This is a fascinating book. The places are real (and some are rather creepy) and the stories are supposedly true. Every story will draw you in. The history and research the author did was extensive. This is a book you could very well (regretfully) finish in one sitting.

I was born and raised in Kingsport and I even met the author of this book when he came to my high school in 1996. The name is a little hokey but the book is extremely well written and the research is very good, it even includes some newspaper clippings. This book is well worth the price and the read!

This was a very suspenseful book. It has many short stories in it and all are suppose to be true. Many are folklore that was passed down and most have some eyewitness testimony. My favorite was the one called "A Part Of The Dark Is Moving". Every story takes place at real place in East Tennessee. This is a must have for anyone who likes old fashion ghost stories or folklore.

I found this text to be very useful to me and prefer it among other steel texts. Concentration on bridges makes this book even more valuable. The text in, many sections, deals with some more advanced theories about steel which you may not find in many texts.

The Human Brain and Spinal Cord es un libro que nunca deberé retirar por obsoleto del armario de la oficina. Sus descripciones anatómicas del sistema nervioso central son materia superlativa.
Por ejemplo, el capítulo Brain localization contiene descripciones de primera mano por Galeno, Nemesio de Emesa, Avicena, Vesalio, Descartes, Willis, Prochaska, Gall, Rolando, Flourens, Bouillaud, Aubertin, Broca, Spencer, Jackson, Hitzin, Ferrier, Bartholow, Sherrington y ... suma y sigue.
La edición es ciudada y sobria. La diagramación es elegante y los tipos son claros. La calidad se aprecia al leer la materia y no por el uso de destacadores "didácticos".
Edición limitada a 750 ejemplares. Fascinación para quienes, como yo mismo, somos bibliómanos y neurólogos.

What can I say about an obscure American philosopher/theologian whose books keep going out of print? He really shouldn't be so obscure, because his ideas are worth some rigorous analysis. But I dare say that Hartshorne may not be as tuned into popular culture as say C.S. Lewis was. I haven't yet read all of this dense book that I'm reviewing. But I will. Omnipotence and other theological mistakes is a much easier read if one wants to be introduced to Hartshorne. Hartshorne has some pretty strange and interesting ideas. He was an authority on Bird Song, and he reasoned that birds sing lovely songs because they evolved that way. So he came up with the idea that the goal of evolution was aesthetics. Now this is interesting, and maybe if he was using the internet today, he would reason that as time passed and the internet evolved, the conversation of chat rooms would become more pleasing to one's sense of aesthetics. We, as members of cyberspace can only hope that it will e! volve from the meaningless drivel that it is right now.

This book is not a story of the making of gold coins, but rather it is a more specific catalog of the collection housed in Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian. This is, quite simply, the only substitute I am aware of for going to see the gold collection personally. It contains many high quality black and white photos, as well as one page of somewhat less detailed full color images. This is definitely a book for the serious numismatist, but if you are so inclined it is not to be missed.

Book Description: The Year 2000 How To Guide for Medical Laboratories As the Year 2000 (Y2K) approaches, can you be sure that your laboratory will be ready? The Y2K date problem is old news in the Information Systems industry. Over the last four years the problem was made public through the media, literature and various symposia. The Hospital Council of Western Pennsylvania estimates that as many as 15,000 medical devices could be affected. Often referred to as the millennium bug, software and medical devices containing embedded chips may not be able to distinguish between the centuries 1900 and 2000. Will your laboratory equipment and software recognize that "00" comes after "99"? And how will "00" be handled?

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Written in the early twentieth century, this indigenous Japanese novel recounts the life & times of old Japan's greatest swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi -- a man who began life as an over-eager and rather brutish young lout but who, through the discipline of Japan's "way of the sword," turned himself into a master of his chosen weapon. But this tale is not only one of a life spent in training to perfect the art of killing with a sharpened piece of steel. In the venerable Japanese tradition, it is also about a man's search to conquer himself, to become a better man. The Buddhist view cultivated by the Japanese warrior class allowed for a spiritual dimension to their very bloody (in western eyes) enterprise of warfare and killing. And it is this aspect of his training that consumes Musashi, to the detriment of the people he encounters and who seek to attach themselves to him. Unable to settle down in the ordinary way, or to simply join a particular clan as a retainer to some noble lord, Musashi embarks on the life of a ronin (masterless samurai) as he wends his way through the feudal world of medieval Japan in his seemingly endless search for perfection. In the process he finds a young woman who loves him and many enemies who seek his destruction, at least in part in repayment for the damage he does them while on his quest. He also crosses swords with many other experts in Japan's martial arts, but it is his encounter with a Buddhist priest that ultimately puts him on the right path. In the end Musashi finds his grail in a duel to the death with his greatest opponent, the sword master famous for his "swallow cut" -- a stroke so fast and deadly that it can slice a swooping, looping bird out of the air in mid-flight. This alone is a challenge worthy of the master which Musashi has become -- and a match which even he may not be up to, for this opponent is surely the finest technician in his art in all Japan. But there is more to swordsmanship than technical skill, as Musashi has learned, and there is more to living one's life than mere technical proficiency. Musashi attains a sort of peace in preparation for his climactic bout, for he is willing to risk all and even die in order to win against the master of the swallow cut, while applying all the strategy he has learned throughout his tumultuous career to unsettle the man who will oppose him. In the end Musashi lived to a fairly ripe old age and, unlike many of his contemporaries, died in his bed after composing the famous Book of Five Rings -- his own contribution to the art of strategy. (And, by the way, The Art of War, another famous book of military strategy was written by the Chinese general Sun T'zu -- not "Lao T'zu.") -- Stuart W. Mirsky (mirsky@ix.netcom.com

Books numbering to nearly 1000 pages daunt me-- as you can tell, I don't read very much, even though I should. Of course, knowing vaguely of the legend of Musashi prompted me to pick up this book-- and I haven't regretted it. I am only 60% done with it, but just for that first 60% I'd still give it a five-star rating. Not only was it true to Japanese culture, it was entertaining. (Shogun, the film, was true to form but not very entertaining for me.) What is very fun about the book is the way that Yoshikawa uses characters who existed at that time, and events that took place at that time (mostly the duels), and swirled them into a semi-fiction novel. The character personalities are simply intriguing. For vernacular purposes, "cool" describes many of the ronin portrayed in the book. I enjoy the mixture of arrogance, honor and skill that characterize the samurai-- especially Sasaki Kojiro Ganryu's references to his thirsty Drying Pole.

As a last note, the translation was exemplary. Not only was it technically correct, but Terry managed to transfer Yoshikawa's humor into English so that it was understood, and generally captured Yoshikawa's intentions throughout the book-- it seemed that things which are easy to describe in Japanese, yet having no literal translation in English, were recognized by Terry and converted into understandable English.

After I finish the book, chances are that Amazon.com had better establish a 6 star rating.

Written in the early twentieth century, this indigenous Japanese novel recounts the life and times of old Japan's greatest swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi -- a man who began life as an over-eager and rather brutish young lout but who, through the discipline of Japan's "way of the sword," turned himself into a master of his chosen weapon. But this tale is not only about a life spent in training to perfect the art of killing with a sharpened piece of steel. In the venerable Japanese tradition, it is also about a man's search to conquer himself, to become a better person. The Buddhist view cultivated by the Japanese warrior class allowed for a spiritual dimension to their very bloody enterprise of warfare and killing. And it is this aspect of his training that consumes Musashi, to the detriment of the people he encounters and who seek to attach themselves to him. Unable to settle down in the ordinary way, or to simply join a particular clan as a retainer to some noble lord, Musashi embarks on the life of a ronin (masterless samurai) as he wends his way through the feudal world of medieval Japan in his seemingly endless search for perfection. In the process he finds a young woman who loves him and many enemies who seek his destruction, at least in part in repayment for the damage he does them while on his quest. He also crosses swords with many other experts in Japan's martial arts, but it is his early encounter with a Buddhist priest that puts him on the path which will forever after guide his life. Musashi ultimately finds his grail in a duel to the death with a man called Kojiro, who will become his greatest opponent, a sword master famous for his "swallow cut" -- a stroke so fast and deadly that it can slice a swooping, looping bird out of the air in mid-flight. This alone is a challenge worthy of the master which Musashi has become -- and a match which even he may not be up to, for this opponent is surely the finest technician in his art in all Japan. But there is more to swordsmanship than technical skill, as Musashi has learned, and there is more to living one's life than merely preserving it. Musashi attains a sort of peace in preparation for his climactic bout, for he is willing to risk all and even die in order to win against the master of the swallow cut, while applying all the strategy he has learned throughout his tumultuous career to unsettle the man who will oppose him. In the end Musashi became a legend to his countrymen, composing the famous Book of Five Rings -- his contribution to the art of strategy. But what he and Kojiro must do when they finally face each other is a tale in itself -- and a denoument towards which everything else in this book ultimately leads.

The temptation to finish the tale seems irresistible. In the beginning, everything seems to lead toward a predictable solution - but then the plot thickens. After some digressions that shrewdly delay the action and raise the level of suspense, and after some florid editorializing (e.g.,on professional philanthropy, on female intuition vs. male obtuseness, etc.) Dickens introduces some new characters, and the mystery deepens: Who is Datchery? Is he one of the previous players in disguise, or a Sherlock Holmes-like figure? Who is Tartar? What is Bazzard up to? What does the opium dealer know or suspect? Who is the "fellow traveller"? Did Jasper murder (or try and fail to murder) Drood - or did he commit the deed only in an opium dream?
My own hunch is that Drood is not dead. There is no body - at least not yet; and it would seem so much more like Dickens to have a man given up for dead re-emerge triumphantly after many trials and tribulations, and after much dissimulating on the part of characters "in the know" (cf."Our Mutual Friend"). But since we don't know what Dickens planned, we are free to spin our own yarn and weave our own tapestry. Isn't that a lot more fun?

It is a tribute to Charles Dickens' reputation that to this day this unfinished novel, a mystery no less, still garners such speculation as to who allegedly murdered Edwin Drood. There are organizations created for the sole purpose of analyzing the novel and to theorizing whom the culprit may have been, if indeed there really was a culprit. After all, only Drood's watch and his shirt pin are produced, not his body.

As in all of Dickens' novels, the characterizations are the thing. You have the innocent young woman with the somewhat eccentric guardian and his Bob Cratchitlike assistant. There is the dark, possibly unfairly accused, but hot headed antagonist of Drood. Then there is Drood's brooding choirmaster uncle, John Jasper, who frequents opium dens, and who may or may not have ulterior motives in his seeking revenge. Durdles, the stone mason, and a somewhat weird character, provides some chilling comic relief in cemetery scenes with his stone throwing assistant. There are also the typical Dickensian characters, which includes a snooty older woman, a class conscious, spinsterish school mistress, and in a hilarious restaurant scene, an unappreciated, hard working "flying waiter" and a lazy, wise acre "stationary waiter."

It is a shame that Dickens died before he could complete "Edwin Drood." What is here are the beginnings of an exploration of man's dual nature, a journey into "the heart of darkness" so to speak.

This novel has stayed on my mind ever since I read it. It's so frustrating that Dickens died before completing this novel. On the other hand, the fact that this classic British mystery was never finished has created a great opportunity for literary critics and mystery lovers alike to try to solve the mystery for themselves. We'll never know who Dickens really had in mind as the murderer, or if indeed there was a murder after all. That's a huge loss. But it's a great ride for readers to try to make up their own minds.

I still haven't made up my mind about who did it. Sure, there is a very obvious suspect in Jasper, but that doesn't mean Dickens thought he did it. Some people have speculated that Dickens wrote this novel as a tribute to his friend Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone," so perhaps the opium addiction would have played a huge part in the mystery. It's even possible that Dickens saw a bit of himself in Jasper's tortured love life because of the way it paralleled his own life. After all, Cloisterham is supposed to be based on Dickens' Rochester. Then again, just because Dickens sympathized with someone, that doesn't mean that character was innocent, either, does it? Now you see why this story continues to torment mystery lovers.

Like any other Dickens novel, this one has lots of memorable characters, from the suspicious and tormented Jasper to the Reverend Crisparkle to Princess Puffer. And of course, the enigmatic Datchery. The gravedigger and his obnoxious but perceptive boy assistant provide both Dickensian eccentric characters and possible clues.

The power of this book even today is clear in the way it inspired an award-winning Broadway musical where the audience got to solve the mystery on their own. (By the way, 1935 movie with Claude Rains was good, but some of the main characters were cut out, and others seemed little like the characters in the book, even if they were fine actors.)

Anne M. Marble
All About Romance and Holly Lisle's Forward Motion Writing Community

In his introduction, the author attempts vainly to put Merrill in the same category as Morgan and other great financiers. The problem is that he was not a financier, just a guy riding the trend of retailing in the 1920s. But his gratitude for his own personal pension fund appreciating in the 1990s and attributing it to people like Merrill is extremely embarrassing. This suggests that the author is trying to ingratiate himself to Merrill's company. A little balatant. More to the point, Mr. Perkins did not seem to understand his topic very well. He constantly refers to the backroom at Merrill as "backstage." The backroom and its problems was a big topic on Wall St from the 1950s through the 70s although Perkins seems unaware of the whole problem and constantly refers to it as backstage. Did anyone ever research a topic so poorly? Whether Merrill deserves a full fledged biography still remains unclear after reading this amateurish attempt.

I learned a lot about Wall Street history from this book. The relatively overnight successes of technology driven Wall Streeters should not obscure the more remarkable achievements of Charlie Merrill. The author skillfully describes the times in which Merrill operated and gave me a balanced view of Merrill's strengths and weaknesses. The story moves swiftly along and I gained a real appreciation of the future Merrill saw, the opportunities he capitalized on, and those he inspired along the way.

Charles Merrill is an authentic American genius and today's capital markets bear his distinctive stamp in many ways, as Edwin J. Perkins' book proves in fascinating detail. While the book works as a business history and as a professional portrait, it is less successful as a biography because Perkins deliberately chose to focus on Merrill's professional life. By keeping Merrill's personal life very much in the background, Perkins declines to bring Merrill's personality to life. We learn about his career, but we do not seem to get to know the man himself. Happily, Merrill's achievements and business innovations are well worth examining. His commitment to service, integrity and the good of the common customer - even when that angered the elite customer - made him richer than most of the aristocrats who fought against him. We [...] recommend this worthy portrayal of a riveting role model to entrepreneurs, finance professionals and any business history buff.