Encyclopedias Books

This isn't really that bad a book. The text was well written for each individual mentioned and the photographs were quite good, my favorite was the one with Mikhail Gorbachev hand feeding a squirrel on a tree. Still, there are certain individuals this book left out who I thought should have made it. Below is a list of those who I feel should have been in this book.

Pope John Paul II
Nikita Khruschtev
J. Edgar Hoover
Ayatollah Khomeni
Wayne Gretzky
Vince Lombardi
Howard Stern
Jimi Hendrix
Thelonius Monk
The Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen
Lenny Bruce
George S. Patton
Joe Montana
Gloria Steinman
Janis Joplin
Harrison Ford
Irving Berlin
Bill Clinton
Charles Manson
Howard Cosell

This book, I think is ine of the most influential books of the 20th century, and certainely one of the most entertaining! Mother Theresa, and Micheal Jordan were certainely, and are included in this book; but the thing that impresed me most is that I found Um Kolthum on the list. I thank Barrbara Cady for including her in, I greatly appreciate it. If you find a customer that disagrees with the content of this magneficent, beautiful book, don't agree with him. He is certainely a bad reader. People trust me with this! A great read!

This is a massive book in terms of physical size. It has to weigh at least 5-10 pounds and could probably be used as a home protection device. Great gift idea. Giant!

But, alas, too American in the perspective. The selection includes people who are only of importance in the U.S. area. I.e. baseball & football players and t.v. entertainers (Oprah!)And in choosing Oppenheimer and Fermi instead of the far more important Niels Bohr. Further, Karen Blixen is presented by her alias Isak Dinesen - quite embarassing. The photos, though, are phantastic and the layout creative. In spite of an American chauvenism in the selection, the book makes a brilliant statement heading for the millennium.

Unlike a number of other books about the ranking of the "greatest" of the 20th century, this book does not rank anyone. This book lists the 200 men and women, in alphabetical order, who have made a difference during the last 100 years.

Cady blends detail with a personal touch in each biographical synopsis. The photos, in black and white, give the reader a face to put to the story. Photographer Jean-Jacques Naudet is a master of capturing the essence of the person on film.

While the price of the book is a bit hefty, your money is well spent in this collectable piece of work. For the past hundred years you have read stories about JFK, Ali, Mother Theresa, Michael Jordan now you can own a part of history.

I was most impressed by the author's ability to remain unbiased in the reporting. While I may not have include some of the people, I was no doubt impressed by the list. I am certain that this book will be real family or school crowd pleaser well into the next century.

In my newspaper days, recorded in my reporter's notebooks was every story's genesis. Almost daily I set out from the newsroom, notebook in hand, ready to write stories of cross-pulling preacher-bikers, social club ladies, native plant gardeners, and an ex Hanoi Hilton POW, all people and experiences I thought I might one day weave into my grapplings with fiction.

A stack of weathered, worn notebooks, an image that evokes stories ready to be told. It's the image on the cover of In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction, a selection of 25 essays from the first 10 years of the literary magazine Creative Nonfiction founded by Lee Gutkind, the "Godfather behind creative nonfiction."

Each piece in the collection is representative of the genre, a sort of nebulously-monikered genre that encompasses almost every form of nonfiction: personal essay, traditional reflective essays, and New Journalism or literary journalism, reportage that largely relies on narrative to get its information and ideas across.

These pieces, each in their own way, seem to capture the spirit of the journal Gutkind founded, which he reports in his introduction to the collection is a mix of "good old-fashioned reporting -- facts, plus story and reflection or contemplation." Like journalists -- and some as Mark Bowden are journalists -- practitioners of creative nonfiction take out their notebooks and collect interviews and gather other documentation and report their stories, but they immerse themselves in the worlds of meth addicts who stumble upon a cache of money, as Bowden does, or report and reflect upon their experience of becoming a father, as Phillip Lopate does.

These essays are not works of confessional "navel gazers," as Gutkind reports James Wolcott infamously quipped in Vanity Fair magazine. They are explorations into the world, engaging the reader, as writers always have, seeking out, as Gutkind himself has sought as a writer, "other lifestyles, other professions, and the patchwork of prejudices and kindness that make some people different from others." The pieces take us deeper into the world to discover the play of language, as Diane Ackerman does, or provide insight into the workings of the brain and mind and whether there is a separation between the concept of the "mind" and the physical brain, as Floyd Skloot does.In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction

The diversity of themes in this collection provide a great deal of satisfaction while you're reading. I found almost all the stories incredibly compelling and they all touched upon an aspect of life that I haven't thought about in a while. I'm currently disabled and I haven't been able to go to school as I'd planned, but I'm going back next year, and I feel that this book is an excellent tool for preparing me for critiques, analysation, and the challenging environment that Cornell is going to offer.

IN FACT is an anthology of personal narrative stories. The stories are well-written and powerful for the first reading. The story about celestial navigation is my favorite.

But after reflection, the stories seem histrionic and melodramatic. Take the celestial navigation story for example. The writer packages the navigation as life & death magic that snatches the lost sailor away from boat killing rocks and shoals in the nick of time, but he had a GPS (satellite) locator in his pocket. The thrill isnt real. He was never in peril.

I dont care for Annie Dillard's commentary about the state of publishing. It may be true that young girls in New York City decide what all of us read, but enough good stuff gets into print inspite of them. Annie comes across as a bit of a wet blanket.

The stories are well-written and interesting, but the drama is inflated.

In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction is a triumphant statement about Lee Gutkind's original goals in 1993 for Creative Nonfiction, the journal. This collection of essays shows the depth explored in the journal in its first 11 years, and could also be considered a history of the genre's current incarnation.

Beginning with Annie Dillard's introduction, a collection of pearls of wisdom for young writers, In Fact takes readers on a sometimes-jolting ride through the creation and development of both the journal and the emerging genre. These essays explore the issue of exclusion from society, either because of one's personal actions ("Shunned" - Meredith Hall) the color of one's skin ("Looking at Emmett Till" - John Edgar Wideman), and the state of one's mind ("Three Spheres" - Lauren Slater, "Gray Area: Thinking with a Damaged Brain" - Floyd Skoot). The environment takes center stage in essays about endangered species and hunting ("Prayer Dogs" - Terry Tempest Williams, "Killing Wolves" - Sherry Simpson), and scientific matters are explored with a personal twist ("Adventures in Celestial Navigation" - Philip Gerard, "Chimera" - Gerald N. Callahan).

Families are typically considered the cornerstone of society, and their dynamics and histories are explored here as well ("An Album Quilt" - John McPhee, "Dinner at Uncle Boris's" - Charles Simic, "Being Brians" - Brian Doyle, "Leaving Babylon: A Walk Through the Jewish Divorce Ceremony" - Judyth Har-Even, "Joe Stopped By" - Andrei Codrescu, "In the Woods" - Leslie Rubinkowski, "Mixed-Blood Stew" - Jewell Parker Rhodes, "Why I Ride" - Jana Richman, "Delivering Lily" - Phillip Lopate).

Showing Gutkind's contention that creative nonfiction is related to journalism, at least in the goal of reportage, social issues often found in the news, and accounts related to former "front-page" material are represented as well ("The Brown Study" - Richard Rodriguez, "Finders Keepers: The Story of Joey Coyle" - Mark Bowden, "Notes from a Difficult Case" - Ruthann Robson, "Sa'm Pèdi" - Madison Smartt Bell, "Going Native" - Francine Prose). Finally, literature, and the writing process are explored ("Language at Play" - Diane Ackerman).

These terse classifications would suffice for general indices of these works, but they each have their own depth beyond the general subjects they explore. James Wolcott's theory (mentioned in Gutkind's Introduction) about the nature of creative nonfiction being too personal is decidedly false; these works offer much more than overly personal prose. Wolcott's declaration that Gutkind is "the Godfather behind creative nonfiction" is perhaps his only accurate comment made on the subject. In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction is an excellent cross-section of both the journal and the genre. It is a necessary volume for any writer, and for any reader who enjoys real stories.

This volume is a brilliant collection of extremely well written short stories. The subject matter varies with the author and the selected works are engaging. I enjoy creative non-fiction and find this collection is an excellent example of the genre. It also offers information about the authors and mentions the workshops, colleges and universities they attended. Many of the writers currently teach creative non-fiction writing at university level programs throughout the United States.

This James Bond Encyclopedia is a must have book. It is very comprehensive and profusely illustrated with photographs. The visual layout is very attractive enhancing this exquisite volume. I spent many hours going through it. It is a very enjoyable James Bond film companion. Being a long time Bond fan I highly recommend this one.

Years and years ago a "James Bond Encyclopedia" by Steven Jay Rubin came out and considering it wasn't an "EON officially" sanctioned book (stock photos and mediocre writing) it wasn't all THAT bad. I've been collecting 007 books for a long time, many of them from the internet, and came out dissappointed many times but was able to recover from my initial skepticism to buying this new Bond Encyclopedia when I noticed John Cork was one of the authors. He's responsible for the excelent BOND GIRLS ARE FOREVER and the JAMES BOND LEGACY, perhaps the two best Bond books I've every bought.
Well, the JAMES BOND ENCYCLOPEDIA certainly doesn't dissappoint, hundreds of terrific pictures organized by category (movie, vehicles, girls, villains, etc.) include even the most oscure of entries. While a dream come true for aficionados, it's definetly bound to please casual Bond fans also (and who isn't ?)

I enjoyed the book and feel it to be a good companion to another volume by a different author entitled "The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia."

It is full of information with plenty of accompanying pictures, and is divided up by subjects (i.e. Bond Villians, Bond Women, Weapons, Equipment etc.). For myself, since that is also part of the Bond world, I wish it had had a section on Bond bloopers (deliberate or otherwise) which occur in the films.

I did notice that occasionally the pictures did not match the captions listed for them (in "The Movies" chapter especially) in that a photograph would be shown, but the caption did not relate to the designated picture.

Also, in the sidebar section of that chapter where different persons connected with the production side of the movies would be listed along with their professional biographies, sometimes the print was hard to read bacause of the background color it was placed on.

Overall, I would recommend this book.

I consider myself well versed in the world of 007. However, reading this book made me realize how much there is out there that I was was unaware of, The authors have shown a greta eye for detail and completeness. And with a nice sense of humor they have added some new facts that I never knew existed.

A pleasure to read.

If I may wax nostalgic for a moment, I can still recall the very first James Bond movie that I sever saw...actually the first three Bond movies...it was sometime in the late 60's or early 70's and my mom took me and my brothers to the drive-in theater to see a triple feature of Goldfinger, Dr. No, and From Russia with Love...in that order. I know I never made it past the credits of From Russia with Love but man...I loved those first two films! I had never seen anything like Bond before with his cool gadgets and those nasty villains like Odd Job and that began a lifelong passion for James Bond. With Christmas approaching, I cannot think of a better gift for the Bond fan on your list than the James Bond Encyclopedia from DK Books.

I've read a lot of books from DK on popular films and while they are always very well done, they sometimes can be a bit light on material. No so with this book. This book contains over 300 pages filled with information that will test even the most knowledgeable of Bond fans. It is bountifully illustrated with over 2000 photographs and images and traces the Bond history right up to the most recent film, Casino Royale.

As the title suggests it is an encyclopedia but rather than just list its hundreds of entries in alphabetical order it lists them alphabetically by subject. The subjects include: The Bond Style, The Role of Bond, Bond Villains, Bond Women, Supporting Cast, Vehicles, Weapons & Equipment, and the Movies. A comprehensive index finishes things off.

The role of Bond covers the six actors who have portrayed Bond with two pages of biographical information on each actor and a list of the Bond films they starred in. Next up is the section on Bond Villains. This section covers Bond villains from the criminal masterminds Blofeld, Hugo Drax, and Goldfinger; crime lords like Frank Sanchez; muscled thugs Jaws, Odd Job, Mr. Kil, and Tee Hee; and dangerous females May Day, Elekta King, and Bambi & Thumper. The encyclopedia gives the film(s) they appeared in, their current status, characteristics, the actor who portrayed them, and a synopsis of their roles in the films.

No book on Bond would be complete without looking at the dozens of Bond Women played by some of the most beautiful actresses in the world: Terri Hatcher, Ursula Andress, Lana Wood, Eva Green, and Halle Berry. The section on supporting cast members covers all the other major and minor characters in the Bond films from Q to Miss Moneypenny. Each Aston Martin that Bond drove is featured in the section on vehicles along with some of the more extraordinary vehicles like the Bath-O-Sub from Diamonds are Forever and the Dragon Tank from Dr. No. And of course all of Bonds secret weapons and gadgets are detailed in the Weapons section.

The last fifty pages or so of the book covers each bond film in chronological order with a listing of cast and crew credits but rather than provide a synopsis of films you've probably seen numerous times the book instead provides anecdotes on the making of the films with all manner of interesting production notes.

This is a book that is perfect for the die-hard or casual James Bond fan.

This book is packed full of information on herbs and many health issues herbs can help....single herbs, multiple herb combinations suggested for specific problems...Highly recommended!!

I bought this book when it was first published in the 90's. I haven't found another book that is as good. I have used it so much that my old one is falling apart. I have to buy a new one because I need the book. The book is 402 pages long. There may be a few trendy herbs that are aren't mentioned but not many. This book lists the bodily influences each herb has on the body and gives a long list for the uses of each herb. Bold lettering is used to indicate when an herb has a profound, SIGNIFICANT effectiveness .This book has helped me a lot. The only drawback to the contents is I would like to know what vitamins are in each herb etc. I have used this book to treat numerous ailments.

There are many herbs not in the book. Explanations are a bit on the hazy side. No ideas on how to use the herbs...BUT...it's great for what it does have, tells of many things each herb can be used for. Just wish it were more complete!
With all this, I still have had no thought of returning the one I bought for myself at the store. Bought one from Amazon for a friend who works much with herbs, etc., as she said it was on her wish list.
p.s...get the spiral bound one...much easier to use.

Every time you read it, you find something you didn't see before.

I have dozens of herb books. It never fails to amaze me how thorough this book is. If you want info on an obscure herb or obscure info on a common herb, this is the book for you.

I'm glad to see there is a spiral bound version. I'm buying a second copy to have it in spiral. It is literally a book you can study from and want to take notes from. The spiral version will make that easier.

This book is absolutely the best one I have seen when it comes to being thorough for the different uses of each herb. It has listings of primary and secondary conditions affected by the herbs, after a write up of usually close to a page on each one. In the write up it elaborates on many of the uses, and often gives historical uses. I find it a vital reference guide and refer to it VERY often!!! Is easy to understand, contains warnings about the herbs that need it, and is really the most informative guide to herbal usage.

I bought the new, soft paperbound book, and it fell apart on the way home from the store. After using it for a while I decided it was invaluable and ordered (YEAY!) a spiral bound book from Amazon.com. I definitely recommend the spiral bound as the way to go if you can get it! But even if you get a paperbound copy and it should fall apart, it is worth 50 times the money, and worth the extra care you need to take of the book. (Hopefully everyone is not as physically "hard" on books as I am!)

though i dont have this book my friends say its an excellent book and I've seen it for my self and it is definatly a must buy

If you are a mtg collector, you definitely need this book. Although it is much "thinner" than Volume 1 but it's still a must for any serious mtg collector

It so good it has tempted me to buy alot of Magic cards

Richard Garfield is the creator of Magic The Gathering card game. This book gives the reader an in-depth look into the game and shows the beautiful illustration that each card contains. This is a must have for all players and collectors of the card game.

I collect the cards and I don't know how I would have known if they were rare or common cards if I hadn't found this book. It's the best!

I have searched all over for a good book about Sinclair Lewis and his writing. This one is the best anyone could hope for. It has a useful and very easy-to-use format and unlike other similar books, it is LOADED with photographs-- a pic is worth a 1000 words. This book proves it. A little expensive, but worth it.

This book was a lifesaver. As a book collector, I cannot tell you how important a bibliography formatted like Pastore's can be. I wish he would write more. BRAVO to him for writing and to AMAZON.COM for carrying this book.

This book provides the most honest and concise bibliography of one of the foremost authors of our time and Mr. Pastore has essentially re-engineered how a bibliography should be written - that "thin" can be better than "fat".

All (ALL!!) bibliographies should be this clear and TO THE POINT. I hope this bibliographer works on some other authors. What value!!!

Intelligent and thoughtful analysis of a very difficult author. Quite nice, really and beautifully presented.

Alex McNeill's "Total Television" is one of those reference works which is useful both for settling trivia arguments at parties and for helping those engaged in serious scholarly study of television programs and their impact upon popular culture. As of this review, "Total Television" is in its fourth edition.

The book is basically an alphabetical encyclopedia of thousands of television programs in every possible genre: dramas, sitcoms, game shows, cartoons, and more. Each entry lists the series' air dates, principal performers, and other relevant data.

In addition to the main body of encyclopedic entries, the book includes a wealth of supplemental features: lists of Emmy winners, a chronological gathering of one-shot specials, and more. Particularly interesting are the programming grids, which show the nightly lineups on each network for each night of the week. You can turn to a season (say, 1951-52) and see what choices the American TV viewer had each night! This feature is great for historians.

Although most of the entries on each series are brief, McNeill spends more time and space on certain series of outstanding impact. These extended articles on "All in the Family," "CBS Evening News," "Dallas," "The Ed Sullivan Show," and more are truly fascinating.

TV has been derided by many with such epithets as "the Boob Tube" and "The Idiot Box." On the other hand, it was praised in an episode of "The Simpsons" as "teacher, mother. . . secret lover." McNeill captures TV in all of its facets: from the depths of inanity to the heights of cultural significance. This book is a great achievement whose reputation, I believe, will increase with future editions.

This reference is superb in it's completeness. Anything you want to know about any program broadcast from 1948-1996 is in this 1251 page book. The 88 page index of names of performers appearing during those years is unbelievable. It includes specials, miniseries and the top 20 rated shows for each of those years. I use this reference at least 2 to 3 times a week.

Where this book is not as easy to use as Brooks and Marsh's "Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows"(see my review for this one), it offers more-as far as the addition of daytime shows and more explanation of the entries. I like the other guide mainly because it's a good quick reference for prime time. However, if I'm really interested in detail or, again, a daytime program-like some Saturday morning cartoon of my childhood-then this is the one to get. I have both books, actually-for reasons specified here.

First, we might note that "... To the Present," in the book's title, means through late 1995. So nothing in the last ten years is included. For years, I have enjoyed "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present" by Brooks and Marsh. I prefer the format of the Brooks and Marsh book to that of the NcNeil book--e.g., the cast is in list form, which makes for easier and quicker reading; the showing time is also included. The chief advantage of the McNeil book is that it includes daytime TV, which the Brooks and Marsh book does not.

Alex McNeil's "Total Television" is the Mother of all TV reference volumes. If you can't find it here, it ain't worth knowin' about. How he was able to compile all this information covering 50+ years of TV is beyond me. Crack open this book at any page and you will be reading for hours, probably days.

This is such an important novel. Everyone needs to read this book, especially as the issue of torture is finally center stage in American politics. The author's writing is beautiful, unusual, and distinctive. She is clearly someone whose career readers should follow. I recommend this book whole-heartedly. I could not put it down.

A brilliantly-written, moving book about the takeover of British-occupied Singapore by the Japanese in WWII.
This story is ingeniously told through masterful writing which is at times poetic, at times cryptic and always beautifully descriptive.
The superbly-drawn characters are utterly human, believable and many-layered. No cliches or stereotypes here.
This novel is political, historical, psychological, and deeply emotional. It seems to transcend time and place.

In the middle of "Breaking the Tongue", Vyvyane Loh repeats Somerset Maugham's warning that:

"'A work of fiction ... is an arrangement which the author makes of his experience with the idiosyncrancies of his own personality.' In other words, if someone messed with him, he'd write him into a story."

It seems that most of the ethnic groups in Singapore must have "messed" with this Malaysian author and she's written them into a mean-spirited parody of life in the island state during the 1940's.

At the center of the action are the Lim's. Father Lim is a sadistic snob, who evicts a homeless family from their temporary shelter in his drainage ditch. Mother Lim is a mentally unstable self-mutilator with the morals and varnished claws of a cat. Junior is a whiny adolescent. Little Sister doesn't have a speaking part, but her Confucian saint of a grandmother makes up for it by reciting large tracts of Sun Tzu at the drop of a hat. The various members of the family detest each other and that is the only part of the book that truly makes sense.

Alert readers will have noticed by now that "Breaking the Tongue" is a farce, not a literal history of Singapore. It didn't take any `courage' to write, just a lot of spleen.

An American reader confronted with a passage of Chinese characters might think: "Well, this is Chinese text so if it were read aloud it would come out as Chinese." This however is completely false. The tens of thousands of incredibly complex Chinese characters are ideograms, they represent not sounds but meanings such as man, flower or war. As a matter of fact, there are many Chinese languages such as Mandarin, Cantonese or Hokkien. All of these spoken languages sound entirely different but they are all written in the same set of Chinese characters. A long time ago the Japanese also adopted Chinese characters to write their language which is of course completely different from Chinese. The practical Japanese use an alphabetic script as well, so in practice a passage of Japanese writng might consist of a mixture of Chinese ideograms and alphabetic symbols. It is clear therefore that if you were erudite enough you could write any language including English in Chinese characters. Conversely, if you were to read aloud a passage of Chinese text you could do so in any language including English. Chinese text in other words is sound-independent, language-independent or as we might say tongue-independent.

In this book, near the end, the English text is occasionally replaced by passages of Chinese characters which are of course incomprehensible to the average American reader. This does not mean that the author has switched from English to Chinese but only that she has abandoned (or broken) the tongue. This is one meaning of the book's title, but only the metaphorical meaning.

There is a literal meaning as well. At the end of the book, the main character Claude Lim cuts out (or breaks) his own tongue. This operation is described in very clinical detail reminding us of the fact that the somewhat intimidatingly brilliant author is in fact a practicing physician who writes Nobel Prize quality novels in her spare time. The reason Claude cuts out his tongue is that he is an "English educated" Singaporean Chinese which meant in the colonial pre-war period that he was taught only English and could not speak a word of Chinese. After the Japanese conquest in 1942 and related personal events, Claude rejected his English education and wished to revert to his Chinese heritage. Since he could speak only English he accomplished this by cutting out his tongue ao that he could no longer speak any language but make only grunting sounds.

The reader may be pleased to hear that in modern independent Singapore Claude Lim's linguistic dilemma can no longer occur. English is now the primary language of education for all Singaporeans but each ethnic group is also taught their "mother tongue" whether it be Malay, Tamil (a southern Indian language) or (Mandarin) Chinese. So there are four official languages in Singapore and every Singaporean of normal intelligence is at least bilingual.

Well, it has taken me the space of a longish Amazon review and I have managed to explain only the title. To explain the body of the book as well is obviously beyond the scope here. But perhaps you can see what I mean when I describe this book as of Nobel Prize quality. I do not mean that Vyvyane Loh will receive the Prize in the near future since the Swedish Academy will not award it for a first novel. What I mean is that there is not the slightest doubt in my mind that she will receive the Nobel eventually. This book has the literary quality and the depth that would be expected. It is also has the exotic setting that is evidently much liked in Stockholm. So congratulations Vyvyane, a great literary future for you is assured.

In BREAKING THE TONGUE Vyvyane Loh successfully brings to life the myriad of cultures and languages resulting in a rich tapestry of colors and flavors of Singapore, situated at the tip of the Malay Peninsula. The days of the British Empire are numbered as the Japanese threaten to invade Singapore in the days leading up to Second World War. Within the unstable economic and political landscape is Claude Lim, a young Chinese boy who was raised to only speak the language and admire the mannerisms of England. His parents taught him that the Chinese along with other non-whites are barbarians; the British are much more civilized and cultured. There is little uncertainty that the British will succeed in protecting Singapore from the Japanese menace.

Despite their initial beliefs the Japanese experience minimal difficulties advancing south through Malaysia towards Singapore. After his family flees to the relative safety of the countryside Claude is left behind to resume his studies. However, shortly after their departure the routines of everyday life are interrupted when the bombings begin and war becomes more apparent. Claude along with Brit Jack and Chinese Ling-li who strive to survive day by day while running a defunct medical clinic. They dodge bombs and the chaos of the streets to buy food and run the injured to the hospital without knowing when or if any type of normalcy will return to Singapore.

One of this novel's strengths is the manner in which Loh highlights and exposes the issues of cultural identity and belonging. There is Claude who is a devout Anglophile and who has essentially turned his back on his cultural identity, Jack who is British but is interested in the peoples of Singapore, and Ling-li who is strong pro-China. These three divergent individuals bunker down and explore their own cultural identity. Throughout the course of this book Claude slowly realizes that all his father taught him is not necessarily true. He begins to regret not knowing the various Chinese dialects and opens his eyes to the futility of his parent's choices.

BREAKING THE TONGUE is a book that is well worth seeking out and reading. It is filled with mystery, intrigue, and action and there's much to enjoy.

A great source for all sorts of useless (and not so useless) information on just about anything. Highly recommend to anyone who likes weird stuff.

Oscar Wilde's last words? What caused the extinction of the Dodo bird? Author Charles Panati has compiled a most fascinating look at the end of practically everything and everybody. Last words of famous folk. Final resting places of the rich and famous. Bequests of dying Presidents. There are all here, in this witty (and highly readable) compendium of all things dead and dying. Think of it as the beginning of the end and you'll finish first. Or is it last? As for the answers to our questions . . .

Charles Panati has always been a fascinating author. His books are typically dedicated to information, mostly about the origin of things. There's his Browser's Book of Beginnings and his Sexy Origins of Intimate Things. But I use this book the most by far when it comes to information I need to know, along with his Sacred Origins of Profound Things. Where as most of his books deal with beginnings, this book deals with endings. There of course origins of instruments of death such as the electric chair and the guillotine, but the whole is concerned with death and the ways it happens. Great for reference and great for just reading. Though at first it is a grim subject, Panati deals with it in such a way, that you could almost read it as humorous yet respectful. Points of interest include last wills and testaments of past presidents and the last words along with cause and description of death with famous figures in history such as Buddha, Joan of Arc, Edgar Allan Poe, and Ludwig van Beethoven. And in reflecting how these monumental people died, we also reflect on how they lived and realize that no one is exempt from death, and that we need to make the most of it, and laugh about it in the end.

All of Panati's books are a good read, just the kind of book you need if you've got a curious mind.

For a rainy day read, or a break from more 'serious' reading, Panati is the choice. Hey, it beats watching television!

Recommended!

Panati reviews all forms of endings, and writes well and frankly---there is much good historical information here, and he touches on little discussed topics!!!

Thanks for your product - it's too much good!
It's satisfy my better expectatives...


Have a good day...

The Complete Dinosaur edited by James O. Farlow and M.K. Brett-Surman is a comprehensive book about dinosaurs. There are many contributors that have written chapter for this book, so you get different writing styles and information is duplicated at times.

This book is divided into six parts and each has chapters written by the various contributors. The parts are as follows:
Part One: The Discovery of Dinosaurs
Part Two: The Study of Dinosaurs
Part Three: The Groups of Dinosaurs
Part Four: Biology of the Dinosaurs
Part Five: Dinosaur Evolution in the Changing World of the Meszoic Era
Part Six: Dinosaurs and the Media

What I found that was very interesting was that at the end of each chapter there was extensive references. So, if you find something that piques your interest you have something else to read about, to either clarify or strengthen your viewpoint. Also, this makes the book easy to use when dealing with technical material.

This book summarizes the current knowledge about dinosaurs at the time written (1997), and currently there are only eighty professional dinosaur paleotologists in the world. This book is written like professional scientific literature, but that doesn't make it difficult to read. Reading on you will find this book is not without controversy, as vigorus disagreements among the specialists over topics of contention will be found here as they hash out these sharp divergences of opinion.

I must say, that there is some very fine artwork, with bone of skeletons, muscle structure and complete complete fleshed out dinosaurs giving the reader a full grasp of what a dinosar looks like from the inside out. Also, questions as to what dinosaurs ate, how they raised their young, and the question that was the turning point that made the movie Jurassic Park... can we isolate dinosaur DNA are just some of the many questions that have answers in this book.

All in all, the technical jargon is at a minimum and there is a glossary of terms making your reading much more fruitful. I found the narrative easy to read and the information from this book to be exceptional.

This is a great intermediate level dinosaur book. It has a lot of details, but not enough to prevent non-experts from following it. It has 43 chapters divided into six parts. The chapters were written by experts in the individual subjects. This has the nice feature of making the chapters fairly independent, however it also makes the presentation a bit disjointed at times.

The first part deals with the process and history of discovering dinosaurs. The history of science isn't my favorite topic, so I just skimmed this part and can't really comment on it.

The second part describes the tools and techniques used to study dinosaurs. This includes excavations, the study of bones, taxonomy and cladistics, morphology, biomolecular techniques and exhibiting dinosaurs. There is a lot of interesting information, this material is fairly fundamental to the study of dinosaurs. Some of it is pretty easy to follow, some (like data management techniques) is a little more difficult to follow (for me anyway). None of it is prohibitively difficult.

Part three is a collection of chapters covering archosaurs, early dinosaurs and the various dinosaur families. Given that they were written by different authors, there is no consistent format for the chapters. I would have liked to have seen more material on how the families are related to each other. On the whole, I liked the level of detail.

Part four describes dinosaur biology. It contains a fascinating set of topics. A partial list of them is: plants in the Mesozoic, dinosaur diets, dinosaur dynamics, dinosaur eggs (covered in a nice amount of detail) and dinosaur paleopathology (a topic that doesn't often seem to get covered in this level of detail). In my experience many of these topics are somewhat neglected (either covered only lightly or not at all), this, and the quality, made it my favorite part of the book.

The fifth part deals with dinosaur evolution, including the way their environment changed thru time. It concludes with a discussion of dinosaur extinction, presenting both gradualist and catastrophist arguments.

The final part is one chapter covering how dinosaurs are portrayed in the media and how they are perceived by society.

Although the book had many authors, the quality is uniformly excellent. I generally liked the selection of topics. I wouldn't consider this an entry level book, but it's definitely readable by non-experts, I enjoyed the level of detail.

This book is very dense and covers almost anything related to dinosaurs. It is clearly intended to non-pros but it does not lack scientifical value. However, because the book was written by many authors you'll find some chapters less well written than others and some information is duplicated. My advise is to not hesitate to buy this as your first dinosaur book.

Do you want to get "into" Dinosaurs? This is the place to start. The Complete Dinosaur is a comprehensive introduction to what is currently known about dinosaurs and how it is known. From the history of the earliest fossil hunters to dinosaur biology, paleogeography and even an overview of dinosaurs in the media throughout the years.
The book is organized into chapters, each of which contains a deep look at its subject and yet is perfectly readable by laymen (such as myself). Even though many contributors wrote for this book, there is a sense of cohesiveness through the entire book. At a massive 768 pages, it is a very long read but seldom does it get tedious except perhaps a few chapters on dinosaur biology that get a bit too technical.
The book contains abundant references at the end of each chapter and a huge index a the end so it serves as a very useful reference on your library.
Other books that compare to this one are "The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs" edited by Greg Paul and "Encylopedia of Dinosaurs" edited by Phil Currie, both renown paleontologists. "The Complete Dinosaur" is more comprehensive than the first one and is arranged in a more readable format than the second one which arranges its articles in alphabetic order.
The only weakness of the book is its age. Written in 1997 it is probably due to a revision given that the fiels of paleontology has been progressing by leaps and bounds in the last few decades.

Highly recommended.