Plenty of suspense and drama. A very enjoyable book set in the fabled lost city of Atlantis. The story of the warrior-priest Deucalion and of the evil Queen Phorenice leaves the reader unable to put this well- written book down.

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!

This is and excellent book for the researcher, graduate student, or undergrad (with some physics under his or her belt), who wants to learn about the effects of underwater noise on marine mammals. Currently this topic is the focus of much interest and is one of the most active areas of marine mammology research. Richardson et al. do an excellent job explaining the technical information, and have organized the book chapters in a logical sequence. Most terms are explicitly defined and the use of technical jargon is kept to a minimum. This book is a must for any researcher, or student, in the field.

John Charles Ryle was a rare man - an evangelical Bishop of the Church of England in England in the last half of the 19th Century. Disrali made him Bishop of Liverpool as a last act of defiance as British Prime Minister.

Ryle was an amazing man whose many books are continually being republished for the next generation. His Expository Thoughts on the Gospels are all the work of a first rate mind - a man who communicates that which he loves so well - Jesus Christ. Of all his writings his passion for Jesus burns most brightly through these Expository Thoughts on the Gospels. Mark's Gospel is no exception. Originally bundled together with Matthew's in Ryle's writings, this recent publication takes the relevent parts for this short Gospel.

Buy his one, then buy the rest.

Spare and muscular, this life of Jesus is beautifully written. This is the perfect book for the irreligious or the inchoate Christian or the youthful Christian to read in order to understand the life of Jesus Christ and His importance to the world today.

J. C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on the Gospels is solidly Evangelical and Biblical. The expositions are short, and easy to read in a devotional setting. In Ryle's own words,

"In each Exposition I have generally begun by stating as briefly as possible the main scope and purpose of the passage under consideration. I have then selected two, three, or four prominent points in the passage, singled them out from the rest, dwelt exclusively on them, and endeavoured to enforce them plainly and vigorously on the reader's attention." (From the Preface to the Expository Thoughts on Matthew.)

The Expository Thoughts will give you a good grounding in the Gospels. The Banner of Truth edition is a facsimile reprint and the edition I prefer. It has footnotes that are often left out of some of the more "modernized" abridged reprints. Those footnotes can be a gold mine in themselves.

"Meet John Doe" is the third and most ambitious film in the celebrated trilogy of socio-political dramas directed by Frank Capra following "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." Once again Capra uses Gary Cooper as his lead character, placing him at the center of a most interesting political crisis: the threat of a fascist coup by a media tycoon. Unlike the simplicity of the first two films in the trilogy, both Long John Willoughby/John Doe and Ann Mitchell are decidedly more complex figures, so much so that it made a comic ending to the film impossible.

In is introductory essay, Charles Wolfe reconstructs the history of the film, looking particularly at its problematic ending. We then have complete transcript of the finished film, which includes extensive annotations concerning original script material. This book also provides the various endings scripted for the film, which were published here for the first time. The rest of this volume consists of reports and recollections by Capra, five contemporary newspaper and magazine reviews of "Meet John Doe," and three commentaries: Richard Glatzer's "'Meet John Doe': An End to Social Mythmaking"; Dudley Andrew's "Productive Discord in the System: Hollywood 'Meets John Doe'"; and Nick Browne's "System of Production/System of Representation: Industry Context and Ideological Form in Capra's 'Meet John Doe.'"

"It's a Wonderful Life" remains the quintessential Capracorn film, but "Meet John Doe" certainly holds up well in comparison. The darkness of the final sections anticipates George Bailey's descent into the hell of a world in which he has never been born and goes far beyond the symbolic crucifixions of Jeb Smith's impeachment and Longfellow Deed's insanity hearing. When "John" reads the speech Ann has written for him, it is not only a transforming moment for both of their characters, it is arguably the clearest articulation of Capra's beliefs about America. The Rutgers Film in Print series not only gives students a transcript of the film, it gives them a variety of critical perspectives without overwhelming them (as opposed to a Norton Reader edition of a classic book like "Madame Bovary"). Yes, it is necessary to screen the film, but there is something to be said for working with the script and focusing on the dialogue and plot rather than the actors and editing. In the end, this book makes a good case for "Meet John Doe" being THE Capra movie worthy of critical study by film students.

California's 150th anniversary as a state has come and gone with very little fanfare. The reasons for the lack of celebration were vague and sinister. Were the early settlers guilty of such atrocities as to be censored from public record? Were the northern Mexican territories prized for greedy land expansion by the United States? What were the intentions of the other world powers: the English, the French, and the Russians? Or, was discovering and mapping the mythical Buenaventura River the singular goal of Fremont's pathfinder expeditions? Historians cloud over these issues with terms like "Manifest Destiny", "Greed for Land", and "Gold Rush".

The Mexican-American War was fought on four fronts: Texas, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, and in California. Although hostilities didn't officially begin until June 1846, President Polk laid the foundation for expansion to the Pacific in his inaugural address in 1845, and implemented his plan in November. In today's era of instant communications, it must be remembered that communications with the coast of California took up to six months 160 years ago. Ship Captains and Army Commanders were given secret orders well in advance of any planned campaign. Lieutenant Fremont had secret orders in the event of hostilities and many historians have tried to interpret Fremont's previous writings to ascertain these orders during his expeditions in California.

John Charles Fremont was a major figure in the history of the United States. He was the first Republican candidate for the President of the United States. He was a Major General in the Union Army and the first to proclaim the abolition of slavery. He was a wealthy California gold mine owner. And he served public office as Senator for California and Governor for Arizona. This book does not delve on these aspects of his life. These were to be the subjects included in volume two, which was never written. This book does include all of his official explorations as a topographical engineer from his journeys with Nicollet until the cessation of hostilities in California. It leaves out much of the technical information on plants and fossils, which was included in his earlier works. And it adds letters and other public documents to support the decisions he made in California during the Mexican-American War.

California became the 31st state of the United States. Only a handful of men were major contributors to this outcome. John Charles Fremont was one of these men and this is his own record of events.

Sometimes the events in one's life seem to go beyond our plans and expectations and exceed beyond the best fiction of anyone's imagination. So it is with "My Blue Heaven" as the life and times of one lonely soul confronts reality in his pilgrim's journey to never stop learning.
It's a book that reads quickly and one that is difficult to put down once you start to read it. All the events progress rapidly as history is being made in parallel.

This is simply a wonderful memoir by baseball's greatest manager. The converstational way he tells you his story, talks about strategy and compares the stars of his day is abosolutey charming.