Barnes' recent NBC hits Merlin, Noah's Ark and Alice in Wonderland can be seen as the 'lite' versions of his plays. These are the pure thing--really huge scale theatre. Jokes, drama, wit, wisdom, songs, dance, vaudeville all mix for a total theatrical experience. Called by academics, the Shakespeare of our age, Barnes plays are intellectually tough but win all the awards, and sell out. Barnes wrote the cult classic film The Ruling Class and Enchanted April (Oscar nominated). (He has a new hit play Dreaming on in the UK--info on his website.) A real theatrical treat. A joke a minute but a challenging read--and a ball to act.

This is a very enjoyable discussion of a very good movie. I devoured it quite rapidly.

The book isn't perfect. Barnes makes some mistakes (I think he means to refer to Fields' "That Fatal Glass of Beer" and not "Face on the Barroom Floor.) He is also clearly writing for a British audience, since he seems to have no idea how Carole Lombard's death affected the initial American response to the film.

However, this are quibbles. While Barnes' approach to the film is not novel, his is the first examination of the film to delve so deeply into the performance of Sig Rumann as Erhardt, as well as the contributions of Lionel Atwill and the "spear carrier" who gets to play Hitler. He pays loving attention to the theatrical details of the movie to such a degree that it will be playing in your mind as you read him.

Also, he reprints the numbskull 1942 reviews of the movie, which provide a dark humor of their own.

In short, this book is a must for the fans of this film. (As a bonus, he doesn't even mention the Mel Brooks version of the film.)

Just as brilliant now as it was 20+ years ago when it was first published, this book for young readers discusses the varying ideas and attitudes to (Christian) Heaven, and death and dying. It also promotes an acceptance of death, almost non-existant in Western societies. This book is for children who are in Western society where Christian beliefs are known, but young readers need not be from Christian families themselves for this book to be very useful in helping them understand death and the Christian ideas of Heaven.

Finally, the book emphasises that what is important, whatever your belief systems, is to be kind, to tell the truth, to be happy (and it explains _how_ to do each of these things).

This book is fairly well done, but treats an enor-mouse-ly complex subject very simply (by necessity, of course). Despite it's simplicity, it still seems too complex for the age bracket it is aimed at (4-7 years). The drawings are adequate, but there are some perspective problems. The rhymes are adequate, but tortured in places. This book would seem to be either a great primer if you plan to take your children to Washington DC or a great souvenir of a trip there. As a lesson of how government works, I am a little more dubious. The great value of the book is the connection of system with place (such as committee room or house floor), not as a lesson of how the system works. The separation of representatives and the people is also a bit disconcerting, from a Jeffersonian point of view. The story would have been improved if the students that developed the idea of a "national cheese" would have been allowed to follow their idea through the process, rather than just send a letter and see the results on TV. Senator Thurmouse, well, that's just downright spooky.

This is a cute book that was very well written. My son likes the mouse story and giggles every time I read it to him. It features "The Senate Mousejority leader and the Sqeaker of the House". Parents that are in to politics will get a good laugh out of reading this one.

My children love this book! The entertaining story cleverly explains how our government works in a way that children understand.

A cute little rhyming story about a cat's adventures as he roams around his home-island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Text is easy to read and rhythmic because every 2 lines rhyme with each other. The words flow easily, so I disagree with some of the other reviews. Charming painted illustrations with muted jewel tones are fun to look at. The illustrations go across two pages and there is a border on the top and bottom of every page that contains little drawings relevant to the page's content. An example is that the page where the cat jumps on the fishing boat, the border has many different types of boats, from canoes to lobster boats. The page where the grey-haired woman is baking has a border of baking essentials such as butter, flour, eggs, and a measuring cup. The text reads very quickly but there is so much detail in the illustrations that much time can be spent talking about what is on the page and/or making up your own more detailed story to more closely match the illustrations. As our family travels to different places I try to purchase a children's book by a local author that is set in that location. Cat lovers and those who adore Nantucket will especially be attracted to this book.

I bought the book for my seven year old neice Lily while visiting Nantucket Island last summer. She was very excited by the pictures and easy to follow story. The rhymes were fun for her to read. Usually I read to her, but this book was different. She picks it up before bedtime while at sleep-overs. Usually I have to push story time. She looks forward to reading this book because it is a realistic story of a cats travels during the day.

I've been reading this book to my daughter Kaileigh who is now 2 for over year now, and it is without a DOUBT, HER FAVORITE BOOK....the cat, Mrs. Sprat, and Captain Pat...she knows them all and loves to hear the story over and over. Even the pictures make it fun to talk about what's in the story...boats, fish, clock, flowers...all have helped add to her ability to recognize objects and "tell her own story". WE LOVE Nat Nat!

As an economics student, this book makes NO sense whatsoever. His ideas are SO far fetched it almost looks as though it is a sci-fi book. Whoever gave it 5 stars must not know how capitalism really works, and how gov't works. It was so off base that I don't even know where to begin. As soon as you read the into and the first chapter you'll notice that the author's propositions are whimsical at best. One thing is caring about our environment (I do), but to create this NGO (Non-Gov't org) to collect environemntal taxation is one of the most nonsensical ideas I've ever heard! Just do yourself a favor and don't buy this book, that is, unless you really want to make the author rich and make yourself miserable.

In the book, Who Owns the Sky?, Peter Barnes makes a compelling and interesting theoretical argument of the need to address a systematic problem, which is how to allocate common resources and issue them a value in a manner congruent to capitalism. Barnes's revelation examines the idea of the putting a price on our common assets (natural resources) through our capitalistic market ideals. The market, therefore, would set prices on natural resources that the common people of our country have inherited through mutual ownership, and use the ideas of the market to charge for the use and exploitation of the resources. This idea of placing ownership of natural resources into a common trust is Barnes's most dynamic point or theory. His theory basically would charge anyone (mainly corporations) exploiting the resources and give the money back to the people in dividends. The companies that are environmentally sound would also be given subsidies for taking the effort reduce resource use or degradation.
A trust is a legally supported concept of an entity designed to hold and manage assets or in this case natural resources for the well being of the people, the beneficiaries. Barnes uses this democratic idea in a modern way where resources and their value can be assimilated into capitalism without throwing off the market. His catastrophic finding is that people will benefit from dividends and more importantly the wealth and health of environment will become sustainable through the market. This theoretical scheme seems like a solution that would the allow the environment and capitalism to mutually coexist in some form of harmony, which almost seems like an oxymoron.
This book was an excellent road map for a feasible change in democracy for the better. Capitalism would be able to continue thriving, the environment could begin thriving, and the people of this democracy would actually get rewarded in a fair way for the abstinence in resource use and abuse. However, my optimism in Barnes's theory is minute because of the corporation's ability to act as such a catalyst in the government's decision making. Corporations have so much money that I find it hard to believe Barnes's theory is highly plausible. The corporations will use every mechanism in the book including, lobbying, donations to high government officials, and mass communication to disable the theory of a general trust that would take money from the rich and give to the poor.
The last argument against Barnes's theory of a general trust is the idea of capitalism in itself. Big government involvement is a taboo issue where less is more. The idea of a trust is seen as a socialist idea where the government intervenes with the innocent corporations in attempt to play good cop, bad cop.
Who Owns the Sky?, is an incredible book with magnificent ideas, but the answer to the question of who owns the sky is simple. As of right now the corporations do and to change that would take more than a theory that benefits the people as a whole, but rather a theory that somehow benefits the driving force of the market, the corporations.

Who Owns the Sky presented a very ambitious plan for conserving the atmosphere. In this book Peter Barnes looked at earth's atmosphere as a valuable commodity that everyone owns. In many ways this argument made sense. Everyone uses air, so everyone should consider it important. Barnes explained many reasons why too much carbon secretion is disturbing the climate, not to mention the life on earth. If we need clean air to maintain quality life then the people polluting the air should pay for their damage. Writing in a time dominated by capitalism, it was not far fetched to associate ecological toll on a natural resource to a monetary tax being placed on polluters. All humans and other life needs air therefore there is already a natural sense that one should protect something that is vital to life. Barnes used the association of air as common property to all to be guarded with expensive fines for those who threaten that property. This will convince non-conservationists that the atmosphere is a resource that is valuable.
What is the Sky Trust? The Sky Trust is Barnes' economic investment system that sells rights to polluters and distributes the revenue to all citizens equally. This is one kind of cap-and-trade system that will best relate the energy companies responsible for pollution with the government and its citizens. Shareholders are all equal. All citizens are shareholders. Shares are not transferable. The Sky Trust will be a transparent pseudo mutual fund in which all shareholders will see where every dollar goes. The Sky Trust will affect consumers according to how much impact they have on the atmosphere. This will be measured in the amount of energy a consumer gets from carbon burning sources. The tax paid by the energy companies to the Sky Trust will be transferred to the consumer. This means the people driving SUV's will have to pay more because they need to buy more fuel to run their vehicle.
There are some serious questions that some people have about how the Sky Trust would work. My first one just happens to be the title of this book. Who is to say that the citizens of the United States own the sky? Sky is property of commons, in order to ration does some kind of ownership needs to take place? Why now? What is an accurate economic value to some huge space of gas? What will the effects be on the U.S. and Global economy? When the extra cost of the Sky Trust tax is passed onto the consumer who will be left out and what businesses will die? Entering all the extra charges onto every good and service might collapse the economy.
Barnes does have a working example of his plan, in the Alaskan Permanent fund. This program showed me that there could be good effects to government-organized sale of natural resources. The idea to create an investment portfolio that will outlive the natural resource, while at the same time getting the most money for a scarce resource to discourage overuse is very positive. The positive effects of the Alaskan Permanent Fund also apply to the Sky Trust. If Sky Trust money is entitled to the citizens of the U.S. then they can decide how they want to spend this extra money. Families will benefit from the tax advantages and an opportunity to start a savings because it will provide opportunities that would not be possible before. Parents that are trying to save for their children's college education will be able to give their next generation more of a chance for social and economic advancement than they had. Entrepreneurs will be able to have the capital it takes to get a small business off the ground.
I really like the idea that Barnes advances that sustainable business is possible. He talked about changing the DNA of business to be more socially conscious. Business should view giving back to the community as crucial to the business cycle. It is simple for businesses to make small philanthropic contributions but it is quite another thing to factor in the effects to the community and the environment on level terms with the dollars and cents of the bottom line. I like the ideas in Who Owns the Sky, but I question the feasibility. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in ways of changing the institutions of society to preserve the world's riches while creating social harmony

The story is offbeat and rather touching: The chickens who live on the Tweedy Farm are doomed to be made into chicken pies if they stay there much longer! Ginger, a clever hen desperate to feel of green grass under her feet, hatches escape plan after escape with no luck....until Rocky, a dashing rooster, literally flies into her life! Will these chicks ever escape the evil farm with their feathers still intact?

The book is a simple retelling of the irreverent film and is easy reading for the younger set. It's sweet, gloriously silly and a wonderful companion to the film. I especially enjoyed the claymation pictures which do a wonderful job of capturing the moment with just one glance. I'd read it to you kids at bedtime.

One side effect though -- don't be surprised if your kids refuse to eat poultry after reading this book!

I find this book refreaching,and that the whole family can enjoy reading it together. I would recomend it for young and old alike.

This is a thoroughly welcome addition to the business continuity books on the market. It brings a clear, rational approach to a very complicated topic. Unsurprisingly, the book adheres to the ten stage process as defined by the Business Continuity Institute and the Disaster Recovery Institute and is written in a style that is easy to read and with very little jargon. (It even gives guidelines on how to read the book.)

The book outlines some important lessons:

- The Importance of business continuity management

- Business continuity plans should be based on outcome scenarios and not causes

- The need for an organized development/implementation

- BCM is never complete - amendments and testing will always be required

There are a couple of points to note though:

- It fails to deliver the message clearly that Business Continuity Management is an umbrella for business impact analysis, risk management and business continuity planning. Too many people just concentrate on the latter.

- My experience shows that many advantages are gained through the development of the plan when the business continuity is firmly in the minds of those involved and the management sponsors (who have allocated resources and funds). This is as important as the plan itself.

- Unlike chapter 15 (Developing the written plan), Chapter 18 (Selecting tools to support the process) is an example of where the book sits on a fence. It describes the types of tools required but gives no clear examples of data used. There are numerous examples that could have been used to illustrate this; perhaps this leaves the door open for consultancy opportunities!

- Another downside to the book occurs as early as section one, which is described as an executive overview and is 75 pages long!

Notwithstanding these minor grumbles, I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone involved in BCM or anyone thinking about creating a more secure business.

This is worth a selective read if are a serious student of the cigarette industry and how it knew early about nicotine's additive and harmful effects. It provides a good insight into the thinking and industry-wide processes. Since it quotes extensively from actual corporate memos (that were given to the Univ of California by an unknown donor) it can be dry reading at times. The authors have organized the raw material well. While this is an important book, and revealing of a rich and powerful industry, it is more useful as a reference. A more readable book on the tobacco industry is Ashes to Ashes by Richard Kluger.