This is the fourth book in the Henry Reed series.

In this book, Henry Reed returns to rural New Jersey for his third summer with his aunt and uncle. Each summer, Henry and his friend and partner-in-chicanery, Midge Glass, embark on a business scheme that results in humorous twists and moderately successful outcomes.

This summer, Henry and Midge want to produce some sort of entertainment show, but when a music festival and medieval tournament prove to have insurmountable obstacles, they settle on a rodeo. New Jersey being fresh out of stallions and bulls, they improvise and settle on sheep-roping and Sardinian donkey-riding. As always, there is an unexpected funny disaster, but a happy outcome.

Like the previous three books, Henry Reed's Big Show is entertaining and completely G-rated. The writing is compelling and through Henry, who lives overseas during the school year, the author passes along obscure facts about the world interesting to children and adults alike.

The downside, unfortunately, is these stories occur in a world that no longer exists. I grew up in an area of New Jersey close to the fictional Grovers Corner in which these books are based, and the rural idyll is long-gone, replaced by shopping malls and developments of McMansions. Similarly, it is hard to imagine today's young teens relating to the two characters whose activities, while hair-brained, are squeaky-clean and occuring without the presence of TV, the Internet, etc.

I highly recommend this and the other Henry Reed books in the series to children aged 10 and up. There is no objectionable material for a parent to be concerned about, but the cultural world in which the story is set may cause confusion.

Henry Reed's Journey is a book about Henry Reed, the son of a traveling diplomat, and his travels across the United States. He meets his friend Midge Glass, from the summer before (read Henry Reed, Inc. first), and travels with her family all over the United States. Midge's father believes that whenever Henry is around, strange things happen, which is true, although it is not Hnery's fault. Henry and Midge's adventures include starting a gold rush, being accepted into a Native American tribe, and buying tons of fireworks, only to see them be accidentally set off when they got home. This was a wonderful book, but you should the first book, Henry Reed, Inc. first. If you don't, you will become confused of what Henry is referring to when he refers to the summer before. Go out and get this book!

This book gave me a quick and readable introduction to the STEM. Good work on the writers' part.

However, this is a short book, and doesn't go into much detail. It would be a good book for someone just starting out in STEM, but anyone with STEM experience might find only a few bits and pieces of the book enlightening.

This first novel of Robert Reed delves into a fascinating world with a bizarre ecology and the human boy who grow up there. A typical science fiction theme of one characters voyage of discovery and renewal is done suberbly. Reed shows a remarkable dexterity with prose and places his characters in memorable situations from which they and the reader emerge changed for the better. Out of Print but worth tracking down.

Robert Sobel wrote the best biography of Calvin Coolidge I have seen so far, which means best of five. Even better than Coolidge's autobiography. His contextualization of Coolidge included astute observations on the American economy, and on Wall Street in particular. So I searched out this out of print book on an online service and began to read. To Dillon Read.

This is the firm which gave us George H.W. Bush's treasury secretary, Nicholas Brady, whom Sobel also covers pretty thoroughly in this book, hinting that his undergrad grades were not so hot and that he may be dyslexic. But great connections.

Clarence Dillon is the star of the book, which starts with the Dutchman Vermilye and his investment trading operation in New York. Dillon joins after Read joins, and Dillon is the gutsy Jewish guy (although Dillon cloaks that in an effort to run with the WASP dominators of New York at the time) who engineers brash and bold, huge deals, then makes a lot more money by taking over companies (buying them by lending them money) and hiring "management" firms secretly owned by....Clarence Dillon.

The Pecora hearings are profiled, and Sobel gets into the 1933 and 1934 Securities laws and the SEC, giving us the impression that Pecora was a little extreme, and the SEC--although harshly received by the "Street" at the time--was a pretty good idea.

Sobel does not stop there, though. He follows the Dillon Read firm past Clarence, and on to Douglas (who also became a Secretary of the Treasury, but who didn't have the same pizzazz of the old man, who drifted off into old age in aristocratic fashion on a huge New Jersey estate). Then on to the Bechtel and Wallenberg family connections of Dillon Read, and terminating in the mid 1980s with a glimpse of new ways-a-borning with the addition of New Court Capital and the opening of the firm to modern V.C. investment.

A great companion to this book is the very recent book "The Last Partnerships" which does the same biographical analysis of our entire economy, by profiling a whole collection of investment firms, Dillon Read included. Sobel has less range, in comparison, but Sobel's mission is to drill into Dillon Read. This book does not "sing" like Sobel's Coolidge, as I said, but forms a link in Sobel's scholarship which I'm glad to have. Next will come a read of Sobel's history of the New York Stock Exchange, to lengthen the chain.

This important anthology makes available a range of Native American writings from the early nineteenth century to the present. Genres covered include fiction, poetry, auotobiography, and drama, making this text a fine choice for introduction to literature classes as well as for courses focused specifically on Native American literature. Luther Standing Bear's autobiographical account of his time at the Carlisle school for Indians is a particularly interesting selection for its historical perspective on the push for "Indians" to assimilate via white modes of education. Vizenor's introduction provides a useful historical framework as well. Some of the selections are relatively well-known in the field of Native American literary studies, while others (including Vizenor's own drama) do not appear in other anthologies I've seen. Overall, this anthology represents a fine if somewhat idiosyncratic representation of the broad diversity of Native American literary voices.

I received this book (first edition) for Christmas as a boy, and although at the time I was looking for something more generic regarding railroading, I was pleasantly surprised with it, and over the years it has become one of my favorite train books.

Railroading was probably not the most dangerous of professions or means of transportation, but as the dust jacket attests, it certainly wasn't the safest. I was surprised to learn how often steam locomotives actually blew up, sending giant hulks of boiler and iron hundreds of feet into the air, or literally miles from the scene of the accident. Until new designs in car couplers and car construction were invented, many passenger cars would actually "telescope" into each other when wrecked, with the obvious results of death or maiming of passengers. Factor in things like split rails, bridge wash-outs, incorrectly aligned track, bad weather...there were many factors that could lead to severe accidents on the railroad.

This book provides interesting photos of just about every imaginable type of train accident, some of which are very old. While the text explains the different types of accidents that can befall the railroad, it also provides insight into how the railroads have progressed technologically and the impacts those advances have had on railroad safety.

Overall, the book is a light read for an adult, but it kept me captivated as a young person. The photos are what make the book, and like a moth to a flame, will make you come back again for another look.

I realize that many people the world over will vehemently disagree with me, but I, personally, find Robert Reed to be an incredibly overrated author. BLACK MILK, one of his earlier novels, is no exception. Right from the beginning, with the perspective of a child in first-person, the story seems to take a turn for the worse. (I've always loathed novels from the perspective of a child.) I found his characters to be disengaging, and (fairly) lifeless. Now, the idea around which the novel is set - genetic engineering - is not new. However, the well of ideas surrounding it still hasn't been dried up, and Robert Reed has tried his hand at it. The idea, genetically tailored children, is a good one. However, the way Reed executes that idea is not. I've also read two of Reed's other books, MARROW and BEYOND THE VEIL OF STARS, neither of which impressed me; suffice to say, I won't be picking up any more books of his.

One of the best books I've read in a long time. From the back cover, I was expecting one of those cruel evil scientist tries to control the oh so wonderfully gifted team of saintly youngsters. What I found instead was a poignant and honest portrayal of childhood. The characters stay young (about ten years old) throughout the book, except a short epilogue. Their perspective of the genetic crisis does not diminish the fright of the situation, but makes it hit very close to home. This is not a story of great daring space commanders, but of civilians, of people like you and me. That is what makes it scary. Scary's not exactly the word, though. The novel is nothing like horror. It leaves you with a sick, hollow kind of dread of the inevitable. The characters are excellently drawn. Cody is a hoot (and the female athlete - yea!) but the author manages to make the reader feel sympathy for even the whiny Marshall. The world is mostly like our own, but little details about how genetics have changed it make it very believable. My only complaint is that the end came too quickly and conveniently. Overall, a fantastic book.

Black Milk is an outstanding book. It takes a long, hard child's-eye look at the idea of genetic engineering. Reed plays a classy trick on the reader by making his narrative first-person--in the person of a child with a slightly faulty gene set who remembers everything he witnesses exactly as it happened. Black Milk is suitable for young readers, but it is also a good read for adult SF fans.

It is a crying shame this book is so hard to find: I would love to teach it in a college literature class (I've tried and failed because it is out of print).

The plot is a gloss on a silly time travel/transcendence of Universe theme; a half-smart quasi-Buddhist shtick that leaves one feeling empty and cheated when the story finally unfolds. Along the way we get some generic and purposeless sex, and a story that is supposed to be mysterious and edgy. I give the book a second star because the author writes well, and phrases his silly plot in good style. Perhaps a good rule for science fiction that dips into quasi-crystal channeling mysticism might be to embrace some final meaning, either dark or light. This book leaves one muddled and unhappy, not thoughtful or uplifted. I cannot reccomend the book, but the author writes well enough to deserve more chances.

College boy girl chaser enters the Twilight Zone. Some very interesting things, some bedroom exploits that could have been skipped. This book will stay with you. The material seems like science fiction, but different from most sf.

I'm only in junior high, so adults who read this might not count my opinion, but I thought this book was so good! I couldn't put it down and I definitely can't say that for a lot of books. I agree its not the best I've EVER read, but Reed creates such an interesting and thought provoking synopsis that I was blowen away! This was actually fun to analyse! I've never read a book twice but I'm thinking of making an exception for this one, there's just so much I could of missed. I understand that older people have to sound more distinguished than authors, acting like this novel just lacked plot, flow or whatever and acting like they could write better, but sometimes your wrong. This was a good book, stop kidding yourself! For all of the rest of you out there...read this one!

This novel did not work for me. The plot was built around a silly premise, and several idiotic notions. Cornell, as a character, seemed like a two-dimensional cardboard cut-out, and gave me absolutely no sense of feeling for him. At the end, I felt like I had been stuffed full of too much Sweet 'n' Low - the book had a few good ideas and themes stuffed in behind the rest, but not nearly enough to constitute anything of any real worth. However, out of everything bad I've said about the book, it earns an extra star because of the author's writing style. While I didn't enjoy the book, I did like the style of writing the author used to elaborate on those ideas. Unfortunately, this is one of Reed's better novels. Which isn't saying much.

Good writing and characterization but not much on plot and definitely no action. Don't be fooled by the interesting looking cover. The surprises didn't surprise. It's like a 1st contact story that condenses the contact to 10 pages after 300 pages of setup and then ends abruptly with nothing happening in between.

"beyond the veil of star" a book solely for those who haven't forgotten what dreaming was all about. The world of dreams has no defined landscape exept the mind which is limitless, robert reed takes me back to a childlike state in the nostalgia of this book.