W Books

This is a refreshingly good read! I so enjoyed the journey and would highly recommend Doin' Jimmy to anyone who enjoys a good plot, great characters, suspenseful twists and just plain entertainment! This is a talented writer! Can't wait for the nezt story from W. Allen Werneken.

I read this book along with other members of our book club and thought it was excellent. I especially liked the way the characters were developed and just when you thought you had a situation figured out, it surprised you. It's a book you will find hard to put down.

Doin' Jimmy was one of the best books I have read in quite a while. The characters were so well developed and the story had many twists and turns. I would highly recommend this book to any book club. It will leave you with a great discussion to be had without a doubt. Great writing and our book club would love to see this book made into a movie.

This book is a gem - and what a movie it could make! I have read many different types of books over the years, but few have grabbed my attention like this book did. I have read 5 recent "best-sellers" with our book club... Doin' Jimmy belongs at the top of our list - this book should be a best-seller!! I found myself turning the pages of Doin' Jimmy with eagerness to find out what was going to happen next. The author has developed a fantastic suspense/thriller story; the characters are very interesting, and the plot grabs you from start to finish. Congratulations to the Mr. Werneken and many thanks for a great book - I'll be giving it as a gift this Christmas!

This book was a great read. The characters are wonderfully developed and believable. The twists and turns of the plot makes the story a real page turner. Our book group read it and all 6 of us loved it! Highly recommend it !

This is both a great read and an important historical document. Fanny Trollope was the mother of Anthony Trollope, perhaps the most prolific English novelist of the nineteenth century and my favorite. Fanny's husband was ineffectual in the breadwinning department, but fortunately for the family, Fanny herself was energetic and enterprising. She took one of her sons (not Anthony) and an artistic young man to the United States. She was planning to join a friend of hers who was a mover in setting up the utopian community in Harmony, Indiana, but the place turned out to be squalid, and she didn't stay long.

Fanny spent most of her time in the U.S. in Cincinnati and in her book is very hard on the city and its inhabitants. She especially objected to the pigs' role as garbage collectors. (In those days, pigs roamed the streets freely, like sheep grazing.) Fanny felt most of the people she encountered were loud, dirty, vulgar, and fanatically patriotic. It is her vivid descriptions of the physical conditions and the people that give this book its historical and entertainment value.

While she was living in Cinci, she opened a retail emporium and filled it with rather shoddy merchandise sent from England by her husband. She also attempted to bring culture to the inhabitants. Not surprisingly, both ventures failed.

After Mrs. Trollope returned to England, she supported her family by writing novels that were quite popular at the time, though they haven't become the classics her son's have. She spent her final years living in Italy with another son and his wife.

This is an extremely entertaining commentary on American manners and well written. I agree, however, with Mrs. Trollope's son, Anthony, who commented that Mrs. Trollope is a keen observer but she understands little. Certainly her complaints about the lack of gentility among Americans is valid but she completely missed the wonderful lack of class restraints endemic to English society which afforded Americans "class mobility"--freedom of opportunity (except for native Americans and slaves).

Fanny Trollope (1779-1863) wrote over 35 novels and several non-fictions books in her effort to rescue her family from poverty. However, the most read of all her books is "Domestic Manners of the Americans" which she published in 1832. It was in that distant year that Fanny and two of her children traveled across the Atlantic Ocean. Her purpose was to join a utopian community in Tennessee whose denizens were freed slaves.
Fanny left her impecunious and feckless husband the barrister Thomas Trollope back home in England. Her famous son Anthony did not make the trip as he was a student at Harrow School. Fanny knew her husband would join her in the USA when money became available. Later the family would flee to Bruges to escape creditors. Fanny eventually lived out her life in Florence near her son Thomas Trollope.
After leaving Tennessee the Trollopes settled for two years in the Queen City of the West Cincinnati, Ohio. Fanny did not like America or the American people! She found us xenephobic; boastful, prideful and violent.She hated the hypocrisy of life in Midwest Ohio although she did attend such cultural attractions as opera, plays and lectures. She favored the state Anglican Church of Great Britain not caring for America's separation between church and state.
This book could well be read alongside Charles Dickens' "American Notes for General Circulation" based on his 1842 six month trip to the USA.
Both Trollope and Dickens found the Americans crude, lacking in manners
and eager to make a quick buck. Listen to Trollope at her most scathing:
"..among the rich and the poor, in the slave states, and in the free states...I do not like them. I do not like their principals, I do not like their manners, I do not like their opinions." (p.314).
Fanny Trollope's book is more interesting than Dickens since she discusses colorful characters and shares anecdotes about her sojourn in our young republic. Like Dickens she hates the odious practice of tobacco chewing and the mangling of the English language. Trollope found us Yankees to be too serious and viewing us as poorly read. Unlike the wealthy and famous Dickens, Mrs. Trollope was a middle-aged woman fighting off poverty with her pen. I enjoyed her descriptions of nature such as those she paints of the Potomac River, Northern Virginia and the Niagra Falls area in New York and Canada. She is aware of flora and fauna and describes them with knowledge and in beautiful prose.
Dickens and Trollope give us the eye to see America in the days prior to the Civil War when the curse of chattel slavery ruled the land. Since those days America has granted freedom to all citizens. I wish both Fanny and Charles could visit us again in the 21st century. Their remarks would be of great interest to this reviewer and countless others!

All I can say is: what a great read! Who knew? Quite frankly, upon first sight of this book I must admit a bit of dread as the puritanical artwork does not smack of fun and games. Of course, as a literature student, I should know better than to ever judge a book by its cover.
Had I been Fanny Trollope writing such an account of America in the 1820s, I would be hardpressed to say that I would have changed a single word. Trollope has been the victim of many mean spirited caricatures and accusations by Americans and it still continues today, but what is interesting is that no one can do more than attack her person. In other words, no one seems to be able to refute her claims.
Trollope's "bitchiness" seems, for the most part, merited by my standards and while she finds much to complain about concerning an American democracy in its adolescence, she certainly discovers just as many things that she likes or finds beautiful.
Plain and simple, Americans collectively have a hard time taking criticism, especially from an outsider...and at that time, political criticism from a woman was deemed absurd if not audacious.
Last but not least, Fanny Trollope is always sure to preface anything she says with the conscious realization that she can only speak for what she has seen/heard personally and is thereby not judging ALL of America.
Trollope is witty and anecdotal and I think anyone interested in what an outspoken Englishwoman had to say about the New World should certainly pick up a copy. I found particular interest in gender/religious issues but got the most laughs out of her descriptions of American manners (or the lack thereof).
It is always interesting to see how much things have changed, and better yet, how many things have remained exactly the same!

Very entertaining read of the author's trip through 19th Century America, full of wonderful description and enlightening observations. Despite the griping below, Mrs Trollope simply reports what she sees - men spitting tobacco on the floor, ladies off in another room while the guys have a good time, etc. She reports accurately on our forefathers' rugged pioneer spirit, but points out the lack of education everywhere. We want to shout "lies!" but Mark Twain wrote about the same thing, and the aspects of our society that haven't changed much are still being commented on with the same frankness by writers like Saul Bellow, Gore Vidal, Dawn Powell, Paul Theroux and Joan Didion. Many true-hearted Americans will enjoy this book no end. Mrs Trollope clearly loved America and simply wrote truthfully about; she is simply beholden to no one - the essence of good writing. A thoroughly refreshing read.

my mother recieved a copy of this book when she had her open heart surgery. i have read it and have been hooked on it ever since. when i lost my mother my sister got rid of the book before i could get to it. i was extremely glad i found it on amazon,com after my own heart attack. it is a lifesaver.

After my father had an emergency triple-by-pass, our entire family experienced a "wake-up call" and finally decided to start learning about our hearts and how to eat for better heart health. One by one, each of us has bought a copy of this book--it is SO well written and Mr. Piscatella explains everything so well that it makes you excited about eating healthier. He is also very realistic about what it takes to change habits you've developed over many years. The first half of the book is all of the background information you need and the second half is the cookbook portion. The recipes are a helpful way to get started in your new appraoch to cooking and eating! Do yourself a favor and get this book--and get one for others in your life who need to take better care of their heart!

I started using this book for my husband. He as a combination of bad genetics and scant will-power. The dishes are very easy to make, most of the ingredients are already in your kitchen, and best of all, they are delicious. It is very easy to follow and you can't believe you are eating so healthy because it tastes so good.

In this cookbook designed for the heart patient, Piscatella devotes the first half to discussion of heart disease, cholesterol, unhealthy elements of American diet, and a seven-step plan to change eating habits - including reductions of fat, salt, sugar and even restaurant eating.

The second half introduces the recipes, accompanied by nutritional information, variations and serving suggestions. Recipes range from Italian vegetable soup to grilled swordfish steak, chicken curry and barbecued lamb roast. There's even a pie crust recipe. With an emphasis on herbs and judicious use of small amounts of fat, recipes are attractive as well as healthy.

I just bought this book for my husband and me, and I can't put it down. The information in the first half of the book is priceless. It goes in-depth about not only the workings of the heart and the causes of coronary heart disease, but also contains a step-by-step guide for how to change your lifestyle to prevent, control, or even reverse heart disease. The recipes in the second half are delicious and practical, if somewhat pricey. The author's focus is on presenting a practical, "do-able" approach to health, and he certainly achieves that. If you aren't buying it for yourself, buy it for your kids... their future dietary habits are determined by how they eat today. And "traces of the disease are common in American children by age 10" (p. 25). I'm buying another one for a friend.

Dorie, The Girl Nobody Loved is one of the best books for the abused and those who wish to get in touch with those you love, for an individual, or a group. If you are struggling to understand, please take the time to read this.

What an exceptional story, What an exceptional Lady, What an Awesome God. Why God let this happen is beyond me but how Dorie didn't end up with a victim mentality and a wasted life is only because of God. I love to read accounts of people who came through incredible difficulties with flying colors and best of all attributes their success to God. This is that book. And in reading the other reviews I learned there's even more in another book Dorie wrote. In my prison ministry this book will prayerfully be an inspiration to a young gal who has a similar horror story and needs to know it's possible to overcome. I also read this book in one sitting, about 4 hours, couldn't put it down.

Another benefit I hadn't expected, I'm always analysing what I say and do for my little girl and thinking I'm going to mess her up for life sometimes by not saying or doing the exact right thing all the time. Dorie showed me otherwise. Whereas my little girl in no way will experience anything close to what poor Dorie went through (Lord willing) I pray her walk with our Lord will be as strong and I know He can protect her from my inconsequential by comparison mistakes.

I was totally captivated by this book. I read it at one sitting. My heart went out to Dorie as a child and soared with her in her triumphs throughout the book. Although I order the book used, and it was a bit tattered, it did not detract from the content at all. I shall recommend it to many and share with my dear friends.

Dorie has been a very very good friend of mine for the past 15 years. The story of her early life is true and tragic, but the second book, No Place to Cry fills in the blanks in the first book. Dorie, The Girl Nobody Loved was published before anyone wrote autobiographically about sexual abuse. As Dorie has courageously opened these chapters of her life, so has the Lord opened her world wide ministry of speaking. She has been 12 times around the world telling of the sexual abuse, the damage of shame and the way the Lord has brought change in her life by facing the past. I often tell her that her book needs to be renamed, The Woman Everybody Loves. She is loved and is hugged by more people than could ever be counted. She is truly a picture of the grace of God and the fact that He delights in taking what others meant for evil and turning it into good.

Hi my name is Alex and i love this Book !! My health teacher read part of it in my Health class .I think this is such a good book it is when your 13 ..... I love this book I think it is soo sad but I love how she knew the lord was there ... It is soooo sad but it is a excellent book I want this soo much I love it @!!

This is one of the most fun books of history you will ever be lucky enough to read. It covers some aspects of 17th Century French history, with the greatest proportion of the book centered on Louis XIV and his court, although there are chapters on the peasantry and the brutality of the galleys.

I personally enjoyed the essays on court etiquette because it was so ludicrous. Louis convinced the nobility of France to give up their private armies to live in tiny attic bedrooms at Versailles and fight over who got to sit in an armchair and who had to sit on a stool. Human nature never changes--in the 21st century people fight to achieve status by buying the correct Manolo Blahnik shoes and the right Hermes carry all.

The chapter on female education alone is worth the price of admission. Louis and Mme. de Maintenon established a school for the daughters of impoverished aristocrats, and as a result reformed education for upper class females throughout France.

As other reviewers have said, this is history in the grand manner and most enjoyable.

The wealth of detail in W.H. Lewis' book The Splendid Century is incredible, but even more incredible is Lewis' ability to see the forest and the trees, to intelligently distinguish between what is useful and what is irrelevant and to leave the reader with a definite impression of Louis XIV's France.

Like his brother, C.S., Warren Lewis has that stereotyped but still very real and precious commodity of English commonsense. His good-humored rationality flavors the book but not to the detriment of the subject. Lewis was, afterall, writing about Louis XIV's France, not 20th century England. As with all the best historians, Lewis has the ability to see the world from outside the ideologies and pressures of the present. More than once, he cautions the reader against applying current century thinking to a 17th century problem or event.

But tone is where Lewis excels. Personable without being chatty, humorous without being sarcastic, A Splendid Century is amazingly relaxing to read, especially allowing for the subject matter and Lewis' fact-filled prose.

Recommendation: Buy it.

So much of what you read about the France of Louis 14th is based on the memoirs of Courtiers, to whom Versailles was the centre of the universe. In many ways that was true. Louis built Versilles to be the new heart of France. One where *he* ruled absoultley to the glorie of France.

However, this book covers much more than Versilles. You get to see what the majority of France was like during the period outside the court. Why the country was loathed by all courtiers, the real definition of a stinking Paris. How to get caught out at dinner for wrong ettiqute. Why you *didn't* want to end up on the Galleys and what your chances of education would have been like.

The author makes it clear that it is hard to make generalisations about this period in France, but he does his best to give us examples of the confusion and differences people experienced during the period.

If you think our taxes are bad today. Read this book and thank your lucky stars you aren't living in 17th cent France.

All in all this is a very enlightening read and highly recommended to anybody who wants a real glimpse of what the *real* France was like under Louis 14th.

W.H. Lewis wrote this famous book (dedicated to his brother C.S.) in 1953, but it has stood the test of time very well and provides an excellent introduction to the history of France during the reign of Louis XIV. "The Splendid Century" is history in the grand manner, written in the style of Trevelyan, Runciman and Roy Porter. The erudition is everywhere apparent, but it is worn lightly and the story is told in fluent prose enlivened by the odd flash of sly humour.

As the author points out in the introduction, the book might have been better titled "Some Aspects of Life in the Reign of Louis XIV;" rather than present a sequential narrative, Lewis chose to structure the book as a series of essays on particular aspects. There are chapters on the king and his court, the religious situation, the organisation of the army and the state of the peasantry. Among the unexpected pleasures of the book are the chapters on sea voyages, the world of the galleys and the education of women. A surprising omission, however, is a discussion of Colbert and his attempts at administrative reform. Nevertheless, this is a fine work of history that can be strongly recommended.

Mr.W.H.Lewis, brother of Mr.C.S., projects his fondness for the 17th century with bravado in The Splendid Century. The word splendid, derived from the latin for "illuminated", allows the reader to understand his thesis of the Grand Siecle without turning a page, by simply judging the book by its cover. Here is a profoundly pious Christian man composing some of the most glorious prose about a controvertial subject and succeeding where so many others have failed.

By not limiting himself to Versailles Mr.Lewis creates honesty. But he does not stop there, he remains true to the popular understanding. The Sun King's world brought to life.

These books that are writen but the author are fun and easy to read, you can escape for a few hours, I recomend them very much, this a good flowing book. Helps you pass away hours in fun reading.

I had read this book some time ago, then went on to the others in the series. However, I found that I could not recall the details of the first tale, so I have just finished it for the second time. And, it is as great a read as the first time! I was reminded of just how prissy and odd Frank's son was, and the details of their first meeting and the days which followed.

I wish, however, that Johnstone had actually brought the men to town who were going to design and drive the ore wagons to the shipping point. One has to just trust that the plan went forward, and maybe even the ore which had been hijacked in previous shipping attempts was located and restored to the mine owners.

All in all, a really great book - if this was my first reading, I know that the next installment would have to be obtained quickly.

I commend this story to anyone who loves great western writing.

I didn't think I'd read a book to match Ralph Compton's, but this one grabbed me quick. Another outstanding author. A page-turner of a western, and a terrific character in Frank Morgan. This is writing at its best.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have just finished reading it. Looks like the transition to the next installment is excellent. If you haven't read this book yet, be sure to put it on your reading list very soon. The characters are very well developed and the story is very exciting.

the Last Gunfighter: the Drifter, is now my favorite of all western books i have ever read. frank Moragn is straight out of a John wayne movie, heroic,, no-nonsense, quick to the draw,marshall. highly recommended to lovers of a good old fashion western shoot em up yarn. the gun play is non-stop, look forward to reading the rest in te series, the reprisal, the show down,, the rescue..

Not being unfamiliar with the corruption so heavily pertinent in our so called "War on Drugs" it was a pleasant surprise to find new things in this book that I didn't know before. I do disagree with what they feel an "adict" is, but that doesn't change that this is a very telling and touching little story. I ordered it so I could lend it to friends who are really just too damn lazy to read a full book and I figured if pictures were involved they just might find it o.k, I recommend it to anyone in 6th grade and above with any amount of knowledge on the topic.

"A Drug War Carol" may seem derivative at first blush, but it is a unique and entertaining vehicle that skillfully introduces the basic history of our misguided national crusade against drugs. It is also a good, non-exhaustive primer for those already familiar with the underlying policy debate.

The famous Dickens story is reworked into a modern tale where a Drug Czar is forced to contemplate the history of drug prohibition. He also witnesses the human toll that government policies have on people like cancer and pain patients. Unlike Ebenezer Scrooge, however, this Czar's "change of heart" is less than certain.

The historical record of the federal government's War on Drugs carries many of the same hallmarks of its current efforts: third-rate bureaucrats setting national policy; self-serving grandstanding by political leaders; doctors being jailed for providing treatment; the criminalization of addiction; a judiciary that sanctions the erosion of fundamental individual liberties; the wanton bureaucratic rejection of medical and scientific opinion; dubious efforts aimed at international drug control; and a media that is all too complicit in providing sustenance to government sensationalism. The institutional dynamics that were in play seventy years ago are still prevalent today.

Thankfully, the American public is no longer subjected to the naked racist appeals employed by "drug morality" advocates found here. Coke-addled black men raping white women and crazed Mexicans preying upon schoolchildren and executing people served as popular bogeymen. (The book overlooks the virulent anti-Chinese sentiment used to crusade against opium.) Instead, the Drug War now simply incarcerates a disproportionate number of racial minorities under a plethora of state and federal laws like mandatory minimum sentences, all under the "due process of law."

This "graphic novella" deserves a wide readership, especially among high school students, who are the principal targets of endless government propaganda and invasive practices like random drug testing, body searches and drug-sniffing dogs. The future is theirs, and that is why the federal government is finding novel ways to indoctrinate them and humiliate them into submission. Hopefully they will consider the examples of 1920's anti-prohibition advocates Pauline Morton Sabin and Henry Joy: Principled individual action can indeed make a difference.

When it comes to sharing my viewpoints on America's "War on Drugs", I have always struggled with replying to the simplistic catchphrases which seem to come from those who are blind to the destruction caused by this politically and economically motivated war. As such, it was with great pleasure to find this little gem.

Through a narrative employing Charles Dickens' classic storyline, "A Drug War Carol" comprehensively, yet succinctly covers the often ignored/suppressed history that gave rise to this immoral and self-serving--but significant--U.S. policy. From its inception during 1920s prohibition, the war on (some) drugs (and some users) has been waged with zeal and corruption, and in the process, has eradicated the Bill of Rights. In the past 80 years, our country (and many other countries which the U.S. can influence or control) have suffered, while arrogant and power-hungry politicians continually feed this monster with our tax-dollars, and in exchange, give us half-truths, exaggerations, or just outright lies.

Trying to explain this to others however, is challenging. This is simply because most of us have lived our whole life eagerly lapping up this propaganda.

I encourage everyone to buy as many copies of this book that you can afford and give it to friends and family. We need to wake up!!!

Also, for a richly detailed investigation into the origins and first 40 years of the U.S. drug war, see Douglas Valentine's "The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs". It is a facinating and compelling read.

This book reveals the truth around the WOD and who imposed the current devastating situation where much human dammage is related to prohibition and War on Drugs. I recomend the book and i'm sorry there is no chance of giving it six stars.
Joergen

I had seen this story in an online form, and was greatly impressed by the quality of the art. I was pleased to see that the print edition is even stronger. Highly recommended.

Babb's simeons are scary as hell. They like to eat humans and aren't particular about how they do it. The battle scenes in Babb's book are easy to visualize. That's what I like about Earth is Ours. Amy has a few surprises for Levi as they get to know each other, and that's amusing, but when the humans overwhelm the simeons the book really starts to cook.

Kevin Gerard - Conor and the Crossworlds: Breaking the Barrier

Kevin Gerard - Conor and the Crossworlds, Book Two: Peril in the Corridors (Conor and the Crossworlds)

This book is amazing. It was so easy to fall in love with the characters and I was unable to put this book down as it seemed that I was there as the battle was raging. Gary Babb put great detail into this book. His ability to switch from the male perspective to the female perspective was interesting as well. Looking forward to reading Target Earth!!

Being a Terry Goodkind fan it is sometimes hard to read others.(just my opinion) but when i read Earth is Ours...i realized that there is another author with an open mind that can find a way to intergrade the male and female mind and make it work...Help them keep separate identities yet act as one....Earth as Ours takes fantasy one step farther and makes it work....Read and enjoy this author.....Babb's next book is just as exciting...take my word for it...read and enjoy...

What started as a desperate need to just give up and surrender to what seemed to be the hopless inevitable, soon turns to a bond between mind and spririt in a world where technology has been rendered useless.
I highly recommend "Earth is Ours" for both men and women. The action is non-stop and the characters are well defined. Its a novel of self-discovery beginning at the most basic emotional levels. Grief gives way to the rage of revenge, then a hope for the future that gives its all for the passion of love.

Winner of the "Best SciFi/Fantasy 2005" prize of the San Diego Book Awards, Earth is Ours is an epic science fiction novel set on a world that aliens have stripped bare of technology. A self-aware, female computer and an American Indian man dying of old age must join forces for the sake of mutual survival, yet before they can battle the aliens, they must struggle against each other to determine who they will be jointly. Their conflict of minds gradually evolves toward tolerance, cooperation, and love - and they will need each other's full cooperation and strength to have a prayer of freeing the human race. An action-packed, fast-paced saga, presented alternately from the perspectives of the two heroes, Earth is Ours is highly recommended. A sequel, "Target Earth", is forthcoming.

Eddie Rickenbacker is a fascinating American whose incredible life is well documented in this epic biography. From his humble upbringing he became a pioneer in auto racing and design, an American war hero and "ace of aces" in World War I, the driving force behind the most profitable airline in the US, and a very influential civilian consultant for the military. Along the way he also displayed an incredible penchant for surviving near-death experiences including car crashes, plane crashes, botched surgeries, and 24 days adrift at sea in a raft in the Pacific Ocean. For all his accomplishments, it is interesting to compare Captain Eddie's place in posterity with Charles Lindbergh, who is remembered far better for a single achievement.

Author David Lewis's 15 years of research resulted in a very comprehensive and definitive biography of his subject. The clear organization and writing style make this book easier to digest than it's length may indicate. As the authoritative biography, there are times when the book gets into too much detail but these do not take much away from the quality of the book.

"Eddie Rickenbacker: An American Hero in the Twentieth Century" is a comprehensive autobiographical study. The man and his life are fairly presented, and the book is written in Dr. Lewis' impeccable and very readable narrative style.

Undoubtedly this is and, I am confident, will remain the definitive study of Eddie Rickenbacker, not only for the author's depth of research, but because, as one reviewer wrote, "Dr. Lewis has painted a balanced, complete picture of an extremely complex man."

In my opinion the book is also very timely in another respect. In addition to historians of aviation and technology, it is also of value to political scientists/historians. Very conservative politically, Rickenbacker is seen as the harbinger of the conservative movement - well before Barry Goldwater and the 1964 presidential contest.

As a former Eastern Airlines Captain and having read many stories about Eddie Rickenbacker I was anxious to read W. Davie Lewis's book. I was also priviledged to hear Dr. Lewis speak on his book prior to reading it. I found many things in the book that I already knew and somethings that I was unaware of. I thought when I first started reading it would be a book to pick up and read occassionally, but after the first chapter I was hooked and finished all 551 pages in record time. I would recommend Dr. Lewis' book to other Eastern employees who knew Eddie when we worked for him or just form a history point of view.

EDDIE RICKENBACKER: AN AMERICAN HERO IN THE 20TH CENTURY outlines the life and many achievements of a pilot who flew in both war and peace, defying death many times to drive cars in the heyday of the first autos, then planes during the first world war. He returned from war a hero and was decorated for his achievements, but failed as an auto maker after the war and returned to the aviation world in 1934, working for Eastern Airlines until World War II's start brought him new missions. His journey from war hero to peacetime conflicts within the new competitive airline industry makes for an avid story not just of Rickenbacker and his world, but of an evolving transportation industry.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

W. David Lewis has written a majestic biography of one of America's great personages of the twentieth century. Eddie Rickenbacker was a race car driver, fighter pilot, businessman and airline industry giant. He was also a survivor and a true fighter- often taking unpopular positions- particularly his controversial comments upon the passing of FDR- essentially saying that FDR got what he deserved. Lewis also finds Rickenbacker in the beginning of the early modern conservative movement during the beginnings of Barry Goldwaters rocket to prominence. Rickenbacker was xenophobic and found the welfare state to be a deeply anathema to the human spirit of self improvement and hard work.

This work is so in-depth no brief Amazon review can give it justice. Whether you're interested in riveting war stories, early automobile racing, politics or the growth of the American airline industry this is a book that I highly recommend. The story of how an poor kid from immigrant family can rise to the pinnacle of American society is truly an interesting story. For author Lewis this book isn't mere hero worship it is an attempt to give Rickenbacker his due as events from the early twentieth century fader further and further out of our historical memory.

I would have loved living in the time and place of Michael Faraday and to have been privileged to attend the Royal Institutes Friday night lecture series when Faraday was speaker!
Although I knew of Faraday and some of his accomplishments, I knew little about the man. This book puts a heart in his chest, and a soul in his being that makes of this common man a role model for all time.

I bought this book based on a recommendation from a prior review. I thoroughly enjoyed this work on Michael Faraday. There was so much information on his life and adventures not often readily documented. It was a well written and easy to absorb story. It's helped me keep touch with the human side of my Physics / Chemistry research.
Well worth the purchase price.

"The Electric Life of Michael Faraday" by Alan Hirshfeld
[Hirshfeld is also author of "Parallax: the Race to Measure the Cosmos"]

From the dust jacket of this book, a photograph of Michael Faraday's looks out toward us. His face is the very depiction of human kindness and his eyes show forth a tenderness that is almost maternal. It is a compelling face, and in a social setting, one would feel drawn to stand toe to toe with such a man.

Hirshfeld has authored an endearing view of 19th Century English life through Faraday's eyes, a life characterized by the snobbery of class distinctions, combined with the imminent discoveries of science in many fields.

In scarcely a century and a half, mankind went from the Voltaic Cell to Nuclear Power, and the discoveries of both and everything in between are linked, and the scientific work of Faraday is the key to all. It is Faraday's pursuit of the idea of magnetic "fields" that showed the way. James Clerk Maxwell employed his mathematical talents to put Faraday's ideas into the form of equations. Albert Einstein would later use these equations to arrive at E=MC (squared), opening the door to the Nuclear Age.

Until I read this biography, I was not clear on who or when or how our knowledge and identification of Elements came to be. It was the use of the Voltaic Cell, a battery, whose electro-chemical process separated any compound into its basic elements that served as the tool of discovery. Faraday was in hot pursuit of the science of electricity and magnetism, which led him to approach Humphry Davy of the Royal Institute concerning employment. Davy was at the forefront of the use of the Voltaic Cell for discovery.

Nitrous Oxide was an early gas to fall prey to Davy's efforts, and these early scientists, including Faraday, would sometimes engage in "laughing gas" parties, from which there were no harmful effects.

Faraday was not a mathematician, and didn't have much in the way of credentials as a THEORIST. He was respected as an EXPERIMENTER. Faraday had to try all the harder to confirm, by experimental proof, his intuitive idea that magnetism existed as a field of curved lines, and also that magnetism was not a different energy, unconnected to electricity; but a counterpart of a common, electromagnetic force.

The account of Faraday's experiments with electricity, to see if it affected light, and then magnetism to see if it affected light, is one of the book's high points. That was close to the end of Faraday's career, when he was experiencing some occasional memory loss and worked constantly.

The hight point of the book comes when Faraday has passed the peak of his career, and Scotsman James Clerk Maxwell researches Faradays writings on FIELD THEORY.

When I got to the final pages, and the account of Faraday's funeral, I found I had tears in my eyes.

It seems to be a sad truth of the rarefied kind of fame that comes to scientists that the biggest names are the theoreticians. The experimentalist, when remembered at all, is usually recalled in association with some great theoretical leap forward. True, there are a handful of experiments that are remembered by name: Rutherford's gold foil experiment, Milikan's oil drop experiment, the Michelson/Morley experiment. And, also true, Galileo and Newton were great experimentalists though this is often put second to their other achievements. Still, more respect should be paid to those men and women down in the trenches of science, digging for facts in the face of reality.

A perfect example of someone deserving more fame and respect is Michael Faraday. His work in the area of electromagnetism changed modern science and much of the experimental equipment he built with his own hands laid the groundwork for the electric-generating and consuming infrastructure we still use. Not only that, his theoretical conceptualization of "lines of force" was the basis for modern field theory, despite the fact that his theoretical work was often denigrated by his peers until James Clerk Maxwell brought it to mathematical fruition.

As for this book, Professor Hirshfeld does a fine job of honoring Faraday's achievements. He has a nice way of making the science understandable as well as an ability to convey the process Faraday went through to achieve what he did.

Of course, Hirshfeld is lucky to have an interesting personal story to relate in Faraday. Basically uneducated and apprenticed to a bookbinder, Faraday was well on his way to obscurity in the book trade despite his love of science when, through perseverance and luck, he managed to get a job as an assistant to Humphrey Davy, one of the great scientists of his day. Over the course of the years that follow, he proceeds to surpass his one-time mentor in the face of the class bigotries of the day. In spite of it all, he remained a humble and religious man who combined public service with his private work and fights through many bouts of ill health. It is a great "rags to riches" tale that Hirshfeld handles well, if not brilliantly. His prose falls a bit flat occasionally but I liked seeing the many quotes from Faraday's own writings.

In the annals of experiment, there may be no greater scientist than Michael Faraday. (The British at least have the sense to put his likeness on the 20 pound note. We could use that kind of public appreciation for science in the U.S.) This nice biography provides a solid and readable introduction to Faraday's like and work. Hopefully, it will bring him more of the fame he deserves.

This book succeeds on many levels:

It's an indelible portrait of Faraday and shows how his personality affected his pursuit of science.

It illustrates the importance of the inevitable "mistakes" that scientists encounter in their tortuous paths to understanding the nature of the universe. (One of the many insightful quotes that the author includes is from Einstein: "Science is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.")

It gives us insight into the politics of science in early 19th century England--politics that are very similar to those that affect the careers of scientists in the 21st century.

We learn that science was a hot topic in London at this time--perhaps more so than it is today. The general public flocked to evening lectures by scientists. Faraday was particularly adept at using demonstrations that delighted a wide audience (including even children)--demonstrations that helped them to understand complex ideas in practical terms.

The book shows how much can be learned about the universe from experiment alone, but how a deeper understanding can be gained only by relating experiment to theory and mathematics (fields that Faraday acknowledged were beyond his reach).

The author's descriptions of Faraday's experiments are understandable without being patronizing. Physics students at all levels will gain a deeper insight into the nature of electromagnetism than they can get from most textbooks.

I've never read a better book on the history of science.