Wow! I really enjoyed this book. The character of Jubal Sackett was very well developed and set in a historically correct period. I found myself walking in his footsteps as he went further and further west. The story arouses the explorer instinct in all of us. I intend to read more of the Sackett sagas.

I have yet to read many of his books, but I must say that all of Lamour's books are great. Jubal Sackett is a special character. I appreciate that Lamour spent more time on this book (or at least made it longer than usual) in order to give us a full scope of Jubal's transcending years in his migration to the west. The Sacketts are successful because they are well learned in many a trade and they don't take things for granted. They nurture their friendships when they can and comfront their enemies just as readily. You feel this story, you root for the characters and you feel as though you are among them. I guess this is more of a mountain man book than a western, but it still sets the setting for the Sackett's pushing west. A great book.

This by far is the best audio book Ive listened to.

The guy reading the story has an accent that fits the story perfectly. While this is a lengthy book it is never boring
The pacing is perfect and the story itself is riviting.
Do yourself a favor and get this on audio. You will not be dissappionted

This biography does an excellent job of painting a portrait of a man who changed 20th Century music, not only in America, but across the globe. Learning the details of Louis' life and struggles only enhances my appreciation of his music.

The impact of Louis Armstrong is still felt on several levels in our society. While Armstrong did not have a hand in inventing jazz, he was instrumental in pushing it artistically. With a minimum of formal instruction, he revolutionized the trumpet as well as singing in Jazz and popular music. He was also instrumental as one of the early African-American celebrities, in breaking down racial barriers.
Laurence Begreen does a fine job of illustrating the joys and struggles that Armstrong encountered. The devatating poverty and harsh socail environment of Louis youth are keenly detailed. He shows how these obstacles are overcome by Armstong's love of music and of life. He also shows the prejudice and mob intimidation that Louis had to endure on his road to stardom.

All in all, this book is an inspiring work and testimonial to the life and music of one of the greatest trumpet players and entertainers to grace this planet. I would seriously recommend this to anyone with an interest in music, especially jazz.

An Extravagant Life is much more than a biography of Louis Armstrong. Having been born at the turn of the century, in New Orleans, this book is a travelogue of that city from a unique perspective (the underside), a history of jazz, a snapshot of race relations and segregation in America for this entire century, AND a rich tapestry of the life of a man who started out with no advantages except his musical gift and a positive attitude. Armstrong was a man of very strong tolerances: alcohol, marijuana, food, women, gansters, laxatives, and music, to name just a few. The essence of Louis is captured in Bergreen's book: We like him, we care for him, we pity him, and we almost understand him. We are definitely fascinated by him.

This biography of Louis Armstrong presents the rich mosaic that was the life of one of the greatest musicians and entertainers of the 20th Century. It uses his life story to describe the history of early jazz--from his childhood on the streets of New Orleans, his move to Chicago where he made his famous recordings with the Hot Five and Hot Seven, and on to New York and Europe. I was surprized to learn that in many ways his charismatic stage persona was his real personality. But at the same time he was quite a complex character (four marriages, daily marijuana use, managers with mob connections, laxative proselytizations). Aside from his musical genius, he was a cultural icon--the first African American entertainer to cross over to broad popularity throughout America. The story is often told in Louis's own words, making it easier to get to know him. I loved the story about his first trip back to New Orleans after he spent nearly a decade going from being a local talent to an international star. When I got to the last chapter I put the book aside for a little while--I didn't want the book or Louis's life to end.

If you are intersted in the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette, or just want a good read, this book is the one to read. If you like this book and become interested in royalty, or you already are, Victoria holt wrote tons of other books on British and some Spanish, French, and Italian royalty under the pseudonym Jean Plaidy, so try those.
This book is a fictional memoir written by Marie Antoinette between 1789 and her death in 1793. It covers her whole life (sympathetically) and dispells the rumor that she said "Let them eat cake". Read this!

Victoria Holt was one of my favorite authors when I was younger. A master storyteller, she would consistently weave a story that would have the reader turning the pages. This work of historical fiction is one of her best. Riveting from beginning to end, this fictional autobiographical account of the life of Marie Antoinette is superb. Written in the first person, with little dialogue, it is the rumination of a life that was to end tragically. Pampered, spoiled, and fun loving, the beautiful Maria Antonia of Austria metamorphosed into Marie Antoinette of France upon her marriage to the Dauphin, who would eventually become King of France, the ineffectual, but benign, Louis XVI.

This is her story, grounded in historical fact and set within the framework of history. This work of fiction about the life of Marie Antoinette, as seen through her own eyes, is fascinating, as it captures the flavor of those uncertain times and the events that led to the French Revolution and the end of the monarchy in France. It is a reflection on how Marie Antoinette's own behavior influenced the fate of France. Indulging in the excesses of the day, she initially gave little thought as to how her actions might affect the people of France or the monarchy. By the time she realized that her actions and excesses had wide spread political ramifications, it was too late, and the fate of her and her husband was sealed. No amount of personal regret could change it.

This book will be enjoyed by those who enjoy good, well written historical fiction. It is little wonder that this book spent two months on the New York Times Best Seller List. It is simply historical fiction at its best.

I read this book in 1973!? It was so wonderful that I planned my trip to Paris around Marie Antoinette's homes - the Grand and Petit Trianon at Versailles for one stop. The author writes historical fiction so beautifully that you can't help wishing to run to Europe and experience the lives of the queens you've read about!! I'll never orget this book - and others by Victoria Holt!

Great book at tying together concepts of e-commerce. The book is written in a conversational tone and is easy to understand, and includes some interesting examples of projects. I found the idea of having a central point of reference for projects critical as is the information on how companies have struggled with the look and feel of their sites due to the need for strong leadership. Overall a good read and useful for defining how Site Server works as a website development environment.

Focusing on the e-commerce, I found this book covered areas like security models and how to plan for secure transactions in a strong manner. Also the framework for creating an e-commerce strategy was useful. There is alot of info on Site Server, which is interesting becuase my company is evaluating all server platforms. Overall a good primer for e-commerce. Our company uses this book in courses on e-commerce for new salespeople.

This book is really useful from the standpoint of providing an overview of what ESD is doing today, and how e-commerce tools from Microsoft are making it possible for organizations of any size to buyild their own sites. I found the chapters on managing a new site useful with some good suggestions for getting everyone on the same page from a development standpoint. Good reference book and teaching tool for new administrators.

Required to read Henry for my AP English Language class, I came into the play with a bias. I honestly felt that it would be a boring political play. I was utterly wrong! A huge fan of Shakespeare, I found Henry V to be a formidable match for the Bard's more critically acclaimed plays, such as Hamlet and Macbeth. Henry has it all! Shakespeare's attitude toward Henry the King is certainly one of admiration. By communicating the fact that an effective monarch must have a complete understanding of the common subjects (Pistol and Bardolph and Quickly), Shakespeare sets up Henry to be the ideal Christian king. The controlled language of Henry's speeches, particularly his response to the Dauphin's idiotic insult, also glorifies Henry. I certainly recommend this play to anyone, fan of Shakespeare or not.

I looked long and hard (and asked many a scholar) for the "perfect" Shakespeare publication that I might purchase to study "King Henry V" (for a experiential education requirement, I had undertaken the translation of Henry V into American Sign Language). The Arden Shakespeare came highly recommended by everyone, and has lived up entirely to all its rave reviews.

I will never buy Shakespeare from another publisher. While these books may be slightly more expensive than a "mass market" edition, I believe that if you are going to take the time to read and understand Shakespeare, it is well worth the extra dollar or two. The Introduction, the images, and plethora of footnotes are irreplaceable and nearly neccessary for a full understanding of the play (for those of us who are not scholars already). The photocopy of the original Quatro text in the appendix is also very interesting.

All in all, well worth it! I recommend that you buy ALL of Shakespeare's work from Arden's critical editions.

On D-Day British officers read Henry's famous words to their men as they approached the beach. When Churchill needed material for his famous "Few" speech, his thoughts turned to the pages of Henry V. From "once more into the breach" to "we happy few, we band of brothers" this play resonates with Shakespeare's paen to England's warrior king. Oh, you'll be a bit confused at the start if you haven't read Henry IV parts 1 and 2, but this is primarily the story of Henry V's victory at Agincourt. Whether the play glorifies war or just Henry you will have to decide. There is much food for thought here for the perceptive reader. But then Shakespeare is always provocative.

Leonard Clark was my uncle, and the new edition having been released, I have recently re-read The Rivers Ran East.

I found this book to be most incredible, not simply for the storytelling, but more importantly for Len's foresight into the value and preciousness of the South American rainforest. While he was admittedly not an environmentalist, he was truly a man ahead of his times in that respect. His appreciation for and finely detailed descriptions of the flora and fauna of the Amazon River basin are extremely topical and perhaps even more pertinent today than when he wrote the book. Among all else, he identifies specific native tribal practices and forest herbs as remedies unknown by Western medicine; as with many other products of the rainforest, these hold great promise and yet remain unresearched. Furthermore, his anthropological descriptions of the Amazonian natives capture a culture that now, just 50 years later, has largely been transformed to modern society and lost.

Purely on a swash-buckling adventure-tale level, the book is priceless: this is a real-life Indiana Jones! Len's hair-raising stunts, death-defying experiences, and encounters with Amazonian headhunters hit the reader one after another with nearly a breath in between.

Altogether five of Leonard's books were published: A Wanderer Till I Die (1937), The Rivers Ran East (1953), The Marching Wind (1954), Explorer's Digest (1955), and Yucatan Adventure (posthumously in 1958). All five make for fascinating reading. Many of his books were translated into Italian, Japanese, and other languages. My mother was Len's younger half-sister and I inherited her collection, which includes first editions in English of all five, as well as several of the translated versions, for example, the Japanese edition of The Marching Wind. In addition to The Rivers Ran East, The Marching Wind has also recently been republished and is now also available on Amazon.com. Beyond his books, articles by Len were published in National Geographic, Life, Literary Digest, Field and Stream, Popular Science, and American Weekly. The family still receives inquiries from time to time about possibly make a film based on one of his adventures, but none has been produced to date.

All of Len's books except for A Wanderer Till I Die were written after World War II. However, it was during the war that he perhaps made his greatest - though unpublished - contributions. Leonard served as an officer in the OSS, spending a good portion of the war in the China-Burma-India corridor conducting intelligence work in the Yellow River valley. Near the end of the war, he was stationed on Formosa and accepted the first (unofficial) surrender of the Japanese there. He earned the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and the Order of the White Cloud with Ribbon, the highest honor given by the Chinese to the foreigners who served them.

All of Leonard's works are fact, not fiction, and he is very highly regarded in our family as a military hero and quintessential adventurer. After the war, he built a log cabin near Fresno, California that I visited as a child. I remember Len as a large, quiet, gentle man who liked to tease us children, smoke his pipe, and take long contemplative walks in the woods with my mother. Yet he also embodied a sophistication, powerfulness, and seriousness that I sensed even as a child.

Len was born on 1/6/1907. He died on 5/4/1957 under mysterious circumstances while exploring for gold and diamond mines on the Caroni River in Venezuela. You will find a fairly extensive biography in Current Biography, Volume 17, No. 1, January 1956, although this does not cover his last years. In addition, my father devoted 20 pages in our family history to Len. For more information, please feel free to contact me.

A fantastic adventure story from an Author who apparently fears nothing. Very detailed and factual with photographs to back up his story. I would also like to learn more about this author and have only found that he wrote an article for National Geographic in 1938 about Hainan Island and it's inhabitants. That story was written in the same style. Mr. Clark was(?) indeed an aventurous soul.

A friend highly recommended this book. He's pointed me to several interesting books over the years, but this was his best recommendation. After waiting for what seemed forever to get a copy, I read it overnight.

The Rivers Ran East is a great exploration story. I've been fascinated by the exploits of the great Victorian explorers, especially Sir Richard Francis Burton, for years. To me, Leonard Clark was probably the last of the Victorian-style explorers - facing the wilderness armed with few supplies, but inspired by a burning desire for exploration (with selfish reasons like gold thrown in for good measure).

Like some of the other reviewers, I want more information. The book's ending seemed to promise a continuation, but I guess it never happened. Some publisher needs to reprint this great book, complete with updates on "the rest of the story".

Louis Colby and Diane Jessup did a great job with this, and many thanks are due to them for bringing this wonderful information public. I think many people interested in this breed enjoy the history aspect, and this book will more than please you if that is your interest. Lots of pictures of dogs from the past. Of special interest: one can see how little the true pit bull has changed over the past 100+ years, unlike breeds which are ruined by the show ring.

I am the proud owner of a pure Colby APBT. So, first I would like to thank the Colby family (even beyond JP) for keeping such accurate records of their history. Few breeds have as rich a history as the APBT. And even fewer bloodlines have records that are as accurate as the Colby bloodlines are. Thus, this book is very special in that it tells the history of a very wonderful breed of dog that is too commonly misunderstood. And completely reports the history of the Colby dogs which are undoubtedly the most influential dogs in the breed. For anyone interested in truly grasping the truth behind the APBT for themselves, this book is a must have. It is a keeper that any APBT fancier should have in their library.

I've owned many Pitbulls in my time, All were great dogs but I did'nt know much about my own dogs back ground. I've recently recieved a puppy from Louis Colby and i'm very glad that I did. Having the book shows me what kind of History my dog has. I knew alot about the breed before I got the book but not as much as I know now. The book goes into great detail of how the breed has come along in all these years. It also puts the debate of the Amstaff and the APBT being to different dogs to rest. This book does cover lots of dog fighting history,keep in mind that 100 years ago dog fighting was acceptable and a common practice. I only live about 15 minutes away from Louis and I have gone out to his house many of times, each time I go we talk about the "New" sporting of these great animals "Weight pulling". So please dont think that Louis only promotes dog fighting,he doesn'nt,he appreciates them as they are and he really enjoys going to the pull contests, he much like me will never deny the dogs history. If your a history buff like I am this book is a must have for your collection and who knows...you might find a decendant of your dog in his book.

I found this book easy to read, very clear and understandable. It is not a book for a novice. You have to know some basic astrology before you study horary. But when you are ready to learn horary, this this the place to start. The author reviews the history of horary and gives clear examples of all the concepts. There are lots of real life examples that make fascinating reading. This is astrology at its best.

Dear Mr. Louis: I bought your book Horary Astrology: Plain and Simple via Amazon.com two monthes ago. Well, it's very, very good. A special, complete and clear book. I've already finished my first reading and now I'm studying and reading it again and again with gratitude and happiness. It will help me a lot in my Astrology work. If a person really enjoys Astrology, she would have this book as a precious gift.

This has become one of my favorite astrology books since I began my studies a decade ago. Anthony Louis has done his homework and presents some difficult concepts in an easy and readable style. He gives plenty of examples to illustrate his points. The best feature of the book is the excitement and love of learning about astrology that runs through the whole text. I cannot recommend it highly enough, and I wish I could give it six stars.

Basquiat is one of my favorite artists. I was first captivated by his works that were used in conjunction with Mya Angelou's poem Life Don't Frigten Me None. I was entranced by his art! I looked all over for a book that would give me a retrospective of his art. I found it. This book is wonderful. Great color great art work. Check it out. You'll Dig it too.

If you are looking for a wonderful combination of Basquiat's work and biography, this is the book to own. This book is full of many beautiful color plates of his work, as well as the story of his short, successful, but tragic life as an artist who had his brief moment in the sun before succumbing to the drugs.

Such a tragedy for a talented fellow like Basquiat to succumb to the temptations of drugs at such an early age. His paintings are so raw and fresh. I feel as though he used canvasses as giant doodle pads which he displayed to the world. Many of our own doodle pads (next to our phones, on our office desks, etc.) end up in the [bin] but Basquiat's ended up in the galleries and museums of the world. Some think of his work as [bad] but I view it as a treasure. Fine art, cartoons, grafitti and doodling...the best things in life. This book is the best collection I've seen of his work. The reproductions are well done and the essays are enlightening. For the art afficianado, this book needs to join the collection.