Bell Books

Someone gave me this book 14 years ago, and I just got around to reading it because there was nothing else on my bookshelf that I hadn't read. I'm glad I picked it up! The book deals with music and violence and family, and the prose itself is musical at times. There is one chapter devoted to a relatively minor character's death that is heartbreakingly beautiful. And no, not a "typical" Vietnam story at all. I, an avid Jane Austin fan, loved it.

Laidlaw and Redmon were raised together in the Tennessee hills on the horse farm owned by Laidlaw's father; the black Redmon family living in one of the out-buildings and Redmon, Sr. working for Laidlaw, Sr. The boys are friends, a friendship complicated less by their different races than by young Redmon's perception that his father prefers Laidlaw to him. The boys, as boys will, grow to manhood, enter the army and are shipped to fight in Vietnam, where terrible things happen. They return, independent of each other, and spend much time alone-Laidlaw living in the Redmon's old home (Laidlaw's father died when the main house burned down) and Redmon in prison as the fall-guy in a real estate scam. Laidlaw had used his solitary year, surrounded by nothing more than a motley of farm animals, a stray dog, and a runaway peacock, to become proficient enough with a banjo that he can attract a following playing with a blue-grass band. Redmon seeks him out at a performance and the friendship is renewed.

In "Soldier's Joy", Madison Smartt Bell has much to say about tragedy, loss, solitude, betrayal, fathers and sons and the psychological devastation that can be wrought upon young men who have spent a year up to their elbows in gore. This is a book rich in both description and nuance. The Tennessee countryside is vivid and the musical imagery-and there is a lot of it-doesn't come across as forced or cloying but instead reads like a soundtrack. The writing is so fine, so "writerly" that it is easy to overlook the fact that the plot is almost an afterthought and is full of holes. This is not to say that Mr. Bell can't tell a story-he can. There are several scenes of firefights that are gripping and exciting and rank with the best of the breed. However, the basic plot (introduced well into the novel) about the Klan being somehow offended by the interracial friendship of Laidlaw and Redmon and by the interracial following of a local evangelist and trying to end both by violence, is thin. There are also two characters-Laidlaw's musician girlfriend and the ex-Green Beret leader of the Klan-who deserved better development. These are quibbles. "Soldier's Joy" is post-Vietnam fiction that is well worth reading.

A great book that sneaks up on you over time. The relatively slow beginning is a wonderful evocation of the rural south and of the healing power of music and nature. However, violence is not that easy to tame. As someone who grew up after the Vietnam War (born 1969), I've often wondered why so many veterans ended up training in some form of martial arts. This book goes a long way towards explaining that need. The violence from the war bleeds through the lives of the vets in this novel as both a liberating and a destructive force; they can't shake it and they aren't sure if they really want to.

This is a wonderful book, the kind that you start to read slower when you get close to the end because you don't want to say goodbye to the characters.

the story itself is engaging and interesting, but the subtly crafted dialog, revealing so much about the characters so naturally is what astonished me.

This is a book that celebrates the extraordinary in ordinary people, and made me feel better about humanity (be warned, I don't think you'd call it a 'feel good' book though!).

I loved this book, and will be seeking out more by the author.

This it a really good book. The pictures are spectacular, the writing is good, and it includes newspaper articles written about the park. The information about the clubhouse, trainer's room etc. is great. I would recommend this to any baseball fan! (Non-Dodger fan anyway) :-)

Great pictures of what has to be one of the nicest sports facilities in the world. I've been to one game here - and as a resident of Seattle, I honestly think that Safeco is a better place to watch a game. However, no stadium can match the asthetic views and its situation in one of the most beautiful cities in the world makes Pac Bell #1.

Every fan of the the Giants should get this book and wallow in the beauty of Pacific Bell Park, if you can't get there yourself. The park really is probably the most beautiful ballpark in baseball, a tiny little gem that nevertheless plays like a huge pitcher's stadium thanks to the bizarre asymmetry of its outfield (and a San Francisco wind that the park's engineering turned into an ally, instead of the vicious Hawk it was at Candlestick Park.)

But it's also a great collection of essays from baseball writers including George Will and Peter Gammons, and local writers sharing memories of the team and the long years of waiting in the cold and fog for a world championship that still hasn't come. Those essays are some of the best parts of the book, moving and nostalgic in the best sense.

The body text, that tracks the long road from New York through Candlestick to the drama of building a new ballpark without the safety net of public money, then chronicles the great 2000 season, is little more than acceptable, but in a coffee table book what you want is gorgeous photographs and insightful vignettes, and "Splash Hit" has that in aces.

Finally, a coffee table book that was difficult to put down after looking at all the spectacular pictures.

After having "Splash Hit!" on order since first hearing about it's publication; I finally got my chance to actually own it. And read it and read it and read it, again. You cannot put this book down if you love ballparks, baseball, architecture and perhaps, the most intriguingly, beautiful city in America; San Francisco.

"Splash Hit" is the name adopted by San Francisco Giants fans that describes any home run hit just beyond the right field wall that land's in the San Francisco Bay waters aptly named McCovey Cove.

An amazing book by Joan Walsh and C.W.Nevius, "Splash Hit" explores the progression of Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco from it's initial conceptual brainchild of a downtown ballpark to it's wonderfully anticipated Opening Day Game and throughout 2000 season.

The tastefully cram-packed, 140-page book begins with incredible color photos of: an aeriel view of Pac Bell at night (with The City in the background), Giant and Dodger players standing for the National Anthem on Opening Day, another aeriel photo of The Park with the San Francisco Bay in the background, Ellis Burks sliding into home to score against the Cardinals, another night-time aeriel shot to a full cityscape at dusk of San Francisco and Pac Bell.

The forward is written by Giants President Peter Magowan and Vice President Larry Baer. They discuss everything from the Giants rumored 1992 move to Florida to the "VISION" coming to fruition.

The book is graced with at least 140 color pictures (many two-page spreads) and some 20-plus black and white photos of the Giants illustrious past from John McGraw/Christy Mathewson to Willie Mays/Willie McCovey. The Giants ten homes are discussed in this chapter in detail. Their move to San Francisco is also closely chronicled. The photos take you around, over, inside and under this magnificent structure from it's humble beginning to it's fan-friendly completion in The City That Knows How.

The text is well thoughout and chronicled from beginning to end as well. Each chapter draws yo in further as to the hows, whens, whys and how-comes of PBP. If you like the wriiten history of Major League Baseball and how it came West; then this book explains it all in great detail.

But the real beauty of this book is the complete photograph history of Pacific Bell Park, Giants fans and The City of San Francisco. Never before have I seen a "love story" between a team and its city been told as well. How the City Fathers' vision of a rejuvenated China Basin area of San Francisco came to pass. And how the real beauty of this old-styled stadium is incorporated into the natural landscape of the most breathtaking City in the world.

The book contains views of many fans, celebrities and athletes such as ESPN's Chris Berman and Peter Gammons; famed writers George F. Will and Ron Fimrite. Local longtime Bay Area columnists Leonard Koppett, Ann Killion, Joan Ryan, Rick Clogher, Darryl Brock, Dave Newhouse and Nick Peters, who has authored the definative San Francisco Giants history in four books about the Giants; give a unique slant on the local residents' feelings about the ballpark and the team. There is even an essay by Joe Spears of HOK Sport, the company that designed Pac Bell, on early concepts of a downtown San Francisco baseball stadium.

The book is liberally sprinkled with quotations and thoughts of Giant players, Giants' Manager Dusty Baker and other Major League Baseball players. These qoutes give you a great players' perspective of the different attitudes, climate and aspirations as opposed to frigid Candlestick Park.

I got a big kick out of the chapter that details "B.A.R.K."- Baseball Aquatic Rescue Korps. It is a group of dogs (Portugese Water Spaniels, evolving from an idea by local comedian/Saturday Night Live regular Don Novella aka Father Guido Sarducci); that patrol the Bay for homeruns that land in the splashdown area called McCovey Cove just beyond right field.

This book is THE BEST I've ever owned about a baseball park or any other athletic facility. It makes a great companion to other related books: "Above San Francisco by Robert Cameron, "The Ballpark Book" by Ron Smith and The Sporting News and "Take Me Out To The Ballpark" by Josh Leventhal.

Get this book NOW while it is still in print. It is one you won't want to miss.

Excellent set of books, and the DVD is invaluable. You get to see a master at work while he gives reasons about his methods.

I first came in contact with this set while in college studying woodworking about 6 years ago. While in school I referenced it many times for a complete 'how to' to a 'how do I do that again.' Now, I am still in the woodworking business, and this is a great set of books to have around to consult for what ever reason, thus, I recently got my own. I especially like a chart he has for doing compound angled miters- I must have looked at that a hundred times. Though the pictures are obviously dated, the skills and basics techniques he writes about are timeless, and are a fantastic jumping off point for someone to figure out how to make anything. He teaches you everything you need to know, I highly recommend this set.

This is the first of three volumes by Tage Frid that are literally a brain dump of techniques and approached to woodwork. Frid is a true working craftsman. He began as an apprentice at a time when most work was done by hand, and survived the transition to machinery without missing a stroke of his plane. Teaching both at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Rhode Island School of Design, Frid has influenced over a generation of professional and amateur wood workers.

This book is an exhaustive study of joinery. Frid starts with the traditional sections on wood, the tools, and the preparation of stock. Sections then follow on dovetails & other multiple joints, tongue and groove constrution, mortise and tenon, and mitered joints. What is different from other books on the subject is that Frid's explanations are clear and well illustrated, he covers many of the 'tricks' of the trade, and he will address a problem from several directions.

If you could remember everything in this book you would be a woodworking wizard. If you are more forgetful, like me, you will keep this book in the shop where you can grab it when planning out your work. If you have to have only one book on joinery Tage Frid's work may be all you need.

These are great books full of good information. Not all of his furniture is
in a style that I would choose, but it's constrution is great. The DVD is good.
Although not packed full of woodworking skills, it's nice to watch this master work
in his shop. You'll wish you could spend a few days working with him.

This is a collection of five essays by scholars which cover the types of Egyptian temples and the rituals associated with them from the Old Kindgom to the Roman period. The level to which the essays are engaging for the average reader varies for individual contributions, though they all contain some interesting ideas. Some of the writers spend a lot of time in detailed descriptions of the layout of temples, which some readers may not find so interesting, but two of the essays in particular contain quite insightful arguments relating to the role of Egyptian temples, their relation to the social and economic hierarchy and the purpose of the rituals associated with them. A picture emerges from the essays of an interdependent religious, political and social order that is nigh on impossible to describe using a modern conceptual framework. Some of the writers skillfully delineate what concepts such as ` royal ka', `maat', chaos etc. may have meant to the people who conceived them. Egyptian religion was a representation of the physical environment that gave birth to it - the power of the cycles of the inundation of the Nile and of the daily rising and setting of the life-giving sun. These cyclical renewals were mirrored in the rituals of the temples and associated festivals and the Pharaoh played a central role in ensuring that the cycles were not interrupted. It is difficult to give star rating. Some of the essays would rate five stars and others three.

This thought-provoking book is comprised of comprehensive essays written by various established scholars. Amongst the topics covered are religion, creation, kingship and the netherworld. The book consists of fascinating surveys of the Ancient Egyptian temples. Byron Shafer gives an overview of temples and rituals; Dieter Arnold explains the evolution of the pyramids through the Middle Kingdom; Gerhard Haeny explained the temples of the Ramessid Period; Lanny Bell describes the Luxor Temple (the monument most visited by tourists); and Ragnbild Finnestad writes on Ptolemaic and Roman temples. A recommended book for the interested.

Shafer, et al have compiled a very well written and extremely in-depth examination of the meaning and importance of temples in ancient Egypt. All the sections were fascinating but I especially found Lanny Bell's treatment of Luxor temple (derived from his many years of work there), Gerhard Haeny's section on Mansions of Millions of Years, and Finnestad's chapter on Ptolemaic temples (really a discussion of the context of this period of temples) to be especially engaging. All of these added greatly to my understanding of the topics they addressed. I would recommend this to any serious Egyptophile with the caveat that it is all written largely in scholarly terms. They don't entirely assume prior knowledge but without some foundation in Egyptological literature, readers might find this interesting but a bit thick.

I read this book from two perspectives: 1) being an architect & 2) being a serious Egyptophile studying & teaching about Egypt for years. It is a highly scholarly work containing academic information of Egypt that may seem out of context to the casual reader, for example: knowing the transliteration script of hieroglyphs and having previous knowledge of Egyptian deities. As cumbersome as this may be to some, it is an engaging series of essays.

This work describes the human elements of ritual and the physical world the ancients created to define their place in the cosmos. Architecture defines a culture. Each of the authors admit, however, that there is so much symbolism within any given society, so much diversity and connotation, that a completely accurate portrait of any building is impossible. But their extensive and informed analysis is enlightening.

The beauty of this book is that it tells the tale of rituals, offerings and links to the divine as we have always known it, and practice it, in our own individual and collective subconscious, and how the Egyptians were the first to develop these systems. The role of these buildings is set in the backdrop of the culture they came from, the significance of temple architecture to the creation myths of Egypt and how the concept and practice of worship have come full circle into our own world today.

This book is an eye-opener I wish existed back in college. The previous writings of Mircea Iliade, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and even Joseph Campbell on the subject of Egyptian symbolism are dated by comparison to this work. A great book on the nature of ancient spirituality, piety and concepts of the divine. A must read for any serious Egyptophile (probably mandatory reading now for all budding Egyptologists!).

Loved this book. I printed up the list and put it on the wall in my kitchen. I refer to it every day when deciding how to handle challenging situations. This book made me realize, in part, how much work I needed to do on myself and why some persistent traits of my ex-husband bothered me so much. Worth reading.

Joseph Telushkin, in his latest book, "The Ten Commandments of Character," explores a variety of ethical dilemmas that make life challenging for people who worry about doing "the right thing" whenever possible. Most of the book is written in a question and answer format, and it includes material that was previously published in Telushkin's ethical advice column found on the Web site, Beliefnet.com.

Telushkin begins by outlining what he calls the "ten commandments of character," and he then devotes the eight chapters of his book to ethical questions that relate to family, children, friends, work, money, medical ethics, everyday dilemmas, and community.

It is a pleasure to read Telushkin's clear, straightforward, and always entertaining prose. He tackles a wide variety of questions that vary in importance from "Should I assist my child in writing his or her college essay?" to "Should I promise my father that I will help him commit suicide if he develops Alzheimer's Disease?" Telushkin is never flippant when he discusses grave matters. He is caring, compassionate, and at times, ruthlessly honest. Although I do not agree with all of Telushkin's advice, I find his ideas to be lucid and thoughtful. Telushkin is a rabbi, but this book is not geared specifically to Jewish readers. Many of the writers seeking advice are not Jewish, and Telushkin has the courage to admit that he holds some personal beliefs that are not strictly in line with Orthodox Jewish doctrine.

"The Ten Commandments of Character" is a practical book that ecourages people to examine their actions a bit more critically. Telushkin urges the reader to make ethical decisions based on an honest assessment of the right and wrong of the situation, rather than settling for a convenient rationalization. Admittedly, there are no absolutes in questions of morality and ethics, nor does the author claim omniscience or a special pipeline to God. However, Telushkin performs an important service by making us think about such diverse questions as, "Is stem cell research ethical?" and "Is it ever morally right to declare bankruptcy?" If Telushkin's book makes at least a few readers behave with more honesty, self-control, compassion, and fairness, then he will have accomplished a great deal.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin is a noted and scholarly Orthodox Jewish rabbi, but this is a book that will appeal to anyone, Jewish or otherwise (even agnostic or atheist) who wishes to live an ethical life.

The book is built around a collection of Q & A's on moral dilemmas collected from a column Rabbi Telushkin wrote on Beliefnet.com. Many of his correspondents are not Jewish and although he draws on Jewish sources like the Talmud, his answers to questions ranging from "If my neighbor is a terrible person, is it okay to steal his paper on a morning when mine was stolen?" to "Should I agree to my father's request to kill him if he develops Alzheimer's"?

Rabbi Telushkin gives even the most basic questions a lucid and well reasoned answer. The reading and writing level is not difficult and would be completely understandable for a high school level reader. He wrestles openly with difficult questions and when he doesn't know, he says so. If he later changed his mind or added additional reasoning based on reader response, he acknowledges it. NO matter what, he is compassionate and caring to the people who write to him.

A fast but very worthwhile read, I recommend it.

but I've liked some of his other books better. Perhaps because Telushkin is more focused on borderline cases on this book (the sort of problems that hopefully will trouble most readers once in a lifetime or better yet never), I found this less moving and less useful than his "Words That Hurt, Words That Heal" or his "Book of Jewish Values." But if you have a few hours on your hands you could do much worse.

My 2 1/2 yr old son pretty much loves all things Thomas, but he especially loves this book! I think it's the combo of Thomas plus funny animals plus lift-the-flap that made it an instant favorite. We have only owned it for a little over a week but he has asked me to read it to him at least twice a day since the minute he received it. Overall I think it's a cute book and is sturdier than I would have expected for a paperback. I definitely recommend it for any little Thomas fans out there!

This book is really great. It has lots of flaps and fun pictures. My son loves it. Really great!

Almost any Thomas book will be a hit with Thomas fans, but my boys do seem to enjoy this one a great deal. They find the mild humor (monkeys wearing clothes, seals throwing objects, a bear eating lots of tuna) beyond hilarious. They like (and I like) the way the lift-a-flaps are set up, so they really change the picture around when opened. If you have a Thomas fan 5 or under, I would consider this book.

This is a great visual discrimination book. In it, a new zoo is getting ready to open. James and Thomas take the animals to their new home, but many things go wrong: Edward has a bear eating all the fish, the monkeys in Thomas's coach are unlocking the gate to their cage, and Thomas runs out of water. Get this silly book today and write a review about it.

if your child likes farm animals (or trains) this is a great book!
it has been through 3 little boys and has been taped over and over from much use and love from all three!!!
i think this is a def. basic book to have in every collection!

I have 2 yr old twin boys who love this book! I only have to read half the book as they will tell me what noises the people and animals make. We have lots of fun with it.

Definitely one of the better Thomas books available.

Thomas the Tank Engine, a classic character by Wilbert Vere Awdry and Owain Bell, is about to embark on a delightful trip on which he carries people and animals through the countryside. This is a great book to read to your toddler to help them associate pictures of familiar people and animals with the sounds they make (moms will get a kick out of the sounds dads make in the book!). The human characters are reminiscent of those in the song "Wheels on the Bus" and the animals, Thomas and the cars he passes on his journey all provide great opportunities for noisemaking fun. The chunky format makes the book easy for toddlers to hold and page through themselves. Don't be surprised if you hear "Honk honk" and "Peep Peep" as your child "reads" to him or herself!

This was my son's favorite book from about two years to two and a half. He would insist we read it to him every night as a bedtime story. He loved to make the sounds of all the animals. He has since graduated to Thomas The Tank videos, but he still loves this little book that started it all.

I highly recommend it, especially if your child likes trains.

bets game in the worl

It will be cool

The kingdoms hintbook is, without a doubt the most brilliant, moving and ultimately breathtaking novel of its day. It will grab you from the beginning and never let go. Few authors come to mind in comparison to this masterwork. Among them Chaucer, Dickens, and Mary Higgens Clark. I highly recomend this chef d'ouvre to anyone who enjoys classicly pronounced literature.

I'd like to know how those two guys rated a book and a game that has not been released yet? Why would the web master allow these comments to be published. Lets all be a little more responsible please.

V. Kasturi Rangan (Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing, Harvard Business School) presents Transforming Your Go-To-Market Strategy: The Three Disciplines of Channel Management, a guide to improving the distribution systems of one's company. Focusing on three core techniques - mapping industry channels, building and reshaping channels for optimum customer service, and aligning one's channel value chain - Transforming Your Go-To-Market Strategy presents the tools to turn around poor distribution and increase both sales and profits. A "must-read" for professional distributors and owners of businesses large and small.

V. Kasturi Rangan presents a precise and exact step by step process to not only create a channel sales strategy, but to enhance and fix one that is already in place. Many companies and managers today feel all the have to do is sign up as many "channels" as possible to be successful. Unfortunately they overlook the overlook the critical principles of a success channel strategy and fail measurably, taking down the company, its people and alienating their customers. This is a must read and keep for any level of management involved in a go-to-market strategy.

The downside of this book is no color inside and that the Channel Stewardship concept in the book reveals so many opportunities for you in your business, you ask yourself - where do I begin to apply this & take advantage?

Also, the opportunity can be so big - that some readers may be intimidated. It can take years to move a company to implement Channel Stewardship fully - possibly a major change in mind-set.

Great use of multiple industry examples & action orientation / sequence of the chapters ! Your favorite chapter depends on where you & your company are now. For example, favorite chapter for me was #3 'Building & Editing the Value Chain'.

This book is a must read for business managers of products or services or retail. After reading the first 3 chapters, I ordered 10 more copies to give to key associates and started to organize workshops to implement some of the concepts as Global Head of Distribution in my company [Fortune 100].

I really enjoyed this book by Harvard Business School professor Kash Rangan. The authors advocate a disciplined approach to channel strategy that could generate superior returns in almost any industry. In my experience, most manufacturers neither develop careful channel maps nor do they assign executives senior enough to make significant channel resource commitments. As a result, the returns to channel stewardship should be available for any company willing to invest the time and effort.

A major strength of this book is the detailed examples provided in each chapter. Most business books simply provide very short case studies that always leave me wondering what really happened. Here, Rangan and Bell combine company stories with market data. Some of the examples are a bit dated, but that has the advantage of allowing the authors to describe the actual outcomes. The examples include both retail (B2C) and business-to-business channels, showing the strength of channels thinking. They even provide fresh insights into overdone examples such as Dell and Wal-Mart.

The only shortcoming is an over reliance on box-and-arrow diagrams. These are helpful when showing product and information flows within a channel system, but much less interesting when simply summarizing points made in the text.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with channel management responsibilities. This dense and challenging book will reward careful study.

A good read. The similarities between the initial phases of a large wildland fire and "combat confusion" are apparent. Too many people doing their own thing, at least in the initial phase of the fire. A tribute to the firefighters of different agencies that no one was lost on this fire.

This book tells the story of one fire in Southern California. It's not really a battle to save Southern California, only one small part. But laying the sub-title aside, it's a good inside story on how they fight a big fire.

As I read the book I find myself with several related but almost random thoughts.

First, these kinds of fires were beautifully described in John McPhee's book 'The Control of Nature,' (recommended reading) along with other things that people do that contradicts what nature wants (think New Orleans). This book is much better in discussing the fire fighting efforts, but McPhee covers other things like the Mississippi river wants to change course but the Army Corp of Engineers is keeping it where it is.

Second, when people want to live in areas like this, they should at least bear in mind what might happen. Some houses were built of fireproof materials (wood shake roofs are especially bad), remove brush from being close to their house, and so on. These houses survived.

Third, the mountain right across the valley from my house hasn't burned for 20 to 30 years. The fuel from all those years is sitting there waiting for a good lightening strike or thrown away cigarette.

Fourth, one thing mentioned in the book was firefighter management not wanting to call the airborne water tankers to put water on the fire. Here some six or seven agencies (National Forest, State Forest, Bureau of Land Management, etc.) have gotten together to fund the water tankers. The costs are automatically split between the agencies regardless of where the fire is. I wonder if this is a result of the problems discussed in this book.

All in all, this is a 'cannot put down book' that anyone living in the fire prone West should read.

I loved this book. If you want to know how it felt to be on the front lines of the Grand Prix or Old Fire during those days in October,2003. I worked in the San Bernardino Police Department mobile command post the first night of the Old Fire and remember watching the flames marching down Waterman Canyon towards us. Mr. Krauss captured the fire fighter's story quite well. He also touched on Critical Incident Stress which most authors leave out of their books. As part of the SBPD CISD Team I too was faced with dealing with Police Officers and Dispatchers who had lost their houses or were facing the loss of their homes. In fact, one of the dispatchers I worked with at the mobile command post watched the TV coverage of the Old Fire and saw his neighborhood go up in flames so I kicked him loose to make sure his house was okay. The next night, my neighborhood was evacuated but, after working through the early stages of the fire, I was too tired to evacuate. I would like to see more on the fight against the Old Fire in another book. After having lived and worked through it on the law enforcement side, it was good to read at least the small part that was included in this excellent book.

My uncle told me that I would love this book, and he was right. Although I don't fight fire, most of my family does. I grew up around firefighters as a child, but I didn't truly understand what they went through on a big fire until I read this book. It made me realize that when a big one hits, there is very little firefighters can do but steer the blaze around threatened communities. The problem is made worse by organizations such as Fish and Wildlife that doesn't let the fire departments conduct prescribed burns. The wild land fire departments have their hands tied with red tape, but when big fires happen like the grand prix , they get blaimed for not putting the blaze out in the first few hours. This book documents the battle (both with the fire and politics)that occured on the front lines of the biggest fire siege in California history back in 2003. With helicopter pilots, hotshot crews, dozer operators, municipal crews and Incident Commanders each getting their own chapters, you get to see all sides of the fire and the different opinions that are occuring out on the fire line. It shows how the lack of communication between the wild land guys and the municipal guys can cause disaster. An exceptional read!!!