Single to Single is a devotional geared to singletons, including those divorced or widowed. The book covers 52 weeks, with each week starting off with a "leader's" notes and then devotionals written by those in the group. All of the daily devotionals were written different, everyday people. There is a heap of sharing of lives as it applies to each week's 'power verse'. This is a handy book to keep by the bedside table for a little inspiration, but it is by no means a hardcore devotional like Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest.

When I was first given this book as a gift, I was quite excited. I am a trivia buff and the questions being answered in the book were really fun subjects. As I read, however, I quickly became suspicious. Why didn't the author allow virtually any room for multiple explanations of the origins of phrases and customs? How could he possibly have done the research required to answer all these questions thoroughly? Why did he seem to answer almost all questions with such certainty, even those with a brief explanation?

Doing some research of my own on a few questions (why is sidespin in pool called English, for example) and found that the author is often just passing on apocrophyl stories and urban legends. It seems as though mostly he researched perhaps one or two sources to answer each question.

Since getting to the bottom of urban legends and myths are what caused me to get so interested in trivia in the first place, I found this book a real letdown.

Smith answers a lot of questions that we forget to ask, like why is horse meat considered inedible (it is associated with pagan sacrifice, he says). There are some gems like why do we shake hands -- yes, its a gesture that we do not bear arms, but did you know the shaking was to shake out any concealed knives up the sleeve?

However, I dont know if he is very good on science. He says the sky is blue because the atmosphere scatters the blue light more than any other part of the spectrum, but then he says that sunsets are red because they scatter red light less than other colors. Not consistent, obviously.

Those of us who love Douglas Moore's opera "The Ballad Of Baby Doe" have had to wait over 45 years for a book devoted to its creation. "The Ballad of Baby Doe: 'I Shall Walk Beside My Love'" by Duane A. Smith is a very slender volume which falls short of this goal. Although it is interesting, there is not very much depth to this text. It reads more like an expanded program guide. There is no in-depth analysis of the score, nor of the structure of its libretto. It does leave you with the impression that there might be a fascinating story behind this opera's creation and it's creators, but you do not learn much about what this story is. Too much material is repeated from one chapter to the next. Nevertheless, it does contribute something to the scant literature about what is arguably "The Great American Opera".

Too choppy. Lots of short excerpts. I would have preferred less excerpts, but each of them running longer. Doesn't give you a "feel" for Eisenhower. Kind of expensive for what you get.

This book is a popular retelling of the lives of four major figures, all of whom were marked by the horror of the Great World War I. Gene Smith, a well-known author, puts these lives in the dramatic context of the First and, for Petain and Eden, Second World War. There is little that ties these four lives together, and the book is strong on atmosphere but weak on analysis and interpretation. Smith's thesis centers around his proposed study of the reason for demise of such great men. He cites this reason as being WWI, which pulled these men from the history in which they were so great, and placed them in a 'new' world that would require new men with new minds to develop. A strong point thus is made, though Smith does little to give any fresh perspectives whatsoever in his analysis.