Dr. Witham does a wonderful job of pulling together both witty and profound quotes on parenting that remind us of what is most important -- and that parents shouldn't take themselves too seriously. A perfect book for the day the toddler pulls over the plant and spills juice while the 4-year-old draws on the walls!

I purchased this book because the author had the same name as an old high school friend of mine. As it turns out, the author is indeed that old high school friend. I have not seen or talked to him in . . . well, more years then either or us probably wants to admit. Now, all of this is not in a way of a disclaimer for this review. It is to say, that I would not have picked up this book if not for the name connection and would have missed a good read.

The Adventures of Freefall O'Keefe is an unlikely title to house what turns out to be a pocket history of aviation, space exploration, and even the history of the past century. The book's 273 pages are written for readers, real readers. You will not find filler pages of mind-numbing dialog or overblown descriptions here. Nearly every page is filled with history and science presented through the life story of the main character Freefall O'Keefe.

Freefall's life is a little like Forest Gump meets Jules Verne as the pioneer aviator's travels brings him in contact with aviation greats from the Wright Brothers to Wernher von Braun. The narrator of the story presents us with the technical aspects of each milestone as easy to read lessons that are a tribute to the author's obvious penchant for research. And, when the scope of what humankind has accomplished so far is not sufficient for our hero, we are treated to a glimpse of a future that is crafted to fit in the realm of the possible.

Beyond the history and science of The Adventures of Freefall O'Keefe, Anthony Giarmo has created for us a main character that is unlike other adventure heroes. Instead of a Rambo like shoot 'um up and ask questions later superman, fighting for his own cause, we are treated to a person of average stature who can serve his country without killing and think of the world as an extended community.

Freefall O'Keefe's life is a celebration of diversity and a worldview that is unfortunately much more fiction that the history of aviation that winds through it. The author shows us a life that we may feel does not exist but he validates that life by making us feel good at the possibility.

I suggest you read this book in small chunks. The book's thirty-eight chapters make it possible to do this easily. Digest the chapters and the lessons they contain and take time to reflect on the history we have all lived through. And while you're at it, take a moment to look up toward the sky and think about the fantastic future ahead.

While "The Persians" is a minor work in the extant plays of Aeschylus, it has considerable historical significance. The play is the second and only remaining tragedy from a lost tetralogy that is based on the historical events of the Persians Wars. The play was first performed in 472 B.C., eight years after the defeat of the invaders at the Battle of Salamis, and the speech by the Messenger has been assumed to be a fairly accurate description of the battle since Aeschylus had fought the Persians at the Battles of Marathon and Salamis, not that his Athenian audience would not already know the story.

However, the focus of the play is not on the Greek victory but rather on the downfall of the Persian Empire because of the folly of King Xerxes. After the ghost of Darius, father of Xerxes and the leader of the first Persian invasion that was defeated at the Battle of Marathon, laments the ruin of the great empire he had ruled, Xerxes offers similar histrionics concerning the destruction of his fleet. One of the reasons that "The Persians" is interesting is because Aeschylus presents Xerxes, a foreign invader, as exhibiting the same sort of hubris that afflicts the greatest of mythological heroes in these Greek tragedies. Laud and honor is given the Athenians for defeating the Persians in battle, but Aeschylus surprisingly provides a look at the Persian king's culpability in the downfall of his own empire. There is a reference in the play to the tradition that Xerxes was descended from Perseus (for whom the Persian race was therefore named), but even so it seems quite odd to turn him into a traditional Greek tragic hero as represented in such tragedies.

Aeschylus won the festival of Dionysus in 472 B.C. with the tetralogy of "Phineus," "The Persians," "Glaucus of Potniae," and the satyr play "Prometheus the Fire-Kindler." Phineas was the king who became the victim of the Harpies, while this particular Glaucus was the son of Sisyphus and the father of Bellerophon who was torn to pieces by his own mares. Consequently, this particular tetralogy clearly has the theme of kings brought down by their own folly. But even within that context, the fact that Aeschylus would write of a historical rather than legendary figure, not to mention a Persian rather than a Greek, remains more than a minor historical curiosity.

One of the most complete general works on African Art and well worth purchasing for detailed information on the variation in art form, tribe, country and art style in Africa. Almost full tribal location information and regionalised art details makes this book a must for the serious collector and student on the subject. From early Egyptian to more recent times, it is a book you have to read several times to understand that no one can ever know the true depth and complexity within the African Art world. A good all round reference book on a much missunderstood and underated art form.

Mark Farley

De Jasay's book does an excellent job punctuating the arguments typically used to justify the state. He shows the absurdity of contractariansim (if the state is necessary to enforce contracts, then how did the state make a contract with the people for its establishment?). His essay "Is Limited Government Possible?" is an excellent tonic for those libertarians who feel that the state can be effectively constrained by a constitution. In addition to the problem of enforcement, de Jasay highlights the disturbing tendency of the state to expand indefinitely as an increasingly smaller majority is necessary to exploit an increasingly larger minority (culminating in democracy where a coalition of 50+1 gets to exploit the remaining 49.9). He also demonstrates the flaws of adopting loose limitations on government action (for instance, if governement is supposed to promote fairness, who defines "fairness"?) The second part of the book highlights the functioning of social institutions and conventions that existed prior to governement and evolved independently of the state, strengthening the conclusion that people can lead peaceful, fulfilling lives without the state. I would have given this book five stars, except that it suffers from the same defect as most treatises of academic philosophy in that his writing style is often a bit dry.

Actually it's pretty thin considering that it attempts to survey both the air forces of the world and most of the even remotely important aircraft. They cram a lot of information - most entries for countries are in abstract form, with some countries getting maps, and the largest and most important air arms getting detailed organizational charts. The aircraft digests concentrate on the chief variant of any given aircraft with added information on the less well known. The pictures are a mixed bag.

A word about how dated this book is - when published, the MiG-29 existed - as far as we knew - only on "official" DoD sketches that look like they were written by 3rd graders. The Su-27 was virtually unknown. At the same time, the air arms considered such eventually dead-end products as the Mirage 4000, the Lavi and the Chinese "Super-7", and these vaporous machines get equal billing. In all fairness, I'm using hindsight, and that shouldn't detract from this book which is a great time capsule of world air forces, not only as they existed in the Reagan years, but also as they were envisioned.

If ever you wanted to know anything or everything about things that Western aircraft could drop from them while flying to make a "boom", "Boom", "BOOM", or even "BOOM-POW-ZOOM-KERBLOOEY!!!!!!", then this is the book for you! It covers your basic booms, the Mk-82 general purpose 500 pound bomb, up to the Silver Bullet B61 scaleable hydrogen bomb "BOOM-POW-ZOOM-KERBLOOEY!!!!!!" Of special interest was the section on retarded dumb bombs. I never knew there were so many ways you could drop a retard from a speeding airplane! Smart bombs are covered at length as well, but I loved the section on falling, dumb retarded ordnance. The photographs and text are well presented along with extensive footnotes on sources.

I READ THIS AS A SHORT STORY IN A LARGER COLLECTION. IT IS TYPICAL OF ALL TROLLOPE SHORT TALES - IT HAS A PLOT, MUCH CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, MUCH PHILOSOPHY ABOUT LOVE AND LIFE, AND HAS A MEANINGFUL CONCLUSION. TOO MANY SHORT STORIES JUST SEEM TO BE MOOD PIECES AND WANDER. NOT TROLLOPE! THIS STORY CONCERNS THE LOVE BETWEEN A MAN AND WOMAN AND HOW OTHER FACTORS - FAMILY AND SOCIETAL NEEDS AND MORES - EXERT AN INFLUENCE - USUALLY DETRIMENTAL. HOWEVER, IN THE END, TRUE LOVE IS ALL THAT MATTERS, NOT WHAT OTHERS THINK, THE FAMILIES DESIRE, OR SOCIETY DICTATES. IF YOU LOVE TROLLOPE, READ ALICE DUGDALE.

Bouscaren collected info from a number of sources and presented these for the reader to interpret. Sources from all sides of the issues on Vietnam. This is a great book for those of them whom have read only soldiers' accounts of vietnam and shy away from a one view political write up of the whole event.

The fact that it was written in 77 (and I read it in 2000) shows that there were some people with a very good grasp of the situation in Vietnam at that time and that a retrospective look is very interesting.

The book drives a point home: US foreign policy, it's manifest destiny took a hell of a blow and much will have to be done to redress the situation.

This is a great book to read at this time (25 years after the fact), in combination with books on what US policy and the middle east regions are concerned from the 70's to now.

The author traveled along the fortified border that used to divide East and Western Europe. The most detailed descriptions are those of the separation of Germany including Berlin. There are several conversations and trips with border patrol officials. There are no photographs.