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Companies Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Companies
Lassie Come-home
Published in Unknown Binding by The John C. Winston Company (1941)
Author: Eric Knight
List price:
Used price: $4.28
Collectible price: $4.99

Average review score:

One of my All Time Favorite Books!!!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-18
Everything runs smoothly in the Carraclough household when Lassie, their wonderful Collie, is around. But when desperate times takes desperate measures... it minuses Lassie out of the family. While everything is going hay-wire in the Carraclough home, the Collie is on a thousand-mile trek to get back with her family again. Lassie will come across many unbearable situations and obstacles, but the calling to get home overrides anything she may run into.

I loved everything about this book! The dedication of the homebound dog, to the quaint villages of England and Scotland, and all the characters within... I savored every word! It is one of my all time favorite books, and I'd recommend it to any dog or book lover!

Best!!!! Book!!!! Ever!!!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-08
Other than the language being like in ancient times, "Thy, thee" this book was excellent and a good savory book. It is not a fast read though.

OUTSTANDING!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-10
Why has it taken me so long to read this excellent book! It is not just a "children's" book. One of the best books I have read in a long time!

Deserves its status as a classic
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-19
Still an interesting, emotion-provoking and relevant read for the 21st century's jaded youth. It's about the most basic kind of friendship and loyalty, where an animal exhibits more of both than do the humans. Some of the Depression-era references and rigid class distinctions probably aren't as relevant today, but the core of the book, the love of and for an animal, remains. Highly recommended.

The Novel That Started It All
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-10-03
This is a wonderful reproduction of the original World War II edition of the classic Eric Knight story. I find it appalling that many Americans do not know that the original Lassie of the story was British because I read the original "Lassie Come Home" short story (published in the December 1938 issue of the Saturday Evening Post) in school. This original story is a well-written, haunting tale of a poor Yorkshire family forced by economic times to sell their son's beloved collie (a tricolor dog, not a sable as portrayed in the movies and on TV) and of the dog's long torturous journey home during which she meets kind people--a couple who nurse her after she swims the river Tweed, a kindly peddler--and cruel--callous dogcatchers, bullying boys--as well as farmers protecting their livestock. A classic in every sense of the word.

Companies
DAN Pocket Guide to First Aid for Scuba Diving
Published in Spiral-bound by Greycliff Publishing Company (1998-10-16)
Authors: Dan Orr, Clendenen. Bill, and DAN Medical Staff
List price: $12.95

Average review score:

informative but very small
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-13
Outstanding product produced. I was just taken back on how small the book was. the picture was just looked bigger than it is. Other than that it has great resources.

Covers it all
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-29
This little book pretty much covers anything that can happen to a diver, and is specific to diving injuries from drowning to the bends to stings and bites. The best thing about this book, aside from the material, is that it is completely made of plastic and is impervious to water so you don't have to worry about taking it on deck with you or even carrying it in your BCD pocket.

If you forgot the information in that CPR class you took years ago this will refresh your memory.

Great little reference book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-08-02
If you dive and can't remember all the first aid you might need, get this little plastic book. It's small enough to fit in your BC pocket and sturdy enough to last forever.

It has the basics of first aid for most diving but DAN also has at least one other specialty dive first aid book.

Great pocket reference
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-08
This pocket guide is a handy reference for basic first aid - easy to read, small enough to be easily portable, and full of good basic information. The wide array of potential medical complications associated with diving are covered in understandable terms without getting too technical. Overall a great resource to have when heading to the water.

Very Basic
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-08-29
I was impressed with the water-resistant printing. However, the medical information is very basic. If you have training, this book is relatively useless. If you don't have training, I guess it would be useful if you happened to have equipment on-board. I would have liked to see more diagrams and much more information.

Companies
Dead Cert (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)
Published in Hardcover by MacMillan Publishing Company. (1994-01)
Author: Dick Francis
List price: $23.95
Used price: $3.94

Average review score:

Tickets to an End
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-16
What kid hasn't listened in on the telephone? Bill Davidson's children did just that, but didn't realize they hold the key to their father's killer.
Alan York loves racing and left home in South Africa to follow his dream. When he emerged from the fog of a steeple chase race he didn't find his friend a winner, but dead in a manner that was no accident.
Greed and fixed races were behind Bill's death and leave Allan the owner of Admiral and fighting for his own life.
Dead Cert is one of the riveting reads of a long career. Enjoy!
Nash Black, author of SINS OF THE FATHERS and QUALIFYING LAPS.

Another Dick Francis delight
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2006-02-26
I never know what to expect when I begin a new Dick Francis novel - but I always enjoy the ride. This one is no exception.

The First Dick Francis Mystery
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2001-11-05
This is the first Dick Francis mystery and I like it the second best. I like "Nerve" slightly better, but only slightly. This "Dead Cert" contains several impressive scenes. The most impressive is the climax in which the star horse "Admiral" plays an unexpectedly spectacular role. It is definitely THE MOST SPECTACULAR scene in ALL Francis mysteries. Highly Recommended.

Dick Francis Does It Again, For the First Time
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-20
I was amazed to learn after reading this one that it was Dick Francis' first novel. Francis was a very successful jockey--racing for the Queen Mother in the 1950's--and after a career-ending injury, he penned his memoirs. Following that success, he developed and incredibly successful second act as a novelist.

I discovered Francis' work last summer--and I have plans to read everything he's done. In the 3 books I've read, his heroes are all gentleman sleuths--full of character, empathy, and wits. In Dead Cert, the trend continues with Alan York, a young amateur jockey trying to uncover the mystery of why a copper wire was intentionally hung to trip his fellow jockey. York is on his own resolving this caper, having failed to fully convince the police that this was anything more than an accidental death.

The writing is of a high caliber, the characters are wonderfully drawn, and I always learn a thing or two about horses--and England--when I read Dick Francis. There's also something quaint about reading a book set in an age before computers, cell phones, and DNA evidence. Grade: A-

Dead Certain to please mystery lovers...
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2002-02-13
In yet another gripping story of mystery, murder and British steeplechasing, Dick Francis continues his amazing streak of hit novels.

His real appeal is not racing or mystery however, it is his ability to create characters who are admirable, honorable and self-reliant. If you're looking for troubled, self-loathers who "somehow" overcome their weakness and become unwilling and unwitting heroes, don't look here. Francis' heroes revel in their abilities to withstand evil, overcome it, and end up smiling in spite of it all.

Kudos once again for Dick Francis and Dead Cert!

Companies
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam
Published in Paperback by W. W. Norton & Company (2002-05)
Author:
List price: $15.95
New price: $8.98
Used price: $6.78
Collectible price: $15.95

Average review score:

great condition
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-06-08
love this book broke down many times on some of the letters great book!!

Indispensable
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-04-25
This marvelous little book offers a parallel and human voice to the more academic books about Vietnam.
There is no "agenda", here just a selection of moving, articulate, impassioned voices talking about their experiences and feelings at the time they were there. Some of the most moving, of course, being those from young people who would die shortly thereafter. We see through the letters in the book that even on the front lines this "war" was seen through a wide diversity of opinions, from those that were totally committed to it, and why (though they tend to become less prevalent as the years pass), to those who came to believe it was not a worthy effort to justify the consequences. And the majority, just confused. A must read.

5 star book
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-07-21
This is a wonderful book for anyone who wants to see the Vietnam war from the eyes of those who were there. The book is a collection of writings from Vietnam veterans that were written during there time in country. This book shows the War as more than casualty numbers and battle field dates. A good read for everyone.

Heartfelt story of men at war
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-08-19
This book captivated me so that i could not put it down, untill i had finished. It touches your heart and soul. Wonderful read!! Please put it on DVD!!! Thank you :-)

First hand account of the Vietnam War
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2005-10-26
After the amazing documentary about Vietnam that solely exists of actor voice overs of funny, goofy, anxious and heartbreaking letters home from soldiers at the battlefront in Vietnam, accompanied by graphic footage of the war itself, this book came out. It contains the letters read out in the movie, and additionally has some more background information about the soldiers who wrote the letters.

Even without the trained actor voices reading the letters out loud to you, and without the grim and realistic war images, this book is a pageburner. Heart-wrenching accounts of the legacy of war written by the soldiers that fought it, as well as by the people they left behind.

Companies
Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack
Published in Hardcover by MacMillan Publishing Company. (1973-12)
Author: M. E. Kerr
List price: $6.95
Used price: $5.89

Average review score:

a very very very very very good read
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-09-23
this is a very charming tale of this mean girl who adopts this boys cat when his dad develops an allergy.he misses the cat so much he goes over to thier house all the time.one day dinky hockers[WHAT A NAME!]cousin same over and the boy and her fall in love.her name is natalia line.shes a schizophrennic who rhymes all her sentences and words when under stress.its a wonderful story that has a "to kill a mockingbird" like charm to it.not the bad stuff but the parts where the kids are just bein g kids.i fell in love with this story right away.it will always have a place in my heart.

Best of the best
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-03-01
It has been seven years since I was assigned to read this book for my eighth grade class and I stll think about it to this day. The book has a way of drawing you in to their everyday routine. I am sure I still have the book somewhere in my room, but I just can't find it.

Will touch your soul
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-05-26
I read this book when I was in junior high school. That was over 30 years ago and I still remember it and how well I could relate to the struggles of teen life. If you are a teenager considering this book or a parent considering buying it for your child, do not hesitate. After all, though I am a pretty smart and well educated person, this is the only book (I'm serious here) that left a lasting impression on me from the K-12 years. It's gotta be special.

One of the best little known teen books in the world
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2004-01-10
Books written by adults for adults that talk about politics usually want you to pigeonhole them. Once you understand the gist of the bookýs take on life and liberty you can decide whether or not its politics are the same as yours, thereby allowing you to instantly love it or hate it without even reading it. Books written by adults for children or teens that talk about politics also usually want you to pigeonhole them. So went my thinking until I read "Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!". Ladies and gentlemen, I have just changed my worldview on politics in childrenýs books. And itýs all thanks to this little number.

A plot synopsis. This is a story about Tucker Woolf, his family, his friends, and his friendsý families. In New York city, Tucker is fifteen years old and for the first time in his life heýs seriously interested in a girl. This interest isnýt without its complications. The girl, Natalia, attends a school for the mentally imbalanced. And her cousin, Dinky Hocker, has issues of her own. Dinky is overweight, an unsurprising fact when you consider her negligent, often cruel, parents. From this unlikely set of characters comes a story about dealing with the problems of others, as well as yourself. Kerr could have easily taken the easy route with this book. How simple it would be to turn this plot into an After School Special, complete with everyone a little older and wiser at the end. Instead, the author meets such ooey-gooey sentiments head on, challenging the hypocrisy people exhibit every day. Along the way, other issues are brought up as well. Originally conceived and published in 1972, the book deals with politics. Everyoneýs parent is a liberal of the 60s, though how they display this political leaning differs per person. When we meet the radical P. John, Dinkyýs brief beau, the reader is suddenly shown a human being that doesnýt fit neatly into any real category. P. John is conservative, racist, intolerant, and honest. To read his character is to question everything the book is saying about the political climate of this country. But if you really read this book, really examine whatýs itýs saying, itýs clear as crystal that there is no single political stance taken in this story. People are not all one thing or another. Not all liberals are whining wimps waiting for a handout. Not all conservatives remain unchanging and unsympathetic. I can see how people would love this book and how people would hate this book. All I ask of you is that you find yourself intrigued by this review and decide to actually read this book. Draw your own conclusions. Decide Iým insanely wrong or absolutely correct. The point is, this book should never be forgotten. It is so well written, so interesting and full of great points that I canýt even give you a glimpse of what it really means. Youýll just have to find out for yourself.

Social Aquarium
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2003-08-24
This book starts out as being the story of Tucker Woolf, self-apointed expert on libraries, and cronicler of strange existences. But it soon turns out that it is actually the story of four young teenagers, and, on a broader scale, their parents and their entire society.
Tucker has to deal with having a faher who cares too much about apearances, and drills Tucker into only revealing parts of the truth when dealing with strangers. Tucker is feels somewhat out of place wherever he is, and when he finds a stray cat he imediately bonds with it. When his dad turns out to be allergic, he has to give the cat away. It is this cat who, directly and inderectly, brings him into contact with the other characters. It is adopted by Dinky Hocker, a tragically overweight girl, whose parents completely ignore their daughters problems, in favour of helping drug-addicts and othe worthy causes. Her cousin Natalie, and a boy who shares Dinkys rather enormous problem, together form the core of the story.

The book is funny, the characters quirky and the situations somwhat absurd, but the real fascination of this book comes from seeing how the parents of these children forget them in favour of either their own problems or the problems of strangers. The thing that struck me most is that Dinkys charity-mom is actually one of the most selfish people in the world. I would recomend this book to anyone, even though it is technically a YA-novel. Its a good read, all the same.

Companies
The Disney Treasures
Published in Hardcover by Disney Editions (2003-09-01)
Author: Robert Tieman
List price: $60.00
New price: $24.00
Used price: $15.00

Average review score:

wonderful collectible
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-11
Being big disney fans, my son really enjoyed receiving this as a Christmas gift. It comes beautifully packaged and is a great addition to his collection. Playing the cd's brings fond memories of the rides and attractions at Disneyland Park and makes you wish you were there.

Nice book for the Disney Fan
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-10
You must be a Disney fan for truly appreciate this book. If that is your case, you'll love it!!. The "pockets" where some of the "souvenirs" are located are a little tight, and can tear with ease. Other than that, it is a nice idea.

Disney Treasures
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-03
I absolutely love this book! I love seeing replicas of letters, stories, pamphlets, early drawings, etc. When people come to visit they pick it up and are as fascinated as we are. It's one of the coolest books we own.

Disney Treasures and Keepsakes are a Must Have
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-10
These books are like a pop up book on steroids...They are FULL of interesting little pieces that you can take out and look at, like letters from Walt to Lillian, ride tickets from the early days and all sorts of other things...These 2 books are worth every penny!!!

The Disney Treasures
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-20
This book is a timeless classic, an absolute gem. For anyone wishing to get a real glimpse into the magic that is Disney this is the book.It offers historical insight and hands on replica memorabilia. I found this book full of information and fun.Beautifully presented.

Companies
Erik Estrada: My Road from Harlem to Hollywood
Published in Hardcover by William Morrow & Company (1997-05)
Authors: Erik Estrada and Davin Seay
List price: $22.00
New price: $27.76
Used price: $0.76
Collectible price: $22.00

Average review score:

So he was a real person!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-31
I grew up watching Chips and my older brother Jose, who later actually worked for the CHP for 20 years, was often teased as being an Erik Estrada lookalike.
So this character had a place in my life. It was great as a teenager-twentysomething Chicano to have a role model that was so successful. Estrada was so popular that his success and presence blunted a lot of negative role models and rascism I faced growing up.
The book details his early life and early career. That was really helpful in fleshing out the larger than life image I grew up with. I love autobiographies to see how the person weathers the storms in their life. I love connecting the dots and stepping stones of their life. Estrada had a reputation for being difficult to deal with; his most touching admission is that the lack of a father figure prevented him from learning how to get along w/ difficult people, how not to burn bridges etc. I found that very insightful.
He was a serious actor who worked his way up. After Chips, his success in a Mexican soap opera gave him an insight to his Latino background. He grew up a New York Puerto Rican (NewYorican?) who had never fully grasped what the Latino world is. As a Chicano educator, activist, nationalist I am happy when I see "Born Again Chicanos" or in this case Born Again Boricua.
Read this book and understand part of the 1970's.

A GOOD READ - worth getting!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-04
If you or a friend like Erik Estrada - you'll enjoy reading this book. It is written to keep your attention and interest to continue. WELL DONE! A great gift idea for an Estrada fan.

MY TEEN IDOL
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2001-11-20
I HAVE ALWAYS LIKED ERIK, SINCE I WAS A TEEN AND NOW TO READ ALL ABOUT HIM, WAS GREAT, I REALLY ENJOYED TO HEAR HIS LIFE STORY, AND HOW HIS MOM RAISED 3 KIDS ALONE AND HE DID HIS BEST TO KEEP HIS MOM HAPPY, AND I LOVE CHIPS I WATCH IT EVERY MORNING ON TNT AT 6:00AM IN THE MORNING BRINGS BACK MEMEORYS OF HIM. I VERY GLAD TO HEAR THAT HE FINALY FOUND THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE. AND HE'S A GREAT DAD TO HIS TWO BOYS AND HIS DAUGHTER. AND GLAD TO SEE HIM BACK ON TV ON THE BALD AND THE BEATUIFUL. TAKE CARE

A joy to read
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-11-25
I've been a fan of Erik Estrada's since the first season of "CHiPs", and am still an actively dedicated fan. I bought the autobiography in hardcover on sight without hesitation. The fan wanted the book immediately, and the amateur critic and aspiring writer have yet to regret the decision.

I don't read a lot of autobiographies because I lose either interest in the story or respect for its author. The conversational style and the honest and balanced telling of this story grabbed my attention on Page 1 and held it through a cover-to-cover reading. Aside from giving details not usually revealed through other means, this book presented itself as something special from the first moment. I wasn't reading an autobiography with stylized prose and a detached third-person feel. I was listening as someone I have long admired told me about who he is and where his roots lie. I felt the story as it was being told, from the frustration of Hollywood's own form of politics to the elation of true love and a treasured family. From triumph to tragedy, it's all there. It's a story of courage, determination, faith and love - personal, cultural and spiritual.

It's easy for celebrity autobiographies to become self-serving tell-all's, but this book maintains a straightforward perspective, allowing the story to be told with dignity and with class. It's a breath of fresh air, and an absolute pleasure to read. The fans who have remained devoted through the bad press and the "where are they now" stories have long held the hope that the truth would be revealed. It has in a compelling story, straight from the heart and well worth the wait. Thank you, Erik, for sharing your side of the story.

If you're a fan, this book is a must. If you're not, read it and you just might become one.

Very straight forward
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 1999-09-03
Erik Estrada's book is the best Hollywood bio I have ever read. He holds nothing back and is very honest about rough times and regrets in his life (i.e. failed marriages, his shaky relationship with Larry Wilcox). He seems like such a terrific person and great friend, too. God bless him, Nanette, and his two boys.

Also, wasn't Mr. Estrada so much fun to watch in "CHiPS '99:? :)

Companies
Extreme Weather: A Guide and Record Book
Published in Paperback by W. W. Norton & Company (2004-10-30)
Author: Christopher C. Burt
List price: $24.95
New price: $9.99
Used price: $1.50
Collectible price: $24.95

Average review score:

A terrific reference
Helpful Votes: 13 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-02
This is a wonderful book on weather. And the extreme values it gives are actually fairly interesting and fun to read about. Besides, we all like to know if we're in the middle of truly unusual weather.

The book starts with heat records for every state, both absolute maximums and July averages. As well as maps showing number of days with 90-degree (Fahrenheit) or higher temperatures. We learn about temperature-humidity indexes, heat waves, and even heat bursts. As well as extremes in temperature ranges. There's information about heat extremes in foreign countries as well.

Next we get to cold weather! Heat records for every state, both absolute minimums and January averages. Cold waves. Wind chill. And international extremes. Did you know that near Lake Vostok, in Antarctica, the temperature once reached minus 128.6 degrees Fahrenheit? Brrrr!

We learn about the snowiest cities. And then we get to rainfall records for a big bunch of American cities. There are also records for varying amounts of time. What's the record for rainfall in 30 minutes? It's over 11 inches! And it fell in Sikeshugou, China. And there's material about floods, thunderstorms, hail, and tornadoes. As well as wind and fog!

There is a fascinating chapter on hurricanes. I vividly remember Hurricane Carol, which struck in August of 1954. And there's a picture of Providence, Rhode Island, after it was hit by the storm surge from that hurricane. There is also an excellent map of the American Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean coasts, with probabilities per year of being hit by a hurricane, as well as probabilities of being hit by 125 mile-per-hour winds or greater. The five areas that in 2004 that were "overdue" for a hurricane are listed. Of course, as any technical person knows, being "overdue" for a storm does not increase the chance of being hit, if anything, it decreases it. But it does imply that one may be less prepared for one when it does hit. New Orleans is listed as one of the five areas (it was hit by Betsy in 1965 and not hit again until Katrina in 2005). The book explains that the dikes protecting downtown New Orleans, including the French Quarter, from the water in Lake Pontchartrain would almost certainly be overwhelmed by a Category 4 or 5 storm surge. And that if they were, much of that area could be swamped under 20 feet of water. I wish that more people with the responsibility for protecting the city of New Orleans (or voting for its protection) had been more aware of this, so that some of the damage caused by Katrina might have been lessened.

I highly recommend this book.

Very interesting and readable
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-08-14
This is a well written and fascinating book on weather extremes. I'm only about 100 pages into it, but I enjoyed it so much I wanted to make a brief comment.

Although the book is mostly about extreme weather phenomena, you'll also learn a lot about more normal types of weather, since if you understand how the more extreme storms are generated, you often can understand how the less severe ones occur as well. But this is done in the context of learning about the more severe and extreme types of weather, which I find an interesting approach. After all, there isn't much when it comes to natural phenomena that's scarier than a hurricane or a tornado (well, earthquakes and tsunamis of course are right up there too, but in weather, they're the kings :-)). I once read that a typical hurricane can release each second 100 times the energy in the first atomic bomb (which was a 20 kiloton bomb).

The book discusses weather extremes from rainfall to tornadoes for the U.S. and the rest of the world, including many fascinating topics, such as internally lit tornadoes that glowed with their own light. Witnesses reported orange lightning bolts coming out of the bottom of the spout which would then be sucked up by the violent winds into the interior, thereby lighting up the entire tornado. There are a couple of photos of these sorts of tornadoes, including a black and white one at night showing two luminous tornadoes that obviously had to be internally lit. Very cool stuff and my only complaint was there weren't more photos like this, but then these are very rare phenomena.

Also, the maximum winds typically don't exceed 325 miles per hour, and most tornadoes are usually more like 75-125 miles per hour. This is just one of the many very interesting topics covered.

Overall a very cool book on weather, and I'll have more to say about it later when I finish the book.

Lotta fun
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-05-02
Best book on weather I've read since Bomar's Texas Weather. As in Bomar's book, the author understands that it's the unusual weather events that are of most interest to most people, and he doesn't fail to disappoint on that score. A must for all weather nuts.

Excellent and Affordable
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-03-14
This is an excellent book and affordable. Some other reference books are very expensive and don't have the great photos and data presentations that this book has (I still highly recommend the others, but they are not cheap). This book saves a lot of time and makes it easy to show other people exactly what you are trying to say, and they will be impressed with the quality of this publication. Excellent book in its own right and can easily double as a "coffee table book" and a great conversation starter.

Great Data/Photos
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-02-27
This is an excellent book that should actually be used as an accompying text to a regular weather text. The cartography is superb and the data is listed in an easy to understand fashion

Companies
Eye of the Albatross: Views of the Endangered Sea
Published in Hardcover by Henry Holt & Company, Inc. (2002-05-14)
Author: Carl Safina
List price: $27.50
New price: $9.57
Used price: $5.55

Average review score:

Please read this book.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-28

If you are already amazed with the animals that share our planet, your enthusiasm will be rewarded and expanded when you meet Amelia , her chick, and their neighbors on a tiny isolated island in the Hawaiian chain. If you are beginning an interest in the natural world, this is a inspiring place to begin. Pure science meets pure poetry in one wonderful read. The Eye of the Albatross is an important book, and a beautiful one.

A Classic
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-17
Carl Safina possesses a rare combination of talents: he a scientist who also writes beautiful descriptive prose. He vividly captures the spirit of the ecosystems and animals that he is describing, while staying factually informative.

This is a great read. It made me appreciate the open ocean in ways that I had never considered.

Eye of the Albatross
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-11
This is a stunning description of an even more stunning creature. Part scientist, part poet, part mystic: Carl Safina is an albatross's best friend. The reader is instantly and forevermore smitten. Read this book! You will fall in love with the world's most magnificent long-distance flyer-glider. You will not think of wind in the same way, nor gravity. You will become a more patient diligent steadfast joyous courageous human being.

Fantastic - a must read!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-04
Brilliant, poignant and often painful. A must read! Beautifully written tale of the various species of albatross, whose survival is increasingly vulnerable to modern conditions and the willingness of homo sapiens (so-called) to change their behavior so that others may live. The story is one of struggle, hope, the power of sheer persistence and of life's resilience under increasingly bleak conditions. More generally, the book is an overview of the devastation of the ocean environment. "Eye of the Albatross" was the well-deserving winner of the 1993 John Burroughs Medal for distinguished natural hitory writing.

Safina's latest piece of natural history brilliance is "Voyage of the Turtle: In pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur" (2006). Safina is president of Blue Ocean Institute, which he co-founded in 2003, so he's putting his prodigious talent to work to make the world a better place.

By Kyle Gardner, author of Medicine Rock Reflections

Fabulous soarings, fishing sensibly and . . . frozen skivvies??
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-26
How would you feel at the sight of a weary seabird coughing up a plastic toothbrush while trying to feed its chick? Carl Safina observed this while studying the Laysan Albatross. After cruising the North Pacific for days, soaring over thousands of kilometres seeking forage for that hatchling, one of bathroom utensils was the proferred dessert. To Safina, it means "No place, no creature remains apart from you or me."

In this exquisitely written account of how the mysterious albatross lives, we learn of those fabulous flights, how the bird manages its energy budget, and of the many perils it endures throughout a life nearly as long as that of humans. Centred on Tern Island, a tiny atoll halfway along the Hawaiian chain, research teams are studying the Laysan Albatross, turtles and sharks. Safina recounts the work and the conditions. Among other tasks, ten Laysans are tagged at nesting time, allowing satellites to track their wanderings. Safina dubs one female "Amelia", describing her flights into the North Pacific. Nesting birds must accumulate resources because offspring are demanding. The parents will lose up to 20% of their body weight in supplying the chicks. Once hers has hatched, she and her mate, who have shared incubation duties, now take turns fetching breakfast for the little squawker. Safina, who has watched these birds, remains in awe of Amelia's abilities to navigate. The maps he provides display ever greater distances travelled and Amelia's obvious skills in locating fodder. He notes than in a lifetime of half a century, a Laysan may cover nearly six million kilometres of oversea flight.

Within his sojourn on Tern Island, Safina makes a couple of jaunts of his own. One is much further west to Laysan Island itself. There, invasive species events have led to unusal security. The introduction of a destructive weed not long before has forced the stipulation that not only must ALL clothing be brand new, it must all be frozen to kill any organisms. Safina describes the donning of frozen underwear as an "interesting" experience. Yet, the importance of the need is revealed when the research team on Laysan describe their clean-up efforts.

The cold underwear should have helped condition him for his next trip - on a fishing boat in the Aleutian Islands. Mark Lundsten is an innovative captain of the "Masonic". His "novel" idea is how to fish in ways allowing a sustainable take. Lundsten is a campaigner among his colleagues for adopting methods to protect birds and turtles from becoming "by-catch". Safina uses the visit to discuss the perils of long-liner fishing, what safeguards are being introduced and how well they're being accepted by fishers around the world. As the episode of the toothbrush demonstrates, it's not only fishermen who threaten the wildlife around us.

The book, while seemingly targeting an audience interested in long-distance commuting seabirds, is a volume we must all take up and learn from. The real point of it is that we must spend more in time and money in developing an understanding of what goes on in the world around us. Among other issues, shark "attacks" on tourists in Hawaii bring immediate and vigorous response by Fisheries and the Coast Guard. One of the teams Safina visits demonstrate that shark movement precludes any likelihood that the slaughtered sharks are the "guilty" party. That shark has almost certainly moved on to a new location. Imparted in sterling prose, with reasoned judgements and a careful balance examining needs, wants and available resources, Safina has produced a superb account. Take up this book to see how research is done and what it can achieve. It may help you in making decisions that will affect your life and that of your children. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Companies
FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software
Published in Paperback by Hentzenwerke Publishing (2003-10-01)
Author: Kerry Nietz
List price: $9.95
New price: $9.95
Used price: $3.66

Average review score:

Great read
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-02-06
I couldn't put this book down until I finished it. Kerry does a great job of taking the reader behind the scenes at Fox.

Great Book
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-09
It looks like I'm one of the few reviewers that didn't work for Fox Software. However, I have used and developed in FoxPro a lot over the last 15 years. It's still the best RAD tool that you can buy despite its treatment by Microsoft.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think that anyone who has worked in software or worked for complete butthead would also like it and relate. It's so well written that I just wish it were longer.

Book worth reading
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2004-02-19
Recently, I read Mr. Nietz's book while on vacation and found it to be very interesting and hard to put down. Within a couple of days I was finished with the book. This book is for all audiences and you don't need a degree in computers to enjoy it. I highly recommend this book and I look forward to reading other books by Kerry in the future.

Buy Foxtales
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2004-02-24
Once I began this extraordinary book, I could not put it down. It's a page turner with a story that will appeal to all readers. I worked at Fox Software with Kerry for over 4 years. This story of Kerry's experience at Fox Software is a wonderful reminder that how you get to the top is more important than how high you get.

There have been many stories of what the inside of the high-tech business looks like from the most famous and successful business leaders. Most of these stories are attempts to write history and promote themselves. This story is about a hard working and honest guy who wants to work hard and make something of himself by joining a small software company. After reading this book you can tell that Kerry wrote this book to just share his experience. He is not trying to promote himself, and by doing so he tells a story that so many people can relate to, and he records for all of us a fascinating story of a small software company at a time when the industry was growing exponentially.

This story has a happy ending, despite all of the obstacles presented in the book, Kerry and others continued to work hard and were rewarded years later at Microsoft. I am looking forward to more great books from Kerry.

Right on the Money
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2004-02-17
FoxTales is an excellent read. Once I got started, I simply could not put it down. As an employee that actually worked in the offices of Fox Software, I always felt that Fox Software was a company that succeeded more in spite of its uppermost management, rather than because of it. At times Fox was an exciting and awesome place to work and at others, it was humiliating and torturous. Kerry does a great job of presenting the experience as a whole and of wrapping up a series of somewhat loosely related events into a very entertaining story. It's nice to see someone tell the outside world what it was like at Fox Software.

If nothing else, Dr. Fulton had an excellent eye for talented developers and he certainly did manage to assemble an incredible team. It's great to see how Keary and others were eventually rewarded by Microsoft for their efforts and perseverance.


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