The Sharpest Sight by Louis Owens is a mystery, a police procedural, a thriller, an exploration of identity, and magical realism all rolled up into one excellent novel. Sharpest Sight takes place in a [lightly fictionalized] Salinas Valley, California sometime near the end of the Vietnam War. Attis McCurtain, Vietnam vet and insane killer, has escaped from the state hospital and may or may not be dead. Mundo Morales, who is Mexican-American, Catholic, a Vietnam vet, a sheriff's deputy, and an old friend of Attis', and Cole McCurtain, who is Choctaw-Irish-American, and Attis' younger brother, must each try and unravel the mystery of Attis' disappearance. Mundo is aided by his duty to his buddy, his duty to his position in law enforcement, his love of his wife and child, and the ghost of his grandfather. Cole gets help from his dad Hoey, his Uncle Luther, a Choctaw elder and shaman, Old Lady Blue Wood, another elder and shaman, and his duty to his brother. The local crazed bartender, a twitchy Vietnam vet FBI agent, and the family of the girl Attis killed also play a major role. As the flooded river recedes towards dry river bed, all the characters converge towards a solution to the mystery and in some cases, a greater understanding of self. Potential readers unable to suspend disbelief in order to deal with ghostly grandfathers and magical Choctaw dirty tricks shouldn't even try to wade into this novel. For all others, I recommend that you dive into The Sharpest Sight and see where the flow takes you.

"The Sharpest Sight" reads a little like a murder mystery and a little like a road trip book, though both descriptions fall woefully short of doing this book justice. This is a complex tale of self-discovery and psychic healing set amid a backdrop of Native American and Hispanic culture and history, with Viet Nam flashbacks, fumbling feds and some mildly graphic sex scenes to help keep the action moving forward. While the main characters are vividly drawn, and completely believable and sympathetic, for my money it was some of the secondary characters who made this book worthwhile. The bar owner, Jessard Deal, is particularly entertaining, especially as he disintegrates late in the book. Some of his dialogue is priceless. The same goes for some of the FBI agents, which take on absurd cariciature-like qualities late in the book. Louis Owens has a deft hand with subtle intrigue and the surreal qualities of truth and discovery, and is expert at creating an authentic sense of place and character.

up your spine with this mystery evocative of Garcia Marquez and Hillerman rolled into one. Choctaw/Cherokee/Irish Vietnam vet Attis McCurtain is murdered; his friend Mundo Morales and his great uncle Luther know it immediately through vision and dreams. His brother Cole and father Hoey must find the body which authorities believe is still a living psycho on the lam.

As with his other novels, Owens tightly weaves many cultures to achieve a beautiful, funny and suspenseful story. If you're familiar with the mythological alter egos of Attis McCurtain and Diana Nemi it will take your breath away in its intricacy. A quick trip to read up on these two in Frazer's The Golden Bough will bring the story full circle, as many Native American stories tend to be presented. This book has the sexiest octogenarian couple readers are ever likely to encounter along with surprise players from across cultures and times

The essays in this book are consistently interesting and thoroughly researched. The writers are some of the finest active historians of the American South. I particularly recommend Robert Paquette's article on slave drivers and Eugene Genovese's interview in Appendix A. I also liked Clyde Wilson's analysis of John C. Calhoun's economic thought. Calhoun's dual executive theory may have been off the mark but his economic thinking was first-rate and profoundly republican.

Twelve scholars provide essays debating the cause of Civil War history and the relationships between slavery and master-slave relationships in the South in a title which revises and challenges central themes of Eugene Genovese's work on the subject. The result is Slavery, Secession, and Southern History, a new analysis and interpretation of Southern history recommended for any student of the era.

If you are intrested in Slavery, Secession, and Southern History as am, this book is perfect fo you. Edited by the brillant Professor of Economics Louis Ferleger, this book is a collection of articles that discuss diffrent parts of th 19th century south. I think it is a great book every history buff should own, no collection is complete without it.

Lou Tice is the world' best kept secret. If you read at all about personal and professional growth, don't miss any of Lou's work. In addition to writing, he walks the talk and lives life like what is in between the covers of this book. Like the commercial for a certain spaghetti sauce years ago, "it's in there"--everything you could want to know on how to make your mind your tool instead of your master.

I took a class in college that included "Thought Patterns for a Successful Career" by Lou Tice. The man is truly motivational. I highly suggest that more people read his work. It's inspirational!

Mr. Tice and his Pacific Institute have done extensive research and have many years of experience in helping people discover their potential for success while helping them realize that potential. You will discover how and why your mind works as it does, and why you, seemingly at times, make choices that undermine your success, while other times your choices help you succeed. Lou gives you exercises that will help you discover where your limitations come from but, most importantly, how to correct or overcome them and turn on your potential for success. This book teaches how to become a positive, motivated individual, with a possibility of unlimited success through the use of goal-setting techniques.

This is an EXCELLENT book! If you get nothing else from this book other than to discover WHY you make the decisions you do, it is worth the price.

The sonnet is one of the more difficult-to-write forms of poetry, with very strict rules on rhyming and lines, and that makes Shakespeare's collection of sonnets all the more impressive. Shakespeare sprinkled his various plays with poetry and songs, but there is something of a different flavor to these works.

Titleless, identified only by numbers, these poems have vivid metaphors and imagery ("let not winter's ragged hand deface," "gold candles fix'd in heaven's air"). The tone of the poetry varies from one sonnet to the next; sometimes it focuses on old age, to love that "looks upon tempests and is not shaken," and simple expressions that can't really be interpreted any other way. Some of it is pretty well-known ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?/Thou art more lovely and more temperate") but most of them you won't have seen before.

Even if you're not normally a fan of poetry, the delicate touch of Shakespeare's words is worth checking into. Fantastic.

This edition of the sonnets is one of the most important and the description on Amazon is misleading - It is actually both volumes 24 and 25 bound together so you get the complete set It's hard to find this book so it is a great find in this version

Shakespeare's amazing Sonnets are compiled here in this wonderful volume, a great addition to anyone's bookshelf. If you love Shakespeare, then this is a must-have book.

If you read only one edition of this work, this is the edition you should choose. The preface is outstanding, and the "Contexts" and "Criticsm" sections (which comprise half of this volume) are extraordinarily helpful to the nonspecialist reader. Please note, however, that there is a serious error in at least one of the footnotes. On the last page of "The Niagara Movement" essay DuBois refers to Robert Gould Shaw, whom the editors describe (in footnote #4) as an African American Union Army Civil War hero. Not so! Shaw was white; there were no African American officers during the Civil War. (I contacted Henry Lewis Gates Jr. about this, and he confirmed that this was an error in editing.)

The Souls of Black Folk has become a staple of courses in American literature and culture, and it is a must read for anyone generally interested in the world we share. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Terri Oliver have done us all a great service by putting together what is easily the best edition of this twentieth-century classic: their preface alone is a valuable contribution to scholarship, and the contexts and criticism sections are a rich lode of information. I look forward to assigning this edition in a number of the college courses I teach.

The rediscovery and use of the National Portrait Gallery picture provide the crowning touch to this superb edition.

This is one of those rare books that lifts you out of your chair and brings you along on a soaring journey to the natural world beyond the government office windows. It is written as a daily journal of nature explorations in and around Washington, D.C. and makes a perfect companion for any watcher of spring. The author was a keen observer of natural life when he wrote the book in 1945, and the watchful naturalist today will find much to celebrate in the wildlife that is still here today, and also much to mourn that has been lost in the intervening decades. No more do we have rafts of mergansers resting in the Tidal Basin, but Dyke Marsh is still the place to see waterthrushes, and herons still stop by the ponds on the Mall. Halle's eloquent musings on the question of "What is important?" are still relevant today, as the press and government continue to occupy themselves with matters of man-made events and ignore the real news happening all around us--the news of the actual world going about its business completely unconcerned with scandal or finance. Swans still fly south over government office buildings, and anyone who notices and rejoices in such happenings will find a true friend in this marvelous book.

Louis Halle reveals his soul in this evocative love letter to the stirrings of spring. Though set along Rock Creek and the Potomac River in and around Washington, this work will transport you away from this world into another time and place in which the sheer joy of seeing nature burst into color will overwhelm you. Close your eyes and have someone read this book to you and you will be able to smell the tidal waters and hear the wind in the marsh grass. Halle's book is pure pleasure.

This a book from another time which is still relevant to our day and age. The writer takes time from a boring desk job in wartime Washington to provide timeless observations about nature along the Potomac river as he experiences it in early morning bicycle rides. He indirectly puts man in his place and foretells many of the things environmentalists have rediscovered in the last 20 years. Highly recommended in general, but especially if you have any familiarity with the area around Washington, DC.

This text served as the basis for a course taught by the author (Theodore Caplow) at the University of Virginia. It is highly informative and thankfully easy to read. Useful to students of history, international relations, and sociology, I would recommend this title to anyone hoping to gain an understanding of the causes, courses, and consequences of war.

April 6, 1999: Systems of War and Peace has been reprinted and is back in stock!!!

The publisher was out of stock, but the book is now being reprinted and should be available very soon.

This book answered so many questions for me. Having read "Shepherding a Child's Heart", I understood the concept of how to parent biblically by looking at heart issues instead of behavior and using scripture to do so, but I didn't know what scriptures to use or exactly how to implement this plan. "Teach Them Diligently" gives the detailed explanation, along with categorized scriptures of how to convict, rebuke, teach, and train your children with God's Word. A must-have for any parent who desires to bring up children to be spiritually equipped to handle life. It makes your life a whole lot easier. My 4 year-old son already has four such scriptures hidden in his heart only two weeks after my husband and I implemented these parenting principles. Thanks Lou!

Priolo is AMAZING - he does what no other author I know has been able to do....Take the Bible and make it real in a way that transcends the bounds of its paper medium. I started by reading the Heart of Anger and then bought The Complete Husband (Both excellent books). Teaching them Diligently is THE how to guide for biblical parenting. It is cover to cover practical step by step advice on how to use scripture to raise your children the way God meant for them to be raised. The topical appendix in the back is simply priceless. This book has helped me with scripture memorization because it has encouraged and empowered me to access and apply scripture like never before. If you are a Christian Parent - or simply a parent who cares about raising children with character and integrity - your next click should be "add to cart"!!! ENJOY!

It has been the desire of my husband and I to raise our three children in a truly God-centered home. We knew that meant more than daily devotions and bedtime prayers, but were not sure how to incorporate the Bible into every day living. The principles in "Teach Them Diligently" changed our parenting and our own lives as well! God has clearly set forth in the Bible a process for change. We want our children to trust in Christ for their salvation and grow to be like Him. I found this book to be practical, logical, and most of all Biblical!

Hans Trefousse has done a magnificent job in portraying the "Great Commoner" and his effect on the United States. In fact, the book inspired myself and some other people in Gettysburg to start the Thaddeus Stevens Society to promote his memory. For information about the society, write The Thaddeus Stevens Society, 65 W. Middle Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325 or email me at rhetrick@gettysburg.edu.

I want to thank Hans L Tredousse for a remarkable job on the unfolding of the character of one of the most complex individuals I have ever studied. Trefousse does a great job of showing us as much of what is humanly possible to know about Thaddeus Stevens.

By far, Stevens comes alive in the preface of Trefousse'account. The reader is pulled gently into the life of this individal because of the hardships he experienced as a child and because of his determination to see justice prevailed.

As I progressed into the book, I marvelled at both the strengths and weaknesses of this complex man called Thaddeus Stevens. Personally, I think he was a man before his times. It is unfortunate that he considered himself a failure. We have had many presidents in recent years who could not or would not acknowledge that they had achieved anything of "real tangible worth". Stevens comes to the end of life feeling that he had achieved very little of lasting value. It is truly worth lamenting! If Stevens could come back to this century, I think he would be astonished to see what legacy he left the United States and particular minorities who have benefitted much from his efforts to support emancipation and a true Reconstruction for those who had suffered because of slavery.

I was first introduced to Thaddeus Stevens in Lerone Bennett's BEFORE THE MAYFLOWER. I found Stevens to be the underdog, but an all powerful hero for the rights of equality. I think the second best thing to having enjoyed Trefousse' outling the work of Stevens would be to see the book made into historical fiction. Somewhere out there in "fantasy land" is an actor who could bring more to "life" this complex man called Thaddeus Stevens

Thaddeus Stevens casts a long shadow in American History; a shadow that continues to bedevil the likes of Robert Bork, Anton Scalia and the so-called "original intent" crowd.

Stevens, the tactical leader of the "radical Republicans" through the Civil War and Reconstruction era stands probably second to only James Madison in Constitutional history.

Considering his historical role a thorough biography has been long overdue. Trefousse has gone a long way toward supplying a fresh biography of the man. In its pages he has applied the extensive depth of modern scholarship now available on the reconstruction era.

Only Fawne Brodie has attempted a biography in recent times and that book, Thaddeus Stevens: Scourge of the South has slid thankfully out of print.

The Trefousse biography will likely be the standard source on the life of "the old Commoner" for some decades to come.

This book is wonderful on so amy levels. First of all, it is a wonderful reference for fencers to see where it all began. It is also a wondeful book of you have a desire to read and want to be able to speak and understand old ELizabethan English. There are also many wonderful woodcuts showing costuming of the period. It is a great book to have in ones library.

This is not a modern re-telling or history book. It's not even re-typed - just a facsimile reprint of three fencing manuals of the Renaissance. If you want to know how it was really done, this is the place. It's real.

But don't assume you'll have an easy read. Saviolo is not writing in his native language, and it shows. He doesn't describe motions very well, and occasionally appears to leave out a foot move in a long sequence. Di Grassi never wrote in English. This manual is a sixteenth century English translation of his Italian manual. People who deride the "negative campaigning" of today will get quite a surprise when they read Silver's virulent contempt for the rapier and the foreigners who teach it.

There is also the language issue. Yes, it's written in English, but sixteenth century English doesn't always mean what you think it does. Saviolo tells you to come on guard with your right wrist against your knee, your right foot against your opponent's right foot, and your point against his face. Obviously, something has been lost in four centuries. In this case, it's the fact that "against" meant "opposite or across from", not "touching". You are now armed against one problem, but it's still not the language you think it is. (Hint: an Oxford English Dictionary is a very useful companion volume.)

Also, don't assume you can do this in modern fencing. The blades were longer and heavier, and they don't work like modern fencing weapons. Furthermore, these are very basic lessons. We know that the advanced moves were jealously guarded, and not written in books.

With all the difficulties, this book remains essential - it's a direct link to the fighting methods of the Elizabethan fencers. Di Grassi is the easiest to follow. Saviolo is particularly helpful for research, because he spends some time explaining why he does things differently form others, thereby documenting both styles and explaining the thinking process of fencing masters. Silver prefers the short sword to the rapier, and shows us that the Renaissance held many different views.

This books stands alone -- there is just no commercially available substitute.

Your stage combat will look better, your re-enactments will be more real, your understanding of the sword will be sharper.

This book is a facsimile of three fencing manuals of the XVI century covering two major traditions: the rapier techniques, mainly italian but also used in Spain and Portugal at the time; and the short-sword techniques, probably british in origin.

The time in which these manuals were published was crucial: there was a gradual transition from the medieval sword techniques to the renaissance rapier ones. At the time (and long afterwards) the french schools of fencing were not existent and the main flow was latin: two of the manuals were written by italians and the swords used in latin countries were rapidly evolving from medieval sword towards the rapier. Those were times of frequent wars and of deadly clashes involving different cultures and ways of fighting. Very different from the later "civilized" duels between long-haired make-uped "gentlemen" which originated the french schools of fencing from which our childish fencing appeared.

This work is the real thing! It shows the experience of three sword masters, in a time where expertise was gained by fighting often and staying alive doing it, and mastery was achieved by recognition from a world where everyone was a swordsman ready to challenge such a person just to get fame.

Forget for a moment modern sword-"play" and read this book about real swordsmanship!