Buck Books

While the information contained in this slim (very slim) volume is somewhat helpful, it is not at all comprehensive on the subject of Dog Day Care marketing. It is surprising that the look of this piece (appears self published) and the small amount of content come from a writer who has a background in marketing and design. Definitively not worth the purchase price.

For those interested in embarking upon this furry industry (or optimizing their existing one), "Getting the Most Bark for Your Buck" carefully & competently directs you down yellow brick road. Nice work.

Since the product description didn't include any background on me, I'm going to add it here so that those considering my book will have more context.

I am a life-long animal lover who has worked in the field of marketing and communications since 1986. I am also the former owner of Fuzzy Buddys Daycare, the facility that introduced the concept of dog daycare to Seattle, Washington in 1998. For three years I also served as Washington State Representative for NADDA, the North American Dog Daycare Association.

Also, please note that when you click my name at the top of this page, all of the other book titles associated with my name are *not* books I have written. I guess I just have a more common name than I thought I did!

At any rate, I hope my book is helpful to those in the pet-care industry, or those considering getting into it. Enjoy, and prosper!

As someone who was thinking about getting into the doggy daycare business, I found this book to be insightful, interesting, and easy to read. Most owners of dog daycare know their business, but may not be experts at marketing. Ms. Williams knows what she's talking about and gives helpful tools and strategies to help owners (and potential owners) market their business.

The creators of Total Television, the brains behind Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo and many classic cartoon characters, reveal the origin of one of cartoon's greatest champions -- Underdog! This book is authored by the two creators of the series, and from conception to worldwide megahit, the entire story of the cartoon is told prompt and factual.

Includes original sketches for this biography by artist Chet Stover.

Features unused story ideas for the 25th anniversary Underdog series.

Storylines and summaries for all of their cartoons including King Leonardo, tennessee Tuxedo, Go Go Gophers, and Commander McBragg. (Which means whoever posted the review claiming the book did not include this apparently didn't consult pages 163 to 189.)

I e-mailed the publisher recently and asked why the lack of photos and it appears that the creators of Underdog don't own the rights to their own character and the present owners rejected their request to feature photos! The artwork on the cover is the Macy's Underdog balloon and since that was the only thing they could get away with, that's why you see limited photo use. Reminds me of when Clayton Moore was not allowed to wear the Lone Ranger mask when making public appearances for a number of years . . . sad.

The one surprise inside the book is the dedication:
For Victory Over Violence, Inc., a national non-profit organization dedicated tot he creation of a positive force in the media. All authors' net profits derived directly from the sale of this book will be donated to Victory Over Violence, Inc.

Written by the creators of the cartoon series, can you think of a better reason why this book should go in your shopping cart rigth now?

I've been an Underdog fan for years. I've always loved the dry sense of humor and great voices. Unfortunately, this book does not convey any of this. It spends more time on what the creators ate and drank while creating the series than any great insights on the creative process.

I was also extremely disappointed in the art work in the book. For a book on Underdog, there's no pictures of Underdog except for the cover. There are incredibly boring pictures of offices, restaurants and famous people like Marilyn Monroe who don't need explanation.

Don't waste your money on this one!

I picked up this book for the simple reason I am still an Underdog fan and that it promised insight to how he got his beginnings. If you're looking for a book about the Underdog cartoon character or art, this may not be your first choice. There's a lot of great stuff about Underdog, but this accessible read goes well beyond what we saw on the screen.

First, the story is an honest and real look at the creative process - how words become ideas and ideas combine with other ideas, and then in steps the guy who's writing the checks, and some new ideas... -- until at the end, in this case, you have Underdog.

I was struck by the authors' honesty - ie: meetings in a station wagon to a sea of martini's - which helps build a sense of transparency. I really felt that these men are sharing their experience without an agenda for their ego or legacy. Note the way they handle who ended up proposing the Underdog name with a mutual quote. I found the creative process element of the book energizing as I relate to it professionally.

Now, I shouldn't be surprised that Biggers and Stover, the team that conceived Underdog on the shoulders of another creation, Tennessee Tuxedo (they would have been remise not to have included a brief history) would carefully tuck away the educational element of this book. Yet I found myself so engaged in the story of how Underdog was created that it wasn't nearly until the end of the book did I realize that I was actually learning about the early days of animated television.

Having grown up with most of those shows and experienced this period of television differently, it was an interesting perspective to see it as the birth of something so common in contemporary life. I still love animated television just as much as I still love Underdog.

Which is why I was delighted with what this book had to say about his humble beginnings. I highly recommend The Underdog Bible to any fan (Afterward) - a collection of documents Biggers and Stover used to guide the creation of the series. It includes a history of Underdog - from his beginnings in West Virginia to the death of his mother - a moving and revealing look at the character and morals in which the cartoon dog was based.

The story holds plenty of other gems as well, including the inside answer of why a frog in the famous line: "Not plane. Nor bird. Nor even frog." It's not just because it rhymes with dog, as I always was content to believe. And you'll finally learn why Underdog always spoke in rhyme. And my lurking suspicion that maybe, just maybe, Sweet Polly might not be as sweet as she seems, was, at least in part, validated.

I suppose I could just as easily give you the answers... but there's a context to all of it. That's the true beauty of this story, how all of these things converged: animation, television, the evolution of the advertising industry... and the creative process of two men that led to the birth of Underdog. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Granted with a title like "How Underdog Was Born", one shouldn't expect much about Total Television's other series like "King Leonardo" and "Tennessee Tuxedo", but it's here! That's the good thing. The bad thing is that the book ends abruptly after the creation of Underdog save for a couple of paragraphs about "Commander McBragg" and "Klondike Kat". Then there's a fast forward to the aborted attempt to make new "Underdog" episodes. What isn't here is what happened after "Underdog", but I guess that could be saved for the sequel? I am glad, however, that it is written by two of the original creators of the series, so it is a first hand view of what really happened.

Is it as simple as a princess in love being able to save her beloved's life? You read it once and it sounds as a tale for kids. You read it twice and you can understand there's a circle that never ends. The lady or the tiger? or What would you choose when the choice is love or death?

"In my idea the doors at the end of the story represent the struggle for someone in love and the travisty it causes."

Is it as simple as a princess in love being able to save the life of her beloved? You read it once and it sounds as a tale for kids. You read it twice and you can understand there's a circle that never ends. The lady or the tiger? or What would you choose when the choice is love or death?

I would loved this story, except that it doesn't give you and ending to the suspense, the story however is well written and descriptive

This book gives a pretty detailed description of many notorious outlaws of the time. It gives a good overview of many characters of the wild west, as well as the three main spots along the Outlaw Trail. That being said, I was a little disappointed upon reading the book.
Unfortunately it has very little to do with Butch Cassidy. He is mentioned frequently throughout the book, but never in great detail. Every now and then Cassisdy does have a chapter devoted to one of his more famous exploits, but but it feels as though Kelly really only scratches the surface of Cassidy's exploits. Unfortunately it also seems that the author portrays Cassidy as a mythical figure, as he seems bent on proving Cassidy to be a robin hoodesque hero.
That being said it was an interesting book. If not so much about Cassidy you will learn about other outlaws like the McCarty gang, Matt Warner etc. In addition Kelly does give good firsthand accounts he obtained from many people who befriended, hunted, or simply knew of the outlaws. For these reasons, i gave this book three stars.

The fascinating true story of the outlaws of the late Old West, (roughly 1887-1909). This book was originally written in the 1930s, based on interviews with witnesses still living. The author skillfully weaves Butch Cassidy throughout the narrative, but the story is not the outlaw leader's alone but of Gunplay Maxwell, Big Nose Jake, Sheriff John T. Pope, Queen Ann Bassett and a host of others, of Hole-in-the-Wall and Robber's Roost, of a time when *everyone* stole cattle, of bank robberies gone awry, local juries that never convict, and posses so fearful of the men they are pursuing that fresh sign on the trail means it's a good time to stop and brew coffee.

This book was originally self-published by Kelly in the 30s and then updated and republished in the 50s. It contains a very good Introduction written by Daniel Buck and Anne Meadows which puts what follows in perspective.

There are indeed problems with the book, but it is rich in details giving a far more accurate portrayal of the Old West and the outlaws that ran from the Canadian border to Mexico (cutting through specifically Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona) than what passes for the Old West in Hollywoods version or some of the more popular western fiction writers. I'd say after reading this that the west portrayed in David Milch's DEADWOOD is closer to reality.

I've traveled much of the territory in this book and found while doing so that the book enriched my travels. Much of the Old West is gone, but traces of it can still be found if you look hard and this book helps to bring it alive.

Kelly details the history of the Outlaw Trail through the different outlaws he writes of and their escapades. The book is not particularly linear. He does skip around and has an annoying habit of mentioning someone and then saying he'll tell more about them later. At times I felt I needed a character list to keep track of all of the outlaws and how they interrelated. Still, it gave me ample background about how the Outlaw Trail "worked" and the various places where they had free reign.

It's a scholarly work in need of some serious scholarly editing. Still, I found the information useful and interesting. If you're looking for strictly Louis L'Amour this probably isn't the book for you. If instead you're looking to find out more about the true Old West add this book to your collection. It gives another perspective and once you get past some of the at times overly descriptive language/dialogue you'll walk away with a better understanding of this time in our country's history. It's the history of the men and woman who never had movies written about them but who up until a little over 50 years ago still haunted the territories they once rode through with near impunity.

Although Charles Kelly did not leave us with a lot of footnotes while in the course of writing this book, his research has stood the test of time, and relatively few of his facts are contested, even after more than fifty years. He was able to interview many of the old timers, participants and eye-witnesses, and come closer to capturing the feel of the time period. No wonder the book is full of intrigue and insight that the best modern researchers can not match.

I didn't realize that this was a script for a play and not a book. Maybe I didn't look that closely.

I had to read this last year for my English class, and thought that it was going to be just another lame story like all the other "classics" the public schools make us read. But when I got into it I was pleasently surprized. I couldn't stop laughing. The story is about two men who kidnap the local millionare's heir. But get more than they bargoned for. Instead of a well behaved rich kid they get a wild, red-haired hellion, that insists on playing Indians, and sacres one of his kidnappers so much that they finnally take him back to his father, thinking that they'll just get rid of him then and there. Well, instead of a reward the kid's father says that if they pay him a hundred or so dollars he'll keep his son back for a while and he won't tell the neighbors that they brought him back until nightfall. What happens next will surprize you and make you laugh. It was so much fun to read, I would suggest it to anyone that wants to read something really funny, it'll just make your day.

Red Chief, the red haired, freckle faced, 7 year old, is really a good kid. So he sets cats on fire and shoots arrows through the postman's hat. So he through Becky in the lake, he just wanted to get her clean. But why does everyone in Summit, Alambama (the flattest little town in the south)run when he comes out to play? And what happens when he is kidnapped by the two slick, charming, and unusually kind con-men Sam and Bill Driscoll? Red Chief (or Johnny Dorset by true name) adores them both, which is more than is to be said about their feelings toward him. Bill gets hit by Hurricane Red Chief the hardest. But what happens when they try to collect the ransom leaves them both on the short side of
"The Ransom of Red Chief"!!!!

Red Chief, the red haired, freckle faced, 7 year old, is really a good kid. So he sets cats on fire and shoots arrows through the postman's hat. So he through Becky in the lake, he just wanted to get her clean. But why does everyone in Summit, Alambama (the flattest little town in the south) run when he comes out to play? And what happens when he is kidnapped by the two slick, charming, and unusually kind con-men Sam and Bill Driscoll? Red Chief (or Johnny Dorset by true name) adores them both, which is more than is to be said about their feelings toward him. Bill gets hit by Hurricane Red Chief the hardest. But what happens when they try to collect the ransom leaves them both on the short side of "The Ransom of Red Chief"!!!!

Dr. Buck does a great, incredibly thorough job of presenting a biography of Alain Locke. Citations to nearly every factual statement in the book are provided. Locke was a giant of the Harlem Renaissance, the African-American community, and of the race unity movement. Yet he is poorly understood and often not even known at all. Buck proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Locke was indeed a genuine Baha'i for most of his life. However Buck shows that Locke was an enigmatic, aloof, almost paradoxical Baha'i. My only criticisms of the book relate to its format and editing. The book is not presented as a chronological biography, but rather is divided into chapters, which are then divided into subsections. This separation of various periods of his life/activities, breaks the flow of the book and causes the book at times not to read well. Certain topics are repeated several times. But on the whole this definitely covers what the author wanted to do, i.e. describe Locke's spiritual life and philosophy, especially his Baha'i life. It's definitely required reading for anyone seriously studying Locke, anyone studying the history of the American Baha'is in the early 20th century, or anyone just interested in reading a biography of a Baha'i.

Before discussing the merits of this book it is in order give a brief description of Alain Locke.

Locke was born in Philadelphia in 1885, and studied philosophy at Harvard. In 1907 he received a Rhodes scholarship enabling him to study at Oxford. While in Europe he traveled and came into contact with the philosophers Brentano and Meinong. It is notable that he was the first, and until 1960 the only, black Rhodes scholar. Upon his return he secured a position at
Howard University, Washington. He received his PhD in Philosophy (with a dissertation on axiology) from Harvard in 1918.
His work The New Negro: An Interpretation of Negro Life (1925) established him as (one of) the main forces of the Harlem Renaissance.

Alhtough his impression on academic philosophy has been slight (e.g. the 10 volume Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy has not one mention of Alain Locke). However, through his writing and lecturing he managed to influence american life, and secure a place in the history of the Harlem Renaissance and the american civil rights movement.

He was born into a Christian (Episcopalian) family but converted to the Bahá'i religion in 1918. Attracted by that religions teachings on the equality of races, he involved himself in the american community's Race Amity Conferences and other activities aimed at achieving equality between the races. His overall involvement in the baha'i community was however less than enthusiastic. Partly, this seems to have been due to the bahá'i-community's periodic inability to implement its lofty ideals into practice.

Locke's identity as a bahá'i has been unknown or at least unacknowledged by earlier biographers and researchers.

Turning to the book itself:
In addition to being a biography of Alain Locke this book's major contribution is to bring out and establish Locke's identity as a bahá'i.
Regarded purely as a biography the book is more than acceptable (approx. 4 stars) and enjoyable. Contrary to another amazon-reviewer, I think that the author solves the biographer's perpetual problem of choosing between a thematic and a chronological presentation in an admirable way. The chapters are thematically held together which breaks up the 'cover-to-cover'-chronology of the book (the reader is taken back and forth in time as the books proceeds), but within each chapter the chronology is maintained. This structure contributes to the readability of the book. In addition, it enables the reader to focus only on those aspects of Locke's life that interest her. Given that this book is not simply a biography, but aims to show the influence of Locke's association with the Bahá'i religion on his intellectual output, such a structure is without doubt preferable.

The book is, I guess, attractive to two, not necessarily distinct, groups of readers:
1. Those with an antecedent interest in Locke or the Harlem Renaissance. To this group, the book provides new insights and information about the extent and nature of Locke's involvement with the Bahá'i religion.
2. Those with an antecedent interest in the Bahá'i religion. To this group the book provides information about a, then-prominent, member of the bahá'i faith who, for strange reasons, is largely unknown in the contemporary literature on the bahá'i religion.
In addition, and more interestingly, Buck aspires to show how Locke's philosophical work and the Bahá'i teachings influenced one another, and in this way extract the basics of a 'bahá'i philosophy'(p.6 and pp.187ff). In this respect the author completely fails. The problem is not that what he says is wrong. He doesn't say anything of substance on the subject at all. (One suspects that this is to a large extent due to ignorance of philosophy on the part of the author.) This still leaves a pretty good biography of Locke's life, but the fact that he at several places promises to give such an account but fails to deliver detracts from the overall score.

Christopher Buck, Alain Locke: Faith & Philosophy (Los Angeles: Kalimát Press, 2005). With an introductory essay by Professor Leonard Harris of Purdue University (today's leading scholar on Alain Locke).

One of the towering figures of African American history is Alain Locke -- the first black Rhodes Scholar, Harvard Ph.D., professor of philosophy at Howard University, "Dean" of the Harlem Renaissance. Locke was the most important African American intellectual between W. E. B. Du Bois and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here are the opening paragraphs in Chapter One of Alain Locke: Faith & Philosophy:

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Chapter One
INTRODUCTION

Alain Locke democratized American culture and paved the way for the Civil Rights movement. During the Jim Crow era of American history, when civil rights were white rights, Locke was the genius behind the Harlem Renaissance, which David Levering Lewis aptly characterized as "Civil Rights by Copyright."1 Locke edited the monumental anthology, The New Negro (1925), hailed as the first national book of African America.2 In so doing, Locke ingeniously used culture as a strategy for ameliorating racism and for winning the respect of powerful white elites as potential agents for social and political transformation. Awakening the black masses to their noble African heritage and instilling pride in unique black contributions to American life, Locke may well be regarded as "the Martin Luther King of African American culture."3

Without Locke, there may not have been a Martin Luther King. The New Negro movement, for which Locke was the chief architect and spokesman, was singularly responsible for inculcating and cultivating the requisite group consciousness and solidarity necessary for the mobilization of African Americans during the Civil Rights era. As Martin Luther King was a man of faith, Alain Locke was also. Based on newly discovered documentation of his conversion in 1918, we can now say with certainty that Locke was member of the Bahá'í Faith for over three decades.

As the youngest independent world religion, the Bahá'í Faith was clearly a leader in advocating racial harmony and full integration during the Jim Crow era. Through his service on several national Bahá'í committees, Locke was instrumental in organizing a number of "race amity" events. At various times, Locke lent his prestige to the Bahá'í Faith: he publicly identified himself as a Bahá'í in a 1952 issue of Ebony magazine, for example. By virtue of his being both a race leader and a cultural pluralist, Locke is certainly the most important Western Bahá'í to date in terms of his impact on American history and thought. This book documents and demonstrates the synergy between Locke's profession as a philosopher and his confession as a Bahá'í, which confirmed his commitment to racial harmony as a necessary prerequisite to world peace.

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Many books have been written about Locke's contributions to black art and culture in the United States. These books have generally ignored the fact that Locke was a Baha'i. Alain Locke: Faith and Philosophy fills in that missing link, telling the story of Locke's services to this new world religion from 1918 until his death in 1954.

Based on Buck's painstaking archival research of the Alain Locke Papers at Howard University and elsewhere, this book also describes, for the first time in scholarship, Locke's philosophy of democracy ("A New Americanism") in nine dimensions -- ranging from the concept of "local democracy" all the way to "world democracy." Locke's philosophy of democracy presents a compelling argument for America's world role or "destiny" -- but if and only if America can first solve her own racial crisis at home.

This topic should be of contemporary interest, especially since America is taking such a controversial leadership role in exporting "democracy" in the Middle East and around the world. But what does "democracy" mean? And how does "democracy" compare with Baha'i social principles? Locke has a compelling answer that should interest all Americans.

Alain Locke: Faith & Philosophy is richly illustrated with rare historical photographs, including photos of Locke with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ralph Bunche.

This book is a update of " Big Bucks the Benoit way" It rehashes some of the other book and adds a little more. Each of the boys has a chapter on there favorite hunts and techniques. I like the first book a little better. Of the 60+ books I have on whitetail hunting the Benoit books are among my my favorite and also the ones I learned the most about "mature bucks" from. Hal Blood has a very good book too. If you buy just one book on tracking I'd get "Big Bucks the Benoit way" or Hal's book. I like the Benoits a little better because theres info from Larry, Lane, Shane, and Lanny in one book.

This book is a must for any deer hunter. The primary focus is on tracking bucks, but this book would also do well for any hunter whether they are a stand, still hunter or a tracker. It is a great read and gives one practical advice on tracking down the buck of your dreams and bagging it. This books follows in the footsteps of the other quality Benoit books ( Big Bucks the Benoit Way and How to Bag The Biggest Buck of Your Life ). The Benoits also have videos out showing their technique, and these are also well worth your money.

If you dont have the 1st book, this is a great book!!! Without question, but all this book is, is a repeat with new pictures and littles bios of each of the Benoits. If you have the Big Bucks: The Benoit way and you are looking for new information out of this book, dont bother, you will be disappointed.

I have never been a great reader of historical novels but The Buck Passer has certainly gone a long way to converting me. From the very beginning I was completely engrossed,while at the same time doing a roll call in my head of who the main character could be. Whether you figure that out or not has no bearing on this being a fascinating and well written book and I look forward to being held captive by this author sometime in the future.

This book is very well written, with twists and turns that do tend to confuse the reader attempting to guess who the central character might be.
The author also succeeds in confusing the reader through dialogue.
Just when one begins to get a grasp of time and identity, the Australian colloquialisms throw a spanner in the works.
At first I found this odd and somewhat out of character, however, further reading convinced me of it's merit.
Even if one guessed the central character's identity prematurely, the book would still continue to hold the readers attention, for the author's imagination is impressive and writing skill admirable.

I loved this book. Not only was it a real page-turner - and well written, to boot - it also had a intriguing bonus I've never found in any other book. The author scrambles the timing and setting of the action and asks you to guess who is the famous historical figure portrayed. It is remarkably difficult and very entertaining. I, for one, did not pick the central character; I needed to wait until the end of the book for the author to spell it out for me. and it was well worth the wait. This is a unique, really clever approach to combining fact and fiction. Highly recommended.

This story is an intriguing story of a man who cheats on his wife and has an illegitimate child. His wife journeys to Asia to see his son. This story is as beautiful as a pearl(no pun intended) It describes the beauty of Asia and America. I would rather cuddle up with this book than eat cheesecake any day.

While a 24 year old soldier in Korea, Chris Winters, an educated and newly married man, moved in with a beautiful Korean girl and fathered a child.When his tour of duty finished, he simply returned home and didn't bother to think about his child, offering no form of support to mother or baby. Now that he's a successful budding politician running for the post of Governor, he's stunned when a letter arrives from his son, begging for help. His wife Laura flies to Korea and forms an attachment to the child, bringing him back to the US for a good education. During Chris's political campaign, he orders Laura not to mention the fact that she's a brilliant industrial chemist, but rather to dwell on the time before their marriage when she was a model as he says" people will feel threatened if they know you're smart!"
Although I am a devoted fan of Pearl Bucks Chinese books, this story made me so angry that I could barely finish it. It's probably a product of its time with its accepted patronising attitudes to women and womens roles in life and in society in general but I found it extremely uncomfortable to remember how we blindly accepted the put-downs and totally patronising attitudes of men.

This is Ms. Buck at her best. This is the story of a man's struggle to deal with his illegitimate son,a son he never knew existed, and this son's struggle to not only deal with his new family, but a whole new world. This story touches the reader in the very best way.

Well, I might say this is a great book, believe me. It was the first book i read of the author and I enjoy it for over 7 years. And for 6 years i looked it all over my country and didn't found it. [thanks God there are places like Amazon.com :-) ] This novel makes you dream inside the characters. I love China, although I am not of that country and this book makes me feel the difficulties of the epoch, the thinking and the hope of people. I can grant that you won't be dissapointed. 4 stars up! ENJOY

"The Promise" like all Buck's books I have read that are set in China, gives a compelling portrait of the country and its people. Set during the early years of World War II when the Japanese army was pounding the Burma Road, "The Promise" relates the story of a brave division of Chinese who have been sent on a suicide mission to rescue the remnants of an Anglo-American force trapped in Burma. There are a couple of telling portraits of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his wife that show them in all their venality; their remoteness from the individual masses of Chinese arouses more contempt than admiration. What really affects the reader is the disdain of the Anglo soldiers toward the Chinese who attempt to rescue them and whom, in their desperation to escape from the Japanese, they abandon to their fate, cutting off their retreat and leaving them to save themselves. The open contempt the English express towards the native Burmese ("We own this country, after all; it's part of our Empire"), and their genuine puzzlement when the Chinese confront them about their attitudes, shows up all too clearly their inherent sense of superiority which is based on nothing but a blind ethnocentricism. Buck's sympathies clearly lie with the valiant Chinese who are seething under a viciously brutal Japanese occupation and longing for freedom, but not at the price of European domination. We don't get to know her characters in "The Promise" as intimately as in some of her other books, but we admire them none the less for their courage and their self-sacrifice. "The Promise" is not on a par with "The Good Earth" or "The Three Daughters of Madame Liang", but it's definitely a worthwhile read.

If you read Dragon Seed, the prequel to this book, you will know that you read this book because you couldn't live with the ending that was given! So you read this book and it continues to provide more historical information and answer some of those questions that you had from the last book. However, by the time this book ends, you seem to have more questions than before. I won't spoil it for you, but I was thinking that perhaps the title might explain all unanswered questions simutaneously! Also, the book tends to become a little boring at some parts. Yet every second of boredom is compensated for by later events of extreme excitement. Doubtlessly though, it is a GREAT book and a fine sequel, though more could have been done with the plot. Read it!