Heavy

In most P.G. Wodehouse stories, the innocents and the not-so-innocents attempt to solve tricky family problems with feats of misdirection and partial truths. The result of these complicated ruses is usually a great deal of unexpected consequences that will tickle almost any funny bone. Heavy Weather is an unusually fine example of this type of story.

Monty Bodkin, who's rolling in dough, must hold a job for a year to win the approval of his fiancee's father. Then the wedding bells can chime. Monty isn't the most helpful fellow, and makes a hash out of his writing for Tiny Tots. He soon uses his uncle's influence a second time to get a new job as private secretary to Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, whose pride and joy is his prize-winning pig, the Empress of Blandings.

This new employment creates much consternation for Sue Brown, who is engaged to marry the jealous Ronnie Fish. Monty and Sue had been engaged earlier, and Sue's afraid that Ronnie won't be able to handle having Monty around. Wedding bells for Sue and Ronnie depend on getting Clarence to release trust funds for Ronnie. There are a few other problems, as well. For example, Sue earns her living as a chorus girl. What will Ronnie's mother, Lady Julia, think?

The key theme of the story is that true love will win out, if the lovers follow their hearts and seize opportunity when it arises. In that way, the end will charm almost anyone . . . much like Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream does.

In most stories like this, you can anticipate how the obstacles will be overcome. Well, Heavy Weather will surprise you, if you are like me. The plot complications and resolution are delightfully adept, acrobatic, and subtle. I felt like I was watching the elephants do their ballet dance again in Fantasia. The contradictions between the messy moments and the final neatness are brilliantly handled!

The conflict between the desire to have a good reputation and the willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed (including cutting all possible corners) is shown off to good effect in Heavy Weather. Developing this point creates questions about what real goodness is, versus assumed goodness from social position and family connections. In fact, inherited intelligence is also questioned for its morality. The more powerful minds in the story tend to use those capabilities to plot for self-advantage, rather than to accomplish anything meaningful for all involved. Those of limited intelligence, by contrast, tend to follow their hearts and try to do the right thing.

Good results follow in this story whenever people are loyal and honor goodness.

What can you accomplish by being loyal and honoring goodness today? And tomorrow?

This certain novel has a really complex plot, very many characters, so it is pretty hard to tell if there's a real centre-character in this book because there are so many differnt people that dramatically change the course of happenings. It has a fairly good story but what I was amazed about the most, was the poor ending of the novel and its lack of GREAT humor. To first-time Wodehouse-readers I recommend books like Right Ho Jeeves and The Mating Season.

The role of the three "heavy" 44 gun frigates - USS Constitution, United States and President - is crucial in early American naval history. Indeed, lacking a large battle fleet, the heavy frigate was the backbone of the US Navy until the onset of the Civil War. Mark Lardas, with degrees in naval architecture and marine engineering, is well qualified to outline the design, development and history of America's heavy frigates. Overall, the volume is adequate and gives a good perspective on the role of these sailing warships.

Lardas has sections on the design and development, operational history and the ships themselves. The American frigates in this period are classified as the three original Humphreys' frigates (built 1794-1800), the three war expansion frigates (built 1813-1815), the nine "gradual increase" frigates (built 1819-1861) and the three final frigates (1813-1842). The color plates depict the sail plan of the USS United States; the USS Constitution evading the British fleet; the gun deck on a Humphreys' frigate; a cutaway diagram of the USS Constitution; the mast arrangement of the USS Brandywine; the capture of the USS President; and flags and weapons.

American Heavy Frigates 1794-1826 will give readers a basic overview of most of the ships in this period, although some readers will wonder why this book excludes 36-gun frigates like the USS Constellation. Why not just cover all US frigates in the period 1798-1815, rather than covering a number of warships, such as the USS Hudson, that were historical non-entities. I was also disappointed that the author failed to provide any comparative data on the naval guns mounted on these frigates, since superior firepower was one of their main advantages he notes. Nor is there any information on tactics, training, cost of construction, materials used, maintenance (how often did they need their copper plates replaced?), etc. Thus, the author provides a bare-bones summary of the ships, without much else to add value. Quite frankly, much of the material here is merely summarized from other secondary sources, with little sign of fresh research.

"American Heavy Frigates, 1794-1826" by Mark Lardas is one of the innumerable Osprey paperbacks, packed with illustrations and aimed at presenting a study of one particular slice of military history. In this case, it is part of the New Vanguard series about "The design, development, operation and history in the machinery of warfare through the ages," and the weapons system presented in Lardas's book is epitomized by arguably the most famous American warship of all time: the USS Constitution, Old Ironsides. But "American Heavy Frigates" goes well beyond that single vessel or even the War of 1812. Instead, we are treated to concise although comprehensive survey history of the design and development of the ship type, including a discussion of foreign influences, from Joshua Humphreys' proposal in 1793 that "as our navy for a considerable time will be inferior in numbers we must consider what size ships will be an overmatch for those of an enemy ..." until the last American sailing heavy frigates (USS Santee and Sabine) were launched in 1855. Too often we forget that this ship type in the US Navy was not limited to the Constitution and her two sister ships (President and United States) but included over a dozen other vessels of similar design, the backbone of the American navy through the Mexican War and beyond. Lardas discusses the origin, operational history, and eventual fate of each heavy frigate. Most of the illustrations are black-and-white reproductions of contemporary paintings or engravings of the ships, although the color section includes an excellent detailed three-dimensional cutaway drawing of Old Ironsides. "American Heavy Frigates" is a slender volume (only 48 pages) but a worthy addition to any library of books about the Age of Fighting Sail.

About 1996 I began to teach myself classical guitar. I had a musical background, so reading music was not difficult. This was the book I chose as my primary resource. Unfortunately, this book did not help me as much as other books by the same author (and others), so I cannot recommend it for the beginner. Beginners will find that this book moves too fast, is not thorough, and does not give very detailed descriptions of many important concepts that the beginning classical guitarist must master, such as the upward and downward slur. And unfortunately, chords are introduced early, despite the fact that chords are really not of primary importance in classical guitar. As an absolute beginner you will likely hit a brick wall with this book, as I did, which may discourage you from going any further. The book is most useful for someone who has already gained the ability to play in most of the principle keys, has mastered the second position, and now wants to learn the entire fingerboard. If you want to study and play chords, go buy yourself an acoustic guitar.

I own (and still study) the first edition of this book. It was first published in 1963. It was a tresure then as it is now. A well writen book is never outdated. This is a book that every guitar player, beginer or experienced needs in his library. Bad habits are easily picked up and hard to loose. This book helps keep one on the path.

This book is alright if you have never spent time in a gym with somebody who knows what they are doing. It's a good place to start but know that there are many more things you can learn. Spend a little dough and invest in a couple of sessions with a personal trainer that can work with you and develop a program for your SPECIFIC goals.

Also, be forwarned, the rubber bands that were included do not have handles. Go to a local sporting good store or gym and get some with the handles. They are much more usefull.

I found this book really good and completely to my taste. I am more of a visual person, so the pictures of the exercises were really useful to me. Also, the pages you are on stay open (because it is spiral bound)...I wish more exercise books did this! There was just enough written explanations of the "why" and "how" to do the exercises. It gives you the information you need to create a stretching and conditioning program, without all the technical jargon. Plus, the tubing that comes along with the book is a great idea. Bottom line: this book is user-friendly and got me stretching from the get go!

A great read for any true fans of the incomparable Bon Scott and the classic years of Acca Dacca.

Clinton Walker's work is meticulous and almost scholarly in tracing the roots of Bon Scott. In this book you get to know maybe who the real Bon Scott was: part showman, part wildman, part genuine good guy and part lost man.

Walker peels back the hype and reveals Bon as good hearted, lovable rogue who ended up a lonely musical enigma.

My only criticism is Walker's anti-Young family position taken in the book. The Youngs - Malcolm, Angus and producer/godfather brother George, refused to cooperate with Walker for this book and as a result, we get a less than objective account of how heartless the Young clan is, with precious little praise for their obvious talents and achievements. This is a shame because the Young's story could have been a real piece on it's own.

But that criticism aside, if you wanna know how AC/DC made their 'long way to the top' in the early years before they became part of the rock 'n' roll furniture then this is the book.

This book is a faithful recreation of some of JP's best hits. It includes the songs that get the most radio airplay, but not necessarily the best tracks that they ever recorded.

The tab in this book is nicely done, and seems to be about right (makes my guitar sound pretty much like the albums). I knocked it down one star because the book is bound in the standard fashion, meaning that I had to crack the spine to get it to sit flat on my music stand. Also, there wasn't a musical notation legend or introduction, which are always nice.

If you are a JP fan, this will get you going pretty well.

A real joy to read, full of pictures, implement and tractor ads. A real must for the J.I. CASE enthusiast. Very little technical data except what is contained in the old photographed ads. A great lesson on J.I. CASE history from steam to diesel and the tons of machinery this book covers. A great leap back in time.

I happened upon "The Downing of Flight Six Heavy" at a local used book store last week and the description seemed intriguing. I'd never heard of the author, Perry Lafferty, but decided to give it a chance. Luckily, my chance paid off as it was a worthwhile read. It wasn't too deep or technical, but a quick, fun read.

The premise of the novel is a commercial airline pilot being asked by the CIA to fly a plane holding a top secret military device in its cargo hold. However, to disguise these intentions from the Russians, the pilot is asked to hijack his own plane. The plan doesn't work completed as expected and soon the pilot and his crew are fighting for their lives. Not everyone is as they initially seem and the ending has a nice twist to it.

If you enjoy technothrillers, this one would be worth your time. It's not up there with the best (Jon Land or Tom Clancy), but it is still entertaining. It is still available through Amazon, even though it was printed ten years ago.

This is an excellent basic primer on the causes of heavy menstrual bleeding and advice for dealing with it. Heavy bleeding can result in anemia, a condition also covered quite adequately. This information is presented in a workbook style, where the reader is first given some education on the subject, then guided to recognize and evaluate her own symptoms using worksheets. What follows is a wealth of advice concerning nutrition, diet, exercise, alternative therapies, drug therapy, and surgical intervention. Since the book covers all heavy menstrual bleeding, no one cause is examined in depth - for specific causes such as fibroid tumors or endometriosis, other sources of information would probably be needed. This book's great strength is its advice on diet, including sample menus and recipes, and its 18 pages of suggested exercise - a simple stretching routine, including several yoga positions. If mild anemia due to excessive menstrual bleeding is your problem, this book is an excellent starting place to inform yourself about what's going on with your body and what you can do to help yourself.

Well, you have to be a fan of the Heavy Metal magazine series to really enjoy this book. Its just all out awseome. Story line is just great, as all other heavy metal stories. I don't want to give away the story line or anything, but I'll just say that it makes me look forward even more to seeing the actual movie next month!