Relying on extensive original documents, Morton constructs a highly readable portrait of life in 18th-century Virginia.

Robert Carter was a leading planter and businessman, one of a long line of Carters that held significant influence in pre-Revolutionary Virginia. By highlighting his significant operations, Morton provides a fascinating glimpse of this early American business leader.

Along the way, the reader is also introduced to a cast of characters whose lives intersected with Carter including tenants, slaves, businessmen and family members. Most interesting are the insights of Phillip Fithian, a tutor to the Carter children who kept a journal while employed by the family.

The book does not hide its age, as its passages relating to Carter's slaves portray him as the archetypal "benevolent master," yet it is highly worthwhile to anyone with an interest in Virginia, the Carter family or 18th-century America.

Using a Jungian filter, and with reference to the works of Bruno Bettelheim ("The Uses of Enchantment"), Joseph Campbell ("The Hero With a Thousand Faces"), and others, Carter examines the embedded symbolism found in a sampling of children's nursery rhymes. Carter connects the rhymes' imagery with Jungian archetypes, and their meanings with the lessons found in the Tao Te Ching.

His analyses are thought-provoking. For example, the popular lullabye "Hush-a-bye Baby" employs the image of a child cradled in a tree. Historically, the tree has been a symbol of motherhood. The lullabye traces, in a few economical lines, the path of maturation: from infancy (child safely nestled in tree), to early childhood/preadolescence (the "winds" of change and emerging independence cause the child's cradle to rock, i.e., the tree's/mother's grip on the child to loosen), and finally adolescence/pre-adulthood (the bough breaks and the cradle falls, i.e., the child reaches independence and separateness from the mother).

In a related vein, Carter argues that in "Mary Had a Little Lamb," the lamb represents Mary's unconscious, child-like aspect, while the school (from which the lamb is barred), her emerging consciousness and entry into the "real," adult world. In the rhyme, the lamb waits for Mary to return from school, thus suggesting that although Mary will be able successfully to negotiate the "real" world, she will also stay connected with her creative/emotional side.

Carter weaves the strands of Taoist philosophy, Jungian psychology, and theories of childhood development into an innovative and provocative thesis, one which leaves ample room for disagreement, but which will inspire further study of these topics. One will never think about Little Bo Peep and her lost sheep in quite the same way again!

For fans of Lovecraft? From what I've seen this has nothing to do with the Cthulhu Mythos. No Cthulhu, R'Lyeh, Nyarlathotep. I don't think you should have "psychic gumshoe" in horror stories. It sounds like something from the kid's section. If you want Mythos buy Lovecraft.

This is a great collection of stories. Recommended for not only fans of Carter and Lovecraft, But for people who want some good old fun action packed horror/adventure stories. I highly recommend this!!

Robert Price is a genius editor. Rather than having his eight writers created new stories of the late Lin Carter's hero in the exact same mold as the originator, he let them run loose with the character. The results are 8 marvelous adventures, each giving us
new and different approaches to Anton Zarnak' from action, to horro and even some comedy mixed-in. More anthologies should be this
fun.

_Sex and Rockets_, a new book from Feral House about Jack Parsons, is rich with previously undocumented biographical information about this fascinating and talented genius, whose scientific career is no less interesting than his career as an occult initiate. This literal "son of Captain Marvel" (Marvel H. Parsons) was himself given the name Marvel at birth. Later his mother began calling him John, and he came to be known as Jack by his friends. In general Carter's book seems pretty well-researched. I appreciate the fact that _Sex and Rockets_ focuses more on the subject of Jack and his life than earlier literary efforts which have exploited the mythos surrounding Jack and his infamous Babalon Working to propagate highly speculative, only vaguely and loosely associated fringe agendas on the part of various writers. Carter has done a good job sticking to the subject.

The research in _Sex and Rockets_ focuses primarily on Jack's scientific career and secondarily on the Babalon Working itself. Of the former, the author traces a clear path detailing, validating and celebrating Parsons' contributions to the field of rocket fuel technology. Carter succeeds in his mission to carefully excavate and restore the previously almost-buried name and contributions of this scientist to their rightful stature in history. Of the latter, the author draws a clear juxtaposition between Cameron's view of the Babalon Working and Jack's own understanding. Carter clearly pinpoints the persistent indications in Jack's own records that reveal Jack's personal expectations of something more along the lines of an apotheosis than an actual incarnation, despite repeated communications from the Babalon archetype, also faithfully recorded, to redirect Jack's focus to the true nature of the Working, as time and again She gently deflects Jack's attention away from concerning himself with the future vehicle of Her manifestation. Carter also engages in some excellent reconstructive work about portions of the Working on which Jack's record is scant. While I do not agree with all Carter's conclusions or his particular slant on the Working at times, the Babalon Working remains a subject of myriad interpretations. Carter succeeds in his attempt to provide a more objective portrayal of the Working, and as such, his rings closer to true than other more fanciful and "fringe" speculations upon it have done in the past.

One thing I did not like about this book was the conspicuous absence of source citation. There were many interesting pieces of biographical information for which the author consistently failed to provide citation, neglecting to indicate whether he obtained the information from documents, records, conversations or interviews with people connected to Jack, etc. Comments by Cameron and others are recorded without so much as supplying the context in which they were made, when they were made, or to whom. Information about Jack's life which was not previously documented or heretofore known to the public is written as fact without offering any outside verification thereof. For example, Carter writes about a brief period of time where Jack's scientific career had stalled and Jack had taken an interim job at a filling station. Yet there is no source cited for this information. Whether the author obtained it from employment records, interviews with others connected with Jack's estate, or elsewhere remains a mystery, and the reader is left having to take the author's word with no means to verify it for himself. True, not every bit of information needs to be footnoted, and there is a lot of previously documented information about Jack's career. Nevertheless, previously undocumented and/or unpublished information should always be cited to verify its authenticity. Instead, the majority of existing citations in this book consist of things previously well-documented and cited elsewhere on numerous occasions, such as references to Crowley's writings and letters or O.T.O. ritual.

As a researcher, I find this frustrating, because without due citation for biographical information that is not documented elsewhere, how can _Sex and Rockets_ be regarded or used bibliographically as an authoritative source? The intelligent reader needs to see things historically documented or at least reasonably verified via citation, particularly where statements are attributed to other parties. This lack of documentation is definitely this book's biggest weakness. The author clearly did extensive and worthwhile research, so the lack of source citation is both puzzling and devaluing to the book as a whole.

Fair warning: there's one paragraph in the chapter "Death and Beyond" which brings up a very nasty bit of recent hearsay without duly informing the reader that the item in question is, in fact, unsubstantiated hearsay and that no physical evidence has been produced to substantiate it. Unless either the sources of the rumor, the author himself, or the publishers can produce the physical evidence claimed, or at least a sufficiently clear disclaimer as to its hearsay nature, repetition of this claim is inexcusably irresponsible, especially considering this book is the first reasonably thorough biographical work about Jack to be published. It smacks of crass sensationalism, which is totally unnecessary in exploring the life of a colorful and diversely talented person like Jack. I say produce the physical evidence or retract the rumor -- or at least amend the paragraph to clearly point out that it is nothing but hearsay and that no physical evidence to support the claim has been produced. Anything less is just plain exploitive, more worthy of the "Jerry Springer show" than an otherwise fairly well-researched biography.

Despite these two serious complaints, I still recommend this book as a ground-breaking, definitive biographical work on Jack Parsons. TIME IS ... for it to be read.

Shedona Chevalier (Soror M.'.P.'.B.'.) Master, Living Flame Camp, O.T.O.

_Sex and Rockets_, a new book from Feral House about Jack Parsons, is rich with previously undocumented biographical information about this fascinating and talented genius, whose scientific career is no less interesting than his career as an occult initiate. This literal "son of Captain Marvel" (Marvel H. Parsons) was himself given the name Marvel at birth. Later his mother began calling him John, and he came to be known as Jack by his friends. In general Carter's book seems pretty well-researched. I appreciate the fact that _Sex and Rockets_ focuses more on the subject of Jack and his life than earlier literary efforts which have exploited the mythos surrounding Jack and his infamous Babalon Working to propagate highly speculative, only vaguely and loosely associated fringe agendas on the part of various writers. Carter has done a good job sticking to the subject.

The research in _Sex and Rockets_ focuses primarily on Jack's scientific career and secondarily on the Babalon Working itself. Of the former, the author traces a clear path detailing, validating and celebrating Parsons' contributions to the field of rocket fuel technology. Carter succeeds in his mission to carefully excavate and restore the previously almost-buried name and contributions of this scientist to their rightful stature in history. Of the latter, the author draws a clear juxtaposition between Cameron's view of the Babalon Working and Jack's own understanding. Carter clearly pinpoints the persistent indications in Jack's own records that reveal Jack's personal expectations of something more along the lines of an apotheosis than an actual incarnation, despite repeated communications from the Babalon archetype, also faithfully recorded, to redirect Jack's focus to the true nature of the Working, as time and again She gently deflects Jack's attention away from concerning himself with the future vehicle of Her manifestation. Carter also engages in some excellent reconstructive work about portions of the Working on which Jack's record is scant. While I do not agree with all Carter's conclusions or his particular slant on the Working at times, the Babalon Working remains a subject of myriad interpretations. Carter succeeds in his attempt to provide a more objective portrayal of the Working, and as such, his rings closer to true than other more fanciful and "fringe" speculations upon it have done in the past.

One thing I did not like about this book was the conspicuous absence of source citation. There were many interesting pieces of biographical information for which the author consistently failed to provide citation, neglecting to indicate whether he obtained the information from documents, records, conversations or interviews with people connected to Jack, etc. Comments by Cameron and others are recorded without so much as supplying the context in which they were made, when they were made, or to whom. Information about Jack's life which was not previously documented or heretofore known to the public is written as fact without offering any outside verification thereof. For example, Carter writes about a brief period of time where Jack's scientific career had stalled and Jack had taken an interim job at a filling station. Yet there is no source cited for this information. Whether the author obtained it from employment records, interviews with others connected with Jack's estate, or elsewhere remains a mystery, and the reader is left having to take the author's word with no means to verify it for himself. True, not every bit of information needs to be footnoted, and there is a lot of previously documented information about Jack's career. Nevertheless, previously undocumented and/or unpublished information should always be cited to verify its authenticity. Instead, the majority of existing citations in this book consist of things previously well-documented and cited elsewhere on numerous occasions, such as references to Crowley's writings and letters or O.T.O. ritual.

As a researcher, I find this frustrating, because without due citation for biographical information that is not documented elsewhere, how can _Sex and Rockets_ be regarded or used bibliographically as an authoritative source? The intelligent reader needs to see things historically documented or at least reasonably verified via citation, particularly where statements are attributed to other parties. This lack of documentation is definitely this book's biggest weakness. The author clearly did extensive and worthwhile research, so the lack of source citation is both puzzling and devaluing to the book as a whole.

Fair warning: there's one paragraph in the chapter "Death and Beyond" which brings up a very nasty bit of recent hearsay without duly informing the reader that the item in question is, in fact, unsubstantiated hearsay and that no physical evidence has been produced to substantiate it. Unless either the sources of the rumor, the author himself, or the publishers can produce the physical evidence claimed, or at least a sufficiently clear disclaimer as to its hearsay nature, repetition of this claim is inexcusably irresponsible, especially considering this book is the first reasonably thorough biographical work about Jack to be published. It smacks of crass sensationalism, which is totally unnecessary in exploring the life of a colorful and diversely talented person like Jack. I say produce the physical evidence or retract the rumor -- or at least amend the paragraph to clearly point out that it is nothing but hearsay and that no physical evidence to support the claim has been produced. Anything less is just plain exploitive, more worthy of the "Jerry Springer show" than an otherwise fairly well-researched biography.

Despite these two serious complaints, I still recommend this book as a ground-breaking, definitive biographical work on Jack Parsons. TIME IS ... for it to be read.

A Review from BLACK PEARL: The Journal of the College of Thelema (Vol. I, No. 71, March, 2000). Copyright 2000, College of Thelema (permission by editor granted Amazon Books to use). With its campy sci-fi cover featuring a leggy woman, a rocket ship, and the Enochian alphabet, the tone is set for this long overdue biography of Jack Parsons, the man at ground zero of what we now consider the modern "arts" of rocketry, science fiction, and magick. In this treatment by John Carter (pseudo-nym), Parsons comes across as a compulsive and restless spirit who, in his short lifetime, attempted to reconcile these seemingly strange bedfellows - with varying degrees of success. Seeming almost gossipy at times, the book reads with deceptive ease for a biography, due in large part to its lack of in-depth background information on Crowley and related occult theory. Though brief histo-ries of the O.T.O., Enochian magick, and the like are given, the reader is wisely referred to other sources, thereby avoiding what could easily become a massive and confusing tome where the import of Parsons' contributions would be lost. This makes Sex & Rockets a treat for those with a knowledge of Thelema and the esoteric. By the same token, this allows the casual reader to enjoy all the "good stuff," supplementing their knowledge as they see fit. Ultimately, I am inclined to agree with the author that, at the end of the day, Parsons' contributions to rocketry are vastly underrated and those to the occult overrated. However, I think that Parsons' approach to Thelema, and the occult in general, was highly subjective and, taking into account his own personal demons, his methods may gain merit as time goes by and may even become considered innovative. The book culminates in the chapter "Death and Beyond," a veritable avalanche of tangential relation-ships and events as diverse as UFOs and Beat Culture, leaving one with much food for thought. Knowledgeable, well researched, with great photos, and not a little scandalous, this book is seminal. - GREG FIORINI

I used this book for a introductory course to graduate students that had no programming experience. This book was not set up for introductory students. You really need to have expericence with programming languages, especially C and Pascal to make heads or tails of this book.
I didn't like the layout...spending the first part of the book telling you what it is going to talk about, and then spending the second part retelling you. In some cases, in exactly the same words....the organization needs some work and the index and glossary were not thorough enough to be of help. I ended up buying two other books on programming languages to help explain this one to me so I could finish the course.
The review questions did nothing to prepare you for the problem sets at the end of each chapter and the problem sets didn't really have examples in the text that you could refer back to. Like I said, it seemed that the book expected you to know more than introductory level.

I am using this book for a programming languages course and find it only slightly useful. It places rather too much emphasis on high-level explanations and history of programming languages, and may be of limited use to people who want to get a deeper understanding of the mechanics of designing a language/compiler. The book is clearly sectioned but each section seems to ramble on without a clear focus of where the discussion will lead. Some exercises, especially the ones on evolution of programming languages, seem contrived. There is also a conspicuous absence of regular expressions/automata which is also important to understanding programming languages

I used this in school for my PLs class and it was great. The breadth in the content is excellent and the historical points that are made provide a context to understand why exactly certain languages have evolved the way they have today. Great reference even today at my job.

Color is such an important element in Mr. Scharf's work that it's difficult to believe this monograph was published without it. There is not a single color photograph aside from the cover. And the book is so tiny [Dimensions (in inches): 0.26 x 7.85 x 5.28] that color photographs wouldn't do Mr. Scharf's work justice anyway. I recommend that interested parties try to find a copy of one of his out-of-print books at their local library. Mr. Scharf's work is amazing, and well worth viewing in full color, as he intended it to be viewed.

The whimsical paintings of Kenny Scharf could never truly be captured on the pages of some book- but this one comes very close! It's the best I've seen in the genre of Pop Art books and has some very interesting interviews with Kenny. But the artwork speaks for itself!

The novel is uselessely ornate. Language translations is pretty bad, the use of some words and concepts is stretched to a breaking point. For a king to be afraid of his own sword is most laughable and the attempts to counter its curse with a red ruby who's fictional story a British boy concotes on the fly is even more so. Unless you are truly bored with life .. and can't find
anything to read .. don't spend the [money] on this book, go to a movie.

This is one of the best historical novels ever written. Strike that, one of the best novels ever written. This man is Tolstoy.

Let me say right up front that I was disappointed in this book. Maybe I am too stuck in my ways, but when I pick up a history like this I was looking for an well-organized book. I want each President with his own chapter, some details that are presented for each person i.e. year of terms, Vice President etc, and then a nice review of what took place while in office, the good and the bad. The book just did not provide this; the presidents were grouped into chapters on what seemed to be on a basis as to total average chapter page length not by political or situational similarities. The basic facts that I wanted were not there for every President, and if they were there you needed to hunt for them. And if you are going to give me pictures then at least give me a picture of every President covered in the book, what we got were pictures of a few Presidents, a few campaign adds or jokes, and unbelievably to me pictures of city political bosses.

The book was positive; I give the author that. When there were negative issues they were glossed over if even mentioned. I new based on the size of the book that it was not going to be an exhaustive history, but even this brief look at each President left me disappointed. Also I kept thinking that the author wanted to write a history of the Democratic party and the publisher wanted a history of the Democratic Presidents and what came out was a compromise that did not serve either cause very well. I would have much rather had a few more pages on FDR (then the 15 offered) and less about the Kansas City and Chicago political bosses and the third party candidates on some elections. I do not want to be all-negative, there were a number of interesting facts and he hit the high notes on each man. I was interested enough to finish the book. I am just going to have to keep looking for a better effort at this topic.

From the start one thing needs to be made very clear about this book. It is a nice read for a Democrat, especially a partisan Democrat like myself. My Republican friends on the other hand would, I'm afraid find very little interesting about this book. Simply put, this is a very one sided view of history. Democrats tend to be pictured in the best possible light from page one. This is not to say that Mr. Rutland has not done his homework for he has. I don't think he ever set out to write an impartial historical epic. What he seems to have intended is basicly a survey type textbook for Democrats. If that was his goal he has accomplished it. Someone looking for a quick political history of the United States told from the Democratic point of view will find it here.

The simple fact is that Mr. Rutland took upon himself a rather large task in writing a history of the Democratic party. To do this task justice one would have to turn out a work that would rival in length the volumes written by Shelby Foote on the Civil War. In fact, this subject would probably require even more volumes since the subject covers over two hundred years of history. As it is the book in its 241 pages is only able to deal in the most superficial way with its subject.

Still this book does a fair job of following America's oldest party from its roots as Jefferson looks to a nation of farmers to today's urban America. Along the way we see the Democrats changing to become the party of the common man and the underdog. We see the party begin to take its present form in 1896 as William Jennings Bryan and his populists take control of the convention. We see more change in 1912 with the nomination of the progressive Woodrow Wilson. Then in 1932 FDR comes along and the Democratic party is forever changed. Old Democratic issues like tariffs and free silver give way to civil rights and labor relations. The direction of the party continues on the course set by Roosevelt as Harry Truman takes over and then LBJ sets off an a path of sweeping social change that for good or bad forever changes the United States. Oddly, the book gives little credit for the present positions of the Democratic party to JFK.

There are also a few places in the book where Mr. Rutland's facts are wrong. For example he states that in the election of 1896 William McKinley took T. Roosevelt with him to Washington as his Vice President when in fact T.R. wasn't on the ticket until 1900. For the most part however his facts do seem straight and he covers the subject as well as could be expected in such a short book.

Overall, the book could have been more in depth and such a large subject should probably never have been undertaken. I remember in high school english I always tried to choose a very broad topic for any paper I had to write because I figured it would be easy to turn out twenty pages that way. My teacher always called me on my plan though and I had to narrow it down. Maybe Mr. Rutland needed a good high school english teacher to make him do the same here.

On the other hand it is hard to study American history without a study of the Democrats. The party of Jefferson has been here through most of our history. So while this book gives one a quick look at the history of one party it also for the most part does the same for American history. Its not a waste of time to read this book by any means but it is more gravy than meat.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We've all heard that statement before, right? In most cases, it may even be true. Something tells me it isn't so with this book. The two authors of this book point out in the introduction (which, along with the map of Howard's fantasy world, is the only interesting thing about this book) that great care has been taken to carefully reconstruct Howard's prose style while maintaining character continuity with his original stories. Even though I've never read a Howard book before--and I will seek some of them out after this--I don't doubt that the prose and descriptions match the original stories. Unfortunately, in their careful attempts at mimicry, these two authors forgot to craft an engaging story.

"Conan the Liberator" tells the story about a revolution mounted against the evil Numedides, King of Aquilonia, by Conan the Cimmerian, a former general of Numedides. People are fed up with the debaucheries of Numedides, and the high taxes that go along with them. But Numedides is under the spell of the evil Lemurian sorcerer Thulandra Thuu, a man who wishes to further his own interests through the king. Conan has other ideas, and assembles an army with the help of Count Trocero, a nobleman of Poitain; Dexitheus, a priest of Mitra; Publius, a rebel tax accessor; and Prospero, another exiled general. The army assembles in nearby Argos, where spies keep watch on their activities, and a beauty by the name of Alcina, in the employ of Thuu, watches Conan. The entire book is a painfully detailed account of the grinding excursion north to a showdown with Numedides and Thuu.

"Conan the Liberator" is the worst fantasy book I've ever read. Page after page is loaded with meaningless dialogue and politics. I always felt the name Conan was synonymous with action. This book showed me the error of that type of thinking. NOTHING happens in this book. Sure, there are a couple of short battles during the course of the story, and Thuu manages to cast a couple of spells against Conan and his army. But overall, these few scenes are not enough to justify writing this book, let alone reprinting it. Almost every scene manages to land with an earth-shattering thud

Character development is criminally, excruciatingly flat. I've seen better character development in industrial training films. Not one character ever rises above simple human traits such as breathing and moving. It will be a miracle if I remember anything about any of them in a few days.

What is good about this book pertains directly to the creator of Conan, Robert Howard. The introduction is good, and the map of Howard's fantasy world is fascinating. According to the introduction, Howard created a world with a mix of ancient, medieval, viking, and biblical place names. Howard placed his world between the sinking of Atlantis and "the emergence of the cities." Our gods and mythologies, according to Howard, are fragmentary memories of this forgotten age.

Avoid this clunker at all costs. Go out and find the original stories, or rent the Conan movies. Learning Esperanto or cleaning the lint out of your navel would be more fun than diving into this cesspool. I suspect Howard would be quite testy if he was still alive today to witness what others have done with his ideas.

This book was a great chance to tell a super part of Conan's life. It misses the mark by being too boring and not enough action.

A fortyish Conan leads an army trying to overthrow the maniacal tyranny of king Numedides of Aquilonia. Conan believes his rebel force has a great chance of defeating the king's forces led by General Procas and consequently expects to topple a monarch who abuses children and kills concubines on some of mad whim.

Conan and his advisors anticipate and plan a war they expect fought in which blade goes against blade. Instead, the evil sorcerer Thulandra Thuu and his servant Alcina intercede. Soon a mysterious illness threaten to do what the king's forces have failed to do, destroy the rebel army unless Conan can find some way of saving himself, his soldiers and ultimately the people of Aquilonia.

This is a reprint of an exciting sword and sorcery tale released over two decades ago. The story line is fast-paced and loaded with non-magical and esoteric action as expected from the novels starring the pre-history hero. Conan remains dauntless while trying to do what he believes is right while his deadly foe Thuu will return for another day (or is that novel - if this reviewer's memory holds see CONAN THE SWORDSMAN).

Harriet Klausner

Pictures are in black and white so cannot clearly determine what actual defects are. Does not leave you much more confident when you go to grade comics. They just show a black and white photo for each grade (from 100pt system). Book makes you feel like grading is SO subjective that no three collectors could ever agree exactly on a books condition. I would suggest the next version of this book use the 10 pt system and only use color pictures even if book is more expensive. It also does not tell me how to grade special cases like: NM book with ad cut out, NM book with page missing, etc. It would help to have a chapter to cover these sorts of things also, so reader gets good grading "coverage" of real-world issues. Should also better cover how internal pages affect grading (other than pages being supple or brown/tan). This book focuses only cover grading, so assumes internal pages are intact, no tears, etc. Book could also point to pictures on web site for those interested in even greater detail which requires more photos.

You will learn somewhat about grading comics from this book but it's usefulness is not as claimed. Almost the entire book consists of photos of comics and sample defects. But in almost all cases the defects are not visible or discernable in the photos! So why bother with over 250 pages of photos that are not good enough to see what they are supposed to be showing? They should have either used high quality photos that can be seen or just list the defects.

Also, in many cases they will point to a defect and say "see glossary". Then it won't be in the glossary! For instance, "bindery tear (see glossary)" and then there is no "bindery tear" or "tear, bindery" in the glossary.

One more thing: they claim to have a 100 point system for grading comics but then don't make it clear what the actual difference between close gradings are. For instance, the difference between 100 and 99 and 98 is not all together clear.

Like I said, you can learn a little about grading from this book but don't expect it to be a great grading book. Considering Overstreet's reputation I am amazed at how much improvement this book needs.

I agree with with other reviews on this book. What i would have liked to see from it was exactly haw many points do you take of for a certian defect.
For example, If i have a MINT 100 with a 1/4 inch corner crease on front cover, how many points would i take off, what if it was on the rear cover, would it be the same?
They give examples of books but don't realy tell you how they came up with the points for the book.