I enjoyed this book as any Kinsella fan would. I found some of the stories true gems, but others I found somewhat uninteresting. This is not Kinsella's greatest selection, but it shows a different side of the author and some of the stories are more adult oriented content. I enjoyed the stories 'Fiona the First', 'Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa', 'A Picture of the Virgin' and 'A Blacksmith Shop Caper' as the real good ones. Those alone are worth the book, so you won't be disappointed overall.

"Fiona the First," the opening story in this collection, was cited for excellence by Stanley Elkin and Shannon Ravenel in the 1980 edition of BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES.

Speaking to bibliographer Ann Knight in 1983, Kinsella admitted that a few details from this story are semi-autobiographical: "The lady who keeps saying, 'He can put his shoes under my bed,' I saw at a Vancouver Mounties game in Seattle in 1954." And, "the business about the stewardess trying to give away a baby happened to me and a young lady at the Vancouver International Airport in 1970 or '71."

These stories celebrate particular relationships: between father and son, brother and sister, perfect strangers, a spiritual icon and her admirers, doctor and patient, father and daughter, bowling buddies, etc. They are classic Kinsella. No fan of his opus will want to overlook these initial, "adult-oriented" adventures into the regions of Magic Realism. These tales are Icarus flyers; they tempt the sun to melt their wings.

I first saw the movie Field of Dreams when I was in the 3rd grade, I loved the movie so much. Then in the 6th grade my teacher started to read us the book, but never even came close to finishing, I was disappointed. Then, this year (10th grade) I read it over Christmas break, and I couldn't put it down. I have never read a book that could calm me down and not make me sleepy. I had to get my wisdom teeth out and I was currently reading that book, everytime I got nervous I read the book and it relaxed me! I recomend this to anyone who likes baseball or just loves to read. Even if you don't like to read I still recomend it! It is better than the movie and I still think the movie is good, there is just to much to capture. I could read that book again and again! So, I recomend it to everyone!

Nanci Griffith is something of a buried treasure. Those who have discovered her music wonder how they ever got along without it, and through this book Nanci tells the stories of the music she discovered through the years, discoveries that made her what she is today. The book's primary focus is a song-by-song discussion of her album "Other Voices 2", but the earlier (and better) "Other Voices, Other Rooms" gets a similar treatment. Given the absence of popular material that discusses folk music's history generally, this book, like Nanci herself, is a great find. But you probably already know that....

I first discovered Nancy while living in remote Beaumont, TX, USA. the air was polluted, the three points of life considted of work, church, family. Being single, working for Mobil (uncaring company) I had only one pillar of life - Church.

To fill in the other points: I choose Nancy & her music. Life has been grand ever since.

This album continues the long line of excellent song writing and great voice.

I encourage everyone to listen to the words and float on the music.

"Thanks Nancy" FMJ

I am privileged to own all 15 of Nanci's albums but this is the first time I have found such an excellent book. It has added to my enjoyment of the two "cover" albums and has led me to discover the music of others (e.g. Kate Wolf, Iris De Ment)which is clearly one of Nanci's intentions. Joe is a great collaborator. His feel for the project is excellent and he avoids intruding on the project.

"Never judge a book by its movie," they say, and in this case the adage holds true. "Field of Dreams" has been around since 1989 and is not merely a baseball flick, or a Kevin Costner starlight -- it's the depiction of a spiritual journey for both Ray Kinsella and the audience. The book "Shoeless Joe," on the other hand, provides more food for thought and additional storylines. If you simply see the movie, you'll miss out on meeting Kid Scissons, the oldest living Chicago Cub, who rented his farm to Ray and Annie. You won't know that Ray has a twin brother Richard who left home at 15, never to be seen or heard from again, until the time that Ray built his baseball field. And though there are times when the novel's characters share the same script with their movie counterparts, there are many more instances when they don't.

If you are the kind of person who has to watch "Field of Dreams" at least once a year, then you should jump back a step and read "Shoeless Joe." Better yet, you should make the trip to Dyersville, Iowa, where the field and the farmhouse still exist and look just as they did in the movie. If you can stand on that baseball field without any emotion or without a chill moving along your spine, then someone better check your pulse.

A must read if you liked Field of Dreams, the novel Shoeless Joe is actually a bit more complex and has additional characters. The premise of the novel is brilliant and outrageous, that Shoeless Joe Jackson comes to life when an Iowa farmer/baseball fanatic is given a mysterious directive to build a field for him, and the plot development is highly entertaining. The only drawback for me is that the prose sometimes goes over the top and gets almost psuedo-lyrical, and also the attempt to equate baseball with life is a bit overdone, but that said the book really is a lot of fun and well done.

At first glance, Shoeless Joe appears to be a book about baseball. However, as you read on, you realize the author is using baseball, a game of magic to describe the beauty of everyday life. The way Ray Kinsella describes his family, his baseball field when its completed, baseball itself gives you a sense that the world is a beautiful thing. It is a book about magic, love, and realizing deep down who you are. Ray feels guilty about his fathers death and it is very emotional when they meet at the end. Even though it seems fanciful and all that, you still feel that it is real and the book allows YOU to believe in the magic of miracles. I recommend the movie, Field of Dreams as well because you can actually see everything happening as it becomes more real. My favorite part of the movie is when Ray says "Dad, do you want to have a catch?" and Ray and his father throw the baseball to and fro. Baseball is a game of legacy, a game that has lasted through the generations, that loves to be passed on from father to son. The book should definitely be read!!!!!!!

A fascinating subject and book. My problem with it dates back to when I read excerpts of the original diaries of Dennis Stockton in the Virginian-Pilot, not long after the escape. Frankly, Stockton is a better, more forceful, less breathless writer than Jackson and Burke, but the authors have seen fit to rewrite and summarize his journals, and to claim authorship. They are good reporters, but they were given a gift when Stockton decided to hand over his fantastic, intelligent journals.

I'm deeply troubled by the fact that Stockton is _not_ given co-authorship credit on the jacket or on the title page, even though the best passages of the book are his writing, and most of the "inside" accounts of death row life are lifted and rewritten from his journals. It's disturbing that the true author of this story has been made into a mere exhibit by these authors. It's troubling to me that the book, based largely on the work of a dead man (and featuring big chunks of that dead man's writing) is copyrighted by these two authors, and that they're probably enjoying a full cut of the royalties. (I'd be happy to find out that they were sharing royalties with Stockton's family, but I'm not holding my breath.)

This is an important, essential book in the literature of death row. I just wish Dennis Stockton had gotten more credit for being the man he had longed to be -- a writer.

"Dead Run" is the best prison drama I have ever read, made more gripping by the fact that it is ALL TRUE. The bookd recounts the final prison term of Dennis Stockton, who was probably innocent and spent over a decade on Death Row. The first part of the book deals with the only successful mass escape from Death Row in American history, but the drama does not end there. Following that, by following Stockton through the system and finally to his execution, one becomes acquainted with the grim, crushing reality of the brutality and neglect of the American prison system.

On top of being a gripping tale of prison life, the book is a damning account of capital punishment and our prison system in general. By picking Stockton as a subject, a probably innocent man singled out by the UN as an example of a case of capital punishment that did not meet up with the standards expected of international law, the authors make a ringing statement against death penalty laws and procedures in the United States. Only the most rabid pro-death penalty advocate could read this book and not come away questioning their support for the execution of criminals.

A further feature that permeates the story is just how seedy and corrupt everyone and everything in the book are. The courts, the cops, the guards, the prisoners, the politicians - they are all part of the same basically corrupt world. Only (not coincidentally) the reporters and some of the witnesses come off as being white in a very grey and black world.

The book is a magnificent, cannot-put-it-down peice of work that I heartily recommend to any lover of a good non-fiction tale!

DEAD RUN is the best work of crime journalism I've read since THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG. It transcends the increasingly shabby true-crime genre. It is a superb study of life on Death Row. It is the latest proof that the land of the free continues to execute the innocent. It is a jailbreak story that rivals PAPILLON. It is crime history at its most elevated, and yet there's not a stodgy line. Social context is never forgotten, but the narrative line chugs ahead like a runaway locomotive. I will re-read this book many times and recommend it to all who enjoy a great yarn and responsible journalism.

This book covered what it is like to be a sports hero and nothave an attitude about it. The people talked about in this book arehero's without being arrogant or hateful.

This is a no-nonsense guide to dealing with the concourse winning restoration. One thing I like the most about the book is the detail sections on everything from specific engine parts to welding fundamentals and tricks, to the common, simple language of how to do the job right. It was updated in 1992, so most of the paint and chemical parts are pretty up to date. Lots of pictures staged throughout the processes, with USEFUL captions. The text coveres mostly American Iron from the 20s through the 40s, and suffers from some of the specifics of the era of thicker sheet metal and old-style paints.

I hope no one else has the same bad experience as me so this is just a warning. I spent around 20 hours trying to get the example in chapter 2 to work. I've installed apache/tomcat with IIS several times and it has never taken more than a couple of hours -point being figuring out struts shouldn't take very long. After struggling with this book I got another book "Apache Jakarta-Tomcat" and read their 10 page exerpt on struts. The 10 page explination in the Apache book helped me much more than the 63 pages in chapter 2. The explinations were much more clear and the struts frame work was very simple to understand. After reading the apache book I went back through the example found in chapter 2 and found SEVERAL errors in the source code! I wasted a lot of time because I had thought I installed struts incorrectly. It was frustrating to waste so much time just because the source code in chapter 2 was incorrect. If chapter 2 had explained struts more clearly I probably could have caught the errors in the source code. Chapter 2 explains about 500 ideas with no real concrete examples to show you what it's talking about. Then it speeds through an example (that doesn't work) and it doesn't really show you at all how everything is finally tied together.
To be fair, the book does have a disclaimer in the beging which states that it's for more advanced users. So if you aren't very very familiar with struts don't start with this book. Once you get past the struts nightmare the rest of the book is pretty good. I wouldn't say the explinations aren't very good but the ideas they present are very usefull.

I hope no one else has the same bad experience as me so this is just a warning. I spent around 20 hours trying to get the example in chapter 2 to work. I've installed apache/tomcat with IIS several times and it has never taken more than a couple of hours -point being figuring out struts shouldn't take very long. After struggling with this book I got another book "Apache Jakarta-Tomcat" and read their 10 page exerpt on struts. The 10 page explination in the Apache book helped me much more than the 63 pages in chapter 2. The explinations were much more clear and the struts frame work was very simple to understand. After reading the apache book I went back through the example found in chapter 2 and found SEVERAL errors in the source code! I wasted a lot of time because I had thought I installed struts incorrectly. It was frustrating to waste so much time just because the source code in chapter 2 was incorrect. If chapter 2 had explained struts more clearly I probably could have caught the errors in the source code. Chapter 2 explains about 500 ideas with no real concrete examples to show you what it's talking about. Then it speeds through an example (that doesn't work) and it doesn't really show you at all how everything is finally tied together.
To be fair, the book does have a disclaimer in the beging which states that it's for more advanced users. So if you aren't very very familiar with struts don't start with this book. Once you get past the struts nightmare the rest of the book is pretty good. I wouldn't say the explinations aren't very good but the ideas they present are very usefull.

It is definitely not a beginner book.

But all the chapters are good even though it was written by different authors.

The section on refactoring in the beginning set the tone of the book. Good authors. Would recommend this book to anyone working with jsps. Very easy language to understand too. The reason I gave it a 4 is 'coz I understood it more only after I began working with jsps for a while.

While this is a beautifully illustrated and well written book, the liberties the author took with the story of Joe Jackson are a disservice to young readers and listeners. My second-grade son was so anxious to get this book, but found that it didn't really ring true. The bat-maker calls Joe by the nickname "Shoeless Joe" before that nickname was used -- and even before the shoeless incident.

This really ruined the authenticity of the book for us and led to a discussion about what can be believed in books. ...

"Shoeless Joe Jackson once played an entire baseball game in his stocking feet. That's why they called him Shoeless Joe. Some say he was the greatest baseball player ever. Even the mighty Babe Ruth copied his swing. But what most people don't know is just how Shoeless Joe became such a great hitter..." So begins Phil Bildner's engaging tale about Joe Jackson's infamous bat, Betsy. It was a hitting slump that sent Joe to bat smith, Charlie Ferguson. He wanted a special bat that "pitchers are going to honor and respect" and he knew Ol' Charlie was the man to make it. After several trials and errors, Betsy came to life, 36 inches long, and 48 ounces, she was made out of hickory from the strong, north side of the tree, and stained black with tobacco juice to "make her dark and scary-looking." And with the help of Betsy at the plate, Shoeless Joe Jackson batted .408 his rookie year. "And to this day, no rookie has ever had a finer year than Shoeless Joe." Shoeless Joe & Black Betsy is more fable than biography, and Mr Bildner takes a lot of liberties with the facts. But his text is entertaining, and filled with humor and lots of back woods colloquialisms that make this picture book perfect for reading aloud. C. F. Payne's marvelously expressive and detailed illustrations are captivating, and add just the right touch of drama to bring the story to life. With a comprehensive Afterword and "baseball card" full of facts, figures, and statistics to complete the story, Shoeless Joe & Black Betsy is a fine debut that is sure to whet the appetite of baseball fans 5-10, and send them out looking for more.

"Shoeless Joe & Black Betsy" sets us in the Carolinas, where Shoeless Joe, before he makes his record-setting Rookie year, talks to the best bat maker in the state to make him a bat to get out of his horrid slump. Through much trial and error, Joe finds the perfect bat. The plot was very clear, but I had to say this is one of the best books I've seen in review for my Teaching Reading course.

The slang use is very realistic and open, and the way it repeated itself drew the children into the story. The illustrations are beautiful to the eye and fit well into the "back woods" feel of the story, mostly set in the Bat Maker's shack.

The book takes more then a few liberties with the truth - but they make the story more entertaining. The authors explain where they stretched the facts in a two-page story explanation, which includes Joe's involvement in the Black Sox scandal, and followed by another beautiful full-page drawing by C. F. Payne and a full career statistics.

I recommend this book - a student with an interest in baseball will eat this up. Students who like different stories, or who like when they are read to in an odd accent will want more. I hope there will be, with so many great baseball stories out there.