The only reason this book is a "9" is because "10's" are reserved for the likes of Melville, Shakespeare, Bo Derek, et. al. This is a must for anyone who enjoys reading history. It is an account of World War II from the fall of Paris through the days when the U.S. entered the war and the tide began to turn. Fleeing Paris, Liebling treats the reader to a transatlantic trip aboard a Norwegian tanker and then back to the war in North Africa. Throughout Liebling maintains a witty, humane tone and devotes himself to accounts of day-to-day life among pilots, soldiers and citizens. Libling's writing is vivid and conveys to the reader a sense of "being there"

Very compelling story. Seems like taken from a dream. It's amazing how much can a human being endure, and it is equally amazing what level of cruelty and sadism can man invent.

This book was really informative and useful. It tells about the mountain ranges and geological formations you see from Interstate 25, New Mexico to Wyoming. The pictures show the names of each mountain you see, its history, and how it got its name. My kids loved it. Kept them busy for hours! Great reference!

Everyone has his or her own what-if scenarios and Mr. Robert A. M. Stern would play a central role in mine. For some people it's cars, or planes, houses, or paintings by the Old Masters. In my case the list is all of the above. So were I ever to make the Fortune 500, a home by one of the Greatest Architects would top the list.

This book covers a relatively short period of this Artist's career, specifically 1987-1992. It also happens to include many projects that were built in New England where I live. I had seen some of his work in person, and other examples in magazines, but it wasn't until I did some research that I found he was responsible for nearly all the projects I had so enjoyed. Many know one project in Massachusetts as Mr. Stern designed the Norman Rockwell Museum in the Berkshire Hills of Stockbridge. He also designed several buildings for Disney in Orlando, as well as numerous Colleges, and residences both urban and rural.

There is a fairly good chance his work is known to many readers because of some of the project's locales and the frequency that so many Americans visit them. While walking in a city with towers looming above it is often impossible to get far enough away to see what is blocking out the sun, this book solves that problem. And chances are Mr. Stern's work is not preventing the sun from reaching you, as his designs seem to belong where they are. His work and the surrounding areas accommodate each other as opposed to many Architects whose goal is to leave their mark. Once you become familiar with his work you will see the statements made by his buildings leave as strong an impression as any. Mr. Stern is a master designer, and his elegant, classically influenced work stands out because of what it is as opposed to how tall, how ostentatious, or how intrusive.

Even if you have never thought of picking up a book featuring the work of an Architect, I suggest if you do, this is a great place to start, and will not disappoint. His work is accessible; it is not the 15 minutes of fame trendy nonsense that is as silly and pretentious as it is transient.

I bought this book after reading Joseph's French Wines. This one is very different - more of an encyclopedia - but it has the same forthright opinions and the same down-to-earth approach. I'd compare it to the Hugh Johnson Pocket Encyclopedia, but it's easier to use and offers more in its introductory sections. I plan to buy several copies as gifts for friends who want to learn more about wine.

The recent publication of Robert Penn Warren: A Biography by Joseph Blotner may very well announce the definitive biography of one of the most famous American men of letters, a work which is both eminently readable and thoroughly enjoyable, imitating to a great degree the work of Mr. Blotner's subject.

The work is readable because the biographer uses the strictly chronological method, introducing the book with a calendar of important events in Warren's personal and professional life and repeating relevant dates at the top of every page. The reader is guided from RPW's birth in Kentucky to a poetry-loving father and a school teaching mother through a lonely childhood when the frail undersized youngster lived in a self-contained world of books. We learn how the 17 year old lost his chance for a naval career at Annapolis, his fondest dream, when his younger brother flung a piece of coal over a hedge and hit RPW in the eye, the left eye which he would later lose to surgery, and how he entered Vanderbilt University and met John Crowe Ransom, his teacher, the first poet he had ever seen, his idol with whom he shared his own poems in private.

Aided by the vehicle of Blotner's lucid prose style, we travel with Warren as he wins assistantships, fellowships, and scholarships from Vanderbilt to the University of California to Yale and finally to Oxford. We watch him settle into married life, become editor of the Southern Review, and earn fame with his novel All the King's Men.

Like the best biographers, Blotner does not avoid the dark side of his subject. He shows Warren's poetic preoccupation with the loving but aloof father figure, a reflection of his own. He tries to explain Warren's attempted suicide in college as the result of an emotional breakdown because he had fallen so far behind in his studies. He describes the often heart-rending details of Warren's relationship with his first wife whose neurasthenic personality forced her to spend most of her time bedridden and the rest of it fighting with her husband. He devotes the latter part of the book to a detailed description of RPW's last years when, his body riddled by cancer, he wished for death, which arrived mercifully in 1989.

Besides being readable, Mr. Blotner's work is highly entertaining, made more so by his vast research and his way of scattering quotations from letters and works of RPW into the biography's running commentary. We see the human being, not the literary giant, in his letters to friends, such as the following written to Katherine Anne Porter when he was struggling with All the King's Men: "At times I feel that I see my way through the tangle; then at moments, I feel like throwing the whole damned thing into the Tiber." We learn where his passion always was when, being awarded a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, thereby gaining long desired financial independence, he writes: "I've stopped writing anything I don't want to write. Poetry is where my heart is."

If there is any fault to Mr. Blotner's presentation, it is that, like many other biographers, he has become enamored of his subject. He sometimes interrupts his story with subjective praises, such as, "America's preeminent man of letters, master of genres, prodigiously creative, heavy with awards and prizes honoring his genius, Robert Penn Warren was also that rare being, a genuinely good man." In this case, Mr. Blotner perhaps should not be blamed. RPW was, after all, the only writer ever to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for two genres, fiction and poetry, and twice for the latter. How many other writers excelled in so many genres, including essays, poems, novels, historical fiction, biographies? Perhaps Mr. Blotner's passion for RPW can be forgiven when we consider his subject's view of art and life, "What is man but his passion?" (Audubon: A Vision).

i need the book cntain every thing about organic chemistey and broplem and its solvent

Chretien de Troyes was the first author of the Arthurian romance. His best-known work, the Story of the Grail, or Perceval, is the first extant example of the grail legend, which was reproduced and altered many times after.

Joseph Duggan gives here an excellent overview of the context and issues around the works of Chretien, focusing on such elements as kinship, values, responsibility and knighthood. Some of his ideas are controversial in the field of interpretation, especially his thoughts on the Perceval story, but his clear, concise presentation and focus make this an essential book for anyone who appreciates this fine body of litterature.

...well worth [the price]

I literally stumbled on this book in my local bookstore. I read it, then re-read it, then read it again. I am the Director of Operations for a small corporation owning 15 restaurants and I was so excited to see the very most important concepts of leadership in management expressed in such a clear, concise, easy to follow way. The book is not too deep and not too long, just right for young restaurant Managers who have short attention spans or feel they do not have time to read. I am ordering 20 copies to hand out to all my managers. This book will be added to the list of required reading in our company.

Sunday, December seventh 1941, that "infamous" day, is generally regarded by historians to be a major tuning point in American History. It marked the emergence of the United States as the supreme power in the realm of word politics. On that day, Japan attacked the United States binging her into the Second World War. The events leading up to this pivotal point in American history, however, deserve much scrutiny. The second world war, taken from the American perspective, often times runs the risk of being viewed in a vacuum, marked from 1941 to 1945. The war however had been going on for some time, arguably since the Japanese had invaded china in the mid 1930's. In Europe it had been an open conflict from the time of Germany's invasion of Poland. United states involvement in the war must be viewed in this larger context in order it's true significance to be appreciated. Indeed the United States was from the outset of hostilities deeply involved in the war, just not in a direct military sense. Joseph Lash in his book Roosevelt and Churchill: the partnership that saved the west examines these years from the perspectives of the United States and Great Britain. He pays particular attention to the personal and professional relationship between the two respective leaders of the countries, who played key roles in shaping the nature of the overall conflict.

After setting up the stage, it is the conflict: between Roosevelt, American popular opinion and an ever more desperate Britain led by Churchill, between the years of 1939-1941 that the narrative centers mainly around. Written primarily through memoirs and the words of the key players: Lash depicts with growing excitement the success of Roosevelt in molding popular opinion in aiding the British. He traces with scrutiny the growing involvement of the United states in the second world war through such milestone acts as the cash and carry provision, and the lend lease act. He illustrates the tremendous willpower and resolve of Churchill's Britain in surviving the tremendous onslaught of the Axis powers in all theatres of war. The burgeoning friendship of Churchill and Roosevelt is traced till it comes to full fruition aboard the Prince of Wales in a symbolic joint Sunday service, where Churchill would remark: "the sun shone bright and warm while we all sang the old hymns which are our common inheritance" . The steps to war taken by the Japanese and forced upon the Russians are accounted for with growing uncertainty. Finally all events, movements, and personal accomplishments converge in an explosive climax with the United States entering the war after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Lash does an excellent job of putting the individual tensions, and mutual cooperation within the framework of pragmatic diplomacy. The Main characters are fist and foremost held within the confines of a harsh reality. They must adjust to circumstances as best as they can. In Churchill's case, he must try to hold his crumbling empire together while courting aid from a nation that is reluctant to give it. Roosevelt must try to do as much as he can for his friend, while having his hands tied by a reluctant populace, before he is too late. Both men struggle to work together in establishing Naval supremacy in the midst of a continuous German and rising Japanese threat. Amidst all this looms the question of what to do with the Soviet Union. .

Apparent in his work is Lash's hypothesis that the contributions of Churchill and Roosevelt were nothing less than absolutely invaluable to the favorable outcome of the war. The two leaders are endowed by Lash with an almost divine understanding of issues and forces in the world, enabling them to make the key decisions, which ensure success. Conversely the Axis leaders are depicted as mere mortals possessing both brilliance and folly. Hitler's mistakes of attacking Russia, then his unnecessary declaration of war on the United State are incidents used to illustrate this. Lash however runs a danger in this area. He never even entertains the thought of different leaders being able to fill the roles of each effectively. By neglecting to answer this question Lash slightly weakens his argument. In ignoring this leftist historical viewpoint, Lash misses a chance to greatly strengthen his stand that individual achievements were the single most decisive factor in the outcome of the war.

Despite this missed opportunity, Lash's book is a stunning work, offering an unpopular but by no means invalidated perception of history that emphasizes the value of individuals and their actions in shaping the course of human events. The book is written almost entirely utilizing the letters and direct quotes of key players to tell the story. The reader is inundated with names of generals, diplomats and political figures. Personal dramas, disputes, jealousies, friendships and the like unfold as told through the first hand accounts of these characters letters and memoirs. The effect that Lash's narrative style has on the reader comes in helping him to view the early war years as an unfolding drama, with a formidable and unique cast of characters. The Book reads like an exciting novel, in which one is drawn into the drama and uncertainty of the times. Lash's perception of history placing on emphasis individual accomplishment is greatly aided by his writing style, which like a novel lends itself to telling a story of people and the importance of their actions.

In the end Lash succeeds in writing a timeless and thorough history of the early war years. He succeeds in turning a possibly dull and dry study into a captivating story, told in effect by those who dominated it: Roosevelt and Churchill. Were the eventual outcome not listed in the annals of common knowledge Lash would have succeeded in writing a truly suspenseful novel.