I went to see Professor Michaels in his office in 1983; something happened which I would rather not remember.

That aside, I liked his descriptions of his Berkeley days, and how tedious it was to write the screenplay adaptation of his novel, The Men's Club. What a disappointment that movie was to everyone here in Berkeley.

Leonard Michaels' diary is, as they say, a page-turner. He seductively engages the reader in his life and, collaterally, in the lives of his many friends and lovers. As I was reading, I felt like the two of us were having coffee during layover in an airport bar in Minneapolis or Manila, or that we'd been snowbound at a truckstop on Highway 90 out of Bozeman and over boilermakers he was confessing, explaining, justifying his life to me by relating particular events and dissecting the emotions and thoughts leading to and surrounding those events.
I'll confess that I was in Leonard Michaels' writing class, but it was so many years ago that all I can recall about him is this: He was kind and he was cool. The book shows us that, too. Read it.

Annie and her best friend Jane just graduated from college and leaving to open their own coffee and art business. The day before they leave there's a bank robbery and the money ended up in Annie's car unknown to everyone. Except Annie... Should she keep it or give it back.. Soon without the help of the money Annie makes a success of her business and becomes a millionaire in her own right. But her deep dark secret burdens her everyday life. There's an insurance investigator that is convinced Annie is guilty and dogs her for many years. Read this book to find out what she does. If you like Ms. Michaels book, then I suggest reading: The Guest List (see my review) and Finders keepers (see my review)

This was such an interesting story I got caught up in it from the first page. What I like about this author's books are the characters because they seem so real. It's like I know them personally. This was one of those "think" books like Finders Keepers. I read it in one sitting and couldn't put it down. I think I would have acted just like Annie. That's what I mean about the characters being so real. This is an other keeper for my shelf.

Olivia Randall

I read this book in one sitting. I loved it! I liked the interaction and the dediction between the old and the young, between friends and family.It also gave me pause for thought. What would I do if I found a bag of money. I don't know. I found this to be a wonderful story as all Fern Michaels' novels are.

Several chapters are not easy to read because of the material, also is not comprehensive about kriging; but despite that,
it has a lot of interesting results and it is worth of reading.

Michael Stein got his Ph.D. in Statistics from Stanford University under the direction of Paul Switzer. I also studied at Stanford years earlier and also learned about kriging from Switzer. Kriging is a very popular technique for interpolation of spatial data between measurement points. It is an optimal linear technique when the spatial covariance structure is known. It has many practical applications to pollution data, geological data etc. Stein develops the theory as far as he can for the case when the covariance structure is unknown and must be estimated based on the measurement data.

The theoretical development requires some advanced mathematical knowledge on the part of the reader including advanced probability, Fourier analysis and Hilbert spaces. The second order properties of random fields and results on Gaussian measures needed for the development of key results are covered in Chapter 2. Those interested in the practical aspects of kriging can omit the proofs and just concentrate on the results. Chapter 6 provides important practical information.

Although difficult to digest, a careful reading of the book will provide insight into what is good and what is bad about the way kriging is commonly implemented. The bootstrap approach to assessing the accuracy of kriging predictions is briefly discussed in section 6.8 page 202.

This text concentrates on Stein's development of fixed domain asymptotics. It does not provide a broad overview of kriging. That can be found in Noel Cressie's book. It also does not deal with other aspects of interpolation such as nonlinear interpolation, estimation for non-Gaussian processes or the connections with splines.

Nevertheless this is a landmark text that should be on the shelf of any statistician interested in spatial data.

This book's strengths are its breadth, which is to say the sheer number of people interviewed, combined with Singer's ability to get his subjects talking. Its weaknesses are minor, but they add up. First, most of the interviews are too short to really get into the director's career, views, work philosophies, and so on, the way Bogdanovich does in "Who the Devil Made It." Second, a few of the interviews really seem like filler, wherein Singer spends way too much time with lightweights or second-rate film artists whose interviews here do nothing to dispel that label. And third, the book is rife with editing and transcription errors, typos, and other annoyances that are truly, truly distracting. But for the most part, the good outweighs the bad, and it's a worthwhile read.

It is wonderful to read such a charming children's book. Children's books should take us on flights of fancy, as Mr. Bernard's book does! The imagery of his word choices are astonishing! He is a marvelous writer and Mr. Dover's illustrations add richly to the pleasure of this book.

Each of the five chapters is complete in itself. The lessons of love, friendship and acceptance are deep and satisfying. This book is almost a "The Wind in the Willows" set by the ocean;The animals are true friends to one another.

Mr. Bernard is not afraid to tackle the subject of death and loss, but the overall sense of the book is joyful and fun. Do not hesitate to get a copy of this out-of-print work--You will love every page, and so will the children in your life!

It's time for church leadership to wake up and see that those they want to reach for Chrisitianity are DIFFERENT than they are! Younger, in-touch with today's communications venues - but yearning for God (just as many of us have been). Slaughter uses vivid examples of how some churches have woken up to this fact. And, in a lively writing and textual font style of presentation brings this point home. As an older (age 50+) church leader my eyes are beginning to open. And,as Slaughter points out, a whole new adventure is beginning. Jesus Christ was, and is relevant - a simple fact not to be forgotten.

Shadows tells the story of a young Bones' marriage and divorce which influenced his decision to join starfleet. I liked getting the history of McCoy which helps explain his personality, and the idea of his meeting up with his wife again after all these years was intriguing. However, as the plot of this book developed it turned out to be a somewhat weak and predictable storyline.

I recommend the book if you're interested in getting a piece of Dr. McCoy's life story, otherwise there are probably better star trek novels out there.

Star Trek: Shadows on the Sun written by Michael Jaan Friedman is a flashback novel with the primary character being Dr. Leonard McCoy. McCoy confronts his past in order to save the future, also we read of McCoy's past and why he left a wife behind.

It is refreshing to read a Star Trek book that kicks the James T. Kirk character to the back burner and highlights someone else as the lead character, is the case of "Shadows on the Sun" is just such a book.

We read about the successful young doctor McCoy with a storybook family, but McCoy is in for a betrayal from the woman he loves. Now, McCoy leaves everything he had on Earth and heads for outer space and a career in Starfleet. Everything is fine for forty years as McCoy makes a career in Starfleet, now a crises has developed on the planet of Ssan.

The Ssani have a long history of being assassins and the U.S.S. Enterprise and her crew are sent to negotiate a settlement with a group of mediators aboard. As the Enterprise is on the way McCoy meets his ex-wife after forty years as she is one of the negotiaters.

Of course nothing is going right with the Ssani as a matter of course, they use assassination as a matter of fact and a way of life."Shadow of the Sun" is a Ssani saying that means Sun is the image of viewing the life cycle and Shadow is the individual life. The individual casts a shadow on the the Sun of all life.

The mediators and Captain Kirk are now taken hostage as a Civil War rages and it is upto McCoy to draw from his past to save the negotiations and save the day. The narrative moves very quickly and the prose are true to the characters and McCoy is the stand out hero of the book. If you are a Dr. Leonard McCoy fan this is your book to read as the character of McCoy get fleshed out early in McCoys career through flashbacks.

I wasn't gonna write reviews today. I was just gonna read... Till I read this one. I would like to say this is my favorite Star Trek novel by my favorite author. McCoy was a trainee in a portion of this, they called him "trainee" ... so what? Some people have such strange reasons for hating novels. I agree with a previous review, the Shadows on the Sun ideal was described so perfectly. Ok, now what I thought: I love the flashback stuff, LOVED IT. The history of these characters we love so much is THE entire reason we love them. Where they came from IS who they are. This book does great in fleshing out the "trainees" (hehe) past. I love Friedman he's gutsy, would you want to take a character with a 30 year history and invent his past before the glaring eyes of millions? I wouldn't. Micheal Jan Friedmans novel is a must for McCoy fans and anyone who wants to know more about the "trainee" than they already knew. Buy it.

A potentially fascinating book, spoiled by some bad editorial choices. First of all, this is really the selected letters of Ayn Rand, and some of the selections are maddening-the book contains over half a dozen letters to Leonebel Jacobs, a fairly obscure portrait artist Rand knew back in the 1940s, but only a single letter apiece to Nathaniel and Barbara Branden, two of the most central figures in her life.

There are some other questionable omissions as well. A section devoted to Rand's correspondence with philosopher John Hospers contains only Rand's half of the exchange, even though Hospers was apparently willing to allow his own letters to Rand to be published, and even though he expressed concern that "[Rand's] summary of what I said sometimes did not reproduce what I really did say." I for one would like to have seen both sides of the dialogue; it would have been a rare opportunity to observe Rand actually debating her ideas. If the problem was lack of space, I think the smart move would have been to make room for Hospers' letters by cutting out some of Rand's less essential correspondence, like her note thanking Leonebel Jacobs for "the wonderful cheese" he sent her in 1948.

Oh well. Maybe sometime in the future, after the current controllers of her estate have gone on to that great Dead Letter Office in the sky, a more complete version of Rand's correspondence will become available. Until then, the anemic "Letters of Ayn Rand" will have to do.

Ayn Rand's personal life has been a mystery to her fans, excepting some hatchet-job memoirs. Finally, we get the REAL Ayn Rand, as she was to her friends, family, colleagues and fans. This book shows how Rand was passionate in all the areas of her life from her husband, to her publishers, to philosophical discussions with the like of John Hospers. **This book really gives one the feeling that one knows Ayn Rand privately, which is the best aim a book of private correspondence can serve.

As one who knew Ayn Rand quite well at the end of her life, I was still amazed by this book: the unique combination of passionate valuing and ruthless logic that characterized her later years shone throughout her life--but with fascinating variations in form. Through these letters, you follow her life from age 21, when she writes back home to Russia, to Leo (the model for the hero of her first novel), to her long and brilliant philosophic correspondence with Prof. John Hospers after the publication of _Atlas Shrugged_. Also letters to H. L. Mencken, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mickey Spillaine, Barry Goldwater, Cecil B. DeMille, Bennett Cerf, Walt Disney, Alexander Kerensky, Ginger Rogers, Robert Stack, Isabel Paterson, as well as her responses to ordinary fan-letters. An intimate chronicle of the soul from which sprang Howard Roark, Francisco d'Anconia, John Galt and her other unprecedented heroes. Harry Binswanger (hb@interport.net)

As a die hard Redskins fan, I was very sorry to see this excellent concept so badly muffed. The idea behind this book is to cash in on the Washington Post vault, providing great photos and articles combined with new pieces by long-time Skins beat reporters to tie it all together. Sadly, whoever edited and proofread this thing reeeally dropped the ball. Sentences at the bottom of the page are repeated at the top of the next, photographs are mislabeled, pieces of sentences are missing, words are chopped off in the middle. Probably still of some value for the die hard Skins fan, but a real black eye for the Washington Post. If their newspaper were produced as shoddily, Richard Nixon would have finished his second term.

Yes, there are some typos and such in the early chapters but the book isn't as lousy as described in the 2-star review. Most of the problems are hyphen-ated words that are not at the end of a page or line. It is like the typeset was changed but the book was not reproofed.

Still, there is a lot of good information in the book. I think it covers items that Loverro's book (very good as well) ignored or glossed over-- how Gibbs wanted to sign and trade Riggo and how Joe Jacoby ended up sticking around in that first camp. The Times summary makes it sound like Gibbs and Beathard were geniuses building a team. This book shows that they were also lucky geniuses. If you are a Skins fan, you should own this book.

I see there is also a newer edition out with the Synder years (ugh).

Perhaps it is the "let's get it all in here" mentality of this book of Michael Leonard's drawings that diminishes the overall impact of what could be an elegant homage to a fine artist. Or perhaps it is the scale of reproductions and quality of transfer that makes this inherently tender book seem sterile. But past these deficiencies there is much to savour. Leonard draws beautifully, celebrating the male form in his own vision of honesty of observation that leads to sensually satisfying images. He has been drawing and painting the male figure for years now and few can match his softly lighted men changing and stretching. Others in his class include Wade Reynolds, Paul Cadmus, Charles Beauchamp and Claudio Bravo - each with his signature style making it patently obvious that the time to return to the male nude has finally arrived.