California Books

I knew very little about Civil war naval actions and even less about actions on the James River. This small book was able to instruct and entertain me at the same time. No small feat considering how much time was spent waiting and how little time fighting. Why Richmond, as short of resources as it was, spent so many resources on a navy escapes me.

They did and this book is the story of that effort. John Coski maintains the right level of technology, ship building, problem solving, research and tedium through out the book. This gives the reader both a real feel for and appreciation of what happened. Peopled with a large number of unfamiliar names, introductions were quick but I could recall them easily.

The Richmond Navy Yards are the heart of the story. Peopled with a large variety of workers, many Black, they struggle to construct the heart of the squadron. Shortages, problems and the draft are constant problems speeding and slowing construction.

For the men at Drewry's & Chaffin's Bluff, Richmond is luxury. Much of the time in tents sometimes with little food in bad weather, they wait for the Union Navy. The men on the ships consider the men at the batteries to be living in luxury. Trapped in ironclads that are ovens or iceboxes, secure behind a wall of torpedoes and sunken obstacles, they wear down the ships and themselves patrolling. At last, the James River Squadron came out to fight in January 1865. The operation is well-documented and great fun to read.

This is a Savas Beatie book and they continue to do an outstanding job. The book is full of period illustrations, pictures and the excellent maps we expect from this house. In addition to the naval maps, a general campaign map for 1862 & 1865 insure we understand the overall situation.

Author John M. Coski is certainly correct in mentioning the burgeoning number of Civil War navy related works (esp. Confederate) that have surfaced since Capital Navy was published in 1996 by Savas Woodbury Publishers. He is also right to assert that his earlier work still stands the test of time (by the way, the author includes a note stating that the new paperback edition is a straight reprint of the original hardback with no additions. I wish more publishers would include such declarations, as I am always interested if new material is included, but feel it is just as important to mention to prospective buyers that the new edition is the same as the old).

For the most part, readers expecting a book full of stirring naval battles will not find them here. Stalemate reigned throughout most of the war. The James River Squadron was really only involved in two significant or potentially significant engagements--an aborted Confederate naval attack in early 1865 (Trent's Reach) and a ship-vs-shore engagement in 1862 at Drewry's Bluff (even then the relative contributions of army and navy to Confederate victory were hotly disputed). Coski does not attempt a micro history of the squadron's fights, but he does provide well-written summaries backed up by several helpful visual aids (some more fine maps by Mark A. Moore). A suggested source for those seeking more detail dealing with Drewry's Bluff is Ed Bearss' River of Lost Opportunities.

The core of Capital Navy is a well-researched history of the Confederate military-industrial center on the James River, and the civilians, officers, and men who supported its operation of building and maintaining the CSA's naval presence in Virginia. The navy's torpedo program is also discussed in some detail. Combined with the heavy use of channel obstructions, torpedoes contributed greatly to the lack of decisive action on the upper James after the Union navy was turned back at Drewry's Bluff. Coski keenly analyzes the successes and failures of the Confederate naval programs, along with the political, economic, and military factors behind them.

Coski's paperback is beautifully presented by Savas-Beatie. Aside from the maps mentioned before, each chapter ends with a full-captioned photo gallery and many of the images cannot be found in any other publication. A nice bonus was the inclusion of detailed, multi-angle drawings of the squadron's ironclads (the details are speculative to some degree, however, as complete blueprints did not survive the war).

Although certain elements of the Richmond naval experience can likely be read about in more detail elsewhere (or will be written about in the future), Capital Navy is as broad a history of the James River Squadron as we are likely to get. His book may be modest in length but, backed by an impressive range of research, Coski has included just about every subject of conceivable relevance to his study of the Confederate capital's naval defenders at a level of detail that will likely satisfy any interested reader. Capital Navy is highly recommended reading for Civil War naval scholars and enthusiasts.

(from Civil War Books and Authors blog)

Dr. Coski covers a nearly forgotten aspect of the defense of Richmond in a most loving manner. Filled with facts and sources, it is a pleasure to read.

Ley Watson

Capital Navy: The Men, Ships and Operations of the James River Squadron is an in-depth scrutiny of the role that Confederate naval operations on the James River and their impact on the war in Virginia had in the American Civil War. Written by the Librarian of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Capital Navy discusses Richmond as a naval center, the makings of a navy capital, and events leading up to and during the Battle of Trent's Reach. Black-and-white photographs and diagrams enhance this well-researched and smoothly narrated history, especially recommended for Civil War scholars and library collections.

Just finished this book and it's NOT the kind of quick overview most CW books are. Coski goes as deep as I've ever seen in this outstanding work of creative nonfiction. I was fascinated by such characters as "Savez" Read, USNA Class of 1860, and the rumors (?) of a Confederate submarine built in Richmond in 1861. Plan for several riveting evenings with this one.

Several chapters along and I was immediately struck by the richness of Mr. McCarty's
words, the detail and description should capture many an imagination.
Young and older.

" I like it even more than Planet of the Dog's. The author has really done a great job in the follow up and continuation of the saga. Hard to believe it's not in every library and bookstore in the nation. Soon perhaps. Soon because it deserves increasingly wide recognition." Upon completion of the book I was left to wonder "When will this become a full length animated feature film"? Imagine that.

These are soft-cover chapter books meant for kids aged 8 and up. They are set in "olden times" of an undefined year. Folks ride horses, and they live in villages and there aren't roads, but paths. There are castles and warriors and no guns. There are peaceful, farmer villagers and "city" dwelling meaner people as well. In the first book, there's an impending war brewing.

The dogs on the Planet of the Dogs are aware of the no-good happenings on Earth and bring Daisy and Bean, siblings, through their dreams to their planet to introduce the children to dogs, of which they know nothing. They bring dogs back with them to help bring love, understanding, and peace to Earth.

The fantasy involved in the books is appealing. It involves dream sequences, travel through space and time between planets, dogs who can talk to children and healer-women through thoughts and barking, and seeing information through dreams. The reality involved is also appealing. It involves the universal love of dogs by humans and vice versa, human condition of fighting and war and capacity for love and peace.

The second book, Castle in the Mist, picks up where the second left off in regards to character development and introduces a whole new land and cast of characters (a la Harry Potter). In this one, the past-violent-cum-peaceful Bik of Stone City has his two young children kidnapped by a Prince who doesn't understand peace or dogs or anything really and the dogs, along with the humans, work out a plan to save the children.

While reading these, I kept wishing I was reading them out loud to a couple of kids instead. I could imagine each night reading another chapter and the kids waiting with bated breath for what would happen next. I could imagine the kids greeting their own dogs in the kitchen without talking, just squinting up their eyes real tight and sending "thought messages" to the dog much to the wonder of their parents.

The illustrations are lovely as well, done by Stella McCarty, Robert's wife. They are black and white and are done in pencil (I think) so they aren't super eye-catching the way we seem to think everything has to be these days for kids. But I think the softness and care in them will appeal to even the youngest children.

All in all, I would recommend these books, which are available on Amazon, B & N and at Barking Planet to any kid who loves to read and to any parent looking for a good book to read to younger kids.

Robert McCarty, who delighted his young readers and their parents and grandparents in Planet of the Dogs, and Stella McCarty, who delighted us all as well with her finely drawn, captivating illustrations, have done it again. Castle in the Mist returns us to a world blessed by a team of canine saviors. I can't wait for Volume 3.

A review from the author of Born Without a Tail:

Castle in the Mist is one of those unique sequels that is even better than the first book in the series. I hope the McCartys continue these unusual books for years to come.

Castle in the Mist is full of danger and adventure, as Miss Merrie, pack leader on the Planet of the Dogs dispatches a host of mighty and loving canines to help rescue two kidnapped children on Earth. It's an exciting and compelling story that will keep young readers rapt.

Stella Mustanoja McCarty's elegant full page illustrations are again the perfect complement to Robert McCarty's story.

author of EVERY RESCUED DOG HAS A TALE: Stories from the Dog Rescue Railroad
This is a great children's book but also a wonderful story for anyone, young and old, who loves dogs. I bought Mr. McCarty's first book in this series, "Planet of the Dogs" last year to give to a friend's 8 year old daughter at Christmas. Before I wrapped it, I read it and got completely involved in the fantasy story of how dogs came to earth to teach people how to love and stop them from fighting. It is a powerful lesson, especially in these times, for children to learn how kindness matters most. And "dogs are all about love. They do this better than any other creature". Even if you did not read the first book, "Castle in the Mist" is a great story and the author fills you in on the background of how everything started in Green Valley and Stone City and the other settings on the Planet of the People. This is a great series and I can't wait for the next installment. I need some grandchildren to pass these on to when I finish them. The illustrations are also remarkably beautiful.

A great book on the technical aspects of extruding. Lots of good photos for ideas and explanations. A good start for anyone into handbuilding or adding flair to their thrown work.

The book has an international cast of artists, photos of ceramics
spanning from Australia to Inge Pedersen in Norway. I became aware of
several renowned European ceramicists. Antonio Cumella, Alessio Tasca, Elina
Brandt-Hanson, Jim Robison. Other artist's work that impressed me was Ken Williams, Jutta Golas, and Jack Sures. Jean and Tom Latka have an excellent body of work apart from each other, but their collaborative work shines superior.
Peter Helm

If you have been waiting for the best book on ceramic extrusion, it is
available now Ceramic Extruding by Jean and Tom Latka successfully answers the question of, "Why are all of those clay extruders rusting on potter's walls?" Their answer is thus: Ceramists, like everyone else, have to be inspired to create beautiful work. This book acts as a magical muse for artists by showing over 300 quality photos of beautiful work by some of the finest international contemporary artists working in the medium today. This book's focus is on the recent emergence of extruded ceramic art as dynamic and surprisingly varied form of creative expression.

"Though the words extrude and extrusion are not ones most people encounter in everyday conversation, we live in a world where we are surrounded by extruded objects. Our brick houses and their tile roofs are made from extruded clay. We shower on extruded tiles, send our smoke and fumes up extruded chimneys and our waste down extruded sewers. From the round O's in your breakfast cereal to the pasta on your dinner plate, extruded objects occupy every conceivable nook and cranny of our lives". Beginning with bricks, Ceramic Extruding details the history of the extruder then demonstrates the ease, as well as the necessity, of using an extruder in one's pottery. The book is organized in a logical manner in order to guide the reader by employing numerous step-by-step instructional methods.
Essentially, Ceramic Extruding is a how-to book and the projects gradually become more advanced. Apart from the photos, another subject that distinguishes this book from other books on the market is its comprehensive theory of extrusion and was the only chapter I had to read twice. It is a difficult subject. The authors give detailed information on why extruders act in the manner in which they do. For instance, I didn't know that clay moves faster down the center of the barrel than clay closer to the walls. This information is useful for artists who want to design their own dies.

Educators take note: As a teacher, I know how it feels to give students a
blank canvas and ask them to be creative. In contrast Ceramic Extruding
shows how to create a limitless supply of foundation material from the
extruder for the student.

The book truly has an international cast of artists, photos of ceramics
spanning from Australia to Inge Pedersen in Norway. I became aware of
several renowned European ceramicists. Antonio Cumella, Alessio Tasca, Elina
Brandt-Hanson, Jim Robison. Other artist's work that impressed me was Ken Williams, Jutta Golas, and Jack Sures. Jean and Tom Latka have an excellent body of work apart from each other, but their collaborative work shines superior.

Everyone has been waiting for the next thing in clay. Well Latka's Flying
Hybrid Extruder and Michael Sherrill's novel extruder/wheel could lead to
the new revolution in clay. The quick release system makes these extruders user friendly. The expansion box is larger than most other machines, and in the case of Flying Hybrid, it out performs slab machines by making slabs faster and more superior. Oddly enough, slab machines compress the clay from the center of the roller to the edges. This creates an unstable molecular structure and cracks result. The clay is evenly compressed in the Vertical Flying Hybrid. An 18"x24" slab is the result when an 8" cylindrical shape 18" long is extruded and sliced lengthwise.

I would like to sum up with a quote from Michael Cohen. "It is important to find a well-made extruder that is adaptable to your needs. As for the
wheel, once you learn how to use it, one question ultimately remains: What are you going to make? After mastering centrifugal force and friction, perhaps it's now time to use gravity and inertia to make a personal statement. Like throwing, it only looks easy."

"Extruding clay takes on a wonderful new meaning when you use the extruder as you would any tool---as one step in the making process, not as an end in itself. The extruder's contribution to the studio can be as profound and influential as the potters wheel --- a slab for the imagination to leap off from". Jean Latka

Two thumbs up! Burn the other extruder books; this is the only one you will ever need.
I am an college art teacher at U.S.C. and find it the best book for my introduction course on the Extruder.
...

Ceramic Extruding: Inspiration & Technique by professional studio artists Tom and Jean Latka, is a thoroughly "user friendly" guide ideal for both aspiring ceramics workers and dedicated hobbyists to the use of a ceramic extruder or pugmill in new and wondrous ways to craft memorable and adventurous artworks in this challenging medium. More than 200 color photographs illustrate the easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions, as well as display possibilities for the finished product. Ceramic Extruding is a highly enjoyable how-to artbook and a strongly recommended addition to any personal, professional, or art school reference collection.

This Krause Publication book, which means it is great, it is about the creative use of the extruder: its history, manufacture and
production contributions and the creative uses being employed by studio clay artists.
Over 300 color photos of creative work by a cast of international artists showing innovative uses for the extruder.
The best book on extrusion.
Andy Ganhal

This is an excellent book covering almost every aspect of not just chanting but understanding what all those lines, dots and wiggles surrounding the text in the chumash mean. There is a complete rundown of every te'am and how it fits into the context of the verses, and there is an example in a later section on how each te'am is chanted, basically in the Ashkenazi tradition. There is also a lot of interesting history of the development of the Torah scrolls and history on Torah and Tanakh traditions and also a section on pronunciation.

One word of warning. In order to understand the significance of the te'amim in the context of the verses, you need to have a fairly good knowledge of biblical Hebrew, both vocabulary and grammar. The context of the words in a verse determines which te'amim is assigned to their accents. This is, of course, separate from the te'amim that are assigned to indicate the vowels and pronunciation.

If you want to know absolutely everything about chanting Torah, Haftarah, or one of the Megillot, this book is for you. Every special circumstance is discussed, every rule of reading is discussed and the history and evolution of how and why we chant the way we do today is discussed. It is a wonderful resource for those who teach trope.

This book is a must for anyone seriously studying the nuances of cantillation. This large tome includes chapters on grammar, punctuation, and epistemology. I recently heard a lecture on the meaning of the trope (musical notation)in relation to the meaning of the Hebrew words; amazingly, they informed each other. Such information fills these pages. My son, who studies old manuscripts elaborating some of these topics, was thrilled to receive this book as a birthday gift. The author, Joshua Jacobson, is also the director of a chorale, specializing in Jewish music and his CDs are well worth the price. He's a master in many areas of music and I was fortunate to attend a conference recently where he was the keynote speaker. He's an outstanding scholar and a mensch.

I know of no book that can even compare to the scope and depth of this one, therefore I cannot give it anything but 5 stars. It is a thorough reference of the history and melodies of the cantillation, including a CD and musical notation of all cantillations used for public reading. It is appropriate for all levels of knowledge--from a beginner to an experienced reader.
The grammar he presents is not quite up-to-date and there are minor problems with the phonetic notation he gives certain letters and vowels. However, all in all it is quite excellent.

It is a great book that finally shows that the cantilation is not arbitrary, how it contributes to the sense of the text, how
it works with grammar. Instead of teaching the Taamim as
a dogma, it actually shows how one can understand a text and
put the Taamim himself. It also reveals the grammar of the texts.
I bought four more for my friends.

Kees is a brilliant modernist poet, who describes the world he sees in dark and apocalyptic tones, filled with biting satirical wit. He poems read like photographic images of the dark reality in which he lives. His style is inventive and original. The world around him is hollow and meaningless, as seen through the eyes of bathers, lovers, scholars, soldiers, politicians, businessmen, actors, and Robinson -- the caricature of the average man of the cold-war era. His vision is the opposite Whitman with a vision that's closer to Kafka and Samuel Beckett, expressing the pointlessness of war and mechanistic civilization. As he writes: "If this room is our world, then let / This world be damned. Open this roof / For one last monstrous flood / To sweep away this floor, these chairs, / This bed that takes me to no sleep. / Under the black sky of our circumstance, / Mumbling of wet barometers, I stare / At citied dust that soils the glass / While thunder perishes. The heroes perish / Miles from here. Their blood runs heavy in the grass, / Sweet, restless, clotted, sickening, / Runs to the rivers and the seas, the seas / That are the source of that devouring flood / That I await, that I must perish by." Kees is one of the best American poets and deserves a wider audience.

--Alexander Shaumyan, poet, author of "Spirit of Rebellion"

If the passive despair of Prufrock (or should we say Eliot in a Prufrock mood) could be entwined with the searing wit and rage of S. Plath, the result might resemble Weldon Kees' unforgettable best poems -- twenty of them perhaps, all included in this book. And the comparison with Plath is fair I think, not because both lives ended in suicide but because both were spectacularly inventive imagists and masters of the craft whose poems peer into the abyss. Although this collection contains some of the most harrowing English language poems of our times -- the final poem in the "Robinson" series, certainly -- flashes of black comedy ensure that this book is as pleasing as it is troubling. I for one, find the following lines from "The Crime Club" devilishly pleasing: "Consider the clues: the potato masher in a vase,/The torn photograph of a Wesleyan basketball team,/...The unsent fan letter to Shirley Temple,/The Hoover button on the lapel of the deceased,/The note, 'To be killed this way is quite all right with me.'"

Kees is a master of image, and has a profound sense of time and place--his language has the direct and unselfconscious quality of a newspaper headline, and his meters are natural and terse. There is a lumious, jarring quality to his work that makes you feel like you'd found something important that's been lost for a long time. You have. This is the first collection of his work that has ever been generally available.

It would have been sad indeed if the work of Weldon Kees had disappeared into obscurity, as it was dangerously close to doing. Nothing escapes this poets' dark, razor edge sensibility;
the whole thing reads as a kind of pessimistic culture shock. Taking his cues from Joyce and Eliot's "Waste Land", he is pitiless in his assessment of the human condition and civilization.

He is not, however, tiringly depressing like Philip Larkin. He has a voice all his own and it is compelling and vivid. It is pretty obvious that his "Robinson" poems are autobiographical, at least in terms of Robinson's perceptions of the world around him. "For My Daughter" is a poem you will not soon forget.

For my part, I do not believe Weldon Kees is still alive. After reading and re-reading this collection I can't help but see that as wishful thinking. You can't fake this kind of sincerity. I would liken him to Leopardi, Beckett, and other masters of poetic darkness, but he has a voice so individual that he needs no predecessors. An absolute must read.

Weldon Kees has been recommended to me by more than one person. And the reason is that he is a very dark poet, and a very interesting one at that. Kees is slightly outside of academia, though his reputation is getting bigger. I found his earlier work to be better than his later work, that's not to say that there isn't good stuff in his later work, just that I preferred his early work. I'd also recommend you did up a good biography of Kees, since he also has an interesting life.

I am starting my second year of formal Latin study this fall, and with the Latin textbooks I use, the vocabulary words basically make up the dictionary section in the back of the books. I came across this "dictionary" in a Barnes and Noble, a knew from skimming through this among many others that this is the ONE! As I review my notes from my first year's study over the summer, this book also has grammar references, such as verb tenses and moods, dipthongs and pronuncition of vowels and consonants, popular and lesser known Latin sayings. The book also covers woer order, adjectives, and adverbs. Oh my, the dictionary even has a Roman history timeline, a perfect refernce as a Latin major to reference and review what I learned in Roman Civilization last spring. It has a great, broad selection of words from Latin to English and then a section translating from English to Latin. This book is livin' proof that Latin is not a dead language; to me it is alive and one hella beautiful language and helps me understand my native English, and helps me with Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, languages I have some knowledge in. This dictionary also has Latin names for places formerly part of the Roman Empire, a reference for Latin Writers, and a family tree covering from trivatus, trivatia (great great great great grandfather and mother respectively); all the way to pronepos, preoneptis (great grandson, great granddaughter). Not only can you look up words you don't know, you can review grammar, history and much, much more!!! This one is a certified keeper. Librem carpe statim antequam deficiat! Get this book immediately before it runs out! Gosh, I love this language, and this reference guide.

I found the Collins Latin Dictionary in my local bookstore featuring both Latin to English and English to Latin. The dictionary is a medium sized book that is easy to handle--which is to say, for a dictionary, it is relatively small. The dictionary is a good value for the price. Given its scope and relatively small size, the only caveat is that it lacks references to some specialized theological terms. Overall I'd buy this dictionary again.

Great book if you want to impress people with one liners that can be thrown in here and there.
Great for notice board grafitti on an intellectual level .
They say "chicks dig the car" well they also dig the langauage.

The book is well set out and examples and explanations clear and plentiful. A useful reference for any library.

This is a very good product for Latin Class at school. It helps to translate words. It is very useful when having to write a story totally in Latin for the words not used very often. Very worthwhile purchase.

is in the eating; that of a dictionary in its use. Since my copy of this one arrived only about a week ago, I haven't yet had time to put it fully to the test, but so far...very good. The full declension and conjugation tables and explanations at the end (not to mention the "Quick Reference Grammar" at the beginning) are precisely why I chose this dictionary over the alternatives.

My only complaints, and minor ones at that, are the cover color (what were they thinking?) and the print direction of the grammar section at the end (across the page lengthwise, making it a little difficult to use).


January 20, 2008 addendum:

Nearly a month of usage has only confirmed the rightness of my choice. If you're looking for a good, compact Latin-English/English-Latin dictionary with full grammar tables and other supplementary sections, LOOK NO FURTHER!

Based on official guidelines from the Surgeon General and CDC, Combat Fat! by fitness, diet, and exercise authority Andrew Flach is a solidly written, "user friendly" guide to healthy eating, proper exercise, and a medically sound weight loss plan to improve personal overall fitness and health. Body-mindful recipes, stretches, workouts, and more fill the pages of this handy and very highly recommended informational resource.

This is an awesome program. I have been confused by the complexity of other programs. I read the entire book in one day and found the advice straightforward and easy to implement in my everyday life. I am losing weight and getting fitter than I have been in years.

For the most part, I am enjoying this book. The diet is based on the food pyramid, and the exercise program has do-able daily choices. My only complaints are the following: First, the page quality is very poor. I felt like I had to be really careful turning the pages or they would tear. Second, some of the exercise photos show very poor form, like knees extending past ankles is lunges. All in all, it's a good book.

If you want a no nonsense fitness plan to follow then this book is for you! This book contains a large menu section that covers breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. I really liked the fact that it listed the recipes for many of the meals. There are three levels of exercise plans including stretches. Absolutely everything is spelled out for you, there is no guesswork. You can say goodbye to calorie counting, pre-packaged meals and supplements. The bottom line is: This book works.

An excellent book! I found this to be the most comprehensive, informative and easy to understand health-related book I've ever read. It refocuses the long-time emphasis away from weight control and calorie counting to the real health problem facing millions of Americans: Fat. It clearly defines the problem and the best way to tackle it. Not only does it include lots of exercises designed to fight fat, it also devotes many pages to nutrition, diet, menus and the psychology of improving over-all health by reducing the percentage of fat in ones body. It's the kind of book you can continually refer to. It's already helped me look and feel better. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to avoid fad diets and deceptive weight-loss schemes.

I work in the media and one of my associates delivered this title on my desk. I ended up reading the entire book when I took lunch. The grammatical errors blend well with the overall emotions within. It brought many great memories of days gone by for me. For anyone who is a fan of the National Lampoon movies or the tv show Jackass will find the pranks done on the teachers and general public to be in line with major shows. Even the turmoils of growing up is very well written from a different approach mind you however that is what makes this author new and fresh.

The Grammatical Errors intentionally left in place to contradict the basis of the book is amazing and fits quite well! All of us at one point or another have garnered support from friends for various reasons. Another great factor is that it is all South Florida locations! Through the harshly honest Aradox, we as a reader are given the choice to continue judging things from only a single perspective. The pranks and stories of brotherhood featured are enough to make someone laugh till the tears shed and then grab your phone and call all of your old friends. I suggest ANYONE in the Education Profession to buy this and read it through, you're never too old to learn new things!

A charming collection of jokes, gags, and personal reflection, P. Aradox's story strikes a place in everyone's heart. We all know that growing up can be tough, but the young group of friends in this book show us that we can find humor in almost any situation. The adventures of the Crazy Clan members keeps the laughs coming, but is well balanced by the trials of growing up.
Pick up the book and spend some time with some exciting and interesting firends.

The story of young friends that grow up and face the fact of adulthood is great. Action packed with satire and wit, this tale will leave you laughing in your seat. It's about time that a sincere voice has come to address the trials of teen angst.

The image on the cover sums the attitude of the book in whole. Perhaps the one thing I found interesting was that all of the material was left unedited! I notifed the publisher simply due to the roughness of the grammar and typographical errors. They explained that the author requested the book to remain as is. It wasn't until I read the last page and realized what the intent was and by gosh Aradox is a genius! The subtle contradiction he displayed with the writing says it all! The pranks and stories of friendship can be reviewed upon various levels and if you enjoy comedy, this has an ample amount of laughs. As a whole this book is bound be a sleeper hit of this year.

I was privileged to serve with Bill Meara in Special Forces in Central America. His book is dead on it's mark. Bill's frustrations with the military are shared by many. It seems that our government doesn't learn from history. Conventional commanders continue to lead unconventional wars with no comprehension of the difference between the two. Language capability continues to be a key factor in the success. The book is short and well written. A book for all to enjoy and learn.

"In 1949, Alexander Foote wrote a small book, "A Handbook for Spies" which contains all one needs to know to conduct espionage. Now comes another small volume, "Contra Cross", by William Meara which contains much of what one needs to understand to counter or for that matter support an insurgency. Based on his experience in El Salvador and with the Contras in Honduras/Nicaragua during the 1980's, Meara provides a crisp, thoughtful exposition of the problems and requirements for the winning of such conflicts. Meara's thoughts and experiences are well worth pondering as our nation takes on its current adversaries."

Duane Clarridge - Thirty-three year veteran of the CIA's clandestine service, Chief of CIA Latin American Division 1981-84, conceiver and chief of CIA Counterterrorism Center 1986-88, author of " The Spy for All Seasons."

The ongoing Coalition conflicts against insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated just how difficult a challenge conventional expeditionary forces face in adapting to asymmetric threats. Nowhere is this difficulty of adaptation greater than within the US Armed Forces, currently the most powerful and technologically-advanced military in the world.

What is significant is that failure to adapt at a theater, or even tactical, level engenders dysfunction at a strategic level, and creates deeply-paralyzing or divisive morale problems which eventually pervade the political structures of democratic societies. Indeed, the damage to (or impact on) the society is often evident even before the damage caused by the failure to adapt to asymmetric warfare shows up in the overall capabilities of the military forces itself. The result can often be a "hollow force": a monolithic defense structure, incapable of acting against the adversaries who besiege it daily, and yet waiting, becoming more bureaucratic by the day, for a "worthy [symmetric] adversary" who may come but once in a lifetime, if at all.

It is the persistent failure of much of the US conventional military leadership as well as the US political leadership to understand how to successfully prosecute warfare against a fluid, informal adversarial structure, operating within a broader psychopolitical environment, in Iraq (and Afghanistan) which is the Achilles Heel of the US as a strategic power into the 21st Century.

These are lessons which should have been learned after the Vietnam War ended in the 1970s. After all, the Vietnamese, the Soviets, and the leadership of the People's Republic of China (PRC) all emphasized that they had defeated the US in the media, and by sowing disenchantment (and narcotics) within US and Western society; in other words, by irregular, contextual, and psychopolitical stratagems. But peace after the Vietnam War -- as with the peace which followed World War I and World War II -- merely allowed the rump of the conventional US forces to re-assert the formal, highly-bureaucratized doctrine and methodologies which suit a rigidly hierarchical command and control system. Today's "Net-Centric Warfare", for example, is designed to use modern technologies, such as computerization and communications, imagery, and the like, to give true battlefield advantage to the field commanders, down to platoon level. Instead, it has been used repeatedly to afford centralized, remote micro-management of conflict, denying fluidity and cultural insinuation in the conflict zone by the forces there, where field officers should be able to exercise the command mandates of their commissions.

Significantly, many of the failures attributed to outgoing US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were caused by his determination to bring change and greater flexibility to the US defense structures. He may have had other failings, but his attempt to force change on the services is what created many of his enemies within the uniformed leadership, those who are reluctant to change, and to learn the lessons of history.

What better time, then, for a book about an aspect of the "lost history" of the Cold War to emerge, giving profound lessons from the battle front on the business of asymmetric warfare.

William R. Meara's new book, Contra Cross: Insurgency and Tyranny in Central America, 1979-1989, is a profound contribution to thinking about strategic doctrine, as the US -- and all major industrial powers -- face a watershed of introspection following the US electorate's decision to essentially retire from the global battlefield. Meara's great contribution is the fact that his book recounts the impact of doctrine and the strategic environment on the battlefield of that "small" war against the Nicaraguan Sandinista leadership which projected one of the last aspects of the Soviet grand strategy against the West before the end of the Cold War.

The book is also timely in that it reminds a new generation of strategic thinkers of the real origins of the Sandinista Government which has now returned to Nicaragua, following the re- election of former Sandinista Pres. Daniel Ortega -- now 60 years old -- with the November 5, 2006, Nicaraguan Presidential election. But more than that, Meara's book, told from the perspective of a "boots on the ground" true Cold Warrior, has the true grit of realism. It is not a book of theory, but a book which shows how theory translates on the ground in an asymmetric conflict.

William Meara was a US Army Special Forces officer who trained as a Foreign Area Officer (FAO), and then specialized in, and relished, psychological operations. His field of expertise was Central America. His book cover, and the name of his book, reflect the "Contra Cross", the Contra crucifix memento made from a neutralized M-16 5.56mm ammunition by wounded Contra veterans in the hospitals which housed them after their personal war was over. Meara carried with him the memento, and the draft of his book, for a couple of decades before deciding to finally publish his writings.

The US Armed Forces and Government -- operating mostly from Honduras, supporting the Nicaraguan Contras against the Sandinistas -- were at this time still nursing their wounds after Vietnam. Many of the US military policies being pursued in Central America were based on either lessons learned from Vietnam and other Cold War theaters, or on a stubborn persistence in the view that a monolithic military machine -- the Green Machine of the Army, as Meara reminds us -- could roll over any adversary with "superior firepower" and technology. Clearly, the mainstream US Army had little time for psychological warriors or for grubby little wars. But there were those who understood this kind of warfare, such as the "crusty old SF (Special Forces) team sergeant" who embraced what he called "Low Intensity, High Per Diem War".

Meara, who left the US Army for the US Foreign Service (he remains a US diplomat) where he essentially continued his liaison and support work with the Contras of the ERN (Army of the Nicaraguan Resistance) until the end, highlights the profound importance of understanding the language and culture of the environment in which any war is being conducted. He knew that he had made the breakthrough when, as he put it, he was able to "swear like a Contra", and be able to converse at a truly meaningful level with the forces and cultures in which he had to operate. His time in Nicaragua, before he became part of the US-supported war supporting the Contras, gave him a good understanding of the Sandinistas, who took their name from the 1920s nationalist Nicaraguan fighter, Augusto César Sandino.

But before he was engaged in supporting the Contras, Meara was also engaged in US Army support operations in El Salvador where he also learned not only how Latin American armed forces shaped their priorities and doctrine, but also how guerilla forces, such as the Faribundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), functioned. He also faced the more enduring adversary: US Army "milicrats".

Apart from the profound timeliness of the book, as Sandinista Daniel Ortega returns to power in Nicaragua -- this time ostensibly within the framework of an ongoing process of democratic elections (we have yet to see whether he abides by the process, or whether he continues to think of "one-man, one-vote, once" as the process of re-entrenching pseudo-marxist-leninist governance) -- Contra Cross has real lessons for war- fighters and planners considering Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, or Sudan.

William Meara also highlights the distinctions which often exist between the actual combatants in the guerilla wars and their political leaders, citing the case of the Contras, whose political leadership was based in Miami, Florida, where sophistry and political expediency prevailed to the detriment of the forces in the field. Meara highlights the disservice done to the Nicaraguan rebellion by the Contra political leadership in Miami, which was the principal interface with the US political system.

Meara's final chapter, Contrarian Conclusions, outlines some of his maxims for conducting irregular or asymmetric warfare, and particularly the aspect of this which is conducted by great powers at arm's length: surrogate warfare. But before that, Meara had to defend, even resurrect, the image of the Contras, noting: "My positive sentiments about the Nicaraguan resistance put me clearly in contrarian territory. It would be hard to exaggerate the extent to which the contras were vilified in the United States."

He added: "But I think the world should be proud of the contras. The young peasants of Nicaragua refused to be enslaved by communism. They waged a courageous struggle against great odds. They persevered when the situation looked very bleak. They sacrificed for the good of their people and the future of their country. They were noble and honorable freedom fighters. The mucos refused to be like Longfellow's `dumb, driven cattle'. They were heroes in the strife. ... I give the contras most of the credit for the elections held in Nicaragua in February 1990."

Equally, in saying that he felt that "Americans should be proud of what the Reagan Administration did and tried to do in Central America", he added: "But I don't think that everyone has the right to feel good about their actions during the Central American conflict. I think those Americans who gave aid and comfort to the Sandinistas and the Salvadoran communists should feel guilty. They were on the wrong side in the Cold War." These were, he said, what Lenin called "useful idiots".

In his "lessons learned" in that concluding chapter, Meara notes: "Cultural factors really are the equivalent of a terrain feature that cannot be ignored [in surrogate wars]."

And: "Fluency in foreign languages is the indispensable key to understanding." "Regional expertise and experience are crucial. People working on insurgencies shouldn't be doing so on their first trip to the region."

He went on: "Americans need to be aware of the institutional biases and shortcomings which make it difficult for us to deal with foreign insurgencies. We need to realize that our big, high-tech military machine -- our big catapult -- might not be much use against an insurgency built around people like Miguel Castellanos [real name Napoleón Romero García, an El Salvadoran FMLN guerilla who later defected to the Government]. I saw many signs of our weakness in this area: the tank traps we were building in the `Choluteca gap' [in Honduras, to face literally a non-existent cross-border threat from Sandinista tanks]; our big bucks, high-tech approach to support for the Salvadoran armed forces; our army's conviction that `any good officer' can work on insurgency. I came to the conclusion that our powerful military is a blunt instrument. It is very capable of performing its primary mission (destroying enemy military forces), but is poorly-suited for cross-cultural battles for foreign hearts and minds."

"Finally, when we get involved in foreign insurgencies," Meara says, "we should always strive to conduct ourselves in a manner consistent with our national values ... we should remember our history. We should remember that we were helped by foreigners when we were fighting for our independence. We should remember that we too were once embattled farmers. ... we should not think of these people [the surrogate fighters] as dis- posable pawns."

Contra Cross is full of personal insights and anecdotes "from the field", and is an inspiring and timely read. It is, in fact, essential reading, not just for those psyops and special forces practitioners who already embrace asymmetric warfare, but for the policymakers and those who have found their careers in the bureaucracy of military leadership. That is where the lessons need to be learned.

We all should thank William Meara for carrying this document with him over the decades, and giving it to us at this particular time.

[Reviewed by Gregory R. Copley, Editor, Defense & Foreign Affairs Publications, at the International Strategic Studies Association, Washington, DC area.]

Contra Cross is unique among personal memoirs of former soldiers, government officials, diplomats, and intelligence officers. The author is humble. He had a front row seat at the numerous Central American proxy wars the United States engaged in during the 1980s. Despite this experience, the author never believed he was as important as the events around him, a trait that so many memoirs lack. He was a Cold War grunt and he knew it.

The numerous insurgencies and counter-insurgencies fought in Central America are slowly being forgotten. Located between the large and divisive Vietnam War and the even larger Global War on Terror, the proxy wars in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador are now seen as the last gaps of the Cold War. Despite this hindsight, during the 1980s it was where the action was.

Since the author was involved at the ground level, he is able to give the people of the area a real human feel, which is lost in the Cold War rhetoric of policy makers from Washington.

The author makes several outstanding points about the need for cultural and language skills when dealing with local conflicts. While our current conflict is called the Global War on Terror it is the really combination of thousands of local conflicts tied together. Having the deep local cultural knowledge is the real key to winning our current war. While the book is far from being the seminal book on U.S. involvement in Central America, it never tries or claims to be. Its true strength is how it depicts dedicated Americans, whether military or Department of State, attempt to implement strategic policy made thousands of miles away in Washington into actual action on the ground amongst real people.

It is often quipped that the mark of a brilliant man is that he agrees with what you believe; I read Bill Meara's book Contra Cross yesterday and I would use the words brilliant and brilliantly delivered to describe it.

Let me back up in time a bit. In 1988 just back from UN duty in Lebanon and Egypt I sat down in my 15-man section at CGSC and we did the "where I have been and what I have been doing" confessional. My section leader looked at me and quipped, "you have not been in the Army." I simply asked him and the larger group, "Have any of you been shot at lately?" No one answered. Later the same guy in discussing low intensity conflict remarked, "I cannot see anyway the US Army will ever get involved in a counter-insurgency again after what happend in Vietnam." I asked him what exactly he thought was going on in Central America at the very moment. He suggested that what was happening was not really the US Army. Six years later I greeted that same individual as he arrived in Goma with a water truck task force. He had a stunned look on his face. I said, "Welcome to my world."

Contra Cross is about Bill Meara's world, one like and at once unlike my own. The book is from the foot soldier's perspective and it offers unique insights on the wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Bill was a Special Forces officer trained in psychological operations and as a regional specialist. He served in uniform with the Military Advisory Group in El Salvador and later as a Foreign Service Officer as liaison to the Contras from Honduras. Like any good read, Bill's book offers key themes and messages, weaving them through the pages, repeatedly exposing the reader to them in the hopes they will imprint. I will list some here:

Culture and Cultural Understanding is Critical

Language is Fundamental

COIN and Guerrilla Warfare Target the Minds of the Population, Not the Enemy

The Greatest Cultural Gap is Between DC and the Field

The Unconventional Warrior is Indeed From Venus and the Conventional Warrior Refuses to Visit From Mars


I tell every Soldier that I coach, teach, and mentor that I have two fundamental rules for cross cultural understanding:

They do not think like you do

They have an agenda in every interaction with you

Bill's narrative hammers home the first point and his story reinforces the second. His self-reflection on his role as an US government representative while serving as liaison to the Contras is one of the book's greatest strengths.

I would recommend this book to all from Strategic Corporal to the White House. I only wish that it had come out earlier.

Great job, Bill!

Sincerely,

Tom Odom
Author Journey Into Darkeness: Genocide in Rwanda

Any book on any subject is necessarily a finite work; you can only cover so much in a given volume, and you've got typically between 150 and 300 pages to make your point and to cover the material you promised in your outline (whether that outline appears in the book as the foreword, introduction, entire first chapter or merely the table of contents). That said, when a book actually DOES this...adequately covers its stated objective without wandering off topic too much...it is a great book, and probably more rare than it should be. This is one such great rare book.

Barry Cleveland gives us an overview that is as comprehensive as possible of exactly what the subtitle of the book states: Joe Meek's Bold Techniques. As a recording engineer, I'm primarily interested in knowing how he ran a session in the studio, how he handled (mishandled, in some cases?) equipment for a desired result, what equipment he chose, how he might have achieved a certain sound, and such related questions. It is widely written that Joe Meek was eccentric, opinionated and stubborn, parts of his personality that probably would have been present even had he not been mentally ill. He was homosexual in London in an era where this could get you not only persecuted, but prosecuted in the legal sense, and this gave him another strata of anxiety on top of his depression and schizophrenic paranoia. Some of these problems led to financial difficulties, which in turn brought yet another layer of stress. All these things are known and well documented in other places, and Cleveland mercifully spares us most of those details in his book, leaving the bulk of his space for actual recording tools and procedures, just as he promises.

Obviously, who Meek was in toto as a person did have an effect on how he approached his work (this is true of all of us), but the temptation could have been to bog down in those aspects because of their tabloid nature...Joe Meek didn't live a quiet, boring, peaceable life like some of us. But this is a biography of Joe Meek's work, and Cleveland strikes the right balance, talking about Meek's more outrageous personal nuances enough that we get a sense of the man so we can understand where he was coming from as he did his work, then talking about the work itself, which is why we chose this volume and not a biography on Joe Meek's life.

Were Meek's production techniques bold? For their time, certainly. I believe that some ideas are just a product of their time--for example, others were working on the telephone at the same time as Bell; on the phonograph at the same time as Edison. Those men got the credit because they got to the patent office first, perhaps, but it was just the right time in history for those inventions to be realized. Joe Meek's techniques are not unheard of today, but they were bold for their time because he came upon the ideas early...in the decade before the rest of the recording community caught up. In my early career (mid-1980's) I used some of the exact same equipment Meek did, according to the descriptions in this book, and I have to say it is somewhat astonishing he got the results he did with the technology of 50 years ago--so primitive by today's standards. It makes me wonder what he'd be doing now with our computer-based digital editing tools had he lived to see them.

I knew very little about Joe Meek in any sense before picking up this book; mainly I wanted to know who was behind his namesake line of Joemeek processing equipment that is so widely available today. This was exactly the book I needed, it told me exactly what I wanted to know, and was a very satisfying read. I finished it with all my questions answered (all my reasonable questions; there were some things no author could answer, there isn't the raw data, but I didn't leave the book frustrated, wondering "why didn't the author discuss this?"). If you want to know about Joe Meek the man, this may not be enough for you. If you want to know about Joe Meek the record producer, this is definitely your book too. (By the way, the included discography is quite comprehensive as well.)

This book shares some of the tricks and techniques of this legendary producer and shows how all pop recording and record production since has been influenced by them. The included recording and notes are especially helpful.

To anyone who is old enough to remember hearing the original 'Telstar' on the radio, this is a wonderfully researched bio on the life and work of a vastly underappreciated godfather of audio engineering. Also being a huge Deep Purple fan, I was surprised to learn that the great Ritchie Blackmore, was a first call session player for Joe (as a member of the Outlaws) and that there are some enticing recordings he made that I now have to spend the rest of my life searching for!

Great stuff. The equipment & discography are very well researched, in addition to the personal stuff. And you just can't beat the included disc of studio experiments, on the bizarre factor.

Extremely interesting book about Joe Meek, the innovative English recording engineer and producer who made hit records in his flat. Has lots of detail and pictures of Joe's recording gear and recording techniques. Discusses how Joe Meek pushed the recording gear to it's limits while creating new sounds. Highly recommended.

I am very impressed by Barry Cleveland's book. He provides a great deal of specific information about Joe Meek's recording techniques and equipment. However, be not afraid, this is not done in a pedantic technical manner; it's very readable for the non-technical.

Being well familiar with most of Meek's recorded output, I especially enjoyed Cleveland's detailed commentaries on certain of Meek's recordings. For my taste, Cleveland could have gone on for many more pages on the same subject with different tracks.

I perceive Cleveland to be outside of the intense (mostly English) Meek cult which brings some fresh perspective on his work.

What more can I say? This was a good read that I raced through and will no doubt revisit frequently. The CD of "I Hear a New World" is a great bonus. It's surprisingly different from the RPM release. It makes me appreciate the work Roger Dopson and his associates did to bring out the RPM version.