A sorry science fiction book (not a mystery novel in my judgement) not written by Ludlum but his name is on the cover to sell books (my viewpoint). The book takes advantage of todays terrorist threats and smallpox concerns to stir the readers interests but nothing in the book reflected the writings of Ludlum. I strongly suspect that Ludlum did not even write the outline for this book and the sorriest one, "The Paris Option".

I happened to like the Prometheus Deception, and therefore, fully expected to like this book too. Like the Prometheus Deception, you'll find action, suspense, and diabolical characters. However, unlike the Prometheus Deception, this book just didn't add up. It's more like a movie that you go to see that has so much action going on that you don't realize that there really is no compelling story until the end.

The plot was a familiar one and decent, but the events that took place -- at times, seemed a little far-fetched. There wasn't a lot of character development, but what was done was sufficient. However, the inclusion of characters from the earlier book seemed to be just to show continuity -- which isn't a bad thing, but it didn't seem necessary since there was no in-depth interaction among them. Despite its "faults", the book is entertaining enough to pass the time with and it is a decent read. And, there were some pretty good suspenseful scenes in the book that kept me on pins and needles.

If you read the book and don't expect the caliber of story you typically get from a Ludlum book, you'll be okay.

"The Cassandra Compact" is a very exciting and entertaining read. The plot sometimes stretches the bounds of credibility a bit much, but that is to be expected in an action-thriller like this. There are also times when Dr. Jon Smith (the protagonist) borders on becoming a superhero rather than a true character, but he is generally very likeable, if never quite realistic.

In the past I have read some of Philip Shelby's work and thought that he showed promise. I have been impressed by his skills as a wordsmith, but found his story ideas to be somewhat lacking. Combining his writing talents here with the imagination of Robert Ludlum, however, has produced a blockbuster of a novel. This is not great literature by any means, but it is an engrossing story that will definitely keep you turning the pages.

With his death earlier this year, Robert Ludlum left a huge void in the international suspense/thriller genre. Thankfully, we do have writers like Philip Shelby and Gayle Lynds who are eager to take up his mantle. If "The Cassandra Compact" never rises to the level of the best of Ludlum's work -- and it doesn't -- reading it is still a very pleasing way to pass some time.

--David Montgomery, Mystery Ink

This book outlines the excercise program designed for and endorsed by PGA & Senior PGA Tour. I found the exercises to be simple and designed to utilize those "golf" muscles I didn't know I had. I have followed the program and can feel a major difference in my strengh as it relates to golf skills. A scientific method I found very useful, which demonstrates excercises which where new to me.

And like fine wines, if you intend for things to turn out well in the long term, you have to set the starting conditions up right. Hospitals and clinics (and golf courses) are packed with people living in pain as a result of unwise swinging. Since it has long ago been determined that timing and flexibility, more than strength and aggression, are the keys to consistency and power in golf, you might be interested in an approach that prepares your body for just that. Simple, direct, and backed by valid research. This book will bring results. It is a great contribution to sports medicine. More pars to you!

This book contains the essential elements of an easy-to-follow how-to book. The authors explain the why, what and how clearly; and the use of pictures is most helpful. The authors are highly credible (orthopedic surgeons and physical therapists). I am 50 years old and a 16 handicapper who plays three or four times a month. The last 3 or 4 years, I had been experiencing lower back pain while playing and I had lost some distance from my game (ie - drives were traveling 210-220 rather than 240-250). A physical therapist started me on this books regimine five months ago. So far, the results are improved flexibility, better strength, no more back pain and some improved distance in shot length. The daily routine takes 30 minutes or less. I will continue to follow its program and look forward to more improvement.

After teaching a course at the community college level using this book (which I inherited, on short notice), I can honestly say that there must be better options for learning music fundamentals. I am examining other textbooks for next year, and can guarantee that Ottman's will NOT be among them.

Ottman seperates elements that would be best be consolidated (i.e. rhythmic elements). While he suggests an organizational scheme to reorder the book and keep elements together, the way the text is written would obliterate any benefit from doing so. Ottman's writing style is dry, and tends to be overloaded with advanced detail that is best left to a 1st-semester theory class. At times, Ottman can also come across as condescending towards the reader, which irritated my students (and this instructor) greatly.

Ottman also makes the mistake of assuming that everyone who is learning music fundamentals is familiar with, or interested in, classical music. The musical examples included in the book tend to be as dry as his writing style. Some folk songs are simply labeled with the country of origin; without the lyrics, they are just boring. Many other textbooks successfully integrate examples from popular music with the classical examples; this book would benefit from such an integration.

Not all is lost, as Ottman does a decent job with the Appendix, which looks towards serious study of music theory. He also does well with repetition within exercises. The book also includes a detachable keyboard card, which visually links each key with its representation on the grand staff. But generally, these features alone do not merit a recommendation.

This book will teach the practicing musician everything you they could possibly need to know about music theory and notation. As a beginner of music studies, I found it all a bit mind bending at first. My advice is to just hang in there and before you know it, the long words and scary looking notation sections will all make sense. I borrowed this book and am now trying to find a copy to purchase (that doesn't cost over $100 aus) as I know I shall be using it as a reference tool for many years to come. For the serious musician, it's a must have.

This slim volume is hardly a polished effort. In fact, it is crude in many respects: poorly written, a choppy narrative that flows in fits and starts and little effort to fully identify many of the persons whose names appear in this history which focuses on the Franklin Roosevelt years in the White House.

Nevertheless, what Mr. Walker writes about is fascinating. So fascinating, in fact, that the general reader may overlook, even forgive, the crudities.

Frank Walker, of good old Irish stock, was a Butte, Montana boy who rose to prominence in national affairs. Ultimately, he become an intimate and reliable confidant of President Roosevelt, a member of FDR's team of reliables. In gratitude for his effort, the President appointed him national chairman of the Democratic Party and for a time, Postmaster General of the United States.

A devout Catholic, he spent three years with the Jesuits at Gonzaga University in Spokane but then transferred to Notre Dame to study law. After a successful career as a lawyer and businessman, he helped New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt become President and followed FDR to Washington.

There, he was, you might say, a high-principled, soft-spoken henchman -- one who often did the dirty work for a politician who had no stomach for it. So when FDR had to inform former Senator James F. Byrnes that he did not want Mr. Byrnes but instead wanted Harry Truman as his vice president in the 1944 elections, FDR sent Frank Walker to do the job. FDR relied on Mr. Walker's nice way of doing such things.

The book is edited from dictated notes kept by Mr. Walker. Much of it reads like an old fashioned business letter. "Be that as it may" or "as I've said before" -- clichés such as those are sprinkled throughout; they even add a certain charm, as though we were listening to Mr. Walker talk about his fascinating experiences in high places.

I personally was intrigued by Mr. Walker's unconventional opinion of two renowned Supreme Court Justices: the "near-sainted" Oliver Wendell Holmes and the renowned Felix Frankfurter.

What did Mr. Walker think of these two justices and their proteges, the "so-called Harvard crowd"? They "did more damages to the New Deal and to Roosevelt than any other faction that came to Washington." He does not go into detail, unfortunately.

The walk through those times with Mr. Walker as the guide was a highly satisfactory visit to an important part of America's history. And Mr. Walker's final view of Franklin D. Roosevelt records his disappointment even though he concedes that no man in American history left a greater "impress on the nation than he." But, "I can say regretfully that to me Franklin Roosevelt was not the great man he could have been. To me he failed in becoming a truly great man."

Mr. Walker died in 1959. He is buried in the family plot at St. Patrick's Cemetery in Butte.

=pjr=

The excellent figures and concise text make this book very easy to learn from. Best used to gain a general overview of human anatomy, as many detailed strucutures are not examined thouroughly. Prepares the reader for further study of subjects presented.

Written in 1942 the story takes place in the "lost land" of Austrailia where overhead airplane flights are mysteriously pulled down by unknown forces. No one can penetrate the desert or the mountain pass that lead into the land. Heroin Ann Hunter is in search of her lost brother, with her is a man named Richard Varsey who is looking for diamonds and a German by the name of Hofer. Hofer wants the mysterious technology that believes is there so he can take over the world. "Is, is he a commie?" Ann asks at one point. The response was "Worse than that. He's an anarchist!"

There in the "lost land", all three meet Jongor, who proceeds to save them continuously. Jongor was born there, a product of parents who were in one of those overhead flights that crashed. Parents died, poor Jongor never finds his way out.

In general, you have dinosaurs, flying reptiles, ape men, mysterious technology, adventure and a happy ending.

A Tarzan and Allan Quatermain imitation but much less laborious than Burroughs, much less thoughtful than Haggard. I recommend this as it is an entertaining and easy read.

He commanded a mighty machine of thought and opinion; he thundered his views around the world -- and the world listened. For here was a man of mystery, vision and sometimes erratic action.

Colonel Robert R. McCormick was one of the most colorful, controversial, successful newspapermen ever known. But beyond this aura of greatness is an untold story of McCormick as a man. This book provides for the first time, a full-length biography.

Frank C. Waldrop tells this story of Colonel McCormick with skill; probing and pondering the mystery of an unusual man. Objectively, Waldrop traces McCormick from birth to death, bringing light to some of the unanswered questions about his background.

In scores of fresh and revealing anecdotes, a world of fascinating people is introduced -- those who knew McCormick, both his friends and his enemies, from presidents to potentates, from industrial giants to men of the underworld. Among the personalities who figured in McCormick's life and who are discussed here -- Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Mark Hanna, Richard Harding Davis, Winston Churchill, George C. Marshall and General John Pershing. And, the story behind the headlines -- the anti-trust suit against the Associated Press, the Tribune's handling of the Battle of Midway, McCormick's role in the Marshall Field decision to publish a paper, and McCormick's journalistic venture in Washington -- events affecting national politics and journalism -- are fully explored here.

Whatever you may know about the life of this extraordinary man, whatever opinions you may now hold, this story will leave you with a better understanding of McCormick the man, and the times in which he moved.

Being the owner of many other style and handbooks, e.g., MLA Style Manual, APA Style book et al; I must say that I was somewhat disappointed with this, i.e., The Modern Writer's Handbook by Frank O'Hare. Not being a fan of soft back books and finding this edition to be typed in too small font was not a good beginning. However, it goes downhill from that moment with uninteresting examples and crammed pages that seem to burst with all kinds of information except the information that you need at that particular moment (which in itself is a waste of time, since stylebooks and handbooks should be easy to use, i.e., finding how to use the semi colon correctly or how to cite a book or magazine article; and not scare the user of with a badly designed page layout and a poorly selected font). This book is adequate and serves its purpose well; however, when I compare with the other style books that I have read and examined, i.e., MLA Style Manual, APA Style book, I must say that I was somewhat disappointed.

This book is designed with the young student in mind, reaching for the ages that are starting their science in school and building a foundation for them to start with. It gives the basics of weighing and measurements, basic thermodyanmics (very basic, like evaporation in boiling), gravity, etc. A simplistic view of science for the beginner, not useful for adults or anyone who has the basics down. Suggested for grade school science teachers as an idea pool to convey how science can be demonstrated.

Let it be stated up front that this is a long, long book--one that ultimately does not reward the reader who makes it all the way to the end. Stone has attempted to craft work of ideas about faith and identity on the framework of a pseudo-millennial thriller (the book is set in 1992 or thereabouts), and the result fails in all areas. Firstly, there are a plethora of characters, very few of whom are developed into anything interesting, but almost all of whom have some odd background. Russian jazz club owners, Irish revolutionaries, rich Louisiana mystics, they're all here, along with the cliche cynical Western journalist to record it all. It's as if Stone wanted to create some sort of Graham Greenesque place where the flotsam and jetsam of the post-Cold War world have settled. One gets absolutely no sense that there are any ordinary people living in Israel or the Occupied Territories. Few people in this book speak like normal people, and everyone seems to be involved in some secretive group, cabal, or plot. That said, the thriller aspect of the book is a total disappointment, by the end it's hard to really care what happens. Indeed the best moments of tension come 200 pages earlier in a refugee camp on the Gaza Strip. Stone spends much more time on faith than he does actually creating any kind of interesting story, and that's where the book was a real bore for me. Much of the plot revolves around the semi-organized groups of religious weirdoes who are drawn to Jerusalem for obvious reasons. As an agnositc, it was very take any of the book's endless universalist, cabalistic, speechifing seriously. So many of the characters seem to be exceedingly childishly grasping and unthinking in their quest for spiritual enlightenment, that one is hard-pressed to care about them at all. And the central character's wrestling with his half-Jewishness is pretty stale stuff. His love affair with a jazz singer is telegraphed from miles away, proceeds enigmatically, and ends predictably. Why even bother? Indeed, much of the book seems to wander about to no purpose. Stone does provide detailed visual descriptions of people and places, but they never come alive, much like the book itself.

Robert Stone's Damascus Gate is a delightful mess. The basic plot line-a slowly uncovered plan to blow up the Temple Mount-is straightforward enough to serve as the main thoroughfare of the novel. But Stone takes the reader on so many winding side streets and dimly-lit alleys that he or she may soon feel like a lone tourist navigating through the maze of a medieval city in Europe. Stone stretches the thriller genre to its outer limits by stuffing his novel with the ambiguities of faith, the irrational polarities of Middle Eastern politics, and the mania of religion in Jerusalem. His novel, like its central character Christopher Lucas, draws very few conclusions about the surrounding enigmas.

If you are the kind of person who ventures off the main road, who seeks the mazes of ancient cities, who intentionally gets lost in the unfamiliar simply for the journey's sake, then you should read this book. The basic plot line is interesting enough, but it's the vivid mess of detours that make this book memorable.

Even though I was enthralled by Robert Stone's engrossing tale, I couldn't help stopping in my tracks time and again in order to re-read a passage and enjoy the sheer elegance of the author's style. Few authors can match this combination of storytelling skill, this amazing erudition and this control of the english language. If such a comparison means anything, I would suggest that Mr. Stone writes somewhat like a darker version of Robertson Davies. The book requires attention, but it generously rewards the reader who takes time to ponder the events as they unfold. The characters are richly described in nuanced tones, and the dialogues sound amazingly authentic. Highly recommended to everyone who loves a complex yarn dealing with difficult issues such as faith, fate, and the human condition. Definitely NOT recommended to action/adventure afficionadoes.