An absolutely marvellous work in Thermodynamics basics for all ages to come!

This book cost a lot more than it used to, and hasn't been updated since 1977. But the information it provides and the readability that it offers cannot be beat. The presentation given on the first law along with the statistical insight offered on the second law, are among the most readable. Real world examples that are clearly described present insight into applications of the first and second laws. Illustrations and phase diagrams are given for each example, and the effect of different parameters along with results are concisely discussed. Equation of state information is clear and insightful. Overall, it is an excellent text on engineering thermodynamics. The only thing that I would improve (if the authors ever updated) would be the nonreacting mixtures chapter. As a final note, which I add after trying to read another Engineering Thermodynamics book is "what is mechanical work?" and "what is heat?". If a thermo book can't explain these concepts how can you rely on it for anything else. And also, let's say you have a valve, turbine, or heat exchanger for example. If you go to a book's index and can't find these devices listed, your SOL. Fortunately, Reynolds and Perkins lists them along with many other applications.

The best part of this book is the examples. There are plenty of examples to teach you the process. The exercises are well designed. I've used other thermo books, and I always come back to this one.

The book is laid out so very well. First it teaches control mass applications, then moves on to control volume. It is a damn shame that the book has not been updated since 1977, but then why ruin a good thing?

As webmaster for the USS Towers (DDG-9) website, it was a significant pleasure to find such a well-researched and extremely well-written text about the man for which our ship was named. I never realized that the Navy had pilots before they had planes, or that 'Anchor's Away' was written for the USNA graduation ball of 1906! There is a great deal of naval history in this wonderfully done book. I would highly recommend this item to anyone that desires to learn more about naval history, while at the same moment being entertained by a extremely talented author.

Reynolds provides a thorough and complete biography of a man who made major contributions to the Allied success in the Second World War. Towers, an early advocate of air power, struggled for recognition and promotion between the wars. His administrative ability during the war was largely responsible for the fact that the right aircraft were produced and delivered. This book is not about tactics. The market is flooded with books about the battles. This is a book which describes the nuts and bolts of putting airpower to work. Well researched, thoroughly documented, entirely typical of Dr. Reynolds.

I have always felt that the official history of Australia was very strange and very boring. It contained scarce mention of large scale conflicts and almost no mention of the people who had been occupying our land for the 30,000 years prior to european colonisation. Many people who have learned about the history of white Australia have felt the same but Henry Reynolds was one of the few people to become active in the field and say definitively that black history deserves a voice and that black history is so very different to the stereotypes and urban mythologies that have come to characterise it for many Australians. This book and others that have been influenced by Reynolds' stance have thoroughly changed the way many people see Australian history and I predict it will influence many people to take a more compassionate and integrated view of other races.

History has yet to produce a full account of the British Empire. One of the reasons for this shortfall is the lack of voices of the invaded. Nowhere in the former British Empire is the silence more deafening than Australia. Touched by Europeans for over a century before the Port Jackson convict settlement was founded, Australia was the most enigmatic outpost of Empire. Although the first Governor was enjoined to deal with the scattered Aborigines fairly, it wasn't long before the true Australians were driven from their lands, murdered or made into domestic servants. Henry Reynolds, noted historian of the Australian scene, richly chronicles the attempts by white humanitarians to give these displaced people some level of resistant voice.

Reynolds chooses one issue, occupation of the land, as his major theme. There are, he admits, many other issues that might have been considered, but the land question remained fundamental to European-Aborigine relations. Australia was the sole colony of the Empire declared "terra nullius" - unoccupied by human beings, therefore open to unrestricted invasion. The island continent and all its resources were at the disposal of the Crown.

Australia, of course, had occupants when the First Fleet sailed into Botany Bay, and it wasn't long before they began resisting invasion. Reynolds shows that the Aborigines had allies among the white invaders, people who urged at the very least, that the "natives" be offered remuneration or protected reserves on which to live. He reviews the careers of these humanitarians with sympathy and applause, but recognizes the futility of their efforts. Not a few failed simply because their personalities were unsuited to the task of inhibiting the rape of the continent.

Resistance to white oppression of the Aborigines began as early as the first penal settlement. William Dawes objected to the first of a multitude of punitive expeditions launched to revenge the spearing of a servant. Reynolds notes these "expeditions," which continued into the 20th Century, followed a consistent pattern - unselective killing in revenge for Aborigine defense of their homeland. From Dawes, Reynolds traces the course of objections to wanton slaughter of Aborigines through the notable figures trying to stem the flood of settlement and its attendant conflict. He cites George Augustus Robinson's work to isolate Aborigines in Victoria and Tasmania from white settlement - a career which ended disastrously. Reformers in Western Australia were driven into exile by irate settlers, and Queensland earned its unsavoury reputation with the creation of the Native Police, an unrestrained paramilitary force. Reynolds intersperses his own text with supportive sources of personal journals, letters, government documents and newspaper articles. The result is a descriptive potpourri of opinions, accounts, policy making and, most important, a struggle for justice.

This book, by the celebrated historian Henry Reynolds, describes the efforts of some of the early settlers in Australia in support of the Aborigines.

At times, the book is profoundly moving. It recounts appalling atrocities committed against Australia's indigenous communities by the "civilized" British.

Its main focus, though, is the efforts of a number of people who tried to ensure that the Aborigines were treated fairly and with compassion. It provides an insight into their struggles in aid of the Aborigines, their perseverance in the face of rejection and the hardships they often suffered.

Despite being a history book, the text is quite readable!

In summary, this is a moving and enlightening book about some of Australia's "forgotten" humanitarians.

The book I am reviewing is Saving Shiloh. This book is by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. This book was one of the best books I ever read. The best character was Marty. He is very adventure, brave, and suspicious. He knows something is wrong with his neighbor. And the weird thing is that Shiloh the dog used to be owned by the neighbor. Marty cared a lot for his dog. He always cared for him by feeding ad playing with him. On of the best parts was when Marty saved Shiloh from getting away. I don't want to give too much away but you should really read this book. Also read this book if you love adventures in your story.

A reader from Berea, Kentucky A good conclusion to the Marty/Shiloh trilogy! Marty and his dog Shiloh come full circle in this last of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's trilogy. Having read each of the books in the series, I must say Shiloh is my favorite, but Shiloh Season and Saving Shiloh are well worth a reader's time! Naylor has a knack for naturally developing her characters. We want to hate Judd Travers from the beginning, but we, like Marty, wonder if there's a chance for Judd to really change. The experiences Marty has dealing with Judd and the anxiety that is described mounts to a dynamic conclusion that is not quite predictable, but desired by eager readers. Each of the Shiloh trilogy books has an easy style of writing, one that gives a realistic glimpse into rural West Virginia. We see and understand the struggles Marty goes through and anticipate a happy ending. Sometimes we are left hanging at the end of the chapter, but Naylor wraps up her Shiloh adventure with a satisfying conclusion.

I gave this book five stars because I love animal books. Last fall (in Shiloh Season)Judd Travers got into a car accident that would have killed him but a dog named Shiloh barked and whined till someone came to see what was wrong. Now the tables have turned. It' Judd's turn to save Shiloh. I like this book because it's really easy for me to put my family and myself into Marty and his family's position.

Yes, it's a great novel. Yes the language is rich, the story is subtle, and the psychology is complex. And yet, I didn't like it.

Of course, who am I to review Henry James? Granted, I read more books and watch less television than most of my peers, but still I think I might be too "late Twentieth Century" for this book. Maybe despite my strict avoidance of video games I just can't help detesting the millipede pace of this book. I've never had much affinity for drawing room conversations to begin with, and unlike my father I don't believe that wit must be meted out in tortuous sentences.

But it isn't my background or personal prejudices that make me recoil from "Wings of the Dove". There is something about the deliberate quality of Henry James that bothers me. He knows perfectly well what he's doing with his fat succulent sentences. He won't feed you a meal of lean pork and vegetables. He'll serve you tons of tiny truffles and oil-oozing, crispy skinned duck.

To read "Wings of the Dove" is like encountering a cookbook that decided to include as much of the delicious fatty foods as possible. Of course its a rare meal and quite wonderful in its way. But some how, it made me a little nauseous at the end.

First things first, it is a very nice novel, but very hard to follow. Personally speaking, sometimes I couldn't get very exactly what Henry James was trying to say, but I could understand the situation as a whole and be able to move on.

As everybody knows, Hery James is not an easy writer. His appeal is very difficult and complex although it doesn't read very old-fashioned. The story is very interesting and timeless, because it deals with passion, money and betrayal. The books follows Kate Croy and her beloved Merton Densher when then both get involved - in different degrees and with different interests- with the beautiful rich and sick American heiress Milly Theale.

Most of the time, the book kept me wondering what would come next and its result and the grand finale. But, that doesn't mean I was fully understand its words. As I said, I was just feeling what was going on. As a result, i don't think I was able to get all the complexity of Henry James. Maybe, if I read this book again in the futures, it will be clearer.

There is a film version of this novel made in 1997, and starring Helena Bonham Carter, Allison Elliot and Linus Roach, directed by Iain Softley. Carter is amazing as always! Kate is a bit different from the book, she is not only a manipulative soul, but, actually, she is a woman trying to find happiness. One character says of Kate, "There's something going on behind those beautiful lashes", and that's true for most female leads created by James. Watching this movie helped me a lot, after finishing reading the novel.

I've carried on a love-hate affair with The Wings of the Dove for more than 20 years. In that period of time, I started the novel (the same beautiful little Signet paperback edition) at LEAST 15 times and could never get past page 30 or so. But it kept nagging at me to read it. Last summer, I plowed through its dense prose thicket, and I felt as though I were peering through a glass darkly. Several times I felt like tossing it aside. I've studied Enlish and literature all my life and yet I had one heckuva time with those daunting banks of prose. But I'm glad I read it. It's masterful. Worth all the effort. Those scintillating scenes in Venice. Nothing like them! I just read The Golden Bowl, another difficult but rewarding book. There are astonishing scenes in it, like when the husband of the busy-body watches her in a pensive mood as if she were in the middle of a lake, coming closer. It's just an extraordinary scene! I love early James too, like that perfect jewel of a book, Washington Square. Sometimes, great as the late books are, I really do think they lose something of the wonderful clarity James achieved earlier. There are still a few scenes in Wings and Bowl, for instance, in which I have NO IDEA what James was trying to express. Talk about super subtle! But do make the effort, folks, they're incredible books.

This business of recalling past lives sure confuses me, but I'm learning.

For starters, I'm not sure whose past life I'm recalling. I mean, maybe we can remember anyone's life from the past and take it as our own. There could be a gigantic memory pool we can draw upon for added experience. This memory pool could even exert a subliminal influence on our current lives. I don't know if my own life is all my own creation.

What I mean is, there is, believe it or not, a series of "Henry Reed" books. There's Henry Reed, Inc., Henry Reed's Babysitting Service, Henry Reed's Journey, and Henry Reed's Big Show. I haven't met any other Henry Reeds in my life, but this supposedly fictional character and I have a lot in common, much more than I have with anyone else I've ever met. I was so intrigued by these "coincidences," I once sought out the author, Keith Robertson, who lived in Hopewell, New Jersey, to find out who was copying whom. He was clearly puzzled, even disturbed, by the resemblance. Maybe his books and my life are both the result of the same story floating in the etheric memory pool.

How do you separate fiction from fact? I've had my share of past life regressions. It's usually impossible, however, for me to tell the difference between a real memory and a story that I've created. The feeling in these "memories," I've noted though, usually has a haunting mood. I can feel there's truth somewhere in these stories even if I doubt the facts. The've gradually grown in importance for me simply because their feelings have proven to have so much meaning. The question of meaning for me, then, moves away from concerns for the reality of reincarnation, or the reliability of past life memory, and turns toward making a connection with a story and learning from it.

I have settled on the term, "soul memories" for these supposedly past lives. Like myths, their emotional truth value is much greater to me than their historical factual value.

There's an excellent new book on soul memory that has helped me gain perspective. It is Life Patterns: Soul Lessons and Forgiveness (Into Time Publishers). The author is Henry Bolduc, winner of the International Hypnosis Hall of Fame 1994 award for best writer. Bolduc states emphatically, "You don't have to take a stand on past lives in order to benefit from information the unconscious provides."

Rather than emphasizing any single past life, which puts the focus on your identity status in that life, Bolduc recommends examining many past life memories as a whole for their life patterns. It is probably because he has been researching regression experiences for over thirty years that he takes this broad perspective.

His approach is akin to Edgar Cayce's dream interpretation method. Look for themes, correlate patterns, and find your lessons in the truths thus revealed. It's an effective approach and more gratifying than speculating about the the reality of past lives. There has been a similar shift, by the way, in the history of dream interpretation, moving from a focus on the origin or cause of the dream experience to a search for ways people may connect with their dream stories. Past life experiences, then, are like stories from my soul, presented to me as memories, asking for my understanding.

Bolduc presents a clear approach on how to gain understanding from soul memories. He reviews Edgar Cayce's own series of past life memories and Cayce's discussions on how souls lose and gain during a lifetime. The idea, basically, is that we are all learning, and our lessons come in the form of the consequences of our choices. Just like an automobile teaches us how to drive it by how it responds how we steer and press pedals, so life teaches us about the relative merits of anger, patience, self-aggrandizement and love by the experiences we have. When we recognize our patterns, we can change them if we choose.

We must choose forgiveness first, Bolduc explains, or else the patterns can become addictive. Forgiveness dissolves the epoxy bond that clings reaction tightly to action. Forgiveness restores the possibility of fresh choices. Although spiritual teachers all advocate forgiveness, they usually forget, including Edgar Cayce, to explain HOW TO forgive. Bolduc spells it out, step by step, including eye contact, a heart connection, and all the other details of the process of letting go. The approach elevates past life research to a growth process and makes reading Bolduc's book a healing experience.

I'm beginning to learn, finally, about how to use past life experiences constructively. One thing I've learned is to look at the positive patterns for clues for overcoming the negative ones. As my focus shifts from "past lives" to "repeating patterns," I become aware of "my way," accepting both its strengths and weakness. With stories from both regression experiences and children's books to illustrate my pattern, I can begin to make clearer choices about how I would ideally live this life, the one I have in hand. That seems to be the best light to receive from the past, wherever, or whoever, it may be.

To read Henry's essays on other interesting books in the field of consciousness, spirituality, dreams and intuition...

The children's novel Shiloh is about a young boy, Marty Preston, who encounters a stray dog on one of his summer adventures through the West Virginia countryside. Marty befriends the dog only to find out that he belongs to Judd Travers, a hunter who abuses his dogs. Knowing in his heart that he cannot return the dog he has named Shiloh, Marty cares for the dog himself and eventually ends up working to buy Shiloh from Judd. Throughout this story, the character of eleven-year-old Marty goes through a metamorphosis as he develops from innocence to maturity with an understanding that life is not always just, and adult responsibility is complicated. At the beginning of the story, Marty is just an ordinary child enjoying a summer of frolicking in the hills of West Virginia with his .22 rifle. His moral development begins when he sees Shiloh for the first time and realizes he has been abused because of the dog's reluctant and almost fearful nature. After Marty decides to keep Shiloh, his internal conflicts begin when first he is forced to deal with the issue of legality versus morality. He knows that Shiloh legally belongs to Judd; however, Marty knows that the dog will end up being starved or even killed if he returns to his owner. Secondly, Marty feels anxious for deceiving his family. He has kept Shiloh a secret, and he has used food to feed Shiloh that the family needs. Marty feels great remorse for the pitiful impression he gives others of his family as he asks Mrs. Howard for extra cookies and Mr. Howard for scraps of cheese; however, he feels Shiloh's well-being is worth his family's reputation for being poor. The last "internal conflict" that Marty wrestles with is the issue of whether the dog is worth the hard labor Marty has to give to Judd in order to keep Shiloh. Judd Travers makes him slave away, almost unfairly, to win the legal rights of the dog. Throughout this novel, Marty learns the value of responsibility and all that it entails along with the costs of doing what is morally right. Jeanne Harms and Lucille Lettow propose that, "By dialoguing with oneself the reader brings different inner audiences into the reading experience, thus expanding the possibilities for creating meaning" (Harms 210). By analyzing Marty's character development, it is evident to the reader that these "internal voices" cause the protagonist to become a strong and successful character, and therefore by reading this book, the reader deals with the "inner voices" along with Marty. This novel forces the reader, child or adult, to battle out similar situations and, in effect, gain far more from the book than just a simple moral. This in turn, causes readers to grow personally by relating to the situations of conflict such as lying to family or doing what is right versus what is legal. By dialoguing with oneself the reader brings different inner audiences into the reading experience (Harms 210). Marty's "internal conflict" is the driving force behind his character development