1990 Books

Fantasic story on the beginnings of what Garth Brooks became. He never has lost his dream.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the "real" Garth -- the person behind the icon. The book details his hard work and determination as a local singer, and how he never gave up. It's not glitzy (black & white photos) but packed with stories that make you feel you are there, experiencing what he experiences, feeling what he feels. It is an inspiration to all, as is Garth.

This book grabbed my attention and held on from beginning to end every time I read it! This isn't your run-of-the-mill, facts-everybody-already- knows kind of books. Matt O'Meilia does an outstanding job of describing the trials, troubles, and times of a young, struggling Garth Brooks just as he and their former band-mates remember them from their lives back in Eastern Oklahoma. Weather you think you know everything about Mr. Brooks or if you know absolutly nothing about this legend, this book is sure to leave you with a smile and many interesting stories you will not find anywhere else. You may also find yourself with a new sense of hope and determination for your own goals as O'Meilia shows the hopes and dreams of five young men, one in particular, come alive.

Actually, I haven't seen the 2000 Edition, but if it's anything like my 2 earlier copies, it'll be dog-eared, highlighted, & annotated before I ever lift off for the UK. I love my CAMRA "Good Beer Guide"'s, but the GPG is concerned more with the entire establishment, food, kids, parking tips, et al. If you love a good pub, where you can get honest pints of well-kept ales, this is a must. If you've got to stay at home, this will still get you all ahoo to head for the British Isles, & sink a few jars of the best. Slainte', cheers, up yer bum, & enjoy!

I own both the 1999 and 2000 editions of this guide and have made great use of them during two trips to Britain in the last 21 months. The listings identify the particular lagers and ales on tap and give some idea as to food served and atmosphere. I travel solo, but the guide also lists pubs that are family-friendly which some may find useful. I found the reviews to be accurate and helpful in determining which of the many pubs to choose. Of course, some great pubs are not listed, and the book includes tear-out sheets which can be sent to the editors for their consideration for the next edition. I'm looking forward to seeing if any of my recommendations make it into the 2001 Guide!

If you love pubs, amd more importantly, the homey pub atmosphere, then this book is a must have. No matter where in Britain you are traveling, the guide will have a very good recommendation for you as to where to eat and drink. And it is indispensable source for small, quaint inns, whose accomodations never fail to charm.

This referance and coffee table book is an interesting and beautiful compilation of materials from many sources. The author led the Corgi dynasty in design during the golden years of this historical toy manufacturer. This is not a price guide, but more of a research resource. Inside you will find a complete listing of catalogues and variations from the early days of Mettoy(1933) through the 1980's. It contains an amazing amount of information and should DEFINITELY be in the library of anyone who ever owned a Green Hornet car, or ejected the little crook from his or her James Bond Aston-Martin DB5 ejector car. If you used to drool over these toys in the toystore like I did when I was young, you need this book. It is a warm and wonderful trip down memory lane for both the collector and the person who owned these toys as a youngster. ... This book is 512 Pages and approximately 12" by 12". Hard cover is a nice red leatherette with a golden Corgi silhouette embossed on the front. You will love it.

This is the special collectors' edition of a book which is already eagerly sought after in its standard edition.

Corgi Toys were die-cast metal model cars and trucks, made in Great Britain from the mid fifties and enjoying their heyday in the 1960s. Marcel van Cleemput was chief designer of Corgi Toys from the start of production in 1956 until the company went bust in 1983. (It was later revived but that's another story). Here he has assembled the ultimate catalog, full descriptions of every model Corgi ever made, with photographs of almost all of them, around 1000 in all, most in color. Always technically superior to their rivals, Corgi's greatest achievement was the legendary model of James Bond's Aston Martin from the movie "Goldfinger" - complete with a working miniature ejector seat.

If this book was simply a catalog it would still be a must-have for collectors (of whom there are many worldwide). But it's much more. Van Cleemput clearly loved his wo! rk and was himself a collector throughout his career. He's included anecdotes of what it was like to work at Corgi (somewhat chaotic at times, it seems) and points out the technical sophistication of models children took for granted at the time.

If you're a collector this book is absolutely essential - and in this deluxe edition even more desirable. But there's much enjoyment to be had if you only played with these models as a child. Turn the pages and say "I used to have that one." Or if you had a sharp eye for an investment when you were only six years old, you can say "I've still got that one - it its original box!"

Corgi Toys were die-cast metal model cars and trucks, made in Great Britain from the mid fifties, and enjoying their heyday in the 1960s. Marcel van Cleemput was chief designer of Corgi Toys from the start of prodution in 1956 until the company went bust in 1983. (It was later revived but that's another story). Here he has assembled the ultimate catalog, full descriptions of every model Corgi ever made, with photographs of almost all of them, around 1000 in all, most in color. Always technically superior to their rivals, Corgi's greatest achievement was the legendary model of James Bond's Aston Martin from the movie "Goldfinger" - complete with a working miniature ejector seat.

If this book was simply a catalog it would still be a must-have for collectors (of whom there are many worldwide). But it's much more. Van Cleemput clearly loved his work and was himself a collector throughout his career. He's included anecdotes of what it was like to work at Corgi (somewhat chaotic at times, it seems) and points out the technical sophistication of models children took for granted at the time.

If you're a collector this book is absloutely essential. But there's much enjoyment to be had if you only played with these models as a child. Turn the pages of this lavishly - beautifully - produced book and say "I used to have that one." Or if you had a sharp eye for an investment when you were only six years old, you can say "I've still got that one - in its original box!"

Outstanding biography of the preemminent conservationist of the 20th century. John P. Saylor was ahead of his time in his successful fight to preserve America's national parks, wilderness and wild rivers. He was a statesman and a great American, not just because he was my Dad.

In an era when conservative Republicans display outright hostility to environmentalism, and even Democrats at the national level are getting very little real environmental work done, it is surprising and heartening to learn about the great conservationist achievements and leadership of Republican congressman John Saylor. This generally straight-arrow Republican served a Western Pennsylvania district from 1949 to 1973 and had an immense impact on environmental protection across America. Saylor had a fierce and sincere lifetime love of the outdoors, and advanced a currently rare view of the natural environment as crucial to America's development and the culture of independence. In fact, this was a philosophy of "stewardship" that was descended from the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and even Sierra Club founder John Muir. While remaining typically conservative on other legislative matters, Saylor's work was indispensable in the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, which has resulted in the protection of more than a hundred million acres of untrammeled wilderness across the country. He was also a crucial player in the defeat of dam proposals in the Grand Canyon and Dinosaur National Monument, had a hand in the creation of several national parks, helped pass the National Scenic Trails Act, and was an important supporter of clean air and water legislation.

This authoritative biography by Thomas G. Smith mostly operates as a political history of all the conservation-oriented legislation in which Saylor was involved during his long Congressional career. Smith's intensive coverage of intricate legislative maneuvers makes the book tedious at times, though it is completely successful as a political biography, because Smith dispenses with any partisan judgments or complaints about modern Republicanism. Smith is not afraid to point out some of Saylor's flaws, especially his very stubborn and sometimes vindictive political style. Of special note is Smith's general view that Saylor's fierce opposition to large Western dam projects did not necessarily come from sincere environmentalism, but were actually attempts to block competition (in the form of publicly-subsidized power) for the coal companies back in Pennsylvania. Saylor's Republican views in non-environmental areas sometimes reached comical conservative Cold War paranoia, but for conservation he was immensely influential and achieved consistent bipartisan success. Without Saylor's 24 years of service for America's natural environment, we'd be living in a land much less beautiful and enjoyable. [~doomsdayer520~]

This biography digs deep into the early environmental campaigns between 1954 and 1973, when John P. Saylor (Republican of Pennsylvania) was a bold, unquenchable advocate for the environment in the United States Congress. He was out front on all the big ones: Dinosaur National Monument, the Wilderness Act, the Grand Canyon Dams, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, Redwoods National Park, Alaska national parks. I first met Mr. Saylor in 1965 when I was a beginning volunteer activist, playing a minor role in the campaign to defeat two proposed dams that would have been built in the Grand Canyon. The author uses archival sources to take us behind the scenes in Congress and tell parts of the story I never knew. (I knew the dam proponents didn't have the votes, but there's a lot more to it, and Professor Smith dug it up.)

While the importance of coal mining in his district may have helped kindle John Saylor's opposition to hydroelectric dams in the 1950s, it doesn't explain his consistent, tireless leadership in saving wild places over the 20 years that followed. From seeing him in action day after day on Capitol Hill, I know he believed in wilderness and loved fighting for it. Professor Smith's book captures John Saylor's passion, his brilliance and his wit.

Broughton's book is a collection of almost 40 stories of people who helped develop aviation in the U.S. You'll only recognize a few names (EAA's Paul Poberezny among them), but they are a mix of men and women who were there when great events happened. One helped Wilbur and Orville Wright in early test flights; unaware of what was happening, one was flying a mission nearby when Nagasaki was devastated by the atomic bomb; several tell details of experiences as fighter pilots.

Broughton's book doesn't have a theme or direction -- it simply tries to bring out the most-significant accomplishments of each flyer's life. It starts with the early days of flight, progresses through time and ends with a story of space flight and one from the Vietnam War.

This book tells the story of real pioneers in the field of piloting. Some of their experiences would shock today's pilots. Without the dash and daring of these pilots we wouldn't be where we are today in the diverse fields of aviation.

I thoroughly enjoyed Irv Broughton's HANGAR TALK. His interviews with pilots from the early days of flight to those involved in the gulf war conflict provide a fascinating oral history of flight. Broughton has written a brief reflection on each pilot's life and significance to flight, followed by a series of inquisitive questions that allow the pilots to reflect back on their adventurous lives. What was especially enjoyable about this book was reading about the many facets of aviation. The early barnstormers daring willingness to land their planes almost anywhere has always amazed me. There aren't many people left who witnessed the beginning of flight and the early developments. HANGAR TALK has interviews with pilots whose roots go back to the earliest pioneers of flight. Interviews with crop dusters, bush pilots, and experimental aircraft designer/pilots are also included. Of course, pilots involved in the wars provide a higher percentage of the drama in this book. Many stories of combat flying and flying related to the military portray the courage of those that served our country. This is a book about extraordinary people, many who influenced the development of flight. I highly recommend this book to all interested in aviation.

I have a friend who fancies himself a plane buff. We have a bet... I say the Harrier's origins are in the British Kestrel. He insists there is no such animal... even though two British pilot told him so at an air show we attended today.

Could you, PLEASE, email him at... harveybc@mindspring.com with a cc: to me at... salscyn@ptd.net ASAP with an answer as to just who is right.

Thank you, Sal Latina

I have read many books about the harrier, and this is the best. Covering the early history, its use by all the military services associated with it, the wars in which it fought,and future developement of the aircraft; this is the ultimate Harrier book. The book contains more facts and photos than are available from any other single source. A must for airplane afficionados. One downside- black and white photos only.

I work on the Harrier at their birthplace of Dunsfold England, and can assure anyone who is interested in the Harrier that you will not find a finer book than this. It goes into depth and detail that i have never seen before. I have not found a single mistake in it's facts.

Go and buy it before it disappears all together. The publisher has informed me that the book is now officially out of print. So grab it whilst you can.

Reading Alice Walker reviews here on Amazon is highly annoying. Either they praise her to the skies, scouring any who react with an analytical response, or they attack her for the racial simplicities that some see as marring her work (those who get annoyed by her "white folk have no rhythm" trope). Both extremes have not been very useful for promoting *my* greater understanding of her work--I see the talent seething, squirming in her--but through many books, there were twists in her choices that alienated her talent to me.

Simply put, this book that convinced me Alice is a Talent with a capital "T". She starts with a lovely preface, "In keeping faith with Poetry's honest help to me, I have not deleted or changed--beyond a word or two--anything I have written, though greatly tempted at times to do so. The young self, the naive promiscuous self, appear doubly vulnerable now, in light of my unexpected bonus of years, and the experience they have brought me. I embrace them all, as Poetry embraced me..." From there, she follows with some beautiful, beautiful poetry, speaking to the struggle to develop and improve as an artist.

There are mis-steps, irritations. "There are no tigers/in Africa!/You say./Frowning./Yes. I say./Smiling./But they are/very beautiful." doesn't do much for me. I prefer my evocations of Africa without this almost Disney-esque gloss of "all cool primitive things we'll embrace as African."

Cumulatively, however--the poems are terrific. It's not often that I read through an entire volume of poetry without putting it down. Read this book for all its warts and missteps--and glory in it for its terrific human achievement.

I love the structure of her poems. She writes for those who have forgotten how things used to be with African American life and struggles. My favorite section in the book is from "Revolutionary Petunias" and "Willie Lee." Walker has been an inspiration for me in writing poetry. I love her use of imagery in her free verse. It was commented that Walker relies too much on her relationships in her personal friendships in her writing. But I disagree. I propose that no one should read her poetry without reading her autobiography of her past. Most poets will create an illusion of situations, but Walker alludes to her past and speaks the truth to us all. I hope she sees this because I've always wanted to talk with her and ask her about the things I have written, but I am in the process of challenging myself to want the reader to feel something in a meter that they can feel but not see. Then THATS incredible. Nice work Ms. Walker

Startled to find so many poems that resonated in my own life, I copied many down and posted them around by room. Each provides a meditation on a different theme, from death to distraction, affairs of the heart to hunger and the nagging, geographic pull to home. When I give my speech at graduation next week, it will end with "The Nature Of This Flower Is To Bloom," thanks to Alice Walker.

Since he is mainly interested in the native peoples, he must cover geography and ethnography as well as history. The Russians are by no means neglected. This is a good source for any aspect of Siberia or any of its numerous peoples. It is quite difficult to cover such a mass of data. Forsyth makes it look easy

Reviewed by Johanna Granville, Clemson University, Clemson, SC USA

James Forsyth's History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony, 1581-1990 is a much needed addition to the extant literature on Soviet history. The policies of glasnost and end of censorship after the 1991 Soviet collapse have led to greater interest in the history of non-Russian nationalities. The dearth of reliable historical information on Russia east of the Urals is becoming increasingly clear as Siberia and the Russian Pacific littoral develop into a significant geopolitical and economic entity. Russia's expansion eastward may have been as defining for Russian society as was the United States' advance westward for American society. Thus, it is surprising that historians are just beginning to concentrate on this vast landscape. This is not to say that Western scholarship has completely overlooked Asiatic Russia, but there is still much work to do. In this ethnohistory of Siberia, Forsyth attempts to "narrate and interpret the stages in the conquest and exploitation of Siberia" (defined as "everything lying east of 60 degrees E and 50 degrees N") and "the place of this process in Russian and world history." Forsyth's narrative tends to emphasize the role of ordinary people--the inhabitants of Siberia--rather than of prominent decision makers. He raises several questions about the indigenous peoples of Siberia (e.g. Buryat Mongols, Yakuts, Tatars, Samoyeds, Tunguses, and Chukchis). What was the role of the native peoples, who up to the 18th century, inhabited Siberia? Who were they, and how did they live before the Russian invasion? How did the Russian invasion affect their lives? Has the fate of the Siberian natives been similar to that of the Indians and Eskimos of North America? Forsyth's main argument is fairly simple: despite the Leninist rhetoric that the Russian occupation of Siberia was a peaceful process and that it brought the indigenous peoples into contact with a "higher culture," the Siberian peoples in reality suffered a great deal from collectivization, "denomadisation," and the consequent destruction of their traditional cultures and occupations. The book is particularly strong on the early Russian conquest of Siberia after 1456 and the folk heroes like Yermak Timofeyevich who emerged in the process. Forsyth attributes the Russian success in subjugating the indigenous tribes to a number of factors: demanding tribute, trading ruthlessly for furs, dominating by superior numbers, spreading disease (especially smallpox), exploiting intra-tribal conflict, and employing superior firepower. For centuries after taking control of a certain Siberian tribes' land, the Russians would exploit that tribe by requiring them to pay "yasak" (a Turkic word meaning tribute). Yasak was often collected in the form of furs, such as sable, fox, and marten---as precious to the Russians as gold to the Spanish conquistadors in Mexico and Peru. Russian Marxist historians have made Yermak and the Cossacks into folk heroes comparable to the pioneers of the American West. (Just as the Soviet media routinely sanitized news about Soviet society, so historians also self-servingly rewrote history.) However, the actual record of the Cossacks and "voyevodys" may be closer to the genocidal campaigns of the Nazis in the occupied regions of Belarus and the Ukraine. According to Forsyth, these interlopers were "courageous but ruthless men-of-action, mainly belonging to the petty nobility." Both tsarist and Soviet regimes abused the Siberian territory and its aborigines. Whereas the tsarist regimes extracted yasak, furs, and minerals, the Soviet regimes built vast projects in the region that disrupted the environment and local way of life. Gold dredging threatened rivers, industrial pollution affected Lake Baikal, and projects such as the Baikal/Amur railway (BAM) caused ecological damage, while the KGB harrassed local people who complained. Overall, the book is grim on the future of Siberia. The native ethnic groups are still minorities in their own land. Forsyth believes that some communities may resort to creating reservations akin to the ones for Indians in Canada and the United States. The book is solid, but not flawless. Although it synthesizes multivolume ethnographic and historical works of German, imperial Russian, and Soviet scholars in one volume, the extensive bibliography will not benefit those who read neither Russian nor German. Moreover, Forsyth apparently has not worked with recently declassified archival documents, and his balance is skewed a bit toward the seventeenth century. Readers may also find the beginning section on geography extremely dry, and the multitude of ethnic groups confusing. Nevertheless, since the scope of this finely produced book is vast, and its subject very timely, it will indeed benefit both nonspecialists and general readers. It contains twelve useful historical maps of the Siberian region and fifteen illustrations.

Johanna Granville, Clemson University

This book may well be the very best history of the native peoples of Siberia and their conquest by the Russians in the past centuries.
Though the title is exaggrating a bit - with Siberia today having an overwhelmingly Russian majority population I don't find it more of a "colony" than the USA, Canada, or Australia, where natives have been even more outnumbered by European settlers - the book itself is very thoroughly-researched, amazingly up to date and is even fair enough to compare the current situation of the Siberian peoples to that of Northern minorities elsewhere.
No doubt, it is a somewhat disturbing read - but then so is the situation of these often diminishing ethinc groups even today.

Having lived in Germany before, during and after the wall went down,
The House At The Bridge encapsulizes succinctly the emotions of change
that I, and others, saw and felt during Germany's paradigm shift of
politics and society. This story isn't just about a house, but of
families and a country in transition. Ms. Hafner cleverly uses the
house as a common thread to tell the history behind the house's
inhabitants and the political changes that effected them. The
comparisons between (former) East and West Germany are poignant and
real. Any history lover, travel buff or architect(professional or
amateur) will be pleasantly surprised by the story this house tells.

The property is located in Potsdam. It was the summer house of the Wallichs. After reunification the house still stood. Hermann Wallich had been a banker and an assimilationist. By 1911 the fortune of the Wallichs was thirty one million reichmarks.

Hermann's son Paul and his daughter-in-law became enchanted with the house at Potsdam. During World War II the house served as a library for the Nazis and later as a hospital for wounded Russian soldiers. Paul Wallich committed suicide in 1938. The house was in the Russian sector. During the war three servants stayed in the house. Afterwards, in East Germany, the remaining servant was ordered to leave.

Next the house was used as a kindergarten, such use lasting for some forty years. There were five day a week boarders, the children of socially irresponsible citizens. After the wall went up, the director of the kindergarten began to scheme to leave the country. In 1961 barbed wire went up, seemingly overnight.

The bridge, the Glienicke Bridge, near the house became famous for the exchange of spies. The bridge had first gone up in 1660. Structures near the house were torn down to give the guards a better view in the border zone. The East German childcare system became vast as childbirth was encouraged and it was necessry for mothers to work.

The books shifts its focus from the kindergarten director to a young teacher, Ulrike. Ulrike was friends with Wolfgang, a Marxist dissident who followed a sort of socialist third way. (In East Germany a third of the citizens had Stasi files.)

The night the wall fell Ulrike and her husband were at home with friends playing Irish music. The following day Ulrike walked to her school amid euphoric people. Afterwards the first few weeks were dreamlike. Ulrike and her husband visited the West. Reunification took place in October 1990. Earlier there was a currency union. There were Trabi jokes. Ossies and Wessies were not getting along with each other.

Return of property became a central and contentious debate after unification. Claims started to arrive by the tens of thousand for property lost between 1933 and 1945. What belonged to whom became a matter of central importance. One of the Wallich sons, Henry, had been at Yale and had been on the Federal Reserve Board. His daughter, Christine, was interested in the house at Potsdam. Land registries became artifacts of a capitalist past in East Germany after 1950. The Nazis had kept meticulous records of the deportation of Jewish families.

There were very old trees on the property of the Potsdam house. A scholar sought information on the gardens' original design. The scholar of landscape architecture found the plans of Gustav Meyer. Dirk Heydemann published a one hundred fifty page paper on the garden's design. The Wallich heirs did get their property returned to them. The house is in a state of extreme disrepair. The Wallichs are considering offers to sell the property to developers. The go-go time of real estate fortunes in the early nineties in the vicinity of Berlin has passed.

If you're interested in getting to the belly of the beast, in this case, the finger-nail crud of unification, look to Katie's absolutely bottom-line insights into the east German perspective. The house is still there, hard by the two-taxi stand as you come across the bridge, ironically just down the wooded lane from where they signed the Potsdam Agreement, and, in its crumbling, grafitti-stained magnificence, it can be seen, if you wish, as some sort of symbol, of what's gone wrong, and what's gone right. with the "new" Germany. The book tells a wonderful tale of brick and mortar and the dreams and ambition it contained. Rarely does the door to a complex turning open so joyously and so widely. Read it and learn how it is.

... to tell your truth.

This epochal work illustrates the gap between reality and the historical cliches acccepted by most people in these United States, as enshrined for example in San Antonio's Alamo. It de-demonizes the Mexicans (whose laws banned slavery) and their President Santa-Anna (who had every right to try to get rid of "illegal immigrants"--isn't that an irony now that the shoe is on the other foot!) while shedding a corrective light on the Anglo-Texans' goals (exercize their "freedom" to occupy a foreign territory to then illegally introduce therein an otherwise banned "peculiar" practice).

More importantly, Professor Taylor documents in this book, in exemplary and objective fashion, the complex fate of an American minority and its long-standing efforts to regain, at long last, its constitutionally recognized unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Taylor's book represents a monumental achievement. This is a tremendous book that covers the history of Blacks in the West more completely and with greater detail than any previous work. It easily supplants William Katz's "The Black West" and W. Sherman Savage's "Blacks in the West" as the definitive work in the field. This book should be required reading for every student in American history.

What is initially strking about this masterful endeavor is its scope--from its chronological detail to its rich geographic attention to the broader West. An engaging scholarly work that certainly qualifies within the the realm of required reading for any curriculum in U.S. History or African American studies. It is refreshing to find a more recently compiled history of the black experience, one that focuses on the broad range of African American social evolution throughout the American West. I was particularly interested in his narrative on the cultural assimilation of blacks into Native American society. Highly impressive in its bibliographic scope, this work rates as a definitive contribution to more current historiographic material.