Many have commented that DELTA GREEN is where X-Files meets the Cthulhu Mythos. They are correct, but it goes beyond that. Delta Green presents a satisfying and believable context for mythos roleplaying in the modern era. This supplement for CALL OF CTHULHU, a game which has a history of great supplements, raises the standard by which future works will be measured. This is quite possibly the best role-playing supplement ever. I have been into RPGs for nearly 20 years now, and I have seen most of what is out there. Believe me, it does not get better than this.

I've never played anything but 1920's Call of Cthulhu, and have never been to keen on the idea on modern-day CoC. But I must admit, the Delta Green campaign setting is really impressive. After having taken a look at it and purchasing it, I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a change of pace in their CoC game. The best comparison I can think of is this: If CoC 1920's is the movie "Alien," Delta Green is the movie "Aliens." Both are cool, both have the same creatures as the adversaries, but they both have different moods and different types of protagonists. The background info in this book is so realistic, if I were a bit more mentally unbalanced :), I could easily believe every bit of it as gospel truth, not just a game setting.

If Lovecraft was alive today this sourcebook would make him green with envy! This takes the Call of Cthulhu game to the contemporary level. There's more than enough plots and characters to juice up a modern (postmodern?) Call of Cthulhu game. I especially like how the creators have made so many versatile options. You can make this supplement as intricate or as simple as you want. I definitely recommend this as a sourcebook to all Call of Cthulhu role playing fans.

A perverse book on the business of oil. Perverse if you don't believe in aristocracy, corporate manipulation, imperialism, and plain old exploitation.

A timeless comprehensive study done by an expert, published by the time of the so-called "oil crisis" of the mid-nineteen-seventies; unmasking the oil industry's politics, economics and technical aspects. Top priority for any well informed person, in order to know, how the "free" market has been circumvented by the best kept secret conspiracy of all times, between major producers and giant distributors at the expense of domestic and foreign consumers. There is no such thing as an oil shortage, that's a lie.

I am Public Relations Manager for GreaterGR.com, the Greater Grand Rapids area website. As such, I am often asked which publications about history and life in Grand Rapids are the best. "Greater Grand Rapids: A City that Works" tops my list! It is a unique look into life in Grand Rapids as Gerald R. Ford experienced it. You will find this book in the reception area of many businesses in the Greater Grand Rapids area, most likely because the pictures are exceptionally vivid, capturing the essence of city life. It is a great coffee table book and conversation piece!

Being new to the Grand Rapids area, this book is the most effective and efficient way to get a glimsp at the Grand Rapids business and private sector as well as a view of Grand Rapids through the eyes of Gerald Ford. This is a must buy for anyone who is looking at Grand Rapids for fun and fellowship.

NICK FRANCISCO PERIOD 2

"A Time to Kill" is John Grisham's first novel. His fluid, detailed storytelling is unlike the choppy first attempts of many modern authors.In a small town in the Deep South, two redneck hooligans rape and maim a ten-year-old black girl. Enraged, the girl's father, Carl Lee Hailey, takes justice into his own hands, killing the two rapists in a courthouse shooting. He seeks the help of defense lawyer Jake Brigance to save him from the gas chamber.

Brigance, a young but sharp lawyer, has to find a way to win an impossible case: a black man is on trial for killing two white men, and his case is being heard by an all-white jury. Adding to the mix are violence between the Ku Klux Klan and the black community, and the fact that, during the shooting, Carl Lee had injured a sheriff's deputy.

When I first read this novel, I was angered and irritated by the depth of hatred that exists within racism. I was angered that had Carl Lee been a white man bent on avenging his daughter's suffering, he would never have had to face trial. The rape of ten year old Tanya, Carl Lee's daughter, by Billy Ray and Pete, A Time to Kill is a disturbing novel, aside from the raping and killing that opens the tale. It is not possible to look at our justice system the same way, especially from the viewpoint of the black community in the South.

John Grisham is of course my favorite author, and this is the perfect collector's item of sorts because it gives you all of his best books...in audio! If you listen to all his books, it just makes them come more alive and real, and it's just terrific.

Well worth reading, even though my edition stopped just before Blair's first election as PM. The author didn't write it for Americans -- I had to guess at a lot of the British electoral and political terminology -- but he seems to have a subtle and sophisticated sense of politicians and the UK electorate from the 1970s to mid-1990s. One big surprise was the extent to which the Blairites intentionally copied themes from the 1992 Clinton campaign. Whether that makes you smile or grimace no doubt depends on your opinion of New Democrats.

As a "Blairite" (I can feel prejudices leaping into life even as I type), I was expecting this book to jump on the bandwagon of New Labour bashing, as it just isn't the done thing to give the current government credit for anything. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to discover that this biography is astonishingly well balanced. TB's sincerity and achievements are given due recognition, while the author at the samw time paints a portrait of a driven man, who has expertly used the machinery of politics to his advantage, utilising all sorts of arguably cynical plotting and dancing through a myriad morally grey areas. You will almost certianly take from this book what you bring to it. If you feel that Tony Blair has been a good PM, and person in general, then Mr. Rentoul's willingness to showcase Labour's progressive measures will reassure you of the tangible effect he has has on the country. If you feel that New Labour hasn't delivered, that it's "all spin and no delivery" (oh, how I hate that phrase!), or that he sold socialism down the river, then you'll also find enough evidence to justify your complaints. The bbok itself is well written, packed with insight, and superbly backed up with the relevant quotes and a thorough list of references. If you have any interest in modern British politics, you'll like this.

This book answered questions I've had for years about my collection of hot rod music. There should be many people out there looking for this book. It may not be completely comprehensive, but who'd know. If it had had better distribution, maybe there'd have been revisions and second editions. Personally I'd really like to see a 1950's version of this book.

Buy this book and check it against your list. You'll be glad you did.

Blair's Local Economic Development is an undergraduate level text on regional economics. In this regard, it automatically fills a need left by the now out-of-print An Introduction to Regional Economics by Edgar M. Hoover and Frank Giarratani. (Frank Giarratani tells me that no future editions are in the offing.) The title difference from the Hoover and Giarratani volume lends a more contemporary flavor to Local Economic Development. Indeed, it adds brief treatments of the following topics: housing and neighborhood development, local public finance, and planning perspectives.

Having taught (and in all academic practicality weaned) from Hoover's book, I find Blair's approach to the same subject matter refreshing. In the first chapter, he starts with a sketch of general economic principles_assumptions behind the behavior of individuals and firms; efficiency versus equity; market forces; and some causes of market inefficiencies_and moves quickly through a discussion of the notion of "region." The second chapter briefly edifies some critical economic principles in regional analysis: unemployment and low wages, externalities, and public choice. All of this is achieved in a mere 40 pages. I find such brief introductions necessary for undergraduate urban and regional studies courses, and wish that such a handy text would have been available when I first prepared my lectures. After this theoretical but pragmatic introductory material, Blair immediately hits core material to local political economics_business development. Here he draws as much from his own research experience in "industry targeting" as from the vast literature on industry location. Names like Weber and Hotelling fail to appear here but their main ideas do, however briefly. Most of the chapter is appropriately devoted to explaining such notions as "quality of life," "political climate," "business climate," and other factors thought to influence business location decisions, as well as to explaining the nature of the business location decision process itself. Chapter 4 deals with market areas and central place theory. As he does throughout much of the book, Blair discusses this material with the ultimate goal of providing a means of affecting local economic development through public policy. Hence, he focuses the chapter toward strategies for expanding a center's hinterland. In Chapters 3 and 4, Blair covers (perhaps indirectly) material on inter- and intraregional competition; in Chapter 5 "Understanding Economic Structure," he switches to a discussion of intraregional cohesive forces_agglomeration economies_and their measurement. As in previous chapters Blair does a good job on the main principles first developed by the likes of Walter Isard and as well as Edgar M. Hoover. In this case, however, I found at least one chink in the book's armor-the subject of Marshallian industrial districts (industrial complexes) are not well handled. Why did Detroit develop as a center for the world's auto industry? Why is it dispersing southward toward Birmingham, Alabama? Why are financial districts still relatively strong in major national urban centers? In summary, Blair fails to discuss the dynamics of agglomeration, specifically localization economies. He does not answer or bring up the subject of why some industries still bent on localizing while other are dispersing in an age with declining transactions and shipping costs.

In Chapters 6 and 7, Blair takes on the topics of regional development and its measurement. In these chapters he touches on export base theory, shift-share analysis, econometric modeling, and regional input-output analysis. He also discusses region importance-strength analysis, a critical component of industry targeting. Here I found that he may have missed a perfect opportunity to provide some structure via Saaty's analytical hierarchy to a method void of academic rigor. The analytical hierarchy approach is also a good lead into sensitivity analysis for students. Sensitivity of business location decisions to changes in the importance of regional characteristics would be an ideal and pragmatic application of this tool.

After returning to terse theoretical economic treatments of welfare economics and factor mobility, Local Economic Development turns to topics of land use, housing, and neighborhood development in Chapters 10 and 11. The section on housing is one of the best in the book, evenly covering all of the basic requirements in a mere 25 pages. The organization and content of the section on land use is less well developed. For a book that is oriented to practitioners, Blair gets bogged down in defining economic theories of land rent. Consequently, sharp transitions are required to and from the section entitled "The Land Development Process," most of which deals with project feasibility. In addition both the transition to and the discussion of government's potential role in development planning are left wanting.

The chapter on government is almost strictly a lesson on public taxation and the allocation of public goods, and less on ways in which government can induce local economic development. For this reason Chapter 12 was the most disappointing of the lot, despite its quality discussion of the more theoretical aspects of government finance. The most pragmatic piece in the chapter was a discussion of cost/benefit analyses.

Despite my comments on the particular contents of some chapters, I found that Local Economic Development well fills a need for a combined treatment of regional economic and planning issues at the undergraduate level. Its greater depth on topics in economics-its main strength-lends it more for use in survey courses in regional economics. The book's weakest component is its coverage of government policy and planning tools. Planners will find the book particularly wanting at times, although unlike economists they are more likely to be aware of readings that fill its main gaps.

This is one of the greatest books ever written! A must read for every leader no matter what age or occupation. Superbly written with real life stories that will make you laugh and cry and when you do put down the book it will cause you to think about your life and what it is that you are living for!

I first found this book at my library, and was amazed at how many locations it covers! I was born in western PA, and grew up in central PA, but there were some intruiging places in this guide that I'd never heard of before. If you are a history buff and have a nice, lazy weekend to spend following the "history trail" as laid in this book - do it! What a nice way to fall in love with PA all over again. It'd be twice as nice to do in the fall when the leaves are changing. I logged on to Amazon.com today expressly in the hopes of ordering this book - I can't recommend it enough and am looking forward to taking it with me on regional trips in the future.

There is a good deal to recommend this book. It is for the most part well-written, and the idea behind the book is outstanding. However I have quite a few problems with it. The opening tale by John Tynes is somewhat too short to overcome by backstory and characterization a rather ugly incident that takes place within it, equating experience with the Deep Ones to a version of combat syndrome, and that taints the rest of the book. Other tales fare somewhat better, and have some very thought-provoking concepts, adding a bit of science fiction to the world of the Mythos. One can become a ghoul, for instance, by reading a certain book, and a certain Great Old One can tear holes in the spacetime continuum in order to attract males for her followers (kind of silly, but effective within the tale). On the whole, I liked it, but for me that is the crux of the biscuit-I wanted to love it, and did not. Fell far short of the expectations that were engendered in me by the blurbs on the back cover and the front cover recommendation from Lucius Shepard. Can't give it a thumbs-up, but worth looking at if you have the money. Slim for the price.

I really enjoyed reading this book. As with any collection of short stories, I liked some more than others, but there were none in here that I didn't like. There were a couple that I consider to be real gems. My only real complaint is that it's not much book for 12 bucks. It's about half an inch thick, with eight stories in it. I guess maybe it's priced higher than most paperback books because of the cost involved for a small company to have smaller quantities of a book like this printed, but I must admit I was a bit disappointed with it in this respect.

I have always been a fan of way-out-there lunatic sci-fi/horror but unfortunatly most of the sci-fi and horror out there is just really insipid banal mainstream garbage. This book is different, the stories pull no punches and will blow you away. There is some violent violence and BIZZARE sexual stuff in this book so it is probably NOT for kids. Highly recommended and far better than the other Delta Green fiction "Rules of Engagement."