Patrick Lynch's "Carriers" seduces with an unrelenting, chapter by chapter, cliff-hanging style. It kept me up an entire night, unable to sleep until finished. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the precarious relationship we have with our primitive ecosystems as well as to those who are fascinated with that voracious, world-class monster that is the virus. This truly frightening story brings home the personal nature of a pandemic event with just a hint of its terrible secret enticingly dangled in the moment of a brief encounter. Everyone I've shown this book to, asking them to read only a few pages, has immediately gone out and purchased the paperback for themselves. I eagerly await Lynch's next foray into the cardiac wild. DK

Patrick Lynch's "Carriers" seduces unrelentingly with its incredible chapter by chapter cliffhanging style. It kept me up all night, literally unable to sleep until I finished it. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the precarious relationship we have with our primitive ecosystems or who is fascinated with that voracious, unseen, world conquering monster that is the virus. This is a truly frightening book, that brings home the personal nature of a pandemic event with just a hint as to its secret carefully dangled in the context of a brief encounter. Everyone I've shown this book to, after reading only a few pages has gone out and bought the paperback for themselves. I eagerly await Lynch's next foray into the cardiac wild. Doug Kennedy

Before even reading Richard Preston's THE HOT ZONE, I just had to get a hold of Patrick Lynch's CARRIERS. This scientific thriller, weaving love, fear, worries and hatred into the plot, kept me in constant suspense which made it an exciting fast-paced read. With an airborne epidemic "one hundred more times more contagious than Ebola" (USA Today), breaking out in the Indonesian rain forests, only a team of American Microbiological experts are sent to investigate its source and try to keep it under control haphazardly, but only corpses and infected natives, who die in a matter of hours, are discovered with no answers to how the core of this mysterious plague is being spread. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone in search of a horrifying heart-racing, yet compelling read.

I was there during this era, as the wife of a driver, as a licensed flagman and while I thought this book made a heroic effort to cover this very exciting time I thought it missed the true uniqueness of the era which was the beauty of the people and the mystery of the machines. This book spends a lot of time talking in depth about a few people, one of the author's brothers for example. It is really not so much about American racing as it is about California racing - lines saying that Sports car racing (even Vintage car racing) may have begun in the Northeast but came to maturity in California give evidence to the bias toward covering this era with a definite prejudice toward certain people and certain geography. Like a previous reader, I too would like to see Volumn II perhaps the authors can cover the era with more of an eye to history and less self interest. However, to their credit these authors have assembled a tremendous number of interesting photos and despite the wordiness of the text much fascinating data.

When my book "American Racing ~ Road Racing In The 50s and 60s" was published I was deluged by calls from the West coast. Everybody wanted to know, "When are you going to do a book about West coast racing." I had to tell them I never photographed over there.

Well here it is "American Sports Car Racing in the 1950s" by Michael Lynch. And it is a winner! I learned things about the racing scene on the left coast that boggled my mind.

Michael Lynch's words hooked me and I could not put the book down. He owes a couple of nights sleep!

"American Sports Car Racing in the 1950s" is the perfect companion to my book.

I highly recommend it. Buy it today.

Tom Burnside

I was there at St Jo and Elkhart and Sebring and the airport circuits in the Midwest and this book is awash in memories. The pictures are perfect for bringing back the cars and the people that as a teenager I worshiped...remembering the ride with neighbor Masten in the Allard to the Leawood drug store on snowy streets to buy the lone copy of Road & Track. We didn't have California, but the trickle down was pretty good...Denise at Meadowdale, Hall in Kansas, Bunker and Katskee and the rest. I sold my '32 Ford for an MG and never looked back...American Sports Car racing as I recall and Lynch describes formed a life long love for the era and the cars...as I read now sitting in my '54 Morgan in my garage with a can of Schlitz. This book is a keeper.

I read The New Money Masters after the Market Wizards and the New Market Wizards. When I saw "winning investment strategies of: Soros, Lynch, Rogers, etc etc on the front cover, I immediately bought it. Like any trader who jumps into the market without a plan or thorough study, I lost this trade. Train tried to portrait what's in the masters brains but he failed. Even worse, his writing skill had been quite bad to convince me to complete the whole book. Well, how am I supposed to expect something from a 379 page book that carries 147 pages of appendix?

If you want to read a concise book about the investment styles and philosophies of recent great investors this book might be the one for you. Any student considering asset management as a career should read this one as well as The Money Masters, its predecessor.

I would encourage everyone to understand the difference from this book and its predecessor. This book is primarily focused on investors that became household names in the 1980s such as: Jim Rogers, Michael Steinhardt, Philip Caret, George Soros, George Michaelis, John Neff, Ralph Wanger, and Peter Lynch.
The prior book, The Money Masters, deals with Golden Age investors who, for the most part, attained their reputations prior to the crash of 1973 and 1974.

Both of Train's books are in the form of interviews he has with them. Train's writing is crisp and entertaining, and his interviews uncover many pearls of wisdom applicable to any investor's philosophy.

The biggest brand name interviewed here, for most, is Peter Lynch who ran Fidelity's flagship Magellan fund. Lynch pioneered a consumer approach to the investing process and invested using a hybrid of the growth and value style that has come to be known within the industry as GARP, standing for Growth At A Reasonable Price. Both Soros and Rogers have fairly interesting ideas about the nature of investing and the sentiment behind it. Both of them worked at Soros' Quantum Fund, which was the largest and most successful hedge fund for decades and left both of them extremely rich.

If anyone is interested in books on the people behind the financial industry read Money Masters, New Money Masters, Predators Ball, Money Culture, Den of Theives and F.I.A.S.C.O. 25 Investment Classics and Goldman Sachs: the Culture of Success are other notable books. I gave the book 4 stars because, while it was very concise and well written I didn't find any information within the book that was of great help to me. It was entertaining and informative but not ground breaking or made me say "AH HAH" or have that light bulb go off in my head.

sorry if you expected a how-to in 25 words or less; the guys highlighted within could think- arriving at creative solutions, work obsessively or at least- with discipline [ check out Rogers' work sheet in the appendix..], and were rock solid in their convictions .....

good to see efforts like these highlighted in the newest go-go era, in which for a lucky few- monster payoffs, quickly, were more common than lottery winnings. [ I know more than a couple who've gone from 15 to 500 in a virtual heartbeat, sometimes with no more conviction than : 'Sure, why not!! ' That's not how these people scored. Nor how most of us ever will.]

Regarding, Train- I'd be inclined to buy a book of his blindly; can't imagine him disappointing.

This is overly simplistic, leftist, academic tripe with the following bottom line premise: men are miserable, depressed, violent creatures because our parents raised us up to be ... well, men.

Call me cynical, but I'm suspicious of authors who use a Preface to essentially disavow any resposibility or even legitimacy for the treacle they are about to set forth. I guess it is important to know though that the book is based on a lot of their personal experiences and that writing it was a marvelous bonding experience for them.

Having established their loophole and "sensitivity credentials" the authors proceed to parrot the feminist agenda. It soon occurs to the reader that, from the authors' perspective, the Charlton Heston's and John Wayne's of the world are inherently depressed beyond belief while the Woody Allen's are almost manic.

My bottom line: if you're a man this book is a waste of time.

I have recommended this book to many friends and clients, and it has been very helpful to them. In the process of ordering another copy, I just read a review that refers to it as "a waste of time" for men. I disagree! But then again, no book is a one-size fits all...

This book is a better fit for men who have been depressed in an atypical way and who need a different perspective to understand themselves and get better. (The current working model of depression reflects culturally "feminine" traits.) When a man abuses alcohol or drugs, becomes aggressive after a loss, or intimidates others with his 'bad moods', it is easy to overlook the vulnerable emotions behind such masks. The core value of this book is to suggest we look beneath the mask. Written more as a self-help book than a textbook, it is short on theory and research, but long on case studies and practical suggestions that the author's have successfully used in clinical practice.

By the way, the concept of "masculine" depression isn't restricted just to men. Many women experience and express their depression in masculine ways.

Simply put, this book has been needed for quite a while. But it may not fit everyone in the same way.

an informative read into male depression. there are a lot of books out there on this subject matter. this one is written with an ease to understand and with a flow that keeps it smooth

This book was absolutely excellent. Not only was it very readable, it is also written in easy to understand investment terms. It should be required reading for all high-school students. Provides an excellent "kick in the pants" incentive for people to get into the great world of stocks and mutual funds. The first half of the book gives a fine history of how the stock market got started and the second half explains the hows and whys of investing. The best thing about this book is it makes you want to invest and that's always a good thing, particularly if you go into it for the long term.

I really liked this book because it started where it should have--at the beginning. It takes the reader through a good , if somewhat lengthy, history of how capitalism began. It then takes the reader through Wall Street and gives them some basic advice on what to do with their money. This is a great book for high school kids who are starting their first job and need advice on how to manage it (I should know, since I fit that description). Anyone who is interested in investing or even making money should read this book.

This book is almost like a "history of US economics" but it is presented in an extremely light-hearted and easy to read manner. It traces the ups and downs of economic cycle and explain how the economy had evolved to its current state. The author presents many familiar successes(Coke,Nike, etc...), in many different and interesting perspectives. It sets you thinking that all these success stories did not happen too long ago and many are still happening.

For beginners, it is important to understand and research the companies. Pick the good ones and stick with them by having a lot of patience and discipline to resist the fluctuations in the free market.

Middleton, Shaw, Fortney and Lynch. If you haven't had the opportunity to attend a workshop that they are giving that should be a priority. If you can't fit it into your schedule or budget this book is the next best thing to working side by side with them. If you have had the opportunity, then American Vision will serve as an economical reinforcement of the lessons that they present in their workshops. The book is easy to read, and the photos...well they serve as a constant reminder that "anyone" can take good nature photographs.

As a student currently researching a dissertation on Kitaj, I must say that this handy little book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the study of this fascinating artist. The texts are rather dense and scholarly (the general reader should check out Marco Livingstone's monograph) but they cover a very wide range of issues and interpretations, some of which have never been dealt with in depth before. One such example is Pat Gilmour's essay on Kitaj's importance as a screenprinter, something rarely touched on in the literature, mainly due to Kitaj's re-evaluation of his early work.

Furthermore, other essays explore Kitaj's relation to tradition, his interest in cinema, as well as the social and historical context surrounding some of his allusive paintings. There is even a rather critical essay by Terry Atkinson (formerly of Art & Language) which takes Kitaj to task for daring to carry on the "fetish" of painting. Rather, suggests Atkinson, artists ought to give up such nonsense and sit around pondering the nature of Modernism instead. Oh well, we can't all be philosophers, yet it's heartening that there are still artists alive such as Kitaj who can carry on producing painting which invites informed and stimulating discussion in books such as this.

This book [and " Spain 1516-1598 : From Nation State to World Empire (A History of Spain) "by the same author] has -at least- three strong points on its favor, which makes it very advisable to read: a) it takes great pains to explain -not only to describe- the Spain of the XVII century (a period far less known than the Spain of the XVI century); b) it includes a very relevant section on Spanish America, which is not common in books written on this period; and c) it is reasonable easy to read. I should have rated this book "four and a half" starts. Considering its content, I think it should be five; considering its readability, four. In any event, I do recommend it to read it. (Other books I would recommend to read on Spain: As a general overview, "A History of Spain" by Joseph Perez; and more focused on the XVI -and/or XVII- period: "The Spain of Philip II" by Joseph Perez; "Imperial Spain 1469-1716" and "The Count-Duke of Olivares. The Stateman in an age of decline" both of them written by John Elliot; and "Spain 1469-1714, A Society of Conflict", by Henry Kamen).

I will not argue the fact that Joyce is a master of the English language. Nor will I argue that at times he has very good insight into the psychological motivations of art, religion, and sociology. He possesses both of these talents. However, the manner in which they are presented in this book is simply disappointing. I am an avid reader and can appreciate thick philosophy woven artistically into an intriguing story. This book has sparse bits of philosophy and an occasional artistic stitch, but by and large fails to create a fabric that sparks my interest. Throughout this book, I found myself hopelessly holding onto the idea that, "this is one of the greatest books ever written in the English language," and was left there holding onto that hope afterwards because it failed to deliver anything more.

The story drags at the beginning, and while the minutia of Stephen's life is important to understand where he ends up, its focussed on way too much; the first 80 pages are useless and will leave you rolling your eyes for relief. Next, while a certain degree of specificity is important in terms of describing a scene, the precision to which he describes things, largely irrelevant things, can only be construed as "filling" to make this very short book acceptably long. Say something. Repeat it for emphasis. But don't fixate on it for pages and pages and pages. Lastly, the "meat" of the book, that being what actually made the man into an artist, is so sparse and loosely hung on the frail skeleton of plot, that any person reading this book hungry for some sort of insight or depth is ravishing and unsatisfied at the end, anxious to be filled up by some other book.

Kundera is much better at doing what this "master" was intending to do. He cuts off the fat and leaves raw, creative, chiseled, philosophical muscle on the bone for a reader to savor. I wish I would have spent my time rereading something of his instead of deciding to pick up a book about the very slow and boring progression of this artist's perception.

"Portrait" is arguably Joyce's best work, truly a masterpiece from the greatest writer of the 20th century if not ever. Even if you are not a writer (I'm an engineer), after reading Joyce you will want to write--albeit sadly not as well as Joyce, but you will want to write nonetheless. As for the rare bad review that you may see on this forum, well, there's no accounting for taste! More seriously, it can be a tough read and people often get more out of it the second time through (for fellow members of the Television Generation, we call that "replay value"). So give the heretics who scored it two or three stars a few years for their tastes to mature, and we'll see what they say when they read it again.

When I first read Joyce, I did not catch many of the nuances of Portrait, so I understand how some may find this a challenging book. Hence, I highly recommend buying a copy of the "The Dubliners"--the Dover Thrift edition costs $1.50, though it has no notations. (Also, if you are a busy person, a taste of Joyce may help motivate you.) Dubliners is a collection of short (4-10 page) stories that, beyond being excellent in themselves, will help you get acclimated to Joyce. And for a little more than a buck, you can afford to throw it in to some order to get a nice preview of Joyce before spending the time to read Portrait. (Not that Portrait takes a long time--it's just over 200 pages.)

"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is an impressionistic, semi-autobiographical work in which Joyce, through the character of Stephen Dedalus, relates the events and impressions of his youth and young adulthood. The novel flows effortlessly from Stephens first memories as "baby tuckoo" to his final journal entries before embarking on a promising literary career in Paris. In the pages between, Joyce's virtuosity of prose explodes in passages with frightening intensity. Even those who dislike Joyce's confusing, sometimes-infuriating style, should be awestruck by his undubitable writing ability.

However, as anyone reading this review should already know, despite his virtuosity, Joyce is not for everyone. He is simultaneously one of the most beloved and despised writers of the twentieth century. For those of you who are unfamiliar with his work and hesitantly contemplating becoming acquainted with it, here is some food for thought: first, start with "Portrait," it is far more accessible than his subsequent works and a better introduction to them than the also-excellent "Dubliners" is. Second, do not try to judge "Portrait" by the same standards as other books. Joyce is not trying to tell an amusing story here, he is trying to relate the impressions of a young man torn between two existences: a religious or an aesthetic. If you are a meat-and-potatoes type of reader, meaning the kind of reader who prefers a "story," Joyce will not be your cup of tea. Lastly, Joyce's reputation perhaps does his works injustice. Yes, he is extremely encyclopedic and takes on many themes in his works. But perhaps too many readers get sidetracked from the aesthetic merits of his works by concentrating solely on the intellectual values. It is his prose which can be universally appreciated, whether you understand the ideas it portrays or not. His prose is his bread-and-butter. Some people pompously brag of their "getting" Joyce without actually appreciating what he does. I don't claim to be a bonafied Joyce scholar, but it is my experience that to enjoy Joyce is to appreciate "literature for literature's sake." If you enjoy literature, poetry or prose, than you should enjoy the style with which Joyce writes, that is to say, all styles. And he has seemingly mastered all styles. That is not to say that the many thematic levels in which his novels succeed are to be ignored, for their expression is not seperate from the means with which Joyce does it, but congruous with it.

To read Joyce is to revel in the limits of artistic creation and then to read on as the limits are then stretched further.

Bon Apetite!

I got this book to support West Point's bicentennial. Now that I have actually looked at it (and I put it that way because it is mostly pictures and not much text), I find it disappointing. The text, though properly written and edited, is quite boring. Many of the pictures are amateurishly blown up to the extent that they are washed out. The book, or glorified brochure, or whatever you want to call it, has the feel of being hastily put together to get out in time to make money for all concerned. To me, that takes from what should have been a noble purpose. I don't think it succeeded in achieving that noble purpose. In fact, now that the Party is over, I wouldn't recommend it.

I admit I didn't watch the PBS program to which this book is 'companion,' but I have no doubt that the pretty pictures on TV matched the pretty pictures in this book. In fact, that's probably the biggest impression I carry away from this book: it's very ... colorful. The text gives an adequate history of the US Military Academy, hitting on all the requisite high points: Thayer, Lee, Flipper, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Hollen, and so on. The images -- portraits, old maps, memorabilia from the USMA museum, etc -- decently illustrate the text (though the contemporary photos mixed in with the historic ones are sometimes rather *non sequitur* to what's being discussed). Among the great piles of books and videos that have been produced to observe West Point's bicentennial, I'm sure this picture book will be very popular. But I suspect it will mean more to people who didn't themselves actually attend the school. Those who did will find little that's new -- and despite the Academy's official cooperation with this production, may find the book too, well, glossy for their tastes.

Partly because I grew up as an Army brat, I've always been fascinated by the military and naval academies, as far back as the 1950s TV series "The Long Grey Line." This coffee table book is a companion to a special on PBS marking the 200th anniversary of President Jefferson's founding of a military educational institution at West Point, up the Hudson from New York. It's a gorgeous piece of work, with as much attention given to the text as to the pictures, tracing the Academy from its floundering first few years, to the sixteen-year reign of Superintendent Sylvanus Thayer (the true father of the school), through the classes that supplied most of the leaders on both sides of the Civil War (who all had served together in the War with Mexico), through the long years leading up to World War I. Fifty-nine of the cadets in the Class of 1915 ("the Class the Stars Fell On") became general officers, and one became president. During the later days of the Vietnam War, cadets seldom left the school, they were so badly treated by civilians their own age, and there were several major cheating scandals -- the author doesn?t whitewash any of that stuff -- but the Academy, having revised itself almost continuously for two centuries -- seems to be coming back. This is a beautiful book.