Byrne Books

The book is a beautifully written and illustrated story of a cat. She lives in a town but does not belong to anyone, and survives on scraps. Townspeople's personalities are described. The cat meets a handsome tom (a Tuxedo), mates, and has kittens. The kittens grow bigger and bigger as she worries what will happen to them - she doesn't want them to live the life she does. For them she wants something better.

The story is in a way sad, but the cat shows she has strength and caring for others, and in a way it is a triumph.

As an alleged descendant of Saint Margaret, I was pleased by this book by Ms. Byrne. While the style is relatively simple and unmistakably hagiographic (what else, with a true saint), I was pleased to find in this book a large segment of the contemporary biography Saint Margaret's daughter commissioned at the hand of Saint Margaret's confessor.

While there are better books about Saint Margaret, this is certainly a sweet, faith-building book suitable for anyone looking to better understand the life and works of one of Christendom's most beloved saints.

A typically good LP guide, but be aware that while earlier editions of the title included the whole South Pacific area, this edition does not include Micronesia. (And LP hasn't updated their micronesia guide since 2000.) So if you're planning to visit Kiribati, Palau, or other countries in Micronesia, this guide won't meet your needs.

This 584-page book deals with some 269 species covering 55 genera. These are fully described with accompanying line drawings and over 130 of them are illustrated in colour.

The introductory chapters deal with the geography, climate and vegetation of Papua New Guinea as well as the conservation and classification of New Guinean orchids. This book, a massive undertaking in itself, is a bold start in making known to the orchid world the unusual and spectacular orchid flora of Papua New Guinea.

The island of New Guinea boast more than ten percent of all known orchid species. Although the author limited himself to species found only in the lowlands this book is a most valueable addition.

The good news is this is extremely well done. The (to many) annoying frame boundaries and scan lines have been removed to the greatest extent possible without removing essential information. I particularly like the contrast enhancement and other software tricks that have been applied to present each photo in its best light.

To see what I mean, take a look at "The Process used to clean up scanning artifacts" on the accompanying CD.

The coverage is very thorough, though there are a few irksome "misses" that were unavoidable due to the nature of the orbiter's path.

Any "lunartic" is going to enjoy this reference book. From the visual standpoint it is a superb job and one wonders why it was not done years ago. Likewise, there were other missions whose results would benefit from this treatment, although their coverage was different and less complete. In any case, I find this an extremely interesting and valuable resource.

The bad news is that the index is bad. To find a named feature, it's not always possible to use the index (many important and common ones are missing: e.g., Aristarchus, Eratosthenes ...).

To wander through the photos in a predetermined path (without reference to a specific feature) is also a chore at times as the organization is according to the original photo numbers and not to an overlaid organizational scheme such as a high-level map. It is easy to get lost and it is sometimes hard to find your way out again. Since the processing is so well done, this is less disheartening than it would otherwise be ... I find myself staying "lost" on purpose sometimes, discovering vistas I didn't know were there before losing my way. But to a technical writer it's discouraging to see such potential missed for lack of a truly good index.

Producing an IAU Nomenclature-based index would be a great project for someone with the time!

The book comes with a CD which I haven't found to improve on the printed index: the indexes that are on the CD are PDF files that are NOT linked to the actual photos, so to use them you need multiple windows open on-screen simultaneously. It would have been far more convenient to provide the indexes in html form with links to the proper photographs.

On the plus side -- and it is a HUGE plus, in my opinion -- both medium- and high-resolution images of each photo are on the CD and they are gorgeous images, especially given the technology used to produce the original photos.

All in all, this is an extremely valuable reference, and one I am using almost daily. So perhaps I am being a bit nit-pickety here. It's only the indexing bit that prevents this getting my 5-star rating: If I could award it 4.75, I would.

This is not a price guide, so if you're buying it to see everything ever produced by Matchbox over its initial 50 years then you will be disappointed. There are no prices at all in here either which is good as even the ones in price guides are never very accurate anyway. Saying that though, this does have a substantially large range of photographs of various vehicles and to be honest I've found more vehicles in here that I'm interested in than are listed in Warman's Matchbox Field Guide: Values and Identification and other price guides, books which I found very disappointing and not worth buying as they also severely lacked anything close to a comprehensive list. The bonus of the vehicles shown in this book is that the photos are clearer and bigger than in those price guides and the vehicles are all in new condition when photographed.

The market who this book would primarily appeal to is families where grandparents can get together with their own and subsequent next generation kids (grand) to reminisce and talk about their childhoods and the difference in the vehicles they all played with.

This is book is sponsored by Mattel so other than not being critical of Mattel, obviously access was given to their products and contacts (collectors) to get pictures of new condition vehicles. Downside with the images is that most have no description and although the chapters are in chronological year order you have no idea what they or the series they were from are actually called if looking for them. For example I found some really cool Looney Tunes one in here including one with Bugs going through the windshield (after obviously forgetting to buckle up) which only after sifting through various Looney Tune listings on e-bay discovered fall under the Pro Racers series). So although it is easy to find the answers it would have been nice if when putting in the photos the publishers had bothered to do this.

There is a lot of information on Lesney (company who started Matchbox) and the various owners of throughout the years. Since Matchbox has been owned by the same parent companies who at one stage also owned their competitors (Mattel at the time of publication owned Hot Wheels and Matchbox) you get to also learn a little bit on Corgi and all the other main diecast car companies (with the exception of Johnny Lightning) as well. Another great thing is that this book covers the global reach of Matchbox and does not just talk about either the USA or the UK as most price guides and competitor books do.

I'm no huge collector or knowledge holder of Matchbox but I did notice a few mistakes in here, such as one of the few pictures with a description lists a car as Victorian Ronald McDonald's House, when the vehicle has a picture of the map of South Australia on the side. I would find this hard to believe as these two bordering states of Australia are huge rivals but if this is legit than why no story with the explanation? More likely it is a mistake not picked up in the American staffed editing room.

Other than these few mistakes though, this is a very nice and interesting book to read. I've learnt quite a lot about the favourite toy of my childhood and found a few vehicles that I will look for as a mild collector. Easily the best of any Matchbox book for either of those two requirements that I've come across.

This book has incredible details about the business of Matchbox, its incarnations over the years, and its related companies. The production quality of the book itself is top-notch (for example, the photos jump right out at you), but there are some features that detract from what could have been the definitive coffee-table book on the subject.
There are some notable errors in the photo captions, and some photos are re-run on the same or neighboring pages. The book identifies "rare" color schemes for the models, but inaccuracies makes one wonder about the credibility of those assessments (examples of glaring errors: reversing the identifications of the Iso Grifo and the Ford GT, or showing regular wheel vehicles from the mid-1960s under the caption of "Superfast" vehicles, which did not come around until 1969). At times the photos are shown on page after page with no real connection to each other. In that respect, the book lacks basic organization of the photo content (although the informative articles are arranged chronologically).
This is not a price guide, nor is it a comprehensive listing of the multitude of Matchbox products over the 50 years covered by the book.
I suspect the typical customers of this high-end book will be devout Matchbox collectors. They may not perceive this as the valuable half-century compilation the publishers had probably hoped for.

This is an interesting book by respected philosopher Peter Byrne (editor of the prestigious academic journal, RELIGIOUS STUDIES). Byrne discusses 'the moral interpretation of religion," the view that "morality provides the anchor for belief in transcendent, sacred reality and, consequently, provides the means for interpreting belief in a religious ultimate." This book is not sympathetic to the view that morality needs a personal God as its foundation, though Byrne is equally willing to criticize secular ethics when appropriate. Byrne argues (1) that if the foundation of morality is a personal God, then the autonomy of morality is undermined. (2) When theists appeal to moral arguments for theism, they are open to the counterargument that the problem of evil is a reason for favoring atheism over theism. According to Byrne, the argument from evil is stronger evidence for atheism than the moral argument is for theism.

Of special interest to me was the book's second chapter, which focuses exclusively on an oft-neglected topic: the various moral arguments for theism. In that chapter, Byrne states a number of objections to moral arguments for God's existence. (Ironically, most of those objections have NOT appeared in atheistic literature in the philosophy of religion!) Along the way, Byrne manages to discuss the following topics:

* the Euthyphro dilemma,
* Robert Adams' modified divine command theory,
* Linda Zagzebski's claim that without God we must become moral skeptics,
* the suggestion that secular morality is deficient because it lacks a proper motivational background to pursue the moral good

In short, I would say that chapter 2 alone justifies purchasing the book. If you have an interest in moral arguments for the existence of God, then you will definitely want to add this book to your library.

I read this book in one weekend. I couldn't put it down. The characters were interesting. It covered several generations of the same family and covered many interesting issues and aspects of the medical profession. It kept me going until I had to get to the end to find out how the story and plot cam etogether. I will look for other books by this same author.

Fans of women's basketball should add this book to their libraries. Cathy Rush of Immaculata started what was to become women's basketball. Several of her players went on to become coaches of leading college teams and a few became involved in the WNBA.

Byrne tells the story with loving detail, based mostly on interviews with players, coaches and teachers. If anything,, she can be faulted for being too much in love with her subject, so she ends up being more descriptive than analytical. I would have liked to see more interpretation of the material. O God of Players lacks the immediacy of true journalism (see In These Girls Hope is a Muscle, an account of a high school team's championship year) and also the scholarship associated with academic history.

Just as historians ask what events came together to spark World War I, we could ask what events ame together to spark a mighty basketball team in a small backwater women's college? Just a few small coincidences or a convergence of social trends?

As Byrne points out, most religions attempt to make rules to control the body, especially the female body. So why did Catholicism embrace basketball, while other religions did not? Was there a unique relationship between pre-Vatican Catholic doctrine and basketball values?

Byrne raises the issue of conflict between religion and basketball but doesn't really dig in. We get no sense of how players interacted in class, beyond fond memories of being excused for practice. We do get a sense of how the players experienced basketball uniquely because of their religious tradition, as players recall their modesty in early locker rooms. And we get a hint of the awkwardness associated with Cathy Rush's non-Catholic status. But the author stops with description, not drawing out ironies or implications.

So we learn how players were influenced by road trips and tournaments, but what was the impact of Immaculata on women's basketball? And how did players fare after graduation, compared to non-players who also attended Immaculata?

Perhaps it's unfair to expect more than we get. God of Players is interesting, well-written and exhaustive in information. I would recommend this book to any basketball fan and perhaps to students of women's history. I just wish we had a little less meat-and-potatoes and a tad more spice.

This is an excellent manual for anyone interested in designing and working with reverse osmosis plants. It is almost up to date, has good illustrations and case studies. I hope Mr. Byrne will update it and bring out a new edition with the new improvements in the technology. Also, ultrafiltration as reverse osmosis pretreatment should be considered. All in all, a very decent book.