Pricey

I really looked forward to seeing this book. The subject matter is dear to my heart and a quick glance through the illustrations promised a great deal. But, despite some interesting interviews with ex-employees and some great Roy Cross artwork, much of the dialog is rather bland and insipid and it actually became a bit of a chore trying to get to the end of the book. Part of the problem is that there are some bits of Airfix history which really aren't worth celebrating but which the author has presumably felt duty bound to include to the detriment of the overall package and it's also very frustrating to find references in the text to kits which aren't illustrated in the book. A few more reference photos would have been nice but please, why the grubby looking cover?

The sad thing is that I probably had all of the models at least once! A real nostalga trip. More photographs needed. If you were/are not into Airfix then this isn't the book for you! otherwise you'll love it.

If you grew up loving models and model airplanes, you probably built at least one Airfix kit. If the dramatic box top illustration encouraged you to dig a little deeper into your pocket and purchase that kit, you probably have Roy Cross to thank. Some of these models became prized display pieces, others met an untimely fate at the mercy of a book of matches or firecrackers.

Just about every Airfix kit you remember, and several you may have forgotten, are presented. The pictures brought back many fond memories, and the text gave me a fine overview of the history of the company and its kits. Yes, there are better detailed and more modern kits available in hobby stores today, but the old-fashioned offerings of Airfix, heavy-handed rivet detail, thick canopies and all continue to hold a special place in the hearts of those of us who have been with this hobby for several decades. My main critique concerns the repetitiveness of the book and its poor organization; the manuscript definitely could have used a helping hand of a good editor. However, as with the kits themselves, Airfix aficionados like myself are willing to overlook such shortcomings.

Well laid out. Impressive library of informatin here. To the person who complained about not enough detail on Zeiss, you should have read the authors' forward in the very front of the book.

If you are the type to browse "Ebay" or other online auctions, or buy at flea-markets etc., you should not be without this book.

It is a guide for mainstream photographic equipment, that the average photographer is going to want to buy. It is not a guide to specialized, high end or collectible goods.

That being said; heres' my soapbox: I would like to see more detail in the area of lighting equipment. Currently, lighting has only prices listed, with none of the listings of features etc. of various models, such as the cameras and lenses do. Ditto for exposure meters. Also, how about going into the darkroom? I think alot more people would be interested in a buying guide to enlargers etc. than a 4x5 view camera.

Overall, I'm satisfied with the book.

I bought my first McBroom Price Guide to Modern Cameras in 1991, and have added subsequent updates as they have become available.
He gives information about readily available equipment and accessories, with prices.
It is a valuable guide to everyone who enjoys buying and using cameras.If you are interested in older cameras that are still available, they also are described here. Armed with this book, you can shop for cameras with confidence.
I recommend it highly!

I have found this book to be very informative, helping me to appraise, buy and sell with confidence. I have noticed that some of the prices for rarer items are somewhat inflated in the book, as well as items in the book being priced to low compared to real-world (like eBay) prices, but, that is how the market is. Overall, if not for the prices, the specifics of each camera model covered are well worth the price!

This book was an big disappointment, and not as advertised.It only contains an small amount of information on Peanuts Collectibles. I would not recommend it.

Wonderful and warm. Shows the heart and soul of Peanuts collecting. It's not just a price guide, it's a friend.

If you are looking for a single book that displays a wide variety of Peanuts Memorabilia, this is the one for you. I was surprised to see almost every item I've collected over the years presented in this book. The only downside that I found was the lack of space given for plush items, and toys. Nonetheless, you will not be disappointed.

Beware of long convoluted gobbledygook from anyone. It won't work. This book is a fine example -- Check out chapter 10, "Future Forecasts". Carolan says there will be a big top about October 1995. Was there? No. Then "Expect a major low in the Dow Jones Industrial Average near Monday, July 27, 1998." There was a small low in October which led to the rally into 2000 but all July had was a small top. This guy is batting 0 for 2, which is perhaps to be expected given his odd semi-astrological methods. There are tons of good ways to measure the market that do work. You don't need this book. I stopped to review it because I am now on my way to recycle it along with some other waste paper.

Chris Carolan's Spiral Calendar brings to light the undeniable discovery that important market moves can be linked together in time using a more natural, and therefore more efficient time system based on Fibonacci and our own moon. By "more efficient" I mean "more efficient than man-made time units."
This is one of those books where you will need to read it once over, put it away for a few days, then read it again in order to be able to fully grasp everything that is being said. It can get pretty complicated at some points, but Chris does his best to display the information and explain things in a way that makes the most sense.
Yes, as a previous reviewer pointed out, some of the systems have not yet been perfected. You must understand that this is only the tip of the iceberg for a completely new way of looking at not only market behavior but the world around us. Chris lays the basic foundation for what I hope one day will be pursued as a real supplement to market forecasting, especially Elliott Wave (and if no one else does, I am, so it'll get done one way or another).
In a way, this book may be the modern day equal to the R.N. Elliott's original writings back in the 30's; a great discovery but very much in its infancy.
So this book is about as "complete" as you can get because it tells pretty much all that is currently known on the subject at this time.

This book is a must read for all traders and/or markets watchers or students.
However I wonder what the other reviewer from Fort Worth wrote: it is quite complicated and not stricly related to the text. Maybe if he could elaborate....
thanks
JC

Hardly the best collection from the early Lovecraft acolytes, but one that will certainly appeal to the fourteen-year-old in everyone who loves the Mythos. Editor Price is an admirable scholar of this particular niche in literature, here providing rarely anthologized stories tracing the early evolution of Lovecraft's ideas as practiced by his (generally) less famous pulp fiction contemporaries and fans.

The majority of these offerings are in the "freebooting adventurer meets his doom in forbidden archaeology" vein, a la Conan creator Robert E. Howard - two of whose stories (and only one really a Mythos tale) are duly reprinted, "The Thing on the Roof" and "The Fire of Assurbanipal." Robert Bloch's "Fane of the Black Pharaoh," not one of his best but still not bad, has a British explorer running afoul of an ancient Brotherhood protecting the secrets of a mad Egyptian prophet-king. Clark Ashton Smith's "The Seven Geases" concerns the hypnotic magic of a long-forgotten serpent race, who sacrifice men to their unspeakable dark god. August Derleth - you didn't expect he'd miss out on the act, did you? - collaborates with Mark Schorer on "Lair of the Star-Spawn," detailing a missing archaeologist's plan to stop those same serpent-people from releasing their demon-gods upon mankind. (Derleth is also represented by his own virtual plagiarism of Algernon Blackwood, in "Ithaqua" and "The Thing That Walked On the Wind.") E. Hoffman Price's "The Lord of Illusion" and Henry Hasse's "The Guardian of the Book" tell stories of extraterrestrial wayfarers through the gates of time and space, uncovering ancient and extra-dimensional secrets.

Other offerings include more straightforward horror stories, such as Henry Kuttner's "Bells of Horror" and "The Invaders," C. Hall Thompson's "Spawn of the Green Abyss," Carl Jacobi's "The Aquarium" and Duane W. Rimel's "Music of the Stars." Many of these, like Derleth's stories and Bertram Russell's "The Scourge of B'Moth," are essentially...rehashes of recognizable Lovecraft classics, though one or two are fairly original and worthwhile.

And for those who long for the occasional chuckle-break from all the melodramatically histrionic proceedings, Donald A. Wollheim's "The Horror Out of Lovecraft" and Fritz Leiber's "To Arkham and the Stars" will fit the bill - the latter, especially, as it comically rapes virtually every famous story Lovecraft ever wrote (with love, of course).

These aren't all the stories included in this volume, but they are indicative of the rest - certainly sufficient for anyone to determine whether or not Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos will be worth the "Price."

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's something at my window. It seems to be - oh, my God! Words cannot describe the utter blasphemous horror of the nameless dread somehow made flesh incarnate! Someone save me, before I succumb to that unutterable -

This is a solid collection of "pulp" stories out of the Lovecraft tradition ranging from fair to excellent. Some of Price's selections may be arguable, for instance, Howard's "The Fire of Ashurbanipal" or Smith's "The Seven Geases". Both have produced tales that are rooted firmer in the Lovecraft mythos, but the first is the alternate version of the tale of the same title, difficult to find, and the second is simply one of Smith's best stories. Even the Derleth contributions are good tales, centering around his more intruiging and more independent creation Ithaqua. A couple of oddities and relics round off the book.

Price's introduction and defense of Derleth's systemizing of the mythos is less than successful. He argues, more or less, that the roots of the elemental system and the struggle of good vs. evil deities lie in Lovecraft's own tales. For instance, both Derleth's and Lovecraft's protagonists bestow upon the entities negative moral adjectives and connotations. Although I agree with Price that Derleth has been lambasted undeservedly by many contemporary critics, his arguments, in the end, are unconvincing. Though Lovecraft and Derleth both describe the evil from an antropocentric view, Derleth's objective description of the Cthulhu Mythos is explicitly in analogy with Christian mythology and, one should admit, systematic theology, while Lovecraft is objectively explicit in the complete indifference, chaos, and contingency that is breaking in upon a mechanistic materialistic reality.

The two stances, and thus the frames of their tales, couldn't be further apart from each other. If Derleth and Lovecraft weren't that different in the end, as Price suggests, the question arises why Derleth's stereotypical tales (which were really clever advertisings for his Arkham House) easily published in the worst pulp magazines, while Lovecraft barely sold any of his own. One could make an analogy with the immensely popular Hammer films of the sixties and seventies, usually depicting stereotypical struggles between good and evil, and the many contemporary horror films that reached deeper than mere dichotomies have been largely forgotten. Even so, Price offers valuable points in defense of Derleth and criticism of recent Lovecraft scholarship.

my first experience with pulp came through this collection, and it is still my favorite. the early masters of pulp and their greatest stories (or almost) are collected here. this collection is excellent, particularly as an introduction to pulp. it's not too weird, focuses a lot on descriptions and understandable plots. gathered here are writers like kuttner, howard, hall thompson, derleth........ filled with masterpieces. great stories.

Unlike the other reviews, I thought the book was not that technical at all. The book at first seemed to dedicate too many pages to the same topics you find in every beginner astro book, telescope types, eyepiece types, etc... The information on the planets were not as detailed as I had hoped (sans Saturn). Most of this information and much more can be found on the Web. I did think the chapter on the minor planets was worth the read.

I must admit, my opinion of this book may have been heavily skewed because I "accidentally" read the introduction. In there, Fred Price compares planetary astronomers to real "observers" and anyone who observes deep-sky objects to "sightseers".

Hmmm... the AAVSO might differ with that opinion, as would a number of organizations who do deep sky research. Maybe I was just too sensitive, but the introduction did rub me the wrong way. It is true, I do often "sight see" deep sky objects for the challenge of seeing something I had not seen and to improve my "observing eye" (ability to see detail with your eyes). I do not care what Dr. Price thinks of me in doing so. However, I know many people who think the opposite way, that observing the planets is a dull and boring task that already much is known about. I think both sides are wrong to be so damned elitist about it.

Besides that, it is a good book :-)

I was surprised by the technical flavor of this book, as I expected (wrongly, it turned out) a beginner to mid-level observation handbook which I could take out with me on my observation trips.

The book is over 400 pages long, all written in 10 point Times font. There are very little illustrations and photo, and they are all in black and white. So it looks like a college science textbook and is very challenging visually.

Each of the sections on each planet have the same subsections such as "History of Observation" (mostly useless to me), "Observing [Jupiter, etc.]" and "Space craft Obsevation of [Jupiter, etc.]"

It also seems that to see most of the stuff described in this book, you need to have a telescope that is at least 8 inches, so that is out of my league.

However, in fairness, I know that this is a very compresensive book on the subject, and answers all possible questions that one may have on observing the planets.

But as I said, this book is more suitable for the advanced amateur Astronomer.

This terrific book is an illustrated and textual exposition of the Solar System - a guided tour of the planets and their characteristics - from the transients of Mercury to eclipses and occultations of Pluto and Charon. Except for a few singular and minor omissions, The Planet Observer's Handbook qualifies as one of the best works on the Solar System to date. In fact we've included it on the Belmont Society's "Required Reading List" for the amateur astronomer.

Advanced amateurs may want to skim through the first chapters - dealing with telescope types, accessories, components of the celestial sphere, and introductory terminology. There are however, some eye-catching moments for jaded readers, like the apodizing (antidifraction) screen, a simple homemade device to limit diffraction and the effects of atmospheric turbulence while not adversely affecting image contrast or quality (it's actually an old trick, but not that well known).

This book was not intended to be a "post card catalog" of pretty pictures. Thus there are no contemporary photographs such as pictures of Venus from the HST, or a Cassinni fly-by image of Io against the festooned background of Jupiter. There are however, many pertinent photos and illustrations to serve historic interest and to offer educational impact. We find this arrangement to be perfectly suitable and appropriate.

Some may be surprised and/or a little disappointed that our moon is not included here. But keep in mind that the moon is a subject unto itself, and thus deserves a work of a separate magnitude - and there are several available.

There are some disappointments: Aside from some basic illustrations for the purpose of scale, this work is notably lacking in accurate renditions of the orbital planes of major satellites. Also, in light of various discussions about several other oddities, there is virtually none (or even any speculation) about the drastic tilt of Uranus. We find this to be curiously conspicuous, as it's one of the most striking anomalies in the Solar System.

There is skillful discussion of little-known and much-neglected Solar System components, like the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud, and some insightful speculation of such things as their respective associations with short and long term comets. There is also some discussion of an almost ubiquitous "Planet-X", the existence of which is argued to this day as being the cause for Neptunian perturbations. This parallels some speculation (or at least the opinion) that Pluto and Charon are in fact not the ninth planet and its moon, but simply major lost-in-space chunks of accreted or captured "debris".

We found the brief presentation and subsequent explanation of Bode's Law to be the best we have seen offered in a non-college level text. This intriguing mathematical statement is so staggeringly significant, (yet surprisingly simple) that it boggles the mind.

Finally, there is considerable discussion of the data and knowledge that can be contributed by amateur astronomers. This discussion is a clever form of interactive "provocation" and is to be applauded. Author Price emphatically encourages dedicated amateurs to take up the gauntlet, and involve themselves in observational contributions to the sciences, and he makes a fair attempt at describing how to accomplish it, including addresses of where to send your observations and data. However, you shouldn't feel bad if you don't have the time or the inclination to engage in such ambitious activities.

The average amateur astronomer who is even mildly interested in the Solar System will benefit greatly from this work, and will likely gain a great deal of knowledge and insight about the countless and innumerable objects that circle the Sun.

Highly recommended.

Despite describing himself as an "outlaw" Christian, Price makes it clear from the outset that his views are of the conventional variety when he describes the Resurrection as "a firmly attested fact." (p. 28) Miracles are part of the fabric of his beliefs, there being no doubt in his mind that Jesus was the Son of God who had miraculous powers. Many other thinking Christians would consider that fact, whether true or not, irrelevant.

He then goes on to describe, in the WWJD [What Would Jesus Do] mold, how he thinks Jesus would have dealt with three sticky moral and ethical issues -- homosexuality (he would have been tolerant of it, if not a participant), suicide (he would allow it in appropriate circumstances), and the role of women in a male-dominated society (no real answer here). The stories in which he deals with these issues are well-written (Price is a professional writer who teaches English at Duke), but offer little insight into these issues, and little in the way of scriptural or historical support for his views.

The most useful thing in the book is an appendix entitled "Further Reading," but that doesn't justify the cost.

Reynolds Price provides a wealth of imagination and speculation in this physically small but intellectually expansive book. Writing as a self-described "outlaw Christian", he attempts to address Jesus' role or philosophy with regard to topics given relatively short shrift by the Gospels -- homosexuality, suicide and the role of women in the Church.

Taking a thought from the "What Would Jesus Do?" (WWJD)fad, Price speculates on how the ethics of Jesus might have led him to react had he been faced with the romantic affections of another man, or the immiment suicide of a follower. More appealingly, Price never claims to be presenting new theology, only to be offering the basis for continuing consideration of Christ's timeless message.

I'm usually quick to reject much of the WWJD speculation for the simple reason that Jesus would likely never have put himself in the position of flirting with more modern temptations such as drug use or fathering a child out of wedlock, but the three scenarios offered by Price are much more plausible.

People of faith, who welcome theologic speculation and reverent debate will enjoy this work, as Mr. Price never allows doubt on the divinity of Jesus. You might agree with his imaginings, or you might believe that he's off base. But either way, once you've finished this book, you'll be thinking more about Christ and his teachings. It's not meant to be either a repudiation or augmentation of the Gospels, but it does shine a very interesting light on them.

Imagining what God or Jesus might say or do in any given situation is not new. Serious speculation of such is. Our nation's roadways are littered with signs bearing cutesy quotes attributed to "--God." Televangelists continue to tell us what God told them in private. Pop Christianity's commercialized 'What Would Jesus Do' (WWJD) movement conjures a moralistic/legalistic Jesus obsessed with strict application of select aspects of Jewish law (a Jesus who bears little resemblance to the iconoclastic figure captured in the New Testament gospels). In all these forms, however, there is little imaginination and an abundance of agenda. The sponsors of the God billboards want you to go to church. The televangelists want you to send in more money. The WWJD crowd wants to sell a few more wrist bands and t-shirts (and perhaps help you abstain from pre-marital sex too while they're at it). None, however, are serious in their wondering. None are actually grappling with the often difficult application of Jesus' ethic of unconditional love. Reynolds Price shows us a serious way of wondering. His "speculations" are timely, thoughtful, and thoroughly substantiated (Price provides more background than speculation). And his Jesus is just as surprising as the one we witness in the gospel narratives. You might expect Reynolds Price to push his own sexual/political agenda here, but he doesn't. You might expect Reynold's Jesus to bend the old law to bring himself into it. He doesn't. Rather, Price gives us an encounter with a Jesus who explodes our conception of love and confounds our assumptions, our tendencies to judge, and our often desperate defenses of patriarchy and tribal prejudice. What can love mean? Indeed!

Mr. Darell Y. Hamamoto wrote a review that Mr. Black had copped the title from one of his book. The funny thing is that Mr. Emerson's book was written in 1986 and Mr. Hamamoto's was written in 1989. Seems like Mr. Hamamoto should make an apology to Mr.Emerson rather than the other way around. This a fine addition to the Thomas Black series.

Nervous Laughter is the third novel in Emerson's Thomas Black series, set in Seattle. Black is asked to follow Mark Daniels to find out if he is having an affair. When Black finds the lovers, they are dead, both Daniels and his teenage lover, Bea Hindenburg. The police rule it a murder-suicide, but Daniels' widow doesn't think so. Black finds quite a few suspects along the way in solving this case. Earl Emerson is one of the finest writers of mysteries today, and Nervous Laughter is one of the best of the series.

When I started to look at Emerson's reviews, I was startled that "Nervous Laughter" only got a "2 star" ranking. One reviewer obviously had something else in mind and probably didn't read the entire book. PI Thomas Black is following a rich man who is suspected of cheating on his wife. As he stakes out the site of the supposed tryst, he discovers that the rich man and his teenage lover are dead. Black must find out if it's murder or suicide. Earl Emerson is one of the best mystery writers working today. He paints a perfect picture of Seattle, and his 2 main characters, Thomas Black and Kathy Birchfield, are 2 of the most likeable characters in the mystery genre.

The Price is a well thought out story of human growth. It is a story of family relationships, particularly one that has collapsed over the years. When forced to come together once and for all, the brothers reunite and are able to find some common ground if any over the price of their own old furniture which is to be sold to a dealer. Far more prominent in this novel is the lesson that relationships need love and attention to flourish, and one cannot put a price on them. This book is fabulously written by the famous author, Arthur Miller who has also written such reknown plays as Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. If you didn't pass up a chance to read those classics, you won't want to pass up a chance to read this one.

When talking about this play, arthur miller said "I don't write plays to conform to critical essays. I write about what interests me. That is my strength and that is my limitation." Yes, it had a very similar plot to DEATH OF A SALESMAN, but the character's, specifically the main character, were very different, which changed the theme of the play. I loved it. It made me think...got me more involved then death of a salesman did. It took serveral readings to get the full jist of it. Victor's sacrifice was for love: it didn't matter if there had been no love in his family--he brought love to it.

Miller's play surrounds the moral development of two brothers: one a dutiful policeman (Victor), the other a successful yet selfish surgeon (Walter). Their most recent encounter takes place during the sale of family furniture and heirlooms -- post a long and silent gap in their relationship catalyzed by an angry family breakup that completely separated the brothers.

During their encounter, Arthur Miller poignantly brings out each brother's personal ethics, and what moral debts each feels the other owes. The 'furniture' and it's price to be sold, which is their central concern (in addition to dealings with the only other two characters in the play - an appraiser (Solomon) and Victor's wife (Esther)) , is merely a bargaining object between the two - a prop - with which each may discover more fully the other's thoughts and ways of being, and somehow, at the end of the day, find some sort of salvation in each other.

Miller's play does have room for updating the "Say! What a swell..." type of older american-english diction for flow. This may be especially encouraging to those who may find some of the colloquialisms inappropriate.

The reader must keep in mind that this is not a novel, and really should not be read like one, word for word. This is more a basic screenplay type, where improvisation by actors who truly understand the characters - and Miller's intent - will ultimately bring the true and dramatic color to a wonderful and thought-provoking story.

Seemed I just kept putting this book down out of boredom, and maybe that's why the plot seemed so confusing--it just wasn't interesting enough for me to follow. The concept was good (that's why I bought the book) & it's the frist Japrisot I've read, but it was lacking in suspense. In the end, the only interest I had in who committed the murder was so I could put the darned thing down for good.

The first Sebastien Japrisot I read was One Deadly Summer - a book that caused me to have too high expectations of The Sleeping-Car Murders. The Sleeping-Car Murders is best read as you would read any book by Agatha Christie, etc. etc. ... read as a book of the mystery genre the book is well plotted and has an excellent, surprising and realistic conclusion. However, the reader is unlikely to identify with the "detective"; rather it is easier to identify with the young woman coming to Paris for the first time. And unlike One Deadly Summer, most of the characters are painted sufficiently well to carry the story but not so well that the reader particularly cares what happens to them.

For a delightly, fun and casual read, I recommend the book.

This masterfully written novel opens with a terrific scene: the train porter wanders through the cars, picking up the detrius of a long night's travel. He finds a scarf, two raincoats, an umbrella, and a leak in the heating system. Then he finds the corpse and his discovery sets off the usual chain of events: ambulance, police, news reporters.

But the title is "The Sleeping-Car Murders": more than one. And indeed, the other passengers of car number 4 begin to die, violently and seemingly at random.

Underlying these deaths, though, are the corrupt, evil, and stupid motives of greed and ego. By the final pages, we realise that the incidents are not random--yet even then the denoument is darkly surprising.

Japrisot is a master writer. His prose is spare and evocative. He is able to create memorable characters and dark suspense in less than two hundred pages. He sweeps us up into a mystery which is intricate and twisted, and he leaves us shocked and saddened by the evil of human kind.