Secret Riches: Adventures of an Unreformed Oilman

Book Description

A riveting account of an entrepreneur's hard--won lessons.

Customer Reviews:

The Bible is no longer in print!.......1998-06-24

For anyone who is interested in golf course architecture, this book is a must for your library. Contains a complete index (a continuous work-in-process) of architects and their courses. Essentially every course in the world (including those which are no longer in existance), is listed including its location, date of orgin and the architects who created it also the provider of any known substantial (professional) renovation work. It must take a tremendous effort for the authors to keep this book up to date. I hope the fact that this book is no longer in print indicates that the authors are hard at work. If you do not have a copy find one, if you have to go the the library and photocopy theirs (but bring a stack of dimes its very long).

The Architects of Golf. Survey of Golf Course Design from Its Beginnings to the present, with an Encyclopedic Listing of Golf Course architects and Their Courses

Average customer rating:

The Architects of Golf. Survey of Golf Course Design from Its Beginnings to the present, with an Encyclopedic Listing of Golf Course architects and Their Courses
Geoffrey S. & Ronald e. Whitten Cornish
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEX8AG

Book Description

From Sean Connery to Roy Rogers, from comedy to political satire, films that include espionage as a plot device run the gamut of actors and styles. More than just "spy movies," espionage films have evolved over the history of cinema and American culture, from stereotypical foreign spy themes, to patriotic star features, to the Cold War plotlines of the sixties, and finally to the sexy, slick films of the nineties. This reference filmography comprehensively covers movies involving elements of espionage, from The Abductors to Zotz! Each entry includes release date, running time, alternate titles, cast and crew, a brief synopsis, and commentary. An introduction analyzes the development of these films and their reflection of the changing culture that spawned them

Customer Reviews:

Not the definitive work.......2007-04-29

Not sure what better guides are out there, but this one has some serious flaws. It does have a good index (essential for any filmography, and a number of them suprisingly don't have good indices) and lists a fair number of films. The biggest letdown are the reviews themselves, which veer from descriptive to opinionated consistently. I have no problems with somewhat opinionated reviews, but the author seems to have some crippling prejudices: "worst kind of Regan-era simplified nonsense," is an example of a comment -- but the author also has an axe to grind against Bond films, Hitchcock, and Paul Newman as an actor! Peculiar, and annoying. Very weak in listing cast, crew, director, alternate titles, and other relevant information far more interesting than some of the commentary and remarks on box office draw.

Furthermore this book is very out-of-date now, since a number of good films have been re-released on DVD only recently. I would hesitate to buy an updated book by this author, and I think his audience would be better served by far less commentary and "critical" reponse and a run-down of how well a film did at the box office. I think this is a shame, because I bought this book on the strength of another interesting review by this author and the overwhelmingly positive reviews I saw here. Skip this one.

Better filmographies out there:
The quirky but extremely useful Overlook film seriesThe Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Horror (The Overlook Film Encyclopedia Series), The Videohound Golden Retriever books Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever 2007 (Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever), and the TLA Video guides TLA Video & DVD Guide 2005: The Discerning Film Lover's Guide (Tla Video & DVD Guide)

AMAZING FIND! -- hugely entertaining.......2003-09-03

While doing research on my own film book, I came across this enormous American encyclopedia from Mr. Mavis that provided not only a wealth of information on spy and espionage films, but also some highly entertaining, sharply focused film reviews. The author is quite adept at getting to the core of what makes these films tick -- or what makes them not tick. And he's very funny -- I was surprised that such a scholarly author could also have such a humorous writing style. Quite accessible to even the most causual reader, this huge compendium is recommended for film buffs, film historians, libraries, and anyone who just wants to flip through a well-illustrated (I love his use of the films' posters as illustrations) filmography of their favorite spy films. Marvelous!

Terrific, authoritative guide -- very entertaining!.......2003-07-11

Here's the best guide out there for spy and espionage films, and one of the best filmographies period. Mavis doesn't forget one film, and his comments are strong and persuasive; he's not afraid to say what he really thinks about a movie. He can also be very, very funny -- is he the only other person to see how bad Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves are??? Expert film analysis, as well, and great pictures. BUY THIS BOOK!

The definitive guide to spy movies!.......2003-03-19

Forget the previous customer review, and check out what the book critics and film historians think -- this book is the best single resource for spy films released in America. It's also one of the funniest film books I've ever read -- I can't wait for his next book. The credits are more complete than other film sources, the photos are fascinating, and the author's comments are really helpful -- and again, hysterical. Should be in every film lover's library!

Don't waste your money.......2003-02-24

While the book lists 1760 spy movies which is good for referance the authors very opinionated reviews leaves a very bad impression. He also forgets to list the majority of the Euro spy movies made during the spy craze of the 60's. This is probably on purpose as the ones he has listed he ridicules.
Don't waste your money unless you are a die hard spy fan and want to use this book for film title referance.

Book Description

A "highly recommended" (Library Journal) examination of how cultural differences are implicit within visual forms. Discussions in Contemporary Culture is an award-winning series copublished with the Dia Center for the Arts in New York City. These volumes offer rich and timely discourses on a broad range of cultural issues and critical theory. The collection covers topics from urban planning to popular culture and literature, and continually attracts a wide and dedicated readership.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Book.......2007-02-26

I used this book in the mid-80's and just got another copy. Back then, I averaged 43 seconds to solve the cube with a best time of 19 seconds. I looked at this book and I am using the "easy" steps rather than the expert steps and I am solving it in under three minutes everytime. It took me about a day to get it down again.

This is a great book and well written.

Jeff Conquers the Cube (Rubik's) in 45 Seconds and You Can Too

Average customer rating:

Jeff Conquers the Cube (Rubik's) in 45 Seconds and You Can Too
Jeffrey Varasano
Manufacturer: Day Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000TZ95R0

Book Description

Attention, Web writers! This book will show you how to craft prose that grabs your guests' attention, changes their attitudes, and convinces them to act. You'll learn how to make your style fast, tight, and scannable. You'll cook up links that people love to click, menus that mean something, and pages of text that search engines rank high. You'll learn how to write great Web help, FAQs, responses to customers, marketing copy, press releases, news articles, e-mail newsletters, Webzine raves, or your own Web resume. Case studies show real-life examples you can follow. No matter what you write on the Web, you'll see how to personalize, build communities, and burst out of the conventional with your own honest style.

Customer Reviews:

Just O.K........2007-01-26

I read this book immediately after reading Krug's "Don't Make Me Think," which is fantastic. In comparison, "Hot Text..." was mediocre. Krug's book--although presenting a bigger picture of the world of websites--truly synthesizes the nuts and bolts for writing for the web. "Hot Text" had a lot of what I felt was extraneous information and text (ironic, because really, what writing for the web is about is brevity and conciseness).

If you haven't read Krug's book, "Hot Text" will be a good starting point for you. It contains a lot of information, it also contains some good resources.

I also have to say that I agree with an earlier reviewer--the photographs (which look like poor black & white photocopies) are strange. Example: Chapter 8, Idea 4: Build Chunky Paragraphs! The photograph shows a middle-aged man holding a small bowl or cup up to his mouth. He's looking off-camera; his right hand is by his mouth but I'm not sure why. Maybe he's eating some chunky soup? But what does soup have to do with paragraphs? It's a small detail, these photographs, but they detract from the overall professionalism of the book for me.

not what I expected.......2006-08-13

I haven't picked it up in a while. When it first arrived I was disappointed, it didn't have the pertinent info I was looking for. It's not anywhere nearby to refer to it. Basically, the "hot text" isn't really there. The outline was dull. The photos were kind of sad. I didn't like the presentation and the content didn't seem to live up to whatever the review was in the Amazon blurb.

Everything You Need under One Roof.......2006-07-28

This manual for online writing has it all--and more.

1. Detailed instruction for every conceivable page of Web site content.

2. Super tips and insight on PR content and dealing with editors and publishers.

3. The history of HTML (very cool!)

4. All sorts of useful style tips.

5. How to write your resume.

6. How to get a job.

7. Hundreds of online resources.

The writing (needless to say?)is clear, concise, and conversational. Had the book been written in 2006 instead of 2002, I'm sure the authors would have thrown in much more about blogs. Other than that, the material seems to be up to date.

This book is worth every penny!

How To Write for the Digital Media.......2004-04-25

An excellent book that points out the differences between digital media and paper media. I especially learned a lot in Chapter 3 - What Will the Web Do to My Text? But there is much throughout the entire book. You'll learn about writing in general and writing for the web in particular. And from the web you'll go to email, ezines, enewsletters, weblogs and the gamut. If you're going to write for the web you need this book.

Well-written book on how to write for the web.......2004-02-10

Contents
This book examines the subject of writing for the web, and how it differs from writing for hard-copy media.

The book is divided into the following chapters:

Part 1 - Catch The Net Spirit - Who Am I Writing For, And Incidentally, Who Am I?; What Kind Of Thing Am I Creating?; What Will The Web Do To My Text?; Attention!

Part 2 - Write Like A Human Being - Idea #1: Shorten That Text; Idea #2 - Make Text Scannable; Idea #3: Cook Up Hot Links; Idea #4: Build Chunky Paragraphs; Idea #5 - Reduce Cognitive Burdens; Idea #6 - Write Menus That Mean Something

Part 3 - Fine-Tune Your Style For The Genres - Writing In A Genre; Creating Customer Assistance That Actually Helps; Persuading Niche Markets, Individuals, And The Press; Making News That Fits; Entertaining People Who Like To Read; Getting A Job

Part 4 - Become A Pro - So You Wannabe A Web Writer Or Editor

Part 5 - Backup - Writerly Sites; If You Like To Read

Review
On the surface, you may think that writing is writing, regardless of the medium. You may think that if you can write a 2500 word article for a magazine, that you can successfully use that same style for web sites. And unfortunately, you'd be wrong. The mindset of online writing is completely different than for print, and this book will help you to understand that.

People read books and magazines for many reasons, but often it's to be entertained or to learn about a subject in depth. But when people visit web sites, it's usually to find an answer quickly. The reader wants to find the chunk of information they seek and then move on. If they don't see what they think they want, it's off to another site. The authors do an excellent job in this book breaking down the content structure of web writing. To successfully write for the web, you need to organize your information in discrete chunks that can be quickly linked to or scanned for applicable information. They show you how to effectively structure your writing by the use of shorter paragraphs, lists, bullets, external links, and a number of other techniques that will allow your ideas to flourish in an online medium.

The tone of their writing is conversational and easy, without the academic lecturing that often shows up in books where opinion and fact can blur together. They also use a lot of "before/after" examples to show you how the techniques actually work. I was actually surprised that I liked the book as much as I did. Many books on web site design go off on "expert rants" in which the author presents his likes/dislikes as expert opinion. Although some of the information in this book could fall into the same category, there wasn't the strident tone that often happens in other books.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Technical Communication, published by Society for Technical Communication on May 1, 2003. The length of the article is 999 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: Hot Text: Web Writing that Works. (Book Reviews).
Author: Bill Sullivan
Publication: Technical Communication (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 2003
Publisher: Society for Technical Communication
Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Page: 281(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Hardly a day passes when Israel is not in the news. This book provides essential facts about not only the political events in the news, but also the positive contributions Israel is making in the arts and sciences. This is not a recitation of facts and figures, but a mosaic of the most important aspects of Israel's past and present. The book will entertain those interested in some of the fascinating trivia about Israel and inform those doing more serious research about the economy, government, and culture of the Jewish State.

Customer Reviews:

A top pick for any who would learn about the nation without facing a daunting background packed with too much detail.......2006-05-21

The story of Israel from its roots to modern times provide essential facts about the politics, evolution, and contributions of the nation, describing the important influences on the country's growth and offering an easily-accessible, working knowledge of Israel and her peoples in contrast to weightier, less accessible tomes on the market. A top pick for any who would learn about the nation without facing a daunting background packed with too much detail.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

Great, concise view of the real Israel.......2006-03-27

This author has his facts straight on Israel. Great read and reference as well as a good "get to know" Israel guide that everyone, and I mean "Everyone" should read.

Amazon.com

In July 1816, a year after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, a French ship bound for the colony of Senegal foundered off the West African coast. Aboard were some 400 men, women, and children, some aristocrats, some Republicans, and all at the mercy of an incompetent captain who, a tribunal later found, had alienated his battle-tested officers and favored a shockingly incompetent and untried navigator.

That captain, writes Alexander McKee in this forceful work of historical reconstruction, did not wait to see the results of his incompetence; he abandoned his crew and set off on a longboat for the Senegalese shore. Other officers and crewmen left on the remaining lifeboats, taking most of the ship's provisions and leaving more than 150 passengers to brave the open sea on a raft. Within a few days, most of those castaways had been burned to death by the sun, providing food for the survivors. When rescuers arrived, they found only "fifteen men, almost naked, faces and bodies blotched and disfigured by the scorching sun"--a sight that would soon be reported to a horrified world.

McKee writes not only of the fate of the Medusa and its unfortunate passengers, but also of other terrible shipwrecks and kindred incidents. Along the way, he looks at the making of Géricault's celebrated painting The Wreck of the Medusa, the effect of exposure and dehydration on the human body, and assorted questions of bravery and cowardice. His book makes for a vivid, highly readable--if sometimes repugnant--tale of disaster and terror. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

"Wreck of the Medusa" is the same book, only retitled, as one called "Death Raft."

In July, 1816, a French frigate ran aground on a sandbar forty miles off the coast of Africa. Forced to abandon ship, 150 men and women embarked on an overloaded makeshift raft. After twelve days of riots, mutiny, murder, and, ultimately, cannibalism, only fifteen were alive.

"If Alive chilled your soul, read this...One of the strangest and most

horrifying true stories ever told."-John Fowles

"One of the grisliest of sea epics...a first-rate piece of work."-Newsweek

"Compelling."-Washington Post

"Superior non-fiction." -Wall Street Journal

"Impossible to put down."-Kirkus Reviews

"Weird and tragic...a spellbinding drama that made its mark on history."-Publishers Weekly

"The most horrible sea tragedy of the century."-Business Week

"If anything makes that soccer team's ordeal in the Andes seem tame, this story does."-Chicago Daily News

Customer Reviews:

Compelling.......2006-01-15

This is a gripping story of human drama very well written by Alexander McKee. The pace is lively. The facts are accurate and frequently drawn from first person survivor and news accounts. McKee doesn't simply report the facts, however, he weaves them together and draws fair assumptions when conflicts occur from sources with reasons to shade the truth. It is an amazing tale that is almost unbelievable. If you have any interest in sea or survival stories with real people facing extraordinary circumstances, then you will not be disappointed in this work.

All At Sea.......2005-11-14

The advent of Arabella Edge's,'The God of Spring' bespeaks the ongoing fascination with the shipwreck of the French frigate,'Medusa' off the west coast of Africa in 1816. Books abound on the subject, and had not Gericault made his pivotal painting of 'The Raft of the Medusa' in 1819, this gruesome chapter of naval history, replete with official neglect, attempted cover-up and cannabalism(nowhere near as rare an event at sea as subsequent reading has revealed) may well have drifted from reach. But the painting is undeniably awesome in every respect. It was Julian Barne's,'History of the World in 10 and a half Chapters' that alerted me to the painting's potential to be refigured as an articulation of the contemporary tragedy of indigineous desert Australia, its cultural despoilation and alcoholism. I'm unaware of any connexion between Barnses' perception and The Pogue's similarily timed,'Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash'. But that album's cover art, skewering the Gericault, was wonderfully appropriate to its desperate themes.So Gericault's,'Raft' proved an apt vehicle for me to hitch my painting to. Art books like Albert Alhadeff's, will tell you about Gericault's labour, his interviewing the survivors, his variations and final triumph. I pared the thing back and poached the high horizon, the Pieta pose of the old man nursing his dead son, and the brilliant figure slipping from the craft into the viewer's space, which strikes me now as, in turn, having derived from Bellini's,'Drunkeness of Noah'. This rant leads to Alexander McKee, whose,'Death Raft' remains the supreme place to commence fathoming 'The Medusa's' twisted tale. McKee's recounting has all the data you need and an immediacy of tone free from impeding rhetoric. It's as vivid as the Gericault. Its evocation of hardship at sea has only been equalled by Nat Philbrick's,'In The Heart of The Sea'.

A complete and exciting account of human tragedy........2004-12-03

This is a tale of human endeavour and tragedy so great that an oil painting of the survivors from the wreck of the Medusa on board their raft actually hangs in the Louvre Art Gallery in Paris. It is a story of a shipwreck in the early part of the 19th Century where a few of those who survived the original wrecking set out on a raft seeking rescue. Many of them made it - but many did not.

It is a harrowing tale of survival against everything that both life and death can throw at a group of people when they are at extreme disadvantage.

Once again Alexander McKee provides the reader with a well researched and equally well presented book based on a factual story from the sea. It is also an excellent read - which is exactly what I have come to expect from this author.

NM.

Would Make a Great Movie.......2003-10-18

The Wreck of the Medusa is the amazing story of the so-called death raft off the coast of Africa nearly two hundred years ago. It is thoroughly engrossing, with lessons completely applicable to the modern world. It would make a terrific film, an interwoven tale of flower meadows in France, the grounding of the ship on the dangerous bank off West Africa, the death raft, storms, the march through the desert, the shameful conduct of the Medusa's leadership, the courtroom aftermath, the great work of art inspired by the experience of those on the raft that so emotionally and physically exhausted the young artist (who died three years later), and more modern events with similar human behavior. Images of scores of people crammed on a makeshift raft up to their chests in seawater, so close together that they could not move, and the events that reduced their number to under 20, are indelible for me and should be brought to others through film. The only surprise for me is that the author did not mention the survival story from the sinking of the Essex, just a couple years after the grounding of the Medusa.

Choppy Narrative.......2002-11-07

Overall I liked the book and found the subject matter very interesting. But, I found the writing and flow of the book a bit choppy. It jumped around a bit too much for my liking.

Customer Reviews:

Terrific Study of The Justifications for Colonialism.......2005-05-07

Why is it that Europe explored, conquered, and created colonies in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and islands around the world? Why not the other way around? The answer, for historian Michael Adas of Rutgers University, rests with the development of western science and technology, and the manner in which these systems of knowledge were understood and used. Indeed, Adas is most concerned with how Europeans employed these understandings to relate to the non-Europeans they encountered. Dividing the book in three parts--before the industrial revolution, the age of industrialization, and the twentieth century--Adas brilliantly analyzes the change over time of how Europeans related to these other cultures. Always, as he finds by unpacking explorers' and other observers' accounts, Europeans expressed superiority for the others they found. Sometimes they claimed moral and social superiority but at other times, and increasingly as time progressed, they asserted scientific and technical preeminence. As European industrialization took hold, the question of superiority moved almost exclusively from a moral basis to a material one, based on the creation of the more complex machines that emerged beginning in the seventeenth century.

Adas spends the majority of this challenging book building a complex and highly significant story of colonial justifications. He uses a broad range of sources from philosophers and thinkers such as Voltaire to explorers to such proponents of British imperialism as Rudyard Kipling to show the evolution of the colonial ideal. What emerges is a portrait, embraced by the Europeans, of Europe as clearly preeminent in the world and having the responsibility to civilize and christianize the "backward" peoples of the Earth. For Europeans, as Adas shows, the rise of science and technology, as well as the ideas of the Enlightenment, signified the defeat of superstition, paganism, and irrationality. They had the duty, Europeans believed, to accept what came to be called the "white man's burden" to bring the blessings of western culture to those elsewhere. It would require centuries of "tutoring," a period in which colonizers would rule those other cultures and bring the fundamental changes they valued. Colonial rule, Adas points out, was not just for the extraction of natural resources and for the brutal exploitation of those colonized--although that did take place--but also for the "civilizing" of "barbarians." The author notes that the United States, soon after its creation took essentially the same approach toward dealing with Native Americans and other inhabitants of North America, and later in its wars of conquest in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Of course, this book was written well before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, but similar justifications have been voiced by American officials as the reason for overthrowing Saddam Hussein.

If all of this sounds like a massive rationalization of colonial rule and its ever present oppression, it was. Few, at least as Adas tells the story, recognized it at the time, but one must ask if there were not minority reports on the legitimacy of what was taking place? Famed University of Chicago historian William H. McNeill, questioned this in his review of "Machines as the Measure of Men." He writes, "Adas may be quite correct in the conclusions he offers, but the evidence he uses is intrinsically imperfect. Quotations from European writers of the 19th century who deplored technology and declared it was destroying true civilization are easy to find; a collection of passages could also readily be used to prove the exact opposite of what Adas tells us. Who might be right?" (Quoted from "Quarterly Review of Biology" 65 (June 1990): 211.)

Notwithstanding this question, Adas has provided readers with a powerful analysis of the justifications for colonialism that reigned for more than five centuries. While the arguments changed over time, as Adas points out, the change was more in degree than in structure. Always the preeminence of European culture was preserved. First, Europeans defined themselves in relation to other cultures principally by religion. This changed with the Enlightenment, when moral philosophy began to reign. Add to this scientific and technological virtuosity and the supremacy of European institutions was assured. The broad thrust of this argument is persuasive, and indeed modern science and technology remains a significant measure of cultural worth to the present. Adas's work is recommended as a powerful statement of European attitudes toward other civilizations and the justifications use to buttress colonialism.

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