History Books

One of the best reads I've had in a while. Excitement and drama in every chapter. Unexpected chills and thrills also. I did not want to put the book down. Most of the training that was covered had to do with on the job training, which was the most dangerous. From ambushes to booby traps to the unexpected, this book had it all. It makes you appreciate the job previous and current armed forces personnel have done for this country.

I have worked as a speech-language pathologist for the Department of Veterans Affairs for about 35 years, and my earliest patients included young veterans of the Vietnam War. Now, towards the end of my career, I have the privilege of working with veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I read Recondo and Mr. Chamber's other book on his war experiences, Death in the A Shau Valley (Death In the A Shau Valley: L Company LRRPs in Vietnam, 1969-70.), years ago, and was profoundly affected by the people and actions described. He writes with an authentic voice and we are fortunate to have his experiences preserved. I recently re-read both books after reading Jonathan Shay's two recent books on Vietnam War combat veterans (Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character) (Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming). I bought additional copies of all four books for my staff to read to better understand -- as much as it is possible for those of us who haven't experienced combat - what our brothers and sisters have gone through and what they are going through as they reenter civilian life. Perhaps every war is unique. I believe every veteran is. But Recondo give the rest of us a piece of the picture that helps us welcome the men and women of war home, no matter how long it has been since the battle ended.

Very good account of life in Recondo. The walk through the Vietnam service portrayed in this book, will keep you in the moment.

This book gave a good accounting of the training to become a Long Range Reconaisance Patrol leader, and what it was really like to be almost alone, behind the enemy lines.

This is an exelent book, it covers the author time while serving in F coy/ 58 LRP and L coy/ 75 Ranger

One of the things I love is the way the author decribes the small details, the nitty gritty...attention to details are importend, but it is details in the field...


This book also gives an avid account of the authors trip to the famed MACV recondo school and has plenty of goddy tips that can be used even today by modern patrol soldiers.

The author is a modest man, but you cannot miss that fact that Larry Chambers was icecold in combat.....did things that many others would have freaked out on......
I could not put i down

Go Buy it

This was just something I found while looking for the Bernard Fall book Street without Joy. Miller's co-author wrote the forward for the book. They guy was somewhere in Miller's chain of command well after Vietnam and was an Army Captain. He mentioned that Miller told a great story. I read the book and Captain Kureth is RIGHT. This is a short book, and is just a set of stories, mostly chronological, but not a complete beginning to end story of Miller's 6 years in Vietnam. Miller LOVED Vietnam, he was in the Army and Vietnam was the place that he had the most respect and job satisfaction. He was only a Staff Sergeant when he earned the MOH. He mentioned that Colonels knew his name, but in the states (prior to the MOH), he would have just been some Sergeant. I highly recommend this book for anyone who even LIKES war stories, wants to know what Vietnam was like, or likes history. I picked this up at the Wichita Public Library.

The Vietnam War produced some of the greatest, yet unsung, heroes in American history, Franklin "Doug" Miller was one of them. This book is not so much an autobiography as it is an oral reflection that makes you feel that you are there as he tells his story, with Miller moving to topic to topic as it occurs to him. And what a great story it is. Miller is sometimes vague on details, not going into how he went from being a PFC in a line company to being assigned to Special Forces. Miller's first combat experience was truly unique, more like a company of mountain men in the far west fighting the Blackfeet than a modern army that we think of in Vietnam. "We're going to go across the river and attack a village, do you want to go along?" His platoon sgt asks.

The book's relaxed style does not distrack from the horrors that combat can be and the titled sub-chapters such as-Silver Star, or Bronze Star are helpful as the reader is fully informed on what actions the author was decorated for. It becomes apparent that decorations in Special Forces were hard to come by. The authors discribe day to day life in the S.O.G. unit and provides some insight into the legendary "Mad-Dog" Shirver. The action in which SSGT Miller earned the Medal Of Honor is told in edge of your seat intensity-I wasn't sure if he would come out alive, even though he was telling the story! It's a story that goes from bad, to worse, to hopeless, to acceptance that all's lost.

After nearly six years in the combat zone Miller starts to get a little battle rattled and is sent home. Forunatly the army helped him recover and as a Sergeant Major became an inspiration to a new generation of soldiers. "Doug" Miller became a Special Forces legend, he deserves to be an American legend. I'm glad that his story has been told.

This book is phenomenal. I have been interested in military history, tradition, battles, operations, and training since I was a young kid and have read many books about this genre. I have to say that this one was the best I have read so far. Frank Miller's adventures are beyond compare. Miller often had luck on his side, but what really mattered was that he was good at gathering intelligence and killing the enemy. He didn't enjoy killing, but he understood that it was either him or them and he did what he had to do without dwelling on it.

This book puts you right on the battlefront and makes you feel part of the brotherhood and loyalty that men share when confronted with life and death. There are many humorous stories scattered in the book of more relaxing times away from battle which Miller shares.

I have to give much praise to the author, Elwood Kureth, because he was able to write about Miller's exploits in a way that really made you identify with Frank Miller. A very well written book and very entertaining.

I'm not opposed to all wars but I was very much against our involvement in Vietnam. I thought then and still think that we should have been helping the other side. I bought this book wanting to hear what combat was like there from a special forces soldier. Fortunately, the book didn't get into the politics but simply told about his life and job, which was to collect intelligence and kill the enemy. His bravery and what he went through is mind boggeling and the descripions of battles are riviting. I stayed up way past my bedtime reading it.

WOW, this is one of the most gripping and moving accounts of personal combat and experiences in Vietnam that I have ever read. I had great difficulty putting this gem down, as it is directly related in first-person and the author does a magnificent job of making you feel as if you're right there alongside the subject of the book (Franklin Miller).

Nothing is held back, and if you've ever served in the military, you'll fall right into step with the narration. Everything is presented in all its gory detail, so if you're a little squeamish, you might want to skim across a few sections. The ending is particularly heart-wrenching, especially the afterword by the author's widow.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the up-close and personal views of combat in Vietnam.

Judith Sherman's Say the Name can be seen as a theodicy that arises out of the Jewish tradition and in response to the events of the Holocaust. In poetry and prose we see, on the one hand, the horror of human evil, and on the other, the hope and meaning that arises out of tragedy in the form of poetic expression and imagination. Sherman a provides vivid and horrific account of physical pain, mental suffering, and moral wickedness. In a moving passage, Sherman recounts:

Today a woman runs suddenly from the Appell line--she runs towards the electrified fence. The dogs get to her before she reaches it. Screaming, she tries to put push the dog away...The animal is not called back, he attacks until there is no more movement. Every horrified one of us wants to rush and help--no one does. Silence. There are so many of us here, how are we so crushed into silence and inaction? The reason right there, in front of us--they watch us closely, provocatively, hand on the trigger and dogs at the ready--hoping for another futile sacrifice...We are filled with rage and pity and helplessness and are paralyzed by their brutality (102).

This passage confronts us with the reality of evil as experienced by Jewish women in German concentration camps. Based on this reality, it is not difficult to see how people who believe in God, and have a particular image of God, can question or call into account the God in whom they believe. Sherman's account reveals a questioning of the divine. Is God not outraged? Does God not hear what is going on? Indeed, where is God? "Where is the judge? Where are you, judge? Is there a judge?" (117).

Her response to these questions is to invoke biblical imagery and to invite God to come and witness, and account for the tragedy that has taken place. In her poem, "The Invitation," she invokes the imagery of Jacob's ladder and asks that God come down the ladder and witness the sights "not fit/ for Godly eyes/ not fit for thee/ is it for me?/ who will make it fit for Thee?" (118). Or again, having experienced so much pain, she requests that God take on her pain, "You have it/ and be/ branded" (122). Does God identify with our pain? Is God in solidarity with those who suffer? It seems that Sherman is inviting God to be present with the women beaten down by guards, chased by dogs, shot to death, and with those who have to witness these events without the ability to respond. It is a moving book in which the author has mustered up the courage to recount her experiences and to "say the name."

How can there be so much evil in the world? More pointedly, how can an all powerful and loving God allow such evil? Where is God? These and other tough questions are asked by Judith Sherman as she reflects on her time spent at the Nazi concentration camp Ravensbruck at the young age of fourteen. Combining narrative prose with short poignant poetry, Sherman walks the reader through the painful and emotional events, describing her sense of frustration at a God who has abandoned her and the rest of the Jewish people. Most accounts of the Holocaust elicit deep emotions and feelings and this book certainly does that, but in a unique way. The prose unfolds the details of her story and then all of a sudden you become struck by the overwhelming emotion and powerful insight of a short three or four line poem. This combination has a strong effect and throughout the book the poems remain clearly in your memory and serve to give more meaning to the details and descriptions of the horrendous struggles of a concentration camp.

With detailed descriptions, Sherman focuses on everyday objects, such as a pair of shoes, and transforms them from their ordinary status into things that have a greater significance and meaning. The transformation and emphasis on objects shows how Sherman's outlook on life has changed and through this outlook Sherman has finally been given the voice to tell her story, giving the reader the chance to connect to it in a moving and profound way. Reading this book will give new meaning to the themes of theodocy, family, memory, the human spirit, and most of all will give you a new outlook on life.

After having learned at length about the atrocities of the Holocaust in history class every year of middle and high school, and after hearing personal accounts from my many Jewish classmates about their grandparents in concentration camps, I felt almost overloaded with news of the horrors and wasn't particularly excited about reading another book about the Holocaust.

But Say the Name is different. Judith Sherman manages to convey the depths of despair and suffering that occurred during her time in hiding, in concentration camps, on a death march without any trace of stridency, but rather with her own quiet and simple words that are humbly defiant and moving. She communicated to me, for the first time really, how it feels to not have any control over what happens to your body, to be stripped of a voice, to be robbed of a name. This poetic novel, more than any other I have read on the topic, speaks to the psychological death as well as the physical one that the Nazis inflicted on so many millions. Judith Sherman resists both, however, and her spirit is evident in the fact that she was able to share in writing her deepest and most agonizing thoughts and memories about her experience.

Another aspect of the book is Sherman's relationship with God, which is a complex and vacillating one. In some passages it almost seems as if she is referring to a lover who has betryaed her, and she is filled with sadness, anger, longing, and ultimately a love that she will not forsake. She does not, however, blindly accept "the will of God," instead demanding over and over, "where are you?" If God should be praised for the blessings he gave her, then he should also be held accountable for his apparent abandonment of his people.

To read this book is to explore memory, theodicy, religion, family, genocide, the human spirit, and will leave you saying its name.

Say the Name is a powerful and poignant account of a young woman's experience in Nazi imprisonment during WWII. After years of silence, Judith Sherman was compelled to come out and tell her story, not only for herself and her family, but for the millions of other who had no voice. The unnamed victims of human suffering in camps like Ravensbruck cannot be put away with the history books. They are people who were made to be things, but they were not things. Sherman describes in her prose and poetry how the life that they had known before the war melted away, and was replaced by a reality that terrorized, brutalized, and destroyed. This reality was the dehumanizing force of the Nazi regime.

I wonder how an author who is so modest with her prose, who even wrote that "words fail" to capture the "monumental horror" of the Holocaust, is able to to move the reader with her words with such remarkable ease. Her voice resonates with the child, the daughter, the mother, the friend, and the person who had to ask God, "Why?". Sherman's writing, and especially her poetry, are evocative and elegant for sure, but I think that it is the place that she is writing from that creates this feeling of "being there' with her. Her pain and the pain of those she names is human pain. Their loss is human loss. As people we have lost something by allowing evil like this to exist in the world. It doesn't have to.

Her tale is not one of Jewish suffering but human suffering and survival. She recalls the ways she resisted the forces that sought to destroy her. Sherman's life was never the name when the war was over, which is to say that the experience never ended. However, she is able to take her pain and wordlessness and make something that helps others understand. I thank her for that. Sherman's book would be good for students of all ages and particularly those interested in the stories and history of the Holocaust. I guarantee this courageous little book will move you no matter what you're looking at it for. Her connections with human suffering are particularly intense regarding family loss, motherhood, friendship, the struggle with divine over the existence of evil, and the loss of the "ordinary things" we take for granted when we're home.

Judith Sherman's Say the Name is a survivor's account of a teenage girl's struggle with God and humanity in Ravensbruck concentration camp during the Holocaust. Sherman, now a wife, mother and grandmother living in the United States, writes her memoir some 50 to 60 years after the Nazi's carried out their "Final Solution."

Sherman's poetry and prose in this book reflect a loss of people, places and things that make up the fabric of a person's life, culture and beliefs. She is, at turns, angry and bewildered. She demands an accounting for these atrocities. But ultimately Sherman's quest for survival and her insistence on remembering the names of women who were killed conveys a sense of humanity and even of hope. This is Sherman's first book, and she is not a polished writer. She writes in fragments and one has the sense of poetry scribbled on napkins over the years and then included in the memoir. Her book is all the stronger for this.

After reading and being fascinated by Bengston's Chaplin book (Silent Traces), I really want a brand new copy of the Keaton book. I hope it gets published again. I don't want a used copy for $50. I heard him speak at the Academy last week and he is really interesting.

This book is a necessity for any Buster Keaton fan or any fan of Hollywood history. It is well researched and absolutely fascinating.

This is a great book. I love to watch Keaton's movies with this to hand, it gives a whole new insight to the films. It is easy to read and it is interesting to see the sights of LA from the 20's. Sometimes it is sad to see that some of these locations are gone, where the building of freeways have necessitated the removal of whole city blocks. If I ever get to visit LA I know that this book will be going with me.

Years ago I purchased Civil War historian William A. Frassanito's excellent books "Gettysburg: A Journey in Time" and "Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day," which examine and compare historic and modern photographs of these famous battle sites. John Bengtson has done essentially the same thing for Hollywood using Keaton's films, and the result is nothing short of miraculous. Here are scenes of what used to be but are no more, resurrected with the benefit of Bengtson's keen eye, detective-like mind, and obsessive attention to detail. This is one heck of a fun book, and you'll spend many hours going over the photographs.

Amazingly, many of the scenic backdrops that Keaton used in his films still exist, and they serve today as nostalgic reminders of a relatively primitive and innocent time that has all but disappeared.

This is a truly different kind of book. We get to see the locations that Buster made his films, and how they have changed through time. We also get to see how the author went about finding these places, a kind of historical research that takes a tremendous amount of time and effort.

This book is one that I automatically pick up when I'm not sure what I want to read, but want something interesting.

If there was a complaint, it would be that many of the pictures and some of the text is really too small. I have great eyesight, some of this is too hard for even me to see, and I know many people have a harder time with small text and pictures. Lay off of our eyesight, eh?


Still, a totally fascinating book. I can't get enough.

Excellent book. Well written. Should be read by all New Jersey
citizens...

If you are interested in and fairly familiar with New Jersey politics and politicians this is a reasonably entertaining and informative book. It's no page-turner, but not bad.

According to this well written and documented book the elected have not ever been to New Jersey! It is not only amazing but downright disheartening to read all the unbelievable events that have gone on for years by both parties in all parts of the state. No wonder so many people leave this beautiful place. They can't afford it. What really makes you mad is that there is little hope for future change. This book will make your blood really boil!!

Even if you live a continent away in Washington state, "The Soprano State" will amuse, educate and yes, horrify you. Authors Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure have put together an appalling catalog of the "worst of the worst" New Jersey politicians and public servants and their most outrageous shenanigans.
As the authors note, "why should such a wealth of lunacy and depravity" be enjoyed only by New Jersey? My personal favorite, in a chapter titled "All Aboard the Gravy Train," is an anecdote about how sometimes "the legislative gravy train delivers real gravy." In that case, New Jersey taxpayers coughed up $124,000 over three years to purchase 300 lunches each day the Legislature was in session to feed 80 members of the assembly, 40 senators _ and lobbyists. The lunches were trucked in from a well-connected restaurant 57 miles away!
¶ It's tempting for us outsiders to feel smug, but there's also a nagging worry: what if our politicians are just less obviously outrageous, and our reporters more lapdog and less pit bull?
¶ Beyond the entertainment value, this book is a cautionary tale, reminding us that citizens anywhere can be fleeced by those we elect.
¶

As a former kid from New Jersey I purchased the book as
somewhat of a lark. After devouring the material it was
no longer a lark. The pathetic corruption is so clearly
detailed and documented it makes your head spin.The New Jersey I left in 1974 had an outstanding public school system which has been decimated by the lads in Trenton,
draining resources from small school districts and pumping
those funds into inner-city enviroments. No measurable
improvement is to be found. the State is bankrupt,under-
funded pensions and corrupt at every level of government.
If you live in NJ you have to read this.Then start packing

Stalking Irish Madness:Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia is an incredible book. This year I've read 115 books to date and this is the best one. I read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. Patrick Tracey is an excellent writer and storyteller. What makes this book incredible instead of just good is that it is well written, it takes you on a journey, it is very interesting, it teaches you about the links between mental illness and the Irish, and it touches your heart and soul.

This book is for everyone. You do not have to be Irish, or have schizophrenia or any other mental illness to benefit from this book.

This book is a very important book because it has the potential to help millions of families. Every family has some secret in their family tree, whether it is schizophrenia, or alcoholism, or drug abuse. Every family has issues that are hidden and not discussed. I say this is an important book because I hope people will use this book as a catalyst to help them start talking to their family members about these issues and get them out in the open. If you have alcoholism or schizophrenia, or depression that runs in your family, evey member should know about it so they can make decisions that could affect their well being and the well being of future generations.

What we do now, the decisions we make today, affect our children and grandchildren.

If Mr. Tracey can tell the whole world about how his family has been affected by schizophrenia we all can confront our relatives and find out the hidden issues that are lurking in our family trees.

After I finished reading this book I was very grateful to Mr. Tracey for having had the courage to share his story. He made me feel better about my own family. We all have issues that we are ashamed of in our family and that we tend to hide for one reason or another. This hiding and shame accomplishes nothing. It doesn't make the issues go away; they just fester under the surface. The truth does set you free.

I am American. I was born and raised here, and I am Irish and Lebanese and I have issues on both sides of my family tree. My Lebanese grandmother didn't bother to tell the family that she had Mediterranean Anemia. It was just lucky that none of us had children with others who also had Mediterranean Anemia because then the children would have had to have constant blood transfusions. Her keeping quiet didn't make it go away it just put her grandchildren and great grandchildren in unnecessary danger.

On my Irish side of the family, my great grandmother was put into a mental institution after her young husband died of a heart attack, leaving her with 4 children to raise on her own, the youngest was a newborn. My grandfather was told his mother had died. He never knew the truth about his mother. She lived a long life. He could have gone to visit her. We only found out the truth a few years ago, and we still don't know what the diagnosis was. So, my Irish relatives decided to tell my grandfather he no longer had a mother rather than tell him the truth.

This is what I am talking about. And this is why this book is so important. Read this book and give copies of it to your relatives. Use it to start the conversation about the difficult issues in your family tree. Our relatives who know the family stories and secrets won't live forever. Use Mr. Tracey as an example and start talking.

They say we all have a book inside of us, but i doubt many could match this for its original subject matter. Mr Tracey lays it bare for us all, as they say, "warts un all". I doubt many of us would like to even delve this deep into our past and then reveal it in print to the world.

I think this book should also be read as an insight into Pat Tracey himself and the complex issues that he has had to deal with in writing this book and into the serious issues which are literally ignored by society in Schizophrenia.

It was an excellent read and i loved travelling with Pat on his journey and the way he brought it to life, i hope he brings us something else(he touched on alcoholism and drugs in his life) as he can certainly tell a story like only the Irish can, candid, with humour and emotion.

With heartfelt courage Patrick Tracey chronicles his family's present and past history with the mental condition, schizophrenia. The disease descends from his mother's side of the family with roots originating back to Ireland's County Roscommon. As a child Tracey hears tales of his institutionalized grandmother leaving the house in morning and returning home at night with her teeth completely pulled out, enacting what voices in her head told her. He goes on to describe in detail how during his college years he witnesses two of his older four sisters descend into madness, each during their early twenties. Thirty years later Tracey sets forth in a camping van back to Ireland to hopefully meet relatives and find some answers. Recently becoming aware that Ireland had the world's highest rate of mental illness up until the 1960's, Tracey discovers plenty of local lore on his travels, including tales of fairies living in ancient caverns that capture people's minds and well water in a valley of Gleanna-A-Galt holding healing powers. He attends The Hearing Voices Network conference and meets people that have learned to control the voices they hear and are able to function drug free with the disease. Tracey separates fact from fiction for the reader and comes up with an interesting accumulation of information about schizophrenia's past and future. This book is part travelogue, part psychological and genealogical history, and part one man's own, and often difficult, self-discovery. It places a humanistic understanding on mental illness, which statistics show one in every four people worldwide suffer from some type, one in one hundred from schizophrenia, the most severe form. It gives some hope, however small, to the future of schizophrenics and their families. Tracey's amazing ability to tell a story with humor, passion and insights into this disease, makes this book one all should take time to read.

All families have a random eccentric relative, with habits that may be irritating or endearing, but the eccentricities in Patrick Tracey's family occur frequently, and have often catastrophic results. The author travels through his ancestral home, in Ireland, in an attempt to trace a line back through time and learn more about why and how schizophrenia is such a regular figure in his heritage.
I generally enjoy travel writing since it enables me to see the world cheaply and from my couch, and this book certainly delivered that to me. The descriptive pages of Tracey's travels across Ireland, in a van, staying in various campgrounds enabled me to travel with him vicariously.
I am also curious about family histories, and again, this book delivered a family history intertwined with madness that was painful to read, yet hard to stop. The author mentioned somewhere, perhaps in an interview, that there were many other stories he omitted from the book because they were too disturbing, and that is chilling to think about.
This book was a fascinating read.

Receive a sense of what Ireland is, past and present. The delving into the pain of mental illness everywhere is leavened with a secret pleasure: Travel with Patrick Tracey, who could write the proverbial telephone book, and you would want to travel with him ...
--Maruja Frank

This is not only a cook book, but a wonderful history of each dish giving the cookbook real meaning - not just process.

I love this cookbook. It gives a history and stories about some of my favorite texmex dishes. I got one for all my siblings and some of my in-laws. My daughter even gave one to her favorite professor. Living in south texas, we get authentic texmex, and this is the first cookbook that I've found that lives up to it's name. If you like Mexican food and you want the real thing to serve at home, this is the cookbook to get!!

This book is the epitamy of south Texas history PLUS cuisine. I admit to being biased for more authentic Mexican cooking, thus a big fan of the likes of Diana Kennedy and Ray Bayless's books, but nonetheless my south Texas husband and his family are avid Tex Mex diners. I needed to brush up on the Tex Mex cuisine and came across this little gem, because not only am I a foodie, but I'm also a history buff. Filled with old pictures and history from over a century ago, and finding the recipes to be quite authentic (of what I've seen in south Texas), I couldn't put this book down. This is probably one of the best Tex Mex cookbooks that I have seen, and I have seen plenty. To those that are biased true Mexican cuisine enthusiasts, just know that I am with you in sentiment, but this is still a great read with plenty of recipes that will please our stubborn palates. Enjoy!

I have lived in the southwest for years and enjoy eating all the TEX-MEX food from the western states. This little recipe book give a lot to local food in different regions. The end results of the food I have prepared is very good...sometimes I have had problem finding certain item that the recipe calls for but if you understand Mexican cooking and what goes with what you can find different ingredients to use.

The Tex-Mex Cookbook is an invaluable source of Tex/Mex cooking fact, folklore, history and recipe content. I highly recommend it.

Right now, health officials that directly control the physical condition of most of our population make their decisions based on data bought and paid for by agribusiness, or data that is a century old. Everyone in such positions, both in the FDA, CDC, USDA & state regulatory boards, is morally beholden to read this book and to understand the truth.

Of course, they won't, and it will continue to be easier to buy crack cocaine in the USA than it is to purchase the most perfect and complete food available to man. At least Schmid's writing will empower those of us who do understand what controls the food supply to argue intelligently in favor of raw dairy, and to spread enlightenment in our small spheres.

This book will be the foundation to a world of politics and potential that you probably didn't have a hunch existed in the realm of food science and politics, especially with a food so fundamental as dairy and a subject so fundamental as food!

I have purchased many copies of this book, and I read it over for pragmatic and enjoyment purposes. The author has a clean, but interesting style that will help you see through any dogma about to cook, or not to cook your dairy; and who is taking away one of those options from you.


I certainly hope you'll be able to get your hands on some of the right raw dairy that works for you, after reading this book!

Awsome book. an eye opener to anyone interested in what goes in your body.
scary realisation. after reading this book your friends will think you are insane. it is almost as if you discovered smoking is good for you. Noone would believe you!

A MUST READ

The wealth of information in this book more than makes up for a little bit of disorganization at times and some typos.

In a nutshell, it encapsulates the history of milk production in this country and re-visits all significant studies about the health properties of milk to show unequivocally that certified, clean raw milk is what we all NEED to be drinking, not the pasteurized stuff that destroys enzymes that are very important for human health.

Many alternative health remedies these days recommend to not drink dairy. The reason is that PASTEURIZED dairy contribues to chronic health problems, while RAW dairy helps fix them due to its enzyme and probiotic bacteria content. The two products are not really even comparable from a health standpoint, though both are called milk and both are white liquid.

This message needs to get out. Certified raw milk is not dangerous. Buy the book. Loan it to your friends. Pressure your local government to allow raw milk sales and allow people the choice and opportunity to become healthier.

Schmid very carefully tells the history of milk and once you are informed you will be sickened by current "legal" dairy practices. If you have ever driven by large dairies (especially in Idaho) and inhaled the stink of confined cows and observed the mud and filth they live in this book is a must read. Rock on "Real Milk".

For those in the world who feel like they don't know nearly enough "stuff" (or all purpose knowledge, not specific to any one subject, like literature or history or science...), stop.

Breathe in. And behold.

"What are the Seven Wonders of the World?" and the remaining bits of title which go on for quite a bit, is a rather remarkable volume. Thick, informative, and enjoyable, it is a convenient way to learn various bits of trivia, whether simply to learn, or even to impress others (yes, I CAN name the six wives of Henry VIII!). It's fun to go through bit by bit, can be read aloud as a trivia game in itself, and is (thankfully) paperback, so weighs less than it would if hardcover.

"Wonders" gives you everything. Whether teaching about religion (quite a bit is devoted to this subject), math (triangles, trigonometry, Euclid... those things you'd hoped to forget from high school), history, architecture (yes!), music, or even the alphabet, "Wonders" maintains a light, informative feel... in small portions. Reading each informative essay one after the other might give you a bit of a headache.

Highly recommended in small doses. A great way to learn new things, as long as one carefully rations it out. 4 1/2.

Absolutley superb trivia book. Saat down and read it in my FIRST sitting. Very enjoyable. Great seller, too; very fast turnaround time!

This book is wonderfull. It doesnt matter what you are interested in, you will enjoy this book. In this book there is everything from what are the three sons of Adam and Eve to what are the 24 letters of the greek alphabet. You will always find something interesting in this book.

I found this interesting book via a book club I belong to. I've used it extensively in research for debating as well as writing fanfiction. Encyclopedic in nature (it covers a wealth of subjects from history to science to the arts) and intelligently written, I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys learning.

This is a clever little volume which, for the most part, I enjoyed. Essentially, it is 101 questions (see the title for an example) with answers provided in short, generally engaging essays. For a triviophile like myself, it provided a lot of interesting stuff, though it's not really a book to be read straight through. Instead, taking a few questions a night should prevent information overload.

In addition, the book does have a few weakness. First, there is the unavoidable one of the selection of questions. Depending on your tastes, some questions will likely be less interesting than others. Also, the authors have the occasional tendency to throw in a judgement with their answers which can rankle, especially in the religious realm. Finally, there is the feeling that some of the questions are a bit of a stretch, shaped to fit the format the authors have chosen.

Still, I don't get the sense that the book is meant to be a reference work. It is meant to be an engaging exploration of a potpourri of interesting questions. In that respect, it works quite well.

Superbly written book, wonderful use of the English language.
Here is a graphic account of the stresses, dangers and life of a WW1 fighter pilot. Anyone who is interested in this period should read this and then read it again. An awe inspiring piece of work.

In doing some family history research I established that an 18 year old relative had died in a mid air collision while flying a Sopwith Camel in the same area and at the same time this story is set. I was searching for some literature that could give me some understanding of what this brave young man had experienced. I could not have found anything that could have been more compelling reading or had more of an emotional impact than this superbly written account of the machinery and the time.

A ripping yarn, a must for aviation enthusiasts, replete with explicit and graphic flight scenes. The philosophizing seems more 1930's than 1918, but that's when the author published it. The way the author/hero deals with the loss of comrades is skilled writing, evoking the banality of having to get on with the job without mourning. i'm not qualified to comment on any authenticity of the feeling expressed/felt but it stands out from others of the genre for that reason. for me, it ranks with Sagittarius Rising, and Derek Robinson's work. the author enjoys spiking the sometimes purple prose with neologisms and entertaining latinisms; a trait i enjoy but others shouldn't have much trouble ignoring.

I really can't understand all the 5 stars this got because other than a short, brilliant chapter on flying the camel, it just goes on and on and on and...you get the idea. Plot summary: get up and fly, dodge archie, come back to base, maybe somebody dies, get drunk, do it again tomorrow. That's pretty much it folks. Don't look for any plot development or character development here. There is some philisophical rambling about the meaning of the war which should rightly be included in any war book. Never goes anywhere. it was hard to actually finish the book but i was curious to see if it actually every "took off and flew". final verdict? down in flames! Want my copy free?

Based upon the author's own experiences in the RFC in 1918 here is the complete story of the war in the air on the western front. 148 sorties, the slow inexorable death of friends and squadron mates one at a time until only a squadron of ghosts is left, dogfights with Fokkers, air superiority over the Huns, death in the air, flamers (the worst way to die!), Archie, getting tight in the mess each evening singing rousing songs and smashing furniture to relieve the tension, dropping bombs, low altitude ground strafing, slaughtering ground troops with your machine guns until it sickens you, downing two seaters, mechanical failures of your Sopwith Camel while waiting for the new Snipes to arrive from England,gliding or limping back to the lines and safety, mid-air collisions, influenza turning to TB. It is all there. Highly recommended. This is the best book on the war in the air in WW1 I have ever found. Read it, and then read it again. It is that good.