The cold gripping fear, frustration,and agony of the convoy escorts in the North Atlantic during WWII. The physical and emotional sacrafices of the men assigned to escort duty to protect the life blood of Great Britan. Monsarrat is a fantastic story teller, filling the reader with emotions in a way that very few writers will ever master. The realization that Command is really lonely,and the second guessing of descisions is a tough pill for Captain Ericson to swallow. These sailors are not Regular Navy from a Family lineage of Naval service, rather the average Joe brought together by the war. Yet they form a strong fighting unit. As as in every war, death is not picky about whom it takes. A great book that will be hard to put down till it is finished. Give it some time and you will read it again.

A realistic tale of the Second World War at sea This war time drama is played out through the desperate struggle of one man, his crew and their ship. We follow the expliots of a Royal Navy corvette HMS Compass Rose, as she carries out her duty in protecting the vulnerable convoys from the hunting packs of U-boats in the North Atlantic. All the experiences of the war at sea are there, in the faces of the men, the arduous conditions of the rough seas and in the horrors of war like the poor wretched survivors they pluck from the sea, choking and covered in oil. However, the most memorable scene, and one of which is surely equal to any other in cinematic history, has to be when Captain Ericson (Jack Hawkins) is forced to decide whether or not to attack a U-boat or save a group of British survivors that struggle in the water directly above his intended target.

After 1942 this dilemma was turned into a blunt order when the Admiralty instructed anti-submarine vessels to make every attempt to destroy a U-boat thus carrying out their sole duty of protecting the convoy. At that time U-boats were believed to be diving close to the sinking ship so that their presence in the area would be harder to detect by the ship's Asdic radar. This often resulted in survivors losing their lives or being seriously injured from an indiscriminate depth charge attack. In the book by Herbert Gordon Male 'In All Respects Ready For Sea,' there is a true story of such an attack and the author gives such an account.

My father served on a anti-submarrine armed trawler during the war and his experiences were of special interest to the film's main star Jack Hawkins whom he met and became friends with during the completion of the film. My father felt that this film was an important one as it told a real story of the men and their sacrifice during the history of the Battle of the Atlantic. Today it is as honest a film as it was then and shows the effects of war on the ordinary men who fought it. Only a few films have since dared to portray the personal and true realities of war with out the usual and expected thrilling pyrotechnics of the big screen action film.

This book literally changed my life.

In the eleventh grade in Greenville, South Carolina, i had an English teacher who designated Thursday as "Free Reading Day" and encouraged the entire class to read anything they wanted to (well, within limits -- "Playboy" would have been Right Out, i'm sure.) -- and, in case you had nothing of your own, she laid out an assortment of magazines and books on a table at the front of the room.

On that table, one Thursday, was a copy of "The Cruel Sea". Since i've always been at least a bit interested in sea stories, and it looked interesting, i picked it up. From the first i was hooked solidly.

In the next three or so years, i reread it twice at least, possibly more than that.

And then i joined the Navy -- and i am sure that it was because of what i read in this book, and what i sensed behind it, in what Monsarrat -- who, like his viewpoint character, Lockhart, was there from the beginning, working his way up to command his own ship before the end of the war -- didn't so much say as assume about the sea and the Navy -- *any* Navy.

Monsarrat presents us here with a brotherhood of the sea, corny as that idea may sound. Sailors, more than the other Armed Forces, tend to regard other sailors -- even enemy sailors -- as brothers in arms, and, as Monsarrat says, the only true enemy is the cruel sea itself.

As he shows us here, the sailor who was your enemy five minutes ago, who was trying to kill you as you tried to kill him, is merely another survivor to be rescued from the cruel sea once you've sunk his ship.

And, even more so, as Monsarrat portrays it, there is a kind of brotherhood that binds sailors in the same Navy together in very mcuh a family manner -- you may not like your cousin, but you want to know what's happening to him and, when all is said and done, he IS your relative.

The best summation of this sort of attitude (which i felt to some extent myself during my time in the US Navy) comes when Ericson, the Captain, is touring his new ship as she stands under construction in a Glasgow shipyard; he meets one of his future officers, and mentions the name of his previous ship, which was lost with over three-quarters of her crew, and realises that

"He's heard about 'Compass Rose', he probably remembers the exact details--that she went down in seven minutes, that we lost eighty men out of ninety-one. He knows all about it, like everyone else in the Navy, whether they're in destroyers in the Mediterranean or attached to the base at Scapa Flow: it's part of the linked feeling, part of the fact of family bereavement. Thousands of sailors felt personally sad when they read about her loss; Johnson was one of them, though he'd never been within a thousand miles of 'Compass Rose' and had never heard her name before."

To be part of a band of brothers like that is a proud thing, and Monsarrat captures it perfectly.

He also captures the terrified boredom of being in enemy territory with nothing happening as you wait for the enemy to make the first move, and the shock, confusion and horror of combat (particularly sea combat, in which the battlefield itself is the deadly, patient enemy of both sides).

And he captures the glories and rewards of life at sea, the beauty of a glorious clear dawn at sea, the stars and the moon and the wake at night and so much more.

This is the book that made a sailor out of me.

It will tell you what it is to be a sailor.

Mr. Burgett has amazed me. He tells the truth about what the war was like. When I Read Seven Roads to Hell, I was shocked. The 101st was sent to the lines with little ammo,food and men. And yet they fought for over a month against the very best German troops. After the battle, Hitler himself said he wantted a unit like the 101, a unit that holds even when it looks hopeless.
When they ship out, Burgett tells about how some troopers were going to kill a American captain, just to get to the front lines.
This book is a must read

This is one of the BEST 1st person accounts of the European theater of WW2 i've ever read. Don provides such detail that the reader is easily drawn in and absorbed in the moment. (How did he remember it all?). Most interesting are his thoughts about personal encounters with the enemy after his various skirmishes. I can almost feel the cold as i read about the GIs' lack of warm clothing, sleep, and food. It's a wonder anyone came out of that alive. Can't recommend this book highly enough.

By far one of the best books written on the Battle of the Buldge and the seige at Bastogne. Burgett gives excellent eyewitness testimony to the horror and slaughter that was the Battle of the Buldge. The reader sees the battle through the eyes that faught it. Burgett brilliantly takes the reader into the heat of the battle and makes the reader understand what it was like to be in the 101st Airborne during World Wae II. I could not put this book down until it was finished and it made me want to read as much as i could about the Battle of the Buldge.Donald Burgett is truly an American Hero. I highly recommend this book to everyone young and old.

I've been a big fan of the work of the late great blues historian/folklorist, Robert Palmer, for sometime now. His book, DEEP BLUES, is generally regarded as the definitive reference on the Delta tradition... and rightly so (needless to say, if you don't have it... get it). What a treat to finally get a chance to meet the guy... albeit, on my TV screen.

In this eponymous documentary, Palmer assumes the role of the proverbial veteran "tour guide," casually offering us expert commentary, laced with entertaining anecdotes and served up with dry Southern wit. While we do hear and see a great deal of Palmer, the film never loses its main focus-- the blues and the musicians who keep this important element of American musical heritage alive and kicking. Each of the featured artists performs one or two songs in their entirety-- in sharp contrast to so many other music documentaries, which par down their musical selections to excerpted sound bites to make room for talk, talk and more talk.

Here we find everything from down-home guitars and mouth harps being played on farm house porches to full bands--influnced by the modern Chicago-style, yet still distinctly "Pure Delta"--playing in dark, smoke-filled juke joints. True to the blues tradition, the music is hot and sweaty. You can't watch this film and sit still--you gotta shake something. Highlights: cane fife player Napoleon Strickland (you can hear more of this wonderful pre-blues tradition on TRAVELING THROUGH THE JUNGLE: NEGRO FIFE AND DRUM MUSIC FROM THE DEEP SOUTH, an album on the TESTAMENT label, and several ARHOOLIE compilations); the totally stylin' Jessie Mae Hemphill (granddaughter of Blind Sid Hemphill, the pre-blues style fiddler/quills [panpipes] player documented in the Lomax field recordings); harp player Bud Spires telling a folktale about the devil, accompanied by Jack Owen's soulful guitar picking in the cranky, individualistic Bentonia style, popularized by the early bluesman, Skip James; and Lonnie Pitchford's intense singing as he accompanies himself on the diddley bow (a raised metal string nailed to the side of a house, which you pluck with a plectrum and note with a slide).

Palmer's love of the blues shines through in this exceptional book. He's not interested in showing off his knowledge of the form (although that knowledge is exceptional); he's interested in illuminating for the reader the roots of a great indigenous art form and how that form developed in the 20th century. In that effort, he succeeds masterfully.

A fine early section explores how the music that we call the blues was seeded in N. America by African music. That chapter is a mini-history lesson in itself; Palmer shows how the music of slaves from W. Africa was viewed as subversive and dangerous by whites in the new land.

The remainder of the book is chock full of portraits of the heroes of early blues in the Mississippi Delta, from Charley Patton to Son House to Robert Johnson to Little Walter to Muddy Waters and beyond. Palmer shows how these men developed a music that grew directly out of the soil of the Delta, making do with the instruments they had and often living itinerant lives, moving from tiny town to tiny town to play dances and juke joints to keep the music alive.

The book also describes the historic migration of African-Americans from the Deep South to the industrial cities of the North, most importantly, of course, Chicago, where the musicians transformed the blues again, creating the electrified sounds that exerted such a powerful influence on white rock musicians from London to Liverpool to La Jolla, California.

Palmer has given us a great work with "Deep Blues," one that should be read by students of music and social history alike. It deserves a prominent place on the bookshelf of any serious lover of music.

There's no other way to put it, this is simply the best book out there on the blues both as a music form and as force in shaping American culture. At once simple and concise, yet broad and in depth enough to tell a very complete story, this one work should satisfy everyone from the novice to the experienced blues fan.

Meticulously researched, Palmer uses Muddy Waters as a jumping off point to explore the history and evolution of the blues as music as well as the society and culture from which it sprang. He peppers his work with amazing anecdotes, from the story of Robert Johnson, the Band meeting a dying Sonny Boy Williamson, an aging Howlin' Wolf giving a phenominal concert that add color to his story and helps make his frequent forays into musicology more tolerable to the non-musician. Best of all is the sense of time and place the book evokes, from plantations and dark swamps in rural Mississippi, to the noisy, crowed streets of South Chicago at the peak of the Great Migration, to small clubs and long forgotten juke-joints.

I read this book for the first time 10 years or so ago and have probably reread it 5 times since. I keep coming up with new things to admire about the book every time. That so much richness can be packed into such a short readable work is amazing. This book triumphs over everything else written on the subject and only leaves you wanting to explore further.

Fleming seemed to have used his first four novels (Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, and Diamonds are Forever) to warm us up to the Bond character and used the same plot style for the first four novels. In From Russia, With Love, Fleming takes Bond and his writing style to a higher, more intellectual level. Fleming is masterful in setting the scenes without being too boring. Bond doesn't appear until the second part of the book (Part II-The Plan) and you hardly even notice. Another interesting note is that of the James Bond movies, From Russia, With Love the movie follows the novel pretty well, even in lesser scenes such as the gypsy fight. This, perhaps, is due to the fact that Fleming was alive only for the filming and release of Dr. No and From Russia, With Love. This book is clearly Fleming at the top of his game and an outstanding entry to the series.

By far the most realistic of the Bond books. Fleming's description of the MGB (later KGB) headquarters in Moscow's Dzherzinsky Square, where the plot to lure British agent James Bond to his death is first revealed, is reputedly based on information to which he was privy in his capacity as a WWII officer in British Naval Intelligence -- likewise the recruitment and training of the psychopathic killer Red Grant, one of the most formidable of Bond's enemies (and the only one in the films who looked for a while about to kill Bond for sure! 007 meets his match in Grant!) This is the book behind what in my opinion is the best of the Bond movies, steeped in the atmosphere of the Cold War into which the Bond series was born. 007 travels to Istanbul in pursuit of the bait, a Lektor decoder which can read top secret Soviet military and intelligence signal traffic. Another form of bait is the beautiful Tatiana Romanova, an MGB cipher clerk allegedly in love with Bond, willing to defect with the Lektor if only 007 will come and fetch her. (Fleming takes yet another jab at the Reds by choosing this name for Bond's love interest -- Romanov was the family name of the last Czar of old imperial Russia, the family doomed to extinction by the Russian revolution.) Kerim Bey adds a bit of panache, mischief and mystery as "Our man in Istanbul," Head of Station T (for Turkey). A truly great and suspenseful plot!

Considered by many to the be the best James Bond 007 book of all time, From Russia With Love delivers the perfect formula for a James Bond novel. Originally, Ian Fleming's tales of 007 were not going so good, so he intended with this book to kill off James Bond once and for all. The end of this novel is quite a surprise to a first time reader.

The book begins by telling of the commanding rule of SMERSH. The leader of this organization is General Grubozaboyschikov. Also working is Colonel Rosa Klebb and director of planning Kronsteen, who treats real people as if they were chess pieces. The muscle of the group is a homicidal madman, who follows orders, and is in practically perfect physical shape, Donovan "Red" Grant. These evil minds have planned the perfect way to destroy the life and reputation of James Bond. Their plan is to lure 007 with the beatiful Tatiana Romanova and a Spektor cipher decoding machine as bait. Then Grant will meet up with them eventually and kill them both. However, SMERSH will take it a step further to lie to the public that Bond and Tatiana were in an affair, and that Bond commits suicide. It's a perfect plan.
Bond indeed does travel to Istanbul, believing that this girl wants to defect, and will give him the Spektor machine only if he personally helps her. 007 meets Darko Kerim, and a wonderful gypsy fight adds to the fun of the story. Bond and Tatiana travel on a train back to Europe, where he meets Red Grant and is told of the plan to kill him. An extremely bvrutal gun and fist fight breakes out between the men with 007 shooting Grant. 007 goes to Paris with Tatiana to catch Rosa Klebb in a meeting. However, Klebb releases a poison knife from her shoe and kicks 007 in the leg, before being taken away by the police. The story ends with 007 lying on the floor of the hotel room...

Perhaps the finest story of Ian Fleming, filled with the excitement and adventure to give this book it's reputation as on of the best 007 novels ever!

Th Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverly Cleary, is the hilarious story of a mouse, a boy, and a toy motorcycle. This the most comical, action-packed story I have ever read. I think that Keith is a young, generous boy who gives Ralph his two most prized possessions, a toy motorcycle and a crash helmet. I love the way Mrs. Cleary portrays Ralph as a medium-sized mouse who is bold, funny, and adventurous. I love how Mrs. Cleary writes her books; when I read them, it seems as though they come alive! Her language is sparkling and well written. This book makes me want to read all of Beverly Cleary's books!

VROOM VROOM! Went a little motorcycle going down a hotel floor. If you like adventure stories then Mouse on the Motorcycle is the book for you! This book is about a little boy who goes to a hotel. And he happens to stay in a room where a little mouse and his family live. Keith, the little boy, and the mouse Ralph became great friends. Keith collects little toy cars and Ralph loves to ride them.
He has a lot of adventures on them. Ralph finds the motorcycle and during the night drives it down the hallway and has the time of his life! When Keith and his family leave the hotel, Keith asks Ralph to go home with him. Should Ralph go with Keith to be his pet, or should he stay with his family? You have to find out by reading the book.

I believe that Beverly Cleary is the world's most important children's author. Even adults will read and enjoy Beverly Cleary's books. my personal favorite is The Mouse and the Motorcycle. It is about a mouse named Ralph. Ralph is a regular speed demon. He has a love for the thrill of speed. The Mouse and the Motorcycle teaches the values of keeping promises and honesty. Ralph is always breaking promises. Everytime he does, something happens that causes a big problem. The book teaches respect. When Ralph ignores his mother, something happens like falling in a wastepaper basket. In the story's conclusion, Ralph realizes all he wants is to be a respectable mouse. The Mouse and the Motorcycle is enjoyable for all audiences. Its fun and exciting plot makes it a good read-aloud story. A good example of this can be found on page 23. "There it was at the end-the motorcycle! Ralph stared at it and then walked over and kicked a tire. Close up the motorcycle looked even better than he expected. it was new and shiny with a good pair of tires. Ralph walked all the way around it, examining the pair of chromium mufflers and the engine and the hand clutch. It even had a little license plate so it would be legal to ride it. "Boy!" Ralph said to himself, his whiskers quivering with excitement. "Boy, oh Boy!"." Every boy and girl of any age would love this story! Comparing Beverly Cleary's books, I have discovered they should be rated first. The majority of children's books are aimed mainly to young girls while Beverly Cleary's books are enjoyed by girls and boys. Beverly Cleary's books promote good values unlike books such as Sideways Storys from Wayside School by Louis Sachar. The children in these stories do not respect their elders. Beverly Cleary's beleivable characters make her silly plots seem real. Louis Sachar's characters are not believable which make the plot just plain weird. The Mouse and the Motorcycle should be considered a children's classic.

I only read scattered parts of this book because I read it out loud to my 17 year-old cousin over my sprong break. I asked her what she was reading and she told me it was a book by Nora Roberts. I asked her if I could read it aloud to her and I loved every part of it. Ever since then, I've been reading my mom's Nora Roberts books. Public Secrets was hard to put down and I couldn't wait to read more of it out loud to my cousin. The book is about the life of Emma McAvoy. As a toddler she was beaten by her heroine addict mother until she meets her biological father, Devestation rock star Brian McAvoy. Brian takes Emma to live with him, his wife Bev, and their baby son, Darren. Emma is genuinely happy until the shocking death of her brother to which she was the only witness. As a six year old child only remembering monsters and scary men, it is hard for her to recall the face of Darren's killer. The murder seperates the McAvoy family. This book goes all throughout Emma's life. She is used and beaten because of who her father is and she doubts if anyone will love her just for her and not think of her as a connection to a superstar. With a twist of mystery, romance, and drama, Nora Roberts has written an excellent book and I can't wait to read the conclusion.

it was also the first Nora Roberts book I read, I guess it holds the standard of what I expect from Roberts- GREATNESS. I love this book! In fact, it is the only book that I have read more than twice.

I love the concept of the book and how it's centered around the music world. I love how the book spans the time of Emma at 3 into an adult and her life changes through all her experiences and the reader is able to understand mistakes and choices she makes through past events in her life.

The romance was great, and the mystery part as well, but I loved just the general way that Roberts wove the story. I have read quite a few (getting close to all) of her books and I still love this one the best. Next to Public Secrets, Genuine Lies would have to be my next favorite... then maybe Where the Rivers Ends, where the main characters love story kind of reminds me of Emma and Michael.

Read this book- you won't regret it!

"Public Secrets" is one of Nora Roberts' truly great novels, and is full of insight, romance and all the ups and downs of life. The writing is first-rate and Roberts deals with some delicate issues with great skill and sensitivity.
Emma McAvoy lived the first years of her life in poverty and fear, until the day her father Brian McAvoy, pop music's newest and brightest superstar, discovered that Emma existed and swept the frightened and abused toddler away into a world of glamour and comfort. With Brian, his bandmates, and his new wife Bev, Emma was finally safe. Young Emma loved her new life, and was overjoyed at the arrival of her baby brother, Darren. Everything seemed to be going right, until the night that a botched kidnapping destroyed their happiness and shattered their lives.
Now, all grown-up, Emma has rebuilt her life, though she is still haunted by memories of that fateful night so many years ago when she lost her brother. Emma's new life includes an exciting career and a fiancé who she is madly in love with. However, the man she is about to marry is not at all what he appears to be, and Emma soon finds herself caught in an abusive and unhappy marriage.
In the wake of her disastrous marriage, Emma awakens to the disturbing knowledge that there is a deep, dark secret buried in her mind. A secret that is the key to finding those responsible for Darren's death. And a secret so sinister that someone out there is willing to kill to keep it!
"Public Secrets" is an emotionally charged and wonderfully satisfying read. Emma's romance with the son of the detective who investigated Darren's case, Michael, is touching and beautifully written. Nora Roberts has created a cast of characters who readers will come to really care for. The character development is believable and perceptive, and the plot will keep readers captivated. Highly recommended!

With his heretical views on dinosaurian (and other paleo-species) lifestyle, Bakker's Heresies has helped change the view of dinosaurs in both the public and the scientific community's eyes. But, for all the good Bakker's book did, it still has its flaws. Since the majority of reviews here have been extremely positive, I thought it might be best to focus on the less accurate parts of the book. First there is the nomenclature.

Bakker generally avoids using scientific jargon in the book. This is good as it opens the market for more people to read his book. Names like duck bill and horned dinosaurs are easier to remember than hadrosaur and ceratopian. Still some of Bakker's actual scientific terms are horribly inaccurate and hurt paleontology more than help it. I am talking about a certain term in particular; Brontosaurus. This name has been defunct for over 50 years and it is only in popular culture that it has lived on. Bakker uses it because it's more descriptive and because he believes that the fossil Brontosaurus excelsus is different enough from _Apatosaurus_ to warrant an entire generic distinction. Modern paleontology on the other hand, did not see the distinction then and still does not now.

While I commend Bakker's paradigm altering view of how dinosaurs were, I wish that he didn't have to make them warm-blooded in order to do it. Today's "cold-blooded" animals have a wide range of energetic behaviours that Bakker never really gives mention to. And while he does devote an entire chapter to reptilian diversity (chpt 3, which is by far the most ironic chapter in the book), the final page of that chapter, featuring a _Pristichampsus_ taking out a _Hyracotherium_, has at the end of it a caption that reads that due to its rarity, this was positive evidence that "...cold-bloodedness was a great disadvantage." It was almost as if he was saying "Reptiles are an amazingly diverse group of animals with a wide range of lifestyles and body plans. Now I will show you why dinosaurs could not possibly be reptiles." This pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the book. The following chapters deal with changing the popular view of dinosaurs while simultaneously removing them from the realm of "cold-bloodedness."

In order to show how dinosaurs could ONLY be "warm-bloods" Bakker relies a variety of circumstantial evidence. In the fossil record he uses predator to prey ratios to determine how active the creatures are. Besides having to deal with fossil record bias, Bakker's "control" is a living survey of a wolf spider to its prey. While Bakker knocks off interesting numbers (Wolf spiders making up 15-20% of the predator/prey population) he gives no mention of the prey themselves, so no one knows what kind of prey he was comparing the spiders to. Luckily Bakker does have a reference section that is divided up into the various chapters so one can go looking for it if one really wants to.

Then there is the use of haversian canals, stating that they indicate warm-bloodedness, when in reality all they indicate is a high level of activity (one can see these same haversian remodeling in varanid lizards). While the above was only found out recently, one of Bakker's "proofs" of warm-bloodedness is a dangerous use of taxonomy. Using the rules of punctuated equilibria Bakker states that species turn over is greater among warm-bloods than "cold-bloods." He shows this with fossil record evidence from Como Bluff Wyoming showing the average life of a species of dinosaur compared to a crocodilian (_Leidyosuchus_) and a chelonian (_Aspideretes_). Now in this modern era taxonomists have a hard enough time as it is to tell what is a new species and what is not; to use this criteria as evidence for warm-bloodedness is dangerous and a tad sloppy. This is especially so when one considers the fact that being "cold-blooded" crocodilian and chelonian fossils are less well studied than other fossils and there are bound to be more than a few taxonomic blunders in there.

Bakker does voice other ideas, such as the thought that sauropods had trunks, a thought that is OK to entertain but probably not worth serious consideration. Bakker's view of the gizzard style digestive system of a variety of dinosaurs is eye opening for those who ever wondered how a sauropod could feed itself with a mouth so small.

Then there are the contradictory parts of the book. In Bakker's haste to remove the dinosauria from the Reptilia, he unwittingly removes a group of animals that he himself admits to be real reptiles. Bakker believed (though histological and predator/prey evidence) that the pseudosuchian "crimson crocs" (beautiful name) showed the same warm-blooded evidence that dinosaurs show and should therefore be removed from the basal Reptilia on this and other shared derived characters. The problem inherent with this is that in order to do it, Bakker would also have to remove another pseudosuchian descendant, the crocodylians. These are the same creatures that in previous chapters he had been calling "cold-blooded" reptiles.

All in all the book is a good. Bakker provides his own illustrations, all of which show his creatures as dynamic animals, regardless of warm or cold-bloodedness. The ideas themselves are actually the resurrection of older ideas from the 19th century and not so much new ways of thinking, and much of Bakker's examples of warm-bloodedness should be taken with a grain of salt. I give this book a higher ranking than I normally would, because of the uproar that it caused in the area of reptilian paleontology and especially metabolism. Thanks to Bakker's book we now know that the arbitrary lines of warm and cold-blooded are not as black and white as we thought. In fact there is an increasingly growing amount of creatures that don't easily fit either definition. For that reason alone, the book is a worthy purchase, even if most of the text is of more historical value than anything else.

Back in the 1970's Robert Bakker, with a push from John Ostrom, stirred up the field of Vertebrate Paleontology with an article in Scientific American and a paper presented at a conference published in: A Cold Look at the Warm Blooded Dinosaurs. This book is the popularization of that paper. Bakker,s defense of his theory was so effective that suddenly the consensus about dinosaurs, best represented in popular form by the books of Edwin Colbert, fell apart, and dinosaur study stopped being primarily about classification and moved out into realms of biology only given minimal cosideration before. Suddenly, paleontologists were out serching not just for specimens but for evidence of dinosaur behavior and phisiology. This tightly argued book is your ticket into the controversey, by the man whose arguments started a renaissance in dinosaur studies, the so called bad boy of paleontology, Robert Bakker.

Dinosaur Heresies is everything a popular science title should be. This book is a free-wheeling, thought-provoking, incredibly fun jaunt through the range of controversies and rethinkings paleontology has seen in the past twenty years or so.

Robert Bakker, first of all, is probably the best popular science writer I've ever come across. His voice is accessible, full of humor and character, and he writes a lean, sharply-turned argument that's easy and fun to follow without being at all pedantic. You don't think, at all, about the welter of disparate arguments Bakker's making in this book, because he just tells them so darn well, he really does. This book is pure delight for anyone with even a passing interest in dinosaurs.

I will mention, again, that this is a pop science title. It's a summary of the sorts of things that show up in academic articles, and a broad, idea-spinning take on those issues and problems. If, reading some other reviews here, you get the impression Robert Bakker singlehandedly rethought the whole cold-bloodedness thing, well, don't get too carried away. Pop science books don't do that work. Peer-review journals are where the evidence lives, in science, and books like Dinosaur Heresies get the word out to you and me.

I would recommend this as a gift to give anyone twelve or older who has an interest in Dinosaurs. Later on someone may be enthused enough to try Jack Horner, who's slightly less accessible in my experience, and closer to the journal writers than Heresies is. Then, too, reading this book might throw you in all sorts of other directions. (I personally became really excited about prehistoric mammals.) I hate to be hackneyed, but that's what a dazzlingly good popular science book will do; it'll broaden your world and make you remember what curiosity is good for. Dinosaur Heresies does that, in spades. You'll reread it.

Old Black is a great book and a great story. I bought the book first and foremost because it was a horse book but then I was caught by the book itself. It has excellent drawings and artwork on the book jacket, the inside cover pages, at the beginning of the chapters and within the book. Even the paper it is printed on is unusual, a very high quality paper. When I read the story I could not put it down. The story is well written with a good range of issues from bigotry to Altzheimers. It is a good read not only for adults but younger readers too. I have talked so much about this book, that now my husband and some friends are going to read it. Most of them are not into horses and certainly are not into reading about them. It doesn't matter though you don't have to be into horses to enjoy this book. Young people and families face these same situations today. Since I purchased the book, I have kept it out on an end table so if I have any spare moments I can pick it up and read it. Anywhere the book falls open to is a fine place to start reading but I do have some favorite sections. I like the episode about the standoff with Jim, Old Black, and Sheriff Martinez against the drug dealers at Klanke's Mill. I also liked the part when Old Black receives a much deserved award, and the gentle way Jim deals with his Aunt Hazel, who has Altzheimers and there are many more.

Read and enjoy.

Old Black is the most wholesome, absorbing, exciting, touching book I have ever read! And that's going back through a lot of books! Everything in the world that should be in it is there. Old Black the horse was as wonderful as his master, Jim Bradley.

I loved the old black couple, the Jacksons, who lived on the lane to the Bradley's little weekend ranch, and was truly touched by the genuine friendship between that couple and the Bradley family. All of the characters in the story, and there are quite a few, come vividly to life. You never have to think back and ask yourself, "Now just who is this walking on stage?" You know every one of them as if you had known them a long time.

The chapters involving the visit of Jim's Aunt Hazel and Uncle Harry are precious. Aunt Hazel has Alzheimer's disease and Uncle Harry is allowing her condition to get to him. It took the intuitive therapeutic interaction of a boy with compassion for his ailing aunt to show Uncle Har! ry, by examples, how to mitigate her suffering, how to lift her spirits. There was hilarity galore in those chapters, much of it at Aunt Hazel's expense, but it was never once in bad taste.

The rescue of Sheriff Martinez in the woods by Jim and Old Black, which consumed several chapters, was an endless stream of excitement that continued to escalate right up to the very last page of chapter 24. It was a tough job for both the boy and his horse that almost proved to be impossible, but every bit of it was entirely credible.

Old Black is a beautiful piece of creative writing. The story moved. It had a start, a middle, and definitely an ending, an ending that swept along through several chapters in such a rewarding way for the reader. Briggs never takes the writer's easy way out of a single scene or event, but works his plot with fascinating detail and excellent execution. The story was a fine blend of happiness, sadness, tragedy, and humor. Every aspect of the ending was perf! ect -- all the little loose ends that had collected along t! he way were neatly tied up in the most satisfying ways one could imagine -- even better than I ever imagined.

Without giving away the REAL treat at the very end, I will say I loved the way the jealousy toward Jim by the boy on the flashy horse was disposed of. That scene was a magnificent stroke! Then there is a very nice vignette involving that same boy at the very end that had best be left for the joy of reading it first hand. At that last horse show in the Astroarena, I swear I could hear the bawling, cackli! ng, mooing, crowing, grunting . . . of the animals, I was aware of the constant announcements over the loudspeakers, I smelled every aroma of the place, saw and heard the hay carts buzzing around, felt the presence of the activity going on all about -- I was THERE!

Old Black is a fairly long book --387 pages of text -- but I flew through it way too fast to suit me. We should be able to give an extra star to special books for appearances. This one is a beauty, with a nice oil painting for the cover, a pretty full-color map of "Old Black Territory" on the front and back endpapers, and at least five dozen gorgeous illutrations, which is why I presume the book was printed on such fine paper.

When you buy Old Black, you may as well buy two and get it over with. You'll just HAVE to let certain friends read it, and you'll sure not want to part with your own special copy.

(This review was provided by the reader, who does not have a computer, to the publisher for sending on to amazon.com.)

I was given this book by a friend and was surprised at the well-balanced combination of story, locale and apt descriptions of riding events.

Buck Jones: a rodeo cowboy who becomes seriously ill and must get rid of his beloved horse. I liked Buck a lot, and so did his friends in the story. He raised Old Black from a colt and only became a rodeo star after Old Black came on the scene as his roping horse. The day he got rid of his beloved pal was a heart-rending scene.

Small things impressed me. The arrival at the Bradley's farm with Jim's new horse -- he so wanted to show him off to the old black couple down the lane, but he had to wait. Things to do on the farm. Getting on the horse took some imagination for 10-year-old Jim Bradley, but he solved THAT! Then got an extension for his stirrup. Small things, but so important to the story.

Jim's first real horse show was an adventure for me. The hospitality suite he and his mother came upon, and got acquainted with the Robertsons and their daughters. Jim's performance in that western riding class was beautiful, as written.

I adored little Alexandra Meridith, her father. Her grandparents, Oscar and Ruby, were fine old people, and dearly loved by that little boy.

The series of chapters dealing with the rescue of the sheriff out in the woods was as stirring and exciting as could be. And it reeked of realism. That long episode was brought to a perfect conclusion, even if some concerns still were left dangling. But they were wrapped up later.

The funeral of a black lady was a fine piece of descriptive writing, touching.

The ending of the story was purely satisfying. The indignant lady in the stands was a good, good touch. How she finally came around to applaud Old Black after accusing him of hurting her daughters chances in the class. The unlikely but understandable award to Old Black. Then, something I can't tell because it would ruin the ending for readers, but it was just exactly what should have happened. Even if it caught be completely by surprise.

A great story.

Keller's classic book on Psalms 23 provides unique insights into the conduct & character of mankind.
If the reader can not gag on the continual self-promotion of Keller, smeared throughout the booklet, it remains a very good choice for devotional reading.
A better title may have been "Shepherd exalts himself while commenting on Psalm 23".
Spend the [money], it's still worth it.

My brother bought this book for me and started my addiction to Mr. Keller's writings. I read the book through and only put it down with great reluctance. Mr. Keller took one of the most beloved of Psalms and made it so that I was not only able to understand it better, but I could see the "subtle colors" in it. I not only love this Psalm for why I first read it, I can see more of the background to the picture that God was painting for us through David's hand. I would not only recommend this book for ANYONE, I have bought copies of it to use for presents. If you read it, you will be happy to pass it out to someone that you love. Mr. Keller has written in such a style that you will enjoy reading his book and then go back into your Bible and read what the Lord has written for us with a lot more joy in your heart for His provision.

Mr. Keller is very good at bringing to life the shepherd's view as expressed in the 23rd Psalm. He is personally aquainted with the Eastern way of sheep ranching, which of couse is the method employed and understood by David, the psalm's writer. More than just being insightful into the shepherd's mind-set and references, he takes us beyond the physical realm to the spiritual applications that were intended by the the Lord, who inspired David to write it. Herein lies the real worth of this book, because we are brought to see the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and how He is caring for the sheep of His pasture. It brings great comfort to know the love and care that My Shepherd exhibits for me. I recommend it to read by all those who have called upon the Lord and have let Him be their Shepherd. As they read this book they'll understand in a far deeper way the psalms' opening line, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." I also recommend it to those who ! ! are seeking such an encounter with the Lord God. He is patiently waiting your surrender. God bless you and brother Keller.

There are three things you should be aware of when buying this book:

First, if you have less than one year of folding experience, hands off! Rather try out some of the less complex origami books out there, e.g. "Origami from Angelfish to Zen" by Peter Engel.

Second, ordinary origami paper as you can buy it in craft stores won't get you very far here. For several models in this book, standard paper is simply to small in size for the elaborate folds. Rather go for florist's paper or tissue foil (my personal favorite).

Third, this book contains SOME OF THE VERY BEST ANIMAL FOLDS out there! The Praying Mantis, of course, which is improved a lot over Lang's first Mantis that is published in the internet. But there are a lot of other great folds in here, e.g. a very realistically looking Bear, a Rabbit, several nice color-contrast explorations like the Panda and the Skunk and one of the best crabs out there.

A must-have for any serious folder!

This book contains dozens of origami animals, ranging from med to highly-complex. At first we may doubt this is just another routine four-leg animals. However, two authors give us models unexpectedly various, and most of the figurations are wonderful. We have some of the most beauitful modeling here: A crab, a eagle in full-spread wing(with the feathers!), A dog in the doghouse(single paper), A very vivid rabbit. And the folding steps are full of wonder. The only disadvantage in this book is that for a new folder the diagrams are very neat and succinct, usually Several steps combined in one diagram. But this deserves since this book contains so many models and they are arranged by level of difficulty. This is a must for any origami fan.

Even though the final models are *extremely* complex, the book begins with very interesting texts about origami origins, evolution and approaches to creation; and the models go in progression from the very simplest ones. So actually this is an excellent "transition" book - if you have some experience with origami and have the ambition to try more complex stuff, there cannot be a better book than this one to guide you. The diagrams are crystal clear, and so are the indications. I got this book when I was 11 (I'm 24 now), and it is still every bit as amazing an enjoyable as back then!!