This book, apart from being the world's longest job description (for a Counselor to the President for Grand Strategy), remains a vibrant and provocative discussion relevant to guiding the Nation into the 21st Century. Part I discusses the "world theater" and Part II discusses in turn a grand strategy and then political, public, deterrence, negotiating, resources, technology, Third World, and economic strategies. The book ends with thoughts on organizing for strategy that should, because of who wrote them and how good they are, be required reading, in their twelve-page entirety, for the President and his entire Cabinet team.

This book is not only concise but also very descriptive. The trails are described very well, as well as driving directions on how to get to them, and you are told what you can expect to see on each trail. It's very portable in case you'd like to tuck it into a backpack, too! Good job!

The best and most interesting book on one of the greatest scientific accomplishments of our century written in the words of the individuals involved.
These are real people including secretaries, guards, Telephone operators,and others as well as Engineers, Scientists, Project managers, and key individuals who participated in this remarkable extension of our knowledge of the Solar system.

Of particular delight to the reviewer was the reoccuring theme of pride of accomplishment by those associated with the Voyager project as well as the problems that were overcome, both technical and financial.
I found this an inspiring work and reccomend it to those who believe in humanity and scientific accomplishment.

This is a very well-rounded book, giving insights into many facets of Viking life and history. It is well-written and very well organized. The index is a valuable resource for other materials relating to those subjects you would like to read more in depth. I highly recommend it!

The perfect book; this is the one and only book that could have ranked higher than Jones' "A History of The Vikings". There are two separate halves to this masterpiece: the first is a compilation of several different authors, each taking on a different aspect of the Vikings: from metalworking to settling to religion, it's all here. The second half is a massive catalogue of Viking artifacts, with tons of pictures and detailed descriptions of swords, pieces of boats, combs, etc.

But in addition to being incredibly well-formatted and informative, this is one of the easiest and most enjoyable books I've ever read. It's written in a way that an expert will get just as much out of it as a beginner, and, being loaded with pictures and text that varies from author to author, it's genuinely difficult to put this book down. You could spend hours just flipping through the catalogue at the end. This is more than just a book: more than any other, this one will take you back in time to the Viking Age. Very very highly recommended.

David Grand's noir mystery, set in the period between the two world wars, has a complexity of plot and character that makes James Ellroy's novels look like "Dick and Jane" stories. The trouble is that there's no real pay-off at the conclusion to justify the effort the reader needs to make to keep straight the various subplots. Indeed, the argument could be made that the book lacks a plot at all and consists merely of a complex system of subplots. Perhaps this is what readers and reviewers mean when they refer to the work as somehow "postmodern." It lacks a center.

Like Luc Sante, Leonard Gardner (Fat City) and James Ellroy, David Grand knows what makes us so weak and fallible. His ability to stare into our core, while weaving an amazing story is what makes him such a force in contemporary fiction. That, and his fierce, funny imagination solidify him as my favorite writer writing today. The Disappearing Body has everything a perfect noir should have and more. I don't think I've had this much fun with a book in years.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's drenched in dark Dashiell Hammett atmosphere but written with the fearless storytelling vigor of James Ellroy and, perhaps most appropriately, the clever joy of the likes of Jonathan Lethem (who has a great quote on the back of the book). The combination of all these things actually reminded me most of Nathanael West, of Miss Lonelyhearts and the Day of the Locust, but this is a much bigger book than either of those, much more elaborately plotted (a la Ellroy). I was worried that it was going to get too long, feel too thick and heavy, but there's a constant humor that keeps it lively and its filled with many different characters and plot twists, which gets pretty complicated but not actually confusing, mostly because none of the characters and storylines feel interchangeable --- they're all distinct and suspenseful in their own way.

The book is set in an unnamed city (that's a lot like New York) in the 1930s, just after Prohibtion. The Mob is just beginning to explore heroin trafficking as a way to replace their illegal liquor profits, and all of the politicians are more obsessed with Communism or anti-Communism. The three main characters are Freddy Stillman, who witnesses a murder but the body disappears before the police show up; Victor Ribe, who served in World War I with Freddy and at the beginning of the book is mysteriously released from prison; and Harry Shortz, who runs the Narotics Bureau but wants to be in politics and is set up for a fall. All their stories intertwine in a way that reminded me of the movie Traffic --- they're both about politics and drugrunning, and they're assembled in similar ways --- but Traffic if Quentin Tarantino had worked on the screenplay and Weegee had been cinematographer... that's not really fair, because if it feels like a movie, it feels more like classic '40s film noir.

It does sort of feel like a period piece, which I don't usually like, but it works here, probably because the city is never named so it doesn't feel like a history lesson. It's fun and serious at the same time. I highly recommend to anyone interested in contemporary writing who still likes a book to have a plot, especially a suspenseful plot.

Get real! Read a realistic book. The book Grand Avenue is as real as it could get. It is a book that contains many stories that are linked together. These stories all have many different characters and take place in many different settings. They are so real that a variety of people could relate to them. It is full of anger, lust, personality, and distruction. The anger of one child leads to destruction when she burns down a barn because she couldn't save one horse. Another girl's relationship ended when she made a bad choice. It ends with plenty of life-long lessons that will capture the reader's heart. One reason that Grand Avenue is so easy to connect to is that the time period is so close to ours. The setting takes place in many different areas. Even though they aren't described well there are so many that the reader has to be able to connect to one. By connect , I mean if it sounds recognizable the reader can experience it more. Setting may not be described well, but it is still an important and large part of the book. The main themes are anger, lust, and destruction. The theme creates a world of suspense that is drowning in dangers. The dangers are not just imaginary. These dangers are ones that people have been victims of in the real world, too. One girl is determined to save a horse that she loves dearly. She can't save it so out of anger she burns down the barn that the horse had once been kept in. Another girl knows she's in love, but by making a bad choice her relationship ends. The characters in Grand Avenue have to learn important lessons the hard way. One can avoid the pain the characters go through and still learn life-long lessons, while reading Grand Avenue. Think about your relationships and problems. Do you want some help fixing them or making them better? Let my friends from Grand Avenue help. They'll do the dirty work for you. Make your life a little easier and have fun reading Grand Avenue.

I've read both this book and the Jenny, but I can't really say why. The quality of the prose is uninspired (although I guess I like its snappiness) and I have the uncomfortable feeling the author believes his own conspiracy theories. All-in-all however, I think I'll read his next one - maybe I'll find out why I like them!

With the publication of Elpeleg's excellent biography, Hajj Amin al-Husayni is now the subject of six biographies in the English alone, as well as several in other languages. Why so much attention to a seemingly minor and failed figure now repudiated by his own people? Because, as Elpeleg shows, Hajj Amin established many of the basics of Palestinian nationalism which endure to this day-from the adoption of the 1916 Sharifian banner of as the Palestinian flag to the inveterate anti-Semitic tone of Palestinian politics. Elpeleg credits him, "more than any other figure," with turning a local conflict into a major regional crisis. More: Hajj Amin determined the lines of Palestinian politics that endure decades after his influence eroded: "There is almost nothing in the PLO doctrine, or in the national charters of the Palestine National Council, which had not already been conceived and given expression by Haj Amin." Despite his profound importance, the man is neglected by his heirs today, embarrassed as they are by his overt extremism, his failure, and his smell of evil (he joined the Nazi cause and succeeded in preventing Jews from escaping the Nazi death machine). Still, along with Yasir Arafat, he remains one of the two outstanding figures of Palestinian nationalism; thanks to Elpeleg's meticulous, comprehensive, and fast-moving account, we have a real sense who this figure was and how it was that he did uniquely much to poison relations between Jews and Muslims in Palestine.

Middle East Quarterly, June 1994

This book doesn't describe alienation - it is alienation. Fromcharacters who become familiar and yet are still nondescript to a plotthat unfolds but doesn't involve, reading Louse is like watching life go by from your window. If you want to read a better book in a similar vein, read The Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford, which manages to both draw compelling characters and make a wide ranging commentary on modern life.

Louse reads like Don Delillo, James Ellroy, David Foster Wallace and Terry Gilliam all wrote a novel together--and it worked absolutely perfectly, allowing the best parts of each of them to shine. Louse is based loosely on the last days of Howard Hughes, when the man has completely lost himself to his obsession with hygiene and mania for absolute power, locked himself in the penthouse of his own casino and surrounded himself with troops of supposedly absolutely loyal servants. Louse is the most perfect combination of maverick originality, obvious intelligence, and entertaining storytelling in a novel in a long, long time.

In Louse, Grand brilliantly and hilariously illuminates the interstitial moments of one's worst anxiety dreams and magnifies their existence in mind altering complexity. The narrative is pristine and subtle in its execution, the details and images, bizarre, and the overall effect, vertiginous.

Lindley's fine summary of the current state of physics mentions organized religion a few times. He says that "simplicity is the religion of cosmology."

After living the life of an orthodox Mormon for forty years until leaving the fold permanently five years ago I am now comparing my old religion to just another "theory of everything."

At least Lindley is free to question and scrutinize his fellow scientists. But in religion there is no check and balance system for reality.

For instance Mormonism teaches that the planet named Kolob is the center of universe and domicile of God. This absurd claim is treated with religious fervor in the same as many scientific theories are held sacred and special.

From Lindley I learned that skepticism is healthy and that we have a long long way to go before we really start understanding the universe and ourselves in it. Fascinating read.

One things seems for sure. We don't know.

My opinion of this book is quite different from some of the other reviewers. This book is not a skeptical anti-science or ... anti-Mormon rant. Rather, by considering the history of particle physics and cosmology Lindley shows again and again that scientific theories are only at best myths unless they are back up with solid emperical evidence. This evidence comes via experiments. Lindley does not say a "Theory of Everything" is impossible, he simply states that if a "Theory of Everthing" is going to have any meaning, it must be testable through emperical experiments, just like every other theory which science currently accepts as the best explaination of a given phenomena. In other words, hard work and imagination have gotten science this far and it needs to be applied again in this particular endeavor. Though the book is probably a little dated now, it still provides an excellent format for one to recieve an introduction to particle physics and cosmology. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

Are the cosomologists correct, or is it the particle physicists? Does quantum theory really invalidate Einstein's deterministic universe? Is the concept of a 26-dimensional universe credible, or are we as enamored with numerology as those in times of yore? Can science provide us with more than a myth about the creation of the universe? Each new discovery seems to beg more questions.

The essence of this book is the tension that Lindley so magically captures--the tension between ideas, between scientists, and between philosophies. Lindley enthusiastically relates the drama; he catches the spirit and the excitement of discovery, as well as anxiety over some difficult unknowns.

This book is a thrilling ride through some of the most captivating intellectual territory of the 20th century. Do not be put off by the complex nature of the subject matter; this is one of the most accessible science books that I have read. The energy of the ideas certainly outweighs the challenges presented by the difficult subject matter.

This book is a great read for passionate learners.