Buck Books

Reading this slim volume, which must have been one of the last written by Pearl S Buck, it's impossible to believe that the author hasn't had to deal with this aspect of love herself. It's a story of pure, unfulfilled, unselfish love of an older woman for a younger man. Recently widowed Edith Chardman is learning to live alone after a long and happy marriage to a much older man. She is an attractive, educated woman in her early 40's, with her family grown and living their own lives, when she meets a handsome, brilliant young scientist, who stirs in her, feelings more passionate than she would have believed possible. Sensibly keeping these feelings secret, she fosters his ambitions in science, seeing for him a brilliant future in which she could play no direct role. The whole story is more like a treatise in philosophical love, love without the physical aspects, given purely to direct the dreams and aspirations of the one who is loved. The language and dialogue is strangely stilted for a book set in the 1970's, with such precise and faultless grammar seeming to belong to a much earlier age.

Richard III remained a hated king on par with John, the original wicked uncle, until Sir George Buck undertook this revisionist work in 1619. He has been accused by some modern authors as biased and partial, viewing the last medieval king's life with too much romanticism and not enough objection. For those examining the conundrum Richard's life presents, Buck is a balance to More, Vergil, and the modern Ross and Weir. He relies mainly on contemporary chroniclers such as Mancini and de Commynes, while keeping the Tudor historians' accounts firmly in the time in which they were written. His work is a prime example of the many scholarly defenses of Richard III.

I've been a fan of Hawkeye Basketball since before the days of Sam Williams (whose autograph I still have). I was reaching back to some old sports memories recently and acquired a few books and DVD's about some of the greatest teams, seasons, players and games that I experienced. In the case of the Iowa Hawkeyes, their basketball team has probably been the team I cheered for the loudest and the longest so it was fitting to get this book.

I am familiar with the author, Buck Turnbull, because I read his sports columns and articles in the Des Moines "Register" growing up in that fine city. I even graduated from high school with one of his sons. His style of writing is more than adequate for this book. He's a bit of a "homer" (with a small h - let's not get carried away). However, he's a good historian of the program and filled in the background on all the names I heard dropped while I was growing up. Names like Murray Wier, Sharm Scheuerman, Don Nelson, and others. I heard of them and knew of them but I didn't know their history with the Hawkeyes; now I do.

Mostly what I enjoyed about the book was what I already knew about; the big wins and the heartbreaking losses. Relieving those special moments brought back memories of where I was at the time. One game in particular got a good write up in the book. It was the first game after the tragic death of Chris Street. My wife and I were driving at night from Williston, ND to Bismarck and I caught the game on WHO radio. The Hawkeyes were down by over 15 points with less than 4 minutes to play at Michigan State and pulled out a victory in overtime. Even my wife was excited (although she wouldn't let me listen to the post-game show). That and many other memorable games are chronicled in this 168-page book. I didn't come across the Connie Hawkins matter or the serious illness that left James Speed blind but the book focusses (as it should) more on the teams than the individuals.

Good or bad, there are many memories associated with all major collegiant sports programs. This was a good overview of a program that wasn't the best but was good enough for a lot of great memories.

I own alot of whitetail hunting books . I didn't find anything new here.

For a first effort at an historical novel, James Buck's Journey to Honor is a good read.

The book, based on the diary of Josiah Crispin, a member of the 23rd New Jersey Volunteers, mostly follows the life of Crispin and his buddies from when he signs up in September, 1862 to its climax at the battle of Salem Church in May of 1863.

Plagued by unqualified officers elected to their rank, the book examines the 23rds journey from a mostly ignorant mob into a disciplined and effective fighting force.

It's a painful journey. Initially believing their nine-month enlistment would be spent in garrison duty, they quickly find themselves attached to the Army of the Potomac and are caught up - untrained and poorly led -- in the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg in December, 1862.

Through Crispin's diary and Buck's research and imagination, we get a rare insight into the life of a private soldier in the early days of the Civil War. At Fredericksburg you learn what it is like to be part of a small squad of men involved in a huge conflict. Often not knowing exactly where they are, what is going on around them and not understanding what they are supposed to be doing, the "fog of war" becomes very personal.

Unlike so many accounts of the Civil War, Journey to Honor is very much a soldier's story. You get a good feel for what it was like to be a Union ground ponder at a time when disease was more deadly than combat, and the Army of the Potomac was being humiliated by the Army of Northern Virginia. The reader gets a glimpse of the close friendships that are built, the rough teasing, the heartbreaking sorrow when comrades are either killed or succumb to typhoid, dysentery, cold or primitive medical treatment.

Buck, a West Point graduate himself, gives a vivid account of the horrible winter of 1862, '63, one of the worst known, when the men were living in barely habitable huts that often were awash in water and infested with vermin. And the amazing ability of the common soldier to find something to joke about in even the worst conditions.

But he also shows how, slowly, the Union commanders learned how to deal with its army: discipline tempered by caring; officers who worked to build their soldiers' pride and earn their trust. You see the transformation of a rabble into fighting force.

There, too, is the story of how the army's medical corps began to deal with the problems of terrible hygiene, poor food and, sometimes, indifferent officers.

And you also get to see the maturing of a new author. In the beginning, when dealing almost exclusively with information from Crispin's diary, you get the feeling that something is missing, that you are not quite connecting with the characters. But as the book progresses, and Buck begins to expand his sources and research, the book becomes much more satisfying.

This book is well worth a look by anyone interested in Civil War history.

Generic text book MBA stuff. Simplistic but worth the purchase and a good leaning tool while stuck in traffic.

Not as helpful as I expected. Too much info and title should spell out what particular Coolpix(s) it describes.

To call this short manual a beginners book would be to use the term lightly... it is to tech manuals what "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" would be to "War And Peace". From the technical standpoint, I felt that I was going to suffer an aneurism just flipping through it. But, from the standpoint of a beginner to Windows XP (or any other Windows Operating System for that matter), it is definitely a good place to start.

At an extremely stretched-out 58 pages of screenshots and short descriptions, it is definitely in the category of getting what one pays for. The nice point to this book is the aforementioned screenshots accompanying every page. This book is for those who are technically inept and unfamiliar with the various terms that are involved in navigating around ones computer (such as desktop, toolbar, task manager, and "power button").

Diving strait into the technical mumbo-jumbo, it walks you through navigating your way around the desktop and it's linked Start Menu. After walking the user through the dumbed-down basics, it starts off on the more 'advanced' features introduced into Windows... the Firewall and System Restore. Now, explaining the Firewall is great from the standpoint of a user on a fresh install of XP, but since most of the settings have changed with the release of XP Service Pack #2, some of this has since become outdated. Now, the System Restore is something that all users should know exists, and know exactly how to use it. A lot of tech support calls and reformats could be prevented in advance with this sort of knowledge, and for that I commend the authors.

Some of the other advanced coverings in this book are the "Event Viewer", used for tracking any problems and system messages that have popped up on the system, the Disk Defragmenter, used for sorting and compacting system clusters, Windows Automatic Update (Thank whatever Deity you want for this... too many computer users out there are oblivious to the concept of security patches and updates), and brief suggestions of Anti-Virus through way of the Security Center.

What is missing, and I noticed this right away, is also one of the more ingenious additions to the Windows Operating System with XP... The Remote Assistance Console. What's that? Well, in simple terms, it's a way to send a "call for help" to an online friend and let them fix your computer from the comfort of their own PC. In some more advanced terminology, it's a Remote Desktop Session... but no matter what you want to call it, it's a blessing to both the inept user, and the technical troubleshooter (meaning, it's a lifesaver no matter what end of the keyboard you are on).

All in all, how would I grade this book? From the standpoint of a beginner, I would toss it a point for every dollar... on a scale of 10, it would make it to 5. From the standpoint of a tech though, the exchange rate would not be so kind and it would only work out to a 3.5 (I notice as I glance on the back cover that Americans pay $5 as well as Canadians... so someone's math seems to be a little off).

In closing, if you want a quickie manual on how to turn the PC on and work out how to find your folders, this is the book for you. But from experience, the only thing that can replace the manual, is an even bigger manual. Shortening down something as complex as computer management is like taking the steering wheel out of a car to save space... it just won't work the same.

"The book for people who hate to read the manual". In my opinion, stick to the manual.

-NightStorm-

The book itself is good, but it is imcompleted without the audio cassettes to listen to the correct pronunciation.

Well, since this is the first review of a 1996 book, I guess many people haven't read it. :)

I initially bought this anthology because of Rebecca Paisley, but found I liked her story the least. Cleopatra's eccentric nature became tiresome after a while. Not my style. However, I enjoyed both Paula Detmer Riggs and Carole Buck very much. Enough to try other work by them. CB's story was very good because the woman wasn't perfect (size 6, etc.) and came to realize her own beauty. I really enjoyed this story the best. PDR's story showed a man's side of pain and how he needed to heal before he could move on with his life. These stories were a nice departure from typical storylines. Overall, I would keep this book because it is different from what I normally read.