This book is a must for anyone who enjoys real life mysteries and is definitely a "5 Star" book. Too many times history books present nothing but a recitation of the events and dates, but this is not the case with Fred Neff's Great Puzzles of History. The book tells the stories of famous historical situations that to this day have unanswered questions related to them. There is no definitive answer to these situations, which has made them classic mysteries. Historians continue to speculate on the answers, which is part of the fun in the exploration of these puzzling historical events. The well written book is a great vehicle for that exploration. Great Puzzles of History presents individual stories such as the Lost Dauphin, the Anastasia Controversy, the Man in the Iron Mask and many others in the tradition of the best story tellers. At the same time, the author skillfully weaves into the narrative questions that challenge the reader's problem solving skills. This approach not only makes for a good read, but also gives the reader a chance to solve their own questions related to the stories presented. Great Puzzles of History makes history come alive and is an excellent choice for reading. I highly recommend this book. It is informative, well laid out and encourages the reader to evaluate the evidence, think for him or herself and to look more deeply into the subjects covered. Great Puzzles of History gives the reader a lot of information that can be used as a jumping off point for more in depth research into the subject matter of each mystery thus providing excellent entertainment and educational value. While this book would make an excellent summer (or anytime) reading project for children of all ages, adult readers will also enjoy the challenge of looking at the evidence and drawing their own conclusions.

Trying to solve the mysteries presented in the book Great Puzzles of History is fun. I found myself riveted to the pages of this book's mysteries such as the controversy over whether the Russian Princess Anastasia actually survived the Russian Revolution. Other historical mysteries I especially enjoyed were the ones involving King Arthur, Robin Hood and the identity of the man in the iron mask. The writer Fred Neff did a lot of research that provides substance for this surprisingly easy to read book. Anyone who likes either a mystery or history would find this book immensely enjoyable reading.

Two of my favorite pastimes are reading and watching movies. I especially like adventure movies based on historical themes. For this reason, I enjoyed the unique book "Great Puzzles of History" by Fred Neff. It artfully spun the story behind some of my favorite novels and movies. I was delighted to find a chapter on Robin Hood, the focus of which was whether he really existed or is only a myth or legend. I have read books and seen movies about Robin Hood and often wondered if there was any truth behind this adventure hero. The book gave me a lot of interesting information on the subject. Other chapters that I especially liked included the controversy over the deaths of the Russian royal family and the intrigue surrounding Anastasia and whether she had or had not been killed by the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution. The historical puzzles in Great Puzzles of History provided a lot of information that had not been provided in the various movies that I have seen or novels that I have read. For instance, The Man in the Iron Mask, years ago I read the book and recently watched the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The information provided in Great Puzzles of History shed new light on the subject and made for entertaining and thought provoking reading. The book's thorough research and outstanding writing style make for enjoyable reading. Every chapter provides a new "puzzle" and a fascinating glimpse of history. There was enough information to get me involved in each puzzle and at the same time, caused me to examine for myself the evidence presented to reach a conclusion regarding each of the puzzles. Great Puzzles of History is the kind of book that you can read and reread.

80 highly tactical games, with venues and players named, annotated for the beginner.

This is what chess is all about! Amazing games. Glorious conclusions. A couple end in remarkable draws. Most finish with the inevitable threat of checkmate.

FEATURES

+ Digestible format. Each game looks like its own chapter, though it's only 2-3 pages. The brevity of the comments, the lightness of the annotations, and the shortness of the games all conspire to induce even a rank beginner into taking a bite. It's very easy to play out a single game when you find yourself with a few minutes to spare.

+ Breadth of coverage. Although this book is no-one's first choice for studying the openings, it certainly provides a convenient introduction. The games are grouped by opening, roughly in the order of their chronological popularity. The first half is dominated by open games, especially the King's Gambit and Ruy Lopez. In the middle, there are several of the French, the Sicilian, the Caro-Kann, and the Queen's Gambit. Finally, there are samples of modern openings, like the KID and English. There is no index; there wouldn't be a point.

+ Reinfeld's descriptions. They're brief, but they make the games interesting. He tells you what to watch for in plain English.

+ Useful, brief, understandable annotations. Typical chess annotations are of the form "instead of this move, which leads to this series of moves" and end with a position that is not obviously winning for either side. These are inscrutable to beginners. Reinfeld, however, only provides that sort of annotation when the result is decisive. Often, he instead lists the threats. In other words, he tells us what would happen if the next player skipped his turn. This is exactly what the beginner wants to know. He can think for a minute, "OK. So how would I counter that threat?" Then he can see the next move and understand why it was made.

DRAWBACKS?

OK. There are many ways to criticize this book. For example:

"Many of these games are against duffers!"
A: Yes, and often the master is hampered by considerable disadvantages (a blindfold, a simultaneous exhibition, a piece removed before the game even starts, or a free move for the opponent) which tend to level the playing field. Because the games are not nail-bitingly close, a beginner can understand the moves.

"There are too many mistakes in these games."
A: It is very useful to the beginner to see how to take advantage of mistakes. Most here are subtle, rather than outright blunders like leaving a piece en prise (attacked and undefended), but Reinfeld's verbal explanations are clear and cogent. Sometimes there is an obvious mistake, but only when the position is already lost.

"These games are all available elsewhere, in books and computer databases."
A: Yes, because they are classics. If they were lengthy struggles, I might recommend a computer or deep annotations, but not for such decisive games. Just watch and learn.

"The moves are in Descriptive Notation."
A: This is really not a problem when the analysis is so shallow. DN is fine for re-playing games (as well as for tactics puzzles, where NxN is actually easier to grasp than Nxf3). Don't be dissuaded by this.

"There is only 1 diagram per game. A beginner book should not require a board."
A: For one of these quick games, one diagram is almost too much. It mainly serves to remind you that you are reading a chess book! Well, it also reassures the beginner that he is following the moves correctly. Yes, this book requires a board. I enjoy moving the pieces and imagining that I am one of the great masters. I peek at the end to see which side wins, and I play his pieces, trying to guess the moves.

"It's very difficult to guess the master's move following a diagram."
A: True. Since the strong moves which follow the diagrams are far from obvious, this book is not useful for tactical drills. The purpose is to inspire. However, it is possible to look for the crushing blow near the end.

TRUST ME!

With these objections swept aside, there is much to love in this treasure trove. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Once you know the rules and have lost a few games, you are ready for this book, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

This book belongs in every chesslover's library. The combinations and strategies are suberb. This and "The Immortal Games of Capablanca" are, IMHO, two of the finest books in chess literature. And both are by the same author

This is a great book.The games are fantastic,the analysis good and the short introductions to each game are fascinating.The only drawback is the descriptive notation,but the book is too good to miss.

When the Hormel strike went down, I went to meetings, sent in money, and told my coworkers about it. Then we went right back figuring out how much overtime we could get on the job, and what we could buy with it. Today many of my friends are among the millions of airline workers who are wondering whether they will have a job tomorrow, and think they will have to take big cut backs and lose their job anyway to do that. The auto plants have laid off 100,000 workers quietly in dribs and drabs in the last year. Public workers like myself have no illusion that we wont be hit by the war-drive tax-cuts-for the rich cutbacks both Democrats and Republicans favor to one degree or another.

Hormel is no longer a bunch of heroes in a special situation. They were pioneers pointing out what millions of working people have to face. Their struggle shows if you fight you can win things, and if you fight you prepare for all the tommorrows. That why I enjoy this pamphlet now in a way I couldn't have back when it first came out. I think you will too.

I had the privilege to attend a strike rally in Austin, Minnesota, the scene of this remarkable pamphlet. The president of the striking local, Jim Guyette, and the head of the spouses auxiliary (the Family Support Group, anyone who had a relative on strike could join, as well as supporters of the strike with no relative on strike), Jan Butts, had just come back from the Labor Party conference in Blackpool, England. Guyette said what he learned at that conference " is that the struggle of workers, whether in South Africa, El Salvador, Nicaragua, or Austin, Minnesota, is indivisible." At the time, those fighting for freedom in South Africa and El Salvador were called terrorists and communists by the U.S. government, and as for the " communist" Sandinista government in Nicaragua Ronald Reagan and his Democratic Party allies were trying to overthrow it. Yet here was a guy straight from the kill floor talking about the struggle to overthrow apartheid, led by the "terrorist" Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress which he led, the war waged by guerillas (who were workers and farmers in arms) to topple the U.S.-backed dictatorship in El Salvador, the Nicaraguan workers and farmers defending their " Marxist" government--and a strike against the Hormel company as being the same fight, because he had met fighting workers from all those countries in England, who were there for the same reasons as he was: to give and get solidarity. I still remember Jan Butts speaking along the same lines, and her moving description of the strikers and their supporters-and the whole working class around the world-as one giant family. Much has changed in the meatpacking industry: the union is weaker, the wages are lower, it is now predominantly immigrant workers in the plants-yet once again packinghouse workers are at the cutting edge of labor resistance to the effects of the world depression we are entering into. And the cream of the crop is those fighting to get the union into their plants, Immigration and Naturalization Service raids be--whatever. What I learned from the Hormel strike-and from distributing this pamphlet in the plant where I worked at the time-is that the seeds of the new human being Che Guevara talked about are here in the U.S. working class. They come to fruit most often in strike action-where you find out you need solidarity to win, and to get solidarity you've got to give solidarity. As we enter into the future-as-present of wars and capitalist economic disaster, this pamphlet is and indispensable tool for fighters to learn about how the consciousness of millions in this country --as guide to action-- will be changed. Yes, right here in the belly of the Empire. Will be changed. Sooner than later.

I remember sitting at dinner with Hormel strikers in 1984 or 85, visiting, trying to gain solidarity not only for their strike, but for workers around the country. I remember what they told about what was happening in the meat packing industry in Minnesota, and why the workers in that union fought not just the company, but the union bureaucracy. What they faced then is more like too many workers, not just in the meat packing industry but especially there, face or know they will face soon. This book about the strike is not a sociological or journalistic analysis, but the analysis of a longtime working class leader, who was also one of the central leaders of the anti-Vietnam war movement. In this pamphlet we have the voices and struggle of the Hormel Strikers displayed so that workers of today, around the world, in and out of meat packing can learn from their successes and failures, and use this pamphlet as a weapon in their struggle.

I bought this book over 20 years ago when I was 13 or so. Reinfeld's techniques improved my game immensely, and whenever I get serious and dust off the chess board, this is the book to which I turn. The author dedicated the book to his wife, who wanted "a chess book she could read". It is indeed easy to read, yet what you learn is powerful chess stuff. Now my brother-in-law is asking for a chess book, and I am buying him this one for Christmas. Maybe I shouldn't get it for him after all, if I end up playing him!

I purchased this book in hopes of introducing my family to the great game of chess. (A teacher I am not.) This book does a wonderful job of explaining the basic strategies involved in playing a winning game. From checks, mate, attacking threats, forks, opening moves, mid-game and end-game play, Reinfeld explains the game in language that anyone can comprehend.

In my particular instance, use of this book has allowed me to create additional interest in chess with former non-players in my family. (An interest I found nearly impossible to cultivate myself.)

So, if you are a beginner, or a player who struggles in passing along knowledge effectively, this is a book for you.

I think this is one of the best chess books for beginners.It's got complete rules and basic principles to follow in all parts of the game,as well as elementary tactics.The funny illustrations are an added bonus.

The book, 'If My Mom Were A Platypus'was written by Dia L. Michels. It provides a nice introduction to 13 animals (including humans), and provides basic information regarding birth, growth, diet, and other interesting scientific facts. Written from the point of view of the newborn animal and it's mother, the book is targeted towards upper elementary and middle school audiences. However, it can be enjoyed by younger children. It makes a good family readaloud and can be used for basic research. The illustrations are realistic and colorful, and the book includes a glossary and index.

If My Mom Were A Platypus is an entrancing children's book covering all sorts of animal babies-platypus, koala, lion, orangutan, whale, shrew and more. The beautifully-illustrated text pulls in children by pretending they are the baby. If My Mom Were A Platypus describes in detail how different babies eat, learn, grow and mature. This fact-loaded book delights both adults and children and is extraordinarily hard to put down. Even the ending is superb. Includes glossary and index and highlights endangered or threatened species. Activity guides are available at PlatypusMedia.com. Perfect for school or home use. Ages 4-adult.

My three year old daughter loves this book. The book tells how different mammals are born, nursed, grow, eat, etc. It is really fascinating [I found it very interesting myself]. While the book is long and written for a much older audience, it still held my young daughter's attention [though we read only a few pages at a time]. The book is very educational and would be especially nice for families who breastfeed. It ends with the birth of a human mammal and tells how the baby is born and nursed and grows etc. This is a really neat book!

Rick Koster's Louisiana Music is the first and only guide to the variety of musicians in this southern American state: others have focused on specific styles (Creole, Cajun, Zydeco) but Louisiana Music considers the past and present of jazz, rock, gospel and other styles of both urban and lesser-known areas, including the Mardi Gras Indian tribes. Louisiana Music is a 'must' for avid fans of Louisiana music.

Just finished this book. It is another great effort on the part of this very talented writer. This will make for a wonderful addition to my music collection as a fantastic reference book. This work is HIGHLY recommended! Rick Koster -- keep writing!

This book contains a plethora of very valuable histories
of many well known and (more importantly) lesser known Louisiana bands and artists. Mr. Koster, although from neighboring Texas, has really done his homework on this project. You can also find Mr. Koster's dry humor come into play throughout.

If you like this book, you will also enjoy Mr. Koster's book on the history of Texas music called, you guessed it, "Texas Music".

I have to admit a little bit of a bias. Dr. Smith was my teacher at the University of South Carolina, and his class was so skillfully taught that I felt compelled to read his published work.

In a marketplace flooded with Civil War studies, Dr. Smith's distinguishes itself in two ways: 1)With its erudition, a quality missing from many Civil War analyses. 2) The precision of his study. By choosing time as his subject, Dr. Smith rises above the pack of Civil War literature, and creates something thoroughly new.

This remarkable first book by Dr. Smith has already won two of the history profession's highest awards. The historical society named it the best book of history for 1997 and it shares the prestigious Avery O. Craven Award for the most original book on the Civil War era. Smith's observations of the slaves' adjustment to and manipulation of measured time are fascinating. The portrait of plantation life and the effect of the normalization of time on the South will be a revelation to anyone interested in Southern history.

Mark Smith has produced a masterpiece. His mastery of theory and primary material is breath-taking. His willingness to take on such established scholars as Geonovese (and convince this reviewer that he is correct and they were wrong) is the mark of a confident historian.

Would that all works of history were as intellectually stimulating as this. MASTERED BY THE CLOCK is an example of the historian's craft at its best--something rarely seen these days.

Author Fred Stein has provided us with a well written biography about Mel Ott, one of the greatest players in the storied history of the New York Giants baseball team. Milton Shapiro wrote a biography of Ott in 1959 on a more juvenile level and it was long overdue for another more detailed biography of Master Melvin. Ott arrived at the Polo Grounds in the mid 1920's for a tryout on the recommendation of Harry Williams, a friend of Giants' manager John McGraw. McGraw didn't want anyone tampering with Ott's batting stance in the minor leagues and wanted to keep a close watch on the young teen ager. After gradually breaking Ott into the lineup and with the added confidence, Ott became one of the most popular players ever to play with the Giants. The book covers the story of Bill Terry's succeeding McGraw as Giants' manager as well as Ott's career as Terry's successor at the helm. It may be true that Ott didn't have the disposition to be a manager. When he acted up over an umpire's decision, his ranting just didn't appear to be real. I read with great surprise that Ott didn't attend his Hall of Fame induction at Cooperstown in 1951 because he was managing the Oakland Oaks in the minor leagues. I remember very well when Ott broadcasted Detroit Tigers' baseball games with Van Patrick from 1956 through 1958 and enjoyed him very much. His death in November of 1958 was a great loss to all of baseball and to those who followed the Tigers on the radio. Many athletes may be great on the field, but are a disappointment off the field. Ott didn't disappoint those who looked up to him. The book is easy to read and should be enjoyable for anyone from teen agers to adults. Thanks, Fred Stein for a great effort. I only wish the book was available in hard cover.

This book really showed me how good Mel was as a player and as a person. He was my great uncle, and although I never got to meet him (since he died before I was born), this book provided me with a great opportunity to learn more about him and how he lived his life. I recommend this book to any Mel Ott enthusiast or just about anybody who likes baseball, as it tells about one of baseball's best players and best people.

I initially ordered this book because I wanted to learn more about the life and times of a hall-of-famer whose mono-syllabic name appeared so often in baseball's record books. But I came away with a great appreciation for baseball in far simpler times. The author's love and affection for his boyhood hero and his undying devotion to our national pasttime leaps from the pages.

A must read for anyone who loves baseball and heroes.

Overall, this book is excellent, although it is a little unclear what the relationship is between it and another entitled "A Practical Method for Bassoon". One problem--mine arrived without the advertised fingering chart, but that's to be expected for what was being sold as a used book. Besides, I have plenty of fingering charts from other bassoon books.

This book provides a very nice selection of graduated etudes that are technically challenging and musically pleasing, and which introduce new notes and techniques in a very logical manner. I had sailed through the Yamaha and Essential Elements series having done little more than learn the fingerings--no work at all on technique or tonality. As an intelligent adult who is already musically accomplished and who is trying to teach himself a new instrument, there is simply too little meat in the standard lesson books. I can only play "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" and "Alouette" so many times before they lose their charm! However, Weissenborn in combination with "The Art of Bassoon Playing" has greatly accelerated improvement of my technique and tonality. I play the music in Weissenborn, then I trouble-shoot problems using "The Art..." and return to Weissenborn to practice the new techniques. I wish a book similar to Weissenborn existed for oboe, my other current self-learning project.

The Weissenborn method is undoubtedly one of the most widely used methods for bassoon and is popular with teachers and students alike. It contains progressive technical excercises, scale and warm up exercises, progressive character studies (etudes) and duets. It also has an excellent fingering chart and general comments about the bassoon and it's technique.

I highly recommend this method. I used it myself when I was a student and also recommend it for my students.

This method book is often refered to as "the bassoonists' bible". It uses a step by step process to build technique and improve overall playing ability. It is the book used in the state of Alabama (and perhaps others) for All-state band auditions. This is not a book for beginers, but will take an intermideate player to advanced level and beyond.

Fred McChesney's book "Money For Nothing" builds upon public choice economist Gordon Tullock's work on how lobbyists obtain economic benefits from politicians. While Tullock's theory - known as "rent-seeking" - is gaining mainstream appeal, many economists now offer similar explanations for other aspects of legislative behavior that aids some interest groups while harming others. McChesney's theory of "rent-extraction" breaks new ground not yet covered by these economists.

McChesney defines rent extraction as "the political practice of extorting payments from private parties by making threats to expropriate wealth." In other words, he claims that politicians can take money from citizens by threatening to harm them and accepting bribes in the form of campaign contributions to leave them alone. He points out that if individuals have accumulated wealth and wish to keep it away from the government, they will be willing to pay politicians to leave them alone until the costs of doing so exceed the benefits of doing so.

Therefore, while Tullock's theory involves politicians accepting payments to create political favors in the form of rents, McChesney's involves politicians accepting payments to avoid destroying existing private rents. He explains the differences between the two by stating: "With the former (rent-creation/bribery), the beneficiaries of political action compensate the politician for increasing their welfare. With the latter (rent extraction/extortion), persons whose welfare would otherwise be diminished by political action compensate the politician for not effectuating that diminution."

He does point out that constitutional protection of private property and freedom of contract can prevent politicians from acting upon their threats. However, he claims the erosion of these protections has made the problem much more severe during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

To support his view that rent extraction imposes enormous costs on the economy, McChesney provides a wealth of evidence from recent policy debates. For example, he cites the United States Federal Trade Commission's efforts - at the request of Congress - to impose warranty and defect disclosure requirements on used car dealers as an attempt by individual members of Congress to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for voiding the rules. In this instance, he provides statistics on contributions made by the National Auto Dealers' Association to members of Congress who voted to repeal the regulations. In discussing the Supreme Court's response to the wheeling and dealing, he points out that the dealers were essentially tricked into paying to repeal legislation that Congress never intended to enact anyway.

On the Clinton health care plan, he states that stock prices of pharmaceutical firms began to fall before the policy was formally proposed. He emphasizes that investors knew that once price controls became an issue, the firms involved would have to spend money fighting the legislation by making campaign contributions. Thus, the firms were expected to lose enormous sums of money whether or not the bill was actually passed. Most importantly, he points out that the firms were never able to recover any of the money they lost in the process.

In addition to legislative threats to impose price caps, he cites situations in which politicians threaten to repeal existing price caps to obtain contributions. For example, he states that proposals to raise admission fees at Yellowstone National Park have met with resistance from local merchants and users who benefit from lower prices. In other words, politicians can even threaten regulatory systems that they inherited from previous regimes in order to extract contributions from the firms that benefit from those systems.

McChesney relates his theory to law and economics by applying the Coase Theorem to his logic. He claims that, in a world without transaction costs, there would be no regulation because markets would allocate goods to their highest bidders. Therefore, in his model, the existence of regulation is treated as a political market failure in which private individuals fail to accurately appraise the credibility of threats made by politicians.

McChesney offers a simple, straightforward way to make sense of much of the regulatory excess observed throughout the economy. Although his treatment of tax code reform may require some clarification, his model will eventually enjoy the same mainstream appeal that has been afforded to Tullock's over time.

Fred McChesney here develops his original idea of rent extraction -- and it's an idea that renders understandable much of what the government does. (Want to know why the NRA and politicians perform a perpetual, public dance with each other? Read this book. McChesney's explanation will surprise you.) This book is a marvelous example of the best in public-choice scholarship: clearly written and cogent.

What motivates politicians? How do they act? If you are interested in those questions your should read this. The author starts from earlier work in the area by Stigler and Posner - but then extends their models in a number of areas. McChesney has a remarkable ability to take a complex area of economics (public choice) and write in an interesting and understandable fashion. This book is probably going to be read mostly by academics but deserves a wider audience.