Burton Books

As a bride to be planning my wedding from neighboring Seattle, the Bravo guide has absolutely been my best resource from finding venues to researching photographers to looking at florists. It's an all in one guide for everything you need and I wish there were more stars to give.

This resource guide is a "bible" if your planning a wedding in Portland, Vancouver or Salem. It has hundreds of reception sites by capacity, area and price. I couldn't have planned my wedding without it.

My son and I used this book during a unit study on birds. We checked this book out at the library and ordered some owl pellets for an activity.

The book features great photos of barn owls from baby to adult.

Also included in this book are a glossary, activity list and discussion questions. Lots of learning packed into one fun book.

This book is totally crammed with tips, anecdotes and practical advice. Not just a quick, easy, entertaining read, but also a workbook with practical exercises that if you actually take the time and effort to do, are amazingly effective.
I have to admit that I'm not a fan of the Dummies genre, as to me they seem a bit condescending and perhaps lacking in depth, but I'm now a convert. I just could not believe how much was packed into this one volume. It's much more than the title suggests.

This is author's second novel about Dev Shannon, the Santa Barbara based bounty hunter. But this time, some of 'ol Dev's pick up operations have been sidelined due to the unfortunate fact that somebody is trying to whack him. In fact, for about half the book, Dev is spinning his wheels to regain traction. A big chunk of his time has been eaten up dodging bullets, double checking the safety of his boat and vehicles, and sparing with the SBPD, ATF, and, of course, the know-it-all guys in the suits, the FBI. But he does get out for a couple of rough and tumble ops. One in Idaho, where he is assisted by a local "chapter" of a mysterious nationwide web of retired cops and federal agents called the Renegade Pigs. (Is there such a group? If not, it should be invented -- for laughs if for no other reason.) Another recovery operation takes place outside the country, this time in Jamaica. Dev faces down some cooly intimidating characters on their turf to make this pick up. He even gets the curse of impotence placed on him. (Doesn't work.) These two incidents will show you that bounty hunter Dev Shannon does not just recover fugitives. Also, Dev finally gets on the trail of the guys who want to kill him. The reader is also taken on a spooky hunt in the caves semi-submerged in the channel islands off Dev's home turf of Santa Barbara. If you read the first Dev Shannon novel, "Crimson Hit", you will be gratified to meet up once again with Dev's support team: his Dad "Pug", a retired SBPD cop: Cedric, the pedantic computer whiz; the stolid black guy, Iver; and Dev's best friend, Futa, his Siamese cat and boat mate, scourge of the marina wharf rats.

Bob Burton is the leading authority on bounty hunting in America. He knows more about bail recovery than anyone else in the country including that upstart publicity hound, Dog Chapman. Once again, the author paints in Tom Clancy like technical detail what bounty hunters really do against the backdrop of Elmore Leonard genre characters. The only disappointment in the book is the non-reappearance of Sonja Johnson, the Swedish chick featured in "Crimson Hit". I wonder if she's still around Santa Barbara. If so, I hope she shows up in Bob's next novel on Dev.

Can you help? PBS ran a series on this subject some years ago. I'd like to find a copy.

Richard Burton was an unparalleled polymath, adventurer, and explorer. Although his morality was questionable, he approached life like few men do. This book traces Burton's life, his exploits, his successes, and his failures. You have to admire the man for his sheer courage and bravado - it's amazing that he lived to be an old man - by all odds he should have been killed a dozen times. After reading this book, you'll wonder why we have so few people like Burton today.

An excellent resource for genealogical research. Also, a fascinating and intriguing history of one of America's greatest cities, DETROIT.

From Front Jacket:

"Today, the phrase 'canal mania' suggests an enthusiasm for Britain's magnificent legacy of man-made waterways and a relish for chugging along at a leisurely pace through the British countryside. But two centuries ago, 'canal mania' took a very different form; for the new canals were then seen as arteries of industry and trade which would carry prosperity to every corner of the realm, ushering in a new golden age; and the 'canal maniacs' of the day were obsessed, not only by the Utopian prospects opened up by this revolution in transport, but also by the opportunities it provided for speculative gain.

'Canal mania' reached a peak in 1793, in which year no fewer than 21 new canals were authorized by Act of Parliament, and the story of these '1793 canals' forms the core of this book. For these canals, between them, are representative both of the extraordinary variety of waterways built in the heat of the 'canal mania', ranging from obscure canals serving a single industry to mighty ship canals, and of their varying fates: some still prosper, others are little more than weed-filled ditches; some have been rescued and restored to their former glory, other have vanished for ever.

Around the framework provided by the 1793 canals, Anthony Burton develops the wider theme of Britain's canal network and its history. He tells the stories of the great engineers, from James Brindley through to William Jessop and Thomas Telford, who not only built the canals but stamped their contributions to the system with the indelible imprint of their own ideas and personalities. He focuses, too, upon the great enterprises - Bass, Ovaltine, Pickfords, the removal firm, and the canal companies themselves - whose prosperity was founded upon the waterway system. The families who, often for several successive generations, earned an often meager living from the canals, provide another rich source of anecdote as well as insights into a fascinating corner of our social history.

But, above all, it is the canals themselves, their architecture, their engineering and their diversity, in which the author glories and which, he readily persuades the reader, form a unique and splendid historical legacy which is available to us all for our pleasure and which is also deserving of our care and respect. The text is illustrated with archive material and with detailed architectural drawings by Peter White, the former Chief Architect of British Waterways, and the magnificent color photographs by Michael Taylor provide a striking and original portrait of today's canal network."

I decided to read this after reading Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, and Power and learning that Catherine the Great had a long and intimate pen pal relationship with Voltaire. As the French Revolution progressed, she regretted this friendship noting that philosophers and writers like Voltaire posed too great a threat to the monarchy.

You can see how Voltaire's mockery of the established order would resonate in 18th century Europe. Interestingly, he mocks not only the privilege of power, but also the risky business of being a king, with a long list of assassinated and otherwise deposed monarchs.

While it's a piece for its time, its truths hold true today. The developed world no longer has kings and slaves, but a pecking order is still in place and wars and conscriptions continue. There are still and will always be con men, sycophants, schemers, hypocrites and misogynists.

Not much satire survives a year, let alone a quarter millennium, but this one clearly does.