The Japanese American draft resisters responded to Pearl Harbor not with an ultra-nationalism for the America that had treated them and their families so unjustly, but with a principled insistence on America's higher ideals. By vindicating that choice, Professor Muller's work helps to preserve for all of us the same choice of responses in the wake of 9/11. For many Americans, especially Asian Americans and Arab Americans, waving the flag today combines and conflates a message of patriotism with a historically well-founded fear that we will be counted as less than fully American when America, the one and only nation we love and call home, faces a time of crisis. In the face of these conflated meanings, it is only with a free conscience that an American can ever hope to invest a choice to dedicate his life to his country with the meaning he intends. The resisters remind us that in a time of national crisis, the freedom of conscience is the most precious freedom of all.

We know about the 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage who were imprisoned and interned in ten concentration camps in the USA during WWII "By Order of President" Roosevelt and the Army, in places like Tule Lake, Heart Mountain, and Minidoka. We know about the young men, the Nisei, who served their country with distinction in the 100th Battalion and 442nd regimental combat team in Italy and Europe, while their families were stripped of their civil rights and property. But what about those young men who resisted their draft order since they had no civil rights? What of those who were imprisoned and never pardoned after the war? In hindsight, weren't they just as courageous? What about the courage of Federal Judge Louis Goodman? The author of this book, himself the son of a refugee, the grandson of a man who was sent briefly to Buchenwald from Frankfurt, and was tagged an enemy alien in the USA, has written this excellent, well researched book that will be an excellent resource to students of U.S. history and the fight for civil liberties.

This is a group our history books will never cover: Interned Japanese-American citizens who resisted the draft. This book also covers details like their interactions with Black folks and Conscientious Objectors (mostly Quakers) once they were imprisoned.

The chapter on continuing tension within the Japanese community relating to how to treat the resisters is also valuable. It's no exaggeration to say this book contains information the average person will find nowhere else.

This is without a doubt the most beautiful love story I've ever read. God really did amazing things in Eric and Leslie's lives because they trusted in Him. They left their lives in His hands, and He gave them the most precious, beautiful love story. This book changed all my views. It proves that He will bless us abundantly if we put our lives in His hands.

Wow, what an amazing story! Eric and Leslie Ludy inspired me and my (now) husband to walk in a courtship relationship instead of dating. In our courtship process, we read this book together and were blessed to know that respect and honor can still exist in relationships! As a result, my husband and I had a very romantic courtship and just like Eric and Leslie - enjoyed our parents in the midst of it. We stayed open and honest with each other and had a lot of fun! God has richly blessed us with Eric and Leslie's story!

Eric and Leslie have the most amazing love story I've ever even dreamed of. And that's all because they let God write it for them. Their book shows how God wrote the most romantic love story for them, and how He can and wants to do the same for you. Eric and Leslie's story has turned my whole world around; I don't think at all like I used to. They challenged me to let God be number one in my life, and to let Him invade my whole being, and since I've done that, He has done miraculous things in my life! If you are truly searching for ways you can please God and make Him not just a part of your life, but actually make HIM your life, you HAVE to read this book. It is very well written, you will never want to put it down once you start. It'll make you laugh, cry, and long for God's best for your life. Read it and see for yourself. :-)

The Upsydaisy makes regular voyages from Earth to *Venus* not Mars as I wrote below. Sorry about that.

A couple of years ago I had the luck of finding a hardcover edition, (in pristine condition I might add) to replace my badly worn paperback copy. Our narrator is sergeant at arms aboard the merchant spaceship Upskadaska City, known to seasoned spacers as the 'Upsydaisy', making regular voyages between Earth and Mars until holed by an errant glob of space debris that sends the Upsydaisy hurtling directly into the sun. The ship survives thanks to her captain's navigating, the skill of her rather unusual emergency pilot and the grit displayed by all hands. As a reward captain and crew are given the new interstellar explorer ship 'Marathon' and sent to explore 'strange new worlds' all of which prove somewhat inhospitable to aliens. Our band of brothers is augmented a staff of government experts and a smart mouthed official photographer. And includes a Martian repair crew, goggle eyed ten tentacled beings who frequently complain about thick air, human odor and want to play chess at the most inopportune times. Dispite frequent interspecies bickering and banter when the chips are down Terran and Martian alike know they can depend on each other to the bitter end.

I got a copy of this book when I was about 9 yrs old and have probably read it so often that I've nearly memorized it over the last 30 yrs. What draws me into the book are the unforgettable characters---Jay Score (was he the inspiration for Mr. Spock?), Capt. McNulty, the chess-fanatic Martians---Kli Yang, Kli Morg, Sug Farn, et al, and the narrator, the sergeant at arms who is never identified by name. The stories are told in the first person and in a way it lets the reader become that character. The only downside of the book is that, as far as I know, Russell never wrote any further stories about the crew of the Marathon.

With haunting illustrations by Jon Muth and sensitive, spiritual text, written on a level kids can easily understand and relate to, Gershon's Monster is a gorgeous book for Rosh Hashanah or any other day of the year.

While Kimmel relates his simple classic tale, Muth takes us on a panoramic journey through the old country, his "camera" swooping around to depict the characters' life from every possible angle.

My only problem with the book is that Gershon is depicted wearing a "tallis kattan", the fringed undergarment any religious Jew would have worn, but this garment hasn't been drawn accurately. Muth depicts it with SIX fringes instead of FOUR. He draws it, throughout the book, with the proper two corners in the back, but with FOUR in the front, so it looks like a scarf dangling down from beneath his vest (it looks kind of like the thin blue talleisim worn in some shuls).

This was a jarring inaccuracy, especially considering that the text of the book and the explanatory notes at the end were apparently run past several rabbis for approval. Perhaps Muth should've had them look at the pictures as well.

Visualizing our past misdeeds as a "monster" is a perfect way for kids to come to an understanding of the Jewish concept of teshuvah (return, repentance); and an awareness that sweeping away our sins isn't enough. The simplicity of this tale belies its message, which is one we as adults ought to learn as well. Despite the single visual flaw, this is definitely a keeper... and a great High Holiday gift item for the Jewish kids on your list!

Eric Kimmel takes great pains with all his stories, and this was no exception. As explained in his afterward, he derived this superb tale of T'Shuva (repentance, or to be more precise, returning to a righteous path) from an early Hasidic legend of the Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, who lived in Poland from 1700 to 1760 and was known as the Ba'al Shem Tov, or Master of the Good Name. Kimmel's ancestors came from that region, and he believes they knew him. Given his gift with story telling--an art for which the Ba'al Shem Tov was also famous--I can believe it. Not content, however, Kimmel also consulted work of the great 12th century Sephardic Rabbi, Moses Maimonides, known as the Ramban.

Hershel sins every day many times, but he counts himself lucky each week to be able to sweep his ill deeds aside. At the end of the year, on Rosh Hashonah, he gathers them in a giant bag, takes them to the sea and tosses them in. Kimmel derives this colorful part of Gershon's annual routine from the Jewish tradition of Tashlikh, when people walk to lakes, rivers or any moving water to toss away their crumbs. This prayerful "casting off of sins," concerns repentance and forgiveness.

But Hershel does not take the exercise seriously. He drags his satchel of sins to the sea, and then returns to his old ways--insulting people, forgetting to say Thank You, telling little untruths here and there. He even forgets to thank the Tzaddik, the holy man, whose prayers make it possible for his childless wife Fayge to bear twins. The Tzaddik warns him, though, that his bad habits will cause problems in a few short years.

Sure enough, they do. Hershel's wife has beautiful twins, but all nearly comes to ruin. To discover how Hershel finds the path to T'Shuva and saves his family, indulge in this book brilliantly illustrated by Jon Muth. You and your children will treasure it. Alyssa A. Lappen

While looking for something else entirely, my eye fell on this short illustrated retelling of a Hasidic legend, and in very short order I was totally entranced. The story, a cautionary tale relative to the nature of sin and redemption is ostensibly for children. But, in these times, it has as much meaning for the adult reading it to the child as it does for the child who is listening.
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Gershon is a baker. He lives a small, ungenerous life, never committing a 'big' sin but often doing the little wrong things that can leave a bitter taste behind. He orders rather than asks, forgets to thank people and never feels regret for his actions. Instead he stores his errors in the basement and then, at Rosh Hashanah, he follows the old tashlikh ceremony and empties his sins into the ocean as if they were bread crumbs.
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One day Gershon and his wife, who are childless, decide to consult a wise man, a tzaddik, to see if they might have children. The tzaddik, modeled after Rabbi Israel ben Elieser (the nearly legendary Baal Shem Tov), warns Gershon off, telling him that all the sins he has fouled the ocean with will come back to haunt him if he has children. Gershon is not to be put off though, and the Rabbi relents. He provides a cantrip and Gershon and his wife soon have twins.
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When the children are five, the Tzaddik's warning starts to come to pass, and Gershon sees the monster he has created rise from the ocean and threaten his children. For the fist time in his life Gershon truly repents and, as the monster fades away Gershon clasps his children and finally understands what he must do.
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Eric Kimmel's telling of this tale is crisp and clear, capable of withstanding many re-readings and the magnificent illustrations by Jon Muth which ornament the book are unforgettable. The final piece is a one page explanation of the book and some discussion of the nature of t'shuvah (repentance). Repentance is not simply apologizing, one must experience remorse and a commitment to change, and be willing to do whatever is needed to make restitution. Rarely are cautionary tales so well presented. Highly recommended for children and their parents.

In early September, 1939 Great Britain and France declared war on Germany when Hitler's forces invaded Poland. Little happened for months. The French remained behind the Maginot Line; the Germans were secure behind the newly completed Siegfried Line.

Eric Ambler wrote Journey into Fear during this period of relative calm. Ambler, as well as most Europeans, expected a replay of the trench warfare of WWI. Hitler's unexpected blitzkrieg across Belgium, Holland, and France was yet to come.

As with his previous story, A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939), the setting begins in Istanbul and we again briefly meet Colonel Haki, head of the Turkish secret police. Mr. Graham, a naval ordnance engineer for an English armament manufacturer, has been assisting Turkey with plans for modernizing their naval vessels. The project was tiring and Graham is anxious to return home. But German agents have other plans.

Journey into Fear would have worked effectively as a Hitchcock thriller involving a common man in an uncommon situation (and undoubtedly Ambler's stories influenced Hitchcock). Graham is unprepared to play the role of an assassin's target. He is just an engineer doing his job. His efforts to escape are often ineffective and even amateurish, but would we readers have done differently? We share his frustration and fear at his inability to prevent the noose from tightening.

For those new to Eric Ambler, I would recommend beginning with A Coffin for Dimitrios (also titled The Mask of Dimitrios) and to be followed by Journey into Fear. Both are good stories. I would rate A Coffin for Dimitrios slightly higher.

Journey into Fear was made into movie in 1942, produced by Orson Welles' Mercury company, directed by Norman Foster, and starred Joseph Cotton and Dolores Del Rio.

Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet, and Zachary Scott starred in The Mask of Dimitrios in 1944. It was directed by Jean Negulesco.

To read or not to read the great spy novels of Eric Ambler? That is the question most people ignore because they are not familiar with Mr. Ambler and his particularly talent.

Mr. Ambler has always had this problem. As Alfred Hitchcock noted in his introduction to Intrigue (an omnibus volume containing Journey into Fear, A Coffin for Dimitrios, Cause for Alarm and Background to Danger), "Perhaps this was the volume that brought Mr. Ambler to the attention of the public that make best-sellers. They had been singularly inattentive until its appearance -- I suppose only God knows why." He goes on to say, "They had not even heeded the critics, who had said, from the very first, that Mr. Ambler had given new life and fresh viewpoint to the art of the spy novel -- an art supposedly threadbare and certainly cliché-infested."

So what's new and different about Eric Ambler writing? His heroes are ordinary people with whom almost any reader can identify, which puts you in the middle of a turmoil of emotions. His bad guys are characteristic of those who did the type of dirty deeds described in the book. His angels on the sidelines are equally realistic to the historical context. The backgrounds, histories and plot lines are finely nuanced into the actual evolution of the areas and events described during that time. In a way, these books are like historical fiction, except they describe deceit and betrayal rather than love and affection. From a distance of over 60 years, we read these books today as a way to step back into the darkest days of the past and relive them vividly. You can almost see and feel a dark hand raised to strike you in the back as you read one of his book's later pages. In a way, these stories are like a more realistic version of what Dashiell Hammett wrote as applied to European espionage.

Since Mr. Ambler wrote, the thrillers have gotten much bigger in scope . . . and moved beyond reality. Usually, the future of the human race is at stake. The heroes make Superman look like a wimp in terms of their prowess and knowledge. There's usually a love interest who exceeds your vision of the ideal woman. Fast-paced violence and killing dominate most pages. There are lots of toys to describe and use in imaginative ways. The villains combine the worst faults of the 45 most undesirable people in world history and have gained enormous wealth and power while being totally crazy. The plot twists and turns like cruise missile every few seconds in unexpected directions. If you want a book like that, please do not read Mr. Ambler's work. You won't like it.

If you want to taste, touch, smell, see and hear evil from close range and move through fear to defeat it, Mr. Ambler's your man.

On to Journey into Fear. Many people rate Journey into Fear to be one of the greatest novels of physical terror and a chilling treat. Almost everyone agrees that it is one of Mr. Ambler's best novels.

The book opens with the engineer Graham boarding a ship, the Sestri Levante, along with 9 other passengers in Turkey during December 1939. Safely in his cabin, he muses on his injured hand, which "throbbed and ached abominably" from being grazed by a bullet the night before. Alone, he realizes that he has "discovered the fear of death."

He then remembers the events that led up to the hectic last 24 hours. He has been in Turkey to help England's ally prepare its defenses against potential invasion. Foreign agents have been assigned to kill him so that the defenses will not be completed before an attack occurs. The assassin shoots at him when he returns to his hotel room from an evening at a night club, and just nicks him. Colonel Haki (of A Coffin for Dimitrios) takes charge of Graham, and arranges for him to leave by ship to avoid another attempt. Air flights have been suspended due to an earthquake, and the train is too hard to guard. The colonel vouches for all of the passengers. Graham reluctantly agrees.

As the boat sails off, Graham recognizes the tenth passenger as the assassin assigned to kill him, Banat. Seized by terror and knowing he's trapped aboard the ship, he tries everything he can think of to save his life. Will his best be enough?

For those who like stories involving the psychology of chilling terror, this book will be a delight. For those who want nonstop action, this book will be boring.

Mr. Ambler has provided us with an in-depth look at the psychology of killers and their prey that reminds one of the famous short story, "The Most Dangerous Game." As Colonel Haki notes, "The real killer is not a mere brute. He may be quite sensitive." Colonel Haki's theory is that killers have "an idee fixe about the father whom they identify . . . with their own [weakness]. When they kill, they are killing their own weakness." The hunted can crash about in the underbrush and merely draw the killer, or learn to control fear and think out a solution. Ambler is clearly interested in the subject of whether the rational mind will win out over the abnormally compulsive one. Along the way, Graham also learns a great deal about himself, a sort of self analysis through terror.

In addition, Graham is introduced to Mademoiselle Josette in the night club, and must from then decide how he will deal with the temptations she presents to him as a married man. This subplot greatly strengthens the story rather than being a distraction from it.

After you finish this impressive story, please think about when you have been terrified. What did you learn from that experience? Does this story add to your understanding of what one needs to do when terribly frightened?

Since other reviewers described very accurately the plot and the tone of the novel, I skip that part. I also consider this novel a very scary novel because anyone person can be in place of Graham [the main character]. The difference between this novel and the others where an innocent man is accused or chased by the criminals or the police is that the people who are trying to kill him have a legitimate and convincing [from their point of view] reason to kill him. And this is where the suspense comes from. I consider this and the and a few of Le Carre's novels to be the best spy novels of all time.

Unfortunately the unappealingly named "The Last Great Grain Race" might be left on the bookshelf if it were not for its companion volume of photographs more appropriately titled "Learning The Ropes; An Apprentice on the Last of the Windjammers," both by Eric Newby. Oddly these volumes were issued over forty years apart, Grain Race in 1956 and Ropes in 1999. (A recent volume of Grain Race was reissued in 1999, possibly to take advantage of the pictorial release.)

After a brief stint as an office clerk, Newby at eighteen signed on as an apprentice seaman for an around the world cargo voyage, with no nautical experience or skills other than a careful eye and superb memory for detail. "The Last Great Grain Race" is the story of one of the last four-masted barques, which in 1938 sailed from Ireland to Australia to pick up a cargo of grain and return to Ireland, a voyage which would take nine months. Ultimately it was to become the last voyage in such a vessel, as the impending war would change the world forever. We are fortunate that Newby was along to document the voyage. We are equally appreciative of his thoughtfulness in bringing his camera, as "Learning the Ropes" is the superb photo essay of this journey.

Newby apparently was a very skilled photographer. Oddly, he only briefly mentions his possession of a camera in "The Last Great Grain Race." He never lets on that his is so actively chronicling events and shipmates throughout the voyage. Though Newby does an excellent job describing what is like to climb aloft in all kinds of weather, the black and white photographs take the reader aloft as well and provide the narrative even with more impact and grace.

The crew is as varied and colorful as one might expect the conditions are harsh and oftentimes dangerous; the work is unrelenting, demanding and dangerous in its own right. Newby works alongside seasoned veterans and never shirks.

Grain Race however does have its limitations. There is a tremendous amount of technical detail that can often leave the reader literally at sea. For example "There were still the sheets of the topmast staysails to be shifted over the stays and sheeted home, the main and mizzen courses to be reset, and the yards trimmed to the Mate's satisfaction with the brace whips." Newby does provide a graphic of the sail plan and running rigging (79 reference points), but these are only of marginal assistance.

Another shortcoming is the language barrier Newby faces. This is a Finnish crew and commands are rarely given in English. Newby and the reader often have to work out the language; if the reader misses the first context or explanation then subsequent uses of the terminology will be lost, a glossary might have helped here. Newby does faithfully record dialects especially when he is being spoken to in occasionally recognizable English and these dialogues are often amusingly recounted.

Eric Newby should seriously consider issuing both in a single volume and one has to wonder why this wasn't done when Grain Race was first issued or at least when "Learning the Ropes" was released a couple of years ago. It is interesting to speculate on the length of time between the original release of Grain Race and the very vivid and informative photographs. Regardless it was worth the wait.

Grain Race the narrative and Grain Race the photographs make for an enjoyable double read.

In 1938 Eric Newby was eighteen years old. He left a dead end job with an advertising agency in London and signed as an apprentice seaman on the four-masted sailing ship Moshulu for a trip to bring back a shipload of grain from Australia. Moshulu was one of a dozen sailing ships still engaged in the grain trade and the 1938 trip was destined to be the last of the merchant sailing era.

Newby is undeservedly less well known than other writers who have imitated him. His books, "A Small Place in Italy, "On the Shores of the Mediterranean" and "The Big Red Train Ride" have been imitated by other authors. His writing style is spare and matter-of-fact; he doesn't try to impress the reader with overblown prose instead letting the facts speak for themselves without florid editorial comment.

There's a funny account a trick played by the Belfast stevedores on the sailors of Moshulu. Among the tons of rocks loaded into the hold were two dead dogs. The decomposing dog carcasses fill the ship's hold with an overpowering odor that plagues the men as they dump out the ballast and load the grain months later off the shore of Adelaide.

The Last Grain Race goes into great detail describing the operation of a sailing ship, complete with obscure jargon names for the sails and rigging. Newby seems to have been working too hard on the trip to completely enjoy and appreciate it. The books gives a glimpse at a lost world of merchant sailing ships and the quiet life of sailors at sea, now exchanged for sparsely manned giant container ships crossing vast oceans in a matter of days.

Moshulu returns to Queenstown, Ireland on June 10, 1939 after a pace-setting 91-day passage by war of Cape Horn. It had taken 8 months for a round-trip in which Moshulu brought 4,875 tons of grain from Australia to Ireland. Newby leaves the ship a full-fledged Ordinary Seaman. World War II will start in a few months and obliterate the peaceful world of merchant sailing ships.

I was ready to drive from Seattle to San Francisco when I stopped at the library for some road music and a book on tape. This particular day, I found a jewel by one of the greats, Eric Newby's "The Last Grain Race". Eric Newby has done so much, and has been so many places that it boggles the mind. This book chronicles the beginning of his life as a true adventurer, when on the eve of WWII, he shipped out as a complete novice seaman on one of the largest sailing vessels ever built, bound for Australia and back.
Though I've been reading his books for 20 years, for some reason I'd never run across "The Last Grain Race", and for well over 1000 miles I listened to the reading of this book, and when I got to Portland on my return leg, my first stop was at Powell Books to grab a hard copy of the book.
This is one of the finest books I've ever read. I was going to say "seafaring books", but that is too restrictive.
Eric Newby's commentary and sense of humor are first-rate, like always. While listening, and while reading, I was transported by this book. The conditions seem indescribable, but Newby succeeds in describing them, and paints cold, wet portraits of the days and nights in the rigging and the foc'sle of the barque "Moshulu". I subsequently found a book of the photographs of this voyage, Newby's "Learning The Ropes", which gives us faces to the cast of "Great Grain Race".
Old friends of my youth came to visit while I was engrossed in this book, Sterling Hayden's "Voyage", the film "Windjammer", and the loss of the sailing ship "Pamir" in the late 1950's. The "Moshulu" survives today, as a restaurant ship in Philadelphia, but she was interned on Lake Union in my hometown of Seattle during WWI, and her consort, the "Monongahela" was the last tall ship to pass under the George Washington (Aurora) Bridge before it was closed to tall-masted ships.
An interesting sidelight: While recently rewatching "Godfather II", I noticed that in the scene where young Vito Andolini (Corleone) arrives in New York, the ship he's on is the "Moshulu".
Eric Newby is one of a kind. When he is gone we'll never see his like again.

I've read many personal narratives about World War II and I must say this is an excellent book!!!

During World War II, the rural citizens of northern Italy vowed to assist Allied soldiers on the run in their mountainous region. They were operating on an informed heart, on the Golden Rule, wanting to give aid to those who opposed the hated Fascists and Nazis as they would hope someone would help their own sons. And while the Allies were protected by the Geneva Convention should they be captured, the citizens were not and they were subject to less humane punishment, sometimes torture and death, if their actions were found out. But they did it anyway. It is these people, who otherwise lived a pastoral, ancient way of life, whom travel writer extraordinaire Eric Newby profiles in his memoir, LOVE AND WAR IN THE APENNINES.

Those familiar with Newby's other books will find his signature wit, self-deprecating humor and descriptive powers at work here, but his curiosity and appreciation of other people and cultures is in highest gear. He comes to meet the peasantry of northern Italy after fleeing a prison during the chaos following the ouster of Mussolini in September 1943. He is helped by a succession of individuals and families, including the woman who would become his wife and companion in later adventures, the estimable Wanda. The book ends with his unfortunate recapture by the Germans and in an epilogue he revisits the people who took him in ten years after.

Newby is a hugely gifted writer, his sentences are knowing and clear as a bell. He orders information rhythmically, always knows when less is more and more is more. He never bows to sentimentality, never sells anyone out. He does a remarkable job of expressing the fear and dispiritedness that politics and war heave on a people, at the same time revealing their resilience. There is much to admire in this book.

The Italians Newby depicts in this memoir (and also in his "A Small Place in Italy") are often funny, but never buffoonish. Newby's warm admiration for country folk is always evident, as in this passage where a retired stonemason helps remove an enormous boulder from the hideout the locals are making for him:

"He went over it with his hands, very slowly, almost lovingly. It must have weighed half a ton. Then, when he had finished caressing it, he called for a sledgehammer and hit it deliberately but not particularly hard and it broke into two almost equal halves. It was like magic and I would not have been surprised if a toad had emerged from it and turned into a princess who had been asleep for a million years."

Readers familiar with Newby's travel writing will find all his strengths here: his eye for detail, his warmth of character, his humor (mostly self-deprecating). They will also find a love story -- one made all the more poignant by Newby's craftsmanlike selection of few but telling scenes.

This is a solid, workmanlike scorebook, concentrating on the fundamentals. I particularly like the fact that it is printed on good quality paper, adding to the sensuous pleasure of the experience. I give it four rather than five stars simply because the only perfect scorebook would be one I designed myself, and it would only be perfect for me. Scoring baseball is such a personal, idiosyncratic activity that no two people want exactly the same book. For example, I like having space to track each hitter's count. This is not included here, though there is enough room to fake it. Instead there are boxes for each hitter to mark an out or an RBI. To my thinking this is a poor use of space, as these are derived from the main scoring space. These are nits, however. Short of designing and printing your own, this is a good a book as you are likely to find.

FINALLY!! True baseball fans now have available a scorebook that doesn't look like a ten-year-old's exercise with a ruler. This book is obviously made by a baseball for the baseball fan. It has the most intuitive format of any scoresheet I have seen, and makes full use of the whole page, giving individual scorers -- and their individual scoring methods -- the most flexibility. The scoresheet contains so much information that the reader could create the most complex of boxscores -- indeed, could practically recreate the game in its entirety -- long after the original event is forgotten.

The only downside to this volume is the lack of a linescore, but where would you put it?

Scorebooks are history books, perhaps the only pencil sketched accounts of our past still widely applied in modern American culture. If you're looking, as I am, to keep your baseball autobiography, I highly recommend doing it with this tablet.

As a lifelong baseball fan, I have always wanted a good scorebook where I can chronicle all the games I attend in one place. But all the books I found were either designed with softball in mind, or used a design that emphasized one particular style of scorekeeping. I had just about given up my search and resigned myself to a life of buying team programs at 5 bucks a pop when I came across Play Ball.

For my purposes, it is perfect. With 170 scoresheets, you know it's going to last for quite a while. And the design provides for plenty of space for substitutions, with room for over 70 substitutions per game! And best yet, the design is not intrusive, it does not try to force a particular style of scorekeeping down your throat, but let's you dictate your own style.

If you like keeping score, this book is a bargain.

After looking at all the JINI books available except the O'Reilly one, I found this book to be best....by far!
If you want to learn peer to peer computing, start with this book at page one and read all the way through...you will not be dissapointed.
It has everything, great on code...it will show you how to code JINI, philosophy, ideas, implementations etc...

Sing...when are you going to publish again??? You are great!
If you do, I hope its a topic that I need..

Thanks
- Adam

I used this book in parallell with other books.

Chapters on networking and RMI were very useful.

It helped me to understand Jini, though I got a lot of help reading other textbooks in parallell.

Issues on agent techonology were very interesting.

Mr. Li starts out with a section focusing on advanced RMI and CORBA, and how they relate to Jini. The CORBA section includes examples for building a Java client/server using the ORB that comes with the JDK, as well as using a C client on Linux with the free ORBit ORB. An excellent overview of CORBA for people who have never used it or simply haven't used it with Java.

His writing is detailed, explaining how things are done and why they're done that way; after reading this book you will have an excellent understanding of Jini. For example, the detailed discussion and the several examples on UDP multicast and how it is used in the Discovery protocol was quite fascinating. I found the case study chapters, accounts of real-life applications of Jini and JavaSpaces, to be very interesting to read as well.

Overall, an inforative, highly readable book aimed at advanced developers.

Based on some of the other reviews here, I purchased this book with the objective to get a jump start on how to architect a .Net solution. For example, I was looking for answers to questions like: How to integrate with legacy applications, how to modularize, where to put components, security and performance considerations, redundancy and sizing, database connectivity, etc etc.
There is nothing in this book pertinent to .Net architectures, in my opinion. It is a collection of common practices and questions to ask that every architect should be familiar with, anyways. I am a Sun Certified J2EE Architect, and much of what I saw in this book could be legitimate questions at the Sun test as well - that's how generic this book is.
I am not interested in passing the exam. Don't buy this book if you are not, either.

It is a pleasure to study for a Microsoft Exam and actually learn something along the way. This book is well conceived and well written. It covers all of the material necessary to pass the .NET Solution Architectures exam. In fact, it includes enough real-world knowledge and background information that I would suggest it for learning about Microsoft architectures even if you aren't planning to take the exam.

Other reviewers have written about the execellent references that the book provides, so I won't repeat all of that here, except to say that the book was published after the exam came out and that some of the material in the book is more up-to-date than what is being tested by Microsoft. This will not pose a problem for the person taking the test, however.

I just passed the 70-300 exam and used this book to study for it.

The book is a comprehensive review of everything that you may need to know for the exam. However, some sections are repeated without any good reason. The questions at the end of each chapter are similar in nature to the ones that I saw on the exam.

It took me 12 days, spending about an hour - an hour and half per day, to get through the book. I did pass the other .Net tests before I read the book, so majority of the material was a review.

Although I do have many years of experience as an architect, I found a lot of useful information in this book that will help me design better products and solutions in the future.