I failed Solid Geometry in high school, but now thanks to this book I've been lured back into 3-D mathematics and art. This is a great book that even has an ingenious system for storing your samples in a readily available holder for future reference. Try twelve sided up-pops to make gift calendars for the millenium!

This is my review for Where In America's Past Is Carmen Sandiego? You Are The Detective Series, by John Peel, Illustrated by Paul Vaccarello. This is definetly a five-star book, that I highly recommend! It's so entertaining, that I've read it over again, many, many times! This time around, Carmen Sandiego, and her elusive gang are sneaking through American History, and have already taken 4 priceless treasures. In this book, there are 4 mystery-adventure games for you to play. How you play them: First, you choose what item you want to go after, first, out of: Old New York City, Robert E. Lee's Horse Traveler, Benjamin Franklin's Bifocals, and The Apollo 8 Space Capsule that orbited the Moon! Then, turn to the indicated page number. Example: Say you first went after The Apollo 8 Space Capsule. The number would be: 133. Well, there aren't 133 pages in the book. But, on each page there are several numbers. So, you'd find the number 133, not the page. Read on, until you have choices. You could either question people, or go to a new destination. First, question people. There are 3 people that you can question. {You don't have to question all 3 if you don't want or need to!} As usual, turn to the number indicated. Once you know where you're going, next, go to your new place, and time period, by turning to the indicated number. Do the questioning, and traveling, repeatedly, until you have only one option: Question 1 of 3 people. Now, you have to be careful. The thief is nearby, with the loot. Question whoever you like, until you find a list of addresses for all of Carmen's sneaky gang. Then, choose your thief. {By the way, you should have recieved clues about what your suspect looks like. Then, you should have recorded all of your clues on the Score Card, and what treasure you're returning, how many travel points you have, That means put down 1 point for each move you make. and who you think you're suspect is.} Then, choose which one of Carmen's gang is your suspect, and turn to the page that's indicated. At the end of the case, add up all of your travel points, and check the final number against the Scoring Chart in the back of the book. This wonderful book comes with 8 suspect cards, 8 Map Cards, 4 Stolen Object Cards, and 4 Bookmark/ Scorecards. I love this book, and recommend it to anyone who loves mystery, and adventure! Enjoy! I hope that you liked my review, and, maybe, even considered buying the product!

This books covers, in exquisite detail, the ins and outs of identifying, gathering and preparing wild fruits and grasses found on the plains. The authors also include wonderful, hard to find recipes, such as wild plum jelly.

I think this is an excellent book which shows the truth on the hearts of the world's youth. Many books today work to stigmatize or give a bad name to this generation when infact, as this book demonstrates, we are a generation of hopful, honest, and motivated young men and women.

I just recently bought and read Xena:WP "Slave" Graphic novel and I was very pleased with it. The artwork was fantastic and the story was absolutely well done. It was interesting for them to involve Cleopatra in this paticular storyline. I think that the Xena books help fill the void when they show repeats of episodes on TV, you can read a totally all new Xena adventure in Novels and graphic novels. I highly recommend this Graphic Novel and the very First Graphic Novel "The Warrior Way Of Death" To any Die Hard Xena Fan.

The book provides incredible detail; however I think the book lacks in two key areas:

First, a lop-sided opinion of the soldiers involved. Specifically Paul Howe's assessment of the Ranger's abilities. The prevading theme I got was the Rangers were lucky to be alive, much less able to accomplish the mission. It seemed that parts of the book became a platform to bash the Rangers.

Second, I think he (Bowden) slighted the efforts of the 10th Mountain Division QRF Relief Column. 2-14 Infantry did an OUTSTANDING job getting a multi-national relief column moving on such short notice. Again, the tone of the book suggests that 2-14 Infantry were a bunch of stooges not worthy of such operations.

Due to the budget cuts, every combat arms unit in the Army is an 'elite' unit. What I mean is we don't have excess resources; therefore every unit has a specific task to perform without any overhead. The National leadership made a bad call by not allowing armor into Somalia; instead the UNOSOM forces got a Light Infantry Batallion with a good commander at its helm.

I served in Somalia for 9 months with an Army Special Forces unit attached to UNOSOM; so if I'm arm-chair quarterbacking, it's from the front edge of the chair.

Black Hawk Down is absolutely the best account of Modern Infantry combat you will find, and also an excellent analysis of America's role and limitations in the post Cold War world (although written before 9-11). I read this work completely mesmerized; Bowden wrote this book like someone would have written their doctoral dissertation-with painstainking research through an astonishing amount of interviews (including many Somalis who were in the battle), penetrating analysis of the geo-politics, and an insightful tribute to the courage and dedication of the men of Task Force Ranger and Delta Force teams. If you've seen the movie and liked it, do yourself a favor and read this book. The real story is intensely more layered, more complex, and ultimately more moving than the movie has time to convey, and drives home the point that the battle of Mogidishu really did set the stage for the climate that exists a decade later:
Writes Bowden, "(Somolia) stands as an enduring symbol of Third World ingratitude and intractability, of the futility of trying to resolve local animosity with international muscle." One can't help but think of later events such as the growth and proliferation of terror networks unafraid to confront the US, which of course led to 9-11 and the war in Afganistan. This book is an absolute watershed in that it is already studied at all the major war colleges, service academies, and Security agencies as THE definitive study of the battle that set the stage for American miltiary strategy in the early 21st century.

Black Hawk Down (Signet 1999), written by Mark Bowden (a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer), is excellent reporting on the strategy and tactics of modern warfare. The book covers an intense firefight, known as the "Battle of the Black Sea," which took place on Sunday, October 3, 1993, in the middle of a marketplace in Mogadishu, Somalia. On that afternoon, a combined force of Army Rangers and Delta Force were assigned the duty of kidnapping two top lieutenants of Mohamed Farrah Aidid (a warlord who headed the Habr Gidr clan) who systematically were robbing the starving populace of food delivered by the international community. The daylight mission was supposed to take one hour. Instead, two Black Hawks were downed by Somali fire and the American soldiers spent the night fighting thousands of armed Somalis. The world awoke the next day to grotesque images of a Somali mob defiling and dragging the corpses of American soldiers through the city streets. Eighteen Americans had died, over seventy were badly injured and one had been captured. Black Hawk Down reports on the terrifying night spent by the American soldiers between the time they were dropped by the Black Hawks in the marketplace and their rescue.

The book provides the reader a chilling view of battle as it reports sequences of scenes through the eyes of those who fought it. In a description of a medic's efforts to save a young Ranger, Bowden writes:

"Give me some morphine for the pain! Smith demanded.... I can't, Schmid told him. In his state, morphine could kill him.... The young Ranger bellowed as the medic reached with both hands and tore open the entrance wound. Schmid tried to shut out the fact that there were live nerve endings beneath his fingers.... He continued to root for the artery. Every time he reached into the wound Smith lost more blood. Schmid and Perino were covered with it. Blood was everywhere. It was hard to believe Smith had anymore to lose....

"We need medevac NOW. We have [ ] critical who is not going to make it....

"Roger, understand. We are pressing the QRF to get there as quickly as they can. I doubt that we can get a Hawk in there to get anybody out, over....

"We are going to have to hold on the best we can with those casualties and hope the ground reaction force gets there on time."

By interviewing the soldiers for their recollection of the events and juxtaposing it with transcriptions of radio tapes of the desperate calls for help, Bowden succeeds in conveying the sense of the horror of war in a manner that is more unsettling than most authors are able to do in their fictional or non-fictional books about war. In that regard, Black Hawk Down is similar to "We Were Soldiers Once...and Young," a book about infantry combat in Ia Drang, Vietnam, written by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway (Random House, 1992).

Bowden provides such an in-depth account of the battle and so vividly relates the memories and opinions of the soldiers that it's hard to believe that he, himself, was not at the battle. The author's skill in piecing together important sequences of events, his addition of ordinary details (for example, the soldier who wished he had made a restroom stop before the mission) and his description of the surrealism experienced by the soldiers ("this cannot be real!") give the reader a sense of the realism of war. This is an impressive achievement given Bowden's lack of any military background.

One criticism I have of the book is the author's failure to follow up on President Clinton's abrupt cancellation of the mission within days of the battle. While Bowden briefly touches on this issue in the Epilogue, he could have elaborated on this stage of events by addressing the soldiers' feelings and opinions concerning this issue. There must have been a tremendous sense of frustration and a sense of "all this for nothing" for those who fought in the mission. Perhaps there was no easy way to address this issue given that the soldiers were still active members of the military and their comments would have been too circumscribed.

Another criticism I have of the book is the author's reluctance to address the wisdom of the policymakers who authorized the mission. To the extent he addresses it, he, personally, does not appear to find as much fault as one would think his book warrants. He acknowledges, however, that the rest of the country may be of a different view, especially with respect to the President's role. Bowden reported:

"At the Medal of Honor ceremony for the two Delta soldiers killed in action, [the author] read that the father of posthumous honoree Sergeant Randy Shughart insulted the president, telling him he was not fit to be Commander-in-Chief."

Despite these minor shortcomings, I found the book to be a raw, gut-wrenching account that vividly captures the ferociousness of urban warfare. Black Hawk Down is written like an action novel; it's gripping and very easy to read.

The Battle of the Black Sea was the worst firefight since Vietnam, and is a battle that America has preferred to forget. But, so long as America engages in police action missions and OOTW, we must not forget October 13. In an article in the New York Times (11/2/01), Somalia's president pleaded for America to re-establish relations with his country. He urged American officials to end the cold shoulder treatment "and to realize that Somalia, although not perfect, could be much worse." I would highly recommend that everyone reads Black Hawk Down before America allows its leaders to re-engage with Somalia or to expand its peacekeeping role in places like Bosnia. After reading Black Hawk Down, this reviewer has an indelible image of young Americans going to a distant country to feed starving stangers and returning home in body bags.

I thought this was a really good book. I'm thirteen now , but I read a Chicken Soup For the soul book for the first time when I was twelve. I have Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul 2 and 3. And my younger brother recently got Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul. Some of the stories I read didn't apply to me, but I still enjoyed reading them, and seeing how the different people overcame different situations. I was especially touched by one story entitled " Tell Me Why You cry" in Chicken Soup for the teenage Soul two. But I won't say what is was about. I'll let you find out for yourself. Because every teenage kid, or twelve and eleven year-olds should read these books. Because whether they make an impact on your life or not, they will show you that you can overcome anything if you try.

I give this book 5 stars. I didn't realize there were all those people out there who have experienced so many of the same feelings as I have. The writers of "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul III" have inspired these people to write their stories, and send them in, so teens all over the world can share their laughter and tears. This book helps teens and young adults realize that they're not the only one in their position and that there are millions of people just like them all over the world, experiencing heartaches, hate, and love. It helps you realize that you can be all you can be, without worrying about what other people think, and it lets you know that there are many other people out there in your shoes. "I know a little about who I am, and who I can be, regardless of what my friends think or say," says Shad Powers, a teen that submitted his story into "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul". This book will help you cope with the bitterness or cruelty of the world, while adding understanding into your life. I learned a lot of lessons from reading this book, and I know many of them will stick with me throughout my entire life. I enjoyed "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul III" very much, and I recommend it for anyone who needs a good laugh, a good cry, or maybe just a good read.

I love the Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul books. I own all three of them, and even submitted my own story to the 4th one, if there will be a 4th one. I couldn't wait for this book to come out and begged my mom to buy it for me for Christmas. These books, not just the 3rd one, but all, are strong and inspiring to all adolescents. I'm 15, so, believe me, I know. Some stories are funny, some sad, some happy, all inspirational and honest. They fill you in about girlfriends/boyfriends lost, losing parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, dealing with a friend who has an eating disorder, etc. It isn't just about love and relationships. It's about life and school, and other teenage stuff. These books make you feel like you're not alone, and don't we all feel like we are alone. When I read them, it was like they were reading my mind. I love these books, and I'm so attached to them, I won't let them leave my house, and all my friends have to go to a library to read them because I won't let them borrow them. But anyway, I recommend them for anyone who wants to read them, but mainly teens. They really are great books.

Anne Frank is a young Jewish girl living in Amsterdam during World War II. Anne and her whole family go into hiding with the Van Daans and Mr. Dussel. She must leave everything behind and can't say goodbye to anyone. They hide in an area attached to Mr. Frank's old office building which has come to be known as "The Secret Annexe." Anne stays in the Annexe for three years. She is not allowed to leave and must find ways to amuse herself such as gymnastics, reading, and writing to her diary Kitty. Anne grows closer with the Van Daans and the rest of her family. This book is about Anne's life and struggles while hiding in the Secret Annexe, such as lack of food and what is discused among the Secret Annexe inhabitants. Anne also tells Kitty about the people who risked their lives by helping her family while in hiding, and what she does in her spare time. During the day everyone in the Annexe could not talk or move for fear that people would hear them and tell the police where they were hiding. This book deals with the will to survive under terrible conditions and being a Jew during World War II.

Anne Franks Diary:The diary of a young girl

Anne Franks Diary is a remarkable book. Written by a young girl in a time of trouble and terror, she writes what she feels, and what is happening around her, in first person. Anne Franks Diary, is an autobiography of her short life. This book takes readers back to the time of power, greed and expresses what life was like. Also known as the Great Depression.

This book is what the world lived through and how this war impacted human beings, of all sorts. I enjoyed this book because of the high intensity of how this young girl felt. She suffered day on end to survive, with family and friends holding on with her.

" Leave me in peace, let me sleep one night at least without my pillow being wet with my tears, my eyes burning and my head throbbing. Let me get away from it all, preferably away from the world." This quote explains the suffering Anne Frank went threw to survive in this hard time.

The reason why I liked this book is because of the honest opinions honest thoughts and feelings. For people that enjoy historical events and the detail be hide them you will enjoy this book like me. The quotes that really come from the inner sprit of Anne Frank, can get to you, with a few powerful feelings, and words. "A voice sobs within me: There you are, That's what's become of you: you're uncharitable, you look
supercilious and peevish, people dislike you and all because you won't listen to the advice given to you by your own better half." I personally like this quote because it explains how Anne changes she becomes more grown up and more marcher.
I found that I really endured this book because of the reality to her life and thoughts. I also found that the sad times or the touching moments really are what put the book together.

Some other quotes that make this book what it is, are these, "I hope I shall be able to confide in you completely, as I have never been able to do before, and I hope that you will be a great support and comfort to me." "I started by being snappy, than unhappy, and finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and what I could be, If ...... there weren't any other people living in the world."

I think you should read the book, Anne Frank: the Diary of a Young Girl. Enjoy reading.

This is an at times uncomfortably frank (no pun intended) diary of a girl going through adolescence. This period in people's lives is typically emotionally charged anyway, but the social strain of living in very close quarters with about 10 other people for long periods of time makes it even worse.

The usual view of this book is that it's about WW II and how evil Nazis are. Some crazy neo-Nazi revisionists have even attacked the book and questioned its authenticity.

I think most people are missing the boat. Nazis hardly appear at all in the story. The diary is mostly about the relationships amoungst the unfortunate people hiding out with Anne. Most of Anne's fellow hideaways come off looking pretty bad; she naturally discusses (and criticizes) the people she's cooped up with much more than she mentions Nazis, whom she basically never sees.

The Diary of a Young Girl is a good book, but it's not a war story--it's a book about relationships and growing of age.

[This is more of a comparison btwn the movie and book] I had to read the book and watch the film for an English class. I found the book to be an easy and fun read. The film and book in many ways are completely different but good in their own ways. I recommend seeing the film and reading the book for a thorough coverage. But knowing what really happened to Salzman remains a question because the "love story" seems to have two different sides. Btw, I think he wasn't such a bad actor considering he was also the author (in response to someone's previous review). Oh, I did find that although I really enjoyed the book that when it came time to writing a paper some of the movie's scenes stuck with me more when discussing cultural mis/understandings. Finally, I enjoyed the book and found it a great insight into the Chinese culture (especially during the 80's- check out Salzman's shorts in the film, ha!). Sometimes I felt it was a bit too focused on Salzman. But in this way I feel it's also a book about being a student of life (or just wushu, calligraphy, tai chi, etc...).

Mark Salzman's BOOK Iron and Silk is great for many reasons. It's one of the best travel books ever written. It's a great book about martial arts. It's a great look at the differences between East and West. And it's a great look at Chinese culture and society. The book is really good.

The film adaptation of the book is interesting. It is very low budget but I think that is what adds to the films charm. The film is the opposite of a slick hollywood production. Instead the film is very down to earth and wonderful.

Salzman changes some names around and adds a bit more of the romance aspect. The girl was a small part at the end of the book but a major part of the film.

Bottom line is that like the book, the film is a great glimpse at China, Chinese culture, and the differences between the US and China.

My best suggestion is this: read the book and then watch the film. If you do both you will come out ahead and knowing a lot more about China.

Mark Salzman's "Iron & Silk" is a beautiful account of his two-year experience as an English teacher in Hunan Provice, China. The book consists of delightful vignettes of his encounters with different people, from bureaucrats to medical students to fishermen to calligraphers to martial artists, and when each vignette is finished we experience an epiphany because we know so well what the human issues involved are. "Iron & Silk" deserves to be read not as a travelogue or a martial-arts book (it doesn't really compare to C. W. Nicol's "Moving Zen"), but as dignified book full empathy and respect for people who live in a culture that has been shaped by different forces than ours.

This book seems to have polarised its many online reviewers. I'm not really surprised. David Copperfield is Dickens at his very best and occasionally (but only occasionally) at his worst. It is a long book; the sentimentality is poured on with a shovel; there are long passages that don't seem to take the plot anywhere. But it has some of Dickens' greatest characters; the plot is powerful and driving; and the first person narrative (unusual for Dickens) makes the story particularly involving. Overall, it deserves to be considered one of Dickens best books. The major low for me was the 'child wife' character - dreadfully unreal and irritating. But the contrast to this was Steerforth, who I rate as perhaps the most interesting and believable character Dickens has ever created. Unlike so many of Dickens' cartoon villains, Steerforth walked the all too human line between good and evil so beautifully that, like David Copperfield, one could hardly help loving him even when we are despising him. Uriah Heep may be the character most reviewers mention, but it is Steerforth that makes David Copperfield my favourite Dickens novel.

Charles Dickens is a master at re-creating the world. Throughout most of his books, Dicken's own life is recreated time and again, always with a different plot but with the same basic truths. In "David Copperfield", we go along the protagonist through his troubled and orphane childhood, his sufferings in terrible public schools, his trip to the beach to visit his nanny, his life with the stern yet loving aunt Miss Betsie Trotwood, the intrigues of the despicable yet fearsome Uriah Heep, his marriage to the childish and immature Dora, the betrayal by a trusted friend, success without happiness, and finally the encounter with true love, in the form of a friend from youthness.

The characters are all people you find during your own lifetime: your friends, your aunt, your sweetheart, that woman you love but you can't stand, etc. Copperfield is the story of a good man in his learning through difficulties and setbacks.

No wonder it is still read and probably will stay alive through the decades: Copperfield has something to tell us all.

Both critics and Charles Dickens himself generally class
"David Copperfield" as his "greatest" novel. The strains of autobiography and the rich array of comic and tragicomic characters give the reader the best of Dickens' wit and social outrage. As the years go by, though, people begin to speak of David Copperfield as a "set piece", a bit of Victoriana different in format but not in importance from a very natty
but a bit days-gone-by bit of antique furniture. This view misjudges the novel. This book presents a rich set of characters in a complex novel, deeply satisfying and in many ways still a very modern work. It's very hard to write about "good" and "evil" without descending into morality play, but this novel succeeds. The story is broken into three
"threads": a young boy, orphaned early, endures an unhappy childhood refreshed by periods of happiness (and comedy);
that same boy goes through late adolescence, and comes "into his own"; and finally, the narrator, now a man, sees the resolution of the various plot threads built through the early parts of the novel. Many Dickens themes are played out here--the superiority of goodness to affluence, the persistence and affrontery of fraud, and the way in which social institutions frequently hinder rather than advance their stated goals. The book does not read like a polemic, though--it reads like a bit of serial fiction (which in fact it was).

If you are hunting a good, solid read about values and
curious characters, David Copperfield stands ready to show you his world.