Iowa Books

After the crash of Flight 232, survivor Jerry Schemmel struggles to understand why he lived while others around him died. His heroic tale of tragedy, rescue, endurance and faith touches the soul. Chosen to Live is an amazing and inspirational read!Crossing 13

With a title like "Chosen To Live," you would figure that this book has a religious overtone. It does. But let me ask you this: if you were one of the survivors of a airplane crash, wouldn't you be looking for answers too...anywhere...even in religion? So don't let the title scare you away if you're not religious. This is a great read and a fantastic account of the before, during and after of the fatal flight. The discussion the author had with pilot Al Haynes and the cockpit voice recorder transcript add greatly to the book. Buy it. Read it.

And to the self-proclaimed agnostic survivor, maybe you need to work out some of your own problems with your ordeal before you accuse others of being arrogant.

And you need to become an intelligent adult before you turn on your 'puter again. That person was wasn't claiming to be a survivor. And only you know what a "Self proclaimed agnostic" is since agnostics don't have a licensing procedure. Please calm your hysteria!

As a native of Denver, I am an avid fan of the teams of the Rocky Mountain Region, and I was quickly impressed when Jerry Schemmel assumed the microphone as the radio play-by-play man for the Denver Nuggets prior to the 1992-1993 season. In large part because of his talent and intelligence, he has not relinquished his post in a highly competitive industry. I was 16 years old when Jerry came to Denver, and when he arrived, I aspired to become a broadcaster with his knowledge and passion. Now, at age 25, I continue to work in pursuit of my broadcasting dreams. More importantly, however, after learning about his triumph, I seek to become the quality human being that Jerry Schemmel reveals in his book, "Chosen to Live".

A precocious 29-year old Deputy Commissioner of the Continental Basketball Association ("CBA"), Jerry was diligently preparing for the 1989 CBA Draft aboard United Flight 232. The voice of legendary broadcaster Jim McKay resonated in the background, and his tedious discussion of horse racing was quickly interrupted by Captain Al Haynes, who described imminent trouble in the DC-10's second engine. An explosion had left the DC-10, travelling at 500 MPH at 36,000 feet, bereft of a viable second engine as well as hydraulic processes. From the time of Captain Haynes' first announcement until the DC-10 slammed into a cornfield in Sioux City, Iowa, Jerry Schemmel had 45 minutes to inventory his life. The wife he adored was safe in Denver, his family safe in their respective hometowns in the midwest. Jerry was sure that he was going to die---he had left a note in his briefcase describing where investigators could find his life insurance policy. How would his loved ones handle his death? Had he experienced a full life, despite, at that time, not becoming a father? Imagine slowly crashing to the earth with such thoughts racing through your brain.

In vivid detail, Jerry describes the crash's impact, both physically in the Sioux City cornfield as well as emotionally, as Jerry was sent on a psychological roller coaster of anger, guilt, self-pity and depression until he found solace in his Faith. At the end of the book, you will undoubtedly do what I did---cry and tell your loved ones how much you love them, in the event you never see them again.

I recently read this book after seeing a story about it on the Wings Discovery Channel. This book is well written and details what has to be an experience that is etched not only in the mind of Jerry Schemmel, but everyone involved that day. My heart goes out the the families who lost loved ones and also my appreciation of all of those who survived the crash and what has to be an emotional aftermath.

In a strange coincidence that I found out just today, the author goes to my church in Littleton, CO and I had a chance to tell him this morning I just finished the book and how much I appreciated his work. I'm also a lifelong fan of the Denver Nuggets, where the author is the on-air radio voice for the team.

I was getting an adreneline rush just reading the book. What uncertainty, terror and fear that raced through that crippled passinger jet can only be understood by those who were there, and eventually those who survived. The book is very well written. The actions of the author prior, during and after the crash can only be painted in the mind by writing concisely with vivid accounts of that day.

I remember that day well being at work and hearing someone come into my office to tell me of a terrible crash in Des Moines. My co-workers and I ran to a nearby television set to see the first pictures from ground level through the fence showing the plane coming in and breaking up.

Much has been written previous to my review here. Apparently, the thought of Christians being arrogant is a bias of another reviewer. Christians are not here to question God. There is a time and reason for everything. While difficult near-death experiences happen to some people, it doesn't mean that God is not in control. I had a near-death experience and I believe having gone through that scenerio has made me stronger in my faith. Christians do not have all the answers, but I assure God does.

A very good book. Five stars, easy.

Were it not for Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade, it is arguable whether the Crimean War would have much notoriety. It wasn't overly long, there were very few set-piece battles and no individual heroes of note. It was, among european wars of history, a middling confrontation. How much better, then, is Trevor Royle's treatment with the excitement he brings to it.

Sensing Ottoman dissolution, tsarist Russia makes a play to position itself for benefit. Alarmingly, this could include access to the Mediterranean through the Dardanelles. Having none of it, Britain and France combine to contest Russia's territorial ambitions. Negotiations rapidly break down and Sevastapol is invested. What follows is a story of British incompetence, French duplicity, and Russia's teetering access to military means.

Royle weaves throughout the event the high intrigue behind the scenes where unilateral diplomacy, oneupmanship, and the perfidious maneuvering of supposed allies rules the day. On the war front, he portrays the sad lot of the British soldier. In stark contrast to the French, the British military was grossly underfunded, medical care was appallingly poor, conditions were squalid, and soldiers died of disease in droves. The comparatively healthy ones simply starved.

With Sevastapol fallen, Russia was compelled to consider armistice while conniving diplomats in Paris, St. Petersburg, Vienna and London brokered an inadequate peace. Accordingly, the relatively minor Crimean conflict set the table for future hostilities and presaged the disintegration of the Ottoman empire. Indeed, it was in a corner of the splintered Ottoman empire that a single shot rang out to begin a world war. Trevor Royle does an exemplary job in bringing Crimea to us and, in so doing, prepares the inquisitive reader for the explosive century to come. 4+ stars.

As a reader already observed, this book is, to begin with, very anglo centered as it happens with boring regularity with almost every anglosaxon historian, no matter the issue. French partner in this war appears, of course, how it could be otherwise, but always as if from a side, as a distant guy that by chance was there. I think the subjet is the Crimean war or should be so, not England in-war-in-Crimea.
From a sheer military point of view the book lacks too much. Battles are more or less described, but maps are a joke and the equipment of both sides scarcely mentioned and poorly defined. A reader of this kind of books want to know more: want to know details about personal weapons, artillery, technical innovations, uniforms, etc. It is the more so as the author himself recognizes this was the first modern war, an intermediate step between Waterloo and the slaughters of I World War. There is some of all of it, but prone to be poor and cursorily explained. Even more, the autor makes a serious mistake confusing the innnovation of the Minie bullet -to be used with muskets already in use- with a supposedly new "Minie rifle" that never existed.
Nevertheless, the political side of the war -french again appearing as a guest and often under a disdainful light- is well developped and informative. Same with many personalities, including, this time, french officers.
Last but not least, the quality of the paper in this paperback edition is the worst I have ever seen in this kind of binding. I doubt it will resist more than 10 years in a shell. For the same reason the discrete number of photos available -not acceptable in a book about the first photographed war in history- are a miserable account of bad quality and neglect.

I imagine it is hard not to see the Crimean War from a non-British perspective, because the other belligerents did not write their chronicles in English OR see the war as such a big deal. But what this book manages is to put the war into a wider Eropean context of great power rivalries and almost fanatical imperialism. So Russia wanted to join the imperialist club? France and Britain, hardly the best of friends, were horrified at the prospect. And as for Russia developing a strong Mediterranean presence, well, the Ottomans as well as the British and French couldn't allow that. GREAT READ.

The Crimean war shattered the peace of Europe that had been established since Napoleon and set the course for World War 1. The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the advances of Russia are prominent in the war. The famed charge of the light brigade occurred during this war and the trench warfare of World War 1 can be seen. This was really fought over a very small amount of land and in hellish terrain. The book is very well written and does an excellent job of discussing how the war progressed. Overall an excellent book and one that I would recommend.

This is a very interesting book about an incredibly influential war. Despite the fact that the Crimean War was quite short and almost no great swaths of territory changed hands, this short, bloody little conflict had a huge impact on the formation of modern Europe. Trevor Royle's account of the war is a wonderful read. He covers the causes of the war (interesting enough, despite all the real politik, it was about a set of keys and a silver star in a church), the war itself and the aftermath. The details are wonderful and don't override the flow of the story. The only shortcoming comes during the presentation of the battles. Since there are so few, you'd think we'd get more details, but unfortunately the battles are somewhat glossed over. This doesn't so much detract from the book as, instead, it leaves you hungry for more. I found the natural links drawn by the author of Crimea as a progression from the Napoleonic style of war to the more modern American Civil War, which lead right into the mechanistic nightmare of World War I to ring true in more ways than simply because of the dates involved. Time to dig back through old issues of Military History Quarterly to find some articles on the battles so I can enjoy a much more thorough context for the war, thanks to this book.

One Man's Bible conveys the life and death choices the narrator had to make every day during a period of extreme social turbulence.This book excels in communicating the tension between the desire to survive and thrive in society and a personal desire (in this case to keep writing)that is forbidden by "society". The narrator is certainly not a hero and does not judge what his happening around him.

I also found the book very good in being able to paint a picture of daily life, at the collective and individual level, in the period where the book is set.

Gao Xingjian's second novel, "One Man's Bible" contains partially autobiographical life story of a Chinese writer, who tries to find his own place, peace of mind and right to writing and publishing in the Communist China.

The writer, living in permanent exile from China, goes to Hong Kong to attend a premiere of one of his theater plays. There, he meets Margarethe, one of the women who had an impact on his life. Margarethe, a German Jew, who stayed in Germant despite many doubts and reservations, is enquiring about the writer's past and this triggers and avalanche of memories. In fact, it is not a novel compositional trick, but because of Gao's dream-like style, similar to "The Soul Mountain", it seems still fresh and original here.

The chapters, which describe the Chinese past of the main character during the Cultural Revolution are separated by the ones closer to the present. The difference is stressed by the changes in narration between second and third person.

Among enemies and friends, career wolves and people desperately trying to preserve their individuality and self-respect, the young writer tries to figure out his own place, which requires a lot of time and effort, many schemes and being always a step ahead of the others. To write and publish in the capital, one must escape the Party purges, must have a job, a right to lodging in a tiny room in the communal apartment, an impeccable past and a perspective of a career within the Party.

Initially, the protagonist manages quite well. He becomes a leader of young rebels in yet another uprising, labeling the former previous party officials as "The Snake Spirits" (name given to all enemies of the system). He is also a lover of one of the Party leader's wife. Thanks to her warning (apparently the proofs of his disloyalty have been found (in the form of the information that in the remote past, just after the war with Japan, his father was in the illegal possession of weapons), the writer finally realizes that he will never be able to find for himself a safe place in the communist structures, allowing him creative freedom. Only then he decides to escape, initially hiding n the far away, mountain village, under the pretenses of rehabilitation through physical labor. After a long period of creative hibernation and waiting, he manages to leave China and stay abroad permanently, getting the status of the political refugee.

This seemingly realistic plot is spiked with the descriptions of events from emigrant times, the weird dreams pestering the protagonist and the masterful portraits of people who he met in China (the whole gallery of human types, from small cheaters, through people using their professional positions to the good and bad purpose, to intellectuals broken by the system) and outside (especially interesting are the female characters - already mentioned Margarethe and Sylvie, a person whose personal experience separates her like a chasm from the protagonist; it is interesting to notice, how her character is the opposite to the writer's). Various motivations and life attitudes are shown very clearly and convincingly, so that the reader can rest assured, that in each regime everyone has their own free will and our life choices depend on our will only.

The parallels to Gao's life come to mind automatically during reading. The protagonist is not from the working class (his father, like Gao's, works in a bank), he is educated, writes and then destroys his writings, afraid that they can be discovered and used against him (Gao had burned all his manuscripts before leaving China), during his years in exile he cannot visit China... It is hard not to wonder whether "One Man's Bible" is a kind of the catharsis, as the writer is shown as a person who to reach his goal - to write and publish - does not hesitate to become an opportunist. Although he is trying to live in agreement with his conscience, he makes mistakes, which he later regrets and which affect other people's lives. If Gao writes here about himself, he definitely does not try to excuse his actions or to show himself in the best light...

The autobiographical style makes "One Man's Bible" less contemplative and looking more like a "traditional" novel than "The Soul Mountain", but here again comes back the motif of integration with the rural people and respect for the antique Chinese traditions - for example, the scene of conversation with the old doctor and description of his handbook are beautiful).

This novel is worth recommendation, especially, because the access to the Chinese writers who describe the country's reality well and at the same time their books present the high level of artistic achievement, is limited, and Gao's works are banned in China (apparently, they are available on the black market, but not published officially), therefore it is very likely that they contain accurate observations (like the Polish, Soviet or other emigrant writers, to which I can relate).

Part of why Gao Xingjian's book "One Man's Bible" has such an impact for the Western audience is that many of us who have heard of the Cultural Revolution in China still have no adequate experience that helps us understand it or its impact on the Chinese people. Xingjian's detached style may be the only way to deal with this and not go crazy. So many of the details are startling. When he relates how his father's ownership of a gun some 30 years previously is held against him so that he's threatened by the dreaded "reactionary" & "counter-revolutionary" labels is amazing to the Western mind. To hear of families split apart as educated parents are sent for 8 years of "re-education" in rural labor camps is shocking. When those in political disfavor become ill, the hospital becomes the ideal method for assassination. I believe it's because of this subject matter that the book has such an impact.

There is also another underlying theme of human isolation. Surrounded by people, the main character cannot let anyone get close to his heart and emotion. He interprets freedom as an absence of love; and this is perhaps the saddest aspect of the book. Xingjian's series of lovers from the German Marguerite to his first love Lin and the many other casual affairs reflect the satisfaction of the basic hormonal drives, but leave an emotional detachment that precludes real intimacy. On a purely human level, this clinical self-examination is put under a harsh light.

The novel's construction uses some of the techniques that made "Soul Mountain" also seem fresh & "un-Western." The alternation of time periods, flashing back and forth from past eras in China to the present detachment works to produce a tension in the novel. Use of various persons (e.g. I, he/she) including second person (you) narration adds a variety; whereas more accepted Western standards would look for consistency. People may react negatively to the book because we're used to a plot line where a story is told. Xingjian's story is told here, but it's in more of a travelogue format than the traditional structure that builds to a climax. Xingjian's tale seems to travel to anti-climax, much as life often can seem mundane or routine.

Some of the philosophical chapters near the end did not connect with me as well. The book does seem to end simply because the author put down the pen. But all in all, this is an important book. My family watched the film "Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress" the other night. I found myself using Xingjian's book to fill in many of the details about the re-education camps for my family. Translated works may lose some of the original nuance and impact, but Mabel Lee did a good job with the translation. I often would ponder an unusual image. This is an excellent mind-stretching book. Enjoy!

This is a fantastic autobiographical novel about the author's experiences under Mao's China and how it affected him and others. The subject matter itself is enough to reccomend this book because we rarely get insights into this closed world and must strive to understand it as it emerges as a world economic power.

The author uses an interesting techinque of detachment where the main character is also the narrator who speeks most often in the third person. Irme Kertesz in his novel "fatelessness" beautifully dscribes how people can survive even the worst suffering, such as the holocaust, by detachment of soul from body. In "Fatelessness", the protagonist survives the concentration camps by escaping outside himself and comes to not only view his suffering and surroundings in the third person but becomes so detached that the physical pain, wounds, illness and suffering of his own body are described and experienced as a thiid person. This mode of escape was subconcious and persisted after the war, leaving a permanent scar of detachment that leaves the reader wondering how the protagonist will relate in peacetime.

Gao has evidently experienced a similar form of coping mechanism that is evident in the sections of the novel that take place in the present, during his expatriat years. It becomes manifest by his casual serial sexual encounters with women who also have similar problems of forming lasting bonds and attachments because of trauma (rape etc). Gao's inability to form a lasting personal bond extends to his lack of attachment to China, his people and his new home, career and friends. Though his insights are [rofound, Gao's emotions and actions are superficial and dream-like.

The most brilliant technique is his use of the word "you." The detached narrator (Gao)uses this word to refer to the subject (Gao)as if he is writing for and talking to himself. I have only seen this technique used in Gao's other novel translated into English "Soul Moutain." Later in the novel, when describing the past he uses "him" to describe the subject "Gao" living in Mao's China. The Narrator uses "you" to refer to the Gao in the present, expatriat state.

The use of "you" and "him" has a multilevel effect on the text and the reader. "Him" Gao of the past becomes "You" Gao of the present - a different level of detachment. "Him" Gao is the Gao of the present describing the Gao of the past as if from a distance, as if that person no longer exists and is dead or lost. The "You" Gao is more familiar, closer, intimate yet detached, a different, mature Gao of the present who is having these relationships, having his plays performed and struggling with the present novel and his past. If a man is the sum of his experiences we are left still wondering who the real Gao is and if he knows himself. It is as much a discovery of Mao's oppressive China as an effort of self descovery -- both painful.

The other effect of the use of "You" used by the narrator to describe Gao in the present is the author subtly drawing in the reader, to place him or herself in Gao's place, to become Gao. "You" also refers to the reader. We are invited to become Gao in our imagination as we read the text. The simplicity of one word creating so many layers of meaning and effect on the text and reader is on par with Jose Saramago's penchant for a lack of puntuation in many of his works.

This book is indeed something special, ingenious, and genuine. You may walk away haunted and disoriented, angry, frustrated, helpless and questioning your security. But as Gao makes clear at the begining, the experience of a Chinese mind under Mao can only be compared to the Holocaust under Hitler. Here East and West share a commonality of humanity at its best and worst, a common suffering and experience and a place to begin a dialog of understanding. Evil takes on many forms but it's effects on the human soul are universal.

To this day, the bizarre, cult-like events of the Cultural Revolution remain a prime focal point for Chinese novelists and, especially, memoirists. Writers from Adeline Yen-Mah, Jung Chang, Jan Wong, and Anchee Min to Yu Hua, Mo Yan, Dai Sijie, and Yan Geling have plumbed the depths of political capriciousness, human debasement, and the sheer will to survive in their own lives or in those of their fictional characters. Yet few if any Chinese writers have dared examine the effects of the Cultural Revolution on their later, post-Tiananmen Square massacre (1989) lives. Gao Xingjian's semi-autobiographical novel, ONE MAN'S BIBLE, is the first I have encountered, and the results are hauntingly devastating.

The story opens in a Hong Kong hotel in 1996 with the unnamed Chinese narrator (an internationally successful playwright) and his temporary paramour, a white Jewish woman of German descent named Margarethe. Theirs is an affair of mutual convenience and simple animal lust, but it is also a continuation of two largely hopeless searches for human closeness and warmth even as both characters deny that they seek such a thing. Margarethe works insistently to draw out the narrator's past, asking him to tell his life's story and suggesting that he turn it into a book. The narrator for his part insists that such a thing is not possible, that "things in China can not be explained by language alone," yet the book of his life unfolds before us in chapters that alternate (for the first half of the book) between his present-day encounter with Margarethe and his autobiography.

What emerges from this approach is a haunting tale of a rational, intelligent man trying desperately to cope with the utter irrationality of the Cultural Revolution. At first a nonpolitical citizen of Beijing, the narrator decides that he can best survive by becoming a faction leader. Having established his revolutionary bona fides, he then lays low and chooses his moves carefully, ultimately realizing that his next move is to the countryside, to keep his head down as a peasant farmer and teacher for perhaps the rest of his life. To maintain his sanity, he secretly writes about his feelings and experiences, keeping his papers well-hidden from nosy neighbors. Over time, he discovers that survival under Mao requires repeated acts of selfishness and disregard for the feelings of others, particularly the women who pass through his life, offering sexual temptation coupled with the threat of personal ruin. Ultimately, Margarethe returns to Europe and disappears from the alternating scenes, leaving Gao to examine ever more intensely his own past, his failings and regrets and lost relationships. He never shares with us the manner in which he "escapes" from China, partly because it doesn't really matter and partly because, in a psychological sense, he will never escape.

By using the alternating chapters, the author establishes a clear divide between history and the present while simultaneously illustrating how that history impinges on the narrator's current life. Gao takes this structure even further by bifurcating the narrator himself, referring to his present-day self in the second person (you) and to his pre-escape self in the third person (he). Yet they are clearly just variations of the same person; the narrator's past is an inescapable part of his present. He is scarred for life by the Cultural Revolution, and the lonely, distant, untrusting person he has become is a direct reflection of the persona he was forced to adopt in order to survive those times. He has learned to be a soulless user of others, and little else.

This is a dark and haunting examination of life and survival during the unimaginable events of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath. Timed and placed in 1996 Hong Kong just before the British turnover over that island to the Communist government in Beijing, it is also a fascinating metaphorical contemplation of modern China, a nation of soulless users lusting after money the same way his narrator lusts after women. Gao Xingjian emerged from relative obscurity (at least outside of China) to become his country's surprise first Nobel Prize winner for Literature. In ONE MAN'S BIBLE, Western readers can get a sense of why he was chosen. Deservedly so, it would seem.

I found this book to be very useful, but definitly not $60 worth useful. In all honesty, I have found more information in my 'Equine Genetics & Selection Procedures', which is roughly five times the girth and I managed to nab that for $8. While this book is more up-to-date, and the pictures were extensive in what they covered, it just doesn't have enough to warrant the cost. Maybe if there were more pictures (there's only one chapter of photos) or they were larger (there's three per page), or if the actual probablility of the color (Punnet Square) were covered more fully.... but it's not worth $60 as is. I consider it to be a waste of my money.

This is an excellent book for those that are interested in coat color genetics for horses, and donkeys. It is a great book to follow up on after reading Sponenberg's first book "Horse Color", which I recomend reading if your new horses or genetics.
This book presents genetics, and explains them so anyone can understand the intricate, and complex issues involved.
And to think it all started when I got into breeding Paint Horses I found thier coat markings to be very interesting. And little was known then except for the basic Paint patterns when I started. This book puts a whole new light on it all. It's a must read book.
I read both these books over and over again. And I refer to these books a lot. I would highly recomend them.
Sponenberg also works with Rare breeds of Livestock.

Horse Color
Equine Color Genetics
Rare Breeds Album of American Livestock

Sponenberg has set himself the task of writing a definitive book on horse coloration, one intended to summarize all available information on the subject as of the date of its writing. The book succeeds well in describing this complex and subtle subject, where 11 identified genes control the base coloration and more than 15 the various subtle modifications to the base color. It is nicely illustrated with color photographs correlated with descriptions of the probable genotypes of many horses of several breeds, and the tables and appendices will be useful to owners and particularly to breeders who are concerned with coloration. A much more cursory description is given of donkey coloration, the genetics of which is far less well worked out. In a few hours of study I was able to answer many questions that had puzzled and intrigued me about the colors of Morgan Horses and their forebears and offspring.

I have the 1st edition. It was my main tool in figuring out the Grullo color genetics. There are some minor inaccuracies in color theory, but this is the best single color book that I know of on the market. For a more complete picture of color genetics I recommend, in addition, Equine Genetics & Selection Procedures, published by Equine Research, they are on the web if Amazon don't carry their books. As an example of the differences between the 2 books, Equine Genetics discusses the Isabella color which Sponenberg omits. I don't know about the genetics of Isabella, but it is real, and I can now spot them easily. Isabellas are dark yellow, with little or no white, there manes are often yellow too. Palominos have as much white as sorrels.
Sponenberg does an excellent treatment of the champayne color, it is very rare in Quarter horses, but Sponenberg tells you how to spot them. I have since seen several.
If you are only going to get one color book, get this one.

For the most part, this book is full of excellent information and pictures. It does, however, contain some clearly outdated information, the worst of which is the continued perpetuation of the notion of the dominant white (W) gene. It simply doesn't exist, and I was very disappointed to see that this theory was still being presented as fact.

As we Boomers are pushing our kids out of the nest, we are finding time to write. And what better topic to write about than ourselves? Bill Bryson adds his personal, perceptive and funny reminiscences of an Iowan boyhood in the 50s in the form of "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir," a fast-paced romp through a typical 50s childhood. Bryson combines solid period research, mature reflection, genuine memories and (too often?) outrageous exaggerations of fact into a memoir of a his wild childhood. He touches all the generational bases -- polio, the Red Scare, Sputnik, A-bomb drills, TV and comic book heroes as well as the personal ones about clueless parents, trying to get in to see the strippers at the fair, petty theft at the candy store, local brands of soda, hocking looeys in the Tunnel of Love and harassing managers when the lights dimmed at the movie house. Given the title of his memoir, it's surprising that his alter-ego -- The Thunderbolt Kid -- makes so few appearances in the book and seemed added almost as an afterthought or marketing ploy.

Nevertheless, I got a kick out of The Thunderbolt Kid, and it made me think back on my own childhood at the end of the 50s. Bryson's comments as funny and often on the mark. His short takes on 50s for black Americans, on the Army-McCarthy hearings and on the US's hapless late-50s space shots were educational. I found that Bryson's fictional swings actually diminished the effectiveness of the book -- it was sometimes hard to tell where reality left off and mendacity-as-entertainment began. No matter. An age in which kids spent their summers outside and unsupervised, in which neighbors were invited over to see the new fridge, and in which church suppers and county fairs were the major means of entertainment, and in which causal racism was pervasive and barely noted is increasingly difficult to recall. Bravo to Bill Bryson for helping us remember.

As always, Bryson is informative (the Thunderbolt Kid is really an excellent history of the 1950s and '60s in the U.S.) and wonderfully amusing (as in laugh out loud).

He's also an excellent narrator of this audio book.

Just one caveat. While the book is funny and interesting throughout, from my vantage point, at least, little about Bryson as a teenager was appealing: he essentially opted out of high school life, chose to spend minimal time with his family, was a petty thief, and starting at age 14 smoked like a chimney and drank a lot of alcohol. If you can't tolerate hearing about a kid like that, don't get this book.

Bill Bryson is by far the funniest, most insightful, travel writer today.
Here his travels are temporal, instead of spacial as he takes us back to his childhood - and what a childhood it was. His writing is so personal and open that you can't help but feel that this book was written specifically for you.


It is both a very middle class North American tale, set in the fifties and a Calvin archetype (as in Calvin and Hobbes) visioneering a rich and adventurous landscape, that none of the adults could see.

May The Thunderbolt Kid ride again.

David Cale

Bill Bryson's story of growing up in Iowa is a terrific book. I bought it in large print for my mother, who can read only large print, and who has difficulty hearing too, so this is the only way she could enjoy the book. She too adores Bill Bryson. We love his facility with language, and his many ways of making us laugh. He's a marvelous storyteller.

This was a wonderful book, which also deviates here and there into politics and general history.

I really came to enjoy Bryson's observations about how "the good old days" were also fraught with some significant downsides, which we've gratefully grown beyond.

One carp: Bryson himself reads the audio edition, and he's not the most gifted reader I've ever heard. He's so laconic that the material really has to carry itself.

H'mmm - maybe that's not such a bad thing after all...anyway, you'll enjoy this book in any form.

PS - if you like this, you'll love the writings of Jean Shepard, too.

I have studied the Flight 232 disaster for sometime. This was a good book. I feel for Joe -- too bad his family wasn't more supportive. But, you know, unless you've actually been through a critical incident such as this, you really don't know how to help others who have.

An amazing book by an amazing guy. Joe Trombello writes from the heart as he tells his compelling story of how he survived the crash of United Airlines flight 232. I'm an avid reader and a keen aviation enthusiast, and this book tells a story that captivates every reader who has a heart - it is full of feeling, emotion, and compassion.

Joe tells what he endured during and after the initial crash, the injuries he received (which included a broken neck), and how he dealt with the emotions that followed the accident. Co-founder of the Chicago support group for the survivors of flight 232 in the Chicagoland area, Joe describes the meetings that were held in detail, covering everything from what was discussed to what was eaten (an Italian-American, Joe is very fond of food!). I have had the great honour of meeting Joe Trombello on two occassions in recent years, and consider him a personal friend.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading true stories that touch the heart. This book really touched my heart - let it touch yours as well.

I couldn't put it down. It is great. Joe has a gift for writing. He is able to deliver a very rich, complete story in a way that causes the reader to identify with all the people involved. I was moved to emotionally attach to the survivors, the victims, the families and friends who lost someone they loved and the rescue teams. The book goes beyond telling a story. This book becomes a vehicle that causes personal priorities to be reevaluated.

I consider myself an avid reader, however, it's been awhile since I pick up a book that made me cry and laugh through the whole book. My hat goes off to this author. I found this book so imformative and compelling that I now keep it out on my coffee table when guest come over. Two weeks after reading the book I am still thinking about that crash landing of that plane and wondering how would we fair today if that happen again.

While I'm very pleased the author, Joseph Trombello, survived the flight, I was disappointed with his book and the flight's account. I wanted to read more about the initial explosion in the engine, the anxiety of the people on the plane, the knowing they were going to likely crash. It seemed that part of the story was rushed in the first two chapters, and the rest of the book was about his meeting with other survivors and what they had to eat at these meetings. I would not recommend this book to someone looking for crash or investigation details. Trombello does do an adequate job of relating how crash survivors like himself struggle with their emotions years after the ordeal.

Earlier editions of this book had a well deserved reputation for excellence. Kershner is a master of taking the highly technical subject of flying and distilling it into an efficient, enjoyable learning experience.

Imagine my surprise to find the ninth edition rife with errors! Examples:
- erroneous definition of Class A airspace;
- erroneous decoding of wind speed and direction in a sample TAF weather report;
- erroneous Sigmet description;
- Weather Depiction Chart doesn't match explanations in the text.

These are some of the errors that I found and I'm not yet a pilot. The skills required for actually flying an airplane haven't changed much since I purchased my much-thumbed 5th edition 20 yrs ago but airspace regulations and weather reporting have changed considerably- probably not a coincidence that the errors I found are in the newer material. A quick calculation of Kershner's age at the time of the 9th edition publication makes me wonder if he was even involved in creating the updated sections.

All the content of this book is available for free via a few different downloads off the FAA website. Thus the major reason for buying this book is to cut to the chase on the body of knowledge required to earn a private pilot license because the FAA downloads though well written, cover everything from powered parachutes to jumbo jets. At least the first two of the above errors would cause wrong responses on the private pilot written test causing me to question the value of the $40 I spent on this book though I did just notice that Amazon recently cut the price by a third.

I purchased his book (an earlier version) on recommendation of my flight instructor when first starting out. If your looking strictly for study material to score high on the written test there is more information than you need. If your looking for a good referance book after the written test then purchase Rod Machado's pilot manual. I use Rod's book now after earning my private license. Whenever I pick it up it either refreshes my knowledge or I am able to learn something new with further depth. Rod's book is well complimented with illustrations and diagrams to help understand the subject matter. If you want a book to use strictly for the knowlege test they are both overkill.

Informative, articulate, and carefully edited -- a must have reference for aspiring pilots. Especially impressive is Kershner's ability to avoid the most common pitfalls of writing technical material: the text is tight, complete, succinct, and perhaps most surprisingly, a real treat to read.

This was a great tool for my flight instruction. Kershner has a way of explaining things that is better than the other books I was able to find. I read this on my own instead of ground school and past my written and practical - so, it worked!

I actually read, and used extensively, the 7th edition of this book. Mr. Kershner has a easy to read and follow style that has helped me tremendously on my way to getting certified as a private pilot. Whenever I was having diffuculty learning a particular aspect of flying I referred first to this book and got the straight and skinny on the subject. Mr. Kershner obviously has a grasp on what a student pilot goes through to understand the technical jargon and concepts of flight principals, navigation, cross country flying, flight instuments, and landing an airplane.

The illstrations are clear and concise. The photographs are very good.

I highly recommend this book to any student pilot as a supplement to ground school, or anyone interested in what it takes to learn to fly, or anyone who flys in a light plane as a passenger and wants to learn more about what's going on in the cockpit and the pilot's mind.

A critic on National Public Radio said 'Colony Girl' was a gem that had been overlooked by other critics and that hadn't received the acclaim it deserved. He said the male author had done an astonishing job of writing in the voice of a young girl. After I read the book, I gave myself a dope-slap. Why had I trusted a man to tell me that another man wrote convincingly in the voice of a girl?!?! The book is little more than a male fantasy about what discovering sex ought to be like for young girls. The voice is wrong, wrong, wrong. The other critics were right to ignore this book -- and I wish I had.

I loved this book. I have worked with adolescents in a variety of settings for 30 years and Mr. Rayfiel captures the struggle of leaving home with terrific insight. Though his young protagonist is from a nontraditional home he captures the universal conflict of separation from family in a way anyone can recognize. He demonstrates in a powerful way that the shape of "family" outside the norm maintains its significant impact and attachment issues. I have seen this over and over in my work with kids from different "family" constellations. Mr. Rayfiel's writing is poignant and heartfelt and the book is beautifully crafted. The story demonstrates the complex issues of growing up that include spirituality, sexual awakening, parental weakness, adult hypocrisy, peer relationships, sexism and narrowmindedness. Eve is definitely the Holden Caufield of the new millenium. This book will be a classic coming-of-age work.

I was put off this by reading that it was a book about a fifteen year old seductress by an author who is, to judge by the jacket photograph, a long way from being fifteen or seductive or female. (But then again would we think differently about it if he'd used a female pseudonym and a fake photo?)
Another strike against it was that I'd found Rayfiel's last book "Split Levels" poorly constructed. A lot of pretentious stream of consciousness and dream sequences interrupted a moderately good mystery in an irritatingly anonymous suburb.
This is a great improvement, although it still attempts too much and I must agree with other critics that the sex scenes are implausible and intrusive. Aside from her unlikely eroticism Eve is a great character. She is a fatherless girl whose mother has fled from California to Iowa. She takes up with a motherless boy whose father wants to flee from Iowa to California. She lives in a religious commune run by a "charismatic" leader reminiscent in a remarkable number of ways, which may be coincidental (I'm phrasing this tactfully) of the fraudulent guru in Updike's "S."
Rayfiel cleverly exposes the ways religious cults can almost legitimize child molestation by early arranged marriages and political clout. One of the techniques is to persuade the girl that marriage is a short cut from childhood to adult status. I was reminded of Pearl Abraham's "The Romance Reader."
Above all he is a gifted writer. By the end of the book we have a map of Arhat, Iowa, in our heads, and yet he never pauses for long-winded description. He has a seamless ability to make a few words do the work of setting the scene without adjectives and without holding up the action. For example, in one scene Eve feels ill because of working on the highway in the hot sun and gets into the shade of "a sign that listed Arhat's two motels. It was late afternoon. The metal threw a patch of shadow almost to the drainage ditch."

I agree with all of the other positive reviews that this is an entertaining and engrossing story of a girl's summer spent reaching out to explore life outside her religious "Colony." She takes an offbeat job, forms probably unsanctioned relationships in unusual combinations, and stretches and probes her existing relationships with Colony hierarchy, family, and girl friends.

I disagree with other reviewers, though. I could tell immediately the author was male, even though the main character and voice are female. There is definitely a haze covering the story of a man imagining what a girl in this situation would be thinking, and parts of the story seemd less than authentic, because of this.

However, I thought the head Colony honcho, Gordon, was great. He acts out his own skewed but somehow charming theology and thus leads by example. Deciphering his relationship with Eve is one of the skillfully handled challenges this book offers.

All in all, there's plenty of good stuff in this book to make you wish it went on longer.

This is one of those books that you enjoy while reading and dislike after finishing. Every moment in the story has some interesting event reaching for you, or suspense calling you, or eloquent and interesting dialogue from the narrator to make you feel like a part of the story. This is a book that is well written, with some funny moments and insightful narration. But at the end of the book, you are left feeling that the story was kind of lame and that a lot of it was superfluous to the "moral" of the story. In essence, the only thing that does happen that is satisfying is the "coming of age" at the last page of the book. All the preceding pages are more like an interesting story that your friend tells you and that you listen to carefully because it's just one more unique glimpse of an aspect of humanity through a person you are in turn getting to know better; but at the end of the storytelling you're pretty much disatisfied with what it actually provided YOU with, what new or interesting things YOU learned, besides just knowing the story teller more intimately.

Essentially, the book is well written and funny and crazy through out, interesting enough to read, but not interesting enough to think about afterwards. It's like a song that plays well, but ends on a weird note that makes you forget it's marvelousness.

Also, the whole thing is just WAY too focused on sexuality, and although the author DOES do a good job of emulating the thoughts of a sexually developing teenage girl, the ratio of sexual to non-sexual thought is just ridiculous. There isn't a person in the book who isn't in it with some sexual twist, even people in dreams the narrator has. That part was just plain old lame. Like a young attractive girl would think of every single male she interacts with in some sexual sense. It's ridiculous. Especially when it comes to the fat guy. puhleeze. At times it seems like the author is playing out some strange fantasy he has about what a young girl might think about. And though his insticts are right about her view of the world, he sexualizes everything to the point of being just plain silly, even if he does write the story eloquently.

This book is enthusiastic and full of cliches. It's an extremely odd view of jazz history, largely discounting white musicians and modern jazz in general. The standard guide is still published by Penguin, which is much more knowledgable and open-minded.

In any books such as these, there will always be disagreements on ommissions and inclusions. I will not debate this.

That being said, it is quite clear that Piazza has a weak grasp of the fundamentals of the music. He is a tourist, not a scholar. So what if you want to see the other sights?

Piazza also practices an odious brand of Political Correctness. In his world, if you listen to the avant garde, that means you want African Americans to be noble savages.

N.B. I've known Tom for several years, and consider him a friend. That said, I got his book shortly after I met him, and consider essential for anyone who either loves jazz, or wishes to learn about jazz.
I used it to construct a fantastic collection over the years. I literally built my pillars of Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker around his well-chosen recomendations, and have added a number of lesser well known favorites to my roster (Charles McPherson! Brew Moore!) My copy is dog-earred. I keep it next to my computer, and use it to decide which discs I'll next purchase from Amazon or my online music service. (This book is a dynamite companion to emusic.com, which has a huge amount of the Prestige/Riverside/OJC catalogue on line)> The first part of the Guide orients you with a brief history of how the music progressed from New Orleans joys forward. Throughout the whole book, there are citations to readily available records of what he discusses. Anything he cites that sounds particularly tantalizing will, believe me, get purchased. Tom's love and enthusiasm for the music shine through and he is a most persuasive salesman. (The RIAA should give him an award)!
There follows a detailed review of the role of various instruments in the ensembles.
Trust me-these recent posts have some sort of hidden agenda. But from the point of view of simply teaching you about the large topic of jazz-this is the book.

I bought this book three years ago, and I still go back to it regularly. When I first read it, I owned half a dozen, or fewer, jazz albums. My collection has swelled since then, and most of the LPs and CDs I've picked up were recommendations from this book. I have not been disappointed yet.

Piazza's knowledge of jazz recordings, together with his clear, direct, and enthusiastic writing style, make this a joy to flip through. I can say I've truly discovered some outstanding music thanks to him and his book.

Tom Piazza is both a jazz pianist and a writer, giving him a rare combination of insight and ability to express it. Musicians know that many renowned critics don't really know what they're talking about--if you don't play, you (usually) don't know. Piazza knows.

His book is divided into halves. The first half covers the recordings of the great jazz ensembles from dixieland through the 1960s avant-garde. (There's no coverage of 1970s jazz-fusion, the 1980s young lions, or later, which are too recent to be "classic.") The second half covers the recordings of the most important jazz soloists on each instrument over the same period. An advantage of this structure is that it gives an overall sense of history in a way that books like the All-Music Guide, organized alphabetically by artist, can't.

Piazza does have an ideological leaning. He is part of the current Wynton Marsalis/Stanley Crouch camp, which feels that much recent jazz should not be called jazz at all, because it is not based on the blues. The free jazz of the 1960s and the jazz-fusion of the 1970s are without merit to this camp, and this is probably why Piazza does not reach into the 1970s. (He does say, of 1960s free jazz, that "people who like this sort of thing like the following albums.") It's a mark of Piazza's excellence that while I do not belong to this camp, I still think his guide is the best for the period it covers. Fans of free jazz and jazz-fusion will want other books to supplement Piazza's guide, but Piazza's book should be the first purchase for your jazz library.

I liked the book. The story is one of a young baseball player overcoming his personal denial in his search for happiness and purpose to his life.

Mike Houle, a ballplayer fresh out of college with a business degree (a rarity) waits for the chance to get drafted but gets passed over because of a dismal senior season. He had always been an excellent second baseman, leadoff singles hitter and base stealer, but now finds himself waiting by the phone. His agent sends him to an obscure league in Iowa where things are not quite as they see.

Think - "Shoeless Joe (or Field of Dreams)" meets "The Stepford Wives" only not as sinister.

The character Mike holds the story together. His voice, motives and emotions are believable and while he's smart enough to know better he sometimes chooses the wrong path. He holds to his dream.

I enjoyed Kinsella's writing. The dialogue is great and there are many interesting stories within the story, like the Roger Cash episode where he bests the town's top team with only a group of high schoolers to back him up. It's all about the distances.

Emmett Powell and his family were a hoot and there are a number of quirky characters in the mix.

My critiques: A lot of telling and not enough showing. There are scenes where someone is relating a story and I lose sense of where I am, especially when the storyteller basically drops out of the novel. The imagery is vivid but I wanted more substance.
Going with the previous comment, I felt many of the characters were not fully developed. We never really get to know Mike's brother, Byron. Nor do we get much insight into Daniel Morganstern's issues with the team. Stanley Wood disappears about halfway through, as does Crease. McMartin has an episode then reappears later.

Would I recommend the book? Yes, it's a pleasant summer read.

W.P. Kinsella, transplanted from Canada to Iowa, writes about two of his favorite topics in Magic Time: Iowa and baseball. As those are two of my more favorite subjects, I read Magic Time and came away a little less satisfied than I would have hoped to be. The story opens with the background/childhood of Mike Houle, hustling baseball player (in a good sense). The first few chapters are consumed with an oft-told story concerning baseball distances; if you haven't heard the story before, I won't spoil it for you except to say that it has been around and used in stories over the years. Mike goes on to make himself into a minor star in college but didn't quite have enough "talent" to be drafted into the minor leagues, to put it politely. His agent lands him a spot in the Cornbelt League in Iowa, with the Grand Mound team. The other teams in the league, spread out along U.S. 30 in eastern Iowa, also appear to draft players, give them day jobs and have plenty of time for the players to practice. Eventually, though, the secrets of the Cornbelt League are discovered: there's more sociology taking place here than league baseball games. While the book does have its moments of disjointedness and pleasure, I found the most enjoyable part of the book was in considering the notion of what the people of Grand Mound were trying to do, and what a baseball player would do in the same situation: stay or go? Accept what I was or prove everyone wrong? Having lived in a small town in eastern Iowa up the road aways from U.S. 30, and having loved living there, I think Mike was getting a heck of a deal - if he could appreciate it. But then, that's part of the fun of reading, placing ourselves in the character's position. Magic Time can certainly give you the opportunity to do that - and it does it pretty well.

Mike Houle is a baseball player who, unaccountably choked in his senior year at LSU and is left undrafted by the major leagues. When his agent calls with a chance to play in semi-pro ball in Iowa, Mike agrees although he's never heard of the team or the league. At least, his agent assures him, the major league scouts will have a chance to see him play.

What Houle finds in Grand Mound Iowa comes as a complete surprise to him. Families take in ball players--especially families with young and attractive daughters. Is that normal? And Grand Mound, according to his sponsor, is one of the few towns in Iowa which is actually growing. The entire town shows up for the regular inter-squad matches held by the local semi-pro team and Houle, the pressure off, finds himself playing the best baseball of his life.

He may be playing great baseball but he isn't stupid. There's something going on in this town, and with this team, that just doesn't make sense.

Author W. P. Kinsella creates an ode to baseball as the solution to the world's problems. In a strange, fairy tale part of Iowa, baseball has become the savior of a town, and the town in turn has become the salvation to a number of players who had somehow lost touch with the love of the game. Kinsella's lyrical writing makes MAGIC TIME an intriguing and compelling read. Although the plot itself is somewhat slow moving (but then, people say the same thing about baseball), Houle's coming of age and his growing realization of the mystery of Grand Mound made me keep turning the pages.

While I'm normally a fan of W.P. Kinsella, I found this book to be very disjointed. Its important for potential readers to know that the book is built around various short stories that Kinsella has written at various times. The central story itself is an expansion of an earlier short story, "The Dixon Cornbelt League". While I found the central story fascinating, the whole experience of the book suffered because entire chapters are devoted to old short stories that have nothing to do with the central plot of the novel. While I recommend this book, I think potential readers should beware that instead of getting an independent novel, you're getting a group of repackaged short stories.

Kinsella does it again! As in Shoeless Joe and Iowa Baseball Confederacy, he returns to the theme of Iowa, baseball, and true love. A solid triple, not quite the grand slam of previous novels, but fun. You know where it is going, and yet you enjoy the ride.
Mike Houle is a great college player who had a terrible senior year...and yet reports to Grand Mound, Iowa, for Cornbelt League. Or does he...............? If you love baseball, small towns, the feeling you have stepped back into a world of no pc's, cell phones, and terrorism, than this is for you....not a lot of brain power required, but a great escape!