Dennis R. Jenkins and Tony R. Landis have produced the best volume I've ever seen on the history of the X-15. A fantastic collection of information on all aspects of the research program including hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs, many of which I'd never seen before.

Dennis R. Jenkins has been doing a terrific job with his book on the development of The National Space Transportation System, SPACE SHUTTLE. HYPERSONIC is a must have for every space library. I can't wait to get a copy of X-15 PHOTO DIARY by the same authors, a collection of several hundred photos that didn't fit in this book.

Collaboratively compiled and written by aviation experts Dennis R. Jenkins and Tony R. Landis, Hypersonic: The Story Of The North American X-15 is an immensely detailed and comprehensive look at the North American X-15, the fastest airplane ever built, and the only vehicle ever flown by a pilot (instead of by a computer) into space and back. 500 black-and-white photographs, 50 color photographs, and 100 line drawings (including some never-before-seen images), are deftly paired with an in-depth commentary on both the history and the technical specifications of this superb aircraft. Hypersonic is a most memorable tribute to the predecessor of the Space Shuttle and an invaluable contribution to Aviation History reference collections.

I am one of the authors, and was a bit concerned by a point raised in Mr. Reid's review. I appreciate that he liked the book, and I truly hope he enjoys it.

However, if Mr. Reid feels the binding is causing him concern, I suggest he contact the publisher. I have had my book (I get an advance) for a while now and have not noticed any cause for concern, and my copy has been extensively looked through by a lot of people. This printer generally turns out a very superior product, and I know that the publisher was excited by this book and would not have scrimped on the binding. Perhaps Mr. Reid simply somehow received a defective copy.

I urge Mr. Reid to call Specialty to resolve the issue. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading it and looking at all the great photos Tony managed to find for it.

I first got turned on to Ed Renehan when I saw him on C-SPAN discussing the book he wrote about the family of Theodore Roosevelt, entitled THE LION'S PRIDE. After enjoying LION'S PRIDE, I purchased and learned a lot from Renehan's beautifully written account of John Brown and the Harpers Ferry raid, entitled THE SECRET SIX. Then, although I'd never heard of John Burroughs, I moved onto this excellent biography of a fascinating but neglected figure of American history, and am glad I did. Now I will turn to some of Burroughs's own writings, if I can find them!

Ed Renehan has put together an exquisite, instructive review of the long life of John Burroughs. The old lion emerges in all his splendor in these pages -- intellectual, literate (he knew Emerson and Whitman among others), worldly (he had a mistress who was a New York psychiatrist), and above all, a sympathetic observer of the natural world. We need his perspective as never before. -- John Hanson Mitchell, author of CEREMONIAL TIME, LIVING AT THE END OF TIME, and other books

Edward Renehan has restored John Burroughs to his rightful place in the history of American literature and conservation. -- Frank Graham, Jr., author of SINCE SILENT SPRING, THE AUDUBON ARK, and other books

I am not a huge Science Fiction fan but this book had me lost in a strange new world along with the characters. The challenges they face and the great twist at the end of the book made for a book I couldn't put down! Happy Reading!

I have to tell you - I'm not a huge Sci Fi fan but The Last One is a book I could relate to and at the same time be transported from one world to quite another. The transport and ensuing challenges that the characters must face, along with the twist at the end, keep the pages turning. I hope you will enjoy this book as much as I did!

This book is so good< you can"t put it down> I am waiting for the sequel. This author has a true talent for capturing your attention. This is a great adventure.

I love this date book. I thas yummy recipies and nifty facts to brighten any day. The special article in front are wonderful my favorat in this one is Warrior Queen. I also love the Planitary Plans for the Festivals article too. And with all of the goodies you still have enough room on the day to fill in all of your adventures. I plan on getting next years date planer also.

I am enjoying this calendar. It lists very detailed moon phases and how to read them, color of the day, references on spells and energy, information on the Sabbats and Esbats, seasonal activities, and yummy recipes by Shadow Cat. I am very happy with it.

This datebook is practical & pleasureable. I bought this for myself, after buying two others, for friends. The store in my town where I buy all things magical & mystical sold out...twice. The symbols make sense, the articles are well written, down to earth, easily applied to your daily life, regardless of path & the illustrations are beautiful. Oh, and it's a calendar, to boot. I'd recommend this datebook to anyone. Well, almost anyone...

"Honk!" reminds me of those old Barbara Streisand films, "Funny Girl" and "Funny Lady," where the determined--but klutzy--performer becomes the star of the show. Here Mimi Swan drives her animal friends in the Parisian pond crazy with all her ballet practice. After watching a ballet with the pigeons through the Opera House window where she notices, "They're all pretending to be me," she does everything she can to get in, much to the agitation of the manager.

"Honk!" is a delightful introduction to ballet for youngsters, but be prepared to pronounce the proper French ballet terminology, such as "en pointe" and "demi-plied" (with an accent over the e). And while the title of the ballet is never mentioned, Pamela Duncan Edwards' sense of humor is not wasted on those who recognize it as "Swan Lake!"

I just read this enjoyable title to a class of second-graders in our school library who really enjoyed it.

A good friend of mine lent me a copy of this book to share with my little ballerinas (ages 3-6) during our summer dance camp. I must say, I probably enjoyed reading this story more than my students enjoyed listening to it. (We all loved it!) It is nice to find a book written based upon the ballet "Swan Lake" that children can relate to. Through Mimi, this book teaches with a little practice and persistance you never know what might prevail. Good life lessons that any child can benefit from. A great book!

We got this from the library by accident, and now I am going to buy it. My daughter (4 1/2) and my son (2 1/2) both loved it. Mimi's pluck is great, and her travails are hysterical. A real plus for me was that I was able to use her as an example of the benefits of practicing. (A tough concept for a 4 year old.) When Mimi's perserverence finally gets her onstage, she performs beautifully because she had practiced all of the ballet moves. "Nice shoes dear!" whispers one of the ballerinas.

HOW BUILDINGS WORK is just a great book, even more interesting than Macaulay's THE WAY THINGS WORK. Buildings are everywhere, and most everyone uses buildings of various kinds for various purposes. Yet how a building works is often a mystery. In this way, I think buildings are much like computers; most people who use them have no clue about the inner workings of them.

Edward Allen takes us through the functions of a building without going into traditional architectural theory. This book is more concerned with the needs that buildings must fulfill, and how we can fulfull them. He discusses water, waste, heat, ventilation, lighting, accoustics, energy, structure, and more, first by explaining each particular concept, and then by examining how problems can be solved with the knowledge of those concepts.

While this isn't a book on theory, neither is it a wholly practical book. That is, it won't equip you with the skills to go and build a house. But it will open your eyes to the various elements of buildings and building construction and you may think "Aha!" the next time you look at a building and observe a strange structural or design detail. You don't have to be an architecture freak to enjoy the book either. You just need to be curious.

I practice and teach architecture. This is the best book I have ever found for communicating material essential for the study of building science and architecture. The presentation style is frendly and informative. The knowledge of the subject displayed by Edward Allen is superb. I am a unashamed book-a-holic, if I could only take one book to the proverbial desert island - How Buildings Work would be it.

A practical overview of the natural order of architecture. Explains what building do (i.e. Effects of outdoor environment, human environment and the concept of shelter). Explains how a building works (i.e. Various practical functions, providing water, removing wastes, thermal comfort, HVAC, acoustics, form, structural support, fire control, building expansion, etc.).

This book sticks to the basics of what a building is all about. This is not a book about design princples and concepts (old or modern); the book stresses the practical nature of building construction/design and the interface with human beings and the environment.

Excellent book for students, architecture professors, practicing architects, builders and people just wanting to know more about the principles of architecture.

I woke up this morning thinking of this book, though it must be at least 15 years since I read it. Jerusalem Poker is a wonderful fantasy that brings together an Irish fugative gun-runner, a salesman of mummy dust and a garlic-cruching son of an international banking family in a friendly game of poker, and tells their stories by turn. I suppose the friendliness of the game is as much a fantasy as the rest of the book, which is too bad, but it's nice to indulge such fantasies every now and then.

If you like to read good, no, Great writing, you owe it to yourself to read Whittemore. Get all five of his novels and I assure you that you will not be left wanting.(Except for more.) Unfortunately, we have been robbed by death of this giant of literature. Few can match the epic humanity and scope of Edward Whittemores' characters, places and dreams. He is sorely missed even though relatively few readers have even heard of him. Hopefully the re-release of his books will at least partially remedy this literary injustice.

Old Earth Books will be reprinting this and the other four Whittemore novels. Google the web for "Edward Whittemore".

Its been over ten years since I read Desert Solitaire and I've combed through a couple of his works looking for another collection of stories that hit me with the same "between-the-eyes" impact as Desert Solitaire. Well, I found it with Journey Home. To me Edward Abbey represents the second coming of John Westly Powell. He, like Major Powell, foresaw the westward expansion of the U.S. and in the case of the desert southwest instinctively knew that water would be the limiting factor. It's important to remember that Abbey saw the huge growth up tick coming some 25 years ago. And places like Phoenix, and Vegas have exploded in size ever since. Abbey puts it all in focus with "The BLOB Comes to Arizona." "Telluride Blues - A Hatchet Job" is another case in point. But for pure fun, nothing tops Abbey's "premarital honeymoon" adventure in "Disorder and Early Sorrow." If you're a fan of Abbey and you buy the book for that story alone, you won't be disappointed.

That claim may seem a little rash in the face of Abbey's great prose work, Desert Solitaire, but this book in my view offers a more intimate and personal look at Abbey himself and provides some great insights into his formation as writing placed withi the context of the American west. One of the strengths of this work, as opposed to Desert Solitaire, is the broadness of subject matter covered. Abbey begins by recounting his life changing hitch-hiking, train jumping tour across america to the west in the summer of 1944. His style, however, is like Kerouac, but without the without the self consciousness and pretension. Through Abbey's it is nature that is the subject, his personal exploits are merely secondary/accidental; Abbey is just along for the ride. He tells of his first glimpse of the mesa's of Hopi country on the fringes of the Painted Desert as viewed from the side door of the Pullman as he drifted down the tracks towards New Mexico. Throughout, he describes his love of the desert and the creatures that live there with a vitality and gentleness uncommon in today's environmental discourse. This sensitivity is even more pronounced when compared with his verbal protests against what he sees as the destroyers of his desert paradise, such as, the miners, developers, dammers, trappers and, yes, even the tourists. "The Journey Home" closes with a surrealistic celebration of the desert as seen through the detached lens of an anonymous camera, which I consider some of his most beautiful and original writing. For all those who have read Desert Solitaire, read this to get a more intimate look of the man behind the ideas. Abbey's contradictions are what makes him so great as an American writer. He is at once an anarchist, environmentalist, desert rat, river-runner, essayist and novelist, but above all a man from pennsylvania who became entraptured by the mysteries of the desert and dedicated his life to celebrating its beauty.

Reading Abbey reminds me of lines from the Scottish poet, Hugh MacDiarmid:

I'll have no half-way house, but aye be where/ Extremes meet; it's the only way I ken/ To dodge the cursed conceit of bein' rich/ That damns the vast majority of men.

That's Abbey for you, and he has a helluva great time out there where extremes meet. Is there any other way to live?

In early September, 1939 Great Britain and France declared war on Germany when Hitler's forces invaded Poland. Little happened for months. The French remained behind the Maginot Line; the Germans were secure behind the newly completed Siegfried Line.

Eric Ambler wrote Journey into Fear during this period of relative calm. Ambler, as well as most Europeans, expected a replay of the trench warfare of WWI. Hitler's unexpected blitzkrieg across Belgium, Holland, and France was yet to come.

As with his previous story, A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939), the setting begins in Istanbul and we again briefly meet Colonel Haki, head of the Turkish secret police. Mr. Graham, a naval ordnance engineer for an English armament manufacturer, has been assisting Turkey with plans for modernizing their naval vessels. The project was tiring and Graham is anxious to return home. But German agents have other plans.

Journey into Fear would have worked effectively as a Hitchcock thriller involving a common man in an uncommon situation (and undoubtedly Ambler's stories influenced Hitchcock). Graham is unprepared to play the role of an assassin's target. He is just an engineer doing his job. His efforts to escape are often ineffective and even amateurish, but would we readers have done differently? We share his frustration and fear at his inability to prevent the noose from tightening.

For those new to Eric Ambler, I would recommend beginning with A Coffin for Dimitrios (also titled The Mask of Dimitrios) and to be followed by Journey into Fear. Both are good stories. I would rate A Coffin for Dimitrios slightly higher.

Journey into Fear was made into movie in 1942, produced by Orson Welles' Mercury company, directed by Norman Foster, and starred Joseph Cotton and Dolores Del Rio.

Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet, and Zachary Scott starred in The Mask of Dimitrios in 1944. It was directed by Jean Negulesco.

To read or not to read the great spy novels of Eric Ambler? That is the question most people ignore because they are not familiar with Mr. Ambler and his particularly talent.

Mr. Ambler has always had this problem. As Alfred Hitchcock noted in his introduction to Intrigue (an omnibus volume containing Journey into Fear, A Coffin for Dimitrios, Cause for Alarm and Background to Danger), "Perhaps this was the volume that brought Mr. Ambler to the attention of the public that make best-sellers. They had been singularly inattentive until its appearance -- I suppose only God knows why." He goes on to say, "They had not even heeded the critics, who had said, from the very first, that Mr. Ambler had given new life and fresh viewpoint to the art of the spy novel -- an art supposedly threadbare and certainly cliché-infested."

So what's new and different about Eric Ambler writing? His heroes are ordinary people with whom almost any reader can identify, which puts you in the middle of a turmoil of emotions. His bad guys are characteristic of those who did the type of dirty deeds described in the book. His angels on the sidelines are equally realistic to the historical context. The backgrounds, histories and plot lines are finely nuanced into the actual evolution of the areas and events described during that time. In a way, these books are like historical fiction, except they describe deceit and betrayal rather than love and affection. From a distance of over 60 years, we read these books today as a way to step back into the darkest days of the past and relive them vividly. You can almost see and feel a dark hand raised to strike you in the back as you read one of his book's later pages. In a way, these stories are like a more realistic version of what Dashiell Hammett wrote as applied to European espionage.

Since Mr. Ambler wrote, the thrillers have gotten much bigger in scope . . . and moved beyond reality. Usually, the future of the human race is at stake. The heroes make Superman look like a wimp in terms of their prowess and knowledge. There's usually a love interest who exceeds your vision of the ideal woman. Fast-paced violence and killing dominate most pages. There are lots of toys to describe and use in imaginative ways. The villains combine the worst faults of the 45 most undesirable people in world history and have gained enormous wealth and power while being totally crazy. The plot twists and turns like cruise missile every few seconds in unexpected directions. If you want a book like that, please do not read Mr. Ambler's work. You won't like it.

If you want to taste, touch, smell, see and hear evil from close range and move through fear to defeat it, Mr. Ambler's your man.

On to Journey into Fear. Many people rate Journey into Fear to be one of the greatest novels of physical terror and a chilling treat. Almost everyone agrees that it is one of Mr. Ambler's best novels.

The book opens with the engineer Graham boarding a ship, the Sestri Levante, along with 9 other passengers in Turkey during December 1939. Safely in his cabin, he muses on his injured hand, which "throbbed and ached abominably" from being grazed by a bullet the night before. Alone, he realizes that he has "discovered the fear of death."

He then remembers the events that led up to the hectic last 24 hours. He has been in Turkey to help England's ally prepare its defenses against potential invasion. Foreign agents have been assigned to kill him so that the defenses will not be completed before an attack occurs. The assassin shoots at him when he returns to his hotel room from an evening at a night club, and just nicks him. Colonel Haki (of A Coffin for Dimitrios) takes charge of Graham, and arranges for him to leave by ship to avoid another attempt. Air flights have been suspended due to an earthquake, and the train is too hard to guard. The colonel vouches for all of the passengers. Graham reluctantly agrees.

As the boat sails off, Graham recognizes the tenth passenger as the assassin assigned to kill him, Banat. Seized by terror and knowing he's trapped aboard the ship, he tries everything he can think of to save his life. Will his best be enough?

For those who like stories involving the psychology of chilling terror, this book will be a delight. For those who want nonstop action, this book will be boring.

Mr. Ambler has provided us with an in-depth look at the psychology of killers and their prey that reminds one of the famous short story, "The Most Dangerous Game." As Colonel Haki notes, "The real killer is not a mere brute. He may be quite sensitive." Colonel Haki's theory is that killers have "an idee fixe about the father whom they identify . . . with their own [weakness]. When they kill, they are killing their own weakness." The hunted can crash about in the underbrush and merely draw the killer, or learn to control fear and think out a solution. Ambler is clearly interested in the subject of whether the rational mind will win out over the abnormally compulsive one. Along the way, Graham also learns a great deal about himself, a sort of self analysis through terror.

In addition, Graham is introduced to Mademoiselle Josette in the night club, and must from then decide how he will deal with the temptations she presents to him as a married man. This subplot greatly strengthens the story rather than being a distraction from it.

After you finish this impressive story, please think about when you have been terrified. What did you learn from that experience? Does this story add to your understanding of what one needs to do when terribly frightened?

Since other reviewers described very accurately the plot and the tone of the novel, I skip that part. I also consider this novel a very scary novel because anyone person can be in place of Graham [the main character]. The difference between this novel and the others where an innocent man is accused or chased by the criminals or the police is that the people who are trying to kill him have a legitimate and convincing [from their point of view] reason to kill him. And this is where the suspense comes from. I consider this and the and a few of Le Carre's novels to be the best spy novels of all time.

Graham Masterton's first horror novel introduced not only a pretty memorable monster (and hysterically funny film adaptation), but also the template plot off all of Masterton's tales to follow.

"A series of increasingly paranormal events leads a character (here one Harry Eskrine) to discover that an elder god (here one evil Medicine Man) is about to return and take over/destroy the world. As time runs out a team of sorts (here a well meaning doctor and a contemporary Medicine Man) is formed to try and stop the beast's return, but they are late getting to the pass and our hero (Harry) must do personal battle with the hellish entity to save the world."

It's a formula that works beautifully, no matter which elder god monster Masterton decides to pull from the shadows of fictional legend. That Masterton has a sense of humor about all this hogwash is a bonus, making The Manitou (and others) both scary AND funny. Highly recommended.

This is Masterton's first, and still one of his best. Masterton has an absolute gift for selling the preposterous, and making it entirely believable. He does so through dialogue and characterization, and I've never seen anyone do it better.

Karen Tandy visits her old boyfriend Harry Erskine, occult mavin and low-budget tarot reader to wealthy old ladies, because of a unique problem she's developed - a tumor on her neck, which to all intents and purposes appears to be a fetus. The doctors seem unable to remove it, and Harry starts experiencing paranormal disturbances after Karen comes to him for help. He, and a few initially skeptical doctors, reluctantly come to the conclusion that Karen Tandy is harboring the fetus of a powerful centuries-old medicine man about to be reborn - whose birth would first claim the life of Karen, and after, the entire white race, with his vengeful sorcery. What's modern science to do, against such a supernatural adversary? Why, fight fire with fire, of course - get another medicine man.

It's absolutely amazing that this piece works, but it's really great. Masterton never cracks a smile (until the very end), playing the situation up for real and sucking you into it so you believe it. The characters are fabulous, especially Karen, Harry - who appeared in the semi-sequel, The Djinn - and John Singing Rock, the rival medicine man to the rescue.

Masterton's stories almost always end on a lighter note, with the deliberate inclusion of a solution that is almost a joke, but the technique works because he's cluing his audience in to the fact that he realizes how silly it all is - he just wanted to show you he could make you believe it - and the concluding laughter he provokes is welcome and sympathetic, not denigrating the finely written novel at all.

The all-star movie made from this book in the late-'70s is worth a look. It's a faithful adaptation, though it doesn't work quite as well as the book due to some severe special effects deficits and a crummy musical score.

The first Masterton HORROR genre novel I read was CHARNEL HOUSE, so I had a masterpiece as the standard. When I quickly got to THE MANITOU, I loved the supernatural thrills, and the spine-tingling power of Masterton's work.The key thing to know about Masterton's style is that he is down to earth and follows a first person narrative technique which totally takes you there. Masterton has absolutely no other peer. He acquints you with each character, and every situation is finely detailed. With this in mind, when he goes to such lengths, Masterton makes for the best and most powerful scares this side of Clive Barker, except that Masterton is very accessible. He is clearly not out to impress with how many words he can churn out, not how many technical flips he can do, masterton Achieves his power by stright forward high quality scares in a simple yet non-condescending manner.