Our family has the fortune of having Frank Finale as a teacher to both our children.

He has done a wonderful job capturing the Jersey Shore for all of its charms and the many artists who live here.

First, the editors of To the Shore Once should be congratulated. They chose 101 drawings, etchings,and paintings from local New Jersey and some national artists. These works of Art complement Mr. Frank Finale's writing in essays, prose and poetry. You, turn the page and you feel like you are at the beach in Spring Lake, Belmar or Manasquan. Even the carrousel of 1950s Asbury Park is represented. As I think of Frank O'Hara's book on Jackson Pollock, To The Shore Once More will become a classic coffee table book for years to come. Art and prose and poetry, what a nice mix. We have Mr. Frank Finale to thank for such a beautiful book this Summer

Lee Carlson's review can hardly be improved upon, but I have one addendum, responding to his lament at the end of the review:

A concrete construction of a fake 4-space can be found in the last section of Chapter 1 of Dan Freed and Karen Uhlenbeck's (1984, revised 1991) book, "Instantons and Four-Manifolds", a great compliment to Freedman and Quinn's book. Unfortunately, it's just as hard to find and about three times as costly as the reviewed book. Unless you really can't live without seeing how this is done, take it on faith (not much consolation to a physicist who wants to know if black holes behave differently in fake spacetime). A cheaper alternative: If you visit a major university math library and take a bunch of quarters for their copier, the relevant Ch.1, "Fake R^4", is fourteen pages long.

It is too bad this book is out of print, for it introduces the reader to a fascinating branch of topology and has the clearest proof of the 4-dimensional Poincare conjecture. In addition, the authors do not hesitate to employ diagrams as needed to illustrate the main points and to assist the reader in visualizing 4-dimensional objects. The authors give a fine discussion as to the reasons why four dimensions is harder to deal with topologically than dimensions five or greater, this being essentially due to the behavior of 2-dimensional disks: mapping 2-disks into 3-manifolds results (generically) with 1-dimensional self-intersections; in 4-dimensions the intersections are isolated points, and in 5 dimensions or more the 2-disks can be embedded.

Interestingly, the authors choose not to employ the famous "Kirby calculus" in the proofs of the main results, despite the fact that it was used extensively in their earlier works. They break the book into two parts, the first one emphasizing embedding theorems and the second one the structure of manifolds. Those readers interested in the proof of the 4-dimensional Poincare conjecture will find it in chapter 7, as a consequence of the authors proof of the h-cobordism theorem, the latter being nontrivial. It is the absence of a smooth structure on the h-cobordism that makes it so difficult in dimension four.

The existence of exotic structures on 4-manifolds is discussed in detail in chapter 8 and the authors endeavor to show why dimension 4 is unique compared to higher dimensions. The existence of exotic structures on 4-manifolds is definitely interesting, and has recently been shown to have importance in physics. But physicists who need an explicit example of one of these structures will not find one here, and I know of no such examples in the literature. Such an example would be interesting from the standpoint of the behavior of quantum field theories on such 4-manifolds, as one would like to know if this behavior would indeed be different than that on the manifold with the "standard structure".

This book is a must for anyone interested in American folksongs. It ranks right up there with the Lomax, Beldon, Hunter, and Randolph collections. It may be hard to find, and a bit pricey, but well worth the effort. I'd give it ten stars if the rating would go that high. You will enjoy this collection.
Michael Breid, a.k.a.Arkansas Red-Ozark Troubadour
Ozark Mountains, Arkansas

You may go to this book to find out about the Warner's fascinating song-collecting trips begun in western North Carolina in 1938 and lasting into the 1960s, but you'll find an amazing repertoire of songs waiting to be sung.

Tom Dooley is the song Frank Proffitt sang to the Warners long ago. The Kingston Trio heard Frank Warner sing it in the 1950s and made it their signature song. But it is only one of hundreds of songs that the world is waiting to hear.

Read the words of rural America in the voice of Lee Monroe Presnell, Yankee John Galusha or Grammy Fish. These are singers the Lomaxes would have spent a lot of tape on.

The songs themselves would be enough, but this is a book full of Anne Warner's scholarship and thoughtful treatment of her subject. Frank Warner's photographs will take you to a far off place.

I was gripped by the passion of this story. It was written so well and took you through the very sad and interesting plight of this Italian family. It would make a great movie!

Frank Barry's A Trio Of Lies is the true-life memoir of an Italian family's struggle to adapt and survive in America. Deftly and candidly written with compelling emotion A Trio Of Lies spans most of the twentieth century and concludes with an eye toward the future. A Trio Of Lies is a highly recommended and intimately personal saga of human striving, weaknesses, and endurance that although specific to the D'Alessandro family, is universal in its relevance for all American families living in today's uncertain economic, social, and political climate.

In addition to being a fun read, it is a great source for Frank Lloyd Wright quotes! Recommended for any serious Wright fan.

Truth Against The World is a must for anyone interested in understanding Wright's philosophy of Organic Architecture. It is such a great resource because, unlike the thousands of other books that were written about Wright, Truth Against The World is a view of the famed architectural philosophy through the genius himself. You do not get a third person interpretation about Wright and his philosophy; instead you read and hear about it in his own words. The end result is a greater depth of understanding not only of the Organic philosophy, but of arguably one of the world's greatest architect of all time.

Lisa Wheeler writes some of the most delightful children's books around today. "Turk and Runt" is a gigglefest! What child can't relate to Runt, the younger brother, who just can't seem to measure up to "perfect" Turk. No-one ever listens to Runt and it nearly costs Turk his life. Read this book to your children or just read it for your own pleasure.

Laugh-out-loud funny! The kids loved it and the adults had their funny bones tickled as well. Read this one out loud to the whole family, then plan on having tacos for Thanksgiving.

This is an US medal collector must have refence work. It's depics each medal with full exaplanation on topics related on wearing and displaying such medals. Each medal is explained and detailed. All medals and ribbons are in full vivid colour

Thorough coverage of the modern era of American awards with beautiful full color illustrations and clear explanations of eligibility, order of precedence, foreign awards, unit citations, and other vital information. Of particular value is their clarification of ribbon devices, making comprehensible an area of great confusion. If your field is modern U.S. awards this is a good choice.

This is a great book. It has full color photographs of practically every medal issued by the government since 1939. It also gives the criteria for each award. If you collect medals or are just interested in thier history, this is an excellent book.

Shows color plates of all medals, ribbons awarded by the United States. Also shows Foreign Awards authorized as part of U.S. military uniform. The basic criterion for each award is given so you can see if you might be eligible for this award. There are also sections on devices (oak leaves etc.), their meaning and wear, how to wear medals in proper order and on civilian clothing. (a pin is considered appropriate) A section is devoted to the issue of U.S. Medals to Veterans, Retirees and thier families. A Hardcover book which only costs a bit more than the softcover. Generally a well done book. My only criticism as a collector is that it does not show the reverse side of medals. Ed Jones Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 753

This is a very true to life book. As an MIT graduate, I can attest to many of the phenomena Frank describes - losing one's virginity to a nymphomaniac, spending all night in a computer cluster, writing computer programs to analyze the weather and take over the world. An excellent book for anyone who wants to understand the canonical nerd, and how he takes technology and spins it into the ecstasies of the stratosphere.

I just finished reading "The Uncertainty Principle", and I must say I am very impressed. I think Steve Frank got the flavor of the place dead on. Oh, some of the details are wrong, but who cares? The fact that the essence was there let me concentrate on the story instead of cringing at the errors. I'm just amazed that he was able to pull this off. Most people have this superficial, stereotyped view of what MIT is all about, and I was very happy to see that he was able to get past that and create some believable, human characters. Well, nerds, actually, but nerds are human too, ya know.

As I was reading this book I couldn't help comparing it to "Microserfs" by Douglas Coupland. What "Microserfs" is to the left coast "The Uncertainty Principle" is to the right coast.

"The Uncertainty Principle" ought to be required reading for anyone even remotely associated with MIT. The only question I have is whether this book would appeal to someone not associated with MIT. I like to think so, but as you can tell I'm somewhat biased. In any case, I recommend you give this book a try.

Some of the highlights of the book:
- the MIT professor exiled to an office on the top floor of a parking garage.
- Skullduggery and intrigue with roommates, patent lawyers, and thesis advisors.
- The crazy inventor uncle who likes to plug away at mice with a laser-targeted silencer-equipped .22. Except that he's not as crazy as he seems.
- Subtle and not-so-subtle put-downs of biotechnology and venture capitalists.

Altogether an amusing and enjoyable book.

It is a great book for those who is WWI aviation fun. It gives you description of all victories of Voss, Immelmann, Goring and Red Baron's young brother. It also gives short biographies of their unlucky adversaries and if they managed to survive the war their consequent life achievements. WWI aviafuns, you MUST read it.
On the otehr hand it is NOT the book you want to introduce yourself with to the subject

It is a well written book describing all documented vitories of four German Aces. The book gives the dates and details (if available) of fights and biographies of their opponents. Its structure resembles the structure of "Under the guns of the Red Baron".
Those who are not accustomed to this type of literature will consider it dry and should read something more general about WWI aviation before buying this particular book. For WWI aviation fans its MUST TO READ.