Escape Books

Got it quickly, in time for class, and less than half what the Bookstore wanted.

The pedigrees of the blurbers of this book give some sense of its mission--economists with impressive positions for the most part in the 'BRIC' (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries. The book is basically an argument for a renewal of Keynesian developmentalism, which to some degree these countries are returning to. Amsden offers a history in three parts. First there was European colonization, which opposed any industrial growth in its realms. Then there was the post-World War II American Empire, which allowed countries to find their own path of growth. Then this system went into crisis and was replaced by the straitjacket of neoliberalism, which stifled growth. This isn't bad as far as it goes, although Amsden tends to gloss over some of the weaknesses of the developmental period. She goes on about the virtues of import substitution without really examining some of its limits, and why it turned into such a dead end in Latin America compared to South Korea. I particularly liked her description of the economics of colonialism. There is still considerable confusion and sentimentality about this period in the West. Her description of the way experience with industrialization provides cumulative knowledge is also valuable. But her perspective is too top down for my taste, a perspective where all that matters are some decisions made by government bureaucrats and economists. And her insights into the developmental process are so concise as to be practically aphoristic--the book could have been usefully expanded by a hundred pages so that she could clarify with more specific examples how these processes work.

I don't know why there's so little info for this book, but I liked the book, so here's what the back of the book says about it:

ONCE A PRINCE, ALWAYS A PRINCE

Once again, instead of writing music, working spells, or training his apprentice, Bard Alaire is asked to turn his hand to diplomacy. Because he's the only man the king, his brother, can trust to investigate the death of the previous Ambassador, Alaire has been made Ambassador to the troubled kingdom of Suinomen. Once before Alaire was in Suinomen--and barely made it out alive from its Prison of Souls. Now he will face high seas, low magic, and kidnapping by giant spiders--and that's before he even gets there....

EfR is pretty entertaining, and I guess fast-paced, but I think Alaire got away pretty easily in this story. And I'm disappointed that our one and only Dark Elf Bard wasn't in the story. But it's still great, and I recommend it for everyone.

I read this book in the 5th grade and fell in love with it. I still think of it often. It started me in the Sci-Fi genre that still endures today. Get it for yourself or your kid, or both!!!

This book ruled. This was the first science-fiction book I ever bought, and I'm sorry to see it's out of print. When I bought it the first time, it was already older than me.

Summary: Unwitingly abondoned by his parents, Mykl is stranded on a hostile planet, from which escape sems impossible.

More in depth summary: Well, he's on this planet, which is a planet that gets mined off of all the time. Y'see, his parents are space miners, and this planet's a gold mine, but the only problem is that there's these things that eat metal here and, you guessed it, they haven't invented plastic space ships yet. So in thier hurry to leave, they accidentally leave Mykl there. And this dwarf girl who was a hired hand. And there they hang out at this cool dome thing with a robot named Ego.

A badical book. Not much now for me, but I think it's badical because of sentimentality. Get it for the kid in your life. You'll be glad you did.

We are four girls in second grade who read this book. It is a really good book. It has excitement, and we learned a lot about Harriet Tubman. She was born in 1820 and died in 1913. She was 93 when she died. Here are some comments: "I liked the part when Harriet was going to escape and she followed Daddy Ben's instructions." "She was so happy when she saw Old Rit and Daddy Ben again."

We are four girls in second grade who read this book. It is a really good book. It has excitement, and we learned a lot about Harriet Tubman. She was born in 1820 and died in 1913. She was 93 when she died. Here are some comments: "I liked the part when Harriet was going to escape and she followed Daddy Ben's instructions." "She was so happy when she saw Old Rit and Daddy Ben again."

The good things:
The format is nice. It's a ring binder with a flap extension, which makes it easy to find the location you want.
It has a lot of hikes and suggestions for hikes.
The bad things:
The maps ar few and far between, and are useless for hiking. There are a few large scale overview maps, and very few maps of the hikes themselves. The hike maps are too large-scale to be of any use for individual hikes, and have no topographical information on them. You get an idea of where the hikes are in relation to each other, but as to using them for hiking, forget it. Buy a map before you set off.
Conclusion:
A great book to get ideas about where to hike, but do not use this as your only resource for hikes.

If you like hiking, then Quebec is a great destination. This book is very complete and the description and details almost perfect. I was impress by the quality of this book and more buy my trip there. By it and go there soon!! You'll have a great time.

MacArthur's Escape, by George W. Smith, is the story of General Douglas MacArthur's escape from Corregidor by PT boat. In my opinion the book does not break any new ground with respect to this episode. However, it still is exciting to read. The only shortcoming is the author's use of clichés throughout the book. Other than that, this book is a quick and interesting read and I recommend it to anyone interested in World War II.

I am pleased to say that I have now just finished the Book. I thought it was very good with wonderful sources of information. In reading the Book, I too went back to the Philippines at a time of desperation and the feeling of being deserted by my Country.

The feeling of hunger, the thirst for Torpedoes, Engines, Spare Parts, and Ammo stayed with me thru-out the Book. I tried to close my eyes and feel the horror of knowing that I was fighting a no win Battle. I came away feeling that MacArthur was a true Toot your own Horn type Commander, whose Ego was larger then the Japanese Troops surrounding the Island.

Some Higher Brass in the States were really angry that MacArthur was rescued and had hoped he might perish on the Rock. I felt a true sense of anger that MacArthur did not visit his troops more and that his every move was a type of Chess Move to Crown Himself King when all was said and done. The heroics of the PT Boat Boys should never be underestimated. They took the fight to the enemy with odds that no Bookmaker would dare take. Fighting with Tired Engines, Bad Gas, and Horrible World War One Vintage Torpedoes, they did our Navy Proud.

The book shows that PT not only stood for Patrol Torpedo Boat, but PLENTY TOUGH. It is true that Bulkeley loved to toot his own horn and was a master Talker and promoter of himself. But one thing is for sure, Bulkeley believed in the PT Boat as a fighting weapon, and believed in the men who stood on her decks. No one can ever take that away from the man. I would have to rate the Book on a scale of ten as an 11. It was informative and kept me wanting to go back and read more. Nice Job...........

Frank J. Andruss Sr.
The Mosquito Fleet Exhibit

Mr. Gordon concentrates on Mcluhan's intellectual development and shows McL.'s work as a single work in progress built on a unique foundation. It is not as merely gossipy as Marchand's biography, and not for the reader unfamiliar with the world of ideas McL. dealt with. There is nothing of the pop celebrity here, but a serious presentation of the intellectual ground under all of McLuhan's work.

I purchased this book because I was interested in learning as much as I could about the enigmatic Marshall McLuhan. Unfortunately, Mr. McLuhan has failed to find his ideal biographer in this work. Marshall McLuhan was the media intellectual from Canada who wrote, taught and spoke presciently of the effects of media on ourselves and our culture. Much of his work was rather heady stuff, and out of the reach of the dillettante. Even his most famous phrase, "the medium is the message" is poorly understood by many, including some who are thought to be blessed with large portions of gray matter. And the author of this biography W. Terrence Gordon can't seem to find the formula for delivering palatable explainations of McLuhan's catchphrases. The book unevenly shifts from the recounting of McLuhan's life, to the development of his groundbreaking research and novel ideas on everything from the ancient Trivium to electronic media, and he never settles into a comfortable pace. One can sense that McLuhan's life was unique, compelling and interesting, but it is rendered dry and antiseptic in this telling, and our author fares even more poorly in attempting to school us in the intellectual legacy of McLuhan, never properly defining terms in some instances, jumping way over our heads in others, and most maddening of all, sticking 80-some pages of notes at the end of the book which would have served us far better as foot-notes or inclusions in the main text. All this having been said, the subject was interesting enough and the materials included specific enough, where I was able to find many interesting paths for further exploration, which made slogging through this ponderous book, worth the effort at the end... But as I said, this fascinating man's life is deserving of a far more interesting and organized writer's efforts.

I checked this book out from my local library and it was an instant hit with my 6 year old son, and with me too. We've read it every night for a week at his request so we're buying our own copy. The title makes it clear that this is not a typical story that tells one tale from start to end, but it's a collection of tales: the narrow escapes of Davy Crockett. It even spells out the various animals and things that the tales are about. It may not have seamless transitions, but this, for us, in no way detracts from the enjoyment of the book. The back of the title page notes that "Most of the stories and some of the original language come from the Crockett Almanacs, published between 1835 and 1856." For me, the story should be judged not just on the flow between the tall tales, but on the fact that it captures the flavor of the time period it is based on, and that it captures the imagination of young readers. I also enjoy the illustrations and think that art is a matter of personal reaction, you either like it or you don't. I recommend this book for adventurous young kids who can relate to feeling like they are the biggest, strongest, fastest, everything-est there ever was. It's a fun book!

"There never was anyone like Davy
Crockett. By the time he was eight years
old he weighed two hundred pounds with
his shoes off, his feet clean, and his
stomach empty."

This books starts off very promising (see above) but then flounders. For one thing, the stories run together without titles or other demarcation. After reading it through once you figure that out, but it is still an awkward and annoying feature.

For example, in describing a scene in which Davy is being hauled out of a hollow tree by a bear, the last sentence is;

The bear was sore behind, and fled before
Davy could thank it for the ride!"

This is the last sentence on the page and it is not at clear that it is the last sentence of the story. The next sentence on the following page is; "Davy was exhausted, so he sat down, rested his head in the fork of a young tree...."

Sounds reasonable that ole Davy might be tired after wrestling with a bear BUT it is a different story. Arggh.

Three Stars. [C-] Artwork not so good. Stories run together and are not in the clearest prose. Three stars because I have not found another text that offers any of these tall Americana tales which I think are valuable for young children.

This is a beautiful pop-up book that looks nice but lacks a serious storyline. The story doesn't hold a candle to the magic of the Beatrix Potter books. My daughter was excited to sit down and open it up, but hasn't asked for it since. The story simply didn't hold her attention. I got it for $6.49 on amazon, so perhaps it was worth it, but not for much more.

Peter Rabbit A Lucky Escape is a delight for both young and older fans of Peter Rabbit. It is beautifully bound and tells the story of Peter Rabbit's 'excursion' to Farmer McGregor's cabbage patch and his narrow escape from being put into a pie by Mrs McGregor.

The book itself has many features that will delight readers - pop-ups including a full page pop-up of Farmer McGregor, lift-the-flaps that reveal characters from the Peter Rabbit stories such as Mr Tod the Fox, Samuel Whiskers etc, little envelopes that reveal correspondence between Peter Rabbit and Farmer McGregor, a 3-D cut-out of the Ginger and Pickles store and many more.

The text is simply written and in big lettering - perfect for younger readers. On the whole, I'd highly recommend this book to both young and older fans of Peter Rabbit. My 3 1/2 year old daughter asks for this book almost every week since my husband got it for her a couple of months ago, and on occassion, she peruses it by herself though I would caution parents to supervise whilst their children are reading for the book has some delicate feautures that may not hold up to indelicate handling. Final verdict - a fun and delightful read!

So far, my husband and I have been on three of the hikes. Of them, two were not as described -- I would have rated the Holyoke one as a Moderate-Difficult, given the steepness of the terrain, rather than Easy-Moderate. It also didn't talk about the alternate route to the top, which was much easier, and less stressful. However, I do like the history and the cultural background of the areas we're hiking through. Highly recommend the Mad River walk in the Waterville Valley -- but bring your bug spray!

It would have been very nice to have the book tell you when you had to pay for parking -- especially in the US Park Service territories. We will continue to use the book, but I'll take the descriptions with a large grain of salt, and bring cash, just in case.

This book not only gave great detailed information on the local hikes and outings, but also contained lots of helpful cultural and local interest details. Each destination was painstakingly researched and contains an extremely helpful and easy to decipher map of the area. For those planning longer trips, a helpful selection of local hotels and bed and breakfasts will be a welcome addition. I also appreciated the restaurant selections carefully sorted by price. The author writes with enthusiasm about each travel destination and is very convincing about the merits of each spot. I found the details for each country walk to be extremely helpful in increasing both my knowledge of the area and my overall enjoyment of the trips.