Set in Burgundy in 1167, this novel combines excitement with a very real and deep knowledge of life in medieval France, especially in backwater areas. The rescue of the Red Keep involves learning about class differences, guilds, the treatment of Jews, and more, but the background is never forced, and neither are the moral lessons. It's all of a piece with the story. From another writer, it would've gotten 5 stars, but I wound up comparing this book to the same writers THE STORY OF ROLF AND THE VIKING BOW.

I read this book after purchasing it for my children to help them learn of life in the middle ages. I found myself so involved in the story I did not realize how much I was learning! It is a wonderful story with excellent moral lessons. It has interesting battle information that would keep a boys interest yet a little romance to keep a girls. I found it a wonderful resource.

The Red Keep has strong positive role models for both boys and girls. It has good historical accuracy. Allen French was a Harvard historian who was interested in the roots of modern government. He wrote a series of children's books each focusing on a different time period and a different form of government. The story is exciting, with real villians, intrigue, suspense and last minute rescues. The hero shows some ethnic and class sensitivity within the context of the historical times. It is never forced or overly moralistic. All the lessons fit well within the framework of a well crafted plot.

This is a really fun little graphic novel, loaded with great artwork and a decent storyline. I wouldn't recommend it as a first-time read for anyone unfamiliar with the X-Men - taken out of context from the overall series - it might be a somewhat confusing introduction. But for those who know the characters and have a general idea of what is going on, believe me, this one delivers the goods.

In the past, I have generally hated the X-Men's adventures in the Savage Land, or whenever they would go to outer space or get into really super sci-fi type situations. I always felt the X-Men stories worked much better when they were grounded in very normal, down-to-earth settings, because it made the X-Men themselves stand out and seem that much weirder. But this book is an exception to the rule. It's a big, crazy, larger-than-life adventure, part of which takes place in the prehistoric Savage Land, and part of which gets hyper technological, and it works out OK.

The artwork is tough and gritty. Jim Lee draws a mean, shadowy, ugly Wolverine who kills lots of villains and looks like he needs to take a shower very badly.

And Lee's women - whoa. This book contains more gratuitous cheescake shots than any X-Men graphic novel I've seen, but it's all very pleasing to the eye. Especially the scenes with Rogue, whose bare skin can kill anyone she touches and thus, understandably, was always the one major female character who kept herself completely covered at all times. This was the first storyline in the series where they finally drew her as a scantily-clad, sexy heroine. A real treat for male Rogue-fans who'd been reading the series patiently for years.

This storyline also chronicles the transformation of innocent young Psylocke into a mature woman trained in the art of Ninjitsu, and she becomes an ultra-violent, sexy bad girl. And then there are cameo appearances by other Marvel superheroes, namely Captain America (from the Avengers series) and The Black Widow (from the Daredevil series). All in all, it's a satisfying, action-packed, well-drawn, crowd-pleasing comic book in trade-paperback format.

X-Men Visionaries Jim Lee trade paperback Is a great X-Men graphic Novel by Jim Lee! the book reprints Uncanny X-Men issues #248,#256-258,#268-269,#273-277 are reprinted together in this wonderful Marvel book collection! This book contains the early Uncanny X-Men issues that made Jim Lee famous! All the issues are written by Chris Claremont with artwork by Jim Lee. These issues lead to the popular Claremont/Lee colaboration on X-Men#1 in 1991. Most of the artwork was done by Jim Lee. Uncanny X-Men #273 was done by various artists. Buy this book if your fan of X-Men and Jim Lee. Highest Possible Recommendation!

This is a great X-Men: Visionaries Jim Lee graphic Novel! This is Jim Lee's early work on the Uncanny X-Men series! This Marvel Tradepaperback reprints Jim Lee's early years when he was the comic book artist on Uncanny X-Men. In this book reprints Uncanny X-Men#248,#256-258,#268-269, #273-277. His early work on the Uncanny X-Men in the early 1990s, lead to to the critically aclaimed Clarmont/Lee work on X-Men #1 in 1991. All the Uncanny X-Men issues are written by Chris Claremont. Most of the artwork is drawn by Jim Lee. Unncany X-Men#273 is drawn by various artist. Buy this book if your a big fan of X-Men and Jim Lee. Highest Possible Recommendation.

I found this to be a fascinating book...written by a man who really knows his subject. It has given me a greater understanding of chocolate..and made me appreciate this true gift of the rainforest.

This book is very aptly titled. It is exactly a natural history of the cocoa tree, a biography of a plant. I've never read a book quite like this before- -an entire book written about the detailed life cycle, evolution, and economic uses of a single plant. Although the book covers all aspects of the cocoa tree, it does emphasize the author's research on the pollinators of the cocoa tree. It was fascinating to learn how difficult it is to cultivate this rain forest plant commercially, and the science behind why it is difficult to do so. The book is written in an academic style with many citations to the published literature on the cocoa tree. The book also includes a listing of common names and scientific names for all plants and animals mentioned in the text. Despite the academic bent, the book is written for general audiences, and is not too technical. Anyone with a deep interest in the cultivation of cocoa will be interested in this book, as well as anyone with a general interest in the botany of the tropical rainforest.

This book is based on the true life experiences of two girls who accompanied their whaling families aboard whaling vessels at the end of the ninteenth century. Their experiences are combined in this fictional journal chronicling a character's life at sea.

The girl's voice is vivid and real, her experiences easy to imagine.

The illustrations sometimes try to look like a child's ink sketches in a diary and sometimes are double-page color depictions of incidents in the book.

I think the placement of the glossary at the beginning is great. I enjoyed the author's note at the end also.

Nine-year-old Laura, daughter of a whaling captain, has never even seen her parents' home in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She was born on the Sandwich Islands (present-day Hawaii) and has lived most of her life there. But now, her father has decided that the whole family will join him on this voyage home to Massachusetts. So Laura, her mother, and her seven-year-old brother board her father's ship and sail north to the Arctic, where they must face excitement, danger, and long days of boredom before they can return home. This book featured lovely drawings and was told through Laura's diary entries. Laura's character was based on two real daughters of whaling captains, Laura Jernengan and Mary Williams. This is a good book for younger readers interested in historical fiction.

I bought this book as a gift for a friend who is an avid birdwatcher. Before I wrapped it, I glanced quickly through it and took a look at the BEAUTIFUL photographs of the great blue heron. However, as I read various lines describing the pictures, I began to look around for the associated text. Eventually, I just gave up and read through the entire book. Not being an ornithologist, I came to appreciate the true beauty and actual wonder of the great blue heron. Some of the details were specifically for ornithologist, e.g., the various stances and neck movements, but I enjoyed it and learned a lot as a layman.

An avid great blue heron researcher, this book by Hayward Allen captivates my undivided attention with each reading.

For three years now I've been mesmerized by this marshland creature. The elegant poise with which it carries itself. The superior "beat-the-bushes", stalking techniques have provided endless hours for relaxation within the confines of our great natural wetland areas.

The tedious research accompanied by the most fabulous photographs has made it #1 in my bird library. I've been privy to many of the same descriptive activites and marvel that for an amateur such as myself, I've experienced firsthand truly one of the greatest marvels of nature.

For 3 years I have followed their migratory routes throughout Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. My life shall never be the same. Thanks so much for this wealth of information about my all-time-favorite marshland creature!!!!

Sincerely,

heroness48@yahoo.com

The book did nothing more than explaining some basic probability concepts (law of multiplicity, conditional probability, binomial distribution) and expressing the author's "anger" over innumeracy.

However, because of author's academic background and his condescending attitude towards the innumerates, the writing style could be quite intimidating to the general audience, who was supposed to be the target audience of the book.

Consequently, the stated objective of the book - to try to instill mathematical thinking to the general public has not been achieved.

For some who is interested in mathematics, this could be a good read. However, smart ones definitely are not going to gain much insight from this book.

There are other 2 books by Paulos. "Mathematician reads newspaper" is not bad (probably as good as this could get.) "Once upon a number" is a complete waste of time...

I read this book several years ago and believe it to be a classic that would enhance any mathematics study course by making it topical and a part of the reader/student's everyday environment. What mathematics teaching needs is humanising - this book could go some way towards doing this.

This short review follows a review I have just written for 'I Think Therefore I Laugh' - another of Mr Paulos' books. Because I rate 'Innumeracy' so highly I decided to look at Customer Reviews for it, and found some clashed with my own assessment.

Some reviewrs are offended by Mr Paulos' perceived attitude towards the innumerate - believing that he is condescending in an off-putting way. I don't see it that way except inasmuch as we are all innumerate at some level and have to learn to become more numerate - just as a golfer has to learn to read the cut of the green if they want to be a good putter. And numeracy skills will certainly enhance the way we see the world and respond to its mysteries as Mr Paulos shows so cleary.

To me, the most intriguing aspect of this book was Professor Paulos's ability to take simple math concepts that I learned way back when . . . and to show how they could enrich and expand my appreciation of the world around me. It was like Alice going through the looking glass in the sequel to Alice in Wonderland. There's a lot there that I never imagined. For example, the way disease rates are often described is for those who have survived to 85 years old. If you are younger, your current probability of incidence will be much lower (possibly more than 90 percent lower). Also, you can use the way you design your questions and sample to help eliminate bias (such as by asking about the results of a coin flip and dangerous sexual behavior in the same population). You can also find great humor in the errors of authority figures who misquote probabilities and risks. Plus, you can answer questions that I would never have thought of (such as the likelihood of breathing in an atom that Caesar did).

If you are feeling cowed about your math ability, take heart! Most of the concepts here you can handle. For example, can you multiply two numbers together? You can answer "yes" to my question if you can do so with a calculator. If so, you can appreciate almost all of the examples in the book.

Professor Paulos has a mind that works differently and more inquisitively from mine, but I enjoyed learning how his thoughts. He thinks about topics like how long it would take dump trucks to excavate Mount Fuji, how many times a deck of cards need to be shuffled to become random, and what the Earned Run Average is for a pitcher who lasts one-third inning and gives up 5 runs. I realized that if I thought about more things like this, I would develop new perspectives on the world.

He makes a helpful attempt to create solutions so that more people can appreciate the world in a quantitative sense. These include using exponents to indicate the size of numbers (such as the Richter Scale does for earthquake strength), refocusing secondary math education to practical applications rather than teaching calculus earlier and earlier, having talented mathematicians teach younger people, and disciplining those who communicate in public to check the mathematical accuracy of what they say.

What do we lose if we don't? Well, those who don't learn a little math will end up in careers that pay a lot less. Social resources will be misapplied to problems that are less serious (obscure diseases and terrorism get a lot more attention to reducing accidental deaths among young people, which is a greater danger). We will make bad resource decisions in our own lives (such as by playing the lottery without realizing that 50% of the money is not paid out to anyone buying a ticket).

I also appreciated how few people can use mathematics in creative ways, to solve problems. For instance, in our professional practice we developed a new way to forecast certain forms of investment behavior. Over 20 years of doing this work, I have never found anyone who could make a single useful suggestion for how to improve the mathematics of our approach, despite having had conversations with dozens of people with advanced math and statistics degrees who would get benefit from an improved approach. I suspect from this experience that there's a higher level of mathematical thinking that Professor Paulos did not explain in his book that we would all benefit from learning. Where do we start? I can hardly wait to learn!

I started doing these eye exercises on June 1, 2000. After a week of very gently doing the recommended progressive myopia booster sequence listed in the book, I was unable to wear my strongest power contacts and glasses. It HURT to put them on. So out came my 1994 contacts and glasses. They weren't strong enough, but at least it didn't hurt to wear them.

After doing some (not all) of the eye exercises in this book for 2 1/2 months I finally went in to see the optomitrist. The results of the eye exercises were a definite improvement; from -12.75 in the right eye to a -10.75, and -12 in the left eye to -9.75. And this after only doing some of the exercises from this book a half an hour 3 days a week. I can hardly wait to see what happens when I do more of the exercise techniques! Makes me wonder what kind of eyesight I would have had if my eye doctor had prescribed eye exercises at age 8 instead of thick glasses.

My only criticism about this book is that explanation of how and why the exercises work would be nice.

If you are truly interested in improving your vision, buy this book and use it. It works.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve eyesight. The book is straightforward with complete instructions on the eye exercises. It is true that everyone can improve one's eyesight by doing eye exercise. Although the method does work, it takes time. Don't expect a quick fix. You have to be patient and persistent. I think the book has exaggerated the speed of results. I believe, for someone who has low a prescription, they can improve to see perfectly in a short period of time because I saw a big improvement in my vision for the first 3 months after I did the exercise. However, it levels off. To reduce a high presciption like me, it is slow. In my case, I was -8.75. After exerersing for a year and half, my vision has been reduced to -7. I am still doing it beliving that I will one day, many years from now, do not have to wear contacts.

By the way, don't buy the "See Clearly Method" program. It is exactly the same program described in this book but is packaged with additional video/tapes and fancy marketing for over ten times the cost of this book. Buy this book instead.

I've read this book all the way through several years ago and am finally putting it to use. I've procrastinated in doing the eye exercises and I'm finally about to start them now. My vision is terrible and after reading this book I was stunned to find out how much we all don't know about how to improve our vision.

This book tells you how to exercise your eyes like any other part of your body that needs fitness or toning up. If you don't help tone it up it all goes downhill from there.

I started wearing glasses in 4th grade and know I probably wouldn't even be wearing glasses if I knew then what I knew now. If it was corrected at the beginning. My vision would probably be perfect again. Now I have a lazy eye, very bad vision, and I'm about to go to the doctor about an infection on my eye that could very well be cataracts.

The scary thing is a lot of eye doctors aren't taught the things in this book, thereby don't often realize themselves that one could improve one's vision through eye exercises and progressive undercorrection--a means of making the vision stronger by prescribing a lense or contact of 20 less than needed. Glasses and contacts have become a crutch and we all know what happens when you lean on something too much. So I'd advise most people to read this book since just about all of us nowadays where glasses or sometime of vision crutch.

Have you ever thought of how life on Earth would be if a global disaster happens? Reading Max Allen Collins book WaterWorld will help you find out what life would be like if the world was devastated by a global disaster. In the book WaterWorld, the whole world is covered by a never-ending ocean caused by the melting of the polar ice capes. This was probably caused by global warming, which we caused by our constant polluting of our planet. With the whole world covered by water, people have to live on boats or manmade islands. But this world isn't without its dangers because savage pirates are a constant threat to the survivors of this world. These survivors have protected themselves by building manmade islands with defenses to protect them from these pirates. So if this type of reading sounds like fun to you, go to your nearest bookstore and pick it up and start your adventure into the book WaterWorld. I thought this book was great because this type of global disaster could happen to our world. With all our polluting of the air and land, we could some day cause our own major global warming. This would cause the melting of the polar ice capes and would cause our world to flood and end up like the world in the book WaterWorld, a world with an endless ocean. But this type of disaster will take a couple of hundred years to happen, hopefully. So this will give us time to fix our world before this type of disaster could really happen to our own world. I think others should read this book if they like the apocalyptic type books with lots of intense action. Other people may like this book if they like survival books where the main character fights against impossible odds to survive; and in the end, still manages to overcome these odds and survive victorious. Also I think others should read this book because it shows the survivor's unwillingness to give up even in the worst of conditions. An example of this is how the survivor of WaterWorld are able to survive after a global disaster and still be able to live on somewhat comfortably. So if any of this sounds like fun to you, go get the book WaterWorld.

Waterworld Review

The book that i read is Water World. Water World is a exciting story that takes place in the future were the world is covered by water. There are rumors however of a place that still has land. The key to figuring out the position of the land is a little girl. But beware lurking around is the Smokers, a pirate gang on power boats and jet ski's. Have a exciting time reading Water world.

The future, the polar ice caps have melted, leaving the world covered in water. Those who survive, live on these floating fortreses known as atols,in this place called WaterWorld. Brave explorers travel the seas in search of dryland, the last left on the planet. But the Deacon, meniacall leader of a group of evil raiders known as Smokers is determined to find dryland first. He is confident that no one has returned from dryland alive, until now......

Great book, facts are to the point and useful.

I recomend this book to anyone who has an interest in rainforest wildlife. This book with its mix of great graphic details and pleasent pictures for younger kids who's attenion isn't captured by long dreadful words. With details and pictures intertwined this makes an enjoyful books to read and to learn.

Allen Mandelbaum has produced a fairly good translation of the Aeneid. If you are looking for a companion to the Latin, then look elsewhere, possibly to Jackson-Knight. I find that Mandelbaum handled the Comedia better than he did Virgil. Anyway, reading a translation without reading the original does the poem no justice at all.

This translation of Virgil's masterpiece is the perfect choice for a reader who wishes to experience the original form of this Augustine work of art. It is written in easy flowing and accessible blank verse, unlike the rather cloggy and unattractive prose translations. After all The Aeneid was written to be read as an epic poem: not the post Renaissance format of a novel, and Lewis's translation is as close to capturing the originally intended delivery as you can get without the lengthy process of learning Latin .

This classic epic poem was commissioned by Augustus Caesar in 31BC, a task which was reluctantly accepted by Virgil. Ten years of writing followed, and unfortunately the poet died, by contracting a disease, whilst returning from a trip to Athens. The epic was not fully revised by then, yet the contents of all twelve books are complete except for a rather abrupt ending.

However, just before his death Virgil left strict instructions for The Aeneid to be burnt: lost to the world for all time. Yet this commanded was counteracted by Caesar. Why was this? Why didn't Virgil want the greatest poem in Latin to be discovered for its prominence?

These are questions which will truly interest any reader. When you hold this book in your hands you cannot help thinking that Virgil did not want you to read this - if it had not been for the Imperial arm of Caesar we would be forever lacking this great Latin work. Thus a guilty feeling pervades when reading The Aeneid, moreover, those of you already well versed in Greek mythology will know that Actaeon paid very highly for his antlers, a lesson hard to forget whilst perusing prohibited splendour.

When commissioned to write an epic with the sole purpose of portraying an almighty Augustus in 31 BC it is difficult to capture the magic of Homeric Hymns. To have the inclusion of gods and mystical powers in ordered Roman society would have been simply laughed at. Therefore Virgil chose the legendary founder of Rome - Aeneas of Troy - as the protagonist of his epic. This poem documents the various adventures of Aphrodite's son: whose quest is to find his destined homeland - Italy. Jupiter has ordained that Aeneas's ancestors will become the great masters of Rome, and it is here that Virgil can cleverly celebrate Augustus's magnificent achievements.

But what is the underlying meaning to Virgil's epic? What you can witness in The Aeneid is Homer's similar appreciation of acts of bravery; yet what you will observe for the first time is the dreadful price that Imperialism exacts. Aeneas is forced to reject his passionate love, experience the death of his father, and kill the noble sons of people he is destined to rule.

Therefore a fundamental enigma in Virgil's work must be to endeavour whether this is a work that supports Imperialism or refutes it. Did Virgil advocate Augustus's omnipotence? If yes, why did the poet wish the epic to be destroyed? The price of blood for the fellowship of freedom is one continual theme that pervades not only archaic history, but also that of the modern day; and in Virgil's masterpiece it is portrayed no less effectively than in all great works of literature.

This is another one of the books that I had to read for Fall quarter 2000. Like the rest of that group, "The Aeneid" was just extraordinary. My teacher's smart choice of the Mandelbaum translation was good to my pocket and to my mind, since it is accessible and clear. I actually prefer parts of the Fitzgerald version (especially the unusual beginning "I sing of warfare and a man at war..."), but I read the Mandelbaum because it was easier to follow the lectures using the same book everyone else had. Mandelbaum does a great job of translating meaning and feeling from Latin to English, and from the world of Virgil 2000 years ago to our world. The Glossary helps a lot, and the Introduction is instructive and very candid: not every day a major scholar tells us he had intentionally neglected a major work of literature simply based on the biased opinion of others. After reading "The Aeneid" I am convinced that Augustus did the right thing in ignoring Virgil's wishes, even if in his treatment of Ovid he was too harsh. This version of the poem should introduce a fascinating literary work to those who have never read it (like me before Fall 2000), and hopefully interest many readers in other works of Classical Literature. The destruction of Troy, Queen Dido and her tragic fate, the clash of cultures in Italy between the invading Trojans and the native Latins, the descent into the netherworld, the gods playing with humankind, the mythical foundation of Rome, the controversial progression of Aeneas from man to ruler to symbol who sacrifices part of his humanity in order to achieve the mission that has been determined for him, all this forms part of one of the greatest epic poems of all time. "The Aeneid" is war, and men, and a poet who believed that Rome, in spite of all her faults, was a prize worth saving and preserving. Augustus thought the same of Virgil's poem.