This book rings true from the fans putting together a fanzine at the last minute to the various antics around the World Science Fiction Convention. Throw in some aliens to make it interesting and you get hilarity. Very off-the-wall, but science fiction fans will love it!

Was it David Sedaris (author of Me Talk Pretty One day) that said he won't date anyone who uses the word Zeitgeist? Too many times this word gets used in this book. I think this book still deserves to be read, especially along with _Beneath the underdog_ written by Mingus himself. I thought in terms of Jazz history, this book does better than _Miles_ for example. This kind of book is written out of love, and we should be thankful for Mr. Santoro's efforts. I did not know much about Mingus' life, and it gives me different insight into his world when I listen to his music now.

I am not a great reader and I have never been a great fan of jazz, but my friend gave me this book for my birthday and I couldn't put it down. It may not appear to be a typical biography; it is not a straight story that runs on for 400 pages. It has many twists and turns that help you examine the real Mingus, not just his music or what was in the papers. Santoro examines Mingus's life from every view imaginable, he doesn't hold anything back. Some of the chapters may drone on a bit but through it all Santoro projects Mingus as what he was, a human being. I give the book five stars and encourage anyone who enjoys music to read it.

Contrary to the other reviewers, I thought that this was an excellent book. The author places Mingus in the context of the pop culture of the 1940's through the first half of the 1970's. He relates Mingus's life to other major jazz musicians, the Beat generation poets and icons, popular music, the chi chi movers and shakers, big city life, jazz clubs, fusion, wives, jazz festivals, periods of violent acting out and self destruction, etc. This book is a cultural history (probably why the other critics didn't like it) of the middle of the 20th century. He does make a few obvious errors. For example, the distance from Monterey to Berkeley is about half of the 200 miles he maintains. It's not Camarillo State Prison, but Camarillo State Hospital where Parker was hospitalized (a big difference). He was about a year off when talking about the release of Kind of Blue. He also overworked the term "noodling". On the other hand, if you are interested in jazz history in the context of the middle of the 20th century and a very interesting look a Mingus's life, this is a great place to start.

I was inspired by the compilation of bird dog stories found within this book. If you enjoy the excitement, fear, despair, and elation associated with the training, ownership and running of all breeds of bird dogs, you will enjoy this book. The authors help you relive the moments you have endured with your own dogs in addition to helping you imagine the hunts you have yet to experience. This is a definite must read for bird dog enthusiasts.

I borrowed this book from a friend and had a tough time putting it down. Great stories from writers who truly love their dogs. A few of the essays are sad, but all of them allow us to share a part of a fellow dog lovers life with his best friend. Definitely a must read.

It is difficult to decide whether to praise this book for its (at the time) innovative and novel approach to gene-culture coevolution or criticize it for its endless slurry of ad hoc models with groundless or unspecified assumptions. One can do both. The idea they present, that there is a positive feedback mechanism between biological and cultural evolution, is by far the best working hypothesis for why human society "took off" after millenea of paleolithic stasis. The theory central to the book is that genetic constraints shape culture, which in turn becomes the cultural environment in which an individual's Darwinian fitness is determined, forming a positive feedback between cultural and evolutionary change. This posits a specific mechanism for the role of genetic change in cultural evolution, going far beyond the intellectually vacuous "resolution" of the nature-nurture debate by those who say "it's both." However, none of the models they present can be regarded as anything but mathematical playthings, in few cases are any of the variables or parameters quantities that can actually be measured or therefore tested. Often, it is not entirely clear what the dependent variables in the system correspond to in nature. Worse still, some of the models are completely ad hoc: first positing a dynamical behavior, then presenting an apparently arbitrary dynamical system which exhibits the property as "proof" of the theory. In essence, an uneven work, but one which I think will be at the foundation for further work in the area, at least as a basis for concepts and theory (provided the specifics are taken with a large grain of salt).

as good as GENE VI by Lewis

Messrs Dyer et al have written up a pretty good crib for pastors and fellowship leaders who may have forgotten who or what was afoot in one or another book of the Tanakh. Plain & straight forward, the fellows mean well. They give each book its own write-up,and take modern scholarship somewhat into consideration without including anything that might threaten the average Protestant fundamentalist's world view. For that hardshell crowd who used to prowl the backwoods, eating a lot of fried chicken and climbing in back windows in the moonlight.