Scott Thompson Books

This book was delivered before the expected due date and was in great condition and a lot cheaper than the college book stores.

Thompson's 1990 book should have been rewritten not totally revised. His 1996 book also has its strengths and weaknesses and earns a "9" too. I taught some college courses in management using this book as a supplement and the students loved it, both traditional and nontraditional. For those fortunate to have this book, keep it. For those who can't get it, Thompson's newer reading has some of the same gems and covers more material. Both are recommended very highly, although the newer book can be obtained. Dr. Alan D. Kardoff

An amazing account of my favorite place in the US. The Author does an impecible job showing the charm and beauty of Dublin.

This book is as facinating as it is informative. The hundreds of pictures are absolutly stunning and the captions are informative and well written. The book is a great look at not only aircraft preservation, but also the scrapping and recycling of those once proud aircraft that served with distinction. It begins with the history of the aircraft reclamation industry in it's infancy, after World War I, thru World War II, on to the conflicts in Asia, The Cold War, and then to today (Year 2000). The visualizations are stunning, the most memorable being a B-17 bomber with the "chopper" hovering only a few feet above the center of the fuesalage. The authors take you on a tour of the great scrap yards of yesterday and today, drawing you in, and making you wish you could walk the rows of B-24s, B-17s, P-51s, F-84s, F-4s, C-147s, and countless others and learn about the historic and heroic past of each of them. I highly recommend this book to ANY avaition fan or anyone even remotly interesed in military aircraft of the past 100 years.

Esta serie es un retapado de la serie Republic de Star Wars. Reune los primeros numeros dedicado a las guerra clonicas, más un especial de Mace Wandu.

I am have been looking for this book a long time and hope it is
State Birds and Flowers by Bill Thompson

I wanted to love this book. And I almost did. I was hooked at the beginning, but the further I read, the more discouraged I became. I could not really like any of the people and I was not impressed at all with "Mommy" or at least the portrayal of her. I think the story was good, but the telling of it was weak, unclear and toward the end, rambling. There were several spots where it could have and in my opinion should have, ended. Indeed, I set it aside for over a week with only 50 pages to go and only finished it when I had nothing else to read.

This book was recommended to me by a friend who also happens to be an English professor. I won't go into the story line as others have done so here already. Suffice it to say that it is a beautifully crafted book about love and the human spirit. Don't miss it!

I read this book when I was in the 11th grade, I simply love it. I actually had to reread the first 4 chapters twice, because I was so confused at first. Tha authors style of writing and they way the book was split leaves you a little confused, but then u realize it is his life and then his mothers. I simply enjoyed this book. It not only discusses what life is like for a black boy, but for a white woman engaged in an interracial relationship and the struggles she faced. We so often hear about the Black struggle...its good to see boths sides for once!

Not only is writing a review something I don't usually do...it"s something I have never done,(as an adult,} I was not ready for the emotional strangelhold "the Color of Water," had on me from page one. I had to keep checking to see if this was truly a real story of a life unparalleled, or a wild imagination. James McBride is so cool.I intend to find his recordings and of cours read the rest of his literery offerings.Since reading "Water", I have purchased several books for friends and they too have shown their critique by humbling me with their thanks. I was in the film business for many years and if I were just twenty years younger, I would find the money to purchase the film rights. To wrap it all up, it was one hell of an experience...one I wish I could have shared with mr.McBride. Len Howad,Las Vegas NV

This book is a wonderful book that tells two different stories of a boy and his mother trying to find themselves. In this story, James McBride struggles to find himself, torn between the racial divide of whites and blacks. The son of a black man and a Jewish Orthodox mother, he finds himself (like his mother) fleeing to the black side of life. His mother's story parallels his own, with her living with her intolerant Rabbi father, crippled mother, and brother and sister living in Suffolk, Virginia. Rachel Shilsky finally has enough of living under her father's cruel gaze, knowing that he does not care for her sick mother. She leaves and meets Andrew McBride who helps her find God and herself. Rachel Shilsky becomes Ruth McBride Jordan. After eight kids with her first husband, Ruth married Hunter Jordan and had four more children, and somehow through the will of God sent them all to college. This book shows how both James and Ruth found God and therefore found themselves. It also shows James McBride finally coming to terms with being bi-racial, and how finally getting to know his mother helps him get to know himself.

I truly recommend this book to anyone who wants to walk in a manner worth of the Lord.

I tend to be very hard on myself in my walk with God. This book helps me to put my walk with God in a proper perspective. I plan on reading this book once a year to remind myself of the principles that Mr. Lewis has taught me.

This book is the best book on Christianity written since the Bible.

Every Christian should read this book after having read the Bible thoroughly.

MERE CHRISTIANITY represents an excellent distillation of Lewis' thought on the essential elements of Christianity. He knows, of course, that the word 'mere' can mean 'simple' or 'basic' but that it once meant 'pure' or 'essential'. This book gives you the supreme elements of Christian thought, but in simple, accessible terms. That is, of course, Lewis' forte--to depict the complex with a very light touch. Here he talks about such notions as human nature, Christian morality, virtue, and the triune God and he does so in chapter/segments slightly longer than sound bites. The reader is neither stretched on a rack of jargon and chop-logic nor asked to bear up under an onslaught of endless, vague verbiage. S/he is given the unvarnished truth of Christianity in clear terms and manageable segments. One can 'read in' the book, as one reads in the Bible or the Book of Common Prayer. This is the perfect introduction to Christian thought and the perfect introduction to the insights of Lewis the believer.

I've been a Christian basically all my life, and had up to this point, never read anything by C. S. Lewis. Now having read "Mere Christianity", I'm completely baffled as to why I waited so long. C. S. Lewis' style is very conversational, intelligent, and spiritually moving. His argument for Christianity is convincing, and his passion and love for Christ come through in his words. I've read other Christian books, mostly through the Sunday school at church, and they all pale in comparison to the wit and passion of C. S. Lewis. Pick up this wonderful book, your life could very well be changed by it.

Mere Chistianity is divided into 4 books: 1. Right & Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe, 2. What Christians Believe, 3. Christian Behavior, and 4. Beyond Personality: Or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity.

In Book 1, Lewis strikes an early, direct blow against relativistic thinking: "If anyone will take the time to compare the moral teaching of, say the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinesese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own" (p. 6). There are basic, universal moral standards: "men find themselves under a moral law, which they did not make, and cannot quite forget even when they try, and which they know they ought to obey" (p.23). "I am under a law; that somebody or something wants me to behave in a certain way" (p. 25). Who but God wrote this law on my heart?

Personally, I've never met anyone who denied that Jesus was a great moral teacher. Yet, in one way or another, plenty of people try to deny His Divinity. In Book 2, Lewis tries "to prevent the really foolish thing that people often say about Him. `I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God'....A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic [sic]...or else he would be the Devil of Hell" (p. 52). Along these very same lines, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli present the options as "Lord, Lunatic, or Liar." "Now the Christian belief is that if we somehow share the humility and suffering of Christ we shall also share in His conquest of death and find a new life after we have died and in it become perfect, and perfectly happy creatures. This means something much more than our trying to follow His teaching" (p. 60).

In contrast to any notion that God's law is intrusive, oppressive, or stifling, Lewis starts 1943's Book 3 with the reminder that "moral rules are directions for running the human machine" (p. 69). Explaining the "cardinal virtues" (i.e., prudence, fortitude, justice, and temperance), he notes that "a man who perseveres in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character. Now it is that quality rather than the particular actions which we mean when we talk of a `virtue'" (p. 80). Book 3 closes with chapters devoted to forgiveness and pride, as well as the "theological virtues" of faith, hope, and charity.

Considering that Lewis was a member of the Church of England, which had approved limited contraceptive use in 1930, much of his commentary on sexual morality is prophetic: "Contraceptives have made sexual indulgence far less costly in marriage and far safer outside it than ever before, and public opinion is less hostile to illicit unions and even to perversion than it has been since Pagan times....Christianity is almost [sic] the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body - which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven....Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians. If anyone says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once" (pp. 97, 98). "We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity - like perfect charity - will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God's help....those who are seriously attempting chastity are more conscious, and soon know a great deal more about their own sexuality than anyone else....Virtue - even attempted virtue - brings light; indulgence brings fog" (pp. 101, 102).

I say that "much of his commentary on sexual morality is prophetic," because Lewis also offered some well-intentioned, yet poorly thought out, comments on marriage and sexuality:
* "If people do not believe in permanent marriage, it is perhaps better that they should live together unmarried than they should make vows that they do not mean to keep" (p. 106).
* "There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her on her own members" (p. 112).
I am among those who believe that, had Lewis lived longer, he would have embraced the fullness of the Truth which resides in Catholicism. How much his works would have been enhanced, were they informed by our generation's Catechism of the Catholic Church or the Compendium of the Catechism!

In book 4, Lewis acknowledges the attraction of "a vague religion - all about feeling God in nature, and so on" (p. 155). He warns that such touchy-feely, pseudo-religion cannot lead to "eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music....a great many of the ideas about God which are trotted out as novelties today are simply the ones which real Theologians tried centuries ago and rejected" (p. 155). "If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity, with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact." "The more we get what we now call `ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become....It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own....How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints....submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life" (pp. 225 - 227).

Why do we buy "complete" editions of Shakespeare, when individual plays are available in many excellent editions, reasonably priced, eminently portable, and offering far richer commentary than will ever be available in a single volume?

The one reason I can provide is that a "complete" Shakespeare is--or ought to be--just that: complete, including everything the author is generally understood to have written.

This edition of the Pelican Shakespeare has many virtures: it is handsome, high-quality, and features thoughtful and thorough introductions to the plays, along with good annotations.

But it falls flat on the claim it makes in its very title: it is not complete. "The Two Noble Kinsmen" is nowhere to be found, although the introductions to several different plays mention it and acknowledge it as Shakespeare's. Many scholars believe that at least one scene of another play, "Sir Thomas More," is likely to be by Shakespeare, and yet another play, "Edward III," has a great deal of support for partial Shakespeare attribution as well. These items are routinely included in modern editions of Shakespeare. They are absent here, and the editors give us no explanation at all for the omissions. This is a substantial oversight, and makes it difficult to recommend this edition.

To anyone looking to read a little Shakespeare, I would encourage you to pick up a Folger and a Signet single-play edition, and see which suits your taste better. If you are set on a one-volume Shakespeare, I have to suggest you get one that is actually "complete"--Riverside, perhaps, or the new RSC.

This is a must have for any student of literature or lover of Shakespeare. However, this is not meant to be light reading. If you are a student, particularly undergrad, you will be better served by cliffs notes or spark notes.

The 1598 loss of their theater's lease should have been a major blow to the Lord Chamberlain's Men, one of Elizabethan England's premier acting troupes, who had gained even more popularity by teaming up with one Will Shakespeare, a Warwickshire glover's son come to London some six years earlier in pursuit of his Muse, leaving behind a wife and three children; daughter Susanna, born but seven months into his marriage, and twins Hamnet and Judith, who'd followed two years later. Yet, what to another company might have spelled "present death" only brought greater fame and fortune to the one boasting, in addition to Master Shakespeare's talents, those of Richard Burbage: not only a superb tragedian but also his troupe's financier and, together with brother Cuthbert, happily able to afford the construction of a new theater in Bankside, on the opposite side of the River Thames. Prophetically, the company named their new home "The Globe" and endowed it with a motto which, in approximate translation, audiences of one of the first plays produced there - "As You Like It" - would soon also hear pronounced from the stage, and which sums up the essence of the Bard's plays better than anything else: "Totus mundus agit histrionem" - "All the world's a stage."

The new playhouse's name and motto were apposite not only because the era did indeed consider a stage a model of the world (the area above was referred to as heaven, the area below as hell, and characters would often appear accordingly: as such, Hamlet's father is heard crying "below [stage]" after his encounter with the Prince), but first and foremost because Shakespeare's plays themselves, individually as well as collectively, represent a microcosm of human relationships and behavior virtually unparalleled to this day: Laced with murderous schemes, revenge, and the search for justice, love, and peace of mind, but also comedy, all-too-human fallibility and great nobility of spirit, they delve into the human mind's darkest recesses and soar to its greatest heights; exploring greed, envy, ambition, guilt, remorse and pure evil, next to compassion, generosity, humility, innocence, fidelity, cleverness, boundless cheers and optimism; all interwoven in timeless plots unmatched in wit, variety, construction, and richness of characters.

Yet, for all this, the biggest difficulty remaining to modern editors and readers alike is that while Shakespeare himself didn't seek the publication of his plays, in the absence of anything approximating modern copyright laws, he was unable to prevent their publication by others, in so-called "quarto" editions, often based on unreliable transcripts made during or after a performance. Only after his death, in 1623, his former fellow-actors John Hemmings and Henry Condell published 37 of his plays "cured and perfect of their limbs" - i.e., restored to their author's true intentions - in a volume since referred to as the "First Folio."

Alas, authoritative weight though it has, even the latter doesn't conclusively answer what the Bard intended as the final version of these 37 plays. For one thing, research shows that even some of the Folio texts were edited by others; most prominently so "Macbeth," where Thomas Middleton inserted, inter alia, the witch queen Hecate as an additional character. Secondly, quarto editions of several plays published prior to the "First Folio" (especially of "Henry IV Part 2," "Hamlet," "Troilus and Cressida," "Othello," and "King Lear") are widely believed to represent earlier (or rival) drafts written by Shakespeare himself, and thus accorded considerable authoritative weight of their own. Often, these plays are therefore presented (both in print and on stage) by "conflating" both versions' texts. In the interest of purity, the editors of this particular volume have eschewed that approach, choosing instead to reproduce the Folio text throughout (with gently modernized spelling), because this was probably the text originally used on stage, and appending the passages most frequently added from the rivaling quartos at the end of the respective plays. Thus, this edition's reader will find Hamlet musing in "To be, or not to be" about "enterprises of great pith and moment" whose currents "turn awry and lose the name of action" (not "of great pitch and moment," as in the 1604 "Second Quarto"); he will, however, have to consult the appendix to find the Prince's reflections on that "stamp of one defect" so prominently featuring in Sir Laurence Olivier's movie, or his vows of "bloody thoughts" after encountering Fortinbras. Only in the case of "Lear," the editors chose to fully include both rivaling versions - that of the First Folio and that of the 1608 quarto - because here, the omission of entire scenes and reassignment of numerous pieces of dialogue essentially transforms the Folio text into a new play vis-a-vis the 1608 quarto.

As painstakingly researched and an as obvious labor of love as this work's first edition, the second edition moreover restores the plays' original titles ("All Is True" instead of "Henry VIII," etc.), and also contains Shakespeare's long poems and sonnets, brief accounts on the lost plays ("Cardenio," "Love's Labour's Won"), and - with appropriate caveats - the texts of works of only partial/uncertain attribution, such as "The Two Noble Kinsmen," sundry poetry, and (for the first time) "Edward III," as well as the editorially and topically so problematic "Sir Thomas More."

Background and supplemental materials include introductions to Shakespeare's life, career and language and on the Elizabethan theater, a user's guide, a list of contemporary references to the Bard, commendatory poems and prefaces of his works (including those of the "First Folio"), a glossary, an ample reading list, as well as a short introduction to each work. At well over 1000 pages a brick even in paperback format, this isn't the place to turn for a complete scholarly review of any given play - for that, the reader is well-advised to consult this volume's "Textual Companion" or one of the many excellent editions of the individual plays - but a marvelously-presented one-volume resource on the legacy of the playwright whose works, as already friendly rival Ben Jonson rightly prophesied, would last "for all time."

This is based on the 40 volume set of paperbacks published by Penguin Group from 1999 to 2002.

All of these are available in the one-volume Complete Pelican Shakespeare, but it is missing "The Two Noble Kinsmen", partially authored by Shakespeare (maybe because it appeared in no folio?). This is available in the Riverside, which is a very good, scholarly edition that contains a few extra items that are disputed, but the Riverside has its own set of problems.

The Pelican version is easier to read than the Riverside, is also based on good scholarship, has better print quality (at least with the volumes I possess), has full character names throughout the play rather than three letter abbreviations, and has a numbering system that lets you know when there is a note on the text to explain difficult or out of date words or phrasing. It also updates the spelling of a few of the words, like "murther" to "murder" and "owe" to "own" where appropriate, but does not overdo it. All of this makes it worth getting the Pelican, even if you have the Riverside. I would suggest getting both if you are an enthusiast and have the money to shell out, as both are excellent editions in their own right.

For the money, if you have to pick, this one is the most friendly, unless you absolutely have to have "The Two Noble Kinsmen" or other partial and disputed works included.

If you prefer to read out of individual editions of the plays, the World of Shakespeare: The Complete Plays and Sonnets of William Shakespeare (38 Volume Library) contains most of what is in this single volume, missing the Narrative Poems and one of the King Lear volumes published in 2000 (which contained both the 1608 original long quarto version and the 1623 scaled down First Folio version of King Lear), using only the conflated version. See my review there for details.

I have several complete Shakespeare editions, and the Pelican stands out as the most readable I own. The book is, of course, large and thick, but the paper is not see-through, and the type is large enough for those of us with aging eyes. The text is in two columns with footnotes at the bottom of each column, making it easy to skip from words to notes and back again.

Best of all, as an owner of the Arkangel Shakespeare on CD, the Pelican is the text they use for these recordings, so following the text in print when listening to those excellent audio versions is perfect with this edition. While there is not a lot of critical apparatus - any Shakesperean worth his or her salt already has several books analyzing the plays - this volume offers a great readability for its cost. A must-have.

After re-reading Buddy Babylon for the third time, I realize that this is probably the funniest book ever written. With a joke in almost every sentence, it is an absolute joy to read, especially if you imagine the character of Buddy proclaiming, lisping and spitting out these wild tales directly into a camera. The story is ludicrously improbable, as you would hope and expect, some of the situations and characters so outrageous and absurd that you can't help but wonder what the writers were on when thinking them up. Scarily, for those of you who are familiar with the gay scene, Buddy's description of gay life is often not that exagerated, and therefore all the funnier. A feat of imagination and wit, this book is addictive from page one, and really does what you want it to do: make you laugh out loud.

Being a big "Kids in the Hall" fan, and having seen the five star rating, I really thought I'd get a big kick out of this. What a disappointment. The jokes are tired and flat and the situations all strain too hard to be absurd. I like Scott, he's my third favorite Kid, but somehow the "Buddy" character just needs his vocal delivery to work. There are some bits that should be funny (the zombie waiter, the foot pageant), but they collapse under the strain of being part of a longer narrative. Maybe if he'd read the book to me from a barstool...

I loved this book soo much, I could not put it down. I kept imagining Buddy with his great lisp telling his life story and it made it so much more fun. This is a book that nay Buddy or KITH fan will enjoy. I reccomend it wholeheartedly, hilarious!

A first-person account of Canada's most (in)famous barhopping ...
The road starts with a leap-year birth,and follows him on as the winner Canada's most beatiful feet', into a cocaine fueld populated by lesbian wives, lovers, and a particularly glamerous pig.
Which leads all the way back to a barstool, back home in Canada.

The 'Kids' now Scott Thompson, with the aid of show-writer Paul Bellini, ontroduce Charles Butterick Cole.

Buddy Cole is much more appealing on stage than in the written word. Some funny gay bits, and interesting Toronto references if you should ever go there. Save the money to go see KITH's latest tour when it comes near you (esp. for the sarcastic 9/11 references). What is holding Scott (and KITH) back from really cutting sketches, huh? What about Canada's loony PC censorship, academic free-speech harrassment, massive immigration problems, and the fact that salaries are 1/2 to 2/3 of US? Look to Python and Benny Hill for examples ..