This is not his best collection, but Clarke afficiandos will find a lot to like here. The most famous story here is probably I Remember Babylon the (barely fictional) account that stars Clarke himself as it's protagonist, and focuses on some of the seemingly (at the time) unforseen negative consequences of the communications satellites, which Clarke, of course, had a big hand in bringing to fruition. Most of these fears have been justified. The Russian references in this story (and also in Hate) date it somewhat, but it is still as relevant today as the day it was written, perhaps moreso. If you are one who realizes the danger of modern television, then you should read this account written by one of it's fathers. Other good stories here include Who's There?, Saturn Rising, and others. Two of Clarke's most underrated stories are here as well: Death And The Senator (which, along with Dog Star and Hate in this volume, show an unusually emotive side of ACC), and the long epic The Road To The Sea. The is a reccommended collection for the ACC addict.

The first thing I would like to mention is that this book is not at the level of any of the Sherlock Holmes's short stories, it is worse than the worst Sherlock Holmes's short stories collection (maybe the "His Last Bow," since it had the lowest number of short stories as compared to the other collections).

Let us explore the book story by story:

1. The Horror of the Heights: (3 stars)
This was not the best short story I ever read, said this plainly. It tells about a pilot trying to prove that there is a jungle up in the sky, above all the heights explored by human beings, and that jungle had creatures that like to mutilate humans once they see them. More than that I would be spoiling the plot.

2. The Leather Funnel: (2 stars)
This is even a worse story. It speaks about the separating line between our world and dreamland. It simply asserts that you can see the past in your dreams, provided that you have something related to that past, just like a leather funnel, for example.

3. The New Catacomb: (4 stars)
The first story to my liking. The good feature about this story is that it gives a twist of plot at the end. It starts with 2 archeologists in Rome, chatting about a catacomb discovered by one of them. In order for the latter to tell the former about the location of the catacomb he wanted to know about some private secret. In the catacomb a strange and interesting twist of plot takes place and the story ends in the best manner a writer can bring to end. Do not take me wrong, I figured this twist from the second page of the story, and I hope you do not, so that you can enjoy the ending.

4. The Case of Lady Sannox: (5 stars)
This story introduces some elements of the Islamic orient (the middle east, if you please). It introduces the reader to a reckless gentleman, who is more of a ladies man. He is, as usual to that type of people, always broke. A Turk offers him money to cure his wife in a strange way. What is so interesting in the story? Of course the twist at the end, and that what made me give it 5 stars ... I did not figure it out until I reached 2 pages before the last one.

5. The Brazilian Cat: (4 stars)
This story was not bad at all, it might have been better than "The Case of Lady Sannox," in terms of the plot and characters. The reason I give it less stars than the other one is that Doyle speaks a lot, he explains many things, relevant and irrelevant. It speaks about a broken young lad - a character which appears frequently in the writings of Doyle - who is the direct heir of a miser uncle. He has got a second relative who had just come from Brazil, so he visited him to beg some money from him. There he is introduced to the relatives pet, a Brazilian cat. Saying more would kill the story, and beware, for there is a twist at the end.

6. The Lost Special: (2 stars)
Where did a train disappear? I thought it would give me a very strange way, like it flied in the sky or something, but the way it disappeared was not insightful.
7. The Beetle Hunter: (3 stars)
An advertisement in the newspaper asks for someone very interested in Beetles, preferably an expert. The hero of the story applies and then is introduced to another expert in Beetles; a master, if you please. There is a twist at the end.

8. The Man with the Watches: (3 stars)
An attempt to depart the realm of Sherlock Holmes, and to forsake his way of deduction. Here you must make a big assumption, and if it fits the crime, then it might actually be the right plot. But in this case it is not. A man and a woman enter a train, both of them disappear, and what remains is the body of a different man, what happened? The answer was more than I could imagine.

9. The Jappaned Box: (1 star)
This is totally unworthy of Doyle. I am not going to say anything about it, you read it and see that it might have impressed people a hundred years ago but not anymore.

10. The Black Doctor: (3 stars)
In a line with the Sherlock Holmes's adventures. A brunet comes to town and work as a doctor, he gets engaged to a lady and then, all of a sudden, he decides to forsake everything and leave the town, what is the reason? It will amaze you, to some extent.

11. The Jew's Breastplate: (3 stars)
A Jewish masterpiece is being perturbed. The old manager of a museum steps aside to give the honor to the new one. The new manager is bedazzled with the strange occurrences. There is a twist at the end, but not that admirable.

12. The Nightmare Room: (2 stars)
Totally unworthy of Doyle. The story is about 2 guys fighting over a woman. There is a twist at the end, but it turns everything allover. It is a wicked twist, if I may say.

And anyway, this book is worth reading, you are not going to bored reading it.

Did you ever wonder how a religious thinker got from Point A (the youthful years) to Point B (adult years where he was now a religous pioneer and the soul that ignited the Religious Science movement)?
If you have, this book is for you. If you're not into Religious Science's change your mind/change your life philosophy this book will still offer some revelations. If you are into it or involved with it, it is a must-read/must-own.
Author Reginald Armor, who died in 1977, was a mere 12 years old when he met the older Ernest Holmes, who even as a young man in his 20s had embraced the philosophy for which he was to become famous. This book traces their lifelong friendship, Holmes' evolution, and the church's growth, from their first meeting (Holme's treatment helped cure Armor's warts) to Holmes' final years.
Don't expect a long, ponderous detailed book. This book is not that at all. It's a simple account of a friendship that lasted until Holmes' 1960 passing. In sections tracing the steps of how Holmes' institute evolved into a church it resembles at times more of a history book than a memoir. These sections are the least interesting.
But Armor also traces how Holmes' carefully considered and precisely articulated spiritual and metaphysical philsophy sparked a movement that would later have profound influences throughout the 20th century. Indeed, many classic and contemporary self-help books and motivational speakers are heavily influenced by his philosophy (the power of visualization; affirmative prayer; and "releasing" an affirmation and having complete faith in it after you make it).
Armor also reveals several fascinating facts: even as a small child Holmes would never stop constantly asking questions (an answer meant he would ask another question), which is how he developed his thought; Holmes started as a public speaker because he truly loved speaking and sharing his philosphy about how applying what he called Universal Law could manifest a person's best good; and Holmes resisted until the very last his associates' attempts to create an church. He prefered a person's one-ness to and with God and felt organized religions' middleman institutions were unncessary. Plus he felt there were "too many religions" already. He made it clear he had no intention of founding a new religion.
In the end, though, Holmes went along with the idea of a church (which today has some members who still maintain their previous religions even as they practice the all-inclusive Religious Science) to help spread his ideas...which he felt were really not HIS ideas, but ideas from a Higher Source.
The bottom line: this is a simply written book which answers some key questions about who Holmes was, what motivated him, and how the then-innovative thoughts that he voiced led to the creation of an actual church.
A MUST if you're interested in the lives of spiritual thinkers.

Complete in criteria for the men of those times, embarked in the ambitious project of modernity, yet for these times incomplete, which is absolutely comprehensible. The "problem of man in space" as so called by Oskar Schlemmer, protrudes on us an intense intrigue on what the new form of theater should be, should it be the translation of a piece of literature onto space ?, or should it be the craft of developing space itself into an entity of meaning. He leaves us without an answer, but suggests a better question.

If you read between the lines of this juvenile biography of "Thomas Paine: Political Writer," then you will learn not only that his pamphlet "Common Sense" was the spark that propelled the declaration of American independence, but that throughout his life his writing made a lot of people very angry. Bruce and Becky Durost Fish fill in a lot of the gaps in the life of young Thomas Paine with suppositions about what it was like growing up in England at that time. We really do not get a sense for how Paine became the man he did, capable of writing the single most important pamphlet in American History. I am not sure if this is because of the delicacy of the subject matter or because they writing level on this particular book is geared lower than others in this series. There is certainly something to the idea that Paine was light the nova of the time, who suddenly burst on the scene with the words that swung the momentum irrevocably towards independence and separation from Great Britain. Young readers will learn about the ups and downs on Paine's life, which at one point saw him flee from political foes in the United States, charged with treason by the British government, and imprisoned by the fanatical leaders of the French Revolution. It is rather astounding that Paine would end up dying an old man in his bed given the antagonism he provoked in so many people.

I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Paine's writing actually make it into this book; his rhetoric is usually reduced to a few choice sentences, as it is here. Even when the famous opening of "The American Crisis" is quoted, we get only the first clause and not even the entire sentence. This matters because with Thomas Paine what he wrote was so much more important than anything else he ever did in his life. Of course, like the Declaration of Independence, "Common Sense" and "The American Crisis" are honored today with very few people ever bothering to read them in their entirety. This book is illustrated with historic paintings and engravings, some of which are of Paine, as well as a reproduction of the frontispiece of "Common Sense." Other titles in the Revolutionary War Leaders series include Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Paul Jones, and George Washington. While Benjamin Franklin is included in the related Colonial Leaders series, I want to note that John Adams is regrettably missing from both.

This book was the first book that Ive read from the 3 Investigators series, and i was impressed. It had all the above, action, drama, comedy, and mystery.This book starts out when Bob, Pete, and Jupiter find a bag on the beach. they dont know whose it os so they call the number they found in the bag, and thats when every thing starts to happen. A girl is kidnapped,pete was punched by a robber, his grandma was mugged, Jupiter gets a little to close to a guy in a costume, he falls through a roof, and finally the 3 boys are held at gun point. this is agood book with a good twist at the end, so I reccomend this book to any one who likes books with suspense,adventure,comedy!

This book is a clean old mystery-no blood at all, but good for kids 7+u

This is Three investigators at there best ...Looking for a Java Jim (no refernce to the computer language as the book was written much before Java was invented).Those rainy sunday mornings & an island in morning mist...there is a certain thrill which is beyond words...all the three investigator lovers will find it as absorbing as it gets.Long live Pete,Jupe & bob!!

For a number of years, historians of various backgrounds have attempted to conceptually and operationally define the "Middle Ages." In 'Time, Work, and Culture in the Middle Ages' Jacques Le Goff, a top French Historian outlines his perspective via a collection of essays he developed on this subject over several years.

Le Goff suggests the modern historian should use the techniques of the ethnographer, the findings of archeologists, and the records of courts, commerce, and confessor's manuals to construct the everyday world of the inhabitants of Europe during the Middle Ages. He says he is not going to try to turn the Dark Ages into the Golden Ages, and he is not operating without a theory since that is virtually impossible--in spite of the claims to the contrary by some modern theorists. As he mentions the 'division of labor' in several contexts, I imagine he is following social theories outlined by 20th Century French historians such as Durkheim, Mauss, and Bloch.

Le Goff sets about untangling a story he says began with the fall of the Roman Empire and ended with the Industrial Age ('Longue duree' of Fernand Braudel). He seems to view the Renaissance and Reformation as the natural culmination of forces that arose during the Middle Ages: the division of labor and the division of time.

Le Goff says much evidence suggests a tripartite society arose in the 900s and gained ascendency by the 1200s. This society was composed of: oratores (clergy), bellatores (warriors), and laboratores (workers). Fortunately or unfortunately, the division of society did not end with three groups. He says the Middle Ages involved two major processes: the division of labor and the division of time, and that these two processes were inseparable.

Le Goff spends much time discussing the laboratores and how their work day, which was once measured as sun-up to sun-down (God's time as depicted in the "Book of Months") came to be measured and paid in hourly rates as the result of the growing power of commercial interests. The land-based wealth of the feudal lords and their peasant farmer tenants was subverted by commercial practices that ultimately exploited and alienated the artisan workers. These alienated workers later grew in power and became involved in peasant revolutions and other disruptive activities.

The sections of Le Goff's essays that most fascinated me described the rise of church power at the expense of the "old" religion of the common people. During the Middle Ages, the Church acquired enormous power. The clergy (oratores) were mostly monastics and penitents to begin with, but with the rise of commerce and trade, many of them became mendicants and secular scholars. These scholars lay the groundwork for the reformation and renaissance.

But before the church splintered into the hundreds of protestant groups that came into existence following the reformation, it managed to subdue many of the common folk beliefs. Of particular fascination to me was the recorded history of the demise of the dragon who went from noble beast in the old religion to maligned serpent killed by saints in the new religion. Another section that fascinated me involved the witch. Citing 'La Sorciere' by Michelet, Le Goff says he thought the witch was "productive because she gave birth to modern science....While the clergy and the schoolman were mired in the world of imitation, bloatedness, sterility, and anti-nature, the witch was redicovering nature, the body, mind, medicine, and the natural sciences."

The roots and leaves of the institution of slavery in Brazil, is what this book focuses on. We travel the trade route from Africa to England to South America. Katia M. de Queiros Mattoso's goal is to show us that, contrary to popular belief, the new slaves who were ripped from their homeland were "docile" and " ready to accept their new status as slaves" (85). She brings us into a world that shows no matter what the slaves were, they were not faceless, emotionless savages the Europeans wanted to reduce them to.
Mattoso's coverage of three centuries is an attempt to encompass the truth of slavery, not the "assumed" myth of so many other scholars (85). Wonderfully organized and thought provoking, she shows us a world few have seen, so that we may see the truth. She avoids the overbearing this is how it is, and that is that, statements by giving us human images, their motivations and encounters that a slave would have likely run across
and have experienced.
The arguments that Mattoso offers are very persuasive to readers because she appeals to our sense of humanity. Mattoso shows us tables, statistics, historical documentation and finally puts all of these into a person whom we can relate. The goal to show that slaves were an integral part of the society in which they lived begins to take shape as a sound theory later in the book. For example in chapter five we see slaves in Brazil taking part in many activities, from skilled work to common tasks such as the education of children and family life. This range of activities shows just how engrained slaves were in their new society, for the children their only society.
To Be a Slave in Brazil shows us the many thoughts and going-ons that happened throughout the slave trade. The book introduces us to the New World as aslave and slave owner would see it, not as how we fantasize it was. There are truths and facts to support these claims made by Mattoso. Written for all, she uses all sources available, both familiar and original, and manages to put a new spin on an old tale.Students and scholars alike should put this book on their to do list