This is a very well-written book for teachers. The author seems to know something about every subject that might be related to composition--the bibliography alone should be required reading for all prospective teachers; it's nearly 30 pages. I recommend this book very highly.

This is the most comprehensive book I've ever seen on composition and teaching. I mean, it has everything--psychology and writing, linguistics and writing, reading and writing. Also, the book goes way beyond theory and research to explain in clear language how an ordinary teacher like me can actually apply theory and research in the classroom. This is a really fine book, and I recommend it to everyone.

Although I loved the Rough Riders movie on TNT, they got the character Buckey O'Neill wrong. This book will set you straight on a forgotten hero, who did more in 38 years than most men would do in a life time. Just how far would he have gone had he not been killed at Kettle Hill? The next time that I'm on Whiskey Row, I will give a toast to William Owen O'Neill. This is a great book.

Dale L. Walker's biography of O'Neill, one of the early West's most fascinating figures, is richly drawn, authoritative, and distinguished. O'Neill is best known as one of the Rough Riders of the Spanish-American War, but Walker meticulously depicts all the other facets of this legendary Arizonan. This is surely the standard work on O'Neill.

All casebooks should be written as well as this one.

This book goes over in great detail of how to use Linux. It starts off basic, and works its way up to tackle the complex commands that most people overlook due to the commands limited use or complexity. (ie, EMACS, sed, awk, etc)

Since it starts off very basic, and explains how to use the basic system so that even a new computer user could start learning, you wouldn't think it also would be a great reference to the linux guru. I've been using Linux for about 5 years now, and I consider myself a Linux guru, and I DO find it very useful. The way it is organized into two parts (tutorials in one part, the lexicon which provides the lower level references, in another) allows for easy skimming for someone who just needs to look something up, or allow you to go through it and not get bored by reading a dictionary of terms and usage glossary.

America has always been cursed with opportunists willing to do business with dictators. The current crop of people willing to profit from China - from President Clinton's apparent cash payments from the Chinese secret police to Republican businessmens' use of near slave labor to boost their profits - have their antecedents in William Rhodes Davis, who made a fortune supplying Hitler with the oil to launch World War II. There were many mysterious things about Davis - his relationship to FDR, his role as a Nazi agent, even his death. Mr. Harrington doesn't, can't give us the answers to everything, but he does a brilliant job laying out the facts that are known. The author is both an investment banker and a sensible man. Both are necessary skills to bring to a book like this. As an investment banker, he is anexcellent guide through the thickets of financial manueverings. As a sensible man, he weighs the information carefully and allows the reader to draw his own conclusions. I have only one quibble: he mentions that Sir Harry Oakes became associated with Davis shortly before Davis' strange death. Oakes himself of course figured in a strange murder case in the Bahamas shortly thereafter. I would have liked the author to see if there was any connection between the cases. That is the minorest of quibbles, however, and readers of this book will be able to reflect on just how many facets history has.

Anderson's journal, diary and narrative are an insightful look into his personal experiences, observations and thoughts during the fur trade year of 1834. Describing the multitude of people, places and events along the soon to be Oregon Trail , I can see why many historians reference his book for this time period. In typical Dale Morgan fashion, the editing is extremely well done, meticulously picking his way mile by mile with Anderson. Also included is the "Galaxy of Mountain Men" which are short but pertinent biographies of forty five men who influenced and helped shape the fur trade and western expansion movement.

This book is a biography of a very interesting and persistent man, Dr. William Duncan Silkworth. Dr. Silkworth was a pioneer in the treatment of alcoholism in the early 1930's. The book's author Dale Mitchel does a fabulous job of researching Dr. Silkworth's background and detailing Dr. Silkworth's contribution to the treatment of alcoholism. It was one of Dr. Silkworth's patients who went on to form the basis of the most effective treatment of alcoholism today, Alcoholics Anonymous.
It was Dr. Silkworth who took the enormous gamble of allowing one of his recovered alcoholic patients, Bill Wilson, to act as a lay therapist on the alcoholism ward during the first few weeks of his sobriety. The gamble paid off and over time the concept led to the formation of AA.
Dale Mitchel felt that Dr. Silkworth did not get enough credit for his pioneering work, hence he set out to write the doctor's biography. But, how? Fortunately, Mitchel found all of Dr. Silkworth's personal papers in the possession of a niece of the doctor, Adelaide Silkworth. The result is not only a tribute to a great man, but also a very interesting story worth reading.

The Ronin tells the story of a masterless samurai who lives a violent, debauched life until one day he is made aware of the enormity of his crimes. As a sort of penance, he decides to dig a tunnel through a mountain which can only be crossed by a high and dangerous pass.
The book is based on a Zen koan (a problem which cannot be solved by logic, on which practitioners of Zen meditate in order to find enlightenment).
The Ronin is a fascinating book and many years later, I am still troubled by the tough questions that it posed, such as: are we only good because we have to be; is there justice in revenge; and can human beings ever really make up for the terrible things that they do?
This was my favourite book when I was in high school and although now that I am older and can see that there are a lot of weaknesses in the book, I still say that it has the best ending of any book I have ever read and highly recommend it.

I've been studying this culture for years, but this book is the best book I've read over here. It's not educational in the sense that you'll understand Japan more, but you will understand a little more about life afterward.

A rare book, dazzling prose, brutally graphic and yet alive with the subtlety and understatement appropriate to the Zen aesthetic. So good I read it twice in a row, starting over as soon as I had finished!

I can't count how many times I've watched "The Thin Blue Line" and how many times I've read this book. Like everything else I become interested in, I became OBSESSED with the Randall Adams case and wanted to know everything about it. Randall Dale Adams is - in my opinion - a living hero; I hope to meet him someday and shake his hand.

Adams' memoir (1976-1989) reads like a fictional suspense novel... it's hard to believe, but it's true! The book includes a lot of things that viewers of Errol Morris's documentary haven't seen... we see how improperly biased Judge Metcalf was, as he drives from the courthouse parking lot in the same car as the prosecutors, laughing at Adams' family as he passes them! That's appalling.

I highly recommend both this book and the documentary film "The Thin Blue Line."

Other reviewers have expressed curiousity about Randall's life after prison. Here's what I know:
At first, he was hounded by the press; they followed him everywhere. He traveled the college circuit, getting paid for telling his story. He co-wrote this book, and went on a publicity tour to support it (which took him, briefly, back to Texas). Eventually things quieted down and Randall tried to lead a normal life; he got a factory job in his native Ohio and had a brief marriage. Then a friend encouraged him to speak out against the death penalty, and he began again to publicly oppose capital punishment. During another trip to Texas to support a moratorium on the death penalty, he met an activist named Jill. Three weeks later, he moved from Ohio to (gulp!) Texas to be with her. They're now married and speaking out against the death penalty together...

Passing through a law and order phase in my reading life I came across Adams vs. Texas and have to say it was amazing. Adams vs. Texas is the story of a semi-drifter who, a victim of circumstances, was charged with the murder he didn't do of a man he didn't know and as a result comes up against the State of Texas as a murderer and faces death in the electric chair. His contact with investigators, lawyers, judges, wardens, other convicts, the press, a painfully deluded prosecutor, and the real criminal of the case are combined to make a powerfully compelling story, spanning over twelve years of trial, imprisonment, hardship and finally; triumph. In the midst of this ugly line of events Adams believes that God has him where he is for a purpose and in the end that is true, but it's sad one man had to make such a sacrifice and wonderful that he was able to.
The fact that the events in this book really happened to a man is incredible, but they are presented in such and honest, down-to-earth manner that makes it a real tribute to the man who both went through this experience and survived, both physically and mentally to tell his story. Wherever you are, Randall Dale Adams, I'm sorry they did that to you and you deserve all the happiness in the world. As for the rest of you--go read Adams vs. Texas and remember another, much larger, sacrifice made for you over 2,000 years ago and accept and cherish His gift to you: Life--forever

This is an extremely interesting book, it's all the narrative background behind the documentary film "The Thin Blue Line." I hope Adams is doing okay now. I'm certainly glad the truth was brought out, and that he was properly cleared and freed.

One point I found most interesting was Adams' sideline exploration of the fact that someone who opposes the death penalty cannot be excluded (for that reason) from the jury in a capital murder case. It seems that juries are supposed to be representative of society, and a significant portion of society DOES oppose the death penalty -- thus it is appropriate for people who think that way to be allowed to serve on a death penalty jury.

Most true crime books feature the life and times of the killer(s), with the victim portrayed as the unfortunate corpse in the first chapters. This book puts a human face on the victims.

Courtney's struggle and bravery are heartbreaking and inspiring. This book shows how a moment of senselss violence, which is usually given a brief amount of news coverage, actually has a ripple effect that lasts a lifetime. A must-read.

One of the best true crime I've read. You feel as though you become a member of the family. If you are not in favor of the death penalty you probably will be after reading this book. I guarantee you will not be able to put it down. It brings out all of your emotions, good and bad. Must read!!

Gary Kinder is definitely a practitioner of the old saying "don't tell them, show them." A former prosecutor, Kinder tries his hand at writing a true crime book about a boy with his whole life ahead of him who blunders into a horrific store heist, is seriously disfigured and left for dead by the robbers. His mother comes looking for him and is similarly tortured (in her case, fatally). Kinder reconstructs the ordeal of the victim (hence the title) almost minute by minute. He then takes you through the police investigation and trial of the criminals. But all the while, he keeps the spotlight on the victim, which sets this apart from most true crime books. He never editorializes or preaches. He lays out the facts in a clear yet compelling prose style and he lets them speak for themselves. Kinder teaches a Continuing Legal Education course on legal brief writing (I'd love to be a fly on that wall). And if you think this is a good book, you will also want to read his "Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea."