I found many wonderful and useful tidbits of information in Passion and Craft : Conversations With Notable Writers. Normally, interviews with writers tend to focus on questions about the writer's upcoming books or about their early and current lives- in other words, they're interesting questions, but hardly every practical. In this book, questions are specific and often technical. What arises is that the answers the writers give are useful for other writers. This book belongs on the bookshelf of all writers.

After enjoying Bill Wyman's 1990 autobiography "Stone Alone", I couldn't pass up "Wyman Shoots Chagall". I am glad to say "Wyman Shoots Chagall" was another enjoyable read by Bill Wyman. Along with a great story of his friendship with the world renowned artist Mark Chagall, Bill has decided to show us besides being a great musician, he is also a great photographer.

In 1971 when the Rolling Stones left England and moved to the South of France to record "Exile On Main St", Bill struck up a friendship with artist Mark Chagall. During their friendship Bill took many fabulous photographs of Mark Chagall, most of which are published here for the very first time. To accompany the book Bill has added a bonus CD, which is only available here, of classical compostions he wrote performed by the London Symphony Orchestra that has never been commercially released. Also captured by Bill's lens are photographs of Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Eric Clapton and Elton John. The book is a must for anyone who is a fan of Bill Wyman or Mark Chagall. It is well worth the money.

I found this book very enjoyable and it moved well, its not slow on the get go, I also liked the ending, very different from his other books, which usually end with the guy getting the girl in the end, this time they.... enuf said (: And I liked the mention of a New Zealander, Cheers Bova...:

This was a book I just happened to look at because it had a cool cover and decent premise, so I decided to give it a shot. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining and how fast-paced it was - the kind of book you can read in one sitting. In addition, the book has a good, surprising ending - I don't want to spoil it for you. Peackeepers is the kind of book that should be made into a movie - although maybe they should wait a while because, on the surface, the plot seems similar to the movie The Peacemaker with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman (although the Peacekeepers is a much better story, trust me). Either way, even though this isn't Bova' most popular book, it's worth checking out.

I had the pleasant opportunity to know more about how and why this book was written. I will say this Rocky Oliver is a Lotus Notes god. I've worked with him for a number of years. I know what the man is capable of. I am sure that if Rocky had more direction in the content of this book, I'd give it 5 stars (Rocky when is your book coming out?) However, back to the subject. Notes Help is much better.

The "hundreds of working examples" (submission by author) are nothing more than the same basic script, over and over, yielding a messagebox saying something like "The current user is Jason S.". The title of the book belies its content; it is a reference manual, which can be useful if you need something portable and don't have the toner to print out the help files.

The content of most of the book is a list of all the classes, what you can do with them and the above messagebox script. This book has it's place, but, with respect to actual development with LotusScript, I've found that I've gotten much more out of the combination of following online tutorials, dissecting sample applications and trawling through Notes' help files.

I did manage to teach my self LotusScript using this book, but it wasn't easy. It's very well structured, almost like a reference book. Its weakest point however is the lack of a good index, the one it contains is far from complete. Thus making it a bad reference. I would like to see a either that the authors make a more didactic revision of it, or make it into to a reference book with a better index. As it is now, it's not good enough for either or. I can't say that I've seen any better LotusScript selfstudy books though, so I would still have to recommend it.

Very disappointing read. Starts with her tale of what she saw in 1963 then devolves into another "MASSIVE GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY" work. Offering no documentation to support statements made. Unsupported statements about what her boyfriend said, claimed or saw. Lauds Garrison and his persecution of an innocent man in New Orleans. Originally I thought 'The Assassination tapes' By George O'Toole was the worst effort in Conspiracy volumes but no more.

Jean Hill's story changed with the wind. She saw next to nothing during the assassination, but used her unique location (and her active imagination)to keep herself in the limelight for years. It got so bad that even the conspiracy writers were shying away from her toward the end. It was laughable.

Someone needed to ask her about the "little dog" she said was sitting in the car with JFK and Jackie. (Look at the original interviews- she actually said it.)

This book is BS from stem to stern. Go read a fairy tale, at least there's a moral at the end. The only thing you find at the end of this book is your wallet a little lighter!

Jean Hill saw President Kennedy shot and she believed that at least one of the shooters was on the grassy knoll behind the fence and she estimated that between 4 and 6 shots were fired. Her story was heavily disputed by first the Secret Service who kept her in custody for hours on that fateful day, the CIA agent who was present in her first meeting with the FBI, and the FBI who interviewed her extensively for days after the assassination, as well as the Warren Commission's attorney who humiliated and intimidated her before taking her testimony for the Warren Commission.

Some of the most interesting facts presented in this book are:
1. Jean Hill saw Jack Ruby run at break-neck speed from the Texas Book Depository to the fence on the grassy knoll immediately after the shooting of JFK, as she ran towards the fence where she thought the shooter was.
2. She saw a man in a Dallas-police uniform holding a rifle and standing behind the fence on the grassy knoll, immediately after the shooting, right before she was grabbed and escorted away by two Secret Service men.
3. Her boyfriend was J.B. Marshall, the Dallas police officer who was on a motorcycle to the left rear of the president's car and who's helmet and bike got splattered with JFK's blood and brains. He told her that LBJ's Secret Service people instructed the motorcycle cops at the Dallas airport that these changes were being made: (a) the parade route was being changed to cut through Dealey Plaza on Elm Street; (b) the motorcycle cops would not be at the front of the presidential limousine as they normally would have been, but would only be at the rear of the presidential limousine; (c) the order of the cars in the motorcade was changed so that Johnson's car would not be immediately behind the presidential car, but that a carload of Secret Service would be in between the President's car and LBJ's car. Most shocking of all, was his report to Jean Hill that another motorcycle cop witnessed that LBJ started ducking down in his car at least 30 to 40 seconds before the first shots were fired.
4. Arlen Specter, who questioned her in Dallas for the Warren Commission, was the one who proposed the "single bullet theory" that was adopted by the Warren Commission. His butchered transcript of her testimony to the Warren Commission was "heavily edited, completely distorted and shamelessly fabricated."

Author Bill Sloan does a credible job of telling Jean Hill's story and explaining her inner turmoil and emotional trauma about being a witness to the assassination. He explains about:
1. Why she refused to go to Washington to testify before the Warren Commission.
2. That she was romantically involved with a married man at the time (J.B. Marshall) and how he repeatedly tried to convince her to keep quiet about what she knew, and how he evidently knew more than he wanted to tell her.
3. That the FBI kept her home under surveillance for 15 months after the assassination.
4. Why she would not testify in the trial of Clay Shaw in New Orleans, although J.B. Marshall and Mary Moorman did.
5. Her eventual vindication and validation through experiences with Bill Marrs (author of Crossfire) who introduced her to others who witnessed the assassination, and her experiences with Oliver Stone and Kevin Cossner during the filming of the movie "JFK."
6. The details of the attempts on her life (most significantly, one almost-fatal car wreck caused by the steering-wheel bolts being unscrewed and another time when her car's brake-fluid line was found to be cut).

The most inexplicable fact about Jean Hill's story is why was Jack Ruby running at break-neck speed towards the shooter behind the fence on the grassy knoll? She did not know who Jack Ruby was until she saw him on tv, as he shot Oswald. Her fear that no one would believe her about seeing Ruby running towards one of the shooters was increased when she was told by FBI agent Shanklin that eye witnesses had proved that Ruby was not at Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination. Perhaps her identification of Ruby at Dealey Plaza is the clue to why her testimony was distorted by the Warren Commission, why she was intimidated and humiliated, and why her story is so important. No doubt, historians, researchers, and future generations interested in finding out the truth about the JFK assassination will be grateful that Jean Hill's story is finally available in this book, published twenty-nine years after the assassination, without any distortion by those who would have preferred that it had never been told.