What a delight to discover Dawn Powell! This collection offers a selection of novels and short stories that bristle with well-observed details and uncanny insights. She writes with ascerbic humor about the "wanna-bes" and the "haves" in flapper society with sometimes chilling clarity. Like so many of her contemporaries, she was brave enough to make heroes of very flawed creatures indeed--and do it very well. I wanted to know more about her and read more. Discovering her makes me wonder why Dorothy Parker and Edna Ferber got all the breaks.

This book provides a good overview of the development of Soviet tanks from the early 1920s to the end of World War II and beyond. It also provides a good explanation of the Soviet's strategic military aims after the Revolution and Civil War and the tactics that these aims would entail. The tank was central to these tactics and Soviet armor design has to be seen in that light. In other words this book is not just a list of the tanks and their statistics.

The book also provides a detailed background to the design, manufacture and use of each major tank type. The T-34 and KV-1 are given the most coverage, as is only proper. The book also includes, but does not overemphasize, some of the odd prototypes and experimental vehicles that the Soviets developed. The book concludes with a discussion of the legacy of WWII Soviet armor and tactics down to the present day.

The book is attractively laid out and there are many good pictures and line drawings. There are also a number of interesting tables in the back of the book.

Unfortunately this is a very good book that is marred by numerous instances of lack of proof reading in the text and one badly mislabeled picture (an ISU 122 self propelled gun is labeled as a IS-2 tank on pg 26). I was able ignore these problems the first couple of times but it kept happening and became a bit annoying.

Errors and all, I read the book all the way to the end and enjoyed it. The authors obviously know the subject and I learned some things I didn't know. Even with the errors I give it 4 starts. If the publisher would clean up the editorial mistakes in the next printing this would be 5 star book.

I am a neice of Dawn Powell's and we are all very grateful for the notice she is finally receiving. She has contributed so much to American literature and our family is most grqateful to Tim Page for the recognition she is receiving at long last.

Although Dawn Powell was more widely known in the first half of the 20th century as a playwright and novelist, she apparently wrote hundreds of short stories as well that she sold to magazines, allowing her to support her art. This collection of what she considered her best short-fiction work (according to the preface) offers some witty, entertaining nuggets of cosmopolitan life in NYC during the '40s and '50s. Many of the characters are trying desperately to "make it big" somehow, whether in big business, movie stardom, the literary scene, high society, etc. Powell's razor-sharp view of such characters is both mocking and often sympathetic. Many of the stories somehow reminded me of musicals of the Hollywood's Golden Age, and the dialogue seems straight from Busby Berkely.

The stories are all truly "short stories"--most no more than 5 or 10 pages. They are almost like one-act plays, enough to introduce you to the main players and what their environment is like, walk you through a crucial and significant moment (an audition, a forbidden shopping spree, a dinner party, a funeral), and it's over--perfect if you are not in the mood to make a longer reading commitment to one of Ms. Powell's novels (although you should!). A witty--and sometimes ascerbic--look at American society in an age gone by.

These guys were doing fine until May 31st, 2001. If you cover the labels with duct tape, who's going to know? I believe they meant lapels. An honest mistake if you know the difference between a label and a lapel.

Oh yes, I know what your thinking, "Great, it's this beaver3000 guy again. All he ever does is say things are good." Well you know what, I really wish I could say that this is bad but I can't. First of all, there really isn't much you can do to critique a calendar, but I liked and I think that you will too.

How can a book that was, in my opinion, apparently written for FrontPage 1.1 claim to cover FrontPage 97? Why cover Paint Shop Pro when FrontPage 97 includes Image Composer and hundreds of megabytes of images? Why claim to be about design when you're not?

From the word go, you can tell that this book is not so much about designing with FrontPage as it is about relieving your pocket book of $45.00.

I don't want to trash this book because I feel the authors are qualifed. Next, you should know that I tried to learn FP98 beta with this book and just had a fair time. Since a lot of changes between the versions, I couldn't do one project. Finally, theres a ton of good images and software here on the CD, more than you'll use. Next, I've learned that graphic design on a PC is about graphics, not computing. FP is a complex product so don't expect one book to do it all. Next, this book assumes you know FP97 and teaches you design, and for that I like it, but doesn't do a database site. It gives step by step tutorials on four projects and provides all the graphics to do them. It really does a an all around good job. FP 97 is a challenge. This book is about design, but don't buy it if you buy FP98.

This was a solid effort by this photographer that has basically made his career out of the Viet Nam war. I thought the pictures were interesting and somewhat dramatic, but there was nothing that moved me a great deal. This is not a book that you will show off to each new person that comes to your house; it is a good overview of the war. If you are looking for a brief, general book then this is for you.