Byron Sacre takes us on a lively journey covering diverse aspects of life. Even those items which may be unfamiliar to you will enrich and expand your experiences. Most stories and poems will stir some familiar strain within you.

The stories encompass a wide variety of topics and styles. Some fit well into the "Twilight Zone" range; others would make Hitchcock happy. Still others are best read in front of a fire on a stormy night.

It is difficult to pick a favorite among the selections, but three struck a chord immediately. "Uncommon Versatility" allows us a brief peek into a story of a unique artist. "Conversations with My Cat" will speak to all cat lovers, especially those who belong to cats. "Julie's Retirement" depicts perfectly the paradoxes of duplicity and loyalty, between what people think and what they allow us to see on the surface.

I recommend Family and Other Strangers to anyone who enjoys reading and exploring the vagaries of human nature.

Janet B. Fudala, Ph.D. CEO, Educational Solutions

Far Eastern Tour: The Canadian Infantry In Korea 1950-1953 by Brent Byron Watson (History Teacher, Okanagan University College) is a tautly written and serious-minded examination and history of Canada's involvement in the Korean War, including the hardships Canadian infantry suffered which included inappropriate training, stark living and combat conditions, and the deadly blood toll of the war itself. Far Eastern Tour is very highly recommended as being an extensively researched, carefully written, and scholarly accurate look into what living amid such combat was like, the pressures it demanded, and the extraordinary people who faced the horrors of war and did not back down from what had to be done.

This book speaks directly to the 3 real impediments so many dedicated professionals face when they lose their job -- depression/self-recrimination, bitterness and loss of perspective.

The book also gives practical job search tips, especially (but not limited to) for higher level professionals.

What Color is Your Parachute is an outstanding guide to job hunting but not much help until a job-seeker gets past the problems above. Buy both books.

I first dismissed Robert Byron's book ''First Russia, then Tibet" because it came across as an anti-Soviet diatribe. I picked it up again because a good friend, whose opinion I respect, said that it was good. On a second reading Byron was less prejudiced than I had at first thought, and I realized that what I had thought was right-wing blinkers was in fact a fine aesthetic sensitivity. He also understands that one of the most important things for a travel writer is to observe people and not just places. He describes Russia shortly after Lenin's death.

I thought at first that he was there as a political observer but I was a lot more sympathetic when it became clear that he was really interested in the art and architecture. You end up with an interesting picture of Russia just after Lenin's death, and just before Stalin's crackdown.

The second two thirds of the book are more interesting, though. He recounts the first commercial flight from Britain to India, which takes all of a week. He then retells a short journey into Tibet, something as forbidden then as it is now.

What really stands out is how he describes how everyone looks and lives, be they a Maharajah or Tibetan peasant. You can literally feel and smell the rigors of travel in a place that has not progressed much beyond medieval technology. He does not judge anyone although he is ultimately very sympathetic to the Tibetans' rejection of the modern world. You get the sense that he could have been very scathing about the attitude of the British colonials to the locals, but instead chooses to say nice things about those colonizers who did make the effort to meet the natives on their own terms.

One note: the description of a dinner at the governor's house in Darjeeling is one of the funniest passages that I have ever read. Byron's deadpan style is perfect to describe a minor incident in a place where nothing ever happens. It reminds me of the game of cricket in "England, their England". His descriptions of his travel companions, and the fact that they are often more reluctant than he, are gently witty, and turned back on himself.

I would recommend this to people who liked "A short walk in the Hindu Kush", or who read Peter Hopkirk's books on exploration and espionage in Central Asia in the last century.

Byron Jacobs' French Classical tells of a strategy which leads to unbalanced positions for both master players and club players. Variations on themes and full coverages of basic elements for both sides are included.

My daughter LOVED this book. Sometimes I would hear her laughing from the other room as she read it. She would even bring up some of the issues she read about during dinner. She said that even though it was written by adults, it was presented in "her language" (funny, I thought she spoke English like the rest of us). She really liked the chapters by Mark Bernstein and Keith Hawkins in particular. Thanks for a great read. Go MAD is great!

This book has many things to commend it, from th fine paper stock to the marvelous images selected by Peter Simmons. Look at the pictures - really look at them and you will be brought back to a different era! I recommend it!

This is an absorbing, well written account of a neglected (by American readers anyways) war at the turn of the last century. Rather than being a dry academic text, Farwell's writing style serves to bring the war to life 100 years after the fact.

Coupled with other accounts of the war, like Goodbye Dolly Gray (another excellent book) written by Rayne Kruger, the average reader can understand some of the causal factors of South Africa's apartied system and gain an insight into the history of a long troubled region.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any reader looking for a fast-paced non-academic history of the Boer War. You won't go wrong.

I found this an absorbing book, even tho shortly before I read it I had read Goodbye Dolly Gray. another excellent book on the Boer War, written by Rayne Kruger. I recommend this book unreservedly for one looking for a fast-paced non-academic history of the Boer War

"Great Northern Railway: 1945-1970 Photo Archive Vol. 2" is an interesting and informative photographic portrait of the Great Northern Railway.

Like the first volume, this new one--also edited and Introduced by Byron D. Olsen--has black & white photos from the Great Northern archives and from Hedrich Blessings Studios, which worked for Great Northern.

The quality of the pictures is mixed, and that's to be expected, I suppose. But there are some commendable photographs here. Just to name a few: There's the sleek Red River crossing Minnesota's Stone Arch Bridge in 1961; a pair of three-decade year-old FTA units at Minneapolis Junction in 1962; an ore vessel being loaded with mined minerals at the Great Northern docks; and an engineer's snowy view from the Stone Arch Bridge in 1969.

Midwestern train buffs will certainly want to add this volume to their libraries.