Chambers Books

Doughty's book covers exactly what it says. It provides a good overview of American military history beginning basically with the colonists' battles with Native Americans. This book really shines in its discussion of the technology behind warfare and how it affected key battles. For example, its sections on the technology of World War I (machine gun, plane and tank) are carried through when discussing World War II. I felt the authors did a good job of trying to create a logical flow of progression. Though I'm not sure if killing more people faster is "progress" but I digress.

There are also smaller sections on important military commanders. The authors also have no problem calling a spade a spade and telling the reader who did a bad job. And based on the Civil War section lots of people did lots of bad jobs.

There are, obviously, more in-depth studies of all the military actions and technology discussed in the book. But the importance of the book is to tie all of these facets together and create a larger view of American military history. Overall, the book did a good job creating a sense of evolution of western warfare.

I don't know about the other two , but I found the play Brittanicus excellent. It is rather formal writing, but beautiful nonetheless. The story is tragic, as it was meant to be. I truly enjoyed this play, and would recommend it to other serious readers of French and plays.

I had the good fortune to study both composition and orchestration with Bernard Rogers at the Eastman School. His approach to orchestration skillfully wedded both the creativity of ideas and timbre to an exrtraordinary degree. While, as he explained to his students, he never intended the little book as a textbook, composers who carefully read every page and study every example of the scores excerpts included in this unique book will benefit from his unique way of thinking about texture and timbre. Orchestration students of the composer will remember well his references to passages such as the opening of La Boheme or passages from Borodin that he treated as small gems of the orchestrators treasury. If you can find this book, you will be well rewarded if you are a serious student of the orchestra and composition.

This is an excellent workbook to assist the Intermediate Latin student. It continues to instruct on the elements of grammer and vocabulary while introducing you to translating excerpts of speeches from one of the greatest writers of the Roman Empire. It simple to understand, yet fully capable and complete enough to assist the self-taught student. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking to learn the mother of all languages - Latin.

Its a short but fun interactive book for ages 1-5. The book covers a day in the life of your bunny puppet where the child or parent controls the baby bunny's activity. The story is engaging for a toddler and the activies are calming. The pictures are extremely cute. Each page contains some popup or activity, like putting the bunny in a highchair for breakfast or in a bath before bedtime. The pop-ups are naturally fragile and the TV page's dial requires at least a 2 year old's dexterity. At one year old, my son simply sat amazed by the bunny puppet/doll, but by 3 he was doing everything by himself while I read. This is perfect for supervised reading during parent-child booktime. It will not survive unsupervised handling by a 2 year old.

How many times has a person said, "Why did you do or say that?" and the response has been "Because I Love You!" The BILY (Because I Love You) Book is the perfect inspirational book of thoughts and ideas to share with someone you care about. A great book to give to show appreciation to anyone to let them know someone cares. A book I was given and one that I cherish and I will purchase for many of my friends.

Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber and Other Adult Tales (Harper, 1979)

Angela Carter tells stories. Fairy tales, to be precise, at least in this volume. They're the fairy tales you know well, that you grew up with. Carter just wants you to know that they've grown up with you. The Bloody Chamber and Other Adult Tales visits old standards and, well, not "makes them new again," exactly, but takes a slightly different approach in the telling, making them earthier, exploring explicitly subtexts only hinted at in the tales we know (even if we grew up on the unexpurgated editions). In some ways, Angela Carter's minor masterpiece stands in direct opposition to Wendy Walker's retellings of fairytales, as Walker does the same thing, but by twisting the tales into even more labyrinthine iterations; Carter just wants to hack all the floweriness away and get to the bloody, decaying meat of the matter. Both writers are doing something wonderful. If you've never had the pleasure, pick up The Bloody Chamber and Other Adult Tales and get a glimpse of what Grimm was too scared to spell out. ****

Who can resist a book that provides an interesting fact or a piece of trivia for each day of the year?

In an ideal and more disciplined world, I would restrict myself to one day at a time. So much for good intentions. In reality, I find myself dipping into the book to find facts that may be of interest for particular birthdays, holidays or other auspicious dates.

Take the 26th of January for example. It is Australia Day, and it is also the date upon which - in 1837 - Michigan became the 50th state of the USA. It is also the day that India became a democratic republic in 1950.

All of these events, and others, are available elsewhere but perhaps not together.

Recommended for all with an interest in the trivial and not so trivial dates around us.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Jody Connelly is resourceful, but her husband, Tate, has her stymied. She just doesn't know what else she can possibly do.

As a lawman, Tate was injured in the line of duty-he got caught in an ambush. Six months later, he's still hurting and badly out of shape.

Tate's unhappy and so is Jodie. But Tate claims to have a solution. Divorce. The trouble is, Jodie can't go along with it. Not when she loves her husband. Not when she's expecting his child.

Jodie wants her baby and her husband. Maybe some heartfelt Texas meddling can turn his thinking around-once Jodie gets Tate out to the Parker Ranch!

THE BRIDE QUILT is a delightful book that chronicles the growth of Madeline Preston, a 19-year old spinster who flees an arranged marriage to be a frontiersman's mail order bride. Unfortunately, Maddie is plagued by bad decisions (both her own and the guide leading her party out west), and finds herself stranded in the Rocky Mountain wilderness in the middle of winter with a snowstorm on the way. She stumbles across an isolated cabin occupied by a huge bear of a mountain man and his five newly orphaned nieces and nephews.

Maggie knows nothing about being a pioneer woman, but she's willing to learn, and learn she does. Along the way she falls in love with the children and their uncle, who lost his wife and unborn child nine years previously and now shys away from permanent relationships. Their romance provides a touching and heartwarming story.