I think they should explain how th invention works

George Eastman was one of the seminal figures in the development of photography. Eastman was the founder of the Eastman Kodak Company. Brayer's scholarly biography is long and definitive.

Eastman was perhaps the first scientist-engineer entrepreneur, a model followed later by men like Edwin Land and Bill Gates. Brayer skillfully weaves his engineering feats with his financier skills into a highly readable biography. Eastman was like Gates and Land, a hands-on entrepreneur. Stories abound about Eastman's midnight haunts through his factory, showing up in the wee hours unannounced to some startled employee working late on a project.

I was constantly amazed at Eastman's ingenuity. Eastman the inventory of flexible film, made his first commercial batches by spreading the celluloid out on level 100-foot long glass topped tables. It wasn't until many years later they finally found a way to machine make it.

For my taste there was far too much information on the architecture and building of Eastman House. Since Brayer, as I understand it, was or maybe still is, an employee of Eastman House, now a foundation supported museum of photography, this is understandable. I did find it amusing that Eastman used Belgian imported glass plates that were to be used in the factory as a film base as window glass in the House. Window glass will have an occassional ripple or bubble, but not these. George always had to have the very best.

Brayer has shed some new light on several of the patent infringement lawsuits that went against Eastman.

In many biographies, the subject is just that, a subject. Brayer does an exceptional job of bringing Eastman to life. If you have an interest in photographic history or in financial history, this is an exceptional book. This is the first freely written biography of Eastman. Earlier attempts were quite controlled by the Trust and Eastman himself.

John Halperin takes Lytton Strachey as his model and provides four short lives of people he views as emblematic of the "second Georgian" era - King Geroge V himself, Elizabeth Bowen, St. John Philby and Nancy Astor. The results are interesting without being particularly memorable. Halperin tells his stories in a plain documentary fashion, without much analysis and with none of the mordant wit or strong opinions of Strachey's nasty little classic. Such a straightforward approach works best if bolsered by extensive research, but the slim bibliography indicates a newspaper profile rather than an original and insightful work. All this being said, Bowen, Philby and Astor are interesting enough as people to making reading "Eminent Georgians" worthwhile. As for the good King George, it will take a much more persuasive writer to bring that admirable but dull monarch to life on the page.

Georges Melies was a professional magician who began making "trick" films in the late 1800's. He is most famous for A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902). Elizabeth Ezra's book tries to burst three myths about Melies. 1. Melies only made "fairy" films and childlike fantasies. 2. Melies' style was just theatrical, with little cinematic effects. 3. Melies' films lack narrative structure and can't be analyzed using film theory. She does a good job showing how these myths aren't always true. However, the book sometimes reads more like a graduate thesis. While she does a good job of analyzing some of Melies more prominent films, she sometimes over-analyzes the films. The book has a short history of Melies' life, and has a filmography of all of his existing films. This book is a good introduction to Melies for film students, but serious silent film buffs will be disappointed that the book does not cover Melies career in more detail.

How did Elizabeth Noble conceive with a sperm donor she knew but without having sex with him? How did her family feel about it? This is an thought provoking book which not only tells Noble's story but has an interesting chapter on donor offspring and their reactions at learning as adults that they have biological fathers who are not the fathers they grew up with. While this is a good book I would also recommend to anyone planning to by this book to also buy Helping the Stork: The Choices and Challenges of Donor Insemination by Vercollone. Vercollone's book helps you discuss DI with your donor offspring so they don't become bitter...which was Noble's experience.

Unlike her other books, this one seems to be an experiment that didn't work.

I'm a diehard Elizabeth George fan. This particular book disappointed me in many ways. I could only complete one of the five stories, and can't recommend it to anyone.

Will this stop me from buying her next novel? Not at all. She's a master in her field.

I'm a great Elizabeth George fan. She is one of a small number of writers whose works I buy in hardbound.

But I'm afraid she's no short story writer.

The collection gets off to a bad start with "Exposure," which ought to be interesting to George fans because of the presence of detective Thomas Lynley. But the story is a mess. I don't understand the perpetrator's motive. The "puzzle" aspect is poorly presented--we're not really given enough of a clue to solve the puzzle ourselves. The perpetrator actually commits two crimes--and I don't believe that the methods used to commit either crime would have worked in real life.

Three of the the stories feature "O. Henry endings," none of which, in my opinion, quite come off.

The title story, "I, Richard" intertwines a sort of pseudo-mystery story concerning the truth about Richard III and the Princes in the Tower, with a modern-day murder story. Unfortunately, to someone who isn't a "Ricardian," the Richard III part is muddled and boring--and the framing murder mystery is unbelievable, except for the ending--which is all too predictable.

Similar motifs recur in several of the stories--giving a slightly stale or repetitious flavor to the collection.

Perhaps the best is "Good Fences Aren't Always Enough," which comes close to being sad and touching. But all of them, even this one, read more like extended jokes than like real stories. The characters in them are paper cutouts. The author's attitude toward her characters is remote and almost contemptuous. She never seems involved with them, nor do we. The stories succeed neither as slices of life nor as clever little clockwork gadgets.

And, incidentally, the book is a rather poor value. There are only five stories in it. It's thin, the type is large, and the lines are widely spaced. By my estimate, it contains roughly about 70,000 words (for [money amount]) or about one-fifth as many as "A Traitor to Memory" ([money amount]). Distinctly short measure, to my way of thinking.

I'm so glad I followed my heart and not some of these reviews and bought the book! I've enjoyed each and every short story and the beginning of each story starts off with why Elizabeth George came to write it or what inspired her to do so. Each story made me curious as to where it was leading me. Granted, one can't compare this with the novels that E. George has written especially if one follows the Lynley series, but each story stands on it's own and left me satisfied at the end of each short story. I've read all of her books and this one was one of my favorites! Well done!

There is some kind of con going on here. The Evidence Exposed is a collection of three stories; while I. Richard, the next collection out, is the same three stories (though with one drastically altered), plus two more, plus author introductions. The title story of The Evidence Exposed is also the lead story in I. Richard, but called simply, "Exposed." The author is quite frank about the repetition, saying that she was so dissatisfied with The Evidence Exposed that she wrote it again, realizing that she had "killed the wrong person." It is a story that did not work the first time, and does not work the second time, either. She should have left it alone -- in fact, forgotten it.

The best story in this collection is,"Remember, I'll always love you." It was the only one that was not predictable. Otherwise, it does seem hard on Elizabeth George's many fans that they should be tricked into buying two books that are almost identical. In effect, they are being asked to pay out again, in order to read a couple more yarns, plus a revision. In her defence, it must be recognized that inspiration does not always oblige, especially when an author has set such high standards for herself. It would be nice if her publishers would give her breathing space to regroup, and quietly devise another of her wonderful plots without being pressured by contractual or commercial obligations. I am sure her fans would understand and be patient.

I'm a huge fan of Ms. George's work and I was puzzled by this short book of mystery stories. They seemed like something a person would write for an adult education language arts class - maybe they were, for something she was teaching? She joined her students in the exercise? I don't know the background. They seemed like skeletons of stories. Why release them, then? They didn't even serve as something a fan could use to tide her over until the next novel, because her usual characters don't appear (except for a cameo by Lynley and his wife in the first story). Please Ms. George, write another full length novel that features Barbara Havers heavily. It's what a lot of fans are waiting for.

These are great. They are all different, all entertaining, all well written.

The title story is perhaps the worst of the collection. The solution to the whole thing is a bit silly. the motive for the killing just not believeable...but up until then it is a stunning short story. There is a memorable cast of eccentric characters who are really well drawn and believeable, in true George style.

The second story "I, Richard" is perhap a little long, but nonetheless it is an interesting character study on people's motives, also it is very good in that it provides some really interesting tidbits of historical english detail (which even I, as a person from england, did not fully know). The twist at the end is a surprise, and also quite amusing. The lead character in the story is not a likeable man, and he really gets some compuppeance!

"The Surprise of His Life" the final story in this collection is also very good. They all are very good showcases on human weakness and what will drive people to murde.r this story to some extene deals with paranoia and obsession leading to a tragic death. the build up to the death is suspenseful and intriguing. Yet again, when we think everything is all going along smoothly, George pulls the wool over the reader's eyes once again with another nice sting in the tail.

All in all, this collection has flaws (perhaps the middle story is a little long. the solution to the first story is not very believeable) which is why it gets four stars. But overall, the quality of these short stories is very good, and they are a nice little treat to tide you over until her next full-length novel.

The Georges Wife: Reviewed by Arthur

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy

Elizabeth Jolley has produced an interesting tale of the human relation ship, from the imperfect love to the imperfect friends, most of which were made through chance meetings.

Based in a slightly pre-modern setting, The Georges' wife centres around a young woman named Vera, who has gone through many trials in her life including the ailment of TB, the pressures of family and that of relationships; Vera is at her trial's end and the story slowly begins at the ending.

The book is an interesting text to read which demands of the reader, this is no text to sit back on and relax, though it has helped me fall asleep many a time. The order of the book is anything but linear, the text jumps from one thing to the other and only serves to confuse the reader even more with its littering of quotes and references to famous works or composers or poets. Though this may serve to enhance the beauty of Jolleys style in this particular text, it felt more like a reference guide after a while with its incessant references to 4.12 of this or that and its littering of quotes in the German language, the occasional "eine bemerkung," placed in the text does not do any injustice but like the quotes, it felt overused and inappropriate. Besides having a complex layout and a confusing story with the constant scene jumping, there has to be some credit given to the use of description in the book. Jolley has the ability to accurately paint an image in the readers mind with her colourful, intelligent and sharp use of description, although that too weighted the story after a while. The reason behind this was that the book ended up having way too many descriptions in it, even in some of the most irelevant things, this did help to slow its pace down but with no story going on as it happened, nothing worth really reading about, the text had the effect of a sleeping drug, perfect to those with trouble getting a good nights rest.

Criticism aside, Jolley has managed to create some interesting and believable characters. Vera, the insecure and naive young adult, involved in many a relationship before Mr George, serving as a maid in the Georges household whilst studying Medicine, Mr George, a well travelled Middle aged man, Vera's mother who is a reserved and elegant person, concerned about the well being of her daughter to the point of questioning her about marriage, children and her friends, is unsure of her social position so takes on as acting refined, and Vera's friends, Felicity and Noel, who seem infected with life and the passion for it. The characters each contrast the other so well as to highlight each of their own personal attributes, their strengths and their flaws.

Being a keen reader of fantasy, The Georges Wife was a different type of book I must admit, it went to slow for my liking and seemed to deal to much in matters or situations which would be regarded as female, if anything else. Situations like sharing a baby round for nursing or issues of unwed mothers. Those things were written in the book discussed by women as a private issue and I found little relevance and I must admit, interest, to myself as a reader. The underlying themes throughout the book were that of relationships which is common to many of Jolley's works, the struggles and joys of friends, family and lovers.

I would recommend this book to any reader who likes an interesting relationship story if anything else and particularly to women. This does in no way mean men can not read it aswell. I would also recommend it to whoever likes a nice paced story, but if the readers interest lies in stories with exciting twists, or stories with a fast pace or choco block full of action, then they should avoid this book at all cost, this book would not be suitable unless insomnia is a problem to the reader.

The Queen Mother is indeed a "splendid old bird," worthy of the love and affection of her people but this book is too cloying in the beginning to be a good biography. The book does get better after the first 100 pages but there is no depth to this biography; no examination of the flawed side of this remarkable woman. She does have her flaws and these should be in a well-balanced biography. She is, after all, a human being and not a goddess.