If these are things that you need to know, then perhaps I can recommend a very good book to you. This is a book that I have in my personal library and I use quite often when coming up with new concepts, innovations, or inventions. The name of the book he has;

"Physics for Scientists" by Randall K. Knight.

This is a reference book for Scientists on the realm of physics. It helps scientists so they don't make any mistakes when they're conceiving a new idea or pushing the limits of thought with new concepts. It's a very excellent book and it makes a nice addition to the library for a graduate physics student or someone that has been studying physics all their live and has some revolutionary new ideas.

The book is fully illustrated, and it is very good. I recommend it to anyone that is involved in the scientific fields, even rocket scientists. I hope you will please consider all this.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes information is power.

Successful Beekeeping ABC's by Terry Martyn Jr

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The preservation of bees is imperative to our continued ability to grow food to feed the plant. Bees are the major pollinators on the plant. Did you know that raising bees can be a stress reduction strategy and can provide a wealth of education for adults and children alike. Raising bees allows you to provide gifts for family and friend, while providing healthy products good for your health. In this book the author discusses the benefits, steps to get started, supports, and other valuable information.

Chapter one looks at the benefits of raising bees, while chapter two addresses the steps to get started. The author discusses the cost involved in set up a bee colony; discusses how much space you will need; the impact of food and water to the hive; the impact of pets and other domestic creatures may have on the bee reproduction; how to manage wild animals, climate and neighbors; and list some important rules and regulations regarding beekeeping.

The next chapter focuses on the most important lessons you will learn while beekeeping. The author then follows up this section with how to find and develop support systems. His recommendations are to join a local beekeeping group which will assist in providing important information, additional resources, strategies to protect the hive, how to increase production of honey and pit falls to avoid. Participation in a local support group will enhance and maintain your development as a beekeeper.

The next section is dedicated to the types of bees, their role and importance to the hive. There are various types of bees and the author makes recommendations on which variation your should start with in order to be successful. In this section the author discusses the importance of the queen, worker and drone bees. He details bee reproduction, how other bees protect the only female bee in the colony and how to promote a high quality queen bee. There is additional information on introducing a new queen bee should the need arise and how to handle the old queen bee. Included in this section is information on drone bees, which are male bees, and how to recognize a drone from a worker bee. The role of the worker bee is to build the honey combs, rear the brood, protect the hive, maintain optimum temperature with in the hive, keep the hive clean and tend to the needs of the queen. The author provides strategies on how to maximize the role of each class of bee.

There is another section on how to produce queen, drones and worker bees. The author provides detailed information regarding the production of each and identifies pitfalls.

The next chapter focuses on the essential equipment for beekeeping. There is information on harvesting the honey; the different types of hives and how to harvest the honey from each; bee gum hives and modern hives. There is instructions and information on how to develop a hive for your bees, what designs provide the most protection; what construction will assist in production of honey; and the history of man made hives.

The next section of the book is dedicated to managing hives, listing the parts of the modern hive and its function. There is important information on the role each part place in protecting and managing the bees. The author discusses the mouse excluder, varroa screen, frame boxes, the effectiveness of plastic foundation sheets for hives, shallow frames, queen excluder, crown board, and roof.

In chapter six the author discusses the importance of the right kind of clothing and the role it plays in protecting the beekeeper. The following chapter lists the tools a successful beekeeper will need to get started, such as the hive tool, bee brush, and the smokers.

Chapter eight is dedicated to getting your bees. The author discusses the advantages and disadvantages to complete bee hives, nucleus hives and how to set one up; packed bees and transferring the bees to the hive; and helpful tips on managing a swarm of bees when setting up the hive. There is a full section on how to prevention bee swarming.

Combing weak hives in order to ensure the growth of both is discussed in the next chapter. He identifies how to combed the hives, lists strategies to ensure production of the combed hives, how to deal with combing to hives with two queen bees, and when is the best time of year to comb weak hives.

The next chapter looks at feeding your bees. There is information on how to introduce medicine to treat and/or prevent certain conditions; how to ensure the hive has enough food after the honey has been harvested; how to keep the hive productive and safe during the winter months. The author lists the food sources most useful to the bees and lists food sources the beekeeper should never give the hive. There is instruction on how to get the right food source to the bees through: entrance feeders, tile division-board feeders, friction top can; and hive top feeders. Additional information regarding pollen or pollen substitutes is provided.

There is a complete section on disease management listing the most common diseases such as: American Foulbrood, European foulbrood, Sacbrood; Parasitic mite syndrome (PMS); and chalk brood. There is additional information on adult bee diseases such as Nosema; and mites. Here the author describes the symptoms and lists ways to identify and treat the diseases.

Many animals and insects are enemies of the bees and can harm and/or destroy the hives. The author identifies each species: bears, birds, ants, cattle, small hive beetle, fogs, fire ants, rodents, raccoons, skunks, and moths. There is also information listed on how to protect the hive and bees from these pests.

The next few chapters provide information on how to manage the hives through the summer, fall, winter and spring; how to examine and what to expect; steps on how to handle your first harvest, extract the honey crop; how to brush the bees; what to do with escape boards, and bee blowers.

At the end of the book there is information and websites for suppliers in the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, and Australia.

Steve Thornton offers a insight into the information product market, researching a number of niche topics and resourcing products in those areas. Please take time to visit the estore at:

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