Working in an office of 10 women, one can understand how it may be tough at times. After reading Vitamin C for the workplace, we had a much better understanding on how some of the differences we had were a result of a difference of personality and once we recognized what each of us were (Peacock, Owl, etc.), it was much easier to communicate. The worksheets are a great addition, as it enables the book to be interactive. Our working environment has been greatly enhanced due to the wisdom of Jospeph Sherren & Luke De Sadeleer. Our productivity has increased and our relationships with one another is stronger than ever. I would highly recommend "Vitimin C for the Workplace" to anyone who works in a group environment.

Vitamin C For A Healthy Workplace by Luke De Sadeleer (President, LDS Consulting) and Joseph Sherren (President, Ethos Enterprises Inc.) is not a diet or nutrition-related book, but rather a motivational book for business managers to help their employees become more productive. The seven C's emphasized in this practical guide are Change, Career, Culture, Coaching, Communication, Conflict, and Connection. Vitamin C For A Healthy Workplace is a superbly presented, practical guide for unifying people within the context of their workplace mission!

A definite read for the workplace. I purchased this book to give to our top 10 managers of our organization. Change is always a good thing and this book particularly helps deal with that and how to go about impelenting those changes in a very productive manner. I would highly recommend this book to any organization that would like to create a more healthy and fulfilling workplace for your employees and managers alike.

The Black Devil Brigade is most assuredly a watershed in the coverage of World War II oral histories. Mr. Springer personally and diligently interviewed dozens of First Special Service Force veterans and selected and edited, what seems to be...thousands of pages of eyewitness accounts of the most remarkable narrative you will ever examine. Unlike other oral histories this book intertwines the veterans own dialogues in a flowing and explosive tale. The material covers the gamut of emotions...humor, war's brutality, and tragedy, thus making the Black Devil Brigade highly thought provoking. Here you will read of happenings that have been bottled up for sixty years. Many of these stories are short, some are longer, but all are powerful and moving. You will get a sense of what World War II was like for these elites. When reading this book I sat motionless...in awe...while these men describe, in their own accounts, hand to hand combat behind enemy lines with the German Wehrmacht. I simply could not put it down.

Organized into 10 chapters and the author insightfully pieces the narrative together with short and astute bridges.
Chapter 1 includes the remarkable story of recruiting the men for a suicidal mission...to destroy dams and heavy-water factories...behind enemy lines in 1942 Norway. One wonders why soldiers would put their lives at such unnecessary risk. Here you can examine...volunteer to volunteer...the reasons in their own words.

Chapter 2 covers the First Special Service Force and their arrival at Ft William Henry Harrison located near Helena, Montana. This is my second favorite chapter. The Canadian and American grew together and became close as brothers. This section also covers their reflections of training...the harshest training any infantry unit would receive in the Second World War. This training involved parachute training, ski training, forced marches, hand to hand combat training, explosive training, land survival, amphibious training, and extensive training in enemy small arms. This section also includes extensive member accounts about the citizens of the Hard Rock state of Montana, and the capital, Helena.

Chapter 3 comprises adventures of their trip to the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. The Japanese evacuated prior to their arrival but the words of their voyage to Kiska is filled the humorous tales.

Chapter 4 comprises their trip to Italy to attack a hard fought over mountain named Monte La Difensa. This mountain in the Liri Valley was attacked by three divisions but all failed. They called upon the First Special Service Force and this was their first combat experience. The material and reflections of close quarter combat included in this chapter is astounding. It also includes their reflections of losses.

Chapter 5 describes three mountain offenses against Italian mountain peaks near Cassino. The Italian winter and German resistance take enormous toll of their numbers and Force personnel were well below 1,000 during this time. Many platoons were down blow twenty percent but the Force continued to advance despite these grievous losses.

Chapters 6 and 7 describes the story of Anzio. These two chapters are my favorites of favorites. Outnumbered, the Forcemen begin to creep behind enemy lines to slice throats and kill and capture Germans by the hundreds. The Forcemen would put a death sticker on the forehead of the enemy dead. It was during this time the Germans gave the unit the nickname, "The Black Devil Brigade." Again, this is all described in a stirring...word by word account...by the warriors themselves. The story of Anzio is nothing short of exhilarating. I could not put it down.

Chapter 8 describes the breakout of Anzio and describes the liberation of Rome by the first man...a Forcemen...to enter Rome.

Chapter 9 describes their invasion of southern France and their lightning drive to the border of Italy. Unbelievable combat images are also in this chapter.

Chapter 10 describes the end of the Force. This is a very short, but moving chapter.

There is almost 100 pictures, maps, index, and table of deceased...and arranged by date of death (a -first- to my knowledge). I wish I could say this book is perfect but it has a few problems. There are many typos in the print. It looks to me like the publisher and editor never proofread the book. The pictures are very grainy and there is no table of contents page. Regardless of these benign problems the book is exceptional...a ten star effort...and a fitting tribute to the members of the First Special Service Force, the first Special Forces unit...ever. I am profoundly grateful to Mr. Springer for doing a distinctive service on behalf of these great warriors.

The Black Devil Brigade is a personal story of the First Special Service Force in World War II. This brigade consist of US and Canadian commandos fighting in Italy. At first I was not overly impressed with this book. The grainy photos and primitive maps are substandard. Moreover, I encountered errors in the manuscript due to little or no professional editing. More importantly, and in light of historical research, there is the lack of a table of contents. Despite these shortfalls, and problems notwithstanding, the extraordinary personal recollections recorded in this hardback makes it one of the finest overall personal and oral narratives I have ever had the pleasure to read. I recommend this book to all serious students of history, or any reader in search of an extraordinary story of warfare.

BLACK DEVIL BRIGADE IS AN EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF SMALL UNIT ACTION IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR. JOSEPH SPRINGER GIVES US A GRIPPING, CRAFTSMANLIKE JOB OF PIERCING TOGETHER THE INCREDIBLE EXPLOITS OF THE MEN OF THE 1ST SPEICAL SERVICE FORCE INTO A COLLECTIVE ORAL HISTORY. RECRUITED FROM US AND CANADIAN VOLUNTEERS FOR A SUICIDE MISSION BEHIND THE ENEMY LINES IN NORWAY, THE BOOK COVERS THE UNITS 1942 CONCEPTION TO THEIR 1944 DISBANDMENT IN SOUTHERN FRANCE. THE FORCE WERE THE ELITE OF THE ALLIED FORCED DESPITE THEIR CONTINUED ANONYMITY. TASKED FOR IMPOSSIBLE SPECIAL FORCE MISSIONS, SUCH AS THE NIGHT ASSAULT ON A HUGE MOUNTAIN TOP IN ITALY (ALA THE MOVIE 'THE DEVILS BRIGADE'), THEY STRUCK SHEER TERROR INTO THE VERY HEART OF THEIR ENEMIES, KILLING WELL OVER 12,000 GERMANS, AND ACHIEVING INCREDIBLE RESULTS IN ITALY AND SOUTHERN FRANCE WITH AN EQUALLY INCREDIBLE 600% LOSS RATE. HUMOR, FEAR, HUNGER, COLD, HEAT, AND THE GRATUITOUS HORRORS OF COMBAT ARE RECORDED ON EVERY PAGE. THE FORCEMEN VEIW COMBAT (AND DEATH) IN A VERY UNCOMPLICATED, ABRUPT, AND VERY STRAIGHT FORWARD MANNER. THEIR UNUSUAL ATTITUE IS QUITE PREVELANT FROM COVER TO COVER. THE FORCEMEN SEEM OVERTLY MODEST AT TIMES, ALMOST AS IF THEIR EXTRAORDINARY CAPABILITES WERE THE DAY TO DAY NORM FOR OTHER COMBAT UNITS. THE BLACK DEVIL BRIGADE CAPTURES THE BROTHERHOOD AND HUMAN SPIRIT IN THE ACT OF BRUTAL COMBAT. AND SADLY, YOU WILL LEARN THE PERSONAL AND MOVING DETAILS OF THEIR HORRNEDOUS LOSSES. ULTIMATELY, SPRINGER'S BLACK DEVIL BRIGADE COMES ACROSS AS A REMARKABLE RECORD OF SMALL UNIT ACTION IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I work with computers everyday and was intrigued by this novel's premise that we have more to fear from covert computer sabotage than from computer date bugs. I agree with this premise. According to recent news about Y2K viruses and corporate or government "consulting" sabotage, apparently that's what's happening. And the potential for damage is indeed great.

I think the author did a nice job in dramatizing this disaster waiting to happen. This book was an easy read with lots of action and surprises. I enjoyed the characters as well. I found the book enjoyable and hard to put down.

I couldn't put it down. Interesting characters, a great plot with a number of twists, and plenty of sex and gratuitious violence. It's about 350 pages, but is a quick read. The basic plot of the book is that a group of terrorists uses the Y2K panic as a cover for an attempt to destroy the world's financial markets. But there's a lot more to this basic plot than that. Read it. Great fun.

I just read "The Millennium Project" and thought it was great! Started reading it last night and finished at 3:00 am. I couldn't put it down. Great Plot, with all the twists and turns and equally great characters. Someone needs to make a movie about this book. Would make Rambo, Terminator 2 and the Die Hard movies look like Disney flicks. I'm recommending it to all my friends and fellow investors in Y2K stocks.

Taback, Simms. Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. New York: Penguin Group, 1999 Set in a small farming community, Joseph Had a Little Overcoat tells the story of a man named Joseph who has nothing but turns nothing into something. Joseph has an overcoat that is "worn and shabby". He decides to make it into a jacket. When the jacket becomes worn, Joseph makes it into a vest and this process of making a new article of clothing out of the worn overcoat material continues throughout the book. Then one day, Joseph loses his button and has nothing. As always, Joseph turns his nothing into something by writing a book about this overcoat. Taback uses the illustrations, the simple text, the cover and the dye-cut pages to convey the book's theme: something can always be made into something else. The cover of Joseph Had a Little Overcoat has a black frame around the illustrations and Joseph's name is made out of scrap material, the overcoat has dye-cut holes to show that it is worn, the words are written in yellowish-orange and the S and the T in Taback's name are written in red. All these features will appear again within the pages of the book. As the reader turns to the endpaper, the reader will notice that they appear to be made of scrap material. The scrap material creates interest in the reader, foreshadowing that the overcoat will be made into other article of clothing. The title pages give the reader more insight into Joseph's daily life. Once again, Joseph's name is written in scrap material to indicate his resourcefulness. The two orange pages make the reader feel warm and loving toward Joseph. The title pages also have fruit, thread, vegetables, scissors, needles, and buttons scattered around. These items suggest that Joseph is a simple man who farms for a living. Simms uses the black framing, dye-cut pages, the J in Joseph's name written in red and the words written in yellowish-orange again. These four things stay constant throughout the entire book. Taback did this to show consistency in Joseph's life. The black frame and the illustrations span both pages, creating a window effect, which allows the reader to become an observer of Joseph's life. Taback uses warm colors to make the reader feel comfortable and at home. The yellowish-orange color was used in writing the word to again make the reader feel comfortable with Joseph and what is happening in the story. Die-cut holes are skillfully used throughout the book to show the reader what Joseph will make next. They also remind the reader that the article of clothing came from an old worn out piece of clothing. At the very end of the story, Taback writes the readers a letter telling them that he adapted the book from an old Yiddish folk song called "I had a Little Overcoat"; opposite the letter, Taback has the music and words to the song. Adding the song to the end makes the book more personal. The final pages are again scraps of material to remind the reader of the ongoing theme: something can be made out of nothing.

Joseph Had A Little Overcoat, by Simms Taback, is about a Jewish man named Joseph and his story with his overcoat and how it became to be non-existent. Joseph starts the book with a worn out over coat, with colorful patches. As time goes on the overcoat is eventually worn into nothing. Through out the book different articles of clothing are made out of the material. This can help a reader learn what things such as a scarf or a vest are because the word is shown and a visual of the word is on the page. Visualization is the key to learning new words. The creativity that is in this book is astounding. The pictures, colors, and cut outs help the reader visualize what Joseph is doing with the fabric from the overcoat. A lot of children do not use scarves and vest and handkerchiefs all to often. The pictures and cut outs in this book help the child learn new words such as those with a visual aid. This book also teaches animals and other objects that can pose questions in a child's mind and help expand their vocabulary. With the pictures of the clothing, a child can see what a "scarf" is or something else that they might not be sure of what they are. If the child doesn't know what a word is they can see the picture and understand that it is a vest, and that can help them relate a word to a picture. I feel that Taback does a wonderful job tying in all the elements that help teach a child to read. This book is very educational with the word and picture connection. This book is a creative way to teach clothing, new words, and sparks ideas about objects and their alternate uses. It is very important for children to understand what a word is when they use it. In our society it is seems as though no one has time anymore to sit down and explain what certain words are. It is sort of expected for children to learn by themselves. Joseph's little adventure with his coat can help a child learn different articles of clothing and different uses of words. If a child can read then they can learn the words because the picture is right there in front of them. We all have different ways to learn, and it a child is a visual learner then I strongly suggest this book and this method of teaching.

This book could easily have been entitled, "Opportunity Knocks." The philosophy of the glass is always half full is humorously and realistically portrayed here in fairy tale fashion. The beautiful illustrations make imaginative use of die cuts to develop the story in delightful ways.

Joseph is a man who lives alone in a farming community in what could be Eastern Europe around 1900. Although he is a poor man, he always sees hope. His hope shines as a beacon to us all, like the torch held by the Statue of Liberty.

The story begins with Joseph wearing an old, worn and patched overcoat that gets older and more worn. But it can still provide benefits. He turns it into a jacket! A die-cut overlay onto the prior page makes the transformation in a way that makes the process more obvious to the young reader.

The story evolves in that general direction, and the smiles are broad as it does.

Then, just when you think that Joseph has run out of options, he finds an even more wonderful opportunity!

This is a great book to teach children to see change as a reason to think about opportunities. I would hope that every family would have a copy.

The book also can serve as a beginning reader from around ages 3 or 4 because it has few words, and much repetition in the use of words. "It got old and worn" is repeated several times, for example.

I also encourage you to ask your child what things make life challenging in her or his life, and how to turn those challenges to advantage. That can be a source of irresistible advantage for the rest of your child's life!

Have a great new wardrobe whenever you want one . . . and always see great opportunities, wherever they may come from!

Rabbi Telushkin has done it again. Already the premier author of a collection of books that amount to desk encyclopedias of Jewish Humor, Jewish Wisdom, Jewish Literacy, and Biblical Literacy, Joseph Telushkin now adds this wonderful volume on practical ethics. The book presents ethical issues - one for each of six days with a time to review on the Sabbath - that weave current and historical illustrations of important ethical principles. What distinguishes this "day at a time" ethical compendium from others like it is the strength of the stories which illustrate each principle. These are deep and complex practical applications, neither contrived nor saccharine.

Readers who are not Jewish will also be interested in this book. The lessons here are not related to any particular sectarian view but apply to all those who feel that a religious life must be an ethical life if it is to be meaningful and authentic.

The publishers are to be commended on the beautiful presentation of this book. It should grace the shelves of anyone who wants a realistic guide to a more ethical life.

This book was excellent. It was easy to read and very helpful both in offering wise advice and parables from the author's life and from the Talmud.

The format of reading one step a day is useful in helping one live a more ethical life; giving up white lies and gossip in a gradual manner makes sure you are less likely to "slip up." Though the book was written in a one-step-a-day format, I read through the whole thing first before going through and trying to improve myself one day at a time.

You need not be Jewish to follow the advice of this book. While the book is angled towards Jews, most of the messages are valuable to anyone.

As usual Rabbi Telushkin writes a book that is informative, written in a way that assumes that you have no background on the subject yet will hold you if you are an expert, and is highly interesting.

The format of the book is that you are given a short chapter (a page or two) and you are expected to read one chapter a day. This way the information will better stick with you. You work on one small addition to your life or outlook a day. These are great short essays on Jewish ethics. Do you know what an employee owes to his employer? Can/should a Jew be an organ donor? Did you know the prayer that one should say when leaving the bathroom (and do you know why it is done)? Is it ever ok to lie? Why gossip is against Jewish law. One frequent theme is respect of others. This book contains many essays that help one live a moral, ethical life, and while based in Halacha (Jewish law) is applicable to non-Jews as well.

Rabbi Telushkin is well versed in the subject matter as Jewish law is very concerned with ethics and living in a moral and ethical manner. Rabbi Telushkin is expert in Jewish law after having studied under some of the greatest minds in late 20th century Orthodox Judaism at Yeshiva Univeristy.

This book is excellent. It covers all the bases--practice with numbers, letters, shapes, opposites and more while using everyday objects and favorite characters to "teach" them all. Plus, there's the fun of lifting the "flaps" to see what's behind many different objects--an activity of great interest to children. My son just loves this book (he's 18 months). He's a big fan of reading, and this certainly would be in his top 3 favorites. I just can't say enough about this book! (As a teacher, I have a great appreciation for how well this book is organized and what all it covers. Teaching and learning is a snap with materials like this!)

A good book for all young childrens: I leave in France and I geave this book to my little nevew. He loves it so much. It's possible for him to learn easier english. A good way to learn!

Buy this book only if you're prepared to read it *all* the time! I love that this book has helped teach my 2 yo son his letters, numbers, shapes, opposites, etc., but he has to read it every night before bed and he has to sleep with it! This has been going on since we got it for Christmas! I'm so sick of it, I came online to find another Elmo lift-and-look book. For my son's bedtime reading ritual, I have to read Elmo first or he won't concentrate on the other books--constantly saying "I wanna read Elmo" as I'm trying to read a different book! Thankfully, there's enough going on each page that I can make up stories about the characters or play games like finding circles in the numbers page to mix things up a bit! Ah well, thanks Elmo :-)

I have read many of the books on copywriting and marketing and Joseph Sugarman's book is one of the most helpful and inciteful of any I have read. Far superior to Robert Bly's book, Sugarman takes the reader through the entire creative process and develops a very efficient technique for writing great advertising copy. In addition, Sugarman is a master at what he does. He has proven himself, not in the classroom but on the firing line where real lessons are learned. I've used his techniques to create great ads and have benefited from his book many times over the cost. Well worth it from a great master."

I own $4,200 worth of Books and courses on Advertising and this book is on my list of top 20 must read. A lot of valuable insights not covered by others! Helps you avoid some of the biggest and most common mistakes in writing ads and sales letters that almost guarantee a Bomb. Covers emotions and reasons why people buy and don't buy. This book is worth $250.00 or more. It's a virtual course. Sugarman has sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of products and knows what he is talking about. Sugarman makes almost nothing off teaching others what he knows. I think he teaches because he enjoys it and not to make money. His money has come through selling products in space ads and television, and not from teaching others how to sell through space ads or television. A lot of so called experts make there money teaching others how to make money teaching others how to make money. Sugarman made his millions selling products to the public! Get this book! Its fun to read and its Great!

Great copy looks so easy -- so simple, so effortless, so "ordinary." There are those who can take the process of writing it and make that process look complicated. And then there's Joe Sugarman.

This is one of the two books I recommend for further study in my home-study "Money-Making Copywriting Course." Why? Because Joe cuts through all of the needless and cumbersome detail so many teachers of copywriting instill in their lessons. He makes the information accessible and entertaining to learn. And he's a super-successful real-world practioner, as well as a very skilled and effective teacher.

A novice might think that because this book does not refer to Internet marketing or the latest trends in print and direct mail advertising, it is out of date. That is a well-intentioned but misguided criticism. Of course very few people know how to market effectively (and close sales) on the Internet. Since I have done this successfully (I've created Web sites that made lots of money, by themselves) and since I spent a year as the editor of a newsletter tracking who was successful marketing online and who wasn't (almost everyone wasn't), I can say with some authority that there are very few people who can market effectively online.

But know this about Joe Sugarman. If he ever chose to do online marketing, he would make a fortune -- just as he has done before in other ventures. Why? Because there are certain principles of human nature, and of selling with the written word, that have not yet changed. And he is a world-class expert in conveying those principles to novices and experts alike.

The technological and situational landscape may make it look like we live in a very different world, but trust me -- as someone who got a 2% response with direct mail at the height of the anthrax scare in the fall of 2001 -- the world we live in now is pretty much the same as the world we have always lived in.

At least as it pertains to writing effective advertising copy.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. You'll learn tons, and -- best of all -- you'll be able to make some very good money with what you learned.

While it may seem heretical in light of only glowing reviews to give Mr. Glannon anything shy of five stars, I must say that while this book is quite helpful for most law students, some may find it just a bit wanting in certain areas. Don't get me wrong: Glannon will help "explain" the basics as well as some of the more nuanced areas of civ pro; use of this book in conjunction with your casebook and class notes will definately provide you with a sound understanding of this sometimes bafflingly obtuse subject.

However, for one whose goal is to excel well beyond the pack, Glannon alone will not propel a student to get the coveted law-school "A+." The law of numbers alone dictates this result: Glannon is the most widely read civ pro supplements available - you will be getting nothing more than what pretty much all your classmates get. Your solution? An additional supplement. For me, it was Gene Shreve's fantastic "Understanding Civil Procedure" - a more dense, but extremely tightly packed supplement. Everything you should know for civ pro, + a little more is in Shreve.

To summarize, get Glannon for the basic explanation; get Shreve for the edge. Glannon is great if you've got some time on your hands to digest the examples; Shreve is great if you've got the basics down and want to attain insight beyond most of the competition.

As someone who bought and used a great many hornbooks and commercial outlines (some good and some just awful) during my law school career, I can say, without reservation, that Professor Glannon's Civil Procedure: Examples and Explanations is one of the two best study aides I used in ANY subject (the other being Emmanuels for Constitutional Law). Professor Glannon has written a profoundly clear, easy to understand, and at times, even humorous book that takes most of the mystery out of this difficult subject. The only thing I would say to people who have bought this book or are thinking about buying it is this - buy it - and use it right away. Don't wait until the end of the semester to cram it all in. Read the chapters in this book as you cover the subjects in class - and be sure to do all of the examples and read all of the explanations. This is one of the true gems available to help law students - and if you read it in conjunction with your coursework in this subject, you will be amazed at how much of your confusion it resolves for you. Don't miss this one folks!

Robert H. Miller Author of "Law School Confidential: the Complete Guide to the Law School Experience By Students for Students"

I was lucky enough to find this book very early in my first year civil procedure class. I remember the pure joy I felt reading it, and feeling like I truly understood these sometimes alien concepts for the first time. Surely it couldn't be this easy!?

I used these Examples and Explanations books in every class possible. They're all good, but this one is probably the best. Everyone called these books "Glannons," no matter who the author was!

One important point: I wrote laborious answers to the examples, which I then "graded" against the explanations, noting issues I'd missed, and analysis I'd mishandled. This practice writing mini "exam style" answers, with instant feedback, probably helped me more than any other exercise in doing well my first year in law school. If you just read the examples and then the explanations, you're cheating yourself out of a great opportunity to practice writing good exam answers before you're faced with the real thing.

I ended up making law review after my first year, and I owe a lot of the credit to this incredible book. Do yourself a favor.

whenever I find a used copy of this or MacDonald's "The Princess and Curdie" I buy it and give it away. Both books are full of religious symbolism if you think about it, and old other-worldness if you don't. "The Princess and the Goblin" can be enjoyed by early elementary school children, while the language of "The Princess and Curdie" is more challenging and suited for 5th grade and up, though anything is possible with a bit of extra effort. Worth trying. George MacDonald (deceased) has a loyal following as do, of course, Tolkien and C.S.Lewis who were his friends. These are lovely books to read aloud.

I cant believe I haven't read this untill now, its such a great book! A princess lives in a castle all her life, never knowing of the great dangers that go on in the mountain. One day(being about 7 years old) she finds a stairway in her house that she has never seen and it leads her to her great, great grandmother. After she meets her grandmother she is shown the dangers of the goblins and meets a boy named Curdie who mines in the mountain with his father. Throughout the book Curdie and the princess have many encounters with the goblins. This is a great book I highly recommend it for readers of all ages.

So you love C.S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles? There people who don't are few and far between. One of the biggest influences on C.S. Lewis was this man, George MacDonald (1824-1905). It was MacDonald's talent for telling fairy stories that inspired Lewis in writing his own. Like Lewis, MacDonald has a remarkable ability to tell a delightful and enchanting story for children, layered with strong Christian themes and imagery by means of allegory and symbols. 'The Princess and the Goblin' is one of his most beloved works for children, and an excellent introduction to his style and success.

'The Princess and the Goblin' features a heroine ' a princess called Irene ' and a hero ' a simple miner's son called Curdie. While working overtime in the mines to earn money to buy his mother a red petty-coat, Curdie chances upon the goblins who live in the mountain, and discovers that they are hatching an evil plot against the king and his palace. Meanwhile the princess makes a discovery of her own ' high in the castle she finds a wonderful old lady who is her great-great-grandmother. The problem is, nobody else knows of her grandmother, and nobody believes her. But the princess does believe, and it is by her faith in her grandmother and the magic thread that she receives from her, that she is able to rescue Curdie. Together they rescue the entire palace from disaster at the hands of the goblins.

In telling the story, MacDonald has an enchanting conversational style, wonderfully suitable for reading aloud to enraptured children ' an ability perfecting in telling stories to his own eleven children. But 'The Princess and the Goblin' is more than just a story. Before pursuing a literary career, MacDonald was a Congregationalist minister, and so integrates important underlying Christian themes. Believing in the great-great-grandmother despite the fact that many cannot see her, is a symbol of believing in God. MacDonald uses this to show how the Christian faith involves believing without seeing, and that not everyone has to 'see' something for it to be true. The grandmother's lamp and magic thread are the guides on which the princess must depend, much like the Word which is a lamp on our path. It may sound tacky, but it works.

Children are not likely to grasp the deeper underlying themes that MacDonald is working with. Nonetheless the story has a clear message for children. The clear conflict between the royal powers of light against the goblin powers of darkness is unmistakable. Moreover, the princess is presented as a model of virtue, and MacDonald frequently asserts the importance of moral virtues such as always telling the truth, keeping your word, and admitting your faults ' moral virtues that are equally important for princes and princesses of God's kingdom. Courage, honesty, grace, dignity and beauty are timeless ideals for children of all times to strive for. If you love Narnia, you're sure to like this one, and you'll find yourself quickly grabbing the sequel, 'The Princess and Curdie.' 'The Princess and the Goblin' was one of J.R.R. Tolkien's childhood favorites, highly regarded by C.S. Lewis, described by W.H. Auden as 'the only English children's book in the same class as the Alice books', and generally considered as a classic example of nineteenth century children's literary fairy tales. So if you haven't yet read this book, it's about time you did. With admirers such as Tolkien, Lewis and Auden, if you become a MacDonald's admirer you'll find yourself in good company!

Although I am an avid reader of American military history, I read few first-person accounts of war because I tend to prefer books about geopolitics, grand strategy, and decisive weapons systems. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book about a marine officer's experience during the Korean War. It was easy reading, its narrative was straightforward, informative, and, I believe, honest, and it provided some valuable insights into the harsh realities of the first of the Cold War's regional conflicts.

The United States' "forgotten war" began on June 25, 1950, when the People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) invaded the Republic of Korea (South Korea). At the time, Author Joseph Owen was a Marine Corps lieutenant stationed in North Carolina, living with his wife and their two young children. According to Owen: "Nobody at Camp Lejeune had expected a shooting war. Nor were we ready for one." A captain who had been an adviser to the South Korean Marine Corps predicted Korea would be "[o]ne lousy place to fight a war. Too hot in summer, too cold in winter, and straight up and down mountain terrains all year round. Except for those stinking rice paddies down in the valleys. Human manure they use. Worst stink in the world." Nevertheless, according to Owen: "The possibility of American Marines in a combat role excited us." Owen writes: "The North Koreans continued to overpower the meager resistance offered by the South Korean soldiers....Seoul, the South Korean capital, fell with hardly a fight, and the Red blitzkrieg rolled southward. In response, President Truman escalated American involvement in the war. He ordered General MacArthur, America's supreme commander in the Far East, to use U.S. Army troops stationed in Japan to stem the invaders." And: "General MacArthur called for a full division of Marines to help him turn back the North Koreans. According to Owen: "The Marine Corps welcomed the call, but we did not have a full division to put in the field;" and "More than seven thousand of us at Camp Lejeune received orders to proceed by rail to Camp Pendleton. There they would form into companies and embark for Korea." Owen's unit, "Baker-One-Seven became one of three rifle companies if the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment....Our ranks were filled by 215 men and 7 officers who had never before served together....Many of [the privates] were beardless teenagers with little training beyond the basics of shouldering a rifle and marching in step." While training, there was much concern about the readiness of the Marines for combat. At one point, after a sergeant remarks that the troops need more training in boot camp, Owen succinctly invokes reality: "They are not going to boot camp. They are going aboard ship. And they are going to fight." On September 1, the company boarded a Navy transport for the three-week voyage to east Asia. According to Owen: "Ready or not, we were on the way to war." And, according to Owen, the 1st Marine Division's orders were "to go for the Yalu River," North Korea's border with China. At one point, a veteran officer provides this paraphrase of William Tecumseh Sherman's famous dictum: "War is hell, but you never know what particular kind of hell it's going to be." The Korean War hell was cold and barren. Owen writes: "We were chilled through and bone tired as we slogged our way back to battalion....The bivouac was lumpy with rocks and boulders;" "The cold weather was as formidable an enemy as the Chinese;" and "Rarely did the [daily action] reports exceed zero degrees, and there were lows of twenty below."

By the time Owen's outfit arrived in Korea, he writes, "we were making bets that the war would be over before we got into it." Owen's Marines could not have been more wrong. While Owen is inspecting his men's weapons, a private asks: "Think we'll get shot at today, Lieutenant?" Owen replies: "We're taking the point for the regiment. If the gooks are there, they'll be shooting at us." A few pages later, after the outfit's first experience in combat, Owen comments: "We were fortunate that the enemy had not chosen a "fight-to-the-death" defense of this hill, as they would when we advanced farther north." But some fighting was hand-to-hand. At one point, Owen writes: "Judging from the noise they were making, and the direction of their grenades, the North Koreans were preparing to attack, not more than thirty yards away." The Captain tells Owen and the other subordinate officers: "The Chinese have committed themselves to this war....The people we will fight are the 124th Division of the Regular Chinese Army....They're tough, well-trained soldiers, ten thousand of them. And all of their officers are combat experienced, their very best....A few hours from now we'll have the Chinese army in our gunsights. We'll be in their gunsights. You damn well better have our people ready for some serious fighting." The combat was, indeed, brutal. According to Owen: "The Chinese attacked in massive numbers, an overwhelming weight, but they also endured terrible casualties." Owen recalls that, while waiting for one Chinese attack, the "men stacked Chinese bodies in front of the holes for greater protection." And the fighting around the frozen Chosin Reservoir may have been the most brutal of the war. Owen ultimately suffered wounds requiring 17 months of treatment, and he never regained full use of one arm.

A few months ago, I reviewed James Brady's wonderful The Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea here. This book has different charms. Whereas Brady is a gifted professional writer, there is no elegant prose here. But Owen provides an equally vivid account of this ugly war. Big, sophisticated studies of military history focusing on geopolitical principles and grand strategy rarely offer narrative moments like the ones in this book. Reader are unlikely to forget the Korean War after reading Joseph Owen's Colder than Hell.

When preparing to travel to an Asian country on business, I seek context by reading of the wars the U.S. has fought there. When I look in those Japanese, Chinese and Korean eyes, I see the children of old enemies and old friends. While plowing through Fehrenbach's canonical Korean War history, "This Kind of War", I took a break and lost a weekend of yard work to "Colder Than Hell" which I ordered based on the praise given by my fellow Amazon reviewers. My thanks to the other reviewers, for this is a superb first person account of a Marine company fighting it's way up and then back down the Korean peninsula in 1950. Marines of Baker one-seven fought and froze to the death too often, but their sacrifice has let 47 million Koreans in the South build a democracy and learn the meaning of freedom. The price of freedom was huge for Baker one-seven, but the esprit de corps so crisply described by ex-Second Lt. Owen carried his Marines from hill to hill. This is an excellent book and a must read for fans of first person stories of war and sacrifice.

Colder than Hell: A Marine Rifle Company at Chosin Reservoir. By Joseph R. Owen. Reviewed by Mike Davino

Army Korean War expert Lieutenant Colonel Roy Appleman has called the 1st Marine Division of the Chosin Reservoir campaign "one of the most magnificent fighting organizations that ever served in the United States Armed Forces." The remarkable and inspiring story of the division at the Chosin Reservoir has been the subject of numerous books and several films. During their fighting withdrawal, the Marines decimated several divisions of the Chinese People's Liberation Army while at the same time fighting an exceptionally harsh winter environment.

Joseph Owen's new book on the subject tells the story from the cutting edge perspective of a rifle company. The author served as a mortar section leader and rifle platoon commander in Baker Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines from its activation in August 1950 through the Inchon-Seoul and Chosin fighting where he was severely wounded.

There are many reasons given for the outstanding performance of the Marines in northeast Korea during the winter of 1950. It is clear from this book that a large measure of the credit goes to the Marines and their leaders at the small unit and rifle company level.

Owen's narrative covers the hasty activation and training of the company, its brief participation in the fighting north of Seoul after the amphibious assault at Inchon and the details of its intense fighting at Chosin. He candidly discusses the mistakes made by the leaders and Marines of Baker Company, to include his own. More importantly, Owen covers what they learned from these mistakes and how they used that knowledge to defeat the Chinese in a series of intense actions.

Although focused at the company level, the author frames his story with the overall conduct of the campaign. Refreshingly, unlike many books about the Chosin campaign, it is free of partisan sniping about the contributions made by the various services involved. Owen gives credit to the Army units that fought at Chosin as well as the contributions of naval and air forces and our British allies.

This book is rich in lessons about small unit leadership, training and combat operations. It is an excellent addition to the personal narratives on the Korea War.