Infanticide and Parental Care (Ettore Majorana International Life Sciences Series ; V. 13)

Book Description

Infanticide is an extremely complex behavioral pattern that occurs throughout the animal kingdom and it must be considered not only in isolation but also from the viewpoint of an animal's care of its young. The concept of infanticide is considered in different mammals such as humans, primates, pinnipeds, lions, dwarf mongooses and prairie dogs and in non-mammals including insects and birds. This book also views the topic in different environmental conditions such as the natural habitat of an animal and animals kept in laboratory conditions.

Infanticide and Parental Care (Ettore Majorana International Life Science Series)

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Infanticide and Parental Care (Ettore Majorana International Life Science Series)
S. PARMIGIANI
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MU6WNM

Book Description

Application-specific regular array processors have been widely used in signal and image processing, multimedia and communication systems, for example, in data compression and HDTV. One of the main problems of application-specific computing is how to map algorithms into hardware. The major achievement of the theory of regular arrays is that an algorithm, represented as a data dependence graph, is embedded into a Euclidean space, where the integer points are the elementary computations and the dependencies between computations are denoted by vectors between points. The process of mapping an algorithm into hardware is reduced to finding, for the given Euclidean space, a new coordinate system that can be associated with the physical properties of space and time - so called space-time. The power of the synthesis method is that it provides a bridge between "abstract" and "physical" representations of algorithms, thus providing a methodological basis for synthesizing computations in space and in time. This book will extend the existing synthesis theory by exploiting the associativity and commutativity of computations. The practical upshot being a controlled increase in the dimensionality of the Euclidean space representing an algorithm. This increase delivers more degrees of freedom in the choice of the space-time mapping and leads, subsequently, to more choice in the selection of cost-effective application-specific designs.

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A Good Story, Well Written

Great characters but somewhat predictable

Dark Room

Dark Room - Best book I've read this year!

An action-packed book where one tantalizing clue is revealed after another

Dark Room: A Novel
Andrea Kane
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Double Take: FBI Thriller

ASIN: 0060741341
Release Date: 2007-03-27

Book Description

Seventeen years ago, Morgan Winter was traumatized by the discovery of her parents' brutally murdered bodies in a Brooklyn basement on Christmas Eve. Now shocking new evidence overturns the killer's conviction and Morgan is confronted with the horrifying realization that the real killer is still out there.

Trapped in an emotional hell, she hires Pete "Monty" Montgomery, the former NYPD detective who first investigated her parents' homicides. Now a PI, Monty has a personal score to settle—a promise he made to Morgan, the helpless child long ago, that he'd find her parents' killer. With nothing more than an old case file and the original crime scene photos, Monty enlists the specialized skills of his son, Lane, a photojournalist whose job is a perfect cover for the clandestine image analysis he conducts for the CIA. Constantly thrill-seeking, Lane is used to gambling and putting his own life on the line—for country, for journalistic integrity, for the adrenaline rush. But this time, the stakes are different . . . and this time, he can't afford to lose.

The murderer is still at large and has never stopped watching Morgan from the shadows, making sure a dark secret remains buried. Now, Morgan's fierce determination to uncover the truth consumes her, plunging her into the dark and terrifying past and an increasingly dangerous present.

Lane is closing in on the truth. But in a cruel twist of fate, what he exposes may be far more shocking and devastating to Morgan than anyone could imagine.

Customer Reviews:

A Good Story, Well Written.......2007-08-23

As with all of Kane's stories, this one is well written and a pleasure to read. Am looking forward to her next novel.

Great characters but somewhat predictable.......2007-08-13

Nightmares have plagued Morgan Winter since discovering her parent's corpses when she was ten. During that intense time, she bonded with the detective assigned the case. With the culprit in jail, she felt a small sense of relief until it is uncovered that he confessed to the crimes in order to avoid a cop killing conviction, and the crime is once again unsolved. The now retired detective, Pete Montgomery, always felt that the wrong person was convicted, and now Morgan has hired him to find the real killer. With the aid of his son Lane, a photographer who freelances for several clandestine organizations (thus having great resources and equipment), new details in the crime scene photos pop up to provide more questions. Lane and Morgan form an instant attraction. But as the investigation gets closer to the truth, Morgan becomes a target.

In a follow up to "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" featuring Pete's daughter Devon, Kane's latest is packed with action, but it's a bit predictable (I guessed the culprit within the first couple chapters). In Morgan, she's created a heroine that's both strong and fragile at the same time, and it's nice to see a hero in a job other than police detective. Despite the flaws, readers will be enthralled with how the story plays out as, Kane is a master at creating compelling characters.

Dark Room .......2007-07-24

When Morgan Winter learns that the man convicted of her parent's murder seventeen years ago did not commit the crime, she is determined to find the real killer. Morgan hires former police detective turned PI, Pete 'Monty' Montgomery. Working with Monty is his handsome, daredevil son and top photographer, Lane.

With the killer desperate to keep his identity secret, the danger to Morgan escalates. Monty and Lane are determined to keep Morgan safe until they find the killer, and they will find the killer because failure is not an option.

Wow! Dark Room is a very intense book! Andrea Kane is an amazing author. From the first paragraph Ms. Kane drew me into the suspenseful world of Morgan Winter. I felt all of Morgan's emotions, from her sadness over losing her parents to her desire for the gorgeous Lane. Who can blame Morgan, Lane is utterly delectable. Smart, dangerous and Alpha, Lane is the full package.

I loved Dark Room! The suspense kept me on my toes and on the edge of my seat. The romance was just as thrilling. Overall I couldn't have asked for a better romantic suspense novel!

Annmarie reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Dark Room - Best book I've read this year!.......2007-05-31

This is Andrea Kane at her best. It had me hooked right from the start with great characters and a plot loaded with twists and turns. It is also a very touching story. I couldn't put it down it was such an edge of your seat page-turner. I've read all of Kane's contemporary romance books and this one is definitely her best yet. If you like reading romantic suspense from Nora Roberts, Karen Robards, Jayne Ann Krentz, Linda Howard, etc.; you will love Andrea Kane's latest novel-Dark Room.

An action-packed book where one tantalizing clue is revealed after another.......2007-05-30

When Morgan Winter was just a child, she discovered the bloody bodies of her murdered parents on Christmas Eve. Luckily, Arthur and Elyse Shore, close friends of her mother and father, were there to pick up the pieces of her life, take her in and raise her as their own along with their biological daughter, Jill, Morgan's close friend.

Now Morgan and Jill run Winshore, a top-quality matchmaking service that strives to match men and women with their true loves --- not just on a superficial level but on a deeper and more meaningful plane. Morgan has rebuilt her life and moved on, even though the murder of her parents has always loomed over her. With Christmas just ahead, however, the past surfaces to haunt her again.

Morgan is dreaming of her parents, reading her mother's old journals and studying photos of herself and them in happier days. With the killer convicted and locked away, the past should be behind her, but Morgan can't shake the experience that is always with her just below the surface.

When old friend and retired police detective Pete Montgomery shows up on the doorstep of Winshore, Morgan knows it doesn't bode well for her peace of mind. Detective Montgomery, or Monty as he's known to friends and family, tells her that the wrong man was convicted all those years ago, and the person who killed her parents and destroyed her life has been free all along.

While Morgan is shaken to her core, rather than falling apart she immediately hires Monty, now a private investigator, and determines to see for herself that the right man is caught and punished for this horrible crime. Luckily for Morgan, she is surrounded by loving family and friends. The Shores, Jill and Monty do their best to see that Morgan is supported and upheld in this turbulent time that is shaking them all to their very foundation.

Morgan also meets and is immediately attracted to Monty's son, Lane, a photojournalist who conducts undercover image analysis for the CIA. Lane is used to living life on the edge. One thrill after another suits him just fine. His previous exploits, however, are nothing compared to the adrenaline that flows through his body when he meets Morgan.

Lane is drawn into the mystery surrounding Morgan's parents when Monty asks him to enhance and scrutinize the crime scene photos of Morgan's parents. He quickly becomes confidante and protector to Morgan as well.

It's obvious that Morgan, Monty and Lane's investigation is coming too close for comfort when Morgan and Jill's home is broken into and trashed, a frightening warning is left for Morgan as a cease-and-desist order, and one of Morgan's clients is the victim of a hit and run. Is anyone close to Morgan safe now, or has she placed everyone she loves in greater danger?

Regardless of what happens, Morgan knows the only key to lasting peace and happiness is unmasking the person who killed her parents and stole her youth. The question is, will that truth set her free or will it annihilate her when she finally learns it?

DARK ROOM is an action-packed book where one tantalizing clue is revealed after another. The chemistry between the characters is warm and humorous, and they come across as real people who love and care deeply for one another. I found myself wanting to remain in their company and know what happened next even after the book ended.

--- Reviewed by Amie Taylor

Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics)

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Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics)
R. K. Narayan
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1400044766
Release Date: 2006-03-07

Book Description

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

R. K. Narayan (1906—2001) witnessed nearly a century of change in his native India and captured it in fiction of uncommon warmth and vibrancy. The four novels collected here, all written during British rule, bring colonial India into intimate focus through the narrative gifts of this master of literary realism.

Swami and Friends introduces us to Narayan’s beloved fictional town of Malgudi, where ten-year-old Swaminathan’s excitement about his country’s initial stirrings for independence competes with his ardor for cricket and all other things British. The Bachelor of Arts is a poignant coming-of-age novel about a young man flush with first love, but whose freedom to pursue it is hindered by the fixed ideas of his traditional Hindu family. In The Dark Room, Narayan’s portrait of aggrieved domesticity, the docile and obedient Savitri, like many Malgudi women, is torn between submitting to her husband’s humiliations and trying to escape them. The title character in The English Teacher, Narayan’s most autobiographical novel, searches for meaning when the death of his young wife deprives him of his greatest source of happiness.

These pioneering novels, luminous in their detail and refreshingly free of artifice, are a gift to twentieth-century literature.

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maximal effect by a minimal use of words
Memories of war - simply told
A national portrait
Amazing!
top ten of past year

The Dark Room: A Novel
Rachel Seiffert
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375421041
Release Date: 2001-05-01

Book Description

A debut novel that retells the history of twentieth-century Germany through the experiences of three ordinary Germans.

Helmut: A boy born with a physical deformity finds work as a photographer’s assistant during the 1930s and captures on film the changing temper of Berlin, the city he loves. But his acute photographic eye never provides him with the power to understand the significance of what he sees through his camera. . . . Lore: In the weeks following Germany’s surrender, a teenage girl whose parents are both in Allied captivity takes her younger siblings on a terrifying, illegal journey through the four zones of occupation in search of her grandmother. . . . Micha: Many years after the war, a young man trying to discover why the Russians imprisoned his grandfather for nine years after the war meets resistance at every turn; the only person who agrees, reluctantly, to help him is compromised by his own past.

The Dark Room evokes the experiences of the individual with astonishing emotional depth and psychological authenticity. With dazzling originality and to profound effect, Rachel Seiffert has re-envisioned and illuminated signal moments of the twentieth century in all their drama and complexity.

Customer Reviews:

maximal effect by a minimal use of words.......2005-03-01

This book excellently deals with the loser's side of European world war 2. Back in 1945 Germany was at its 'Stunde Null' (= zero hour): a terrible war lost, a country devastated, its eastern provinces annexed by Poland and Russia, and nearly all its young males killed. A country left with countless homeless people, countless refugees, and, above all, a towering guilt resulting from all horrendous Nazi-crimes.

Given the way Adolf Hitler behaved in the countries he conquered, it's not surprising that the world wasn't interested in the whereabouts of the Germans after the war. But by now, half a century later, we see curiosity taking over: how did the Germans manage in those terrible times? How do German children and grandchildren deal with the very black moral inheritance from their parents and grandparents? And that's where Rachel Seiffert comes in.

Her sparse, economic use of words reflects the total absence of luxury at 'Stunde Null'. Seiffert surely is a master in getting a maximal effect by using a minimum of words. Her skill comes out impressively in 'Micha', the last story of 'The Dark Room'. Its flashback to White Russia's world war 2-past makes a breathtaking read.

Memories of war - simply told.......2003-11-05

War. How does it affect our lives? How much damage does it do to the human soul? And, can this damage be ever repaired? Rachel Seiffert's debut novel, The Dark Room, deals with these issues about Nazi Germany, curiously, from a German point of view. Curiously, because most of us are so used to reading, seeing and accepting British and American points of view to World War II that we often overlook the other side of the story - the pains of the German people in Nazi Germany, and thereafter. And curiously, because The Dark Room doesn't give the usual soldier's point of view, nor a political one, but describes the lives and trials of ordinary people like you and me.

The Dark Room tells three stories. The first is about Helmut who grew up with a physical deformity, keeping him away from an active life and the war. He champions this by chronicling the advent of the war - and the war itself - through numbers and photographs, only to be left hollow and abandoned when the Allies strike Berlin. The second story is about an adolescent girl, Lore, who has to take on the responsibility of her younger brothers and sister when her parents are arrested by the Allied army. She journeys across Germany with the younger children in search of her grandmother in Hamburg, picking up a friend and losing a brother on the way. A responsibility she accomplishes like an adult, but one that leaves a scar in her life forever. The third story is about a schoolteacher, Micha, in present-day Germany, who is obsessed with his grandfather's Nazi past. Micha is unable to absolve himself from guilt for his grandfather's suspected crimes during the war, and he pursues his search for truth, at the cost of unhappiness in others, till it exorcises him in the end.

The Dark Room is about the effects of war - even after reconstruction. It's about relationships and responsibilities. It's about personal grief, challenges and new beginnings. And, who wouldn't want to read about that!

A national portrait.......2003-03-27

Seiffert's three novellas are bound together not by characters or plot or even theme. Together they paint a picture of a Germany most of us do not know. Unlike Goldhagen's work examining the culpability of ordinary Germans during World War II, Seiffert focuses on the truly innocent: children. Her stories cover the last half of the 20th century, the first one set during the war, the second one in the immediate aftermath of the war, the final story taking place near the end of the century. What the stories share is a focus on those who were truly ignorant of the monstrosities perpetrated by the Nazis. In the first story, Helmut never does learn what his country has been doing. Left behind because of a birth defect while other young men join the military, Helmut becomes an amateur historian of the famous on-time German trains and a gradually more accomplished photographer. While his photographs begin to record life in Berlin at the end of a lost war, in a symbolic sense, Helmut never leaves the dark room in which he develops those photos and never comes to any awareness of what has happened. We can only imagine what his awakening after the war will do to him.

In the second novella, Lore, the eldest daughter of Nazi parents, leads her younger siblings on a harrowing journey across post-War Germany to her grandmother's and eventually to the awful awakening that Helmut never experiences. Both of these first two stories are well told, and, as so many other reviewers have said, it is Seiffert's subtlety and restraint that make them effective. However, both seem familiar. Helmut's tale is reminiscent of Grass's "The Tin Drum" and Lore's story echoes so many other similar tales of dangerous journeys through a war-torn Europe. In actuality, Lore's journey is not particularly dangerous. This is not a tale of a Jewish family desperately seeking to avoid those who would exterminate them; the youngsters are resilient, but have comparatively little trouble finding the assistance they need to reach safe haven. The story takes a long time to develop to a powerful conclusion when Lore finally learns the awful truth about her country.

And then there is the final novella--the story of Micha. And it is in this final tale that Seiffert has written a work worth remembering and rereading. Micha is the grandson of a beloved, now departed Waffen SS soldier, a grandson who finds he must learn more about what his grandfather did during the war. Late in the book, Micha speaks to an old Russian man who confesses to having participated in the genocide. The old man says he does not feel sorry and does not feel he has been punished. He is trying to articulate the ineffable: how can someone who participated in such events ever feel truly human again? More problematic is how can someone, like Micha, who loved a man who might have been a murderer, learn to deal with that awful truth? In Micha's plight, we can see the damage done by the German genocide even two generations later. As others have pointed out, Micha is not easy to like or care about, and his difficult situation doesn't rival that of Jewish descendants of Holocaust victims and survivors. But trapped as he is in the dark room of post-Holocaust Germany, Micha represents an entire people who must somehow learn to deal with the awful legacy bequeathed them not just by monsters like Hitler and Himmler, but by beloved Omas and Opas. This third novella is shattering to read and is connected to the earlier two as a capstone. In all honesty, however, it isn't necessary to read the first two novellas to fully appreciate the art and the power of the third one. Micha's story is a complex and powerful accomplishment of great note.

Amazing!.......2002-11-08

In The Dark Room, Rachel Seiffert writes a moving novel about three Germans who feel the pain of the war at different times. One is about a young boy named Helmut, a photogapher's assistant during the 1930s. He cannot grasp the meaning of the events he sees in his pictures and only understands his photography. In another tale, Lore, a girl whose father and mother are captured by the Germans, is forced to make a quick transition to adulthood. She must take her 4 siblings illegaly to her Oma(grandmother). Along the way they must endure many harships, and meet a friend to help them through. The final tale is about a man named Micha who lives many years after the war. He tries to find out why his Opa(grandfather) was imprisoned for nine years by the Russians. He goes on a journey, making his family and loved ones angry in the process. He is still affected by the war, a time in which he never lived, many years later. My words cannot display the power of this book and if you read it, you will understand. I recommend that you read this superb novel that will show you the side of the war which is seldom seen.

top ten of past year.......2002-08-26

Perhaps this book is mismarketed as a novel. Yet, this book--really three novellas loosely connected by the events of WWII--is one of the best I've read in a long, long time. The characters are compelling (especially Lore in the second section), the plots are trustworthy without being predictable (even though we think we know the story of WWII), and the language is rich throughout (especially in the first two sections). I continue to remember the three stories, each revealing a different truth and legacy for us as readers who look back fifty-plus years to understand WWII. One need not be interested in history, however, to appreciate this amazing literary debut. The paperback edition appears in October, and I'll be purchasing copies for holiday gifts.

A ROOM WITH DARK MIRRORS - a Novel of Suspense

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A ROOM WITH DARK MIRRORS - a Novel of Suspense
VELDA JOHNSTON
Manufacturer: Dodd, Mead
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GKXE16

The Dark Room *Signed - author's first novel*

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The Dark Room *Signed - author's first novel*
Rachel Seiffert
Manufacturer: London: William Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WCROAU

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A room with dark mirrors
Velda Johnston
Manufacturer: G. K. Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 0816163448

La Mujer De La Habitacion Oscura/the Woman of the Dark Room (Seinen Manga)

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La Mujer De La Habitacion Oscura/the Woman of the Dark Room (Seinen Manga)
Minetaro Mochizuki
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Dark Room: A Novel
Andrea Kane
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000P3ZJBW

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The Master of the House
Dark Room

The dark room;: A novel,
R. K Narayan
Manufacturer: Macmillan and Co., Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

ASIN: B0006AOCMG

Book Description

"There are writers--Tolstoy and Henry James to name two--whom we hold in awe, writers--Turgenev and Chekhov--for whom we feel a personal affection, other writers whom we respect--Conrad for example--but who hold us at a long arm's length with their 'courtly foreign grace.' Narayan (whom I don't hesitate to name in such a context) more than any of them wakes in me a spring of gratitude, for he has offered me a second home. Without him I could never have known what it is like to be Indian."--Graham Greene

Offering rare insight into the complexities of Indian middle-class society, R. K. Narayan traces life in the fictional town of Malgudi. The Dark Room is a searching look at a difficult marriage and a woman who eventually rebels against the demands of being a good and obedient wife. In Mr. Sampath, a newspaper man tries to keep his paper afloat in the face of social and economic changes sweeping India. Narayan writes of youth and young adulthood in the semiautobiographical Swami and Friends and The Bachelor of Arts. Although the ordinary tensions of maturing are heightened by the particular circumstances of pre-partition India, Narayan provides a universal vision of childhood, early love and grief.

"The experience of reading one of his novels is . . . comparable to one's first reaction to the great Russian novels: the fresh realization of the common humanity of all peoples, underlain by a simultaneous sense of strangeness--like one's own reflection seen in a green twilight."--Margaret Parton, New York Herald Tribune

Customer Reviews:

The Master of the House.......2003-02-27

In Malgudi, Ramani and Savitri live with their children Babu, Kamala and Sumati. This is not a happy family - Ramani rules the home with a rod of iron, his wife and children are subject to his unpredictable temperament. The arrival of the attractive Shanta Bai at Ramani's workplace puts temptation in his way, and brings familial relations to boiling point.

"The Dark Room" is a superb examination of a patriarchal society and the injustices such a society causes to its women and children. Ramani is all for women's rights if they apply to Shanta Bai, but is oblivious to such rights for his wife or other women. Even the old priest who appears later in the novel adheres to the view of women as men's servants. Narayan uses the novel both to unpick male hypocrisy and to detail the traumas endured by Indian women.

An impressive, controlled novel, moving and hard-hitting. The best I've read of Narayan so far.

G Rodgers

Dark Room.......2000-05-20

I was so overcome by this book. This is the first works I have read by Narayan and I was thoroughly pleased. What makes it so well written is the reality with which Narayan captures the culture of India and defines the roles that governed marriages in the 1930's. I must admit he is not too far off base in depicting marriage arrangements and the struggles of women in the 21st century. At times I was disappointed with its realism, the speech, the actions of the characters. It was all too familiar. A powerful and honest portrayal of how husbands and wives act in marriage.

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