Brian Books

All too often, pairing a CD with a book comes across as gimmicy. Not so here, for HERE it is ESSENTIAL.

The HG Wells novel is a fine piece of fantastic literature, but to combine it with a recording of the Orson Welles radio broadcast that panicked a nation, & to add a very well written scholarly text on that panic, is brilliant!

Well-illustrated with ample photographs, maps & drawings, the reader/listener gains a full understanding of the novel, the broadcast, & the cultural significance of both.

One can gain insight into the effect that news of terrorist strikes has on the public by careful, thoughtful reading of this text.

Highly recommended.

After finding this book in a local library and checking it out, I soon realized that I had to have my very own copy. So, I jumped onto Amazon and thankfully found one! For those who love classic War of the Worlds, this book is a huge slice of wonderful. I was thrilled with the CD that came with the book, too. This is a great resource and it would make a fine product for a Sci-Fi literature and / or media class.

Martians everywhere! The Invasion comes to you in the book and in the sounds. Worth the price!

i bought this book as a gift for a war of the worlds fan and he liked it a lot. The CD was good and the book contained both the script and original HG Wels novel. So all in all the book was a good purchase that contained everything that you have ever wanted to know about the beginning of War of the Worlds saga.

I ordered this book after hearing the 1940 radio interview where both H.G. Wells and Orson Welles appeared together. That was an amazing program as both men discussed the war that was looming in Europe--and that they felt would soon envelope the United States. Orson even mentioned that he was working on a movie called Citizen Kane.

Unfortunately, only about two minutes of that hour-long interview is contained on the CD. The same is true for Orson Welles' press conference where he answered some of the controversy about his broadcast--the CD only has a couple of minutes of it. This was a major disappointment, because both recordings are fascinating and I was left wondering why we only get to hear short soundbites from them rather than the entire thing. Seriously, why bother at all?

The book is much more comprehensive and worthwhile.

With Spielberg's new film adaptation of WAR OF THE WORLDS in theatres, more attention is being paid to both the original Wells novel, and the infamous 1938 Welles radio broadcast. If you're interested in both, why not treat yourself to the best presentation of either version available today?

THE COMPLETE WAR OF THE WORLDS is an excellent book. It reprint the complete, unedited novel; prints the entire script to the radio play; and comes with a CD containing the entire radio play broadcast, plus archival materials such as the only interview Wells and Welles did together on the topic. [The recording sound quality is the best I've ever discovered for this play, BTW.] In addition, the book has lots of great historical and biographical material, including articles looking at the lives of both Wells and Welles; the story of the radio broadcast and the panic it caused; and a survey of the many incarnations of WotW in literature, film, and television.

If you have any curiosity about the book or the radio play, do yourself a favor and buy this book. It's worth it!

This is a wonderful and moving story and what's even better is it's true.

This book tells the story of the creative genius Waterhouse Hawkins who paints and creates life size models of dinosaurs way back in the 1800s.

It's a beautiful picture book, I highly recommend it.

This beautifully written and illustrated book is the true story of Waterhouuse Hawkins, an English artist who brought dusty bones to life in sculptures of dinosaurs. The text is suited for reading aloud to young dinosaur lovers, as a self read by third graders and beyond, and as an addition to any dinosaur lovers bookshelf. It is a good book for those interested in art and history as well. A perfect gift.

Amazing story for the dinosaur lover. My 7 year old son kept barrowing this book from his school so much that I decided he needed his own copy and now he wants to go to England to see Mr. Hawkins' Dinosaurs for himself.

I am a student at West Virginia State College University. I am in Mr. Samples, Children's Literature class. I chose to read this book as an honor book for a caldecott winner. I am not a huge dinosaur fan, but I loved this book. It made it even more fabulous that it is all based on a true story. The pictures were just as great as the book.

Occasionally, from time to time, I like to trick little children. And as a children's librarian in a public library, I have plenty of time and opportunity to do so. So when I'm in the right mood and I feel particularly devilish, I mosey on over to the biography section of the library and ever-so-casually pull out "The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins". After determining that no one has seen me, I then amble over to the picture book area and prominently display the book. The bait now laid, I go back to my desk and wait in anticipation. It doesn't take long. Soon the attractive cover of the book (showing a man holding a dinosaur model with a gigantic dinosaur head looming behind him) catches the eye of some wayward traipsing tot. The child will look at it, squeal gleefully, and pluck the item from the shelf without so much as a howdy-doo. My job complete, I sit back and soak in just how clever I am. You see, the kid doesn't know it yet, but I've tricked `em. They thought they were finding just another of the thousands of millions of dinosaur books out there WHEN IN FACT this book is different. It is a highly educational biography of the man who helped bring dinosaurs to the forefront of the human imagination. The book may well be many a child's first biography for this very reason. So while they think they're getting another dino book, they are in fact getting an entirely different critter altogether. It's an incredibly satisfying feeling to get a child to read something quite as good and original as this particular book. I do not regret my actions in the least.

Author Barbara Kerley explains in her afterword where she got the gumption to write about Waterhouse Hawkins in the first place. She was flipping through a book of dinosaurs one day when she came across a most peculiar picture. In it sat a group of refined late 1800s gentlemen having a formal dinner. In the belly of a dinosaur. Further research yielded a name and a fascinating story. Waterhouse Hawkins was born in London in 1807. He grew up with an interest in animalia, but with the discovery of dinosaur bones he quickly shifted his interests. As an artist, Hawkins worked diligently to create true to life full-sized dinosaur models. Though we today look at them with a critical eye (they had some real innate flaws to them) at the time they were considered the cutting edge of scientific vision. Hawkins grew in prominence (in no small part due to the aforementioned let's-eat-dinner-in-a-dinosaur idea) and even created a group of them for the grand opening of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham Park. Unfortunately, once Hawkins moved to America he was bound to come into contact with that nefarious New York politican, the corruptous of the corrupt, "Boss" Tweed. Though Hawkins had been given funding to construct a museum of dinosaurs in Central Park, Tweed diverted funds and (adding injury to insult) probably hired a group of goons to destroy Hawkins' models. But did our intrepid expatriate give in even then? No, sir! He went on to create the development of life on Earth at Princeton and made dinosaurs for the Smithsonian. By the time he died he'd lived a rich and wonderful life.

Barbara Kerley backs up all her interesting Hawkins info with a remarkable Author's Note section at the end of the book encompassing the models, the artist, Tweed, the Crystal Palace, as well as illustrator Brian Selznick's works. And the text is remarkably interesting. In fact, it closes by pointing out that because Boss Tweed's goons buried many of Hawkins' models, they may still be located somewhere deep beneath Central Park to this day. Brian Selznick is just as laudable an artist in this venture though. First of all, the book is presented as a kind of 1800s document. The title page is part announcement to a theatrical presentation part scholarly text. At the end of the book we can see the original menu feasted upon by Hawkins and his scientific cronies in the belly of one of his models. The book is perhaps most remarkable because of its dark moments. And it is here that Selznick really shines. Our encounter with Boss Tweed shows a gray formal portrait of the man with watery malicious eyes. After the destruction of his creations there's a remarkable two-page spread of Hawkins holding his head in sorrow in the midst of complete and utter destruction. The next pages show a rainy windswept Central Park with a single black figure making his way across the expanse. Heck! There's even a section at the back of the book showing how Hawkins once drew his dinos and how we know they look today.

The most difficult task of any biographical picture book is make the subject both interesting and factual. Kerley and Selznick have done this with aplomb. And unlike some life stories transferred to a mere 48 pages or so, this book has a distinctive rise and fall to the action. All in all it's a remarkable story in an attractive package that any small child could instantly take to. One of the best picture book biographies I have ever had the delight to read. A must-have for any dino-addled child.

This Book is not only regiments history and a lott of beautiful accurate illustrated uniforms, is history alive. The only thing this book lack off is sound but thanks to the hands of Don Troiani the paintings are so full of live you can hear it in the back of your mind. Art by Don Troiani, text by Brian C. Pohanka. This book presents in a beautiful landscape format his unique view of the war and the men who fought it. Each painting is accompanied by an extensive background text by noted historian Brian Pohanka The good thing about this book is that if you consider yourself a Civil War historian or reenactorss a just a fan beginning to study the civil war, you won't find the typical error of other authors, this would help you enjoy the painting one by one so you can understand better who and how was this War fought. One last thing DO NOT PUT THIS BOOK ON YOUR COFFEE TABLE people fall in love with this book so fast that they can even stole from you, believe me this is the third time I buy this book. If you enjoy this book you would love Don Troiani's Soldiers In America, 1754 - 1865.

If you are any kind of amateur Civil War historian than you probably grew up looking at the American Heritage or Golden books about the civil war. They were chock full of illustrations from the Harper's Weekly sketches to the bursting with color lithographs of Kurtz & Allison. Yes, these images were full of fully uniformed boys in blue and gray gathered in massive lines firing point blank at each other. And even as a child gazing at these...you wondered...was it really like that?

Then you glimpse your first Troiani painting and you know you are in the presence of the real deal. Don Troiani sweats the details and doesn't just throw something on the canvas and attach a name to it. The event depicted is so vividly and realistically portrayed that you almost know what moment in the American Civil War you are seeing without having to be told.

This wonderful book finally brings together in one place some of Troiani's greatest Civil War paintings. It is a book that no Civil War library is complete without. This is perhaps as close to witnessing the actual event as we are ever likely to achieve.

I only wish the Ken Burns had taken advantage of these paintings and used them in his series on the Civil War. His insistence on utilizing contemporary images reduced his otherwise wonderful documentary to a rehash of what I had already seen a thousand times in my Golden book. Imagine how much richer the story telling as his camera zoomed into a Troiani painting.

It's time to see the Civil War as it was. Trust Don Troiani to show you.

Every Civil War enthusiast should have this book. It's beautiful, enjoyable, as well as educational. Troiani's attention to detail and historical accuracy is astounding. Most of Troiani's work is of active battle scenes with anonomous characters, unlike John Paul Strain's work which focuses on specific leaders in non-battle situations. I recommend both books.

What a nice book, both to the artistic and literary eye. I am fortunate enough to own three Don Troiani signed Civil War prints. This book is dessert, providing a thorough if not complete collection of all the Civil War art I will never own but can now enjoy. Troiani, an avid collector of Civil War uniforms and gear, provides perhaps the most accurate representation of soldiers, regiments and engagements normally limited to what the mind's eye can conjur from words on a page. Troiani not only excells at the equipment's detail, but paints a vivid image of the topography and climate as well as the determination, anguish, fear, and heroism of the soldiers. These are not charactures but the images of people who seem to walk off the page and out of your imagination. Pohanka's commentary complements the art by placing the action within the broader context of the battle and the war. I made this book a gift to myself and, if you appreciate art - either in a historical context or for arts sake - you should as well.

A quick glance of the customer reviews tells one that this book is something special. Page after page of astounding paintings complemented by capable text. The detail of Don Troiani's artwork is such that you can literally spend hours examining them, and if you let others look at the book you can grow impatient trying to get it back!

This is the best book I have ever read. I read it cover to cover. I could not put it down. It was fascinating, well written and riveting from start to finish. This should defintely be made into a movie. Maybe DeNiro could play Cresta!

Very well done. Will make a great movie too.

Very enjoyable. I agree with other reviewers about its
contents. My vote to play Phil Cresta in a movie is
Robert Di Nero. Looking forward to the movie.

A lot of fun to read. You can't help but laugh at a lot of these true-crime stories. You just can't make this stuff up. This book would make a great movie.

A Decent book, very interesting read. The style in which the story is told is very engrossing as it is told from the first person. The one drawback to the book is that it is based on one persons recollections and biases. With the exception of the Plymouth mail truck robbery most of these crimes were standard criminal enterprises, hardly crime of the century material. Of the crime he boasts the most of, a Brinks hold up, Cresta ended up going to prison. This is the story of a man who thought he was smarter then he was and in the end, was too smart for his own good.

Skip Morris breaks it down for beginners. He explains and has colored pictures of materials and tools. Also there is detailed (and colored) step by step for all the types of flies. If you are going to start tying flies, this book is a must have.

5 years ago I was mentored by a friend who taught me to tie basic flies... unfortunately life got in the way and I didn't tie flies for two years. A year ago, I pulled out my vise and materials, which inlcluded this book. By starting from the beginning, this books takes you through all the basics and gives you a foundation to tie ANY fly you want - the only limiting factor is the price of materials. If you're new to tying, this book de-mystifies topics such as the whip finish and palmering hackle to name just a couple. As a bonus, it is spiral bound to lay flat so you can tie along with step-by-step instructions and troubleshooting.

I own a number of fly tying books and this, by far, is the best. If you start with only one book, start with this one. The author methodically goes step by step, using fly patterns which require most, if not all, of the basic skills. The photography and illustrations are wonderful. Not only does the author give you exact, easy to follow directions each step of the way, he goes as far as to give a point by point review of what should be done if you find yourself in a mess. (invaluable for a klutz like myself). This, as I indicated, is by far one of the best books for beginners, but should certainly be owned and used by more advanced fly tiers also. The price is well worth it and in the long run will save you much money and certainly much time and frustration. I do wish there were more "how to" books around of this quality. Highly recommend this one.

This an excellent book to use when you're starting out. Directions are clear, illustrations are helpful-everything is designed to help you build your success along the way, moving from relatively simple to relatively complex. It introduces the materials, tools, and skills that will continue to be helpful as you develop expertise.

I am fairly new at tying my own flys. I own a couple of fly tying references and I am so much more impressed with Skip Morris' book "Fly Tying Made Clear And Simple." This is an outstanding choice for the novice. The biggest help, for me, has been Skip's methodical way of going through the process as he instructs on building each fly. He also describes solutions for the most common problems a novice will face and, best of all, the book lays flat on your fly tying bench due to it's spiral bound binding! I wish I would have started with this book!!

What fun this book is! Too bad all history books are not so entertaining and informative. We might all benefit from understanding the history of the economics and culture that underpin drug trafficking in the 21st century. If history and economics were always written in such an engaging way, nobody would ever flunk out of History 101 or find it boring.

I'm an obscure history buff and when I saw this one it piqued my interest. This is part history, part science and part sociology and the author makes this a more interesting subject than I thought it could be. He starts off with what he calls the Big Three: Alcohol, Tobacco and Caffiene. From there he breaks it further down citing the most popular and not so popular illegal drugs. Mentioning natural stimulants that are unfamiliar to most, such as Qat, Kava and Betel and the very descriptive reasons on why they did not take to popular consumption.

Courtwright also doesn't fail to mention that, even though with best intentions, scientists around the 1800's and the turn of the century were also responsible for some of the most addictive substances. Your jaw will drop when you read who devolped heroin and what is was originally used for.

Fun, informative, and mind blowing reading.

Few commodities can lay claim to such a broad of sub-categories and have had such an impact on the world, as we know it, than drugs (Courtwright 2). Few other commodities have escaped Courtwright's "Drug" definition, which is arguably one of his weaknesses, such as sugar which really need special attention (Courtwright 3, 27-30, and 166). The commodification of al the items Courtwright identifies rival maybe only petroleum in terms of their power vis-à-vis world commerce (Courtwright 42). Courtwright identifies alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco, as the "big 3" while, in contrast, he identifies opium, cannabis, and coca as the "little 3." I argue they are big and little because they have been accepted, but vilified, into mainstream consumption. Good marketing has turned these wants into needs, but that begs deeper analysis. There is a strong "kitsch" [1] element that seems to have missed the radar, and on an anecdotal none of the big 3 has missed on this. There are several good and balancing arguments for legalizing the "little 3." Legalizing the drugs is proof that the vilification of drugs works much like a language (in a Saussure "signifier" sort of way). "Drugs" as a signifier is floating; it is contingent on place and time. Drugs are seen time "bad" and in other times even seen as "good" and its very definition and even epistemological grounding changes. We can go back and forth on this with contentions on both sides, no matter what this short 500 year history of the introduction to, analysis of, and deconstruction of, drugs and its role in world development is a significant introduction.

According to Courtwright, 3 "Drugs" have made the leap into mainstream use and have the rare distinction of being labeled the "big 3" (Courtwright 7-30). Once these "drugs" caught and eventually captured the European imagination - not in any spectacular way really - but in a quotidian sort of way, the rest was left to socio-historical forces. What the last statement speaks to is coupled with day to day use and entangled with the ocean crossing commerce, these drugs became so common use that mercantilists immediately caught on to the financial possibilities. Maybe the early mercantilists were or were not aware of the habit forming aspects of the use of these psychoactive drugs. No matter what the combination of use, availability, and habit forced discourse into making these three drugs legal, then illegal, and then legal again. No such luck would befall the "little 3" (Courtwright 31-52)

The ease of access to alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco would never be equaled by opium, cannabis, and coca Courtwright argues (Courtwright 42). However, the widespread use of opium in China, I would argue speaks to the contrary. Forced into China to pay for, ironically, the more lucrative teas, opium will see widespread use (despite its outright illegality) in China and beyond (Courtwright 135-136). The history of Asian America is littered with vilification of the Chinese as hedonistic and self destructive opium users. The popular literature is littered with images of sneaky Chinese in opium dens trying to trick white women into its use (Lui 19, 29, 78, 79, and 181). The historical irony is that opium made the English one of the greatest, if not the greatest "pushers" by any definition possible (Courtwright 31-36). Robbing from Peter to pay Paul, this circularity is actually more widespread then we imagine. Courtwright argues that the "little 3" either missed the historical opportunity or incurred to many social costs that made access to and distribution of these 3 elements less lucrative hence impractical.

According to Courtwright, alcohol is the most fascinating of the three (Courtwright 9-14). I argue conversely that caffeine is arguably the most interesting for what I see as its "kitsch" factor and class dynamic. When travelling in China, I was witness to one of the more interesting modes of westernization - consumerism. Consumerism, by that I mean the way Chinese see "Western" to be. In the US, McDonalds and Starbucks are pedestrian, on many levels, but Starbucks is distinct from McDonalds in that it provides access to a particular class. Walking around with a Starbucks cup in your hands gives one access to all the "sophistication" that coffee and in particular Starbucks coffee provides. In China, even if they have to pay US prices for these consumer items it seems like it is worth the price of admission. Arguably, in India, Starbucks knockoffs are taking over this lucrative business taking over from Masala chai the same way that coffee is taking over from Oolong or Jasmine tea in China. Caffeine, I argue will outlast alcohol because it is not perceived to not have the same social stigma and societal costs imbedded in its consumption.

The consumption of tobacco is now coming under severe attack with criticism being leveled against the tobacco manufacturers vis-à-vis cigarette's addictive nature and accompanying pulmonary complications as well as work stoppage statistics (Courtwright 59, 64, 72, 125-129, 132, 168, 180, 189-190, 195, 199, and 203-206). Moreover, alcohol also is coming under fire; arguably it has been for a long time, for its attack on the liver and other social effects (Courtwright 95, 100, 180-181). Little, if anything is said about caffeine's dehydrating effect and long term dependency. Moreover, even less is said about the lengths people will go through to get coffee. Moreover, caffeine is neither seen as dangerous to the user and his/her surrounding but consumed in responsible quantities actually makes one more alert and less prone to suicide, "Caffeine, to extend the metaphor, keeps the police away. Its antidepressant properties have prevented suicides; its awakening effects have prevented nighttime driving accidents" (Courtwright 189).

Caffeine is the real "trap baited with pleasure." Being without caffeine, as is the resulting effect of its addiction, a sense of unease that people swear can only be remedied by having their first cup. Coffee/caffeine addiction is really less about seeking pleasure but more about mitigating pain (Courtwright 97-100). In this sense, I argue that caffeine is the more insidious and fascinating drug. Legalized and controlled, it is actually even encouraged and consumed in copious amounts.

Since there is no law in the books that is called "DUIC" or driving under the influence of caffeine - strong arguments are made to legalize drugs that are seen, today, to be illegal. While alcohol, more than caffeine or tobacco has already been legalized and controlled, much of the revenue that funnels into government in taxes can and is channeled to it ameliorate the societal costs (Courtwright 64, 170, 176). Tobacco companies are now being sued to fix the problems as well as provide a palliative care for cancer carrying ex and current smokers.
A serious deterrent to the legalizing of the little 3 - opium, cannabis, and coca - is that they are immediately dangerous to the user and those around them. Driving and operating machinery at work under the influence of any of these three "drugs" is immediate and deadly. However, contrary argument can be made that if these drugs were indeed legalized, such incidents would be less commonplace and its societal effects can be ameliorated by the revenues generated through regulation. The challenge remains in terms of how this will be facilitated. As stated by Courtwright, the challenge will be to find that sense of balance (Courtwright 188-190, 199-207).

The malleability of the definition and use of these drugs from illegal, to lucrative, to regulated gives credence to the notion that these definitions work like a language. Depending on the time and place the criminality of these substances is either existent or not, its use medicinal or recreational, they are abused and used in controlled situations, but never, is the use of these substances - the little 3 more specifically, can be described as static. I argue that there is room for consideration to de-criminalize these drugs and to further regulate those that are already "out there." True enough, for one who loves the smell and taste of the bitter substance called coffee my self regulation is limited to the elasticity of demand and the ebb and flow of Starbucks prices and their less than kitschy substitutes. What this proves is that this issue is complex and with so much invested in the commerce and politics of these products we will not be able to free ourselves of them without incurring considerable cost.

Miguel Llora

Endnote

[1] Kitsch - All images of smiling workers, young children in grassy fields, the contented elderly, all the sentimental propaganda, Capitalist or Communist, which takes a sentimental view of human possibility, is the raw material for kitsch. Kitsch is romanticism, hypocrisy and the avoidance of the unpleasant truth of our existence. Artists are the enemy of kitsch because they poke and expose it for what it is - illusion (Kundera 19).

Works Cited

De Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. Trans. R. Harris. Peru: Open Court Publishing Company, 1986.

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York: HarperPerennial Publishers, 1991.

Lui, Mary Ting Yi. The Chinatown Trunk Mystery: Murder, Miscegenation, and Other Dangerous Encounters in Turn-of-the-Century New York City. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

"Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World" by David T. Courtwright (Harvard University Press, 277 pp, $24.95) is a vivid account of the global spread of psychoactive drugs over the last 500 years. The University of North Florida historian defines drugs broadly enough to include not just the usual suspects like heroin and marijuana, but also generally legal drugs such as tobacco, alcohol and caffeine.

Courtwright's witty writing should appeal to those with a taste for black humor. The author possesses a seemingly infinite supply of vivid examples about the impact of drugs on humanity, and even upon the animal kingdom. Lions, he notes, "have learned to prey upon drunks staggering home at night from East African roadside bars."

"Forces of Habit" can help modern white-collar workers banned from smoking indoors reflect on the ferocious anti-smoking campaigns that earlier tobacco addicts endured. While American smokers are forced to risk pneumonia each winter while they puff away in the freezing doorways of office buildings, "Russian smokers suffered beatings and exile; snuff takers had their noses torn off. Chinese smokers had their heads impaled on pikes. Turkish smokers under the reign of Ahmed I endured pipe stems thrust through their noses."

Ironies abound in "Forces of Habit." Alcoholics Anonymous' co-founders, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, "both smoked heavily and died of cigarette-related illnesses." (Today, AA chapters searching for meeting places are bedeviled by the new prohibitions on indoor smoking. Reformed alcoholics often want to smoke to relieve the tension of staying on the wagon.)

But Courtwright has serious ambitions as well.

"This book," he writes, "grew out of a broader curiosity about psychoactive commerce, a ubiquitous -- and, I now believe, defining -- feature of the modern world."

This leads Courtwright to rewrite much of human history from a, well, drugocentric viewpoint. "The domestication of fire," he informs us, "made widespread drug use possible in the first place." A few eons later, "The Apollo 11 astronauts," he notes, "were drinking coffee three hours after landing on the moon."

"Forces of Habit" is thus in the grand tradition of the Monomaniacal School of History. It stands comparison to such valuable works as William McNeill's "Plagues and Peoples" and Daniel Yergin's "The Prize," which explained the history of the world in terms of germs and oil, respectively.

Courtwright's vast goals are assisted by his defining "psychoactive drug" expansively enough to include coffee and chocolate. He even tentatively discusses sugar. I'm not sure why he didn't ultimately accept sugar as "psychoactive." Those of us with little kids have certainly seen sugar's impact on brain chemistry.

One problem with his semi-sprawling approach to defining "psychoactive drugs" is that it's not clear where to draw the line. If I drink a glass of warm milk to help me fall asleep, does that make milk psychoactive? Or would it be "psychodeactive?"

When going on a family outing, I always insist that we bring along some high-calorie, high-fat foods like cheese sticks. Few things end screaming tantrums faster than cheese. And it helps mellow out my kids, too. So, is cheese a psychoactive drug, just like crack and crank?

What about sunshine? The vitamin D it produces seldom fails to cheer me up.

Is a tan also a drug?

Evidently, Courtwright defines a drug as a chemical that wasn't around for most of human evolution. He takes a Darwinian perspective on the desire for drugs.

"Humans evolved in itinerant band societies. Life in the sedentary peasant societies that succeeded them was less varied, fulfilling, egalitarian and healthful. Taking drugs to get through the daily grind (or to treat the intestinal and parasitic diseases attendant to settled life) is peculiar to civilization. ... Such practices are further clues, if any are needed, that our social circumstances are out of sync with our evolved natures."

Drugs apparently produce artificially the pleasurable brain chemistry reactions that evolution devised to reward our distant caveman ancestors for engaging in hunting and other behaviors essential to survival. Perhaps this explains the terrible alcoholism problems currently suffered by the indigenous tribes -- such as American Indians, Eskimos and Australian aborigines -- who have only recently given up the primordial hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Of course, New World Indians had their own native drugs to share with Columbus. According to Courtwright's bottomless bag of memorable quotes, the fanatically anti-smoking and anti-drinking Adolf Hitler called tobacco, "the wrath of the Red Man against the White Man, vengeance for having been given hard liquor." (Perhaps, though, Hitler showed that power is the most dangerous drug of all.)

Courtwright dislikes drugs, but what he really hates is capitalism. "The peculiar, vomitorious genius of modern capitalism," he expounds, "is its ability to betray our senses with one class of products or services and then sell us another to cope with the damage so that we can go back to consuming more of what caused the problem in the first place."

Rich merchants and Western European governments generally encouraged drug commerce well into the 19th century. The relatively recent growth of temperance movements and at least partially effective government controls on drugs, Courtwright asserts, were a response to the industrial revolution changing what capitalists required from workers. Before industrialization, landlords could keep fieldworkers in debt-slavery by getting them addicted to expensive alcohol or opium. Drunken factory workers, though, would break expensive machinery.

"The growing cost of the abuse of manufactured drugs turned out to be a fundamental contradiction of capitalism," claims Courtwright. On the other hand, one could also argue that the historically high level of sobriety reigning in today's hyper-capitalistic information economy -- where caffeine is the only acceptable drug -- demonstrates that free markets can encourage self-control.

Many economists, most notably Milton Friedman, have suggested legalizing all drugs. They point out that the outlawing of drugs generates crime, just as Prohibition did.

The historian Courtwright, however, believes these economists are living in a theoretical dreamland. The "dangers of exposing people to psychoactive substances for which, it is increasingly clear, they lack evolutionary preparation" means that the "answer, whatever it may be, is not a return to a minimally regulated drug market."

I fear this is true, but I would have liked to have seen Courtwright grapple more directly with the libertarian economists' arguments. Historians love facts, but distrust logic, while economists don't like to mess up their beautiful theories with too much reality. Perhaps someday, a thinker equally at home with both the history and theory of drugs will resolve this crucial quandary. Until then, "Forces of Habit" makes a fine introduction.

This book is great fun, not least because of the author's extraordinary skill in the efficient delivery of interesting facts. The opening chapters, which detail the origins of the world's major drugs, are among the most informative I've read.

The second half of the book, while still engrossing, is a less comprehensive historic analysis of drug use and prohibition. Courtwright concentrates on economics at the expense of culture, emphasizing production and commerce rather than demand and moral opposition. Given the enormous social influences in the modern world, such as the American cultural war against 60's drug use and the pervasive use of alcohol and tobacco as social tools, the emphasis on money and power over cultural forces in the past strikes me as an incomplete analysis. It leads the author to unconvincingly argue that American prohibition and its repeal were primarily the results of economic interests (a "contradiction of capitalism"). Oddly, the same events in the Soviet Union are attributed to "popular resistance", without any comparative discussion of the two nations. Finally, the value of pleasure and the concept of individual rights are generally neglected.

In the end, my main problem with is that Courtwright doesn't give culture the excellent and amusing treatment he gives commerce. I can think of worse things to say about a book.

Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank is the first of the "Girl Genius" books by Phil and Kaja Foglio. It's a "gaslamp" (think steampunk, but more cheerful) fantasy comic series. Volume 1 collects the early black-and-white print comics (issues 1-3), although it removes title pages and suchlike for a continual narrative. There's also a color short at the end of book.

In the first few comics, the Foglios are still finding their feet a little, though some of the problems are due to the black and white art - they work much better in color, as the b&w is rather busy. This isn't that large of a problem, however; the art still mostly works and the characters are given their initial grounding fairly effectively.

The comic itself is entertaining - although they haven't really flexed their muscles for the full fascinating craziness of the setting that shows up later on, there is enough here to be interesting. And there's plenty of foreshadowing - you get a sense that there's a lot behind these characters and this world (and it does start to pay off in later volumes). So while perhaps not the best place to start, despite being the first volume - you can dive into the second without a problem - it's still a comic worth a read.
***1/2

I'm not a huge fan of comics and I certainly don't spend a lot of money buying comics that were originally online. Yet this series is so fantastically awesome that I find the investment in the paperback printings entirely worth it. These volumes are just thick enough to sit comfortably on my bookshelf and thin enough to read while on my back. You should really read these in color to get the full impact of their rich and vivid world.

This is definitly a must-have series for anybody who likes Steampunk. The characters are fun, the bad guys are grandiose, the outfits rock and occasionally stuff gets blown up. What more could you ask for?

If you don't know Phil and Kaja Foglio from -his- work in Dragon Mag's "What's New", from the MythAdventures series (book and/or comic), the Buck Godot stories, their (blush) XXXenophile series, or their work illustrating "Magic, The Gathering" cards (notably Urza's Science Fair Project), shame on you! Go back two spaces and loose a turn. Gas-lamp Fantasy is sort of like what Jules Verne, Mary Shelly and H.G. Wells were writing back in the day. Steam-powered wonders, cobbled-together reanimated monsters, and pneumatic nutcrackers. (who doesn't like nuts?) Add a bit more modern-times feel, fantasmagoric (tm) illustration and color, and more tongue in cheek humor than you can shake a bag of knezels at, and presto! Genius! And the Girl, DON'T forget the girl! Damsels-in-distress, damsels-outta-de-dress, damsels who would shemk me upsidy-like the head with a 3/17 occipital left-leaning heterodyne wrench if I continues! (Yowza!) So stop reading this and BUY it already! Buy the whole series! (Buy two! Gotta keep one set "Mint Condition", dontcha?)

The art is really the best part of the series. All the bits and bobs and mechanically doodads make for a very pretty comic. (And they serve as good plot devices too!)

I zoomed through the first book too quickly and hadn't yet ordered the rest of the series, which I would say is the only bad part about the book.

The drama is top notch and the fantasy setting keeps it moving forward. You'll find that the plot reveals little secrets along the way that you would never expect. The best comic I've seen from the Foglios in a long time.

This is the first volume in Phil Foglio's ongoing series featuring Agatha Heterodyne and a cast of hundreds. The book collects the first few issues of what was originally a comic book series. The publishing schedule, though, seems to have been troubled for a variety of reasons, and "Girl Genius" now appears in webcomic form (with ensuing regular compilations in print form).

Kaja Foglio, wife and co-creator, describes this as "gaslamp fantasy": crypto-Victorian science and pre-pulp adventures in a world filled with mad scientists, giant steam-powered robots, weird technology, mysterious cults, and cackling villains. A great deal of which is played for laughs, simultaneously embracing and sending up the usual tropes of the genre. The humor throughout balances between sly drollery and slapstick.

One of the major attractions is Foglio's art, which many gamers will well know from his years of penning the "Phil & Dixie" feature in "Dragon" magazine. It's drenched in color and is highly detailed, to the point that you wonder how he ever completes a page. There's almost always 18 different things going on in the background, none of which is ever really relevant, but Foglio apparently really enjoys jamming in the sight gags.

I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff, and the Foglios have done a great job in creating an internally consistent alterna-Earth with its own physical and magical laws and history and politics, and they've also introduced seemingly dozens of plot strands. This latter is both good and bad. In later issues, there is some loss of cohesiveness, and the story seems to wander off into side treks, and none of the storylines ever seem to get wrapped up. (It's sort of the "Lost" of the comics world.)

On the other hand, it's got enormous fleets of dirigibles! And scar-faced pseudo-Teutonic bad guys! And talking cats! And endangered heroines in corsets! So, you know, all of the good stuff. Check it out!

This book is GREAT! It was all I expected and better. I laughed out loud alot, and the pictures, although in black and white, are hysterical! A great touch is the pictures of Conan and Andy's reactions. This book is a great buy!

What are you waiting for? Go buy it!

Conan O'Brien is one of the funniest men alieve and this book proves that!This book evolved from a sketch on the show(one of the best, other than Pimpbot 5000). He and the Late Night Writers are amazing,they come up with so many diffrent sketches that its not even funny. If you have ever wondered what celebrities babies looked like this book is a must have.
HAIL CONAN!

heart,
ivy the barbarian

If They Mated is one of my favorite skits on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, so I just had to buy this book. I am glad I did, it is one of the funniest books I've ever read. Even if you never saw the show before, or this skit, I highly recommend getting this book, I guaranty you'll laugh! I would have rated it a 5 but the pictures in the book are grayscale, color would have been much better, but it is still a great book.

The book is funny with hilarious pictures and commentaary. In my opinion Conan O'Brien is the best show between the hours of 12:30 AM and 1:30 AM on nbc.

Ive always loved Conans humor. He is the king of couch humor. A classic comedian. In this book he showcases my favorite, and I think everyone elses too, jokes that he does. IF THEY MATED. Very funny book. Purchase this now.

Brian's book, "Powerful Steps" is more than great, it is FANTABULOUS. On a scale of 1-5, this book is a 10. I was overwhelmed by the information Brian provided. I am now on my path of working part time on my job, and full time on my fortune thanks to Brians suggestions. I am ready to work smarter not harder. Everyone who works for someone should read this book in order to improve how they earn their money.

I have read a lot of self help, self improvement books. This one has very practical steps we can all understand, and implement. Excellent advice for anyone that wants to succeed - not only in business, but in life - from someone who's been there, done that, and succeeded!
Brian J. Bieler

Flo Herald
Herald, Inc.

This was an extremely inspiring and enjoyable book by Brian Bieler. Brian gives an inside look at the way the corporte world works and provides important details that can make one successful. I truly recommend this book to entry level business people and anyone interested in learning more about the way successful people have worked their way up the ladder.

I found Powerful Steps by Brian Bieler, to be motivating, inspiring, and full of practical information. So much so that I shared his 10 Essential Career Skills and Business Strategies at my next speaking engagement! Bielers book has a winning combination of personal experience and business savvy that leaves the reader with a fantastic book to recommend, re-read, and refer to often. Powerful Steps is just that - POWERFUL!

Be sure to bring highlighter with you when you sit down to read Powerful Steps!

Marsha Johnson is a writer, speaker, and the author of Emerald's Garden. See www.marshajohnson.net

POWERFUL STEPS is a powerful collection of observations, strategies, and skills for creating career and business success. While the cover claims the book contains "10 essential career skills and business strategies," it actually has about 10 times as many ideas/strategies assembled under its 10 major skill sets. Indeed, Bieler packs a lot of punch into this terse, straight-to-the-point missive, offering up simple nuggets of wisdom gleaned from his years in broadcast management. His writing is lively, upbeat, and always inspiring. His ideas are simple, effective, and memorably stated. Another one of those books that makes the perfect gift for someone just starting their career in business, or the established manager who is looking to make the leap into upper management.

If you want to understand programming the Flash Communication Server and it's capabilities this is a good place to start.

Although I'm using Flash Media Server 2, this book is still highly relevant as not much has changed. The core objects and language is the same so I would not hesitate to recommend it for anyone looking to use FMS.

This book is all about the design of applications using Macromedia's Flash Communication Server MX. FCS MX enables the building of media-rich web applications by taking care of the basic tasks required in the networking of the applications. Thus, you can focus on the application itself rather than worrying about low-level communication details.

Since this book is concerned with situations where multiple Flash applications will be executing on the same server simultaneously, there is going to be considerable effort involved in coordinating events, which is addressed by this book. You should already have FCS installed and running on your server and you should also have Flash MX available on the client. The following is description of the book by chapter:

Chapter 1, Introducing the Flash Communication Server - Acts as an introduction to FCS and an overview of the whole book.

Chapter 2, Communication Components - How the FlashCom communication components encapsulate commonly needed features such as chat, video recording and playback, bandwidth control,and user configuration. These components implement many basic building blocks for your application.

Chapter 3, Managing Connections - This chapter covers connections in more depth past the SimpleConnect component, including how to write custom code to handle various changes in the connection status as well as different errors.

Chapter 4, Applications, Instances, and Server-Side ActionScript - This chapter describes how to write Server-Side ActionScript and work with the objects that control application instances and the Flash movies that connect to them.

Chapter 5, Managing Streams - Offers a somewhat oversimplified but complete example that shows the basic steps in publishing one live stream and subscribing to a second.

Chapter 6, Camera and Microphone - This chapter explains how to use both the Microphone and Camera classes to record live streams. These classes are at the heart of most communication applications involving multimedia.

Chapter 7, Media Preparation and Delivery - This chapter covers many details for compressing and streaming audio and video.

Chapter 8, Shared Objects - This chapter starts an entirely new subject - shared objects, which provide a mechanism for the transmission of data between client and server.

Chapter 9, Remote Methods - This chapter also shows how to broadcast method calls to every movie and application instance connected to a shared object or stream, or send them to and from individual movies using RMI.

Chapter 10, Server Management API - Discusses the Server Management API and its applications, including monitoring a FlashCom Server, gathering statistics on application instances, and managing the log streams.

Chapter 11, Flash Remoting - Demonstrates how Flash Remoting can be used to add data connectivity to FlashCom applications. Flash Remoting can access web services, server-side scripts, CGI applications, XML files, or the local filesystem with the help of an application server such as ColdFusion.

Chapter 12, ColdFusion MX and FlashCom - Teaches some specifics involved in using Flash Remoting with ColdFusion MX and FlashCom. There are some practical working examples shown that demonstrate how you can leverage the benefits of Flash Remoting in conjunction with FlashCom.

Chapter 13, Building Communication Components - This is the first step in building complete applications, and is demonstrated through an extensive example.

Chapter 14, Understanding the Macromedia Component Framework - How to modify an existing component and how to create a new one. Also discusses server-side framework code and its core features and data structures.

Chapter 15, Application Design Patterns and Best Practices - Describes some of the best practices available to application developers. This chapter provides some useful design options, patterns, and best practices that will help you build better applications.

Chapter 16, Building Scalable Applications - Deals with building multi-instance and multiserver applications that don't bog down as the number of client connections increases.

Chapter 17, Network Performance, Latency, Concurrency - Traditional network design issues affect FCS also.

Chapter 18, Securing Applications - Specifically this chapter examines the three A's of security - Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting.

Excellent book, stuffed of examples very well explained, easy to read and to understand, essential for who desires initiate or even though to profound itself studies on FlashCom.
Obligator reference in projects involving FlashCom, either for fast consultations and advanced tasks.
Excellent approach of subjects as Design patterns and security, yonder a perfect demonstration about audio, video and much more.

If you're a developer looking into real-time server communication using Adobe Flash, this book is a must-have. It guides you thru various levels of application development in an easy to understand format, and provides well documented pieces of code to assist you in the learning process of putting together your project:

Topics covered include:

- learning about components and how to use them
- establishing and managing client connections
- publishing live and recorded streams
- local communication with clients
- remote communication with outside applications

The book also shows how to build and integrate your own custom components, and how to scale your application using the components that you've created. Other highlights include information on how to use shared objects and server management API, as well as ways to improve both design and performance.