A couple of things I was not thrilled about: 1. He mainly talked about the Milwaukee Brewers significantly more than the Baltimore Orioles. 2. He talked way too much about the management issue of the Brewers (how they were relocated, payroll). Other than that it's a fun book to read but there needed to be more baseball discussion rather than discussion of topics that isn't really baseball at the core.

True fans will really enjoy this book, an inning by inning look at a mid-1982 Brewers-Orioles game with frequent digressions on topics like scouting, the abolition of the reserve clause, the shifting balance of power between hitters and pitchers, etc. I agree with one other reviewer that the coverage tipped more heavily toward the Brewers organization and more 'in-depth' background on the Orioles could have been included. In some instances, of necessity perhaps, there was repetition from chapter to chapter and the author was overly fond of the word 'egregious.' Reading Okrent's afterword (dated January of 2000) made me wish that he might write another book, a kind of 9 Innings Redux. The afterward brings up so many important and interesting aspects of the game today, from the inability of many teams to compete (we need revenue sharing!), to the surge in home runs in the late 90's, to the gorgeous new retro parks that have gone up....I cast my vote to have him profile a 21st century contest (maybe in the National League this time) and give us another look at the very best game there is.

This is my favorite baseball book. It's about the game and all the layers that go into it. You can do this with any sport, but I love baseball and Okrent dissects both pitch counts and player histories with care. I remember these players, but I've never rooted for either team and I still think that this book is fascinating. I often think of this book as I go to ballgames and strike up conversations with fellow fans about not only the situations of the game in front of us, but how this game connects to so many other games in the past.

In case [URL} is not sufficient, you can now get an additional dose in convenient paperback! The premise is enticing enough: secret, surprising and salacious documents - a veritable treasure chest of dirt, sleaze, and slime! Who could resist the temptation? But, if the reviews of other readers are the basis, I may be alone in finding "The Smoking Gun" boring and tedious. About as compelling, I guess, as reading unedited police reports and law suits - which is exactly what it is. I guess when it comes right down to it, I really don't find a letter from Sean "Puffy" Combs' doctor - as an excuse for a canceled tour - all that interesting. The contract Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman require their household help sign? Wow - how have I managed to live without knowing the extent of liabilities associated with release of Cruise/Kidman personal information, in detail by the type of media deployed! And the details of loser Parker Stevenson's alimony from estranged wife Kirstie Alley, insuring Stevenson continuance of their lavish life style? ("FAO Schwartz would keep a staff and the store open for two hours exclusively for Kirstie and me. We spared no expense, as we enjoyed our "private" shopping spree. Our FAO Schwartz jaunts would cost us approximately $15,000.") Um, fascinating, I guess?

I'll concede - the book has it moments. The last chapter, "Patently Absurd" includes some gems like the "human gas filter pad for wearing in the underwear" and a method for bar coding humans. And the "strap secured condom". Glad to see the US patent attorneys hard at work.

On balance, I should have realized that we're already overexposed to the excesses and absurdities of life in America - especially where celebrities are involved. The additional manifestation in raw legal documents, police reports, and court transcripts is simply more than I care about knowing, and frankly is not all that revealing, anyway.

Very fun to read, but many of the legal details in the documents aren't worth getting into, so each page only occupies your thoughts for a few seconds as you glace over it and notice a detail or two about it. Although this is a perfect coffee table flip-through-when-you're-killing-time book, it's all over a bit too soon.

If there's that one person on your Christmas list for whom it's impossible to buy a gift - say, your conspiracy-theorist, rubber-necking, fascinated-by-the-strange kind of friend - the search for the perfect present may be over. The Smoking Gun, a website dedicated to bringing people actual copies of government documents about celebrities and normal people involved in a variety of strange situations, released a "best-of" book, The Smoking Gun: A Dossier of Secret, Surprising, and Salacious Documents from the Files of the Smoking Gun. Chock-full of all kinds of dirt, human stupidity, and general hilariousness, this is exactly the book for the person who has "everything."

Want to know the details of Marilyn Monroe's autopsy? What about Martha Stewart's attempt to run down a gardener who refused to take her advice? The police report of the first officer on the scene of Kurt Cobain's suicide? President Nixon's background check from when he was thinking of joining the FBI? Tim Allen's sobriety test from 1997? The details of every attempt Dennis Rodman made to force himself on a woman? It's all here, in its original black-and-white glory, ready for your perusal.

Like a train wreck, you just can't tear your eyes away from The Smoking Gun's insane offering of all that makes our species better than the monkeys - or so we think, anyway. It's amazing, sick, and fascinating all at the same time. And, you've got the stocking stuffer for the person who has it all - because, chances are, they don't have Mike Tyson's arrest report. Just don't stay up all night reading it yourself.

Two Gun Cohen is bigger than life. Like most biographies it is not a fast reading book, but it is a great book for anyone interested in the history of western Canada, China or interested in Jewish biography. I read the book after visiting places in England where Two Gun Cohen spent his youth,in the cities of western Canada where he spent his youth and China where he spend his mid life. The book is not for anyone that is not interested in history or biographies of unusual people. For me it was a great book; I wish that it was still available in hard cover, I am buying two addional copies for two friends of mine.

First of all, I should say that my primary reason for reading this book was not because of some particular interest in the story of Two-Gun Cohen. My first attraction to this book grew from my interest in the history of China, and particularly modern China, which I date from the Macartney's mission in 1783. This book did not disappoint. It is a very useful addition to the study of China in the period from the 1911 revolution through the Communist revolution of 1949 and beyond. It gives very little insight into the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), but there is lots of stuff written on that period.

I have not read anything else by this author, so I cannot make comparisons to his other work, but I will say one thing: I like a guy who does his homework. This book is nothing if not well researched. That is, in fact, it's main strength. I used to be a country school teacher-believe me, I have heard every excuse in the book for why the homework wasn't done. And I have become weary in recent years of "historians" who pretend to be writing history, but in fact have no interest in what actually happened. Ever go to a library and try to get Gore Vidal's "Lincoln?" It's in the fiction section. Or how about Oliver Stone, who openly admits (without any sense of shame) that he plays loose with the facts? That kind of stuff sells to a nation of people who are products of the American public school system. But for those who really care about what actually happened, a higher standard must prevail. Daniel Levy holds to that standard, and even helps to establish it, because his careful workmanship serves as an example to those who would address the same period. Bottom line: this is just very good history.

Now to the story. This book addresses the question of who Cohen is in comparison with how he presented himself, or allowed himself to be presented. Cohen was not the "mover and shaker" that he is sometimes said to be. But he was not just a worthless pretender, either. As I see it, Cohen distinguished himself in two areas: He was a very good body guard for Sun Yat Sen, and he also had the dubious distinction of being a first rate gun runner. Other than that, he doesn't seem to have been able to get by without some kind of a hustle. He started life as a petty crook, and this set a pattern that really prevented him from having dependable, gainful employment when the chips were down. I don't mean that he could never get away from the life of crime. What I mean is that, because he took the easy way out as a youth, he never took the time to learn a trade. I always encourage young people to develop a marketable skill that they can fall back on if they ever need to. This is something Cohen never did, and there was a time in his later life when it really would have come in handy. While Sun Yat Sen was alive, Cohen was riding high. But after he died, and especially after World War II, Cohen suffered a long period of marginal or nonexistent employment. Nothing wrong with being an adventurer, but it really helps if you have a trade skill to take you through the dry periods.

Toward the end of his life, Cohen did manage to secure some very good work as a consultant because of his contacts in China. These connections, by the way, were genuine. It would be grandiose in the extreme to suggest that Cohen shaped the future of China. But he was well acquainted with some of those who did. That part of his self-presentation was not made up.

I gave this book five stars because it was so well researched. But it is also a very personal story of a man that I think, in some way, we all aspire to be. I respect Cohen for daring to step out and discover a world that so many of his peers shied away from. He was not satisfied with the ordinary. And he was in many ways a very likeable, if sometimes pathetic person. This was a very enjoyable book. It is not as quick a read as some others, partly because the author went to great lengths to verify his assertions. But I think any honest reader will find it to be a worthy contribution to the literature.

I long ago heard of Two-Gun Cohen, and was pleased when I found out that there was finally a biography of him. Daniel Levy has crafted a clear, well written account of Cohen and taken the time to delve deeply into his life. I was amazed at what Levy uncovered, from Cohen's World War I medical files (I am surprised that such material still survives), to the dossiers the State Department kept on him and the depositions chronicling Cohen's various court visits. More importantly, Levy obviously took pains to get Cohen's life right and to track down those who knew him well. For by going through his encyclopedic footnotes and seeing all the people he spoke to, one realizes that if Levy solely relied on the cold documentary history of records and newspaper clips, Cohen would have come across as a less interesting and much rougher character. What Levy has presented us with is a well-rounded view of this adventurer, and written a riveting and graceful history of an amazing man.

Given that the IAEA declared Iraq nuclear-free in 1998 and thus far nobody has found any evidence that Saddam restarted the program after the inspectors left the country this book is more than ridiculous.
The sensationalist and flatly biased authors ignore the fact that Saddam's nuclear program evolved and almost reached its peak during the Reagan and Bush years but was completely dismantled during Clinton's tenure. Even if Saddam had wanted to nuke the US --which itself is a rather silly allegation-- he never had the means to do it.
If these so-called journalists think they know it better they should present their arguments to the IAEA or to the coalition forces who are now inspecting Iraq. I wonder what they could achieve.
This book is a good read for those who are either paranoid or pathologically anti-Clinton or both but not for those who really want to know what happened to Iraq's nuclear capability during the 90s.

"Brighter than the Baghdad Sun" chronicles Saddam Hussein's 25-year effort to build an atomic bomb, as well as his successful efforts to develop chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction.

The book also covers in gruesome detail how the Iraqi regime smashes all internal resistance using torture, imprisonment, and assassination. (Although, one sometimes wonders what their sources were for supposed conversations with the Iraqi leadership -- given that most everyone who betrays Saddam ends up dead soon after.)

The drawn out confrontation with the UN weapons inspection teams is detailed as well. That these teams operated for as long as they did is amazing when one sees how the Iraqis were always one step ahead of them (due to a Russian team member who briefed his nation's diplomats, who in turn told Baghdad). In the end, the UN teams left Iraq and Iraq managed to keep some of its nuclear weapons equipment intact.

By the end of this book the reader is convinced that Saddam Hussein will stop at nothing to develop nuclear weapons.

The book falls short of five stars because some of the conversations used to enliven the book are not adequately footnoted (the authors want to protect privacy and lives -- they could have at least characterized the source of the information). There is also some redundancy.

I recommend this book as an adjunct to Robert Baer's See No Evil. This book was written in 1999, well before Baer's book. A careful reader will realize that Baer is mentioned but not by name. There is no great political insight contained in this work but for anyone who has been following the UNSCOM fiasco and the general mishandling of Saddam Hussein and his nuclear program, this will connect the dots. Hussein is a thug with absolutely no compunction about killing anyone anytime to pursue his madman's dreams. This book been criticized as being too anecdotal but I believe that is because of the nature of the information. There is no doubt that sources are being protected. If this book doesn't scare you just a little you are either one tough customer or brain dead.

Dan Montague has created a mysterious and intriguing story around a sailing vessel named "White Wings." This sensitive tale takes place in the coastal New England town of Marblehead, Massachusetts. Readers will find themselves entranced as they are guided through a maze of time and tangled romances in the history of an almost magical sailing vessel. A young high school art teacher begins the journey in the present day. The story twists and turns through time as he becomes involved in the restoration of White Wings - a sailboat entrusted to a middle-aged woman by her long-lost best friend. The young man finds himself trying to solve the mysteries of the vessel's crash onto the treacherous rocks of Marblehead's Fort Sewall, the sudden disappearance of the boat's guadian, and the secret to winning a seemingly impenetrable woman's heart.

Montague has set another novel, "Second Chance," in Marblehead, as well. It is not a sequel to "White Wings," but the excellent quality of writing is of the same.

A heart melting story divided into 4 parts that tells about the lives of 3 outstanding women, Taylor Hayakawa, Rebecca Hayakawa, and Becky DeWolf, or later known as Becky Harrington, and one man, Matthew Adams, who hears and experiences lives of the 3 women, and White Wings, the sailboat that was wrecked in 1973. It's a mystery of Becky's disappearence one night when the boat came back but Becky didn't. It's one man, Taylor Harrington, and one woman, Becky, who experience love, lust, and loss. Then giving up everything she has, she floats off with that one man spending the rest of her life with him. Dan Montague puts everything in perfect form. It was so strong and moving. I loved every second of it. 'White Wings' will always be my favorite book.

It is the sweetest, and saddest book. I'd give anything to be Becky. The ending was so sweet. Dan Montague used the perfect words through the whole book. He's a master at story writing. I'm even moving to Marblehead, Massachusetts because of the book. It's my dream to have a life like Becky. I hope I do.

What Ed Hommer accomplished was monumental, until you put in perspective that he was putting himself first... sacrificing his relationship with his children to climb. I met Ed only one time. I did not know him personally. I do know his children and ex-wife. It is a shame that he didn't "fix" himself sooner. While he was off climbing mountains, his children endured months at a time of only support (financially and emotionally) from one parent, their mother. It is sad that Ed died before he could fix those relationships! His children are wonderful people. It is sad that they will not have the opportunity to develop that relationship with their dad. I get angry at him (Ed) for what he put them through. I feel that he was selfish in his endeavors. He is viewed as a great man by many people. I don't see him that way. What he put his family through, specifically his children, overshadows his personal accomplishments.

I'm glad Ed Hommer got the chance to write his inspirational story before his untimely death on Mt. Rainier September 23rd of this year. In spite of the fact that Ed had a co-writer, his own voice rings very clear in this book. There is something very appealing in his modesty, sometimes almost a childlike idealism, and his wrenching appraisals/reappraisals of himself.

Ed grew up in modest circumstances, somewhat of an outsider with not much enthusiasm for school. Early on, he developed a fascination for all things Alaska, seeing it as a Last Frontier and he hung on to his dream. His next goal was to become a pilot, and I was impressed with the adversity he overcame to reach his goal. He had no money, only a high school education and ended up being a pilot for American Airlines.

He finally made it to Alaska, a land he loved forever, and thought he had the world by the tail with a part time job as a bush pilot, his hippie chick girlfriend--the beauteous Sandy, and a baby on the way when disaster struck. He took three passengers (one being his brother-in-law) on a sight seeing jaunt and crashed high up on Mt. McKinley. Two (including the brother-in-law) were injured fatally, but Ed and another passenger were not hurt too badly initially. Then a storm front set in, and would-be rescuers could not reach them for five days. Ed's recounting of these hellish five days is harrowing. The weather was fierce, and by the time the rescuers got there, the two living victims were frostbitten badly. Ed lost both feet above the ankle.

He very honestly admits he was in a tailspin for a long time. He was besieged by legalities he didn't understand, he had a terrible time with the Veteran's Administration who was underwriting most of his massive medical bills including a 3-1/2 month stay in the hospital, physical therapy, and prosthetic devices. He withdrew from life, became apathetic, drank his breakfast, lunch and then some. His marriage suffered irreparable harm. Part of his problem was the miserable time he had with his prosthesis.

Once he attached himself to a goal, he was seemingly unstoppable. He made up his mind he would fly again; he not only achieved the goal, he went back to work. Then he decided he wouldn't get closure until he had successfully summitted Mt. McKinley despite his artificial feet and lower legs. He did it in two tries. Though Ed Hommer didn't care about material goals, he set his sights high and was a miracle of achievement.

I feel that the review by Wisconsin was inaccurate, and only looked at one side of the story. It is true and sad that Ed lost his marriage and his relationship suffered with his children due to his climbing accident. However, I knew Ed and know his children personally. I saw many wonderful, loved filled encounters with his children. Although Ed loved the mountains, his children were the number one thing in his life.

The book did pretty good job of portraying the events of Ed's life. However, what did not come through in the book was Ed's complete love of life, family and friendships. When you spoke with Ed, you were captivated. When he left you, he left you feeling you could climb Mount Everest. It is this type of enthusiasm that touched millions of people around the globe. It is this type of enthusiasm that has fitted other amputees with prosthetic devices, allowing them to live a productive, preamputation state. It is this type of enthusiasm that keeps his foundation, High Exposure, alive...when he is not. It is this type of enthusiasm that makes me extremely proud to call him a friend.

The Hill is a book, nothing more. A short reference of a much larger story. The book captures only a snipit of the man Ed Hommer was, and still is in many hearts. I encourage all readers to take what they can from this book, and not be jaded by personal disparagements.

I would like to say this book has a pretty good overview of tourist attractions, accommadations and travellers tips. It is however at times just rude to India and Hinduism in particular. It always mentions Buddhism first such as "Buddhist and Hindu temples" and the like. It also has the nerve to say of Varanasi, "before it was the most sacred place in the world for Hindu, the Buddha preached his first sermon near here". Besides this and incorporating the bogus Aryan Invasion Theory in the history section, I would recommend this book to readers but beware of some of its facts

I took this book on my first trip to India and once there didn't even use it. We didn't go to the tourist-y places so didn't need the book, and the places we went weren't in the book. The history and culture sections were useful in pre-trip preparation. We found clean and inexpensive hotels and restaurants on our own; it wasn't difficult. While in India I did find a book called Culture Shock: India. This is the book I wish I would have found and purchased before my trip and it's the one I've been recommending to everyone (even if they don't ask me!). Go to India without a guidebook!

I have a different perspective on this book than a "regular tourist". I was looking for the following -
a) a reasonably clear overview of each city or historical site, when it was built, and by whom, and why it is of importance to tourists and to India
b) reasonable detail for cities, outside of the usual tourist attractions
c) some attractions/ towns not listed in most tourist books.

I was checking the sections on West Bengal and Orissa in particular (having lived and travelled in both states). I used those sections to compare between this guide (the 1999 edition) and Lonely Planet etc. For my purposes, Rough Guide was the most helpful - in describing places, in offering different ways to get around (with notes on how safe it is for women etc), in evaluating the historical and/or tourist appeal of places, and so forth. I think I fell for this guide when I noticed the level of detail it had on eating places and places of worship in a residential area in South Calcutta (not to mention a critique of the Pipli handicraft industry).

The little vignettes on getting around in a Hindu holy site (and in temples, where allowed in) were also quite interesting. I have never been one to make pilgrimages, but if I wanted to do so, this would be useful to have along. The history section was surprisingly thorough and balanced - and I learned new things not covered in Indian history textbooks in school.

Is this book perfect? Of course not. But a guidebook generally cannot cater to all tastes equally. For me (a non-tourist but an NRI returning home), it did quite well (even though Jammu & Kashmir were omitted but Ladakh was included). It sparked in me the determination to visit Madhya Pradesh (one of the few states I have never visited) and parts of the Northeast. I would love to see a Rough Guide or the equivalent that focuses more on Eastern and North-eastern India, but until this, this works fine.

The title is promising and the concept is good for some laughs as we struggle to comprehend the mind of the not-so-crafty criminal. However, the same story with different variations repeated 100 times is about 84 times too many. Probably younger kids will have the unique attention span to find all of these funny but juveniles and older will find reading the whole book a bore. The writing style is also QUITE elementary. However, if you just want to veg out and not use any brain matter, this is perfect uninvolved reading for a lazy afternoon with Cheez-its (not necessarily a brand recommendation) and T.V.

This is a group of stories that was put together by officers from around the country sharing some of the more bizarre experiences they have encountered in their careers. This is not about glorifying criminal behavior, it is just meant to highlight human nature at its lowest point when common sense is totally missing.

It is fair to say that common sense is not something a criminal should have by definition, but this book proves that any semblance of judgment is often missing. There are several hundred examples, some of which are a riot to read, and many that seemed forced. Some of the tales seem familiar from other stories I have read centering on The Darwin Awards.

To give you an idea of these geniuses here are a couple of examples. One person serving a 90-day sentence attempted to escape on day 89, the result an additional 18 months added to his time. A man suspected of stealing from vending machines paid his $400 bail, all in quarters. And one stunt was not even a criminal at the outset. A woman decided to alter her lottery ticket so she would win $20. The rub was that if she had left the ticket alone she not only would have avoided jail, but her original numbers had already won her $5,000!

The Police have extremely tough jobs, its nice to know that they do get an occasional laugh from their jobs.

Any reader who says these tales are exaggerated or just war stories, obviously has never worked as a police officer.

There are a lot of dumb crooks out there, so many and so dumb that officers can't always feel proud of their easy arrests. What's amazing is that some of these dummies have survived in this world as long as they have.

While you will laugh out loud at the stories in this book, know that there are thousands of other dumb acts by criminals that could have been included and thousands more that have occurred since this book was written.

And while you laugh, keep the sobering thought in mind that many of these dumb crooks are dangerous.

As Daniel Schorr in the new forward to this book suggests, World War 2 brought out the best in many men, and the ones who manned the motor torpedo boats were among the bravest, setting out in small plywood boats to fight an enemy in often large ships. The ordeal that Kennedy and his crew went through after PT-109 was destroyed is a story of courage that will last the ages. It is obvious that Robert Donovan was very careful to get the facts straight as he wrote this book, it is a great war story. For me it was a page turner, written in an easy to read, flowing style. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, a gem of a book about a small piece of American history, a fascinating account indeed. Kennedy is portrayed, and rightly so, as a compassionate and intelligent young man.

In a very fine afterword to this 40th anniversary edition, Duane Hove give us additional details of Kennedy's military service, and also interesting text on the history of the PT boats before, during, and after the war, and also where you can see PT boats on display today, only a few of these magnificent boats remain with us.

I was about 10 when the Saturday Evening Post ran a serialized version of Donovan's book. I'll never forget coming home from school the day the next edition was due, and dropping everything to read the next installment. With the passage of 40 years, and a rather older perspective, I can see that the book isn't perfect. Other reviews pick on the flaws. But it's great regardless. If you've never read the story, or like me want to relive a bit of the past, I recommend it highly.

This was an exciting book on John F. Kennedy. It had lots of action, and suspence. John F. Kennedy had a lot of willpower, that was surprising. The bravery was outstanding in this story. If you like action and adventure I could not recommend a better book. I gave this book a five star rating, because it was truely a good book. Even though this was an old book, it was exciting. This would be a very good book for kids, because there was not a lot of hard words.

This book would have been great if it weren't based on a real life case. But it is, and thus there's two major problems:

1.The book, though filled with fictitious characters, follows the real life Green River Killings. The names have been changed, and that's about it. So right off the bat you have an idea of what's going to happen in the book.

2.In order to make this book interesting while not deviating from what happened in real life, the author expands the plot to include a ridiculous amount of other murders and a slew of pointless supporting characters that weigh the book down and sap the reader's interest.

In addition, I did NOT like the way the book was written. It seemed like only 2/3rds of a book, with the reader being left to figure out and then catch up with the plot once he's been able to piece together what the author was trying to convey/get across at times.

Don't bother with this book. Rules of Prey by John Sandford is a MUCH better book of this type, and unlike this book isn't weighted down by real-life events.

I really wanted to like this book, but it was difficult. It is extremely slow-moving, almost dull at times. I guess it isn't all that easy to encapsulate events taking place over a period of 9 years into a page-turner. This isn't the sort of serial killer book that a Thomas Harris or John Sandford might write. It does have its strengths--the characterization of the protagonist, Boudreau, is very carefully developed. The serial killer-snitch, Garrett Lockman is also well-developed and very scary. But with all the elements for a scary, thrilling book, Thorp instead goes for a very slow-moving style. And it is a rather choppy style, as well--I'd agree with the reviewer who says that half (a third) of the plot seems to be missing, with the reader left to fill in the blanks from rather sketchy summaries of what's going on. This gets progressively worse as the book drags on, as the chapters go from weeks to months to years apart. I'd have to give this a very mixed review--ultimately, I only finished it because I'd give so much time to reading it to the halfway mark.

I was just about finished with this book when it was announced that a man had been arrested for 4 of the killings. After seeing his face in the newspaper, it eerily mirrored the character described in this novelization of how and why he committed these crimes. Now, if they'd just find his accomplice....