The cover on my edition of "Appleby's Other Story (1974)" is adorned with a badger dressed in a diamond choker, and a plastic peacock. A peacock, badgers, and diamonds are indeed featured in this British manor house mystery, along with Sir John Appleby, now retired from his high position at New Scotland Yard.

As this elegant story begins, an antediluvian Chief Constable, Colonel Pride (late of His British Majesty's Indian Army) is driving Sir John over to meet his neighbors at Elvedon Court. Sir John was New Scotland Yard's acknowledged authority on art-robberies, and the manor's owner has suffered a recent theft:

"'Grove nods at grove' -- Sir John Appleby quoted -- 'each alley has a brother--'

"What's that, my dear fellow?" Colonel Pride, who had drawn up his car on the Palladian bridge for a preliminary view of Elvedon Court, glanced at his companion with every appearance of perplexity.

"'And half the platform just reflects the other.'

"Ah, a bit of poetry." Pride nodded. He was seemingly gratified at having got, as he would have expressed it, right on the ball. "And I see what the chap means. All a bit formal, I agree. What another of those long-haired characters calls fearful symmetry."

The layout of Elvedon Court plays an important role in the ensuing mystery, so it behooves you to pay attention when the author is discussing its architecture.

No sooner do Colonel Pride and Sir John pull up next to the stately flight of steps leading to the manor's entrance, than they spot a police van.

Someone has murdered their host, Maurice Tytherton.

Almost everyone at Elvedon Court is a suspect, including a shifty butler and his wife, a known art thief, the late owner's mistress and her husband, a sniveling nephew with financial problems, and a prying guest who may remind you of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Sir John insinuates himself amongst the guests and relatives of the deceased and has a splendid time smashing alibis and detecting motives. There are lots of red herrings to chase after--for instance a vicar who lurks about the distinguished grounds with a pair of binoculars--but when Sir John finally rounds up all of the suspects into the deceased's study for the grand denouement, you may be sure he will finger the actual murderer. After all, "Appleby's Other Story" is from the Golden Age of British Mystery--the genre's Age of Enlightenment, as practiced by authors such as Dorothy Sayers, Edmund Crispin, Margaret Allingham, and of course, J.I.M. Stewart a.k.a Michael Innes.

Incidentally, this book's title is a horrible bit of word-play on the solution of the mystery. I stumbled across its true meaning (shame on you, Professor Stewart!) while writing this review.

This book blends the necessary theory with practical application to provide the reader with a riviting insight into the world of linear statistical models.

This book is the funniest in our book collection. I've owned my copy for over 30 years. My wife and I have read it over and over again and we still laugh out loud--we know all the punch lines by heart.

Mike Green has a self-deprecating British sense of humor, and he paints a hilarious picture of a wacky boat trip on inland narrow rivers. In one week, they encounter (or, more accurately, cause) every marine disaster known, from Insanity of Ship's Master and Explosion of Vessel, to Death at Sea, as well as some previously unknown, such as Going Aground on a Bungalow. Anyone who has ever sailed will be able to relate to the experiences described--knots that come untied in the middle of the night; knots that can't be untied when they need to be; skippers shouting desperately at the crew in the face of an impending collision. . . you get the picture.

This book was written in the 1950's, but the sailing experiences are timeless.

Yes, this book is an atlas, like an atlas must be: with many, many pictures, big pictures (the majority use all size of the page) and a easily text to read. I really recomend. I am sorry by the language, please, corretc before, OK. PS: I don't know if pictures are the correct word, the atlas has colored designs, ok

John Vlach's book is a thorough study of the architecture of plantation slavery in the South. He primarily used resource materials from the 1930s Historic American Building Survey and WPA interviews with former slaves to develop a social history. The research is solid and comprehensive. Vlach demonstrates ways to interpret the buildings for information about the life of the people who worked and dwelled in them, and he backs up his conclusions with interview materials. It's a terrific way of studying architecture that merges folklife studies with architectural history. The conclusions expanded my understanding about history, and this book is an essential contribution to learning about black history.

There aren't enough doctors in China for all those people, so This book is used by many "paramedics" or 'midwives' to fill the gap. Included are herbal medicines, accupuncture and western medicine treatments for just about anything that ails you.

This deceptively small book has taken me from how to choose a mountain bike, to developing riding skills, and even to bike repair.

If you are a beginner and need to know HOW to choose and HOW to ride, this book is for you.

It has answered all my questions and I'm ready for my first mountain bike.

This book offers a good description of the preceedings leading to Namibia's independence. It highlights the obstacles faced in the establishment and effectiveness of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) from the point of view of one of its most influential members, John Ya-Otto. The writing style is compelling, so even though it is a detailed historical account, it is very readable.

This book is a much longer, easier to read version of Tolkien's famous 1936
lecture of Beowulf, called "The Monsters and the Critics." I've read
"Monsters and the Critics," and liked it, but Beowulf and the Critics is
much better, not only because it is easier to follow, but because Tolkien
puts in a lot more interesting material, including two very good poems
about dragons. According to the editor, Tolkien started writing this book
for his students at Oxford, and it shows.

Tolkien argues that Beowulf is a great poem and that the monsters in it (a
troll named Grendel, Grendel's mother, and a dragon) are essential to the
poem's theme. I think he makes his case. He also provides a summary of
the study of Beowulf, from the discovery of the manuscript until he wrote
this book in the 1930's, which is actually much more interesting than it
sounds.

The editor has written a good, clear introduction that explains how all
this scholarly material relates to Tolkien's other work in Old English and
to his Middle-earth books. The notes are unbelievably extensive, and while
I didn't read straight through them all, the things I did look up were
explained very clearly.

While there aren't any Hobbits, dwarves or elves, I still strongly
recommend this book to anyone who really wants to know how Tolkien's mind
works.

A very strange and silly book that yet succeeds in being entertaining, despite (or because of?) that very quality. The plot is as exotic and as lush as the setting: Appleby and a small group of Commonwealthers are shipwrecked on a Pacific island inhabited by sinister archaeologists, German spies and transvestites. Although there are the usual Innesian linguistic blocks (e.g., at one point the heroine is described as "being as yet unaware of being obscurely conscious of offence"), the book is remarkably well-written, even if steeped overmuch in Freud.

(I save 10's for Dostoyevsky.)

Michael Innes in his usual perfection! Like any of his books, this one will delight you between dinner and bedtime. Skip that blind date and take out Michael Innes instead. He's the hippest, coolest Oxford don on the crime scene.

This one features George, my favorite aristocratic dog, as well as a young debonair Appleby in the pre-Judith days. The story starts out as a Robinson Crusoe shipwreck adventure (featuring a proper English spinster who goes native), turns into an offbeat drawing room comedy (with an entire cast of eccentric characters including the wonderful George), and ends up a World War II action-suspense thriller (with full sensurround fire and explosions)! Really, it does!

Along the way Innes' dry, hilarious prose drops little precious gems of insight and percipience. If you read Innes with your dictionary handy, you are guaranteed several arcane and ultra-cool additions to your vocabulary in every book. He's a sort of cross between Henry Fielding and Douglas Adams... kooky and hip and very, very well educated. If he is still alive, he is over eighty... and if I met him I would just swoon!