From a time in our country when people were not just sheep and actually had to depend on themselves to get by and not the welfare check!!
Elmer Keith inspires all hunters and shooters with The story of his life in a time that we can only dream of and wish for.
This book is a must read over and over again!.

During his half-century of prolific writing, Keith explored virtually every aspect of the shooting sports and firearms development. His writing style is engagingly coloquial and every bit as concrete as his epistemology.- If Keith wondered how many teeth there were in a Camel's mouth, he would find himself a camel and count 'em. Likewise, before the general availability of the counter-chronograph, Keith knew the performance parameters of his loads. While his contemporaries might simple guess at pressures and velocities, Keith would pack his cartridges off to the White laboratories for the straight scoop.

In Hell, I Was There, we learn the inside story of what it was like to be a gun writer in the glory days. We also get a clear picture of life as it was during the early decades of the Century. Keith emerges as a dedicated family man and a responsible citizen of his era.

Those who have read Keith's other books and magazine articles will find themselves in familiar territory, nevertheless, the most dedicated Keith reader will find something new in Hell, I Was There.

I have read this book three or four times now over the years and find that it helps me remember and respect the hard lives lived in the not to distant past. Reading Elmer's life story is like involving yourself in an epic. If you remember the movie "Little Big Man" with Dustin Hoffman from the 1970's you can get a feel for this book. The movie was a life story told by a 100 plus year old man. This book reminds me of that. You wish you had been there but wonder if you really had the strength and courage to endure the hardships as those folks did without complaint.Well worth the read.

What a hilarious book!I've read it a t least a hundred times and yet i cant help laughing the next time i read it!It is a really good book.My father had bought it in the 1970's and now it has been completely worn out.Unfortunately , no new copies are available.Such masterpieces should not get extinct!

This book will take you right back to your early years! In fact, as an adult you will actually understand more of Don Martin's jokes. I laughed so hard I almost fell down.

Captain Klutz is great. Sadly, my copy of this book (and of part II) was donated accidentally. Hopefully I can find another someday.

I like this book because it tells me all the facts about
the presidents and I love to study presidents. My 14 year
old sister needed help with her report on Theodore Roosevelt and
Franklin D. Roosevelt and she asked me because she knew I would
know some things! I have checked "Don't know much about the
Presidents" out of the library and since I have to take it back,
my dad said he would buy me my own copy to keep!

This book is a wonderful introduction to learning about the presidents, even for younger children who express an interest. Our five-year-old is a good reader, and can manage much of this book herself. A great one to keep in the back of the car for short (or long) trips. Or pick a president each night to learn about at bedtime. This book is written at a level that can be appreciated by the younger set, but because it's got a sense of humor and some fun facts about each president, will also be enjoyed by older children (and adults!). We're enjoying re-learning about the presidents again with our daughter!

Do you know who was the youngest president ever elected to office, who served the shortest term, and who served the longest? Do you know which president had fifteen children, which was an avid fisherman, and who brought a goose, wallaby, donkey, lion cub, raccoon, two cats, twelve dogs, and birds to the White House when he moved in? The answers to these questions and much, much more can be found in Kenneth Davis' marvelously entertaining and engaging, Don't Know Much About The Presidents. Written in an easy to read, question and answer, conversational format, Mr Davis packs this book chock full of historical information, fun facts, and trivia. Learn about each of our 43 president's talents, idiosyncracies and family, his inauguration, important achievements, and life in the White House during the time he served. Each biographical spread is complemented by Pedro Martin's charmingly witty and humorous illustrations that enhance the text and just add to all the fun. With a detailed timeline highlighting important and interesting historical events running continuously along the bottom of each page, Don't Know Much About The Presidents is a treasure trove of fun and information that's perfect for kids 8 and up. So find out which president's good luck charm was a red carnation, and enjoy!

The book stresses using common sense in the face of the over-hyped medical scene and frightening implications presented by the Media that we are all likely to be the victims of some dread disease. Dr Solomon's bedside manner is so rare today.

It's easy to see why Dr.Solomon has been named as the #1 primary-care doctor in the Boston area, in surveys conducted by Boston Magazine. He has a commonsense, down-to-earth, yet authoritative style--which is evident in this timely, self-help health guide. He offers wise counsel and practical advice for a range of topical medical concerns and interests, including obesity, cancer, alternative remedies, and preventive measures. With his exceptional understanding, he deals with a person's emotional and psychological states, as well as the physical aspects of the various conditions and illnesses and the therapies, medications, vitamins, and treatments for them. In the self-help vein bolstered by his professional standing and two decades of experience, Dr. Solomon proffers for readers uneasy about, or perhaps even anxious over, various medical problems, a perspective on them that is positive for their overall well-being while sensibly taking into account their particular medical condition and their concerns. Dr. Solomon's definition of good health includes not worrying excessively about your health so you can enjoy life fully, which is the healthiest condition of all. He delivers a welcome perspective for many reader's in today's health-conscious culture.

Henry Berry, Book Reviewer Editor/Publisher, The Small Press Book Review

Physicians have written many books for the lay public that are narrowly focused on the medicine and the disease. "Don't Worry Be Healthy" offers a new and refreshing perspective that focuses on the patient from the physician's point of view. Have you ever wondered what your doctor is thinking about when you visit him or call him in the middle of the night? How does the physician "practice" when the remedy is related to attitude and behavior? The author, a noted Boston area internal medicine specialist, reveals how he evolved scientifically and emotionally to help patients confront and deal with a variety of health issues ranging from obesity, cancer, aging and death.

The perspective is unique because it comes from an experienced internal medicine physician whose insight and character have clearly advanced not only from his practice, but from his personal experience with cancer that infected not only him, but his wife, his father, his father-in-law, and his mother-in-law. Despite this Job-like journey, Dr. Solomon not only survives but also gains the wisdom to provide many useful lessons that help his patients and readers understand and deal with health and illness.

"Don't Worry Be Healthy" is very much like Dr. Spock's Baby & Child Care, but for adults. It offers impassioned and practical advice for people when confronted with illness - real or imagined.

As a Bay Area local, I've always stood in awe of the breath-taking views and natural wonders of the Marin coast. Attempts to conquer and explore this piece of jewel have never been better with the aid of this Marin hiking guide. It provides clear and detailed descriptions of over 120 trails in Marin, with illustrations, maps, and level of strenuousness. Featured in each trail are points of interests, what-to-see info, plants guide, and milestones.

I found the sections on Point Reyes National Seashore particularly useful. A land in motion, the Point Reyes Peninsula is an unusual, dislocated land that long baffled geologists. The rocks of this craggy coast match those of the Tehachapi Mountains some 310 miles to the south due to the constant motion of the Earth's crust. The varied surface patterns of Point Reyes are more obvious than the normally slow changes underground. You can see streams and estuaries cutting through the landscape of folded hills and valleys. Awaiting visitors are many miles of beaches within sight of Douglas-fir and Bishop pine forests.

Whether you're impressed with the motion of Point reyes and want to explore the San Adreas fault, of just a family planning on a weekend trip to Stinson Beach, or just a ride showcasing the beauty of the Pacific Ocean in Marin Headland, this Marin hiking guide has got the info you'll need. It is one of the best and thorough guide especially devoted to hiking in Marin.

I use an older copy of this book (it only lists 121 hikes), and I have found it a great guide. Grouping trails by the various geographies of Marin County, and Appendices that group some of the hikes in the book--like a listing of all the hikes that have great waterfalls, or places to see wildflowers in a particular season--are very handy. One thing I would have liked is to see the flowers in color: black-and-white line drawings are less effective representatives of what a hiker should see out on the trails. All in all, however, it is an excellent companion as one hikes a trail, describing major sights and milestones along the hike while marking out the distances and heights one might climb. Another useful item is that the hikes can be done in parts if, say, you can't do a whole 10-mile hike at the moment. The countryside around Marin is so wonderfully varied--seashores, redwoods, great views of the Bay Area--that this would be a great book for nature-types who like to explore.

This is what I want from a travel guide. As I'm considering a lengthy trip to Arizona, and to Phoenix specifically, I want to know the what's what on the what-to-see. "The Best of Phoenix and Tucson: The Ten Best" has that, with a hearty dash of personality.

Lots of travel guides take a similar tack: list the top ten of the usual categories. What makes this one different is that the writers have avoided becoming lackeys to the hotel of entertainment industry. Instead of being crammed with corporate logos, they focus on their opinion. I like that.

No one will be surprised to read most of the lists: dining, resorts, romantic vistas, but nice to see were lists like, "The Ten Best Other Ethnic Restaurants." Naturally, they have a number of general and Hispanic restaurant lists, but I was pleased to see the authors really did their homework. Now I know I can check out "Peter's European Cafe" and taste their Hungarian palacsintas (stuffed crepes).

Phoenix and Tucson are neighbors. Anyone visiting one community is likely to visit the other, but they are not twin cities. Therefore, the writers wisely create separate sections for each city. Anyone willing to make the 110 mile drive will be ready.

A tourist will love this book, but I suspect any local will discover things about his home city previously hidden deep in the phone book.

I fully recommend "The Best of Phoenix and Tucson: The Ten Best" by Don W. Martin, Betty Woo Martin.

Anthony Trendl

Undoubtedly the most fun and most helpful travel book we have ever consulted. Have just returned from a wonderful week in this extraordinary city, made all the better by recommendations in "The Best of San Francisco." Instead of paying $200 at the conference hotel, we spent $79 at a small boutique hotel nearby everything, including the cable car, that was recommended in the "Proud Paupers" section. It could not have been nicer: impeccably clean, friendly staff, charming atmosphere, most comfortable hotel beds we have ever had, walking distance to shops, restaurants, galleries, everything you want is right in the neighborhood. We also used the "PP" section to select two wonderful ethnic restaurants - Thai and Indian. Both served delicious, savory meals, with large portions for small prices (under $6 in some cases). And provided interesting cultural experiences. In addition to pointing you in the right direction to enjoy San Francisco to the fullest, this book also tells you how to avoid major headaches, by recommending you do not, under any circumstances, drive a car in this city. We took that advice and were so glad we did! The best buy in town was also recommended, and that is a transportation pass at $15 for 7 days. You can ride any of the public transport, buses, trolleys, BART, and the famous cable cars. Before you take a trip to San Francisco, do yourself a favor and get a copy of this wonderful, down-to-earth little book. You will be glad you did!

Being an army wife in today's world means a high possibility of separation from your husband due to lengthy deployments. My husband and I have "survived" many deployments and this book has been a blessing to me. It is most helpful if both people read this book prior to departure, but anytime would be beneficial. If you're going through a deployment for the first time, this book is a MUST read. It offers encouragement and practical insight with a Christian foundation. This would be a very good book to read and discuss as a group. I strongly recommend that churches in military communities keep a large supply.

Franklin Rast's memoir Don's Nam is a coming-of-age story set in the context of the Viet Nam war. A lot of these have surely been written, and quite a few published. This one, however, is unique. It's subject and structure make it the ideal introduction to the Viet Nam experience for the uninitiated.

The "war" part of the book has an unusually effective structure. The author was a lieutenant (translation: a member of the one class of officers who actually had to get out in the field and do the dirty work) in the transportation corps during the war. He tells the story of leading repeated supply convoy trips into the depths of Vietnam's jungles. Sometimes these are funny. Sometimes they're routine. Occasionally they're harrowing. Whatever the details of the individual trip, however, the familiar context of truck driving, an almost mythical American activity, is always there to "anchor" the story to something familiar, even as events veer into the exotic, the bizarre, or the terrible. The recurring element of sudden, unpredictable danger characteristic of war stories isn't undermined in this book by the sense of unreality that readers with no military background often experience when they read of such events.

And in between the convoys there is downtime at the base. Here the familiar American culture,60s style, reasserts itself, incongruously enough, in the middle of a Far Eastern jungle. As officers, non coms, and men interact through the course of the memoir, Rast gradually uncovers the incredible tensions that existed inside this insular world - above all the clash of interests and values that took place every day between "lifers" and draftees. The memoirist, an unusual combination of north Louisiana "good old boy"/ROTC zealot and budding '60s cynic, moves adroitly between the lifer and draftee subcultures, and it is amusing to watch his language, and even his attitudes, change to meet the demands of the moment.

In these scenes, as always, the dialogue in the book is excellent! Mr. Rast has a fine ability to reproduce everyday American speech, especially the half-humorous, half-hostile exchanges of men who live and work together in constant fear of their lives. He also masters the much more difficult task of rendering the voices of the VietNamese whom he encounters with clarity, sympathy, and dignity. In fact, this is one of the joys of the book Rast's exploration of a culture and people that he does not know yet always respects.

What finally becomes apparent as one reads Don's Nam is that the memoirist who manages to pull off these difficult feats is an unusual man. He's full of contradictions. He's a regular guy from the redneck part of Louisiana who possesses an abiding interest in philosophy and eastern religion. He's an extravert with has a natural ability to relate to people of all classes and nationalities, and at the same time he has an alert and questioning mind that takes everything they say with a grain of salt. In the course of the book he builds a preliminary understanding of the world and the war from all of their inputs, particularly that of the Vietnamese, and learns to live with the ambiguities that remain

Leonard W. Martin Editorial Excellence (freelance editor of literary, academic, business and legal manuscripts)

Don's Nam is an excellent book describing the daily experiences of the men of the 534th Transportation Co. This is a must reading for all those interested in this not-so-popular political war of Vietnam. The fire fights, ambushes, and sweep patrols were described about as vividly and accurately as you can get. Thank you for reporting the events and situations that have been pushed far back in our minds. You have, I am sure, helped many of your readers recall, relive, and rethink their experiences in Vietnam. The book along with the photographs provides a way for us veterans to share our experiences with our spouses and children and perhaps help them to understand us better. Every word you have written is so meaningful to me, since I served with you during part of your tour of duty, and can personally vouch for the authenticity of the events you described. The last time I saw you was 30 years ago in a rice paddy on patrol outside of Long Binh, and to find you alive, well, and on the Internet, was quite a suprise. God bless you. Christoper Cross---Vietnam, Oct. 68-Nov. 69.

Even though I was just a young kid when America was fighting the war in Vietnam, the subject always fascinated me. Guess I've read about every book regarding to Vietnam that shows up on the bookshelf, each time getting more and more of the same thing, firefights with statistics and who got killed or wounded with how many of the enemy we disposed of in the process; frustrated military leaders held back by red-tape, evasive politicians misleading the public into thinking the war was to support a democratic Saigon government. This is all just great but somehow the true feelings, bitterness, sorrows, fears, humor and doubts evaded my conception of the war until I read Rast's story from his diary along with the pictures he took. The events he describes stayed with me and they stuck. I felt like I was right there with him and I kept going back into chapters in the book and rereading them with different feelings each time. There is a little bit of all of us in his characters, situations and the emotions they display: maybe that is why it feels so real to read and see something about the war I never experienced before.

I thought Ms. Martin's book was about as sappy as a romantic mystery novel can get. I forced myself to finish but hated myself for wasting the time to do so. The cardboard characters were anything but enjoyable and the storyline predictable and boring. I will not be wasting anymore of my hard earned dollars on anymore of this writer's books! Nothing personal Ms. Martin you understand.

I haven't had this much fun since Martin's last mystery, How to Murder a Millionaire. Her newest frothy concoction, Dead Girls Don't Wear Diamonds, features the same delightful heroine, Nora Blackbird, the high-society amateur detective whose wit and charm make her everyone's ideal best friend.
There's also a suspenseful mystery, a gallery of colorful, sharply drawn supporting characters and a wealth of hilariously wicked social observations. All in all, the ideal light and fun summer read.

Growing up wealthy made it hard for Nora Blackbird to survive when her parents went through the family fortune, skipped town, and began living the high life in a foreign country using funds "borrowed" from friends. Keeping Blackbird Farm is important to Nora so much so that she sold some acreage to a mobster's son who built a used car lot on the property. She now works as a society columnist for the Philadelphia Intelligencer which means going to a lot of parties hosted by friends.

Oliver Cooper, who has been nominated as the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, and his trophy wife Doe, throw the latest social event attended by Nora. Nora is alone with her first love Flan Cooper until his wife Laura catches them and causes a public scene. The next day Laura is found dead with Flan, who was having marital difficulties, the prime suspect and Nora a close second. With her freedom at stake and a desire to clear her reputation and that of Flan's, Nora embarks on her own investigation against a murderer not hesitant to kill again.

DEAD GIRLS DON'T WEAR DIAMONDS is a brash, flaming and sassy amateur sleuth mystery staring a person trying to be the voice of reason yet always finds herself up to her ears in trouble and ridiculous predicaments. The heroine's relationship with the mobster's son will make Nancy Martin's latest mystery have cross over appeal to romance fans. This is the perfect novel to take to the beach, a book that is light, breezy, and pure fun.

Harriet Klausner