I walked in the footsteps of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce during my visit to Scotland in 1996. I sure wish I had David Ross's book at that time; I would have known of more places to visit. This is a fine book about the history of the Bruce and Scotland's war for independence written, not from a historian, but from a Scot himself.

The book has maps pinpointing the areas discussed in the narrative as well as great illustrations of those places written.

Wallace started the ball rolling for Scotland's independence, but the Bruce wrapped things up. Even if you don't visit Scotland this is a great book to add to your collection.

This quite interesting historical overview of the field by D.R. is mostly targeted to an educated and mature audience of executives, inductrialists and politicians. Whilst it will offer a basic touch of technology presentation, it is primarily induced as an educated journalist's perspective. Ross, does rather well in revealing the subtle -or often quite abrupt- governing relations between societal and political momentum, as related to technological evolution, clearly portraying our interim feared notion, that rationality may not be an apparently governing issue in many respects afterall. Hidden aspects, may even reveal how biased technological results and unfavourable verdicts may be "orchestrated", by selective promotion of non-viable technology. A must for the insight-look seeker, would serve as a much more integral report, if a broader international rather than European pespective was covered.

WASHINGTON! is the book that sets the tone for the rest of the Wagons West! series, as it is the book that establishes Toby Holt as the central character. He was wounded during the War, and now must face returning back home to a wife that he hardly knows. He also must deal with a corrupt lumberman that rules the town of Tumwater like a fiefdom.

However, too much deux ex machina hurts the book. Acts of nature are responsible for all the death surrounding Toby, nit him himself. Also, there were some unnecessary plot twists that were not necessary, like Toby's dog joining a wolf pack for a while and dealing with Nez Pierce.

Exotic travel commingles with romantic interlude and sweeps iconoclastic Doran Seeger into a whirlwind. The ex-patriot, pessimistic and disillusioned in his demeanor, begins to implore his own self as Grecian culture and romantic love fill his life and perspective. A wonderful summer read. You will surely fall in love with Greece by the end of the novel. You will surely fall in love with the withdrawn stranger, (xenos) by the end of this novel!

I was looking through my collection for something fast and witty, and I grabbed this book. This book is no heavyweight and its not Mr. Thomas' best (I think Missionary Stew is his best), but it does deliver the goods. It reads fast and has some snappy dialog and a satifying plot. Ross Thomas was one of our best action-adventure writers and is sorely missed. The fact that many of his books are out of print is just plain wrong.

If you have a dog who is already set in his "ways" this book is a waste of time. The emphasis is on how to prevent your dog from developing bad behavior. Some of the tips are not practical at all and did not work on my dog. The beginning of the book WAS informative, however, and might be useful to a puppy owner or buyer.

This book has a brisk, no nonsense attitude to encourage positive training. I like the easy references (and cross references), so that you can go directly to the behavior you're interested in right away, and also the insightful explanations. A very useful addition to the shelf. They do often proceed from the starting point and may not be able to solve deeply ingrained problems (and of course I disagree with their assertion that shelter dogs are a bad bet; quite the opposite!), but I find it helpful to consult a variety of books when sizing up a situation, and these writers present some original ideas and creative solutions (without clickers or "training" collars).

I have been a long-time dog owner. Despite what I thought was a fairly good grounding in dog behavior, I was recently confronted with a puppy who changed my attitudes about what I knew. In trying to train and work with my dog, Gizmo, I was looking for guidance and help from any source possible. I happened across this book at my local pet supply store. (In fact, I'm ordering another copy of the book because Gizmo ate the first one!) It turned out to be one of the most educational and helpful books I've ever chanced upon. I would highly recommend it to any dog lover who wants some greater insight into their dog's behavior and positively altering with gentleness and understanding.

Collectors really do need an ultimate compendium of Russel Wright's designs - this book isn't it, but then it doesn't promise to be. Photography proves to be both a strength and a weakness throughout. Photographs are numerous and sharp, but color is wildly inaccurate in some chapters (see "Cedar Green" looking grey). The irony is that so many of these photos are included for the purpose of showcasing color combinations. The other problem with the photos is that some of the most mundane single items get a half page photo while an important grouping of rarities gets a small one. This - and too much coverage of American Modern and Iroquois - was done at the expense of information about less common lines (particularly Knowles).

Not including a chapter about Wright's furniture designs is forgivable in a book about dinnerware, but why is there no coverage of flatware? I can't imagine that the size of the book would've been impacted much by its inclusion. Also, aluminum is featured, but there is no trace of the Chase chrome items.

The best feature of this book is its chapter about Highlight for Paden City. There isn't much information, but there are photos of extremely rare pieces. This is reason enough for an advanced collector to buy this book, but if you want a general guide or a better read, I'd stick to the latest edition of Ann Kerr's book.

For Russel Wright collectors who need more visual information and current pricing than Ann Kerr's more thorough narrative reference provides, this is a good option. Many of the photographs are lovely and make a collector drool! I particularly enjoyed comparisons of mold variations (American Modern sauce boats, Casual China butter dishes) and pictures of rare pieces (Highlight, Bauer art pottery) that Kerr does not feature.

This book was well written, and that't the only good thing there is to say. It is the worlds most boring book to read, and if i didn't have to read it for my english lit class.... I recomend you not read this book

As For Me and My House is truly a Canadian masterpiece. This novel provides us with a glimpse of our "canadian" heritage and allows us to understand and appreciate the hardships that pioneers endured. At times the novel seems dry and flat, but if you read closely and take the time to analyze and understand every sentence, you find words of wisdom that deal with human nature: their strengths and weaknesses.

Sinclair Ross is a brilliant writer. Although this story deals with a loney preacher and his wife during the depression era the trials they go through are easy to relate to. I would recommend this book to any adult wanting to discover how to really love and forgive. The content matter is a little advanced, so I would suggest it for anyone sixteen or over.

I must admit that I was unable to complete this book. Halfway through reading this arduous book, I found myself deadlocked before a persistent question: why go on? What's the point?

This book is heralded as the first of a series of reflections on the gift. This seems like a noteworthy project but in the hands of this author, the project falls flat. For some, the conception of a series of studies implies growth at every turn. For Foucualt's The History of Sexuality, at every turn, the author was faced with challenges, crises, and redirection. It took 7 long years before Foucault continued the series; I doubt that the author here has ever faced such crises. I note that this gift series is well on its fourth edition. The gift series is on a roll... it is abundant, as the book repeatedly says (ad nauseum).

If Nietzsche was the greatest philosophical stylist--well, there is no comparison to Nietzsche here. Take for example a paragraph I found on page 167, which follows two quotes from Hegel and Heidegger (of which no direct link is ever made). It reads:

Only great art. Only poetry. Only thinking. Only humanity. Only man. Only only.

(resumption of the review)

What is going on here? Such pseudo-poetic turn of phrase appear throughout the book. By now we are accustomed to sentences that defy and challenge the conventions of logic and grammar. However, we have here just PLAIN BAD WRITING. This book, read as experimental prose will disappoint many. (I suspect that perhaps no one will be disappointed as no one should seriously consider this book at any length. The reviewer fully understands the irony here.)

But Stephen David Ross is a philosophy professor and this book covers the entire history of western philosophy from the pre-socratics to the recent works by Derrida, Butler, and Luce Irigaray. In its effortless and unconscienable 300 pages plus, this book does a great disservice to all. Technical phrases are haphazarously mentioned without explication. Otherwise, we are left with baffling and insolent phrases such as the following:

I interrupt this interruption before return from it to add that I understand one of the amrks of the good in our time, perhaps its most telling mark, to be the question of sexual difference, interrupting the hold of every category and identity with questions of gender and sexual identity. (page 12)

(resume review)

Interruption of an interruption for an interruption? Ross takes important themes of sexual difference, ethics, and justice and whirls them into a single, sprawled self-referential portrait. In the end, instead of promoting and drawing us to task on these issues and themes, the book repels any intelligent reader. I surmise that, metaphorically, the author paints exclusively in water color with emphasis on the pastels.

This is an incredible (incredulous!) narrative of a series that is based on the good but which stands without any real or explained connections. All is good by the virtue of the good that is forcefully squeezed out by the author. Enough is enough! this reviewer protests. Mercy, mercy. Enough of the good already! But as Ross repeatedly states: the good exceeds limits, always.

In the end, all is encased in this book as the good. But rather than challenging the history of western philosophy, Ross has virtually imposed and reified the very narrative that this work professes to challenge. What is the link between Heraclitus and Braidotti? The book answers: wht it is the good, of course! In the end this amounts to saying: que sera, sera.

And maybe somewhere between pages 200 and 300, the author cites from Doris Day as well. This reviewer, having said enough, having shunned the abundance of the good, may have missed this moment altogether...

It would be difficult to praise "The Gift of Beauty" too highly unless one has no penchant for fluidity and mobility, in which case one might cast it down like Moses did the tablets. One might become seasick in the ocean of truth, beauty and goodness as Ross presents it, particularly if one were too fixed or too much in need of firm anchorage. He ceaselessly rocks the reader on the waves of the impossiblity of holding truth or beauty fast. A kind of ecstasy is engendered in the reader if he or she moves freely with it. But woe unto anyone who does not! It would be easy to become impatient with Ross's style, especially if one were very linear in one's needs. But this very irritation IS the call of the good of which Ross speaks. Not to feel this in one's bones is to miss the entire point of the book and his style of presentation.

An important goal of the work, and the series as a whole, is to rehabilitate 'the good', a good which 'is not good opposed to bad, right opposed to wrong, justice opposed to injustice.' He constantly refers to 'the call of the good' and sees art as a response to the call of the good.

Without some training in philosophy, the book would be daunting. But one can dip into it at nearly any point and be immensely rewarded. This is a large work, guaranteed to disturb the reader's orientation, whether he or she likes it or not.

David D. Ross looks at a near-term future. Written towards the end of the cold war, he envisions the United States is now Fortress America, an increasingly isolationist and technophobic state. Resting on its existing technological base, it innovates just enough to remain superior to the cunning Soviets. While certain high profile scientists are assassinated, a mysterious blight threatens the South American food supplies, and there's no reason why the blight shouldn't move across the border into the fortress.

David D. Ross's novels relies on a few too many hoary cliches, and it feels like he tries to throw in every science-fictional idea that he can think of, so a lot of it seems like overkill. But you can't go too badly with a plot that's this thick with assassins, intrigue, politics, core-taps, mega-corporations, and drug-addled saboteurs.