Most of Eric Frank Russel's books have one thing in common, the quick witted humans outsmarting the dim-witted aliens. And this is no exception to the rule. While this may seem rather predictable and boring he always manages to avoid duplication. Each time the basic plot is worked out in a new and refreshing way.

Do not read this book if you want to read serious science giction or military science fiction. That is not what this book is about. It was written to tell a story that should not be taken seriuos and that leaves a smile on your face. And this is exactly what it does, and brilliantly so.

This time the aliens being outwitted are on the other side of an intergalactic war, and they have made the unfortunate mistake of capturing and imprisoning an earthling. But that was not their biggest mistake, the biggest mistake was teaching him their language. For once they learn to communicate their war is as good as lost.

Eric Frank Russell remains my favorite SF writer; the only one who could make me both laugh and cry. There's no crying in this book, based on the short story that to this day received the highest "anlab" rating ever recorded for a story published in Astounding/Analog magazine. Russell's unique voice came from a blending of British reserve and humor with American slang and culture, as if John Cleese had been signed to play Sam Spade. Though Russell's science was pure '50's and often suspect, you won't care as you giggle, then chuckle, and finally roar your way through this story...which was inspired by an actual incident involving an English prisoner-of-war confined in a Turkish jail. Here's a perfect example of a superb "cross-over" SF story that could be filmed on a modest budget...I keep seeing Mel Gibson in the title role.

So sad he died before Cliton. One of the best less known authors of his time -- and his insite is timeless. This book deals with one major character..what a character. Also I would recommend WASP as another fine book to read. He is also one of the best short story writers that I have ever read. He has been used in many compenium volumes. Highly reccomend you read Jay Score and Manna. Join me in my sorrow that he did not write more.

A great sailing adventure and well told. I was interested in the design of the 24 ft sailboat, the cabin layout, and the supplies taken on the voyage, as well as a few photographs. All of this information was missing! It still was a great book. Arthur B. Campbell

Frank Guernsey and Cy Zoerner's book is not only an exciting account of a nearly impossible voyage, but a love story and a psychological portrait as well. Have you ever wondered what drives a person to strike out alone in a tiny boat on a voyage some might call suicidal? "Racing The Ice To Cape Horn" gives a rare glimpse into the psyche of one of those rare adventurers who choose to go it alone against nature. I absolutely couldn't put it down!

This book held my interest from beginning to end. I am not an expert sailor, but Guernsey and Zoerner made all the technical terminology very clear. My friend, who is an expert sailor, enjoyed both the adventure and the technical accuracy of the book. I can warmly recommend this book to sailors and non-sailors alike--it's exciting!

I bought this book, expecting to see both parts of "Alive!" in it. For those of you who have the Concept Cast recording, it's the second half of the song, for those with the Broadway cast, it's a few tracks later. In any case, the reprise is much more dramatic, difficult, and impressive, and some of the music is different. Boo to Cherry Lane Music for dumbing this down.

Ever since I first heard the 1994 Concept Cast Recording of Jekyll and Hyde I have been after the Vocal Selections for this great musical. So I bought this one and was slightly disappointed. However I will deal with the positives first. This book of Vocal Selections provides a great range of songs for male and female voices. For those male singers looking to test their ranges This is the Moment is a perfect choice. And for those looking for great character songs there is Alive and Confrontation. For female voices the ballads Someone Like You and In His Eyes are provided which are two very beautiful songs given justice by the very good piano accompaniment. There are also two great duet pieces, Take Me as I Am and It's a Dangerous Game. There are also some great photos from the Broadway production along with information from the Lyricist and Composer.

However I do have a few problems with this book. A few of the great songs from the Concept Album are not in this. The first major exclusion is the incredibly difficult sing, I Need to Know. The second is Transformation. The last problem is that some of the notes have been changed to make some of the songs easier. For example the last note of Alive! is no longer an incredible high "A" but an "E" Though the positives do indeed outweigh the negatives. There is a wide selection of songs (refer to song list) all equipped with great piano accompaniment.

Song List = Lost In the Darkness. Take Me as I Am. No One Knows Who I Am. Good and Evil. This Is The Moment. Alive! Sympathy, Tenderness. Someone Like You. Murder, Murder! Once Upon A Dream. In His Eyes. It's A Dangerous Game. A New Life. Confrontation

This is one of the best vocal selections I have seen in terms of difficulty. It gives me a decent quality where I don't have to play the melody when being an accompanist. However, it doesn't always follow the 1997 CD... Some things were made simpler, like "In His Eyes" that is missing some crutial piano notes. I applaud Cherry Lane's job on "Facade" and "Murder, Murder!" which are both excellent piano versions.
If only there could be a vocal score for this...

As much as L. Frank Baum loved Oz, it always frustrated him that none of his other books ever attained the popularity that his Oz books did. He therefore came up with a technique that allowed him to write other books but still give them the exposure that only his Oz books had. He would write the book he wanted to write, have the characters visit Oz at some point (usually at the end) and call it an Oz book. Rinkitink in Oz is a classic example of this. It is the story of a boy prince, a talking goat and the good king Rinkitink, a fat man who enjoys a good laugh and a good meal. Circumstances force them to work as a team when the island that the boy people lives on is raided and all of his people, including his parents, are taken as slaves.

The set-up is great. The plot believable and the action exciting. The only unfortunate element is that Baum felt he had to bring Oz into the story in order to sell copies of this book. It is apparent from reading it that he had conceived the story as a completely independent project, but threw a brief visit to Oz in at the end so that it could be mentioned in the title.

In fact, most of the action is already completed by the time Oz comes up. The islanders have been saved and returned home. The conquerers defeated. The only thing left to do is for the prince to rescue his parents, who had been placed in the custody of the Nome king. Both he and Rinkitink undergo a series of tests in the underground kingdom, which they pass successfully. At this point Baum could have (and probably wanted to) have them rescue the parents and go home heroes. End of story. Unfortunately, however, he needed to work Oz into the story, so after putting his heroes through all the trials and challenges, he deprives them of the ultimate victory. Instead, at the very last second, Dorothy and the Wizard stroll into the cavern and demand that the Nome king release the parents. The book would have been much better off if it were the the prince and King Rinkitink that, after enduring so much, secured their release. But then again, if that had happened, despite it being a much more fitting ending, "in Oz" could not have been added to the title. And in order to make the title complete, the group then goes back to the Emerald City for a banquet on their way home, which also adds nothing to the story.

In short, this is a very good book. It could have been a great book if Baum were allowed to write the story he wanted to write, but demands of the publishing company required that this become an Oz book. It is still a book worth reading, but at the end you are likely to become disappointed either because Oz was brought into the story when there was no need for it, or because this promises to be an Oz book, but there is not enough Oz for your tastes...

Books of Wonder has reprinted the original 1916 edition of Rinkitink in Oz with color dust jacket and cover. This is a truly beautiful book with 12 color plates and nearly 100 black-and-white drawings by John R. Neill, the famous illustrator of almost all the Oz books.

Rinkitink is the fat, lazy, and irresponsible king of the small kingdom of Rinkitink which lies on the shore of Baum's imaginary Nonestic Ocean. He is too lazy to walk any great distance and keeps a surly saddled goat named Bilbil near him always to provide him with transportation. His redeeming qualities are his jovial nature, his great love of life, and his ability to burst into spontaneous laughter or song. The story of the book mainly takes place on islands in the Nonestic Ocean and begins when Rinkitink, tired of the responsibilities of ruling, sneaks away without telling anyone where he is going. He visits Pingaree where Prince Inga is a quiet boy who spends much of his time reading books in a tree.

Pingaree is a rich kingdom and is attacked by marauders soon after Rinkitink arrives. They loot and sack the island taking all the islanders back to their own islands of Regos and Coregos as slaves. Prince Inga, Rinkitink, and Bilbil are overlooked and left stranded on Pingaree. How can a lazy overweight king, a shy boy, and a surly goat rescue the Pingareeans? This is the drama of Rinkitink in Oz.

The characters are among the best developed in any of Baum's work. The plot is tight and exciting. Danger and force are confronted with a charming grace that marks Baum's best works. Also, this is my favorite Oz book to read aloud. Rinkitink's joviality, laughter and songs are great for recitation.

The title of the book may be a bit misleading because Oz is not even mentioned until the last five chapters of this 24 chapter book. According to the Afterword by Peter Glassman, Rinkitink was originally written in 1905, 11 years before it was published. Other commitments and illness prevented Baum from writing a book in 1916. So he took the unpublished Rinkitink and reworked the ending to bring Dorothy and the Wizard, as well as a brief visit to Oz, into the plot. Although this sudden shift is the weakest part of the book, loyal Oz fans will not mind once Ozma throws one of her famous banquets for Rinkitink and Inga. This is also a good book for readers not familiar with the Oz series since it stands on its own more than most of the other books in the series.

Rinkitink in Oz is one of the most extraordinary books in all the world. In which King Rinkitink travels to his neighboring island. His goat can talk. And kind of is a smart aleic.While he visits the island. The king tells his son of the three magnifcent pearls. They are all different colors. Blue for strength, pink for Guarding & white for guidance. The white one will tell him everything he wants to know. The king shows him where he hides the pearls in case of an emergency. The other two islands neighboring them is there enemy. They are mighty, strong & courageous. Those islands capture all of them except Rinkitink, The prince & the goat. Next they go on a quest to free there people. It is quite an amazing story & i rate it 5 stars.

This is the best introductory SAS book I have seen. It introduces the basic SAS structure and programming statements. A good and detailed explanation is provided for DATA step vs. PROC, a topic that always proves to be difficult to grasp for SAS newbies.

The book starts with SAS terminology and logic, i.e., how SAS works its magic. It moves on to simple tasks such as reading in data, summarizing it, and displaying it. Then there are chapters on SAS programming elements (expressions, logic flows, etc.) as well as intermediate-advanced statements. The MERGE statement is explained very clearly.

Examples abound, although I feel that they are presented in a very confusing format -- often you can't tell if a block of text belongs to the main text or an example. The organization of the book is also a little confusing, esp. if you want to use it as a reference book (not recommended; stick with SAS manual set instead).

In short, this book provides an excellent ovewview of SAS. Read the chapters in sequence and you'll soon be on your way to happy SAS'ing!

I went to the Fundamentals of SAS course held at the SAS Institute and was left in dire need of more information. This book was a first step. The exercises in the book were helpful and reinforcing. If you need more than brginner's knowledge, then you'll have to purchase another book but this is good to get started.

If you are in need of data management or analysis, SAS is likely big on your list. This book gives extremely clear and useful introductions to how SAS is structured, how to manipulate and organize data, and some basic statistical procedures (descriptive statistics, ANOVA, OLS models, etc.) are also presented.

Official SAS manuals are usually bulky, complicated, and difficult to understand, particularly if you have little/no experience with SAS. This book can take a complete beginner through data set creation and manipulation into substantially more complex and important procedures and functions. As this is an introduction to the SAS system, the more advanced functions in SAS, such as SAS STAT, are not covered in any detail. However, in order to understand how to actually use SAS and manipulate data so as to employ these higher level procedures, this book is excellent.

This is the absolute best introduction on how to use the SAS system I have seen, but it has lots of useful information for people with some basic SAS knowledge as well. It is presented in the style of a textbook,with each section concluding with problems (with answers provided) that the aspiring SAS programmer can solve.

If you are just starting to look into SAS, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. 'If I was able to do it, anyone can.'

This book is informative enough about Earnhardt but is written on a third grade reading level. I'm an Earnhardt fan but found the readability of the book to be pathetic. Of course, I guess the author was writing to his audience.

THE BOOK WAS GREAT, IT COVERED ALOT OF AREAS IN HIS LIFE THAT I LEARNED ABOUT, A GOOD BOOK TO READ. A GREAT KEEP SAKE. I'M GLAD I BOUGHT IT. HE WAS A GREAT PERSON AND IS TRULY MISSED.

This book will leave you in tears, laughter and every other emotion. I bought this when it first came out and read it. I wasn't very emotional then, cause Dale was still with us. But now the he's left for a better place with God, this book makes me cry when reading it. It is great book all about his life on and off track. A book that I will cherish forever. ...

Buying this book, i was expecting to a) read about SETI b) be introduced into thinking about the possibility of extraterrestrial life in new ways, as this book, written by Frank Drake one of the men responsible for the establishment of SETI would be a great source..
Instead: i wound up reading an autobiography disguised under the title "Is there anybody out there", a title which also disguises the fact that Drake spends more time and pages writting about the problems he encountered setting up SETI than SETI itself. Not to mention that he uses all 300 pages of his book to praise himself in a way that makes you yawn once you become familiar with the mechanism it is written. Indeed for a book that tackles an otherwise super interesting and controversial issue the book is boring. It's totally devoid of any humor and any attempts at such are further contributions to boredom. What's even more interesting is that for an author who clearly believes there is intelligent life out there he uses but a mere 2-3 pages to dismiss any accounts of aliens having already visited earth, recently or not so recently..2-3 pages to dismiss that? Hmmm, makes you wonder...In the end, after having (thankfully) been through with it i wound up thinking more about the motives behind Drake having written it than the book itself. Buy something else on the subject. Blindly.

i was surprised when i found this book in a second-hand book store. I had heard about it and wanted to read it, but knew it was out of print. Being a SETI enthusiast (running the seti@home screensaver 24/7), this book elegantly took me through the step by step advances in the field, told by the man himself, Frank Drake. What really got me hooked was the Sagan-like simplicity of the book. I urge anyone and everyone to read "Is Anyone Out There?". Highly insightful and very objective. (made me even go out and buy an amateur telescope!)

This book explains SETI to the average person very nicely. The fact that is written by Frank Drake, the person to conduct the first search for extraterrestrial life in the universe is a great bonus, because you know it written by a person who understands the subject, inside and out.

Frank Drake is the person that the Drake Equation is named for. The Drake Equation a simple formula for calculating the change that other intelligence life in the Universe Exists. How you decide to plug numbers into the equation is where all the debate on this subject is conducted.

Great book. Get it if you can find it.

Gee for this good of an indepth book it's missing some of Mr. Wrights art glass work. It appears to the author SLOAN of the book that Mr. Wright's executed art glass ended in 1924. HOW UNTRUE. What about the artglass in the Southern Florida University chapel? Or what about the Greek church in Madison Wisconsin? or what about the 1954 Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park, PA....the artglass above the pulpit?????? GEE GOOD research on the rest of it though.....lots of detail but she didn't do a good job on the rest of it.....by the way a sketch in Wright's drawings was done for the Greek Church in Madison, Wisc. originally to be christian "figurines"...the only sketch by Wright in artglass that was realistic other than his unexecuted "waterlilies" artglass that is known of and printed in color form today on rugs and prints. And gee I didn't even spend time to research this data, it was all known to me as an architect, & enthusiast. I'm also a member of the FLLW conservancy, FLLW Home & studio, Taliesin Fellows, and Taliesin Associates member. For non-architects who do books....CLUE: next time do thorough research since it makes your efforts and detailed work look shabby for so lengthy of detailed data excerted in your book. Good luck next time and PLEASE add a GOOD redone 2nd edition.

This is a very well researched, well presented analysis of FLW's windows. It speaks for itself. The pictures are well chosen and do a very good job of illustrating the books themes and analysis.

The "cover" image shown with this book is flipped 180 degrees from its actual orientation. To see the book in its actual design, go to www.lightscreens.com ... both the hardcover catalog to the exhibition and what I call the "Big Book" (the slipcased 400-pager) are there. (The paperback catalog is available only in the museums where the exhibition is mounted.)

Others have referred to the photographs as "bland." Well, I'd have to agree where the museums that own Wright windows are concerned; Wright intended to "bring the outside in," but museums for some reason insist on photographing his windows against a white background. Since I took most of the photographs in these books, let me tell you that I always photographed them with their backgrounds - the landscapes in the middle and long distance - integral to the windows themselves, as Wright intended.

The drawings are smaller than Wright made them because any 9x12 book is smaller than Wright's drawings. And as for "came" vs. "leaded," the latter term is a commonly used generalization to describe any glass held in a metal matrix ... Wright usually used copper or brass came, but not exclusively.

Since the book is in print after 20 years of research, the fact that its designer didn't meet the first reviewer's expectations or desires is beside the point. Until now there's been no definitive overview of Wright's stained glass. We should rejoice that this books exists ... and I do. Why do I rejoice? Beause I took most of the photos in the book (I'm the ALL of ALL/JLS in the credits) and I know how difficult it was to gain access to the [lived-in] homes of Wright homeowners, so I celebrate the fact that the author's been able to share this work with the world. It would otherwise be inaccessible.

While previous reviewers may dispute some of the facts recited, it remains that this is a great read about a man whose accomplishments deserve to be remembered. Indeed, a list of his feats would shame many of the more well-remembered aviators whose fame was based more upon subsequent movies than fact.

For instance: Beachey flew upside-down around the Washington Monument, buzzed the Capitol Building until Congress adjourned to see what was happening, and then landed on the White House lawn to meet Mrs. Teddy Roosevelt. It served his purpose perfectly as a lead in to his words to Congress "If I had had a bomb you'de be dead." He was an ardent supporter of aviation as a national defense tool and worked to prove it his whole life.

Mr. Marrero does not purport to offer a scholarly work, nor does he intend that this be a benchmark. Instead, we have a long-overdue refresher of what should never have been forgotten.

I enjoyed the book I borrowed sufficiently that I bought my own copy for my collection. And while I would not put it on the same literary level as, say, Hemmingway (hence only an 8), I would recommend it to anyone.

Frank Marrero writes from his heart, and that is a truly valuable quality in any historian. I learned about an admirable and legendary man, in a field at which I wouldn't have looked twice if it weren't for Mr. Marrero's folklorish and mythical style of writing. Beachey does indeed deserve such love and praise. I hope many more people research and write about him, and such writings would in no way take away from Mr. Marrero's devoted tribute.

It is exciting whenever anyone unearths a buried treasure and shares it with the world. Frank Marrero has done just that. Lincoln Beachey, the man who was key in starting the U.S. Air Force, is now deservedly on center stage.

This exciting and fast-paced read is informative, educational, and even surprising. This is a peak into the past that will delight anyone, whether or not they have any interest in aviation.

I had never heard of Frank DeFord. My father bought this book as a Christmas gift for my husband, thinking it would be about sports. I had no intention of reading it, but when you're home with the flu, what do you do? Well, you read for 7 hours straight because you can't stop. Even if the characters were a little bit two dimensional (not Nina and Hugh as much as Bucky and Constance), the story of love transcending lifetimes was intriguing and fresh. It has something for everyone--romance, action, mystery, mythology, history, spirited debate and religion. This is a love story above all, but it's a thinking person's love story.

My biggest complaint is that we never got to find out who Hugh and Nina were in their past lives--though after what they went through, I can understand them not wanting to open that can of worms. This book will make you wonder if you have found your soul-mate, or if they are half a continent away.

I truly recommend this book. I gave it as a Christmas present this year to some friends who also loved it very much!!! You can't go wrong with this story even if you aren't a fan of reincarnation (which I'm not) you will still love the story and appreciate that it is well written.

An uniquely imaginative love story / mystery where science, religion and art collide with a more mystical world. Part new age, part time travel, threads of reincarnation mixed with art history. While the author presents us with some highly provocative and creative scenarios, he really doesn't "get" his women characters, whose reality seems to be either the pages of Cosmo or perhaps the fantasies of an adolescent. Specifically, do you know ANY women friends who think they have a fine butt?

Obvious flaws aside, the book did teach me a great deal about Rubens, and I think the story worked in a very peculiar and thought provoking way. Mr. Defore paints quite a landscape and sense of place, and has a distinctive perspective on happily ever after ....