Exit Sherlock Holmes was the first Non-Doyle Sherlock Holmes book I ever read, so I naturally have fond memories of it. However, reading it again I was surprised at how well it held up after all those years.
The villain is Moriarty, but not the Moriarty you'd expect. Watson points out that the only other time he saw the Professor was on the back of a speeding train and he didn't get a good look at him. That becomes very important in this novel.
I could tell you more but it would give away major plot points. Let me say that this book is more relevant today than it was in the seventies, when it was written. Mister Hall did a great job using Watson's "voice" and Doctor Doyles style of writing, something missing from many Holmes stories of late.
Return to 1895, where people are not what they've seemed to be and others are not who they've claimed to be. You'll be glad you did!

As a Captain in the Washington State Civil War Association I portray the Company "A" 1st Confederate Engineers commanding officer. We try to make our re-enacments as authentic as possible but information on the Confederate Engineers is very difficult to find as most records were lost when Richmond was evacuated. I have found Mr. Jackson's book to be of immense help in studying the history of the 1st C.E. The information he gives is obviously well researched and is presented in an interesting way so it is enjoyable to read. The use of letters from the participants gives the book a personal touch that I found drew me into the action as though I were actually there in the works at Petersburg while the seige was going on. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the War Between the States.

A very useful guide to the Chennault Papers, covering the American Volunteer Group and the 14th Air Force. Note that there is a microfilm version of the Chennault Papers at the Library of Congress, as well as the originals at Stanford. Though the LOC version is differently cataloged, the published guide can still lead you to what you want; once you get to the LOC manuscript room, you can supplement it with a paper finding aid. I spent weeks reading this material for Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group.

For anyone studying European History, this book is a must-have. I used it last year in my college-level history course, and it quickly became my best friend. It contains all the necessary information, and tons more besides. But because the book contains so much useful information, it is quite heavy reading. Its vocabulary and content is intended for the serious historical inquiry, not for people with a casual interest in the subject matter. Still, being a history major, I love this book, and can appreciate its breadth, its depth, its accuracy, and its recounting of history. By far, this is the best and most comprehensive look at European history I've ever seen.

"Lee Takes Command" is the volume in the Time-Life Civil War Series that reminds us the Army of Northern Virginia was not overly impressed with its new leader at the beginning of his legendary tenure. Winfield Scott might have convinced Abraham Lincoln to offer Robert E. Lee command of the Federal army, but the average Confederate soldier was not too keen about "Granny" Lee and his penchant for digging trenches in defense of Richmond in June of 1862. This volume begins with a photo essay on "The Making of a General," that covers the highlights of Lee's family and military career up to the moment he was ushered onto the stage of American history.

Lee took command of the Confederate army defending Richmond when General Joseph E. Johnston was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines. Several choice quotes regarding Lee's shortcomings as a military commander, include a patently ironic one from George B. McClellan, set the stage for the creation of a legend. The volume is divided into five chapters: (1) Mechanicsville to Gaines's Mill details how Lee forced the Federals to withdrawn across the Chickahominy River; (2) Flight to the James describes covers the battle of Malvern Hill, which saw McClellan withdraw his army to Harrison's Landing, thereby ending the Peninsula Campaign; (3) Taking the War North covers Stonewall Jackson's battle with Nathaniel Banks at Cedar Run; (4) Jackson's Bold Sweep finds John Pope now in charge of the Army of the Potomac and the two armies moving around northern Virginia until (5) Another Bull Run, which I have always tended to think of as a major battle, but which is reduced to being covered in a single chapter.

"Lee Takes Command" covers a lot of ground, both in terms of time and territory. As a result, this particular volume focuses more on the bigger picture than the details, as compared to other books in the series. Lee himself is not always at the forefront of the action, but certainly his surrogates, namely Jackson and Stuart, carry out their military efforts in his spirit. The book is illustated with historic photographs, etchings, drawings, paintings and such, which is one of the hallmarks of this series. For every illustration you recognize chances are you will find two or more than you do not. As with most episodes of the Civil War, you will be struck as much by the ineptitude of the Northern commanders as you will be by Lee's brilliance.

"Lee Takes Command" is the volume in the Time-Life Civil War Series that reminds us the Army of Northern Virginia was not overly impressed with its new leader at the beginning of his legendary tenure. Winfield Scott might have convinced Abraham Lincoln to offer Robert E. Lee command of the Federal army, but the average Confederate soldier was not too keen about "Granny" Lee and his penchant for digging trenches in defense of Richmond in June of 1862. This volume begins with a photo essay on "The Making of a General," that covers the highlights of Lee's family and military career up to the moment he was ushered onto the stage of American history.

Lee took command of the Confederate army defending Richmond when General Joseph E. Johnston was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines. Several choice quotes regarding Lee's shortcomings as a military commander, include a patently ironic one from George B. McClellan, set the stage for the creation of a legend. The volume is divided into five chapters: (1) Mechanicsville to Gaines's Mill details how Lee forced the Federals to withdrawn across the Chickahominy River; (2) Flight to the James describes covers the battle of Malvern Hill, which saw McClellan withdraw his army to Harrison's Landing, thereby ending the Peninsula Campaign; (3) Taking the War North covers Stonewall Jackson's battle with Nathaniel Banks at Cedar Run; (4) Jackson's Bold Sweep finds John Pope now in charge of the Army of the Potomac and the two armies moving around northern Virginia until (5) Another Bull Run, which I have always tended to think of as a major battle, but which is reduced to being covered in a single chapter.

"Lee Takes Command" covers a lot of ground, both in terms of time and territory. As a result, this particular volume focuses more on the bigger picture than the details, as compared to other books in the series. Lee himself is not always at the forefront of the action, but certainly his surrogates, namely Jackson and Stuart, carry out their military efforts in his spirit. The book is illustated with historic photographs, etchings, drawings, paintings and such, which is one of the hallmarks of this series. For every illustration you recognize chances are you will find two or more than you do not. As with most episodes of the Civil War, you will be struck as much by the ineptitude of the Northern commanders as you will be by Lee's brilliance.

"Lee Takes Command" is the volume in the Time-Life Civil War Series that reminds us the Army of Northern Virginia was not overly impressed with its new leader at the beginning of his legendary tenure. Winfield Scott might have convinced Abraham Lincoln to offer Robert E. Lee command of the Federal army, but the average Confederate soldier was not too keen about "Granny" Lee and his penchant for digging trenches in defense of Richmond in June of 1862. This volume begins with a photo essay on "The Making of a General," that covers the highlights of Lee's family and military career up to the moment he was ushered onto the stage of American history.

Lee took command of the Confederate army defending Richmond when General Joseph E. Johnston was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines. Several choice quotes regarding Lee's shortcomings as a military commander, include a patently ironic one from George B. McClellan, set the stage for the creation of a legend. The volume is divided into five chapters: (1) Mechanicsville to Gaines's Mill details how Lee forced the Federals to withdrawn across the Chickahominy River; (2) Flight to the James describes covers the battle of Malvern Hill, which saw McClellan withdraw his army to Harrison's Landing, thereby ending the Peninsula Campaign; (3) Taking the War North covers Stonewall Jackson's battle with Nathaniel Banks at Cedar Run; (4) Jackson's Bold Sweep finds John Pope now in charge of the Army of the Potomac and the two armies moving around northern Virginia until (5) Another Bull Run, which I have always tended to think of as a major battle, but which is reduced to being covered in a single chapter in this volume.

Consequently, "Lee Takes Command" covers a lot of ground, not just in terms of territory but also time. As a result, this particular volume focuses more on the bigger picture than the details, as compared to other books in the series. Lee himself is not always at the forefront of the action, but certainly his surrogates, namely Jackson and Stuart, carry out their military efforts in his spirit. The book is illustated with historic photographs, etchings, drawings, paintings and such, which is one of the hallmarks of this series. For every illustration you recognize chances are you will find two or more than you do not. As with most episodes of the Civil War, you will be struck as much by the ineptitude of the Northern commanders as you will be by Lee's brilliance.

This is an alphabetical list of colonels in the Army of Northern Virginia. Information provided includes service record, when/if wounded, etc.; there's little or no narrative material. Lee's Colonels will be irrelevant to the non-specialist but essential to the scholar. It may not be entirely complete -- I noticed that Col. Echols is missing -- but seems fairly comprehensive.

I don't quite understand this spooky Halloween book, but my 5-year old loves it. He insisted he was going to get it from the library every week for the rest of his life until I suggested buying it. It has added the words "stupefied," "albatross," and "foolies" to his working vocabulary. The story is a little confusing but it's got a good Halloween spirit and look to it.

This book is the product of international work since 1994 among close to 80 professionals from 27 countries in order to re-define and bring consensus to the issue of measuring and monitoring the status of children in our societies.
For many years many countries have gathered information and statistics about their children, but mostly in the area of basic needs and survival. This book and the international project is going beyond and looking at indicators to measure and monitor the well-being of our children. A task not easy to come about, but important, because it will provide important information, knowledge, tools for better planning and make monitoring more possible, when you have hard facts to compare with.
This book has nine chapters: Rationale for measuring child well- being, existing efforts around the world, basic guidelines, five new domains, indicators, how to measure, the community level, making of policy and summary with an agenda for future efforts in this field.
The message of the book is the importance of measurements of child well-being finding indicators that you will be able to monitor over time both improvements and change. The new approach can be described as looking at well-being instead of just survival, from negative aspects to positive aspects of child life, from well-becoming to well-being and from traditonal to new domains. The five 'new' domains the authors propose are in children's activities, children's economic resources and contribution, civic life skills, personal life skills, and safety and physical status with 49 indicators.
This is an easy-to-read book with good information for professionals trying to find ways to measure and monitor well-being in today's children and adolescents.

Professor Joav Merrick, MD
Medical director, Division for Mental Retardation, Box 1260, IL-91012 Jerusalem, Israel. E-mail: jmerrick@aquanet.co.il