Evans is a fascinating man to listen to. He is a decorated veteran, but shuns the recognition he rightly deserves. He admits that some of his actions during the heat of combat "might have been foolhardy." Evans was not interested in medals, only in trying to keep his men alive. As Evans' Third Army Com mander, General George S. Patton remarked, "No one ever won a war by dying for his country. He won by making the other poor bastard die for his country."

Evans met several truly historical figures. First and foremost was Patton. After the first day of the Battle of Arracourt, Patton visited Evans' command post to commend him on a job well done. That was just the first of many encounters with General Patton. After hostilities ceased in 1945, Evans was assigned to a Prisoner of War camp near Landshut, Germany. There, while interrogating prisoners, he briefly met General Vlasov, another larger-than-life individual. Vlasov was a former White Russian officer who was convinced (some say coerced) to help the Nazis against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. Later, in Switzerland, Evans was able to get a glimpse of a compound full of Nazi war criminals, most notable of whom was Herman Goering.

Evans was also fortunate to have been able to participate in the design, testing and eventual combat deployment of the M18 "Hellcat" tank destroyer. The United States Army found that its antitank capabilities were woefully inadequate against the masses of German armor, so a new tank destroyer was desired. Evans, along with a handful of other armor officers from various posts around the US, was invited to Detroit to the Buick Division of General Motors, to offer suggestions for the design of this new vehicle. There are precious few times in a soldier's career that he is given the opportunity to impact upon the equipment he will use in the performance of his duty. Evans and these other officers seized the moment and helped to design one of the most effective combat vehicles ever. In ju! st a few short months the M18 went from the drawing board to the maneuver field and then the European Theater of Opera tions.

are there many people that like to attend to year round schoo

I don't study Insects proffesionaly, I am simply curious about living things around me. I have several Field Guides that offer very little information about the Insect in question (which I suppose is all to be expected from a small book) and I wanted to know more. For instance how do the mouth parts work, what are the different body segments and what do they house or what is their function.Well here it is in "Black and White" litteraly... If you want pretty color pictures this is not the book for you. The figures in the book are however, very detailed, expertly drawn and all body parts are labled. So far every answer I have sought has been answered by this book.I believe that this book is well worth the high price tag. Remember this is only MY opinion, I could be wrong...

I had to purchase this book for a class in my undergraduate work. However, as a graduate student, I use this book every semester. I am presently working in a lab and i.d many samples of insects. Some common, some not. I often reach for it to get to family so I can key to genus and species if I need to take the i.d. that far. The numbered keys are great! They reference forward and backward, which really helps if a mistake is made. Definitely a good one to have on the shelves.

It is the most appropriate book I have seen for graudate student who want to be an entomologist. It have a comprehensive knowledge on how to study the insects.

Mutiny on the Bounty is a stunning work of historical fiction that is a pleasure to read.

The novel chronicles the events of the HMS Bounty as seen through the eyes of Roger Byam, a midshipman on the infamous Bounty. Through his eyes, the reader sees the terrible events unfold aboard the ship--the cruelty of Capt. Bligh that ultimately leads Fletcher Christian and much of the crew to mutiny against the captain. With Bligh left at sea, the crew returns to the South Pacific, seeking to make a new life for themselves and hoping to avoid capture and court martial by the British authorities. The conclusion of the novel is heart-wrenching and simply superb (and will be left as a surprise).

This novel relies a good deal on historical fact, though the authors clearly fill in the gaps with literary license. The characters are superbly developed and the story is riveting throughout. There is much nautical vocabulary, but this shouldn't distract readers as it can be glossed over without losing any significant content. I am not a historian and can make no statements about the veracity of the portrayals in this book. I do know that readers will find this novel difficult to put down. It is simply a classic story.

I recently decided to try reading some classic books. Mutiny on the Bounty was the first one I tried. Although some of the navigational and shipping vocabulary was unfamiliar to me, the plot of the book and the triumph of good and truth made this story one of the best I've ever read. Better still, it is based on actual events! I think you'll agree with me that Captain Bligh makes a most agregious villian-his parts were almost difficult to read. Still, Roger Byam's heartfelt account made this a fascinating read. Give it a try!

This book is interesting. It gives a great and detailed history of the ship Bounty. With her tyrant captain (William Bligh) and the admirable Fletcher Christian the ship sails from England to the south sea island of Tahiti. The whole crew recieves either physical or verbal abuse by Captain Bligh. Finally Christian becomes sick of it and gets most of the crew to rise in mutiny... You will have to read the book to find out the rest of this exciting story. Told in the words of the innocent midshipman, Roger Byam, who is wrongly found guilty of mutiny and condemned to death, this is a classic few can forget. Read this exciting book and I guaranty that you will love it's adventure and suspense. You won't be disappointed!

Boring, Unless you run across words about someone you've met, or wines you are interested in, then, the authors merely repeated timeworn anecdotes. The description of the wine making process was interesting at first, but you've really got to be into it to keep slogging through.

There is no better guide for knowing the ins and outs of wineries throughout California. Large and small wineries they are all there. Forget some of the reviews. The background of each winery is great reading...

A vast array of information not easily available. Reliable reviews of the wines of virtually every known winery, and reliable comments about the future development and direction of wineries.

Men Against the Sea is the fictionalized second book in the Bounty Trilogy. Mutiny on the Bounty recounts the tale of the voyage of the H.M.S. Bounty from England to Tahiti and a little way back, the mutiny, and the subsequent events that affect those of the Bounty's crew who remain on Tahiti. When last seen in that book, Captain William Bligh is cast adrift far from land in a small vessel overladen with 18 other loyal men and about 7 to 8 inches of freeboard above a flat sea. Practically speaking, their chances are slim.

Men Against the Sea begins with the mutiny and describes what happens to Captain Bligh and those he commands as they make their way eventually to the Dutch settlement of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. Along the way, Captain Bligh and his men traverse around 3,600 miles in their fragile vessel while suffering many horrors including attacks from the native people, lack of sleep, storms, bailing for their lives, cold, thirst, too much sun, and hunger. The authors make a good decision in choosing to have the ship's surgeon serve as the narrator of this saga. This perspective made it possible for the book to include his physical descriptions of the deprivations of the Bounty's abandoned crew to help make the story more compelling. In the true spirit of a story about English tars, there is a considerable discussion of how the starvation the men experienced affected their intestinal tracts.

Captain Bligh comes across very poorly in Mutiny on the Bounty. The opposite occurs in Men Against the Sea. His leadership is one of the great accomplishments of seamanship of all time. Throughout the troubled voyage to the first landing at the Dutch settlement on Timor, Captain Bligh only lost one man. Captain Bligh also comes across as a brave, worthy, and dedicated sailor who is more than willing to share the deprivations of his men. In one stretch, he mans the tiller for 36 straight hours despite being exhausted. At the same time, even the most querulous of the crew usually keep their silence.

But the men are only human after all. Someone steals two pounds of pork. Another shipmate sent to capture birds is overcome by the need to eat them, and spoils the hunting for everyone. In their weakened state, they miss many wonderful chances for food. When they reach civilization and begin to recover from their privations, complaining quickly returns.

My test of how well written such an adventure tale is that I often felt like I was in the boat struggling with them. The main weakness of the book is that it skips many days on end, when the circumstances were at their most dire such as during unending days of storms. By doing this, the reader is denied the chance to have the full horror of the crossing bear down more strongly.

Most of the weaknesses of Mutiny on the Bounty are overcome in Men Against the Sea. So if you found that work unappealing, give this one a chance. It has many of the qualities of great survival and adventure books.

After you finish this remarkable tale, I suggest you think about the ways that adversity brings out the best in you. How can you do as well when times and circumstance are not adverse?

Squarely face the challenge, with confidence that success will follow!

I actually picked up Men Against the Sea expecting a mundane but entertaining sea story. It started off innocently enough until the unlucky crew was sentenced to their watery fate. Then the book suddenly plunged into turbo mode. Now, for an authour to write such a long book about the adventures of 18 men on one small boat and not skip a beat is remarkable.
Captain Bligh establishes his presence on the vessel with an iron grip. His leadership skills and confidence are quite extrodinary as he takes control of boat. One cannot help but feel for the crew as they struggle against all odds. Men Against the Sea is one of those stories that swipes the reader right of their comfy couch and throws them head-first into the raging ocean. The writers describe the hunger and thirst of the men so convicingly that I actually had to grab a bite myself or starve with them! The storms and squalls are believably violent and the Island natives frightfully savage.
It is really a great adventure story. The book manages to surpass its predecessor, Mutiny on the Bounty, by leaps and bounds. From rationing food barely sufficient for one man amongst 18 hungry seamen, too eating raw fish, the crew, lead by their relentless captain, are determined to survive. You will no doubt find yourself cheering at their victories and subsequently mourning their defeats.
What makes the read even more enjoyable is the realization that it is basically a true story. Man against Nature! Trully a book not easily forgotten. It has been 4 years since I read the book and it is still imprinted in by mind.

Read it for yourself. Such books makes being an avid reader so much fun!

It was a hot summer day, and I was in the mood for a sea story. I luckily picked up MEN AGAINST THE SEA and quickly became engrossed. Where the prequel, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, was a story of a mutiny, this one was one of the best men against the elements stories ever penned. We see a very different Captain Bligh, whose temper still flares up from time to time, but who this time is successful in managing a small crew of men in an open boat over 3,000 miles from the site of the mutiny to Timor, which is today part of Indonesia.

Fletcher Christian and his mutineers allow Bligh and his loyalists no guns, three cutlasses, a small medical kit, and a pitiful store of water and victuals. Their boat must skirt all inhabited islands because they had no gifts to give to the natives -- which in the islands at that time meant that they were risking attack every time. Their water supply came from rainstorms and occasional landings for food. They had no gear for fishing. All they had to go on were Bligh's knowledge and guts.

I actually prefer this book to MUTINY and now eagerly look forward to seeing if PITCAIRN'S ISLAND, the third volume in the trilogy, is as good.

The scores of short stories contained within this emotion-impacting book span a wide range of life-affecting topics that include love (15 stories), giving (11), parents and parenting (15), faith (12), levity (11), overcoming obstacles (11), perspective (11), and death and dying (15). The carefully selected stories (from thousands submitted) provide insight into the person God has called us to be, the actions God expects us to take, and the faith and attitude God expects us to adopt and profess. Scattered between the selections are both comics and thought-provoking quotations relevant to the section that they appear in.

Contributions for this outstanding 375+ page work were supplied by individuals such as the late Norman Vincent Peale, Corrie ten Boom, Dick Van Patten, Charles W. Colsen, Gary Smalley, Joan Wester Anderson, and Dick Van Dyke.

All stories are presented in a very readable level in which the reader can relate to the themes discussed and are short enough that single stories can be read in a session and then pondered. Your life will be more spiritually fulfilling and be more positive upon completion of reading this book if you take these stories to heart.

Do yourself a favor... A MUST read!

Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul paints a beautiful picture of true Christian love. The book does exactly as the title implies: warms the heart and rekindles the soul. The stories are very touching and moving, and they are all the more remarkable because they are true. Chicken Soup leaves the reader feeling very loving towards others and wanting to follow many actions of the people in the book. Chicken Soup's many themes include love, friendship, and devotion. Most of the stories in the book are based on one of these ideas. Often the stories show how love and friendship impacted or changed the author's life. People come to value these things much more when they have really been involved with the feelings of love and friendship. Chicken Soup makes a point to impress these values on the reader. The stories in Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul are all drawn from personal experience or the experience of a friend. This makes them seem quite real to the reader and leaves a very lasting impression. Many of the stories in the book question the power of Christ in one's life. Every time, His power holds true. Other times, the stories of devotion show just how rewarding love can be. These two things really give the reader something to think about. Also, the reader doesn't take so many things for granted. The Chicken Soup stories have all been very well written. They are worded in a way so as to touch the reader with everything they say. The book argues and defends its title very well and answers all questions posed in any of the stories. Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul proves to be very accessible to just about any reader of reasonable age, although the book probably has a more lasting impression on Christians. But, being a Christian isn't necessary to understand and enjoy the book. The point of view varies throughout the book, which makes it a little more interesting to read. The strengths of the Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul include the wonderful Christian-like themes it addresses throughout the book. Also, the book's ability to leave a lasting impression and make the reader truly grateful is definitely very important. As for weaknesses, none were noticeable. This book really contributes to the reader's understanding of life in general and how a little love and caring can go a long way. Reading Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul would definitely be a positive influence on just about anyone. The book proves its capability to cheer someone up when the soul feels blue. This is a wonderful book that plenty of people would enjoy, should they take the time to understand the feelings of the authors. Chicken Soup can certainly change the way one looks at themselves and others and make the quality of life much richer.

I have not yet completed this book, but I am in the process of finishing it now. So far it is very motivational. The chapter on Faith has got some real meaningful messeges. I recommend that anyone who needs some words of wisdom should open this book. It is definately worth the time and worth the money. I am only 20 years old and have read a lot of books, but this one is literally too hard to put down. When I put it down after reading a story I feel like being the best of God's people. God's work is really involved in these stories, and in putting them together so that we can enjoy them and learn about some wonderful workings of God.

"Pitcairn's Island" tells the story of nine mutineers from the Bounty after they took the ship and set Captain Bligh adrift in an open boat. Settling on a tiny uninhabited island in the South Pacific, they and their Polynesian companions found an earthly paradise. The island was large enough to sustain the small population, and was so remote that discovery by the British navy was unlikely. During the first years on the island, they worked to develop the community, and there was little strife. But as their living conditions became less precarious, they were confronted with timeless problems that eventually plunged the inhabitants of the island into turmoil. Jealousy, lust, drunkenness, sloth, oppression, adultery, avarice and race hatred soon destroyed this ideal society in violent and shocking ways.

The authors present a meticulous fictional narrative, derived from the accounts of vistors and islanders. They treat the savagery and debauchery that occured there mainly in a decorous and oblique manner. The only real flaw with the book is the map, which is inadequate to guide the reader throught the events. Notwithstanding, the book is very entertaining and one will certainly want to learn more about the island and its people. Best of all though, is the way in which the book raises questions about the essential nature of human beings. The mutineers and their companions had an Eden, but it could not and did not last.

This is a magnificent book and the best of the Bounty Trilogy. I've read it many times over the years and find myself wholly captivated by it each time.

"Pitcairn's Island" follows the story of Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian and eight of his men who are hunting for a sanctuary in which to hide from the long arm of the Royal Navy. They bring their Tahitian wives and several Tahitian men along with them. Finding Pitcairn's Island uninhabited, they settle there in 1790, less than a year after the mutiny. The men range from about age 21 to 38, Christian himself was only about 24 yrs old although the movies always seem to depict him as being older.

The Pitcairn story operates on multiple levels--- the attempt by criminals to make a Utopian society, the conflict between the English and the Tahitians, the conflict between the men and the women, conflict between the educated officers, Christian and Young, and the low-born seamen. The tiny colony struggles with alcoholism, race warfare, slavery, rape, insanity and even religious rebirth. The story seems impossible to believe and yet all of it is true. The mutiny story has made for several rousing motion pictures but they always end with the mutineers arrival at Pitcairn and never deal with what happened afterwards, which is the most fascinating part of the story.

Will some filmmaker PLEASE bring this story to the screen?

Before reviewing this book, let me note that it contains explicit scenes of violence that would cause this book to exceed an R rating if it were a motion picture. These scenes are very effective in enhancing the emotional power of the story, but certainly exceed what had to be portrayed.

Pitcairn's Island is by far the best of the three novels in The Bounty Trilogy. While the first two books seem like somewhat disconnected pieces of the whole story of the events leading up to and following the mutiny on H.M.S. Bounty, Pitcairn's Island stands alone as a worthy story. In its rich development of what happened to nine of the mutineers and those Polynesians who joined them, this book ranks as one of the great adventure and morality tales of all time.

The story picks up with the H.M.S. Bounty under sail in poorly charted seas, commanded by Fletcher Christian and looking for Pitcairn's Island. On the ship are 27 adults (9 British mutineers, 12 Polynesian women, and 6 Polynesian men). Everyone is a little edgy because Pitcairn's Island is not where the charts show it to be. After much stress, Pitcairn's Island is finally sighted. Then, it becomes apparent that the Bounty cannot be kept safely there in the long run because of the poor mooring conditions. If they commit to Pitcairn's Island, there will be no leaving it. Should they stay or go?

The novel follows up on what happens in the 19 years following that fateful decision. The key themes revolve around the minimum requirements of a just society, differences between the two cultures of British and Polynesians, the varying perceptions and expectations of men and women, and the impact of immorality on the health of a society. Anyone who has enjoyed Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, or The Lord of the Flies will find this novel vastly appealing. Here, part of the fascination is that real-life events are being described.

The decision to turn this into a novel is a good one. The accounts of what occurred vary, and cannot be totally reconciled. So no one can really know what happened, other than it was dramatic. Towards the end of the book, the narration becomes that of one character, and the use of that character's language, perspective, background is powerful in making the novel seem more realistic and compelling.

This is a story where the less you know when you begin, the more you will enjoy the story. Out of respect for your potential reading pleasure, I will delve no more into the book.

After you finish reading the book, I suggest that you take each of the characters and imagine how you could have improved matters for all by speaking and behaving differently then that character did. Then, think about your own family, and apply the same thought process. See what you would like to change about your own speech and behavior in your family, as a result.

Think through the consequences of your potential actions very carefully when many others will be affected!

In this book, the authors make what seems to be an autobiographical account of a year of traveling and adventure throughout the South Seas. They decide to travel in different directions and meet again after a few months. They write in turn about their own experiences and stories as narrated to them by other characters, covering a wide range of stories, from the mere description of island's habits, to beautiful native stories, to what must be the most thrilling and yet poetic treasure hunt I have read. Possibly a slightly minor work from this authors, better known for the Bounty books. Yet, if you like the mystery of the South Seas a little more than its adventure, add that fifth star to my rating. Please bear in mind my comments are based on a first edition of this book, dated 1921, which I own. I write the review in the hope that it will be useful since there is none to date, but I have not actually read this new edition.

I agree with Gerardo... This book will give you unvarnished observations from new visitors to the south east Pacific immediately after WWI. The descrptions of Hall's visit to the Paumotus (Tuamotus) are really priceless today, as is his account of Hotel Tiare and Lavaina, before her death. If you enjoy this, then see if you can get a copy of My Island Home. The island parts are very good (especially Singh, A Song of Six Pence). Also read The Forgotten One, and Other Stories, a darker look at the affects and outcomes of caucasians in the islands.

Often ranked as "the first significant American novelist"-this is how Norman Grabo characterizes him in the Introduction to this volume-Charles Brockden Brown was an ambitious and inventive teller of tales, although an awkward literary craftsman. Brown was only in his twenties when he published this novel in 1799, but it was already his fourth book. Edgar Huntly, which takes place in rural Pennsylvania in 1787 recounts the strange adventures of a young man who sets out to discover the person responsible for killing his best friend, Waldegrave, who has recently died under mysterious circumstances. His investigations put him on the track of Clithero, an Irish servant employed in his uncle's household, but one thing leads to another and Edgar finds himself having to fight Indians and face the perils of the wilderness in order to make his way back home. Most of the story is told by Edgar himself in a long letter-some twenty-seven chapters long-that he is in the process of writing to his intended, Waldegrave's sister, Mary.
Edgar Huntly belongs to the genre of romance, the much older but somewhat less respectable sibling of the novel of social realism that had come into vogue in the eighteenth century. The romance frequently has an exotic setting, and features incidents that stretch the limits of artistic plausibility, where it does not take a plunge into fantasy, as it does in Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk or Charles Robert Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer. Nevertheless, the genre enjoyed great popularity here down to the time of the Civil War, and Brown shows himself well acquainted with its conventions. He not only throws in a whole series of hair-raising encounters that pit the inexperienced Edgar with natural hazards, predatory wild animals, and marauding Delawares, but supplies a convoluted plot line that he further complicates with stories-within-the main story told by subordinate characters. Even for a romance, Edgar Huntly has an unusually tangled narrative web. It's hardly surprising the neophyte author himself sometimes has difficulty keeping track of the strands.
The reader making the acquaintance of Brown for the first time will not get any help from the note on the back cover supplied by Penguin, according to which "Edgar Huntly is the story of a young man who sleepwalks each night, a threat to himself and others, unable to control his baser passions....One of America's first Gothic novels...." I wonder whether the person responsible for these inane comments ever bothered to open the book. In the first place, Edgar Huntly is no Gothic novel. As E.F. Bleiler pointed out, it takes a castle to make a Gothic novel. But Brown explicitly distances himself from the suspicion of Gothicism in the remarkable address "To the Public" prefaced to the book, in which he prides himself on having found his materials in his native country and rejoices in not having fallen back on "Gothic castles and chimeras" in composing his work. But the statement about Edgar is not just inaccurate-it is blatantly incorrect. Edgar has at the most two sleepwalking episodes, one of which serves to initiate the most remarkable series of events in the novel, when he awakes to find himself mysteriously transported to a cave in the middle of the night. And nothing Edgar relates suggests he has a history of somnambulism in his past-nor that he is "unable to control his baser passions." In fact, the first sleepwalker to show up is the far more uncontrolled Clithero, who almost seems to have infected Edgar with his affliction.
Brown was clearly a pioneer of psychological analysis in the history of the novel. Like Edgar Allan Poe later, he probed the souls of his characters by plunging them into violent, imminently lethal situations. As a student of extreme states of the human psyche, he was not only a predecessor of Poe, but of Hawthorne and Melville as well. Yet Brown lacked the ability to apply his talent to the creation of highly individualized characters, one of the strengths of great nineteenth century novelists such as Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. All of the characters in Edgar Huntly, the protagonist included, remain little more than phantoms inhabiting a largely crepuscular world throughout the course of the action. However, like other trailblazing figures in the early history of American fiction-James Fenimore Cooper is a perfect example-Brown had an estimable ability to create atmosphere. It is not intended as a sarcasm to say that the reader may feel he or she is turning into a sleepwalker while reading Edgar Huntly.

This book is truly one of the most interesting and purely entertaining books I've ever read. The creepy imagery of the sleepwalking man digging in the street and then the caves and indians will stick with me forever. What an amazingly creative man. An x-files-esque dreamer living in the 1790s.

First published in 1799, Charles Brockden Brown's novel, "Edgar Huntly" is an insane masterpiece. I love Brown. I read this novel for the first time a few years ago, and thought it was about time to refresh my memory. Set outside of Philadelphia in the final years of the 1780's, "Edgar Huntly," like other of Brown's works, test the new American republic's capacity to govern while balancing the needs and desires of its culturally disparate inhabitants.

The novel is purportedly a correspondence from the protagonist, Edgar Huntly, to his friend/love interest, Mary Waldegrave, in the aftermath of her brother's death. Edgar is an educated, refined, enlightened young man, disconsolate upon the death of his friend. An avid walker, Edgar frequently leaves the environs of his hometown, Solebury, returning to the scene of his friend's death, a large elm tree. Near this tree late one evening, he spots a man, conspicuously lurking, burying something beneath the tree. Suspecting this man, Clithero, of Waldegrave's murder, Edgar begins a career of surveillance and tracking, following Clithero to his residence and through the uncharted wildernesses that border his hometown. What follows is Edgar's progress in discovering the truths behind the death of Waldegrave, the history of Clithero, and the foundations of his own self-control and rationality.

Brown deals with a number of issues throughout the novel current to late 18th century America, including the dispossession of Native Americans from their land, Irish immigration, and the instability of a newly formed nation. Philosophically, Brown examines popular 18th century debates over the limits of sympathy, and the ability of sense, experiment, and observation to conclusively explain human nature. In his preface to the novel, Brown says that his novel will not exploit the then-common motifs of gothic fiction. Perhaps, but Brown, taking the example of William Godwin, moves the castles, dungeons, and murders of traditional gothic into the psyches of his characters. Dementia, paranoia, and in this novel, at least, the uncontrollability of sleep-walking, constitute the largely internal threats to personal and national safety.

So join Edgar, Clithero, Sarsefield, the Lorimers, Inglefield, Queen Mab, and an army of hostile natives, on an intricate, often horrifying romp through late 18th century America. Brown's doubts and fears about living in the new nation will entrance and mortify you, and possibly make you consider putting yourself in restraints before you go to bed at night.