This was a good help and a good review to practice for the PSAT. It gave good techniques and information that were helpful in supplementing already existing knowledge on the topics. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants a little extra information before taking the test.

I have 1936 edition, given to my dad as a high school literature prize. Having grown up in southern Idaho, this was a treat to read the first hand stories of Mr Walgamott. A great asset is the town/place name bibliography with historical notes as to their origin, such as "Kuna...shoshone...meaning, green leaf good to smoke". If you grew up in southern ID, you will identify with many of the places and long to have been able to see the wonderous Snake River in its glory before it was dammed up.

Those of you who can read French, consider buying the work by Henri Gougand, la Chanson de la croisade albigeoise, because this one contains the original document on the left, and the translation on the right. But that doesn't mean Shirley's translation is bad, it is a translation that doesn't match the rhyme that Guillame (William) de Tudéla and his anonymous successor used. In fact, Shirley's translation is more readable than the original manuscript and offers in depth details that the other chroniquer of the Albigensian crusade, Pierre the Vaux-des-Cernay, does not mention. The introduction by Janet Shirley is one of the most compact and informative written pieces on this subject yet. And the story itself is still readable after almost seven centuries. Those who are intrested in the Albigensian Crusade, and want to have a look at a genuine source should consider buying this translation

The book is sub-titled "What motivates the world's greatest fighters?" But it barely deals with motivation except in a general sense. In the case of British boxer Chris Eubank, Phil Shirley even indirectly admits this when he writes (page 122): "By any objective analysis his continuing pursuit of money or glory or redemption or whatever else it is that keeps him going is riddled with anomalies and dangers."

Instead, the book is more an examination of the naive relationship between the fighters themselves and what they claim is the force driving them - not greed, not arrogance, not love of the ballyhoo - but "God". They invoke the name of their deity much like a musclebound man might have the word "Mother" tattoed on his biceps. Boxers seem to feel they must be driven by some ennobling quality.

Shirley has a sense of irony when it comes to the "God"-and- boxing connection: as Mike Tyson was being baptised, (Page 189) dressed in white as about 700 parishioners watched, "... he sang and clapped his hands along with everybody else to the sounds of gospel music. 'I felt so clean, so pure and reborn,' he said, 'and I think this is going to change my life, baptism is an unbelievable experience.' But when a member of the congregation attempted to hug him, Tyson snarled: 'F--- off or I'll crack your skull!'" Afterwards he converted to Islam.

The Soul of Boxing is perhaps worth reading just for the illuminating chapter on Tyson.

Michael Watson landed in hospital with brain damage after a stoush with Eubank. Shirley is at his best in his dramatic description of the bloody last scenes of that bout (page 101). It was a brutal affair which had one unexpected sequel: Shirley later met a young boy who delighted in throwing punches into the air, saying he wanted to be a boxer when he grew up. He was a fan of the now-disabled Watson. The boy had been told God could do anything. Could cure Michael Watson. The boy himself would be cured, he said. He was crippled.

One particularly inept quote crept in to the text: Shirley quoted a report (page 51) in the Daily Telegraph, London, which said that George Foreman had been arranging his fights "with rivals apparently fresh from the taxidermist. The German, Axel Schulz, whom he beat in May 1995, was better known at home as a TV repair man."

Never mind the irrelevant detail that the bout was on April 22 and not in May. With this frightfully clever stuff, the Telegraph reporter might have had the chattering classes twittering into their coffee on Hampstead Heath.

What happened here was that the Foreman camp made a match-making mistake. It did not realise that Schulz had vastly improved since losing a decision to to Henry Akinwande in May 1993. In the event, Schulz beat Foreman out of sight (don't take my word for it - look at almost any sports page the next day) but the judges gave it to Foreman.

This is all highly subjective, of course. Other people might think this entire critique is mere hair-splitting. They might even be right.

The title sounds trite, but its true. My six year-old daughter was completely enthralled with the stories. Many of them are familiar fairy tales, others are not. All are written with a 6 year old in mind. We bring this book on airplanes, on vacations, to appointments to read while we wait. Other ages enjoy it, but 6 year olds love it.

Overall, I liked the book very much. It is refreshing to read a book about 4 accomplished business women. My only complaint is that the authors did not write well from the male perspective. Having said that, the book is definately worth reading!

When Hornbeck began researching her family a quarter-century ago, she also began collecting miscellaneous general and methodological information that seemed useful. Later, when she found herself publishing several newsletters, her collection of tips saw use as "fillers," and her readers began asking persmission to repeat them elsewhere. Then came the Internet and a whole flood of new tips posted by researchers. Even though she now has a web site filled with tips (take a look at ), not everyone has ready access to the Net, so a book seemed in order. Everything is grouped into more than forty categories, from copyright, death records, and holidays to microfilm, myths, and the military. Coverage is not meant to be uniform, however; because of her personal research interests, there are sections on German, Russian, and Polish research, but no other European (or non-European) ethnic groups. She does include a great many specialized web sites, including collections of ship's passenger lists, calendar conversion sites, online regimental listings, cemetery listings, lists of plagues and epidemics, and so on. This is strictly a browser's book, though, since there's no index -- which, admittedly, would probably have doubled the size of the book.

I came across Transmaniacon in a bargain bin after reading John Shirley's Eclipse series. Impressed by his writing in Eclipse, I picked up this tattered paperback to give it a try. Transmaniacon must come from the days when John Shirley was exploding forth with prose and just wrote it all down as quickly as possible. It's not as sharp as the Eclipse books, but it's an extremely imaginative story about a man given extraodinary mental powers with which to carry out a dangerous mission. The easy afternoon read ends in a gigantic conflagration of psychic energy and crisis. It's worth checking out if you're a fan of Shirley, to see his evolution as a sci-fi writer, especially when you can get it for just a couple of bucks.

What an enjoyable romp this book is! When a 15-year old video game whiz begins to control the outcome of major sports events via his computer, anything can happen-and DOES!
Fame and riches are his, to be sure, but so is extreme peril, as he turns the gambling world upside down. Targeted by the mafia, the main character, Brady, must save himself, his friends, his new-found fortune, and his future.
Author Shirley Babcock laces this imaginative tale with pop culture and humor to provide the reader with
a delightful read and a satisfying conclusion.

In order to save readers from spending money on this shoddily written novel (yes, novel, since it's completely fictional), I will repeat what I said about the forgery ("the diary") itself, since this book is essentially one expanded comment section of the original Maybrick hoax.

In 1992 a junk dealer from London, Michael Barrett, presented what would become known as "the Maybrick diary", attempting to ping the guilt of being Jack the Ripper on James Maybrick. The "diary" became a media event, and people interested in making money and gain of it have attempted to "prove" its "authenticity"; needless to say, they were unable to, for one simple reason - it is a crude forgery, which was in fact quickly and shoddily updated as new Ripper facts came to light (e.g. when it was revealed that Mary Kelly's heart was missing,
the forger was in process of creating the "diary" - and he quickly added an awkward note "No heart, no heart..." to the "Kelly section", but forgot to use the same ink to write it!)

It would take too much space to list literally hundreds of errors and inconsistencies in the "diary", as well as dozens of proofs for its inauthenticity. Instead, a good summary is simply the fact that on 5 January 1995, Barrett admitted to the forgery. To quote his sworn affidavit: "Since December 1993 I have been trying, through the press, the Publishers, the Author of the Book, Mrs Harrison, and my Agent Doreen Montgomery to expose the fraud of ' The Diary of Jack the Ripper ' ("the diary") (...) The facts of this matter are outlined as follows: I Michael Barrett was the author of the original diary of 'Jack the Ripper' and my wife, Anne Barrett, hand wrote it from my typed notes and on occasions at my dictation, the details of which I will explain in due course. The idea of the Diary came from discussion between Tony Devereux, Anne Barrett my wife and myself, there came I time when I believed such a hoax was a distinct possibility. We looked closely at the background of James Maybrick and I read everything to do with the Jack the Ripper matter. I felt Maybrick was an ideal candidate for Jack the Ripper. Most important of all, he could not defend himself. He was not 'Jack the Ripper' of that I am certain, but, times, places, visits to London and all that fitted. It was too easy. I told my wife Anne Barrett, I said, "Anne I'll write a best seller here, we can't fail". Once I realised we could do it. We had to find the necessary materials, paper, pens and ink. I gave this serious consideration. Roughly round about January, February 1990 Anne Barrett and I finally decided to go ahead and write the Diary of Jack the Ripper. In fact Anne purchased a Diary, a red leather backed Diary for L25.00p, she made the purchase through a firm in the 1986 Writters Year Book (...) Sworn at Liverpool in the County of Merseyside, this 5th day of January 1995"

Stay away from this crude forgery and don't support people who try to peddle it as "the real thing". The same kind of people would try to sell you "splinters from Christ's cross" in the Middle Ages...

Having read several recent ripper books, I found this to be as close to the answer, than any of the others, although, further research needs to be done to prove that the diary is genuine. Mr Feldman puts his points across very well, however I am still not convinced re the watch.

It would also have been helpful if the diary was also published within the book for those who have not had the benefit of reading it in detail.

Having said that, I for one am sure that it will be hard to distinguish anyone else, other than James Maybrick of being Jack the Ripper.

For what it's worth, I think that the Diary is real and that James Maybrick was Jack the Ripper. History will owe those who brought the Diary to the public's attention a debt of gratitude. However, there is a lot of contentiousness in the field of "Ripper Studies", and a flaw in the book is that Feldman can't quite bring himself to rise above responding to the abuse that he has received from professional Ripperologists. He would have been better off simply allowing his research and the research of those on his team to speak for itself. But it's a very impressive job which does show how many of the KNOWN elements of Maybrick's life dovetail nicely with the theory that he wrote the Diary and was indeed the Ripper. The Diary itself is a very impressive document that largely stands on its own, and I've never quite understood how, in the absence of any real proof of forgery, it could be flatly disregarded by so many. The book is worth the price simply for the photographs in front of page 147 that show a "match" between James Maybrick and the Daily Telegraph picture of "Jack" published on October 6, 1888. Also, the geneological research of the Feldman team shows links between Maybrick and the Ripper as well as their/his present-day descendants. Some meat is added to the existing bones of the Diary's provenance, though the provenance of the Watch, while just as tantalizing in its implications, becomes somewhat murkier. The biggest problem is handwriting. Feldman produces no known sample of Maybrick's handwriting that matches with that of the diary or of the "Dear Boss" letters that Maybrick takes credit for in the diary. He finds one ancient Maybrick correspondence that resembles one questionable Ripper letter. Otherwise, he is reduced to arguing that an individual'shandwriting can vary from sample to sample and that Maybrick's own handwriting varied greatly, particularly when under the influence of arsenic. He is also reduced to relying on the opinion of a graphologist who performed a character analysis based on the handwriting in the diary. Graphology is a suspect science, which was used to incorrectly identify Anna Anderson as Russian princess Anastasia. Set against this though is the enormity of the task that Diary critics have. The contents of the Diary FORCE them to argue that the Diary and the Watch are modern forgeries -- post 1989 -- rather than ancient ones and so they are reduced to impugning the character of those own the Diary and the Watch and who brought them to the public's attention. By introducing his readers to these people through interviews and biographies, Feldman shows them to be of sound moral character. Their story that the Diary was first discovered in the mid 1940's and rediscovered in 1968 or 1969 is buttressed by their character. More research needs to be done by independent analysts of the Diary, of the watch, of James Maybrick, and generally in the field of handwriting analysis. My prediction is that history will point its finger at Maybrick and say, "He's the one" and this will be due in no small part to Feldman, Shirley Harrison (who first produced an edited version of the Diary, with commentary), Feldman's team, and those who assisted and cooperated with them. But that debt of gratitude will not be paid in our lifetime because of what still remains unknown or questionable and because of the contentiousness that surrounds "Ripper Studies" today.