In a world where kids are exposed to more pseudoscience than real science, it's refreshing to have someone like Bill Nye to present the genuine thing. Like his highly successful PBS series aimed at fourth graders(but enjoyed by hordes of science-bereft grownups), Big Blast of Science is infused with Nye's straight-forward perspective on the universe, and his passion for the remarkable way it operates. Everything, in Nye's view, is a marvelous machination of science, from the kitchen toaster's warm convection currents, to the counterclockwise spin of water draining out of the bathtub, to the kneeling Indian girl making us ponder infinity on a box of butter. He was that geeky guy who helped you pass high school chemistry, who won the Boy Scout Pinewood Derby without too much help from his dad, who saved the frat party by fixing the cocktail blender, and gave up a respectable engineering job to teach your kids some science. Without people like him we'd be looking up h! oroscopes instead of telescopes and putting more faith in the Psychic Friends Network than the National Science Foundation. At first glance, we might assume Big Blast of Science is a book just for kids. The inimitable Science Guy, clad in his signature blue lab coat and winsome bowtie, and looking cooler than absolute zero, pops out of a flashy purple cover surrounded by whirling planets, moons, and stars. With schoolboyish sincerity, he thrusts toward us a flask from which bubbles the subtitle: "A Highly Cool Handbook for the Laws of Nature." Kids, of course, will recognize immediately his zany, Disney-ish style and easy-to-understand delivery. They'll want to try all the science experiments in the book, especially the ones that require matches, rubberbands, clothespins, and adult supervision. But be aware that this little tome will find its way into Mom's and Dad's hands after the kids have gone to bed. Not only does America's "Sultan of Science" explain physics on! a level everyone can follow, he also gently reminds us the! re's a lot about the universe we need to know -- basic stuff we should have gotten in high school but didn't because we spent too much time outlining chapters, looking up vocab words, and bubbling in answers to test questions. We don't want this to happen to our kids, and neither does Nye. The message here is clear: It's never too early or late to become science literate. We owe it to ourselves, our children, and our planet, to do so. Nye assures us we can understand the familiar things -- gravity, electricity, the behavior of light -- plus the weird stuff, like entropy and quarks and the laws of thermodynamics, if we "just do it." And doing science is what Big Blast of Science is all about. Nye's advice is, grab the kids, the paper towels and cardboard tubes, baking soda, vinegar, scissors and scotch tape, lemons, drinking straws, safety pins, food coloring (no experiment should be done without food coloring!) and whatever else is laying around. Be curious, experimen! t, think about what it means, find out how the universe works. The whole idea is so deliciously simple and fun, we wonder why we didn't think of it ourselves (and why our fourth grade teachers never thought of it either). Buy this one, and know that Bill Nye won't mind if you spill lemon juice and vinegar on it. He won't care if you draw mustaches on the pictures of him or color his lab coat pink. We can tell from the way he explains things that he's an easy-going kind of guy. He won't even mind if you give this book to your kid's teachers, which you probably should. Chances are, they'll put away those monotonous worksheets and vocab lists and ask you to start saving egg cartons, popsicle sticks, 2-liter soda bottles, and leftover birthday balloons so they can do some real science in the classroom.

I picked up this book in a store and bought it out of idle curiousity, as I am neither an entomologist, biologist or beekeeper. Its content amazed me and spurred me to return to reading general interest science books, an area I had largely shunned after leaving university.

Apart from the fascinating content, the book wins because of the author's superb style. While sacrificing nothing in the way of content (at least to this nonspecialist's eye) he never indulged in technical jargon, making the book accessible to any interested person.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a book to help me in my quest to build my own birdhouse. I have a large yard with lots of trees and a few "store" bought birdhouses but I was not satisfied. When I got the book, "Birdhouses: 20 Unique . . .", I imediately noticed how easy it was to follow the designs and the ideas. The hints on how to build were easy to follow and had good detail. From material to tools to locations, it was full of facts and even gave me many ideas on how to expand on my own creations. All in all, this was the best book I found on the beginning woodworker's desire to build birdhouses. I would recomend it to any hobbiest.

Excellent source of information. The authors have obviously put an incredible amount of time and effort into research for this book. The writing style follows what I would call a "typical" scientific format: In other words the book is not one for casual reading. The amature as well as professional ornithologist can obtain very precise information about state records for every bird to ever enter (or think about entering) Missouri. This book is definiiely "solid" science with very little, if any, speculation about distrubution or abundance of each species of bird to grace the state with its presence. I feel this book would make a respectable addition to any collection of literature dedicated to ornithology.

The story was enthralling, and I could not put the book down until I had read the last word. I loved the characters, and all the past lives Doug experienced,and how everyones lives revolved aroung each other. The only disappointing aspect of the book was that it ended. I want to know more about their lives and what happens to every-one. I hope Bill Rowe and Peter Cooper contiue to write, and keep entertaining us all!!

This book is a simple (yet not simplistic), well-rounded and very well illustrated primer to Cosmorgaphy / Cosmology. It is definitely recommended to anyone who wants to acquire a basic understanding of the subject.

The best parts of the book in my opinion are a few schematics explaining the different types of galaxies, the processes of star creation and death, the creation of the various chemical elements, etc. and the associated text. Overall this is a well balanced book with a "Documents" section appropriately short and author's opinions kept to a minimum.

The only negative aspect of the book is dwelling more than it was warranted on the spherical aberration of the Hubble space telescope and its consequences. The author was aware of the planned effort to correct the problem and should probably have spent less time mentioning it in anticipation of the pending corrective action.

What is there to say....but if you are a person who has read anything and everything by Mark Twain then it can't hurt to have this. It is a fun little collection of witty and intelligent observations from what I consider to be one of the greatest writers to have graced print. For those who are only familiar with something like Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn, I would still recommend this - it is but an all too brief introduction to Twain the genius who in some respects tackles far more of the world (particularly his political and religious views) than most serious authors. Most of his views are still relevant to the 21st century - this man was way ahead of his time! This little gem serves as both an introduction and a reminder of how timeless his views are. The unfortunate aspect is that just by continuing to show us how relevant his criticsm of religion and racism was and is, we are reminded that this is because sadly our society has not changed much in 150 years or so.

Get this book! - then get everything else by this man (not all bookstores like to keep these for too long)! . It sure beats a lot of the other "Little Books of Wisdom" that are out there!

It's a great book. Everything is in exact detail as the movie. As I read, I picture the scene in the movie and I feel like I'm watching the movie all over again. It was written word for word, scene by scene. It even includes still photos and a full cast description of each character. It was everything I thought it would be. It was definitely worth the wait since ordering this book before it was even published.

This book recognizes the way blacks are treated in the military and the book was masterful. I sleep with it at night its that good!

As I prepare to write an academic paper on Matthew 24:30 and Jesus' claim to be the "Son of Man" coming on the clouds with power and great glory, I find no other resource as helpful as Darrell Bock's "Blasphemy & Exaltation."

The scholarship is impeccable. His evaluation of critical scholarship is incisive and largely critical, yet he does not try to "beat something with nothing." He offers his own evaluations of the evidence in compelling ways. His compiling of Jewish views on Blasphemy makes for a tremendous resource for any student of the New Testament to make sense of Jesus' claims.

Do you want to know what Jesus actually claimed at his trial? Do you want to know what was so offensive to the ears of Jewish leaders so as to merit capital punishment? Read this book.

One caveat: if you are not used to reading works of scholarship on the New Testament (i.e. you are a layperson), this work can get very technical. You need to be aware of the tools of NT criticism (form, source, redaction, literary, etc.)in order to understand Bock's interaction with them. In other words, this book is not for everybody. It's not a "popular" treatment. But, if you want a workout, go for it!

I am very grateful to Dr. Bock for this resource.