Contests Books

If you want to solve some extremely challenging problems in math, you should defintely own it!! The problems are like many of the hardest qualifying exam problems that you take during your 2nd year at graduate school--math major. It would be helpful to improve your problems solving skills. The problems are harder and longer than the Putnam. But if you work out a few of them, you will find it easy to do the Putnam problems. Highly recommended anyone interested in problem soloving.

Carolyn has done a fine job of presenting a fun story of a very interesting man. The book includes some good historical info about Zachary and other bearded men including newspaper advertisements, legal documents and some great photos. Great fun for those with facial hair and those who appreciate the same.

This is the fifth of, to date, five collections of entries from the annual Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest. This is a contest, named after Sir Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel, "Paul Clifford", opened with the instant cliche, "It was a dark and stormy night...". The object of the contest is to write the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels, generally by using impossibly complex and tangled syntax combined with vermillion-purple prose, guaranteeing that no noun is without more than its share of excessively flamboyant adjectives, no verb without more than its share of ridiculously flamboyant adverbs, and if possible including an incomprehensible or mixed (or incomprehensibly mixed) metaphor.

If you enjoy the language enough to appreciate attempts to pillory those who abuse it, and have a sense of humor such that you find satire to be an appropriate form of pillorying, you will enjoy this book (and any of the others in the series, "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night", "Son Of It Was A Dark And Stormy Night", "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night: The Final Conflict", and "Bride Of Dark And Stormy"). I found this one to be on a par with "Final Conflict", which is to say, better than the original, but not quite as good as "Son Of...". (I've yet to track down a copy of "Bride Of...", so I can't compare this one to that one.)

Eve Elliot has a bummer of a 40th birthday party. She's separated from her straying husband of 20+ years, she's sick and tired of the dog-eat-dog world of New York City high power advertising, and the spector of middle-age has reared its ugly gray head.

So an invitation to visit her favorite, elderly aunt, in the charming waterfront Maryland community near Chesapeake Bay, sounds like the perfect anecdote to encroaching burn-out and an inevitable divorce.

Aunt Lillian runs a small Real Estate office, faltering in the past year since the death of her beloved husband, Max. Eve's drive over to view the property of curmudgeonly Ray, whose waterfront holdings include a small cove, results in a gruesome discovery. It seems the old man is busy fishing the body of a large white out of the water, obviously someone's beloved pet.

Discovering the yellow nylon rope cinched tightly around the limp body, Eve can only imagine the worst. When the old man's body turns up floating the almost the exact same spot less than 24 hours later, close knit town folk begin to mutter and gossip, comparing this to another questionable drowning, in the identical location, 25 years ago!

While Eve struggles to come to grips with her failed marriage, and takes leave from her high pressure job, she also decides to take up residence in the dead man's cottage. Her sense of ownership, she found the man's body, lead her to ruffle more than a few feathers in the Pines. The hornet's nest she stirs up may come at a high cost: her life.

A number of locals come under suspicion as Eve seeks to unravel mysteries that most would prefer to ignore. The Police Department takes the view that these deaths are accidental, and takes little action, if any, toward solving what Eve is certain are linked murders. The final showdown is graphic, exciting and ultimately satisfying.

Lee's first novel gives a good sense of place, offers several deftly created, and likeable characters, and provides a highly enjoyable, plot-driven tale that you will be hard pressed to put down. Somewhere between a cozy and more sharply etched mystery, Barbara Lee has created a heroine that will have you seeking out her two other volumes in this highly regarded series: Final Closing and Dead Man's Fingers.

Robert Lewis Dabney was many things: a theologian, a professor, chief of staff of Thomas Jonathan Jackson, and most important of all the Virginian. Dabney resisted the effort to turn Virginia into a part of the Southern Confederacy, but once that happened he, like his boss Stonewall, became a staunch supporter of the Virginia's right to secede. This highly esteemed clergyman is regarded by some as the greatest mind to come out of Confederacy and this puts him on the same footing with men like Judah Benjamin. Dabney's Defence was published in 1867 at the two years since the war had not robbed them of any of his vigor in defending his state. The layout of the work follows the usual pattern: American slave trade, the legality of slavery, the history of emancipation, the Old Testament argument, the New Testament argument, the ethical argument, the economic effect of slavery, and the conclusion. I don't see the need in this review the code cover all of these topics in any kind of depth, but the author will speak for himself.

His introduction addresses the future historians view of this horrible conflict.
"To the rational historian who, two hundred years hence, shall study the history of the nineteenth century, it will appear one of the most curious vagaries of human opinion, that the Christianity and philanthropy of our day should have given so disproportionate an attention to the evils of African slavery. Such a dispassionate observer will perceive that, while many other gigantic evils were rampant in this age, there prevailed a sort of epidemic fashion of selecting this one upon which to exhaust the virtuous indignation and sympathies of the professed friends of human amelioration. And he will probably see in this a proof that the Christianity and benevolence of the nineteenth century were not so superior, in wisdom and breadth, to those of the seventeenth and eighteenth, as the busy actors in them had persuaded themselves; but were, in fact, conceited, overweening, and fantastic."

Professor Dabney gives the usual Old Testament justification of slavery, the Mosaic law, the curse of Ham, etc., but it's more to the point to look at the New Testament arguments for and against slavery.

In this Dabney sites and criticizes the abolitionists theologians of his day particularly picking on Albert Barnes.
"Mr. Barnes alone says, it is not proved that Onesimus was a literal slave at all: he may have been a hired servant or apprentice. Here, as will appear more fully, he expressly contradicts himself. But as to the assumption, we reply, that Onesimus is called, v. 16, doulos, a name never given to the hired servant: that he is sent back to his rightful owner, a thing which necessarily implies his slavery: that St. Paul intercedes for him; and that he recognizes his master's property in his labour. The whole company of expositors, ancient and modern, until Mr. Barnes, have declared that Onesimus was Philemon's slave."
Like all proslavery proponents Dabney spends a great deal of effort proving his contention that the Greek doulos is only used for slaves as "domestic slavery" was practiced in the South.

He moves onto an interesting discussion of what the Golden Rule really means:
"But as leading Abolitionists continue to advance the oft-torn and tattered folly, the friends of truth must continue to tear it to shreds. The whole reasoning of the Abolitionists proceeds on the absurd idea, that any caprice or vain desire we might entertain towards our fellowman, if we were in his place, and he in ours, must be the rule of our conduct towards him, whether the desire would be in itself right or not. This absurdity has been illustrated by a thousand instances. On this rule, a parent who, were he a child again, would be wayward and self-indulgent, commits a clear sin in restraining or punishing the waywardness of his child, for this is doing the opposite of what he would wish were he again the child. Judge and sheriff commit a criminal murder in condemning and executing the most atrocious felon; for were they on the gallows themselves, the overmastering love of life would very surely prompt them to desire release. In a word, whatever ill-regulated desire we are conscious of having, or of being likely to have, in reversed circumstances, that desire we are bound to make the rule of our action in granting the parallel caprice of any other man, be he bore, beggar, highwayman, or what not. On this understanding, the Golden Rule would become any thing but golden; it would be a rule of iniquity. . ."
this is the typical absurdity to which such discussions are brought by the proslavery faction.


In his economic defense of slavery Dabney follows another Virginian, Edmund Ruffin, when he states:
"Taking mankind as they are, and not as we may desire them to be, domestic slavery offered the best relation which has yet been found, between labour and capital. It is not asserted that it would be best for a Utopia, where we night imagine the humblest citizen virtuous, intelligent, and provident. But there are no such societies on earth."


Dabney also echoes Ruffin in his conclusion to this work:
"A righteous God, for our sins towards Him, has permitted us to be overthrown by our enemies and His. It is vain to complain in the ear of a maddening tempest. Although our people are now oppressed with present sufferings and a prospective destiny more cruel and disastrous than has been visited on any civilized people of modern ages, they suffer silently, disdaining to complain, and only raising to the chastening heavens, the cry, "How long, 0 Lord?" Their appeal is to history, and to Him. They well know, that in due time, they, although powerless themselves, will be avenged through the same disorganizing heresies under which they now suffer, and through the anarchy and woes which they will bring upon the North. Meantime, let the arrogant and successful wrongdoers flout our defence with disdain: we will meet them with it again, when it will be heard; in the day of their calamity, in the pages of impartial history, and in the Day of Judgment."

The Desert Contest
The life in desert is very water-stressed. Yet a whole lot of life exists in the arid zones around the world. In India's biggest desert, Thar, millions of people live with a wide variety of animals and plants. This story is about various animals and plants and their efforts to cope with water shortage.

Sultan is a well-travelled camel and he wants to know who is the best water harvestor of all. The highlight of the book is its paintings which depict excellent environs from arid states of India. The huts are fabulously painted and the brushstrokes actually give the feeling
of being in the middle of a sandstorm.

More than anything else, the book does a remarkable job of telling our younger generation the importance of water and water conservation. They understand how precious water is and how valuable it is for hundreds of millions of people. This is particularly remarkable in today's world, a world troubled by water pollution and water scarcity.

This book was about Dixie and her friend Manny Romanos. The Romanos family are gypsies and are looked down on by the whole town. Manny has a horse named Champ which he is training to sell. Dixie learns to ride barrels on this horse and later rides in rodeos. I really liked this book and I would recommend this book to anyone.

With lots of examples and careful explanations you will find this book to be an excellent workbook, and learning tool to understand the complex ideas and concepts of positional play and Nimzovich System of play. But be aware it isn't an easy task, you may need to read and study some of the material several times in order to get and master some of the techniques (well at least I needed to do it before I understood some of them).

I also believe that this book is absolutely indispensable in order to understand what Nimzovich sets in his book "My System". Together these two are among the most important books ever published in chess history.

With a great ending this book will help to teach kids about weight and entertain them too. Vivid, colorful illustrations and a well-paced story make this a must for primary elementary classrooms! Another great Step into Reading PLUS MATH!

I had to do a report on "Death of a Salesman," and this book was the biggest help! I found out all kinds of things, stuff even my teacher didn't know, and I got an A! Thank you David Galens and Lynn Spampinato--keep up the good work!