Reading Bill Band's book was transportation in time. You get to know some of the young heroes who, with fire in their hair and determination in their hearts, were the Flying Tigers. Bill is a wonderful story teller, as giving of the truths of his own trepidations as the heroics of the 'Tigers' exploits. You can feel the adrenalin rush. You can see the tracers. And when you come back with a Japanese sailor's hat in your intake, you too will experience the thrill of combat - and the relief that you survive!

Here is one of the most exciting books I've ever read. It starts out with a one two punch and keeps you wanting to read more and more. It's the type of book that you hate to have come to an end. Bill Band has a marvelous flair for story telling that keeps you glued to the pages. Each chapter is a mini story in itself. He runs you through the complete gauntlet of your emotions. Best of all is his sense of humor. Those were some amazing times and he is one of the amazing people that lived to tell about it, and he tells it SO VERY WELL! The one thing to remeber is that we can put the book down and go do something else. They lived it every day!!!! We can never thank these brave pilots enough.

Bill Band is a natural writer. His thorough attention to detail but concern in keeping his story gripping makes a real page turner. I particularly enjoyed the spots of humor that he was able to find in this deadly serious mission. I was impressed with the words of Anna Chennault who with charm summed up the amazing feats and ultimate victories of our Flying Tiger Warriors. I happen to know this author and know him to be a winner in all the paths that his life has taken him. May God bless him and his wonderful family.

I've been interested in the history of fantasy for a while, and I was definately intrigued when I happened upon this title. I immediately ordered it and read it. The Well at the World's End is marvelous. Every once in a while I start wanting to read a romance, and this is a good romance. The story is pretty original and was very different for its time. The story follows Ralph as he searches for the WELL AT THE WORLD'S END. He has enemies and intrigued galor to fight through. Along the way, there is also a love story, too.

The Well at the World's End is a good read even for modern readers. It is an excellent example of "romance." It is also good just as a curiosity read. Fans of Tolkien, Lewis, and Eliot should visit William Morris's writings. Personally, my favorite thing about the book was the archaic prose. For the first twenty pages I thought it would be bothersome. After that, I was used to it and the book flowed nicely. It is sad that few people read William Morris today.

I rank this book up there with the Gormenghast series and the Lord of the Rings. A fantasy masterpiece, it is the precursor for everything that came after. Yes, the archaic medieval language is tough to get into at first, but after ten or twenty pages it becomes natural to the mind and presents no problem. One sees that the language is part of the beauty. Overall, this book is like one of those medieval detailed tapestries, with kings, adventurers, knights and noble women trotting through forests toward distant castles. This is medieval romance at its finest, and because it dates from 1898, it is happily free of the Tolkien imitativeness that has so infected a large portion of modern fantasy. Forget Terry Brooks, read The Well At the World's End.

You've got to wonder why people fall all over themselves in slavish imitation of Lovecraft and his "mythos" and yet nobody seems to have planned any literary adventures in William Morris' world of Upmeads. I've been interested in fantasy literature and its history for a while, and a week ago I finally sat down and read this book. I was expecting it to be better than Lord of the Rings, and it was. I've always preferred Lewis' Narnia to Tolkien's Middle-Earth, and Morris gives me another alternative (albeit the alternative that actually spawned both Narnia AND Middle Earth). Ralph and Ursula make one of the most affectionate, lovable couples to be found in fantasy literature, the physical descriptions of landscapes and clothing and people are all the more gorgeous for their archaic nature, and you even get as an occasional bonus William Morris inserting his pre-Fabian socialist ideas into people's mouths. If people are going to write imitative fantasy novels, they should start with THIS, and not Tolkien or Lovecraft.

I have read this novel in French, and I have found it is one of the best books I have ever read. More, I've also read the next book 'The gardens of Badalpour". I recommend widely these books to lovers of historical novels.

I have read this novel in English and in Spanish, and I have found it is one of the best books I have ever read. Historically, It gives you a realistic glimpse of the fall of the Turkish Empire, the life in Lebanon and the life in India during the last days of the British Dominion. The story of the princess and her daughter is dramatic and sweet at the same time. I recommend widely this book to lovers of historical novels.

This is one of the best books I ever read.It's make me want to learn more about Ottoman empire, more about Turkey, more about mussulms.It's an extraordinary book. For me it's means the search for happiness, and love that Selma never found and her mother either, I am looking forward to read her next book,about the awesome Ottoman empire.

I first read this when I was probably about the age of Tycho in the book. I loved it then as a strange, time-hopping tale of terror. But now, fifteen or so years later, I still pick it up and read it from time to time. It's a very fast read, but I don't mind. Every time I read it, I see more and more that I didn't see the first time.... One of the classics of YA Science Fiction.

When I read the book "The Green Futuers Of Tycho", I was amazed at how well William Sleater( The author) Put together this Science Fiction book. My teacher read it to the class, and right after she finished the book, every one wanted to read it once more. I was trying to get my hands on one of the copys, to unfortunatly find that the book was out of print. [...]. I defenetly reccomend this book for anyone, and esspecialy those who like Science Fiction.

This book is great! If you like time traveling you are going to love this book. This book is about a 11 year old boy who finds a mysterious egg that can travel back in time. During his adventures to the futures he finds that his older self is cruel. You just have to read this book!

Someplace growing up I ran into the Asterix titles, with a four volume set beginning with Asterix the Gaul. As a child I enjoyed the antics; as an adult I enjoy the puns and historical allusions. It continually amazes me to realize that this is originally a French production, and yet translated into English and some 20 other languages, and the puns *still* translate! That's not easy to do. And while later episodes decline in quality and are suitable more for children, stories like Asterix the Gaul are great for children of 30 years too.

The very names provide example of brilliant use of dialogue. Asterix- a small, seeming addition. Obelisk, who delivers menhirs. Getafix, the Druid. (Remember, this series began in the 60's.) Cacaphonix, the Bard, and Vitalstatistix, the chief. In the same vein, the authors use contemporary differences between cultures and play them upon the ancient Gaulish-Roman dispute. This is about the only place one can find swearing in Latin- "ipso facto", "sic", etc. Or the taking of Toutanis' name in vain.

Asterix The Gaul was first published in French in 1961 and in English only in 1969.
The first of the Asterix books , it is a very clever and witty piece of work on the Roman occupation of Gaul in 50 BC-with a fair amount of Latin quips in too -read Asterix and you'll soon become familiar with 'Quid' , 'Vae victo , vae victus' and 'Morituri te salutant'.
It begins with the familiar scene of well thumped Roman legionnaires reporting their defeat to an incensed Roman centurion (in this case Crismus Bonus) who then hatches a plan to deal with the Gauls which our heroes always in the end foil.

It also includes such recurring themes as Cacofonix and his hated singing , the magic potion (and why Obelix cannot have any ) and a guest appearance by Julius Caesar.It ends as always without he Gauls feasting their heroes 'under a starry sky...victorious over their enemies , thanks to magic the protection of the gods and low cunning'.

Unlike all of its successors in this book , Obelix does not even offer to accompany Asterix on his adventure (which is so unlike the Obelix we know from all of the other Asterix books).
There are some gaps in the dialogue and there is unusually not one woman or girl in the first book . drawbacks which will be made up for in the other Asterix books.

Nevertheless it is a great start to your Asterix collection and an amusing little book.

It is impossible to understand, from Amazon's slim and anemic presentation, the breadth and impact that this series has had upon generations of children in France, Europe, and America--remember, France has a thriving Asterix theme park a la Disney, and it's a premier destination site for French families with young children.

But quite possibly this is the sort of book that still sells most of its copies in bookstores--because it's the kind of read where one might pick it up because of the pictures, and then, as one gets deeper in, one realizes "Hey, this is amazingly silly, intelligent, and fun. I'm halfway through and already I know I'm going to have to read it again because there are still some new jokes for me to pick up on. I'd better buy it and bring it home so I can read it through a second time." And when you bring it home--it's quite possible for Asterix to become an obsession, and you find yourself returning, time and time again, to the bookstore, to try to find copies of other books in the series.

The early books in the series are without question the best (I say "books" advisedly, these are short graphic novels ie classy comic books). As the series ballooned in popularity, the stories began to fall into an established pattern that is less interesting than the brilliant twists and turns that are hallmark of, say, Asterix the Gaul, Asterix and Cleopatra, and Asterix and the Olympic games (certain 'tics' were possibly brought on by aggressive fan mail, one can't help but feel). The puns and wordgames of these earlier books range from subtle to screaming and are a sort of "gift that keeps on giving"--some of them will certainly pass you by until you pick up some scraps of Latin and Classical history and advanced education in general. Better still, the historical material is slipped in in such a sly way that as one reads it, one starts asking questions. "Did Cleopatra really have a big nose?" "What *was* the Roman occupation of Gaul really like?" The series sparks a lovely desire to know more--and is also, I would suggest, an unacknowledged idea source, a la Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, for many fantasy writers actively working today.

But what none of my words above capture is the sheer demonic sense of FUN in these books. Read these books--you may not even like them the first time through. Try them again later--suddenly you'll get it. Like most classical works of art and literature, it is how you perceive these books over time that matters--and over time, Asterix holds up.

Indomitably so.

General George S. Patton, Jr., was a legend in his own time. While known for his coarse language, he was also respected as a brilliant tactician and terrific motivator. Those who served with him weren't just "in the war" or "in the army," they were Patton's men. This hard-driving leader instilled confidence, acted decisively, and excelled under relentless pressure. His army moved at unprecedented speed, always on the attack and not on the defensive.

Patton did not write extensively; he was challenged by dyslexia. But he said a lot, was often quoted, and was written about. Historians have a rich treasure of who this unusual man was and the impact he had on others . . . and ultimately on the world. His approach to his work was clear and direct, making him an excellent case study and role model. Role model? A man who spat profanity in almost every sentence? Ah, look beyond the rough exterior that actually endeared him to his men. Look at how Patton thought, his philosophies. That's where the lessons are.

This book delivers 183 of those lessons in short, tight, bite-size pieces. This is a book you can read cover-to-cover or refer to as an inspirational resource. Each lesson is constructed as a Patton quote, with Axelrod's interpretation of the meaning, the purpose, and the impact of the words. The flavor throughout the book is how Patton's military style and experience applies to management and leadership of today's business organization. Or any organization, for that matter.

The beginning of the book includes an enlightening biographical profile of Patton to understand the context of the man. The volume concludes with some recommended reading and a helpful index.

As a reviewer, I'm tempted to start listing some of the titles of those 183 lessons. I'll resist, because it will be too difficult to present a representative sample. Every page of this book is filled with concise, valuable insights. Thought-provoking as well as inspiring, Patton on Leadership should be read-and applied-by leaders at all levels. Invest a few dollars and some of your reading time. You'll get a good return on your investment with this book.

Frankly, I had some reservations as I began to read this book. By now I have become weary of so many books with gimmicky concepts (eg Chicken Soup for Dummies, Caligula on Management) and was pleased to find that Axelrod has skillfully correlated Patton's expressed ideas on leadership with key issues in the contemporary business world. Many of those ideas probably reflect the influence of Sun Tzu and von Clausewitz whom Patton no doubt studied while a student at V.M.I. (for one year) and then the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from which he graduated. In any event, this is a well-written book with solid substance. After a Foreword and Introduction, Axelrod organizes 183 "Strategic Lessons" within ten chapters:

1. What He Did and Who He Was (Patton's Achievement and Background)

2. "A Commander Will Command" (On the Dimensions of Leadership)

3. "Always Attack, Never Surrender" (On Developing a Winning Attitude)

4. "How Do We Know That?" (On Fact Finding, Preparation, and Planning)

5. "Speed -- Simplicity -- Boldness" (On Execution and Opportunity)

6. "The Soldier Is the Army" (On Training, Mentoring, Motivating, and Inspiring)

7. "Letters of Instruction" ((On Communication and Coordination)

8. "Only One Direction -- Forward" (On Creating Efficiency)

9. "Success Is How High You Can Bounce When You Hit Bottom" (On Courage and Character)

10. "Audacity" (On Managing the Impossible)

I provide the chapter titles and subtitles to suggest the specific areas in which Axelrod examines Patton's ideas. Patton remains one of the 20th century's best-known and least-understood military leaders. Mention his name and most people immediately conjure an image of George C. Scott whose inspired portrayal provided an accurate but incomplete representation of Patton. It is worth noting that Patton's strategies minimized casualties of his own troops while maximizing destruction of those whom his troops opposed, that he assembled an extraordinarily talented staff to whom he delegated effectively and whose members remained steadfastly loyal to him, and that under his leadership his troops achieved truly stunning results, often with severely limited resources and under political constraints. There is a great deal to learn from this man...and Axelrod has done a brilliant job of suggesting what that is.

Axelrod includes a Recommended Readings section to which I presume to add Puryear's 19 Stars (A Study in Military Character and Leadership). In it, Puryear examines the careers of George S. Patton, Jr., Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, and George C. Marshall. You may also wish to check out Sun Tzu's The Art of War (Oxford University Press) and von Clausewitz's On War (Penguin).

Frederick the Great may have said it, but George "Blood 'n Guts" Patton lived it. What a remarkable man, and what a remarkable presentation about that man, his life and his leadership skills. One should read this book just for the hell-of-it if not for any other reason. What a great first read for anyone wishing to know more about the General.

First of all, this book reads well and fast, and it's hard to put down. Mr. Axelrod tells a great story, conveys the essence of Patton's Generalship and Management styles, and along the way adds some very good history. Axelrod clears up the legends and myth surrounding the famous slapping incident, and details the campaigns into Bastogne and to Berlin in short, clear and entertaining fashion. It was truly enjoyable to read this book.

To keep the record straight, the format of the book allows for a 3 - 4 hour total read time due to the fact that many of the pages have only 18 - 25 lines of print on them, where as others are in standard layout. The stories will excite, entertain, and cause "out-loud" laughter. The language is harsh sometimes, but perfectly appropriate to the original situation.

I say get the SOB book and read it "...every God damn night", and smile.

I read Goldman's Temple of Gold in 1963 and have read it many times since. Goldman took me into the character of Raymond. I experienced his joys, his accomplishments and his sorrows. To write a novel had been a dream of mine my entire life. That is, until I read Raymonds story. When I finished the book, I knew that I never would, because this was the book that I would have written..

I've read this book a couple of times - first when I was a senior in high school, again a couple of years into college, and then most recently as a first year grad student - and every time I've loved it. There are a lot of reasons(it's wry, sincere, frighented, hopefull, and terribly honest... not to mention beautifully written), but I think one of them is that as Goldman works his way through the complex weave of friendship, hope, love, fear, confusion, etc with which he fills this novel, amist it all he somehow manages to capture that rhythm by which life just goes on and on and up and down and you learn some lessons and other things leave you scarred but either way things just keep moving. It's a really difficult thing to accomplish in such a personal and straigtforward novel such as this, but when it is accomplished, it's wonderful.

That's just one stab at explaining one of many reasons that I loved this book, though. I recomend it wholeheartedly.

I read this book as a teenager and it "spoke" to me. I read it again as an adult and found it even more meaningful. It's funny and terribly sad; it will make you roar with laughter and cry with anguish. I have read practically all of Goldman's novels and, although I've enjoyed each of them, I've found most to be like cotton-candy; they taste great but don't have a whole lot of nutritious value. The Temple of Gold is a feast for the soul; the stuff of life.

I first read BIRDY when it was published in 1978; I was going into the ninth grade. Since that fist reading, I have read it two other times--once in college while pretending to work at the library and once just recently for a book club I'm in. It is an amazingly memorable book about friendship and war and our definition of what is sane. Some of the scenes are so vivid that they have become a part of my own memory. I have explored other books by William Wharton, but none of them have equalled BIRDY. (DAD and MIDNIGHT CLEAR are also worth reading, though.) I remember the first copy I bought had a blurb on the front cover which read, "a classic for readers not yet born." I hope those words come true.

This is an incredible and beautifully told tale of friendship, sanity(& insanity,) obsession and the horrors of war. The second reading is even better! As a bird lover and owner, I especially enjoyed the details of what the experience of being a bird is really like. I can only suppose that William Wharton has spent time as a bird, or has some very close friends who are birds and were willing to describe the experience of "birdness" to him for this book. The story of friendship and growing up is quite moving and enjoyable with much humor and insight. The section dealing with the boys' job as dogcatchers should be skipped or abridged by the squeamish, (or animal lovers, such as my spouse, who take fiction for reality too easily!) Highly recommended! Two enthusiastic wings up! (P.S. Also recommended; "Dad" by William Wharton.)

I just happened upon this book in my school's library one day last week. I decided to get it out if only because my own facination with flight seemed somewhat similar to the storyline. I read the whole thing that day, and I still can't get it out of my mind. I went back to the library maybe hoping for a sequel (I always do that), but since there was none I got out the only other Wharton books they had: Dad and A Midnight Clear. While they were both great books and I enjoyed them greatly (even though I'm usually a strictly scifi fan and this really far from my range), none of them are even half as good as Birdy. Theres something about that book that makes you think about it long after you've turned the last page. Now I need to get the movie.

What Cronon does with this book that is quite ground-breaking is to understand the events surrounding the arrival of colonists in the new world not in terms of colonists arriving in a pristine, untouched wilderness. Instead he carefully shows how the Native Americans had been shaping their environment quite significantly for hundreds of years before contact with europeans. He also shows how the idea of the commodity shaped the differences between "Western" and "Native" land use practices.
The book is immaculately researched and thouroughly footnoted. It is a must read for anyone interested in the history of New England or even just in how people interact with their eco-system in general.

Make no mistake about it. An interdisciplinary interpretation of history is here to stay. Thanks to farsighted historians like Dr. William Cronon and his ethno-ecological study of New England, circa 1600 to1800, entitled Changes in the Land, an enlightening perception of colonial times in New England is depicted by a well-documented mix of anthropology, ecology, sociology, biology, and environmental history. The actual text of the book comprises 171 pages with no less than 35 pages of notes, and an innovative bibliographical essay encourages further study. Cronon clearly states his thesis and purpose for the book in the preface, "the shift from Indian to European dominance in New England entailed important changes" (vii). Cronon not only evaluates the reorganization of people but also stresses the effects of changes on the New England plant and animal populations. With political and military history kept to a minimum, an intriguing analysis compares the ecological histories of the New England Indians to the European settlers and reveals the resulting environmental alterations incurred. There were basic ethno-ecological differences between how both cultures viewed the earth. The New England Indians perceived the natural world with reciprocal sustenance (63) for 10,000 years (33), but the colonists envisioned commodities and wealth in what the earth could provide (75). Within the short period of two hundred years, the environment of New England could not sustain the few Indians who survived the diseases of the Europeans, because the land, plants, animals, and even the climate had changed (169).

These changes seemed very subtle at first. In order to trade for metal utensils, the Indians killed more and more beaver (83). In this way the Indians started to view nature, or their environment, as a commodity instead of a gift to be shared (92). Cronon does not assume that the Indians had no effect upon their native environment (viii) nor that the colonists came to a pristine wilderness (11). What Cronon does enumerate is how the two sets of ecological relationships, Indian and colonist, came to live upon the same land (15). Early in the affiliation, the European settlers came to disrespect the Indians, because although the Indians lived in a land overflowing with natural "wealth," the Indians looked like the poor back in Europe (54). Marshall Sahlins is quoted by Cronon, "there are in fact two ways to be rich, [. . .] Wants may be 'easily satisfied' either by producing much or desiring little" (79-80). The indigenous residents of New England desired little, while the European colonists seemed economically motivated to produce much from the land and introduced the Old World concepts of value and scarcity, using cost as the only constraint to consider (81) (168).

Unfortunately, neither the land nor the Indians could withstand the monumental alterations to come: an Indian "money" system in the form of wampum (97), epidemics which wiped out entire villages (85-90), the severe reduction in native animal populations (98-101), domesticated animals that grazed wildly on indigenous plants and even ocean clams (128-150), deforestation (109-126), the surface of the earth responding more drastically to climatic changes (122-123), flooding (124), the "drying up of streams and springs" (125), land ownership and pastoralism replacing shared land conservation (137-141), soil depletion (147-152), and the introduction of weeds and migrant pests (153-155). The New England landscape went from forests and freedom to "fields and fences" (156). This book vividly correlates the significant and divergent relationship between the New England Indians, the colonial settlers, and the environment they could no longer share. Changes in the Land by William Cronon, winner of the 1984 Francis Parkman Prize, serves as a fine academic example in cross-curricular historical documentation.

I found this book very compelling, and would highly reccomend it for anyone interested in ecology, land ownership, or New England. Below is a recap of the most important points I took away from Cronon's book:

The main point William Cronon explains in Changes in the Land is why the landscape of New England differs in 1800 at the start of the industrial revolution from 1600 prior to the arrival of the first Europeans, clearing up some misconceptions about this change along the way. He first emphasizes that the common conception of New England as a dense primeval forest is not wholly correct. Understanding of early New England ecology is based on journals and reports of the Europeans who first visited and settled there, whose viewpoints were not those of scientists but rather of farmers, trappers, and merchants. Because of this, descriptions of New England were based on what Europe was not, and tells as much about conditions of England of that time as they do of new England. Europe was disease-ridden, crowded, cold (with firewood being a luxury), but civilized. New England was thus described as a healthy, rat-free, dense forest just waiting for the touch of God via man's hand to tame it. While these points were true, New England was also a diverse area with landscapes varying from the dense forests of northern New England, the open glades of southern New England, the seashore to the salt marshes.

The Indians recognized this diversity of their land, and in order to utilize the wide variety of natural resources available, a mobile lifestyle had to be adopted. A nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle does not lead to accumulation of goods because one's possession must be carried on one's back. In turn, status within a tribe was not garnered through collection of goods, but through kin relation and prowess of the hunt. The lack of emphasis on ownership extended to the land. While a tribe could have or give rights to a particular use of an area of land for the duration of its use (for example for one harvest), land ownership was not as all-consuming and permanent as the European definition of it.

Europeans ventured to a new land, but kept their old ideas of ownership and commodity alive. To them, the Indians lack of settlement and "improvement" on the land represented a laziness of the Indians. Thus, the only land that truly belonged to the Indians was the land women planted crops. This excluded the much larger Indian ranges of land where hunting, trapping, and gathering was done, so that "English colonists could use Indian hunting and gathering for expropriating Indian land" (56). As land available for Indian usage disappeared, the Indians had to adopt a more sedentary life that interacted with European demands and economies. Because resources were abundant, and labor was scarce (the opposite situation of Europe), policies were adopted that maximized labor with no regard for resources, leading to wastefulness of the forest for lumber, fuel, and clearing of the land. An example of this was 'driving a piece' "in which lumberers cut notches in a row of small trees and then felled a larger tree on top of them, thus cushioning its fall so as to protect it from shattering" (111). The early settler's wastefulness even horrified fellow Westerners in Europe, causing an observer to write of Americans, "their eyes are fixed upon the present gain, and they are blind to the future" (122).

Besides the decline of trees and the animals that habituated in them, the effects of deforestation were felt strongly in the climate. The forest provided a buffer against extreme conditions. Without it, summers were hotter, winters were colder, and the ground froze deeper. The water-holding capacity of the land was reduced, causing greater run-offs and flooding, and finally resulting in dry soil and erratic streams that were dry for much of the year. Despite the changing negative conditions, the mind-set of resources equaling commodity caused colonists to "understand what they were doing in almost wholly positive terms, not as 'deforestation,' but as 'the progress of cultivation'" (126), which is still the mindset that exists in many today.