"Not for Beginners Only" would be a better subtitle. My happy aquaintance with Lewis goes back many years, but I'd not thought to dig to see what other kinds of gems there were in his writings than those I'd first stumbled upon. Mine tends to be a Some-stuff-interests-me-and- other-stuff-doesn't kind of mentality.

This book impells me to a much wider appreciation for Lewis by way of the author's logic and insightful discussions. It's a pleasurable read! In the past I've been put off by the phrase "in other words..." followed, as they tend to be, by the obvious. I'm thinking, "Yeah, yeah, let's get on with it." Not so with Peters. He says, "In other words" and offers me a truly fresh, deeper insight than was at first obvious. And I'm thinking, "Oh, yeah! Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" I so appreciated Peters' well-expressed views that I found myself thoroughly savoring his marvelous intro to the pr! evailing thoughts/ideas of the 19th century in his second chapter. ("Setting the Stage") Let's face it. Learning ought to be a joy, and Peters serves up a most palatable sociology. I came away with far more than I'd bargained for.

If you're looking for light summer reading, mindless and forgettable, a paperback you can toss without a second thought--you've got the wrong book.

If you're looking for something that catches and sticks with you, draws you into some real thought, and lifts you in the process, this is your book.

After reading Peters' "Simply C.S.Lewis: A Beginner's Guide to His Life and Works," I see the familiar in a gratifying new light, and want to reread. And it goes without saying that now I'm eager to get to treasures of Lewis's which I've overlooked in the past.

Few people living today know that President Thomas Jefferson launched two expeditions into the Louisiana territory purchased in 1803; Lewis and Clark to the north, Freeman and Custis to the south. Lewis and Clark have been covered thoroughly, even triumphally, because they completed their task. Freeman and Curtis have been ignored because they were intercepted by Spanish soldiers after exploring hundreds of miles of the Red River. Historian Dan Flores, drawing on both American and Spanish sources, performs a real service by describing this southern expedition and placing it within the context of its time (1806). Flores reminds us that the Spanish tried to stop Lewis and Clark too, but missed them. He shows us that the scheming General Wilkinson wanted the Freeman and Custis expedition to provoke a war with Spain, and nearly succeeded. Flores provides an introduction before the expedition's own account, and an epilogue after. His annotation of the expedition's documents is exceptionally thorough and often fascinating. The book includes numerous black and white illustrations and reproductions of several old maps. A modern map of the area would have been helpful. This book is one of an excellent series published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

I am amazed that this little book is no longer in print. I would give one to every tourist who boards the St. Charles streetcar downtown. It gives a capsule of New Orleans history and fascinating detail of the machine itself, with special focus on the origon of the service... the St. Charles line was one of the very first street railways, and is THE oldest surviving one.

It's not easy to read the book straight through: only a third or so of the buildings described are illustrated. But then, you're expected to be viewing them from the streetcar, and the paper-bound booklet is about 5x7", small enough to be carried easily.

The pictures are line drawings rather than photographs. Side excursions through the neighborhoods are also described, and most would be still useful today, though shopping, eateries, and the Audubon Zoo have substantially changed. The descriptions of buildings is excellent, and fairly accurate.

I congratulate the authors for this reference work, which today is of benefit mostly to tour guides. I wish it could be updated and reprinted!

Peter Lewis does a good job of introducing the reader to some of the best known oriental martial arts. This book has some good pictures of Stephen K. Hayes and Bruce Lee in it. The author writes about the history on most of the martial arts in this book. However, Lewis's history in this book is very short and brief.

In the Jujitsu section,the authors say that Jujitsu was an effective art,and with the right promotion it would catch on. Now this was in the 70's when they said this. With the popularity of the UFC through the Gracie family, Jujitsu,particularly Brazilain Jujitsu,has caught on, and almost every serious martial artist is learning it. It's funny how the authors of this book almost predicted Jujitsu's present day popularity.

While this book is supposed to teach you as if you don't know, it assumes a great deal. While it does have a good number of items fully explained, the step by step didn't follow the NT4 Server I installed. In fact, it missed several chunks. Additionally, I found the material either outdated or just way off in regard to the basics such as partition sizes. Even intermediate windows users would know the author is either missing something, or did his installs several years ago. Good explanations but not good as a unit.

Unlike other computer topics where I end up buying several books, this book has been all I've needed. The information is well organized and presented in a direct, concise, and easy to understand writing style. Thankfully missing are the feeble attempts at humor that other technical books feel compelled to include. The topics I was especially interested in -- security, domains, user accounts, user rights, and the NTFS file system -- were all fully explained. A useful glossary of terms and a decent index round out this book.

letter to Mr. Bart:

Is Hollywood that boring that you have to collect old essays to tell us Who Killed Hollywood? Your laziness is exactly what you criticize people in Hollywood for, doing things for the sake of a profit. I was exepecting a new book with your views of what's going on in Hollywood not old essays from Variety and the dreaded GQ. Shame! Shame!

Bart's book is essentially an amalgamation of his Variety and GQ articles, rather than the more thought provoking discussion that the title implies. Nevertheless, Bart's articles are compelling and extremely well written, not to mention easily digestible with their 3-6 page lengths. Bart has some intriguing insights and his popularity in Hollywood has given him extraordinary access to his subjects. However, Bart seems to waver as to whether the Hollywood blockbusters he evicerates in his prologue are really killing Hollywood. In some essays, he longs for the days of Hollywood past, saying that the integrity and purity of these simpler times is long lost. Doubtlessly true. Yet, at other times, especially when talking about studio executives, Bart champions the idea of blockbusters and "summer tent-pole" movies. Rather than proposing a solution to Hollywood's woes, he sometimes champions its current status. With Bart's insight and the promise of the prologue, one should expect more out of this book. Yes, it is entertaining and insightful, but it would have been interesting for Bart to have given more extensive elaboration inbetween his articles. Too often, the seams show.

Here are articles that offer insights into the way the entertainment industry really works and what the stars and directors are really like. It provides an antidote to celebrity journalism which is just a collection of puff pieces. It's a fascinating read.

I didn't like this book, because the subtitle: ORIGINS - PHILOSOPHY - PRACTICE is very misleading. I read a lot about the origins of kung-fu, even in chinese. But I'm sure the origins are NOT a blending of the first episode of the series kung fu (with D. Carradine) and the movie "The 36 chambers of the shaolin monastery"! So I was very dissapointed when I read this book. It's mostly myths and fairy tales Lewis regurgitates, he gives no sources and never tells anything about the philosophy of martial arts. So if you surf the web and collect material, you could probably write the same book. But it's O.K. for a rainy afternoon and some good laughs, if you find something familiar, like the dim mak, known from the movie bloodsport....

Reading this book was a great learning experience. It taught me many things. Like did you know that the early ninja could pop most of their bones out of place making it easier to escape? I was mostly interested in the Japanese styles of martial arts but there was a variety of types. This book had interesting stories about the founders, origins, and some people that were very good at a certain (or many) martial arts. It's awesome for school reports.

The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance is a fun book. But it is not among the very best in the Toby Peters series. This is due in large part to the fact that the Duke was barely in it. I know this series is not really *about* Hollywood stars of the 40's; it's about slovenly PI Toby Peters and his comical cast of misfits. But usually the stars are not just window dressing, either. This time, the Duke had naught but a glorified cameo. If it were a film, he would fire his agent. In fact, Charlie Chaplin had a much meatier role than John Wayne.

That said, the portrayal of Duke was respectful. Far more respectful than it could have been, given his larger-than-life image and the subtly politicized subject matter.

The mystery itself is pretty good until the solution, which seemed implausible, though the motive was somewhat thought-provoking, even touching. I had better say no more than that, except to add that once the culprit was revealed, the machinations seemed a little protracted and the book a tad padded, even at its short length. And we learn Peters had figured it out a bit earlier; he may have endangered lives by not acting when he first suspected.

Plus, there is a sex scene inserted into the mix. Toby Peters mysteries always have one. They are never exploitative, but often seem out of place. Especially this one, with a "lady" calling herself Olivia Fontaine. Ugh.

Still, it is a light, entertaining read, with nice payoffs for long-time fans. Phil acting ... nice. Jeremy's wedding. Mrs. Plaut considering a hearing aid. Toby telling Shel off. Toby trying RC Cola. And a new car for our hero.

Bravo to Kaminsky for his series, which hearken back to the days of Raymond Chandler. They're not really similar, but Kaminsky's love for Marlowe, the era and the style are very evident. I would just recommend a couple others ahead of this one, that's all.

Try also: Think Fast, Mr. Peters (3.5 stars); Never Cross a Vampire (4.0-4.5 stars, because it has something meaningful to say about Lugosi's career and how it parallels the mystery. Read it, it's a nice touch.)

When I read a biography I want to be transported into the life of the subject, and follow along as that life unfolds. I don't want the author's presence there at all, unless it's to sum up his or her thoughts towards the end of the book. But in this book Roger Lewis doesn't let you forget for one second that it is he (Roger Lewis) writing the book. He fills it with enormous amounts of unnecessary information, information on how he wrote the book, his inane interpretations of Peter Sellers behavior (on page 170: "Seller's predilection for signs and symbols directed at him from beyond the grave....imply his basic comtempt for human life and reason." on page 183: "(Sellers') telescope, topsy-turvily fixed on the inverted clockface of Big Ben, is symbolic, surely? Sellers always wanted to outwit time; to show himself indifferent to it's distructiveness."), all too frequent mentions of himself (on page 197: "Had you been leaning over the railings of the little footbridge .....you would have seen an interesting sight. Along the edge....two characters approach.....Kenneth Griffin is remembering his old colleague, Sellers; his companion on this occasion -namely, the present author - is doing his best, whilst clambering thorough bush and briar, to take mental notes on the speach."), and the annoying habit of often discribing in detail photographs that do not appear in the book, that would have been better simply reproduced without the long discriptions, which, of course, include Lewis' thoughts on what the people in them might have been feeling at the time the photos were taken. If the subject matter of this book weren't as interesting as Peter Sellers is, it would have proven almost unreadably irritating. Lewis' constant editorializing would be better suited to a short article, but is impossible over the length of a book.

A horrifing account of what Peter Sellers was like in his private life. A 'blank' who found it hard to communicate with other people, and was probably very mentally ill. This book has been criticised from various quarters, but look at who Roger Lewis interviewed and then read all the other biographies of Sellers and you will still find an intensly lonely and hurtful (to himself and others) man.

This biography is one of the most exhaustively researched and well written books about an actor that I have ever read. I've been a fan of Sellers for 30 years and have read every book I could find about the man, including the "authorised" (by Sellers' last wife, not Sellers himself) biography and 'P.S. I Love You' by Sellers son Michael, which was the best book about Peter Sellers I had read..until this one.

A lot of people have taken issue with the fact that Lewis writes of Sellers as an "evil" man, but Lewis has interviewed many people who were close enough to Sellers to back up many of the authors claims about the actors erratic and sometimes downright mean and vindictive behaviour towards others. Lewis recognises and celebrates the actors extraordinary talents, but his primary goal is to peel back the layers of his public persona and show us the man as he was seen by those who were close to him. The Peter Sellers revealed in this book is a man who was obviously mentally ill, a man who clearly suffered from manic depression and crippling anxiety. Lewis writes of a man who physically and emotionally lashed at those in his personal and professional lives rather than reaching out for help and support.

If you want to read a feelgood biography of Sellers, this is not the book for you. This is more like a cross between a biography and 'Hearts Of Darkness' as we accompany the writer through a journey where he uses every method at his disposal to locate the "real" Peter Sellers. It's a sometimes harrowing journey that is subjective by its nature, and it's not a trip to take if you want a typical showbiz biography. It's also worth noting that the original UK edition is even more hard hitting as it contains some material that has been excised from this US version (an interview with one of the Boulting brothers has been removed from this edition, for example).

This book is being adapted as a HBO movie starring Geoffrey Rush as Sellers. It is currently filming and should be released late 2003/early 2004.