This is the classic text on the transportation revolution of the first half of the 19th century. An excellent read. Highly recommended among historians.

From the introduction by George Beverly Shea to the last page, Tom Fox glorifys our Lord by displaying His awesome creations in nature. The magnificent writing by Adrian Rogers that accompanies these superlative photographs reveal through scripture and anecdote the awesome power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This book will be a blessing to all who read and enjoy the beautiful photographs. Tom Fox is without question the premier nature photographer of our time. With an eye for incredible stirring scenes, color, and movement his photographs will give our Lord glory, honor, and praise for generations to come. For any who may doubt that this world was created by an awesome God, this book will serve as proof positive that beauty of this magnitude could only be the result of divine inspiration.

The Adventures of Superman authorized by George F. Lowther is a highly recommended book for children and adults of all ages. It brings forth a realistic fictional plot. Superman "The Man of Steel", was the first of its kind to be written about in comics, and has amazed the many people who have read his daring rescues and his incredible feats against the most powerful supervillians. This book summerizes him as a child adult and as a reporter, as well as Superman. This book describes his first mystery, his first news article, and his first appearance as Superman.

This is easily one of the best Superman books written. Clark Kent, as well as Superman, are heroic, classic, and timeless. I recommend this book (if you can find it) to anyone who enjoys a story from a time when heroes were HEROES, not super-powered people instead of heroes.

This has got to be one of the best books I have ever read. I took one look at the cover, and laughed... but then I opened and thumbed a few pages... and ended up renting it from my local library. There's something to be said about a book that can have you toting it around all day just so you can read it again at the very next chance you get. But it does. Some may not enjoy the slow pace of the story, but you should wish that the plots in the comics were this good. If you ever, and I mean EVER have the chance to pick this book up, I suggest you do so.

A book like this should be mandatory reading for everyone. Particularly people who represent other people's interests for a living, such as World Leaders, Presidents, Kings, etc., would find it absolutely useful; a kind of constant tool, a compass that keeps them on the right track once and again. This is a book that shows not only Franklin's wit and wisdom, but also his vulnerability, that wonderful human quality, thus making it enchanting and insightful. Buy this book, learn and practice these principles, and enjoy the new breath of fresh air you'll experience in your life.

I saw this book one day when I was browsing Franklin Covey planners in the mall. It had been awhile since I read something not business related so I thought I'd give this a shot. I'll be honest when I tell you I enjoy a good read but this book took me about one year to read from beginning to end. The first few chapters weren't too bad but then it got into a section about a debate between two philosophers on the definition of virtue and why one should practice a virtuous life. I've never read anything that mentally straining in my life (my degree is in Mechanical Engineering BTW). I enjoy the arts but that one section took me about a month before I could fully digest what the philosophers were saying in the span of less than 2 pages. This one section proved so enlightening that my head hurt for about 2 days after I had a chance to chew on the content. If you had any doubts that the founding forefathers of this great nation were anything but geniuses, this should dispell any and all myths. I must say that I even had to break out the dictionary for some of the diction used in this book in that it was definitely not your everyday conversational english. If you enjoy mental challenges of a higher level and your mastery of the English language is proficient enough to understand the fine nuances of sentence structure and double, sometimes triple meanings, I would recommend this book. If you're looking for something a little more entertaining and easier on the mind, then definitely look somewhere else. But I will admit, when I did finally complete this book one year later, I actually felt a major sense of accomplishment. I guess that makes me just a little more virtuous?

An inspiring book written by an amazing author. Ok, so he is my dad, but he didn't pay me to say any of this stuff:)

A Whack on the Side of the Head is a book that deserves some time. If you rush this book, you will miss much of its value. Roger von Oech uses a combination of explanation, puzzles, and irreverent artwork in his treatise on creative thinking. People who consider themselves creative will instantly take to this book. People who don't feel they are creative may be a little intimidated by the format of the book, but if they can buckle down and force themselves to give it a chance, they stand to gain the most from the book. Reading this book can help you reawaken the imaginative thinking process most people abandoned in their childhood. We from getAbstract recommend this book to anyone who wants to be more creative; it will be as useful for a high school student as it is for an advertising executive or a software programmer.

This book deserves 8 stars out of 5! My first encounter with this book came when my roommate gave it to me as a Christmas present. She had read it in a creativity course and said this book changed her perception of the world and helped her be more creative.It is clearly organized and very easy to understand. Plus, it gives you the tools to apply its ideas to your problems in order to find creative solutions. Now a year later I give A Whack on the Side of the Head to my friends for Christmas! I also loved his new product on Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher. The cards feature thirty sayings that will make you think about the world and your problems in a whole new way. Kudos Roger von Oech on all your creative thinking tools.

This classic book provides a host of tips and techniques on how to be more creative. It's filled with stories, anecdotes, exercises and provocative illustrations that will stimulate you to think in new and different ways. This new 3rd edition also includes much fresh material on the world's first creativity teacher: Heraclitus of Ephesus. All in all, easy to read and well worth the investment of your time. I've given many copies to my friends and business associates.

George Muller was a sometime missionary and longtime pastor of a church in Bristol, England, in the middle of the nineteenth century.
At that time, the plight of orphans in the country was despicable and hopeless. It is the plight of these orphans that inspired so much of Charles Dickens' writing during the same period. Orphanages were of a vastly different nature than we are used to thinking. Unless a child was an orphan of a rich or well-established family, there were few options for them. Some orphanages accepted children according to recommendations; ie, if the child or some advocate could gather enough signatures affirming his character, behavior, etc., then they would accept this child. If an orphaned child had the strength and presence of mind to collect such signatures. But mostly, poor children had no option but homelessness and a rough street-life.
Muller set about to do something about that: he resolved to open and run Christian orphanages that accepted children simply on the basis of need. Indeed, he turned away any child who could be accepted at one of the more traditional orphanages.
In addition, Muller set out, through the direction of the orphanages, to prove the existence and good faithfulness of God in a way that I can only compare to Elijah on Mt Carmel. He decided to rely solely and completely on God to provide the means and funds needed to run this orphanage. He did no fundraising whatsoever; moreover, he would not even make his financial needs known even to those who inquired and wished to help. He was steadfast in his determination to rely solely on God to supply His needs, and would not taint such a testimony to a doubtful world with any kind of profession of need or request for help -- not even from his own congregation in Bristol.
And God came through. Again and again, God answered George Muller's prayers, and never once was the orphanage in need. More than that, Muller was able to expand his efforts at an amazing rate: it wasn't long before four major houses were built for orphanages, housing, educating, feeding, and job-training as many as 10,000 orphans at a time. In addition, there were scripture training schools, a publishing house sending out Bibles and scriptural tracts at a very high volume (for little or no money) and heavy financial support of missionaries in other countries. All of this, all of it, without ever letting a single person know of the financial needs of all the work. All told, nearly 1,500,000 pounds were received during George Muller's lifetime from the hands of God.
There were certainly trying days. The book chronicles time and again, at times for months on end, when the orphanages ran on a shoestring budget, at times receiving the money needed to but lunch only at breakfast time. Nonetheless, there was never a single incident when they did not have what they needed.
Muller spent his latter days traveling the world, preaching in as diverse places as Israel, Russia and California(in the 1800's, still a remote corner of the earth.) Instead of boasting of the deeds he had accomplished, the expounded scripture, called on people to recognize the goodness and faithfulness of God, and to rely on Him to supply for them. He insisted that his faith, which was so renowned and talked about, was no extraordinary thing; it was simply the result of years of experiencing God's ability and willingness to meet His needs.
I do not think that Muller had any kind of doctrinal belief that fundraising was a bad thing, and so it would be a twisting of his testimony to use it against missionaries and organizations that fundraise. He simply desired to show that God is faithful and able to meet our needs -- and He did so. It was intended, by this ordinary man, to strengthen the faith of people around the world. I know that reading it has strengthened my faith, while both convicting me and giving me confidence to trust God with my needs. George Muller is an example to me, and a hero of the faith. I would encourage anyone to read more about his life and work -- and the work God did through him and for him.
That said, I must say a word about the shortcomings of this particular biography. It is incredibly tedious at times in its attention to detail. In the times of near-shortage in the orphanages, it does paint the picture well to see how sixpence came in at this hour and two pounds the next day, then three months of relative abundance, then a week in which only eight pence came in and then the day before money was needed to repair the furnace so-and-so wrote a letter including ten pounds. To some extent this is indeed helpful. But when George and wife are touring the country, I don't feel like I need to know about every train and every hotel and house and congregation they preached to. The attention to detail, though it certainly honors Muller's spirit (who was gifted with incredible attention to detail, which doubtless helped him run the houses as he did) is very tedious to read. Some sections are definitely best simply skimmed...

This book provides many excellent stories from the life of Muller. The stories are not only insightful, but also include actual diary entries from the period. If you're looking for a book about George Muller, this is the one to get.

Like many statisticans, I used this book in my Grad program. Needless to say, I've read the book from cover to cover many, many times. As theory goes, I think this book is excellent. However, I believe the major weakness of this books lies in it's examples and problem sets. I believe that (even for advanced texts) the problem sets should have a difficulty gradient to them (starts out with easier problems and ends with the real brain twisting tough problems), and this books does seem to do that to a degree, but it does not do it very well. In addition to this, there are many problem sets in the book where it is very easy to get lost in the math and completely miss the important statistical point/lesson that should be illustrated. Many of the most difficult problems of the book have very little to do with statistics and more to do with mathematics.

The authors also have the annoying habit of refering to the results of previous problems/excercises. Therefore, in order to do some exercises/examples, you must go back and work one or two of the exercises from one of the previous chapters. The book would have been a lot more helpful if the author would provide the solutions for exercises that he intends to build upon.

I used it as textbook in the senior undergrad. course this semester. This book is an excellent introduction to mathematical statistics but maybe too difficult for most undergrad. students to learn in just one semester. In my opinion, to read this book you do need a strong background in calculus. Having taken courses like real analysis, introductory probability/statistics is helpful but not so necessary. Most difinitions and proofs are clear and precise. The examples are good, but the authors quite often refer to the previous ones, which might be very anoying for many readers. The excercises are also very good but a little too difficult. Most ones each took me about one hour to solve it. And I feel that quite some problems require "mathematics" besides knowlege of statistics. And I recommend that you solve many excercises if you've got time - our Prof. assigned at least 20 from each chapter as homework, which was too hard for me though. By the way, I bought the first printing of the book, and found too many typos. You can download from the author's homepage the errata list but that doesn't cover all. In conclusion if you are a serious math student interested in mathematical statistics, I think this is a good book for you.

I use this book primarily as a reference. I found that important
statistics concepts are very well explained, accompanied with
easy-to-understand examples. Also, the organization is excellent
and it's easy to find and go directly to the topic that I'm looking
for. Well worth the price.

A "just the facts, ma'am" biography. Not especially good reading but a nice little reference book that gives an outline of GW Bush's life so far. It does document where Bush's money comes from - mainly Friends of Dad. It also details his rather dismal business performance and exposes his less than glowing record as Governor of Texas.

What amazes me, with all the hype about this book, is how even-handed it is. Bush is portrayed as not unlikeable, kind of lazy, rich boy who can't help it if he's "lucky." The cocaine bit is not all that well documented and the author barely delves into other areas in GW's background that are murky - not serving his full time in Texas ANG, insider knowledge of Gulf War, etc. All in all it is the portrait of a man with natural political instincts and wealthy backers. So, what else is new? It is no more critical of Bush than David Maranass' First in His Class is about Clinton. ...

I put off reading this book for a long time, thanks to the questions we all had about Hatfield's integrity and the credibility of his charges against the Accidental President. This newly updated and better-annotated edition put these concerns to rest, and although it's not the best Bush biography I've read thus far, it deserves far more respect than it's received from the mainstream media. For a book which Bush's supporters went to great lengths to prevent from ever being published, Hatfield shows a surprising lack of antagonism toward his subject for the most part. Molly Ivins' "Shrub," Mark Crispin Miller's "The Bush Dyslexicon" and Paul Begala's "Is Our Children Learning?" are all far more openly partisan (and better written), but Hatfield does provide information not available elsewhere about the youthful indiscretion that Bush and his allies have otherwise done a superb job of keeping buried.

Using straightforward accounts from the public record and those who know him, Hatfield illustrates such issues as Bush's obliviousness to racial segregation in his hometown, his indifference to his studies at Andover and Yale, his alcoholism, his spotty record in the Air National Guard, his questionable business dealings, and his performance as governor. Bush's actions and words speak for themselves throughout the book, and Hatfield shows little inclination to analyze them to death or to put an actively anti-Bush spin on them. In fact, he occasionally sounds pro-Bush, noting, for example, that he got off to a respectable start in the oil business after graduating from Harvard Business School. Some of the less flattering accounts, such as that of his "service" in the Air National Guard, have a necessarily vague and incomplete feel to them, mainly because there simply isn't a lot of reliable information available about that period of Bush's life. Hatfield is, however, able to provide a number of accounts of cocaine use and womanizing that stand in sharp contrast to the family-values image Bush's handlers have managed to convey to the public. If Hatfield's research failed to answer many questions about the extended adolescence Bush himself has always refused to discuss, he did succeed brilliantly in raising many questions that deserve to be addressed but haven't been thus far.

The book's most famous accusation - that Bush was arrested for cocaine posession in 1972 and his father got the charges dropped - is more solidly supported than I'd been led to believe. Although Hatfield did fail to produce a source who was willing to confirm the story on the record, he names a number of sources who probably know the answer but - like Bush himself - refuse to confirm or deny it. Additionally, he provides three anonymous sources, not a lone Deep Throat as has been widely reported. The afterword does have a cloak-and-dagger feel to it all the same, and there are typographical and grammatical errors sprinkled throughout the narrative which have helped to make the book easy for Bush supporters to vilify.

But for all that, most of what Hatfield reports is well-annotated (in contrast to the original printing) and presented in a non-sensationalistic style. If Hatfield was not the ideal messenger, he at least provided us with an important collection of information that other journalists chose to gloss over or didn't have access to. As Mark Crispin Miller points out in his introduction, the Bush campaign's reaction to the book was just as telling in one sense as the book itself is. If it's inaccurate, why suppress it?

Celebrate your right to know. Whatever your politics, read the book and decide for yourself whether or not it's worth believing.

How could I resist buying this book when I heard it had been ordered all but burned when the first edition came out on the eve of Bush's 2000 campaign. That alone would be reason enough for reading FORTUNATE SON (and keeping America safe for democracy) but in addition, it is a good read. I discovered that my biggest mistake as a proud liberal is underestimating Bush. Even if I cringe when I hear his rhetoric, he is a savvy politician with shrewd instincts. Now I understand a recent news magazine story which explains how Ms. Rice translates these instincts into articulate policy. Unlike his lucky dad who struck it rich with Texas gold, Duwya had the ability to keep oil companies (temporarily) afloat when the wells were dry. One wonders if that is what he is doing now--Convincing Americians to buy an empty foreign policy. I Hope anyone who runs agains Bush reads this book and I thank Amazon.com and Soft Skull Press for making it available to the public against surprising odds.

In THE MILL ON THE FLOSS George Eliot provides an insightful and intelligent story depicting rural Victorian society. Set in the parish of St. Ogg's, Maggie and Tom Tulliver endure childhood and young adulthood while experiencing the harsh realities of poverty, devotion, love, and societal reputation. I emphasized greatly with Maggie as I have experienced some of her own lived experiences. I truly loved every chapter of this book and didn't want it to end. It is indeed very rare that I have this type of reaction to a book. Although this book was published during the Victorian era, it's amazing how Eliot's prose flows virtually unobstructed. The reader is given a rare glimpse into rural life during the 19th century and is treated to how strictly structured society was then. I am now a fan of Eliot and look forward to reading her other novels.

Bottom line: THE MILL ON THE FLOSS is an excellent novel. Enjoy!

This was my first (of four, so far) George Eliot novel. It's also my favorite. Unlike Adam Bede or Silas Marner, I found the characters to be interesting and enjoyable. No, it's not a finely-crafted piece of literature like Middlemarch. And it might be a bit on the melodramatic side. But for some odd reason I found the story to be ultimately quite moving.

Other folks who I gave the book to gave it mixed results. No one disliked it, but most found the "brother-sister" element to be a bit corny. And pardon my sexism, but I thought the book would appeal more to women than men (since the main character is a teenage girl). Not so. This book is definitely "not for women only".

I imagine if you have a sentimental streak through your bones you will probably love this book.

The Mill on the Floss has one of the most appealing young girl characterss of all 19th c. literature--Maggie Tolliver. The relationship between her and her brother is at once beautiful, horrible, and probably indicative of much that was true for boys and girls in 19th century England. Whenever I read the book (and I've read it a few times), I am again in love with Maggie, delighted with the people around her, and saddened by the heavy events that bring her down. George Eliot doesn't pull punches--when you've read one of her books, you know you've been somewhere else, experienced something powerful

I thought I would wouldn't want to read ANYTHING else about the never-ending election of 2000 -- but this book had me scratching my head and smiling from start to finish. Roger Simon gives us a first-person account from McCain's Straight Talk Express all the way through the "riots" in Broward County. I especially enjoyed Gore campaign manager Bill Daley's thoughts on the whole convoluted mess. Simon's perspective is irreverent, well-written and just plain interesting. A must-read for political junkies -- and anyone who wants the inside scoop on "Election 2000." The perfect Father's Day gift for my father the C-SPAN fan.

BYLINE: YVONNE CRITTENDEN. DIVIDED WE STAND By Roger Simon. This short but compelling book by distinguished reporter Roger Simon, chief political correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, looks at the recent American election campaign and its historically close finish. Simon, an insightful analyst and a very readable writer, provides new information about the rivalry between Bill Clinton and his chosen successor, Al Gore, some new and shocking details of the smear campaign in South Carolina, where the George W. Bush forces beat back John McCain's challenge, and other fascinating tidbits. But it's Simon's overall analysis that is so interesting. Calling Al Gore a "flounder" to Bill Clinton's "shark," he notes that Clinton changed the political dynamic in America with his hands-on, empathetic style. Making an emotional connection with strangers was, in essence, what campaigning in America has become. Clinton made it look easy, Simon notes. He had the actor's ability, like Ronald Reagan, to believe utterly in the role he was playing, and the words he was saying. "Al Gore was a serious and committed man who had to learn to be more charming and casual in public. George W. Bush was a casual, charming man who had to learn to be more serious and committed in public. In other words, the presidential campaign was about seeing who could be Bill Clinton." Read this for an understanding of what happened in the 2000 election and why. (Random House)

Roger Simon was assigned by U.S. News and World Report to cover the 2000 presidential election, which was ultimately shrouded in so much drama and controversy. Simon's tome on that fascinating campaign is reminiscent of Theodore White's groundbreaking work on the equally dramatic 1960 presidential race between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, "The Making of the President," which netted White a Pulitzer Prize and launched a series.

What makes book such as White's and Simon's so intriguing is that the art of politics is revealed through a series of portraits in books which read like rapidly paced mystery novels as events and the characters who shaped them are analyzed with fascinating precision. The centerpiece of Simon's work is the nail-biting election night, which culminated in Bush being declared a winner by the major networks, followed by a concession by Gore, then a retraction in the face of additional information based on updated returns. The dramatic second Bush-Gore conversation was tense, edgy, and caustic.

Political professional Simon does a superb job of analyzing major players Bush and Gore, along with revealing how their organizations were comprised and operated. The operations and their styles demonstrate the contrasting natures of the two presidential candidates.

William Hare