Ball Books

If you live in an arid area, remember that "there is only a certain amount of water in the world and they aren't making any more of it." An acre of grass takes 27,000 gallons of water a week to keep green. It's hard for some to give up that patch of green grass that America equates with leisure time and suburban living.
Having lived in Central Australia, I advocate for full desert landscaping using native plants along with exotics from dry countries.
Xeriscaping (water-wise planting) doesn't mean a yard that is a barren moonscape. Think of colorful crape myrtles, bougainvilleas, firebushes, palms, yuccas, and many more interesting plants. Artfully placed, they provide a green view and offset the gravel that replaces grass in a water saving landscape. Mulch everything to insulate the soil and keep moisture in the ground.

I had to read this book for an environmental law class. I wasn't thrilled being forced to read it but I have to admit, it was an easy read and easy to understand book. The case was gripping and frustrating for those involved in the real-life story. I had to make a timeline of events that took place throughout the book for class and I was able to do that with the information the author provided. I still have not watched the movie but I learned a great deal about this case by reading this book. Anyone interested in environmental pollution or environmental law or just the lives of ordinary people impacted by chemical pollution in their own homes would enjoy reading this book. It was a surprising "must read" and one I would have missed had it not been an assignment for school. Glad I didn't miss out!

Leilani

A Civil Action 502 pgs.
by Jonathan Harr
Review by SpeekNDaTruuf


What happens when two of the nation's largest companies are brought to court? All hell breaks loose... and it is into the depths of hell that we traverse in Jonathan Harr's nonfictional court drama A Civil Action.

1960s. The age of youth, the age of revolution, and, yes, the age of cover-ups and
conspiracies. In the small town of Woburn, Massachussettes, two companies, W.R. Grace, a chemical plant, and the J. J. Riley Tannery, a division of Beatrice Foods, are polluting the town's water supplies, commonly referred to as Wells G and H. As a result, a leukemia cluster develops, taking with it the lives of several small children and middle-aged adults.

1980s. The age of selfishness, the age of self interests. Jan Schlichtmann, a prosecutor at the top of his game, along with his cohorts, have decided to represent the plaintiffs in the Woburn environmental crisis. But they soon find out how greed, how hopes of fortune and fame, can cause those at the top to fall.

There were several aspects of this novel that I loved. One, for instance, was the number of significant characters. Usually, a book has a hero, and it focuses on that one person throughout the entire novel. A Civil Action, however, does not. Yes, it has a main character, but to me, the other characters' interaction with the main character allows readers the ability to actually like the protagonist. I found myself often rooting for Jan Schlichtmann. And I wasn't just rooting for him because he was the "hero." Although he has the title, we see him slipping into what I like to call "nervous breakdown" mode during this novel, and it's not often that we see a main character as fleshed out as Jan. We see his highs, his lows... we hear about his hopes and dreams, and we watch them as they crumble around him. From what I have gathered, he is a good man, albeit only a character in a novel that I have just read.

Another aspect that I loved about A Civil Action was Harr's inclusion of the average reader into the world of legal procedures. Now, as a fan of TNT's Law & Order, I like to think that I am up-to-date on the matter of criminal procedures. But Harr showed me just how much I had to learn (and subsequently, how much more I need to learn). Readers are rewarded with insight into both the prosecutorial and defense procedures, and even though I was rooting for Schlichtmann, I couldn't help but somewhat admire Facher (one of the defense attorneys for Beatrice Foods). I will not lie, though; I hated Judge Skinner!


Of course there's more, but I might end up giving away half of the novel by detailing everything that I liked in this book. So, that being written, I have decided to reward Harr with FOUR STARS for A Civil Action. But don't let my review speak for the novel. Here's what others thought:

#1 National Bestseller
Winner -- National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
Cleveland Plain Dealer: "The legal thriller of the decade."

Here's something else you may want to check out:
"A Civil Action", the movie, starring John Travolta, is now out on DVD. It came on one of the premium stations tonight, and I watched it for the first time. Although it wasn't as detailed as the book (most movies never are), it was actually worth watching. It was good to put faces to the characters I've read about. I think you should check it out also. It didn't get my 4 stars, but it did receive 3 from the "t.v. people."

I read this book in a couple of days when I picked it up at random and it inspired me. The novel's main character Jay Schlictman was a man driven at all costs and willing to risk everything to bring justice into the world. The tale of a small New England community's struggle against the negligence of Corporate America and a few individuals is sobering. It makes one want to drink bottled water.

This book was a real page turner and it also laid bare some of the short comings of the justice system in this country with regards to corporate litigation. Schlictman becomes a Robin Hood type character, out to avenge the poor from the gluttony of greed and neglect. He also displays a reckless abandon and conviction which is wound up into the idealism of youth. In the end he nearly losses everything including his sanity-the way the story moves along is incredible and the reader feels the frustration.

I liked the book ten times better than the movie. I still get turned off by Travolta sometimes, remembering him dancing around underneath the mirror ball in a white suite with a spoon around his neck in the late 70's; maybe they should have called Richard Gere or better yet, Denzell Washington.

This is a page turner so, beware, if you pick this one up you may not want to put it down.

We ride the roller coaster that attorney Jan Schlictmann is on in pursuit of justice for the families of Woburn Massachsetts who sue a megacorporation because they developed leukimia from unknowingly living in an area contaminated by toxic pollution.

I particularly liked this book because it is the best account of what it is like to be civil trial attorney handling large cases. The book has deservedly one numerous accolades. Not only is the book a page turner, but is gives those thinking of entering law school a look into the often very messy business of being a lawyer. Can a case really last years and years and years? Is the truth really that hard to discover for your client? Do lawyers really have to do go through all of this? A must read for anyone thinking about law school. Even if you have no connection to the law, you will find this book is one of the best you will ever read.

This is the best book written about a lawsuit and is a terrific teaching tool. The author had unparalleled access to the lawyers, mostly the plaintiffs' lawyer who, somewhat questionably from an ethics standpoint, allowed a journalist to witness client meetings and strategy sessions. While some of the reviewers criticize Harr for pro-plaintiff bias because of this, Harr simply played the hand he was dealt. The defense lawyers were not about to grant that level of access. In addition, Harr does, after the trial, become close to the lead defense lawyer, the curmudgeonly Facher. This allows him to relate a useful defense perspective.

The book takes the reader from the environmental contamination of the 1950s - 1970s, through pre-litigation investigation in the early 1980s, through extensive pretrial proceedings, and then all the way throught the 1986 jury trial. Thereafter, Harr tells the post-trial story, including settlement, appeal, and government initiated proceedings that ultimately resolve the environmental clean-up issue. In short, one can experience nearly every aspect of a civil action in a highly readable narrative.

Harr is a sensitive observer who can key on strengths of the civil justice system that includes the ability to bring the powerful to account before a jury of ordinary citizens (the apotheosis of democracy, as the plaintiffs' lawyers' consulting Harvard professor says -- the law is America's "civil religion"). And he is terrific at highlighting the essential weaknesses and failings of the system. This, Harr captures in two unforgettable quotes. The first is from Schlictmann, the plaintiff's lawyer, who rues how hard it is "to do good and do well" at the same time. That, in a nutshell, captures the skewing effect that the profit motive and money have on the civil litigation process. And then there is this priceless quote from Facher, the defense lawyer: "The truth? The truth is at the bottom of a bottomless pit." The liberal discovery rules and the right of cross examination are supposed to be tools uniquely well-suited for ferreting out the truth. But the ruinous expense and confusion of the process; the foibles of the attorneys, judges, and witnesses; and the profit motive of the attorneys all combine to wreak havoc and to leave one wondering if the truth really does emerge from this process.

In the end, I take a more optimistic point of view than a number of the other reviewers. The families get compensated for the toxic tort caused by the environmenal contamination (at a minimum the families suffered from solvent poisoning that caused provable damage even if it is a stretch to prove that leukemia was caused by TCE to a reasonable medical certainty); the government finally gets off its butt, helped by the work done by Schlictimann, and forces the defendants to clean up the mess; and other companies get the message from this case and from the CERCLA legislation passed in 1980 that environmental clean up and better environmental policies are now a cost of doing business. So the system works to a large degree, though it does a poor job, or no job at all, in alleviating the pain and alienation experienced by the harmed families and community.

Perhaps the best quality of the book is its compelling portrayal of Schlictmann and Facher -- both of whom are attractive and admirable in some ways while at the same time being quite flawed and tragic. The book is about human nature as much as it is about the civil justice system, and is the kind of nonfiction novel that would have made Truman Capote and Norman Mailer proud.

This is a truly great book.

This book has helped me a lot. I highly recommend it. It contains powerful yet rather uncomplicated ideas that may very well change someone's outlook in life. That is, if reading it attentively and without prejudice. The author has a flowing style that grabs the reader and allows for an almost continuous motion from cover to cover. He certainly has the academic and formal background to support the concepts and ideas described (psychology, anthropology, sociology, you name it), but chooses to write from a much more interesting position, that of his own experience. He subjected himself many times to each and every possible situation related to the subject and patiently tested it through trial and error. The result is a distilled and concentrated discourse, packed with valuable information at every turn, which is direct and even blunt at times, but sounds true and honest throughout.

Excellent book that provides all the necessary steps and insights for you to learn from. This isn't a book filled with quick fixes but rather, it's filled with real world advise.

This book provides some excellent albeit dated advise on dating younger women and on getting a sagging lifestyle back into fighting trim. A good read.

A little over a week after finishing the two volume series, a woman I chose sent her phone number over to me while I was pumping gas. The information is useful but not earth shattering and at least the price is not the ridiculous amount some internet publishers charge.

Understanding what motivates people is the most valuable information you can use for a successful relationship. Sadly, this book's unfortunate title will turn off many men and women before they can reap the benefits of the knowledge imparted. Men, especially batchelors, should carefully read this for one huge reason -- It tells you exactly what women want and why. If the author reworked and retitled this as "How Women Think" it could be a best seller.

While on vacation in Florida, I stopped by a B&N to look for something to read while on the flight home. I had already read all the magazines I like and didn't want anything too serious. I was checking out some books in the humor section and stumbled on this one. I am glad I did.
This is straight up hilarious nonsense from the mind of Maddox, the superman behind "The Best Page in the Universe".
I had a day left in the sun, and spent it voraciously gorging myself on this book, finishing it before dinner.
Truly funny, but truly brutal, this book walks you through the alphabet through the eyes of a brutal dude.
If you don't laugh out loud when you read this book, check your pants - you might have soiled yourself trying to keep it in.

I like to think I'm pretty manly, and in my own way I am. But there's so much Manliness that I never even knew of! Now I'll be able to increase my Manliness tenfold! If you're a man you may want to pick this up just to make sure you've got all your bases covered. If you're not a man then get it just to see what you're missing out on.

Bought this for my father for Christmas. After he opened it and got a laugh, the book spent the rest of the day getting passed around the family. Absolutely hilarious. And completely inappropriate for young kids, so keep it on a high shelf.

I've been reading Maddox's website for years, and I've always enjoyed his writing. Most people find what he says offensive, but the beauty of it is that Maddox doesn't necessarily always mean what he writes. He could be likened to a shock jock on the radio.

That being said, the book that he came out with was hilarious. As you would guess, there's a new topic for each letter. Every section "explains" how the authors would need you to be to become "more manly." I think it's great to leave around so friends can pick it up, read a bit, and get a chuckle out of it.

I read and loved Tucker Max, and have to say Maddox is the man! I nearly busted my gut laughing so hard reading Mr Instability, and this book I didnt have that reaction more of the liftingh my head of going yeah thats right!

Franny and Zooey (1961) is J. D. Salinger's two-part novel about an intellectual and spiritually unfulfilled girl and her intellectual, snobbish brother. This novel features the Glass family, which Salinger has written about on other occasions. The majority of the book consists of three lengthy conversations: between Franny and her boyfriend, between Zooey and their mother, and between Franny and Zooey. The novel is so dialogue-heavy it reads very much like a play. The book's primary theme is spirituality, particularly of an Eastern bent (which is what Salinger himself was so fascinated by).

What Salinger does very well is communicate his characters' feelings subtly, through their speech and behavior, rather than by narration, which takes all the style out of things. The reader really feels like he or she gets to know Franny and Zooey (neither of them is particularly likeable, but that's beside the point).

While the dialogue between Salinger's characters is generally quite good, they all have the unbearable tendency to launch into unrealistic and lengthy monologues at any given moment. Here, at times, Salinger is in effect preaching to the reader.

Inexplicably, Salinger is eternally focused on smoking. The reader always knows what each character is smoking, whether it's lit, and what hand he or she is holding it in. It's to the point of distraction, and serves no reasonable purpose other than to briefly interrupt interminable monologues. Salinger also displays other tendencies to micromanage his characters and their world (he gives ridiculously long descriptions of certain things, most egregiously the contents of the medicine cabinet).

Ultimately, Franny and Zooey's downfall is that it doesn't particularly go anywhere. There's no real payoff. Two hundred pages of pampered, superior huffing and puffing, while entertaining at times and tedious by the end, climaxes with an unsatisfactory piece of basic, Eastern-worldview advice that gets treated as the greatest of revelations.

Franny and Zooey is a short book. In fact, it was originally published as two short stories in the New Yorker--"Franny" in 1955 and "Zooey" in 1957, and then published together in 1961. Franny and Zooey Glass are brother and sister--Franny's a 20-year old college student having a "nervous breakdown" as she explores Eastern religion, and Zooey's a 25-year-old actor who still lives at home. Bookending the two is the rest of the Glass family: the five other children, who we never met, and Mrs. Glass, who talks in italics.

Salinger wasn't one for "action," per se--there's a lot of saying, but not doing, in his novels. He tends to over-describe things--he even lists the entire contents of a medicine cabinet. Sometimes this can get long-winded and pointless, and it was easy for me to see why Catcher in the Rye overshadows this book. Franny and Zooey explore religion to a great extent in these stories, and their philosophizing went over my head in places. The dialogue is neurotic at times and fast-paced. Overall, not my cup of tea.

Maybe like most, I thought I would like this because I loved Catcher In The Rye. What a disappointment. The characters are so irritating and unlikable, and the stories did not have anything compelling about them. I was really surprised because I've heard from a few people that this was their favorite book ever. It wasn't badly written; the descriptive language was strong and captured the characters' moods and motivations. It just did not offer anything interesting, it was like being trapped in a room with a couple of bitter people with their complaints.

I guess I can start by saying that I had read Franny and Zooey only one time, when I was in high school decades ago (during the Nixon and Ford administrations) along with "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" from Nine Stories. I hadn't read either of them since, so I had a hazy recollection of the general outline of the stories, but my experience and enjoyment of the language was fresh and immediate.

Franny is very accessible - you drop into her world of East Coast preppie kids attending Ivy League schools in the middle 1950s and you are a fly on the wall, listening to beautiful, dark-haired 20 year old Franny Glass at lunch with her pretentious and self-absorbed boyfriend Lane Coutell, as they drink martinis and smoke cigarette after cigarette. (The amount of smoking that goes on in these stories is hilarious - one assumes the entire Glass family has since succumbed to lung cancer or heart disease.)

This is where we are introduced to a little book Franny carries with her everywhere called The Way of the Pilgrim. This reminds me of an aside I wished to make: the way we read now, in the Internet era. It's amazing to be able to go online at any moment while I was reading these books, to visit Wikipedia.org or Amazon.com, or be re-directed by Google to Salinger.org, and get instant gratification that, yes, The Way of the Pilgrim is a real book that you can order with One Click in a number of different translations, or be able to immediately read a quick synopsis of Plato's The Crito when Zooey mentions him in passing.

Probably generations of Franny and Zooey readers were curious about The Way of the Pilgrim, and just assumed that Salinger had made it up - but I was able to quickly satisfy my curiosity, while at the same time deciding that no, I had no wish to either buy or read the Pilgrim, and instead was able to get right back to the story. So that's somewhat of a new paradigm in the way we read now, and you don't even need a Kindle - especially if you've got a good used book store near your home or office.

Franny is a quick and entertaining read - you feel so sorry for her! Something is not quite right. She's not eating, she's going into the bathroom to cry, and her date is relentlessly oblivious and unhelpful. Finally she faints, and the story shifts to her 25 year old brother Zooey, who is smoking a cigarette in the bathtub and re-reading a four year old missive from their older brother Buddy, which luckily Salinger shares with us. We soon meet their mom, Bessie, and enjoy many pages of humorous dialog with her. Zooey finally gets dressed and goes into the Glass family living room in their Manhattan apartment to wake his sister.

The remainder of Zooey is all about his attempts to heal her through the power of his words, in turn hectoring, reminding, irritating, edifying and amusing her, until at the end of the story (I won't spoil it,) I gasped with emotion, an intake of breath that literally caught in my throat with a click as he delivered the big payoff line on the last page. It was an authentic moment of truth and a great ending to a fantastic book.

Over the years, I have grown to appreciate J. D. Salinger's 1961 novel, Franny and Zooey, more than his better-known cult classic, The Catcher in the Rye (1951). A college girlfriend first encouraged me to read the novel ("It's a love story," she said), and a recent French film, Dans Paris (based loosely on the novel), prompted me to read it again. Set in November, 1955, the novel tells the story of Franny and Zooey Glass, two precocious siblings both in their early 20s. The novel is divided into two parts, the first chapter named for "Franny," and the second named for "Zooey." In the first chapter, Franny, an undergraduate at Yale, has become disillusioned with academia, and in the second chapter, Zooey consoles his younger sister with his brotherly love in their parents' Manhattan apartment following her spiritual and existential breakdown at Yale.

The two-part "love story" is narrated by Franny and Zooey's older brother, Buddy Glass. At Yale, we find Franny questioning the value of her college education, re-evaluating her relationship with her boorish boyfriend, Lane Coutell, and reading a small, Russian religious text, The Way of a Pilgrim. While having lunch with Lane, Franny eats nothing, smokes, sweats, feels faint, and then breaks into tears in the restroom. The chapter ends with Franny practicing "the Way of the Pilgrim," praying the "Jesus Prayer" without ceasing, as she leaves in a taxi.

The second chapter picks up the story two days later, after Franny's existential breakdown. Much like Catcher's Holden Caulfield, Franny finds herself at odds with the phoniness of life. As Zooey smokes and reads a four-year-old letter from his brother, Buddy, in the bathtub, Franny mopes on the living room sofa with her cat, Bloomberg. Meanwhile, their mother, Bessie, is preoccupied with her daughter's depression. Franny and Zooey, we learn, are haunted by the suicide of their eldest brother, Seymour, who as his name suggests ("see more"), was the spiritual center of the family. Together they find meaning in words of wisdom he once gave Zooey. The "secret" of Seymour's advice ultimately enlightens Franny, infusing her life with new meaning.

G. Merritt

I just re-read Night to Remember for the first time in many years, and was reminded why it got me hooked on Titanic lore. It is truly the definitive book on Titanic and one of the best works of narrative history ever written. Its pacing, style, and most importantly its factual underpinning make it a timeless classic,

I enjoyed the book. Now it's obvious where lots of information came from that appears in later Titanic books.

Walter Lord did his homework on the Titanic's fateful night in this unforgettable and memorable book. He did not need to create fiction or suggest anything to the contrary. In fact, he writes about it from the survivor's perspectives. Despite the horrors, what shocked me was the situation in the lifeboats in the aftermath of shell-shocked people who have watched their loved ones, mostly their husbands, go down with the ship. I don't know why California didn't seek to assist them or inquire about the distress signals. We'll never know what makes people ignore others in time of great distress. When the Carpathia arrived to pick up the survivors, they are shocked by the news that Titanic is gone and they are the only ones to tell a shocking story of so many people's last moments on earth. Forget James Cameron's movie, this book is real and faithful to those fifteen hundred men, women, and children who perished as it is to the survivors who never recovered fully. Because of the Titanic disaster, every ship since was required by international shipping law to have enough lifeboats for everybody on ship and supplies during the worst of disasters. The last pages of the book are the names of those who died and survived. Where they embarked for their final destination to New York City but most of them would never make it there. I remember survivor Eva Hart who lost her father in the disaster that it was all about arrogance. The ship had to be fast, unsinkable, and yet the disaster was unthinkable. She said her mother, Miriam Hart, lashed back with a comment that has stuck with me for years that when saying the ship is unsinkable is like tempting fate to occur. Mrs. Hart, Eva's Mother, spent her nights awak and days asleep as if a premonition of this ship never making New York City. This story was not included in this book but Walter Lord does his best and it's remarkable that he prefers facts to rumors or gossip. It has taken me years to read this book maybe because of all those who perished still resonate with the Titanic's ultimate fate. The Titanic was the ultimate ship and none has ever come close in the ship's genius, magnificience, style, and sophistication. The third class passengers never enjoyed it. The second and first class passengers must have felt like they were in heaven with first class service catered to their needs and fancies. Rest in Peace, Titanic, and all those who have sailed with you on that fateful trip. You will always be in my heart as the ship of dreams and destiny.

At 11:40 p.m. on the night of April 14, 1912, the White Star liner Titanic, on its maiden voyage to New York, struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic. Less than three hours later, the ship known to the world as "unsinkable" was on her way to the bottom of the sea.

The unexpectedness of the event, along with the shocking number of lives lost (more than 1500 by most estimates) and the many stories of carelessness and incompetence contributing to the disaster, cemented the Titanic into the collective consciousness of Western culture. Countless articles, exhibits, books, and movies (the most famous, released in 1997, grossed over $1.8 billion in worldwide revenue) have documented and fictionalized various aspects of the tragedy. Even nearly a hundred years later, it would be difficult to find someone who had never heard of the Titanic.

In 1955, while many of the survivors of the Titanic's first and only voyage were still alive--and before the journalistic novel became fashionable as a genre--Walter Lord researched and wrote a minute-by-minute account of what happened during the ship's final night. Called A Night to Remember, Lord's account provides an interesting blend of minute details and broad sweeping overviews in its description of what happened onboard the ship.

The book is easy to read and goes very quickly. Lord gives his prose a very journalistic feel, with short sentences and easy language. Entertaining is hardly the right word to use for a description of an event that claimed so many lives, but compelling describes the account pretty well. Lord puts readers right on the deck of the doomed ship, and then right into the lifeboats and, later, into the courtrooms and newspaper editors' offices during the aftermath of the sinking.

Chapters are entitled with snippets of the dialog that occurs within each. Examples include "There's Talk of an Iceberg, Ma'am," "God Himself Could Not Sink This Ship," "There Is Your Beautiful Nightdress Gone," and, perhaps most poignant, "Go Away--We Have Just Seen Our Husbands Drown."

The book's primary weakness is that in trying to include glimpses of so many people's experiences, Lord was mostly unable to go into much depth with any of the individual characters. Unlike later books in this genre--such as Blackhawk Down or The Perfect Storm, both of which describe in detail the experiences of a relatively small number of people during catastrophic events--A Night to Remember has to catalogue the experiences of over 2,000 individuals. Lord manages to include a lot of names, but without any background or detail, they quickly become meaningless.

Though the scope of the book (probably necessarily) minimizes the amount of emotion connected with the tragedy, there are a few emotive moments when the reader realizes along with a child or a wife that a beloved husband or father will not be coming on a lifeboat. Depictions of the wireless operator sleeping onboard the nearby Californian, panicky passengers in lifeboats violently refusing to assist drowning swimmers, and determined high-society men donning formal evening dress to "go down like gentlemen" evoke flashes of emotion as well.

Overall, the book is worth reading for its historically accurate picture of what actually happened on that cold April night. Though it's no literary masterpiece, it is informative and interesting, particularly for anyone who has seen James Cameron's movie or read Clive Cussler's book and would like to know the real story. The book contains nothing objectionable (except for the event itself), and is suitable for any reader. I recommend it without reservation.

Two things set A Night to Remember apart from every other book and film on the subject of the Titanic:

First, with the exception of the ship breaking up as it sank (and the official record, with its conflicting testimony, shows it could have been written either way in 1955) and the use of the first SOS (which Lord corrected in later editions), there is not a single fact in the book that has ever been proven wrong. And, oh, how supporters of Capt. Lord of the Californian have tried.

Second, this is not a book about the sinking of the Titanic so much as it is a book about the PEOPLE involved in the event of the sinking. Take just the first sentence of the first chapter: "High in the crow's-nest of the new White Star Liner Titanic, Lookout Frederick Fleet peered into the dazzling night." Remember back to your English grammar classes and you will note that the subject of this sentence is a person, not a ship. So it is throughout the rest of the book. As readers, are we not more compelled by people rather than objects? Of course we are.

And as Walter Lord reminds us from the first that this is a story about people, so does he employ the expertise of a reporter and the flair of a novelist. The reporter . . . Who? Frederick Fleet. What? He peered. When? Night. Where? The Titanic's crow's-nest. Why? He was a Lookout. But by dressing up these facts with a few choice words and phrases ("High up", "new", "dazzling"), Lord draws us in dramatically.

Over the years, science and technology have given us greater insight into the building, operation, and physical break-up of the Titanic. But no one has ever come close to Walter Lord in recreating and relating the events of the night of April 14 - 15, 1912.

I bought these about three weeks ago and the balls are really miracle. I have been had low back pain and had a surgery a year ago. the pain had been with me all the time. just two days after I lied on it couple times a day, the pain was improved. Now almost don't feel any pain any more. I recommended this to one of my friends who is having low back pain also. She just placed an order and I look forward to her result.

Besides lying on the ball, I also put it against my back when I sit.

Cannot thank more to the product!

As a senior with arthritis, I have pain in neck, back and hips. It is amazing the relief I get after only a few minutes relaxing on the balls. I have given them as gifts to friends with similar issues.

Use these small balls to give you a little boost under your lower back or bottom while doing Pilates, yoga or just stretching. It will TOTALLY take the pressure off your lower back and allow you to reach and stretch further. Of course you can also use the accompanying booklet and follow the recommended exercises but I've also incorporated the ball into my other exercise regiment. No more using your hands to lift and raise your hips- the little ball does the trick! It's especially good for any exercise that requires laying on the floor and having your legs straight up in the air (place ball under your lower back) or forward seated stretches (place ball under your sacrum bone).

I thought I was ordering pilates exercise balls, but these are mainly used for back pain relief. They are virtually useless to me.

This product was recommended by a person who was very pleased with it.
Decided to give it a try. Found it not available at stores locations suggested so tried Amazon.com. It was available and also 5.00 cheaper.
Had never heard of this concept before. For the price it was worth the money but as far as really helping with sciatic for someone over 63 I think the instruction book was way too detailed and the exercises seemed to be not doable on a regular basis. The balls do seem to make the bottom of feet feel nice when rollilng the foot over the ball from a sitting position. But as far all the other performance exercises directed were a little more than a sr. or someone less able would be inclined to do for a sustained period of time. Perhaps someone who is agile and driven to exercising would find the whole concept very doable and probably quite helpful. If I had read the book before hand I would not have purchased this item for my use. That is not to say they are not a good quality product for the money.

This was a provocative book when it was first published. Jim Bouton, who had been a star pitcher for the New York Yankees, was trying to mount a comeback by working on a knuckleball in the bullpen of the expansion team Seattle Pilots less than five years later. He was a world away from pitching in two World Series in two successive seasons with players like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris as team mates.

His fastball could no longer shatter a pane of glass, but his astute observations about professional sports broke many barriers that had existed between the owners, players and the fans. Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn publicly condemned the book.

Bouton was traded to Houston before the season ended. The last place Seattle Pilots faded and died. The team was sold and transferred to Milwaukee after only one year. As such, it is something of a historic artifact of the failed Pilots team as well as a humorous look at the National Pastime.

even now, the contents of "ball four" are as equally as contrary to what you think about the order of things as say the first time you hear that hawaiians aren't happy about being american. what this book has to say about institutions make it as valuable an american document as "on the road".
the only real debate i think that could be made over this assertion is who took more speed; kerouac or bouton?
the answer is kerouac.
leaving only one other question:
who took more speed; kerouac or doc ellis?
i can't answer that question but i can say that beaning batters successively until you get thrown out of a major league baseball game is much cooler than anything kerouac ever did.

Ball Four is a journal of Jim Bouton's days in baseball. It is light hearted and pokes fun at himself and tells it like it was in the 1960's. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the behind the scenes and what happens in the locker room.

Hubby had knee surgery and was laid up for 3 months.. did alot of reading when he wasn't in physical therapy.... GREAT BOOK

Jim Bouton is a very bright man who probably could have been a scientist if he didn't go into baseball. In the 1960s when he played nobody wrote colorful exposes of the behind the scenes and road trip life of major league ball players. Bouton was the first with this book. It ended many friendships with teammates and probably broke up his marriage. The book might seem tame by todays standard. Alcohol was the players drug in those days and no one was shooting up steroids back then. But the book was racy, groundbreaking and controversial in its time much like Canseco's books are today.

You will also see that it led to several other books by Jim Bouton and even one by his ex wife (another analogy to Canseco whose ex wife also wrote a book). Bouton was a great pitcher but alas for only the period from 1961-1964. 1963 was his best season but even though he pitched well in that world series the Yankees got steamrolled by the Dodger staff with Drysdale and Koufax leading the way. After retirementhe came back to pitch for the Seattle Pilots expansion team in their first year. He had developed a knuckle ball and that allowed him some limited success. Bulldog Jim wrote a book about that experience too. He had a trick when he pitched for the Yankees. He wouldd deliberately wear a very loose fitting cap that would usually fall off his head as he delivered the pitch. This was distracting for the hitters. But in his day Bouton had a good fastball and a deceptive changeup and he was part of a great pitching rotation in 1963 that included Ford, Downing and Terry.

I ordered this cookbook becuse I wanted to add some southern food to my collection, after receiving this cookbook I read it from cover to cover. and recepies are simple and delicious! Paula Dean has been through rough times but she keeps on cooking! What an inspiring personality! and her recepies are fantastic too. Order this book and you wont be disapointed!The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook

This is a great little book with some very good Southern Recipes. If you like Paula Deen you will like this book. My only dissapointment was no pictures. Am a very visual person and would have enjoyed seeing end results on paper. Most recipes are just plain ole' down home which I enjoyed.

The only reason I don't give this five stars is for lack of pictures (I know, I know, but what can I say? I like a visual and there's not a single photo in the whole book). I made a dutch oven dish that was wonderful. Absolutely one of the best dishes I've had. Paula Deen isn't for everyone though. She's very country, which means she uses a lot of cream, butter, etc, etc. She's not afraid of going over the top, so discretion is advised. However, she is accurate in saying that butter makes everything better and these recipes are no exception! Also, this isn't 'thirty minute meals' by any stretch of the imagination, so if you're looking for something quick you might check elsewhere, but if you have a little bit of time these are some good old fashioned recipes.

I am a big fan of Paula Deen's show and decided to get this book after trying some of her recipes. The recipes in the book are easy to follow, and are full of wonderful flavors and textures. A word of warning, the recipes are not for those who are on any type of strict diet. She even mentions in the forward that these are recipes that are not meant to be made with a bunch of "low cal" or "diet" substitutions. They are just good, easy comfort foods meant to be enjoyed and remembered. This is not the type of cookbook that I would use every night of the week, just because the recipes do tend to be a bit more heavy in fats and sugars, etc. I think to enjoy this book you need to have the attitude that this type of food is great once in a while, and when you cook a recipe from it, make it the way she tells you! Just decide to have some good ol' comfort food and do it in moderation. So far there has not been one recipe that my family has not enjoyed- they are all good. A nice addition to my cookbook collection. Enjoy!

How does one take skill such as Paula's and put it in a book? Oh, shucks, I'm starting to sound like our reporters who cannot report a story without asking a question. Forgive me. Paula has done it again. Her cookbooks have become a family favorite set of the absolute best and quite easy recipes. Being from the south is not a requisite. It is only a place where some of the best foods come from.

A great little book on a woman we never heard much about. I've always wondered about her personal life - WOW - more painful than I imagined. Wish she got her Hollywood Star before she died. She worked really hard only to be a second banana, but we loved her, and boy - was she good!!!

I loved this book. I've read several books on Lucille Ball and this was a very cool opportunity to read about her famous sidekick. I have to say, I have a whole new view on Ethel now!

Book was in very good shape. I would buy another book from this vendor. The only thing I had trouble with was that it took a little longer then I expected to receive in mail.

When I ran across a softback edition of this book, I was floored. I had no idea a book had been written about Vivian Vance. Where had I been? I bought it thinking ,well, it'll be superficial at best. Boy, was I wrong. This is an excellent, in depth and very revealing life story of one of television's best loved ladies. Alvin Walker and Frank Castelluccio have written one of the best biographies on a legend I've ever read. And Vivian Vance is a legend, if an often overlooked one. From her humble showbiz beginnings, to a Broadway career, to her fateful reading with Lucille Ball for the part of Ethel Mertz---I could not put this book down. Vivian Vance came to life on those pages and I learned that there's a lot more to a "second banana" than just the character they play. Vance never escaped her role as Ethel, but she lived a full and complete life worthy of this book and was a more accomplished actress than given credit for. Her years of baffling mental problems, the estrangement with her mother, her extensive stage work, her often rocky relationship with Lucille Ball (not to overlook William Frawley) are all here as well as the huge amount of humanitarian work she did for mental health later in life. This is a highly recommended read for anyone who loved watching Ethel as well as Lucy. It reveals the fascinating woman behind the "mask" of Ethel Mertz, a landmark television icon and an American showbiz legend known as Vivian Vance.

Glad I got a chance to check this book out...it was very interesting as I'd heard about some of the tiffs between them but never really got into it. While I am sure a few different takes on her life/their lives could also fill in the missing pieces..its a good read and provides the rest of the story to the generally heroic and sweentened up picture often given about Ms. Ball and the whole show in general. They were all each and as a group irreplacable and perhaps may have never really understood their "fate" or "destiny" in the place of American life at the time. What a wonderfully talented, funny, and brillant pair and team of actress/actors they were. While all was not well on the show or in that era as with any...to this day they can make you laugh your head off without the crudeness so many comdieans and shows resort to today. The effort and work put into such show outdoes shows today by far. They were great at what they did for the time that they did it. It was also very sobering to read a human real or truer side to them as the pollyannaness of television lives can sometimes rub off on the viewers. Reading it though I could not help feel a sort of sadness ; Ms. Vance..never really being happy. Perhaps its just the way it was told or written. I would like to read other books about her/them to get a more indepth idea. In any case..I recommend taking a spin with this book.