I reviewed baseball books for "Baseball Hobby News" for ten years. During that time I read countless books about the minors, both teams and leagues. These books fell into two categories. Some were meticulously researched and written with an almost scholarly sense of detail and professional journalism. Others were not.

"Mud Hen Memories" falls into the category of "not." Giving only six pages to the history of baseball in Toledo from 1883 to 1955, it focuses on the Hens since their return in 1965 as a Yankee AAA team and gives year-by-year coverage, featuring team photos and highlights, down through 2000. It outlines the performance of the team with an utterly dismal record, a playing facility called "The Dump," and a fan base both wafer thin and dubiously devoted.

Never once is there a question as to why this is true, and has been for so long. Why did the general managers keep their jobs for so long, given their terrible record, both in wins and attendance? Why was their field, a dreary former racetrack at the county fairgrounds, tolerated for so long?
Why did changing major league affiliations several times, never, ever, improve things? Why do the Tigers, their parent club since 1987, have such a propensity for drafting players who never fulfill their supposed potential? What role or blame do the Hens have in failing to develop the talent they are given, such as it is?

Instead the book (a soft cover, large format presentation, similar in size and weight to one of Bill James' old yearly abstracts) gives endless game details that would almost certainly be forgotten on merit, plus player responses to what they remember about their Toledo playing days. These include such things as Jim Lindeman's, "Nothing against the Hens, but I did not enjoy my stay in Toledo."

Why then, the five star rating? Because this book perfectly captures the mind and spirit of Toledo, my hometown. Though I have not lived there since I left for college in 1966, I still return nearly every summer, and a Mud Hen game is often included. Toledo is a place that not merely tolerates the sub-mediocre, but often manages to affirm and even revel in it. As such the Mud Hens are at least as representative of Toledo as the relentless-need-to-win Yankees are of New York or the endlessly guilty Red Sox are of Boston.

There is something cosmically appropriate about fans like Mr. O'Brien, who attends every home game and makes cookies for the players. I am comforted knowing that, when Phil Hiatt set a Hen record with 42 homers in1996 and was totally ignored by every major league club (his 26 errors and 180 strikeouts being why), Mr. O'Brien was there with cookies, adulation and a desire for Hiatts' autograph.

The book is broken up into four interconnected short stories. They revolve around a girl (Myrna) and her active imagination. Throughout Myrna performs various heroic acts, ranging from fighting forest fires to stopping a band of cat theives. All the stories would make excellent bedtiem stories. The book has a particularly happy ending.

this is the best childrens book I have ever read. I have five children and get the book from the library every time it is in stock. I highly reccomend this to every parent to read to their child.

Bookkeepers and accounting managers taking my Beginning Peachtree course frequently ask for resources for further study. Hedtke's PCAWin Made Easy is at the top of my list. I am most impressed by the clear organization and flow of the book, making it well-suited as both reference and self-paced tutorial (usually a tricky balance in computer books, but Hedtke pulls it off!)

PCAWin Made Easy is my "desert island" Peachtree book ;-)

This book presented facts about types of reptiles through poetry in a way that captivated my five-year-old boy. He enjoyed the whimsical pictures and the context: imagining what it would be like to see reptiles dancing at a ball--without eating each other! In addition to reptile facts, the book demonstrated many different types of poetic form. A rhythmic reading of this books entertained and involved him from start to finish. This book could be used to teach zoology or poetry, but in both cases the result would be a fun time for all.

This excellent introduction to the archaeology of Cape Cod can open up a whole fascinating world, for anyone who takes the time to read it. The technical, academic jargon of archaeology is kept to an absolute minimum, and what jargon exists is always painstakingly explained.

I'd like to make a few general comments. First of all, you should be aware that the printer made a small error in the table of contents. The foreword, introduction, and acknowledgments are numbered in the text with Roman numerals, but in the table of contents they were assigned "normal," Arabic numerals. For example, "17" is written in the table of contents as the page number for one prefatory section, as opposed to "XVII." This throws off the table of contents for the first couple of chapters. Please don't give up on the book as a whole because of this minor error -- you'd be making a big mistake. Just be careful, and spend 2 minutes with a pencil to correct the table of contents in your copy. For a second general comment, I'd just like to alert you to the fact that this book is almost exclusively devoted to pre-colonial, native American archaeology. There are a few pages about remains left by the early settlers, in the chapter on Wing Island in Brewster, but most of the book focuses on the pre-historic period.

The introduction and foreword are nice to read through. They contail some personal statements by two people who worked on the book, about the importance of maintaining a childlike sense of wonder, and childlike curiosity. This excitement and wonder is part and parcel of the book -- we encounter it again, periodically throughout the text, as we read about local students and Cape residents who participate in various excavations.

The whole book is peppered with a terrific selection of maps, illustrations, and photographs. All of them are in black and white. These visual aids really add a lot to the book, and help to make it more approachable. I'd like to particularly draw your attention to the two graphic chronologies, or timelines, on pages forty-one and forty-six. You might want to bookmark those pages, because you'll find yourself referring back to them quite a bit, to get your brain oriented in anthropological or geological time. One other useful section, that you might want to pay extra close attention to, is the historical overview of Cape Cod archaeology given on pages sixteen and seventeen -- and that's in Arabic numerals, not Roman.

Part One is designed as an overview of the topic as a whole. The chapters here explore the history of the field of study of archaeology on the Cape; an anthropological overview of early native peoples in the region; and a survey of local geological (pre-)history. The geologic chapter is a good one. It includes all kinds of maps, illustrating such phenomena as glaciers, dunes, forests, etc. Make sure you spend some time on these chapters. They will help you get much more out of the second part of the book, which focuses upon specific sites.

Part Two deals with sites at Upper Mill Pond, in Brewster; Sandy Neck, to the north of Barnstable; Pochet, "the dividing place," in East Orleans; and Wing Island, in Brewster. A final chapter tries to tie together what you've learned, in an effort to create a composite overview of daily life among the Nauset peoples of Cape Cod.

The book finishes up with a glossary of archaeological terminology (which is always very user-friendly, as I mentioned earlier); a bibliography for further reading, and an index.

If you enjoy this book, I would like to alert you to the existence of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society. It's simple to find on the internet. They maintain a little museum, in Middleborough, which is a terrific resource for the archaeology of the entire state. If you'd like to specifically learn more about the archaeology of Cape Cod, try using your internet skills to find a website for the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. They're the folks behind this fine book.

Basically, I really liked this book, and I think you will too. Two thumbs up.

I first read the "Silver Kings: The Lives and Times of MacKay, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien, Lords of the Nevada Comstock Lode", because there was a family story that James G. Fair might be a lost relative. If he is it's quite distant, but the book was so interesting that I've since read everything I could get my hands on about the Comstock Lode and it's characters. Virginia City really did more as the birth place of the myths and truths of the Old West than did Tombstone or Dodge City. I am also an "Earp" buff and have read much available on the "Gun Fight" related characters. Even Samuel Clemens, later known as Mark Twain, was a reporter for the Virginia City newspaper during his early days. The book was fantastic. I'm glad to see it in reprint as I will give it as gifts to some of my friends. I had hunted long and hard for my old copy. If you like stories of the Old West you will enjoy this one. And the stories are true.
Senator Mike Fair
Oklahoma State Senator

I do not think of sheep as being particulary creepy, but that is just one of the charms of "Six Creepy Sheep," in which the six previously sleepy sheep are awake enough to decide to go trick or treating on a spooky Halloween night. John O'Brien was always one of my favorite contributors to "The New Yorker" and it is delightful to see him going all out in these illustrations as the six creepy sheep go a-haunting. But as they venture into the woods they meet a passel of pirates, a gaggle of goblins, and more, with each encounter sending one of the sheep scuryying away. Judith Ross Enderle and Stephanie Gordon Tessler come up with some tongue twisting prose for this cute little counting book, but it is O'Brien's detailed pen-and-ink illustrations that make this a winner for me.

I originally bought this book for my five yr. old but my one yr. old quickly made it his own. The dry humor and brevity of this book make it an extremely enjoyable read for kids. I'm just glad I can re-order one since our current copy is in shreds from so much use. What a great book!

Ably edited by Brian K. Robertson, Things Grew Beautifully Worse: The Wartime Experiences Of Captain John O'Brien, 30th Arkansas Infantry, C.S.A. is the personal civil war diary of a Confederate officer who had a first-hand perspective of the battles, bloodshed, and gangrene of the Civil War, and who came to languish in Union Prisons with nothing to do save write down his experiences. Heavily annotated for the modern reader's benefit, this slim volume adds a very personal touch to a divisive era in America's history. Things Grew Beautifully Worse is a highly recommended and much appreciated addition to the growing library of Civil War memoirs and eye-witness accounts.