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Book reviews for "Marks,_John_David" sorted by average review score:

Building for Air Travel: Architecture and Design for Commercial Aviation
Published in Hardcover by Prestel USA (1996)
Authors: John Zukowsky, Koos Bosma, Mark J. Bouman, David Brodherson, Robert Bruegmann, Wood Lockhart, Leonard Rau, Wolfgang Voigt, and Kisho Kurokawa Gallery of Architecture
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A top-flight book of a complex subject
A truly comprehensive book, enjoyable to both read and look through. It covers the history and scope of air travel, including airport and aircraft design, corporate identities and marketing in a thorough, extensive and compelling manner. It is distinctive in how it successfully melds a global scope and a focused perspective.

Excellent
This book is an excellent overview of the history of civil aviation, terminals, and airfields. The attention to detail, both photographic and linguistic, is marvelous and provides a wonderful account of airport design. The faithfulness to the original traveling photo exhibit allows readers the opportunity to experience the cultural presentation alongside the historical reconstruction. All in all, a wonderful book for any aviation fan.

Building for Air Travel: A must have!
BfAT is one of the most intriguing books you'll find about airports. It covers a lot of airport design aspects- but it is not an engineering book. In other words, you won't have to face boring charts and graphs. All you get is interseting texts, divided into differnt issues, and many rare and beautiful pictures. If you really like airports- you should have this book.


The Art of Playing Mythos the Cthulhu Collectable Card Game: A Tome of Arcane Knowledge
Published in Paperback by Chaosium (2003)
Authors: Scott David Aniolowski, Charlie Krank, Eric Rowe, Lynn Willis, Salvatore Abbinanti, Chris Adams, Thomas Garrett Adams, Stephen Barnwell, Mike Blanchard, and Mark J. Ferrari
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A Guide to Playing the Mythos Card Game
This book contains miscellaneous information about the Mythos collectible card game. It contains: the rules of the game, a FAQ, a short play and deck construction guide, a sort of designer's notes on the game, background information on selected cards, rules for solitaire play and creating your own adventures, a complete spoiler list for the limited edition of the game and lists of card attributes and requirements for completing adventures.

As a collector and player of the game, I found the designer's notes on the history of the game and the design philosophy to be especially interesting. Also useful to me are the short notes on the background of selected cards and the rules for creating and scoring your own adventures. The pictures of the selected cards are black & white with a paragraph of background info. Buyers should also note that there is an updated version of the rules of the game at the Chaosium website.


The Breath of Parted Lips: Voices from the Robert Frost Place
Published in Paperback by CavanKerry Press (01 September, 2000)
Authors: Mark Cox, Donald Hall, Sharon Bryan, Robert Cording, John Engels, David Graham, Mark Halliday, Dennis Johnson, William Matthews, and Gary Miranda
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A remarkable anthology of twenty-four poets
The Franconia, New Hampshire, farm of the American poet Robert Frost was turned into a museum and center for poetry and the arts in 1976. From that time, "The Frost Place" has been annual event wherein an emerging poet has been invited to spend the summer living in the house where Frost once lived and wrote some of his greatest poetry. The Breath Of Parted Lips: Voices From The Robert Frost Place, Volume One is a remarkable anthology of twenty-four poets, each of whom won that honor of a summer's residency and document the success of the original concept as a means of generating outstanding poetry while nurturing the poet's muse in the rooms and views that were once the inspiration of the great Robert Frost. Poem At 40: Windwashed--as if standing next to the highway,/a truck long as the century sweeping by,/all things at last bent in the same direction./An opening, as if all/the clothes my ancestors ever wore/dry on lines in my body:/wind-whipped, parallel with the ground,/some sleeves sharing a single clothespin/so that they seem to clasp hands,/seem to hold on.//And now that I can see/up the old women's dresses,/there's nothing but a filtered light./And now that their men's smoky breath/has traversed the earth,/it has nothing to do with them./And now that awkward, fat tears of rain/slap the window screen,/now that I'm naked too,/cupping my genitals, tracing with a pencil/the blue vein between my collar bone and breast,/I'll go to sleep when I'm told.


Dating 911
Published in Audio Cassette by Deseret Books (1998)
Authors: John Bytheway, Mark Callister, and David Hyde
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Forget the "Let's watch a video" date idea.
Dating 911 is a (fictional) radio program with John, Mark, and Big Wave Dave speaking with youth about how to make their dates more fun, while still keeping them inexpensive, and in tune with the Lord's standards. The best parts are when Big Wave Dave goes to the scene of bad dates, and fixes them so they become fun and exciting.


First Facts About the Middle Ages (First Facts Series)
Published in School & Library Binding by Peter Bedrick Books (1997)
Authors: Fiona MacDonald, John James, Gerald Wood, Mark Bergin, and David Salariya
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Awesome book when you don't want to read alot
I'm 15 and had to critique a book having to do with the Middle Ages. While other people chose The Prince and bigger books I sorta cheated and got this 30 page book with pictures. It had lots of informative facts and little cartoon drawings that helped me better understand the info. It took me 20 minutes to read so it was really easy but I actually learned alot.


Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples
Published in Unknown Binding by Wadsworth Publishing Company (1996)
Authors: Jeff Todd Titon, Linda Fujie, David Locke, David P. McAllester, David B. Reck, John M. Schechter, Mark Slobin, and R. Anderson Sutton
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Fascinating and scholarly!!!
This book is wonder and a treasure trove of musical ideas from around the planet. For example, how many music historians are aware of how the Native Amercians used song to identify each of their tribes?
Mr. Titon has provided very interesting facts about music making from many world cultures. He has also produced a 3 CD sound compilation of musical examples for this book that is indispensible.
If you're tired of today's bland market of music that has sadly squashed historical music making of any kind, this book is an excellent journey into the world's most basic roots of song and music.


Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies (Henry Holt Reference Book)
Published in Paperback by Owlet (1996)
Authors: Mark C. Carnes, Ted Mico, John Miller-Monzon, and David Rubel
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The Beauty of the Cinema
This book is commendable for its conception but is flawed in its premise and execution. The problem is there are too many fingers in the pie. I would have liked to read about one historian's perspective on all the films reviewed. Instead, each film was addressed and compared to historical recollections by a different author. There is no uniformity of thought or perspective. For instance, I am sure that if Stephen Ambrose had reviewed TORA! TORA! TORA! he may have seen that film in a much more favorable light than did Akira Iriye. One can speculate to infinitum. It is possible to find and read countless books on a given historical topic. The point I am making is that each author has the ability to bring different perspectives or interpretations of historical record that may result in different conclusions of events or more importantly ideas. If you were to ask an auditorium full of historians what was the most important factor contributing to the start of the Civil War I am sure you may get at least five good answers. Perhaps the idea that a film conveys is more important than the accuracy of each step that led to that idea. I think that SPARTACUS is an important film not as a representation of a historical record but for the idea that the inherent rights of human beings to live free is a notion worth dying for. Kirk Douglas as SPARTACUS stated something to the effect that he would never stand by and see two men battle and die just for the amusement of other men. There is something very noble about that statement and to the visuals on the screen that precipitated that assertion. To touch a chord of emotion from the audience is really the magic of the cinema. I never once ever thought that the purpose of the cinema was to teach history. For the audience the main purpose of the cinema is to be entertained and if you take it a few more steps perhaps come away with an idea or spark of imagination. That's the beauty of the cinema.

Good but Not Perfect
This is a very interesting and useful book but I don't exactly like the overall point of view that it takes on motion pictures. It takes many historically based films and critiques them by comparing what is on the screen to actual historical events. Each chapter is devoted to one film (in most instances) and is critiqued by a different authority. The one constant that I see running throughout this book is that history does not make for good motion pictures if you are gazing through the eyes of the historian. That disturbs me. Motion pictures are a business as well a legitimate art form. If a historically based movie gets your interest as well as entertains you then perhaps that movie has fulfilled its purpose. The movie is the catalyst. It is up to you to dig up the history book and see what was recorded. And if you dig up a second history book it is very possible that those same events may be recorded slightly different. I liked the critique by Sean Wilentz on "THE BUCCANEER: Two Films" where he states that they stand somewhere in between fact and fiction. Akira Iriye is too critical of TORA! TORA! TORA! When you recall that particular motion picture, that's the one that stands out as a film that tried to get all the facts correct. Americans and Japanese respective of their home countries directed it. Iriye's criticism is almost ludicrous trying to state that inflections in the voices of some of the actors actually distorted the true meaning of their words. In light of PEARL HARBOR (2001) Akira Iriye is way off mark. Marshall De Bruhl's words about THE ALAMO are redundant and superficial. THE ALAMO was John Wayne's screen fulfillment of the legend. THE ALAMO is a great American film and it perpetuates that legend till this day. I liked what Stephen E. Ambrose had to say about THE LONGEST DAY. Ambrose recognizes that half the duality of filmmaking is a business. His approach and comments are very insightful and well written. As seen by James H. McPerson GLORY comes off best. It deserves it. "PAST IMPERFECT" is a good book but I just wish there were more input from the filmmakers.

Can you properly portray history in the movies?
When you're both a student of history and a movie buff, as I am, it can be difficult to sit and watch a film that presumes to have an accurate historical context without fighting the urge to evaluate it and pick holes in it. And I'm not the only one. This is a collection of analytical essays, most of high quality, by experts (not all of them historians) analyzing and critiquing individual films: Stephen Jay Gould on _Jurassic Park,_ Antonia Fraser on _Anne of the Thousand Days,_ Thomas Fleming on _1776,_ Dee Brown on _Fort Apache,_ William Manchester on _Young Winston,_ and numerous others. Sticking to those films about which I have some knowledge of the historical events they claim to portray, most are right on the money. James McPherson, commenting on _Glory,_ points out that while the context and general atmosphere are very well done, and the costuming and so on are exact, there are still deliberate historical errors for the sake of drama; none of the soldiers in Col. Shaw's 54th Massachusetts were ex-slaves, for instance, all of them having been recruited from among the state's free black population. And Catherine Clinton does an excellent job taking the wind out of _Gone with the Wind_'s mythical sails. There's a great deal of good information and criticism here and it's a compliment to say that nearly any of these essays will start an argument.


The Ancient Egyptians
Published in Hardcover by Peter Bedrick Books (09 March, 2002)
Authors: Jacqueline Morley, Mark Bergin, John James, and David Salariya
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A Small Book With Big Information
The book is small but is packed full of a lot of useful information. Kerr describes diverse aspects of the ancient Egyptian civilization featuring such topics as the division and farming of their land, the typical Egyptian family life, their houses and homes, the pharaoh's duties and his court, entertainment, religious beliefs including the afterlife, government and war, and the last Egyptian pyramid built. The inclusion of a concise description of the life of men, women, and children was a nice aspect of the book. Kerr explains that two of the main resons we know so much about life in ancient Egypt is because of the ancient Egyptian artifacts and writings of people who traveled through Egypt at that time. She also briefly explains techniques modern archaeologists use to try to preserve what remains of ancient Egypt. All of the colorful illustrations are clearly explained with small captions and complement the information presented in the easy to read text. The table of contents at the beginning and a glossary of fourteen useful words along with an index at the end are all included in the book. These useful tools help the reader to efficiently and effectively navigate the book. This is a great book with a wide variety of useful information and is written concisely using easy to read language. It would be an excellent resource to help students begin their studies about the ancient Egyptian civilization and possibly interest them into exploring more.


Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, the Man Who Killed John Lennon
Published in Hardcover by Villard Books (1992)
Authors: Jack Jones and Jack Jonse
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sick joke
i was just lookin for a lennon book when i came across this book ive never read it i never will how the hell can some of u lot give this 5 stars? tha chapman done it for publicity and some of you are falling for it!even if your not lennon fans why are you so interested in this scum? ive heard he has posters on his prison wall saying i killed john lennon he is proud of it! and you silly people are interested in this killer? may i ask why?to read about him and to say his name is giving him the fame he wants dont do it!!and the authour if he thinks this is some sort of a good idea to give publicity to that scum well he is one <@!(* thank you.

A Not a Nobody Book
It hurts me a bit to read that Chapman was a nice guy, appreciated for some of the things he did. A picture even shows him playing a "guitar during a meeting of his prayer group from the Chapel Woods Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia." Someone who was six years old when Chapman shot John Lennon in 1980 would have been 18 in 1992, when this book was published, and decided to remain a nobody in American society, could have been 25 in 1999 and taken part in the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. A real nobody wouldn't have known that the bombs were falling on an embassy, and nobody would really be held responsible, either, because everybody wants to maintain their rights to be nobody. The frightening thing about this book is its consideration of options for anyone to be somebody in a global society which encompasses millions of people in the United States and billions in the world. There are pages in this book about drug use. Is this book the reason that so many more people in our prisons are serving time for drugs than back in 1980, when some people were surprised that John Lennon was shot?

Excellent
It was entertaining and extremely informative. I really cannot say enough good things about this book. What I love is that most text in the book is dialogue taken from interviews with MD Chapman, and you really get a chance to know him through his words. Terrific. You see an emotional, logical, artistic, and human side of him.


Women in Love (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
Published in Paperback by Penguin USA (Paper) (1995)
Authors: D. H. Lawrence, David Farmer, Lindeth Vasey, John Worthen, Mark Kinkead-Weeks, and Mark Kinkead-Weekes
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Way too much theatre and not nearly enough play!
I was tricked into reading this book due to it being a well known classic and from a desire to read a good romantic story which I thought it would be. Well, um, IT'S NOT.

I like to read books that draw me right into the story and then a couple of hours later you notice you are turning page 250 when the last you recall touching was page 97. This book was not like that at all. Unfortunately, I was always conscious that I was reading print from a page but kept reminding myself that a book this famous had to get good sooner or later. Far from not being able to put it down, I found myself often looking to see what page I was on and if I had read my quota for the night. It never did get good and when I had finished the last sentence I felt frustrated and cheated.

I worried that my lack of appreciation for this classic must be due to my inferior intellect and that I must after all be just some obtuse hill-billy. Thankfully I found that several people who had offered their reviews here shared my opinions for this book and I was quite relieved that I was not alone in my reaction.

For me, Lawrence's supremely descriptive, possibly brilliant (although I really wouldn't know) and flowery writing is all for not because of selfish, unlikeable and unbelieveable characters who don't really do anything. At the very end, the only care I had for anyone in the book was poor little Winifred. I hope she was alright.

In conclusion may I suggest that you pass on Women in Love and read instead Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. It is so much more a wonderful book about believable, likeable, women in love.

Women In Love
Women In Love written by D.H. Lawrence is not as explicit as his other novels, and instead of concentrating on sexual content, Lawrence chose to depict the relationships between two sisters and their boyfriends. D.H. Lawrence goes deep into the minds of human beings and reveals the real secrets of emotions, feelings, and thoughts that people usually hide inside. Statements such as "The Dead Should Bury the Dead" illustrate the content of living and dying, which the book frequently discusses. The book is difficult and long to read, but it opens up the reader's mind and forces the reader to reavaluate the content of his or her relationship with other people.

One of the best I 've ever read
First of all, I have to own you up that reading Women in Love was one of the best experiences on books that I ever had. I know it's not Lawurence's masterpiece, but I touched me very deep. Everthing seems to wok in this book, from the characters to their enviroment.

It seems to me that Lawrence took daily events and showed them the way they are: unglamourised. He showed me what love and support seem to be. It's not about being happy all the time or that kind of love that happens only in movies. The book deals with the ordinary love, the one that normal human beings have the chance to face.

Following the experience of both couples made me see how different love can be and it is the still the same. I could perfectly understand all the worries and anxiets Gudrun had. And I think Gerald and she made quite a couple! Yet Birkin and Ursula look very nice together since the begin. Their love is not as 'wild' as the other couple's, but it is very strong indeed.

When the book was over I got down because I had to let them go. Following the lives of such people for a few days made quite an impression on me. Even though they may not be XXI century people like us, they have the same essence we do.

All in all, I know this review may read very emotive and personal, but this is a book that I couldn't apart in other to write about


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