Perlin's book is an ambitious overview of the use of wood in world civilization. Therein lies the both the book's strengths and weaknesses. Like any work that attempts to do a global history, inevitably some regions and some eras get very short shrift. Still, A Forest Journey is interesting, and well worth reading by anyone with an interest in environmental or forest history.

This book is a study on the rise and fall of civilizations, as caused by their management of wood resources, or in other words energy resources. Perlin tells a convincing tale on what makes a civilization tick. This is a very good book to read for anybody who cares about what the world is coming to, and perhaps even for those who don't. It is filled with fascinating historical material.

The limitations of the book are that Perlin is not as great a storyteller as DC Peattie (many of the stories here would make a sweeping tale in the hands of a truly gifted writer) and that the choice of civilizations treated is very much oriented towards the US.

A Forest Journey first reminds us of the absolute importance of wood to human history: how much we have depended on wood for our very existence:

"Throughout the ages trees have provided the material to make fire, the heat of which has allowed our species to reshape the earth for its use. With heat from wood fires, relatively cold climates became habitable; inedible grains were changed into a major source of food; clay could be converted into pottery, serving as useful containers to store goods; people could extract metal from stone, revolutionizing the implements used in agriculture, crafts, and warfare; the builders could make durable construction materials such as brick, cement, lime, plaster, and tile for housing and storage facilities....

"Transportation would have been unthinkable without wood. Until the nineteenth century every ship, from Bronze Age coaster to the frigate, was built with timber. Every cart, chariot, and wagon was also made primarily of wood. Early steamboats and railroad locomotives in the United States used wood as their fuel...

"Wood was also used for the beams that propped up mine shafts and formed supports for every type of building. Water wheels and windmills ­ the major means of mechanical power before electricity was harnessed ­ were built of wood. The peasant could not farm without wooden tool handles or wood plows; the soldier could not throw his spear or shoot his arrows without their wooden shafts, or hold his gun without its wooden stock. What would the archer have done lacking wood for his bow; the brewer and vintner, without wood for their barrels and casks; or the woolen industry, without wood for its looms?"

Perlin then thoroughly documents how all past nations declined once their forests were depleted. Today, with the world's forests in jeopardy, A Forest Journey provides much needed information that can help us avoid another needless repetition of history.

This is a very well-written history of one the most famous battles of World War II which was written for a general audience. Those looking for a David Glantz-like, academic study of the campaign should pass this one by. Eisenhower is a very skilled writer, and his description of the first weeks of the German offensive is very well done.

The book does have some problems. Being the son of the former commander of the ETO and President, Eisenhower had access to interview for his research many of the top commanders who fought in the battle. However, that strength could also be a weakness because most of those commanders interviewed were friends and comrades of his father. Thus, Eisenhower is rarely if ever critical of any of the commanders despite the fact that serious errors were made on the eve of the campaign on the part of the American high command. Also the book is full of GI slang such as "burp guns," which may have been recognizable to readers in the early 60's, but not so in the 21st century.

I first read this book in a hardcover used edition about 15 years ago and enjoyed it. I finally found this reprint edition several years ago and rediscovered this fine book.
Beginning with background information on the major participants in this battle from both sides and continuing on through the battle; both sides story is well represented. This book will give you a great understanding of this pivotal battle.
I highly recommend it.

There is certainly no shortage of excellent and detailed titles dealing with this subject, from Stephen Ambrose's own "Citizen Soldiers" to John Toland's "Battle" to Charles B. MacDonald's "A Time For Trumpets", yet this, too, is an excellent and inspiring cover of the events leading up to and including the Battle of the Bulge. This book follows in the vein of detailing at the unit level what the war was like for the man on the ground, and incorporates a lot of first person testimony a la Stephen Ambrose.

Thus, the reader is treated to a very thorough look at what the moment-to-moment experience was like from a number of the men who were there to fight it. As Col. Eisenhower was also a career military man following in his famous father's footsteps, he speaks with obvious authority and knowledge about the multitude of factors leading to the engagement on both sides, and one gains an appreciation for his expertise if not for his somewhat pedantic and limited writing skills. Still, the book is an interesting and accessible reading experience.

Of course, since I had already read a number of other titles covering the same ground, much of the material was repetitive, but my impression after finishing it was that "The Bitter Woods" is a very authoritative single volume on the campaign, and that it competes favorably with all the others, although I should not want to so limit myself to a single such source for this, one of the finest moments in American war history. It is stirring to read about the first hand experiences of the tired, overextended, and under armed units of the American forces as they first engage the overwhelming German juggernaut. Beaten to a pulp, they regroup, and surrounded, outnumbered, outgunned, and outmaneuvered, in a desperate hand to hand combat, fight back with hellish ferocity and beat the German forces back.

This account puts to the lie the idea that the only reason we won the war was superior number and endless logistics. Deprived of those two advantages during the extremely bad weather during the worst part of the battle, the U.S. Army simply outfought their German attackers. I personally would recommend you read this book hand in hand with the Toland book ("Battle"), for together they provide a really complete and quite varied look at all of the aspects of one of the most tenaciously fought battles on the western front of the European theater of the Second World War. Enjoy!

The first read through this book is an emotional experience; the atrocities perpetrated against the Chinese are recorded humanly and vividly. Re-reading leaves you with a deep and abiding respect for John Rabe and his honesty and abiding respect for people.

Don't overlook the second part of the book, when Mr. Rabe describes the fall of the Reich, and all the difficulties an ordinary citizen encountered.

One would not expect a German Nazi to fight to save the lives of Chinese citizens, but that is exactly what John Rabe did. This book enlightens the reader to both the horror of the Nanking occupation and the mistake of labeling anyone ever associated with the Nazi party as bad. It is too bad there is not more about his opinions after his disassociation with the party. It is too bad his one time association prevented him from being reconized as the hero he was.

Warning: Contains graphic details of the atrocities.

Germany has been paying huge sums of money as War Compensation to Isreal ever since the end of the World War II, and they are still doing this. The Japanese government however, has not paid a penny. Not only that, their government has never appologized to the countries in Asia which they invaded and brutally killed their people. This book tells you how not to forget the history.

The Japanese can buy their seat at the Security Council of the UN, but they can never buy respect from the hundres of millions of people whose civilization were almost destroyed by the most uncivilized acts known to human history, unless the Japanese themselves can stop cheating. This book is a must-read for all Japanese, children and grown-ups alike.

The Misanthrope is a play about the principled Alceste, a regular Don Quixote of honesty and speaking one's mind. Despite the advice of his "friend" Philinte (apparently the playwright's voice), he never pulls any punches in revealing the vanity and superficiality of the court and the nobles (the Misanthrope was written during the reign of Louis XIV). While exposing the shallow flatterers for what they are, the play also points out the vain-glorious and quite ridiculous aspects of pursuing an ideal at any cost. As is known, Moliere is considered one of the greatest playwrights and a master of comedy. Partly because of this elevated status, I was a little disappointed by the Misanthrope. It does not reach the comic heights of the Greek comedies or Shakespeare, and as a comment on principled people it is certainly inferior to Ibsen's Brand. It is quite possible that it is more engaging when performed on stage, but as a read it is less than I expected.

Moliere's "The Misanthrope" is the most humorous play written in any language. It centers around the character Alceste, who has a firm beleif in being brutally honest all the time. The habit of others to speak harshly behind other's backs and hypocritically praise them to their faces drives him to the brink of insanity. It irks him so much that his only wish would be to become a hermit in the mountains. If it weren't for his love of the beautiful Celimene. However, to make things more complicated, she happens to be the queen of duplicitous thought. Alceste hates himself for loving a woman who behaves in the manner that irritates him the most, but cannot bring himself to confront what troubles him. That, paired with the remarkably written exchanges between Alceste, his friend Philinte, the pompous Oronte, and the many social courtiers and French aristocracy make this the ideal story to bring you to tears with laughter. I highly recommend this book to all lovers of theater, humor, and excellent writing. It truly deserves all 5 stars.

France in politically powerful and economically wealthy. King Louis XIV saw himself as ruling over an enlightened society. He was passionate about the arts and obsessive about theatre. Moliere wrote comedy. He contrasts what people are to what they think of themselves. Moliere's audience was spoiled, well educated, bourgeois, aristocratic and royal. The audience wanted to be entertained, to laugh and to be cheerful. The Misanthrope was controversial but a box office success. The play takes place in Celimene's house where she entertains a variety of visitors. Her visitors are relatives, friends and suitors who spend their time much as the upper society of the day. They dressed, penned and received letters wrote poems and libelous prose. They visited each other, hoped to be noticed by royalty and the litigious pursed lawsuits to uphold their reputations. Several suitors vie for Celimene's favour. Her malicious wit and her reluctance to pick one partner over the others cause her to end up alone. The play begins with Alceste and Philinte arguing about one of the social conventions of the day. Alceste declares that it is morally wrong to falsely flatter and Philinte says we must be tolerant of peoples behaviour. These two alternatives a-re frequently presented to the audience. There are two ways to approach the world and one is as good as the other. Throughout the play the characters axe thrown up against this dilemma with a variety of responses and outcomes. Each player presents as a contradiction with a hidden core. So that, depending on how one chooses to read the play, the characters can be interpreted in a variety of ways. This is were the fun begins, Alceste has been interpreted by many audiences as a noble, heroic idealist, a champion of honesty. He also can be seen as a rigid extremist, an absolutist whose maniacal criticism is quickly tiresome. He criticizes societies corruptions and acts like a conceited prig. Celimen is a chilly shrew or bewitchingly shrewd. She employs the conventions of the times in that she is a gossip, she has a malicious wit etc. but she is an admirable character. Philinte and Eliante are studiously tolerant of everyone and are consummate bores. Alceste's passionate assertion on the ideal of truth and honesty verses falsity comes across as absurdity. His absolutist stance is difficult to examine. He is a rigid extremist obsessed with his vision of right. He is in love with a person who embodies everything he abhors i.e. a coquette who falsely flatters, who is a witty gossip and although he professes tohe wants to change her and at the end of the play Celimene is abandoned to society and Alceste leaves her stranded even though he first wished she was helpless so that he could rescue her. His passion is out of proportion to events. i.e. Alceste advises Philante that hanging would be an appropriate response to falsely flattering. He is unable to apply anything he says to himself so that he thinks that he is reasonable and he is mostly unreasonable, bad tempered and brusque i.e. instead of an apology regarding his lawsuit he hopes he is guilty so that he can show the stupidity of society. The play is derisive of bourgeois behaviour but with Alceste as the messenger one wonders if Moliere is serious. Philinte and Eliante who are perhaps the Epicureans in the play stand for reasonable tolerance but they seem iust tedious i.e. Eliante's prescription for how love works. Celimene is the character who generates the most empathy. Even so, she ruthlessly rips everyone apart. She is quick and intelligent with the small talk. She is beautiful, rich, independent and her salon is the gathering place of the moment. She is the one who displays the most false behavior but perhaps she is the most honest. Truth and honesty, usually traits to strive for, in Alceste's character, seem somehow less than desirable. His passion and contradictory behaviour smack of insincerity, the very trait he claims to despise. This culture is obsessed with wealth and power and societal recognition. The currency is wit, youth, beauty. Celimene is aware that she has a very short time to establish herself before she will have the status of Arsinone, an older prude who is relegated to the ranks of visitor rather than someone who people want to visit. Even though Celimene plays by the rules she fails. Alceste and Celimene are totally unsuited to each other but perhaps they share obsession: he to distaste, she to taste. Alceste claims the more one loves the less one should forgive. Alceste courts isolation but at the end of the play Philinte and Eliante stick with him. Such a small book with such a rich context.

This book shows us a new dimension of our universe. It offers a theory on thought forms that we create every time we think. We create around us (astral plane and mental plane) some forms that affect us and people around us. If we have good thoughts we create pure forms and bad forms if not. Well this book describes differents forms that a medium could see and that is my main reproach. Somebody that has not this gift or who has not developed this power to be able to see in astral or mental plane can't verify this theory. Knowing that in theosophy you should verify before believing, there is a contradiction. So it is an interesting theory and that's all for most of us!

If you're into symbolism, intuition, and exploring the human condition -- Thought Forms just might blow your mind. I can't guarantee it for you, but with my life experience the author's depiction of how clairvoyants see our thoughts and spirits acting seems very true. Probably the best book I own on the occult, believe it or not, the statements made with images are profound. If you have any tendency towards being a mystic this book will give you a charge, the content will connect.

There are a number of methods that we can use to clarify and describe something elusive. In my own work I combine phenomenology (which slowly and carefully works through the ways in which something shows itself) and transcendental arguments (which move from what is observed toward what may or must be presupposed to explain what is observed). Using these two methods together can produce a (hopefully) powerful strategy for bringing the more hidden or esoteric realm into the less hidden realm of common discourse and description. Even though they did not use this technical methodological language (especially since phenomenology was just being born in 1901), Besant and Leadbeater were certainly using the same dual approach. That is, in probing into the human aura and the thought forms that emerge within and through it, they carefully describe the data that clairvoyants almost universally report. Since both authors were themselves gifted in this area, they were in a position to evaluate what others had said about those phenomena that reside outside of the immediate boundaries of the human body. The transcendental strategy comes into play when they argue that the world must be set up as a series of more and more refined fields of energy that condense themselves in order to become relevant to the physical orders. Simply put, phenomenology describes what appears in clairvoyant seeing, while the transcendental argument tells us what the world must be like in order to explain just how thought forms got to be the way they are. Three traits emerge from the phenomenological description. Thought forms manifest: (1) color, (2) form, and, (3) variations in definiteness of outline. The correlation of color with mood and even quality of thought is well known in the literature. The form of the thought is correlated with its intention, while the outline is related to the thought's intensity of focus. For Besant and Leadbeater, thoughts are causal agents in the world of so-called physical matter and can act to alter the brain states that are mistakenly taken to be their source. The aura-entwined thought form is causally prior to the later brain state activity (to which it is often reduced). The social aspects of thought form activity are given their proper role and are sometimes manifest pathologically in what Wilhelm Reich called the "emotional plague." It is this plague ridden thought form that lies behind such phenomena as fascism and group psychosis. Of great value are the many color renditions of thought forms and their emotional correlaries. Each thought contains an emotion and vice versa. Musicians will be especially interested in the color plates that depict the energetic effects (pictured as manifesting themselves high above a church wherein the music was played on an organ) of the thought forms of the music of Mendelssohn, Gounod, and Wagner. Needless to say, the music of Wagner's Overture to "The Meistersingers" has the most powerful expression of the three. It broils 900 feet upwards in mountain-like crags with intense color fields of red, green, and purple. Before reading this book I would have laughed at such an idea, but now I am reasonably persuaded that Besant and Leadbeater got it right. John Algeo's introduction locates this text historically and conceptually and prepares the reader for the strange things that are to come. "Thought Forms" is more akin to the real thing than many of the fluff books that came later. This book would make an excellent text for a seminar on esoteric thought because of its combination of careful reflection and iconic representation.

Let me start by saying that I am a big fan of Mitchell, and I really enjoyed CERMONIAL TIME. This lead me to look forward to the arrival of WALKING... and at one level I was not disappointed. AS in all his work Mitchell is adept at weaving together diverse strands of history, culture, and place and to get us thinking about the landscape in new ways. His taste in friends (or at least his way of introducing us to his friends) however seems somewhat flawed. While his other books are more solitary ruminations on ideas and areas, in WALKING he brings along two annoying Yuppies, who would serve as comic relief if any was needed. One is an incredibly PC Indian Wannabe, the other is the sort of Birder that gets some of us reaching for the shotgun, between them they serve only to distract the reader from what would otherwise be a pleasant cross-country ramble through a landscape made all the more interesting by Mitchell's knowledge of both recent history and geological "deep time". Overall Mitchell is at his best when he talks about the dead or the non-human, he can be downright cruel in his descriptions of the living people that he encounters as he approaches Concord. For all that I can sympathize with Mitchell's obvious concern for the rampant development that he must deal with I am not sure that this sort of meaness towards folks who may well be Fellow Travellers (in several senses of the word) does the story much good. In spite of my criticism this is probably a stroll worth taking though you may want to stuff two of your companions into a cedar swamp!

These 300 pages describe both a physical journey, lasting but a day, overlaid with historical, architectural, artistic, anthropological, and literary musings of a richly cultivated mind. He writes, for example, upon viewing a stark landscape, "...I made the connection...This hollow...looks very much like the fourteenth-century Tuscan forest as envisioned by nineteenth-century French illustrator Gustave Dore."

Making connections is Mitchell's forte. The narrative of a tramp through woods and sloughs brings to Mitchell's fertile imagination scenes enacted in the places they pass. He seamlessly inter-weaves the fascinating story of King Philip's War, described as "one of the first anti-imperialist efforts ... the first American revolution" alongside the war between the colonists and British regulars, "essentially a civil war."

Rather than re-hash Thoreau's meditations in "Walden," Mitchell shares his own stream-of-consciousness, touching on "The Epic of Gilgamesh" and "The Wizard of Oz," "The Inferno" and some of Melville's "chief harpooners." Additionally, he offers an in-depth account of the way that nineteenth-century landscape painters changed the view of society toward their environment, suggesting that "It is doubtful that the preservation of a wilderness park would even have been considered if the painters hadn't been there first." Indeed, his descriptions are painterly, but he also succeeds in carefully bringing his companions and those they meet on the way to believable life.

The book is divided into 18 chapters, fifteen of them given names of places traversed in each of the miles walked. These names, such as "Nonset Brook" and "Nagog" are less likely to register with the reader than the connections these places evoke in the mind of the author. Who can recall, for instance, that the etymology of "Key West" is to be found in "Mile 10: Thoreau Country?" Hopefully, an index in a later edition will make it easier for the reader to re-discover favorite passages.

The readers join Mitchell and his friends as they walk through an historical and artistic region of our nation. We discuss the history, nature, the people and the sights as we meet others along the walk. We walk along with Thoreau as well as Mitchell's fascinating friends. There are few books that I've enjoyed as much as this friendly hike. Mitchell is one of best of the current nature writers because he becomes a participant with the reader in enjoying nature and history.

I don't profess to be an expert on the American Revolution, however; I do specifically know enough about the northern campaign to realize that the Battle of Hubbardton did not occur in the State of New York as the index indicates ( " Hubbardton, NY: battle at, 139-40" ). It is the only revolutionary war battle fought within the State of Vermont. To me, such an obvious mistake puts the rest of the book's accuracy in question. Based on that alone, I won't buy it.
P.S. In order to post this opinion, I had to rate this book. In all honesty, I would normally not have put a rating since I haven't read it. Sorry...

I've gone through quite a few histories of the revolution, but this book is different in that it is written purely from the military aspect. The author doesn't critique all the battles but makes a representative selection from each type of battle.

Each engagement is accompanied by detailed drawings showing the placement of troops, cavalry, and cannon. He discusses the use of terrain for each battle. In the case of the "Battle Of The Cowpens" he reflects on the purpose of the American commander in putting a river at his back was to prevent his soldiers from having an easy means of running away from the battle.

All in all, a good informative read.

If you are in the market for a good book on the major battles and campaigns of the Revolutionary Army then this is the book for you. The author does an excellent job in describing each event without going to exacting detail and boring the reader. If you do not get pulled into the war after reading this book then you need to reread it slowly to better absorb the knowledge within its pages.

I agree with another reviewer: "This excellent piece of scholarship and tale of high deeds belongs on every enthusiasts bookshelf...."

Pick up a copy at Amazon.com!

("Hi. I'm writing from Austria, and I hope my English will be not too bad!")

Indeed, Ch. Ransmayer ist one of the best writers in German-language in the time after 1945!
He is also one of the most important writers 1945. Because there are not so many who write what the Austrians had done to the Jews. It must be said: The Austrian Nazi were the "better" Nazis. For example: Adolf Hitler was born in Austria, ...
But too less of us will declare what our land had done in the second world war.
So the "dog king" (Morbus Kitahara, orig.) is a necessary document of Austrian history!!!
(Austria is not Germany)

I thought this book was great. I could not put it down after the third chapter. The book tells you how people lived and how they where treaded during the war and after the war ended. I would recomednd this book for any one who it a advance reader and likes a little adventure

yes, i agree. one of the weaknesses of this book is the development of its characters. but maybe that is the point here: the novel focuses on people that cannot escape from their parents' past, the situation it depicts is completely static.still i think ransmayr deals better than anyone before him with the holocaust by taking a more or less objective point of view. the horrible scenes of the torture of an allegedly former SS-soldier are unforgettable. and maybe that's the message of the book: violence whenever it happens cannot be undone und remains in our memories. yet the major strengths of this book are its language and inventiveness. having read morbus kitahara (original title)in german, i think ransmayr's name can be added to the greatest authors in the second part of the 20th century. at the moment there isn't really anybody who surpasses the beauty of ransmayr's language.

Bernhard Schlink's FLIGHTS OF LOVE is a curious, uneven, confounding and sometimes brave assemblage of stories, none of which has anything whatsoever to do with actual "flights" of our most treasured and elusive emotion. DIVES OF LOVE would have been considerably more accurate. But that's not a criticism. Schlink delivers some fine swans and at least one Triple-Lindy. My favorite has to be the opener, GIRL WITH LIZARD. There is a strange redemptive quality here, and, as with all of Schlink's fiction, a definite chill in the air. He is playing to his strength when he maintains a good distance from his characters, revealing slowly all the hidden gross machinery that drives them to do what he has them do. When Schlink fails, he does so just as grandly, God bless his Nordic soul. Best example of that, I think, has to be THE CIRCUMCISION, a miserable, too-long, improbable, atmospheric polemic about cold-blooded posturing, hair-trigger sensibilities, and not much else. When Schlink attempts a much warmer author/character relationship, the results are strained, frozen, and never very good. Stories like GIRL WITH LIZARD, SUGAR PEAS, and THE OTHER MAN really go a long way toward saving FLIGHTS OF LOVE from becoming one of the sloppiest diving teams anyone ever saw.

When I finished THE READER, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I was convinced that the book was autobiogrpahical and that Bernhard Schlink had done what may writers do; tell the one story they have to tell and write several poorly done works hoping to capitalize on the success of their first book. So it was with spepticism that I began FLIGHTS OF LOVE. I was delighted to find that I was wrong, at least on the second point.

Schlink has compiled a wonderful selection of short stories with ironic twists and surprise endings. As he does in THE READER, he deals with relationships and the web people spin for themseles in dealing with lovers and spouses. I felt the strongest of the stories were THE OTHER MAN and THE CIRCUMCISION. In THE CIRCUMCISION and THE GIRL AND THE LIZARD, Schlink revisits the theme of THE READER in terms of deling with Germany's past and the acceptance of it by contemporary Germans. The conflicts between the characters in THE CIRCUMCISION, while specifically dealing with German/Jewish relations are universal and could involve interracial couples as well as couples from different cultures. In THE OTHER MAN Schlink marverls the reader with his incites into the life of a grieving widower and the fact that his wife has had an affair yet maintained a healthy relationship with him.

I felt that THE SON was the weakest of the stories and seemed to have been drawn on themes more common to V.S. Naipaul. I suspect that some of these stories will show up in the movies some day, especially THE OTHER MAN. All in all the stores are well done, provacative and readable. I only look forward to Schlink's next work.

Bernhard Schlink created a devoted following with the translation of his first novel THE READER. Opinion was divided among critics and readers as to whether or not this author was playing on simplistic heart-string tuggings or whether he really had somthing new to say and an equal talent to say it. Being part of the camp of readers who were caught up in the story of 'The Reader' and waited eagerly to see just where this writer would/could go, I am happy to say that FLIGHTS OF LOVE is substantial proof that Schlink is a very fine storyteller. This book of seven short stories, while a bit uneven, at least shows that the author can relate tales of interest, of introspection, of intrique, and in general can keep his reader flowing with his thoughts to the somewhat open-ended conclusions. "The Other Man" is deftly told and has much more of a universal appeal than the isolated story would indicate. 'Girl with Lizard' is a mesmerizing tale based on a man's relationship to a painting! One of the unifying elements in Schlink's creative mind is examining how internalized perceptions, when maintained in the prison of an individual's mind, can alter the manner in which we live through relationships, ways that could have been more constructive had communication of these altered perceptions occurred. Sounds simple, but the way Schlink uses this tool to alter his characters reaction to not only each other but to everyone and everything in their lives is touching and rings true. If at times his writing seems detached or cold, I wonder how much of that is due to the fact that we are reading translations. Despite any of the negative points mentioned, here is a collection of short stories that merit attention and make us eager for the next full scale novel to come along.

Given that his most recent book "The Punch" was released recently, I figured Feinstein hastily put this book together to cash in the upsurge in interest in golf. I WAS WRONG and am happy to admit it.

The author once again takes us on the "inside" and proffers the reader another dose of history, tradition, and day to day banter of those who help stage the world's greatest (and most democratic) championship. Feinstein grabs the reader with his poignant insights and an introduction to the jargon of those in the know (How many people will be correcting their foursomes on pin placements vs. hole locations?).

The 2002 Open was truly a special and spectacular event held so close to New York during an historical time and truly an Open for the people. Feinstein does justice with this well written and easy to read tome. In fact I found myself wanting more.

I noticed in the thank you portion at the end of the book that he thanks dozens of golfers, but did not mention the 2002 Champion, Tiger Woods. I really thought there might have been more on Tiger, but maybe John has been frozen out of the inner circle due to his book "The First Coming: Tiger Woods: Master or Martyr" Feinstein has alienated subjects in the past (right Bob Knight), but sometimes showcasing the "inside" leads to people reading unflattering things about themselves they wish to hide. It's the author who has to live with himself with those relationships; however once again I found myself enraptured in great sports book by Feinstein.

Write on John!

In his book "Open...Inside the Ropes at Bethpage Black" John Feinstein truly takes you inside the ropes at one of the most talked about golf championships in history. Beyond Golf, the 2002 US Open at Bethpage Black was unusual for so many reasons. From the inner workings at the USGA, The New York State Parks Department, NBC Sports, to the Long Island Railroad, you get a real sense this was more than a typical 72 holes of Golf. Be prepared to miss a few rounds as this is a difficult book to put down.

If you're looking for a fascinating book whose main purpose is not simply to provide a narration and analysis of the competition at Bethpage this book is for you. Mr. Feinstein describes the transformation of the Black course for the 2002 US Open Championship with the entusiasm of a devoted fan and the broad perspective and clarity of a truly talented golf writer and reporter. For those of us fortunate enough to participate directly at Bethpage as fans, volunteers or interested onlookers this book completes the first chapter on the use of a truly public (State owned) facility as a worthy venue for our national golf championship. Seldom, if ever, have we been allowed to glimpse the preparation for and staging of a major sporting event from start to finish. This work is as much about golf as golf is about life.