It's fun reading this collection of digressive informal anecdotes about famous (and some obscure) Englishmen. If you enjoyed "An Instance of the Fingerpost" (where some of thc characters appear) you'd like this. As a primary source for information it gets less reliable the further back it goes. Aubrey was born in 1626 so his accounts of Shakespeare and Elizathans are a generation removed, but he had met Harvey and Penn and had been through the Civil War and the rule of Cromwell.

Because its author never completed most of the entries for this biographical work, and never published it, what he did set down about his varied noble and ignoble subjects is uncensored, gossipy, perhaps unsubstantiated, and delightful. If you like browsing in Pepys' diary, or are fascinated by English life in the 17th century, this is the book to leave about for the occasional free moment.

If you have trouble learning with Engineering Mechanics: Static, (I take Intro to Engineering Analysis course), this book will help you big time. I usually have trouble with 3-D vectors and all the Matrices problems, but since i bought this book, i could start review problems on my own and i no longer had to visit professor for the solution. This solution book is user-friendly and i didn't have much trouble understanding what it was written. Must have if u haveing trouble with Engineering Mechanics: Static

Amazing reading... Joyous Sexuality has captured the essence of sexual dysfunction problems and how they relate to adult life. Mic Hunter has simply, but eloquently, shown how successful recovery can be achieved if one will only follow and adhere to the 12 step program outlined in the book. He has also provided workspace to allow the reader to participate which is necessary for successful recovery. I recommend this book to anyone with any form of sexual addiction or relationship difficulties.

Due to the complexity of the police organization in contemporary America there is a dire need for a book such as this. A former Police chief (Bain, 1939:5) backs this up by saying:

"The citizen expects police officers to have the wisdom of Solomon, the courage of David, the strength of Samson, the patience of Job, the leadership of Moses, the kindness of the Good Samaritan, the strategical training of Alexander, the faith of Daniel, the diplomacy of Lincoln, the tolerance of the Carpenter of Nazareth, and, finally, an intimate knowledge of every branch of the natural, biological, and social sciences. If he had all these, he might be a good policeman!"

And I add to that, If he had all these there would be no need for a book such as this, but sadly we are both dreamers, hence this book is a necessity for all members involved in law enforcement and or media relations....

I'm a doctor, a specialist of naval and tropical medicine. "Hunter's Tropical Medicine" is the most important publication which I need and use for my job.

This book is essential to practice developing world medicine. I'd be lost without it.

this book is well written by experts in their field, excellent book , used it as your bible. Most of the author are my former mentor at the John's Hopkins Univ.

This, reader, is an unvarnished narrative of one doomed by the laws of the Southern States to be a slave. It tells not only its own story of grief, but speaks of a thousand wrongs and woes beside, which never see the light; all the more bitter and dreadful, because no help can relieve, no sympathy can mitigate, and no hope can cheer. -William Wells Brown, Clotel, or The President's Daughter

Clotel would have historic interest simply by virtue of the fact that William Wells Brown appears to have been the first African American to write a novel. But it's not merely a literary curiosity; it is also an eminently readable and emotionally powerful, if forgivably melodramatic, portrait of the dehumanizing horrors of slave life in the Ante-bellum South. Brown, himself an escaped slave, tells the story of the slave Currer and her daughters, Clotel and Althesa, and of their attempts to escape from slavery. The central conceit of the story is that the unacknowledged father of the girls is Thomas Jefferson himself.

There is an immediacy to the stories here--of slave auctions, of families being torn apart, of card games where humans are wagered and lost, of sickly slaves being purchased for the express purpose of resale for medical experimentation upon their imminent deaths, of suicides and of many more indignities and brutalities--which no textbook can adequately convey. Though the characters tend too much to the archetypal, Brown does put a human face on this most repellent of American tragedies. He also makes extensive use (so extensive that he has been accused, it seems unfairly, of plagiarism) of actual sermons, lectures, political pamphlets, newspaper advertisements, and the like, to give the book something of a docudrama effect.

The Bedford Cultural Edition of the book, edited by Robert S. Levine, has extensive footnotes and a number of helpful essays on Brown and on the sources, even reproducing some of them verbatim. Overall, it gives the novel the kind of serious presentation and treatment which it deserves, but for obvious reasons has not received in the past. Brown's style is naturally a little bit dated and his passions are too distant for us to feel them immediately, but as you read the horrifying scenes of blacks being treated like chattel, you quickly come to share his moral outrage at this most shameful chapter in our history.

GRADE : B

This is a exemplary novel that also deals with the harsh realities of slavery. This novel distinctly tells a true story, which is relevant to ALL Americans (believe it or not. This is a must reader for ALL.

As used during the War Between the States, the term "torpedo" meant any underwater explosive device. Torpedo boats were any and all of the various designs employed to deliver the devices to the side of enemy vessels. This is the history of the design, manufacture and utilization of such boats. Unfortunately, the Confederate leadership failed to recognize the real value of this new weapon. Although the building of these boats was authorized early in the war, the actual building of them was often hindered by officials who failed to recognize their potential value. However, when available, these relatively speedy boats proved that by operating within the cover of darkness they could bring fear and destruction to a strategically overpowering and more numerous foe. They caused many a Union sailor to lie awake wondering if the bump he had just heard was a log hitting his ship or a torpedo that would blow him away. Rather than the destruction of great numbers of enemy ships, the greatest contribution made by these boats was the deterrent factor they became to the Union invaders. Vast quantities of seamen, materials, and ships had to be allocated to guard against their expected attacks. Union offensive plans were often swayed by consideration of their use against the attackers. Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard paid tribute to the torpedo boats when he commented that future Southerners would ask "how it was that with such a great discovery, offering such magnificent results, we never applied it to any useful purpose in this contest for our homes and independence." This is a welcome addition to available information on Confederate naval activity.

Joseph A. Derie - Civil War News - Prolific Confederate naval historian R. Thomas Campbell has turned his efforts to writing about the torpedo boats of the Confederate States Navy (and Army). These evolved when the South attempted to find ways to use torpedoeswhich we would call mines todayas an offensive weapon. Originally the torpedoes were kegs or casks, waterproofed, and either secured to the bot-tom or buoyed, filled with explosives and armed with a fuse set to explode when a ship's hull brushed against it. An attempt to use them offensively was made by securing two torpedoes to-gether with a piece of line about 200 feet long, then rowing to a point some distance above an enemy vessel and releasing the two torpedoes to drift with the current. The idea was for the line between the torpedoes to be snagged by the vessel and for one or both of the torpedoes to swing against the hull. This was tried against Union warships in Hampton Roads in October 1861, without success. Captain Francis D. Lee, a Confederate Army engineer working on chemical fuses for tor-pedoes in Charleston, thought that the best way to use the torpedo offensively would be to mount it on a spar forward of the bow of a boat and deliver it by ramming it into the side of its target. This vessel would obviously be a torpedo ram or torpedo boat. He convinced General Beaure-gard this was the type of quick, easy to build weapon the Confederates needed to defend Charleston Harbor against the vastly superior federal fleet and the Confederate torpedo boat pro-gram was bom. The initial type of torpedo boat was a rowboat or launch. Later, specially designed mod-els were developed, powered by steam, either with an open deck (CSS Squib class) or partially covered with wood or iron (CSS Torch class), and designed to ride low in the water to make them hard to detect. The other type was the David, a semi-submersible, with a cylindrical hull that was bal-lasted by iron or by water (via pumps) enabling them to ride low in the water. These came in a number of models with various sized torpedoes. Most were about five feet in diameter and about 48 feet long with a 14 foot long spar for the torpedo. However, one captured at the end of the war was 160 feet long and 11.5 feet in diameter. Davids were generally powered by steam but a few were powered by oars or a screw turned by the crew. The latter was also the propul-sion system of a fully submersible torpedo boat, the Hunley, which is not part of this story. Confederate successes with torpedo boats were few. The USS New Ironsides was se-verely damaged and had to be dry-docked by an attack from the original David. Unfortunately, the torpedo struck right at the bulkhead, which prevented the ship from sinking. The CSS Squib slightly damaged the USS Minnesota. Ironically, the most successful and famous torpedo boat attack was Commander William B. Cushing's destruction of the CSS Albemarle. The torpedo boats' prime contribution to the Confederate war effort was the fear they struck in the Union Navy, and the actions taken to guard against such attacks. In an appendix there is a wonderful statement by Commander William T. Glassell, the commander of the CSS David the night it damaged the USS New Ironsides. Writing after the war he described "the ironclad vessels of that fleet enveloped like women in hoopskirt petticoats of netting, to lay in idle admiration of themselves for many months." The book is very well illustrated with drawings and many pictures of torpedo boats and spar torpedoes. It is highly recommended for those with an interest in the Confederate Navy and general readers will also find it worthwhile.

While thinking of how many stars to give this book, I decided on five. So I went back and finished the rest of the book and then came back, giving this book only four stars.

"Red Dragon" is the first book I have read by Thomas Harris. I am normally a very big Stephen King fan, but I found this book quite enjoyable nonetheless. However, like I have seen in so many books before, this had the chance of being an amazing novel, but was spoiled by a disappointing ending.

To begin, I would like to say that I do not enjoy Thomas Harris' style of writing when he uses choppy sentences and switches between the first and third person narrative. However, I soon got over that. It did not take away from the book.

Plot: 9/10--I found Francis Dolarhyde to be an extremely strange and frightening character, yet we could relate to his story. You could sense the tension between the characters as they tried to hunt him down.

Action: 8/10--This book is more of a crime drama. It is filled with more "Law and Order"-like searching than action and violence.

Characters: 9/10--Dolarhyde was extremely well-done, but Will Graham was not developed enough. He seemed like a jerk at some points despite his attempts to stop "The Dragon".

Overall: 8.5/10--This book should be at least a 9.5, but the ending was not enjoyable for me. It was an oustanding book, yes, and I will continue to read work by this author, but it seemed rushed and unoriginal. I think Mr. Harris could have come up with a better way (WARNING: SPOILER--DO NOT READ ON IF YOU WANT TO BE IN SURPRISE!) for "The Dragon" to die. It was like most horror movies today, and non suspenseful like the rest of the book. Not only did Dolarhyde suddenly lose his strength and cunning brilliance, he was killed too easily.

"Red Dragon", in conclusion, is a great piece of fiction that I cannot say enough about, but beware, the ending may be slightly disappointing to some.

Before the movie release of Hannibal I decided to go ahead and read all the Lecter novels before the release. Lecter just appears in this novel and does not star. This is one of the finest books I've ever read. Thomas Harris gives you an absolute thrill ride.

In this novel, retired FBI agent Will Graham comes out of retirement to work on a case involving a killer that kills whole families including their pets. The novel opens up with Graham at his home in Marathon Key, Florida with special agent Jack Crawford. From their the investigation starts. The killer is being dubbed the "Tooth Fairy," a name given due to the bite marks left on his victims.

Meanwhile the killer calls itself "The Red Dragon," after a pcture that the killer is obsessed over. "The Red Dragon" writes to Hannibal Lecter Ph.D, and says what an idol Lecter is to him and just makes staement about Lecter's brilliance etc., etc. I won't give away any more information regarding the plot. This is a novel that takes you to the corners of the FBI and through a killer's mind. Written by one of the greatest writers ever known, Red Dragon is a novel not to be missed. I reccomend this novel to fan of a fabulous book but not to a person that cannot deal with gore and violence. Once again, READ THIS BOOK!

HAPPY READING!

Harris first rocketed up the bestseller lists with his excellent terrorism thriller Black Sunday. His antihero Hannibal the Cannibal exploded into the public consciousness after Jonathan Demme's excellent movie version of Silence of the Lambs (1991) came out, with Anthony Hopkins brilliant creepy performance as Lecter. And, of course, fans and Hollywood have had an anxious 11 year wait for Harris to finally publish a sequel. But many people may not realize that Hannibal Lecter first appeared, albeit in a cameo role, in the novel Red Dragon and in Michael Mann's capable movie version, Manhunter (1986). If you've missed this book, I urge you to try it; in many ways it is Harris's best work.

FBI Special Will Graham has retired to Sugar Loaf Key, FL with his new wife Molly and her son Willie. Retired because of his nearly fatal encounter with a linoleum knife wielding Hannibal Lecter, whose capture he was responsible for, and because of the emotional troubles that have accompanied his ability to develop an almost extrasensory empathy for such killers, such that he has trouble purging their feelings from his own psyche. His peaceful idyll is disrupted when his old boss, Jack Crawford, shows up and asks for his help in catching The Tooth Fairy, a serial killer who is notorious for the tooth marks he leaves and for dicing his victims with shards of broken mirrors. Reluctantly agreeing to join the chase, Graham decides, in order to recapture the mindset that has made him so eerily effective in prior cases, to visit Hannibal Lecter in the Chesapeake State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. There the administrator, Dr. Frederick Chilton, shares an anecdote about Hannibal that demonstrates just how horrible he is:

"On the afternoon of July 8, 1976, Dr. Lecter complained of chest pain. His restraints were removed in the examining room to make it easier to give him an electrocardiogram. One of his attendants left the room to smoke, and the other turned away for a second. The nurse was very quick and strong. She managed to save one of her eyes."

"You may find this curious." He took a strip of EKG tape from a drawer and unrolled it on his desk. He traced the spiky line with his forefinger. "Here, he's resting on the examining table. Pulse seventy-two. Here, he grabs the nurse's head and pulls her down to him. Here, he is subdued by the attendant. He didn't resist, by the way, though the attendant dislocated his shoulder. Do you notice the strange thing? His pulse never got over eighty-five. Even when he tore out her tongue.

I don't think we're any closer to understanding him than the day he came in.''

After tabloid reporter Freddie Lowndes splashes this visit all over the pages of The Tattler, the killer too contacts Lecter who urges him to attack Graham. Thus begins a suspenseful, violent minuet as Graham develops increasing insight into the killer's methodology and psychoses, the killer plans his next kill (he's on a Lunar schedule) and Hannibal pulls strings from the dark background. Harris provides fascinating detail on police procedure, he writes savvily about how the FBI uses the media and the inventiveness of the crimes he dreams up is genuinely disturbing. But the most interesting part of the story is the delicate mental balance that Graham has to maintain in order to think like the killers but still remain sane. And as Graham penetrates further into the killer's mind, Harris reveals more and more background about the Tooth Fairy, Francis Dolarhyde, who it turns out was a horribly misshapen baby, abandoned by his mother and raised by a demented grandmother, early on manifesting the now classic signs of the serial murder--torturing animals and the like. This background and Will Graham's troubles dealing with the thought patterns he shares with Dolarhyde raise questions about what separates us from such men and whether there's a formula for creating such evil beings. Is it really simply a matter of psychosexual abuse of young boys and, presto chango, you've created a serial killer?

In addition to this kind of portrayal of the psychotic as victim, our effort to deal with these creatures has resulted in a sizable batch of thrillers where the serial killer is portrayed as a nearly superhuman genius. This flows from the same impulse that makes folks so willing to believe that assassinations are conspiracies. It is extremely hard, as a society, to face the fact that nondescript shlubs like David Berkowitz and Lee Harvey Oswald and Richard Speck and James Earl Ray are really capable of causing so much social disruption. Their crimes are so monumental that we want the killers to be equal in stature to the crimes. The sad truth of the matter is that these monsters are, in fact, generally hapless losers. They are not Lecterlike geniuses.

That said, Hannibal is still one of the great fictional creations of recent times, our age's version of Dracula or Frankenstein, and Harris's imaginative story makes for a great, albeit unsettling, read with more food for thought than most novels of the type.

GRADE: A

This book, though not as good as the others in the series will need to be read, however if you are a fan of Micheal Stackpole you will find that this book drags a bit. One of the things that I did like about the book was that the author was one of the first to give the DEST teams their due. To often in recent Battletech novels they have been easily defeated, they ARE supposed to be among the most vaunted warriors of the Inner Sphere. To summarize, though this will undoubtedly be among the worst of the series it is a necessary read. To be the worst novel in a series of outstanding novels is not the end of the world.

This book, while exciting, definetly shows the inner sphere bias of all the recent books. The battle is laughable in the stupidity of the Clan commander. I mean, the Comguards can be excused for not having anyting resembling tactics, but the clans have been fighting Warship battles for centuries. Still, it's got some good action, and also points out the weakness of the inner sphere to treachery, something that has been neglected recently. A far better book than freebirth, but not as good as it should have been. Skip freebirth and read this.

Well I can't give this 5 stars, despite the fact that it is a relativly good book. Unlike other books, we do have to go on for a while withouut real combat, but training HAS to happen sometime Quaff? Anyway, the first naval battle in 300 years for the inner sphere go's on a bit long, but is fairly easy to follow, and the reaction of the clanners to see none less then a CAMERON class battle cruiser charging towards you...well... Biast towards the inner sphere to an extent, however it leaves you hanging with the trechary at the end and makes you wonder if all these house units who were trying to kill each other a while ago will be able to come together. At any rate, a good read, especialy for the Naval battle, but loses a star due to the books pace.

This book contains ancient Javanesee poets, such as Krishnayana, Parthayajna, Smaradhana and others. It's about nature, love, harmony and spirituality that still relevant until now. Original text in ancient Javanesee font side by side with English translation text.