Have you ever been so scared of where you lived? Well that is how Rufus Henry and his family felt. Durango Street sounded like a realistic fiction book. It is a story about a teenager named Rufus Henry who spent time in work camp for grand theft auto. His troubles begin when he is released. All he wants to do is keep a steady job and obey the laws. He finds the difficult because of all the crime and gang activity going on around his neighborhood.

If I had to rate this book from 1 to 10 I would probably give it a 9 because I really enjoyed reading this book, and I liked these characters. This book is probably for a 14 year-old boy or girl. You would have to like a serious type of book, because the book has a really good plot. The book kept my interest although there were some parts that were sloe and boring, because the author was to non-specific with the characters. Durango Street was not hard to concentrate because the story could really happen to kids our ages. I did not really connect to the characters because they did not match me that good, but I liked them. I really enjoyed reading this book because I enjoy reading these types of books.

Durango Street is a teen novel that a lot of kids should read because it teaches you what not to do during your teen years. Frank Bonham wrote a novel about Rufus Hennry. Rufus was a teen that was brought to a work camp for grand theft auto and when he gets out, his parole officer tells him that he can't join any gangs or else he will have to go back to work camp, but he does.
Rufus attitude changed based on who he is with; this sometimes causes him to make unwise and thoughtless choices, such as rejoining a gang. There are many examples of unwise decisions Rufus makes, such as joining gangs and hurting people. Both of those decisions affect his parole officer and his family. He also steals from stores and lies too much. These actions affect his parole officer and his family.
I liked Durango Street because there was a lot of fighting and adventure. It also left you thinking about what was going to happen in the next chapter. I think most teens would like this book because of all the adventure that happens. I recommend this book to most teens. It's a great book and I really liked it.

Durango Street is a story about about a boy named Rufus facing gang and life struggles. Rufus Henry is a boy with a lot of potential, but he has gotten himself into the wrong place with the wrong people. The book starts out with Rufus in work camp after being charged with grand theft auto. But when he is released from camp, there is only one place for him to go, back to Durango Street. Immediately after Rufus arrives at his home he runs into trouble with the gang called the Gassers. Before long the Gassers are after him and Rufus finds he has no chioce but to join the gang the Moors. With the Moors behind him, Rufus is staying alive and safe for a while. But when the Gassers catch up with the Moors, trouble and "war" breaks out. Rufus learns that this lifestyle is not the way to live his life, and does his best to end the "war". He faces many life and death situations, but he always seems to come out clean. Rufus learned a lot from this experience and eventually understands that his life is not a dead end, but a life with a great future. THIS BOOK is AWESOME!

This is a nice book, written clearly, stays focused. This is more than a how-to book -- it's loaded with pep talk to encourage you on your way to starting your own typing business. I'm sure some readers take to this style of writing; I don't particularly like it myself.

The book is a lot smaller than it first seems: It was typeset on a very old-fashioned word processor and printed on what seems like a 9-pin dot matrix printer with a large and low-quality monospace font... To this, someone added titles in a letter quality font, and this typographical nightmare was then sent to the printers... I mention this, because one would hope that a book on how to start a typing business would be able to give some typographic advice -- after all, most word processors today are typographically rich and capable, and one needs to learn how to use these features effectively while not abusing them. No chance for that here, and not because of the author's oversight! --

The most amazing thing about this little book is that it's almost totally outdated. The book was published in 1990 and the information about typing was outdated already back then. Today, it's practically useless: The book discusses typing paper (remember that erasable typing paper? -- if not -- the author will remind you), typewriters and how to test them, and has some information on what appears to be very rudimentary word processing technology. VERY rudimentary.

What is still relevant about this book is the information on how to start and manage a typing business: The advice the author gives is plain and simple to follow, makes sense, and works. Everything from how to start a business, how to advertise cheaply or freely, how to keep costs down, etc. Frankly, some of this is a bit outdated too, because I imagine that most home typists would run their accounting, book keeping, invoices, etc on line, that is, on their personal computer...

Still, this is a nice book, and if you want to make a little extra cash on the side, you can get this book and learn a thing or two. It isn't an expensive book, and even if it doesn't teach you anything new it will at least help you plot a concrete course of action -- what to do to get started. If you want to use this book, you should try to make up for its weaknesses:

- Forget about typewriters unless you're a collector.

- Forget about word processing systems that come with a typewriter -- special purpose computers that only work as a word processor -- they're good for anyone but you: (A) You can't upgrade the word processor -- you'd be stuck with whatever you got; (B) These word processors are universally and severely limited as far as typesetting features are concerned; (C) You're locked into them -- they generally don't let you export your files to the format of a PC/Mac based word processor; (D) They're expensive; You could get a PC for the kind of money they cost. The bottom line is that a typist needs to be able to offer typographic flexibility and those systems offer anything but flexibility.

- Get a real word processor -- MS Word, Corel Word Perfect, Adobe Framemaker, Interleaf, etc, and MASTER IT. At least glance over the manuals once, just so you know what it can and cannot do.

- Follow the advice in The Complete Typing Business Guide as to how to get some business. Focus on colleges and universities.

[ There is a lot of money to be made from scientific typesetting -- formulas, equations, tables of formulas and equations, graphs, etc -- This is a skill in itself, and you may want to get some more specialised software. Generally, most math and physics professors HATE to typeset their papers and they'd do anything and pay almost anything for someone else to typeset their papers for them. ]

- [The cheater's guide to typesetting; A crash course:] Keep a few examples of neat typesetting work in various categories: A novel, a science book, an article in the humanities, an article in physics, a term paper, resumes for different kinds of jobs -- examples of work that looks sharp and clean and crisp and nice. Configure the macros, styles, formats, etc in your word processor so that you can immitate THOSE styles quickly and effortlessly. Then, when you get some typing work, use those styles. Yes, COPY those styles. Stick to the styles that look best for the category of work you're typing in, and remember: In typesetting, consistency is the greatest virtue.

I found the book was very informative and detailed, also very easy to follow. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to start a home typing business.

I found the book was very informative and detailed, and also easy to follow. I highly recommend this book to anyone intersted in starting a home typing business.

If you're new to Director, this is an excellent place to start. Step by step tutorials give you the hands on approach to learning the basics of Director. Poor testing prior to publishing makes their tutorials a bit buggy, but don't let that stop you. Consider it part of the educational value!

I found Director 6 and Lingo Authorized to be useful for the Director beginner with well thought out tutorials and a building block process that allows you to gain a gradual understanding of the application. However, I struggled in each chapter with technical problems. Every chapter had at least one or more mistakes that you as the inexperienced user had to troubleshoot. It became a frustrating process knowing that I would run in to a problem that wasn't created by me. I spent at least a quarter of my learning time troubleshooting what turned out to be simple typos in the book. Additionally, not all aspects worked, at least not on a Win 98 platform. Anything that was video oriented didn't play and some of the completed lessons didn't work properly either. Some contained script errors and others just didn't work. I have a hard time recommending this book because of those problems even though I think the material is good. If Macromedia improved the quality, I would highly recommend it. Otherwise, I wouldn't get it unless you have a great deal of patience.

MacroMedia Director is a fairly intricate application to learn. This book does a good job of describing both Mac and PC commands, as well as presenting step by step instructions to get started. The examples and included media are good for getting started while providing a satisfying product for the time spent. Sound and video clips are good examples of how to keep a multimedia document to a manageable size. A few of the visual examples show stage and picture sizes of 8 to 16 bit, where our Pentium II computer was giving 1 6 to 32 bit in the same place, but this did not seem distracting while trying to learn. I would highly recommend this book to someone who wants to learn Director (and Lingo) thoroughly and on her own!

Final Affair was not like anything I've ever read before. It's the story of a detective who opens the Overton 'cold case file'. There are a lot of people against him, people who don't think that a woman's death was suspicious. Slowly he unravels various clues that were missed before. It's shocking to see just how far one man will go. This was a great book, and a really quick read.

against all odds; picking up a cold case of a woman who appeared
to die of natural causes; going against even his peers who he worked with who hadn't done any investigation into this case; Well written, to the point and no sensationalism. I love true crime stories like this; it demonstrates what intelligence, caring and tenacity can accomplish. And pity Janet Overton's killer husband who always believed (wrongly I might add), that only a superior intellect mattered in life. I guess I was a little surprised that the first trial ended in mistrial- there was so much evidence-- oh well, in the end, Richard Overton went to jail for his act of murder.

GREAT BOOK, I LIVE IN AREA SO I REMEMBER THE CASE COULD'T PUT IT DOWN/HOPING FOR ANOTHER CASE TO BE WRITTEN/

Although there is much practical advice and interesting facts about child development, the overall result is a tired and dated manual. Some of the advice is downright dangerous! The book explored the conflict between putting infants to sleep on their back as opposed stomach. There is a clinically accepted link between Babies sleeping on their stomach and SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrom. There isn't a pediatrition or health nurse on the planet who would recomend putiing an infant to sleep on their belly, let alone give an option between the two.

My pediatrician recommended it after the birth of my first child. It was fun and fascinating to understand better how my babies brain was developing. I read and reread each chapter. I have bought it as a baby gift for at least ten people.

I had my first child in 1989 and the book The First Twelve Months of Life (Capland) was an absolute neccessity to track my child's developmental progress. Not only does it tell you what your baby's Gross Motor skills are each month, it also gives you clear and concise information on Fine Motor, Language, Social, and many other developmental skills. I am having my second child shortly and I went shopping for a book that would be as informative and helpful as the book by Capland. I couldn't find one. I ended up getting the same book and I plan on referring to it often.

Frank And I was repetitive, boring and poorly written. For example, the only word used for intercourse was 'poke'. The whole book could easily be summarized as: "Whip her butt and poke it in. Then do it again and again and again and again and again and again," using the same words and the same clumsy, inadequate descriptions. It is as if the author were following the command, "Be sure to describe each new scene in the same old way!"
Don't waste your money!

This classic has been published and re-published through the years. This edition is a wordworth classic but I have also seen it as a Blue Moon book published in 1987

The story is narrated by Charlie a young man in the late 1800's in Britainwho meets Frank on the road to Portsmouth to become a sailor. Frank is actually Frances and she donned a boy's clothes and disguise for protection on the rough journey.

Charlie then takes Frank into his home and is happy to have the company for a short while. Frank becomes enamoured of her young benofactor and then in shprt time faces the problem of declaring herself to Charlie and her true feelings. Misbehaving, Frank then sees the opportunity to clear the air when Charlie decides to have her spanked, something that we all know the Vitorians absolutley love to do ...

Its a great story and erotic as the truth is known and the games begin .....

This is *the* superior Edwardian erotic novel, and it has to be read to be believed. It will be re-discovered generation after generation. The story is perfectly told, the characters are vivid, and the dialog crisp and witty. If you are looking for the premier discipline novel of all time: look no further.

The Unknown life of Jesus Christ is a surprise and a shock only to those who are still under the influence of their cultural programming. And the assumtion that there is only one path to God.

This work is just the beginning of more records from India that will help verify why the New testament concepts are the same as those of the Sanatana Dharma (or "Hinduism" to the uneducated).

These unifying spiritual principles were brought out very cleraly in both the "Autobiography of a Yogi" & God Talks With Arjuna" by Paramahansa Yogananda. Who by the way, also attests that Jesus was in India. The difference here of course is that Yogananda did not have to rely on Other spirits to tell Him so, He did not dabble in those methods.

Some writers claim that eastern sages try to make Jesus words fit into their own molds. This is not in the least way true or necessary. they are the same! When I was a youth and studying the New Testament for the first time, the later the Bhagavad Gita, it was clear to me then (without any other influence)that it was the same teaching in both sacred books.

Since there presently are no records that contradict the records in India re Jesus visited there for many years, and since persons in that part of the world do not have the goal of world domination (exclusivism). I accept the findings of Notavich and those great ones who state that Jesus was in India.

First, let's get one thing out of the way: It has now been *proven* that Nicolas Notovitch, *did* visit the Hemis lamasery (see page 132-135 of the recently released book, Saving the Savior: Did Christ Survive the Crucifixion?).

Dr. Fida Hassnain, a living scholar who currently resides in Srinagar, Kashmir (the city that houses the Roza Bal--the mausoleum that houses the physical remains of Jesus Christ), visited the Hemis monastery in recent times, and he stated the following: "...the other Lamas who also were present belonging to the monastery immediately said that their older monks *did remember* an Englishman being injured and brought to their monastery and that some MSS (manuscripts) were shown to him." In those times, any European was referred to as an "Englishman" by the inhabitants of Tibet.

One wonders *why* we should believe the claims of Dr. Archibald Douglas *over* the claims of an Asian scholar, Dr. Hassnain, who knows the languages of the area, and the culture of the people. Why? Because Dr. Douglas was a European, hum? Why should he be believed? Just because he made a statement?

Anyway, this is a fascinating book that will hold your attention from beginning to end. The style of the teachings of Jesus that Notovitch reveals, as contained in the manuscripts he saw, are strikingly similar to Gnostic, Afghani, Persian, Hindu, Kashmiri and Nazarene traditions (See Saving the Savior) that record the teachings of Jesus Christ. I doubt that Notovitch even knew of these other traditions, which gives more weight to his account.

The *real* reason that Douglas and others *fabricated* their claims that Notovitch did not visit Hemis (now disproven by Hassnain) is that the teachings of Jesus revealed in the Buddhist documents at Hemis *match* the teachings revealed in Gnostic, Afghani, Persian, Hindu, Kashmiri and Nazarene accounts.

And those teachings *do not* speak of death, "resurrection" and ascension. They speak about finding God *within.* They repeat the idea of Gnosis [recall how the Paulene Christians eventually, and violently, destroyed the Gnostic and other *original* Christian movements that *did not* believe the Paulene death and resurrection myth.]

So let's do the arithmatic: We have 7 traditions (Buddhist, Gnostic, Afghani, Persian, Hindu, Kashmiri and Nazarene) that reveal a very *human* Jesus who spoke of Gnosis and God within, and ONE tradition that claims he is the literal "Son of God." Seven against one. *That's* why they fear and hate Notovitch--he confirmed what *already* existed about Jesus in 6 other traditions, and that confirmation went AGAINST Paulene Christianity.

Notovitch remains a BIG thorn in the side of Church Christianity, and THAT is why the lie was fabricated that Notovitch never visited Hemis. This lie was further disproved by the great Swami Abhedananda, who went to Hemis and *saw* the documents. Abhedananda, again, was an *Asian.*

So we have the word of two Asians against the word of two Europeans. And NATURALLY, the word of the Europeans must CERTAINLY be correct...right!? NOT!

Read Notovitch's book. And then read Jesus Lived in India (Kersten); Jesus Died in Kashmir (Kaiser); Jesus in Heaven on Earth (Nazir Ahmad), etc. If you can't find those, then read Saving the Savior: Did Christ Survive the Crucifixion? (2001), the latest and most complete book on the subject.

I personnally believe that the content of Notovitch's book dealing with the probable stay of Christ in India is very convincing. What is most interesting is that different versions of the story of the life of Jesus made by different sages of India converge with the one which Notovitch read in the manuscripts of Himis. Very accurate details of Isa's life are given by Yogananda Paramahansa, by Sathya Sai Baba.... These two saints of India never met, but their stories of the life of Jesus outside India do not contradict at all with the one brought forward by Notovitch. For both of these sages, Christ mission was to create a bridge between the east and the west to allow spirituality and materialism to work hand in hand. For both of them, it seems that the message of Christ has not yet been fully understood by humanity. Christ is supposed to be a universal master.

This book seems rather amateurish. It contains many rants from the perspective of someone who sounds bitter and resentful about a less-than-perfect college experience. A good amount of the information is of a personal experience nature, and may not be widely applicable to other students. The author seems to have few or no credentials beyond having once been a college student himself (from what I could tell from the book). He freely discusses his pitfalls, goof-ups, bad decisions, and negative experiences--would you want advice from this guy? His writing style is furthermore contentious and angry, and mostly unpolished. He talks about exposing the dirty little secrets of college, but really there is nothing new here--and much of the malice he talks about is exaggerated. For example, no one forces you to buy books at the college bookstore. It's not a monopoly--it's just a convenience. You can't find college textbooks at your local shopping mall, so the bookstore exists to allow you to buy all your books in one place. His perspective seems to be heavily biased by his own experiences (and perhaps a bit of paranoia), and he hasn't discussed issues from more realistic viewpoints. Students would be better served with balanced information, such as knowing that the bookstore is convenient but that high operating costs (of switching over entire inventory several times a year) make alternatives attractive. I would be concerned that students reading this book will get an unrealistically negative impression of the college experience, and they might go to college expecting (and looking for) deception and malice, which might be demoralizing. I'd say students need a more encouraging resource than this. To be fair, the author does have some worthwhile things to say, but I think most of the truly useful information could be more easily learned from any random college student over a cup of coffee--and you won't get the same bitter aftertaste. Maybe more aggressive editing and/or a collaborator would have smoothed over the rough edges in the writing.

I also wasn't impressed by the quality of the book itself. It has a "rough around the edges" look and feel to it that I can't quite explain. But just look at the cover art--it looks like a pre-production mockup

I purchased this book actually for my grandchild who was starting there first year of college. I read it myself first then gave it to him as a gift .The book has a lot of humor and tells of experiences that others have had during there college life. My grandchild was quite nervous starting out in college so I though this book might lighten the mood for him and that it gave advice of what to bring for dorm rooms and so on. I thought it was a great book for anyone starting out with there first year of college or later on. Very Well Done!!!

It was about time that someone took a George-Carlinesque swipe at the college industry—that hallowed institution of higher learning, which, like so many other human institutions, [...]. The author of the review entitled “Seems like the dining hall was serving sour grapes!” got it all wrong! It appears that the only purpose of that review was to absolve and exculpate college bookstore monopolies from Mr. Stevens’ “demoralizing” look at reality. Guy Stevens’ shrewd and savvy observations, served up with wonderfully caustic sarcasm and a clever tongue-in-cheek rebel style, provides us with a refreshing counterbalance to the pious platitudes so many politicians and educators babble nowadays about the nobility of the academic pursuit. The author reveals the true nature—and sometimes horror—of the social underbelly of everyday college-campus life. This is an indispensable book for any college-bound high school senior. Pompous professors, avaricious bookstore owners, callous guidance counselors, and other self-serving inhabitants of our institutions of higher learning beware: This guy Guy is on to your tricks! A great buy for no more than the cost of three cafeteria meals and a bag of sour grapes.

Russell F. Weigley, a military historian at Temple University, used Freeman's classic Lee's Lieutenants as an inspirational model for his effort to produce a one-volume account of the Allied campaign in northwest Europe in 1944-1945. While Allied forces are addressed the main focus of this book concerns American strategy, doctrine and operations. Weigley's hypothesis is that American war-fighting doctrine called for a war of annihilation against enemy armies by means of a "power-thrust" with massed armies and material, but that the actual conduct of the campaign deviated from this doctrine. Furthermore, due to mistakes made in the War Department, Eisenhower was forced to fight with inadequate means and according to Weigley, the US had mobilized "just enough resources to win by a narrow margin."

Weigley's main hypothesis about the US "power-thrust" doctrine is similar to the modern-day Powell doctrine of massive force. Based upon study of the US Civil War and the First World War, American war planners envisioned overwhelming and destroying enemy armies by massive and sustained application of combat power. Unfortunately, Weigley concludes that this theory was undermined in reality by the coalition strategy and inadequate US military mobilization. The British, who were initially the senior partner in the alliance, preferred to avoid costly head-on battles against the main German armies in favor of indirect approach through the peripheries, like Italy and the Balkans. Yet even once the British acquiesced to an invasion of France, the lack of adequate forces inhibited the Allied campaign. Weigley states, that "the basic trouble was that the Anglo-American alliance had not given Eisenhower enough troops to carry it [Allied strategy] out safely," and the "mobilizing [of] a ninety-division army for the Second World War was not an altogether impressive performance for a superpower." Lack sufficient infantry replacements and a galling shortage of artillery ammunition in the Fall of 1944 greatly weakened the US armies at a critical point in the campaign. Lacking sufficient divisions, Eisenhower was unable to either mass his forces for a breakthrough or assemble a strategic reserve to deal with unexpected contingencies. When the Germans struck in the Ardennes in December 1944, the Americans were forced to throw in partly trained units and precious airborne infantry to stop tanks, exposing the 90-division army as a risky gamble.

Weigley's argument about inadequate resources bears serious consideration, but the argument is incomplete. While it is a fact that Eisenhower lacked an adequate number of divisions in late 1944, the reasons were due more to lack of strategic priorities rather than poor mobilization policies in Washington DC. Although President Roosevelt had called for a "Germany First" strategy - and the British concurred - the Allied chiefs of staff had violated this preference by not ruthlessly trimming secondary and tertiary theatres. While Eisenhower was scrambling to come up with adequate troops in the Fall/Winter of 1944, there were 6 US divisions in Italy and 26 in the Pacific. The British were even worse, committing only 12 commonwealth divisions to northwest Europe but leaving 5 divisions in Italy and several more in Burma. Slim's 14th Army in Burma was allowed to waste 18,000 high-quality infantrymen in the fruitless "Chindit" operations. If the Chiefs of Staff had adhered to the "Germany First" strategy, they would have ordered a defensive posture with residual forces in Italy and Burma and scaled back offensive operations in the Pacific. Thus the problem was not inadequate resources, but failure to reign in competing strategies and practice economy of force.

A positive feature of this work is the light it sheds on the virtually-forgotten operational-level US commanders of the Second World War, corps commanders such as Corlett, Haislip, Eddy and Middleton. Other than Bradley and Patton, most US wartime commanders tend to appear as ciphers, if at all. Despite the title, this book unfortunately misses the opportunity to present a study in command that would profile the US operational-level commanders. One issue that is apparent is the poor selection methods used to choose senior American commanders; George C. Marshall's famous list was a ridiculous method for a major power to select its combat leaders. Only Patton and Van Fleet of the 23 senior US combat commanders in northwest Europe had been wounded in action and many such as Bradley and Devers, had missed the First World War altogether. Patch, who lacked any combat experience, was chosen to command the 7th Army over the much-experienced Collins because Patch was a favorite of Marshall's. On the other hand, Marshall's whimsy excluded Van Fleet from senior command for most of the war, but Van Fleet went on to become a very successful combat leader in Europe and Korea.

Weigley also tends to nurture the shibboleth about German combat superiority by stating that, "the German army remained qualitatively superior to the American army, formation for formation" for most of the campaign in northwest Europe. While there were painful episodes in the bocage and the Huertgen Forrest of German forces inflicting heavy losses on US units, the argument of German tactical superiority does not square with the facts. In September 1944, the much-maligned US armor units were able to smash four German panzer brigades in two weeks in essentially even-odds combat. In December 1944, the thinly-spread and badly-bruised 28th Division was able to delay superior German armored forces in the early stages of the Battle of the Bulge. While the Germans were certainly better than the Americans at quickly rebuilding units from odds and ends, German tactical superiority was at best confined to the elite panzer units by 1944. Furthermore, American troops demonstrated improved tactical ability by late 1944, having learned many lessons in the previous six months. Weigley's conclusion that, "in the end, it was its preponderance of material resources that carried its army through to victory in World War II," is out of synch with his "army of emptiness" and "inadequate force" arguments.

This book is an in-depth, critical critique of the western campaign in Europe after D-Day. Although as dry as the technical journals used as source material, the first three chapters contain the bulk of Weigley's thesis. After a lengthy comparison, he clearly states that the Wehrmacht, even as last as January, 1945, was the best army in the world. "With unvarying consistency it had achieve proportionately greater results than any other army for the numbers of men and divisions it employed." It took the vast industrial power of the United States, and the combined arms of the British Commonwealth, Soviet Union, the U.S. and France to finally break the Germans. The Wehrmacht survived and won with a highly trained and competent officer corps and strong unit loyalty among the men. The U.S. Army was woefully short in these traits. Disgusted French and British officers referred to the Americans as "our Italians" during the campaign in North Africa.

The U.S. Army transformed itself into a modern, professional fighting force through its service schools. The Army's concept of war was heavily influenced by its greatest generals up to that point in time: Grant and Lee. Since Grant won, his influence was stronger in the Army. Americans tried to emulate his approach to war by trying to use artillery in a head-on confrontation in an effort to destroy the enemy. Although Grant's influence was predominate, there were generals like George S. Patton, Jr. and John S. Wood, who were swayed by Lee's legacy of maneuver for oblique attack. It is then no surprise that the only part of the U.S. Army that the Germans respected was the artillery and that Patton was the general they feared the most.

Given this overall effort of trying to destroy the enemy with a mass of shells, logistics was extremely important to the Americans. Indeed, Weigley devotes two chapters to the role that logistics played in slowing down the allied advance. The Germans, as a result, had enough time to regroup and prevent an allied breach of the Reich. Supply shortages became critical during the Battle of the Bulge, when U.S. units began to run out of ammunition.

Weigley's portrayal of Eisenhower is not quite as harsh. He had a talent at getting people to work together. Ike, however, vacillated on several strategic decisions. He also treated allied armies as being interchangeable entities. Weigley's Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery is a bold and creative leader, given the severe manpower problems the British faced at this point in the war. Monty, however, had little strategic vision and inflamed national tensions in the allied command with his public belittling of the Americans. Patton is treated as a brilliant, but able general.

Like many other military historians, Weigley argues against claims that President Franklin D. Roosevelt won the war by lost the peace. He, however, makes this contribution not with an emphasis on strategy, but on quality. Many historians have argued that alternative strategies would not have avoided the Cold War. Weigley, instead, contends that without the Soviets the Americans could never have beaten a force as good as the Wehrmacht.

There are two shortcomings in this impressive study. Weigley presents the Germans as monolithic. The three German land forces--the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS, and the Luftwaffe paratroopers--did not fight in the same fashion as one another. Also, he fails to take into account the effect that Hilter's purge, which followed the failed attempt on his life, had on the Wehrmacht. Many officers were arrested and executed after July 20, 1944. All in all, an impressive read with much merit.

This book is exactly that as it provides a wealth of detail that others merely gloss over. This book is not a tired recitation of the standard WWII European theatre timeline = D-Day, nothing much, Cobra, Race Across France, nothing much, the Battle of the Bulge, marking time, The Rhine, German Surrender.

The author presents a thorough operational history of all facets of the campaign including details on such little studied topics as; a.)The Cherbourg Peninsula campaign b.) The Aachen / Roer fighting in Oct. '44 c.) The Hurtigen Forrest fighting d.) Operation Dragoon - the invasion of Southern France in Aug. of '44 e.) The Colmar Pocket f.) Patton's Palatine campaign of '45 g.) The role of the French Army in Alsace and Lorraine

In addition the author fixes American strategy in the tradition of the "find 'em, fix 'em and destroy 'em" approach to strategy that dates back to US Grant and the Civil War. And he demonstrates the shortcomings of that strategy. Logistics and troop shortages are not neglected either as the author clearly demonstrates that, although the United States possessed much more potential combat power than Germany, the US Army was oftentimes outnumbered (or possessed only a thin superiority) at the point of attack. Original plans at the outbreak of war (for the U.S.) in 1941 called for an American army of 210 divisions. In fact only 89 were formed and not all of those went to NW Europe. The disparity between plans and execution is effectively analyzed by the author.

This last point is an important one because it puts to rest that tired old saw that the US Army and their allies simply overwhelmed the 30% of the German army that faced them in the West while all the "real" fighting was done in the East.

The book is invaluable because it casts light on those "other" combat commanders - at Corps and Division level - that we hear almost nothing about. Men like Collins, Corlett, Gerow, Eddie, Robertson, Allen, Van Fleet, etc., (the real heroes of the struggle) finally get their due.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the author's treatment of that WWII international superstar Bernard Law Montgomery. I feel Weigly is very evenhanded when it comes to Monty. He gives credit where it is due and clearly points out those instances where Monty promises much and delivers little. This approach will surely upset both sides of the debate on Monty's true contributions to the Allied effort. His partisans, weaned on a steady diet of Monty hagiography, will see the author taking sides against their man. Monty bashers will not get enough satisfaction from Weigly's evenhanded approach.

In conclusion, f you are interested in this period and have not read this book - get it.

I agree to a point with Lee On The Road about the Nancy Bush book providing a better traveling Crocheting experience, however it provides little information on how to carry the required equipment whilst travelling - and I believe that is something Lee ought to keep in mind.

This book, however, is the dullest book I have seen regarding the subject - and as such I have to disagree with the other comments featured here. The choice range is limited, and dare I say, stuck firmly in the sixties.

Instead, I firmly recommend the Big Book of Favorite Crochet Patterns with the cheerful introduction by Mary Waldrep.

As Happy mentioned,it's good to see the different styles of stiches laid out in detail. However, I will shortly be spending a lot of time away from home, and find the recent travel crochet book by Nancy Bush a lot more pertinant to my own particular requirements.

Happy Crocheting everyone !

I was looking for a small book "that had it all" persay, and I came across this little books sitting in a used bookstore. I think this is a great book for someone looking to start crocheting, without too much heavy, overbearing history to bog down what your looking to do...Crochet.

It has beautiful old patterns, that I haven't seen in new books, the whole feel gives you the idea and feel that Grandma has sat down and taught you to crochet. It's a smaller book (my copy is 8 inches by 5 inches) so it's great to throw in a bag with some small balls of yard to take with you anywhere.

Lots of folks have said different things about this book, good bad and indifferent, but I found it easy to follow, great to learn from, and for used copies being only 2.95 cents you can't really go wrong.

Happy Crocheting!