I haven't read a book in a long time that I actually really enjoyed every chapter. Biling's doesn't confuse the reader with battlefield strategy or complicating the obvious. He doesn't reflect on battle scenarios with upmost detail after 20 years either. This is a great book for anyone looking to learn about daily soldier life. Bilings captures the daily grind and life of being a Federal soldier while offering humor and straight forward realities that get the mind ticking. The stories make truth stranger than fiction and is a welcomed charge of quick information. It is easy to suggest this book to younger readers as well as the information is clean,concise and well written. I would definately recommend this book for all as many ages can benefit from this educational and entertaining book of soldier life.

There are numerous histories of the Civil War and some have become classics. Most of these focus on battles and great heroes. Billings, however, a Civil War veteran, writes about the daily life of the average soldier. We learn about the soldier's motivation to fight, camp discipline, diet, housing, medical care, recreation and just about everything else that comprised the life of the Civil War era soldier. Billings' book is serious yet he manages to write in a lighthearted tone, replete with levity. This is a great book to round out a Civil War buff's study of the great conflict.

I would have loved to had this book when I was a child. The non-linearity of the chapters makes it a perfect "browser's book" -- a book which you can pick up and flip open to any page and read interesting, amusing and humorous accounts of day to day life in the Civil War army. This is one of the most fun books I've picked up in a long time.

Colonel John A. Warden III was one of the most distinguished officers of his generation. A veteran fighter pilot, he was--is--as well a true defense intellectual--not the sort of individual often touted by the so-called "defense reform movement," but a true warrior-scholar in the classic image of, say, a J. F. C. Fuller--or a George Patton. Not one to shy away from controversy, Warden was convinced in the 1980's that the United States Air Force--had strayed away from its first principles. It had become a stove-piped, tribal organization, riven by discord and confusion between its "strategic" and "tactical" communities. Warden, in this brilliant work (written as a thesis at the National Defense University), posited an exciting new vision of the centrality of air power in national defense. This book served as an important departure point for the service's subsequent "Global Reach--Global Power" strategic planning framework issued in 1990. By that time, Warden was running Checkmate, a key office in Air Force planning. Through his own initiative and vision, he and a small team of "weapons officers" planned Instant Thunder, the first major response to Saddam Hussein's aggression in the Gulf. Warden briefed Instant Thunder to the Air Force Vice Chief of Staff (the Chief was away), and then on his suggestion to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Colin Powell. Powell sent him to CENTCOM to brief Norman Schwarzkopf. His reaction was enthusiastic, and Warden was directed to brief Instant Thunder in the Gulf, to the CENTAF air component commander, General Charles Horner. Horner, brilliant in his own right, accepted much of what Warden said. But the personal chemistry between the two men was bad, and Warden returned to the States, leaving behind a small staff of acolytes and experts, most notably Lt. Col. David A. Deptula. It was the partnership of Deptula, Gen. Buster Glosson, Gen. Horner, and (back in Checkmate) John Warden that made the Desert Storm air campaign a success. After the war, Warden became commander of the Air Command and Staff College, making notable (and badly needed) changes to its curriculum. This book is a "must read" by anyone who would consider themselves a military and/or air power professional. There are Americans alive today because of John Warden's work. Warden never made general, largely because of petty jealousies by senior people above him. He was--is--a consumate professional and true patriot: never complaining, never self-advocating, always keeping true to his core beliefs. But his truest legacy is this book and the thinking it has inspired--thinking that has lead to five notable American victories over the last decade. Buy it, read it, keep it, use it!

John Warden was the strategist of the air campaign in the 1991 Gulf War. In 1998, he updated his influential book. A must read for anyone interested in the military, its past, present and future.

Col. Warden adds new material to this important work on strategy, especially new material on what happened after the Gulf War. This book is many things. It is a history of airpower. It is a fresh look at the application of airpower. It is a guide for anyone in the military or business world who wants to compete or attack a system. Very readable. With Col Warden's reputation as the architect of the Air Campaign against Iraq, he has demonstrated that he can apply his ideas in real world situations. Outstanding read.

This is THE book about Charles and Ray Eames. Beautifully printed and designed and with more than 3500 photos to explore the work, year by year, of these two famous designers. The range of work is amazing, furniture (domestic and commercial) films, exhibitions, architecture, books even toys. I have a set of his 1952 House of Cards, a deck of fifty-four playing-card size cards that can be interlocked to create three dimensional structures, a very simple idea beautifully conceived.

I think the book easily reflects the joy and stimulation that Charles and Ray Eames got out of the creative process.

An exceptionally comprehensive year-by-year summary of the work of the Eames Office from the early 1940s to the late 1970s. Covers everything equally -- from wartime plywood experiments and herman miller furniture to toys, exhibitions, and, of course, films. A must for anyone interested in Eames design. Full of hard-to-find information and photos of rarely seen items.

This is an excellent survey of the work of the Eames studio. It provides a chronological survey of the furniture, films, exhibits, and other work of the studio. It even provides a listing of the Eames staff at each point and time. Lavishly illustrated, it provides photographs of furniture, exhibits, and stills from the over 100 films produced by the Eames's. Highly recommended as the one book you must have about their work.

NYU's Stern School Of Business uses this book and its a well-crafted introduction to financial accounting. While taking accounting at the other New York business school, I deep sixed my assigned accounting book and instead borrowed my wife's. It coverage of topics and pedagogical flow are quite approachable and manageable. Struggling friends begain to purchase it for themselves. An excellent book. An interesting book as well. Case examples and references keep things interesting. Not just dry rules.

An Introduction to acconting, Assets, The time value of money, Liabilities and equities, financial Investment, Analysis, Role of accounting and Debits and credits

Accounting is the type of subject that can ramp up quickly in difficulty, and this text plots a nearly perfect learning curve in getting the reader well-grounded in the fundamentals. I purchased this text as a requirement for a course, but it is a definite keeper and I would recommend it without hesitation to anyone interested in learning about accounting.

This collection brings together the best images of this photographer. His work stands out from his contemporaries with thier unique, groundbreaking style. You can tell he inspired people like Avedon. His work is timeless, not date at all. If you like fashion photography from the mid-twentieth century, you'll love this book!

Before commenting on this book, you should be aware that it contains many nude images that would be "R" rated if they were contained in a motion picture.

John Rawlings took fashion photography in a whole new direction. In the 1930s when he began, the predominate style used lots of shadow and darkness to present a sense of haunting mystery. That style was also great for covering up flaws in the subject. Around 1940, John Rawlings began creating fascinating modern fashion shots that look like they might have been made just yesterday. In these images, he makes light, reflections, and color even more interesting than the darkness and shadow ever were in black-and-white. In doing so, he is remarkably effective in "keeping the photographer out of the picture."

His career was a most distinguished and prolific one. Mr. Rawlings was responsible for over 200 covers of Vogue and Glamour. These images captured a unique "chic sophistication" that you will recognize and appreciate seeing again. He also produced a series of famous Clairol ads, and published two books of nudes (some of which are reproduced here). He is one of the rare photographers from that period who was top-notch in both black-and-white and color.

Some of his best work involved making cigarette smoking by women seem more glamorous. It was hard for me not to wince which I saw those photographs.

The book opens with a poem that reflects the work published here:

"At just that crux of time when she is made

So beautiful that she or time must fade."

In the case of many of these works, it is hard to avoid feeling that time faded rather than the images of the women. The photography moves beyond the styles of the day into a timeless sense of beauty and culture.

The images are well chosen to be appealing to an audience today. The quality of paper and reproduction are both superb. The essays and background material are excellent.

....

After you have enjoyed these images, think about the meaning you attribute to the poses these women assume. What are they thinking? How much of a role do you think they played in selecting the poses? What is sophistication in fashion? Mr. Rawlings's impressive work will undoubtedly give you new dimensions for answering these questions.

Let the light show you the way!

I was very impressed by the high quality of this book. It is very well edited and the choice of pictures is just right! You can tell that the author did a lot of research and was able to come up with interesting facts about John Rawlings the man and the photographer. I also enjoyed very much reading about the innovative photographic techniques that Rawlings used. This book is certainly a lesson to all photographers and anyone who is sensitive to beauty.

I agree with all the positive things said about Donne on this page. Also, this book's great strength is its breadth, including poems, letters, sermons, and other writings of Donne. One gets all the poems and most of his available prose. The only difficulty I had is that all of the poems are presented without any effort to modernize the spelling of words. Often, this distracts from a more perfect enjoyment of Donne's wit, sentiment, conceits and emotions. For those who might find antiquated spelling a distraction, I recommend they find another edition.

In John Donne, the artist and man, we have a many-faceted gem. What moves me most about him, who in my view has no superiors among English poets, is that wherever he speaks from, the most sensually playful to the most solemnly prayerful (the two are often inseparable), he is always so openly, deeply engaged. His unsurpassed verbal ability is always so immediately in touch with his perception so that his language moves and lives with the mysterious life of perception itself. Even when he is most elaborately inventive and involved, he is never contrived or remote, he is always fully there. His art is fed and shaped by his perception and his perception is always so fresh and penetrating, so uninhibited by assumption and convention and yet wherever he travels he is somehow always so available to the sincere reader. For me this all bespeaks a sensitive, large, generous soul. It is always so self-aware, but never self-centered, and even when weak and mortally distressed it is still deep and rich, never thin, sour, bitter. A very lovable soul.
Often one finds references to T. S. Eliot when people speak or write about Donne. For me, the references are usually facile and Donne is clearly the greater figure. It says much to me that I love him dearly though I do not share his religious belief. I respect Eliot, but I find it much more difficult to love him and often even to locate him. He is too cold and artificially remote in comparison and I do not accept the validity of his 'impersonal transcendence'. I am not saying that Eliot should have tried to be more in touch with the reader, that is a silly idea and never a real concern for a genuine artist. I am saying that he should have tried to be more in touch with himself. He is in reality no more inwardly complex or many-faced than Donne, and certainly not more profound, but by comparison he seems cold, fragmented and stagnant to me and simply more inclined to wear his sweat on his sleeve. I know that some might say that Eliot had more difficult times and trials to deal with than did Donne, but I think that anyone who familiarizes himself with the wide range of Donne's work, and this volume from The Modern Library makes that possible, will see this is simply not true. Any one who is not familiar with Donne's work is unaware of some of the deepest, richest, vivifying depths that English language art has reached. It has something to do with love of which Donne knew much.

This volume is a wonderful selection of Donne's prose, and is especially useful for the various sermons included. John Donne is a brilliant poet whose skillful use of language and understanding of the paradoxes of Christianity are a delight. To have the entire range of his poetry, pre- and post-conversion, is very useful.

A great reference tool for the student of literature, and a good read (Oxford English dictionary readily accessible, of course).

I first read "Running Wild" several years ago while recovering from a running injury and it not only gave me the confidence to come back from the injury but also became my running companion. I have since re-read it many times especially before an important race or when the reasons for training get blurry. For a runner it is a spiritual connection to the joy and mystery that running can be as well as historic proof of the origins of American running. John Annerino is an incredible man whose courage and love of the wilderness together with his deep spiritual committment to the land, it's history and it's people make "Running Wild" a masterpiece.

Read this incredible book. -Karimor International Mountain Marathon

I'm rereading RUNNING WILD - enjoying it even more. Hard to sit still - want to lace up and go.

Are you interested in books that provide more than just a good story. If you look for books than provide and/or pertain to any of the following qualities -- excitement, poignancy, deception and betrayal, faith and redemption, strong and very credible characters -- than you're really going to enjoy Charles Kenney's The Son Of John Devlin. That's because it provides ALL of these qualities in spades. Give yourself a real treat and get yourself a copy of The Son Of John Devlin. And, if you really want to be good to yourself, pick up a copy of Kenney's upcoming book, The Last Man, due out in July. It's even better than this book!

THE SON OF JOHN DEVLIN is a highly accomplished, character-driven novel that deals with corruption within the Boston Police Department.
Charles Kenney offers up an insightful police procedural that is at once tough and gritty, yet compassionate. It's rare that a writer of this genre can pull this off convincingly, but Kenney certainly does.
With its themes of father-son love, betrayal and redemption, THE SON OF JOHN DEVLIN is a satisfying read on many levels, a true page-turner in every sense of the word.

I read this book in less than two days. I love a story of revelations and redemption and this one deals with it well, showcasing the power of love between a father and his son. This book also shows you that you can right a good police procedural without a lot of graphic violence and sex. Great job Mr Kenney. I'd love to read more stories involving Jack Devlin. I highly recommend this book.

The discrete math course at our university is a sort of "rite of passage" for math majors- it introduces students to the idea of proofs, as well as basic set and graph theory and combinatorics. It is an introduction to the abstract aspect of mathematics. This book serves this purpose well, with a number of examples and drawings to illustrate concepts. However, this book explained induction in a manner that confused me. Also, our department wasn't too fond of this book- they switched to another after one semester. Still, I don't think it's too bad- unless the current book that the department uses is that much better.

As a student at Illinois state, I'm skeptical about all of the professors abilities... After all, these are the guys that consistently screw up addition in front of class.

After having a chance to complete half of this book in my Discrete Math course (mind you, I'm not a math major) I have definitely gained respect for ISU's math department.

I'm not sure if most authors really teach classes, or if they write books to fulfill their publishing requirements. I can tell you that the authors of Discrete math had the students in mind.

I've found this book to have exceptional examples, and well-explained, READABLE prose.

If you wanted to pick up a copy for self study, this would be a good book.... Yes a professor would be nice, but these guys did a good enough job that the book stands alone.

I am not a maths student but I used this book (the 4th edition) as a supplement for my combinatorial chemistry course and also my CRE course which has a section on spanning tree model. Quite easy to understand. Not bad as a reference for self-studying.

As a twenty-something, I really don't know much about John or Robert Kennedy other than the vague "Camelot" fantasies tossed around. I acquired this book as part of my recent appetite for understanding JFK/RFK.

I found it to be a light-weight overview of the major periods of JFK's life, along with some information on RFK and Jackie. While it revealed a few new things I hadn't heard before, this book is really of interest primarily as a coffee table book for ocassional perusal, and not for study. It's a great combination of stories you will have heard and pictures you have already seen.

The accompanying CD, however, is particularly interesting in what it reveals about JFK the man and his way of being. Overall, I enjoyed it.

there are over 250 pictures ans documents, it's very complete. the texts are interessing, not boring.
there is a cd also.
we can hear a few dialogues,. there is one with rfk and on the 14 tracks we can hear young caroline.
there is part to rfk and jbk too.
so I enjoyed it.

John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio features more than 250 photos and documents from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum that capture the essence, style, and excitement of the Kennedy presidency. Included in these pages are the artifacts from a lifetime young Jack's letter requsting to be made Godfather to his brother Teddy, a handwritten fragment of the inaugural adress, correspondence from Nikita Khrushchev, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and many others. Providing the backdrop for these images is a carefully rendered narrative highlighting the many remarkable events of Kennedy's life and his presidency: the tremendous physical ailments JFK had to overcome on a daily basis, his privileged chilhhood, transformation from reluctant student to Pulitzer Prize - winning author, dramatic political campaigns, struggle over the Cuban missile crisis, and his efforts to end segregation as well as counter nuclear proliferation, are all recounted here.

To Enhance The Experience of reliving the Kennedy years, a riveting 60 - minute audio CD of JFK'S phone conversations and personal dictations is packaged with the book. The following is a list of the recordings.

- An undated memoir entry concerning JFK'S entrance into politics.

- A dicated letter (circa 1959) to Joseph P. Kennedy on election and poll results.

- A dictated letter (circa 1959) to Jacqueline Kennedy on weekend in Rhode Island.

- Phone Conversation with Sargent Shriver recorded on April 2, 1963 regarding keeping CIA out of the Peace Corps.

- Three phone conversations with Ross Barnett recorded on September 30, 1962, regarding the University of Mississippi crisis.

- Phone conversation with Richard J. Daley recorded on October 28, 1963 regarding the civil rights bill.

- Phone conversation with Charles Halleck recorded on October 29, 1963 regarding the civil rights bill.

- An undated phone conversation between JFK and RFK concerning articles in Newsweek and Time magazines.

-Phone conversation with Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 22, 1962 regarding Cuban missile crisis.

- Phone conversation with Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 28,1962 regarding Cuban missile crisis.

-Phone conversation with Lincoln White on October 26,1962 regarding comments to the press concerning Cuban missile crisis.

- A dictated memoir entry dated November 1963.