Average customer rating:
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Letters to His Son, 1759-71
Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield
Manufacturer: IndyPublish.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
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Memoirs
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ASIN: 1404313095 |
Average customer rating:
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Jackie Stewart: Triple-Crowned King of Speed
Karl Ludvigsen
Manufacturer: Haynes Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
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General
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Motor Sports
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ASIN: 1859604366 |
Book Description
A celebration of the life of F1 legend Jackie Stewart, triple World Champion and winner of a record 27 out of 99 races. Ludvigsen chronicles the full achievements of this brilliant Scot, from his first tentative steps into motor racing with Ecurie Ecosse in 1963, through the glory years of being the driver to beat in F1, and on to the present day and his new role as owner of the Stewart GP racing team. Foreword by Chris Amon.
Customer Reviews:
The MASTER.......2000-10-26
Stewart was the master, the first F-1 driver to see and explore the prospects of profits in F-1 racing and also the first to really concern about F-1 security in races. It's a shame this book is so expensive.
The MASTER.......2000-10-26
Stewart was the master, the first F-1 driver to see and explore the prospects of profits in F-1 racing and also the first to really concern about F-1 security in races. It's a shame this book is so expensive.
Average customer rating:
- My most used movie guide.
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VideoHound's DVD Guide Book 3
Gale Group
Manufacturer: Gale Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Movies
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Guides & Reviews
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ASIN: 0787657581 |
Customer Reviews:
My most used movie guide........2004-03-26
I have a shelf full of movie guides, but VideoHound's DVD Guide (Books 1-3) is the one I use most.
Not only does this guide review movies, but it includes separate ratings for the DVD, reviewing video and audio quality as well as extras. I find this information invaluable when trying to decide whether or not to add a DVD to my collection. (I do wish they'd more consistently compare the DVD with a previous Laserdisc release, but that's a quibble as not many people have a lot of money invested in Laserdiscs.)
VideoHound's movie reviews are helpful, concise and readable. The books also include countless reference lists and indexes that incorporate the previous editions as well as the latest one. Each edition covers only new material, and does not repeat previous reviews, so you need them all. Any book of this type is outdated by the time it gets to the stores, of course, because of the flood of new DVD's being released. A Book 4 is due.
As the name indicates, the VideoHound DVD Guide only covers movies released on DVD, so if you primarily want a book that tells you about some obscure movie on late night cable, you might prefer their Golden Movie Retriever or Leonard Maltin's, Martin & Porter's or Halliwell's guides.
Better yet, get more than one and compare viewpoints. No guide's reviews are "perfect," because nobody agrees with any one critic all the time. (Roger Ebert comes closest for me, but his books are altogether different, offering a depth of detailed analysis beyond what guides like VideoHound attempt.)
Anyone who really wants to know everything there is to know about a movie should check out IMDb (Internet Movie Database), where, among many other things, they link to several reviews of even obscure movies, with up to nearly 200 for popular ones. (For a quick overview of critical opinion, try rottentomatoes.com, which not only links to reviews, but reports an overall "score" ("Tomatometer") summarizing critics' ratings of each film.)
But for a useful end table "analog" reference, you won't go wrong with VideoHound, the DVD Guide if you buy DVDs or the Golden Movie Retriever if you don't.
Book Description
You have a futon left over from college, some dingy end tables that Aunt Miller left you, and an apartment whose carpeting dates back to the Me Decade. The decorating magazines and TV shows never seem to talk to you. So what? With some attitude, know-how, and a lot of your own style, your place can be transformed into a fabulous Shangri-La, a swanky venue fit for living and entertaining well. Pad: The Guide to Ultra-Living is filled to bursting with hip, affordable projects for every room in the house and shows how to use basics like lighting, plants, mirrors, and paint to enhance even problem areas. Numerous testimonials from real people with real living spaces demonstrate how a little spaces demonstrate how a little spunk and individuality can overcome the limitations of the average urban dwelling. Offering a complete lifestyle package, Pad has instructions for building your own home bar, ideas for party themes and recipes--and even collateral hangover cures! This total living guide will have your place all spruced up--and the envy of guests--in no time.
Customer Reviews:
The Authoritative Guide to Oddball Opulence and Cool Kitsch! (Not for Comformists!).......2007-03-06
It just goes without saying that not everyone will appreciate this book the way its adherents do. But for those of us who "get it", "Pad" is an invaluable resource full of offbeat style, sumptuous photos, and (believe it or not), some generally sound decorating advice, including simple instructions on how to maximize mood through light placement, partitions, and furniture.
Equally indespensible to enthusiasts of cocktail culture are chapters detailing the do's and don'ts of hosting the perfect bash, pad style. Drink recipes, glassware guides, and even a chapter on must-buy mood music from the space-age and exotica genres help to make this book the be-all and end-all not just for design inspiration seekers, but for anyone who has even the most passing interest in the most Epicurian of lifestyles; that of the stylish, worldly bachelor (or bachelorette!).
From the Polynesian influenced and the ultra-modern, to the just plain wacky, "Pad" delivers quite possibly the best window yet into the sorely underappreciated artform of cool.
In order to have bad taste, you must first have very good taste........2005-07-06
If you can't name who said this or if this quote doesn't ring true for you, then this is not the book for you. If you like for magazines and books to dictate to you how you should decorate and you rely on over priced interior decorators to tell you what is "in" and what is "out"; then once again this is not the book for you.
If you like over the top decor, wild and groovy pads, and truly outrageous ideas then this might be the book for you. If you hate white and beige and instead long for jewel toned walls in ruby and sapphire or if your hankering for kitchen accesories steers clear of the latest and greatest and you want the retro styled toaster with that space age flair; then you should pick this book up. This book is for do it yourselfers who search flea markets for their next table or couch and who know that although the kitschy stuff you seek might be valuable to you, you should never pay too much for it!
This is not for the mild or the tame or the weak of heart. This is not for those who agonize over what cream to paint their walls. (And hey, if that style fits you then fine, it's just not for us.) This has become one of my bibles, a book full of inspirational ideas. You don't try to copy anything here, you just come here to be inspired. There are a few rooms I wasn't too keen about, but all the rest I really loved. And some rooms might not have suited my fancy, but I could usually find some element that appealed to me that I could bring into my own home. I've not tried any of the projects yet, but we do plan to incorporate some into our tiki room, the Vegas glam lounge or even the space room. Even if the projects may not be what you need, it gives you a starting point I believe to create your own projects.
Let's keep in mind that most interior decorators would die of shock walking into my house, but they don't live here, I do. I'm sure one look at my "electric voodoo kitchen" with it's electric swamp green walls and overload of crosses and Virgin Marys would send them running. (If you want to see it yourself, then check out Gothic Beauty Magazine Issue 17.) I love my Wonderland house built in 1961 and I see no reason to pay someone who doesn't understand my vision to come in and decorate for me.
You should decorate how you feel, and if the designs of what's out in today's magazines appeal to you, then that's great. As long as it's YOU. But this book is for those of us who want some spice in our decorating, for those of us who think pink flamingoes are art, for those of us who don't want to carefully tiptoe through their space but to LIVE in it full throttle. We don't take ourselves that seriously, we like to kick back with a drink and a good convesation, we live by our own ideals, not yours.
save $$$ and go retro.......2005-05-31
This book is great! I ran across it in a shop that sold some retro items, but the price was a bit high. When I found it here, I snagged it quick. If your "pad" has a retro motif, this guide is invaluable. Although much of the guide I have no use for whatsoever(it gets pretty far out), I found many of the ideas usefull, and cost-effective, as opposed to buying new items or getting ripped off at an antique store. A lot of these ideas are so unique, you would likely have to create them yourself, anyway.
oh my god!.......2005-03-12
i found this book thankfully before i moved to the seattle area. And was amazingly inspired by the ideasm projects, and houses that were in it (not to mention loved how most of the people lived in apartments). I made the birdcage hanging light i saw there and every person who sees it thinks it is totally awsome.
Great Coffee Table Book.....Yeeeaaaah Baby!.......2004-08-14
I was in the middle of remodeling my house and bought several different books to help inspire me. This book can be very useful if you're trying to get a feel for retro-modern, bachelor pad or lounge atmospheres. The photography is great and the author found some great examples to display in the book. You can spend a lot of time just going through the book and marveling at the pictures. This will also help to familiarize a beginner with many aspects of lounge culture.
On the down side, I would say that I only found a few of the project ideas useful or workable to any degree. There are some neat ideas but some people may find them rather difficult to execute.
I would recommend this book to someone looking for decorating inspiration or someone who just has an interest in pop culture and wants a nice conversation piece for the coffee table.
Average customer rating:
- Who let this get published??
- "Skills & Powers" for d20
- Not quite a d20 book
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Big Eyes Small Mouth D20 System Role-Playing Game
Mark C. MacKinnon
Manufacturer: Guardians of Order
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Comics & Graphic Novels
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General
| Graphic Novels
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General
| Puzzles & Games
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| Role Playing & Fantasy
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ASIN: 1894525728 |
Book Description
The popular multi-genre anime role-playing game is now available for the d20 System! Big Eyes, Small Mouth is inspired by the dynamic settings and stories found in a wide range of anime shows, allowing players to create characters from any genre or sub-genre, including comedy or horror, fantasy or science-fiction, mecha action or passionate romance. This new d20 System version of the game includes: new character classes (including magical girl, mecha pilot, pet monster trainer, and a dozen more), new skills and feats, an exhaustive point-based attribute list, and a detailed cost assignment for the core fantasy races and classes.
Customer Reviews:
Who let this get published??.......2004-06-23
Maybe I'm spoiled by other d20 and White Wolf products, but this unholy kludge of d20 and classic BESM is nearly incoherent. They've shoehorned levels onto a system that wasn't designed to use it, they way the stats interact isn't very smooth, and half the standard d20 feats don't work right anyway--they have to be replaced with other character features. Combat is resolved with opposed skill checks instead of the d20-standard attack roll vs. Armor Class. This isn't d20--this is somthing that's trying to look superfically like d20.
We've never even played the original BESM, but my gaming group agreed unanimously to use it instead of this product. Take my advice--buy the Revised Second Edition instead. The Tri-Stat system is easy to learn and the game is ten times more coherent than BESM d20.
"Skills & Powers" for d20.......2003-08-25
Ever since 3e came out, people have asked about a "Skills & Powers" book for d20 as there was in AD&D.
Unofficially, this is it.
While there is no prestige classes in this book, there are 15 new core classes. However, it would be a rare thing to see much diversity in character classes in a straight BESM campaign (Magic Girls and Mecha are two ships that will not meet in the night). However, the way the book intervenes its new rules with established d20 is excellent. With many new abilities, and showing the relative power level of the various class abilities in BESM, 3e, and d20 Modern, it is a DM's and Rules Lawyer's dream come true.
If you think sorcerers need sprucing up, then definitely buy this book.
Not quite a d20 book.......2003-07-23
I really wanted to like this book, I really did. However, the ad copy and what the book is capable of are two completely different things. This book does not entirely break down d20, in fact the section on such rules is almost an after thought. Those experienced with the d20 system will be surprised to find mechanics that are completely different from those you are familiar with... most with no explination for the changes. The combat system causes the biggest "what the heck?" moment. It is wildly different from normal d20. What is worse is that it feels relatively obvious that it was written by someone with a poor understanding of the d20 dynamics. As such, this book can hardly be plugged straight into any d20 setting like it claims.
Now, it does have some good parts, and those familiar with Tri-Stat might like its spin on the d20 mechanics. However, those looking for an addition to a current or existing campaign should look elsewhere.
Book Description
In the ever-changing world of complex international rules, laws, regulations, and customs, even seasoned export/import professionals may find themselves in unfamiliar situations.
Export/Import Procedures and Documentation puts reliable solutions to problems like wrong documents and procedural misunderstandings right at readers' fingertips. This comprehensive answer book supplies ready-to-use forms and provides a clear view of the entire export/import process. This new edition has been thoroughly revised to include:
* New Shipper's Export Declaration forms and instructions * U.S. Customs Service "Reasonable Care" checklists * New Automated Export System (AES) procedures and documentation * Updated Customs Audit Questionnaires.
Also featured are 37 updated forms as well as 12 all-new forms, a section on e-commerce in international marketing, Websites for 94 export and import agencies and information sources, and listings for export and import software.
Customer Reviews:
Most comprehensive in the market.......2005-09-26
As the title suggests, this is a documentation book and does this job really well. I bought this book as a novice without any knowledge of the procedure and I can comment that now I have good knowledge of the process. Small companies can benefit and may need only 1/4 of this book and large organizations can search from the huge pile of information. Even if you are starting out a small export business, this is one book you should refer to.
An outstanding practical reference for active exporters........1998-11-07
Our copy of this book is being used constantly by our consulting staff. It covers the complicated process of shipping products to foreign markets. We recommend it to our clients, especially those who handle their own international shipping, insurance and payment processing. John R. Jagoe, Director, Export Institute.
Book Description
Everyone knew him then: Bruce Barton was a cultural icon. Two-thirds of American history textbooks today cite him to illustrate the 1920s adoration of the business mentality that then dominated American culture. Historians quote from his enormous best-seller, The Man Nobody Knows, in which Barton called Jesus the founder of modern business who picked up twelve men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world. But few know Bruce Barton now: he is the most famous twentieth-century American not to rate a biography. Richard Fried's compelling new study captures the full dimensions of Barton's varied and fascinating life.
Customer Reviews:
The Man Who Signed Off On "Which Twin Has The Toni?".......2006-01-04
Richard Fried wrote a fantastic book on US Cold War homefront pageantry (THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!) a few years back, but he's perhaps not the world's most dramatic writer, and his new biography of legendary adman Bruce Barton is serviceable, but nothing outstanding. Fried estimates that Barton was the 20th century's most famous man for whom no full length biography had ever been attempted. That may be so, but maybe there was a reason no one else had tried to get Barton into hard covers.
From what I can make out, his achievements are paltry, and boosted by hot air (he was, after all, one of the kings of Madison Avenue, though not a particularly original designer or thinker). As Fried reveals, Barton was so well-known at the time that many credited him wrongly with every advertising campaign that got noticed; thus he was like the Dorothy Parker of advertising (Parker got the credit for every halfway decent quip uttered at the Algonquin Round Table.) His agency, BBDO, made the Campbell Kids popular on TV, and Carton thought that their creation Chiquita Banana, a talking banana developed for United Fruit, was a masterpiece. Values are screwy in the ad world, and yet Barton had the balls to write one of the all time best sellers of the 20th century (the #1 nonfiction book of 1926), a life of Christ called THE MAN NOBODY KNOWS in which he attempted to paint Jesus Christ as the ultimate businessman, good at molding little people into good workers, a glad hand for everyone, the kind of guy who pats you on the back at a Kiwanis luncheon.
Barton played up his marriage as something sacrosanct but he got caught with his pants down in the early 1930s, when a conniving pre-Code type of minx got her hooks in him and threatened to expose their office affair unless he paid her off to the tune of $25,000. When he did, and she came back again with renewed demands, he went public with his affair, and charged the woman with blackmail. He handled the whole sorry mess with aplomb, but it left his reputation a little dog-eared, poor guy.
Oh well, it was worth a try but at this date it might be too late to try to rehabilitate one of the dumbest careers of modern times. Fried does his best but fails to convince us that Barton's life was any more interesting than that of, oh, someone like Dick Clark. There's shallow, then there's mad shallow.
Good book -- but there's one even better.......2005-11-04
This is a well-written, well-researched, long-overdue biography of an important figure in advertising and American life.
A glaring omission, however, is the lack of any mention of or reference to Joe Vitale's pioneering book on Barton's methods: The Seven Lost Secrets of Success.
For anyone who wants to know the principles by which Barton accomplished what he did--and how they can put Barton's methods to work in their own business or career--Vitale's Seven Lost Secrets of Success is the book to get.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Commonweal, published by Thomson Gale on April 21, 2006. The length of the article is 1046 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: God's Pitchman.(The Man Everybody Knew: Bruce Barton and the Making of Modern America)(Book review)
Author: Robert K. Landers
Publication:
Commonweal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 21, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 133
Issue: 8
Page: 24(3)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Weekly Standard, published by Thomson Gale on February 6, 2006. The length of the article is 3513 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Life of a Salesman; Or, the Adman Cometh.(The Man Everybody Knew: Bruce Barton and the Making of Modern America)(Book review)
Author: Joseph Epstein
Publication:
The Weekly Standard (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 6, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 11
Issue: 20
Page: NA
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
- Interesting Essays on the Varieties of Leadership of the Frontier Army
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Soldiers West: Biographies from the Military Frontier
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
United States Civil War
| Military
| Leaders & Notable People
| Biographies & Memoirs
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General
| 19th Century
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West
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ASIN: 0803272251 |
Book Description
These biographies emphasize the wide diversity of style, temperament, activity, and occupation of frontier soldiers. Included are William Clark, Stephen H. Long, William S. Harney, James Henry Carleton, Philip H. Sheridan, George Armstrong Custer, George Crook, John G. Bourke, Benjamin H. Grierson, Ranald S. Mackenzie, William B. Hazen, Nelson A. Miles, Frank D. Baldwin, and Charles King.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting Essays on the Varieties of Leadership of the Frontier Army.......2005-09-28
The fascination of the frontier army has permeated all of modern American society, from the heroic images of the cavalry brought to the screen by the likes of John Wayne to the thousands of visitors to the Little Bighorn Battlefield each year. "Soldiers West" represents a significant attempt to probe much deeper than these images, to discover the essence of the military officers who commanded on the trans-Mississippi frontier of the nineteenth century. The fourteen biographies in this collection emphasize the wide diversity of men who served first as combat officers, but also as scientists, writers, explorers, engineers, or administrators depending upon their talents and interests. Each made a unique contribution, which has been ably captured in these biographical sketches.
The introductory essay, "The Frontier and the American Military Experience," a revision of Robert M. Utley's Harmon Memorial Lecture at the United States Air Force Academy in 1976, remains a challenging analysis of the centrality of the army's experience on the frontier more than a decade later. Following this overview, "Soldiers West" contains excellent biographical sketches of army officers on the nineteenth century frontier. All of the essays are well-researched and invitingly written, but, three sketches in particular caught my fancy, either because they opened quite different territory from the standard or because they concerned individuals who were appealing in a unique way.
The first of these is Jerome O. Steffen's discussion of the career of William Clark. Clark, of course, was a volunteer soldier who is the finest example of the Army's interest in trans-Mississippi West exploration. But, Steffen also contends that Clark should be remembered as a transitional figure between volunteer officers of the cis-Mississippi frontier such as William Henry Harrison and Andrew Jackson, men who were basically politicians, and the career soldiers who became the Army's mainstays in the later West.
The second essay concerned George A. Custer. Brian W. Dippie begins by asking why this is the case. In examining the Custer legend Dippie notes that the Battle of Little Bighorn, with its images of heroism in the face of overwhelming odds, brought to Custer the lasting fame that success could never have achieved.
Finally, Joseph C. Porter offers an exciting and unique portrait of John G. Bourke. Although Bourke never reached a rank higher than captain, he was an outstanding example of the army officer as ethnologist. Throughout the post-bellum period he served in a variety of capacities in the army, but in every case he turned his attention to studying Indian culture. Porter argues persuasively that they were even more important than his more well-known writings on the Indian wars such as "The Apache Campaign" (1886).
"Soldier's West" is an important, worthwhile collection that offers something for everyone. Like any work of this type it can be criticized for its choices of individuals for inclusion. I would have very much enjoyed seeing the likes of such figures as John C. Fremont, Stephen Watts Kearney, or Philip St. George Cook, each of whom were prominent in the army's frontier experience. Overall, the book is a satisfying and representative collection of army officers who made an imprint on the frontier that became part of the United States. It will be of interest to scholar and buff alike.
Average customer rating:
- Moving Memories of Times Past
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Old Neutriment: Memories of the Custers
Glendolin Damon Wagner
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
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General
| 19th Century
| United States
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General
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Similar Items:
-
Horsemanship at Little Big Horn
ASIN: 0803297254 |
Book Description
In 1925 a white-bearded veteran of the Battle of the Little Big Horn was found dead on the porch of his boarding house in Billings, Montana, a smoking gun in one hand and a bag of candy in the other. He was John Burkman, known from Seventh Cavalry days as Old Neutriment, an eccentric recluse whose life had ended, to all intents and purposes, fifty years earlier with the fall of his commander and friend, General George A. Custer.
Old Neutriment, so named for his raids on the kitchen at Fort Lincoln, served as Custer's orderly for nine years and probably knew the general better than anyone else, except Libby Custer. In his last years the illiterate old man shared his vivid memories of the Custers with his only friend in Billings, I. D. "Bud" O'Donnell, whose record of his pictur-esque speech enriches Glendolyn Damon Wagner's book. Old Neutriment takes the reader behind the scenes as the devoted orderly fusses with Custer and cares for his dogs and horses. He relates some marvelous stories and recalls the journey of the Seventh Cavalry from Kentucky to Fort Lincoln as well as Miss Libby's tearful farewell to the general and his own forebodings during the march to the Little Big Horn. In the great battle there the orderly was separated from Custer and his troops. Heartbroken by the news of their fate, Old Neutriment could never pick up his life again. "Seems like they want no use me goin' on," he said, many years before he fired his last salute.
First published a year after Burkman's death, Old Neutriment now appears in a Bison Book edition with a new introduction by Brian W. Dippie, the author of Custer's Last Stand: The Anatomy of an American Myth (1976), who considers the intersection of memory and history, of character and fate.
Customer Reviews:
Moving Memories of Times Past.......2003-10-14
I like older books like this one, and I have long refused to adopt the contemporary notion that "new" somehow means "good" or "better". I also admit to being a Custerphile and, for most of my years, I have been intrigued by the life and times of this historic personage and, in general, fascinated with the Souix and Cheyenne Indian wars.
Along with the virtuoso/composer Franz Liszt, I identify with Custer. Both personages -- brilliant, bold, and brimming with life and energy -- apparently evoked powerful responses in the people they came into contact with. It seems that they were either adored or despised; reactions were rarely lukewarm. This fact speaks volumes -- if you are passively doing nothing that really matters to anyone and are viewed as just another mindless "go along and get along" mediocrity who appears to stand for nothing, you will be categorized as non-threatening and everyone will seem to "like" you. But if you are meaningfully involved in "action", "change", or in "making a difference", you will provoke the envious crowd and rapidly accumulate enemies. Take heart, I say! You can be distinguished and even honored by the level of the opposition -- it's like a sign of success. Just think, Custer eventually had the President of the United States out to get him!
John Burkman, like a willing follower in search of a worthy leader, was one of those who had strong, positive reactions to Custer. In fact, he came to idolize Custer, and apparently for good reasons. Burkman, nicknamed "Old Neutriment" because of his late-night kitchen raids at Ft. Lincoln, was Custer's devoted "striker". This book was compiled by Wagner from interview notes taken by I. D. "Bud" O'Donnell, who befriended the reclusive and somewhat eccentric Burkman late in life. Burkman -- gradually coaxed out of his reticence by O'Donnell and family -- romantically and sentimentally remembered the "merry times" (that's what Libby Custer called them) when he spent nine years as orderly in the service of Custer and "Libby", eventually becoming almost like a member of their family. Author Wagner does an admirable job in endeavoring to preserve the old striker's crusty speech.
Burkman's life appears to have lost meaning and purpose with the demise of his golden-haired master at the Little Big Horn. Years later, an aged and melancholy Burkman observed that, "Seems like they want no use me goin' on,..." After spending years working himself up to it, Burkman committed suicide in 1925. He was found dead on his boarding house porch in Billings, Montana, a smoking pistol in one hand and a bag of candy in the other.
Burkman knew Custer close up, and his memories cast significant light on what Custer was like as a personality. My advice is to read Libby Custer's books along with this one to get the best "feel" for the times, the person, and the circumstances. There is also much of historical value lurking in these pages, in addition to the plain-spoken, genuine human warmth and affection, sans the ubiquitous, snide cynisism of our modern times.
Book Description
A highly personal story of the eminent British writer returning to her African roots that is "brilliant . . . [and] captures the contradictions of a young country."--New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful book about Zimbabwe.......2006-01-05
I have never been in Africa and have never read any of the books about the continent except for Nadine Gordiner's fiction. While I loved the begginning of the book, the later parts become a bit sloppy and at time impatient in terms of writing style. The observations, however, about the country of Zimbabwe over the decades, and in the time after declaration of independence are amazing. One is able to follow up on lives of writer's old friends, new people she meets on her trips, amazing animals, plants and food. I have learned a lot about country , it's people and customs, racism, reverse racism, sexism, deseases and corruption a new country is struggling with. Highly recommended read for anyone interested in learning more about this amazing country and African continent.
notitle.......2005-11-19
Woof! What a read! 442 pages in 6 days. Ask me anything about Zimbabwe. The home of Lessing's childhood from 5 til 30, when she moved to England. Easy reading, at times not too organized, nor, I think, rewritten too much. Could have been better. But what she is so good at is the small detail - about the dogs, or food, or dress. The small things that make up life. I think she tries hard not to be judgmental, to give both sides of the picture after 1980, when Zimbabwe became an independent nation. But it would seem like many countries in Africa today, riddled with corruption and stupidity and lack of foresight. Or the world in general, for that matter. Nowadays, why single out Africa? Sounds like it once was (is?) a beautiful country with a mild climate because it is so high. Very interesting book.
An Unsure Joy.......2003-06-26
This was the only non-travel guide about Africa in my local library branch when I got back from 8 months in East Africa, so I picked it up. Certainly a very interesting picture of the slow death of British colonialism, despite Zimbabwean independence in 1980. And the successive trips provide a living view of changing attitudes and opinions, both of European expatriates and Nationals. Her inner dialogue of changes, good and bad (both very grey categories), is very informative as well.
That said, there is only a loose thread of continuing story that flows through the entire text. Granted, she's documenting her travels, but it seems a bit more perspective (or a more involved editor) could have helped give the book a bit more flow. I'd recommend it quickly to those interested in an authentic look at Africa, but probably not for those looking for a casual read during lunch breaks.
Book Description
One of the fastest growing scientific disciplines in recent history is conservation biology. A response of the scientific community to the massive environmental changes taking place on Earth, its goal is to enable society to anticipate, prevent, and reduce ecological damage, and to generate the scientific information from which effective conservation strategies and policies can be designed and implemented.
In 1989, the Society for Conservation Biology and Island Press produced Research Priorities for Conservation Biology, a slim volume that set forth the findings of experts who had gathered to outline research needs for the near future, and which served as a guidepost for the field throughout the 1990s. In January 2000, leaders of the Society for Conservation Biology convened a similar group to reach consensus on where the field now stands and to determine the major, compelling research priorities for the next decade. Conservation Biology: Research Priorities for the Next Decade presents the results of that gathering.
The book:
- notes progress or changes in the state of global biodiversity over the past decade and discusses overarching themes that influence all areas of conservation
- offers ten chapters by leading experts that summarize the status of knowledge in key areas ranging from marine conservation to ecological restoration to conservation medicine
- sets forth research priorities for each area
- describes gaps in current knowledge that are impeding the ability of conservation practitioners to carry out their work
A final synthesis chapter brings together cross-cutting themes that integrate the diverse topics within the context of global biodiversity loss, and presents a call to action for scientists and others working in the field.
Conservation Biology: Research Priorities for the Next Decade represents an indispensable guide to the research that is most urgently needed to support effective conservation, and will be must reading for anyone involved with the field of conservation biology.
Customer Reviews:
terrestrial snails.......1998-09-22
family, group, taxon, terrestrial, slugs, ecology, starvation, conservation.
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