Okay, We stayed at two places last week that were listed. The first, "Inn at Lake Joseph" was fine excepting for our reservation was changed from a light second-floor place to an extremely dark first floor room, this after an emailed confirmation for the nicer room (which was over $200 a night). The second place was "The Harbour Inne and Cottage" in Mystic. Well, this Inne is on the water but right next to the sewage treatment plant and behind the train tracks. The cottage cost $250 a night and is basically an old Quonset Hut with cedar artfully applied in a hippie manner, but we all had fun anyway. It would be good for the Kathleen and Robert Fish to go wherefore they write. We stand reluctant go anywhere listed in the book without further checking.

While the resort we chose was lovely, the ammenities listed were not offered and never had been according to the owner. Where did they obtain their information? We love to travel with our pet. Why is it impossible to find a book written by people who have actually visited these places and have an honest opinion of them?

We planned our 2,000 mile honeymoon with this book because we were picking up a puppy during the first leg of our trip. We stayed at the Stacey Mansion in Tecumseh, MI and at the Victorian Loft in Clearfield, PA. Both were wonderful stays, and welcomed our 8 week old puppy. Highly recommend this book to anyone traveling with or without a pet.

The idea for this book was a good one. Unfortunately, Cooper has no sense of humor and little writing ability. I'm afraid I abandoned the journey in Australia.

It was mere chance that my wife and I came to read this book. Previously our experience of Clemens/Twain was limited to films and television, both frequently the products of the producers rather than of Twain. We found Mr. Cooper's book to be absorbing. His narrative style is delightfully readable without inhibiting his attention to detail; in particular his comparisons between the conditions of then and now. We are indebted to this author for introducing us to the real Mark Twain.

My wife and I both enjoyed following the author following in the footsteps of Mark Twain. We could easily imagine ourselves with the author, visiting exotic and not so exotic locales, both a century ago along with Mark Twain and one hundred years later with the author. The stories about Mark Twain and the stories told by Mark Twain were both very enjoyable and gave us a flavor of the time and a feeling for the complex man. The observations about the changes and similarities in the world over the last century were fascinating.

...to make a story about a quadruple homicide tedious! The author clearly logged a lot of hours researching this book, hanging out with cops. Nonetheless, the end result is a book book that would work well as a drinking game: Take a sip everytime the author introduces another name, another bit of non-essential info. Down your mug o' beer/glass of milk everytime the author reveals his pro-cop abuse of power bias.

How disappointing.

This is not an easy book to classify. The reviews from NYT and Kirkus are not flattering but I feel those reviewers lost the plot a little. Just calling this book an "unremittingly wooden tale" suggests that it was intended as entertainment rather than as piece of scholarly research.

Robert Jackall focuses his sociologist's eye on a localized crime wave amongst Dominicans living in Washington Heights. He begins with the brutal acts of wanton murder that lie at the center of the book. From there he casts his net ever wider until the reader slowly grasps the big picture.

To someone such as me, living in Britain, this is a very alien landscape. The casual acts of extreme violence, the industrial scale drug dealing, and the regular open gunplay on the streets of the Big Apple read almost like something from a Hollywood script rejected for lack of authenticity. The title, Wild Cowboys, is well chosen both for the gang that adopted the name and for its portrayal of urban mayhem.

By the end of the book the reader has a good grasp of the complex social relationships on the block, the reasons for all the extravagant machismo, and the extraordinary difficulty facing police officers investigating such crimes. Jackall does an excellent job of tracking relationships - even if he does let his unalloyed admiration for NYPD officers shine through rather often. But, hey - those guys need all the help they can get after their recent regular bad press.

I did struggle a little in the middle of the book when I thought I was going to be overwhelmed by names of new characters constantly joining the tale. However, ends are brought together well at the conclusion when Jackall traces how a wall of criminal solidarity cracks wide open to resolve itself in a series of guilty pleas.

If the cast list of War and Peace put you off reading Tolstoy - give this one a miss!

In WILD COWBOYS mr. Jackall has captured a very accurate portrait of the world I work in every day. As a law enforcement officer working in New York City I can confirm that based on my own experiance, the confusing list of actors and aliases that some editorial reviewers have complained of are, in fact,common in complex criminal conspiracies and I feel that Mr Jackall has done a fair job of trying to present a clear picture of the Red Top crew. His portrayal of a world where lethal violence is commonplace and telling someone your real name is the highest form of trust is unequalled.A reader who wants a picture of the difficulties involved in the investigation of an actual complex criminal conspiracy rather than the neat melodramas wrapped up in an hour of television would do well to to read Wild Cowboys.

This is not his good stuff. It is marketted fluff using his name. There are some good collections, but don't buy anything by this publisher.

This series is called the "Complete Crumb" for a reason. It is a collection of his complete works. As a result, some people who enjoy some of his work might not enjoy all of his work, but different strokes for different folks. Only the most diehard fan will find 100% of Crumb's works enjoyable. However, anyone buying this series is most likely already a diehard fan, and more casual readers can try out his regular format books quite cheaply to get a taste of his style or buy a more thematic collection to play it safe. As usual, Fantagraphics has published a collection living up to its extremely high standards of quality with excellent printing and reproduction values that will be treasured by fans of the comic arts.

I was really disappointed with this book. I expected a manual or atleast a guide on how to use dreams for self improvement and self understanding. The book is a compilation of several short writings about different authors ranging from personal expericences to general tips about dreams. The one thing I
learned from this book that is useful is to record your dreams
in a journal and keep it beside your bed, the rest you're better off with other books or if you're low on cash just surf the net. You would have greater insights. Bottom line: Only buy this book if you want to hear about different experiences about dreams but don't buy it if you want to learn how to use dreams effectively and constructively. You been warned the rest is up to you.

DreamScaping is just great. Usually dream books are the opinion of one person. This book has dozens of people and they are clearly all tops in their fields. I really enjoyed this book and learned more about dreams and dreamwork in one reading than all the rest of the dream books I have read together. |Bill

I was very disappointed in this book. I got it because of the authors Sulieman Allen, LeAnne Howe, and Julian Lang, none of whom are in the book. The writers in the book are all very good, but I really wanted to read more of LeAnne Howe's work!

If you truly want to understand the spirituality of Native Americans, you must read their poetry and fiction, not some white person's weekend workshop going on a spirit quest. Native spirituality is embedded in Indian humor, reflections on nature, and the tears that have been spilled dealing with the aftermath of 300 years of persecution. I laughed and cried as I read such literary treasures as "Old Harjo" and "How Coyote Lost His Manhood." The majority of the these stories are modern, and they show us that Indian literature is richly poignant. The anthology is compiled by Paula Gunn Allen, America's Indian Poet Laureate, and is a wonderful addition Gunn Allen's other fine books.

This book would have benefited from careful proof reading. The are many examples of incorrect captions and diagrams with crucial information absent. If the publishers are not willing to at least include an errata sheet this book could be a disaster for the novice!

From pinhole cameras to modern autofocus, this is the best learning textbook available that I've seen. Easy to read and written in simple layman's terms, it can improve the pictures you take and simplify the science of light.

Although the content of this book is good, it is very out of date. Much has changed in the aviation business in the past 6 years. For example, it didn't talk about finding jobs on the internet, only that you could sign up on bulletin boards. And the sample salaries are very outdated. It did however, show me the various ways to go about getting my advanced pilot ratings and the time frame it would take to acquire them. This information is relatively still the same. This book would be helpful for someone who has no flight experience and is just at the beginning stages of becoming a pilot. But it is not helpful for someone who is already a private pilot and wants to make it a career.

I just received my copy of Combat Command and was disappointed to find that it was a combination choose your own adventure and war game story. I was hoping for another Troopers style adventure perhaps expanding on the doctrines and technology of the Mobile Infantry described in Heinlein's original novel. Unfortunately that was not to be. I gave it three stars and I will probably read it over thoroughly, but I am disappointed none the less. If there are any others out there as engaged in thinking about what the specifics of the Mobile Infantry might be drop me a line I would be interested in a discussion.