A friend and I are taking an intro to astonomy course and this is one of the recommended texts. I can certainly see why. It's a very clearly written work with a heavy emphasis on planetary and solar astronomy and a lucid discussion of stellar objects visible with personal telescopes, subjects that the noviate astronomer is most likely to find of interest. The author also dedicates two chapters to the subject of theoretical astrophysics at the very basic level of cosmology, ie) the theory of the origin, the possible ultimate destiny of the universe, and the liklihood of the existance of coevil universes parallel to our own. Dickinson also throws his lot in with those who would believe in UFOs, to the extent that while he doesn't believe in the sightings people report--however well meaningly--he does believe that intelligent life is out there and may well already know of our existance. He gives a thorough and lucid outline of why he believes this to be the case. He also summarizes the SETI project and the ultimate change in position on this topic of high visibility astronomers like the late Carl Sagan, Iosif Shklovskii, and Ben Zuckerman. A very interesting book, and one that whets the appetite for further information.

Easy to read, modern review of cosmology and astronomy. Contains some of the best produced astronomical illustrations. Terence Dickinson is an astronomy writer. He received the 1992 Royal Canadian Institute's Sandford Fleming Medal for achievements in advancing public understanding of science.

Excellent, highly readable book about the various aspects of the universe. Presented with fabulous photos, images, and illustrations. An absolute must-have for anyone interested in astronomy. So fantastic, it will even inspire those NOT interested in astronomy. Suitable for elementary school kids (for the photos) on up. Dickinson has an absolute talent for writing about astronomy in a clear, concise way without talking down to you or relying on too much technical jargon and does all that and makes it fascinating too. Wonderful.

This book has a wealth of information about a wide variety of bird topics. It has bird anatomy, songs, how to build a nest box, etc. The main chapter of this book, named 'The Habitat BirdFinder' is a field guide to about 100 of the most commonly seen birds in North America, and isn't in any specific order, but by which habitat it is most likely to be seen in. It is very useful, with a large photograph and colour drawings with text for each bird. The range maps are very clear and easy to use. In the back of the book there is a good selection of other books and resources, including local birding organizations.
If you are looking for a first birding book, to get you started and familiar with birds, then this is a great start.

This book has been an excellent addition to my library on birding. Splendid photography! Helpful tips!Interesting insights and all at a great price. The book is beautiful and is clearly of high quality. You won't be disappointed!

This is a wonderfully put together reference book for bird watchers. I also gave one to my father as a gift and he just can't put it down. The pictures are teriffic and there's a lot of information about each bird. I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys birds.

...Plenty of vivid imagery, more of our heroes' brilliance in tactics and strategy, plus the return of the super-terrorist Viktor (now apparently going by "Victor," which was often seen written and mistaken by some characters as not finishing "victory"), whose line, after counting out 12 dead bodies--suicides, "Which one was Judas!" had me in gales of laughter. However, I am a bit disappointed to see that it's an abridged version...I'd love to have a new unabridged copy to go with the rest of the series

Sometimes the plotlines seem to be a slow, such as the second half of "The Final Storm," but if you're looking for good, patriotism-inspiring, often free-for-all action, and a healthy dose of sexuality, this series delivers.

i have been looking for years for Wingman # 11. i would really appreciate it if someone would sell me there copy or tell me where i can find it.

I have not found this book anywere. So if anyone has anyidea of where the book is or if you have one and is willing to sell it my Email address is shark1218@aol.com. Please Email me if you now where i can get it.

This is a great tale of a life in the British Theatre during its mid-20th century Golden Era. Terry Knapp starts his story with his audition for the legendary actor-director,Sir Laurence Oliver when he created the inaugural company of the Chichester Festival Theatre and continues with a rare insider's view of the founding of the Royal National Theatre when its home was the historic Old Vic Theatre in London's Waterloo Road. Like a born story-teller Terry tells, in a well paced and charmingly informal way, the saga of the birth of what is now the theatrical pride of Great Britain. Terry traces its development during the first three years of artistic feuds and back-stage infighting and its Everestian peak of Olivier's magnificent OTHELLO in Moscow in the very heart of the Kremlin. Terry goes on to tell of being on tour in South East Asia, and his remarkable first visit to Japan which coincided with the visit of the Beatles to Tokyo. Awarded the first ever Churchill Fellowship to an actor Terry later returned to Japan to study its tradional performance arts encountering some remarkable theatre artists.His account makes informative reading about some of the world's most exotic Acting traditions which date back several centuries. He shares his experiences of working with Sir Yehudi Menuhin in Mozart's THE IMPRESSARIO and Dame Cleo Laine in a musical about the amours of George Bernard Shaw. These memoires have been praised for their style and content by the distinguished theatre biographer and critic, Sheridan Morley and by Gavan Daws, author oF HOLY MAN, the outstanding biography of Father Damien of Molokai. Terry was acclaimed internationally for his TV portrait of DAMIEN in a one man play by Aldyth Morris, (the title bestowed on him by the Hawaii State Legislature also being the title of his book.) This is first class, highly informative and very entertaining reading.

This is a truly remarkable book and a delight to read. You feel as though you are right there as Terence Knapp reminisces about his life. In conversational detail Knapp tells of his intimate relationships with Britain's theater geniuses--from Sirs Laurence Olivier, Derek Jacobi, Michael Redgrave, the irrepressible Judi Dench, and Lynn Redgrave and so many others.

But it is more than a book about stars. It is about a man's odyssey. He takes the reader from the hard times and poverty of wartime London, through the trials and triumphs of becoming an Actor; he shifts to the exotic orient in a quest to broaden his knowledge by learning about and contributing to theater in Japan. Finally, he realizes his second calling--teaching aspiring actors and bringing his love of Shakespeare and the theater to Hawaii.

In the Hawaiian Islands he has become a beloved and revered figure not only for his stunning Peabody award-winning portrayal of the leper priest, Father Damien, but for the countless other performances he has given for more than 30 years.

Knapp candidly reveals that although the dream of great stardom and great financial reward may have eluded him, he has found peace and satisfaction in touching the lives of so many in his beloved three islands--Britain, Japan and Hawaii. It is a story that helps us all in understanding and appreciating our own personal quest for peace and achievement.

Terence Knapp has lead a fascinating and truly inspiring life...and writes all about it with panache and style. The Farmer review gives you the details on the books contents, so just let me add that this breezy, lively read is a must for any theatre-lover, aspiring actor, Anglophile, or anyone who just wants to sit down and read something entertaining.

The glossary included in this book is awesome. You will not find a word in the story that is not included. The classic favorite has all of the illustrations we remember from childhood - while the Latin text allows you to practice, and keep building your vocabulary and reading skills. What a wonderful way to bring Latin to your children!

Imagine my surprise when this showed up one day from a friend of mine. He gave it to my wife and me because she was a religion major and I'm a theology student working through my latin. There is nothing quite as fun as trying to make sense of something you already know, and the Grinch is a story I've known for years! The flow and cadence are even preserved, making the translators into linguistic artists beyond compare! Just be sure to pick up Winnie Ille Pu as well, and read to your kids in a language that is, to quote Python, "not dead yet!"

When I first saw the book I knew it was what I was looking for. The idea of putting children's books into Latin is great because books in Latin are very few and far in between. I liked the book because it is colorful and easy to translate. Also the book makes a great gift for Latin students and teachers because it makes Latin a fun and interesting langauge.

Herein lie pages that showcase the inner workings of your mind and the universe about you.

Scintillating, neural expansive designs capture color magically and tempt your momentary perception into conceiving things beyond normalcy. Bursting, exploding stimuli of bliss play with your perceptual faculties in a manner as powerful as the most forbidden psychoactives.

Haunting creatures and beckoning intergalactic sights draw you into a psychedelic feast for the mind. Visual art can push us into the recognition that the entire world is gorgeous. Venosa does this with rare style and unparalleled mastery of his medium.

Where the organic meets the technological and where the science meets the sexes is the land that these amazing works foster.

Venosa hints at how things could really be if and when we discover what it is that DNA is all about.

Be ready for Venosa to continue to show us the way!

This book is worth every penny. The quality of the book is fantastic and the artwork inside will blow you away.

ILLUMINATUS is an unprecedented publishing feat.

"To make art is to draw even with the aspirations of divinity. To make art well is to call spirit into being. Magicians, like Venosa, know this." - Terence McKenna. Have you ever taken a journey to a "separate reality" via ayahuasca or magic mushrooms or some such sacrament and wish you could bring back a snapshot or reconstruct an image from your visionary experience? I have, but cameras are not allowed on these trips, only the mind's eye, and I am left fantasizing about having the talent of a great painter, such as ROBERT VENOSA. Venosa is an artist of high accomplishment and much of his work reflects images of his inner mindscapes. His new book, ILLUMINATUS, further defines the genre of Fantastic Realism (Surrealism, Visionary, Hypo-realism, Psychedelic). With comments and essays by a host of illuminated mentors and/or contemporaries, ILLUMINATUS is simply a mind-expanding book. "Those artists, such as Venosa, who gain access to visionary states, captivate us through their eternal imagery to fall under a spell of that reality." - Ernst Fuchs.

But Venosa's visionary reflections are but one aspect of his broad talent and subject matter. His portraits have a photo-realism mixed with spirit that instills life on his canvases. He uses his photorealisms "...to lure us through its 'reality' into his own inner world of swirling and seraphic energies....Venosa...learned the tempera and oil glazing technique... from yours truly in New York and...Ernst Fuchs in Vienna, and opted to perfect it in a state of mind of jewel-like clarity." - Mati Klarwein

Venosa's realism, like an hallucination, is astonishing. I confess there have been times I touched his artwork, expecting to feel something that wasn't there. On one occasion I thought somehow water had spilled onto a painting and I dabbed the drops with a tissue. Another time I was compelled to feel the raised texture of DNA molecules. Both times I was fooled! Speaking of touching, H. R. Giger writes, "I would be delighted to experience one of these images in three-dimensional form and to touch these ethereal figures and faces with my hands....", and again, "The biggest thrill would be to touch this imaginary cool, smooth surface."

Tantamount to Venosa's extraordinary art is the accompanying text by none other than TERENCE MCKENNA, art historian, writer, and leading spokesperson for the myriad explorers of mind altering substances. Move over Aldous, Terence has reached the stature of the most articulate psychonauts the world will ever know. Needless to say, his talent for word crafting is par excellence and his text in ILLUMINATUS is as illustrious as Venosa's artwork.

As Lewis and Clark explored our western frontier and returned with sketches and notes, Venosa and McKenna each explored our ultimate frontier, the wilderness of mind. Explorer/artist extraordinaires, they return from their travels in our noosphere and now meet to commingle their elaborate work with brush and pen to bring us a volume the nature and calibre of which has never before been published.

ILLUMINATUS is destined to be a classic.

Richard T. Carey

Highly recommended! Especially for those Christians like me who respect zen as a philosophy rather than a religion as a branch of Buddhism, and have the vague perception that zen can be practised as a style of life without compromising one's faith.

Highly recommended reading. The author is very direct, i didn't have to try and figure out what he meant.

Terence Grant describes a process of personal change through self-understanding and God's power. He describes how we struggle to attain some ideal and yet we are unable to attain the ideal through our own power. Instead we can gain freedom by learning to live in the present moment and listening to God in prayer. Mr. Grant provides a viable way of personal change without self-improvement.

Hunter must start to reclaim the Eastern half of the US.First Football City(St. Louis to us),the ntake Chicago and destroy the Family.Track a black box and the final showdown in DC!F-16XL is the ultimate airplane and this book rocks!

this is the book that sets the pace for the rest of the series. its got great dogfights, battles, last minute rescues...this is the best wingman book yet

This is the ultimate Wingman book. It has everything: spectacular dogfights, the contents of a mysterious black box, the re-taking of Football City, Mayor Hawk Hunter, the grim death of a friend, the New F-16XL, the rekindled spirit of America, and the ending of an iconoclasm. This is the book every Wingman fan HAS to read. This is the book that makes you feel proud to be an american!

This book is really good for art students and medical students if you want the deteils. I highly recommand it!

Albinus on Anatomy is a great book. I am a printmaking student;My teacher introduced this book to me when I asked her about detailed etchings of the human figure. I love how intricate and delicate the lines are to create figure. They remind me of the prints of Rembrandt. For anyone interested in art, I really suggest this book. It's great for those studying to be medical illustrators, print students, the everyday sketchers.......ANYONE! It's also great for those who just love to learn about the anatomy of the body.

This oversized book contains over 200 illustrations of the human body, posed so as to be of use to the artist studying the human form. Beautiful and highly accurate, the book can be a valuable tool for the artist wishing to improve his skill through a better knowledge of human anatomy. Albinus himself is not solely responsible for the engravings. He collaborated with an artist who did the drawings and finally the copper plate engravings of the figure. In the meantime, Albinus arranged the poses and oversaw the process from rough sketches to the manipulations of the printing press, ensuring that the accuracy and quality of the images were preserved. The figures are represented with various layers of tissue exposed, first the nude model, then the outer layer of muscle, the next layer of muscle, the organs, down to the bare skeletons. Each layer has an anterior and a posterior view. The potential for the engravings to become a grim lesson on internal anatomy is offset by the engraving artist¹s whimsy. He was allowed artistic freedom with the background on each plate, and the settings range from a Greek temple to a verdant forest. In one plate a rhinoceros grazes directly behind the model. For the student of anatomy, each bone is taken individually, and the proportions, muscle attachments, and major connective tissue are shown for each in turn. A passionate introduction to drawing the human body starts the book off, and a complete index ties it together. The playful, detailed drawings make this book attractive to the artist and the art admirer alike. For its size and complexity, this book is a great buy.

Steve Kubby, a former Libertarian Party candidate for governor in California, has written a fiery book in which he argues that the federal government has far over-stepped its constitutional mandate with its War on (some) Drugs. He proposes the following litmus test for politicians; ask them about their stand on the right to get high.

Kubby's book is well written, but not well designed. The illustrations look like clip art printed on a dot matrix printer, and the cover is so garish and amateurish that I fear many people will dismiss it without reading a word of it. Don't make that mistake. It's well worth your time.

The Politics of Consciousness covers cannabis, mushrooms, entheogens, and the meaning of democracy. It promotes a respectful view of entheogens and other psychoactives. Many books covering entheogens have dismissive attitudes toward other psychoactives, but like Jonathan Ott, Kubby is one of the few authors who present truly enlightened ways of thinking about psychoactives, religion, and freedom.

There are many books on entheogens, but few that are enlightened about political and religious issues. Therefore I strongly recommend this book for entheogen scholars and activists.

Now that the author of Politics of Consciousness is bravely facing the fury of the Juggernaut for his use of Medical Marijuana as legally recommended under the Prop 215 (Compassionate Use Act)it is time for everyone who consider himself or herseldf educated to read Kubby's book to escape the statist paradigm in its entirety. Check it out, you will not regret it....