Othniel Charles Marsh died in the last year of the nineteenth century. The names coined by Marsh for his dinosaur discoveries are better known than his own: Brontosaurus, Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Triceratops, to name just a few. Before death intervened, Marsh had planned a series of richly illustrated monographs. The illustrations were prepared, but the monographs on the Sauropoda and Stegosauria were never written.

In 1966, the beautiful but all-but-forgotten illustrations were unveiled by John Ostrom and John McIntosh in the book Marsh's Dinosaurs. Now this wonderful book is again available, with a new introduction by Peter Dodson, and an updated history including the exploration and research that have taken place during the thirty-plus years since the book was originally published.

Marsh's Dinosaurs is not your garden variety dinosaur book. There are no color plates or discussions of the latest controversies. This book focuses on the fossilized bones of dinosaurs that lived near the end of the Jurassic period in North America, and which were discovered in spectacular abundance at a place called Como Bluff, which paleontologist Robert Bakker calls "the Real Jurassic Park."

If you want to see what Stegosaurus plates look like, or the vertebrae of Apatosaurus, the bones are here, with detail that few photographs can capture. Here, too, is the large camarasaurid cranium that Marsh selected as the skull for Brontosaurus. Except for trace fossils such as trackways and a few skin impressions, our notions of what the dinosaurs looked like and how they lived are built on bones, and the bones are here to behold. For anyone whose interest in dinosaurs has gone beyond the popular summary, and who wants to go further than plaster and resin restorations in museum displays, this book is for you.

The illustrations are preceded by a history of the discovery and working of this paleontological gold mine. This section of the book includes watercolors by Arthur Lakes, whose sketches, diaries, and correspondence with Professor Marsh provide an eyewitness account of the thrill of discovery at Como Bluff, as well as the hardships involved, and the inevitable conflicts of the colorful personalities.

For those with an interest in art, the charming watercolors of Lakes provide an interesting counterpoint to the magnificent lithographs. Here we have the human history of discovering dinosaurs, over one hundred years ago, and the history of the dinosaurs themselves, over one hundred million years ago.

I heartily recommend this book to the dinosaur enthusiast. But for those of us with a passion for the denizens of the Jurassic Morrison Formation, this book is a necessity!

A Stimulating debate that gets to the heart of the dispute between modernists and postmodernists. Some clarity in an often foggy dispute.

Getting Stakeholders involved

The following review is from ISO9000 + ISO14000 News 4/1999.

The name of John Marsh should be familiar to readers of ISO 9000 + ISO 14000 News since he contributed the article in our March/April1999 issue on the ISO Technical Report 10014, Guidelines for managing the economic effects of quality. In addition to his participation within ISO/TC 176 as convenor of the working group that produced the above report, he runs TQP, an international training and consultancy company, which specializes in involving stakeholders in process improvement.

As such, he is obviously the right man in the right place at the right time, since the process approach to organizations, continual improvement and stakeholders receive considerable emphasis in the "new, improved" ISO 9000:2000 revisions currently under development (although in the standards, the term "interested parties" replaces "stakeholders", since the latter is difficult to translate into many languages).

In view of the above. John Marsh is also the author of the right book at the right lime: A Stake in Tomorrow: World Class Lessons in Business Partnerships').

From making profits by satisfying customers, more progressive businesses are moving to a new, more holistic mindset, which has no doubt been germinated by environmental issues, rising populations and scarce resources. This mindset places the organi-zation in a wider context. For what has been called elsewhere "a license to operate", it needs to take account not just of customers and shareholders - and, if they are lucky, employees - but also of its suppliers, the community, legislators, and, indeed, society as a whole.

'The big picture' For John Marsh, this recognition of stakeholders in general takes place as organizations of all types become more aware of "the big picture", under the growing influence of systems thinking.

'The challenge for organizational leaders is how to involve these diverse groups, with differing wants and needs, through the planning, delivery and review of products and services.' In this book, leaders will find many practical ideas on how to do so.

One of the main methodologies described is the application of process analysis to organizations to bring out their purpose, customers, core activity, partners and controllers. Examples are given of process analysis applied to an organization, a community, a crime prevention campaign, and the provision of a new hospital.

The author describes methods of involving stakeholders in strategic planning and in process improvement then presents various tools and techniques for specific uses.

Lastly, John Marsh brings it all together with actual examples of stakeholding drawn from both private (waste management, hotels, retailing) and public (schools, defence support, hospitals) sectors.

To sum up, A Stake in Tomorrow is a fascinating book in its own right and also provides insight into one of the strands of thought which have been inputted into the new versions of ISO 9000 currently under development.

This wonderful and amazing book should delight anyone who has any interest in China, and perhaps even a great many who don't, so long as they have at least a sense of humor and a sense of adventure. Here, in relatively short, action-packed chapters, a large cast of well-defined characters, with nicknames such as "Iron Ox" (a.k.a. "The Black Whirlwind"), "Bee Sting Huang," "The Three-Inch Poxy Midget," "Short-Arse Wang," "The Magic Messenger," and "The Opportune Rain," to name a few, hurry you irresistibly along through stories of heroic combat, political intrigue, judicial corruption, last-minute rescue from execution, drunken brawling, adultery, revenge, murder, cannibalism, you name it. The book amuses your sense of adventure in a subtler sense, too, in that you get caught up in time travel and experiences of cultural difference and strangeness that make this narrative unlike anything you've ever read before--really one of a kind.

In terms of style, for example, the translators have worked hard to give you a feel for how perhaps this "novel," a vast collection of diverse tales, was originally derived from or always close to conventions of oral storytelling: characters are dismissed from the scene with verbal formulas like "we say no more of him"; the audience is sometimes primed for action, like a barehanded fight with a tiger, with the comment, "it's slow in the telling, but it happens in a flash"; and the storyteller/narrator sometimes draws himself up to deliver a short, often humorous poem to commemorate or point the moral to what you feel must have been a familiar tale to the audience. The greatest triumph of the book for me, though, in terms of style--and it's certainly related to this matter of oral storytelling--is that the characters, all of whom have plenty to say out loud, speak in distinct styles or accents: colloquial and even slangy for low-life types and the rough-and-ready sense of manliness many of the characters aim to project, but sometimes almost comically formal and elaborate in scenes where characters meet and strive to outdo each other in politeness and a sense of honor.

In terms of what's happening, too, you are carried away into a wonderfully unfamiliar world. Take this matter of the cannibalism, for example, which has often been suppressed in earlier translations of this ancient saga. In their little shop of horrors, the inn by the great tree at Crossways Rise, Zhang Qing, "The Gardener," and his wife, Sister Sun, "The Ogress," drug the wine of hapless travelers, chop up the hefty ones for sale as buffalo meat to people thereabouts, and "turn the skinny ones into mince meat for pie fillings." When Wu Song, one of the heroes of the tale, rescues himself from an attempt by "The Ogress" to carve him up, "The Gardener" realizes they're dealing with someone special, someone with The Right Stuff, Chinese style: he bows to Wu Song, prostrates himself and loudly regrets that his wife "couldn't see what was staring her in the face." The hero, "seeing the husband's manner was so correct," not only releases "The Ogress," but laughs it up with both of them and joins them in a feast (not on mince pies). "The Gardener," to make conversation, says he has to be careful about whom he kills. If he and his wife were "to meddle with"--that is, make mince pies out of--any of the young women who make their living as traveling performers, for example, word might get out and someone "might proclaim it from the stage" that he's no "gentleman." Wow, what an insult! And what an injustice! The incongruities here seem to me wild and funny. But the underlying truth, I suppose, is that we're traveling, as readers, through a world whose values differ from our own in ways that often amuse, sometimes shock, and (at least for me) always fascinate. "Murder one can forgive," as one of the heroes elsewhere says, proverbially, expecting everyone to nod in agreement, "but not an insult to one's feelings." Oh? How would that play in Peoria?

Some readers of this review may be put off by observing that the present volume is the second in John and Alex Dent-Young's on-going translation of this classical Chinese narrative, the SHUIHU ZHUAN, more generally known in the West as THE WATER MARGIN. The first volume, which they title THE BROKEN SEALS, is also in print with the same publisher, of course; but the important thing to say in the present context is that this second volume stands very well on its own, and in fact contains some of the most famous and arresting episodes. For "episodic" is the right way to describe it, I think. The book as a whole (I'm waiting for their translation of the rest of it!) seems to have a large, wave-like rhythm, as these ambiguous outlaw-heroes, outcasts in a divinely inspired but humanly corrupt imperial system, full of toadies, hypocrites and cowardly cheats, gradually converge on a mountain stronghold near the marshes of Mt. Liang. But the real fascination and life of the book for me are more immediate: they lie in the moment-by-moment rendering of the characters and their actions, narrated in this new translation with unmatched vigor, humor and colloquial ease; the insights you get into daily life of Chinese peddlers, soldiers, petty bureaucrats, bawds, outcasts, gentlemen, and countless others; and (as I've suggested) the really absorbing experience you get of seeing what very different things people from another culture--and not only, I suspect, in days gone by--cherish or take for granted. Treat yourself to a classic but completely novel novel!

In 1216 England, Nigel Fuller roughs his stepdaughter Miriel Weaver for her disobedience and disrespect. Wanting her out of his life, he dispatches Miriel to live in the St. Catherine's-in-the-Marsh nunnery.

Nicholas de Caen is a prisoner due to King John's false accusations of treason. The monarch destroyed Nicholas' family before branding him a traitor to the crown.

Nicholas escapes and finds refugee at St. Catherine's. Later he helps Miriel run away from her unhappy captivity among the Sisters. Although Miriel and Nicholas are attracted to one another, they depart on bad terms. She trusts no male and he is a wanted soldier of fortune with no name or future. Over the next few years, aristocratic roadblocks continue to insure no relationship forms between them.

THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER is an entertaining medieval romance that highlights the abuse of power that dictates much of the early thirteenth century noble lifestyle. Miriel is a brave woman, but her gender leaves her a victim as men make decisions that she dislikes for her. Nicholas is also impotent to help because he too is a casualty of the monarchy. Fans who enjoy an insiders look at a bygone era will gain immense pleasure from Elizabeth Chadwick's wonderful historical romance.

Harriet Klausner

English author Chadwick is the only author I can think of who manages to blend historical fiction with historical romance seamlessly from start to finish. I liked this novel better than her prior one, "The Love Knot", because this one gets to the story's central conflicts faster. Set in medieval times, like all of Chadwick's novels, Miriel and Nicholas are the lead characters, brought together when she nurses him to health in the convent where she is a novitiate. Miriel escapes from the convent and follows Nicholas, only to steal part of the treasure he recovered in the marsh so she can make a new life for herself. This sets the stage for a very rich tapestry of medieval life to unfold, which has a full complement of characters including various people to whom Miriel and Nicholas are married. The central villain is Miriel's second husband, Robert, whose evil acts as a wealthy merchant were common in this time period. Nicholas and Miriel come together and apart throughout the novel. For those readers who don't like lead character separations, this might be a problem but it was not one for me. If you like this novel, also read Chadwick's "The Conquest" and "Daughters Of The Grail," other five star novels by her.

Another excellent medieval historical from Elizabeth Chadwick! Her books never disappoint the reader. This is the sixth novel I've read by this author and it is one of her best yet!

This story involves the lives of Miriel Weaver and Nicholas de Caen. Miriel is physically and verbally abused by her stepfather continually until he decides against her will to dump her in a nunnery. She eventually escapes with the help of Nicholas whom she had nursed back to health in the convent infirmary. He had been a prisoner with King John's baggage train in 1216 carrying all the royal regalia until the fatal tide and quicksand ends everyone's life but his own. He then takes a chest unknowingly containing a fortune in silver and Queen Matthilda's crown.

Literally down the road, Miriel parts Nicholas' company with some of the silver and Queen Mathilda's crown. He finds this out and becomes enraged and vows to one day get revenge. However, for much of the story they live out different lives with different people until they fatefully meet again.

I loved the detail and descriptions particularily concerning the wool trade, especially the manufacturing of the different types of wool fabrics and colors. This book had me turning pages until 2 a.m. anticipating what would happen next. A very exciting read!

The book promotes an awareness of the salt marsh ... from glacial history to the hunting of doughbirds (Eskimo curlews). Though salt marshes don't have high species diversity, the Teal's cover the range from Spartina and Juncus plants (and sawgrass in Florida), to the economically important Blue Crabs, to annoying insects like greenheads and deerfly. From the salt marsh detritus, is the nutrient soup that becomes the basis for the shrimp and mullet we love to eat.

The Teals also offer conservation ideas. When the book was written (1969), DDT was not yet banned. The chapter on mosquito control is enlightening ... and with the occurrence of West Nile Virus, there will be more pressure on mosquito control, so one hopes it is balanced. The history of marsh destruction in Boston is illustrative. The good news is that in the 1950's the rate of coastal wetland loss was about 46,000 acres/year, but today it is around 20-25,000 per year. Unfortunately pressures of coastal development continue. This book helps me feel lucky to live near Florida "Big Bend" with large stretches of Gulf salt marsh from the Ochlockonee River south to St. Petersburg.

Sometime between 1970 and 1975, my family and I spent a week with friends who lived in Falmouth, on Cape Cod. Because one of our friends was a Marine Biologist at Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institute and worked with John Teal, one of the authors of this book, we were lucky enough to attend a Fourth of July Celebration at the Teal's farm.

John and Mildred had purchased a colonial era Cape Cod farmhouse and the hundred or so acres that surrounded it. Other than hot and cold running water, electricity and natural gas, and a slightly modernized kitchen (i.e. the stove used gas rather than burning wood), the house looked much as it had when it had been built.

As might be expected, the Teal's Independence Day celebration was ecologically sound and reflected the era in which the farmhouse was built. The children got rides on one of the more tame domesticated goats, the women competed in tossing a rolling pin for distance and accuracy, and the men tried out old fashioned farm implements. The food was prepared from hand gathered and harvested local foods. For instance we had mussel salad made from mussels that I had help gather the day before. There were cranberries from one of the Cape's cranberry bogs, and quahogs and oysters dug up just long enough ago to let them naturally filter out the sand.

The point of all this is that the Teals believed in and acted on the ecological and preservationist principles that they espoused in their book. In LIFE AND DEATH OF THE SALT MARSH, they do a wonderful job of discussing how a salt marsh is formed, how long it takes, and how ecologically fragile it is. They make the point that man can, and does, destroy in a decade or less what it has taken nature centuries to build. Since, as they point out, the salt marshes play an important part in nature's food chain and ultimately in the life cycles of many species, when we damage or destroy these natural habitats, the consequences can be disastrous.

If we all could live a little more like the Teals were living, our children and their children might still have some of nature's bounty left to enjoy in future years.

It is my opinion that this is one of those books that ought to be compulsory reading for every thinking human being.

I often visit salt marshes in my kayak in the Cape May (NJ) area. This book has enhanced my enjoyment by allowing me to more fully understand my experiences in the wetlands. Read the book and get on your kayak!

The single most arcane book I have ever encountered, and a delight to all scholars of the English language. The degree to which our hertiage is maritime is made clear in this precise examination of how the littoral of the American east coast influenced the development of how we speak.

If you frequent the backwaters solo in shallow draft unmotorized craft, Stilgoe's views play right along with your wanderings. His expansions on physical entities as diverse as the "guzzles" for which you never had a word, to the lesson in full appreciation of "chartreuse" touches here and there, through the care and use of "sea marks" in places and times present and gone are just the kind of thinking you tend to do during a sixteen thousand stroke day in the marshes. New territory in a favorite place.

Margaret Mitchell's own love story accentuated the movie. She was able to create such a romantic story because she was leading such a romantic life herself.

I felt that Margaret Mitchell's family was part of my own, and hated to see the book end. Am reading it now for the second time. Would love to communicate with Marianne Walker, direct. Just finished reading Darden Asbury Pyron's SOUTHERN DAUGHTER and it has made me so MAD. There are so many contradictions in it with the Walker version and I choose to believe Marianne! As you can see, I am a devoted Margaret Mitchell fan and have tried to read every thing I could throughout the years. I look forward to learning if Marianne Walker is available to the "general" public, like me.

I have been a GWTW fan since I was 12. This book is a must for GWTW fans and anyone else as well. This book gives us a peek into the writing process and what instant fame and forture can do to a person. It also tells us of interesting facts about Margaret Mitchell, her husband John, and their families. This story is told partially through letters saved by friends and families. A wonderful insight to that era of GWTW's initial popularity.

Overall, this book was helpful. I discovered about a dozen distance learning MBA programs that I wasn't aware of. However, I was disappointed with a couple of inaccuracies in the book. It listed several MBA programs as being accredited by the AACSB when in fact they weren't. Also, at the back of the book they give a url that you can check for mistakes and outdated information published in the book. The link provided is not active.

With that said, I would still recommend this book. It was helpful in pointing me to several MBA programs I didn't know about before.

My review is based on last year's guide. Bear's Guide to the Best MBA Programs by DL was my guidepost during my selection process. The first five chapters are the best, especially the sections on vital factors in selecting a program and the section on accreditation. This information made me a much better consumer. I probably annoyed more than one admissions counselor with my questions! The detailed information on each school is only fair -- make sure you go to the schools web site instead. John Bear really cares about this topic and often posts to DL forums, so in my opinion you can trust him. He even responded to a personal email with some good advice. After exhaustive analysis, and marking up Bear's Guide from cover to cover, I choose a particular European MBA DL program. One year later, I changed to a MBA program in the US but not due to bad advice from Bear. Read the section on accreditation and choose carefully.

This book very clearly spells out the options of earning a business degree via distance learning. Accreditation (typically one of the most confusing issues facing students) is thoroughly explained, and there are no unaccredited schools listed.

My only criticism is that some schools I think are good options (such as Baker College) are left out. However, the title is "Best MBA's", so obviously some have to be left out. If you're in the market for a non-traditional business degree, buy this book.

The translators used the least popular copy for their translation(There are several different versions of this book, this being the least popular because of the poor quality of the last 50 chapters). Not only is the version a poor one, but the translations are poor as well. Compared with Sydney Shapiro's translation(The Outlaws of the Marsh), you will find that this is more like the work of a student. To rate the three different translations, I give Sydney's 100, 50 for Pearl Bucke's and 15 for this one.

Another reviewer complained that this is based on the 'least popular' version of the story. They're right in only the loosest sense. Fashions change: that 'least popular' version was the dominant version of the story for most of its history! Moreover, the full (four book) version of the Shapiro text also draws on that version.
But the sure clue is that Pearl Buck's piece of orientalist flim-flam, which distorts the story and squeezes it into an unnatural idiom, gets rated higher (and the J H Jackson translation, which while poor, is nevertheless preferable to Buck's, is unmentioned). The Dent-Young's version is immeasurably better written, and it is clear that they have been at pains to try to capture the immediacy and wit of the original: no easy task. I think in the first book they succeed admirably. While later books have some problems (the names are always a sticking point) the first book has a verve that draws you in. They have also smoothed out some peculiarities present in previous translations so that there are no 'blips' where you can't work out why something happened or where something came from.
American readers with an intolerance for anything but US culture may have a problem with the British idiom occasionally employed in a desire to capture the naturalness of the original, but in that case why would such readers want to read a Chinese book?

It's too bad that this translation doesn't get more attention. The father and son team brings this classic to light in a fun and engaging manner. Even better, unlike many translations, they manage to keep the poetry at the same level of aptitude as the prose.

The original itself is a classic of Chinese Literature, although not as powerful and comprehesensive as Dreams of Red Mansions. Still it's a fun read.