Brain Damaged is a facinating read of one man's winning struggle to come back from a dibilitating injury. After a unique and successful early life of adventure and business, the author learns the real value of life, wife and friends while in recovery from major brain surgery. His setbacks and achievemnts are many during rehabilitation, culminating in his new career as an author. This book chronicles the road into and beyond brain damage. Well worth while reading.

Dick Schmeltzof's very personal book, Brain Damage, is both heartwarming and informative. He treats a very serious subject with humor, wit and compassion. It is difficult to imagine the drastic changes that have occurred in Dick's life since the emergency surgery to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland. But through his carefully constructed narrative, we can "feel" his frustrations and also revel in the incremental -- yet moving forward -- progress that he makes. His is a story of great courage, hope and love; a lesson for Humanity. Thanks to Dick for sharing this moving and insightful story of life after brain surgery. Readers will laugh. They will weep. And finally, they will applaud this incredible human being. Dick demonstrates a real gift for storytelling through this book. Let's hope he delights us with "Brain Damage II".

This book is an outstanding example of an individual's true courage to tackle challenges that most of us cannot imagine. Mr. Schmelzkopf's wonderful sense of humor invites the reader to learn about brain damage and how it effects all areas of an individual's life, as well as their family's lives. His descriptive approach about his cognitive deficits allows the reader to envision a patient's perception of his own environment. Mr. Schmelzkopf's comical, honest, informative style catagorizes his story as a must to read and a difficult to put down book!

Great book! "The Mental Edge" is the best book on the market. I have a degree in Sports Psychology and have read virtually every book published in the last twenty years. Ken Baum has the best working knowledge in Sports Psycology today. The difference between "The Mental Edge" and most other books is the application of the skills. Mr.Baum goes away from from classroom theory, to the real life world of athletics and teaches what actually works in competition. He is one of the first to identify that many people are taught to visualize the wrong way and that there is a lot more to training mental performance than visualizing. If you want to play your best read "The Mental Edge."

Begin like you want to finish, has helped sink more tough putts than any technique I've ever tried. The Mental Edge is full of useable techniques that improves your game quickly. THE BEST SPORTS PERFORMANCE BOOK ON THE MARKET AND AN ABSOLUTE FOR GOLFERS!

This is really a very book that overcomes an all too common presentation flaw:

Why is it good: The Mental Edge provides the clearest and most comprehensive program for developing metal training routines that can/will improve performance. And if you are good at some endeavor - you have already learned the base skills needed -- from there on it is mental. Again, of all the books (too many) on trying to understand and develop procedures .. this is the best

The all too common flaw: The constant digressions regarding annecdotes and exhortations of "you can if you only believe." The content is great but in many cases the presentation would embarrass Shirly McLain.

Nonetheless, I would encourage anyone with a sports objective to read (grit their way through). The specific recomendations are again the best compilation and application of mental training I know of

Another edition to the SW cross section books, I have the last book, and this is just as good, We love it and we are yet to see the movie here in our remote town in New Zealand. The Star Wars phenomonom has long lasting and reaching effects. The book shows all the vechiles including the Queens Ship, the fighters, thetransports ect.

A nine out of ten and I am sure that if you see the movie it will go through the roof to maybe 15/10

Paul Jackson

The artwork and detail in this book is mind blowing. However, since few of the Episode 1 vehicles are as intriguing as the ships in the original trilogy, this book is slightly less interesting, in my view. That is not to say it isn't essential if you're into technical artwork or Star Wars as a whole. It's probably best to get them both, the older book and this new one. I have one question to DK, however: Where's the Star Trek cross sections book?

Just like the first Incredible Cross Sections, this book amazes with page after page of intricate cutaways of almost every ship in Episode 1. The foldout of the Droid Control Ship, much like the foldout of the Death Star in the origionl, is great. Definitely recommeded, even if your not a Star Wars fantaic

Robert Strassler has done a remarkable editing job with Thucydides' Peloponnesian War. He has included three key features which provide the reader much luxury:

One, he has provided maps throughout the text, to the extent of repetition, to ensure that textual geographic references are always accompanied, in close proximity, cartographically.

Two, he has provided paragraph summaries on the margin throughout the work so that a reader, who has put the edition down for any length of time, may refresh their memories quickly by reading as many of these one to two sentence summaries as necessary.

Three, as Thucydides provides his narrative in chronological order, he must often leave one narrative to begin another. Strassler has provided a thread to follow each narrative through to its' end by way of footnotes.

These editorial enhancements greatly enrich the reading experience and would be a welcome addition to any historical text.

Thucydides, himself, presents the reader with a narrative unromanticized, strictly adhering to the events of the Peloponnesian War. His work possesses many passages that rivet the reader, but also contains areas where the sheer and voluminous recitation of fact can render one foggy. This is not a book for the light-hearted, though Strassler's editorial enhancements make for a pleasurable experience. It is, in short, a classic which has been classically edited.

Robert B. Strassler's edition of the famous Richard Crawley translation of Thucydides is a remarkable work, not only because of its intrinsic merit but also because it is quite simply unique. Mr. Strassler has provided the ultimate in critical apparatus, an exhaustive series of tools with which to understand and appreciate one of the great books of world civilisation. I have never seen anything like it. First of all, there is the index; if an index can be said to be a work of art, the Strassler index is a work of art in the way it organises and informs the text. Next there are the maps - dozens of them - not clumped together in the middle of the book or hidden away at the end, but strategically placed throughout the appropriate points in the text, right at the reader's fingertips when he or she needs them. The footnotes (yes footnotes, not those pesky and inconvenient endnotes!) would fill a small volume of their own and add immeasurably to one's understanding. And as if this were not enough, there are 11 appendices - short essays by prominent classical scholars on different aspects of the Greek world in the time of Thucydides, from "Athenian Government" and "Trireme Warfare" to "Religious Festivals" and "Classical Greek Currency." As far as I am concerned, the only problem with Mr. Strassler's edition is that is has made me greedy for more of the same - a similar edition of the Mahabharata, say, or Gibbon! Any takers?

I bought the Landmark Thucydides because it was the only hardback edition I could find. I was pleasantly surprised because it happens to be the best modern edition available. The editor, Robert Strasser, set out to make the most authoritative book on Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, and I believe he has succeeded brilliantly.

Strasser uses Richard Crawley's translation, apparently revised and updated. In any case the text is very good, though Thucydides syntax is sometimes complex and even a bit confusing. Strasser uses marginal notes besides each paragraph to summarize the events described in the text. The most valuable additions are the maps- there are maps every few pages, illustrating the geography described in the text as needed. Other welcome additions are a timeline, breaking down the events of the book according to date, appendices covering topics such as Athenian and Spartan government, trireme construction, land and naval warfare in ancient times, and even an essay on the monetary units and religious festivals used in the ancient world. There is also an introduction, discussing both the text and the author in detail and in the context of their time. There is also a full and complete index. If you want Thucydides, this is the book to buy!

Last night i read The Christmas Box Miracle and i must say that i was deeply moved by it's contents. The stories shared by Mr. Evans are real and can be easily related to the struggles that we all encounter. After the tragedy we have faced as a nation this book comes at just the right time to give us all hope. Reading this book left me with such a good feeling and a desire to use whatever capacity i have to improve the quality of my life as well as the lives of others. Mr. Evans has a gift and i am thankful that he has made the effort to share it with everyone- He is truely a miracle to many!

I loved reading Richard Paul Evans' new book, The Christmas Box Miracle. He reveals in an honest and straight-forward manner, incidences in his life where destiny and hope were the main life forces. In reading his stories, I was able to remember specific incidences in my own life where I know that the element of hope was paramount to my later successes. I was also able to realize that in my life, like Richard Paul Evans' life, true healing has a spiritual component. This book is fast reading, but the feeling and message leaves a slow, bright feeling that lasts for days. I recommend that anyone who is looking for a way to believe in miracles read, The Christmas Box Miracle.

Several years ago I watched a TV movie called The Christmas Box, which starred Maureen O'Hara and Richard Thomas. I'm not sure exactly what attracted me to this prsentation, most likely the cast, but not only did I enjoy the perfromances but more importantly the message of this made for TV movie. A few weeks after this I came across a book with this title and read the dust jacket. Immediately, I realized the TV movie was based on this book and I just had to read it. Not only did I gulp down this book the time I read it but almost as soon as I finished it I just had to read it again. And since that time I have read The Christmas Box almost every holiday season and all of Richard Paul Evans other titles as well. Today, this small book continues to speak volumes and has affected the lives of many readers, perhaps most of all the author and his family.

One would have to say that the success of this book is truly a miracle. And it is this very sucess which Evans addresses in his new book titled The Christmas Box Miracle. Part memoir, part philosophy, in this book Evans offers his readers the story behind the writing of The Christmas Box, which was intended only as a gift for his two small daughters.

Evans begins this book by discussing his basic philosophy and the premise that there are forces at work, some known and some unknown, which alter our lives. He then depicts his large Mormon family and the prophecy of hsi grandfathers who said that, "He (Evans) would walk among noble men and royalty." He describes his fathers lucrative job and the material lives his family was afforded and then his fathers loss of his job and their move back to Utah. Moving on to his college years, Evans relates sevevral instances when divine intervention led him to decisions whih altered his life. And in some instances even saved his life. Finally and for me the most intersting part of the book is when Evans explains to readers how a small book which was originally self published and handed out to 20 family members and friends became a number one bestseller and continues to be sold around the world.

As I finished The Christmas Box Miracle, I thought about the role of miracles, angels, faith, dtermination and most of all the greatest gift in our lives, the gift of love. Mr. Evans always supplies these basic themes in his books and offers his readers hope during devestating times and even healing from life's cruelest blows. May he continue to reach out to audiences and spread these messages.

HOW RED SKY AT MORING IS NOT THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, AND HOW TO READ THIS BOOK IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ IT FOR A CLASS:

The back cover of this addition compares Red Sky At Morning to The Catcher In The Rye. But there are few similarities that I can draw between the two books. Two struggling teenage boys, yes, but totally different personalities.

Catcher In The Rye - In short, Holden cracked. His brother died and Holden had so many emotional problems that he ended up in a mental hospital. (It's hard to catch but in last chapter Holden makes reference to "psychoanalyst guys." The entire story is not being told to the reader, but to a psychiatrist).

Red Sky At Morning - Josh is composed and has control over emotions. He is able to take charge of things and responsibility for other people, such as his mother. He narrates the book in a way that lets the reader understand that he has control. Things are said bluntly and firmly, he doesn't question anything.

Josh has control, Holden does not.

Being from the Southwest would probably help the reader's interest. There are some parts of the culture that could be new to the reader, (just as they are to from-Alabama-Josh). This isn't a standard required reading assignment for people who don't live in New Mexico just for that reason.

But for those of you who don't a) have to read it for a class or b) aren't comparing it to The Catcher In The Rye, it is a funny, touching book, with a little bit of a Southwestern twist. Setting is everything in this story, and it brings an atmosphere that can either captivate or discourage a new reader.

My opinion: give it a try, try to read with an open mind, and don't analyze too much.

My mother handed "Red Sky at Morning" to me when I was 16. She had no way of knowing that it would become one of "those" books -- one of the books I held up as an example of near (if not total) perfection; a book that I have re-read almost every summer in the past 16 years. It is one of the most well-written and naturally funny books that exists. If you do not kill yourself laughing and suddenly find yourself crying, if you do not fall in love with Josh, Marcia, Steenie and their entire world, then you have my sincere sympathies.

It's funny; I've read this book at least 10 times and I see from the reviews here that lots of people have seen fit to revisit Red Sky at Morning.

I, too, grew up in the "real" Sagrado. In fact, Bradford's son and I were briefly acquainted as teenagers. I think the book is more autobiographical than Bradford would like to admit; my aunt has said that almost all of the teenaged characters were recognizable as actual people at the local high school at that time--especially Chango.

Any time I'm homesick, all I have to do is reread the book and I'm right back home again. I'm glad that so many people from so many walks of life have enjoyed it as much as I have. It totally captures, very affectionately, all of the GOOD things about Northern New Mexico--things you wish would stay the same forever.

It's like Catcher in the Rye, but it's warmer. It lovingly represents the wholly unique people of Northern New Mexico, who are unlike people anywhere else in the world. But it also reflects human nature and adaptation through scenes of humor, pain, the clashing and meshing of cultures, and the inevitable unwelcome changes that come with the passage of time. Red Sky at Morning bears witness to the coming of age of Joshua Arnold--the futile battle to remain young and untouched by the uglier side of the world, the bittersweet and inevitable transformation of boy to man. It was originally an allegory, I believe, parelleling Josh's growing pains with those of a post-war America. Ironically, it is now an allegory for what has become of the "real" Corazon, Sagrado--full of bittersweet memories--the end of an old road and the beginning of newer, less innocent one.

Just beware: you won't be able to put it down and you WILL read it again and again. It really is that good.

My thanks to the author Alan Andrade for telling the sensative and moving story of the S.S. Leopoldville disaster. I am the daughter of one of the men who died on that tradgic Christmas Eve in 1944. Until I read this book I had no idea of how my father died. I am greatful to finally know what happened to him and I am greatful to all the men who shared their stories. I salute them for their courage then and now.

"'Hey, I'm alive!' Drew blacked out. When he came to, he found himself on a beach, naked protected only by a raincoat thrown over him. He heard a faint voice 'Throw him in there too.' Drew, realizing that they thought he was dead, yelled." This is just one of many harrowing tales of a life and death struggle resulting from the sinking. "SS Leapoldville Disaster, December 24, 1944" is the story of this troopship loaded with American troops being rushed to the help in the Battle of the Bulge. It was sunk barely five miles from shore taking with it 763 American servicemen. The book consists of many short stories detailing individual accounts of the disaster. Even the Introduction has 38. These were compiled from hundreds of interviews and research. Andrade includes many actual copies of letters. Perhaps the most moving are letters from parents to their sons before they knew they were dead. One story in particular is very moving: "Lt. Gene Barwick died that night. They never recovered his body. Each Christmas Eve reminded Barwick's parents of his death. His young bride eventually remarried and had two children but 20 years after her first love's death, she took her own life on a Christmas Eve." Many who died were only 18 to 21 years old and came from 47 of the (then) 48 states. All are listed by state in the In Memoriam Section at the end of the book as are the survivors.

This disaster was kept secret for many years. It was understandable during the war but not so afterwards. Allan Andrade has done a service to the nation and to the families of those lost with his book. It is well done, and an easy read - well worth your time!...

Allan Andrade has written a most compelling compilation of the personal accounts of survivors of the Leopoldville. He has also penned the heart-rending stories of the families of those who perished in this horrific incident.

In a previous review, it was incorrectly stated that Mr. Andrade had quoted from Jacquin Sanders' two dozen times. I found only a few references to Mr. Sanders' book and each time, full credit was given to the author.

Jacquin Sanders', "A Night Before Christmas" is a riveting book, worth reading. However, I do not see the comparison. In my view, the books are simply two different pieces of literature, written about the same topic. Mr. Sanders' book deals more with the factual accounts of the shipwreck. On the other hand, Mr. Andrade's book deals with the human aspect of the tragedy.

Allan Andrade brings these moving stories to life in his spellbinding book. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a different slant on an important piece of American History.

Mr. Andrade, I salute you!

Aushwitz - A Doctor's Eyewitness Account is not for the faint of heart. It is the memoirs of a doctor / prisoner of the infamous Nazi 'Death Camp'. I have personally read (at the time I write this) about a dozen memoirs on the Holocaust. Dr. Nyiszli's experiences cannot even be imagined. I am truly at a loss for words to articulate the feeling in my heart left by this accounting of evil. Under the direct supervision of the infamous 'Doctor' Mengele, Nyiszli performs, without question, some of the most horrific and scientifically useless 'experiments' on human beings. Truly, who among us could ever imagine trying to survive in a Death Camp such as Aushwitz? And yet the disturbing point over all in Nyiszli's book, is the fact that he VOLUNTEERED his services ! I will not judge anyone personally, however, was this author truly a victim or a conspirator with a 'better them than me' attitude? If you have the intellect and stomach for descriptions of horror, then I do acknowledge the importance of this 'Self-Damming' memoir, since it does offer a rare glimpse into the levels of mindset that was the sinister and the sadistic butchers that were the Nazi's...and their conspirators. Perhaps it is a confession of a repentant mind tortured with his actions of the past.

I have always had an interest in the Holocaust, but until I read this book some fourteen years ago, it had always remained at a distance.

A reputable colleague at work handed me a copy of this book and said 'this is worth a read'.

Having begun, I could not put the book down. The book gripped me from start to finish. The story is horrific but, nevertheless, it is a story that we all owe it to ourselves to be familiar with.

The story and the author's experiences were so profound and penetrating that I have spent the last fourteen years studying and reading as much about the Holocaust as I can. I have visited the Concentration Camps at Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Birkenau and Plaszov, together with other areas in Poland directly connected with the Jewish Holocaust. I have seen the buildings full of human hair from the Jewish victims, the gas chambers, crematoria and the other hideous instruments of mass murder referred to in this book.

The book by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli will not take you long to finish. The voices of the victims referred to have long since disappeared. Many people today are not even aware of the Holocaust and others deny it's very existence. Books like these, written by people who were actually there, are essential if our this and forthcoming generations are to be made aware of "man's inhumanity to man" and to prevent such a horror from occurring again.

Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian Jew, was carted off to Auschwitz along with the rest of his family sometime in early 1944. He volunteered to be the assistant to Dr. Josef Mengele--the so-called "Angel of Death"--because he was a doctor and had very good insight into pathology. He was a Sonderkommando, a man of the living dead that did the disgusting job of disposing of the bodies of gas chamber victims. In Nyiszli's case, he was given a pathologist's job of performing autopsies on freshly killed cadavers. Miraculously, he survived the terrors of the camp because Mengele refused to have him killed (all Sonderkommandos were killed after four months and replaced by others, for the SS wanted no survivors to tell tales) for there were very few doctors who were as good and skilled as Nyiszli. Therefore, he wrote about all of his experiences in this book after he was a free man. However, I have found that Nyiszli's book is just another account of the sadistic ordeals that the inmates of Auschwitz went through. If you are well-read in the history of the Holocaust, then you too may find this statement to be true. In other words, there is not much in here that has already been written about it, even though this book was one of the first to come out on the subject. Aside from that, Nyiszli's book is excellently written: it reads like a fast pacing novel in which you find yourself at the start, and in the next moment, you are at the end.

Although I am an avid reader of American military history, I read few first-person accounts of war because I tend to prefer books about geopolitics, grand strategy, and decisive weapons systems. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book about a marine officer's experience during the Korean War. It was easy reading, its narrative was straightforward, informative, and, I believe, honest, and it provided some valuable insights into the harsh realities of the first of the Cold War's regional conflicts.

The United States' "forgotten war" began on June 25, 1950, when the People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) invaded the Republic of Korea (South Korea). At the time, Author Joseph Owen was a Marine Corps lieutenant stationed in North Carolina, living with his wife and their two young children. According to Owen: "Nobody at Camp Lejeune had expected a shooting war. Nor were we ready for one." A captain who had been an adviser to the South Korean Marine Corps predicted Korea would be "[o]ne lousy place to fight a war. Too hot in summer, too cold in winter, and straight up and down mountain terrains all year round. Except for those stinking rice paddies down in the valleys. Human manure they use. Worst stink in the world." Nevertheless, according to Owen: "The possibility of American Marines in a combat role excited us." Owen writes: "The North Koreans continued to overpower the meager resistance offered by the South Korean soldiers....Seoul, the South Korean capital, fell with hardly a fight, and the Red blitzkrieg rolled southward. In response, President Truman escalated American involvement in the war. He ordered General MacArthur, America's supreme commander in the Far East, to use U.S. Army troops stationed in Japan to stem the invaders." And: "General MacArthur called for a full division of Marines to help him turn back the North Koreans. According to Owen: "The Marine Corps welcomed the call, but we did not have a full division to put in the field;" and "More than seven thousand of us at Camp Lejeune received orders to proceed by rail to Camp Pendleton. There they would form into companies and embark for Korea." Owen's unit, "Baker-One-Seven became one of three rifle companies if the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment....Our ranks were filled by 215 men and 7 officers who had never before served together....Many of [the privates] were beardless teenagers with little training beyond the basics of shouldering a rifle and marching in step." While training, there was much concern about the readiness of the Marines for combat. At one point, after a sergeant remarks that the troops need more training in boot camp, Owen succinctly invokes reality: "They are not going to boot camp. They are going aboard ship. And they are going to fight." On September 1, the company boarded a Navy transport for the three-week voyage to east Asia. According to Owen: "Ready or not, we were on the way to war." And, according to Owen, the 1st Marine Division's orders were "to go for the Yalu River," North Korea's border with China. At one point, a veteran officer provides this paraphrase of William Tecumseh Sherman's famous dictum: "War is hell, but you never know what particular kind of hell it's going to be." The Korean War hell was cold and barren. Owen writes: "We were chilled through and bone tired as we slogged our way back to battalion....The bivouac was lumpy with rocks and boulders;" "The cold weather was as formidable an enemy as the Chinese;" and "Rarely did the [daily action] reports exceed zero degrees, and there were lows of twenty below."

By the time Owen's outfit arrived in Korea, he writes, "we were making bets that the war would be over before we got into it." Owen's Marines could not have been more wrong. While Owen is inspecting his men's weapons, a private asks: "Think we'll get shot at today, Lieutenant?" Owen replies: "We're taking the point for the regiment. If the gooks are there, they'll be shooting at us." A few pages later, after the outfit's first experience in combat, Owen comments: "We were fortunate that the enemy had not chosen a "fight-to-the-death" defense of this hill, as they would when we advanced farther north." But some fighting was hand-to-hand. At one point, Owen writes: "Judging from the noise they were making, and the direction of their grenades, the North Koreans were preparing to attack, not more than thirty yards away." The Captain tells Owen and the other subordinate officers: "The Chinese have committed themselves to this war....The people we will fight are the 124th Division of the Regular Chinese Army....They're tough, well-trained soldiers, ten thousand of them. And all of their officers are combat experienced, their very best....A few hours from now we'll have the Chinese army in our gunsights. We'll be in their gunsights. You damn well better have our people ready for some serious fighting." The combat was, indeed, brutal. According to Owen: "The Chinese attacked in massive numbers, an overwhelming weight, but they also endured terrible casualties." Owen recalls that, while waiting for one Chinese attack, the "men stacked Chinese bodies in front of the holes for greater protection." And the fighting around the frozen Chosin Reservoir may have been the most brutal of the war. Owen ultimately suffered wounds requiring 17 months of treatment, and he never regained full use of one arm.

A few months ago, I reviewed James Brady's wonderful The Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea here. This book has different charms. Whereas Brady is a gifted professional writer, there is no elegant prose here. But Owen provides an equally vivid account of this ugly war. Big, sophisticated studies of military history focusing on geopolitical principles and grand strategy rarely offer narrative moments like the ones in this book. Reader are unlikely to forget the Korean War after reading Joseph Owen's Colder than Hell.

When preparing to travel to an Asian country on business, I seek context by reading of the wars the U.S. has fought there. When I look in those Japanese, Chinese and Korean eyes, I see the children of old enemies and old friends. While plowing through Fehrenbach's canonical Korean War history, "This Kind of War", I took a break and lost a weekend of yard work to "Colder Than Hell" which I ordered based on the praise given by my fellow Amazon reviewers. My thanks to the other reviewers, for this is a superb first person account of a Marine company fighting it's way up and then back down the Korean peninsula in 1950. Marines of Baker one-seven fought and froze to the death too often, but their sacrifice has let 47 million Koreans in the South build a democracy and learn the meaning of freedom. The price of freedom was huge for Baker one-seven, but the esprit de corps so crisply described by ex-Second Lt. Owen carried his Marines from hill to hill. This is an excellent book and a must read for fans of first person stories of war and sacrifice.

Colder than Hell: A Marine Rifle Company at Chosin Reservoir. By Joseph R. Owen. Reviewed by Mike Davino

Army Korean War expert Lieutenant Colonel Roy Appleman has called the 1st Marine Division of the Chosin Reservoir campaign "one of the most magnificent fighting organizations that ever served in the United States Armed Forces." The remarkable and inspiring story of the division at the Chosin Reservoir has been the subject of numerous books and several films. During their fighting withdrawal, the Marines decimated several divisions of the Chinese People's Liberation Army while at the same time fighting an exceptionally harsh winter environment.

Joseph Owen's new book on the subject tells the story from the cutting edge perspective of a rifle company. The author served as a mortar section leader and rifle platoon commander in Baker Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines from its activation in August 1950 through the Inchon-Seoul and Chosin fighting where he was severely wounded.

There are many reasons given for the outstanding performance of the Marines in northeast Korea during the winter of 1950. It is clear from this book that a large measure of the credit goes to the Marines and their leaders at the small unit and rifle company level.

Owen's narrative covers the hasty activation and training of the company, its brief participation in the fighting north of Seoul after the amphibious assault at Inchon and the details of its intense fighting at Chosin. He candidly discusses the mistakes made by the leaders and Marines of Baker Company, to include his own. More importantly, Owen covers what they learned from these mistakes and how they used that knowledge to defeat the Chinese in a series of intense actions.

Although focused at the company level, the author frames his story with the overall conduct of the campaign. Refreshingly, unlike many books about the Chosin campaign, it is free of partisan sniping about the contributions made by the various services involved. Owen gives credit to the Army units that fought at Chosin as well as the contributions of naval and air forces and our British allies.

This book is rich in lessons about small unit leadership, training and combat operations. It is an excellent addition to the personal narratives on the Korea War.

Wow! What a great read! I am so glad I bought this book - it will be my stocking stuffer of choice for this holiday season for both guys and gals. This is a great book for Winston Cup die-hard fans and for novices! Ronda Rich is hilarious. It's full of anecdotes about all of the greats, including Earnhardt, Petty, Childress, Schrader, and more ... and all from the female perspective with plenty of stories that could only come from an insider. I read Ronda's last book and thoroughly enjoyed it, and this book stays the course. I found myself laughing out loud and feeling sorry when the book was over! More than just a book about racing, the book serves up some deep life lessons in each chapter - the author looks at the truth behind the losses and disappointments that come with the industry. She's quite a teacher - obviously a spiritual woman - it's a great read for kids too. I'm hoping this is the first in a NASCAR series for her ... if you see this Ronda ... please give us another one! Can't wait!

This book has had the most profound impact on my life. At the time that I began to read this book, I had all but given up on myself and a goal that I had set out to accomplish about a year ago. This goal took me miles away from my friends and family, and at first I was dead set on acheiving it. But, after many setbacks and rejections, I was ready to call it quits. In reading Ms. Rich's book, I decided that the last thing I was going to do was quit. Her book is filled with such touching stories involving the greatest race car drivers, and also with wise advice following. This is not just a book that gives a glimpse behind-the-scenes of Winston Cup racing, but that also shares life lessons that Ms. Rich learned along the way. It takes not only a talented author, but a strong person, to be able to share such emotion and passion. I would recommend this book to anyone, NASCAR fan or not. It is a book I will not ever forget reading, and I cannot express my gratitude enough to the author for what it has done for me as a person. If you're looking for a book about your favorite drivers, this is it. If you're looking for a book about the good times and hard times in life, this is it. If you are looking for a book without any emotion, without a clear voice, without any meaning to it, this book is not for you.

Plan on reading this entire book in one sitting! From the "Forward" written by Richard Childress to the final page of the "Acknowledgements", Ms. Rich's book takes you through the tough challenges of a woman entering the male dominated NASCAR circuit and the lessons that she learned of life, laughter, friendship, responsibility, kindness, compassion, gratitude and generosity. This book is more than a story about the pits and NASCAR drivers. It leads you through the ups and downs of life; through triumphant successes and heartbreaking loses. Through Ms. Rich's powerfully moving words, you'll relive the thrill and excitement of Darrell Waltrip's prestigious 1989 Daytona 500 win and the tragic, untimely death of Dale Earnhardt, Sr..
At the end of each chapter in "My Life In The Pits" you'll read a moral, a lesson of life. Ms. Rich drew on what she learned and experienced from this close-knit family and utilized it for the betterment of her life. You will find, as I did, that highlighting for reference sake is a necessity. Thank you, Ronda, for sharing such a beautifully written book of your life in the pits!