JO

Dobbs and Jacob provide a very good introduction to the history of science at a high school level. This is a rare thing in an academic discipline that, like many others, increasingly limits its audience to other specialists in the field. The chapters are well written and the book avoids being an excessively laudatory biography, despite its focus on one of the "Great Men" of science. If the book has one shortcoming it is that the chapters do not fit together well to form a coherent whole. It shows some of the roughness indicative of a cooperative work.

What a terrific introduction to the origins of modern science! The authors have provided a balanced, lucid and engaging treatment of a pivotal topic in modern science and culture. The book falls into two parts. The first section provides a thumbnail sketch of Newton's life and scientific achievements, written with a talent for abbreviated grace. The second section shifts to the multifaceted impact of Newton's achievement and surveys the origins of both the Enlightenment and the First Industrial Revolution with panache. The authors, top scholars in their fields, have written an excellent, short book on a big subject for students and the general reader. It's just what we need but rarely get.

The first time I played this game I used this straategy guide, it helped me a whole lot, but the item lists and maps were very confusing. But the walkthrough really helped me. I reccomend it to people that have a general feel for these types of games.

I think of myself as a major Resident Evil fan. I have all the games on all the systems, all the figures and all the books. So, I have all the guides for Resident Evil, as well as Resident Evil 2 and Nemisis. And let me tell you, this one is the best. It does not give away much plot, but has better boss-killing tips than ALL others. Details ane key; and it has them more so than others. Nope, no "Shoot the Tyrant until he dies" here, fellas. And this guide is also in a great format, and easy and fun to read. Take it from a die-hard fan: This is as good as it gets.

Mark Drakeford's book on the Kibbo Kift and the Green shirts is a book that should have be written many years ago. It helps us understand the complex nature of solutions advanced in the 30's toward depression and mass unemployment. The period is remembered for Cable Street, the National Unemployed Workers Movement, fascism, and the Spanish Civil War. The response of radical capitalism has rarely been addressed by the left or the right. Social Credit did not want to abolish capitalism, but recognised the weaknesses of that particular economic system. The study traces the development of the Green Shirts from the Kibbo Kift Kindred. As a historian I felt a certain ambiguity toward the sociological slant of this work, however one must recognise the excellent narrative and use of oral history techniques to deal with the inner life of both movements. The weakness of the book comes from a lack of in depth knowledge of the woodcraft movement that developed independently from Scouting. The realtionship between the Westlakes and Hargrave is not mentioned, nor is the link between eugenics, recapitulation theory and woodcraft in its early ideological form. Another weakness must be the simple chronological narrative Drakeford opts for. He must have gathered plenty of information on Hargrave, yet his intensely complex character is only hinted at. The elitism of the Kibbo Kift passes without too much comment, and the merger talks with the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry get no mention. This is a shame as it casts a particular light on the KKK and Hargrave. The strength of the book lies in subject. The Green shirts were the militant wing of social credit, and Drakeford has raised this fringe group before the eyes of readers of history. Drakeford has accomplished for them what CP Hill achieved for the radicals of the English revolution ie a hearing. Sociological study it may be, but it also important history.

The history of the Kibbo Kift and the Green Shirts is well documented in the book Social Movements and their Supporters - The Green Shirts in England by Mark Drakeford, Lecturer in Social Studies and Applied Social Studies at University of Wales College of Cardiff. While the first chapter is devoted to a discussion of social science methodologies, virtually impenetrable to the layman, the rest of the book is eminently readable and contains many first-hand recollections of former Kindred and Green Shirts. Published in 1997 by MacMillan Press, it can be ordered online at Amazon.

It is good to read the reviews but they can never give the real essence and meat of the story. I have to be honest and say that I love the Regency as a way to get away from the contemporary stories with their loose morals -- [sorry, bed hopping] but I like the people of those times --
Brothers, Jay and Titus seemed to think Bethany was going to be changed by her marriage to Eric. [which was very skillfuly arranged] The situations that Bethany got into in innocently helping Eric were sometimes funny. The villian and his son were obnoxious but all ended well and certainly well worth reading. There is so much more!

Rather a fun book. A father who turns down marriage proposals without reference to his daughter, an elder brother who knows best and is stubborn, a younger brother who is army mad. French soldiers have been seen on the coast of England. Suggestions of spies. A very much unwanted suitor who has elder brother's backing.

These are stiff odds for any heroine. Throw in a hero with secrets. Definitely a fun Traditional Regency, recommended.

From the back cover of the Zebra paperback..

A Lady's Desire

Miss Bethany Whitcombe was most pleased to see a brightly painted wagon rattling up the country road to Whitcombe Hall. Sifting through a tray of tempting wares would be a pleasant diversion-especially with everyone on the shores of Kent waiting anxiously to see if Napoleon would send his soldiers upon the next wave. But it was no ordinary peddler who met her eye with a cool, blue gaze, then came to her aid when smugglers attacked. And now that her grateful father had welcomed her injured rescuer as an honored guest, Bethany would have a chance to discover why the handsome stranger intrigued her so.

A GENTLEMAN'S SECRET Eric Pennington's mission-to find a smuggler's ring reputed to be in league with Bonaparte-was far from easy. But the wrenched shoulder he'd suffered while playing the hero would make it damned near impossible. He needed an unwitting accomplice, and instinct told him to look no further than Lord Whitcombe's lovely daughter. The enchanting Miss Bethany would make an excellent courier.. .if he could manage to keep her insightful mind and keen wit from discerning his secret. And if he could withstand the ungentlemanly urge to uncover hers!

This book is a good resource for builders, architects or people building a house.

Universal Design DOES NOT EQUAL wheelchair accessibility and this book makes that very clear. Universal Design (hereafter UD)means taking into account the best way to design for everyone, not just the small percentage of average height, "able-bodied", 20-50 year old "perfect" people in the world. This book also points out that fewer people want to move in with their kids or into a "home" when they get older. So why build houses that will prevent this from happening?

UD is about making things useable for people of almost all physical conditions; sight-impared, mobility-impared, mentally-impared, size-impared (short or tall), and even "average, healthy" people.

This book makes it abundantly clear that UD is not difficult to do on new construction. UD does not have to add hundreds of square feet to your plan.

The book does not, however, have a lot of photos or ideas on how to make UD attractive. The small number of photos in this book are small, black and white, and poor quality. They do make their point, even though they are not pretty to look at.

The book is FULL (almost cover to cover) of diagrams and line drawings which show the possibilities AND detailed requirements of universal design. Many of the details are wheelchair-oriented, but this is because wheelchair access is often the lowest common denominator.

If you need to be concerned about UD or if you feel that it is a smart thing to do (I firmly believe it is a smart thing to do), then buy this book. There are no pretty, inspiring photos to show you how to do it beautifully, but there are tons of details to make sure you don't do it wrong. EVERY ARCHITECT AND BUILDER OUGHT TO HAVE A COPY OF THIS BOOK.

(P.S. Just think of the "fun" you would have in your current house if you had to use a walker, wheelchair, or only one hand. What about even a broken leg? You WILL more than likely get old sometime. You could even be injured and become disabled (even if only temporarily). Do you want your house to be a barrier in that event? UD really should be something everyone thinks about, seriously!)

Here is a great book that takes into account how our needs and use of the kitchen and bathroom change through life. It goes beyond the idea of providing access for the handicapped and shows how these rooms need to take into account how big or tall or short we are and considers how our ability to do things changes with age. "Universal Kitchen and Bathroom Planning: Design That Adapts To People" is a needed source book whether you are a design professional or a homeowner interested in remodelling.

Finally, a book worth hanging onto. I've read this one before, but it's been long enough that I didn't remember whether I liked McDougall all that well, or whether the pack rat in me was holding onto this, so I took another spin through it. And I was holding onto it because it's good. McDougall writes short, to-the-point, and oftentimes very funny things that conceal the usual subjects of poetry-- pain, loss, existential crises. But it isn't often that they're presented with such good humor:

Coming Back, I Visit Myself

I knock twice on the door of the old apartment. A woman lets me in. My silver toiletries. My plants. My knife and fork and napkin. I look to see what has died or been given away but everything is here.

I say nothing. I am not supposed to say anything. I poke my head in the closet looking for the good green dress.

---

Oftentimes it seems that the best poetry is created with unexpected juxtaposition, just as the best humor is, and one wonders at times why humor is not used as a device more often in poetry. And while I'd hesitate to go so far as to draw a comparison between McDougall, a relatively understated humorist, and Mel Brooks, it's certainly not out of the question. This is a fine little book, one which will remain on my shelves to be read again after enough time has passed that I have let the memory of the small pleasures contained herein blur, and I'll likely be just as pleasantly surprised again at how good a book this is.

"The Woman in the Next Booth" is the quietly feminist, subtly pungent work of a woman I labeled in a review some years ago as "the most underrated poet . . . in America."

Like the rain in the Delta she comes from, McDougall's poems sneak up on you, catch you unawares. Their effect can be chilling or warming, and surprising either way.

If there's something wrong with this collection, it's the title--taken, as such titles are, from a poem within. The title might spur in many men, even of literary bent, a sniff of disdain, and give the whiff of something "too" feminine for male notice. Wrong: These poems punch, even as they whisper.

I've heard McDougall read, and I've heard an audience literally gasp, collectively, at one or other of her lines. And I hear her voice in this collection.

As a writer, I aspire to her delicacy and power. And, as a linguist and teacher, I delight in the way McDougall herself delights in licking the syllables.

If you're not chronically postmodern or terminally hip and you think there's something worth reading for in Ciardi, Frost, Sandburg, or Eliot, pick up "The Woman in the Next Booth"--or, for that matter, any of McDougall's collections. It won't be the last you'll buy.

This is an attempt to correct some of the points made in the KIRKUS review. Before a critic even starts to express an opinion, he or she should present the contents of the book under review accurately and scrupulously. The KIRKUS critic, however, sets off with generalizations, backed up by blatant misinterpretation and inaccuracy. Commenting on the poem "Brief Encounter" he mentions the poet hearing a 'hummingbird trill'. But the bird in question clearly is a nightingale, and hummingbirds do not trill anyway. The most casual reading of theses poems quickly reveals that they are not concerned with 'sacralizing' od presenting a 'comfortable'or 'comforting' view of nature. Already the title of the book suggests that the contents will be anything but reassuring. The poet is not looking at nature for comfort but reflecting on how marginalized nature has become. For example, in "Red Admirals" there is a description of a car passing over butterflies which have been killed by a previous vehicle but then are lifted briefly off the road by the rushing air. In the poem about geese the writer is again placing what is left of nature against the background of human destructiveness: nature is not seen directly, but through glass; it is like something registered, if at all, behind a screen. The KIRKUS reviewer does actually note that the illustrations are 'somber', but doesn't seem to have thought that there might be some connection between the dark pictures and the mood of the poems. I found his notes extremely ill-informed and misleading; the book in question, however, highly recommendable.

If there is one thing Gypsy Elliott knows, it's that most people working the logging camps in the north woods are hiding something. But Adam Lassiter, the logger with a broken ankle whom her boss puts in her kitchen to work while he heals, is different, not as rough, not as hardened. Set in the cold, unforgiving northwest, Jo Ann Ferguson's Anything For You pits a dauntless heroine and a worthy hero against incredible odds. Enchanting.

A little girl's Grandma came to live with her and her Grandma had to share her room. The Grandma missed her house and her cat's that she gave to her neighbor. The little girl planted flowers when it was winter so that in the spring they would grow. This is my 2nd favorite anglewings book.

We found this book to be visually engaging while presenting many jumping off points for discussions of art. The question and answer format is very engaging for the 8 - 10 year old audience. While this is only an introduction and not a comprehensive study it introduces kids to many significant and well-known works of art in an interesting and fun way.