although the storyline is deep in the science fiction and depicts lepricans as long lost guardians, it does contain a nice glimps of the guardian who presented the final ring to kyle. all in all a book worth reading but don't get in a wreck hurring to the comic book store trying to get your copy.

This may qualify as a really unobjective review, given that Larry Niven is one of my favorite Science Fiction writers, and John Byrne is my favorite comic book writer/artist.

Larry Niven's take on Green Lantern's mythos is really astounding, and it fits well for me, being a Green Lanter fan too. John Byrne's dialogues and layouts are really good, and his art is at his normal level. Byrne's not an astounding penciller, but he manages to get the work done, and by writing and drawing most of his work. he gets a cohesion that no writer-artist team can get.

The only setback to this story for me is that it's to compressed, I feel they should have dedicated a full 10 issues mini-series or something like that. It's a bit crammed in the prestige edition book.

Larry Niven is one of the best science fiction writers around. John Byrne is one of the best comic creators in the industry. The two combine to make a wonderful piece of pictorial literature. The Green Lantern is one of my favorite comic book heroes to this day. The mingling of science fact, science fiction, and fantasy creates a compelling story. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did when I picked it up. Happy reading.

This book is written like a novel and the birds are not separated by species. In order to find behavior of a particular bird you have to reference several pages and read lots of text.

If you want a technical guide to the size, coloration and other particulars of a specific bird species then it would be in your best interests to obtain one of the many American bird field guides that are available on this subject. However, if you are interested the habits of birds as they fit into the overall ecological scheme of nature without being overwhelmed by technical details then this is the book for you.

John Dennis has written a highly readable book that reveals the lifestyles of birds as they interact with each other and the environment. In a series of essays Dennis covers such subjects as bird food preferences, migratory behavior, winter survival, competition, avian aggression and others. Dennis supports his points with his own personal observations as a lifelong biologist and birder, as well as those observations cited from birding books and journals spanning the 20th century. In addition, the 65 delightful pencil sketchings illustrating the avian behavior described in the text are worth the price of the book alone.

I whole-heartedly recommend "Beyond the Bird Feeder" for any naturalist's bookshelf, particularly of those for whom birding may be a secondary interest. The book provides an excellent one-source overview of avian habits that may lead those so interested into other more technical treatments of this subject.

While the author has tons of documentation about panics and bear markets, he fails to draw conculsions and suggestions together. Advice is scattered hither and yon. It looks like a collection of short pieces stuck together. It would have been much more useful to summarize the findings and organize the evidence behind it. This book doesn't know if it is history or "how to" book. However, it is the best (maybe only) summary of past panics and bear markets so it is good to have in an investor's library.

It seems that whenever prices are "too high", I tend to go looking for bargains in the cheap stocks department (read "losers"). Then when the whole market takes a dive, and brings even the strongest stocks down with it, I'm too frightened (or too broke) to think about throwing more money into this "beast" that ate my dreams of early retirement. This book showed me how specific events throughout the 20th century both internal and external to the market have over and over again provided excellent buying opportunities for those quality stocks you wished you had bought way back when they were so much cheaper. In a test of real life application, it gave me the historical perspective and confidence to jump in and buy at a time when everyone else was bailing out. It was largely responsible for my purchase of the two leading Internet portal stocks near their Oct 98 market crash lows; and my ability to buy the leading online "bookseller" (starts with an "A", and ends with an "mzN") at its exact bottom (less than a point) during the Feb 99 technology selloff. When applied to high quality growth stocks, "Panic Profits" offers you a fast, safe, and very simple (I love that word) approach to making big money in the stock market. Some gems of wisdom contained in this book: * "It's never too late to sell on a rally". * "Reflex rallies in the most hammered stocks offer ultra quick reliable profits". * "Rewards come from contrary action, not from sophisticated or complex strategy or analysis". * "IPO's & new ideas require more time, money, management, etc. than early investors ever expect". * "Recognize rolling declines of a bear market. Bear markets will bleed you to death - SELL!". * "Panic selloffs tend to periodically cleanse the market of weak money, and sets up for the next big advance". In my experience, the market sells off once or twice a year. "Panic Profits" will help you be prepared for the next big "opportunity", to see through your fear, and to act wisely (and profitably). It's simple. It works. I love this book.

I can appreciate the author's intent - to create a more comprehensive guide to the wildlife of a region that is sorely lacking in accesible information. It is a pioneering effort, and I am grateful that such guides are being attempted. But after reviewing the bird plates I became quite upset - this guide will lead to many misidentifications due to innacurate portrayals and information, as well as omissions. While I can understand the impossibility of covering all the living species in a large and diverse region, it would be nice if the ones chosen were depicted accurately, and reference was made to similar species occuring within other parts of the covered range. For just one example, plate 45 shows four species of Motmot as being the ame size and shape, when the Tody Motmot is HALF the size (and a very different shape) of the others. While this is indicated (in small print), anyone relying on the pictures could easily become confused. Beletsky list Howell's excellent "Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America" in his references, but he clearly should have been paying more attention! As to omissions, if an abbreviated list is desired in the interest of keeping this book accesible for the more casual enthusiast, it would have been far better to at least focus on the species most likely to be encountered. While some rarely seen species are included, many quite visible and common birds are left out! And how could Beletsky leave out the Boat-billed Heron? Not only is this species an icon amongst Mexican birds, but it is a favorite species for boat tour operators on both coasts to find for visitors! After seeing what the bird plates are like, how could I ever feel positive about identifying other wildlife using this book?
On the positive side, I will reiterate that I am glad that such books are being written. There is often no information available (in practical form) on tropical reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, etc. But I hope guides like this will get a whole lot better! Skimping on information for portability is not the answer. Accuracy should be far more important. In Beletsky's favor are the habitat photos, and coverage of ecotourism and conservation issues.

Simply, a terrific wildlife guide and the best of its kind for Mexico. Chapters provided detailed information (with photos!) of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals found in southern Mexico. Recommeneded for any serious student of biology or dedicated eco traveler.

This is the first repair manual I bought to assist me in restoring my '76 Bronco. While it provides an adequate overview of the vehicles it tries to represent, it does not offer enough info to be useful to the more experienced do-it-yourselfer. Additionally, the coverage of pre-'78 trucks is insufficient for a manual that claims to be "Based on a complete teardown and rebuild". The only info that seems to stand out as being particularly useful are the chassis electrical schematics in the back. This manual is fine as a (very) basic reference to keep in the glovebox; however, if you're looking to do something more involved than doing a tuneup or brakes, look for a set of factory service manuals.

As with most Haynes or Chilton manuals this book does give some useful information, step-by-step descriptions and nice diagrams. However it's sometimes a little vauge in it's descriptions. Also, as an early Bronco owner, this book only covers 1973 and later. This leaves 7 years of earlier production not covered.

Definitely a good reference, but I would also recommend finding an original factory Ford shop manual set. (5 book set usually found at swap meets or specialty automotive literature vendors)

This manual is an absolute essential for anyone who wants to work on an early ford bronco or 70's pick-up. It covers every topic from routine maintenance to engine and body repair. The content is based on a complete tear-down and rebuild of the truck. Although it is very technical subject matter, the wording is relatively simple where possible, and diagrams and photographs are very helpful. Information such as engine specifications and wiring diagrams are provided for individual year models where applicable. It does not discuss restoration explicitely, but the information it contains is as invaluable to the restorer as it is to the amatuer mechanic. In other words, this is truly THE book every early bronco owner should have on his shelf.

DC has reissued Batman: Contagion in the wake of it's mega-successful No Man's Land collections, and it serves as a good reminder of just WHY the Batman books needed to be shaken up so drastically in the first place...

Contagion revolves around an outbreak of "The Clench", a fictional Ebola offshoot, in Gotham City. Batman and company attempt to contain the spread of the Disease, while trying to track down a trio of survivors of a previous Clench outbreak, with the hope of synthesizing a cure/vaccine from their blood.

The book is very choppy, especially the first chapter, which appears to be heavily trimmed from it's original presentation in Batman: Shadow of the Bat. DC hasn't taken any steps to make their collections new-reader friendly, either, which could be a very big mistake. Longtime readers will know Oracle, Azrael, Nightwing, The Huntress, etc.; A new reader browsing this in a store would no doubt put the book right back on the shelf. The story has a few compelling moments, but for the most part it seems unnecessarily padded. Did we really need the Native American tracker? What did Biis contribute to the story? The writing is average at best; Most of the stories in Contagion were written by people who had long since overstayed their welcome on the Bat-books, such as Doug Moench & Alan Grant; The art ranges from okay to sub-par; Kelley Jones' chapter seems especially ugly thanks to poor color reproduction which mars his intricate pencils. The ultimate revelation of who is behind the spread of The Clench is sure to be a head-scratcher to new readers, since no background at all is offered to explain who these people are and what their motives are. DC really needs to get on the ball with their trade-paperback program; Preaching to the Choir is nice, but they need to try for new converts. Junk like Contagion is NOT the way to expand their readership......

In this history you can see a different Batman, one that found something he cant't fight. There was a virus and he can not trap it or take it to the justice. You can see a different Batman, not necesesary a dark one but a human,a man. I enjoyed it a lot!

I cannot believe why some people do not like "Contagion". Like Knightfall, Knightquest, KnightsEnd, Prodigal, and Cataclysm & No Man's Land, "Contagion" is an awesome book. It has Poison Ivy (drool), Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Huntress, Azrael, Catwoman, Oracle, Commissioner Gordon, the Penguin, and many other supporting characters like Alfred and Ariana.

This books probably isn't the best place to start for someone just becoming interested in either Alan Watts or in Eastern thought in general. However, for osmeone who is interested in Alan Watts, it is invaluable. It shows him just coming into his own as a writer - most of them were written when he was in his late teens and early twneties, and shows him strruggling to devlop his style and the finer points of his philosophy. THe introductory material is especially helpful

This museum is one of the jewels of Chicago and this book does a very good job of documenting this part of the museum's collection. There are other museums with larger collections of this type, but I think the authors did a great job of displaying this collection in the best "light" that they could. I learned a lot from this book as well as having a good-looking coffee table edition. I enjoyed finding out more about the particular artist and scene. Overall this book is probably geared for the average person that just wants to know the basis of the topic.

Published in England. Nicely done. Lots of illustrations. Text is very interesting. The only problem is: it is too short. You can read it completely in under 10 minutes. They should have included more kings and queens and more detail on the ones they did include. Its billed as being a children's book, but the names of some of the kings and queens were difficult for me and I have a master's degree.

Like so many of Steinbeck's other novels, The Red Pony is full of vivid imagery, raw emotion, and touching themes. However, unlike many of Steinbeck's other works, I found the Red pony to be a very unsatisfying novel. It has wonderful character and plot development, but it dosn't take us anywhere. We are introduced to the Pony, but it dies. Nothing is accomplished by its death. Each chapter of the story finishes like this. The reader is given very little completion at the end of eachc hapter and less at the end of the book. over all, the style was good, the plot development was good, the themes were powerful, but there was nothing to bring it together in the end. Of Mice & Men and The Pearl are both much more enjoyable novellas by Steinbeck.

Even though the book "The Red Pony", by John Stienbeck, was one of the saddest books I have ever read I would recommend it because the plot has many interesting turns and the theme is very emotional. "The Red Pony" was about a young boy, Jody, and his family who live on a ranch. The book consists of four short stories, each of which involves Jody learning a lesson of life. It is so tragic because in every story, something dies. In "The Gift" and "The Promise", two horses die, in "The Great Mountains" it is implied that Gitano committed suicide, and in "The Leader of the People" a part of Grandfather dies when he realizes that Westering has passed. When he realizes this, his whole motivation is gone, so a part of him is missing, or dead. My favorite story in "The Red Pony" was "The Promise", because I enjoyed the way Jody would imagine things about what he was doing on the way home from school, and about what the new colt would be like. Over all, I found this book very enjoyable, even though it was so melancholy.

John Steinbeck's "The Red Pony" is a group of four interconnected stories: "The Gift," "The Great Mountains," "The Promise," and "The Leader of the People." Each story focuses on Jody Tiflin, a 10-year old boy growing up on a ranch on the west coast of the United States. The other main characters are Jody's parents and the ranch hand Billy Buck. Also frequently appearing are the ranch dogs, Doubletree Mutt and Smasher.

"The Red Pony" is not a novel, so readers expecting the cohesion and unity of a novel will be disappointed. The book should, in my opinion, be evaluated for what it is. And once you appreciate its own peculiar structure, you may, as I did, acknowledge "The Red Pony" as a powerful and beautiful work of art.

Steinbeck masterfully captures the cycles of life, death, and renewal in the lives of both his human and animal characters. He creates vivid, often visceral scenes, that are written in a quietly powerful language. There are moving moments of joy, horror, and heartbreak. "The Red Pony" is a significant achievement by one of America's enduring literary giants.