The story told in "The Last Hero" is that of Sir Henry Morton Stanley (of "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" fame, but that's another story) who, in 1885 organized and led a mission to rescue Emin Pasha, governor of Equatoria, the southernmost province of the Egyptian Sudan, which was surrounded by the Mahdist uprising. Amazingly, Stanley decided to approach Equatoria from the Atlantic side of Africa by going up the Congo river and overland through central African forest. The expedition crossed hundreds of miles of then-unknown Africa, encountering every obstacle and difficulty along the way. The eventual end of the mission is one of history's great ironies, but I don't want to give anything away.

"The Last Hero" is a very well-written adventure story, all the more interesting because it is true. My only complaint (a very minor one) concerns the absence of notes and bibliography which could have given some historical documentation and sources.

Another good book is "The River Congo: The Discovery, Exploration and Exploitation of the World's Most Dramatic River" (nonfiction) which is also by Peter Forbath (a journalist who reported on Africa). Henry Morton Stanley was also a bestselling author, he wrote: "How I Found Livingstone" (1872); "Through the Dark Continent" (1878); and "In Darkest Africa" (1890).

The best, and I mean that exactly, the best adventure book for adults ever, and I mean that exactly, ever written. My friend and I constantly recommend books to each other, and one or the other of us will say, "It's a good book but..." and the other will always respond "...it's not The Last Hero" Put this book down and you will not sleep until you pick it up again. I am on my fifth read, and I am sure that it will not be my last. There are images and moments that I will never forget. I cannot believe that anyone allowed this book to go out of stock. Find it, steal it, read it, you will not be sorry

Not many novels have the effect of this one. If I have to pick a 'prequel' to Robert Ruark's _Something of Value_ than it is surely this one. If you like Forbath's, then read Ruark's!

_The Last Hero_ sweeps you away to a time when honor and ego and plain old guts -- combined with the vast heart of unexplored Africa meant adventure. I read this novel in amazement, at the rich characterization, the lavish settings, the graphic narrative; only to be further amazed when I learned that this wasn't a mere work of historical fiction, but rather a fictionalized account of real events.

Read it. You won't find many novels that do this. Serious business, deep in the Congo Ituri rainforest, late 19th century...no one can hear you scream.

Kurt W. Wagner kwagner@gti.net

Pete Fusco and I flew together for several years and the stories he relates in his book are just a few of the real great tales of non-sched cargo days. Pete did not disappoint me. He has always been the best storyteller around. For aviation affectionados that think flying is a gravy train, they need to read this book about what a flying career is all about. Great book! I can't wait for his encore.

Ordinarily, I don't like books written by pilots. When Pete Fusco's book was recommended to me, however, I was interested since I also grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio at about the same time Pete did.

When the book arrived, I must tell you that I was immensely pleased. His book is very well written and describes an odyssey in civilian aviation which is humorous, poignant and entertaining.

I'm a commercial airline pilot who was schooled in aviation via the United States Navy flying fighters during the Viet Nam War. I didn't have to go through many of the experiences which Pete Fusco did (although nobody ever fired missiles at him!). But his experiences related in the book kept me spellbound and laughing until I finished it which was on the same day it was delivered. Well, actually, it was at three in the morning on the day after.

If you enjoy good books about flying and learning to fly, don't pass this one up. It's well worth the price.

Bruce J. Blue The Woodlands, Texas

I have known Pete Fusco for at least fiften years and can assure you that he speaks and acts exactly as the way he comes across in print. He has a very fertile imagination and a mind that must contain a repertoire of at least 1,000 jokes, an one of which he may unleash at any time on an unsuspecting public.

This is a tremendous book-a fun book to read and one that I put on a par with Confedracy of Dunces, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Ir is a must book for anyone who desires to look at life through the eyes of someone who sees the lighter side of humanity in whatever he does and is willing to make fun of himself in doing so.

Pete, if you are reading this review I want you to know that I didn't die and am very much alive. You keep me that way with your humor. You are one hell of a funny guy.

I have been in EMS for over 20 years, and have read most of the novels about paramedics. Night Angel 9 is the best one I have ever read. Peter Telep has followed the advice of the medics he talked to to get background information from, and created a department any medic would be proud to serve on. I hope this is the first on many books to come.

With a mind-boggling grasp of trauma handling and on-site treatment, Peter Telep has given us a book that is at once informative, interesting and a definitely interesting read. Let's hope that Peter doesn't get so busy that he overlooks the painful chore of writing again for his readers. A GREAT read!

In his three-book "Night Angel 9" series, Peter Telep gets the medical part right. The three novels follow several California paramedics, firefighters, doctors and others through the routine and not so routine calls providing emergency medical services in a large metropolitan city. Unlike some EMS-related books, Peter Telep's descriptions of medical procedures and protocols are accurate and correct.
The books are best read in order, but are equally compelling individually. As the series moves from the first book to the third, the reader gets more involved with the personal lives and problems of Telep's characters, and less with EMS activities. The characters have depth and are believable. Each must deal with his or her own problems. The action on the street is non-stop and keeps the reader's interest. A good read.
John Peters, NREMTP
Virginia Beach

Dr. Jaksa explains the tools and methods used in today's parenting . The author uses innovative methods as well as traditional approaches in creating harmony in the family unit. I found this book to be extemely helpful in my life. The best aspect of this book is that it is not your average book it is practical and humorous not clinical and boring like most parenting books. The author mixes his blend of wisdom and enthuisiam to teach us to be the best parents that we can .

Peter Jaksa has written a book that, as a father of three young children, I found deeply comforting as well as helpful. Dr. Jaksa obviously loves his subject--parents, children, and families--and he pretends to nothing more than he delivers: solid, sensible advice mixed with humor, warmth, wisdom, and optimism. I am also a child psychiatrist, and from a professional standpoint, this book is also first rate. Read it, enjoy it, learn from it, and return to it when you need to.

Peter Jaksa is a very tuned-in, sensitive, practical therapist who provides a well-organized, highly readable book for parents who are struggling to make sense of parenting issues and family issues in this complex, difficult social environment of the late twentieth century. Dr. Jaksa charts a course for parents that gives hope and direction.

fácil de leer,Y QUE ES EL INSTRUMENTO IDEAL PARA SOLVENTAR LOS PROBLEMAS DE LA PAREJA !
Yo creo que su eficiencia brota del hecho de que, tienen toda justicia, tienen que leerlo los dos: El y Ella.
Y es lógico, porque el problema siempre es DE DOS!
Los tests para ambos están super bien diseñados y se refieren a que cada uno establezca sus propios errores y ponga la voluntad para corregirlos !
FANTÁSTICO ! A mi esposo y a mi nos funcionó como magia...

PARA RELACIONES ENFERMAS DENTRO DE LA PAREJA...
Es la medicina infalible !
Tiene tests y deben leerlo juntos...
EL RESULTADO ES CASI MAGICO!

SON "'PEQUEÑECES ", detalles al parecer sin importancia pero que van agrandando la distancia que nos divide
Dado que son "Detallitos " es fácil olvidarlos y conservar únicamente el resentimiento.
Este libro extraordinario ( que incluye TESTS ), los saca a flote para que se puedan resolver...
Es vital hacerlo a tiempo, porque la brecha crece y un buen día, al paracer "SIN MOTIVO ", la pareja se separa...y nadie entiende por qué. Ni ellos mismos !

A great read. I'm not a fisherman and in fact I've never gone fishing but this book is filled with such natural and lyrical beauty that I (and other non-fishing folk) could fully appreciate the wonderful portrait of Montauk and its people that Kaminsky has drawn. I may never pick up a flyrod but I will (and have) heartily recommend(ed) this book to the most stubborn land-lubber.

Kaminsky's book is a perfect read about not only the world class fishing we have at Montauk in the Fall, but the cast of characters involved in it. He artfully describes what is fishing that others only dream about, as well as those who over the past decade have come to open an entirely new fishery (flyfishing in saltwater)and their personalities, infighting and expertise. This is a great book, and a must read for any angler.

If you have ever caught a striper on a flyrod you will enjoy Kaminsky's Month of fishing. He has a calm manner of expressing the explosive nature of the striper. He has shared his experiences during the annual run of stripers around Montauk Point. There are plenty of technical manuals of how to do this or where to do that regarding flyfishing for stripers and this isn't one of them. Yet, you can learn from his first hand experiences fishing, not guiding but the actual art of going to the waters in pursuit of the striper. Wheter he is fishing the flats, shores or from a boat his descriptions of his experience are what make this book. The names of his associates have faded but the places he fished, the techniques of casting and presentation, and the fights he described remain. If you enjoy flyfishing for striper you will enjoy the moments of time he selectively shares with his readers.

This is one of my three favorite Lord Peter Wimsey novels (the other two are Clouds of Witness and The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club), and it's my favorite of the "later period" (1930s) stories (in some part because it doesn't feature Wimsey's paramour, Harriet Vane, whom I often found rather dull). This book is Wimsey at his most whimsical, though because it is to some degree an extreme example of Wimsey's character, it's probably best enjoyed by people who have read the earlier books.

Sayers apparently worked in the advertising business herself for some years, and in this story Wimsey goes undercover as "Death Bredon" (his middle names) at Pym's Publicity to investigate the death of a copy-writer who fell down a spiral staircase. As a result, Sayers pokes all kinds of fun at the advertising business, as well as drawing an enlightening sketch of what that business is like. More than one person who's read this novel has commented to me that it seems that advertising hasn't changed much in the last seventy years!

The victim himself had been running with a fast, drug-taking crowd, which Wimsey infiltrates to tragicomic effect, and when his contacts with this ne'er-do-well group meet his upper-class family later on, he's put in the surreal position of... well, read the novel; the ultimate payoff of this thread is one of the funniest moments in the whole series! The book also includes a chapter featuring everyone's favorite incomprehensible English sport: A Cricket match, which as it turns out fits right in with the rest of the book in both style and outcome.

The mystery itself is about average for Wimsey's adventures, and is a bit more hard-core than we'd usually expect. But that aside, this is a funny, flamboyant, and educational novel, perhaps the most rewarding overall of all of Lord Peter's stories.

This has to be my favorite Dorothy L. Sayers mystery. It is Sayers at her most witty and amusing. She has cleverly weaved several threads of storyline into one perfect book, building up the suspense into a neat ending. She manages to make Lord Peter Wimsey still human and realistic, despite being amazingly good at everything he turns his hand to. There are lots of great twists on words and phrases, which make the book fun to read more than once, less for the murder mystery than for the savouring of all the little details and dialogues. Enjoy!

This is the best Wimsey book not featuring sometime-fellow-sleuth Harriet Vane which Sayers ever wrote. Not terribly serious, but great entertainment. I've read this book 6 times because it's just so much fun. Written in 1933, IMHO Sayers' prime, Wimsey is far more human and less of a caricature than in the early books, but much less goopy than in her latest books. The dialogue is a treat, even minor characters are exquisitely drawn, and the in-jokes at the advertising biz (Sayers worked as a copywriter herself for a while) are utterly hilarious. Plus, there's a puzzling, neatly-solved mystery. And even though I don't play cricket and don't understand the game, I adored the pivotal cricket game scene: Sayers at her best. My only complaint is the total absence of the delightful Bunter. THis is definitely the book to read first if you'r e interested in Sayers. Then read the Strong Poison-Have His Carcase-Gaudy Night trilogy. These are, IMHO, her four best books, and of the four, Murder Must Advertise is definitely the most charming and light-hearted.

Before I was given this book, it was like pulling teeth to get me to read. After beginning this book, I REALLY could not put it down. I just had to turn another page. And another. And another. It was almost like participating in a soccer game where you just don't know what's going to happen next. I was caught reading this book in class at school. The teacher thought it was so cool that I was so involved in the book, that she actually GAVE me the book! She had never seen me like that, she couldn't believe I was actually reading. Really I couldn't believe it myself!
THIS IS A GOTTA READ BOOK!

I am a teacher in Newark and had my students read this book in class. They could not put it down and kept reading ahead awaiting what would happen next. Any parents trying to get their child to read should get this book.

Wow were the first words that came out of my mouth. That day I had just gotten back from a used book store and picked this book out. This had been the best book I had ever read. The ending was fasinating and the style of writing he used was, well... super. I loved this book so much I rushed to school the next day and got all my friends to read it. They loved it too, but that wasn't enough, I then got my family to read it. My mom was estatic. I then had to get the rest of the series. And, just like the first, I love them and always will.

If someone were to ask me, "What scientist, by nature of their perspective, could ever understand the depths of humanity?" - I would pluck this book from my shelf and hand it to them. Whybrow truly investigates the subjective and the objective aspects of 'mood disorders' (in the clinical sense) and, by way of dialogue, synthesizes the two approaches into a singular perspective. He explores the emotional continuum - from mania to melancholia - in such a clear and concise fashion that anyone (scientist or humanist) can acquire knowledge, as well as wisdom, through Whybrow's book, A Mood Apart.

As noted by other readers, this new printing is the same book published in 1997. My original hardback version is dog-eared and highlighted, and I frequently turn to those passages for inspiration and hope. It is clear by his writing that Dr. Whybrow loves what he does as a psychiatrist and cares deeply for his patients. Through story-telling with some occasional science thrown in (and the suthor warns the reader ahead of time, in case they wish to skip it), Whybrow weaves a tale that almost reads like a novel. I honestly could not put it down! "A Mood Apart" has a human quality to it that many books on illnesses lack. Since the information is derived from patient histories, credibility is high, and identifying with the "characters" is easy. Dr. Whybrow assures us there is hope for those with bipolar disorder.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in manic depression, but who knows little about the subject. Dr. Whybrow explains the various social, psychological and in particular, biological factors that surround manic depression. I found the individual case studies the most interesting as they highlighted the human torture that ordinary people suffer through mental illness.

The author also explains how many of the now commonly known drugs - such as 'prozac' and 'lithium' - have done much to alleviate the plight of such people. For those wary of medical jargon, the author does detail the chemical processes in the brain that can cause/alleviate depression, but this only covers a relatively small section of the book. The book is comprehensively referenced and is very well written.

Overall and perhaps most importantly, Dr. Whybrow has written a book that has done alot to dispel the stigma associated with mental illness and if you have any interest in the subject I would urge you to read it.

I am not a U.S. Supreme Court enthusiast, but in light of the Courts activity in the 2000 presidential election case (George W. Bush vs. Al Gore), I searched out books on the U.S. Supreme Court and found "May It Please the Court" to be a fascinating read. It sheds light on the ebb and flow of the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings and reasonings over the past 30 years.

Recently millions of Americans were privileged to hear live the two presidential election cases that the U.S. Supreme Court took and vicariously we all had a "fascinating you-are-there experience." In "May It Please the Court" editors Peter Irons and Stephanie Guitton spent scores of hours at the National Archives in Washington retrieving and editing twenty-three cases and once again give average Americans the opportunity to experience, in proxy, each court case.

In 1955 the U.S. Supreme Court began tape recording all cases from which twenty-three ground-breaking cases were selected by Peter Irons and Stephanie Guitton. These are segmented into five sections: "Secure the Blessings of Liberty," "Congress Shall Make No Law," "In All Criminal Prosecutions," The Equal Protection of the Law" and "A Right of Personal Privacy." Each section has an informative foreword by the Editors.

Skilled advocates on both sides, as in the two presidential election cases, argue each landmark case forcefully, and most often, as in the recent presidential election cases, the Court's opinions have sparked controversy. Our Constitution invested great powers in government officials and these powers are only kept in check by the Bill of Rights. And these Rights only have meaning if government officials can be forced to obey them. Only the courts have the ultimate power of enforcement and thus the Supreme Court of the United States of America has the ultimate power. This excellent book helps all Americans to understand how this Court balances the legitimate powers of government officials and the rights of the people. Highly Recommended.

Well, it sure pleased me enough. I've had this collection of Supreme Court argument transcripts for years, but mostly just listened to the accompanying tape set (the unique part). But this book is pretty good, too. You get edited arguments plus edited majority and dissenting opinions in major cases since 1955--Roe v. Wade, Texas v. Johnson, Tinker v. Des Moines, Gideon v. Wainwright, Miranda v. Arizona. . .Only real problems are: 1) lack of notation on which justices voted for what; 2) ID of some court members speaking in the transcripts; 3) Irons' quite left-wing viewpoint (I don't often disagree with it, but still. . .). This is a really important glimpse into the inner workings of the still-mysterious Supreme Court, revealing all sorts of stuff about the biases and brilliances, the give-and-take, of our highest court, our last bastion of civil liberty (probably the best investigation of this institution since "The Brethren"). There are things in here that infuriate me with their obvious bigotry (Bowers v. Hardwick), others that make me tear up with pride that a government (MY government) would actually champion individual liberty in the face of majority hatred (Texas v. Johnson). Sometimes the court goes bravely against the grain, sometimes it warily reflects common sentiment, but always it's a valuable look at America's brand of democracy and philosophy.--J.Ruch

I truly admire Peter Irons, the primary editor of this work. Anybody who brazenly stands up against a government agency in order to publish material in the public record (these Supreme Court recordings and transcripts were not supposed to be reproduced) is OK by me.

And what a collection this is! Even people without any interest or education in law or politics will recognize some of these -- and those who are law junkies will love them all. I do not necessarily agree with others that Irons chose cases based on his "liberal" leanings; the cases we see and hear are among the very most important in the ongoing struggle to define "what the law means" (the phrase Chief Justice John Marshall used in Marbury v Madison). Even if one disagrees with the outcome of particular cases, it's important and educational to *hear* just how the argumetns for both sides were presented. This eliminates much of the mystery behind how the court operates, and that is certainly a good thing.

I just love the book and recordings, and have read & listened to them over and over. I give my highest recommendation for this work, and even moreso for students and families interested in our system of criminal and civil justice.