Opening

Who would've thought that so many murders could occur in theatres? But then again, it's all a case of life imitating art, and no one does this better than Ngaio Marsh. It's not surprising when you realize that she was a stage director/producer in New Zealand. _Night at the Vulcan_ beautifully captures the atmosphere unique to the theatre, while laying out a very clever case of murder made to look like suicide. This is all told through the eyes of Martyn Tarne, a young lady newly arrived to the London theatre scene, making it all the more interesting. The only reason that I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5, was that the identity of the murderer became a little too obvious, in my opinion, but all in all, a fantastic read.

Exceptionally written even by Marsh's normally high standard, NIGHT AT THE VULCAN drips with atmosphere of actor's egos, opening nights, and greasepaint--not to mention murderous intent. The plot is unusually complex, revolving around the opening of a highly allegorical drama by a demanding author, whose professional tantrums are more than matched by the personal dramas of the cast, all of whom come under suspicion of murder when opening night is overshadowed by unexpected murder. Excellent and extremely enjoyable, peopled with the colorful characterizations that Marsh creates so well. One of the best.

Night at the Vulcan has everything; sympathetic (and endearing) characters, lots of Shakespearean quotes, realistic dialogue, two very different (but equally satisfying) love stories, gorgeous prose...all of the things I read Ngaio for. The character of Martyn Tarne is one I wish Ngaio had re-used in a later book (like she did with some characters from "Death of a Peer" and "Killer Dolphin.").

Ngaio Marsh is my favorite author, and Night at the Vulcan is my favorite Ngaio Marsh. 'Nuff said.

The Osbournes have gained fame not just for pioneering the reality TV show (and succeeding in it the way pretty much nobody else has), but for letting the masses in on their family life. It's weird, it's wacky, and when you pare it down it's pretty close to anyone else's family life. And that includes dogs peeing on the furniture, music, thongs, the arrogance of big sisters, getting tattoos, and much more.

"Officially Osbourne" is an episode guide (first season) interspersed with biographies, interviews, and information. Each of the bios includes favorite music, birth date, video games, personal philosophies, what their family members say about them, and then an interview. Each episode has a basic summary (about two or three paragraphs) and a slew of pictures. Also there are best lines ("Bubbles? Oh come on, Sharon! I'm the Prince of #$&*in' Darkness!"), and highlights (a fire in the kitchen -- "the first one in the new house").

There are chapters on other topics too: On Melinda Verga, a lower-key employee, on home decor (black, antiques, and crucifixes), the different rooms in the house, and on the pets (dogs and cats, most memorably Lola). One chapter is devoted to Ozzy and Sharon's parenting methods, and what their kids think of those methods. And most tantalizing of all is the chapter where they talk about what never made it onto your TV screen...

This book captures some of the spirit that infuses the Osbourne TV show. The coverage and interviews with Ozzy, smart wife Sharon and kids Jack and Kelly (Aimee declined to be in the show). Their attitudes are refreshingly honest and open -- in a celebrity subculture where people say prescripted, inoffensive lines, the Osbournes will tell the world what they do and don't like (Kelly hates pop singers, for example).

The pages are likably colorful, not just black text on white paper. The pictures are a slightly more mixed bag -- there are a lot of them on almost every page in the book, of everyone: The house, the furnishings, the dogs... unfortunately, many are too small to look at easily, and some are blurred. Many are quite good, clear and well-lit.

"We're not the #$&*ing Partridge Family" -- Sharon said it best. And "Officially Osbourne" takes some of the best elements from the TV show and commits them to paper. Definitely recommended for people who watch the show.

Officially Osbourne is an excellent guide to the Osbournes. It shares details of the episodes, profiles of the family members, untold stories, interviews, parents' advice from Sharon and Ozzy, and more. The pictures in this book are mostly animated, and while regular photos would have been great, it does add a more fun approach to the book. This is a must have for fans. You'll learn so much more about the Osbournes.

For any Osbourne fan, this is the book to get. It has every detail you ever wanted to know about the show. Great pictures and interviews, as well as info you didn't know!

This is a story about a nurse (Zainaba) who lives in Mauritana. Zainaba and her friend has established a training "programme" for traditional midwives living in isolated communites. As part of the "programme" they discuss female circumcision to the midwives. This story is very informing and interesting.

I absolutely love this book.
It gave me a wholistic view of women's lives in the Middle East. I love the combination of short fictional stories, autobiographies, and essays. This book is entertaining as well as mind opening.

Six years ago my girlfriend gave me this book, I am ever grateful to her and the persons who compiled these writings. As an American born Arab woman, Opening the gates gave me a sense of pride to be Arab and to be an Arab woman that no other book has done. I actually read stories in this book that my aunt (a woman with no formal education, living in a small village under Israeli occupation in the West Bank) used to tell me as a child. I was able to see that even in the simplist of Arab women and even as far back as a hundred years, flickers the flame of independence and the yearning to be recognized and appreciated as equal contributing members of society and mankind.

Opening to God is about just that, opening to God's will and his movements within the soul and in the world. It is a very practical guide to discernment. I have used it with high school students who sometimes found the vocabulary and some concepts beyond them, and it is not full of poetic glimpses of the Divine mystery. It is a well grounded and faith filled view of how the Christian can faithfully seek the will of God.

This book is really great. It will open your heart to GOd. God is great! Thomas Greene opens our minds and hearts.

This is an excellent book which I would reccommend to any Christian who wants to develop a more meaningful prayer relationship with God. I've read numerous books on prayer, but this one far outshines any of the others. Concise and practical, it is also very understandable and readable for the average layman. If you want to learn how to greatly improve your prayer life, snatch this one up!

The Zohar relates that every generation has an incarnation of the soul of Moses. As Moses was the first redeemer of the Jewish nation, he represented the collective spiritual soul of the Jewish people.In modern timeas the Jews have finally returned to their ancient homeland, Israel, as a free and independent people.Again the Jews had various redeemers and leaders, latter day incarnations of the spirit of Moses. This volume is the story of a latter day redemption of a small group of Jews and their final return to Israel. This was accomplished by the dedicated work of a small group of Jews who were a collective representation of Moses the earliest redeemer of the Jews. Although most Jews had left the Islamic kingdom of Yemen in 1948-1950 upon hearing of the estableshment of the state of Israel, a small group remained behind ' completely forgotten by their brethern in Israel and the free world. Only some 30 years later did a small band of Yemenite Jews in the U.S. and Israel band together to lobby the free world to push for the liberation of the remaining several thousand Jews of Yemen. led by the author of the book, Dr. Hayim Tawil, They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in placing this issue on the dockets of international diplomacy. With much hard work, this so-called track two diplomacy was indeed responsible for the liberation of Yemen'S Jews. This book relates this struggle, in all its detail. Its depicts the unusual and odd characters involved in this struggle, as well as the condition and culture of the Jews of Yemen. All this was done in a very quiet fashion, hence little has been told of this noble struggle until now. The volume reads well, and makes for very interesting reading.There are no real villians in this book, as all parties were interested in allowing the Jews to leave Yemen, it was just a matter of developing the proper mechanism , by which no party would lose face. Thus the heroes are the Yemeni government, the Jews of Yemen themselves, and the United states state Dept. and last but not least the small band of Yemenite Jews who worked with great devotion on behalf of their bretheren. In the end most of the Jews were allowed to leave and were re-united with their families. With their mission accomplished these activists returned to their private lives.Today only a handful of Jews remain in Yemen.

I am a co-author of this book. In operation Esther, we tried to present a precise and honest account of how between 1988 and 1992, private citizens such Dr. Tawil from New York, William Wolf from Phoenix, and a small number of simple US, and foreign citizens such as myself, worked hand in hand with the government of the United States, and with the government of the Yemen Arab Republic towards the "opening of the doors for the last Jews of Yemen". Our focus was not on receiving permission for the Jews to got to Israel. This was not a political issue. Rather it was a purely human-right matter. We simply demanded full implementation of existing laws of the Yemen Arab Republic, granting in theory, freedom of travel, emigration, and family reunification anywhere on the planet, to all Yemeni citizens without distinction of race, sex or religion. Understandably, our description at the beginning of the book, of the situation of the Jewish community in the Yemen Arab Republic before 1988, is very gloomy. I think, however, that as we describe the slow changes that occurred under our pressure, the human face of the Yemeni officials became apparent. Ultimately, when we reached our goal and unrestricted freedom of travel was granted to all the Jewish citizens of Yemen in 1991, the Yemeni government appeared as the true winner. This was the test-case for this government to obtain international recognition of it's new born democratic system. At my opinion, Dr. Abdel Karim Al-Yriani, who is now the Prime Minister of Yemen played the most decisive role in this important page of Middle-East's history. It illustrates how in the last decade, both Dr. Al-Yriani and president Saleh transformed Yemen from a totalitarian, militarily-ruled country into the most advanced democracy of the Arab world, with multi-party parliamentary elections, a relatively free and pluralistic press and a much improved track of human right violations. This book also reports on serious clashes we had with the Israeli Mossad. The situation was very simple. They had been in charge of the whole matter for three miserable decades during which not a single Jewish family had been reunited. Now that we were succeeding restoring contacts between separated families and we were preparing for their departure, the Mossad understandably wanted full control. But, keeping in mind our goal, we refused any Mossad involvement because its presence, even in the back stage of our operation, might have had jeopardize our efforts. Keeping whole issue apolitical and strictly at the level of the Human rights was the way to go. The book tells about our struggle and how we succeeded, despite the contradicting efforts of the Israeli Mossad, to bring to the reunification of the Jewish families in Israel, in the US and in the UK. It should be noted that the hundreds of thousands of Jews born in Yemen, but that left Yemen before October 26, 1962, are still not allowed to travel to Yemen. As in the darkest ages of the Soviet Union, departing Jews from Yemen in the years 1948-1962 became deprived, by default, of their citizenship. This act, which was perpetrated by the previous government of the Imams, was against international laws. However, by preventing Yemeni born Jews that live now in Israel, from obtaining Yemeni passports and reenter their country of origin, the present democratic state of Yemen remains in violation of international laws. This is why, I must confess that the tittle of our book is not yet completely meeting our expectations. The door will be opened only once complete freedom of travel will be granted, both ways, in and out, to all the Yemeni born citizens that still miss their country of origin.

Pierre Goloubinoff Ph. D. Head, Department of Plant Science The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 91904, Jerusalem, Israel email: pierre@vms.huji.ac.il

The modern rescue of the remaining Jews from the Arab nation of Yemen is truly a study of what a small band of determined human rights advacates can accomplish on a global scale. The government of Israel was totally unable for 30 years to do anything about the plight of the remaining Jews in Yemen, with families separated for over 30 years with no contact at all - no letters, phone calls or visits. People would live and die totally separated from their loved ones, with not even information of the situation being available to the other family members. This rescue is an example for all right minded people that hard work can result in human dignity and freedom for the oppressed people in this world, and that they cannot be forgotten.

This is a great reference book for looking up chess terms. Did you think that "Skittles" was the same as blitz chess in that a clock is used for example? (I did when I was reading Fischer's annotations in My 60 memorable games!) Your wrong! Skittles is "casual or friendly game or games played fast and without a clock". The book is also very strong on player biographies showing photos and key games.

I don't believe the reader from Athens, GA that said this book helped his game. DON'T buy this book if you are looking for a book that will improve your game. (Its highly doubtful that you would improve much even after HOURS or even DAYS of reading this book.)

This book is a REFERENCE book only!! And it is a true jewel. I have both the '92 edition (In Hard-back), and the 96 editon. (A gift from one of my students that left the area. Obviously I would not buy the book, if I already owned a copy - I am not rich ... yet!) I can not help but believe that this book was the result of YEARS of work by the author(s).

Want to know what a chess "Automaton" is? Do you know what "The Bavarian Variation" is? What the "Noteboom" variation is? When a player lived? What was "Player X's" greatest tournament triumph? What happenned in "Cambridge Springs, 1904." ?? You will find the answer to all these questions, plus much more, in this book. Plus many nice photo's too.

For the chess lover who wants a good reference to look up virtually anything about chess. Or just the player who would enjoy hours of reading and learning about their great game. And for the real chess benefactors: Buy one and give it to the local library!! Get it today!! You'll thank me tomorrow!

This book really helped me in my chess-playing. As the review above says, it describes many many different words, terms, etc. It explains everything from the rules to what a zugzwang is (i wish this had a spell-checker). Best book on chess ever! (p.s. the '92 edition isn't a lot worse than this '96 edition)

It covers thirty topics from America's past, and attempts to provide answers to these questions. Some are controversial, and some will never be solved to most people's satisfaction. But they all make for interesting reading. Each chapter lists books for further reading.

Chapter 14 discusses the death of Davy Crockett. Contemporary reports said he surrendered, then was executed. This also happened to the Anglos after the defeat in Zacatecas, the state that also rebelled against the seizure of power by Santa Ana.

Chapter 15 discusses the battle of Gettysburg, and how General Lee hoped to use JEB Stuart's cavalry. He didn't mention that George Armstrong Custer's cavalry defeated Stuart and helped the Union victory.

Chapter 18 deals with Sacco and Vanzetti. Dr. Henry C. Lee's "Famous Crimes Revisited" has a chapter that tells of the forged ballistic evidence. It also has a chapter on the Lindbergh kidnapping: Hauptmann did not write that ransom note! Why did the dog do nothing on that night?

Chapter 22 asks if FDR knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor in advance; the answer is YES. Curt Gentry's 1989 biography of J Edgar Hoover notes that in July 1941 Ian Fleming brought in a Nazi spy who was assigned to scout Pearl Harbor to see if an attack was feasible. Robert B Stinnett's "Day of Deceit" finally solved this question when he discovered an action plan from October 1940. It listed the steps necessary to provoke Japan into war. When the last step was taken in July 1941, Japan decided to go to war.

Chapter 23 asks if dropping the atom bomb on Japan was necessary. There was a secret protocol to the Yalta Treaty. Stalin agreed to break their Peace Treaty and attack Japan 90 days after the end of the European war. The first bomb on August 6 did not end the war. Russian declared war on August 9 and swept through Manchuria. The Japanese Militarists then knew that resistance was futile.

Chapter 25 ask "Who Killed JFK?". It took hardened criminals to pull the triggers, experienced agents to plan this executive action, and high-level members of the ruling class to cover it up. The 1974 novel "Winter Kills" by Richard Condon provides a symbolic solution. Mark North's "Act of Treason" builds on the work of others.

Chapter 29 discusses the missing 18 minutes on that Nixon tape. About twenty years ago I saw a TV interview of Nixon; he said the missing minutes were "about the Bay of Pigs". H R Haldeman's "The Ends of Power" explain this code word.

Chapter 30 deals with the Reagan's selling government property (military arms) to the Iranians, and then diverting this money to private parties (rebels in Nicaragua). This violation of the law could have been used to impeach Reagan! Reagan's chosen biographer said "Reagan was senile in his second term"; he was truly the Acting President.

Does not try to force pet answers to vast historial questions, but gives the readers a good foundation for thought and further study. As a high school history teacher I would want my students to step into something like this; rather than the water down junk in most texts.

This book gives all of its readers a very interesting and in depth veiw of the major events that have shaped America's History. even if you dont know abot all of the events that are included within its pages, it is stil very intriuging. I would say that if if American History floats your boat give this book a read.

Introduces the Bible as more of a spiritual tool to be used as an encounter with God, rather than a literary work full of facts and suppositions. Reminds us of the purpose of God's Word, as expressed in the Scriptures.

This book gives an excellent frame of reference with which to read the Bible. Merton clearly addresses what the Bible is and what it is not, what to expect and what not to expect. This book prompts the reader to examine their own life and purposes; it calls on the reader to have a personal relationship with the Word of God. It cautions the reader who reads with a proscribed agenda and begs each individual to set aside their own preconceived ideas and let the Bible speak to them in its own way.

Merton wholehearedly accepts that fact that the Bible can be shocking, boring, questioning, and tedious. But at the same time he doesn't want us to simply disregard that which doesn't make sense to us in one momentary reading. Instead he wants us to accept the Bible in its wholeness even though we may not understand all of it at once.

He further asserts that "the Bible is a 'worldly' book in the sense that it sees God at the very center of man's life, his work, his relations with his fellow man, his love of his wife and children, his play and his joy." He continually reiterates that the central message in the Bible is one of unity, reconciliation and wholeness.

Altogether, this outstanding book can help open your mind and give you a proper frame of reference for reading the Bible.

Merton's Classic opens one to the Word and its uses not only in our prayer life, but our daily lives as well. This well written treatise calls one to question their lives and to read God's Word more frequently.

The book is pretty complete in what variations are, but it lacks complete games and explanations to understand the ideas behind the opening, plans etc.

Other thing to mention is that, its printing it's a bit hard to read, I've seen books easier to read, (not that the printing quality is bad, I mean the diagramming and the font used).

Also it lacks the variation (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4) perhaps it's more of another opening, but I think it should be included, since Petroff defense players will find with this in the way.

I've never taken the Petroff defence seriously (1.e4 e5, 2.Nf3 Nf6). It seemed a novelty that i would encounter every blue moon. It also had a reputation as being drawish. However, my style the last few years has been to throw something at my opponent he doesn't quite fully understand and dictating how the opening proceeds. I know i didn't have a real clue as to what would happen when facing the Petroff. I also have a used copy of Winning With the Petroff by Anatoly Karpov. If Karpov has success with the Petroff and endorses it, it must be sound. You can almost be guarenteed an exciting open game while maintaining a solid position. If you're tired of the same old Ruy Lopez or Guioco Piano as Black, or prefer a more open position than what the Philidor defence offers (2.Nf3 d6) and prefer answering 1.e4 with 1...e5, then this is the book for you.

In my chess games, my king-pawn opening had repeatedly been thwarted by the Petroff Defense. Until I bought this book. It has improved my skills 1000%. Thanks, Petroff Defense.

Provides a wealth of insight into one of the more off-beat schemes of defense for the Black pieces. The system features the moves g6, Bg7, and c6 or d6 for Black, is easy to learn, especially for kids, because the same basic moves can be played by Black against almost any opening played by White. My 8 yr-old son's USCF rating has climbed from 500 to almost 1000 in just 4 months using this system. In my view, it is for Black what such straight-forward openings like the Colle are to White.

Norwood has written a treatise on how to play the Modern that is like an "insider's" guide. He know this opening, its ups and downs (and sideways). Even though it is called "Winning with," it is written objectively. In fact, it starts out with several lengthy chess quotes about he weakness of the king's finachetto. He tells you what to look out for, and teaches you the ideas and strategies for the most common lines. He discusses many important themes: transpositions, counterattack, restraint, and many others. This book has a nice index and is very well written. It is a gripping account of this wonderful defence. I have been so pleased since I tracked down and bought this book.

David Norwood lives and breathes the Modern, and it comes through in this wonderful and highly unappreciated book. Norwood is a great writer, and better yet, he is cool. Not goofy cool, or "wow, isn't chess amazing" cool. Just cool. He gets it, and he knows how to teach it and how to express it. I love all of his works, and am sure that there are many chess fans out there who would love this book if they could only see it. There are lengthy explanations of the ideas behind the Modern, viewpoints of it, pro and con (for instance he quotes at length from a work of Akiba Rubinstein (1926) explaining why finachetto openings are not good.) I have never seen this type of frankness in a book like this. He really explains it well, and then shows how things work in many of his own games. If you like the Modern or the Pirc, you NEED this book, even if you already have Pirc Alert, Modern Defence (McDonald, Speelman), etc. This one is really great.