Brian Books

This is a wonderful book! It accompanies an exhibit of hundreds of Catlin's paintings held in Washington DC in 2002, and scheduled to travel to several other cities. The reproductions are superb (the best I've ever seen) - the colors are true, and the sizes are often full-page and sometimes double-page. A brief commentary accompanies each painting, and there are also lengthy essays describing Catlin's life, his time in Europe, and his connection with the Smithsonian.
I bought Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, etc at the same time that I bought this book, and I read the two of them together. The paintings are immeasurably enhanced by Catlin's comments and stories (he is a great story-teller). He explains what's happening in the crowd scenes (and it is sometimes hair-raising!), and he gives interesting background on the people shown in the portraits. Looked at in this way, the paintings really come alive. Very highly recommended.

This book has a nice variety of the collection of George Catlin paintings, along with a few of the artifacts from his collection. Most of these are reproduced in color in this book. The text is also well written and tells the story of Catlin, his paintings, and the view point of the era.

This is a gorgeous book, filled with magnificent reproductions of Catlin's seminal portraits and augmented by a trenchant and insightful commentary.

Although we have not read Mr. Nogay's book, we can honestly say that he is one of the best anatomy and physiology teachers in the United States. His work at Georgetown Preparatory School is worthy of the highest honor. Studying the human anatomy with Mr. Nogay has been a privelige. Deh-deh-deh-deh! Mr. Nogay is a person with a BIG-BIG-BIG heart. You will not say "EW!" when you finish reading this masterpiece.

Sincerely,
Mr. Nogay's 6th period Anatomy and Physiology class

A very inspiring book. It touched my heart and soul. It made me more aware, more appreciative of my faith, my religion.

I commend the author for writing with such insight, indepth and independent thought, sensitivity and love for his subject......God. Maybe the author is only the messenger. God is the real author.

An excellent book to bring one back into focus as to the love God has for each and every one of us and how we can establish a better relationship with Him. Very refreshing !

S. & F. Sagan

Lynn writes beautifully about the shifts that are upon us. The time is now, and she is playing her role in sharing these messages from Spirit.

I found reading this book to reinforce the continuing persistence of my spirit to grow and expand. I feel lucky to be living in these times!

The Good Remembering is a quick read that touches deep into a person heart and soul, thought provoking and life changing, a must read for all.
Jennifer Kelton, Author Don't Use My Sweater Like a Towel

This book was written by a friend of mine and I wanted a nice copy. This copy was in virtually new condition, better than expected. Great deal and good delivery.

This book is a very informative guide to the wonders of granite mountain tops in the continental United States. It begins with a general introduction to the science of granite domes, how they are were formed in geological time and shaped by glaciers, and the resulting unique ecology and flora. Then Wessels takes us on a tour of the major granite dome peaks of the US, from Acadia National Park in Maine, west to Yosemite. Each chapter in this second section is both travelogue of a climbing adventure Wessels took on the mountain, and nature guide, describing ecological aspects of the mountain. At the end of the book are appendices that provide a more detailed look at the geologic time line of granite peaks, a list of plants that may be found on American granite peaks, a glossary, a selected biography for further reading, and an index. The book is amply illustrated with black and white photographs by Wessels and illustrations by Brian Cohen.

The book is quite enjoyable as well as informative. I found the introductory chapters on geology particularly interesting, as they explain the nature of granite deposits and how granite is different from other types of rocks. Most important, reading the book makes me want to strap on my hiking boots and get out and climb so that I can experience these wonders for myself!

First off, I loved this book. I know some will poo poo this book for not being a hardcore geology book, but thats what makes it so good. Mr. Wessells gives a very good geology course limited to the granite outcroppings in the U.S. and he does it so that is is very interesting. At times I felt like I was right there at his side as he described the landscape he was in. I had to limit myself to a chapter a day, though I cheated a couple of times, I could have read it in one sitting. I sure wish my geo classes in college had been this interesting.
Brian Cohen's illustrations are fantastic as well.
My only disappointment was the author's photographs, though that can be forgiven fro writing such a good book. It is now a permanent part of my library.

My brother-in-law is receiving a used book from me. I made the wonderful mistake of perusing the book; I savored all of it. He is getting the book with my comments. I wished for more selections. The stories are so much fun!

Hunters and fishermen who appreciate humor will love THE GREAT DUCK MISUNDERSTANDING AND OTHER STORIES: THE VERY BEST OF AMERICAN FISHING & HUNTING HUMOR: it reflects gently on the ironies and inconsistencies of such varied topics as the deer camp, the symbolism of a wild duck attached to a roadside stand, and the impact of TV hunting shows. A fine compendium of laughs by some of the great outdoors writers of the world.

After a rousing introduction, Peterson bestows on the lucky reader the writings of P.J. O'Rourke, Jean Shepard, and James Thurber on the manly pastimes of hunting and fishing. Russell Chatham joins in with the title story and women keep pace with Nancy Anisfield on a grouse hunt. The contents are woven in an artful fashion so the book can be enjoyed at random or read from cover to cover. Two camo-covered thumbs up for this fine addition to the humor bookshelf, a bargain many times over for the hunter or fisherperson who knows how ridiculous they look in those Filson togs.

Deftly written and colorfully illustrated by Brian Lies, Hamlet And The Magnificent Sandcastle is an engaging picture book which is especially recommended for young readers from age 4 to 8, and features the adventures of a pig and his porcupine friend during their trip to the beach. Hamlet is determined to build the best sandcastle ever, yet the water and the weather threaten to tear down his creation, in this simple yet captivating tale. Also very highly recommended is Brian Lies' Hamlet And The Enormous Chinese Dragon Kite...

When the impetuous Hamlet builds a marvelous sandcastle upon the beach, complete with dungeons and secret tunnels, he neglects to pay attention to the time or weather. His cautious friend Quince doses on the beach, only waking when a wave splashes him. As a day of fun turns into a day of danger, Quince rushes to the castle before it crumbles to find his friend. Only cooperation and inventiveness will save these friends from certain disaster.

HAMLET AND THE MAGNIFICENT SANDCASTLE is one of those amusing, memorable tales that children will plead for again and again. Amid the humor of building sandcastles upon the beach, however, lies a message of friendship and cooperation, presented subtly enough within the tale to avoid becoming didactic or boring. With marvelous illustrations and an adorable porcupine, HAMLET AND THE MAGNIFICENT SANDCASTLE comes very highly recommended.

Our family loved "Hamlet and the Enormous Chinese Dragon Kite," so it was only natural to get the next installment of Hamlet and Quince's further adventures. Hamlet creates a huge sandcastle, but distracted by his creation, he doesn't realize the tide has come in. Quince does a little flying this time! My children love the action and suspense. This is a title that appeals to the adventurer in everyone.

What a wonderful book. It's a series of great photos of significant covered bridges, with descriptions that include building methods and styles, dates, history and best yet... driving directions! I find myself itching to go out and visit some nearby ones. An enjoyable, easy read that I know I will refer to over and over.

This book was beautifully illistrated, and informational. Each photographed bridge holds part of our past, and an oppertunity to understand a part of our history. Once inside the pages you are transported back into a time that others have forgotten. I recommand this book to all who have been in love with the Covered Bridge for a long time, and to thoes like me who have just fallen in love with this beautiful part of our history.

Brian's book is filled with some of the most breathtaking photographs you will ever see of Covered Bridges. If a bridge had a soul, he certainly knows how to capture it with his photographs. The historical and technical information is wonderful as well. It is a magnificent book!

I have just finished the "acknowledgments" section of Brian Bouldrey's new book, and it's one of the best I've ever read. That may sound like hyperbole, but it's not. I'm a voracious reader -- I tear through 5-10 "acknowledgments" sections every week -- and Mr. Bouldrey's is as good as any penned by Mailer, Updike, or (God rest his soul) Vonnegut.

Instead of struggling in vain to adequately describe the merits of Bouldrey's acknowledgements, let me just quote a short passage from what is destined to become a classic of the form:

"The author wishes to thank . . . Larry Wood . . . ."

Bouldrey, Brian. "Honorable Bandit: A Walk Across Corsica", University of Wisconsin Press, 2007.

Deceptive Humility

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

The University of Wisconsin Press has taken the lead in the academic field of publishing books relevant to our community. Brian Bouldrey, one of the leading gay men of letters published with them and the result is always exceptional. In
"Honorable Bandit, he takes us to he island of Corsica where the beach is as white as sugar, the sea is deep and dark as wine and the food and drink is spectacular. Bouldrey walked across Corsica so that he could spend time with himself and to think about his life. At the same time he could also avoid thinking and could escapeâ"escape to remember and to revel in his past and to mourn his losses. For two weeks he and a German friend named Petra hiked cross the land and in this book he gives us a journal of the experience. Corsica was t be for Bouldrey a place for reflection so that he could explore himself first of all ad then the difference in cultures and friendships.
He surmounted physical dangers and challenges in order to find himself and risked getting lost and facing personal challenges as memory often forces people to do.
It is somewhat hard to classify this book"it is both memoir and travelogue and also lampoon". Most of us are unfamiliar with Corsica and the beautiful pictures he creates in our minds are not likely to be forgotten quickly
Bouldrey's journal is humorous and touching at the same time. It is also very wise and extremely touching. As we travel with him, we also explore ourselves and it is easy then to look into the places in our hearts and face issues we may have avoided facing. We can deal with our own demons and Edens and Hells. All of this is in Corsica just as all of this is within every individual. Reading Bouldrey face his inner soul allowed me to peek into my own. Reading Bouldrey allows us to know him and to know ourselvesâ"it is as if he is the tour guide on each readerâ(tm)s personal journey to self discovery and acceptance..
Bouldrey's humility is deceptive at times and fro this I learned that we should move simply"one step at a time and that step must be timely and measured and full of thought".
We live in a world where destinations are fixed places ad by leering how to move toward our goal we may be forced to look at our mortality and the road that lies before us. The beauty of Corsica is a metaphor for the beauty of life and while we may trek on the path toward wherever we are going, we question who we are ad what our purpose in life is. I sincerely believe that all of us want to leave a mark on the world and to be remembered for the accomplishments we have made but it is impossible to journey through life and not be affected by it. We also learn that a set destination is not always setâ"obstacles and accidents can change our paths and when all is said and doe, it is up to us to decide which is more importantâ"where we end up or how we get there.
When I closed the covers of the book I felt cleansed. As I walked through Corsica, which s described so beautifully in Bouldreyâ(tm)s words, I also walked through where I had been and thought very carefully where I am going. A perfect example of this is how I ended up in Arkansas. Had it not been for Katrina, my life would have been completely different and I may not have ever read this book or written this review. It was not planned to be that way but that is how it turned out. Walking through Corsica with Brian Bouldrey allowed me to walk through my own life. Whether where I am now is worth it or not is a question to be answered and while the journey was not always fun, the rewards have been great.

If you've read any of Bouldrey's other work, this book will come less of a surprise than a delight. If you're new to Bouldrey, I envy you the discovery.

"Honorable Bandit" is part travelogue, part memoir, part meditation on walking, and part shaggy dog story. Bouldrey spent several weeks walking across Corsica, the Mediterranean island best known as the birthplace of Napoleon (the ruler, not the pastry), and he does offer tips on dealing with pigs, flash floods, and tiny horses. But "Honorable Bandit" is not a guidebook. Corsica merely provides the context for tales of vendettas, lonzu, throat singing, disagreeable roosters, and a host of other subjects that won't get you across the island any quicker or more safely. Speed is not the point, after all -- the journey is about the journey, and the journey is through life and history, not an island that seems to be saying, "We're #1!"

Reading the book is like watching a slideshow given by a loquacious, but very engaging, host, who stops the show for long stretches as one story leads to another, starting with the slide, but then sliding into tales of family and friends and escaped convicts and past journeys and memorable meals, yet always returning to the next slide, and just in the nick of time. In the hands of a lesser writer, such a book would be tedious at best and infuriating at worst. But Bouldrey loves language, and loves the reader, and has such wonderful things to tell you that you forgive him his excesses, even when they are excessive.

The problem with most memoirs is that the memoirist generally thinks of him- or herself as the most important -- and certainly most interesting -- character in the story. Bouldrey is rarely guilty of that crime. He uses his experiences as a way to tell us about what he's discovered along the way, and in doing so, allows us to make our own discoveries. He is a most generous host, and his book is a most satisfying repast.

Natural rights historians and scholars have expressed numerous opinions regarding the origins of the western notion of natural rights. Tierney argues that the development of natural rights form the basis of the whole western natural rights tradition, and that scholastic philosophers employed concepts of natural rights in their reasoning as early as the thirteenth century. Citing the Franciscan poverty dispute, Tierney demonstrates that it had a lasting impact on the development of western notions of rights. Finally, Tierney's account of the ways in which the concept of natural rights--a medieval notion--made its way to the modern world is original and insightful. Future scholarly work on the origins of the western natural rights tradition must build on Tierney's findings.

Brian Tierney, Professor Emeritus at Cornell has written the book on the genesis of modern natural rights thinking that all future scholars and students of the subject will have to digest. It is a common understanding that modern natural rights thinking began in the Enlightenment with the likes of Hobbes and Locke. Other claimants for the title include Grotius in the 17th century, the theologian Jean Gerson in the 15th century, earlier still Ockham, and Aquinas. Tierney argues that in fact it is in the thinking of the canon lawyers of the 12th and 13th centuries that one can discern the beginnings of modern natural rights thinking.

This history of natural rights thinking between 1150 and 1625 is relevant to the important contemporary questions of whether natural rights is a "western" or more universal notion; of the scope or content of the idea of natural rights; of how the earlier classical and medieval ideas of natural rights relate to the modern notions; and of how natural law, the laws of nature, and natural rights, relate if at all.

Because much of the discussion is about the meaning and understanding of medieval latin terms one regrets not paying more attention in high school latin class. That said Tierney makes it as easy as it can be with his lucid analytic style. Working ones way through this classic is well worth the effort.

ACKNOWLDGEMENTS/ CITATIONS/ INTRODUCTION/ Modern Problems and Historical Approaches/ CHAPTER I/ Villey, Ockham and the Origin of/ Individual Rights/ Classical Roman Law/ Individual Rights and Roman Law/ Aquinas and the Canoninsts: Ius and Lex/ Ockham's "Revolution"/ Objections to Villey/ Alternative Approaches/ CHAPTER II/ Origins of Natural Rights Language: Texts and Contexts, 1150-1250/ The Question of Origins/ Sources of Modern Rights Language/ Canonistic Rights Language-Contexts/ Canonistic Rights Language-Texts/ Need and Natural Right/ Conclusion/ CHAPTER III/ Rights and Duties: A Quaestio of Henry of Ghent/ A Prisoner's Dilema/ Ownership of Self/ CHAPTER IV/ The Beginning of Dispute/ From Francis to Ockham/ Approaches to Ockham/ CHAPTER V/ Languages of Rights/ Hervaeus Natalis. Ius and Potestas/ Marsiliuis of Padua/ William of Ockham, Ius Poli and Lex/ Conclusion/ CHAPTER VI/ Property, Natural Right and the State of Nature/ Problems of First Acquisition/ Civilians, Canonists, and Theologians/ Bonagratia of Bergamo and John XXII/ Ockham on Property/ CHAPTER VII/ William of Ockham, Rights and Some Problems of Political Thought/ Origins of Jurisdiction/ Varieties of Natural Law/ Absolutism and Natural Rights/ A Rights-Based Political Theory?/ CHAPTER VIII/ Postscript/ CHAPTER IX/ Gerson, Conciliarism, Corporatism, and Individualism/ Individual and Community/ Tuck on Gerson/ Rights and Reform/ Ius and Dominium/ Chapter X/ Almain, Mair, Summenhart/ Medieval Survivals/ Mair, Rights and Needs/ Summenhart, Varieties of Dominion/ CHAPTER XI/ Aristotle and the American Indians/ Vitoria, Acquinas and Natural Rights/ Vitoria, Rights and Indians/ Las Casas, Indians and Rights/ CHAPTER XII/ Rights, Community, and Sovereign/ Vitoria. Sovereignty and Divine Right/ Saurez, Sovereignty and Natural Rights/ CHAPTER XIII/ Grotius. From Medieval to Modern/ The Question of Modernity/ Natural Law and Natural Rights/ The Right to Property/ Individuals, Society,and Sovereignty/ CONCLUSION/ BIBLIOGRAPHY/

If you want to know what different locomotives in different countries looked like, then this is a great source of information. Set up almost like an encyclopedia of locomotives and trains, you can find what you are looking for here.

Part of the The Illustrated Directory Of series, this book is a real hoot!

Following a reasonable timeline, some of our most importaint locomotives in the history of Railways are covered, Steam, Electric, Diesel and GasTurbine.

All regions are covered but the U.K., Europe and North America get the most coverage as the need to create communications in these large land mass areas saw the most development in locomotive technology.

The contentious issue of who built the first Pacific type (4-6-2)locomotve is settled with Baldwin winning by a couple of weeks with their order from the New Zealand Government Railways for that country's Q class locomotives in 1899-1900.

Other magnificent feats of engineering are covered, the mighty Big Boys, the sleek GG1s, the Hudsons, F7 Diesels etc and the modern locomotives and High Speed passenger trains of today all get a look in. Relevent data is included for those who want to know, other than that, what a great read.

This wonderful book covers over 150 locomotives starting from the very early steam to present day high speed trains. Steam,Diesel and Electric traction are all covered with fairly good descriptions on each locomotive.Though majority of entries are from from US and UK, other countries are covered aswell. Locomotives which brought technological innovations and also ones which performed well are all included.Interesting historical information on each locomotive is also provided.The book contains beautiful color photographs and some superb highly detailed color line drawings.Though without an index this book is very informative and covers the most important locomotives of the past aswell as the present.