Collins Books

We keep this book on our nightstand or in the kitchen and will simply pick it up for a moment of fun and interaction. My 8-year old loves to ask parent questions and is learning to answer questions more thoroughly and thoughfully as a result of being asked the kid questions. This book is a lot of fun!

My brother-in-law pulled this book out after a family dinner, with three generations present: grandparents, two sets of parents, two kids (teen through college-age) and a friend. We passed the book around several times with each person picking anyone at the table to ask a question to.

It proved to be a highly entertaining evening, ranging from the hilarious to the historic to true confessions.

In this day when our culture seems to have lost the art of conversation, this book would be an excellent way to revive meaningful interaction within families. I recommend this book, but be careful, you might be asked an embarrassing question or two!

Our communication with our teen usually consists of her blaming us for her life and then storming off to her room. So I was a little doubtful when I bought this book, not to mention desparate. One day after dinner I announced we were playing the question game. My daughter spent half an hour asking us questions from the book, and even answered a few. It was a nice break from the usual communication and gave us some interesting insights into her thoughts. I recommend it for even the worst cases.

My 10-year old son and I LOVE this book. He is eager to answer the great and varied questions. You really find out things you DID NOT know about your child before. And my son loves to ask me the questions for parents. This is a MUST HAVE book for parents eager to communicate more fully with their children. I'm buying this for Christmas for my friends who have children.

Dinner time and road trips are fun with this book. The questions lead to great conversations that I may not have had with my chldren otherwise. The questions for parents can sometimes be tough, which is probably why my oldest loves to ask them. It is geared for children of a junior high school age or older, yet my four year old enjoys playing as well. If you have a tough time getting more than one or two word responses when talking to your children - this book is for you. Not only will it help you to get to know children's thoughts a feelings a little better they get to know you better too.

A great source of information for the true Francophile who loves Paris and like a great love wants to know her better !!

This is an excellent guide for the independent traveller. Its best use is for details on neighborhoods. I often "study" it before taking off for the day and get a much better feel for the neighborhood I am visiting. I also "study" it after spending time out for the day and clarify or confirm what I have seen. Used it for years.

I own Access Guides to San Francisco and Wine Country and found them to be very reliable sources of information on eating and shopping, so when I was planning a 5-week stay in Paris I purchased this guidebook. Overall, I'm quite pleased.

Access Paris is an excellent guide targeted at a cultured reader that prefers to consider him or herself a visitor to Paris rather than a tourist. The organization emphasizes neighborhoods rather than monuments, and offers excellent information on cafés, restaurants, bars, shops, and other neighborhood attractions. Restaurant listings include a range of prices for each district, though there are fewer budget options than, say, in the Time Out, Let's Go, and Lonely Planet guides. I've gone to a number of the listed restaurants, mostly those in St. Germain and the Bastille with one $ in the listing, and found them to be of high quality, though I was unable to find one or two. And I appreciate the memorable descriptions this book gives--one restaurant is characterized as right out of a Jean Rhys novel, for example--and the frankness of its evaluation of certain restaurants as overrated and overpriced traps for the well-read visitor.

The book's organization, with neighborhood maps followed by entries on each number that appears on the map, is very easy to use while wandering. The neighborhood maps omit metro stops, however, making it difficult to coordinate one's immediate location with the map of the metro that appears at the back of the guide. Also, the local maps don't indicate arrondissements, which makes the guide difficult to use in tandem with a more detailed map book.

This book covers the islands, the Latin Quarter, St-Germain, Eiffel Tower/Invalides, The Louvre and the Champs-Elysées, St-Honoré, Les Halles, the Marais, the Bastille, and Montmartre. These are all well-established eating and shopping districts in the arrodissements that are at the center of the city. There's also a brief section at the end with select attractions in other neighborhoods, as well as sidebars that discuss specific themes or types of sites (Paris in film, representations of Americans in Paris, flea markets, etc.). If you're mainly going to be in the central arrondissements, you'll probably be very happy with this guide. But if you're staying in an outlying arrondissement, or looking for information on offbeat neighborhoods, this may not be the guide for you--as it also may not be if it's your first time in Paris and you want a guidebook that emphasizes a tour of the monuments. I myself have already done the monuments and was looking for what this book has to offer, so I'm very pleased.

The author of the ninth edition offers more Paris travel tips at www.parisland.com

I must say, I am a big fan of all the ACCESS guides, and the one on Paris was no exception. I'm always disappointed when I go somewhere and there is no ACCESS guide for that city! One of the best things about the guides, Paris included, is that it allows you to break your trip down by neighborhood. While in Paris, we spent one day (or more) in each of the neighborhoods highlighted in the color code system. We had a great time, and the ACCESS guide played a big part in it (as it did in San Francisco and Montreal!). Highly recommended!

For those dissatisfied with the ludicrous baggage of the world's gods and religions as the origin of mankind and the source of human behaviour, Robert Ardrey is a good place to start. Though some of his conclusions are now outdated by modern research, no one has written with more poetry and skill on this topic than Ardrey. Throughout his quartet of books on human origins [African Genesis is the first of the four] Ardrey shows how mankind is less of a fallen angel and more of a risen ape; and that man truly is still only a halfway house between the ape and the human being.

After a Broadway flop American playwright Robert Ardrey [author of the play Thunder Bay and the script for the film Khartoum among others] toured East and Southern Africa in the early 1960s. This was a time when astonishing fossil discoveries were being made in the Olduvai Gorge by the Leakey family and by others showing that man had originated in Africa some 2 million years ago. Ardrey talked to the fossil-hunters, the palaeontologists and the anthropologists and learned all he could of the new discoveries and their implications for human origins and behaviour.

Ardrey's main thesis is that mankind was born in Africa over 2 million years ago, and for most of that two million years the species' success has been largely dependant on its ability to kill. Without that underlying hard edge the species would have vanished aeons ago along with all the others that failed to survive. And only if we take that unpalatable truth about ourselves into account can modern mankind be truly understood.

The book is moving and beautifully written. If you want to understand human nature, and the possibilities for the future of the species, there is no better place to start than African Genesis.

African Genesis is a book that deals with experiments, scientific facts, and evolutionary developments. Even though its old you still have to respect all of the different information in this book. Ardrey's first explanation's are the importance of territory. He used two studies done by other Anthropologists. One with ants the other with birds. The red ant experiment was done by Eugene Maris, it was simply a little bridge that the ants wouldn't cross to leave their territory, but would cross when coming back. Eugene Maris's other works are explained in great detail in this book. His other experiments were more interesting. The bird experiment, done by Eliot Howard, explained the importance of a male establishing its territory before anything else; with birds and apes. It explains an error in Darwin's teachings of man, claiming that sexual tendencies are the first priority. Howard, in all his long career, never knew of a male bird, with territory, to lose a mate; nor a male bird without territory to gain one. Ardrey shows some of these same examples later in the book with gorillas.

Its stuff like this that makes me believe evolution over creation. Reading though the chapters the relationships of us to Australopithecus africanus or erectus is amazing. According to this book A africanus was a carnivorous smaller type of gorilla, erectus was a vegetarian and was bigger than africanus. Ardrey's Romantic fallacy deals with many animals that had true emotions and showed some examples. You see its all evolution. The last chapter is a laudatory approach to free speech. Ardrey is humble about agreeing with him or not, but not to ignore natural sciences brought to us. We are an unfinished revolution he says. He continues and then relates back to Africa's origin of man. The next book I will look for is where this one left off; for this left off at our stage. I would have liked him to continue and explain how all the different races formed if we came from Africa. But that may be too much for this book. What matters is after you read this book you have a clear understanding of Darwin's decent of man. You know that evolution is a long process and has many debates (like Ardrey's 24 paragraph debate of evidence that the use of weapons is a human legacy from the animal world). Anybody that is interested in the evolution of man and African anthropology, you'll want to start with this book.

I feel like I'm being a little generous giving this one four stars for two reason: (1) It's quite dated - So much has been learned and written, both in formal and popular science circles, since this book was first published in 1961, the arguments Ardrey puts forth are not quite as true to the mark as they once appeared to be, but more importantly (2) Ardrey's style of writing is much less suited to today's readership than it must have been 40 years ago. He ceaselessly anthropomorphosizes his animal characters far past where it's proper. This tends to detract from his overall arguments in today's more savvy readership.

Still, Ardrey had a point to make. And it's a good one. The struggle for survival in the natural world is the game our ancestors played as well, and we're here because we were good at it - better than our ancestors competing for the same niche. That's why we're here and they're not.

This book is also a starting point from which popular anthropology has its base. It was very shortly after this point in time that the Leakeys came into the public arena in a big way. So it's interesting to see where the forefront of the public view was at this point in time. There's a fairly decent summary of the work done up to that point as well. Fellows like Dart, who pioneered the field of modern physical anthropology, tend to get forgotten in the frenzy of activity that followed in the 60's and beyond. For these reasons, the book is worth getting.

Finding Ardrey's "African Genesis" may be a chore. But the Amazon book search worked for me, ...

African Genesis is a book that deals with experiments, scientific facts, and evolutionary developments. Even though its old you still have to respect all of the different information in this book. Ardrey's first explanation's are the importance of territory. He used two studies done by other Anthropologists. One with ants the other with birds. The red ant experiment was done by Eugene Maris, it was simply a little bridge that the ants wouldn't cross to leave their territory, but would cross when coming back. Eugene Maris's other works are explained in great detail in this book. His other experiments were more interesting. The bird experiment, done by Eliot Howard, explained the importance of a male establishing its territory before anything else; with birds and apes. It explains an error in Darwin's teachings of man, claiming that sexual tendencies are the first priority. Howard, in all his long career, never knew of a male bird, with territory, to lose a mate; nor a male bird without territory to gain one. Ardrey shows some of these same examples later in the book with gorillas.

Its stuff like this that makes me believe evolution over creation. Reading though the chapters the relationships of us to Australopithecus africanus or erectus is amazing. According to this book A africanus was a carnivorous smaller type of gorilla, erectus was a vegetarian and was bigger than africanus. Ardrey's Romantic fallacy deals with many animals that had true emotions and showed some examples. You see its all evolution. The last chapter is a laudatory approach to free speech. Ardrey is humble about agreeing with him or not, but not to ignore natural sciences brought to us. We are an unfinished revolution he says. He continues and then relates back to Africa's origin of man. The next book I will look for is where this one left off; for this left off at our stage. I would have liked him to continue and explain how all the different races formed if we came from Africa. But that may be too much for this book. What matters is after you read this book you have a clear understanding of Darwin's decent of man. You know that evolution is a long process and has many debates (like Ardrey's 24 paragraph debate of evidence that the use of weapons is a human legacy from the animal world). Anybody that is interested in the evolution of man and African anthropology, you'll want to start with this book.

For those dissatisfied with the ludicrous baggage of the world's gods and religions in seeking answers to questions on the origin of mankind and the source of human behaviour, Robert Ardrey is a good place to start. Though some of his conclusions are now outdated by modern research, no one has written with more poetry and skill on this topic than Ardrey. Throughout his quartet of books on human origins and behaviour [African Genesis is the first of the four] Ardrey shows how mankind is less of a fallen angel and more of a risen ape; and that man truly is still only a halfway house between the ape and the human being.

After a Broadway flop American playwright Robert Ardrey [author of the play Thunder Rock and the script for the film Khartoum among others] toured East and Southern Africa in the early 1960s. This was a time when astonishing fossil discoveries were being made in the Olduvai Gorge by the Leakey family and by others showing that humanoids had originated in Africa some 2 million years ago. Ardrey talked to the fossil-hunters, the palaeontologists and the anthropologists and learned all he could of the new discoveries and their implications for human origins and behaviour.

Ardrey's main thesis is that mankind was born in Africa over 2 million years ago, and for most of that two million years the species' success has been largely dependant on its ability to kill. Without that underlying hard edge the species would have vanished aeons ago along with all the others that failed to survive. And only if we take that unpalatable truth about ourselves into account can modern mankind be truly understood.

In this book Ardrey's hero is Australian-born palaeontologist Raymond Dart who discovered and named the first Australopithecus Africanus skull in the 1930s, and who correctly identified Africa as the first home of the human species and A. Africanus as a human ancestor in the face of ridicule and rejection by the scientific establishment for 30 years. The book is moving and beautifully written. If you want to understand human nature, and the possibilities for both the past and the future of the species, there is no better place to start than African Genesis.

Amazeing Art combines graphic art portraits of about 30 architectural marvels of the ancient world with vivid, detailed accounts of their histories. And each masterful drawing is, unbelievably, a maze. There is a lot of text in the book, written with an infectious passion for the mysteries of the buildings and sculptures drawn beside them. It's hard not to get hooked and develop a sense of awe at the achievements of these old civilizations.

The book is properly titled "Amazeing Art," not "Artistic Mazes." The ingenuity of the drawings rivals pen-and-ink artists like M.C. Escher, so the book is not just for maze-doers. It's for parents who enjoy some intelligent, diversionary reading--and for their children old enough to tackle challenging mazes. (In many families, it's the kids who will read and the adults who will play.) It's educational for both, with pictures and histories of the Sphinx, a Phoenician ship, the Tower of Babylon, the Parthenon, the Colossus of Rhodes, and many other masterpieces from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Greece, and Rome, including the treasures of the Hittites, the Trojans, the Ephesians, and other peoples. There's a lot to learn here, and the learning is great fun--if you can take your eyes of the drawings.

I love it!
The combination of fun mazes and interesting text is unique, exciting, fun, entertaining.
My 6 year old daughter immediately tried out the mazes. (And I did too!)
Excellent for children and grown-ups!

This book is both unusual and perfectly suited for maze enthusiasts. There's nothing quite like it! It would make a perfect present for the right person.

This book is incredibly original and inspirational. The author's enthusiasm for beautiful mazes is highly contagious. Anyone who likes cool ideas and puzzles (or just want to know the difference between a labyrinth and a maze) should take a look at this book.

This book is fun and different! The mazes were beautiful and tricky, and hard to do (I couldn't solve them all). The stories that went with them were filled with all kinds of fascinating tales and little known secrets about ancient civilizations. Especially the story of the Egyptian Labyrinth, which was a long-lost architectural wonder that ancient historians said was more impressive than the Pyramids. Super interesting!

In short: a strait-laced Professor is asked to write a tell-all book about the less-than-perfect Petrefacts.

To the average writer, this scenario could probably get a little tee-hee from the readers, but leave it to Sharpe to throw into the mixture the riotous "Ablution Bath", some midgets (or PORG - Persons of Unrestricted Growth), a sex toy factory, an outrageous interrogation / Silence Of The Lambs-themed chapter, and a crazy carwash incident and you get Tom Sharpe at his best yet again. Even the scene where Lord Petrefact explains to Croxley what he'd like served for dinner is a gem on its own.

Now, I'm the type who throws a book to the nearest bin when the ending is less than ideal but somehow, whenever I read Tom Sharpe's books, as far off as they are to having conventional happy endings, I always manage to put them back on my shelf with a huge smile on my face. So do yourself a favour and grab this book - I'm sure you owe yourself a good long laugh!

Tom Sharpe writes some very wicked satire. His victims are typically the upper class, snobby English or, in his earlier works, the hypocritically rascist South Africans. Although very popular in the UK, his books are almost unknown in America ... too bad!

In 'Ancestral Vices' we have a loosely stiched story about a crusty and warped aristocratic family, a befuddled biographer, victimized dwarves, and a murder. It's a total farce. However the author's wit and humor are lethal, and the story somehow holds together until the very end (or near so).


Bottom line: perhaps not a classic but 'Ancestral Vices' does Tom Sharpe some justice. Recommended.

Introduced to Tom Sharpe's work by a Brit friend, I can't get enough of this amazing author! "Ancestral Vices" literally made my cry with laughter. Yapp's horrifying experience with the "Ablution Bath" sent me into gales of giggles, as did the run amok motorized wheelchair scenario. Lord Petrefact, Willie Coppett, the sex toy factory...all of it was enough to make a cat laugh. Sharpe is warped, twisted, and totally delightful! Simply, hysterically funny!

This book is funny - if you can stand grown-up humor and aren't one of those sexophobic weirdos. And besides being hillariously funny (had to laugh out loud just thinking about it), it is very highly intelligent, massively satiric, thrilling and thoroughly British. Not too intellectual, but not for dimwits either. If you don't like this book you are probably dead.

Tom Sharpe is the most hilarious writer. Ancestral vices is another piece of mad cap mayhem from the master.Fast paced laugh out loud parts. Its always one thing after another with Tom sharpe. Left-wing academics(Yapp)put up against,right-wing capitalists(the Petrefacts),throw in a sex toy factory a bunch of country bumpkins,and dwarves and this is what you get. Like I said total hilarious mayhem.

Very wonderful writing and not that I know anything about the reality but it does seem realistic.

Ashenden was particularly admired by Raymond Chandler, and that is what first interested me in it. It is the story, based on Maugham's own experience, of a British spy in the first world war. The 'story' is more a series of separate episodes, and I can easily imagine why it appealed to Chandler -- as well as the laconic detachment of the writing, there is almost a feel of Hammett here and there, notably the episode of the Hairless Mexican. Much of the action centres round Geneva, a city I personally like, and there is a peculiar fascination in the voyage of the lake-steamer going in and out of the war-zone as it alternates between Switzerland and France. This kind of spy did not have much in common with the heroes of Len Deighton or John Le Carre -- the job reminds me more of how J K Galbraith described the life of an ambassador, ninety percent boredom and ten percent panic, like being an airline pilot. It has its grim side too as you would expect. One of the most memorable pieces is the story of the traitor Grantley Caypor. Some years ago Ashenden was serialised on the BBC, with Caypor superbly played by Alan Bennett. What that production did not even try to reproduce was what happened at the moment of Caypor's execution, unforgettable in Maugham's cold prose.

Worth a read for historical reasons as it is one of (if not the) first modern spy novels. That said, it is very far away from the intricately woven page-turners featuring brainy CIA types bedding winsome females that we tend to think of as being sp novels today. Maugham served in the British intelligence corps in WWI and drew heavily upon his own experiences in writing this book, indeed the epynonymous hero is a well-known writer by profession. Each chapter is almost its own vignette, illustrating some experience or aspect of the intelligent agent's life. The theme is that the agent's life is marked by dullness and inability to know the "big picture." Ashenden is based in Switzerland and undertakes his assignments (none of which involve gunplay or physical prowess) dutifully, yet the reader feels, with a certain ambivalence. There is one especially haunting scene where, for once, Ashenden witnesses firsthand, the repercussions of his actions.

Considered by many afficionados of the Spy Novel genre` as the first of it's kind. Written in 1928, the book is a series of stories loosly connected to reveal the sometimes tedious, sometimes adventureous events in the work of a spy in MI5 during the latter stages of World War I. Maugham is given credit by Graham Greene and Eric Ambler as being their inspiration and Ian Flemming borrowed much from the book, including M who was "R" in Maugham's book. Maugham was given the impossible task to squelch the Bolshivic revolution with 56,000 pounds given to him by the government of Lloyd George and he fictionalizes this in the story "Mr. Harrington's Washington." The story "The Hairless Mexican" inspired Hitchcock to write and direct the movie "The Secret Agent" with John Guilgud and Peter Lorrie. This book to my thinking is one of the hidden classics in literature, written by a writer highly underrated because of his popularity and some of his later works that he did purely for money. A must for lovers of the Edwardian period and those who ever wondered where the Burbury Trench Coat came from.

"Ashenden" by Somerset Maugham is one of the grandfathers of the spy fiction genre. In reality, it's not really a novel, but eight short stories featuring Ashenden, a novelist-secret agent during WWI. Each story is unique, some focusing on the violence and duplicity of the secret world (e.g., "The Hairless Mexican," "Guilia Lazzari," and "The Traitor"). Others are less about espionage than quiet character studies (for example, the final story, "The Sanatorium," has nothing whatever to do with spying, but is set in a tuberculosis sanatorium and--though a it's a bit sentimental--is a brilliant character study of the patients and, in particular, of those who find love in the midst of adversity). I found it deeply touching.

I must admit this the first I've read of Maugham and was impressed with his ability in a single paragraph to get to the very essence of a character (perhaps the best example being his vivid characterization of the funny, but tragic Mr. Harrington in "Mr. Harrington's Washing"). Each of Maugham's characters are distinct and finely drawn.

Maugham at one time analyzed himself as in the first rank of the second rate writers. He may not be Dostoevsky or Cervantes, but he was a fine writer who deserves to be read-I think it's more accurate to say he's in the second row of the first rate writers.

I only found out about "Ashenden" from one of the terrific essays of Michael Dirda (the reviewer for the Washington Post) in which he constantly brings to light lost classics.

"Ashenden" is readable, convincing, and (despite its WWI setting) relevant to the events of today. The secret and desperate world of war and espionage will be with us forever it seems; Maugham's themes are timeless and his writing is a model of clarity.

This is a lost classic that should be read.

Known for the wit of his English mysteries, Barnard takes his time setting up the plot elements of "The Bad Samaritan," which revolves around the back-biting congregation of St. Saviour's church.

Rosemary Sheffield, the vicar's wife, has lost her faith, an event she finds liberating. Her husband's congregation does not share her sanguine view, however. Upon her return from a short holiday, which has made her acutely aware of the Bosnian war through her friendship with a refugee waiter, Rosemary finds plots afoot to oust her from her role in church activities.

While not particularly attached to these activities, Rosemary resents the plotters' methods. And when her refugee friend turns up at the vicarage, she must aid him and thwart the tide of gossip as well. The murder, when it finally occurs, bringing in Barnard's black detective Charlie Peace, serves to force all the undercurrents out in the open. As much a witty novel of manners as a suspenseful mystery, "Samaritan" is distinguished by its crisp writing and wry perception of character.

The main ingredients for a wonderful literary feast: Take one Rosemary Sheffield, a pastor's wife who has lost her faith, add one young man named Stanko who has fled Bosnia and what results is gossip, rumors of scandal and even a murder. All of this is liberally seasoned with wit, detail and irresistable dialogue. The psychological suspense will keep you guessing what will happen next and there is just enough complexity to maintain interest without slowing the pace. Very moving, very satisfying and highly recommended!

When a member of the Church of England parish of St. Savior's is found murdered following a picnic, the crime investigation is undertaken by Detective Constable Charlie Peace and his boss Mike Oddie. Charlie is a likeable protagonist who prefers working alone. The dirty tricks and vicious maneuverings of the people of St. Savior's remind him of his own upbringing in a predominantly black parish in Brixton. Charlie plows ahead seeking answers to his questions as he interviews people repeatedly. When Charlie acts friendly, the wise suspect is on guard. Barnard's twenty-ninth novel has enough twists to keep it entertaining and the plot is very tight and believable.

Rosemary Sheffield feels that she needs some time to find herself! The wife of a pastor, she has "lost" her faith; she has become quite disoriented. Off she goes on a seaside holiday to "find herself." And , once again, veteran writer Robert Barnard maintains his true-to-form style in "The Bad Samaritan." While at the resort, Rosemary meets--and befriends--a young Bosnian named Stanko, who's fled to England to escape the horrors of his homeland. Rosemary finally returns home and, anon, soon appears the young man, whom she helps to get a job in her town. Of course, it's not long before rumors begin. The rumors evolve into murder and Barnard's amiable pair Detective Constable Charlie Peace and his boss Mike Oddie are called in to find the murderer. Barnard's writing, full of dry wit, sharp dialogue, a viable plot, all combine to make "The Bad Samaritan" a excellent read. Barnard paces his novels with a brilliance that makes simply turning the pages worthwhile. Well-versed in literature and human nature, Barnard knows that "one good deed deserves another" and "love thy neighbor" are not always to be taken literally! (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

An engaging mystery of the British cozy variety, wherein a vicar's wife loses her faith and becomes the object of vicious parish political maneuvering that ends in homicide. I bought this book with the intention of reading it over the coming week. In reality, I stayed up reading it most of the night that I purchased it. Highly recommended!

We pay plenty of attention to winners in history, but there have to be even more losers out there. Losers who may have been clever, may have been original, may have dreamed the big, impossible dream, and worked hard on their paths to fame and riches, but because of mere fortune, or cupidity, or bad choices, found the path did not lead to success. Failure just is not interesting, or at least most failures are not. But some are, and Paul Collins tells about some amazing ones in _Banvardýs Folly: Thirteen Tales of Renowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity, and Rotten Luck_ (Picador). Collins has done good research to bring us these funny true stories and has a dry, sharp style that is a delight.

The title tale is about John Banvard, who in the 1850s ýwas the most famous living painter in the world, and possibly the first millionaire artist in history.ý Why havenýt you heard of him before now? Because time swallowed him up. Banvard sailed down the Mississippi and sketched all he saw on the 3,000 mile voyage. He then painted what he had sketched, producing the biggest picture ever, said to be three miles long. The panorama was rolled up, and he displayed it on stage as it rolled by, while he gave narration and was accompanied by piano waltzes he had commissioned. His performance pieces were slow at first, but became a sensation, as he played Boston, New York, and then London, where he impressed the royal family and Charles Dickens. Banvard spent time in London museums, being taught to read hieroglyphics; he then sailed down the Nile to make another panoramic painting. He was troubled with those sincerest flatterers, imitators; he had made a huge fortune, but his invention was so popular that scores of other panoramas were on tour. He decided to set up, instead, as a museum keeper, his huge display of curios in a massive New York building, described as the best museum in Manhattan. In this, he was in competition against P. T. Barnum, who was by far the most capable promoter, and Banvard returned to the frontier where he was once again a poor and unknown painter. A few panels of his many paintings are all that remain of his work.

Here you will find the astonishing story of Englishman William Henry Ireland, born in 1775, who because his father never thought much of his writing, started forging plays by Shakespeare, and created a literary sensation. We read also the sad story of Delia Bacon, who was one of the first lunatics to write profusely on the theory that Shakespeare was not Shakespeare, but was a front for a collaborative effort by Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser, and Francis Bacon. A lighter note is the story of Robert ýRomeoý Coates, whose beyond-hammy acting brought down the house, when his Romeo died not once but three times. There is a chapter on Blondlotýs N-rays, probably the most famous incident described in the book, an incident of scientific self-delusion. There is one on John Cleves Symmes, an Ohioan who did everything he could to convince his countrymen about the holes at the poles of the Earth which would lead to its hollow core. Thereýs one on A.J. Pleasanton, who shined blue light on everything imaginable and improved it.

And more. Collins has done an amazing amount of research into long-lost books and pamphlets to bring us these astonishing instructive stories and amazing cautionary tales, the sorts of tales that the proverb ýTruth is stranger than fictioný was coined for. He has wry comments within his storytelling which makes reading his words great fun, and the stories are incomparable. Losers were never so fascinating.

Nowadays Andy Warhol's 15 minutes truism is rendered mundane by the endless parade of incongruous celebrity imposed by today's incessant Media spectacle. This book brings the idea that we are very likely mistaken in our estimation of contemporary fame profoundly to life. The fact that some of the greatest artist our culture has produced labored in obscurity among their contemporaries is a familiar one. This eye-opening book explains why this is so.

By focusing on the past when Media was not so omnipresent we see that the random and ever changing quality of popular tastes always pertain. Through his re-telling of these 13 now obscure curiosities the author achieves valuable insight into the sometimes ludicrous, often venal whims and fancies that propel some issues and their advocates into the vanguard of the public mind.

The prose occasionally suffers from what I'd call journalism. As I read the first story I wished the author had been able to breathed greater life into the facts presented. In the hands of someone more ambitious some of these tales might stand more clearly as metaphor or epiphany. Of course they might just as easily have lost their focus on the valuable idea that contemporaneous enthusiasms are almost inevitably misguided. And in hindsight most, like the delightful story of Psalmanazar, could not be improved upon.

Don't ignore the further reading supplement. Finding it somewhat dry at first I almost did. It's interest lies in the gathered details presented of how one finds such obscurities.

Perhaps writing a book about failure, anonymity and obscurity is tempting fate ever so slightly - it would almost seem ironic if this book was a runaway success. Yet, it deserves to be; Collins crafts a book in which we empathize with the characters: we genuinely want their lives to be successes, despite knowing that ultimately, they wont be. At times, I felt like screaming at the book 'No! Don't do it!'

Painful as the 13 (not coincidentally chosen, I'm sure) stories are, they make compulsive reading. My favourites included the one about a visionary man who intended to build a pneumonic public transport system in New York City, and the story of the medical powers of blue light.

There were, of course, some chapters that I didn't find as arresting - not because they weren't well written, but because they weren't on subjects that I am interested in - however, curiously enough, when I gave it to my mother to read, she found the chapters that I didn't like as much the MOST interesting.

This is Paul Collins's first book, and I just hope that it doesn't wind up being his last, because the overriding feeling at the end of book was of wanting more, and what better indicator is there of a good book?

The author brilliantly captures the misery of those who tried, succeeded and then stumbled into oblivion.

Bulls epitaph "HE SOWED,OTHERS REAPED" sums up most of the stories, although greed, a flare for the untruth, and insouciance played a leading role in many of the cases. The ultimate failures of these people is treated with good humor but also with respect and to some of us, it gets a bit too close to home for comfort.

An extraordinary and facinating collection of tales. Beautifully written and obviously researched in great depth.

When McSweeney's magazine first ran Paul Collins' work, they printed a sort of reverse disclaimer, saying something like "Paul Collins does not lie. Paul Collins teaches at a Christian college." I thought of this constantly while reading this book, because it veers in and out of (sur)reality. But, although it reads like fiction, it's all apparently true. If I had my way, there would be twice as many illustrations (A couple of the subjects aren't even pictured. Maybe something can be scared up for the paperback). The photograph of Rene Blondlot is too hilarious to be believed. Also, I think some of these characters merit their own books, especially Banvard, Psalmanazzar, and the subway man.

I am so confounded by the author and her views and studies. It is simply the greatest, I repeat greatest book on the Black American psyche. Although a little tough to digest and understand at times, she will re-emphasize her point so that we the reader don't miss out on the facts. I understand our workings more and how I view sexuality and other races. GET THIS BOOK since you are reading this review and you know this is the type of topics that interest you!

This is another breakout of brilliance from Patricia Hill Collins. Collins has broken to a new level of analysis of the intersections of race, class, sexuality and gender, and offers transformative interpretations of black popular culture. BRAVO, Ms. Collins! This book is a must-read for any black individual that cares about the lives of the black diaspora, especially in the new millenium.

with regard to sexuality and its relation to society today. From the fake, hypocritical outrage by Americans at the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake incident at the 2004 Superbowl that led to wasteful congressional investigation to the ongoing probe of R. Kelly's involvement with underage women that were taped at various times and places in the late nineties that were surfaced on the video shelves aroung the nation back in 2002 The saga and the media hype involved in the 2003-04 Kobe Bryant's rape case, the incessant media attention at Michael Jackson's child molestation case, another hypocrical outrage by media pundits over Serena Williams catsuit that showcase her behind at one of her tennis matches in October of 2002.

The ever growing love triangle/babymama drama of Britney Spears, Shar Jackson, and Kevin Federline and their kids by tabloid media. The ubiquituous, scantlily clad "video dancers" on MTV, BET, and VH1.

Bill O'Reilly's sanctimonius commentary on out of wedlock births by Blacks while ignoring the problem in other ethnicities on his nightly TV show. He continues to denounce hip hop as the source of all pathology in America and often urge his viewers to boycott Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Ludicris in his many crusades against the corruption of "mainstream youth."

In December 2003, Essie Mae Washington-Williams revealed to the nation that she is the late U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond's daughter. Less than two years later, she released her autobiography of her life. The 2004 MNF skit which involves the basketball star and the lady from a popular Sunday night show. Also, sexually suggestive movies and videos from Nelly, 50 Cent, Snoop,etc., the revelation of Prince Albert that he had fathered a son by a black flight attendant as well as the lack of coverage regarding missing black women such as Latoyia Figueroa in recent months. Also, not to mention Fantasia Barrino's revelation of rape, illiteracy, and having a kid out of wedlock by a man who battered her prior to her break on Amer. Idol. And more recently, P. Diddy's perfume ad campaign raised a lot of stink in the heartland and the Bible Belt because of its sensual suggestedness. More recently, the Duke University rape crime involving a struggling black college student and white members of the lacrosse team at what it supposed to be a bachelor party in March 2006.

This book trace the origins of racial/sexual stereotypes from slavery onward and how they are affecting society today as well as black and interracial relationships. It also talks about homophobia and the ongoing hostility toward interracial relationships as well as the strained relationships between black men and women due to racism, classism, heterosexism, and the stereotypes perpetuated by the mainstream media today.

I thank Ms. Collins for having the guts to say about the current state of affairs with regards to black sexual politics and its implications in American society.

I am not afraid to look the reality of colorism in the eye and acknowledge that it does exist within the black community. It is my greatest hope and dream that someday the dark skinned black and the light skinned black will be seen as the one family in the future. I want so much to love the lightskinned sister and brother as my own reflection and not be divided from them or made to feel that one is treated better than the other, but sadly, that day is not here and this book bravely and powerfully illustrates that point to the fullest.

I am a medium brown colored woman, my mother was very dark skinned and I have witnessed the evils of skin color prejudice all my life. In most situations, it was Black Men who were prejudiced against myself and the women around me beccause of our coloring. These men felt no shame or limit in their racist intra-family prejudice and measured their entire lives by how many light skinned or white women they could attain and how light brite their children could come out. It's everywhere and anyone who denies it is both a fool and a liar.

That is why I highly recommend THE BLACKER THE BERRY by Wallace Thurman. There is no truer portrait of the self-hatred among our people than the one extolled in this book, and what makes it even sadder is that this book was written in the 1920's. So that only shows how deep this kind of evil runs.

Lately, I have become very interested in this subject and I have searched for other books that explore this subject with intelligence, honest, beauty and wisdom and I have found several that I consider to be classics on the subject of Colorism.

(1) MARITA GOLDEN'S book "Don't Play In the Sun" is definitely the most modern up to date book of the bunch. It expertly weaves the story of her life experiences in the 1960's Black Power movement with the current struggles of women like Serena Williams and India Arie to find their way in the world, even in the midst of being shunned and ignored by the black community itself. The book's analysis of the Hollywood casting system and the "Mulatto Follies" of BET and MTV is priceless.

(2) "The Bluest Eye" by TONI MORRISON is by far the most riveting and painful book that I have read on this subject of colorism. I believe that her book, more than any mother, gets to the psychological and historical root cause of the problem and exposes the mode in which we pass the problem on generation to generation. The destruction of an innocent black girl named Pecola Breedlove will leave you heartbroken and shocked as you see the bold naked truth unfold right before your eyes. You can't ignore this book, because the story being told is the one that you are all too familiar with no matter what color you are.

(3) "Flesh and the Devil" by African novelist KOLA BOOF is another deeply powerful book that examines colorism, but not out in the open. This book is unique in that it focuses on a very enchanting love story between a Black Prince and Princess and follows their reincarnations through history as they struggle to find their way back to each other. Through detailed moments in black history, both in Africa and the United States, the provocative author highlights the way that black people originally viewed their beauty and humanity and then juxtuposes it against the way they see themselves now in the modern world. The result is nothing less than devastating. I love this book so much, because the storytelling is so rich and the depth is so sweeping and grand. Anyone who loves good writing and is proud to be descended from the Black race will find themselves literally changed forever by the powerful images depicted in this very poetically moving story.

(4) "The Color Complex"--VARIOUS AUTHORS, is a very simple, straight forward analysis from a sociological point of view. Much research and statistical facts are used to illustrate that our communities are infested with these issues.

(5) "The Darkest Child" by Dolores Philips is another great novel that shows us the poor blacks who live under the poverty line ingesting these complex social hierarchies based on color and how they not only expose their children to them, but force the entire community to live by the "color code". Everybody is used to it from slavery and the system goes on and on unchallenged. In this book, Tangy Mae, the darkest of 10 children by the white-looking mother Rozelle, struggles to find her dignity and confidence in the midst of her evil light skinned mother inflicting one horrid abuse on top of the other. One thing I will say for the evil white-looking mother, Rozelle, is that she treated all of her children hiddeously and with contempt, from the whitest to the blackest. But she killed the child who was born looking like Tangy Mae and that spoke volumnes. This book is a very real metaphor for what goes on. Very real.

Professor Hill Collins asserts that Black Americans will not be able to advance at the rate they could unless they develop a progressive gender politics. Many activist black women have critiqued the overall community for not taking gender issues seriously. Still, this book gives it a fresh perspective that takes multiple identities into account, especiall in the post-civil rights era.

Hill Collins does a fantastic job in stressing that Black Americans are not a monolithic group. In her discussion about the media, she looks at black portrayals dividing depictions by gender and class-based groups. In discussing marriage, she analyzes "same race, opposite gender" mandates as they affect straight sistas, straight brothas, and Black gay men and lesbians separately. She understands that identities do not work in isolation by sit side by side continually interacting with each other.

Hill Collins does an excellent job in showing how all Black people are affected by any oppression. She shows that straight Blacks are harmed by heterosexism too since that same system that deems gays deviants deem Blacks globally as hypersexual. In a chapter on gender violence, she claims that Black men who dismiss the rape of Black women may feel differently given that so many Black men are being raped in jails.

Many talking heads say that older Americans are not as eager to employ new technologies. However, Hill Collins, a graying woman, does well in mentioning how the internet and other new technologies are affecting Black folk. Her analysis of J.Lo, the film "Booty Call", and the rap "Get Yo' Freak On" shows that she is very knowledgeable about youth culture.

I was disappointed how little sexual orientation matters got brought up in her "Fighting Words." However, in this book, she demonstrates thoroughly that she stands against homophobia. Not only is there a whole chapter dedicated to condemning heterosexism, gay issues are laced into every chapter. Like Guy-Sheftall's recent work, she is really trying to push Black thinkers that only want to talk about race, class, and gender (purposely in that order) to the exclusion of sexual orientation. She even praises media depictions of Black lesbian and gay characters.

It's funny that bell hooks is the most famous Black feminist when Hill Collins outshines her here by leaps and bounds. Hill Collins isn't as repetitive and demeaning. Her work isn't dependent upon personal anecdotes. She takes sexual orientation seriously and not just as a side issue. She dedicated to helping Black gays and lesbians and not just yelling that straight Blacks aren't homophobic. I can't wait for the day when Hill Collins gets all the credit she deserves.

Many might not like this book. She offers many critiques and close to no concrete solutions. The introductory chapter is full of caveats and can be easily skipped. Hill Collins cites Cathy Cohen, Dorothy Roberts, Professor Guy-Sheftall, and other progressive womanists so frequently, one may wonder what original ideas she is even proposing. Her discussion of blacks in the media is overly pessimistic.

Still, I loved this book. I think both academic and common readers will be able to digest it and find it useful. I predict great things ahead for this right-on sista.

1. Dispersion: Even original equipment manufacturers with captive technology are not immune from dispersion. NEC may develop a state-of-the art memory chip for its own mainframes, but it can sell five times the volume to other computer makers.
2. Partnerships: Nothing stays propriety for long and no player can master everything. Partnerships are key to spreading of technology.
3. Reducing fixed costs: To compete in global markets, companies have to incur and show find a way to defray - immense fixed costs. Automation has drive the cost of labor out of production and manufacturing has become a fixed cost activity. R&D has become a fixed cost. With globalization all major players in an industry are or may become direct competitors. You need your own people and your own labels too. That's fixed cost.
4. Brand: Brand name is a fixed cost. For many product, a brand name has no value if brand recognition falls below certain levels. You must spend enough money on brand promotion to realize "pull" benefits. With some products you can better use the same money to enhance commissions so that the sales force will push them.
5. Is IBM Japan an American or Japanese company? Its workforce is 20,000 Japanese, but its equity holders are American. IBM Japan has provided 3 times more tax revenue to the Japanese government than Fujitsu.
6. The Government's role. "People have become more informed and clever, as a real consequence of living in a truly global information era. And now governments have become the major obstacle for people to have the best and the cheapest from anywhere in the world." "What the energy crisis has taught us is that for a short term the `have' nations can create a supply shortage if they gang up. However, over a longer period of time, alternative supplies develop and the economic principles of supply and demand prevail." "Having an abundance of resources has truly slowed down a country's development, because bureaucrats there still think that money could solve all problems". "The key to success is shifting the focus from resources to marketplace." "The government's role, then, is to ensure that its people have a good life by ensuring stable access to the best and cheapest goods and services from anywhere in the world, not to protect certain industries and certain clusters of people." "Every time governments try to protect resources, markets, industries, and jobs, they cost the taxpayers dearly." "Government officials exercise power by regulating and deregulating the market, but their new role is to assume a backseat, not the driver's position, and to make sure that their country is benefiting fully from the best-performing corporation corporations and producers in the world, at the lowest possible cost to their people on a long-term basis"
7. Service Sector. In the US the service sector represents 70 percent of the work force; the cost of manufacturing is about 25 percent of the end user cost; the leading edge producers have all but eliminated simple labor from production and use robots; value chain produces high quality and cheap products in a globally interlinked economies; the most value added is in the marketplace; governmental preoccupation with production forces them to hang onto old and incompatible industries, disserving the customer and the taxpayer.
8. Equidistance: Japanese engineers working for different companies in Kyushu, a small island only 100 km away from South Korea would cat a late flight on Friday evenings to South Korea, work privately for S Korean semiconductor companies; this was illegal and violated employment agreements; the exchange of knowledge made semiconductor design methods and software similar through out the world. The Japanese learned to tailor products to local market interest, needs, and preferences rather than create a global product. Companies that are globally successful in white goods focus on close interactions with individual users; where as those that prosper with equipment installation focus on interactions with designers, engineers, and trade unions.
9. Customer oriented Strategies: Japanese auto companies are caught between a low cost producer, Hyundai and a high-end producer, Mercedes or BMW. Korea's Hyundai, Samsung, and Lucky Goldstar produces high volume products, half of what it costs the Japanese. The Japanese are caught in the middle. If you're a Japanese leader, what do you do? First, dramatically reduce the content of labor in production and push towards full automation. Examples are Nikon Seiko, Mazak Machinery, and Fujitsu Fanuc. The second way out of the squeeze is to move upmarketet toward higher margin products. Corporate culture and price cutting instincts will work against the move, as low-cost marketing games feel comfortable and predictable. Sometimes getting back to strategy means getting back to a deep understanding of what a product is about. Basics of sound management means looking closely at the customer needs, thinking deeply about a product.
10. Demand: Do more better. Create a second demand boosting market is the key. "If your goal is to beat the competition, you win by narrowing your field of vision and doing more better". "But why do companies stick with such devotion to a course that is obviously self-destructive?": Subborness, intensive rivalry, companyism, inescapable defeat or retreat phobias, nationalism, correction action did not occur because the situation did not become painful enough, and consensus from the group they were doing the right thing. "Companyism get much of its strength from this consensus-building mechanism". All must suffer visible before corrective action will occur. "Maintaining the customer relationship through good service is now the key to success". Measurement counts. Measure the powerful and often invisible influences on what you think and do.

Kenichi Ohmae, argues that borders and nation states are becoming irrelevant and explains that a "fundamental paradigm shift has occurred that is changing the way business is being done...[and that the majority of us] are still operating under the old rules. Ohmae predicts that nation states will become obsolete as their sole job will be to facilitate a comfortable environment for global companies serving the ever more educated consumer in the Inter Linked Economy.

At the business level, most of Ohmae's reasoning seem sound, and is based on basic economic principles such as economies of scale and the bargaining power a global corporation might realize etc. What may be most controversial in his book are Ohmae's views on globalization. In most ways Ohmae's view is utopian.

Ultimately Ohmae left me unconvinced in regard to his view on the speed, the benefits, and even the best methods of dealing with the ILE/globalization.

Two other good books dealing with these topics in interesting ways are Lindblom's "The Market System", and also to some degree Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations".

Tom Anderson
Anderson Analytics, LLC

Great Book!, one of Ohmae's best book. Read it, and you will understand why this world would getting smaller and smaller everyday. In this globalized economy, every single nation could take an advantage from it, no matter how poor it is, because we believe everyone in this world has a spesific competencies and capabilities to increasing their own wealth quality. See how the business organizations around the world develop their competencies and capabilities and take profit from "interlinked economy", and create something called "win-win solution", something that almost impossible if we talk that in the past paradigm.

This tilte can give us the great idea how to successfully live in the coming 21th century. After finishing this title, you can say he is one of the best auther about business.

Dr. Ohmae reveals the fundamental driving forces of the world in the new era. With his astute logic based upon numerous cases, he delineates how wealth can be created both on corporation bases and also on nation bases. No wonder Prime Minister of Malaysia invited Dr. Ohmae as an economic advisor for the nation. So far his logics have been proven to be the realities of the today's world. Some may call him a visonary, but I think what he says in this book is not the outcome of his dubious imaginations. It has been some time since this book came out, and not only we have witnessed some of the phnomena he discussed and foretold, but also now we can catch ourselves using the terminology, "borderless world", or "borderless economy" while thinking about the world. This "BORDERLESS" is one of words he made commonly used in our lives, if not he is the one who coined the word.

I was a political science major in college in the United States. I! tried hard to understand the logic of the world while studying hegemonies of various nations. However, I can tell that this book was the most powerful book for me to understand the world, not all the thick textbooks or ugly notes from the boring lectures.

So, why don't you give it a try and order this phenomenal book with Amazon!

Thank you very much, Dr. Ohmae & Amazon.

Minoru Nadai, alias NORM