Any newcomer to sf looking for a place to start could do no better than 'The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume I.' The collection includes some of the very best sf stories from 1929 to 1964, as nominated by members of SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) and chosen by editor Robert Silverberg. They include such classics as:

"Nightfall" Isaac Asimov (perhaps the most famous sf story ever)
"Scanners Live in Vain" Cordwainer Smith
"The Nine Billion Names of God" Arthur C. Clarke

"Flowers for Algernon" Daniel Keyes
"A Rose for Ecclesiastes" Roger Zelazny
just to name a handful

So many other powerhouse writers are also represented: Ray Bradbury, John W. Campbell, Robert A. Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, James Blish, Alfred Bester, Damon Knight...the list goes on and on and on.

If I could only have one book of sf stories, this would be the one. A classic.

672 pages

Any newcomer to sf looking for a place to start could do no better than 'The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume I.' The collection includes some of the very best sf stories from 1929 to 1964, as nominated by members of SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) and chosen by editor Robert Silverberg. They include such classics as:

"Nightfall" Isaac Asimov (perhaps the most famous sf story ever)
"Scanners Live in Vain" Cordwainer Smith
"The Nine Billion Names of God" Arthur C. Clarke

"Flowers for Algernon" Daniel Keyes
"A Rose for Ecclesiastes" Roger Zelazny
just to name a handful

So many other powerhouse writers are also represented: Ray Bradbury, John W. Campbell, Robert A. Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, James Blish, Alfred Bester, Damon Knight...the list goes on and on and on.

If I could only have one book of sf stories, this would be the one. A classic.

672 pages

If you ever had an interest in science fiction, you simply must go out and find these books. Classic, defining stories from the days of science fiction when giants walked the earth and there were no special effects, just ideas and the need to tell a story in less then 5000 words.

Read classics like "Flowers for Algernon" and "The Cold Equations" and see what visionaries some of these authors were. Read "Nightfall" and see Isaac Asimov in his prime, or "Mimsy Were The Borogroves" and muse on the time when sci-fi wasn't written to fit on a Taco Bell cup.

Any one of these stories is worth the price of the book. Nothing else to say. Find it, buy it, read it, keep it.

Captain Ted Lawson is a good writer in addition to being a heroic man. Just two years after piloting one of the B-25 Mitchells in a bombing raid over Tokyo -- a mission that wreaked some damage and served as a rallying point for America -- he has crafted a fine book.

I had read this book many years ago when I as 12. I was motivated to reread this book after seeing the blockbuster movie "Pearl Harbor" which goes on from that day of infamy to also include this counterstrike. And I am glad I did reread the book. The book covers the training and the mission in great detail, as well as his escape from China which covers about half the book. The book was written and published between 1942-1943 and there is a great deal of heart-felt emotion in the book about the war and the Japanese.

Also significant I thought is the context in which Lawson places this mission and the amputation of his leg -- they are events, albeit very significant events, that are stepping stones to his true purposes of family life and career.

The mission was great, and had a great effect of America at the time. There is probably no better account of this part of history than this book by Lawson.

This is one of the best books I have ever read and should be a must read for all history students. In addition to the historical importance of the Doolittle Raid, this book brings the reader a personal narrative of the event. If you are a fan of aviation or WWII history, then this is book is for you. I enjoyed it so much that I read it cover-to-cover, back-to-back! I haven't done that with a book in a long time.

As a junior high school student and avaition/WWII buff, 33yrs ago, this was just the kind of book for me. I used this book for numberous book reports through out my school career. I recommend this book for all young people to read and remind them what their grandparents went through to help keep this country free of tyrannny I will always remember, April 18,1942, the "Ruptured Duck" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo".

I read the first chapter, put the book down, turned every light in the house on, made sure the doors were locked and bolted, ran back to my chair, and didn't get up until I was finished ...

Robert Ellis's "Access to Power" is the best mystery thriller I've read this year. I think I liked it so much because it stands out. Something new and different.

Frank Miles is a political consultant with a problem - his partner's been murdered and DC's finist can't figure it out. Frank investigates on his own. Then there's another murder and another. While all this is happening, Ellis unloads on Washington in a way that blew my mind.

The characters jump off the page. Frank Miles is cool and kept me going. George Raymond may be the most vicious bad guy I've ever met in a book. But Ellis's depiction of women really got to me as well. He obviously knows women and likes them.

"Access to Power" packs a heavy punch. The twists and turns are ingenious and thrilling. I can't wait for his next one.

What Grisham is to law, Ellis is to politics

As a political professional, I can tell you, it is hard to find a newscast or an article, much less a novel, that accurately portrays what it is like to be inside of a high-pressure campaign.

Robert Ellis' book does that and more.

It is page turning thriller that seems to be ripped from the most recent tawdry scandals of the Beltway.

Scummy candidates, immoral media types, souless aides...it's all here.

Almost as much fun as discovering the resolve is seeing if you can guess which real life politicians his characters are based on.

Mr. Ellis is an insider. And it shows.

Access to Power is the best plane, beach, weekend read you'll have this year.

Every five years or so, it seems a new writer comes along and gives the genre a big push. Scott Turow and John Grisham turned the legal thriller upside down. James Ellroy drove the historical epic to the heights of literature. James Lee Burke breathed new life into the detective story. These are all well-known names. And Robert Ellis deserves to be set right beside them.

Access to Power is a political thriller unlike any I've ever read before. As one murder begets another, Ellis peels off layers of corruption in bits and pieces. The result is a haunting view of the world we live in. Politics as crime performed in real time from the inside out.

The novel unfolds in a straightforward manner. I found Ellis's writing to be colorful, if not poetic at times. Here's a brief sample, a short description of a minor character: "Zain's glasses were so thick, Frank had never been able to tell what color his eyes were. Fingerprint gray maybe, with a smudge of blue."

This kind of storytelling is like word candy. The track the story races down is fast and furious. And Access to Power is loaded with plenty of juice for the ride.

I found the book Prisoners of Age to be a very powerful and revealing collection of portraits and photo essays. The images were on par with the photography of Richard Avedon and Mary Ellen Mark. This book forces you to slow down and think about our aging prison population not just as a number but as real people with hopes and dreams. This book does not attempt to pass judgment about the incarceration of the aged but lets the viewer draw his or her own conclusions. The overall quality of the book is outstanding with first rate printing and cutting edge design and layout that showcases the photography.

RIVETING!! Not only does this book graphically depict the often horrible treatment of America's aging prison population, but also serves as a sample of how Americans view the elderly in general. Our fast-paced, high-tech society places too much value on youthful vitality and pure intellect, not realizing the contribution that wisdom and decades of experience can bring to heighten our humanity and sensitivity for our fellow man. Even if you choose to ignore the deeper meaning of this book, the quality and impact of the photographs and artwork still make it a bargain for the price.

Chris

I spent hours browsing the sobering and, at times, shocking stories of these aged and infirm inmates in the prison system of the southern U.S. The portraiture, stunning design and layout of this book made it a thoroughly engaging read. I only hope the "Prisoners of Age" exhibition itself comes to the east coast so that I can have a chance to see it in person.

Don't think Rubber Neckers is just for kids during family vacations. I own a business and a job required us to send four employees to a customer's site, 3 hours away. I left Rubber Neckers on the dashboard. I can't tell you the laughs and fun my employees had on this trip. It built comradery amongst them and they arrived at the job site eager to work efficiently so they could hurry back to the car. Now they want their children to play. It's addicting.

This is a great game to have for car trips (especially the long ones)! Plus, I've found that my kids (ages 4 & 6) are even learning new items... things they didn't know before, now they do. To make it simpler though, we just made it team game, instead of indiviually. And we don't keep score (so there are no hard feelings). We just have a great time finding things together!

For family fun in the car... buy this game! It's great!!

Where was this game when I was a kid? I bought this for a recent long car trip with the kids and we all had a great time playing it. Now even if we are driving thru town someone will call out items that they have found. It is entertaining for the whole family!

All the surface details, references to mythology, history, politics, music, literature, etc, can be found in this book (Joyce's novel is not included within, just the annotations, but it still clocks in at 700 pages!). If you want to know exactly what Joyce was referring to--this is the place. However, it won't necessarily tell you what he MEANT (aheheh, some things must be left to the reader).

Of course, if you've never read Ulysses you don't need to know every obscure reference. Just pick up REJOYCE or THE NEW BLOOMSDAY BOOK, which have generalized overviews of the novel. This is for the deep scholars. But as Joyce said, all he expects of his readers is that they study his works for the rest of their lives.

This will keep you busy.

"Ulysses Annotated" is an essential Book for reading, and understanding Ulysses, and the previous four reviewers are right on the mark. It is impossible, even for a well read reader to understand Joyce's allusions without this extremely well presented, and well priced, Reference book.

Introduction, prefaces and notes explain how to use this book, and how it was compiled. Each episode is preceeded by a map of where the action takes place helping the reader to visualize the movements of Bloom and Stephen. Each entry is preceeded by the Chapter Number and Line Number according to the Gabler edition of "Ulysses". In addition, a fairly comprehensive index cross-references all entries. If the reader wants to find all allusions pertaining, for example, to the Book of Luke, these can be easily found. I found this Index quite useful.

Personally, I found the following method best for using the book. First, to skim through the allusions, marking those of particular interest, and then laying the book side by side with the Novel and reading the Episode.

As for realiability, I took Gifford and Seidman up on their offered Short Title List, and was able to find almost every reference, including "Thom's Official Directory of the United Kingdom and Great Britain and Ireland for the Year 1904", and have found them to be reliable in their entries.

This Book should suffice for reading, and understanding Ulysses, though many a reader may get caught up by Joyce, as I did, so that the following may be useful: Weldon Thornton: "Allusions in Ulysses", Richard Ellman: "James Joyce", Harry Blamires: "The New Bloomsday Book", Stuart Gilbert: "James Joyce's Ulysses", and of course "The Riverside Shakespeare", "The Oddyssey", and the Bible.

Ulysses Annotated is essential for understanding Joyce's seminal work, Ulysses. The Introduction, prefaces and notes explain how to use this book, and suggest why and how it was compiled. Each episode is preceeded by a map that helps the reader to visualize the movements of Bloom and Stephen throughout their journeys. It is somewhat difficult, even for a well-read student to understand Joyce's allusions without a reference guide book like Giffords.

Also recommended: REDEFINING THE 'SELF': SELECTED ESSAYS ON SWIFT, POE, PINTER, AND JOYCE by John Condon Murray

Bob Ray and Jack Remick must have very clean offices. Mine was a disaster zone until I read THE WEEKEND NOVELIST WRITES A MYSTERY.

I was laughing to myself reading WEEKEND NOVELIST. Ray and Remick have nice little flow charts. I had piles of gum wrappers and old envelopes with a few words scribbled on them ("where's the dog in chapter 10?" or "top boat speed 40 mph - police boats 60 mph from Emerald Point -- do math"). You won't find a chapter here for "waking up in the middle of the night with your brain taken over by your story, padding through a freezing house in your bahtrobe (knocking into coffee table with shin bone), and staring bleary-eyed at the computer till dawn." Which is how most of my book got written. My shins were bruised for a year and a half.

My shins are still bruised, I confess. I should move that coffee table. But I can thank Bob Ray and Jack Remick for helping me organize my thoughts and my time for my second novel. My office is cleaner for it. And my writing is cleaner too. Read the book. It will help you clean up your act as a mystery writer.

'The Weekend Novelist Writes A Mystery' is not just for mystery writers. Ray/Remick instruct with hard fast tools for scene, plot and character development. There's a backstory checklist and advice on sub plots; ideas for setting that utilize place, time, lighting and season to identify character behavior.

If dialog is your demon Ray/Remick break it into manageable portions; the one-two rhythm, linking to setting, echo words and hooking to the past or future. If you have a tendency to explain dialog, this book makes you aware of authorial intrusion.

As a creative writing teacher and proponent of Natalie Goldberg's creative writing technique, I have used 'The Weekend Novelist' in my creative writing classes. I look forward to utilizing this new book to enhance my own novel writing and to help my students develop their personal writing techniques.

Most aspiring and accomplished writers own at least a modest collection of how-to-write books. The majority of these books are inspirational with a smattering of tips and techniques thrown in.

The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery is different.

Step-by-step methods for constructing a tight mystery novel plot with compelling and convincing characters fill every page. Examples of the authors' own novel process along with those of other masters such as Agatha Christie, Martin Cruz Smith, Sue Grafton, and Raymond Chandler illustrate each step.

There are no timid suggestions in vague jargon here. The authors have taken great pains to make sure each and every facet of their combined writing and teaching expertise is explained thoroughly and usefully.

The importance of a solid "backstory" is the focus of early chapters, giving the writer a solid view of their story before moving on to the writing itself. The far too common problem of writing oneself to a standstill is virtually impossible if the plot and characterization techniques are followed. The remainder of the book contains a treasure trove of specific techniques for creating scenes, convincing dialogue, and "real" settings. The reader will learn how to group their scenes into logical "acts", control the story's pace, and use the language to set tone and resonance.

While structured specifically for the mystery writer, the techniques can be applied to other genres with relative ease. Any novelist, whether still aspiring or already accomplished, will find a wealth of insight into the plotting and characterization process. The beginner searching for one all-around USEFUL how-to-write book would do well to pick this one.

This is no-nonsense book crammed with useful, week-by-week projects which will lead the writer to the successful creation of a well-written, satisfying mystery.

The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery puts the "HOW" back into the how-to-write book market.

As the instructor of a course related to this subject, I read everything out there on finding your "true vocation." I have found Nick Williams' approach to be the most comprehensive and heart-centered of all that are currently published. Nick approaches finding the work you were born to do as a task not separated from the rest of life, but rightly so, a question of "living" rather than "working." As his many practical exercises convey, our culture needs to change the way we think about work; the way we've confronted this problem in the past has not brought about joyful results. Nick's suggestions for self-discovery allow for the possibility of work being a joy rather than a job. If you choose one book on this subject, I would definitely go for this one.

Nick's work on this book certainly shows his love for his subject. It is easy to read and the practical exercises helped me discover my new creative and fulfilling heart-centered career. It is like having Nick Williams as your personal guide to intrapective, honest and authentic decision making. A must-read for anyone wanting to discover their purpose and move into new life-enriching areas and be empowered to take "the risks" in making changes.

If you are confused, dissatisfied, unhappy, or depressed about your current career - read this book! Nick Williams has put together a valuable path of self-discovery for his readers. This easy to read book requires your participation through exercises which take you personally through the thought process necessary for uncovering your dreams and desires. There is indeed a happier, more fulfilling way to live your life and balance your career. Take the time to enjoy this book and uncover your hidden secret to happiness and the good life.

Robert Fisk is a journalist but also a historian and an extremely talented writer. He has lived in Lebanon for 23 years now, not just to cover the stories there and throughout the Middle East, but because it is home to him and because he cares deeply for the Lebanese people. This is apparent in his book. Unlike just about all other books on the subject, Pity The Nation covers the war from a far more personal perspective. Mr. Fisk lets you know exactly what all the bombs and artillery shells did to normal people when they fell on their neighborhoods. He also gives an unprecedented view of the every day life of a war correspondent; the hardships, the horror, the fear, and even the boredom.

If you're a blind supporter of Israel, the PLO, any of the Lebanese factions, Syria, or even the US government, be prepared for some unpleasant truth!

But whatever the case, do read this book. You won't find this level of detail in ANY of the other popular books on the subject.

Robert Fisk(Beirut correspondent for "The Independent) was recently the target of death threats and vicious emails for his honest and unbiased reporting from the Middle East.
"Pity the Nation" is a readable and riveting account of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and the consequences of the same for the Palestinians, Lebanese and the rest of the Middle East. This is essential reading for understanding the current situation in the Middle East, and all the more timely considering the current US posture towards Iraq.

The work stands above anything written by any contemprorary historian or journalist covering the Middle East. The questions, eye witness accounts, insights, and volume of information is overwhelming. Whereas Robert Fisk paints a dark portrait of the Israelis, he doesn't pull any punches describing the Palestinians either. Heroes and victims all using words and deeds to muddy the water in their favor. Nobody leaves this book without a profound sense of the depth of differences and issues necessary to address before any peace can really be achieved in the Middle East.

I was given this book when my daughter was born in January 2000. I read it right away and I am now reading it again. THe practical wisdom in this book is perfect for dads of girls. I heard a radio interview with Robert and his daughters and they are very well-rounded young women so Robert did something right.
We all make mistakes but if you take the advice in this book and put it to work, with love, your daughter will have an advantage in life.

As a father of 2 young daugthers (9 & 7), I found this book to be both enlightening and humorous. I was able to read it during a business trip and once I picked it up I was unable to put it down, forsaking my business responsibilities in order to continue reading this book. The serious but light hearted approach that the author takes to partenting is wonderful and the little tips that are given along the way (laughter, hand squeezing ideas, ect.) have been used in our home and brought much laughter and love. I highly recomed this book to fathers with daughters of any age (in fact I purchased 30 copies to give to friends and family members for Christmas) . I assure you that if read, it will be a blessing to both you and especially your daughter.

When I read the introduction to this book, my first thought was, "I want with my daughter what he has with his daughters." By focusing on seven areas for "building a complete daughter," the author gives practical advice and terrific anecdotes to guide a father in the unique aspects of raising a girl.

I especially liked the chapter on communication. This seems like the key to building a great father-daughter relationship and helping your girl communicate well with others.

From discipline to faith to laughter, the author covers the most important aspects of nurturing the early life of your daughter.

A great, useful, and easy read.