"Great Expectations" is one of the best classics ever written. Dickens' flare for writing is exquisite; wonderous; fantastic! He is looked on as a great author; rightfully so. Books such as "Great Expectations," "A Tale of Two Cities," "David Copperfield," and "A Christmas Carol" sets Dickens apart from the crowd.

At first glance the book appears as no more than another biography of an old man. This coming from a teenager who has read more biographies than she would have cared to, The Ingenious Mr.Peale is more than it seems. It is the story of the life of an aspiring artist and his journey through a time long ago when art, particularly painting, was just getting popular. But Mr.Peale is more than just an artist. You must read on to find all the compelling and dangerous journeys he undertakes. Ms. Wilson draws you in and holds your attention for most of the book. There are dry spots but that is to be expected in any biography. This adventure into the life of Mr.Peale becomes more intriguing with each chapter building upon the last. I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys Colonial America or needs a good person to do a report on. This guy's life is about as involved as any soap opera.

I read and re-read this book in high school, and then loaned it to a chemistry teacher I liked. I never got it back, and have regretted it ever since, though it was around 1984. While I am sure my tastes have changed somewhat in the intervening 16 years, I remember that the stories were very novel and inspiring, from "hard sci-fi" type stories of someone left on earth after everyone else had evacuated it, to stories with metaphysical implications about the nature of reality. It must have fulfilled some teen fantasy for me about being left alone to do as I liked with the entire world as my plaything, a fantasy I rehashed for many years after I read the book. If you find this book in some used book store somewhere, buy it!! (And don't loan it out.)

This book is a wonderful reference. I really enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it to any man who is looking to live a more spiritual life. Mr. Swindoll does a great job covering a number of topics in an very easy to read, Biblically sound, enjoyable way. Give it a try!

In a locked cage in New York I saw a heap of Charlie Abrams' reports. Abrams was the UN's urban trouble-shooter. If there was an outcry about slums, squalor and squatting in Zamistan, or anywhere, Charlie was hired to write a report. He found that the problems were caused by corrupt officials. Those officials lived the good life in New York as UN delegates, who ordered the Secretary General to make sure Abrams' report was never read, especially by journalists. wonks or students. Charlie was a liberal academic who realized the world wanted reports about problems, not solutions. He had a large team, and he owned the urban trouble-shooting profession. World-wide. When California Goveror Pat Brown decided that housing problems in California needed looking-into he hired Chalie Abrams of New York - who else? Actually, the job was farmed out. Charlie blew off a little steam by writng a sort of textbook - which apparently was never reviewed.

I first read this book in 1992 when I was on board a cruiser in "the worlds finest navy". It is an excellent source for a seaman's account of life on board one of the largest Navy warships before the advent of ironclads. Providing more details on the crew and the sailing of the ship than of the lofty political goals of the around the world voyage of USS Colombus, it is a very readable and enjoyable account of the U.S. Navy in the age of sail. Land lubbers beware! There is, of necessity, a great deal of nautical language, especially when the author describes any evolution involving the sails. However, this really lends an excellent "salty" flavor to the book. Anyone interested in the U.S. Navy "when ships were made of wood and men of steel" should "Put his helm over hard a lee and make weigh to the ordering page" for an excellent blue water adventure

I really enjoyed this story as I have others of Ingrid's. The story and the characters remain the meat of the book, instead of incidental 'buy me' sex scenes as so many sci-fi writers (or their publishers) seem to feel are required. There are some good twists to the well-worn setting of a post-apocalyptic world (e.g. the mutations being part of purposeful experiments as opposed to random consequences of the nuclear winter) as well as very interesting character development and story line. However, the ending seemed a little rushed (thus the four stars). Though there were obvious strings left dangling for its sequel(s), too many subplot conflicts were resolved quickly and neatly. Still a great 'read' and I plan to read the sequel!

This book is MUCH better than the first. He references most of the projects in this book. Many of the projects in this book are actually usable.

I think this book was very good. The author wrote this book very nicey. The story is about a man in Vietnam during the war. He was sargent in a infantry outfit. In the book they go on many missions. He talks about all the different ways the war has change his life. I think the book is for older people because of some words that are said, but other then that it is written very nicely. I would suggest people that like to read about wars and battles to read this book.

This book contains a wealth of facts, compiled during Darwin's life on matters which were highly controversial at the time. His prior book, Origin of Species, provided the scientific framework for thinking that mankind might, in some way, be a descent from the animal kingdom. For personal reasons, there was some doubt, at the time, whether it would ever be diplomatic to admit such a thing to the human beings themselves, right in their very faces. The title which Darwin placed on this book showed how easy it would be to imagine that the fundamental distinction was closely linked to the question of whom an individual might choose to have sex with, given the great parallels to a wide range of behavior in the animal kingdom. I have looked in this book for evidence that philosophy is a set of ideas adopted mainly in relation to sex, but the philosophy of the fittest for that kind of activity seems to be a bit more modern than Darwin. On a scale of stillborn to born with a brain, Darwin was definitely born with a brain, but it didn't make him crazy enough to suggest that which we may imply ourselves. There are a lot of facts in this book, compared to the number of suggestions, but it shows a considerable amount of thought.

Although there are many racist and sexist ideas, this was the climate in which Darwin wrote this book. Many of the details are grossly in error, but the book was written over 100 years ago. Many advances in knowledge have been made since then. The basic premise, and the fact that Darwin looked to the African apes as a point of origin for humans is the real beauty of the book. Darwin is many times falsely blamed for "Social Darwinism" which he never proposed nor advocated. Just because someone uses Darwin as a justification for negative ideas and or actions, does not mean that Darwin should be vilified for it. Descent was not a social commentary, but a scientific treatise, and should be treated as such.

A beautiful, historical account of a great naturalist's work. It is important to keep in mind that the book was written 129 years ago, though, since the use of the language would not be considered "politically correct" nowadays.

Darwin was someone "who viewed life on earth in terms of an evolutionary framework grounded in science and reason" (taken from the Introduction by H. James Birx). It is difficult to believe that an educated person would misinterpret his ideas as being sexist or racist. Only the ignorant (or a creationist in disguise) would attempt to discredit the work of one of the greatest minds of all times by giving it the wrong label. Reading Daniel C. Dennett's "Darwin Dangerous Idea" (highly recommended) might help to put it in the right context.