There are three stories included in this book. The first story is called "swords of the red brotherhood". If any of you have ever read the conan story The treasure of tranicos, then you have read this story, as it is nothing more than a change of setting and the names have been altered, the other two tales are not even worth mentioning. All in all a very poor read.

I understand that Donald E. Grant produced this and other deluxe volumes of R. E. Howard's stories a couple of decades ago, focusing primarily on the ever-popular Conan tales.

Well, like the six volumes of the Bean R.E. Howard Library (which, among other things, collected all the Bran Mac Morn, Solomon Kane, and King Kull tales in single, affordable volumes), Black Vulmea's Vengance collects a handful of Howard efforts that showed that he could create heroes, action, and character interplays far more interesting than anything found in his most famous stories.

Two stories and the novella found in this volume can either be read as top-notch pirate stories, or they can be read as typical Howard action tales. What *isn't* quite typical Howard, though, is the presence of female characters that display a bit more depth than one usually finds in his work.

Considering the relative age of this book and the fact that I received a first edition when I ordered it, I imagine that there are only a limited number of these left. I urge all Howard fans, as well as those who appreciate well-written adventure fiction, to order a copy. The price is definately right for these fine, hard-to-find tales. The book would have received Five Stars if the colour plates present had been better executed. They were the only dissapointing aspect of this hardcover collection.

I recomend spending your money on Winning Wrestling Moves or the Fighter's Notebook.

I found this book to be an excelent way to introduce Jui Jitsu to my students and I myself became familiar with the finer points of grappling and submission fighting.

I highly recoment it for the begining Jui Jitsu student!

I'm looking historical news and the divelopment about hiphop colture in better way informations on the meaning of the rule of the WOMAN in all Africa and Africa-aMERICA.aNATHER Subject interest me much than the ather is the implication of muslimreligion in hip hop culture.

A most insightful guide to understaning the culture of Hip-Hop and and it's influences on everyday American Life. Written in a fun yet intellectual manner. The author has presented some compelling thoughts and has provided a most intriguing perspective on what mainstream media has chosen to label "controversial". I have read many other books and articles on the culture and find this presentation to be a must-read, and truthful piece of work.

Too often it's assumed that all environmentalists are white, class-privileged neo-hippies and that people of color are too busy with "real" issues. This book shows that activists of color are extremely dedicated to fighting pollutants in their community. This book stresses that a disproportionate number of communities of color have been targeted for toxic wastes sites, etc.; so it is not environmental classism, but specifically environmental racism. This book does a good job in showing how Blacks, Native Americans, and Latinos are equally engaged in fighting this tragedy. This book may be too simplistic for longtime activists. For non-scientists like myself, many of the chemical compounds mentioned and stuff like that went right over my head (figuratively, of course). Still, this helped me learn more on the topic and is a good starter book. I think this book can help bring progressives across color lines together.

Victorian England is full of vulnerable young streetboys and servants. Enter an upper class doctor and his mysterious aristocratic friend. The pair show how even the best people can go to hell in a handbasket with the proper enticements. It's a quirky morality play in the style of Victorian underground porn, with the two sadists victimizing London a-la Jekyl and Hyde...two fairly cartoonish characters going straight to hell joined at the hip. The strongest and best written character is the young narrator, who is the special victim of the doctor. "Experiment" works on the hypothesis that nasty sex turns a gentleman into an unfeeling beast that must be destroyed, even if nasty sex also gets a gentleman indecently hot. 'In fact', thinks the doctor, 'this could be the sort of behavior that destroyed my late father'. Well, it's a bit melodramatic. But there are some juicy parts. Depending on your tastes, a plus or minus is the absolutely inhuman way the Hyde character entices the Jekyl character to abuse lower class boys during satanic rituals, impromptu non-surgical exams, and everyday prostitution. And the way the lower classes submit, it's hard to tell who's corrupting whom.

James P. Johnson (1894 - 1955) is one of the great neglected figures of 20th century American music. He composed the "Charleston", accompanied Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters, was the acknowledged champion of the Harlem stride school of jazz piano, taught piano to Fats Waller, influenced Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Thelonious Monk, and wrote some of the first symphonic music by an African-American that sought to fuse European and American music into a coherent whole.

This book is the only full scale biography of Johnson to be written so far. As such it is a valuable addition to our knowledge. It was originally written as a senior honors project at Yale, and although expanded, still bears signs of its origins. It is strong on the development of the Harlem stride piano style and has a good chapter on Johnson's pianistic approach.

However, it also has some flaws: it is based largely on secondary sources, has little to say about Johnson's "serious" music (most of which was not rediscovered until after 1986), is unbalanced in its emphasis on the 1920s while neglecting Johnson's jazz revival in the 1940s, and offers only limited analysis of his recordings.

Bob Hilbert's discography is a very useful addition, although it is now 15 years out of date and therefore omits both CD releases and some recent discoveries.

For Johnson fans or those interested in the history of stride piano or in the New York jazz scene of the 1920s, this is well worth getting. However, it is not the definitive scholarly biography that Johnson's stature ultimately deserves.

This book covers theories, research and intervention programs which were or are designed to address issues that young African-American men face in urban areas. It explores the role of culture in social development, articulates cluster profiles of racial socialization, identifies oppression and sociopolitical development as an basis for intervention, draws a relationship among gender, spirituality and spiritual well-being, compares manhood and womanhood development, and links these factors with the cognitive, emotional and behavioral characteristics of African boys and men. In its survey, it affirms the known and leaves the practicioner with much of the same overwhelmedness about the challenges and issues of Black boys and men in the U.S.

This is the only one of Robert Swindells' books with which I have been disappointed. Having read Stone Cold and Abomination (both amazing) I was a little annoyed with this trite tale of wise old women and evil capitalists battling it out over a nuclear waste dump. It isn't boring, but I would read all his other books first.

Robert M. Wald is more known by his (very technical) book "General Relativity", where he explains Einstein's theory using a somewhat (sometimes too much) hard mathematical description. The main problem with this book, "Space, Time and Gravity" seems to be, for me, also its hardness; it is a clear and well written book, but maybe with language and focus some steps too high for the general public. Let give me an example: the book has ten chapters; the three first ones give a beautiful logical description of how space and time are viewed in Physics, but the next chapter becomes a bit too complicated, having a simple description of the Singularity Theorem, which for me seems a technical matter not very appealing. The final five chapters give an interesting account of the theory of black holes, but again this account seems to lack some taste, reminding me of a breakfast made of a superb toast served without jam or butter or anything to drink... However, I would recommend this book for undergraduate students of physics. For readers with a not-so-good mathematical background I would also suggest "Flat and Curved Space-Times" by G.F.R. Ellis and R.M. Williams (unhappily out of stock). The general public probably would enjoy more the reading of Einstein's "Relativity : The Special and the General Theory" (Paperback - May 1995) (a very recommendable book!) or the lengthy "Black Holes and Time Warps : Einstein's Outrageous Legacy", by Kip S. Thorne, et al. (Paperback - January 1995).

Kenneth Janken hads written a very informative book about Walter White. What's good about it is that it rectifies the dearth of good books that really delve into the gravity regarding the history of America's racial sickness. Walter White had a front row seat to this reality. He was able to investigate some of the most gruesome lynchings in American history because most people thought he was Caucasian. The extent of the racial pogroms detailed in this book is amazing. It dramatizes how throughout U.S. history African Americans have had to beg, borrow and steal our way to a modicum of respect. It is especially revealing with regard to the condecension displayed by Jews who called themselves helpful in advancing African American civil rights. And it shows how all people labled as oppressed minorities strive to join the majority group where ever they live. Yet African Americans are the sole group in U.S. society for whom a concerted effort has been made (and continues to be made) to keep on the outside. There are flaws to the book, however. For example, like so many Caucasians, Janken refuses African Americans any right to complexity. By that I mean that he denies us the right to class distinctions by chastising White for looking down his nose at African Americans at the bottom who didn't do their best to improve themselves. This is a common attitude amongst so-called liberal and leftists Caucasians, who seem to feel that all African Americans at the bottom are noble. Yet these same Caucasians do their best to identify themselves as "white," as in separate from African Americans, the implication being that racial distinctions that really aren't legitimate, indeed, are legitimate. Such people simply can't seem to accept the fact that ever since the end of slavery there has been a significant cadre' of African Americans at the bottom who have no interest at all in improving themselves. It is this "noble savage" element which continues to fascinate most Caucasian Americans, who just can't seem to accept any African Americans who seek assimilation and self-improvement as "true blacks." In addition, there is at least one error in the book. Janken discusses the struggle to build the VA hospital in Tuskegee Alabama at the end of World War I. In his discussion he erroneously states that efforts to ensure that the staff of the hospital was all Caucasian were temporarily successful. This was not true at all. From the very beginning, the president of Tuskegee, Robert Moton, and school physician John A. Kenney Sr., successfully resisted all efforts to staff the hospital with Caucasians. The other criticism I have of the book is that in many passages it is overwritten (example: "[White] was no Pollyanna, and he was the angry black soldiers' amanuensis." What the h... does "amanuensis" mean?). Too often Janken strives for words that make a reader run to his dictionary unnecessarily. In this he is like fellow historian, David Levering Lewis. Overall, I recommend this book for informativeness only.