I am a fan of the U.S. Navy and especially the Academy. For anyone who wants a glimpse of what life is like there for the Midshipmen, this book is for you. The stories are funny, some sad. You really get a idea of the dedication it takes to make it through a service academy. In one sense, you are a college student - but really you are on active duty already! My hats off to all Annapolis Alumni!

_Tales from Annapolis: A Ring-Knockers' Bedside Companion_ (Omega Resources) by Rich Zino ('67) and Paul Laric ('49) is an amiable collection written by former midshipmen about the antics (and some of the antics are more serious than others) of student life at the Naval Academy. The contents will be best enjoyed by former midshipmen, but those who know little about Academy life will get to learn something of what the middies put up with. This is especially true of descriptions of fourth class (freshman) or "Plebe" year, which seem to be disproportionately represented here. My own memory (I am '72) of that year is really rather miserable and not much fun at all. The accounts here are generally upbeat, brightened, I suppose, by many years of chipping away by selective memories. There is a useful glossary which includes some of the tortures upperclassmen used to put us through, like "Shoving out: Positioning one's self in a sitting position without the aid of a chair; also referred to as sitting on infinity." (...)

The most surprising thing about this volume is how similar the tales from fifty years back are to my own memories or to the more recent classes. Mids were always, it seems, crawling down the steam pipe alleys underneath Tecumseh, zipping back just under the wire at curfew, and thinking up get rich quick schemes. The great difference in stories, those with no precedent, are those that involve female midshipmen or officers. Just a hint of sexual scandal is included in these pages.

However, an episode like rolling a bowling ball into the Rotunda through the ranks of the Watch Squad while it was in formation is a unique and classic prank for which a member of the class of '63 takes credit (for a "mystery bowler," of course). This tale was a legend even when I was there, and long may it and the other jolly stories in this book be retold and grow in the telling.

This book is something a little different from what you might ordinarily read. It tells the tales of men who served our country in the Navy, from none other than the very people who lived them. It gives a more personal look at the accademy, and paints a warm picture of what happens "behind the scenes" at the accademy.

I would certainly recomend this book of memories to any other retierd officers or alumni. I can assure you that it will bring a smile to your face, and bring you back to those golden days of Annapolis.

This book will keep kids intrested for houres! It has pages of hands on activities. The book has tons of very intertaning activities. The book makes learning fun. The book comes with 3d glasses and a Zap Pack that when you snap a butten the pack goes from liquid to solid and heats up. This book is a great learning took that is a great buy for houres of entertainment!

This book is way cool! It has 3D paages including 3D glasses, some sort of pack that changes from boiling hot to freezing cold, a hundred of info, some illusions... It's like my own Science Museum !

Zap! Science is a great hands-on book. With many expirements, this book makes science fun.

Excellent book for those who are grieving and for those who simply want an excellent book to read!

Every person born into this mortal existance will some day experience death. Most experience the emotional trauma of losing a loved one. I first read this book some twenty years ago. I have since referred to it several times to remind myself of the simple and comforting message of death being simply a birth into another existance of life we call immortality. With the understanding that death is not the end, there comes before us all a hope of the future. Sorrow, or mourning is but an expression of love. This book will enlighten that understanding, give clearer purpose to life, the value of death, and the hope for eternal life through the process of the resurrection. The book gives critical insight into the age old questions of "Where did we come from?, Why are we here?, and Where are we going? Pondering the messages of hope and understanding will give a sense of peace and purpose to the value and meaning of mortality and immortality. Since all have been born into this world and all must someday exit this earthly life, it bears reason to better understand the purpose of life as so beautifully described in "The Birth That We Call Death" The book compares exceptionally well with "The Gateway We Call Death", by Russell M Nelson, but more clearly and concisely focuses upon the critical questions as described above. Both give excellent examples of the purpose of life as defined by the meaning of death, now seen more clearly as an open door to life eternal.

This is a cool book. As a cybergeek myself, I could relate to evrything in it. I'm buying some copies for my cybergeek friends. It's way funny!

Full of computer-humor that only serious computer users would get. Also, some "lifestyle" humor that identifies us computer users as cool-hipsters and NOT nerds. Computer-users are not geeks!

A lot of books on biblical studies are not very well crafted. This one is. I also like how Hays brings out the Old Testament nuances in Paul's writings. He recognizes throughout the book that Paul does not always intend to directly quote the Old Testament. He points out that the apostle often makes verbal echoes of OT passages that would resonate powerfully to the Jewish members of the early Christian congregations. Plus, as a bonus, I like all of the poetry that Hays puts in the book that captures theological motifs.

Nascent New Testament theologians should look to Dr. Richard Hays of Duke Divinity School for how to construct a sentence that is both entertaining and thought provoking. His are beautifully written as well as meaningful.

It is Dr. Hays thesis that we can better understand the writings of Paul if we first understand his hermenuetics. And for Paul, that means that he reads consistently the Christian experience through a lens that has been crafted by a fine honing of knowledge from the Hebrew Scriptures. It is in the pulling up of Hebrew Scriptures that preceded or follow the obvious linkage with a particular Pauline passage that we find the most meaning Hays argues.

His writing is compelling, understandable and, yes , persuasive. I would commend this book to anyone who is trying to understand Paul and what he means. This is of particular valuable in developing a biblical understanding of the theological implications of Romans 9-11.

Dennis Shaw

In this book (the twelfth edition) every economic subject is very well explained without difficult mathemayical concepts. People who like the mathematical approach can find something in the appendix. There are a lot of examples about real facts happened to real companies (Microsoft,...) or organization (OPEC...). The logic approach and the examples are very usefull for a beginner that first of all has to understand the main concepts rather than struggling in a difficult language or math.

The authors have explained all principles with remarkable ease taking numerous to the point examples.

Having just returned from a 2-week visit to Ireland I was eagerto get my hands on anything related to the places I saw. So, I took alook at several photography books on Ireland and was losing hope of finding the "right" one, when I started flipping through "Enchanted Ireland." I was stunned by the wonderful photographs, and the great range of both landscape and city/town pictures. There are also some beautful people pictures, including--to my astonishment--Paddy, an accordion player and resident of Inishmor, whom I saw on my trip to the Aran Islands. If you're looking for a wide range of photographs and a good idea of what parts of Ireland look like (and they're stunningly beautiful) then this is *the* book to have. You'll want to leave for Ireland tomorrow!

Paul Lay's informative text is a perfect accompaniment to Richard Turpin's stunning, lovely, full color, tour-de-force photographic excursion through the appealing beauty of Ireland's landscape, cities, architecture, and people. Enchanted Ireland is an outstanding compilation of Irish images and a pure celebration of the natural wonder and folk charm of a vibrant people in a land bustling with vigor and cultural legacy. Highly recommended!

This book, based on a series of talks given at the New York Library, biographers Robert Caro, David McCullough, Paul C. Nagel, Richard B. Sewall, Ronald Steel and Jean Strouse explain how and why they went about writing biographies in the way that they did.

Each biographer explains well how the life of the biographer becomes intertwined with that of the person they are researching. In each case, they stress that biography writing is both intense and time-consuming.

Lyndon B. Johnson biographer, Robert Caro, recommends Francis Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe" for two reasons. One, to show that the job of the historian is to try to write at the same level as the greatest novelists. Second, that the duty of the historian is to go to the locales of the events that will be described, and not to leave, no matter how long it takes...until the writer has done his or her best to understand the locales and their cultures and their people.

In the end, it means that the biographer must not only understand the person, but also needs to intimately know the area where the person grew up and lived.

This book gives its readers new insights into the lives of some of this nation's most prominent figures, through the eyes of six well-known biographers. In "The Unexpected Harry Truman," David McCullough shows the life of Truman through new eyes. McCullough stresses that a biographer must genuinely care about his [or her] subject because you are living with that person every single day. The process is like that of choosing a spouse or roommate, therefore, the subjects that he chooses must have a degree of animal, human vitality. In Truman, he said, as with Theodore Roosevelt, he found no shortage of vitality.

McCullough created a detailed chronology, almost a diary of what Truman was doing from year to year, even day to day if the events were important enough. He also used primary sources, such as personal diaries, letters and documents from the time period. Truman poured himself out on paper and provided a large, wonderfully written base of writing for McCullough to sort through and "find" the man.

McCullough says that the magic of writing comes from not knowing where you are headed, what you are going to wind up feeling and what you are going to decide.

Richard Sewell's "In Search of Emily Dickinson," research process took twenty years and he says, "In the beginning I didn't go searching for her, she went searching for me." The process took him two sabbaticals, years of correspondence and meetings with Mabel Loomis Todd's daughter Millicent Todd Bingham to uncover the whole truth.

Paul Nagel's "The Adams Women," gives readers a sense of how important the women in the Adam's family were. Nagel said that contemplating the development of ideology is good training for a biographer. After all, he said, the intellectual historian takes an idea and brings it to life. For Nagel, working with ideas establishes a bridge into the mind and life of the people who had the ideas he studies.

Nagel said that he likes and admires women and this is why, after writing about the Adams' men, he wrote about the Adams' women. Nagel also said that he has learned and taught his students that our grasp of history must always remain incomplete.

Ronald Steel said, that the hardest job a biographer has is not to judge his or her subject, however, most fail to keep their judgements out of the biography.

In Jean Strouse's, "The Real Reasons," she explains that the modern biography examines how character affects and is affected by social circumstance. Biography also tells the reader a great deal about history and gives them a wonderful story.

In writing about Alice James, Strouse found that there was not an interesting plot line to her life other than that her brothers were writers Henry and William James.

Strouse, when asked by another writer about the descendents of the three James' children, she said that William's great-grandson in Massachusetts, tired of being asked whether he was related to Henry or William, moved to Colorado where he was asked whether he was related to Jesse or Frank. Strouse reported that he stayed in Colorado.

Strouse realized that in order to tell the story of the James' family, she was going to have to use her own voice to give life to the family, especially Alice. This is not recommended for all biographies, but in a case such as hers, it needs that biographer's voice to connect all the information for the reader.

In Robert Caro's, "Lyndon Johnson and the Roots of Power," he talked to the people who knew Johnson to get a sense of the former President from Texas and what made him worthy of a new biography. He wrote the biography to illuminate readers to the time period and what shaped the time, especially politically.

This book will help writers understand the steps he or she will need to take to write a biography. It shows the difficult research processes and makes the reader want to either write a biography about an interesting person or never want to write again. Either way, this book provides new insights that one may have never thought about before. I recommend this book to both beginning and seasoned writers

I found this book to be a highly interesting biography of a good mathematician and great writer. I say good, because Paul Halmos denies the claim of being a great mathematician in the sense of Paul Cohen or Irving Kaplansky. Rather he says that he is a "professional" mathematician, and this book describes his professional life. But it does it in such a personal way that one cannot help but find it fascinating. I feel that this book not only influenced the way that I think about mathematics, but even the way that I think about life.

A Fantastic Book -- this 400+ page manuscript nicely mixes mathematical science with a historical view of the development (1930's through early 1980's) of mathematical research in the United States. This book is highly readable, extremely enjoyable and quite straightforward with details and opinions. One gets a first hand insight into how the author approached his research, his career, and his life. Halmos has always been a brilliant and skillful writer but his contributions have mostly been in the technical arena; this time he has provided a volume we can all enjoy. I found it difficult to put this book down once I began its reading.

While not the 1st artist to take on the conceptions of light and its practical uses in art, now Flagstff, AZ. artist James Turrell has brought the perception of light in art to creative and fantastic new levels through his conceptions such as his famous "skyspaces" to "darkspaces," "blue rooms," etc. Many of his pieces offer low light level environments, some almost no light at all, still others brilliant hues of red and blue.

Like most artists, Turrell shies away from giving detailed explinations of his works so that each individual can surmise the piece for themselves. This is not necessarly the case in this work. Turrell wanted, (and did) to build a specific "skyscape" in order to view an eclipse that occurred in England. Like his other "skyscapes," Turrell took the environment and all of its factors, as well as very specific geometry, into account, so that he could construct the perfect medium through which to not just observe the eclipse, but to better magnify the light, or lack thereof, of the eclipse.

The book is a wonderful look at this process, complete with analysis and pictures of the eclipse, the "skyscape," etc. An added bonus is the cd by German composer Paul Schulze, who's approach to his music (a minimalist ambient style, normally) is a perfect match to Turrell's art.

Fans of Turrell, or those who are interested in the interplay between light, our senses, and the reality they both help us create, will find this rather short treatsie to be of invaluable use to them. A wonderfully intriguing work.

James Turrell has long been a major player in the field of light art, and visitors to the Matress Factory museum in Pittsburgh are well aware of his outstanding way of playing with art and images. This amusing meditation on an eclipse is an excellent addition to his body of work