A great book of memories for those of us who experienced the "Great Depression" and life in this great country during the patriotic years of World War 11. A soothing liteary style.

I can not say that I have been there and done that! But I did enjoy the Authors story of his life. I was a small town and city boy. My parents and grandparents were there and did that and in my early life I was able to see "hog killings, soap making and other "old fashion" ways of doing day to day chores. The Author brought back sweeet memories for me. This book should be read by everyone over the age of 60 and raised in the rural South. It was VERY interesting.

This book gives vivid details about the author's life. It is filled with stories that will touch the heart and soul of all who read and absorb its content. It gave me a greater appreciation of life--past and present. Recipes from the past are included and are still outstanding today!

Ralph Clingan's book illuminates important dimensions of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's conversion, which he attributed to the six months he attended Clayton Powell's Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. This is the most important theological work of the past fifty years. I based my Reformation Day Sermon on the book. It reads like a conversation, very readable, if compressed. I want to see more detailed treatments of some of Powell's sources than allowed in this small volume.

Excellent resource for those wanting to get a deeper grasp of everday economic statistics. Thoroughly explains these statistics and why they are influential in our economy.

Highly recommended read!

Briefly, I have been looking for a good non-Microsoft book that will offer a critical review of their latest OS - Win95. I had a client with a number of problems after an upgrade and I found the answers immediatly when I looked in the index. I then looked for other odd index topics and found reference to all of them. Other books, including MS Press titles, did not have reference or at least the depth that this book did. Buy it. Greg Barry

Da Vinci's anatomical drawing is not simply scientific record. It is a great man's comtemplation on humanity through the very basics of physical form. To back up this kind of inquiry, you need a god to in your soul or you have to be the god youself. Without this spiritual aspect, scientific research would turn into something crudely utilitarian or cruelly inhumane as we all have noticed in so many cases in the modern world.

Da Vince is not some mad scientist who messed up with corpses secretly as in a Frenkenstein movie. But do we ever noticed their difference in this country, the supposed most advance country in technology and science? This book would make you think.

This book is an in-depth academic analysis of meter in North Indian music. Based on the author's doctoral research, the book includes theoretical perspectives, types and uses of tal, rhythm and meter in performance, and cross-culture perspectives. Clayton crafts his descriptions of meter and rhythm carefully so that they are general enough to cover all genres of North Indian music. As a result of this generality, much of the analysis can be applied to South Indian music as well. He points out that meter in North Indian music is hard to reconcile with "universal metrical" theory, such as that proposed by Lerdahl and Jackendoff, and he argues that any universal theory of meter must take into account North Indian music. Much of the book is highly technical and may only be accessible to specialists in music theory. Nevertheless, novices who are interested in Indian music will still find much of interest, as Clayton explains such topics as the sequence of events in an Indian classical concert, and the cyclic nature of Indian rhythms quite clearly. The accompanying CD contains clips that demonstrate many of the rhythms and meters discussed in the text.

The Seven Wonders of The Ancient World is one of the most complete and illustrative books that I have ever read on the subject. Even the 1990 reprint, going on 13 years without a revision, is still accurate. Each chapter explains in detail one of these seven ancient monuments, starting with it's history, location, purpose, construction and description; and ending in a vivid account on how they came to be no more or the way the sites still stand today. The images included within the text also show us, besides conceptual pictures of the monuments through the ages, a glimpse of the way that archaeology reconstructed the pieces to the puzzling appearance of some of these monuments and the way archaeologists interpreted ancient accounts of people that lived to see these wonders in their heyday. The book also contains two chapters in which the authors describe other lists of ancient wonders and the way those lists that we know today came to be created. The task of the authors in putting together in one book all the information of these seven wonders is a remarkable work of scholarship, mostly given to the fact that six of these seven monuments no longer exist and the great number of different accounts that survived to our day instead. This is a must-read book for all of those interested in archaeology, history or ancient civilizations.

This book should enjoy wide appeal, and particularly interest the armchair archaeologist lurking in all of us. Everyone has heard that there are 7 wonders of the world, although fewer know what they were and fewer know anything about them. This book is a great starting point to jump into the subject, combining the few documents describing the wonders with commentary, modern archaeological evidence, illustrations, and even some speculation. A very good introduction for someone with a sense of wonder, the love of travel, and a fascination with the past.

The chapters in this book describe the seven wonders of the ancient world - the Great Pyramids at Giza, the Hanging Gardens at Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Pharos (Lighthouse) at Alexandria. Their history, location, purpose, building and description are provided along with many illustrations and drawings. The last chapter gives a list of other monuments which could be considered wonders, and tells why the actual seven wonders of the ancient world were chosen. Recommended reading for all interested in history.

I grew up in the Monticello, Florida area and I am very familiar with El Destino Plantation. I am also an avid reader of ALL books on Florida, fiction and non-fiction. Mr. Martin transports his readers back to antebellum days. His descriptions of the historical figures and life on a plantation are excellent. This would be a wonderful book for middle school and high school students interested in the era. Most readers will be surprised that the old south plantation system was alive and well in north Florida.

Being a Florida Historian, I find El Destino, (The Destination) by Mr. Martin to be pretty much on the mark as for historical accuracy. I enjoyed the story and did travel along with the characters, sharing their joys, excitement and disappointments. This is a well written story. I recommend it to those who like to read this type of novel.

Being familiar with the geographical setting of the story (Southeast Georgia and North Florida), I have read this book twice. I found the story interesting, fast moving, suspenseful, sad and sweet. It is hard to understand how a story this interesting could be written without sex, violence or profanity. Read it; you will enjoy it.

Kenneth Clark gives an unpropogating look at Da Vinci. All too often Leonardo's name has been attached to support a variety of causes of this or that nature. Being, seemingly, irreligious and unphilosophic while being the quintessential Renassaince Man. His name is often used as a mascot to justify the ideals of this or that group of whatever. He was clearly an animal rights lover, possibly a closet Franciscan, in all probability a homosexual (although not much of an activist). Leonardo was into his thoughts and had little patience for something that was already complete in his mind. He left scores of unfinished works, and minons of angry patrons - contrary to Bornstin's book that Leonardo was in constant search of patrons - Clark says he had many unhappy patrons. Leonardo was an animal lover who hated violence (although he designed armaments of various sorts). His depth of religious devotion could be argued, but he was not irreverant, as some have claimed. Leonardo was rather Franciscan and had a fondness for animals and individuality. He was free and valued his own individualism. Other than Da Vinci's notebooks nothing much authentic comes down to us. Every other work of Leonardo has been severally retouched or destroyed, what there is left of Leonardo's work is highly speculative - what bit is in his hand ect. Clark gives a healthy, vibrant, nonproselytizing look at a genius - something anyone might find interesting.

Kenneth Clark's book is probably the best available introduction to Leonardo da Vinci. It is both a good biography and an insightful analysis of Leonardo's art and artistic career. The text is appropriate for both laymen and students of art history. Clark's writing is concise and extremely engaging (to the point where I would recommend reading this book for fun), but it is also intelligent and very informative, with a clear thesis that ties the vast body of matieral covered together into an easily comprehensible package. This book is slightly out of date now, but Martin Kemp's introduction and revision help to ammend for that. I particularly recommend this most recent edition as it is well-illustrated.

This is the best book available in English on Leonardo da Vinci. True, the book was first published several decades ago, but the art historian Martin Kemp has added footnotes that bring the text up to date. Kenneth Clark made a tremendous contribution to the study of Leonardo da Vinci with this book - Science and Technology Museum notwithstanding!!!!

The map guide is a nice compact New York City-only version of the larger Let's Go guide for the USA, plus some very handy laminated maps. Its easy to carry this one around and not look like a tourist. The sights picked, often have a good local sensibility about them, in that they may not be typical touristy places. All the Map guides are great, but this one dissapointed because it never listed cross streets for addresses (a must for most new york cabbies)

What we found most useful in the guide is its geographic listing - after attending an event or touring NYC, one can flip through the guide and find one of the many great restaurants in a nearby neighborhood, use your cell phone to call and make a reservation. The ratings and reviews of the food and ambience appear to be more accurate than other guides. We had so more more luck eating in great restaurants using Marcellino's book. Looking for 1999's version, and keep 1998's until then.

This map is terrific for getting around Manhattan and using the subway system. Very easy to use and read.