Classics Books

This, I think, is Ayn Rand's best. I love this book. You do have to get past some of the 'preachy' areas but the philosophy is spot on. There are some parts that get a little windy (as in long-winded) but a must read anyway.

This novel was written more than 50 years ago. It details a progression of events that accompany a society that forcibly takes from the most productive members to provide for those that are less productive. While it is noble and compassionate to help those less fortunate, I think that it is up to each individual and family to decide how much they can help, not the government. It sure sounds familiar to what has been happening in America over the past 35 years.

The appearance and physical quality of the book is wonderful. I first read this book many years ago. The 100 year re-print is a great reminder of the history of this classic.

While the pace and depth of this book may bore some readers used to Stephen King and other pop writers (I am a huge SK fan by the way...) it allows one to consider the author's philosophy and make your own judgement. Personally, I've read this book 3 or 4 times, and each time I experience it a bit difference depending on my current life situation and my willingess, need, desire, to examine my own beliefs.

Give this one a try, you may just find you see the world a bit differently.

A sprawling novel of nearly 1200 pages, this book was first published in 1957 by the Russian immigrant, Ayn Rand, writing in English, a second language she had to learn. It has continued to be read, explained, interpreted, memorialized, and frequently reprinted over the last 50 years for its unapologetic defense of capitalism and its often overembellished, overdramatized lectures about Ms. Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. While very stilted and repetitive in the frequent monologues of its main characters, its profuse examples and unflinching conviction embolden it to worship the accumulation of wealth through the pursuit of capitalist ideals.

The book is divided into three sections, each with a concise, inarguable statement of logic as its title. Part I, "Non-Contradiction", shows a world in turmoil in which the opposing forces of selfishness and selflessness are colliding. In Part II, "Either-Or", she explains why the profiteers - the "movers" of the world, as she calls them - are withdrawing their knowledge and refusing to participate in the system that the rule-makers - the "looters" of the world, as she calls them - have created. In Part III, "A Is A", Ms. Rand unveils her Utopian ideals, buffered with an uninterrupted speech of 43 pages by John Galt, to show why Atlas has shrugged only to once again take a strong grip on the world which he then holds in balance.

The beauty of this book is in the clarity of its ideals and the certainty of its characters as they commit themselves to the necessity of living by Ms. Rand's objectivist philosophy. However, when reading it, you must also be prepared to skim parts because the same messages are continuously pounded into your head like a throbbing headache - greed is good, need is bad; self-reliance is good, self-dependence is bad; individualism will triumph, collectivism will fail.

Ms. Rand is certainly guilty of an excessive amount of simplification as she draws distinctions between ideas as large and somewhat nebulous as those of capitalism and socialism and, at her most insistent, seems oblivious to the essential role of government in providing roads, bridges, highways, courts, prisons, schools, libraries, parks, water and sewage systems, street lights, airports, harbors, tunnels, as well as the military, police, fire, postal, and hospital workers. Surely without that core of essential products and services provided by a collectivist, profitless government there could be no economic system of any kind, let alone the one she blesses so reverently. It also seems overly presumptive, I believe, to ignore the government created and enforced role of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and property ownership that play such an important role in a system of profiteering. Surely the abolition of these would topple a system of capitalism as quickly as it would take mobsters and racketeers to take over the role of adjudicating justice.

Nonetheless, this is an important book for anyone trying to grasp the big issues which confront our world economically. But, like an excellent wine, if you drink it too fast, you will lose some of its finer points, and if you drink too much, you will be numbed by its inebriating qualities. While Atlas Shrugged is certainly a book to be savored, it is also one not to be overimbibed.

Ayn Rand is probably one of the finest authors I have ever read. She has amazing character development and explores issues that are incredibly hard to describe.

I love one of the many themes of this book -- how people who do their jobs well can get penalized by others who don't understand them.

Beezus and Ramona is a good book! In this book, you meet Fred, Ramona's imaginary pet lizard. Ramona also happens to destroy a library book! How do you spell Ramona and Beezus? F-u-n, f-u-n, f-u-n! I'm not allowed to tell you anything else. So how do you find out about this? READ THE BOOK-NOW!

Is there *anyone* on the planet who doesn't like Beverly Cleary's books and the wonderful characters she created?

Beezus and Ramona (along with Henry Huggins and the rest of the gang on Klikitak Street) were part of my childhood. 40 years later, they were just as appealing to my own son. And don't tell anyone -- although we bought these audiobooks when he was about 8, at 12 he still likes to put these on ocassionally and listen. Why? In large part because of Stockard Channing's masterful performance here. Her rendition of Ramona is EXACTLY how we imagine this impish little creature would talk.

I highly recommend these books, both because of the delightful stories and characters that Mrs. Clearly created for us, and because Stockard Channing has brought them to life so perfectly here. The stories are reminiscent of simpler times and will take parents back to their own childhoods while providing toddlers to tweens with good, wholesome entertainment.

We listened on road trips, and unlike certain kids entertainment (a certain purple dinosaur comes to mind), you won't want the kids to wear headphones to preserve your sanity. You'll want it on the main speakers for everyone in the car to enjoy.

Five stars!

Beezus really got annoyed with Ramona, she wrecked the art class, she bite into all those apples,etc. I would have probably screamed if I had Ramona for a sister! I like Beverly Cleary's books. I own this particular book of hers, and I read it again and again! It's awsome! I totally recomend it, along with Cleary's other awsome books!

Ask any older sibling about younger siblings, and you'll get one common answer...they're A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G. They steal your toys, throw tantrums, and constantly steal the spotlight. But, even the most perturbed older siblings know that, deep down, it's impossible not to love younger sisters and brothers - sometimes.

Nine-year-old Beatrice "Beezus" Quimby has always been a quiet soul, content with spending her time embroidering pot holders, helping her mother do the sheets on Saturday's, and reading the countless books she checks out of the Glenwood Branch Library on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, her four-year-old sister, Ramona, is the exact opposite of her. Ramona has one thing on her mind, and that's making as much noise as possible, and driving the whole family out of their mind. Beezus can't stand it, especially since the responsibility of taking care of Ramona, and ensuring that she behaves, is often delegated to her, so that her parents can get their work done. Ramona, however, refuses to obey Beezus. Unless, of course, she's reading one of her favorite books - The Littlest Steam Shovel, or Big Steve the Steam Shovel - to her. But even that doesn't keep Ramona occupied for long. When Beezus is in the midst of creating pictures for her art class, Ramona is there to cause a mess, and challenge Beezus' imagination. When Ramona is offered two marshmallows as a snack, she uses them as powder puffs, as opposed to putting them in her tummy, where they belong. During checkers games with Beezus' pal Henry Huggins, Ramona destroys the checkerboard, and wreaks all sorts of havoc - even some involving Henry's beloved dog Ribsy. In Beezus' eyes, she can't win - even when it's her birthday. But as she gets older, and learns more about her mother's relationships with her siblings, Beezus begins to realize that, as obnoxious as Ramona is, she's still her sister. And even though she may become angry at Ramona for her crazy antics; she still loves her - just not all the time.

I fell in love with Beverly Cleary's RAMONA books when I was five-years-old, and now that I have decided to re-read them, I'm finding that I can't help but fall in love with them all over again. I feel as if I have reverted back to my five-year-old self, and can actually relate to the mishaps that continually take place during both Ramona, and Beezus' lives. Beezus is such a fun character, who seems wise beyond her years, and is serious to a motherly extent. Ramona, on the other hand, is carefree and impossible to handle. Her wacky thoughts, and determination to always have her way is humorous; while some of the debacles she finds herself in are downright cringe-worthy. Cleary has penned a book here that is essential to read aloud to both older and younger children. The message of love is clear on every page, and truly helps to bring siblings together. Clever, funny, and irresistible.

Erika Sorocco
Freelance Reviewer

If you have a little sister and think she's annoying, think again. Does your sister think Bendix is the most beautiful name in the world? Does she ruin your birthday cake--twice?! Sometimes little sisters are annoying, but Ramona is impossible! Beezuz, Roamona's big sister finds out that no matter what happens in her childhood with Ramona, they will think it funny when they grow up. I hope you'll enjoy this book!

So much serious stuff has been written about this famous novel that first-time readers may be surprised that the first of the two parts of the book is actually an easy read with a light touch and plenty of humour despite the utterly gloomy and sad premise: a group of cancer patients in a decrepit, impoverished cancer hospital. Not much action, but vivid and touching dialogues abound. The second half of the book is a bit more demanding, with lengthy philosophical reflections on life and humankind. But it's worth it: some of the most haunting and moving passages of modern writing are found here. When Solzhenitsyn lets his protagonist compare life to the rivers of Siberia "running into the sand", he may just have created the most beautiful metaphor of life ever put on paper. Please, do read this book.

This book is written in the true Russian style. It's poignant and shocking and hard to put down.

The forward explains how the writer was treated in Tashkent for cancer while serving a sentence of forced labor exile. Post World War II Tashkent was cosmopolitan. The story takes place in February and March 1955 in a city like Tashkent. By then Stalin had died, Beria had been executed, and Malenkov had fallen from office.

The number of the cancer ward is thirteen. An official is to be treated for a tumor at the hospital. He resents the squalor of his surroundings. He consents, nonetheless, to undergo treatments. Dr. Dontsova has three residents. They call her Mama.

The bureaucracy insists that Dontsova dismiss indeterminate cases, cases where there is no improvement. Dontsova is troubled herself by stomach pains. Guilt she feels, though, is triggered by the existence of radiation sickness since she is an oncologist and radiologist. She cleans and shops and cooks for her family consisting of her husband and son.

One evening the male patients have an argument about moral perfectionism. It is claimed that Gorky, Stalin, and Lenin all thought that Tolstoy's doctrine was dangerous. Continuing their discussion, the male cancer patients are happy to think of traditional peasant remedies. Illness levels. The functionary and the exile are similarly situated.

Sickness provides respite from work and citizenly duties. Centers for treatment draw a cosmopolitan mix of people. Many people had lives interrupted in war service. Fairly detailed descriptions of the soviet medical system are given. Shortages of cleaning rags and other dysfunctions are common. Attempts to rationalize procedures and safeguard limited resources slow progress and create inefficiencies.

Oleg Filimonovich Kostoglotov, one of the points through which consciousness flows in the novel, resides in Ush-Terek, a virgin lands territory, and is a topographer but works as a land surveyor. The Ministry of Internal Affairs required that he live there. He was administratively exiled.

Pavel Nikolayevich Rusanov, the official being treated, strives to be optimistic as Gorky couseled. He looks forward to the visits of his wife, Kapitolina Matveyena. At first a geologist, Vadim, thought that Oleg Kostoglotov was a rude loud-mouth. (Vadim was collected, proud, and polite.) He saw that Rusanov was a standard sort of bureaucrat. Later Vadim discovered that Oleg was not arrogant. In fact, he was even generous.

Oleg discovered that after the world of the camps, exile could not be cruel. He was thirty-four and now too old too obtain a university education. He felt he could be content in exile if only he had his health. Oleg's good friends in Ush-Terek were a pediatrician and his wife. Oleg admired the chief surgeon at the facility. He had worked in the camps. Oleg picked up this piece of biography through the surgeon's choice of words. Oleg accused Rusanov of not being patriotic, of not having a love for country, but rather of wanting a fat pension.

Someone cites a writing of Lenin that an official should be paid a wage equal to the amount paid to a good worker. An older man tells Oleg that with his history he is fortunate since he has had to lie less. The man, a scientist, had been forced to follow the faulty teachings of Lysenko.

Dontsova had dealt with the ailments of other for thirty years. Now she has been diagnosed. She is to take sick leave and proceed to the Moscow Institute She makes her final rounds. Rusanov is released. He believes that he is cured. Oleg is discharged to recover from the treatment and to return to Ush-Terek. This is a masterpiece.

No one writes a fat, sprawling, old-fashioned Russian novel quite like a Russian. To the ranks of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, you can add Solzhenitsyn and to novels like *The Brothers Karamazov* and *Anna Karenina* you can add *Cancer Ward.* In fact, *Cancer Ward,* like Tolstoy's slim but immensely profound *The Death of Ivan Illych* begins in much the same fashion: a married, middle-aged career man is suddenly confronted with the most immediate and terrifying thing of all: his own mortality.

Although in *Cancer Ward* instead of the self-absorption of bourgeoisie society, the setting is Soviet Russia in the two years after Stalin's demise. It's still a world of repression, imprisonment, suspicion, fear, lies, exile--and, most of all, the ever-lurking presence of death. These conditions are allegorized in the cancer ward itself, in the doctor's who must have faith in their largely ineffective treatment and--all appearances to the contrary--who never tell their patients the truth about their condition...which leads to the absurdity that Solzhenitsyn uses as the title of the first chapter of *Cancer Ward*: a patient sent to the cancer ward assured by his doctor that he has "no cancer whatsoever."

What is allegorized is a people who've been systematically brutalized into the deepest self-denial, terrorized into ignoring the cancer destroying their society.

But for all the allusions--evident or oblique--to the secret police, the Gulag, and the totalitarian state, as well as the impassioned outcries against Stalinism, *Cancer Ward* is about the universal and timeless problems of death, of faith, of freedom, and of how we should live our lives and what might give them meaning.

Like all the greatest Russian novelists, Solzhenitsyn tackles the biggest questions. *Cancer Ward* is a philosophical novel in the best Dostoyevskian sense of the term. Filled with passion, pathos, humor, and heart, as well as a vivid cast of memorable characters to embody every idea, every human emotion, *Cancer Ward* is a masterpiece and Solzhenitsyn a writer rare in our age who still dares to deal with serious things seriously and compels you, by the sheer unquestionable moral force of his conviction, to take them seriously, too.

This is perhaps the best book I've read in recent memory. Don't miss it.

It is almost unbelievable how the liberal elite in America covered Stalin's crimes until Solzhenitsyn's prophetic writings emerged. And not to be outdone, President Ford and Henry Kissinger refused to welcome the greatest writer of the 20th Century in order to placate the Soviets. May Solzhenitsyn rest peacefully in the assurance that one honest man changed the world. And may his literary works live forever.

This is one special book! The pop-ups are unbelievably beautiful...and so many of them! Handling this book will probably require supervision for the young reader but, with care, should be around to delight and entertain for many years. They didn't skimp on the story just to hi-light the pop-ups, either. It's complete and well told. Sharing this book with a child will make for some quality time spent together.

This is a beautifully done book. I think I've bought 5 copies already to give out as gifts. For pop-up book lovers, this is a must.

This book by Matthew Reinhart not in collaboration with Robert Sabuda leaves a little (a very little) to be desired. The illustrations are nice, but not as eye-poppingly beautiful as a book about Cinderella could be and the quality of the pop-ups are not as crisp as those in the books in which the Sabuda/Reinhart duo collaborated. There are several pages which do not close properly and the pop-ups needs to be manually adjusted before closing the book or the pop-ups will be squished. I have not found this problem in any book in which Sabuda has a hand. It could be just my copy. I'm just saying....

I gave this to a friend of mine's daughter and my friend loved it more than her daughter. It's made so well, and I'm gonna buy some more of these to give out.

There are no words to describe how beautiful and awesome this book is. I was bitten by the pop-up bug when I purchased Robert Sabuda's Alice in Wonderland (Matthew's mentor). This book is equally as beautiful and I love that it is not a "Disney" princess book. The center page has Cinderella after her transformation in full ballroom attire with real ribbon and she stands about 5 or so inches tall out of the middle of the page. In the final pages you can actually watch the prince's hand place the glass slipper on her foot and pull a tab to watch them ride off in to the sunset. This is an amazing book and anyone the least bit interested in this book should not hesitate to puchase it. I guarantee you'll want to collect all of their books after seeing this work of art!

For over forty years, I've been reading about the end of World War II and Japan. Were the Japanese ready to surrender? Were the atomic bombs dropped to intimidate the Soviet Union? Was racism the real motive?

Richard Frank's DOWNFALL: THE END OF THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE EMPIRE, is the best book on this subject I've ever read. Frank takes us back to 1945, and shows what the United States knew then, and how they knew it. Based on the information they had available at the time, the U.S. and British leaders had no reason to believe that the effective leaders of Japan were going to surrender any time soon, or that any alternative course they chose would lead to fewer deaths. Further, he shows that these judgments were correct: there is still no evidence that the effective rulers of Japan would have surrendered in 1945, and all the alternatives to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have definitely led to hundreds of thousands MORE DEATHS of civilians and soldiers.

I regard the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as atrocities and crimes, but the whole of the war was a succession of atrocities and crimes, the greatest bloodbath in history. Frank shows, convincingly, that the use of atomic weapons was the least evil among the choices Harry S Truman faced.

I was moved to reread this fine book by Richard Frank by the allegation by Presidential candidate Senator Barak Obama's former preacher and confidant Jeremiah Wright's that one of America's supposed "sins" that he was cursing it for was the use of the Atomic Bombs on Japan at the end of the Second World War. I was in High School during the Vietnam War period and I recall my teachers telling us that that use of the Bomb was unnecessary and was carried out merely to scare the Communist Soviets and didn't matter anyway since the Japanese were supposedly viewed as "racially inferior". We were taught that the United State government is inherently dishonest, so any such decision to use the bomb must have had "tainted" motiviations. Such cynicism is potentially destructive, as Frank shows in his book.
Attitudes like these have unfortunately become common in the United States over the years, and as Frank points out, are based on ignorance and self-righteousness. President Truman's aide, Admiral Leahy claimed after the war that the use of the bomb was "unnecessary" (Frank points out that there is no record of his opposition at the time the decision was made). This is, of course, true. The Japanese would have eventually surrendered even without the use of the bomb. The question, though, remains "at what cost"? There are two possible scenarios, (1) American and Allied forces invade the Japanes Home Islands in order to force a decision, or (2) no invasion is mounted, but a tight blockade and heavy air bombing keep up the pressure.
Frank shows that although a two-phase invasion was planned, Operation Olympic in Kyushu, followed by Operation Coronet on Honshu near Tokyo, as time passed, American interception and decryption of Japanese messages showed that powerful forces were being brought up to the planned invasion zones along with thousands of aircraft designed for Kamikaze attacks. The civilian population was also being trained to carry out suicide attacks (the government's slogan was "100 Million Die Together"). As a result, American enthusiasm for the invasion scheme waned and, instead, a plan to destroy Japan's railroad system to prevent the distribution of food was developed, which, along with the naval blockade, would bring starvation to the population, forcing the Japanese government to eventually capitulate. The question remained "how long would it take to reach this situation"? Frank points out that over 100,000 Chinese were dying every month during the war, in addition to large numbers of Allied prisoners and forced Asian laborers in southeast Asia. If the war dragged on longer, hundreds of thousands of these people would have died. Had the blockade "succeeded" in bring famine in addition to plague and civil disorder to Japan, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Japanese would have died.
Frank also points out that something like 350,000 Japanese died in the Soviet campaign to conquer Manchuria, many of them civilians. In addition there were still large Japanese forces in China , the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia) and southeast Asia. Without the shock of a surrender brought about by the use of the Atomic bombs it is conceivable that these forces would have continued to fight on (the Japanese Army in China had a history of subordination). There was also a Soviet plan to invade the Japanese home island of Hokkaido. One can only specularte on how many deaths would this have caused, in addition to the possibility that the USSR would have set up a "Japanese Peoples' Republic" in their zone, just like they did in Korea, for which the world is still paying to this day. It is odd that those who show "compassion" for the Japanese people in saying that the bomb shouldn't have been used, seem to lack the same compassion for the oppressed thousands who were dying every day in the Japanese-occupied territories.
Frank also shows that the popular "deus-ex-machina" scenario that supposedly the Japanese government had really made a decision to surrender and were in contact with the USSR government is false. It is true that there were contacts with the Soviets, but they were on a low diplomatic level, and no decision to surrender had been made before the first use of the bomb. In addition, no contacts were made during the three days that passed before the use of the second bomb. It turns out that some Japanese leaders thought the bomb was merely a one-shot affair which the Americans couldn't repeat. Frank shows clearly that America's leaders had no choice but to make the decision they did and that this decision saved untold number of lives, both Allied and Japanese. Anybody who saw the horrific casualties at places like Iwo Jima and Okinawa in addition to the mass suicides of Japanese civilians at Saipana and Okinawa would reach the same conclusion.
Richard Frank is performing an invaluable service in destroying the "politically correct" myths demagogues like Wright are propagating and showing that a clear, open mind leads one to the truth.

Frank has done an excellent job of dispassionately presenting the facts about the endgame of the Pacific War. I appreciate that Frank laid out the evidence and left it to the reader to judge where it pointed.

What is clear from the evidence is that neither the Japanese nor American leadership had adequate information to judge the other's intentions during 1945. In fact, there is some evidence that the Japaneese High Command was being mislead by underlings regarding the state of American morale. Thus the War Council believed that they were just one decisive battle away from being able to negotiate with the Americans for softer terms than Unconditional Surrender. On the other hand, American intelligence community were not adept enough to draw out from the vast array of intercepted cable traffic a clear picture. Thus they did not provide Truman information that was 'actionable'.

As for the bomb, the preponderance of evidence amassed by Frank points to the conclusion that once the decision to build the atomic bomb was made, the Manhattan project took on its own momentum and thus made the bombs use inevitable.

All-in-all a terrific book. Since I finished it on September 30th, it makes it onto my Summer Reading Favorites of 2007 :-)

Richard Frank conclusively shatters a number of myths about the end of the Pacific side of World War II.

First, Japan was NOT ready to accept unconditional surrender, even with the caveat of the preservation of the Japanese throne, until after both bombs were dropped. Frank uses extensive declassified transcripts of Ultra (military) and Magic (diplomatic) U.S. codebreaking to get members of the Japanese war cabinet's own words, or lack thereof, on this issue. Within that is the fact that Japan's attempt to use Russia as an intermediary-ally in negotiations was totally out of tune with reality, so much out of tune that Tokyo actually expected Moscow to honor the full one year's "down time" after abrogating the two countries' neutrality agreement.

Second, the Japanese Army was ramping UP the plans for Keisu-Go, the all-out defense of the Japanese homeland, after the spring firebombings of Tokyo and elsewhere. Top Army brass considered that the U.S. might well try blockade, and thought it had enough kamikazes, midget submarines, etc., to make the U.S pay enough a price for even the blockade that it would settle for a negotiated peace. Again, Frank looks in-depth at Magic and Ultra transcripts to show how much support there was for this.

Third, Frank demonstrates that U.S. casualty fears of an invasion of Kyushu were well-warranted and may even have been understated in some cases.

The determination of the Japanese Empire to resist was well-known by American troops in the Pacific who had seen the Japanese, on average, take 97 percent casualties in many of their defensive actions. A militaristic government was ready to exploit this to the death.

The atomic bomb was therefore used for reasons of the highest seriousness. It was NOT dropped on Hiroshima as a demonstration for Stalin. And, speaking of demonstrations, the fact that it took two atomic bombs on Japan to get it to surrender puts the lie to the idea that a "demonstration" bomb would have been enough to get the Japanese to a non-negotiated surrender with them attempting to hold on to territory.

I was so fascinated by this book that I read all the previous reviews. I only want to add my unlimited praise and to add a few thoughts and stories...
I was as unaware as anybody of the details of the end of the Pacific war until I met a fellow (Bill Lear, son of "the" Bill Lear) who was on a troop ship to Olympic. He said the officers told them that they all were going to die. After that the book was a natural, and I couldn`t have chosen better.
In my present line, I am in Japan a lot. If there is any one thing that makes Frank`s book fascinating, it is the detailed look at the inner workings of that eastern mind in the government and military leaders, and the resulting confusion for their hapless diplomats. In some cases it is not so radical - we Americans still get huffy about Pearl Harbor, when the Japanese were following a pretty basic tenet of war. Frank didn`t really go to a lot of trouble to remind us that the "unfathonable" Asian way of seeing things is normal to them. Perhaps it isn`t necessary. Any Japanese soldier who sees dying for his emperor/country as his highest honor will tend to see anyone who surrenders or is beaten before he can sacrifice himself, as the lowest sort of worm, not worthy of bayonet practice let alone a bowl of rice. Just an example, but with a point. Frank managed to state facts, back them up with numbers and intel documents and let it go at that. The case builds easily in the reader`s mind that this was a terrible war and that the allies/Americans were in a real conundrum about how to end it. Which brings up the sadly fascinating fact that the very thing that the allies demanded, as a way of keeping "these fascist and militarist governments from starting a world war every few years", was unconditional surrender, the very thing the Japanese couldn`t accept.
One thing which makes a really great book is that it opens discussion on the topic rather than, say, on the writer`s vocabulary. By that measure, this is one of the best. Please indulge me...
I have been to the peace museum in Hiroshima. It is very moving and also very evenhanded. It shows the little uniforms of the school kids killed - they were in town that day to help build firebreaks. It also has the army order on the wall which commanded that when the invasion came, all subjects were to show up on the beaches with pitchforks, sticks or any other weapon that came to hand. Hiroshima, by the way (to answer a previous comment) was the headquarters of the 5th Japanese Army, in charge of Japan and Korea (where they'd been since 1920, only getting to Manchuria in 1931, re another comment)It was also a recruit center, and a navy shipyard, in other words not exactly non-military.
My Dad flew in B-29s. He was a tough old farm boy, but once he met an army buddy who had also `been there` That`s the only time I saw him cry. I don`t think it`s wrong to lament the terrible things humans are capable of doing to each other and to make them stop; a basic about war, by the way. The fact that millions of innocents had died and were likely to keep dying in this war would make any way of stopping it look pretty good, ie, "moral". I personally would say, you can`t argue with success. The Japanese had been fighting since at least 1920. Days after the bomb, it was over. I`m in the camp of "the Russians had nothing to do with it." I want to thank Mr. Frank for explaning readably and in detail, how that came about.
Finally a note from my Mom... The war council was correct in believing that Americans were sick of the war (Incorrect in their eastern way in seeing Potsdam as weakness). They were beaten but wouldn`t quit. If you had a family member in the service, you put a red star in your window, and if they were killed, you changed it to a gold star. There were plenty of houses with two gold stars in the window. People in 1945 wanted the war to end and wanted the boys home. Imagine you are Truman, and a wife/mother says to you, "You mean to tell me you had the means to end this war the day before my boy was killed, and you didn`t do it?"
Read this book.

The Feynman Lectures on Physics is a classic that must belong to everyone's library. This edition is very well designed, but the paint in the cover keep getting off into my hands. The cover of my Volume I is already totally ruined. You don't buy a book if you do not intent to read it. Disappointing.

Not much to say. I bought this set for my boyfriend for x-mas and he loves it!

Caltech had unbelieveable foresight in knowing how good Feynman would appear to future generations. The teaching techniques are still unbeatable. Worth spending six months reading these.

My background: An engineer with an aspiration to learn more physics.

It has been over 3 years since my last college physics class, and having heard from friends and reading online about these lectures, I finally bought them here instead of spending twice as much at the local bookstore. I own a copy of Serwey's physics book, and the difference between the two is remarkable.

I can read Feynman's book with excitement. He writes or lectures in a way that keeps me engaged with what he has to say, and he also provides excellent examples of interesting cases. For instance, in his treatment of gravitation, he numerically calculates the trajectory of the earth given an initial velocity and position. I knew it was possible to do such a thing, but the fact that he provided a table of numbers and just went ahead with the calculation without skipping the detail brought me great enthusiasm. I don't even remember my astrodynamics book covering the simple calculations of such things from the fundamental principles in such detail.

Aside from the nitty gritty, his reading is enjoyable. I pass out when reading Serwey's book, simply because it isn't written in a very enthusiastic and engaging way.

However, Feynman's lectures are good for refreshing your understanding, not doing problems. I imagine that someone with a copy of Feynman's lectures for the understanding and Serwey's problems and examples for the nitty gritty, who works the problems, will understand physics well enough to continue studying more in-depth subjects on their own. That says a lot about both volumes.

Feynman doesn't just teach physics in these books: he teaches you to think like a physicist should. One complaint I've heard is that there's not enough math in them. "Too many words." (Kinda reminds you of Armadeus.) There are plenty of books that have the math. These books offer insight -- something that is very hard to come by in formal physics education.

The introductory material in Volume 1 is highly quotable. You can get your money's worth right there.

When I started Volume 2, I'd had undergraduate electricity and magnetism and found it dry and boring. After Volume 2, I was so pumped, I wanted to teach the subject.

I read Volume 3 when I was starting graduate quantum mechanics. My first final was oral, two-on-one. The professor had a second prof sit in with him to quiz each student. They opened with a few questions on the uncertainty principle. I started rattling off some of the insights I'd gotten from Volume 3. These guys must not have read it, because they were blown away. They'd ask a question and I'd answer and then follow with a hook to keep them coming back. I spent an hour of the two-hour exam on the uncertainty principle! Talk about getting off on the right foot with a new prof!

These books have been an inspiration to me for the last 40 years. Whether you're a student or a Ph.D. -- and especially if you teach at any level -- you must not be without them. They will improve your understanding of physics, and they'll equip you to better communicate it.

I realize that I've sounded a little over-the-top in this review. If I said less, I'd be understating my honest opinion.

Tim Naff, Ph.D.

Many books have been written about the horror and monster film genres over the years, but few have been written by fans specifically for fans. That's what makes "Horror 101" so special and unique -- as you read the essays contained within you can't help but share the enthusiasm that the writers have for the films, even the ones you've never seen. The books runs the gamut from silents like "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and "The Golem" to modern classics like "An American Werewolf in London" (a personal favorite) and "Ringu" -- and everything in between. No matter whether you're a neophyte just getting into the genre or a horror fanatic with dozens of films under your belt, you'll find plenty of reasons to pull a chair and audit a course in "Horror 101."

This book is an absolute must-read for horror film fans of any stripe. It covers everything from silent classics to more modern films in a series of conversational essays written by knowledgeable genre fans from all over the world and from a wide variety of backgrounds. It is, in short, kind of like hanging out with a ton of horror fans talking about their favorite movies. There are (as to be expected) spoilers throughout the discussions, so anyone who hasn't seen any of the films is advised to watch them before reading those films' particular chapters. As a guidebook and listing of horror movie essentials, it's hard to beat, giving the novice horror fan a solid foundation of classic films. As a book *by* horror fans *for* horror fans, there's simply no better book out there.

What makes "Horror 101" so good, for me being a huge fan of the genre, is that it doesn't leave out much of the favorites and even much of the classic unknown films that so often happens with books written about this subject. Here, we jump right into the mix of such classics as "Halloween", "The Shining", and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", etc. It even includes such obscure films as "Deathdream" and "Them."

The author gives a thorough review of each the films listed and politely doesn't give away much of the twists. It is a must read for us horror fans...and people researching the horror.

Buy this book!

Anyone who considers himself a serious fan of the horror genre would do well to pick up this book. It contains in-depth reviews of 101 of the most essential horror films and monster movies of all time, spanning the Silent Era up until the 1990's. Probably the best book of this type I've read in a long time!

Horror 101 is the ideal book for the lonely horror fan. We poor, misunderstood wretches who have no one close by with whom we can share our love of malevolent spirits, monsters run amok, and the undead in their manifold forms, hungering for living human flesh and blood! (Sorry, I got a little carried away there.) The articles in the book, ruminations on over a hundred of the greatest horror films, are written by horror fans from all walks of life, and are both entertaining and informative. It's like having a great group of knowledgeable friends always available to talk scary cinema. Bravo to all of the contributors and likewise to Dr. AC for compiling a terrific and unique collection. I highly recommend it to all horror and film enthusiasts, and can't wait for volume 2.

I believe there are many books that will haunt our lives. They stand out amongst the piles of tomes we have read, our memories of them weighted with joy and longing. Sometimes we want to read them again for the first time.

Les Miserables is such a book. It is vast, intimidating in scope but the pages are alive, they breathe with passion, sympathy and philosophy. The characters are alive and remain so long after one finishes reading it. Hugo was a master poet/playwright/novelist. He saw all sides of the political spectrum. He was a Romantic in the greatest sense and he loved women, bedding, some might argue, half the female population of Paris.

In his old age, he was still grandiose, words flowed from him and he stood up for his beliefs, putting them into ink, irritating the ruling class and his fellow literary peers. Les Miserables was his ode to the common man, a love letter to his former selves and to the dignity of humankind. His work is medicinal, setting out to offer cures for the ailments of society.

I read this book when I was sixteen and I still carry it with me, twelve years later. Someday I'll learn French and read the original.

I believe this translation by Normany Denny to be one of the best. It is a bit of an abridgement but only in respect to the modern reader. Hugo had the "superlative" knack, everything was big and meaningful to him. His sentences and paragraphs sprawl out, his focus becomes erratic. Denny lets Hugo span out within reason. He is a translator aware of his duties, his obligations to both the author and the reader. The reading is less of a challenge with Denny reigning in the master.

This is a great read and worth all the effort and devotion. It will haunt you.

Reading Les Miserable takes you back to the 19th century, not just in the content, but as a reader. You can't enjoy the book unless you allow yourself to amble along with Victor Hugo as he digresses from his plot and then digresses from his digressions. It's hard to imagine this book being published today, as marvelous as it truly is.

That's more a reflection on the nature of publishing in 2007, and our impatient reading habits, than Hugo's writing, which is superb. His descriptions of places and characters are all masterful.

Nevertheless, I find that I'm by-passing huge sections where Hugo takes a wide tangent that has nothing to do with the story, even though these are well written - actually, very well written. The section on Waterloo, for instance, is something I plan to return to when I'm reading French history, but it has nothing to do with the travails of Jean Valjean and Cosette, and I've skipped it for now.

When Hugo remembers he is telling a story, the writing is exciting, dramatic, full of unlikely coincidences that you just accept because it's fun. It's a 19th century soap opera for readers who had little else to read and far fewer distractions than a modern reader, and his perceptively drawn characters entertain us even today.

But be prepared to enjoy Les Miserable over an extended period of time, like you do "The Young and the Restless," with a multitude of story lines, often unconnected.

By the way, in contrast to other readers, I'm enjoying Norman Denny's translation, although not having read the other versions, I can't make comparisons.

Having now published two novels --- A Good Conviction, a NYC-based legal thriller which tells the story of a young man wrongly imprisoned in Sing Sing for a murder he did not commit by a Manhattan ADA who may have known he was innocent ... and The Heretic (Library of American Fiction), a historical novel describing the persecution of a family of secret Jews by the Catholic Church on the eve of the Spanish Inquisition --- I have devised a self-education project to help me learn the techniques and styles of other authors, and thus (hopefully) become a better novelist myself.

"Les Miserable" is one of the novels I've read as part of this self-education project.

I'm organizing my thoughts into various categories relevant to writing, such as ... "beginnings" ... "conflict" ... "characters" ... and others, and I'm posting my observations as a blog, which turns out to be a wonderful way for me to organize and retrieve my notes.

This also puts my thinking in the public domain. So if you'd like to see my evolving comments about writing novels, I invite you to take a look at my "Education of a Novelist" blog.

You can reach my blog by searching the web for "weinstein education of a novelist."

LEW WEINSTEIN

Hugo weaves his tale for the ages in and around his personal, social and political history of 19th-Century France. His accomplishment is stunning to the extent that he keeps the reader interested during the long, seemingly-disconnected framing passages and intently riveted when the connections come together and the reader is enriched and the story enveloped in Hugo's masterwork. For example a 50-page aside on the Battle of Waterloo has no bearing on the story--until the last few pages when a dying soldier on the battlefield forms a connection that provides a strong driving element of the action hundreds of pages later. The passage not only informs the reader of the historical and political context of Waterloo, but frames the intense action following later fully within the context so that it means more at the macro-historical level and is more meaningful at the personal level. It left me crying tears of joy and sorrow at story's end.

The translator, in his introduction, makes much of efforts of many past translations to abridge these long passages, and explains his reasoning for leaving them intact except for two, which amount to only 32 pages of the 1232-page edition. Seems like unnecessary--and harmful--twaddling. For example, I wrote this review before finishing the two appended sections, in which I found this statement by Hugo exactly confirming my review:

"One cannot be a good historian of the outward, visible world without giving some thought to the hidden, private life of ordinary people; and on the other hand one cannot be a good historian of this inner life without taking into account outward events when these are relevant. They are two orders of fact which reflect each other, which are always linked and which sometimes provoke each other. All the features traced by providence on the surface of a nation have their sombre but distinct counterpart in the depths, and every stirring in the depths produces a tremor on the surface. True history being a composite of all things, the true historian must concern himself with all things."

The first time that I read this book I was about 18 years old. This is the only book in my life that I have ever read where I can say that "I couldn't put it down". I read this book and I balled like a baby. I remember that I had to go and get a handkerchief and blow my nose while wiping the tears away so that I could continue reading. When I finished the book - and I only read the abridged edition, I said to myself; "If I could ever write a book that could cause the reaction that this book has put onto me, my life will have not been spent in vain. I am still trying to write that book. I have since read the book two or three more times and I'm about to read it again. How a man with just words on a page could create such a reaction is really beyond my wildest estimations.

Les Miserables is justifiably known as a great literary masterpiece. However, I had hitherto neither read the book nor seen the show. I am now so pleased that I have read the book before seeing the show and I am sure that I will enjoy the latter so much more through having enjoyed so greatly the former. This edition, translated by Norman Denny, runs to more than 1,200 pages and Mr Denny makes the point in his introduction that Victor Hugo's original contains 'digressions,' meaning that, to some readers at least, certain sections of the book, maybe some 100 pages or more in total, may appear to 'digress' from the principal 'plot.' But even the 'digressions' are valuable, for they give to the less knowledgeable - such as myself - a fine lesson in French history, as does the 'plot' itself. Victor Hugo takes the reader through some of France's most turbulent times, from before the Revolution of 1789, through the Empire of the first Napoleon, and to and beyond the further Revolution of 1848. If one were wanting to be flippant, it would appear that the French were for ever revolting and for ever at the barricades. I do not wish to be flippant, however, and this great tome charts the progress or otherwise of French affairs through the late eighteenth and early to mid-nineteenth centuries with inimitable flair and profound knowledge, for the author lived through most of it, even suffering temporary exile from France when he crossed the authorities of Napoleon III. It is against the background of such ongoing turbulence (which explains so much of later French history) that the immensely moving and complicated tales of Jean Valjean and Cosette and Marius and all of the other larger-than-life characters are told. To those readers with the willingness to spend more than the average time on a tremendous and unforgettable work, this is for you. Read it and then see the show!

This is by far my favorite book from that genre. I first read it in high school and have gone back several times over the years. I just purchased it again to give to my 13 year old daughter.

I grew up in Santa Fe, reading this book, serving Mr. Bradford coffee at Zook's Pharmacy on the Plaza. Mr. Bradford's book reassured me that my turbulent adolescence was do-able, by lighting the way.
I have not been back there in thirty years. Santa Fe has been taken over by the rich and the entitled and they have squeezed the soul out of what we knew growing up there, though there is plenty of beauty and spirit left to be sucked dry by the commercial people. But if you want to know the siren song of Santa Fe, read this book. Sagrado is, indeed, Santa Fe. This was what it was like there even in the 1960's and 1970's.
I mean, where else could you have that unforgettable horse AND world-class opera AND the mountains AND the humility of entertaining the Native Americans by just being white people on the Plaza?
I read this book, I can smell the pine wood burning in the farolitos, and the breeze in the chamisa after the Summer afternoon cloudbursts.

This is a wondrous short novel. Read it if you'd like to be a teenager again. Buy an old paperback copy showing a teenage boy and girl standing facing each other with their foreheads touching--a very sweet illustration.

Now a good review (recommendation) doesn't have to be long, so let me give you a few lines of description. A boy moves from Alabama to New Mexico during World War II, and while his father is away in the war, the boy finds friends and a home in the small mountain town of Sagrado. One of his new friends is an sculptor who carves stone heads and places them on a hillside.

On the great book cover: Sometimes book covers actually decline in quality with the many printings of a book. This has happened with "Red Sky At Morning," but remember you are buying the book for the story.

Another example of the decline in a book's cover is seen in the early cover for "Summer of Night," by Dan Simmons.Summer of Night (Aspect Fantasy) The 1991 "Warner Book" edition has a window with a cut out. Through the window you can see some boys riding their bicycles at night. When you open the book, you see a mysterious school in the background.

The later covers of "Summer of Night" were not half as mysterious or fun.

As many others have said, it's impossible to get tired of this book. My parents gave it to me when I was 18 and (again, like several others) the first time I read it I found it a little slow and disjointed. It gets better and better with every read - each time I pick up on the subtleties of a scene for the first time.

Rather than boring the reader with a bunch of obnoxious capers and hijinks, Bradford envelops you in his characters' community, and it's this day-to-day banality (which turned me off so much the first time) that really draws you into the story. Josh's adjustment to Sagrado takes time, but when it comes it's so natural and amusing that you're almost completely unprepared for the sobering conclusion of the story.

I had no idea the book was so loved until I read these reviews. There are so many special moments in the story - the big wet snowfalls that ruins Chamaco's fiesta, the horribly backward residents of La Cima, the refreshing "white trashiness" of the Cloyd sisters, even Parker Holmes tearing an elk sandwich apart with his teeth.

I wish these characters existed in real life, and I wish I could be their friend.

I thouroughly enjoyed this book, I do not know how I missed it for so many years. It was recommended in Nancy Pearl's "Book Lust" (which you really should buy if you are an avid reader.) I have never been dissapointed by her recommendations.

Josh, as the narrator in "Red Sky at Morning" is a 17 year old high school senior at the end of WWII. His dry wit mad me laugh right out loud several times. I loved his sensibility and humor. The cast of characters in this book reminded me of some of the characters in "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving.

This is one of my favorite reads of the year, so much so I will probably hunt down a hard cover edition for my collection.

"The Fires of Merlin" was about the great adventures that Merlin had when he was a kid. This book was the third of five books in the Lost Years of Merlin series. This book deals with Merlin losing his power. He had to confront an evil dragon that his grandfather had put into a deep slumber. To add to all this, there were ancient bat-looking creatures that stole magic. They were supposedly extinct. There was an evil group on the island that wanted to destroy all magic. The evil group started to raise the bat-like creatures. The group and their bats were responsible for what happens to Merlin's powerful necklace. If you want to find out what happens to Merlin and if he finds his power read the book yourself.

"Sometimes it's easier to see someone else's dragon than your own." "The Fires of Merlin", is an exciting tale of the unforgettable Legend of Merlin. The story tells of Merlin's dangerous quests for others and confrontations to himself. He must also defeat the dragon Valdearg, who had been under a deep sleep for thousands of years, and had now suddenly awakened to cause havoc on the lands of Fincayra.
Before he can face the rampaging dragon's fire, he most face other fires, including the fires within himself. He most avoid or confront the magic-eating Kreelixes; discover the secrets of the Wheel of Wye, and take back his treasured Galator from the evil hag, Domnu. On his quest, he discovers his true magic was not in his staff but within his heart and soul. He learns this through his tragedies and the people that he meets. For example he learns that there is more magic within himself than any within his staff. To understand both sides of this problem he cannot not to judge someone for being related to one of evil doings, for even he has the blood of the once evil ruler of Fincayra, Stangmar, and Merlin's father.
This stunning work of art is an exciting fantasy about confronting yourself and discovering what you are really capable of. It shows the meaning of bravery and the meaning of the heart. The author uses descriptive words and sentences so the reader can understand and get a distinct picture in their head of a scene or speculation. In my opinion, the author really made his point to his readers and wrote from his heart. I recommend this book to all people who enjoy creative fantasies and luminous stories.

Extraordinary ride through a magical journey with unique creatures with an imagination that nevers stops!!! Very moving and speaks to the heart!!!

Make sure to read all 5 books, you'll not be disappointed!!

i loved it.........but it does not compare to seven songs of merlin in any way. the dragon of fincayra's children have been killed (except for 1). now he is on a wraging rampage. the only one who can stop him is merlin. but merlin is fighting simply to keep his magic.

Do not view these as five individual books, but as five pieces of a whole saga. To read only one would be to cheat one's self of seeing an entire picture.

The epic begins with an child with no memory being raised by a mysterious woman in a small village. Both of them are regarded as local oddities and driven to live in a convent. The boy is known as Emrys, but never feels that that is his true name. As he matures, he develops gifts and wonderous powers, along with an increasing need to know who he is. Eventually, he goes upon a quest in search of his heritage, one that will lead him to the lands his mother's stories spoke of, the Hidden World outside of time and this life. He finds himself in the midst of a battle between warring demigods, and finds a new name for his own, Merlin.

As Merlin journeys through the five books, he makes new friends and bitter enemies. This is a world filled with dragons, witches, goblins, and lost treasures. Secrets that are as powerful and painful as a two edged blade are discovered. Otherworlds are crossed, time itself bends to give the boy a glimpse of his own destiny, and choices musst be made that will affect far more than just Merlin.

***** Elements of other classics are hinted at, but applied in new ways and familiarity only serves to endear. This is a grand saga without the weightiness of other epics. Rather, it is easy to read and charming. This Merlin can stand alongside Tolkien's hobbits or Harry Potter proudly. *****

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore.