Machines Books

I was overjoyed to see this fantastic cookbook on Amazon. I already own it, but took the opportunity of finding it on Amazon to send it as a gift.
Clara Czegeny transcribed these recipes handed down by her mother not only with love, but with an understanding that the reader might need very complete instructions. When Clara says "follow the recipe completely", take her advice, and I'm sure you'll be satisfied with the result. Her nokedli recipe (a basic of Hungarian cookng) is the best I have come across. In addition, Clara has enhanced the cookbook with wonderful anecdotes about her family and Hungarian culture. The pictures and art, designed by her daughter, help make the book extremely pleasant to thumb through. If you're intersted in Hungarian cooking, this is the book to buy!

This is an exciting book by Alex Revel. It is a true historical book since all the material used is taken from the official reports of the RFC/RAF 56th squadron and pilot letters to their friends/relatives. The squadron history is presented month by month, from March 1916 to November 1918. All the flights are listed for each day together with greater detail about the most interesting ones (including the flight that killed Werner Voss). Statistics about squadron commanders, airplanes (including all airplane serials used by the squadron), aerodromes, victories, markings,.... are presented at the end of the book together with authors research about Balls death, the "Greentail" (the albatros pilot who fought the pilots of the squadron several times during its stay in France) plus some additional stories. Overall this book represents very exhaustive research, yet instead of being written in a form of tedious listing of historical facts, it more resembles the style of an exiting war novel.

Jorgensen's book on Nazi Germany's espionage apparatuses is at once well written, exhaustive in detail, well-researched, generously and thoughtfully illustrated, and a thrilling read. It is the best book of its kind I have read.

The book begins, shall we say, at the beginning - the early development of Imperial Germany's intelligence arm, Nicholai's Nachrichtendienst, prior to and during World War I, and constrasts its effectiveness with that of its adversaries. Upon Germany's loss of the war, this was disbanded, and from the time Weimar and then Nazi Germany once again thought to develop military and political intelligence it was playing catchup with its rivals.

The work was made more difficult still by the diffusion and dilution of effort which were a byproduct of Hitler's way of running the Third Reich. No one power center would be allowed to grow too strong unchecked, each would be in rivalry with every other. And so over time there were multiple competing intelligence services - the Wehrmacht's Abwehr under Canaris, the Nazi party's internal Gestapo, the SS Sicherheitsdienst operating wherever Himmler, Heydrich and Schellenberg could place their men, Gehlen's Fremde Heere Ost, Goering's Forschungsamt, naval intelligence, radio-intercept intelligence, even a small department under foreign secretary Rippentrop. There was considerable overlap, a good deal of confusion and double-dealing, and Jorgensen's conclusion ultimately is that this 'system' of devolved control and no central organization cost the German war effort considerably in efficiency.

Beyond the rise and organization of these various agencies, Jorgensen's book deals with concrete successes and failures of not only the Nazi intelligence services but also those of its competitors, including especially the GRU (Soviet military intelligence). There are chapters on the establishment of Communist spy networks in Germany, as well as the hunt to squash them. Numerous specific intelligence operations and efforts are examined in detail, and Jorgensen's writing makes these fascinating and tense. Some of the spectacular events are dealt with - Skorzeny's rescue of Mussolini from Gran Sasso, e.g. - but there is equally good stuff on much more quiet work such as radio counterintelligence, cryptography, code breaking, and the like.

An excellent addition to intelligence writing, and World War II history in general. Jorgensen's other WWII books are also well worth searching out, by the way.

This book opened my eyes to a whole new way of seeing my favorite motorcycle company. I am a fan of their cars too but it has always been their two wheeled machines that have had me hooked. The best thing about the book is what an "American Story" Sochiro Honda was. From nothing to greatness in his field in a single lifetime. Honda tried and failed and went back to school and succeeded. He worked HARD as a young man to even get to a position to launch what we now think of as Honda.

A really neat read, it will surprise you.

This book ABSOLUTELY blew my mind... and I'm not even through with it yet! I have read almost half of it in a single sitting, and completely understood every word. I am over 50 years old, studied mechanical engineering in college (but changed my major) and have never found anything as easily-understandable as this book.

This book is much more than the title suggests. Actually, the title does it injustice. I haven't even gotten to the "machines" part; the first third or more of this book is devoted entirely to the so-called "simple machines": levers, pulleys, inclined planes, etc. And the presentation is so interesting, so fascinating actually, that you will be engrossed and delighted just learning about the most simple of basics! (And clearly, from which all else flows.) This understanding alone is worth the price of admission.

Walton walks you through mechanics clearly and logically, and answers every question just as it pops into your mind. Written in 1968, this book is not dated - the concepts are universal. It is nicely illustrated and incredibly clear. Note that there are a few typos (although my copy included an errata slip with the book), but the material is so well written it is easy to see when a typo has occurred.

I give this book 5 stars without hesitation. Get it while you can, there's only about 30 of them left in circulation.

You won't be disappointed.

How Things Work: Monster Machines by Peter Lafferty tells about machines that are super large. It tells that flight simulators are fun because you learn how to fly. It tells that wind turbine's fans swing around and around and you can go inside. This book tells about a lot of other machines, too.
I liked this book because it has a lot of pictures and maps. It's interesting because it explains how thing work. Kids who like science and machines will enjoy this book.

This is a brilliant book - funny, clear, interesting. It's packed with the history of time and physics, and explains quantum physics in a way anybody can understand. The inner workings of a black hole, what a wormhole is, and time travel paradoxes are all explained. The illustrations are great (and often very funny).I'd definitely recommend it for adults as well as children.

What a wonderful way to teach children the art of drawing. So well presented.

This is an easy book for kids to work with if they like military tanks, planes, etc. but are frustrated with their attempts to draw them or want to improve their drawings. Each drawing starts with basic shapes like circles, squares or just a line. Then it progresses one simple line or shape at a time all the way to a finished drawing. No drawing skills are needed for this book, it is very accessbile to any skill level, any age. I also reccommend Ed Emberly's Big Green Drawing Book, and books by Mark Kistler for kids that want to learn to draw.

Few people nowadays retained their comptometer skills. Just as languages die off from atrophy so also is the fait of the comptometer. You see them on desks and in movies but can you use it if you had to? Look closely on the key and you will find two sets of numbers. The small set is for subtraction and division. A good comptometer operator only needs to use the first five rows to complete their calculations. This is also a practice book. You get a lot closer to the numbers you are crunching (it even makes a crunching sound) then with these abstract hand calculators. The calculator in the title is more of a "ten key." Any way this book looks good as part of the desk display.