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Book reviews for "Marshall,_Alan" sorted by average review score:

Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship
Published in Paperback by Purdue University Press (1996)
Authors: Alan M. Beck, Aaron Honori Katcher, and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
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For Responsible Pet Owners Only . . .
I would like to revise my original book review on this book.

This book is outstanding and I would highly recommend it for EVERY dog owner and POTENTIAL dog owner.

In addition to discussing the reasons why people choose pets, as well as discussing traits of pets themselves, the authors address other very important topics. Some of the topics discussed are: euthanasia; dog bites -- causes, statistics, solutions; strays -- how to identify them from wandering but owned dogs, and the health problems strays pose; dog packs -- how they operate and the dangers of packs. The authors included a table, The Urban Stray Dog, which is helpful in identifying the difference between an 'Owned Dog' and an 'Unowned Dog.' Also addressed are the diseases that dogs and pets can pass on to humans, their occurrence, and solutions to these disease threats. Not left out are issues such as dealing with people who have too many pets -- and how this type of multiple ownership causes problem for other urban dwellers; the traits of these multiple pet owners are also discussed. Dog laws are also discussed as are poop scoop laws.

The back of the book lists books and articles that the reader might find helpful under various topics discussed in the book; also listed are resource to be found on the internet on topics such as Pets in Therapy, Pet Information, Animal Behavior, Animal Care, Pet Loss, and Veterinary Education and Professional Services.

The book discussed other companion animals as well, but as a dog owner, I tended to focus my review on those issues relevant to me. I do not mean to bias you against the book by excluding mention of other companion animals addressed in the book. This book is probably one of the most comprehensive books I have read about companion animals and the issues surrounding them.

This book covers issues not dealt with in any other book I have read -- yet knowledge of these issues is necessary for being a responsible pet owner. No matter what your pet, you ought to give this book a read. It is a very easy and interesting read, the balance between active and passive voice tends to draw you into the context and makes it hard to put down. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

For Serious Pet Owners Only . . .
This book is a "must read" for those who consider their pet a close friend or family member.

The book is an easy read, and I found myself 3/4 of the way through it the first night. Not only is the topic interesting, but the writing skill is commendable -- it is written with a nice balance of active/passive voice.

It explained to me, in easy layman terms, the physiological benefits of pet companionship. It also explains why we psycologically find pet 'ownership' so satisfying.

Other books have explored this human-pet relationship through pictures -- "Guys and Dogs", "Woman's Best Friend", "New York Dogs" and they have done a fine job with the pictures.

The authors of "Between Pets and People" have now given us the words and facts to explain our feelings for our pets, And through the facts and explanations emerges a legitimacy for the pet-people relationship that didn't exist before. As you read the book you discover as much about yourself as you do about animal companionship.

This book belongs on your bookshelf!


Spares: The Special Edition
Published in Hardcover by Overlook Connection Press (1999)
Authors: Michael M. Smith, Alan Clark, and Michael Marshall Smith
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Mick Farren + William Gibson = Michael Marshall Smith
This is a great primer for Marshall Smith. He's out ofBritain, so some of his stuff isn't available on amazom.com so checkamazon.co.uk. It's worth the extra shipping fees. He's probably the best satirical sf writer out today. No dragons or ogres, just almost normal people in a messed up situation.

If you only own one piece of fiction...
Sheer unadulterated brilliance is what Marshall Smith deliveres here. In a surreal world where people are cloned for spare parts, one man, down on his luck, comes to the rescue of beings considered less than human. Always enthralling, but at times you are unable to tell if this book is incredibly hilarious or really scary. Prepare for the most enjoyable assault on your imagination.


Buckaroos in Paradise: Cowboy Life in Northern Nevada
Published in Paperback by Univ of Nebraska Pr (1981)
Authors: Howard W. Marshall, Alan Jabbour, and Richard Eighme Ahlborn
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Informative study of ranch life in Paradise Valley, Nevada
This 95-page publication is an informative and fascinating catalogue book published in conjunction with a Smithsonian exhibition at the National Museum of History and Technology in 1980-81. Its subject is ranchlife in Paradise Valley, Nevada, north of Winnemucca and near the Oregon border. First settled by California farmer/ranchers in the 1860s, the region's development was influenced by the Spanish colonial agricultural practices of California, and its "cowboys" have traditionally been known as "buckaroos," an anglicized rendering of the Spanish "vaquero."

Contents of the book are based on field research by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. It covers history of the region and then focuses on cowboy life and culture, including clothing, bunkhouses, and branding irons. The book contains many black and white photographs, both vintage and contemporary. Several are two-page spreads. There is also a list of 244 artifacts from the exhibition, with photos of many of them....

As of this writing...this wonderful book is out of print. If you can find a copy, it's well worth having.


Coercion (Studies in Moral, Political and Legal Philosophy)
Published in Paperback by Princeton Univ Pr (1990)
Authors: Alan Wertheimer and Marshall Cohen
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A seminal work on American religious history
Wuthnow's book is a thoughtful and well-researched monograph on major trends in American religious experience since the end of World War II. Wuthnow sees the most significant change as being a decline in the denominational divisions that were once so important in American religious life, and their replacement by a huge chasm between liberal and conservative religious sensibilities, a division Wuthnow points out often cuts as much through denominations as separates them. Perhaps his most important contribution is his effort to place this restructuring in the context of larger trends in American society, notably the divisive politics and cultural innovation of the sixties, the changing role of women and the trememdous expansion of higher education that occurred after World War II. He also notes a degree of continuity between the conservative versus liberal division and the early twentieth-century fundamentalist-modernist conflict within American religion. He is careful, though, to explain and contextualize the greater success the evangelical Christian movement has had in building a movement and mobilizing followers than did the earlier and in many ways similar fundamentalist camp. Perhaps one's only caveat here might be that the book raises many questions it does not fully address about the extent to which American culture is becoming genuinely secular, if it is doing so. Written at a high level of generality, the book also leaves one wondering about how the division of religious life into polarized camps of liberalism and conservativism affects the subjective spiritual experience of Americans. In brief, this book is a major and analytical treatment of a topic that remains very germane to how Americans now live and worship; those desiring to understand how American religion got where it is today should read it.


Fourier Transforms in NMR, Optical, and Mass Spectrometry
Published in Hardcover by Elsevier Health Sciences (01 December, 1989)
Authors: Alan G. Marshall and Francis R. Verdun
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Fourier transforms and spectroscopy
This book applies the theory of Fourier transforms to their use in spectroscopy, based on using graphical examples to illustrate the mathematical properties discussed. It is useful for areas of spectroscopy other than those in the titles, since the concepts are applicable to many FT methods of data acquisition. Especially recommended for beginners trying to learn about the implications of FT techniques in their research.


War Diaries 1939 - 1945
Published in Hardcover by University of California Press (15 June, 1998)
Authors: Alan Brooke Alanbrooke, Alex Danchev, Daniel Todman, Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, Alan Brooke, and Field Marshall Lord Alanbrooke
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When will war cease to exist?
I really enjoyed reading Lord Alanbrooke's War Diaries -- six years of daily impressions from the fellow who managed World War II for Britain. I now have a much better understanding why the British and Americans were fighting the Germans in North Africa and why the first Allied invasion of Europe took place in Sicily and southern Italy. Although Britain was already at war and had broken the German military code, it seems unlikely its leaders had any advance warning of the Pearl Harbor attack. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Britain sustained devastating defeats in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Burma leaving India and Australia vulnerable. Of course, Hilter's invasion of the Soviet Union was the turning point.

As Churchill's principal military advisor, Alanbrooke kept a daily account from September 1939 to August 1945. He describes the Dunkirk evacuation in May 1940; the nightly German bombings of London that continued for many months after September 1940; the defensive measures Britain took to guard against attack; the German defeat of France; and meetings with American allies to plan the invasion of Europe and the defeat of the Axis powers.

Alanbrooke dined with military and political leaders virtually every day and attended many meetings with Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Eisenhower, Marshall, Dill, and Montgomery. In a typical entry (January 24, 1944), he tells of Churchill

". . . discussing Stalin's latest iniquities in allowing Pravda to publish the bogus information that England was negotiating with Germany about a peace. He said: 'Trying to maintain good relations with a communist is like wooing a crocodile, you do not know whether to tickle it under the chin or to beat it on the head. When it opens its mouth you cannot tell whether it is trying to smile, or preparing to eat you up.'"

Alanbrooke described the major role he played:

"The whole world has now become one large theatre of war, and the Chiefs of Staff represent the Supreme Commanders, running the war in all its many theatres, regulating the allocation of forces, shipping, munitions, relating plans to resources available, approving and rejecting plans, issuing directives to the various theatres. And most difficult of all handling the political aspect of this military action, and coordinating with our American allies."

He struggled to keep military strategy intact at Allied war conferences held in Washington, D.C., Casablanca, Teheran, Quebec, Moscow, Yalta, and Potsdam. Later, Alanbrooke inserted the following after one of his diary entries:

"According to [Eisenhower] when we stood on the bank of the Rhine on March 25th, I said to him: 'Thank God, Ike, you stuck by your plan. You were completely right, and I am sorry if my fear of dispersed efforts added to your burdens. The German is now licked. It is merely a question of when he chooses to quit. Thank God you stuck by your guns.' I think that when this statement is considered in connection with what I wrote in my diary that evening, it will be clear that I was misquoted. To the best of my memory I congratulated him heartily on his success, and said that as matters turned out his policy was now the correct one, that with the German in his defeated condition no dangers now existed in a dispersal of effort. I am quite certain that I never said to him 'You were completely right', as I am still convinced that he was 'completely wrong', as proved by the temporary defeat inflicted on him by Rundstedt's counter stroke, which considerably retarded the defeat of Germany."

Alanbrooke also took time to ponder the meaning of war:

"The suffering and agony of war in my mind must exist to gradually educate us to the fundamental law of 'loving our neighbor as ourselves'. When that lesson has been learned, then war will cease to exist."

His perceptive remarks ring true today. If you have the time, this book is definitely worth reading. The editors provide a useful introduction (including short descriptions of friends, comrades, politicians, and soldiers), a carefully prepared index, a handy list of abbreviations, and 8 pages of photographs.


Brokedown palace
Published in Paperback by Berkley (1986)
Authors: Steven Brust, Alan Lee, Kathy Marshall, and Malgorzata Rozanska
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Good Background for the Vlad the Assassin books
Not to bad.... Great back ground story to the Vlad books. (I hope he writes more of those.)

Ghost Wolf

Good choice for a different type of fantasy novel
GENRE: Fantasy (mystery and meandering style)

OVERALL FEELING: Four brothers fight one another, as well as other magical antagonists, in a fantastic kingdom at the borders of a Faerie world.

MARKETING APPEAL: I'm not surprised this didn't sell particularly well; it was offbeat with good characters and some interesting ideas; good but not great; no high concept; mostly a slice of life or meandering story line.

SCORING: Superb (A), Excellent (A-), Very good (B+), Good (B) Fairly Good (B-) Above Average (C+), Mediocre (C ), Barely Passable (C-) Pretty Bad (D+), Dismal (D), Waste of Time (D-), Into the Trash (F)

DIALOGUE: B STRUCTURE: B- HISTORY SETTING: A- CHARACTERS: B EVIL SETUP/ANTAGONISTS: B EMOTIONAL IMPACT: B+ SURPRISES: B- FANTASTIC/MYTHOLOGICAL ELEMENTS: A PACING: B+ THE LITTLE THINGS: B+ OVERALL STYLE: A FLOW OF WORDS: A- CHOICE OF FOCUS: A TRANSITIONS/FLASHBACKS/POV: A COMPLEXITY OF WORDS/SYMBOLISM/THEMES: B+

OVERALL GRADE: B+

SYNOPSIS: Hungarian Folklore style fantasy story; breaks in between with legends of the lands which gives it texture; squabbling princes fight with each other and magical opponents of various sorts.

CONCEPT: This tale is interesting but not really high concept; there's no great goal for the hero to pursue; it's more of a meandering style and one has to get into it for the characters and settings.

PACING: It moved well in the first 2/3 of the story; lots of little conflicts; learning about the lands and the legends in between. But, at the end, certain parts with the whole plan began to gnaw at me. Not enough was happening and that may have been the problem. More time was spent as characters started to slight one another, but there was too much of a lull. At times, the story meandered so rising conflict was an issue. Of course, I liked the story so much and side stories that it wasn't really a problem. However, at the end, I wasn't as impressed so I began to feel that the story lagged too much.

OVERALL STRUCTURE: The structure of this story meanders . . . taking a slice of life here and a slice of life there. As I mentioned, there really isn't some great epic goal as one usually expects in fantasy stories. This is one of the reasons I liked it even though such things are hard to pull off. The narrator's voice into this story is great; it comes into the legends but is also used at certain points.

The palace is a symbol of the relationship between the brothers . . . as it crumbles so do the relationships between Miklos and Laszlo.

WHY IT WORKED FOR ME: For reasons stated above: this is the type of story that isn't heavy on pacing but is great on side steps and legends. Other reasons listed above. FLAWS: (1) Lack of a focused epic scope or some big goal which hurt the pacing; (2) not enough time on most characters which made empathy difficult, making them good but not great; (3) OVERALL STYLE: His narrative element is superb and catchy. Focus is weak in some ways as listed under flaws. No character is mainly evil or good; all are gray.

FAVORITE METAPHOR: Think of the Cellars as feet, and the sandstone pillars emerging from them as legs. The east and west wings (the latter of which collapsed many years ago) are arms. The hallways are veins and arteries; the Great Hall on the third story is the heart. The high, central tower, where only the King is permitted, is the head. Can we stretch our analogy even further? The kitchen on the second story is the belly, and the dining room below it is the digestive system. Nestled among these organs is the room that, only two years ago, was occuped by Miklos, the missing prince of Fenario.

FAVORITE ACTION PASSAGE: She made gentle sounds into his ear as she helped him to remove his garments, then they lay together on her cloak. Slowly, she taught him the games of love, and he taught her of an innocence she had never known. The reeds swayed above them, but there was no wind to stir them.

FAVORITE DESCRIPTIVE PASSAGE: First, consider the River.

Now, remembering this, Miklos decided that the River ought to rise from its banks and sweep his wounded, broken body away, out of sight to the east. But it wouldn't. Miklos was twenty-one years old, and dying.

Next, the Palace:

Now, observe the interior:

And the City:

Consider a tiny crack in wood that had once been bright and polished, but was now dull and neglected. Something appeared through the crack. What was it? Maybe a leaf. Maybe the first shooting of a new seed, straining for the light in a lightless room, from the dark of a soil that wasn't fertile before it became dull and neglected. Perhaps a weed that will exist for a time, then sink to death and decay, as the Palace itself foes.

On my hand and my knees by the Riverside
Brokedown Palace fits into the Taltos tales, some how, some way. IT's from the other side of the coin, the mortal rather than faerie side, at least in some ways, and it's written in an offbeat, quietly friendly way that gives even the bad guy an almost benign feeling.

I think it's Brust's second best. (His best would be To Reign in Hell, no doubt.)


Becoming a Psychotherapist
Published in Paperback by University of Chicago Press (1984)
Authors: Alan Balsam, Rosemary Marshall Balsam, and Roy Schafer
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If your dog starts to bark... pull more firmly on the leash
Reads like a dog trainer's manual. Great way to see what an alienating farce psychodynamic therapy is for treating real depression. Read it behind your therapist's back and have some fun with his or her tiny, clinical, robotic mind.

valuable reading for patients as well as therapists
What wisdom there is to be found in these pages. There are insights as valuable as those gained in psychotherapy in this fine book. Though it is intended as a primer for those training to become psychotherapists, this is a book written in accessible language that any lay person can grasp and actually enjoy. The late Alan Balsam and his widow Rsemary Balsam, who completed the text, offer a deeply humane perspective on the psychotherapeutic techniques available to help treat people in extremis.


I Can Jump Puddles
Published in Unknown Binding by Penguin Books Ltd (01 October, 1982)
Author: Alan Marshall
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A childhood anyone can relate to
Anyone can relate to Alan's story because it's not so much about a boy with polio as it is a story about a boy getting through childhood as we have all had to do. Annoying sisters, demanding parents, schoolyard brawls and spending as much time with your friends as possible. The Australian vernacular may be a little difficult with someone not familiar with the language but doesn't detract from the enjoyment of reading about one boys' adventures growing up in the turn-of-the-century Australian bush. It's heartwarming and inspirational but not overly syrupy or preachy. It's just the facts as he remembers them. A definite recommendation especially for young readers.

It's a great book!
I read this book as a kid over twenty years ago, and I loved it. Now I'd like my son to read it. Isn't it surprising that it has not been published here recently?

Reader from Prague, Czech Republic
This book was translated to Czech language and published in former Czechoslovakia in 1963. I read the book then and thought it was a wonderful, heartbreaking and triumphant story. It made me realize that person can overcome huge obstacles in life with the right attitude and positive thinking. I escaped Prague in 1968 during the revolution. I have been living in the USA for thirty years now. I recently found this book among my collection of Czech books. I read it again and only wish I could find this book in English so my two young boys could also read it. The surroundings in which we live have changed so much since this book was written and since I read this book but some things just never change.


Microchips With Everything: The Consequences of Information Technology (Comedia Series, No 13)
Published in Paperback by Routledge (1988)
Authors: Paul Sieghart and Alan Marshall
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wow!
this book completely details the workings of micro-chips. i love it!


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