I would doubtlessly recommend Ivanhoe to read. History may be often dull but Sir Walter Scott makes history extremely exciting by romanticizing his novel. It directly deals with hatred between the Normans and the Saxons, the discrimination of the Jews, chivalry, and politics--but it is a unforgettable tale of heroism, honor, and love. I felt that the characters were so fascinating and fun to read about. I was enjoying and cheering on the good characters like Ivanhoe, King Richard, and Robin Hood to beat the hated and evil villains. I liked the idea of love added in the story, like how Rowena and Rebecca were both in love with Ivanhoe. I even felt a little sorry for Brian de Bois-Guilbert who would do anything for Rebecca's love but is constantly rejected. I thought how it was appealing how the author questions Ivanhoe and Rebecca's feelings for each other. Suspenseful and action sequences also added entertainment to the story. This book may be a little too detailed for some readers, but I didn't mind. I felt that the details were brilliantly used to decorate the story in an outstanding fashion. The old English wording made me feel like I was actually in the medieval England. I have to admit that it took a great deal of persistence for me to finish this book and it was a challenge for me to read. However, I found Ivanhoe to be a wonderful pleasure. It is no wonder that Ivanhoe is such a well-loved tale!

I enjoyed this adventure yarn on many levels.

I was glad to learn about the Knights of Templer and that they were crusaders. I always wondered how Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon knew that and it is because of this classic.

I was surprised that it talked so much about Robin of Lockesley. The story of Ivanhoe seemed to be the same only told by Ivanhoe's friends and not Robin's.

I thought that the DeBracyn and the Knight of Templer Brian de Bois Guilbert were pretty evil guys which made the story interesting. They were weasels when they had their backs to the wall but did preform with honor when required like when Richard gets DeBracy.

I guess I did not understand the prejudice of the time because they treated the Jews like dirt and they were so sterotypical. I really thought that the Jewish girl Rebecca was going to end up with Ivanhoe instead of that Saxon Lady Roweana. I guess you have to appreciate the times that they lived in.

It was a different look the Richard/Prince John history.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but this book, by Sir Walter Scott, was the progenitor of what was to become a venerable tradition in English letters (and in other European literatures as well): the historical romance. There have been many after IVANHOE, and frequently with a finer eye to the period in which the tale is set (for IVANHOE contains quite a number of anachronisms -- even Scott acknowledged it), but few have done it quite as well as Scott. He uses an archaic English to give voice to his characters, but one which is readily absorbed because of the speed & quality of the tale. So, though these people certainly wouldn't really have spoken as he has them speaking, they yet sound as though they should have. Peopled by many 'stock' characters and situations, this tale was fresh in its time & still reads well today -- a testament to Scott's skills as a teller of tales and a sketcher of marvelously wrought characters. In this tale of the 'disinherited knight' returning home to find the world he left turned upside down, young Ivanhoe, after a stint with King Richard in the Holy Land, must fight the enemies of his king and kinsmen anew. Yet the hero is oddly sidelined for much of the tale as events swirl around him and the brilliantly evoked villain, Sir Brian de Bois Gilbert, in the pay of Prince John, struggles to win treasure and the beautiful Rebeccah, who yet has eyes only for Ivanhoe, a knight she can never hope to win herself. There's lots of action and coincidences galore here and Robin Hood makes more than a cameo appearance, as does the noble Richard. In sum, this one's great fun, a great tale, and the progenitor of a whole genre. All those which came after owe their form to it. Worth the price and the read.

Don't waste your money on this tome if you're a beginner like myself. However, if you are a professional, this would be a great reference to have on your desk. A more detailed book on telephone switches probably doesn't exist.

For beginners, the author really provided way too much detail. His writing style is very bland. In order to understand the dense material, you have to follow the words very carefully, and then you probably would doze off. Like the other reviewer, I find the density of material counterproductive and impenetrable.

This is a "the real deal" book for beginner in switching and telephony world. Although this book requires some preliminary knowledge of North American industrial telephony standards and understanding, the author tried (as best as he could) to explain everything in details. There are no skipped topics, to be concerned.

However, in many times the author explained things too wordy. Those wordy explaination could somewhat derail some readers. I sometimes skip some topics to read the next, but then I have to come back to get better understanding. I wish that the author could illustrate more his explanation. Giving more pictures and tables I think would increase the reader's understanding. But anyway, this is a good book and should be owned by anybody who need "the next step" out of ordinary telephony understanding.

If you want to know all about telephone switching systems, this book is a must. This is the most detail book I 've ever read. And most important,this book is fun to read. I really like this book. The downside of this book is its price, but I think it is worth every penny.

"Theory," wrote philosopher George Santayana, "helps us to bear our ignorance of fact." Theory illuminates and instructs, it is a lens through which one may look forward while also reflecting on the past. Theory lets us comprehend rather than simply to apprehend.

In "Cultural Theory," Michael Thompson, Richard Ellis and the late Aaron Wildavsky have taken a measurable step forward in understanding sociocultural viability. They do not argue one or the other competiting views of culture--i.e., mental products (values, beliefs, norms, ideologies) vice the total way of life of a people. They focus on three areas: cultural biases, social relations, and ways of life. The result is a "grid-group" typology, which is at the heart of cultural theory.

"Group" refers to the extent to which an individual is incorporated into well defined units. "Grid" is the degree to which an individual's life is circumscribed by externally imposed perscriptions. These two dimensions of sociality are used to show the relationship between five "ways of life" of people: hierarchy (strong group/strong grid), egalitarianism (strong group/weak grid), individualism (weak group/weak grid), fatalism (weak group/strong grid), and autonomy (null group/null grid). The authors defend why these five ways of life are the only viable ones.

"The causal mechanism driving cultural theory's predictions of who will want what, when and why," the authors write, "is that as people organize so they will behave." It is the combination of the experience of well defined social units (group) and the pervasiveness of rules which relate one person to another on an ego-centered basis (grid) that leads people who organize themselves in one of the viable ways of life to seek the objectives they do.

"Cultural Theory" is not a quick read, nor should it be, and it is not a work that most people will want to tackle, much less to read and wax philosophic. But for those who are interested in human factors--the "soft factors" in military models and simulations, for example--"Cultural Theory" offers a portal of understanding that is indispensable to further analysis.

One possible application of cultural theory is to apply its constructs as a framework to understand the frictions and conflicts between different groups in troubled states--places where peacekeepers, the military and aid workers are likely to be sent, and where a checklist to help organize operations to mitigate, respond and recover from social disintegration would be helpful to senior leaders. Thus it is possible that cultural theory could provide a starting point for real world solutions to resolving conflict.

This is a lovely book about a mom who leaves her child with her dad to attend a mighttime dance class. She and her child blow one another kisses, which they call "foo"s to tide them through their absence. My 2.5-y.o. loves it and we now send "foos" all the time.

I've had this book for 10 years and everytime I'm with a new crowd of people I bring it out, and soon after people are rolling on the floor. The funniest sections are "Prinderella and The Cince" and "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut". If you practice enough to read these aloud everyone will be amazed and entertained. The only down side is that there are alot of "un-funny" sections, but there are jewels sprinkled within, and for the price I would definitely recommend this.

Joel Achenbach knows a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff. More importantly, he's willing to go out and ask people when he doesn't know (and doesn't mind giving credit when credit is due, which gives the answers more authority.) Although not as funny as Cecil Adams, his book is still an excellent read. Unlike some authors in this genre, I've never known him to spend pages on dumb, obvious, or other softball questions. In addition to answering questions, he's also got essays, which I liked less well. The book also comes with cartoons, which are quite funny.

I stumbled across this book looking for anything I could find on the Beast of the Gevaudan after seeing the movie The Brotherhood of the Wolf. I was very interested to find out that this movie was based loosely on a real French legend.
Though the author tends to stray from the point sometimes this book has some INCREDIBLE facts about this true story. This alone for me made the book worth the price. The author goes through and accounts for all of the reported attacks that are documented. The accounts are very detailed and truly scary. Also he does a great job of telling how the Beast was finally killed.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in finding out about the The Beast of the Gevaudan.

Although the premise is fascinating - is Elvis alive and appearing at a competion for Elvis impersonators in Las Vegas? I found the execution of this installment somewhat dull. This was due mainly to the absence of the usual supporting cast for most of the book. Where is Temple's nemisis - Molina? And half the fun (Okay, more than half) of these books comes from the ongoing romantic triangle between Temple, Max and Matt. This has been diminished in recent installments by having Temple return to her former flame, the Mysterious Max, but it was totally absent from this book. Max is missing in action for most of the story and Matt is around only to serve as a call-in radio sounding board for the possibly living King of Rock and Roll. I also was disappointed that this installment did nothing to explore the growing relationship between Matt and Carmen Molina. Even Midnight Louise, Louie's daughter and favorite sparring partner, is suprisingly absent for most of the novel. Interesting in parts, but not the best effort in the series.

Carole Nelson Douglas' Temple Barr and Midnight Louie investigate the ups and downs of glamor and glitz when they meet Elvis?, Elvis's ghost? and a company of Elvis impersonators. I think my favorite parts were those that involved Matt and his enigmatic guest on his new call-in radio show. I found the conclusion to this particular subplot satisfying enough to put a Cheshire Cat smile on my face. Louie's snake charming techniques for interviewing anacondas worked like a--er--charm--for me. Eschewing her usual series characters' entanglements and troubles, Douglas focuses in this book on having her protagonists and even one of the antagonists pull together to solve a mystery with their usual panache, and more importantly to seek resolution for the troubled soul of the charismatic entertainer. I never liked Elvis in his heyday but I must say, after reading this book, I feel much more kindly toward him now. I also LOVED the Fontana Bros. as Full Spectrum Elvis impersonators. The only problem with this book for me is that it seems to have been too short because I keep wanting to read some more and wondering what the people are doing NOW. I'd love it if Elvis's ghost turned up now and again in later books, just to give the little lady (Carmen Molina) a hand now and then.

I returned home from a recent trip to Memphis, where we toured Graceland, to find "Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit" in the mail awaiting my arrival. The coincidence was amazing. Finished reading it last night and think it is one of the best books I have ever read. The author's thought process gets deeper with each book and her exploration of the never-ending Elvis mystique casts an accurate eye on the sociology of the 50's and 60's and the perception of those times having been so innocent. Having been a teenager in the 1950's, I could also totally relate to the Electra character. The author's use of words gets cleverer and funnier with each book. As with any "whodunit," you have to keep reading to find out who was the perp, but you finish the book with sadness because there will be no more show-stoppers on each page. Thank you, Carole, so much for Temple and Louie and Chatter and all the rest of them!

I guess I thought I was going to get an intelligent book about the subject of extraterrestrial contact in ancient India. I began to have doubts about that as soon as I began reading the forward by Whitley Streiber . I should have stopped there. This book is a complete waste of money and time. It's a rehash of famous UfO and close encounter reports mixed in with a few excerpts from ancient Hindu texts and some information about Hindu religion. It's strictly for people who like to use the subject of alien contact to reinforce their prevailing religious beliefs.

This is a very interesting book. There is lot of information on Vedic texts. However, there are one too many references to topics like abductions and UFO sightings.

A word of CAUTION that most of the pages in this book are filled with narratives/reports (with no scientific backing whatsoever) that in some or the other way are linked to the Vedic texts.

I've read this book over and over and enjoy each time. However, I usually read the chapters on Hindu mythology and avoid the UFO reports. Especially, the concept of interdimensional travel by Demi-Gods is very interesting.

Could have been a four star if MORE material on Hindu mythology was presented and the "insight" was based on scientific reasoning.

I always found it very interesting how ancient writings, in this case ancient Indian texts descibing flying machines dating back to 3000B.C. This made want to learn more about this subject.

I am not a scientist, but I have been fascinated by science since I was young. This book goes to great pains to try to document its claims, and in many cases does an admirable job. The author is obviously sincere in his belief that humankind is much older and, in times past, has been more intelligent than it is now. Personally, I would love to believe this is so, therefore I am prejudiced towards wanting to believe what is here.

"Forbidden Archeology" is, more than anything else, important for its thought provoking content and assertions. It is so difficult to get the average American to question the status quo any more that any work, no matter how outre, that stirs the fancy is welcome.

I look forward to more books like this. In spite of everything, I think intelligent people will not depend solely on one reference to form their beliefs and opinions on the truth of man's history. I trust to the instinctual skepticism of each person toward things out of the ordinary to protect them from the more bizarre assertions while they assimilate the more obviously useful.

This book is a dictionary, basically. Of all the archaelogical finds which are forgotten, forbidden, ignored. I couldn't get through the entire thing, yet I would recommend it highly, absolutely, as it represents the failure of science to respect, to accept, that which it does not know, that which does not fall into accepted theory. The book is amazing. I read the first third or so, and then just skipped around. As I aforesaid, it is like a dictionary, or a phone book, just listing after listing of archaelogical finds which do not fit into accepted theory.
And, it is very important, as much in content as in intent. We, the public, just tend to accept whatever we are told by science. We don't question. And we should, as Cremo and Thompson have shown.
Quite honestly, most people aren't interested in this stuff. They don't even know that homo sapiens is supposedly on the earth for three and a half million years, and they don't care. But some of us do. There is an archaeology that goes back far longer than this, that represents possible intelligent life on this planet far earlier than even the earliest prototypes of humans existed. And this, combined with the knowledge that we now have of climatic cycles on this planet just has to give us pause for thought. Does it matter? Well, if one considers the survival of the human race something of importance:yes.

(This is an edit of my previous review which has mysteriously reverted to "a reader.")

A level-headed, painstakingly researched tome documenting the systematic suppression of paleontological evidence militating against currently popular theories of human evolution. A chilling, non-sensationalistic look at the "sloppiness" and general lack of integrity of members of the scientific establishment who, in their devotion to defending the current models of human origins, reject or ignore unwelcome data - much of it seemingly impeccably researched - that would throw much of their field into (even more) utter confusion.

It is hilarious and tragic to see this book being ridiculed by "reviewers" who have obviously never read it, but another symptom of the close-mindedness of the keepers of evolutionist dogma, as lamented by Richard Milton ("Shattering the Myths of Darwinism"). Now that their religion has been debunked by Behe's "Darwin's Black Box," it remains to be seen their level of true scientific curiosity as regards Cremo & Thompson's findings.

There are the howls about Cremo's religion. Do they reject Newtonian physics because of Newton's creationist beliefs? Do they likewise pooh-pooh the contributions of Lister, Pasteur, Boyle, Maxwell, Peirce? Cremo admits his beliefs up front, and never do they impinge on his detailed, sober analyses in this book. They would do better to reject Darwinism ("[T]he literalists are absolutely right. Evolution is a religion" - M. Ruse, atheist), a religion whose adherents see fit to fit false feet to fossils ("Lucy" was modeled with human feet and hands for public consumption although she was known to have had apelike ones).

Any objective reading will show that Cremo is ironically more scientific than his detractors, and has a thorough grasp of the subject matter.

The sheer volume and detailed discussion of "anomalous" data compiled in this book is staggering: traces of the hand of man (tools, etc.) found in strata millions of years before his supposed appearance on the evolutionary scene; off-the-cuff dismissals of such evidence by influential scientists for sometimes contradictory reasons (and sometimes almost none at all!); the findings of distinguished, top-notch scientists ridiculed and being branded as heresy for going against the prevailing dogma.

It is instructive that most scientists today are totally unaware of the controversial evidence presented here, even in their fields of specialty. If we are able to do as the authors ask and evaluate the evidence as it stands without prejudice against their (eastern) religious beliefs, we might well find that the underpinnings for their belief in the great antiquity of the human race is at least as solid as that of the ruling paradigm - and probably even more so. Even if we do not agree with their conclusions (I don't), an open-minded inquiry into these findings will certainly show current theories to be, at best, seriously negligent in blissful ignorance - Mr. Magoo in a lab coat - or, at worst, anti-science.

Remember, Piltdown was "scientifically" worshipped as our ancestor for near 40 years. Whereas science may be self-correcting, evolutionists are obviously somewhat deficient in this regard.