Campbell Books

I really enjoyed Mr. Raymond Campbell Paterson's history of the Lord of the Isles. He tells it in more of a political history following the time line without retracing each branch of Clan Donald's history with overlap. He begins with Somerled and his possible roots and rise to power. From there he follows each of the leaders of the clan through the Lords of the Isles. Mr. Paterson dispels many of the myths and tries to show the historical truths to many of Clan Donald's legends. I have a greater understanding of the dynamics between Clan Donald and Clan Campbell. Not always the exact tales I have heard via Clan Donald. Might have something to do with the author's Campbell roots. But we see that they interacted and weren't the bane of each others existence that myth and legend presents. Clan Donald as we see had its hands full with the Royal Stewarts. Mr. Paterson follows each of the Lords of the Isles and gives some great stories of other incredible individuals from Clan Donald that are often overshadowed by the Lords of the Isles like Alasdair MacColla and the Antrim Macdonnels. He continues the history of the clan through the fall of Lord John, Angus Og and Donald Dubh as most histories do but he also continues through to show the continuing struggle of each branch: Clanranald, Glengarry, Sleat, Keppoch, Dunyveg and Glencoe. Each branch struggles through the 1700 and 1800's finally succumbing to the highland clearances. This book is a great addition to my collection on Scottish history and the Clan Donald. If you love Highland history or Clan Donald this is a must.

This book is somewhat unique to the series because the conflict involved stems almost solely from the feelings and values of the characters themselves. True love isn't threatened by a plot circumstance, or the posibility that one doesn't feel the same for the other, making this book somewhat unique in the series.

A young pianist attends a summer program away from school for the best and brightest of young adult classical musicians. There, she makes some new friends, and meets quiet, aloof violinist Peter (think a young Julian Sands' George Emerson in "A Room with a View.") The two are thrown together to rehearse a concert solo, her admiration of his talent, and his admiration for her warm personality, turns into love.

Refreshingly, the story is set in the preparation for a concert, but the event, although well-written, does not take precedent over the romance at hand.

I liked it a lot; the characters change and mature, and the slow-to-develop love is surprisingly touching.

Rodney Campbell's "The Luciano Project: The Secret Wartime Collaboration of the Mafia and the U.S. Navy" is a fascinating two-pronged history. The first story, as the subtitle indicates, has to do with the Navy's recruitment of the Luciano crime family to protect New York's waterfront (including the Brooklyn Navy Yard) from Nazi saboteurs and u-boats. After all, the government reasoned, who is better qualified to protect the docks than the people who have controlled them for decades? This was, as Campbell points out, very pragmatic. However, from a moral and legal view, this was extremely problemmatic.

The second history, however, is an ironic one, so ironic it nearly makes one laugh. Once the Navy paid Luciano and the mob all that cash to protect the docks, one thing was never established: Did the Mafia do its job? In other words, who regulated the Mafia? To whom did the wise-guys submit their progress reports? How many spies and saboteurs did the Mafia catch, if any? Or did they just take the money and run, and hope for the best? Did they even hope for the best? As far as the mob was the concerned, if the docks blew up, so what? What would the government do about it? Sue them for breach of contract? What contract? You get the idea.

Much like Christopher Simpson's "Blowback" which explores the government's protection of Nazis after the war, in order to exploit their intelligence against the Communists, Campbell's "Luciano Project" is an examination of that old saying "All's fair in love and war." But at what cost? Is it justifiable to hire and protect killers (Nazis and Mafiosi did kill people, after all) in order to protect National Security? Is it justifiable to keep such things secret from the public? It's something for every American to think about, especially given what's going on in our post-9/11 country.

A beautifully told, moving story of a boy who feels lucky until he finds out one day that his name isn't really Lucky. Full of wry insights into the human heart and psyche, this is a book for parents to enjoy as much as children. And given the tenderness of the relationship between Lucky and his grandfather, this book would make a good present for a boy or girl from a loving grandfather.

Although some of its suggestions and theories would appear to be outdated, it is an excellent work and will drive the curious to seek out more information on the varied subjects it covers beneath the umbrella of Semetic magic as traced or linked to older sources and its influence over various cultures and religous ideologies.

It is filled with accounts of ghuls, ghosts, demons and gods. It roams amidst their horrid habitations and divulges some of their strange and terrible secrets whilst giving the wary some ideas of ancient protective measures against them. It covers many of the concepts of demonic possesion amoungst the ancients and expands on curious myths you may have seen only hints of through the Quran, Tanak or Christian bible. It is a great source for myths and magical details including an Assyrian ritual that would seem to be an ancient origin for the modern concept of the Qabbalistic Cross Ritual, the idea of laying on of hands in faith healing and the concept of a guardian being. To quote:

"Unto the house on entering
Samas (is) before me,
Sin (is) behind [me],
Nergal (is) at [my] right hand,
Ninib (is) at my left hand;
When I draw near unto the sick man,
When I lay my hand on the head of the sick man,
May a kindly Spirit, a kindly Guardian, stand at my side."

The quote above is one of many very interesting bits of information contained in this book. I recommend it highly.

Came in good condition. THis si for school, so the content of the book really doesn't matter much to me.

This book is filled with so much great information it is hard to define a starting point. The owner of our company suggested this book and what a book it is. Here are some of the topics covered: risk analysis, condition based maintenance, maintenance optimization, Total Productive Maintenance, and many more subjects centered around maintenance. This book is well worth the publishers price and even a better steal at Amazon's price. You will be hard pressed to find a better book that has all of this information in it. Also this book talkes about information technology, chronically overlooked key to maintenance excellence. Purchase this book, you cannot go wrong.

This is the cutest book for children to relate with God and life- "Your like a secret hideout.." how sweet is that! My two 1/2 year old loves this book- My sister and I actually got it when we were like 6 or 7- and we loved it back then. If you get a chance to own this book, it would be a blessing- it is so sweet.

Written as a fast paced thriller, Dr. McConnell's book intimates an accurate portrayal of what hospital administrators & insurance companies don't want the patients to know. You won't want to put this down after you start reading!

This book is one of my four-year old daughters' top five books, and mine too. We checked this out at the library, then had to buy it because it became a favorite. We love this book!