I finished reading this book recently and I have to say it is an excellent book. When Hunter Davies first interviewed the Beatles for this book from 1967-1968, it was before all the bickering and fighting started and before Yoko came into the picture. Davies takes an inside look in thier home and family life, the songwriting process, and recording sessions. It also gives a pretty good background on their childhoods and how they all met. Not to mention a lot of great pictures, including some I never seen before. The only reason I didn't give it five stars was because it is not a totally definative bio. Lots of things were left out because it upset thier family members. For example, it is not mentioned that Brian Epstein was homosexual because it upset his mother at the time. And some things were left out of John's childhood because it upset his aunt Mimi. Other than that, I reccomend that you read this book. It is smart and thouroughly researched. A must have for all Beatles fans!

Thank heaven for Beatle scholarship that this book was written. Competent journalist Hunter Davies spent a year observing the Beatles and interviewing them in their own homes during the heady, fascinating year of 1967. He emerged with a time piece: the Beatles as they were at that time, reflecting on what came before and unaware of what was yet to come. A chapter describing the writing and recording of "With a Little Help From My Friends," "Getting Better," and "Magical Mystery Tour" offers unique and especially valuable glimpses of the Beatles at work. Chapters depicting the home life and personal outlook of each Beatle are also very interesting. I must also say that for an authorised biography, this is remarkably honest. Perceptive readers will be able to detect the whole truth here, and a fine introduction written by the author years later helps fill in any gaps. Apart from being hugely entertaining, this book is a tremendous boon to historians interested in the Beatles.

As a 14 year old Beatle fan I read this book in its original release in 1968. (I think just about everyone in my Catholic girl's school in Queens was reading it). I loved reading about the birth of the Beatles; their days in Liverpool and Hamburg, their early influences, etc. I have always remained a fan and recently reread the book. I loved it just as much the second time around -- it brought me back to a time I loved and I remembered how great it was the grow up in the 60's and the Beatles were a big part of that great decade. My 14 year old daugher (also a Beatles fan) loves it as well. I never expected this reaction - I was suprised that the Beatles still have a huge amount of young fans. Suprised and happy because we certainly have found some common ground. She loved learning about the Beatles and the decade they came to represent. I do think this is the best book on the Beatles to date I (and the only authorized one as far as I know)- although I hear there will soon be an autobiography by Paul, George and Ringo. It's a must read for any Beatles fan!

If you want shark stories, stear clear of this book. Make no mistake; Marriot makes an incredible journey and has some amazing experiences. However, he has direct encounters with only three sharks and those all occured in one day. I would say 75% of this book is about Nicaragua's history and politics, 10% discusses shark mythology and 10% is a heavy handed attempt to draw metaphors between the two. This leaves 5% for actual sharks.

In short, a big disappoint for shark fans. Instead, check out Shark Attacks : Their Causes and Avoidance by Thomas B. Allen.

Our son sent us this book,after reading it while in Nicaragua.
My husband comes from a GREAT story-telling family and this book feels like it belongs in our family tales!Who would believe a book about the near-disappearance of shark fishing in Nicaragua would be SO compeling?

A few of the human kind can be found in places like Bluefields, Nicaragua, where if this book had instead been set in the wild west of the US, the only proper name for some of the residents would be desperados. Although conditions are definitely frontier-like the characters are very 20th century, and uniquely Nicaraguan. Interspersed throughout SAVAGE SHORE are referrences to, and the occasional crossing of paths with, Sandinistas, Contras, Colombian drug dealers and the odd modern day pirate. These characters though are not even the central focus, but they certainly add to what is already a fascinating and well written travelogue, cultural study, nature journal, and critique on human greed, economic exploitation, and political chaos.

The central characters are not men at all but bull sharks that live, breed, and hunt in the Caribbean waters of Nicaragua's east coast. It is the "most willful and aggressive of all tropical sharks" and what makes it unique and worthy of a book, is that "like no other shark, it possessed the ability to cross from salt water to freshwater, hunting far upriver". That means that the bull shark can be found up the Escondido river near Bluefields or more impressively, 60 miles up the San Juan river, all the way to Lake Nicaragua. It is as the author says "shark where shark should not be - in fresh water, on human territory."

The book tells the tale of this shark and the men who hunt it, as they have for generations, - bravely, in open dugout canoes with hand held lines. The sharks are hunted for their body oils, the fins are used to make soup and the skin is tanned into leather. Poverty means that resource management is non-existent and overfishing means that the shark itself may soon be gone from its last great freshwater holdout - lake Nicaragua.

Fear and greed, the author says, are the two most common human emotions the bull shark elicits. Perhaps it's fitting then that this also best describes the pervasive feeling that one gets from this rough and tumble area. History has a part to play. In the 17th century Bluefields was the capital of the British protectorate - the Mosquito Coast - which stretched the length of Nicaragua's Caribbean shoreline to Puerto Cabeza in the north, and beyond into what is now Honduras. This explains how a town with an Anglo name exists in a Latin country. Slaves from Jamaica were brought in and their descendants are now the large, patois/english speaking Creole population. Co-existence with the Miskito, Sumu, and Ramu indians has not always been peaceful but the natives of this area have at times pulled together, usually in the face of some external threat, whether natural as in the many hurricanes that have devastated the area, or man made as in the political tribalism and battles between Sandinistas and Contras.

This story of sharks, at sea and on land, makes the place most appropriately named SAVAGE SHORE. Yet in an irony fitting for this book, the area is also the focal point of Nicaragua's tourism industry.

There are few books I dislike, but this book was one of the few that came close. While I enjoyed some of Austin's imagery, it seemed she went around in circles and never get to a destinaton. It was like reading a bunch of settings, but never getting any plot. The highlight of the book was Seyavi, the basket maker but the book itself seemed to be lacking. If you're looking for nature writing, read Linda Hogan's "Dwellings." It's a lot more personal.

I used to live write down the street from Mary Austin's old house in the Owen's Valley. I found her life very interesting and maybe from reading this book you get more of an inside on what her life was like.

Austin lived in the Owens Valley during a turbulent period at the turn of the century, and she observes the people and wild things dwelling there with a novelist's eye. But what sets this gem above all the rest is simply her writing, the plain beauty of her voice and phrasing. She achieves a tone that is somehow at once wistful and tinged with levity, very gently ironic yet always loving. Her words caress their subjects like -- well, like the pen and ink drawings that graced the original publication in 19-ought-whatever. They evoke all the richness of the place, its austerity, its pathos, its beauty, with a gentle affection that is sweet but never cloying, sometimes sad but never downcast. It has a kind of Zen translucency, filtered through the gently humorous, sensitive lens of a literary genius.

The first of the Creed Books for Hunter: the Reckoning has a good mix of in-character rumors and philosophies and out-of-character rules and goodies (the new traits and edges are especially nice). Excellent insight into the Avengers of the WoD and worth a look by any Hunter STs and players.

Although General Hunter wasn't an abolitionist in the sense that Frederick Douglass or Garrison were, he may have been the highest ranking military officer to have issued orders freeing southern slaves without authority (before the Emancipation Proclamation) because he believed southerners who seceded were traitors and he needed every soldier INCLUDING BLACK SOLDIERS he could get. Hunter's bland history as a "paymaster" during the Mexican war and the Frontier Indian wars is an added bonus, as the job was much more than it seems. Miller's recounting of how Hunter decided which of the homes of "rebel sympathizers" to burn down is also highly instructive of what it must have been like to conduct a "war" in your own backyard, with family names you know. Hunter was a personal friend of both Jefferson Davis and Abe Lincoln and routinely went around normal military channels to make his points. Miller doesn't try to present Hunter as a hero, but an interesting character in the Civil War who was well in front of his fellow Republicans on the issue of freeing the slaves and enlisting them into the war. (They didn't all want to be free, nor did they all want to fight.) The prose is a little dry, but the story carries it along well. Civil War buffs should particularly like this viewpoint of the Virginia campaign. Recommended.

I don't feel these books let you got the feel of a book. I read 3 of these books each one I feel is a flop. The books are confusing you have to go flipping through the pages to get to where you need to read. If you mess up and end up wanting to go back to read what would of happened if you did the other choice you have to flip the pages to find where you were. I have read a lot of books these I do not consider these books good books. I am very displeased. If you want to buy these books I suggest that you first read one to see if you like the setup and if you like the story. I also feel the writers don't go into enough detail in the storys. You don't get any feedback. No emotinal feedback at all. It is all so fast because they have to have 15 different endings instead of 1 ending where you get into more detail. I would not recommend buying any of these books until you get on from the library, and see if you like the way the books are setup. And if you like the storys.

I read this book, back in the early 80's, as a young grade school student. I still remember this book in particular today. Considering I don't remember much from that long ago, it is saying something. There is constant suspense, the choices make you feel like you are leading the action. I think that the cyoa series, is a wonderful tool to motivate young children.

This book is about a private detective who decides to be a ghost hunter. You go to the gray mansion with Jenny. When you get there, Jenny climps up on the roof while you go upstairs to the attic. There you find Louis, a teenager who ran away from home. I like this book because it is a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Choose Your Own Adventure books are fun to read.

I'm not a fan of fiction, so the format of "The Sea Hunters", which combines a novel woven within historic fact (or is it historic fact woven within a novel?) just didn't work for me.

Cussler's NUMA team has actively searched for historic shipwrecks over the years, and scored big time with the C.S.S. Hunley. In this book, he relates the adventures he has had looking for other important wrecks. While he does provide some interesting background to the ships, the historical value of his accounts is too lightweight to be of any real significance.

The real "meat" of his book is his quest for the wrecks themselves. However, Cussler focuses more on the search than on what he and his crew found, and most of his "discoveries" are limited to magnetometer sweeps. Cussler then includes fictional accounts of the ship to flesh out his tales.

While I was not expecting extensive archaeological investigations of the wrecks, I did want Cussler to provide some detail. For example, his team found the exposed wreck of the U.S.S. Patapsco, but Cussler mentions only that they found some guns and artifacts. He makes no mention of the ship's condition, no photos, and no wreck diagrams. This book remided me of a fishing trip - They went out, looked around, and had fun. Whether they actually caught something was of secondary importance.

The book is: 30% fiction, 40% NUMA guys looking around, 25% historical background, and 5% information about what they found. If you like lightweight history, armchair adventure stories, or fiction, you might enjoy this book. For anyone looking for a historical or archaeological resource, go elsewhere.

Several years ago I picked up a copy of THE SEA HUNTERS by Clive Cussler. Although I had enjoyed nearly a dozen of his Dirk Pitt novels, a book about the true adventures of the real NUMA team sounded interesting. Interesting didn't begin to describe it. By the time I'd finished reading, the book was a bestseller and I was a lifelong fan. I began tapping into his NUMA website (www.numa.net) on a regular basis to see what new projects were afoot and what discoveries had been made. Last spring, I was lucky enough to interview Cussler on the release of his latest Dirk Pitt novel VALHALLA RISING and was rewarded with even more information about his research into maritime history. It's this history that forms the basis for both his fictional stories and real life expeditions and his dedication to contributing to that body of historical knowledge is admirable. In THE SEA HUNTERS II, Cussler's avid interest and unselfish pursuit is simply defined: if it's lost, he wants to find it.

THE SEA HUNTERS II, like its predecessor, contains not only accounts of the various expeditions undertaken by Cussler's National Underwater Marine Agency but also gives readers a historical recreation of the events that took place at each fateful site. Utilizing the archives of governmental agencies both here and abroad, as well as available eyewitness accounts and personal records, Cussler engages the reader with reenactments that set the stage for his narration of each NUMA discovery. The first five sections of the book concentrate on NUMA's exploration of Civil War wreckage, focusing on the copious naval battles that took place over control of the Mississippi River and the eventual siege of Charleston. Cussler's professed love of southern history and the ships that played a part in it is evident as the tales of heroism and tragedy unfold upon the waters of the mighty Mississippi. Other chapters of THE SEA HUNTERS II recount the international exploits of Cussler and his fellow researchers in the far corners of the world from the warm Caribbean waters surrounding Haiti to the treacherous shores of South Africa and the tumultuous seas of the northern Atlantic.

One of the most fascinating stories is the mystery surrounding the Mary Celeste, a "ghost" ship whose crew disappeared without a trace and spawned a legend that has tantalized maritime enthusiasts for decades. While much of the tale is speculation, NUMA was finally successful in pinpointing the resting place of this fabled ship. Another mystery that still remains unresolved is the disappearance of the plane and the pilots who attempted the first transatlantic crossing from Paris to New York. NUMA's research uncovered convincing evidence that The White Bird actually achieved the first nonstop crossing --- prior to Lindbergh and his Spirit of St. Louis --- they just didn't make it all the way down the coast to New York. Their crash site remains undiscovered in the boggy wilds of Maine, but the story of NUMA's attempts to locate it while sorting through the fuzzy first-hand recollections and baffling psychic revelations make for great reading.

Perhaps the most famous and heavily exploited maritime tragedy was the sinking of the ocean liner Titanic in 1912. The Carpathia, the ship that attempted to rescue Titanic survivors, is featured prominently in all accounts of that fateful night but, beyond that, she sailed out of the picture never to be heard from again. Cussler, of course, was not content to leave Carpathia as a footnote in Titanic's history, thus the further adventures of Carpathia and her final demise by a German U-boat become a chapter of NUMA's history as well.

With the release of THE SEA HUNTERS II just before the holidays, this reviewer hopes many of you will find a copy in your stocking Christmas morning. It's 400 plus pages are a masterful blend of history, adventure and humor --- enlightening and entertaining --- as Cussler intended. His lifelong mission has been to leave the world more enriched than he found it and perhaps to inspire us all to follow a similar path in our own way. "Each day is future history. So don't step lightly. The trick is to leave tracks that can be followed."

--- Reviewed by Ann Bruns

Clive Cussler in between authoring a plethora of novels, book tours and signings finds the time explore shipwrecks and other items of historical significance. Cussler and his NUMA (National Underwater Marine Agency) scour the world to try to unearth clues to unravel some of the mysteries of history. In each chapter he concocts a vignette explaining the history surrounding what he is searching for. He then describes the efforts of his team to uncover the ship or whatever they're going after. They aren't always successful.

As opposed to his first Sea Hunters novel his team has searched for many things other than sunken ships. He spent time in Maine searching for L'Oiseau Blanc, thought to be the first plane to fly non stop across the Atlantic prior to Lindbergh. The NUMA team also tried to uncover the remains of the U.S.S. Akron, the first enormously sized Goodyear blimp which crashed of of the Jersey shore in the 30's.

Of particular interest was learning the fate of the R.M.S. Carpathia, which was responsible for rescuing the survivors of the Titanic, and was subsequently torpedoed by a German U boat 6 years later. A very interesting chapter was devoted to the fate of the Mary Celeste, an extremely famous "ghost" ship of the 1870's. The most revealing discovery for me, surrounded the story of the steamship General Slocum which was involved in the greatest tragedy concerning loss of life in New York history. In excess of 1000 people died as the ship was ravaged by fire on a weekend excursion in New York Harbor. The event actually altered the dynamics of the German American community which inhabited lower Manhattan and suffered huge losses in the fire. They moved away to divorce themselves from the devastation on the General Slocum.

If you are looking for new ideas and skills then just go toward chapter five because their is wealth of information. But if you are planning to get new insights or a basic storyline from it then it's very incoherent.

When I picked up this book, I was expecting it to expand upon the basic Judge creed outlined in the Hunter core book. But when I began reading it, I found that it was a very detailed account of what a Judge like character can be like. The thinkers, the planners, the analytics. I was surprised how much the judge I have been playing fit into this book and got a few ideas to expand on him. The new backgrounds, abilities and edges are a welcome complement to any judge whether they be an underground guerilla to a judicator of ideals.

The Comendium contains introducing desciptions of Hunter's antagonists. It's not bad but definitely too little for an own book, even a compendium. It should rather be a chapter in a bigger publication. If you have knowledge about Vampire, Werewolf or Mage you don't need it.

The Storytellers Companion is the book that bridges H:tR back into the WoD game. Many have complained that H:tR is too different, or two far removed from the other WoD games and therefore it should be treated as an independant game. Well, this book gets back to the WoD. Not only does it give the storyteller an idea what is going on in the real word, but it also presents a large section on each "monster" type such that a storyteller can bring all the flavor of Vampire, or Werewolf into a Hunters game. Skeptic just have to remeber one thing. This game was written from the point of view that these humans no know thing about the Kindred, the Wolves or the Ghosts. Therefore, on the surface it will look like a "different" game. But all it takes is a creative storyteller to make everything link together.

The book jacket makes it seems like a really interesting story. The concept is very interesting.

I have read a bunch of books on writing recently and this work is a good example of what not to do.

I think I got to about page 30 before it was just too painful and I had to put it down.

Characters are introduced one after another in the first few short chapters. I wasn't sure who I was supposed to be rooting for. The villian appears in short order, but it takes a few pages to realize that he is the antagonist of the book.

We over hear his side of a phone conversation with his wife. The monologue is horrible. There is constant "telling" and very little "showing". The characters hardly do anything, it is mostly the authors explaining what is going on and why.

The point of view is bad, in fact, I don't think there is any point of view (other than all knowing narrator) and we track so many characters we don't know who to root for or who to feel sympathy for.

At least by reading the first little bit of this book I got a good lesson on what to avoid and real world examples of poor writing. In that is the only value I found here.