Buck Books

It is a great surprise to find no review on this one-time best selling novel based on the historical fact, Manhattan Project, making the first A-bombs. Among the most interesting characters in this book is Jane Earl, a female scientist, who is involved in this dreadful project. This character appears to be created by a 1938 Nobel-laureate, Pearl Buck, combining several models: Lisa Meitner, Pearl Buck herself, and a few young US female nuclear physicists such as Joan Hinton, Leona Libby, and Ellen Weaver who were actually involved in this project. Although Jane plays one of the major roles in this project, she strongly opposes the final plan of Truman's US government to drop the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So she signs on the petition of 70 scientists asking for him not to use the bombs on these Japanese cities. However, his administration ignores this petition, and massacred more than 300,000 Japanese citizens indiscriminatively, in an attempt to intimidate Joseph Stalin's USSR who was intending to invade Eastern Europe.

This petition was proposed and drafted by Leo Szilard (featured by the name "Szigny" in this novel) who originally proposed the US Manhattan Project for beating a similar project of Nazi Germany. The reason why Leo opposed to use A-bombs on Japanese was that Nazi Germany had already been surrendered before the first US A-bombs were constructed.

Shortly after the war ended, Leo abandoned nuclear physics, and started a peaceful molecular biology, while Joan left both physics and US, moving to China to boost Chinese agriculture by creating a so-called "good earth" there, instead. Joan Hinton (86) in Beijing is among the last surviving Manhattan Project members, and still working for anti-NUKE movement. Most surprisingly, Joan did not know about this 1959 novel by the author of "The Good Earth" until very recently.

A rather heady linguistic work. At times I find myself drowning in a jargon which I don't speak, but at other times, I find myself seeing linguistic connections that I was never aware of (or not a conscious level). Some of the patterns enumerated are ones that have entered my intuitive understandings of language, but seeing them explicitly defined helps me understand why they work the way that they do. I find myself interested in learning Sanskrit after reading through this book. I'll have to look into auditing something at CGS when I get the chance.

An excellent introduction to Halloween, this book follows a variety of activities enjoyed by trick-or-treaters. Tongue twisters about parties, spiders, bats, candy-gathering,
and costumes help youngsters explore Halloween in a humorous, festive atmosphere. Bright, comic pictures depict a cast of characters as they experience All Hallow's Eve. My son loved trying to spot the child in the dinosaur costume. We both enjoyed the tongue-twisting, and ended up memorizing the book. I highly recommend this short book to any child new to Halloween or fond of short tongue twisters.

This book has very good coverage of Anglo-American trade developement in the early to mid nineteenth century. It contains information not found elsewhere. Originally published in the 1920's there are resources, for example U.S. Government Repositories, which are now availiable. The only negative is that some of the citations in the British Parliamentary Papers have proven impossible to run to earth, though there are problems with the Papers and it may not be Buck's Fault. I am purchasing a copy for my shelf.

A bit outdated nowadays but a good image of the state of the art in computer networks a few years ago, a listing of all the computer networks in the world (Including all Internet networks) and contact information.

An fascinating article on diagnostic and forensic medicine. It gave me a bit of a start to see an article I'd used in a paper turn up on an Amazon search though; I don't understand why it's being sold here when the CDC gives it away on the MMWR site.

A visit to the CDC website and an hour spent reviewing the Morbidity and Mortality archives is time well spent for anyone who wants to learn about forensic procedures or who thinks that nothing useful ever comes from the government.

Its the story of an american missioner named Andrew, who was strolling China's paths for over than 500 years, he arrived there young and died there. He had so many adventures that couldn't fit in just one book. He saw the chinese people in their most intimate moments at home, like in weddings, sickness and death.

I read this book after reading the Martian Wars trilogy and wasn't sure how things were going to go after that. Moving away from the familiar characters of Buck and Wilma seemed a risky move. Using the character of Kemal Gavilian from Mercury was intriguing however, as readers had heard snippets of other cultures in the previous novels. This book was a very enjoyable read, and left me on tenterhooks. Unfortunately, that is also the problem, as book 2 and 3 of the trilogy seem to be near impossible to find.

Miles thought that nothing would ever come of the tiny little fib he told to pacify an elderly aunt. He was wrong! His aunt does not believe the lie, namely that Miles is engaged, and she is journeying to his country estate with her idea of the perfect bride...and she's not leaving until Miles IS engaged. Miles, in sheer panic of the noose some people call matrimony, begs his long time friend, Caroline, to pretend to be his intended.

What Miles doesn't know is that his "best friend" has secretly been in love with him for the past six years. Can Caroline convince Miles to make their engagement real...or will he break her heart all over again?

This book offers thumbnail sketches of each and every Wilderness area in the United States and is conveniently organized alphabetically, state-by-state. In addition to descriptive information of each Wilderness, details of local access (including general road conditions) and addresses of managing agencies are included. The only feature that was somewhat disappointing to me is that nearly all of the descriptions in the book are verbatim duplicates of those which can be found on the National Wilderness Preservation System website. The website does not, however, contain access information so for those interested in visiting a Wilderness area, the book is definitely worth consulting.