I read this book several years ago and it has been one of the most memorable "trips" ever taken. Their enthusiasm and naivete bring one along for the ride. Their descriptions of Chinese village life and interactions with peoples who had never seen a "white man" let alone a bicycle are truly unforgettable. Anyone who has ever ventured off the well trodden path can appreciate and participate vicariously with their adventures. Readers who have never ventured into the unknown will not believe this did, or could, happen!

One of the most memorable books I have ever read. JFF and two friends cycle around the world on Rover Safety bicycles between 1896 and 1899. Their adventures are spectacular. They carried a couple of guns which got them into trouble. The countries I remember best were Bulgaria, China, Japan and the USA. Nearly 600 pages of adventure. John Foster Fraser wrote a number of travel books and I have heard critisism that there is some exagerration employed. He visited Australia and the Panama Canal Zone but I found these books ordinary. True or not Around the World on a Wheel must rank as the greatest cycling book of all time.

This is one of my favorite books from childhood. The poems in it are so witty and gross and totally entertaining for adults and kids alike.

This collection of scary poems includes poems about a dark, dark cave with a giant troll waiting to swallow any visitors, a bone-less creature that slides its agile body through keyholes and under doors to feast on the bones of children who stay up too long in the middle of the night, a carnivorous white fog that smothers anyone who comes near it, a horrifying breakfast scene where your parents have their bodily features removed and replaced, a particularily haunting tale that shows of a careless kid who walks in acid rain and has his body slowly dissolved into tiny bits, a shocking tale in which a swarm of mosquitoes suck the blood out of a spoiled girl who would scream at her parents, a poem about a many-legged creature under you stairs that will devour and torture anyone who wakes up in the night for a snack, and other poems that will definitely chill your child to the bone. (Need I say any more?)

If you are considering buying this great book, make sure that your child is mature enough to handle the severity of this book. Your kid could have reoccuring nightmares (or worse) if he/she comes across any of these poems...

The agriculture industry in North America has been badly misunderstood for many years by Government officials and consumers alike. "The Land That Feeds Us" sets out to correct that grievance and does so very well, with numerous farmers' stories from the major agricultural sectors. Hart's prose is colorful enough to engage the casual young reader and has insights to spare for the professional. This book should generate new (and overdue) respect for the farmer and reform of the systems involved in the production of food and cash crops.

This beautiful book is filled with many black and white artist quality photos of Baryshnikov and his dancers, during his tenure as head of the ABT. He was at his prime, and the photos are particularly beautiful. Most are candid, backstage or in rehearsal, and you can see his grace even when he is standing around in sweats watching others. The combination of photos and great backstage stories gives this book a place of honor in my dance collection. A wonderful document of a past beautiful time and a must for any Baryshnikov fan as well.

The Kids are Gone, The Dog's Depressed and Mom's on the Loose is a slender book of Shelley Fraser Mickle's musings on the changes in life brought on by children growing up and leaving home. She doesn't dwell on the loss, rather she casts a bemused eye on the household left behind. There is also a decidedly Southern leaning in these stories, detailing a slower pace of life, and the southern obsession with "who do you belong to?"..She returns to the days of carpools and I could just see my mother at the wheel of her station wagon....ready to go. She writes of the ties we forge and the tests they undergo, the memories that an "empty" house evokes. A wonderful book to share with someone who may be entering this phase.

This book would make a terrific gift for Mom on any day. Any mother can see herself in the funny observations of life that Shelley Mickle has presented.

It made me laugh outloud repeatedly!!

These essays focus on the mudane,but wildly humorous world of a mom whose kids have gone and whose dog is depressed. The first essay, Blue Dog, is typical as the author tries to placate a household pet who misses his usual outings with two schoolchildren, now off to college. She recounts her adventures in surviving halloween parties, school programs and buying a first suit for her son. A group of the essays deal with her childhood in a small Arkansas cotton town where everyone is related to someome else and being constantly asked "You're Whose?"

My favorite essay is called "Long Distance Christmas." Here Ms Mickle describes correspondence with an Arkansas grandmother who condense down all her communications to a few cryptic words like an Xmas call that went: " Saturday. Pecans. Fruitcake. And Metholatum." Translated that meant the grandmother would arrive on Saturday, bringing a sack of pecans and a fruitcake and that she had a cold. Once she called her granddaugher then living in Boston and said" "Bare bark. Horseraddish. Mincemeat. And get home." So her grandmother was telling her that all the trees in the yard had lost leaves; that she had some fine shrimp and was making horseraddish suace to dip them in; that she was baking a mincemeat pie; and that she missed her granddaughter.

All of them are funny and touching and filled with a warm wisdom that comes from loving life and the people that surround you.

Another great Flashman read, although certainly no where near as clever or funny as some of the early in the series. Some very interesting historical information as always, and Flashman is inserted into history rather well. But the scope/focus of the book is a little to narrow, and the main focus of the book really not all that interesting from a late 20th Century reader's perspective. Flashman's ideaology seems to come out rather more in this book, and its a bit of a worry from an experienced Flashman reader's point of view that he *has* one! :-) I'm looking forward to the book which details Flashy's exploits (or lack of them) in the US Civil War - I hope that will set the standad as a real Flashman classic.

As a dedicated Flashman fan since discovering the first in the series in 1974, I was disappointed. I had, of course, both to read it and have a hardback copy for my collection, but I hope Mr. Fraser isn't running out of steam or humor. Neither of the two immediately previous books (Dragon and Mountain of Light) were especially funny, but they were both fascinating and satisfying without being as contrived as this one is. I think I disliked (relatively speaking) this one for the same reason I disliked (relatively speaking) Royal Flash: it was very contrived. One great thing about the Flashman series has always been the ease and seamlessness with which Mr. Fraser has inserted our protagonist into history. Perhaps this is a preliminary to his book about Flashman in the Civil War, which I've been waiting for for what seems like forever, probably since reading Flashman's Who's Who entry in the first book. I hope Mr. Fraser writes that book next and that he does all he can to make it worth a twenty-three-year wait.

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord was my introduction to writer George Fraiser and "his" character, Harry Flashman. I was impressed and pleased. Impressed with Frasier's scholarship (the fictional Flashman's interactions with real historic persons and events is accurate, as his extensive endnotes demonstrate). Pleased with the irreverant, wholly unconventional and most certainly un-PC character of Harry Flashman.

In the Angel of the Lord, Flashman - a scandalous character "resurrected" from the 19th century novel Tom Brown's Schooldays and a self-described "bully, poltroon, cad, turncoat, lecher and toady" - finds himself aiding John Brown in his raid at Harper's Ferry. Conspiracies abound with several factions enlisting the "assistance" of Flashman to either foil the attempt or help pull it off. The misadventures of Harry Flashman as he navigates the intrigue and double-dealing combined with the Fraiser's rapier-like wit and irreverant style had me riveted to the story line while laughing out loud. I will certainly read the remainder of the "Flashman Chronicles" and I recommend this one highly.

John Fraser's book is an easily accesibly, non-scholarly overview of the terrible events that occurred during China's arguably darkest period in it's 3,000 years of history. He avoids the objective by-stander point of view and is able to draw the reader to the story and the Chinese people. Simply must-read for anyone interested in understanding China.

This is a pretty good history of the Hanovers and their two immediate descendants. There are alot of pictures, and fairly short biographies of each of them. The book is very informative and a very quick read. I just wish that these biographers would realize that not all of us speak French, there are never any translations. Latin I can read, but French is beyond me, and I would guess, alot of other people.

I often ponder the meaning of life. I often consider what experiences I might accomplish over the course of my life. And I also consider those experiences I hope not to accomplish. Certainly, I wish reading Locke's essay had been on the latter list. This book is an exhibition of human wastelandism. If your hope is to become truly stupider, I suggest you read this breakthrough in stupidity and worthless Babel. And then eat the book. And then vomit the book up, and burn the book/vomit. And vow never to read another one of Locke's filth-bombs.

John Locke's 1698 "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" is one of the foundational texts of Western philosophy. It is a phenomenal enquiry into how and why people become functional individuals. Bringing into philosophy a developmental model of personal becoming, Locke drilled pre-Berkeleyan common sense into a growing capitalist nation, one which was already moving away from the absolutist model of government and viewing self in the world espoused by Thomas Hobbes in "Leviathan." While clearly building on and stepping on his predecessors, most notably Hobbes and Rene Descartes, Locke deals broadly with ideas, language, and how people come into knowledge, and sets the stage for a new phase of philosophy entering the 18th century.

Locke begins the "Essay" by rejecting and dispensing with the notion of "innate ideas," which basically says that we are born in possession of certain principles, elements of knowledge, or maxims that help us orient ourselves in the world. Through long and drawn out (one downside of Locke is his insistency on detail and repetition) examples and arguments, he attempts to prove that when we are born, we have absolutely nothing intelligence-wise, to recommend us. This is what is popularly referred to as the 'tabula rasa' theory, that when first born, our minds are like "empty cabinets" or "white sheets" of paper - which experience and experience only furnishes with our ideas about the world. His goal here is to get people to question their assumptions about the world, to ask questions and decide for themselves based on reason and experience, how best to interact with the world.

Locke says that the only two sources of all human knowledge are sensation (that information which is passively thrust upon our senses) and reflection (when we consider and think about that sense data, and about our own thoughts). From these "simple ideas," we are able to combine and recombine thoughts to form "complex ideas" and use clear and distinct language to express them to other people. This social aspect of this philosophy is something that really fascinated me about Locke. While focusing on the individual's growing base of knowledge, he is all the while trying to orient people to functioning in society. Saying that the end of all knowledge serves two purposes, viz., honouring God, and being morally responsible, Locke goes on to show how human life often works counter to these goals, with a view to correcting them.

Another of his famous formulations, one all too familiar to Americans, as part of our national idealism, is that the basic state of nature of humanity consists in the "pursuit of happiness." Compared to Hobbes, for whom the state of nature consisted in the attempt to attain greater and greater power over others, Locke's state of nature seems relatively benign - however, he goes to great lengths to show how the pursuit of happiness often leads to reckless and wanton behaviours, ultimately destructive both to self and society. The idea that we must examine our desires and discipline them to the greater good is something that many of us lose sight of, and is an element central to his system.

Briefly then, a couple of other items that might be of interest to someone thinking about picking up Locke's "Essay": His philosophy of language is one that still has currency and influence on linguistic theory all the way to Saussure and the post-structuralists; Locke's manner of addressing cultural and gender diversity is progressive, but vexed, which makes for fascinating work in trying to determine his stances toward non-white European males. Locke's constant invocation of gold in his examples can be maddening, which can only mean that there is some significance therein; and finally, his other hobby-horse, so-called "monstrous births" and their status in the human race bears heavily and still importantly on the debate over a woman's right to choose. All this and so much more awaits you - over 600 pages of Lockean goodness. Beware though, Locke is extremely repetitive and can get bogged down in what, for us to-day, may seem common sense notions. But this is quintessential reading, nonetheless, for everyone interested in the formation of the modern self.

The most important book in the History of Western Philosophy. Anyone wishing to understand the western tradition will have to grapple with this work eventually.

Its not that Locke got everything right, but he does at least point us in the right direction.

This book is out of date. The advice to too general to be informative.

This was the first running book I have read and I truly found Paula Newby-Fraser's personal training and achievement stories inspirational. This book focuses on a balance between strength, flexibility and cardiovascular conditioning. I believe that anyone can become a well-balanced athlete with a little motivation and the training tools found in this book.