The author was in Armenia at a difficult but pivotal time. He was excited to be there, hardships notwithstanding, and maybe that's why the book was a good read: the author's excitement rubs off on the reader.

He recalls his adventures, his meetings (with top officials and starving farmers alike), and his impressions. We see a country coping with the collapse of its economy, two years after the breakup of the Soviet Union: for example, a cheese shop full of cheese that turns out to radioactive, dumped from Chernobyl; or waking up, lighting a kerosene heater, and waiting for water in the teapot to thaw before eventually boiling.

In the background there is war between neighboring Azerbaijan and the Armenian enclave of Karabagh. We get a look behind the scenes. In one chapter, we are told that according to U.S. and French intelligence reports, Turkey was planning an invasion of Armenia. The suggestion is alarming, and certainly worth looking into.

All-in-all, a worthwhile book.

Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos, the author of Caucasus Chronicles: Nation-Building And Diplomacy In Armenia, 1993-1994, was appointed Greek ambassador to the newly independent Armenia in 1993, entering the country as an ambassador at a pivotal moment when world powers were just starting to struggle for a new world created by the collapse of the Cold War. Caucasus Chronicles provides a survey of nation-building and diplomatic processes in the newly independent Armenia from 1993-94, providing excellent first-person insights.

Asclepiades of Samos and Leonidas of Tarentum set the course that later Greek epigrammatists would follow when choosing subject matter. To Asclepiades, the epigram was a vehicle for personal feeling; for Leonidas, the epigram was broader, and dwelt often on suffering that attends the poor and destitute. Their combined poems barely exceed eight hundred lines.

Clack's translation and annotated text well serve the reader with an interest in Hellenic culture as expressed in the epigram. This wonderful edition is enhanced for the student of Greek language and ancient Hellenic culture with a Greek text, with same-page grammatical and vocabulary notes, index of proper names, and a list of sources for the poems.

Bookwatch (August, 1999)

He looks like a famous playwrite of long ago, thus his nickname of Bill. He solves murders, so he won't be arrested himself, and he has help from a very odd assortment of characters. When all else fails he thinks of "Cannae" (where the Romans were torn to "shreds" by the army of Hannibal) and everything comes out alright. It's funny, it's witty and you find you wouldn't mind finding a body in your own garage done in with a pickaxe if only you had half the fun the people in this book do.

If you loved the 'screwball comedies' of the Golden Age of movies, and/or the cliff-hanger endings of the weekly serials from about that same era, you should truly appreciate the Leonidas Witherall books by Phoebe Atwood Taylor, written under the pen name of Alice Tilton.

This particular story whizzes by so rapidly, you'll find yourself struggling to catch your breath from the hustle-bustle, while laughing uproariously at the same time. The truly amazing part of it (at least to me) is that there are 218 pages in this book, and all the action takes place in less than 24 hours! Amazing!

Leonidas is a William Shakespeare look-alike, and indeed, is frequently known as 'Bill Shakespeare'. His business persona is that of proprietor/headmaster at Meredith Academy, a prestigious boys school in Dalton, Mass., a suburb of Boston. The time is in the early 40s while the war is still being waged in both the east and the west. When Leonidas is not engaged in school activities, he is the author of the famous Lieutenant Haseltine adventure novels, written as Murgatroyd Jones. What with his own adventures, plus researching those of the good lieutenant, it's probably safe to say that, apparently, he knows every policeman in the state of Massachusetts, and a good many other states, as well.

When a huge deep-freeze is delivered to his home, Leonidas is determined that it is in error, and thus sets in motion the Harold Lloyd/Buster Keaton/Keystone Kops type non-stop action. As the freeze makes its way from house to house to school, he is visited by a lovely young blonde with violet eyes, the very personification of every man's birthday wish. Of course, it isn't his birthday, but the beautiful young lady in the gorgeous white gown and a corsage of violet-colored orchids is nonetheless positive she's at the right house.

In the meantime, the next door neighbors are moving, and the new family seems rather intrusive. And then there's Ernest Finger, or is he really Carlos Santos, and why does it appear that he's on everyone's 'most hated' list?

Leonidas and Terry (the blonde whose real name is Terpsichore!), his housekeeper Mrs. Mullet, and a cast of assorted folks as quirky and interesting as anyone could wish for, combine to make this one sensible, if breath-taking reading experience. I could barely stand to put it down, even though other duties beckoned. What fun! M'yes, indeed. If you've not previously made the acquaintance of Leonidas, I urge you to do so. The sooner the better!

The author describes in vivid detail how the governments of Turkey in the period 1955-1964 exercised a Nazi-like policy of terror against the Greek inhabitants of the city of Istanbul causing an exodous of major proportions, which led to the destruction of this vibrant community. On the night of 6-7 September 1955, the government organized a massive pogrom (destructive riot) against all the Greek inhabitants, causing major economic destruction of thousands of businesses, homes and churches. In 1964, thousands of Greeks were expelled from Turkey, having been forced to leave behind all of their property.

A deeply moving misadventure. In getting lost, these three men discovered the soul of Labrador as well as the true meaning of friendship and survival. This book is a classic.

I have read this book several times, and would recomend it to anyone that enjoys an adventure story. I enjoy it even more than most as Leonidas Hubbard was my grandfathers first cousin.This book has been almost required reading in our family,(Hubbard).I hope the publisher will reprint it as we have many family members looking for a copy of the book.

I have read a lot of teen adventure books. I recently read this one while I was on a rugged boys canoe camp trip. We went on a 7 week trip with 12 men to labrador. I purchased this book because it was nonfiction and it was saying how these 3 brave, adventurous men took a trip similar to the area i'll be going to. It talked about how mothernature just (threre's really no word for it but...)Destroys these people and they fight back with courage and hope in succeeding this raw adventure. The three in progress of there adventure take care of eachother and keep eachother alive nad in this doing they become better than great friends almost brothers. I really don't want to ruin the book for you, but i suggest so strongly that you get a copy of this book, and oh yea the beginning of the book really is boring because it tells you of how they got to labrador in 1902 (they didn't have cars).

I personally found the *gritty* style of this book annoying. I knew it was an intimate look at the circumstances surrounding the disasterous Hubbard expedition and the subsequent journey undertaken by his wife Mina, but this account reads more like a 1950s pulp novel or a Louis L'amour western. The prose is choppy and entirely too chatty, sinking at times to a veritable nadir of banality: "George stepped off the Williamstown train, feeling like a fox ready to have his heart pulled." (whatever hell that means), or "...a lot of trappers weren't interested in the idea of foolin' with someone dead" (too folksy). In short it's a slipshod narrative history written in the vein of an adolescent adventure story.

This is a fabulous narrative of a wilderness adventure, like many others filled with the hazards adventurers encounter when they stray far from home. What makes the story unique is not a side-bar intrigue of romance and mystery but a deep underlying question about human motivation, relationships and dreams - as lived through the minds and bodies of the adventurous. The story is told with skill and grace - and is spellbinding.

From two of the men who brought us "The Complete Wilderness Paddler" (a marvelous book in itself), this is a must read, preferably while you yourself are tucked comfortably at camp, or in the tent waiting out the storm, or late at night by the oil lamp. You won't miss with this one.

Parks has written a solid bio of "The Fighting Bishop" in this work first published in the 1960s. This book delves into Polk's family history, his days at West Point, how he got into the priesthood, his days as a bishop, his friendship with Jefferson Davis & Albert Sidney Johnston, and his feud with Braxton Bragg, among others. One sore point of the book, however, is that Parks has a great deal of respect for Polk and therefore hardly ever criticizes any moves made by Polk even though Polk is widely known as a below-average corps commander. Still, this a good bio (one of the few on Polk) and very much worth reading if you are interested in Polk.