John Waters Books

John Dempsey is either crazy or one of the best story tellers of this generation. His stories, or poetry, or whatever you want to call them remind me of my teen years when my parents pointed at people like the characters in John's stories and threatened I'd turn out like that if I didn't do as they said.

It didn't take many pages to become comfortable in John's world. Of course, I'm a man. Female readers might find John a bit irritating, obnoxious, chauvinistic or even overly insensitive towards women and their needs. But then, some may find him appealing - or even sexy. Interesting world.

Dempsey writes about big-city life, the struggle to be successful and quite naturally, the necessity of getting laid. Dempsey is an education unto himself and in some perverse way I hope he really does live the life he writes about. Women would say it serves him right and I just say, "cool." Hang in there John - Drinks on me at the Sanremo Hotel.

I simply cannot believe that this book has gone un~reviewed for nearly 4 years! I am a collector of children's literature, particularly books with a seashore theme. Three generations (my grandchildren, my daughter and I) formed the "Jefferson Street All Girls Book Club" last summer, although I had been stashing beach books away since before the two "Littles" were born! This book moved right to "#1" on our list and will open the summer season (one short week) in Cape May, NJ, in July!
Amazingly, the author and illustrator are our seashore neighbors! They are both lieutenant lifeguards along the New Jersey coast. Gee ~ They're brave, handsome and heroic as well as being SMART! The text and illustrations are simply fantastic. The book is extremely informative and chronicles a day in the life of a lifeguard in an interesting (and non-scary)manner. You must see the detailed illustrations sprinkled throughout the book to truly appreciate what a real "beach find" this book is. You and your young reading partners will learn much more than just the working of the lifeguard system. The illustrations of tiny bits of beach flora and fauna are an extra~special treat.
I am still as impressed and thrilled by the sight of a lifeguard on his stand today as I was 50~some years ago! After the "Littles" are in bed, their grandmother will still be paging through this real "gift from the sea".

Bear and his motley group of friends take off on a raft to enjoy a quiet picnic on the water. Charming froggies oblivious to their irritating 'rrribbitting' want to join the picnic but the little raftful of partiers gently snub them. Soon the raft gets stuck on a sandbar and froggies come to a clever rescue, resulting in unexpected new friends. A wonderful allegory to children's own friendships. Should be reprinted.

From the novice to the seasoned Christian believer, or to anyone interested in the answers the Christian faith has to give concerning the timeless and contemporary questions humanity asks, this consice book delivers. Theological truths are approached in a simple question/answer format -which is very clear, short, simple and understandable to all. This, in itself, is no small accomplishment. All answers are Bible based, from the Protestant precpective, allowing the Bible to speak for itself. The book design: paper, graphics, and layout is of very high quality. For its brevity and size this book packs a powerful punch. I very highly recommend it for any age group, for both Christians and truth seekers alike.

A helpful book for the young in faith christian. Accesible and neat. Also good for the ones who are still seeking.

This is a well-written, beautifully presented, useful and interesting book. It explains how materials scientists can analyse and characterize microstructures in 3D materials, using modern statistical methods from 'stochastic geometry'. The authors are respectively a mathematical statistician and a materials scientist. The exposition is excellent, and goes all the way from basic theory to practical applications, including free software on their web site. The presentation is a good balance of theory, verbal explanation and practical examples. The illustrations and diagrams are very effective, and include some superlative 3-D pictures. The software is nicely presented and explained, also in relation to the equations. The topics covered include basic stereology, texture characterisation, digital image measurement, covariance and spectral techniques, size and shape distributions of particles, spatial arrangement of objects, and polyhedral single-phase microstructures. I found only a few tiny typos so far. Well worth the hardback price - and the hardback binding will take a beating before I'm done with it!

Field guides are great for helping you identify the bird you just scoped, but once you want to learn more about the birds you've been seeing the field guides aren't of much use. This book covers a limited number of birds, but the information provided is excellent. He covers the life history of the birds, including a season by season account of the typical year in the bird's life. Mating habits, habitat preferences, and threats to their enviroment are some of the topics covered. In general, there are 3-5 pages devoted to each species. The illustrations are black and white, but are well done.

This is one of those rare cases where a person involved in the action was able to write about it in a historically-correct and action-packed manner. Capt. Waters, in this book published by the Naval Institute Press in Annapolis, covers in great detail a number of the Allied North Atlantic convoys which were under constant ferocious attack by German U-boat wolf packs in 1942/1943, and which resulted in initial heavy losses of American/British cargo ships, right on through 1943/1944 when the situation was reversed and German U-boat losses rose to such a substantial level that they were withdrawn from the area. Capt. Waters is quite thorough in describing all facets of the struggle: how convoys were put together, how they were to be protected by escorts, the shortage of escorts, the massive sinking of cargo ships, frustration in watching ships go down, which countries supplied what effort and so on. Capt. Waters provides interesting accounts of sinkings, rescues, prisoners, storm damage, people, a number of "little things" that keeps the account at a personal, exciting and imagistic level. - This book is quite good and worth "five stars." In addition, Capt. Waters gives us several "freebies" or appendices: one is on Ultra, another is on German U-boat aces, another is on the weapons used, another is convoy protection by aircraft. Highly recommended as fast moving, highly informative wartime narrative.

Most water control projects in this country rely on big gravity damns, but in the early 20th century one John S. Eastwood designed dams which minimized the amount of concrete involved. While his designs were less expensive, he faced much opposition from engineers and politicians alike who believed their more fragile appearance would damage public confidence in their durability. Donald Jackson provide insights into dam building history and describes how in this case the illusion of stability strengthened by concrete won over Eastwood's innovative design plans. A 'must' for any collection strong in engineering, conservation, and energy generating issues.

There are many books available on shipping law and carriage of goods by sea, but this one explains the international treaties, causes of dispute, conflict of laws, and essential shipping documents and contracts in a way that would make it an ideal text book. The writer runs a college course in the UK and clearly has had time to develop his methodology for clear explanations.