As a sailor who relishes using a shallow draft boat to explore remote water passages, I thoroughly enjoyed Five Fair Rivers by Robert DeGast. His modest 21' sailboat with 4" draft brought him up the rivers on the lower western shore of the Chesapeake Bay to for a close-up investigation of the both the historical aspects of the Virgina Tidewater and their current state. DeGast's writings reminded of Tom Horton, another good writer who has poked about the Chesapeake Bay and shared observations about this fascinating estuary. Thoroughly recommended for all small boat explorers and those interested in the natural history of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

It's 1:15 in the morning and the lonely sound of a train horn sounding as it crosses through Addison, Texas about a mile from my home floats through the air. I've just finished James R. Fair's book "The Louisiana and Arkansas Railway: The Story of a Regional Line" (Northern Illinois University Press; 1997) and memories of my childhood are fresh in my mind.

Like myself, Fair's association with the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway began early in life. First encountering the line in his early teens, Fair had the opportunity to extensively research the history of one of the few railroads to remain profitable throughout its 100 year history. As Fair notes in his introduction, the history of the L&A is the story of three men and their second careers in railroading. It is also the story of the birth of three small railroads, their consolidation and the eventual purchase and absorption of the railroad by its corporate parent.

For a thorough history it is an easy! book to enjoy in an evening. Though it is the story of the railroads, the book gives insights into the development of the communities in the rural southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana region. William Edenborn, a wire and steel magnate, built a railroad from Shreveport to New Orleans starting in 1897. He later bought the railroad across east Texas from Jefferson to McKinney. William Buchanan, a timberman, built a railroad from his sawmill in Stamps, Arkansas south into the woodlands. His original L&A put my little hometown of Taylor, Arkansas on the map in 1895. Both men started their railroads late in life. They built their lines without shareholders or loans and ran them as personal businesses. Both died in the 1920's as changes to the world and the north Louisiana/ southern Arkansas region presented significant challenges.

The third member of the triumvirate was Harvey Couch of Columbia County, Arkansas. He started his career in the railroad post office in 1898.! He soon moved to utilities, building telephone companies a! nd later electric companies, eventually creating Arkansas Power & Light. Near his 50th year, Couch led a group that bought the Louisiana and Arkansas and Edenborn's two railroads from heirs to build the new Louisiana and Arkansas.

In the depths of the depression, Couch built and improved his railroad to eventually stretch from New Orleans to Dallas. The original L&A line north from Shreveport through Minden, Louisiana to Hope, Arkansas remained profitable.

Fair chronicles the lives of these men and their personal involvement in the building and operation of these railroads. He presents the story in a concise, easy to read format, but provides depth into the personalities of the men and their creations. He also covers the corporate age of railroading as Couch takes over the Kansas City Southern and makes the L&A a wholly owned subsidiary. His coverage of the changes to railroading in the period after World War II is not as extensive, but he provides insight in t! o how the railroad was uses as a cash cow and allowed to deteriorate. Fair also tells the story of the rebuilding of the KCS in the 70's and 80's and the end of the L&A as a separate entity. It is an interesting story, not just to someone who was born and raised not a quarter-mile from the railroad, but to anyone wanting to understand the history of the region.

The L&A brought my grandfather and his family to Springhill, Louisiana, where he served as station keeper for several years. The railroad provided my other grandfather with an outlet for the cotton he raised sharecropping and winter employment in the logging industry. It took my father to war in 1943 and made possible the papermill that employed both my parents in the late 40's and early 50's. My first ride on a train was on the L&A, near the end of its passenger service in 1962. I grew up to the sound of train whistles and clacking wheels. I noted with a certain sadness the end of service on the original ! line in 1989, and the recent dismantling of the right of wa! y.

Fair is a professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas in Austin not a historian, but he has written a work that any historian would be proud to author. This is his second railroad history, and is completely footnoted, indexed and with an impressive bibliography.

I thank him for providing an insight into the people and institutions that help shape my early years.

A fantasy set during the time of King Edward III, it is a complex tale involving magicians, dragons, goblins, the plague, and court intrigue. The author has invented history only casually related to real history. Overall, it is an interesting story but sometimes drags in long scenes which may seem peripheral to the main plot. Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent, puts in an appearance in a secondary role. It seems unlikely that Edward III would have had an illegitimate half-brother as his father, Edward II, was gay and not known to have mistresses. The real power behind the throne was the Black Prince's younger brother, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (events would eventually lead to the War of the Roses between the Houses of York and Lancaster).

The author oversimplifies the relationship between Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent, and Edward, the Black Prince, by calling them cousins. Joan's father, Edmund, was both a half brother of Edward II and a cousin of Edward II's wife, Isobel of France (who contrary to the motion picture, never had any contact with Wallace). A grand-daughter of Joan and Sir Thomas Holland would marry John Beaufort, a nephew of Edward the Black Prince, and a daughter of that marriage would later marry King James I of Scotland with descent to the present royal family.

I just wanted to let it be known that The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent, is not, as stated by Marc Ruby in his Oct. 17 review, the fourth book in Gordon Dickson's Dragon Knight Series.

It is actually the NINTH book in the series. It may only appear to be the fourth due to the fact that Tor only included in the list of previous books those which had been published by Tor. The rest of the series was published by Ace Fantasy, with the exception of the very first book, The Dragon and the George, which was published by Del Rey in 1976.

Essentially, I just didn't want anyone to miss any of the books out of this wonderful series. Happy reading!

By habit I read more than one book at a time. It keeps me from getting bored, and sometimes the odd juxtaposition of ideas gives me something unique for a review. Right now I'm reading a horror story so bad I regret agreeing to review it and a mystery story that makes too great an effort to be literature. It's slow going at best. The third volume is (or rather, was) this, Gordon Dickson's fourth in his dragon series. It took me exactly three days to read this hefty (500+ page) small print book from cover to cover, and I am not a speed reader. The other books just had to wait.

What makes Dickson so good that he has managed to author two major series (the dragon series and the Dorsai series) and innumerable other novels and collections? Personally I would call it superior plot making, intense dedication to details, and yes, heaps of talent. Dickson always takes the necessary time to draw his characters out fully, be they James Eckhart the knight/apprentice mage/sometimes dragon who is the hero of the story or the lowly master carpenter who keeps James in everything from chairs to outhouses. And he goes to know end of trouble to make sure that the reader painlessly acquires enough 14th century lore to make sense out of the goings on.

This volume finds James at Malencontri, his castle, trying to cope with both a plague of Plantagenet nobility and the very real plague which is advancing into James part of England. In addition, Carolinus, James mage master (one of the three AAA+ mages in the world, he'll have you know) is insisting that the King be protected at all costs. The Plantagenets on hand are Prince Edward the Fourth, the king's son and the beautiful Countess Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent. All they want is James assistance in a plot to make Edward the Third fond of Edward the Fourth again. This plot becomes ever more complicated until James finds himself commanded to appear before the King at Tiverton, where Edward III has retired to avoid the plague in London.

While this complexity develops James works overtime to prepare Malencontri against the plague. Since James and his wife Angie are actually visitors from our time who were unexpectedly thrust into the 14th century of an alternate earth, they know something of germs and disease protection. Since magic will not work on diseases, it is this knowledge which it their only hope. In the midst of all this confusion and stress, the EcKharts, their closest friends and Hob (the castle hobgoblin) are off to Tiverton to see the King.

Thanks to Hob, James is able to discover that an evil plot is afoot at Tiverton. Goblins, who are spreading the plague in order to take over the world, have slain the real castle staff and are now running it in disguise. James, due to his commitment to keep the king alive, goes into action. Since this is less that a third of the way into the book, it should be no surprise that Jim manages to use a small handful of men and knights (plus the unstoppable Hob and his buddy the hob of Tiverton) to completely mop up the Goblins and airlift everyone to Malencontri. Unfortunately James comes down with both the plague and magickal exhaustion simultaneously. Does he survive? Of course! Does he spend the rest of the book frantically trying to save Malencontri and the rest of England? You bet, but I will leave the rest of the plot for the reader to discover.

With this, fourth, volume in the series, it is getting a bit harder to simply pick up a volume and follow along. First of all you keep getting the feeling that you have missed several really good books, which you have. Secondly, there is simply too much background after three solid novels to present enough information to the reader. This isn't all bad though, you will get to read several very good fantasy tales. And if you do wind up reading it first, you will still love it enough to come back to read a second time. Highly recommended.

Bovard clearly expounds on the fact that our very own government is hiking the prices of consumer goods through the vehicle of trade restrictions. Via anti-dumping, quotas, arbitrary tariffs, and other forms of trade restrictions, America is violating the very principle of the free market that it worships. Full of countless statistics and facts (look at the number of footnotes), Bovard belabors his point beyond the threshold of absurdity.

Bovard does a great job exposing protectionist idiocy, and his writing style makes a somewhat dry subject interesting.

I bought the book because Bovard clearly wasn't one of the two-week Okura Experts. For those not familiar with the local jargon, Okura Experts are Washington, D.C. appointees who run our trade policy based on a two week stay at the Okura, a luxury hotel near the American Embassy in Tokyo.

Like me, Bovard has been in the trenches and seen trade issues in Japan face-to-face. If you are willing to discard your media managed notions about how Japan cheats and is unfair on trade and look at the whole picture, this book is well worth the read.

Bovard is neither an apologist nor a basher, but I'll guarantee that if you read this book, you will never look at trade issues in the same way again.

James Carville and Mary Matalin (with a rather large assist from Peter Knobler) take the reader behind the scenes of the Clinton and Bush 1992 Presidential campaigns.

The incredible behind-the-scenes details are great, and, as a Clinton supporter, it's nice to relive the highlights (Bush being followed by a guy in a chicken suit, Pat Buchanan). I don't know if Bush supporters will enjoy this book as much, although they might enjoy the Matalin sections.

The only sour note comes from Matalin herself, who refers to the Clinton campaign as "Clintonistas" and continually harps about the media's (alleged) distortions of Bush and his record, and genuinely, truly seems to despise Bill Clinton. By contrast, Carville is generous to the Bush campaign.

All in all, a political junkie's dream.

For anyone interested in how opposites attract and presidential campaigns are won or lost, "All's Fair" is one of those "must-read" books well worth the time spent in its somewhat long 478 pages.

With able assistance from Peter Knobler, America's favorite political odd couple of James Carville and Mary Matalin explain how they kept their relationship together while simultaneously working against each other's professional goals.

As you may recall, the Democratic Carville helped manage President Clinton's successful bid for the White House in 1992, while Republican Matalin was a major figure in the reelection campaign of President Bush. The two have since appeared frequently as commentators on NBC's "Meet the Press," and even in an antacid commercial

In this account, however, Carville and Matalin avoid most of the pitfalls of the typical partisan memoir by using an even-handed "he said/she said" approach that usually provides equal time for these two very different people. Although the subtitle is "Love, War, and Running for President," those looking for intimate, melodramatic details of their weird alliance will be disappointed. Both Carville and Matalin do an admirable job of maintaining their individual dignity and conjugal privacy. Indeed, 80 percent of "All's Fair" is about the difficult business of public life. Only 20 percent concerns their personal feelings. And yet, that 20 percent gives this story a human dimension often lacking in more conventional election histories.

This book makes several other things clear:

* Carville may be the more colorful and quotable media critic (he has very valid points about pack-journalism, polls, and press self-indulgence) but Matalin is far more astute and perceptive about how the editorial news-gathering process operates. She understands how reporters try to be fair; he jokes darkly about "feeding the Beast."

* Matalin tends to get bogged down in political minutiae. At least in the '92 race, Carville had a better gut instinct for how the average voter feels and thinks.

* Women still are not getting the freedom and respect they deserve in their careers. It's obvious that, at the office, Matalin had to deal with the stigma of her association with Carville to a much greater extent than Carville ever was questioned about Matalin. There is definitely an unfair double-standard in effect.

* Maybe the best chapters are those that cover "a day in the life" of each organization. It's there that you really get a sense of the fears and hopes all those civic-minded campaigners had as they struggled to sort out a daily flood of information overload.

* If this brilliant husband-and-wife team can ever agree on a candidate, watch out! He (or she) will win in a landslide.

James Carville and Mary Matalin are always entertaining to watch on television, no matter what they're talking about, so there was no way this book could have been anything less than massively entertaining. It works outstandingly on two different levels -- first of all, it's a blow by blow of the 1992 presidential election, with a lot of the background scuttlebutt and the inside information. You get a real sense of how disarrayed the Bush campaign was, how amazingly the Clintonistas got over some of their hassles. Secondly, though, it's a profoundly in-depth look at the way in which two people who supposedly could have nothing in common develop love, and in that sense it's very touching. James Carville's puppy-dog slavishness to Bill Clinton reads a little off-key now that Big Bill is coming to the end of his eight controversial years (Monica was still in the future when this book was written), but all in all this is a wonderful book.

This is one of the few book dealing with three components distillation. The subject of this book is actual for solvent recovery, pharmaceutical plants, fine chemical industries. It is recommended for professionals in these fields and for graduates with a strong background on distillation.

The gang is out having fun at the county fair. Shaggy and Scooby are selected to be judges for some pie eating contests. While doing their "testing" and unexpected visitor shows up, the ghost of Revolutionary War Hero General Sherwin Todey. When the lady who runs the fair is turned into a ghost and disappears, most of the gang suspects something foul is afoot and wants to investigate.

Like the rest of the books in the series, this book is filled with pictures and is not difficult to read. There isn't too much of mystery that can happen at a fairground, so the story isn't as engaging as some of the other books in the series. Nevertheless, it's a blast to see Scooby and Shaggy as pie contest judges. A wonderful book for beginning readers and Scooby-Doo fans.

My econ professor consistently instructs us to approach the topic of economics from an objective standpoint. This is the most slanted economics text I have ever read. No way people actually use this book in a classroom setting! I got through half of the book before I had to toss it out because it totally distorts the rational economic theories that I have learned throughout college. I am neither liberal or conservative, but a realist who understands enough about economic history to know that there is more than the one-sided arguments that are presented here.

The Field Guide is a pointed critique of the US economy, and in fact IS well referenced with clear citations for all its statistics (see pages 213-222). Most of the information is culled either from government sources or from the corporations themselves, as printed in publications like Business Week, Fortune, and the New York Times. And when there are comparisons made they're relevant; for example, comparing industrialized nations and developing countries exclusively.

What's best about the Field Guide is that it's a clever resource for fighting off all those people who would tell you "I don't believe it." As the title would suggest, The Field Guide provides you with the tools so you too can find and understand economic information yourself. From pages 194-212 you'll find the 'Toolkit', which has neat things like explanations of how to collect your own information and make graphs. Fun stuff.

The Field Guide helps fight the obfuscation of corporate shills.

I love this book. It's a terrific, easy-to-read source ofinformation about the US economy, giving careful attention to economic realities for women, people of color, poor people, and everybody else whose individual net worth is under Bill Gates' $90 billion. (It's estimated that the cost of providing education, health care, adequate food and safe water for all the people of the earth is about $40 billion - I read it in the Field Guide!)

This book is an outstanding resource on the economics of everything from elections to health to the environment to gender to the global economy, kept reader-friendly by cartoons, swift wit, and a great guide to sources for more information (complete with web addresses!).

Chapter 1, sentence 2: "The West had long privileged scopic enterprises and visual modalities, and by the mid-nineteenth century an observational visualist hegemony became a persistent focus of modernism in social, scientific, and aesthetic endeavours - and certainly of anthropology." The photgraphs are new and wonderful; Professor Faris's text is no match for them. First, it is largely unreadable (see sample above). Second, what I could read was tediously PC (that "hegemony" should have tipped me off!). Third, it adds very little to my knowledge of the "juxtaposition of cultures" as promised on the dust jacket. Where was the editor who should have read this manuscript with an active red pencil? Ok, perhaps this is just an extreme example of scholarly writing - not intended for the general reader like myself. If so, too bad. Professor Faris has succeeded in turning a tremendously interesting selection of photographs into a book that is dense and unenlightening.