This book is the most well-written book on ghosts I've ever read. The author's general story-telling style can easily captivate the reader and leave him wanting more. The author is obviously well-read, a scholar who is very eloquent, and a splendid writer. His tales are memorable and haunting, not only because of the subject. His characters and their stories will linger in your mind. I've read many ghost stories, but this is the only book (on ghosts) I choose to own.

I first met Robert Smith while serving a mission for the LDS church in Albuquerque. He is a great guy. I bought an autographed copy of his first book when I left and I have been hooked ever since. Rob is a gifted writer with a creative flair for metaphor. If you are frustrated with the trashy humor taking over out there, then read this book and all of his others. If you love small towns, live in one or know somebody from hickville, this is for you. If you are Mormon, or if you even know any Mormons, you'll love it.

Temple College in Temple, Texas was awarded a $600K Grant to update the skills of the workers in industry. The math skills of the existing and new employees are exceptionally low. The difference between normal math as I call it and the aproach of the "Mathematics for Machine Technology" is that the students do not know where to apply the math that they have learned. With Mathematics for Machine Technology the aproach is applied mathmatics. This math is applied every day in the industry and now the math becomes functional. This is a great teaching aid to use by itself or to complement the math that is now being taugh. I bring measuring instruments such as verniers, caliphers, micromenters and others into the teaching enviroment to stress where the math is used.

Here is a book that is long past due. Misdiagnosed covers a major rift in medical care, the generally inharmonious and uncooperate relationship between conventional and alternative healthcare practitioners. Mr. Smith shows that it isn't at all one-sided either; both camps are at fault, and patients suffer the consequences because of their failure to communicate freely.

The author details his wife's diagnoses by both camps, which failed to reveal the true nature of her illness--until it was too late. So who's to blame for the bungle? Both sides, simply because of lack of cooperation and communication. Misdiagnosed is a book of tremendous importance.

But read the book for a penetrating look at health care at the beginning of the third millennium. This account isn't merely a cold report about problems between the separate approaches to treating patients, it is a human story of circumstances and attitudes that should not exist. It's also a love story.

This 28 chapter compilation does an excellent job of furthering the growing connection between the disciplines of population genetics, ecology, systematics and evolutionary biology with those of conservation biology and risk management.

Several contributing authors discuss a particular molecular technique and how it can be applied to a specific question in plant and animal conservation biology. Each chapter does an exceptional job in discussing the relative cost, time, advantages and disadvantages of using a specific molecular technique and its relevancy to a specific question. Additional chapters review approaches to analyzing molecular data and their utilization in several case studies. For each case study, authors provide hypotheses, detailed background description of the organism, the molecular technique which best suits the question pursued, elaborate discussion of the data, and finally, insight that has been gained from the study and can be utilized for further management and conservation. In depth discussion of how inferences can be made from molecular genetic data in defining a tangible "unit" for conservation in management programs makes this section the definitive strength of the volume.

This volume reinforces the notion that the largest threat to populations and species today is our little understanding of their environment and the protection it demands. This compilation successfully explores this topic in both theory and application and it defines the future of molecular approaches in conservation biology.

Robert Smith asks anglers to pause and reconsider the results of 100+ years of stocking trout outside their native ranges. Today native trout are rare, endangered, and sometimes extinct because of competition and interbreeding with exotics. In this highly entertaining memoir-travelogue, Smith recounts his experiences in tracking down, catching and photographing some fifty varieties of trout native to North America, from Charr well north of the arctic circle to varieties of trout barely known to science that live on the edge of the tropics in the Sierra Madre range of Mexico. The book also happens to be a great bargain at $15!

Journalist Robert K. Massie wrote this book partly to satisfy his curiosity about how the parents of the world's most famous hemophiliac dealt with their son's illness, and as the father of a hemophiliac himself, it's no coincidence. A father's need to satisfy his curiosity about how others dealt with similar misfortune has resulted in a work that is every bit as enriching as owning a Faberge egg--perhaps even more so. One walks away from reading this text with a pretty balanced view of both the Romanovs and the reformers of society. One learns not to be surprised that most Bolsheviks were of Jewish origin given the way the Jews were treated by the Czars for centuries, as well as the way the Czars's money was spent in the years before World War I. One feels sympathy for the unspoiled, intelligent Czarevenas whose potential for helping Russia never came to full fruition, and for the fate of a society destroyed by traditional rules and a genetic snafu that had thunderclap repercussions for generations afterwards.

This is an excellent book for students of the nursing profession. Clear concise details are given. It is ideal for studies and I consider it to be a 'Nurses' Bible" and it is one I will keep and refer to forever. Recommended for all medical students. You can't get a better book at this price.

If you have seen the silent film, Nanook of the North, you might recall that moment when the protagonist arrives in his splendid kayak (also the name of George Hitchcock's near legendary literary journal from 1964-1984), he gets out of the boat and then, from within the boat emerge his wife, two or three children and possibly a husky or two -- on that my memory is not clear. And Story Line Press' masterful collection (edited by Robert McDowell, Joseph Bednarik, & Mark Jarmon, with introduction by Phil Levine, "One-Man Boat: The George Hitchcock Reader" accomplishes a similar effect -- out of this collection emerges George the poet, the playright, the actor, the editor, the novelist, the short story stylist, the witness before the HUAC, and on the cover, George, the painter. This selection from a significant body of work should serve as ample introduction to the work of a man, extraordinary by anyone's standards. This collection stands as testimony to a life lived in dedication to ideas about art and the full expression of art as a daily enterprise rather than some caged rarefied entity. I would hope this book becomes required reading for any serious student of late 20th century literature from the West Coast. I'll close with a paraphrase of one of my favorite poems, "Lying Now in the New Grass" -- the poem is an invocation of rest -- it is sensual and surreal. In its final image the "plow of night" passes over the world. I can think of no other way to spend a restful afternoon/early evening than to sit quietly with the magic of this book, a cup or glass of a favorite beverage, resting in the kayak of this book, with the capable hands of a master at the oars, be he Nanook, be he George -- don't let anyone fool you, it only looks like a one man boat -- it is filled with multitudes.