This is the kind of poetry book you read in bed before you go to sleep. You poke your husband with your elbow and say, "Listen to this one." He does.

Some of the most amazing poetry written in recent times is contained in this book. The works truly exemplify the American poetry scene.

This book of poetry will stay with you. You will take it off the shelf time after time to reread a poem that had a distinctive ring of truth and feeling of place about it.

My favorite poem, "Dr. Invisible and Mr. Hide" by Charles Webb. Close second was "Mean and Stupid" by Christopher Howell.

My wife and I know Brother Doss and he is truly a rare servant of God. His only desire is to spend time with--and be used by--the Lord Jesus and that has been his focus for almost fifty years. Brother Doss loves the Lord and understands what it means to really walk by faith and not just talk about it. Reading about his service to the Lord will challenge and inspire you.

It is a good book for both new and experienced researcher in biosciences. Reading this book had exposed me to many areas and important findings related to biotechnology. And had been the first reference for me when I faced many difficult problems.

An excellent book to collect.

Gerald Massey is 'the' most under read "seer"/researcher dealing with history, religion, typology,... I mean what doesn't he deal with directly or indirectly?

If you are trying to find the reason or essense of cultural/religious/societal practices then this two volume set is a must. Massey does for History & Understanding what Athur Young does for science (The Reflexive Universe), he makes the developement of Kemit accessible and understandable.

The writings of Gerald Massey will probably be the most dense material you have read in your life! Sometimes what he covers in one page another author would have taken 10. The book is the 2nd of 3 main books (6vols) and in my opinion should be read first! I read "Light of the World" first and understood it (I thought). When I read Natural Genesis and reread the others...they all opened up and revealed way more insight.

Lastly, I think for the establishment of the time Massey would presently be akin to a (more radical) Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn...along the religio-socio-historical side. Hope that helps some.

It's a great book for whoever is interested in linear programming applications to real world cases. From the introduction to the last chapter, the book provides a clear view of how linear programming works, how it can be applied, and what its advantages are. Lots of examples and exercises make this book a very good guide in using linear programming in optimization problems.

Supergun-obsessed engineer Gerald Bull co-wrote this book before being assassinated by Isreali Intelligence for his Iraqi involvement. Two thirds of the book is a study of the huge guns constructed in France during WWI. The remainder is a discussion of Bull's own HARP program in the early 1960s. The first part is accompanied by B+W photos, while the latter has color photos of the modern equipment & testing. There are also lots of graphs and technical formulae. Probably an important reference for anyone studying this technology.

The usefulness of a book to me is being able to quickly locate topics, understand explanations and view varying examples. This book has complete coverage of the multitude of writing events anyone will ever encounter. I took a college report writing course and this was the text. I was able to swiftly progress through assignments and grasp the concepts being presented. The course culminated in the writing of a formal paper with appendix and introduction, to works cited and glossary. It's easy to understand when you are given wrong examples to compare with correct ones. This is an excellent reference book. I am not selling it back to the bookstore!

Recently,my six year old daughter was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. Her doctor immediately gave us a copy of You and Leukemia. As a beginning reference, the book helped to explain the terms, challenges and struggle we were about to face. I have purchased copies for all of the family members so that everyone can begin to understand leukemia. Writing in a thorough but simple manner, Baker has produced an important resources for patients and their relatives.

The Charge of the Light Brigade on the 25th October 1854 was one of the three famous engagements that formed the Battle of Balaklava. The Charge, the most famous of all military blunders, was barely over before the process of transforming it into myth began. Accusations, counter-accusations, legal actions and patriotic poetry created more obscuring smoke and dust than the infamous Russian guns. Cecil Woodham Smith traces the careers of two of the major players: Lords Lucan and Cardigan, the brothers-in-law from hell, whose vanity, arrogance and (at least in the case of Cardigan) incompetence, inexperience and crass stupidity, contributed to the fatal Charge. Almost 40 years of peace, and the reactionary influence of the Duke of Wellington, had left the British army in a parlous state of unreadiness and bureaucratic confusion when the call came to defend Turkey against the Russians. The choice of the aged, gentle, inexperienced and unassertive Raglan, as leader of the expeditionary army, only made a bad situation worse. (For a rather more sympathetic portrayal of Raglan, as victim of an inefficient military system, criminally disorganised commissariat and unreasonable government, see "The Destruction of Lord Raglan" by Christopher Hibbert.) A more recent study, "The Charge" by Mark Adkin, provides a detailed and well-illustrated account of the events leading to the Charge of the Light Brigade. Adkin challenges traditional views , including parts of Cecil Woodham Smith's account. Particular attention is given to the role played by Captain Nolan (the messenger). Adkin suggests that Nolan may have deliberately misled Lucan and Cardigan as to Raglan's real intention. Whatever the truth, which is of course unknowable, "The Reason Why" is a genuine classic and an excellent introduction to a fascinating subject.

Woodham-Smith presents, in minute detail, the wages of placing social rank over experience, and even competence. British military history follows a disturbing trend. War starts, Brits get trounced upon, influx of fresh talent and new ideas comes (along with, sometimes, timely intercession by allies), British return to triumph. Woodham-Smith attributes this pattern to the notion in the higher ranks of the army (a notion espoused by the Duke of Wellington himself, pip pip!), that nobility ensures, if not competence, at least loyalty.

The price of this notion, is, of course, massive death, but because the massive death does not happen to the nobility, nobody important really minds. This is one reason the Charge of the Light Brigade, with which _the Reason Why_ primarily deals, was so different, and worthy of eulogizing in prose and song (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, by the way, appears absolutely nowhere in this text)--those dying, those paying the price for the Army's obsession with aristocracy, were aristocrats themselves.

Woodham-Smith manages to trace the careers of two utterly unsympathetic characters--Cardigan and Lucan--in a fascinating manner. This is no small feat, considering the reader will probably want, by the end of _the Reason Why_ to reach back in time and shake both of them, and maybe smack them around a bit.

Again, Cecil Woodham-Smith proves herself a master of the historian's craft, and produces a well-researched, thorough and driving account of what is probably the stupidest incident in modern military history.

The Crimean War changed so much about how war is waged--the treatment of prisoners and wounded being tops on the list of reforms brought about in the wake of the debacle. _The Reason Why_ is an excellent account, and should be required reading for anybody with even a remote interest in military history, or European history in general.

The Reason Why remains the classic study of the intriguing and sadly ludicrous episode in military history known as the Charge of the Light Brigade. The author, coming from an Army family and relying heavily on the writings of officers, largely neglects the experience of the private soldier and concentrates on the main characters in the drama. The story is dominated by these extraordinary personalities, serving as a reminder that war is an inherently human drama. On a second level, it is a criticism of the privilege system of the British Army of the mid-nineteenth century. In retrospect, one is hard pressed to believe such a purchase system could have ever won a victory at Waterloo. Intolerant aristocrats with no experience in battle, paltry leadership skills, and maddening unconcern for the soldiers under their command, bought their commissions. The Charge of the Light Brigade illuminated all of the faults of the system and proved that bravery alone was insufficient for victory. While human blunders led to the debacle that was the Charge of the Light Brigade, the British military system was intrinsically to blame.

The heart of this book concerns the relationship between society at large and the military. Military leaders feared nothing so much as public scrutiny, for widespread discontent could lead to political interference and, indeed, political control of the army. Whether in dealing with the incorrigible personalities of Lords Lucan and Cardigan or in covering up the series of blunders that resulted in the sacrificial ride of the Light Brigade, the military leadership acted with the overriding principle of preserving the Army from governmental control.

The embarrassments of the Crimean campaign proved uncontainable. A great source of difficulty was the incompetence of the Army staff; rank and privilege were held to be superior to actual experience. When these difficulties led to humiliation and defeat, the commanders' concern was not with the men they had lost nor the future of the war effort; to the exclusion of these, their main concern was that bad publicity would appear in Britain, that the public would hear of the lack of success, that the House would begin to ask questions of the military leadership, that the press would begin to criticize the Army. This great fear of political interference was realized in the aftermath of the Crimean War. The author portrays this as the one positive effect engendered by the War effort. A new era of military reform was born in Britain, Europe, and America. Experience now became a prerequisite for command, and officers were trained in staff colleges. The author's final point is that, above all, the treatment of the private soldier changed as the military system was humanized to some degree. Her assertion that at the end of the Crimean War the private soldier was regarded as a hero seems rather bold, but it is clear that he was no longer seen as a nonhuman tool of his commanders' designs.