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Book reviews for "Wilson,_John_Tuzo" sorted by average review score:

The Sporting News Selects Football's 100 Greatest Players: A Celebration of the 20th Century's Best
Published in Hardcover by Sporting News (1999)
Authors: Ron Smith, Carl Moritz, Jim Brown, John Rawlings, and Bill Wilson
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The NFL's 100 all-time best
This book is loads of fun to the NFL enthusiast. All eras of the NFL are included (from the 1930's to the present day) as well as all positions (except kickers and punters -- I guess none of them were among the top 100 players). Each entry gets a full two pages -- one a beautiful full-color picture and one a page-long description of that player's special talents and accomplishments. Each player also gets a "Top 10 list" -- a list by a colleague or coach of the best players, most intense players, smartest players, etc. -- including that individual.

The selection and ranking of players was as unbiased as possible. The editors began with 300 names, which they then reduced to 100, and from which each selected his top ten players, without ranking them. After tabulating the results, the editors then ranked the top 10. Then the voters selected their next 15 players, compared notes, and ranked numbers 11-25. They did this with 26-50, 51-75, and 76-100. Is the book still subjective? Undoubtably. You can't objectively compare linemen to running backs to receivers to quarterbacks and objectively identify the overall best players. But the editors did their best to be objective.

The top 10, in order from #1, are Jim Brown, Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Lawrence Taylor, Johnny Unitas, Don Hutson, Otto Graham, Walter Payton, Dick Butkus, and Bob Lilly. I would give this book 5 stars, except that John Elway only comes in at #16, which IMHO is about 15 slots too low (but that shows you where I grew up :-) (Also, Bronco fans should be sure to look on the last 2 pages for an extra special treat.)

All in all, this is a fun book about some great football players. Whether or not you agree with the rankings, you gotta admit: all of the top 100 were/are great players!

Great Picks!
How do you go about picking the greatest 100 football players of all time? There are going to be agreements about who should be on it, and lots of disagreements about who should or shouldn't be on it. This book tackles an extremely difficult job and comes out a winner. Whether or not you agree with all the choices here, you have to admit they picked some damn good ones.

Each page contains pics and a bio on the player. They list Jim Brown as number 1. Funny how just the other night I was in a local sports bar, and a man sitting next to me said "Jim Brown was the greatest player I ever saw." Obviously, this book agrees with my "friend." In fact, the book's forword is written by Brown.

In addition to TSN's Top 100 players listed in numercial order, there's also a "timeline" of when these players were active. Also listed are TSN's all-decade teams. Leafing through the pages brought back memories of players I have watched and enjoyed, and of players whose exploits I only read about years after their careers ended.

So do you agree with all the choices in this book? The only way to find out is to buy it and judge for yourself. I guarantee it's well worth the money.

Great Book
I Enjoyed this Book but Lists aren't Important.Cuz you can never say who would rule any given Time Period.I think all People Selected are Winners.of Course their are some who didn't make the list and therefor they should be acknowledged as well.


Everything I Know I Learned in the Movies: A Compilation of Cliche's and Un-Truisms Gleaned from a Lifetime Spent Entirely Too Much in the Dark
Published in Paperback by General Pub Group (1995)
Authors: John J. B. Wilson and Peter Hoffman
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Sad, But True.
This book (as the subtitle says) is a humorous collections of cliches and un-truisms that can be gathered from watching movies. The book takes only about five minutes to read and some of the observations are hilarious, some are right on the money, and some just don't make sense outside of movies. Each statement has a picture from a movie beside it that illustrates what is said. For instance, "The village Idiot is a veritable font of wisdom" quote is next to a picture of Forrest Gump. Some of the observations many of my friends did not understand. Unfortunately, if you are like me and get most of them, you've probably seen too many movies.

A Humerous Peer Into Movie Reality
"No problem is so big that it can't be solved in 12 reels (or less)". This is a typical statement that one reads in large font opposite of a movie still that complements it. This book is funny and will make you laugh and maybe even says "Huh! Thats true!", or "Oh yeah!" The book is not really a read, so to speak, but a gander across some 200 pages which will take minutes to complete. The title itself is a play on Robert Fulghum's (forever parodied) popular self-help book "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten". Not something I would go out of my way for, however it has some insight into the world of movies and how there are some things that typify the cinematic lifestyle.

The BEST Book I've ever written -- JOHN JB WILSON.
I hope you have as much fun reading this humorous collection of film cliche's as I had writing it and collecting the movie stills which illustrate it. I know I wrote it, but I still laugh out loud at my favorite entries every time I pick it up. WHY NOT PICK UP A COPY YOURSELF


AutoCAD 2000: 3D Modeling,: A Visual Approach
Published in Paperback by Autodesk Press (03 September, 1999)
Author: John E. Wilson
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BEST FOR 3D
MY AUTOCAD INSTRUCTOR, JOHN LARSON RATED TOP REFERENCE TEXT FOR 3D. HE ALSO STATED THAT THIS IS THE ONLY REFERENCE BOOK HE EVER BOUGHT IN HIS CAREER OF TEACHING.

Great way to learn
I bought this book with little 3D experience, hoping it would help guide me. I work in a small company and I am the only CAD user, so there isn't any help in the next office. This book taught me how to use 3D drawings to produce prints in probably a third of the time it used to by drawing all three views. Plus, in our shop, isometric views are almost a must to understand many prints, which has reduced our production time greatly. I am fairly well versed now in 3D, but I still reference the book almost weekly.

I recommend this book to anyone who doesn't have time for courses and understands 2D construction.


Ku Klux Klan: Its Origin, Growth, and Disbandment,
Published in Hardcover by AMS Press (1971)
Authors: John C. Lester, D. L. Wilson, Ku-Klux Klan (1866-1869) Prescript of the * *, and Ku-Klux Klan (1866-1869) Revised and Amended Prescript of the Order O
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The first inside story of the Reconstruction Klan
This small monograph is an early "inside" view of the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee, where it was first born, written some twenty years after the events of Reconstruction, augmented by an introductory essay written in 1905 by noted historian Walter L. Fleming. Ostensibly written by D. L. Wilson in collaboration with Captain J.C. Lester, one of the six founders of the Klan, it is predictably a decidedly pro-Klan document. Written in 1884, it serves as the first published "inside" story of the Klan. The authors refrain from the use of names, and there is no documentation. The book is essentially a story of the Klan, with which Lester attempts to gain popular acceptance for his description of events. The attempt at moderation serves to trivialize the Klan's deeds and to cast doubt on the degree of central organization of the Klan movement. The Klan is described as being founded for amusement, never shaped by political motivations or thirsts for violence. The society only took on foreboding characteristics as dictated by social forces of the time. The Klan sought to enforce law and order, but members soon found themselves compelled to combat violence with violence in kind, thus rendering impotent the more admirable aspirations of Klan leadership. Illustrative of the inherent dangers of counter-violence was the admission of reckless terrorism being inflicted by rebellious Klansmen following the disbanding of the true Klan in 1869. In closing, Lester and Wilson ask men to judge the Klan's actions on the basis of the conditions of Southern life, but they clearly seek to glorify the Klan for the good it accomplished, namely a stabilization of social order. In essence, the book is an apologist document, but it does provide for an illuminating, fairly contemporary look inside the Reconstruction Klan by men closely connected to the movement. As such, it is of great historical significance.

An internal history of the Klan
Reprint of a book published in 1905 which includes the original privately published 1884 edition of this history of the Klan from inside sources. The introduction to the 1905 edition identifies some of the Klan's leadership and briefly discusses its relationship to other secret socieies of the era. The Klan's chief judicial officer, Albert Pike, 'stood high in the Masonic order'.

Written with a pro-Klan spin, the book is a terrific resource for understanding the first incarnation of the KKK from the perspective of those who were in it. Worth looking at whether you love them or hate them.


Principles and Techniques of Practical Biochemistry
Published in Hardcover by Cambridge University Press (26 August, 1994)
Authors: Keith Wilson and John Walker
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A useful, informative guide to practical biology
This book would be especially useful to science students engaging in a predominantly practical-based biological course.

Excellent reference
This book is an invaluable source of information not only for those studying about various practical techniques but even those engaged in experiments in a lab environment. Written more as an overview, it works to familiarize the reader with the principles of both experimental protocols and the equipment that might be used, for example centrifuges. It's very useful to go back to it from time to time to get a refresher on techniques that I might use on a regular basis but might not remember all the details of. Highly recommended. It's also written quite simply, which unfortunately is not the case for all biology texts.


Research Methods in Psychology
Published in Hardcover by McGraw Hill Text (1903)
Authors: John J. Shaughnessy, Eugene B. Zechmeister, Jeanne S. Zechmeister, and Robert F. Wilson
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Research Methods
This book was helpful in the class taken at a CT University.It was relatively easy to understand, that is, as easy as statisticsCAN be to understand. Most of the students had taken an introductorystats class a while back, so the examples were helpful. I will say that students get in a rut and do not end up reading as they should. This book was very helpful in understanding the lectures as long as the reading was done! ...

A Great Learning Tool
I just finished a Research Methods in Psychology class that used this text. Overall, I thought this book was excellent. All the topics discussed are well organized and explained with many helpful examples. The writing is clear and generally easy to understand. I struggled with a couple chapters but class discussions helped clear up what I didn't understand. Some of the students in my class complained that the reading could be a little dry at times and the chapters a little long. I don't necessarily agree with that. I would describe the chapters as thorough and to me, they were interesting. I think those who complained were just less motivated and wouldn't enjoy the subject matter no matter how it was presented.

One of the things I found most helpful was the fact that each chapter begins with a list of key points to be presented in the chapter. These were a great help in keeping focused during the reading. I think anyone who bothered to do them would also find the questions at the end of each chapter to be very helpful. I tried to answer them regurlarly when preparing for tests found that they thoroughly covered the important material. Those along with the publisher's website were my key to success in the class I took. The final chapters do a good job of explaining statistics needed to write a research report (although I think a class in statistics is needed to really understand everything). There is also a complete, annotated research report at the end of the book which I also found very helpful (more helpful than the sample report provided in the APA style manual).


Battleship Texas (Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, No 45)
Published in Hardcover by Texas A&M University Press (1993)
Authors: Hugh Irvin Power, John Reilly, and Wilson E. Dolman
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Great Pictures
The reason to buy this book is the excelent photographs of the details of the ship. As a B&W picture book, it is excelent.

The text is generally weak with a number of technical errors. The author comes across as a fawning admirer rather an expert.

The book could have been much improved with more complete diagrams of the ship. (Has plans but not of the superstructure or lower decks.)

Superb photography
The Battleship Texas, now a museum, is a great attraction for tourists to the San Jacinto Monument and Battlegrounds near Houston, Texas.

Normal tourists wander through the ship, shoot a few pictures and leave.

Hugh Power, who lives on Galveston Island nearby, fell in love with the ship, its history and photo opportunity. He spent, to my knowledge, 3 years photographing every nook and cranny of the Battleship.

He took pictures morning and evening, at noon, with and without flash, from this angle and that. He spent hours in his darkroom developing the pictures, experimenting with different exposures and using all the tricks in the trade to create black & white art.

The effort was well worth it. The book is superb, a delight to both, the lover of good photography and ships.

More discussion of diagrams
A fabulous and interesting book about a fascinating part of history. Much of the artistry is actually in the pictures, diagrams, and text themselves.

Mr. Powers actually got some of the original Navy blueprints from the ship's construction, and this was the source of the drawings in the book. Occasional compromises were made in the amount of detail the diagrams offer due to space constraints.

Nonetheless this is a beautiful and fascinating way to learn more about this historic ship.


The Memoirs of Hecate County
Published in Paperback by Noonday Press (1995)
Authors: Edmund Wilson and John Updike
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Unpleasant
The five yarns in this book, loosely linked, are very engaging and captivating - even seductive. But in the end I hated them. It's just that the first person character is a male who takes liberties in his relationships and then bristles at suggested whiffs of engagement of his partner or partners with other people - even if the implied infidelity is far from established. I find it very hard not to identify the character with Edmund Wilson himself, and then it's so hard to avoid a real repugnance for the man and the hypocrisy displayed by his character.

I have met this feeling before with Paul Theroux, even in his travel stories which are openly autobiographical. I'm sure I could never expose my thinking in the way Mr Theroux does. But, on the other hand there are extenuating circumstances with Mr Theroux and he does recognise the unfairness of his attitude, even regrets it. This doesn't happen with Edmund Wilson's character who seems not to think that his self-centred behaviour should be questioned - he's a man and he can do whatever he wants - not so those who associate with him. His entreaties to the women he seduces seem so [weak] to me - and yet they are successful in the novel - 'You know you're the only woman I've ever wanted to marry!'

And inexcuseable (for me anyway), towards the end of the novel there are pages and pages in French. I understand that multilingual people do sometimes switch between languages but I think this is appalling behaviour by the writer and the publisher when many, if not most, readers will not be able to read these passages. What are we expected to do - go out and hire a translator to translate the text for us?

The stories are engaging, even amusing, perhaps enlightening. But in the end I just didn't like them for the arrogance of the character, the vulnerability of the women he associates with (none of them stand up against him), and the self-indulgence of the author.

A Literary Find that won't be for 'everyone'
On Christmas Day 2001 I was in San Francisco when I began reading this literary collection of six interrelated novelettes. I learned of the book while reading 'THE SCARLET PROFESSOR--Arvin Newton'. I was anxious to read it because the book was banned in 1947 because of its heatedly debated subject matter of descriptive sex, adultery, venereal disease and a mixture of the upper and lower class values of the time. My dear friend, Gloria Weiner-Freiman-Cohen, would surprise me with the gift of this book. While I was pleasantly surprised the author, Edmund Wilson, has encouraged me to write in my journal again as he did nightly in his 'Wilson's Night Thoughts'--(everyone has NIGHT THOUGHTS, right?). I'm sure that is an interesting book as well. This book is written in a very 'twenties style' of literary competence that I truly love. It just sweeps me back to the beauty of words that are often not used in this manner today. I liked the following lines from the book:
-Right is right and wrong is wrong and you have to choose between them!
-...it's the dead...that give life its price, its importance. You feel them under the ground just lying there and never moving.
-Every work of art is a trick by which the artist manipulates appearances so as to put over the illusion that experience has some sort of harmony and order and to make us forget that it's impossible to pluck billard-balls out of the air. ...he had been spurred by no need to make money.
-The only things that were fresh in the streets were the headlines--new words--on the newsstands, and most of these announced dismal events.
-They didn't worry about their social position because the life that an artist leads is outside all the social positions. The artist makes his own position, which is about the nearest thing you can get to being above the classes.
-He really needs somebody to hold his hand!
-...it was all on the kindergarten level.

the charms and spells of Hecate
Edmund Wilson is one of the great literary and social critics of the 20th century. This collection, largely forgotten in his voluminous interpretive texts, is a group of 6 interrelated stories which explore aspects of contemporary society (published in 1946). Wilson's keen analytical mind, gives these tales a penetrating, still relevant, perspective. The venue is upscale Hecate County, New York (Hecate is the Queen of Witches), built of marriages of form, and a social life of formalities. Passion, here, swirls in a cauldron of manners. The matriarchal community is dominated by a self involved, status-seeking, unsatisfied type of woman. These are stories of intrigue, even bewitchment, bound by strictures of guilt or conformity. Pathos mingles with humour and observation to produce a sharp relief of the cultural terrain. His methods include both biting satire and tantalizing insights of intimacy. The elliptical conversations provide a platform for far ranging, not so subtle social criticism. The women are weavers of charms. They form only a spectral presence in some of the stories, but are always a catalyst in the vaguely destructive relationships. In the most ambitious story, Princess With the Golden Hair, oblique sensual imagery imbues an erotic undertone; sexuality itself is portrayed in morally ambiguous, layered contradictions. Wilson is examining conventions which bind people in structures sapped of meaning, while confessing subliminally the need for standards-- and for love. In this way the book reflects both the mid century suburban angst and the more persistent predicaments of the heart.


The Jungle Book
Published in Hardcover by Random House (Merchandising) (1984)
Authors: Rudyard Kipling and Maurice Charles John Wilson
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great stories for young and old
Since he wrote these stories during the several years he spent in Brattleboro, VT, we of the North Country have a particular affinity for Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Books. The most familiar are the Mowgli tales, basis for the very good Disney movie. Mowgli is an Indian infant who is lost in the jungle after Shere Khan (the tiger) kills his family. Bagheera (the black panther) places him with a wolf family that has a newborn litter. Mowgli's new "parents" and Bagheera and Baloo (the brown bear) sponsor him for membership in the Wolf Pack and, much to Shere Khan's chagrin, he is admitted. Mowgli is raised according to Jungle Law, but all the while Shere Khan is plotting his revenge and ingratiating himself with the younger wolves. Eventually, he leads a rebellion against Akela, the pack's aging leader and attacks Mowgli, who beats him away with a burning firebrand. In these and the several other Mowgli stories--there are some prequels--Kipling strikes a nice balance between anthropomorphizing the animals and understanding Mowgli's natural superiority.

Also appearing in this collection is a story I've loved since I first saw the Classic Cartoon version--Rikki Tikki Tavi. It tells the story of an intrepid young mongoose and his life or death battle to protect an Indian villa from a couple of particularly unpleasant cobras. Rikki Tikki Tavi has always seemed to me to be one of the great heroes in all of literature.

These are great stories for young and old. For folks who worry about Kipling's potentially imperialist, racist or racialist overtones (see review), rest assured, these tales are free of such themes. They offer an excellent opportunity to introduce kids to the work of a true master storyteller.

GRADE: A

A book of wonder
This was probably one of my most favorite books as a young child if not my favorite. The way Kipling shows the struggle of this young boy in the jungle is amazing. He fails to leave out any detail and throughout the whole story your totally caught up in it without one point of boredom. I recommend this to any parent looking for a good book to read to their children or to have their kids read. Kipling is a great author and after doing a report on him and reading some of his other works I recommend those as well, especially A White Man's Burden. If your looking for books by a author who mixes fiction with truth, action and adventure with tales that bring in more serious aspects Kipling is the author for you.

Learn the Jungle Law, it's still in effect
The story of Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves in the jungles of 19th century India, charmed me when I was young no less than it does today. Kipling wrote this to celebrate his love of India and it's wild animals as well as to show again some of his frequent themes of honor, loyalty, and perserverance. While his writing may seem 'dated' to some, to others the truths he includes rise above politics and 'current correctness'. Baloo the Bear, Shere Khan the Tiger, Bagheera the Panther, Kaa the Python were all childhood friends of mine, and reading these Jungle Book stories to your own children today will result in their exposure to such old fashioned concepts as sticking by your friends in adversity, helping your family, relying on yourself. Good lessons then, good lessons now. Mowgli learns the value of 'good manners' early on, learns that 'all play and no work' leads to unexpected troubles, learns that thoughtless actions can have devasting consequences. By showing Mowgli in an often dangerous 'all animal' world, we see reflections of modern human problems presented in a more subtle light. Kipling leads children down the jungle path into adventures beyond their day to day imagining and along the way, he weaves subtle points in and out of the stories, he shows the value of 'doing for yourself', of 'learning who to trust'. All of this in a tale of childhood adventure that's never been equaled. The book is over 100 years old now, and there are terms & concepts from the age of Empire that aren't 'correct' today. Parents can edit as needed as they read bedtime stories, but I've found that children learn early on that the world changes, and that some ideas that were popular long ago did not prove to be correct. Explaining this, too, is a part of parenting. Some of our current popular ideas may not stand the test of time, but I suspect that 100 years from now parents will still read the Jungle Book to their children. And the children will still be charmed, thrilled and instructed in valuable life-lessons.


Simple Justice: A Benjamin Justice Mystery
Published in Paperback by Bantam Books (1997)
Author: John Morgan Wilson
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A Sam Spade For The New Century
With simple prose and words that paint a picture of West Hollywood and the newspaper industry in bold strokes, Mr. Wilson draws the reader both into the mystery as well as the characters and their surroundings. His writing is tense and with Matthew Justice, he has created one of the more credible and interesting characters.

The plotting is fast, the cast of characters both amusing and realistic and story itself is without fault.

Simply Solid Work
I'm not comfortable posting raves. I'm always suspicious of the ones I read, since many of them sound like a publisher's secretary paraphrasing their own ad copy. This is an exception.

Simple Justice deserved the awards and accolades it got. I am a mystery buff with a bad habit of sticking to 'tried and true' writers. I went looking for fresh authors recently. Out of about twenty 'new' talents, this is the one real gem I found.

Unlike the homophobe who posted in 1997, whether I personally like a character or his/her motivations is irrelevant to me. I want tight, convincing prose, an interesting mystery that doesn't cheat, and a collection of unique characters that remain true to themselves and grow during the book. Wilson gave me all of that and more.

The writing is truly award-caliber. Each character is deliciously flawed and extremely well-realized. The mystery is a great first effort, and aside from the 'Perry Mason' confession, I was intrigued throughout. Yes, any student of mysteries would pick the killer from the 'line up' in the first half of the novel, but it's still a good read. I recommend this book, with the single caveat that mystery novelists of the last ten years have become obsessed with the ... exploits of their characters, and Wilson is no exception. Since his characters are ..., expect ... (duh). Alternately, you can skip the ... scenes and jump straight (no pun intended) into a first-rate mystery novel.

The Debut of Justice
Let me admit my bias first. I'm a Southern California-based mystery writer with my debut novel in its initial release, and I've met John Morgan Wilson several times. In fact, we shared the same table at the awards banquet at the last Bouchercon and then had drinks together afterward. After coming clean with my bias, I still freely admit that SIMPLE JUSTICE is one of the finest mysteries published in recent years. Mr. Wilson takes a flawed character, Benjamin Justice, a reporter who slipped up a bit on journalism's ethical standards and hence blew a Pulitzer Prize, and gives Justice a chance to begin to reclaim his life and his reputation. SIMPLE JUSTICE is a terrific mystery. It is a terrific novel. John Morgan Wilson has created a fabulous plot, and he vividly describes his settings and his characters. This novel deserved the awards it received. Read it soon, if you haven't already.


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