Papers Books

Our school used this book for art class! We're a little alternative school and everyone loved the projects....we had a hard time just choosing one =) It was easy for us to come to class day after day and work on projects for an hour n want to even work more on them....we all became really proud of the projects this book helped us make =)

This book begins with the basics, including an explanation of materials and techniques used. There are great color photos, and the book shows the development of many projects step by step. The book is not targeted at small children - there are other books that are. A good quarter of the finished projects, however, are appealing to children and perhaps, the kids can help out at times. This book is for pre-teen through adult, and the instructional design and photography offer tips to the beginner or the advanced. Only one criticism, the projects in the book are made with newspaper as the paper of choice, when tissue paper that is matte on one side and shiny on the other, i.e., reinforced with special fibers would be an easier medium to work with, more durable overall, and more "finished" looking. I am not a purist, I just want the results of my labor to look terrific! Good luck!

A ton of really creative and fun projects. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, and there are lots of photos. Highly recommended!

I really like this book.
It's easy to read and understand .
I made the dog armature witout any trouble. I did need to change the head somewhat though for the breed I wanted.
I am not a cat person but that cat planter is just too cute and I will probably make that.
The only thing I didn't like about this book is the author recommends buying paper pulp mix and I think that is a waste of money when it's simple to make your own.
But
I still love this book!
it has some great projects and lots of great tips too!

In this Georgian Romance, the hero's involvement in the event that lead to the heroine's blindness is the impediment to mutual happiness.
A beautiful girl, accidentally blinded in childhood, is cossetted and protected by her concerned, but bricked-headed brother, Philip.
Rosalind, left on her family's estate, Oakleigh Manor, yearns for the interactions and experiences denied her by blindness and the overprotectiveness of family and servants.
Dashing Lord Amberley's coachman is injured by highwaymen. It is snowing and Oakleigh Manor is the nearest shelter. During his snow enforced stay, Amberley and Rosalind's mutual liking develops into something warmer.
Amberley wants to free Rosalind from her sheltered prison. He convinces her brother to bring her to London to enjoy The Season.
The story continues with Rosalind's new experiences and Amberley's growing love and attraction for Rosalind.
Can Amberley come to terms with his feelings of guilt and remorse? Will Rosalind forgive Amberley for his part in the event that changed her life?
There is the additional story of Philip's betrothal to Isabel Dacre. Isabel has an extremely slimy sibling, the dishonorable Ralph Dacre. Ralph causes difficulties for both of the couples.
This is an excellent novel with indepth characterizations and a lively plot. Recommended.

This is one of my fave books.I feel the need to borrow it from
the library every six months or so.I have always loved Amberley's
deliciously absurd sense of humour.I loved Rosalind's character.
I also loved Nurse&Broody.

Rosalind Vernon robbed of her sight by childhood accident, had no idea that the cherished voice at her door, belonged to a notorious rake. Marquis of Amberley had distinguished himself in gaming room and boudoir alike. Now, stranded by snowfall, he became enamored of his innocent hostess. And she, who had lived in seclusion, welcomed his lively wit and distinctive charm

Here is another splendid little book which I found in a UBS a few months ago. Although the author does not tell us the exact date for the events in the novel, it is fair to say that it is probably more of a "Georgian" than a "Regency". Probably the main difference in these two subgenre, when they are done well, is that the Georgian presents a more languid and stately scheme of events and behaviour. In this novel, the hero Lord Amberley, is elegant and refined with some characteristics that are best described as languid rather than energetic. After many years he encounters Rosalind Vernon who was the victim of an accident in which he was involved but for which he was not truly responsible. Much of the frame of this novel sets out his inner thoughts and feelings as he comes to terms with loving a woman for whom he fosters much guilt. Whilst sponsoring Rosalind to a season in London, thinking he will allow her to blossom, Rosalind sets him free and he comes to depend upon her more than she upon him despite her blindness. Her clarity of thought, brightness of spirit and love and loyalty allow him to focus his own life so that they may join together in what will be, one feels, a truly happy marriage.

The author seems to have had a brief output. A shame, this, because this book was terribly attractive, well written with interesting and well-rounded adult characters.

I do recommend this - look out for a copy!

As a word freak, grammar junkie, romance reader and lover of all things funny, I would like to recommend "The Passionate Papers of Fiona Pilgrim" to all. Not only have I read it multiple times, but also I have given it as a gift to those in my life who need a good laugh.

I bought this book because I was attending John Rubadeau's writing class at the University of Michigan as this book was being published. He was so hysterically funny, brilliantly interesting, and fantastically energetic about grammar and writing that I knew that this book would reflect his passion for the English language and for life in general! Boy, was I right!!
Great work of art, John!!!

When I first picked it up, the title made me think that this WAS a romance novel. What makes it such a hysterical book is that it's about an erudite manly-man in financial trouble who thinks the easiest way to make a quick buck is writing a trashy romance novel. Only he doesn't know how so he seeks help from the most successful romance novel author of all.

What I like best is the style of prose and the difficulties the main character, Joe Leonard, has as he writes from three different personas: himself, Fiona Pilgrim (the fawning housewife would-be author seeking the help), and the romance novel heroine. I can't stop laughing while I read how he tries to keep it up. This is a great novel.

If you laughed at the "Remains of the Day" lunch boxes and "Dinner with Andre" action figures in "Waiting for Guffman", and if you fed off the original plot twists in "World According to Garp" - in short if you want a great laugh delivered via terrific writing, this is a book to add to your library.

In the beginning we meet Joe Leonard, frustrated legit writer,desperate for income, who adopts a pseudonym (Fiona Pilgrim), with the intention of hacking out romance novels.

Been there (with above plot) and done that, you might think, but you haven't been where this author takes you. After setting the premise, author Rubadeau reveals his tale through a series of letters from his protaganist, Joe to an academic mentor at Harvard, from Joe (as Fiona) to June Featherstone (Britain's top romance author), and from June to Fiona. As three romance stories develop, those real more implausible than those fictional, we learn the do's and don'ts of authoring romance (i.e., romance readers aren't generally fluent in foreign languages, but we can skip translating "cul-de-sac"), along with more details about Romania than we ever hoped (or wanted) to know.

In one sentence, I recommend "The Passionate Papers of Fiona Pilgrim" because it's well-crafted and fun!

Ms.Yudkin is clearly an expert in this field, and offers excellent tips on marketing and designing forms useful for small businesses. This is definitely a book worth reading.

As an established freelance writer, I am often asked to coach writers new to freelancing. Most need to learn to see themselves as businesspeople, as well as writers. Toward that end, I always refer them to two of my 'bibles': "This Business of Writing" by Gregg Levoy and "Persuading on Paper" by Marcia Yudkin -- the best book on tight-budget publicity I've ever seen.

As an established freelance writer, I am often asked to coach writers new to freelancing. Most need to learn to see themselves as businesspeople, as well as writers. Toward that end, I always refer them to two of my 'bibles': "This Business of Writing" by Gregg Levoy and "Persuading on Paper" by Marcia Yudkin -- the best book on tight-budget publicity I've ever seen.

I have covered Ms. Yudkin's book with hot pink highlighter! It's crammed full of just what I was looking for: practical, applicable tips for marketing your business. She gives many examples of actual businesses' brochure copy, ad ideas, and sales letter approaches. I have a ton of new methods to try!

What can I say - I just love this book. Has some great layouts and plenty of ideas. Can't wait to get started on some new creations of my own.

I'm not a huge scrapbooker, but I like to do pages from time to time. This book is great to give me layout ideas when I get tired of doing things the same all the time. It's useful for all types of layouts too, not just pet pages. I'm glad I bought it.

This is such a great book for scrapbooking your pet photos. I have really enjoyed using this book while designing pages of my dog Roxy. The book it self is beautiful and the page layouts are fantastic. It really gives you some good ideas and shows alot of detail for scrapbooking one of the most important members of your family!

I cannot believe there are no other reviews out here for this marvelous book! Animal-lover scrapbookers will totally love this book. There have been a few prior, but this one is awesome.

I am always looking for ways to scrapbook my dogs and cats. Their photos are so much fun to work with and practice all my techniques. But I rarely if ever see pet pages in the magazines. This book is beautiful. The pet layouts are fantastic and give me lots of motivation to get cropping.
Also recommended: SCRAPBOOKING PETS & ANIMALS !!!

Quite the reverse. They just don't have a lick of common sense among them. If there is a simple solution to a problem and a complicated one, the simple solution simply won't occur to them. Their minds just don't work the way ordinary people's do. Imagine an entire family with varying degrees of Asperger's Syndrome.

And the poor Old Lady from Philadelphia! I'm sure she sometimes just wants to take a baseball bat and knock some common sense into them.

This is a wonderful book to read aloud to children. If reading to a group, one should stop just before the family goes to see the Old Lady and ask what you think she will suggest. Nine out of ten times, the children will come up with the same solution as the Old Lady; if not exactly the same one, then something equally sensible.

The basic Peterkin formula: the Peterkins are stupid, yetlogical. They are completely devoid of common sense. Theyget into complicated situations and try to work their way out by adding complexity. Eventually they consult the wise old lady from Philadelphia, who always has a sensible, commonplace, wise, BORING answer. The stories are also an unforgettable picture of daily life in what seems to be a suburb of Boston in the early nineteenth century, almost an Eastern version of "Little House on the Prairie." And somehow there is an impression of a _slightly_ dysfunctional family that manages to muddle through, through with warmth, affection, and mutual tolerance. Stories are just the right length for reading aloud. Anyone eight years old or older will appreciate the humor.

Lucretia P Hale's, The Peterkin Papers is as wonderful today as I'm sure it was in 1880, when it was originally published. Meet the Peterkins, a nineteenth century family, totally lacking in common sense and enjoy their troubles and adventures as they muddle through life's challenges. For example, what do the Peterkins do when their daughter, Eliza Elizabeth's piano is delivered and set in front of the living room window backwards. They solve this problem by simply opening the window and she sits outside, on the porch playing and practicing. This is all fine during the summer, but when fall and winter arrive, it becomes too cold for her to sit out, even in her winter coat. Enter the lady from Philadelphia...she's so wise that she always has a quick solution to these tough Peterkin problems. "But why don't you turn the piano 'round?" And the Peterkins are always amazed that they didn't think of that. As Mrs Peterkins says, "What shall we do when the lady, from Philadelphia goes home again?" This is a delightful book of short chapters, each detailing a glich in the Peterkin's lives, that will charm and amuse your family, as it has families for many generations. The Peterkin Papers is an American classic and the perfect read-aloud book the whole family can share together.

Ask the lady from Philadelphia -- a classic line -- one that is often quoted -- the book has been read by five generations in my family -- it is just as relevent today as when written

In the work of Richard Rorty, I have found great support for my own treatment of important matters in philosophy. Had I not thought, as I do,that
realism is just so much well-entrenched sci-fi, I might not have gone back to Rorty and Rorty's et alia (in Truth and Progress and Consequences of Pragmatism) However, having said this much, I should add that if one wants Rorty in depth, read something else, but do not ignore this work. For those who, like myself, are unfamiliar with many of Rorty's invited guests, the work is simple and important. We owe Rorty a debt.

This is Rorty in his later years. It makes for at wonderful summing up. Because he has said the same things again and again, there is a delightful lightness to his tone. The many ramifications of his cumulative research have become clearer. I think Rorty is almost hated by some of his professional colleagues. I am not a professional philosopher, so I cannot comment on his many sins. But as a working psycholgist I love his work. He has made many of my "epistemological sins" clear. And over the years reading his books has changed me. I think this book along with "Philosophy and Social Hope" give the easiest access to his work. Highly recommended.

This is the 4th volume of Rorty's Philosophical Papers, and the 1st volume since his retirement from Stanford University. This 4th collection is not as summoning as his 3rd, and although it is as diverse in topics as the 3rd collection it is not as specific in its topics compared to the 3rd or 2nd collection.

Rorty has etched out his place in contemporary philosophy by arguing much to the same critique of philosophy for over 20 years. But he has had many interesting ideas (with their inherent controversies). What has increased is the diversity of the subject matter that he considers relevant to his overall themes, and also, he writes more elegantly and simply than he used to write (compare this volume with the collection in Consequences of Pragmatism: Essays, 1972-1980).
I will give a summary of each argument in each essay by finding the most representative quote within each essay....If these arguments do not interest you, but you're still interested in Rorty, I would suggest Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (a critique of representationalism), Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (Rorty's infamous "liberal ironist"), and Achieving Our Country : Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America (Rorty's political manifesto). Or, check out the book list I created on Amazon entitled "Richard Rorty"

CULTURAL POLITICS AND THE QUESTION OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
"I want to argue that cultural politics should replace ontology, and also that whether it should or not is itself a matter of cultural politics" (pg. 5).

PRAGMATISM AND ROMANTIC POLYTHEISM
"You are a polytheist if you think that there is no actual or possible object of knowledge that would permit you to commensurate and rank all human needs. Isaiah Berlin's well-known doctrine of immensurable human values is, in my sense, a polytheistic manifesto. Polytheism...is pretty much coextensive with romantic utilitarianism....no way of ranking human needs...Mill's `On Liberty' provides all the ethical instruction you need" (pg. 30).

JUSTICE AS A LARGER LOYALTY
"Should we describe such moral dilemmas as conflicts between loyalty and justice, or rather, as I have suggested between loyalties to smaller groups and loyalties to larger groups?" (pg. 44).

HONEST MISTAKES
"Honesty and honorableness are measured by the degree of coherence of the stories people tell themselves and come to believe" (pg. 68).

GRANDEUR, PROFUNDITY, AND FINITUDE
"The main reason for philosophy's marginalization...is the same as the reason why the warfare between science and theology looks quaint - the fact that nowadays we are all commonsensically materialist and utilitarian....further reason...the quarrels which, in the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, gradually replaced the warfare between the gods and the giants - the quarrels between philosophy and poetry and between philosophy and sophistry - have themselves become quaint" (pg. 87).

PHILOSOPHY AS A TRANSITIONAL GENRE
"We think that inquiry is just another name for problem-solving, and we cannot imagine inquiry into how human beings should live, into what we should make ourselves, coming to an end. For solutions to old problems will produce fresh problems, and so on forever" (pg. 89).

PRAGMATISM AND ROMANTICISM
"...imagination is the source of freedom because it is the source of language...Nothing at all was obvious, because obviousness is not a notion that can be applied to organisms that do not use language...imagination is not a distinctively human capacity...But giving and asking for reasons is distinctively human, and coextensive with rationality. The more an organism can get what it wants by persuasion rather than force, the more rational it is" (pg. 114-115).

ANALYTIC AND CONVERSATIONAL PHILOSOPHY
"I am suggesting we drop the term `continental' and instead contrast analytic philosophy with conversational philosophy. This change would shift attention from differences between job requirements imposed on young philosophers in different regions of the world to issues I just sketched: that there is something that philosophers can get right. The term `getting it right'...is appropriate only when everybody interested in the topics draws pretty much the same inferences from the same assertions" (pg. 124).

A PRAGMATIST VIEW OF CONTEMPORARY ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY
"...we should be neither realist nor antirealists, that the entire realism-antirealism issue should be set aside" (pg. 133). "In the sort of culture I hope our remote descendants may inhabit, the philosophical literature about realism and antirealism will have been aestheticized in the way that we moderns have aestheticized medieval disputations about the ontological status of universals" (pg. 137).

NATURALISM AND QUIETISM
"Most people who think of themselves in the quietist camps, as I do, would hesitate to say that the problems studied by our activist colleagues are unreal. [Rather, we divide philosophical problems] into those that retain some relevance to cultural politics and those that do not" (pg. 149; my brackets).

WITTGENSTEIN AND THE LINGUISTIC TURN
"I shall divide three views of Wittgenstein, corresponding to three ways of thinking about the so-called `linguistic turn in philosophy'" (pg. 160). These views include "naturalists," "Wittgensteinian therapists," and "pragmatic Wittgensteinians." (Rorty is in the third camp). Rorty argues 2 things: "there is no interesting sense in which philosophical problems are problems of language,...and the linguistic turn was useful nevertheless, for it turned philosophers'' attentions from the topic of experience toward that of linguistic behavior. That shift helped break the hold of empiricism - and, more broadly, representationalism" (pg. 160).

HOLISM AND HISTORICISM
"[If you are like a holist] you will try...to explain how certain organisms managed to become rational by telling stories about how various different practices came into being. You will be more interested in historical change than in neurobiological arrangements" (pg. 176).

KANT VS. DEWEY
Against the moral philosophers in the Kantian tradition and in support of the Deweyian, Rorty writes, "To say that moral principles have no inherent nature is to imply that they have no distinct source. They emerge from our encounters with our surroundings in the same way that hypotheses about planetary motion, codes of etiquette, epic poems, and all our other patterns of linguistic behavior emerge" (pg. 192).

More fantastic essays by the wordsmith who says everything just as beautifully as you would say it if only you had thought of it first.

I have not yet encountered a novel quite like this one. It is written in the first person point of view, but should not be read for its literary techniques. It tells a story in an objective and unbiased view in a way that has not been matched. The story itself is entertaining enough to read, for the author describes everything to such detail that it feels as if these were the reader's own experiences. I traveled across Europe this past summer, and visited many of the places that were mentioned in the book. It felt as if I had been to these places before because the novel gave me a sense of familiarity with the cultures and people. This story is the kind that allows one to travel without actually going anywhere, and should be read by everyone who shares an interest in the political events of 20th century Europe. This book gave me a better understanding of the situations of that time, and reinforced my interest on these topics.

This is an excellent book which I and my Polish wife read on a trip around in Poland. She could find many similarities between the communist time in Hungary and Poland. Ben-Menachem starts to describe the nazi world seen from a small kid's perspective for later to show the problems with communism for the grown up. Although it is an autobiography it is as exciting as a novel. No wonder that he preferred the life in a democratic country with all the experiences he has had with totalitarism.

It is time for new views of how the great war affected a generation of people in Eastern Europe: the views of a child. The intriguing title of "Playing With Paper Soldiers: The Life of a Wandering Jew" explains how the author combines issues of childhood and adulthood in his memoir. Typical remembrances of wartime experiences have an adult's perspective of life. Ben-Menachem writes about the perspective of a 6-year old child who observes his father working in a concentration camp. He moves us forward in European history with his experiences of the Communist take-over in Hungary after World War II. For a child, it was one task-master after another, each with confusing rules as to what was acceptable, who was "good" and learning how to avoid disaster. Although this is an auto-biography, Ben-Menachem writes like a novelist. His style of simple sentences represents the view of a child. The language becomes more philosophical as his intellectual struggles become more complex. The preface "Memories" explains his progression from playing with soldiers to adulthood, but the final chapters describe his emotional and spiritual growth with greater clarity. The book provides a cinematic view of life in Hungary during the 1940's and 1950's, as well as the transformation of the author. The recent 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution comes alive with details about life before and after that well-known event. Ben-Menachem writes well, without being self-serving or sentimental. I highly recommend this excellent history of the war and post-war eras.

Playing with Paper Soldiers by Michael Ben-Menachem is the autobiography of a Hungarian Jew confronting a difficult family life and Nazi oppression as he comes of age during World War II and its aftermath.

Michael is from a secular family, but must deal with the prejudice of his neighbors as well as the coming German forced re-locations. He survives the camps, but then he must deal with the communists and the Hungarian revolution of 1956 as he conducts a personal search for emotional and physical freedom. This leads him to escape efforts that brings him eventually to Israel, Italy and finally Sweden. Just as the world around him is transformed, so too is his spiritual side as he finally finds fulfillment.

This is a beautifully written and absorbing account of a life fully experienced in the shattered world of wartime and the post war chaos of Europe behind the Iron Curtain. It is a valuable addition to the literature of the era. Jeanne Harris

If you want to know where America's Air Assault tactics came from, how they developed in Vietnam and by implication how Army Aviation is in trouble today--begin with this book! Have your highlight pen ready when you examine the decisions and actions of the brave pioneers who created 3-D Air Assault capabilities in our Army at the behest of Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara (he could do good things once in a while!). If you read carefully you will see that to get the drastic Army structural changes needed, the capabilities of helicopters were oversold--to get large numbers of helicopters, the ground vehicle was dismissed as a tool with the helicopter doing EVERYTHING. General Kinnard and his wizards of the 11th Airborne Division [later reflagged the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)] went about having helicopters do everything---place troops around the battlefield, act as CAS gunships, fly-in artillery for fire bases--except stay in the "death ground" of enemy fire (re: Colonel Bolger's book: "Death Ground: America's Infantry in battle") as an armored shield and protected transportation means carrying superior levels of firepower. So while Air Assault operations could "run circles" around the enemy on the map board, once Sky Troopers left their mounts, they were vulnerable to enemy fire fighting the enemy "even" at best---as the more numerous enemy could absorb untold casualties without ill effect at home. Its interesting that the helicopter-replacing-everything hubris negated the understanding of the need to field a helicopter-transportable light Armored Fighting Vehicle (AFV) that could "Air-Mech" with Sky Troopers into battle and give them dominance from that point on in the operation. The M551 Sheridan light tank was available though 7 tons too heavy for the CH-47 Chinook; (I have seen photos of it lifted by the CH-54 Sky Crane heavy lift helicopter) why it wasn't airdropped from fixed-wing C-130 Hercules aircraft and used for 3-D maneuver fire support by the one parachute-qualified Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division is a mystery--the French Airborne parachuted all over the countryside in the first Indo-China war. Perhaps it was the urgency of getting a force that could maneuver deep into the Central Highlands of Vietnam before the enemy cut the South into two over-rode deeper analysis and force-on-force war games to reveal structural flaws and correct them. America was at war.

As you read this superb book which should be a companion to LTG Hal Moore/Joe Galloway's "We were Soldiers once and young" account of the Ia Drang battle fought by the 1st Cav, you get a sense that we miscalculated and were thinking "big blue arrows"--operationally impressed by helicopter distance/speed 3-D maneuver capability and overly reliant on distant artillery howitzer/aircraft supporting arms and overlooked the up close "belt buckle" fight that the enemy chose to fight whenever possible because it would curtail our long-range fires since he had the advantage in RPG explosives weapons effects (ready-to-fire, doesn't need to be unfolded like a M72 LAW) while we fought him "even"; our M16s versus his AKMs, our grenades versus his grenades, our bayonets versus his bayonets, our casualties versus his numbers.

Today, the "pendulum" has swung the other way with the helicopter Air Assault delivering foot-mobile troops implies casualty risks and some Commanders are willing to surrender 3-Dimensional maneuver to the enemy and fight "heavy" only along the 2-D axis, once again over-relying on distant supporting arms fires to defeat the enemy (but its digitized and "precision" this time!) though this means you will be channelized and ambushed in ground vehicle restricted terrain. That aircraft (Aviation branch) could work TOGETHER with tracked AFVs (Armor branch) to position the latter into "go" terrain to overcome the enemy was possible then and certainly do-able today with lighter AFVs like the 3-4 ton German Airborne Wiesel which can be lifted even by the Huey's replacement, the UH-60L Blackhawk.

The solution is to read this book and put yourself in the shoes of the decision makers like a good war simulation, draw on your history and combine Airborne and Air Assault capabilities using that magnificent air-droppable M113 that was rumbling all over the countryside (Coleman mentions go/no-go for tracked vehicle terrain considerations in his book), the new M551 Sheridan light tank, and combine the best attrributes of 3-D and 2-D maneuver into one. The lesson today is to field the M8 Armored Gun System successor to the M551 and modernize the latest M113A3, buy some Wiesels for recon and create an Air-Mech 3-D capability in the U.S. Army today before we fight in another place like Vietnam again. We cannot hope to chose where/when we can fight ("We don't do mountains and we don't do jungles"), living for a replay of the open desert to stampede our heavy armored caccoons ala' Desert Storm---we must be ready to go where America sends us. When South Vietnam was in danger of being severed by the NVA in 1965-66 we sent the best we had: the 1st Air Cavalry Division and they saved the day, though at a cost so high we could not sustain the support at home for the noble endeavor. At least Kinnard's men had some time to run tests and conduct experiments, we may not be so lucky. NOW is the time to get ready, this book would be a good place to start.

Coleman chronicles the history of the Ia Drang campaign from the viewpoints of many levels of the combatants - from brigade, battalion and company commanders to platoon and squad NCO's and skytroopers. Also insights from captured NVA documents and maps on their battle plans. I found his chapters covering the LZ XRay and LZ Albany actions gripping text.

The author makes history interesting. He covers probably the most significant transition in tactics undertaken by the U.S. Army in the 20th century--"freeing infrantry from the terrain". The First Cav tactics would later be emulated by most of the U.S. infantry units in Vietnam, and later by the ARVN, but no other units ever had anywhere near the rotary wing assets available as did the Cav. What the Cav initiated tactically in the Ia Drang Valley battles led to the evolution to their "pile on" tactics employed later in the war. Their massive airlift capability was the great equalizer in later battles with numerically- superior and well-armed NVA units--battles often (perhaps generally) initiated by Cav "Blue" Platoons of its 9th Cavalry Squadron. Readers interested in this book will find even greater detail, and a much more focused account of the battles at LZ Xray and LZ Albany in Harold Moore's and Joe Galloway's book: "We Were Soldiers Once--And Young". Other good reading is Mathew Brennan's "Brennan's War" (his personal account serving as a member of a Cav Blue Platoon in 1967-69), and his:"Headhunters" (also about Blue Platoons in the Cav), and "Hunter/Killer Teams" (about scout/cobra "Pink" teams). J.D. Coleman also wrote an excellent book about 1st Cav operations in 1969-70, including the invasion of the Cambodian "sanctuaries" in May of 1970, entitled "Incursion".

I came across this book back in 1989 when a friend asked me if my father was Sgt. Eugene Pennington who served in Vietnam. It turned out that he was reading this book and came across my father's name mentioned in it. I had been hearing my father talk of his experiences in Vietnam over the years and was amazed to find a book that so accurately informed the reader of the Vietnam experience. By reading this book, I became quite familiar with the tactics that my father had been trying to relate to me. I bought a copy of the book and gave it to him for Father's Day. To this day I still believe that it was the best gift I ever gave him. I would greatly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about helicopter warfare in the Vietnam era.

The 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution resulted in a series of columns by J St. John. These 1787 meetings were secret, no official records were kept. But the notes of James Madison and others survived to reconstruct daily events. The original intent of this meeting was to revise the Articles of Confederation (Appendix 1), but a new Constitution resulted (Appendix 2). There is no index.

Many of the basics were the subject of debate and controversy. Some called the result a "miracle" (p.x), but it shows the power of a committee whose members work to the same ends. This book attempts to portray the meetings as an evolving news story, as it was happening. Most Americans do not understand the Constitution, because it is poorly taught in schools from unclear text books (p.xiv). Deliberate obfuscation? These 230 pages are a remedy. This book will give a short introduction into the daily operations of this historically important event.

The Constitution has endured for over 200 years because it is a framework (p.131), not a detailed plan that can't be adapted to changing situations. The Constitution has endured as long as it is in the interest of "We the People" to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity. The hidden agenda of the convention was to create a strong national government that had veto power over all state laws (5-20-1787). The most important reason was the question of domestic and foreign commerce. Rivalries between the bankers and merchants of the North against the planters of the South prevented Congress from regulating trade (5-23-1787). Both forces would unite against farmers and the common people, and the danger of too much democracy (5-29-1787). The Convention wanted to avoid the failures of the Articles of Confederation. The Confederacy owed [money amount]in debt and needed to find a way to pay off their debts (p.139).

The unlimited powers of the Royal Governors made the delegates fearful of a single executive. The consequences of consolidating power was fatal to ancient republics (6-2-1787). Experience rather than abstract arguments shaped the Convention (6-4-1787). Neither the executive nor the legislature should have absolute power. The big problem was to create a national government that would provide balance between the large and the small states. States would be equally represented in the Senate, the lower House would be directly elected by the people, based on proportion to population. This was the key to creating a new national government (p.110). The Southern states were more numerous and wealthy than the Northern states; their method of computing political representatives won (7-12-1787). The Convention unanimously rejected "wealth" as the basis for representation; they should not fear the growth of population (7-13-1787). The new government would be a compound of national and federal government (7-17-1787). A Supreme Court was established, with lower courts (7-18-1787). A single powerful executive would be elected by the people to control the legislature (7-19-1787). The importance of impeachment was discussed and adopted (7-20-1787). The executive was given a veto (7-21-1787). The Constitution would be ratified by the people, not State Legislatures (7-23-1787). The office of President did not exist under the Confederation (p.133).

Each year in September is a little known holiday known as Constitution Day - timed to be around the close of the Constitutional Convention in September 1787, this day is honoured at the college where I teach by speakers in a special forum, and the gift of pocket versions of the Constitution for all interested students.

However, the Constitution is heavily in the news, more than we often realise. When the election of 2000 was contested, the Constitution became primarily important; it is always in the background of Presidential elections, but this time it came to the forefront. In the current situation between Chief Justices (a relatively rare occurrence in American history), once again the Constitution is big news. We the people are interested, and we the people should be interested. However, we the people often have little concept of how this formative and foundational document came into being. Jeffrey St. John provides an answer to this situation, in very engaging and accessible style.

This is a journal, a day-by-day account, done in a sort of combination of journalistic and court-reporting styles. Of course, we have no direct journal of this sort, as the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention were strictly secret (not the kind of thing that would play out well in our media-saturated world - CSPAN and CNN among others would certainly expect to be there!). Indeed, those who went to the Constitutional Convention in May 1787 were charged with a reformation of the Articles of Confederation, not the drafting of a new Constitution. History had a surprise in store.

This is not the only area of interest. St. John's documentation shows the different influences into the formation of the Constitution - while it is common to look to classical times and contemporary European governments for influences and inspiration, in fact the most memorable words of the Constitution come from the constitution of the Iroquois League, drawn up in 1520, which began with the words 'We the people, in order to form a union...'.

The various federal structures, the separation of state and federal powers and responsibilities, the debates over how representation is carried out (and who gets represented; the issue of slavery was contentious from the start, and one can clearly see the seeds of the Civil War being planted even at the Constitutional Convention) - these are all portrayed with clarity and candour.

The Constitution was not a document that was intended to be from the outset, nor was it passed unanimously (indeed, not all states were represented at all times of the Convention, not all delegates appointed attended, and one state never participated at all). Some of the founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, made references to divine intervention being key in the process; Franklin at the end made the warning about the government being a Republic, 'if you can keep it' - no doubt recalling the fall of other great republics in the history of the world.

This is a fun and exciting book to read, a real page turner. It was published in 1987 as part of the bicentennial celebrations of the Constitution; former Chief Justice Warren Burger provides a foreword for this text.

This is a great and inspiring story, one that should be of concern to Americans of all types and walks of life. We are all 'we the people'.

I'm a nerd. 95% of my books are computer-related. This book will gave me an appreciation of what an extraordinary event the convention was. Several times it shows how it could have so easily fallen apart or gone off in a different direction (and Lord knows what kind of land this would be if it had). This book and another great book called 'Voices of 1776' will give you an awesome sense of how lucky we are to be what we are today. I cannot recommend this book more highly. (BTW, did you know that the only two signers of the Declaration of Independence who went on to become presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, died within two hours of each other on July 4, 1826 - 50 years to the day the Declaration was signed?)

Fantastic series! Read all three.