Games Books

With the backdrop of the emerging black middle-class in segregated Washington, D.C., during World War II, author Brad Snyder tells the compelling story of two baseball clubs and the push to integrate one professional league.

There is Homestead Grays founder Cum Posey, who is looking to relocate his franchise from Pittsburgh before the start of the 1940 season. And there is Clark Griffith, owner of the pathetic Washington Senators, who can briefly shuffle aside his racism for a business deal that will bring a new revenue stream to his bank account when the team is playing away from Griffith Stadium.

This initial tenuous partnership delivered a surprise to Griffith; the Grays exemplary play on the field found them outdrawing the cellar-dwelling Senators and galvanizing a new generation of baseball fans. That success - even with onerous stadium leases common when NLB teams played in facilities used by Major League Baseball clubs - helped propel the integration of MLB in 1947.

The era is also seen through legendary sportswriters Sam Lacy & Wendell Smith, Buck Leonard - the greatest pro first baseman - and in the offices of MLB, especially the Senators.

Griffith - who certainly could have worked out some type of agreement with the Grays for players to bolster the Senators before the Dodgers signed Robinson - was only a pioneer in segregation, integrating his team seven years after Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers and ultimately fleeing Washington, D.C., relocating his team to the whiter Minneapolis-St. Paul market.

With the success of Robinson came the slow disintegration of NLB - the league that was truly integrated on the field, in the stands and in the front offices - as MLB teams raided the club rosters for established stars and began scouting & signing younger players to contracts.

Snyder has brought this forgotten period beyond the shadows of the simplistic retelling of the past that plagues all levels American history.

Let me be clear, this is a great book, rather than just a very good one. In nine chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion, Washington, D.C., based attorney turned writer has told the powerful and sometimes provocative story of how the Homestead Grays moved to Washington, D.C., and set the stage for the breaking down of the color line in Major League Baseball (MLB). In this important book Brad Snyder moves beyond the singular actions of Branch Rickey's Brooklyn Dodgers and Jackie Robinson, which most people are familiar with, to explore the broader implications of race relations in baseball during the 1940s.

In telling this story, "Beyond the Shadow of the Senators" is filled with heroes and villains. The most significant hero is unquestionably Sam Lacy, a black writer with the "Washington Tribune," a weekly oriented toward D.C.'s large African American community, who consistently called for the desegregation of MLB. Also heroic are the great stars of the Negro Leagues, especially Buck Leonard, Satchel Paige, and Josh Gibson, all of whom came to Washington to play before large crowds in the nation's capital. They demonstrated through their exploits the quality of talent in the Negro leagues, especially when juxtaposed against the hapless play of the Washington Senators of the American League. The villains include Clark Griffith, the financially strapped owner of the Senators whose willingness to rent Griffith Stadium to the Grays proved lucrative, and Grays owner Cumberland Posey who shifted his team from the Pittsburgh area to Washington to cater to the large middle-class African American community in Washington. Both Griffith and Posey had every reason to keep the segregated system intact because of the money they made. Moreover, Griffith was a blatant racist who integrated reluctantly and eventually moved the Senators from Washington to Minneapolis-St. Paul because, as he said in 1978, "you've got good, hardworking white people here" (p. 289).

Ranging broadly from social history to baseball and back, Snyder captures the essence of the history of the Senators, the Grays, and wartime Washington's racial situation. It is a story of love and hate at the same time, as well as the quest for dignity of the minority population in a divided city. "Beyond the Shadow of the Senators" is a powerful book. Enjoy.

Brad is an excellent researcher and writer. This book is not only enjoyable but educational. I met Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe and Lester Lockett, two former Negro League players, a few years ago and their stories started my interest. Brad fed that interest beautifully. I look forward to Brad's next book on Curt Flood and the reserve clause. His attention to detail is consistent with his legal background.

Tim Moreland, PhD
Salisbury, NC

"Beyond the Shadow of the Senators'' is a must read for any serious student of baseball history. The author put a massive amount of research into this engaging account, of which I knew nothing even though I grew up in Washington not long after these events took place. This is an outstanding work in every regard. I have never met the author and I am not an African-American (not that anybody should care); I am just a fan of baseball and its history. If you are, too: Read this book.

This is a great, and true-to-life (i.e., "complex") story about the institution of 'Negro' League baseball and the various parties who profited and railed against it.

Key people that are introduced and brought to life are:
Buck Leonard, Satchel Paige, and Josh Gibson -- three of the greatest ballplayers who ever lived;
Clark Griffith -- the pioneering, penurious and controlling owner of the Washington Senators;
Sam Lacy -- the ahead-of-his-time, DC-native who tirelessly advocated for the integration of Major League Baseball; as well as
Cum(berland) Posey -- the shrewd owner of the Homestead Grays -- the dominant team of the loosely confederated Negro Leagues during the late 30's and 40's.

Tangential to this story are:
the decimation of the post 1933 Senators, mostly due to finances and an inadequate ballpark;
the relative prosperity of Washington DC during the years of the depression and WWII and the partial equality of African-American government workers that led to a vibrant culture and ability to spend on entertainment;
the move by Posey and his "partner" (many of the Negro League baseball teams were financed by numbers entreprenuers) to Washington from their Pittsburgh home and the welcome of their rental payments and gate pctgs. by Clark Griffith;
Judge Landis' death, the increasing awareness of America's incongruity in its fight for freedom and democracy in Europe while maintaining a virtual apartheid culture at home; and
the greed/opportunity of baseball owners to find the best talent at the lowest price which ultimately led to Rickey's "great experiment");

This book also fleshes out the background and conflict around Jackie Robinson, who was rightly judged to be a great man and the right vehicle for Rickey's efforst, and the shared opinions that he was a good, but not all-time great Negro baseball player. [Check out how well a 42-yr old Satchel Paige pitched for the World Championship Indians in 1948.]

The shifts in attitude between "separate but equal" and complete integration by the various parties reveal primarily self-interest. Judged by the standards of our time, I share many others' great respect for Sam Lacy and his tireless, moral advocacy and feel sorry for the Negro League baseball owners who were mostly left with nothing as they rarely had enforceable contracts that protected their relationship with their players.

Clark Griffith was an "innovator" in attracting inexpensive talent from Cuba. Many of these players represented themselves well on the ballfield but would only be acceptable if they were of "Spanish" descent.

Utterly inconceivable now, but the norm for over 60 years (since Cap Anson helped institute the "gentleman's agreement" against employment of African Americans in the early 1880's) was to allow a Major or Minor League ballclup to employ pretty much anyone (Swedes, Germans, Irish, Italians, Jews, etc.) anyone, except African-Americans.

It has often been discussed that without Jackie Robinson (& the parts played by Branch Rickey, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Ben Chapman, etc.) the 1954 "Brown vs. Board of Education" decision would not have happened as quickly.

This book provides a wonderful companion story to the integration of major league baseball which, in my opinion, is one of the most significant stories of 20th Century United States.

I am new to using a serger and found this gem of a book to help me understand how to get the most out of it. The explanations are easy to read with plenty of photos for greater understanding. This handbook covers all you need to know about using a serger,from serger parts, threads, threading, tension controls and techniques. There's guides in the back to help with trouble shooting and machine maintainance as well. I have yet to find another book that explains so much about the functions and features of a serger in such a user friendly format. I'd recommend it to anyone who has, or is thinking of buying a serger - from beginner to advanced!

I own four serger books and this is by far the most useful. It is a great resource for those new to serging, especially if the instruction manual that came with your serger is inadequate. The book covers all of the basics needed for serging without previous experience - serger parts, threading, tension, basic operations, serging knit fabrics, rolled hems, troubleshooting, etc. The author is obviously quite experienced in pointing out common serger pitfalls to the beginner.

I already own a copy of this book so I purchased this for a friend who is new to the sergers. This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn how to use a serger. I have read it three times and each time I learn something new. Sergers are a very different animal than a sewing machine, so regardless to what brand you have this book will help you master how to use it and troubleshoot it when necessary.

If you are new to serging, this book is an excellent introduction to the topic. It covers all the basics very clearly and is well illustrated. Beginners can't go wrong here; experienced serger users will want something more advanced.

Although I've sewn since I was a teenager, I'm new to serging. This is the ideal starter book. Its explanations are clear, as are its trouble-shooting tips, & it's logically organized. It will be sitting next to my serger for some time to come.

I will be brief.
I only have 4.5 years experience as a programmer, of those only 1.5 were spent on C++ and I have no experience whatsoever in game programming;
the new stuff I learned from this book could be printed on a letter page or less.

This is just generic, and rather primitive, data structures and algorithms book, that applies them to making a small game instead of usual example search/whatever programs. Sometimes it feels like a data structure was used merely as an example that fit in that place in grand example-place matching, and not as the most useful or efficient one...

One could probably turn it into "Data Structures for Database Server Programmers", "Data Structures For Embedded Device Programmers", or "Data Structures For Solving World Hunger" with copy/paste and minor grammatic corrections ;)

This book actually teaches Data Structures!! Data Structures are the essence of programming. Ron manages to present all the basic Data Structures and the most famous algorithms in a clean and gentle way.

Many many thanks to Ron Penton for his help! Ron Penton really knows how to write a book! His way of writing shows that he knows the subject perfectly and presents it in a way that anyone understands what he is talking about. No matter how hard the topic is! By the way, Ron Penton has a great sense of humour!

If I could I would give one more star for the GREAT job he did with the CD. Although I intended initially to learn Data Structures, I also learned SDL. Perfect combination for someone who wants to start writing games!

A pre-requisite for any book on Data Stuctures is that the person should be comfortable with the syntax and semantics of programming in a high level language such as C++ or Java. Hence this book assumes that you are comfortable with C++ and OOP. There is no such thing as Data Structures for Absolute Beginners. So discard the review with 2 stars. Overall this is an excellent and interesting book on Data Structures.

Bottom line is this, you can find the information presented in DS4GP in any other good book on data structures but what sets this book apart is the presentation, organization, practical content and the writing style of the author.

It's definetly not for beginners or for a person looking for a very detailed book on data structures that covers AVL trees and red-black trees. But for the other 99% its a must buy.

i wanted a book to brush up on some data structures since i've been out of programming for a few months. plus, most of my learning of these has been self taught and from the internet where there is limited (good) writings on more complex subjects such as programming. so i wanted to have a fresh perspective. not only does the book contain very useful details in many areas and to the point information (gets to the first data structure by page 14!) but the author somehow makes this stuff fun to read.
the author doesn't go hugely in to depth in some areas but that's pretty much what i wanted since i am already familiar with how to use most of the stuff. very good book and i'd highly recommend it. hope this author continues with more books!

Ron Penton, Data Structures for Game Programmers (Premier, 2003)

I don't normally get all googly-moogly over programming books. In fact, I just took a quick look back at my reading log since 1999, and a select few have gotten four stars, but nothing above that. But I picked up Penton's nine-hundred-page tome on Thursday and I finished it on Sunday. Nine hundred pages in four days. I've only been keeping track of page counts over the past year, but the books I've read that have come closest, page-wise, have been Robin Hobb's lovely novels, three of which I read earlier this year hovered around eight hundred pages. I read the shortest of them in eight days. And I love Robin Hobb.

Data Structures for Game Programmers is a wonderful book in no small part because Ron Penton was still an undergrad while writing it. Which is, of course, also the book's main problem, because someone like me who last saw ivy-covered halls well over a decade ago is likely to be sick with envy that some little greenhorn has already found his way into the world of professional computer-book publishing (and by "professional" here I don't mean "published by recognizable press," I mean "the kid's already published three books in three years, and they're ALL monstrous tomes, when does he have time to program?"). But let's face it, you expect something different when you read a book by a young writer, be it the hot new novelist or the new kid on the programming block. And Penton delivers it; Data Structures for Game Programmers is, if you're a programmer, the most readable computer book you've ever come across. Penton seems to have a healthy disrespect for textbooks, which he alludes to a few times in the course of the book, and it shows in his writing; he wants to write something that will teach you more than a textbook by being more accessible. And in this goal, he succeeds. Brilliantly. I learned more about C templates from reading this book than I have in any other three books devoted to nothing but templates, and here they're just referred to a few times in passing. How is this possible? Because Penton explains things in language far easier to understand than that of most programming books; simply put, he hasn't yet been so overwhelmed by jargon that he can't see when he's written something the layperson might not be able to understand, which is a common ailment among programming authors.

Also, there's been some minor grumbling from some critics about the book's insistence on reinventing the wheel. Of course it does. That's how you learn to program-- you bang away at it, doing something that's already been done, until you figure out why it's done that way. There may be five or six people on the planet who can read it in a textbook and immediately figure out why it's the case (and, one assumes, they are the same people as those critics), but the rest of us are much happier seeing it this way.

If any computer book publishers happen to be reading this, you, especially, should be reading Data Structures for Game Programmers. See what it's like. Try to get the rest of your authors to emulate it. You'll have much happier customers that way.

This is one of the handful of books I've read since getting a library card again (a total, in fact, of four since 2003) that, after returning it to the library, went back on my Amazon wish list, because I want a copy for myself.

Not soemthing I would read cover to cover, but the individual "Hacks" that I have read are pretty good. I have lots of books along this line and this is one of the bet. I put it up there with Stu's "DV Rebels Guide" which is also incredible. If you like the Rebel guide, you will probably like this as well. Lots of good stuff. Enjoy!

Great book with great content I recommend it to anyone who want to take there film making a step forward and is to busy or lazy to download the information from the internet becaue it is all there. Spread around of course but you will find every piece of information even most of the pictures used in this book so. If you have time and dedication you can save yourself the money by looking it up on the internet.

This book covers many aspects of video. Labeling tapes, making excel spreadsheets for saving information, time code on tapes, how to achieve certain effects, lighting, and green screen effects just name a few. The book is general to most all video software and is a very usefull tool I'm glad I purchased. Don't let the term "HACKS' fool you it 's only refering to tips or tricks.

I found the book to be very practical and have the
kind of "nuts-and-bolts" pointers that I like. You
don't have to read it cover to cover (I didn't) but
can pick it up and go to the points that interest you
or where you are currently in need of help. It refers
to various "commerical products" that the author has
used to get the job done. I found this helpful. With so
many competing products to chose from it's nice to
hear, "If you get product X you'll be able to do Z,"
rather than buying and hoping (or not buying and
wondering). Kuddos to the author.

I learned so much from this book. In fact, I've already implemented several of the ideas and have had great results. If you're semi-professional (video has been added to your responsibilities but you have no experience with this medium) BUY THIS BOOK.

Who would have thought of parchment paper and clothes pins to diffuse light and create a softer, more natural light over the subject? That's just one of the great tips I've already started using.

I've bought several digital video books while trying to learn this medium, and this has been by far the most useful.

Really excellent account of the development of Bandon Dunes. I should have read more than the first 100 pages before actually going to Bandon Dunes and playing the three courses - that would have added even more pleasure to the three days I thoroughly enjoyed there.

If you play golf and want to get a flavor for the vision of how a destination like Bandon Dunes became a reality, this is a must read. Bandon is one, if not, the most special golf location in the world. I have played in Scotland and Ireland and Bandon has a purity that few other locations can replicate. It feels like it has been there for hundreds of years and the book explains how it came to be. You will not be disappointed.

I have not read this book, but my Dad is raving about it. He is reading it prior to his trip to Bandon Dunes and he has never thanked me more for a gift. For the golfer in your life who is impossible to shop for--this is the gift for them.

Fantastic story, very well written. A must read for not only golfers, but for environmentalist and landscape architects also.

This book is the perfect gift for your favorite golfer. Even non-golfers and golfers who don't normally read will enjoy this story of dream golf.

This is a great book that shows how to make wonderful critters, creatures and scenes, just by using fingerprints and some imagination.

To give you an idea about how cool I think this book is, I'm not going to sell it, like I do hundreds of other books. I'm saving it for my daughter who is studying to become a teacher. This books is full of dozens of ideas and hours of fun!

I love this book. It's great for a party craft (as I first used it) or for sending/making cards.

I remember this book from when I was a kid. My 4YO loved it when he got this book. We've recently given it as gifts with a stamp pad. I would highly recommend it,since kids can make adorable pictures with little effort.

I used this book for 400 Girl Scouts at a day camp. The fingerprint animals and people worked for all ages and the girls loved to try new things from the book. Thanks for all the great fingerprint ideas. :)

I was not familiar with this book before I bought it; however, it was recommended by the teachers of the students for which this and several other Ed Emberley books were purchased. From the thank yous I have received, this book was a real hit! It is used in a Native American Mission School with great enthusiasm and even better results. What more could you ask for?

The strategy guide came very quickly and in the conditioned stated. Thank you very much for the excellent service.

I bought this to help me get into the game. Mostly I have used the character building section to whet my appetite. I haven't used it for "reading ahead" to see what the next story battle is, but I have gone back to see what I could have done better. Early on, before I got the book, I was getting frustrated but learning some of what the authors believe to be good skillsets has been very useful. Sure, you can find the information on the Internet, but stats are so much easier to see in a table format.

Recommended if this is one of your first SRPGs.

I played this game quite a while ago, and when it came out again on PSP, I decided to grab this strategy guide for the second time around. With in-depth how-to and covering all the side quests and jobs, I clocked in 70+ hours of game play, as compared to my original 40 hours when I played without the game. This guide gives out no spoilers, but shows you how to get the most out of FFT. This really helped me get all side characters & showed how to get my characters up to speed with "job placement". Bradygames never lets me down, and in this instance it really improved the game. I'm passing this on to my other gamer friends and would recommend these strategy guides to any Final Fantasy fan.

I recently purchased FFT: the war of the lions for my PSP, and decided to get the guide to have the set.

The guide has everything you need to get going, and keeps it up to the end, even helping you out on the new Ad Hoc additions to the game. I'd like to point out that i do own the original PS1 version, and it's guide, also, and there is no doubt the SE and Bradygames have decided to keep up the top notch work for this title and guide.

The ONLY glaring difference is the PS1 guide had a star method of suggesting the best job abilities. The PSP guide only suggest what works best for each job. Not a big difference, imho, because after playing a while, you should be able to discern which abilities help the most.

All in all, an enjoyable guide to have if you need a nudge in the right direction.

Well it covers everything you need in the game, and not just the basic walkthrough of each mission. It gives some really good tips on jobs and skills, some combinations I haven't used before that are really good.
Also it covers all the secret missions and how to beat them and also how to get all the secret characters, and it's no big secret Balthier from FF XII is one of the guys you get.

The book gives an in depth chart on all the missions, all the maps, all the items/weapons/armour you can get. And also guide for the Deep Dungeon (one for the hardcore with time to spare) to tackle.

Aside from it being a great guide... you will be happy to know the artwork is great too. Not like some guidebooks that are so fnctional I may as well read it from gamefaqs.com... this one is lovely. As you can see from the cover, you get a few bits of eye candy. And on a small note, the pages aren't fragile thin as they are plastic coated/filmed.

I had to grab this book, I guess it was the first? MADicine is my new favorite, with that funny and fun and sarcastic House-like Alban Bane. Love that guy! So, naturally, I had to grab The Game. Well, it's quite different in some ways. Darker, and a little bloodier, because here Armstrong is spoofing up serial killers and Silence of the Lambs. You've got to love someone who can take on Hollywood knowing it'll probably kill a book-to-movie deal, because here Bane attacks Hollywood, reality TV. I love it. Because I read this backwards, MADicine first, I miss not having Ada Kenner and Pan the rock star around to be Bane's foil, but it was nice to see big old Arm and his two adorable but disturbed teenage daughters. So, I felt at home, and Bane's just as funny here, but it is darker. Just a warning on the ending, which gets intense. But Bane's as good as ever, House-like, funny, tough, sarcastic, charming, lovable.

Derek Armstrong's The Game is thrilling and enthralling. Witty repartee and snappy dialogue create moments of brevity in an otherwise intense roller-coaster ride of a story. This book reads like an action-suspense movie; Armstrong weaves an intense tale that manages to entertain while commenting on the fascination our country has for the genre of reality television. Armstrong skewers voyeurism and it is a pleasure to go along for the ride. I highly recommend The Game to anyone seeking a great book to fall into. You won't want to put it down-- and the book leaves the door open to the sequel, MADicine, coming soon from Kunati books.

POSTED AT THE REQUEST OF ELINA McGEE: Capital punishment of a serial killer and a reality-television show with a warped twist, the setting of The Game, quickly intrigues the reader. The reality show guests, trapped in a haunted mansion, all become suspects when it becomes the scene of a copycat murder, follwed by a succession of killings. Character development of the game show participants, broadcasting crew and the pill-popping detective, Bane, with his comical sarcasm, serve to make this mystery thriller that much more captivating. When I finished the last page of The Game, I found myself wishing I could purchase the sequel immediately!

Derek Armstrong provides the best reason to turn off the TV--his exciting new novel THE GAME. It's a send-up of reality television, full of murderous action on the set of "Haunted Survivor", and a thrilling ride to the climax with detective Alban Bane. Don't wait for the movie--read the book!

There is simply not enough humor in this world. Since the sixties, ethnic humor is tabu, or is it taboo. Somehow we decided that the frailties of human nature shouldn't be funny, whether ethnic or otherwise, leaving us with almost no subject to dump our ridicule upon. However, there is salvation on the horizon and it seems that Derek Armstrong has found it. It is reality television.

In his novel, The Game, he has focused our attention on just how utterly ridiculous reality television really is. His story is a mystery sure enough, but basically he strips the veneer from the broadcasting genre and shown it for what it is and we discover that what it is, is just silly.

Red Evans author of On Ice

This is a really cute book for toddlers/preschoolers/K-2 kids. It helps with colors for the really little ones, then with short sentences to read or write later. I actually bought this for my 10 year old daughter - lol - she always loved this book. I guess the bright colors and sparkle of the foil cut outs of the eggs appealed to her in Kindergarten when she saw it in the school library - she's checked it out every year at least 6 times ever since (4th grade now). Every kid has a few books that they just adore and can't get enough of, so I got it for her to keep and give her own kid(s) some day (she has my old copy of "Bambi's Fragrant Forest" - a 1970's scratch 'n sniff book). It's a visually pleasing book and little ones will enjoy it.

I love the illustrations in this book!!! My 2-year-old may be a little too young for the story, but she loves looking at the pictures.

My son learned his colors because of this book! Each page has a different color of egg, the story rhymes so well, and its a lift-the-flap book! The pictures have so much detail sometimes we spend extra time looking in the background for other animals and talking about what they are doing. We've had this book for a year and it is still very popular at our house!

I purchased this book for my nephew and he absolutely loves it. Beautiful illustrations and a very cute story for children from 1-6 years old. However, the book seemed a bit warped when I purchased it but I attributed it due to the delivery process.

One of the nicest things about this book is how well it is designed. Children love beautiful materials and this book delivers. Today, electronic media is so prevelant in childrens' lives. This book, though, offers children the opportunity to relax and read pages filled with awe and wonder. Quality colors, papers and decorations invite children into the Natural Easter world of the forest and imagination. It's beautifully adorned with sparkling, jeweled pages made to entertain and peak interest.

I have two grandsons 5 & 7. They love to share the I Spy books and see who gets the most answers.

Careful with the purchase of this book. It is an excellent "I Spy" in the series. However, the inside pages are the same as another; only the front cover is different. If you're adding to a collection be sure to view inside pages.

The I Spy books are a play on the children's game of "I Spy" a game I played often during long car trips except that each book is themed. I Spy Mystery centers around buried treasure, a sunken ship and some other shenanigans. Most of the items photographed are miniatures and toys though what is often being sought in the riddles isn't as obvious as the photograph would first imply. The photographs themselves are deceptively simplistic. A photograph of a green house would appear to be nothing but flowers but may in fact hide things like anchors or race cars.

I Spy Mystery seems to be a tougher book than I Spy Spooky Night. I've read the book now twice and still haven't found all the mentioned items!

Fantastic! My 6 and 3 year olds really enjoy these books. My husband and my self find it very educational and fun for family time.

This has provided hours of fun for one and sometimes several kids all at once. I love the series.