507: Preparing Literature Reviews by M. Ling Pan

507.2: Pan, M. Ling. Preparing Literature Reviews: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Los Angeles, CA: Pyrczak Publishing, 2003. 190 pp. ISBN 1-884585-27-2.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 500: Natural Science and Mathematics
• 507: Education, research, and related topics
• 507.2: Research and statistical methods

Ling Pan’s Preparing Literature Reviews is a book with a clear goal and purpose: help the reader write literature review. A literature review is a synthesis of available written or published material on a topic. For scientific articles, this is usually the first section of the article. Pan’s many guidelines, examples, and full models contain a wealth of information on the topic and if you are writing a literature review for the first time, pick this book up. After reading this one, I feel that if someone asked me to write a review tomorrow, I would be amply prepared for the task at hand. Burgeoning scholars needs to have this one in their arsenal of reference material. A very informative book.

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750: The Louvre

750: Laclotte, Michel and Jean-Pierre Cuzin. The Louvre: Paintings. Paris, France: Editions Scala, 2000. 284 pp. ISBN 2-86656-236-4.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 700: Fine Arts and Recreation
• 750: Painting and paintings

On August 10, 1793, a wondrous building was made open to the public. Exactly one year before, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the monarchy felled. The National Assembly urged that the works of art hoarded by Louis and previous kings be collected and displayed so that they could preserve the national memory. At it’s opening, The Louvre showcased 537 paintings and 184 other objects of art. From there started an interesting and sometimes sordid history. Michel Laclotte and Jean-Pierre Cuzin’s The Louvre gives a history of each of the museum’s major collection, but more importantly, displays a wide variety of the museum’s pieces in glorious color plates.

692: Hiring Contractors Without Going Through Hell by Ellis Levinson

692.8: Levinson, Ellis. Hiring Contractors Without Going Through Hell: How to Find, Hire, Supervise, and Pay professional Help for Home Renovations and Repairs. New York: Walker & Company, 1992. ISBN 0-8027-7381-8.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 600: Technology
• 690: Buildings
• 692: Auxiliary construction practices
• 692.8: Contracting

When you’re a homeowner, there are few things more daunting than the prospect of remodeling or house repairs. You can either go it yourself and invest a lot of time in YouTube videos and gumption, or you can rely on the services of contractors. Ellis Levinson’s Hiring Contractors Without Going Through Hell deals with the reality, and sometimes the surreality, of dealing with the latter situation. He uses humor and sometimes a fatherly hand to help guide the reader through a bevy of contractor-related scenarios.

383: Orphans Preferred by Christopher Corbett

383.1430973: Corbett, Christopher. Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express. New York: Broadway Books, 2003. 255 pp. ISBN 0-7679-0692-6.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 300: Social Sciences
• 380: Commerce, communications, and transportation
• 383: Postal communication
• 383.1 Mail handling
• 383.14: Transportation systems, collection, and delivery
• 383.143: Overland mail
• +0973: United States

We know this much is true: In 1860, the business trio of Russell, Majors, & Waddell set about to revolutionize overland mail delivery in the United States. Backed by a congressional blessing (but not by congressional money), they sought to deliver mail to the citizens of California faster than ever before. Normally, mail took anywhere from one to six months to go from the East Coast to the West Coast, but the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company strove to cut that down to ten days. From the moment the first rider struck from St. Joseph, Missouri, the Pony Express became steep in folklore and American myth. Christopher Corbett’s Orphans Preferred tries to wrangle truth from the mouth of history to get to the most accurate picture of the Express he can.

115: Time by Eva Hoffman

115: Hoffman, Eva. Time. New York: Picador, 2009. 189 pp. ISBN 978-0-312-42727-6.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 100: Philosophy and Psychology
• 110: Metaphysics
• 115: Time

Time is all at once the most universal, the most intangible, and the most misunderstood concept. We make time, take time, keep time, lose time, waste time, borrow time, but never really understand it. Eva Hoffman’s Time takes a look at time from four different vantage points: physiologically, psychologically, culturally, and contemporaneously. And in each perspective, we see time in a whole new light.

982: A History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century by Luis Alberto Romero

982.06: Romero, Luis Alberto. A History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century. Translated by James P. Brennan. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002. 349 pp. ISBN 0-271-02192-6.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 900: History and Geography
• 980: History of South America
• 982: History of Argentina
• 982.06: Period of later republic, 1861 to present

In his History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century, Luis Romero tries to write a different kind of history. He has “attempted to reconstruct the history—complex, contradictory, and unique—of a society that unquestionably has experienced better moment and that finds itself currently at one of the lowest points in its history but whose future is not, I trust, definitively sealed.” This is remarkable for two reasons. First, he is not out to champion is country, and second, he owns up to the fact that history is sometimes contradictory and unfun.

834: If the War Goes On by Hermann Hesse

834.912: Hesse, Hermann. If the War Goes On…: Reflections on War and Politics. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973. 186 pp.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 800: Literature
• 830: Literatures of Germanic languages
• 834: German essays
• 834.9: 1900 to present
• 834.91: 1900 to 1990
• 834.912: 1900 to 1945

The two World Wars of the 20^th century were unfathomably polarizing. There were those who believed war was necessary to defeat either national or global enemies, and those who believed acts of aggression and war were counter to our enlightened place in history. Hermann Hesse, in If the War Goes On, is vehemently against war. In this collection of 27 essays, Hesse explores his own feelings about war and also the experiences of living through both great calamities.