For readers of the Ramage series this is a critical volume. Captain Lord Ramage finally realizes that marriage to his long-time love, the Marchesa of Volterra, is not going to happen.

A fragile peace has come to Europe. The Marchesa has decided to return to Italy despite the fact her enemy Napoleon still rules there. Ramage is off to the American Tropics again on a secret mission to survey a South Atlantic island. He finds a mix of surprising, deadly, and lovely discoveries. The novel is very slow starting. It focuses on people more than action. An unprecedented amount of informal conversation between crew and captain is a hallmark of this series, but this volume is more reliant than usual on dialogue and repartee. This story is best for how Ramage has to deal with civilians on his desert isle, and with the Marchesa, the IDEA of the Marchesa, and with a new woman in his life. This is almost a romance novel for men. For once his fierce reputation works against him, as he is manipulated by pirates.

As usual the writing is smooth, although a great stretch of the book lacks the tension of others due to it being peace time. Pope makes use of an expedition artist to describe the beauty of tropical skies and waters. You'll find interesting vignettes on shipyards, the Hydrographic Office ("Who knows, one day we might be able to print our own charts..."!), the despicable peace treaty of Amiens, shipboard chaplains, ship's books, and tropical clouds. An excellent map is included.

Making landfall off the Tuscan coast of Italy (familiar to readers of the very first Ramage novel as the home of his love), Capt. Ramage's frigate Calypso falls in with two French bomb vessels. With the discovery the t wo vessels were to join frigate transports for a secret invasion plan, Ramage's eyes light with new possibilities for applying his devastating but low-casualty "touch" to discomfit Napoleon. Can he discover the destination? He becomes a gypsy spy, attacks a harbor, and chases a frigate, all in pursuit of this goal. His cruise in the Mediterranean is to be continued in the next volume (Ramage's Signal).

More deliberately paced than, say, Alexander Kent's swashbuckling Bolitho series, Pope wrote two major actions to Kent's typical five. Pope includes short didactic pieces, which slow the narrative but contribute to the depth of the story. For example, in the middle of this volume (and to build suspense) is an entertaining section on the handling of Calypso's anchors, and later the commands necessary for setting sail. This series is easier than others for the novice to follow, whereas the Bolitho is for those seeking pure action.

Wherein Capt. Ramage expects prize moneys (from #7 DIAMOND), fits out a captured frigate, attends a court martial, hears of mutiny and a mad captain, reconnoiters the Spanish Main (I'd always wondered what that was) on an impossible task, cleverly incites a "mutiny," enters an enemy harbor and mans another ship, sets off some fireworks, is hit by a storm, and searches for a bit of treasure. Just another West Indies adventure taken in stride by Lord Ramage!

An interesting facet of these middle books in the series (this is #8, and they're not so good if read out of order), is how Dudley Pope is using Ramage's officers as commentators on the qualities of superior leadership, exemplified by the inspiring Capt. Ramage of course. Here it is finely calibrated anticipation of enemy responses and "planned surprises" for them (a la the real Lord Cochrane's prescriptions, again). Pope skillfully lays out Ramage's plans but never spoils them with anticipatory details: you still have to guess 'em. The Admiral back in Antigua makes a fine foil for Ramage's audacity. The concluding chapters are something of an anticlimax.

The action scenes race along, and the storm fearsomely roars--a sudden calderete cascading from the Venezuelan mountain valleys. Another wrap around cover art by Paul Wright (but the sail plan depicted doesn't make sense to me). One map of the eastern Caribbean ("Cannibal") Sea, that would have been good to have back in volume 3 already.

Of all the fictional naval captains, Captain Lord Ramage is the most adored by his men. He is the alter ego of the real Admiral Lord Nelson, victor of Trafalgar and hero of the British Navy and of the English people. With his many victories and prizes, Ramage by now should be too rich to sail, but here he is in his 15th book and still only a Post Captain. But we'll allow that because frigate captains have all the fun, and admirals of advancing age equally late in their series, like Kent's Bolitho or O'Brian's Aubrey, have too many remote worries.

The main story line is a convoy back to England and its plodding operations overseen by Ramage, torn by a bizarre meet with another British frigate. Although newly married, Ramage struggles with an infatuation with a lady of the convoy. There's also the strangest case of mutiny I've ever read. Haled into court, Ramage is court martialled for his life, with an infuriatingly biased judge guiding his fate. Throughout there overhangs the disturbing worry that Ramage's bride (of the previous novel Ramage's Devil) has been lost at sea. Paul Wright's cover painting is the weakest in his series, a lethargic stern chase.

At the beginning of the school year at Cresswell High, 10th-grader Lisa Enright and her boyfriend (Skip Masters) join the debating team--she as the recording secretary, and he as the replacement for one of the debate members. Not long after joining, though, Skip is murdered during a hazing prank. With the help of one of the group's leading speakers (Donna Forsi), Lisa tries to uncover the truth about her boyfriend's death.

"Resolved: You're Dead" isn't the best book I've read by Nicholas Adams, but at least it's short (153 pages). About three-fourths of the way into the book, though, the identity of the killer is revealed, leaving very little suspense after that. Most readers will be able to guess the ending, too. But if you like Nicholas Adams and/or the Horror High series, then you might like this book. R. L. Stine fans will probably like Horror High, as well.

This book is an interesting, fast-paced tour through the and ideas that shaped Russian thought in the 19th and 20th Century. The style is at times expository, at times anecdotal, but never overly difficult. It's a great tool for students of Russian history, politics and culture.

For me personally the most interesting discussion in this book is the place of religious symbolism in Russian social and political thought. Berdyaev draws some interesting parallels between the Slavophile and Liberal visions for Russia that help to shed light on the Revolutionary vision that defined the nation in the 20th Century. The book remains relevant to post-Soviet Russia as a guide to the intellectual heritage of current Russian political and social thought. It is also an excellent companion to the study of Russian literature.

Also valuable is Berdyaev's discussion of the influence of 19th Century German philosophy on the Russian intellectual tradition and his analysis of the mystical ("religious", if you will) aspects of Russian atheism.

Use this book as a starting point for your study of modern Russia, but don't make it your only stop in the journey. Treat it rather as a "bibliography in expository prose" for further investigation.

This is a compendium of various stories run in the Science Times section of the NY Times newspaper from 1992 through 1997, addressing various issues related to genetics -- understanding how the human genome is being sequenced, cloning, ageing and gradual understanding of the process of cancer.

The features are written for an educated, but non-expert audience, with half a dozen diagrams to complement the content. My favorite article was on the research done on Caenorhabditis elegans, a small (1 mm long) soil nematode found in temperate regions. Although C.elegans has no economic impact on humans, its importance, which the article explains, is both in the primitiveness of the organism and the commonality it has with many human biological functions. The book explains this fascinating stuff very well to the layman.

As the editor notes, genetics is still in its "gestational stage," and the book is obviously limited in its snapshot into research. Indeed, only a few years later the first pass of sequencing the human genome was completed earlier than planned.

Two minor complaints about the book are the similarity in some of the stories and the lack of pointers to additional resources...

A screenwriter (Jason) boards a plane bound for Tel Aviv to convince a Hollywood producer (Epstien) that his new screenplay on Masada can never be made into a film. In the back of the plane, the screenwriter's wife (Lilia) and child meet up with a very unpredictable man. On the ground, a psychology major turned Masada security guard, and his wife, a physics student turned airport security official, do battle with strange interlopers known only as "protesters."

This book is a good example of experimental fiction. Mosley creates multiple layers of spoken dialog and he successfully incorporates archetypes and the unconscious into articulated thoughts and events. What I liked best about it was the unexpectedness of the writing combined with a truly thrilling storyline.

The chapters where we must plow through existential conversation between characters from Jason's screenplay are somewhat tedious compared to the present-day action on the plane. They remind us too heavily of the pedantic goals of the book: a discussion of whether it is better to sacrifice oneself for society or to survive; whether life is a "going concern" or a "calamity," and whether we are all really actors who can't tell anymore when we're acting.

Readers who are newcomers to Western philosophy will want to follow up with readings on Plato, Josephus, and Masada. Those more experienced with the historical contexts for the book will no doubt question, argue, and go read the other four books in the Catastrophe Practice series.

When reading the book it was filled with too many facts and not enough experiences. I fill that we could learn from peoples mistakes so next time I suggest to add a summary of where the case subjects are now and what they decided to do.

This classic work, which still is in print, traces the legend of St. Nicholas back through the years to its origin, revealing all that is known in fact and in custom conserning this popular saint. The reader will discover the source of the legend beginning with its birth in Asia Minor, his role in gift giving and ohter charitable activities along with the pagan heritage of the St. Nicholas legends. This study is well illustrated with 23 pictures of St. Nicholas paintings from museums throughout the world. German Christmas card, circa 1907, depicting St. Nicholas adorns the front cover.