My 6th Great Grandmother is Mary Draper Ingles. A woman of strong will and integrity. We are blessed to have her in our lineage.

This is a very good book. I was interested in the first hand manuscript of this story. I had first read the story 'Follow the River' by James Alexander Thom. This woman's resolve, toughness and love for her family won my heart in this riveting story. I couldn't put it down.

My name is Jane Grills Sarnovsky. My ancestor is elenor Grills who was Mary Draper Ingles daughter in law married to Tom. I am trying to find out if Roberta has any information on Elenor Grills

Lewis Carroll sends Alice on a second set of adventures in some territory that is beyond our world. This time she crosses a mirror and enters a game of chess. She will eventually become a queen but she will in all possible ways express her deep desire to rebel against a world that is seen as having too many limitations and frustrating rules. She will in a way rebel against the game of chess itself when she comes to the end of it and pulls the tablecloth from under all the pawns and pieces to have peace and quiet, to free herself of absolute slavery. But what is she the slave of ? Of rules, the rules of the game, the rules of society, the rules of education. Of words and their silly ambiguities that enable them to mean both one sense and its reverse, that enable them to lead to absurd statements and declarations that completely block her in blind alleys and impasses. But at the same time, her return to the normal world that transforms those adventures into a dream, is a rejection of such adventures and of such rebellion as being absurd and purely fantasmatic, dreamlike. There is in this book a rather sad lesson that comes out of this ending : children can dream adventures, can dream perfect freedom, but reason brings them back to the comfortable world of everyday life and submission. And there is no other way possible. This book is pessimistic about a possible evolution from one generation to the next thanks to the retension of childish, childlike dreams, forgetting that the world can only change and progress thanks to the fuel those dreams represent in our social engine.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

"Through The Looking Glass" is, perhaps, not QUITE as good as "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland", but it's close enough to still rate five stars. Not, properly, a sequel to the first book, there is no indication at any point in it that the Alice (clearly the same individual, slightly older) from this book ever had the adventures in the first one; there is no reference to her previous adventures, even when she once again meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Obviously, the two books are intended as parallel adventures, not subsequent ones.

The most memorable bits from this book are doubtlessly the poem, "Jabberwocky", as well as chapter six, "Humpty Dumpty". But all of the book is marvellous, and not to be missed by anyone who enjoys a magical romp through silliness and playful use of the English language.

(This review refers to the unabridged "Dover Thrift Edition".)

Carrol was a profound and wonderful writer, and Through the Looking Glass... is definate proof of this. Though there isn't much evidence that he was a pedophile, you shouldn't grade his works simply on who he might or might not have been. Through the Looking Glass... is one of the greatest works of literature in the english language, and will continue to be despite the author's supposed problems.

I used this book, along with a host of other books, transcripts, articles and recordings of capoeira to complete my undergraduate thesis in anthropology. Regarding an earlier post here, i don't think that Lewis was trying to necessarily undermine the black African origins of capoeira, but rather his experiences with capoeiristas around Brazil led him to focus on the wholly Brazilian cultural aspects (samba, too, is a cultural phenomenon with roots in Africa). While i do belive that his treatment of the African origins of capoeira were sketchy, this is to be expected as the data on capoeira's African origins is not very clear, and to the best of my knowledge is to date a matter of conjecture. The only truth regarding that matter is that capoeira did come from Africa with the (primarily West African) slaves and developed into modern capoeira while in Brazil. This last part, "in Brazil", is something that I stress in the sense that although many Caribbean and South American nations received slaves from the same parts of Africa, only Brazil's slaves and mulattos produced capoeira.

More to the point of this type of entry: the book is a definite must-read for anyone (capoeirista or not) interested in the modern expressions of african diasporan culture.

Yes, I think this book deserves five stars, because it gave me insight; both professional and personal. Training Capoeira for seven years (including two trips to Brazil for the same reason) has taken me to the strange border between two cultures: my own Danish average European socio-historic background, and the Afro-brazilian transcultural vegetation in which Capoeira flourishes. Alouring - and as Lewis notes: deceptive, Capoeira as a performance reveals conflictuality on the Afro-brazilian social and historical level, which differs from the writers own background; in this case quite similar to my case. The task of relating to this difference is met by Ring of Liberation through respect of the ontic 'way' of the capoeirista, and at the same time maintaining an epistemic approach. What this means, is that Ring of Liberation can be read by the intellectual layman as well as the non-brazilian capoeira enthusiast, as a guide to experiences already had or about to happen...great stuff!

I found that this is a VERY true to actual accounts of Capoeira. I've been practising Capoeira myself for a while now, and this book reflex the views that I, and most of my Groups shares. It would seem very one-sided, but you NEED to be a Capoeirista to fully understand the concpts and ideas and history of this book. To me, A VERY GOOD BOOK ON WHAT I BELIEVE

PEACE

The book is a though run down of what we know of planets. The writer gives an brilliant account of what we know about planets at present particularly how they might be able to hold life.

What it lacks is some sort of summary at the end! I was quite surprised that nothing like it was supplied. A total of how many sun could hold life. I hope that the writer rewrites it with such a chapter.

This is a really good book. Lewis explores the physics and chemistry of the worlds in our solar system, and then using the principles of physics and chemistry learned there to explore the possibilities of other worlds, and life on them.

He presents several mind-bending -- yet scientifically feasible -- worlds for our consideration. "Earthissimo," for example, made me put the book down, lean back in my chair, and SAVOR the elegance of the science for several minutes. Wonderful!

BUT, like Lewis's otherwise excellent _Mining the Sky_, he doesn't include any graphs, table or illustrations. (He has a few artistic rendering in the middle, which are different.)

A few graphs or tables would have clarified his arguments and saved pages of dense, descriptive text.

Good book, mind-twisting science, poor presentation: 4 stars.

Besides being a fine primer on modern planetary science, Worlds without End strikes me as an exceptional resource for science-fiction worldbuilders -- and readers. I've read a couple of world-building books and they were pretty dry. This is the real thing -- a respected planetary scientist (Codirector of the Space Engineering Research Center at the University of Arizona) reporting on recent discoveries of extrasolar planets, and speculating on the range of possible planets that might host life. Lewis does a nice run-through of possible planetary surface chemistries for "life as we don't know it", and reluctantly concludes that extraterrestrial life will most likely be carbon-based and use water as a solvent, because both are the best available by far. Which isn't to say that we won't find some very odd critters out there...

And I don't mean to imply that general readers won't enjoy Worlds without End -- I recommend it to anyone who's curious about how solar-systems form.

This is a better-written book than his Mining the Sky (1996), though Lewis still gets annoyingly cutesy at times. Anyway, it's almost always a pleasure to read a pop-sci book written by a working scientist. I'm looking forward to Lewis's next.

I was extremely disappointed in finding that this book would not help my company. It misses the point of the indivisable nature of recruiting with retention. There is a lot of talk, and it seems to make sense on the surface, but there is no meat here.

Part of Impact's Career Savvy Series, this is one of three similar books written by McCarter and Schreyer, described as pioneers in internet recruiting and advertising. Their other books are "Employer's Guide to Recruiting on the Internet" and "The Best 100 Web Sites for HR Professionals."

This book is organized into seven chapters. The first chapter, Defining the Best for the Talent-Powered Organization, focuses on selection with an emphasis on competencies. The authors' objective in this opening chapter is to whet the appetites of their readers, to help them understand the new way of defining talent within organizations. They assert that the new definition will center on competencies, rather than on degrees, certifications, or years of service.

In the second chapter, the authors describe the environmental context in The Looming Talent Wars. They forecast that we'll be engaged in an all-out war for talent for the next several decades, closing the chapter with seven questions to help readers evaluate their attitudes and preparedness for the talent wars.

Key Corporate Building Blocks are presented in Chapter 3. The employee-centered strategies the authors suggest are treat the workplace as a system, promote ethics, integrity, honesty, and trust; create organizational feedback loops; put people first; install an ethic of fairness; accept diversity; encourage openness; make work and the workplace fun; develop employee connectivity; and view people management as a strategic business issue. Concentrating on these fundamentals, the authors suggest, help build the foundation that inspires people to adhere to an employer organization.

In chapters 5 and 6, we get into the meat of finding and attracting talent. These chapters are loaded with valuable tips and insights. The chapter on retaining employees includes a discussion of key determinants to retention and lists of specific actions to take to hold on to good people.

The book concludes with a chapter on Creating a Talent Powered Company. You'll find more ideas on building the kind of corporate culture that can make a difference.

"Recruit and Retain the Best: Key Solutions for HR Professionals," is an easy-to-read volume filled with practical ideas.

Today's turnover costs are skyrocketing. You cannot afford to ignore the points in this book: to recruit better and retain more effectively. The authors put forth a number of concepts that will save you money such as creating a talent-powered company and to focus on good recruiting. I enjoyed reading this book.

Wayne D. Ford, Ph.D., author of "The Recruiting and Retention Handbook" and "Breakthrough Technical Recruiting" docwifford@msn.com

The book provides great insight into Stalin's almost paranoid fear of a Sino-American rapprochment, even before the end of WWII. In fact, the book dedicates the entire first section to detailing this concern of Stalin's. And, it is well-researched. The problem is that when assessing Stalin's interests in getting China to enter the Korean war, the authors list vague and anecdotal reasons as to why Stalin might want a direct Sino-American conflict on the battlefield. They even acknowledge that this was the result, but oddly never consider that this was Stalin's intention all along. Otherwise, a useful work to understand how the war fit into the larger strategic calculations of all three players.

Interesting book. Focuses on the evolving relationship of Mao & Stalin. Both men had immense egos. Fascinating to understand that at one time even Mao had to rule thru consensus. Stalin by 49 rules thru fear, having already had shot anyone whose consensus didn't jive with his. But the title is misleading. The decision for war in Korea is only a factor in the last couple of chapters. These chapters are fascinating, to the point one wishes the book contained more info on the Korean war and less on the political relationship that developed from 45-49 between these two evil men.

In an overall sense, this is an outstanding book. Uncertain Partners deals with many of the issues surrounding the nations of China, Russia, and Korea immediately following WWII. The authors, a Russian presidential advisor and two Stanford political scientists, reveal and report about many of the confidential documents of Stalin, Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung. These documents, never before seen previous to the 1990s, describe the inner-workings and deep-seeded relationship between Stalin and Mao. In many ways, Stalin and Mao were uncertain partners. The authors makes the reader understand that Mao was simply a puppet of Stalin and his form dictatorial communism. For a greater understanding of this partnership, I would undoubtably recommend this book. Concerning the topic of Russian and Chinese relations, this book has to have profound implications. With that in mind, it's a must read.

I found this Outer Limits book very boring. I just could not get into it, which surprised me, since most all of the books in this series grab me by the first page, and if not, than by the end of the first chapter. This was not the case with this one. Even the "climax" was uneventful. The first time I started to read it, I put it down after chapter one, and decided not to read it. I only read the whole thing because it was the only thing I could find. If you want to read this book, check it out of a library. It's a total waste of money.

This book was very good because it is about a girl named Aggie Travers. She is picked on at school by kids her own age then uses her power to hurt them. The Princple wants her to go to a different school. ( meaning kicking her out of this school) Then she is befriend by Karen Ross, her tutor. Karen is like Aggie, but Aggie is much stronger the Karen and Karen's friend Jean. Jean kills herself because the goverment has found them and Karen is in despair. Meanwhile the goverment people are at Aggie's home and Aggie appears at her house running with trears down her face. Soon Karen catches up with Aggie because Aggie saw a dead body (Jeans). The Goverment then grabs Karen and holds a pistol on her temple. Meanwhile Aggie's parents are not understanding why this is happening and Aggie is trying to send a thought to Karen. After Aggie reads the goverment agent (Walsh) mind and sees what the goverment does when they get kids like her. They kill them. To find out what happens read this book!!

The main character of this book, Aggie Travers, has always beenan outcast. But, as it turns out, Aggie has telekinetic powers. Awomen named Karen, who is Aggie's tutor, says she can help her control the powers. Meanwhile, a government agent says Karen wants to kidnap Aggie. Who is telling the truth? This was an exciting, page-turning book.

This man's problem is obvious. In his youth he dreamed of being a writer, and dropped out of college to flee to NYC and attempt literary fame. Failing, he finished college and taught prep school for a half a dozen years, and then decided to try for literary fame again as a "food writer." Unfortunately, although he is right about how to eat an avocado, most of his recipes are downright uninteresting and his writing is at times absurd.

This man actually wrote that he wanted to understand why the food we eat wanted to kill its father and sleep with its mother! I don't know what you may think, but I find this a pretty dumb question to ask of a turnip!

On another page, he informs us that he loves BBQ ribs and that they are "rebarbative." Oooh, a hard word! Alas, it means "very irritating or repulsive," not a good fifty-dollar word to apply to the food you love to eat.

Deservedly out of print.

John Thorne is one of the most thoughtful, provocative and downright talented writers going, and the book he and his wife, Matt Lewis Thorne, have produced is ample evidence of this. In addition to providing some excellent recipes, "Outlaw Cook" is just plain old good reading.

I was first introduced to Thorne's writing years ago when a colleague gave me a copy of his first book, "Simple Cooking." "Simple Cooking" is a compilation of essays and recipes from his newsletter (by the same name), and it charmed me. From the best essay I have ever read on cheesecake to the recounting of a long-ago romantic evening highlighted by the appearance of homemade Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, Thorne covered a wealth of disparate material and covered it all with an unstuffy and contagious isn't-this-fascinating spirit. "Outlaw Cook" serves up more of the same delicious dish.

One of the most exhilarating things in "Outlaw Cook" is the chapter called "On Not Being a Good Cook." For a man who makes his living writing about food and cooking, this baldly titled essay is a brazen thing to include in a book that bears the imprimatur of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (it was a winner of one of the Julia Child Cookbook Awards). Throwing down the gauntlet to the rarefied world of foodies (as food writers are commonly called), he begins the essay by asserting, "I'm not a good cook." He goes on:

" . . . if our criterion for goodness is whether I possess anything like a genuinely well-rounded repertoire of dishes I consistently prepare well, then my credentials are nothing much to boast about. Quite honestly, this has never bothered me much at all . . . It's my experience that truly good cooks are born. I was not born to be one, and I don't like being trained, especially if the result is going to be mere competency. I've generally found life a lot more interesting learning to use my limitations than struggling to overcome them."

Take that, all you Cordon Bleu-trained snobs! After all, most of us haven't been trained in cooking--except perhaps at a parent's knee, if we are lucky--so his comments, while surprising coming from a food writer, do apply to the majority of the general population. The essay serves the dual purpose of endearing Thorne to his readers and emboldening them to share his defiance of the conventions of cookery.

There are other goodies as well. Thorne writes convincingly (if somewhat obsessively) about the need to bake bread in a wood-fired, outdoor oven. He takes deadly aim at food writer Paula Wolfert and wickedly skewers Martha Stewart. And as if the polished prose weren't enough, there are many worthwhile recipes; his takes on lemon ice cream, Texas toast, Swedish pea soup and pecan pie all leap to the fore.

Matt Lewis Thorne and John Thorne have, with "Outlaw Cook" produced a quiet classic of food writing that deserves to be on any thoughtful cook's bookshelf--or on the bedside table. It's that good.

My first contact with John Thorne was a review of "Serious Pig" that appeared in the Washington Post. I quickly bought the book, and Thorne's two other books, "Simple Cooking" and "Outlaw Cook," and devoured them all. I have bought many copies of each (especially "Outlaw Cook") to share with friends who are serious cooks.

Unlike an ordinary cookbook writers, John Thorne doesn't just share recipes (although there are plenty of them); he inspires good cooks to be better. His style is less about fancy food for dinner parties than about stunningly good food to share with close friends, or to enjoy in contemplative solitude.

In "Outlaw Cook," John shares his memories of his first kitchen, in a cold-water flat on the lower east side of Manhattan, and the important lessons he learned there. He goes on to talk about the properties of garlic as a seducer that possesses body and soul(10 pages on garlic soup!), and about food that is loaded with it. He writes a chapter on "The Perfect Pecan Pie," not to tell you how to make it, but to help you find your own perfect pecan pie. He spends forty pages on sourdough bread, and I felt when I finished that I understood the process (although it took some practice before I really had it just right). There is a pear-ginger cake that is a revelation, although I added a warm caramel sauce to John's recipe for a Christmas dinner treat that has become a tradition.

John Thorne writes about food with keen knowledge, imagination, emotion, wit, and heart I've never found before. He's been compared to M.F.K. Fisher, but he's earthier. His writing has a visceral quality that evokes our most hidden emotions about the food we eat.

John Thorne's books are not for the novice. They are for the cook who knows the ways of the kitchen, but wants to learn to trust his imagination, to leap forward into a new realm where the food one cooks satisfies the hunger of the soul as well as the stomach.

In the introduction to this scholarly and impassive, but very interesting, study of China's relations with Vietnam during the height of the Cold War, Author Qiang Zhai, professor of history at Auburn University Montgomery in Alabama, explains his rationale for writing this book: "The rise and fall of the Sino-Vietnamese alliance is one of the most crucial developments in the history of the Cold War in Asia in general and Chinese foreign relations in particular." According to Zhai, he drew on "fresh Chinese documents to present a full-length treatment of the evolution of the Sino-DRV relationship between the two Indochina wars, focusing on its strategic, political, and military aspects." During the course of his research, Zhai found "a complex blend of motives behind Beijing's Indochina policy," and one of his main premises is that the "Beijing-Hanoi relationship was composed of both agreements and contradictions, cooperation and confrontation."

China and Vietnam had a complicated relationship long before the Indochina wars of the mid-20th century. According to Zhai, the Vietnamese "had a tradition of looking to China for models and inspirations," but there also were "historical animosities between the two countries as a result of China's interventions in Vietnam." Zhai writes that Mao Zedong was "eager to aid Ho Chi Minh in 1950" because Mao believed "Indochina constituted one of the three fronts (the others being Korea and Taiwan) that Mao perceived as vulnerable to an invasion by imperialist countries headed by the United States." When the Viet Minh army headed toward the decisive battle at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, they were accompanied by a Chinese "general military adviser," and China furnished the PAVN with antiaircraft guns, as well as engineering experts and large quantities of ammunition. The Viet Minh won the battle but were bitterly disappointed by the peace which followed. According to Zhai, China's approach to the Geneva conference was motivated by fear of the United States' designs in Indochina: "To prevent American intervention, [Zhou Enlai] was ready to compromise of the Laotian and Cambodian issue," and he formally proposed "withdrawal of the Viet Minh troops from Laos and Cambodia." Zhai writes: "For the Vietnamese Communists, the Geneva Conference served as a lesson about the nature and limits of Communist internationalism," and both Beijing and Moscow pressured the Viet Minh "to abandon its efforts to unify the whole of Vietnam."

Zhai makes the controversial assertion that, in 1961, President Kennedy "set out to increase U.S. commitment to the Saigon regime." In response, according to Zhai, Mao Zedong "expressed a general support for the armed struggle of the South Vietnamese people," but China's leaders "were uneasy about their Vietnamese comrades' tendency to conduct large-unit operations in the south." Zhai writes: "The period between 1961 and 1964 was a crucial one in the evolution of Sino-DRV relations....Its urgent need to resist American pressure increased its reliance on China's material assistance." According to Zhai: "The newly available Chinese documents clearly indicate that Beijing provided extensive support (short of volunteer pilots) to Hanoi during the Vietnam War and in doing so risked war with the United States." In Zhai's view, although Chinese leaders were "determined to avoid war with the United States," Beijing warned that "if the United States bombs China[,] that would mean war and there would be no limits to the war." According to Zhai: "Between 1965 and 1968, Beijing strongly opposed peace talks between Hanoi and Washington and rejected a number of international initiatives designed to promote a peaceful solution to the Vietnam conflict." "Above all, Mao and his associates wanted the North Vietnamese to wage a protracted war to tie down the United States in Vietnam." When the Paris negotiations began in May 1968, Beijing was "unenthusiastic." In less than three years, the international situation changed. Zhai's lengthy discussion of the complicated internal and international events leading up to the crisis in Cambodia in 1970 is a case study in Machiavellian politics and diplomacy. By 1971, according to Zhai, Chinese leaders were "keen to see an early conclusion of the Vietnam War in order to preserve American power and contain Soviet influence." After President Nixon's historic trip to China in 1972, according to Zhai, the North Vietnamese "drew a bitter lesson from Nixon's handshake with Mao that China's foreign policy was concerned less with Communist unity than with the pursuit of China's national interest." In Zhai';s view: "Nixon's decision to normalize relations with Beijing nullified the hitherto basic rationale of the Vietnam War, namely to contain and isolate Communist China." According to Zhai: "Mao and Zhou Enlai viewed with satisfaction the conclusion of the Paris Peace Agreement." In September 1975, just a few months after Saigon fell and Vietnam was unified, Zhai writes that Mao told a Vietnamese visitor, in effect, "Hanoi should stop looking to China for assistance." "The long historical conflict between China and Vietnam...had returned to life."

In conclusion, Zhai asserts that "[t]here were two strands in China's policy toward Vietnam during the two Indochina wars: cooperation and containment;" "From the 1950s to 1968, the cooperation side of China's policy was predominant; and "From the late 1960s, particularly between 1972 and 1975, the containment side of China's policy became more prominent." In my opinion, the most important aspects of this book is its demonstration that international Communism was not monolithic in the 1960s and 1970s. Zhai makes clear that the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China encouraged and aided Vietnam's struggle for independence from France and its war for national unification against the United States, but the Communist powers were motivated more by national interests than by revolutionary solidarity. The history of Chinese-Vietnamese relations between 1950 and 1975 must be viewed within the broader contexts of growing Sino-Soviet competition for primacy in the international Communist movement and of China's eventual, if only limited, rapprochement with the United States. Zhai's book is, therefore, an important contribution to the literature about the most controversial foreign war in American history.

Mr. Zhai's contribution to Cold War history is a worthy addition to any CW buff's collection, since China's role in the conflict has always been a mix of "Yellow Peril" paranoia, rumor and biased commentary. It is a sound summary of the initially cozy, then increasingly frosty relations between the two communist Asian nations. However, being familiar with many of the observations made in this book from other sources, I was hoping for a more cogent analysis of the synergy between the radicalization of Mao's vision of perpetual revolution and the Indochinese wars. For example, did the Cultural Revolution hinder or help the Vietnamese, and what were their perceptions? Did China encourage Pol Pot's intransigence vis-a-vis Hanoi because of ideological affinity or just plain spite? How did the Ussuri River clashes affect the Soviet supply link to Hanoi? This is a good volume for factual summary of the events, but a more profound reading of the new archival sources needs to follow.

On the plus side, this book contains loads of stuff by Lewis Carroll as well as the two Alice books. Not much is of the same quality, but quite a lot is well worth having. However, be aware that the title is misleading. Quite a lot that Lewis Carroll wrote is not here, as can be seen by doing a search for books by "Carroll, Lewis" and comparing that with the contents. It includes some material that appeared under his real name or pseudonyms other than Lewis Carroll, but few will grumble at that. Although all the wonderful illustrations by Tenniel for the Alice books are here (albeit not always clearly reproduced), no other illustrations are included. For some works, such as The Hunting of the Snark, the illustrations commissioned by Carroll are excellent and their omission is a serious drawback. However, for all lovers of the Alice books who want to read more by the author, this is a fair and inexpensive starting point.

All of Lewis Carroll's books are great. And finaly you can have all of them together in one big book. A must have for everybody!