Very informative piece on this early architectural pioneer. The author has done an excellent and thorough job of documenting Eley's history. I especially liked the photos in the book of some of Mr. Eley's projects.

This is the best of marine mysterious stories ,written with amazing style . You are reading this book and in seconds you are becoming part of it , part of the era ,part of the mystery , part of the most exciting thing that wil ever happen to you . The story made by mixing historical facts with legends makes you in a special way addicted to this book , these characters , to the way F.Marryant writes . Read it ! And you will experience time-machine , you will see,feel,even smell presence of The Phantom Ship.

Personally, after 12 years I'm trying to find this book to read it again and again and again........

Avast mates! Never has a finer tale of the sea to be had. Meet Long John, Captain Flint, Ben Gunn, and some of the other scurvy crew from 'Treasure Island'. Learn where the treasure came from. Fights at sea and ashore aplenty.

SCHUMANN is a work of sound and thorough scholarship, refreshingly free of cant, pomposity, bombast, condescension, self-aggrandizement and arrogance, six pillars in the temple of bad academic writing. Mr. Jensen's thoughtful prose is eminently readable, his argument clear and convincing thanks in no small part to a masterly balancing of distance from and sympathy for his primary subject. The plight of temperament (in Schumann's case, genius) in conflict with ignorance, incomprehension, complacent professionalism and "benign" authoritarianism continues to be a matter of interest and concern. Who or what today would keep Schumann in a cage?

Someone should do a movie version of this book. With all the excellent Native American actors and actresses we have today, I'm sure that America would enjoy the Native American version of this saga. Greasy Grass better known as The Battle of Little Big Horn in this version excels in bitter truth and, in triumphant victory for the Native Americans. Everyone would walk away with much food for thought.

Seventy-five of the most noted women of the recent past are remembered by a roster of outstanding photographers in this stunning volume. Each photo, which captures the subject at the height of her achievements, is accompanied by a biography detailing contributions made and public response.

All of the photos capture the essence of the woman, as Cokie Roberts remarks in the Preface: "Look into the eyes of the subjects of these photographs and you see the triumphs, failures, hopes, and disappointments of some of the truly talented women of our time."

The album is a diverse collection of unique women, from Helen Keller to Dorothy Parker to Gertrude Stein to Gypsy Rose Lee to Shirley Temple to Ella Fitzgerald.

We learn that upon Grandma Moses's first visit to New York City she "told reporters, 'It's nice to be here, but the city doesn't appeal to me.' 'As picture material?' someone asked. 'As any material,' she answered."

And, we discover that Joan Baez remembers singing the civil rights movement's anthem "We Shall Overcome" at the Lincoln Memorial, by saying, "...one of the medals which hangs over my heart I awarded to myself for having been asked to sing that day."

The revelatory photos and essays found in "Women Of Our Time" are a tribute to women, to our age, and to humankind.

- Gail Cooke

This book lays out the laws for worker's comp in an easy to read chart. The information in the charts and text of the book is priceless. If you are serious about reducing your work comp costs, this book shows you how.

Yvain is a beautiful tale of love and courtly society by the greatest storyteller of medieval France, presented here in a very clear (and relatively cheap) translation. Particularly fine is the way this fantasy presents 12th-century aristocratic values, especially as the title character is torn between love of a woman and love of honor in his very masculine society. I have used this translation several times in undergraduate history classes on the Middle Ages--it works extremely well.

The book is well written and reads fluently. The characters are very well and lively described. The story is realistic.
I have read lots of John Grisham books, but this one is more complex and takes more effort to read.
One minor point : 500 pages is a bit too much for me... I prefer stories of about 250-300 pages. But, certainly...I would buy this book again.

It is a credit to Robert Goddard's writerly abilities that he manages to lead and keep our interest alive in this complex story. We travel from Greece to the British Isles (a map of the UK would be a nice adjunct). The cast of characters in another author's hands would be cumbersome. A tribute to Goddard that even the minor characters are crisply delineated, and not once was I confused as to who was who.

Harry Bennett, a professional failure, has to be one of the more depressing heroes of all time. He has no confidence, few social skills, and not one yearning desire to better himself. He glumly concludes he is not worthy of success. His stylistic sense is so poor; his rumpled appearance causes comment in even an average restaurant. The late Carroll O'Connor could play the part to perfection. On Harry's watch, the young and fragile Heather Mallender disappears while they are hiking up sinister Profitis Ilias Mountain in the Greek Isles. Predictably, Harry has petered out slightly below the summit and elects to wait for Heather to complete the climb. And that is the last he sees of Heather.

The rest of the novel recounts Harry's painstaking search for Heather. Harry is nothing if not persistent, and even his wrong turns forward his search. Nothing is quite as it seems, even Harry. Mr. Goddard has given us a story laced with irony. As in a previous Goddard novel "Caught in the Light," I had a good idea "who" was the main villain; I just had no idea "why." This is a finely crafted novel, and the characterizations are delightful. A very satisfying read.

I've read hundreds of books and this has to be one of the best I've ever read. You follow the tale of loser Harry trying to find his friend who went missing on Rhodes,from the Greek island and around the counties of England. Harry has only done one heroic act in his life and without giving away too much this becomes a sad irony as the story concludes. This book is impossible to put down!

Don't be put off by bulk: despite its 1,151 pages, "Cook and Peary" is a real page-turner. In elegant, concise language, it tells the compelling story of not one but two of the great hoaxes of all time. The story of the two men who falsely claimed to have reached the North Pole is one of mendacity and gullibility and of the victory of faith over knowledge. It highlights the shakiness of the foundations of what we think of as common knowledge. This year marks the 90th anniversary of the start of the great polar controversy, and it shows that the balance is tipping yet again. It began favoring Cook, then swung decisively to Peary, despite many initial doubters. The idea that both men were fakers dates from the 1970s, and it seems to be finally prevailing. Today, the New York Times, once a passionate defender of Peary, reported last November, "most historians believe both explorers lied." In the first part of the book, Robert Bryce, a meticulous researcher who has the wisdom to trust absolutely no one, tells thhis eye-opening story without making any judgments. He leaves you to make your own. In the second part, he examines the available evidence, some of which he was the first to examine, and tries to answer the two essential questions: Did either reach the pole? He concludes that Cook's own long-hidden journals prove he turned back after 100 miles or so on the floating Arctic Ocean ice pack, or less than a quarter of the way. On Peary, he shows convincing evidence that Peary stopped short of the pole, probably between 100 and 50 miles from the northern axis of the Earth. Bryce explains how Peary used his powerful friends to press his case, while Cook relied on his charm, saying over and over, in effect, "trust me." Bryce shows how either would have been believed, even without the proofs that are ordinarily required, if the other hadn't been there to challenge him. But most amazing, he shows the phenomenal chutzpah of both and the credibility of a world before which most of the damning facts were out in plain view. "Cook and Peary" details the slow collapse of the two claims despite a still-vigorous Peary defense by the National Geographic magazine and persistent lobbying work by the Cook Society. It is this collapse that led the Guinness Book of Records to get rid of Peary, replacing him in 1997 by a 1948 Soviet airplane expeditions. The World Almanac, which once tersely reported Peary's conquest of the pole, as had virtually all world reference books since the Encyclopaedia Britannica found for Peary in 1911, now mentions that there are serious challenges to his claim. But this debate is too old to ever die, and someone will no doubt eventually come out with new facts to illuminate a partisan point of view.

As a piece of scholarship, this is a definitive book. I am using it and related materials in a seminar about research methods. It is not an "easy read" and the numerous relevant illustrations are sometimes smaller than is comfortable to examine. However, it is one of the few sources where you can find reams of verifiable references to the lives of Cook and Peary. Those who believe that Cook and Peary told the truth about their polar "adventures" will probably find ways to discount the mountain of evidence that Bryce has made available. The density of detail takes patient reading, but leaves a reader free to compare interpretations with Bryce's clearly marked conclusions. The author has covered the controversy thoroughly, including taking the trouble to evaluate a copy of Cook's diary archived in Denmark. Those wishing to spend time with this book will be rewarded with credible information about one of the fascinating human stories of the last two centuries.

What can you say about a book that is over 1100 pages long yet I still didn't want it to end? This book is just awesome (and quite heavy too!) I am a bit of a polar exploration buff and found this to be the absolute best book out there on the rivalry between Cook and Peary. If you like adventure stories of any sort, I would highly recommend this book.