Elliott Books

As I made my way through the pages of Inside The Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire, I often questioned why exactly I was reading such of a sad, macabre occurrence. I think it was less about my being drawn voyeuristically to an account of a disturbing calamity and more about getting to the facts regarding an event I, born in 1978 literally a few miles from the site of the fire, had heard so much about through my entire life.

Ron Elliott's Inside The Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire is the sort of read that leaves you shaken up long after you finish it. I've never been through an account of any tragedy that got to me in quite this way, including some articles and books on September 11th. The comprehensive reporting found in this book, its multitude of second-by-second first-hand stories, the maps, diagrams and photographs it includes are all gripping testimony to a night that still defines tragedy for a great many people. Recently for instance, Cincinnati Magazine devoted much of an entire issue to its cover story on the thirtieth anniversary of the fire, and the issue was among the best selling in the publication's five-decade existence. But while that article did well to inform in the short space it had, Elliott's book is the source to consult for the facts concerning the club and its abrupt ending. For anyone who wants to know about Beverly Hills, I'd recommend it, but also warn that it takes a toll on a reader. Or at least it did on me.

As told in Mr. Elliott's book, the Beverly Hills Supper Club, which once graced a Kentucky hilltop with a commanding view of the Cincinnati skyline, was a massive, fabled locale, billed as the "showplace of the nation," the greatest nightclub between Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Its fifty year history reads like a who's who of mid-twentieth-century entertainment, as one superstar after another took to its stages in front of packed houses. It was said you weren't anyone in show business until you'd played the Beverly Hills. On Mother's Day weekend, 1977, the club was filled beyond safe capacity by more than 3200 patrons and employees, when an electrical fire long smoldering behind thin paneling raced down small hallway, creating a flash fire and a massive cloud of toxic smoke, trapping guests in the densely packed labyrinth of hallways and dining areas within the sprawling club. Most perilously overcrowded that night was the club's Cabaret Room, where singer John Davidson was set to perform later in the evening. The diagram which shows the location of each victim within that room, men and women found stacked atop one another floor to ceiling, testament to their doomed surge toward a single tiny exit, cannot but fill a reader with horror: an emotion that recurs again and again throughout the course of this book's re-telling of the fire.

You can't live in the part of the country where I do and not know about this disaster, or fail to know someone with a personal connection to the events of that horrific night thirty years ago when 165 people lost their lives in one of the most terrible fires in American history. My grandparents went several times a year to Beverly Hills; my two aunts had been there any number of times; my father once applied for a job there in the summer between high school and college, 1974, before getting work in New York City which he accepted instead. My next-door neighbor in childhood was at the club three weeks before the end, and knew six of the victims on, as he has put it "a first-name basis." I once attended a graduation rehearsal in the Fort Thomas Amory, which was a makeshift morgue in the days after tragedy struck. Maybe that's why I read this book. I don't know. What is amazing to me is how two generations later the club and its destruction still casts the shadow it does over an entire region. Even now the prime hilltop real estate on which the supper club sat is vacant, overgrown with weeds and scrubwood, as though it would be taboo to ever again utilize that ground.

If anything good came from the 165 deaths in May 1977, it is that today stricter laws exist nationwide, and whatsmore are enforced, regarding maximum capacity within public places, and the placement of sprinkler systems. Let's hope these actions have saved lives over the decades, as they surely could have on May 28, 1977, in Southgate, Kentucky.

This is a book that covers an event I remeber as though it happened yesterday. I was at the Beverly Hills two weeks before the fire as a prom guest in the garden room. Mr Elliott did an excellent job of recounting the events of that May.

As a disaster book fan, I was anxious to read a first person account of this deadly fire which, unlike most modern fires, killed a large number of people. The portion of the book devoted to the fire is alright, but spotty since it is, essentially, one man's recollections. I would have appreciated an overview. This did come later in the book during the inquiries but, by then, it had lost its dramatic impact. I also got a little tired of the narrator who, although happily married, seems to consider himself something of a babe magnet. Really, who cares?

The author of this book gives a precise and complete in-depth picture of the rise and fall of the Beverly Hills Country Club from its beginnings and growth, to its horrific end. As a long time employee of the club, Ron Elliot tells the story from an insiders first person point of view. You feel that you've been there since the Club's inception, getting to know the owners and the employees on a first name basis. You watch as the building is remodeled and expanded on multiple occassions, but without regard to fire codes for reasons unknown. This is an excellent read for fire fighting professionals as well, giving multiple examples of crowd response to an emergency and reinforcing the need for adherence to fire codes in construction, as well as on-going safety inspections. Everyone would do well to read this as a reminder to be aware of where the exits are when going out for an evening's entertainment. An excellent book. I highly recommend it.

This live account of a terrible story should serve to remind us why we have inspections and why politicians need to stay out of
the inspector's way! I bought my copy direct from the author and he signed it for me. To meet him and know his experience is a life changing event

I just finished reading the book Annie, Between the States by L.M. Elliott. What a wonderful, inspiring, and courageous story!! Annie, the main character, is a Southerner caught in the middle of the Civil War. Through Annie, the reader meets and converses with many of the war's greatest figures. Annie's struggle becomes the reader's struggle. Not only does she have to protect her home from raids, she must contend with her own heart. In the midst of the war, Annie meets and falls in love with Thomas, a Yankee soldier. Talk about complicated!! In the end, Annie is accused of being a spy and sent to prison. Will Annie be saved or excecuted? Will Thomas come to her rescue or shun her for her activities? The lengthy book is worth the read. I would compare it to another great Civil War novel, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.

I absolutely adored this book, and found that it so effectively and smoothly linked fiction with nonfiction that you almost believe that you are reading a historical nonfiction archive. I have a friend who, at that time, was reading A History of The Civil War, and he thought that Annie, Between the States was a nonfiction book. But if it was, it would not be so pleasurable. Nonfiction books cannot convey an individual's opinions and feelings. Annie, Between the States conveys the author's opinions as she feels that a person in Annie's position would feel. I expected more blood and battling and gore in the book, however the absence of an abundance of such, as one usually finds in such a fictional war book, did not upset me in the slightest. The romance just adds to the enjoyability and versatility of the book. I really felt as though I related to Annie, even though her character was supposed to be about 150 years ago. I must admit, however much I would recommend the book to nonfiction and fiction lovers alike, that the quote from the book, "their own voice," appeared to me as though it was just thrown in there. It was a great metaphor, if that's what L.M.Elliott was going for. Perhaps if had been older than eleven, i would see the significance of that quote to the novel, but as is, I cannot find it. I recommend the book to lovers of all reading genres, old people, young people, romantics, or someone who just wants to go into another world, this is a wonderful book.

This book was okay for me. I found the synoposis to be really off. Only about half of it had anything to do with Annie's romance with the Northern soldier, and it wasn't well developed at all. If you like reading about war strategies and locations, pick it up! But don't read it for the romance. I couldn't say I would read this book again.

I liked this book. That said, I didn't love this book. The main character is likeable, and behaves in a manner true to her age. It seems to me that some of the other characters were templates, and bordered on stereotypes. The mother is Melanie, straight off of the plantation, and the black housewoman will definitely have you thinking that Annie lives at Tara. Annie loses a potential suitor, a young boy as sweet as Scarlett's first husband. The story is not Gone With The Wind, but you will hear echoes of Mitchell while you read it.

This book really brings you into the life of a young woman in the civil war. It shows you alot of the horrible things that went on, brothers fighting brothers, and shows and truly devastating it was. And how comitted some people were. It's not entirely fiction. Alot of the characters in this book were real people.
If your not really a history person (believe me, i really wasnt interested in anything to do with american history until i read this) there is also some ramantic aspects to it. It'll keep you glued to the pages. Hope you ejoy it as much as i did.

A solid and readable account of the rise and fall of Imperial Spain by an experienced scholar. The book dedicate a great deal to the reign of Isabella and Ferdinand, which is regarded as the golden age of Castile with the discovery of America and the finishing of the "reconquista" but also marking the expulsion of jews and the beginning of the inquisition. Mr. Elliott explain the whole context of those years, politically, socially and economically, the real situation of the people of the time and the differences between the crowns of Castile, Aragon and Portugal. As the book advances and with the following Kings, the author makes clear the difficult situation of Spain, with an empire geographically separated, agravated by several revolts either at home or abroad, with the core of spain overburden with taxes, with a stagnated economy and more important, a mediocre ruling class. Those are just part of the reasons that finally translated in the dissolution of the empire at the beginning of the 1700. In summary, this book totally fulfilled my curiosity to understand this period of Spain, and like the last words of the book: "Castile has made Spain and Castile has destroyed it" (Ortega y Gasset).
Note: I had the opportunity of being at the Escorial, I just lamented not to had read this book before.

Spain experienced a metamorphosis in the 16th century. It had been a divided country battling with an age-old enemy. Its separate parts worked more against each other than with each other; Castile concentrated on the fight to reconquer the land from the Muslims, while Aragon and Catalonia fixed their sights on a Mediterranean trading empire and control of southern Italy. Under Ferdinand and Isabella, well-known as the patrons of Columbus, the Moors were conquered, the Jews expelled, and all three main parts of Spain joined under one crown. Spain soon acquired a vast empire in the Americas and Asia. Through marriage, its fortunes were hitched to the Habsburg crown, thus despatching Spanish arms and treasure to the endless European wars in Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries. Spain rose to a certain proud zenith, both in war and in administration of its vast lands. The arts began to flourish. Portugal came under the Spanish crown for sixty years. The glory days did not last long as history goes. By 1640, Spain had crashed. It was bankrupt, taxed-to-the-limit, and losing everywhere. Its European empire fell away, even Portugal threw off Castilian rule. Government fell to mostly incapable favorites of the weak and indecisive kings. Bereft of a middle class, the only good income was to be had from the church or the court. In short, the imperial greatness, which had shot across the world like a brilliant comet, had winked out in financial collapse and administrative failure, though literature and painting continued to shine. Poor education and religious ultra-conservatism had denied Spain the leaders that might have saved it.

Elliott's history of Imperial Spain paints a clear picture of the reasons for this abrupt rise and decline. He concentrates not on battles, foreign adventures or any sort of "glory", but on administration, finance, the strong differences between Castile and Aragon/Catalonia, the Inquisition, trade, and domestic policy. I admit that such a mix may not be everybody's cup of tea, but if you are serious about learning the reasons for Spain's brief term at the top, you will certainly need to read this work, an amazingly complete study that stands with some of the best history books ever written. Though the title contains the years 1469-1716, the vast bulk of the book concerns only the sixteenth century.

It seemed to me, as I read IMPERIAL SPAIN, that the book should be required reading in Washington, but of course our "leaders" are not interested in history. They reflect in their actions an uncanny resemblance to that Spain of its glory days, thinking that glory can never end, that the mighty shall not fall. Since we seem unable to avoid foreign wars, our education system is inadequate, we are facing a rising tide of religious obscurantism, and worst of all, we operate at a huge deficit, there are some disturbing parallels. Could we learn from the history of Imperial Spain ? No doubt. Will we ? No way.

Over the years I have managed to read a fairly large number of historical works dedicated to surveying particular periods of history, but I have rarely found one that managed to combine learning with readability as well as this one. Although a historian, Elliott must of necessity tell a story, and that is how Spain went from being a relatively unimportant afterthought on the tip of Europe to being for a period of time perhaps the dominant power on the globe, only to fall into a state of decline and veritable collapse. It is an amazing, improbable story, yet Elliott manages it without ever losing the reader in historical minutiae.

Elliott tells his story by focusing on the reigns of the great monarchs of the 15th and 16th centuries of Spain, and the considerably less great monarchs and their "favorites" (noblemen who actually ran Spain--as Elliott puts it at one point, the kings reigned, but the favorites ruled) of the 17th century. The highpoint of the story comes rather early, with the remarkable reign of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, surely the greatest monarchial partnership Europe has known. Two gifted, talented, and powerful monarchs, they worked together brilliantly to create one of the great empires of Europe, managing such feats as driving the Moors out of Spain and creating a dynasty in the New World (as well as funding Columbus' discovery of it). Unfortunately, they, the Most Catholic Kings, also were responsible for the Inquisition. Elliott takes a balanced approach to the Inquisition (not my own inclination, since it seems to me to be an unmitigable horror), not minimizing its effects, but trying to understand it in context.

From Isabella and Ferdinand, Elliott takes the reader through the reasons that Ferdinand was reluctantly forced to arrange for the monarchies of Castile and Aragon to the Habsburgs (it is fairly complex, but essentially there was no acceptable heir), and the eventual accedence of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to the thrones of Spain. Although not quite as glorious a time as under Isabella and Ferdinand, Charles V's reign was also a highpoint in Spanish history. Although to a large degree an absentee monarch, his reign is characterized by his attempts to expand his empire--which embraced a substantial portion of Europe--and his wars against against heresy, i.e., protestantism, whether in its Lutheran, Calvinist, or English forms. Indeed, if religious zeal--even if profoundly misguided--were a criterion of religiousity, then Charles V might go down as the most religious monarch in European history. That protestantism survived is surely not to be blamed on Charles V (I'm a Baptist, by the way, so I'm hardly lamenting his failure). In the end, however, Charles V's wars put such a great strain on his various subjects as to lead to general financial chaos, and his expenditures led to multiple bankruptcies, not only in his own but in his son's reign.

Phillip II is in many ways the polar opposite of his father. Although the monarch of the Dutch territories and Spain, he was not like his father the Holy Roman Emperor. He was also not a warrior king, although many wars were fought under his reign. While Charles V waged war closer to the field, Phillip II waged war at his desk and papers with a pen. The last of the great Spanish kings of the imperial period, Phillip II struggled desperately to carry on his father's goals amidst dwindling funds and financial resources.

The final sections of the book chronicle the long, slow, depressing period of decline, the period depicted so vividly in DON QUIXOTE. Ironically, although the 17th century was a period of waning Spanish successes, it was nonetheless a far richer period artistically, not just through the work of such great writers as Cervantes and Lope de Vega, but a host of great painters like Velazquez and Zurburan.

Elliott is a truly fine historian, but he is also an engaging one. I remained interested in the fate of Spain from the beginning to the agonizing end. I would strongly recommend this volume to anyone who wants a stronger background into the formation of modern Europe. It also makes an absolutely perfect introduction to the historical setting of Cervantes's DON QUIXOTE (my immediate purpose in reading it).

Synopsis of Early Modern Spain starting with Ferdinand and Isabella through Phillip II. Not the most in-depth or inclusive book on the subject, but has enough to get a person started. This book is blander than other history books I have read, but if you can make it through, it will give you a good grasp on Spain at its highest point.

This book is accessible to a general reader although it assumes some basic familiarity with European history. Without being overly long, it does a great job of cutting to the heart of matters: what were the factors that made Spain a world power in the 16th century and why did this power ultimately fall apart? Elliott concisely helps the reader to understand Spanish politics, the Inquisition, tax policy, foreign affairs, as well as social and religious tensions.

The title story in this collection is hands-down one of the best short stories of all time and well worth the price of the book alone. Dark gives herself a very hard act to follow by placing this story at the beginning of the collection and, unfortunately, I think she mostly comes up short. The second story had a first half that was promising but then the narrative focus loosens and falls in the second half. From there on, the stories are one melodrama after another----readable, yes, but lacking depth. I found myself growing impatient with certain protagonists and their navel-gazing. There are also some highly-improbably set-ups that don't pay off, especially in The Tower, where Dark writes, unconvincingly, from a male point of view. Then, just when I was thinking that perhaps Dark was a one trick pony with the title story (what a wonderful trick it would be, though), come the two last stories, Home and Watch the Animals, both of which are compelling and heartfelt and wise and do everything you want a piece of literature to do. So, all in all, I would say, an inconsistent collection, but with the greatest promise of her best material to look forward to in future books. Next time I just hope she leaves out the filler

I bought this book from Amazon.com's recommendations and I was not sorry at all that I did.

The title story itself is moving and touching as it deals with a mother's experience as she slowly loses her son to AIDS. Dark's manner of narration is rich and vivid. As I was reading, I could not help but be involved in the mother's heart-wrenching struggle in trying to ease whatever pain her son was experiencing.

The other stories were equally beautifully-written as it tugs at the reader's emotions.

If there is one book to read during a retreat or while on vacation, this one is it.

I've never been compelled to write a review, but "In the Gloaming" is quite simply the best story I've ever read. There isn't, to my knowledge, a tale that better conveys compassion and pathos, or has the ability to move the reader through the complete emotional experience.
On the whole, this collection won't take you far beyond its title story, but it's more than most accomplish in a life of writing. Raymond Carver is without a doubt my favorite writer, but Dark has managed to write my favorite story.

I must admit that I came to this collection of stories after viewing the Christopher Reeve movie version of the title story. I was at once struck by the depth of life that infused each character and story in this collection. While the title story, "In the Gloaming", is perhaps the strongest and most compelling, each of the other nine stories in this collection echoes back along the same themes and questions.

The title story is a beautiful love letter to a mother who rediscovers her son as he is dying of AIDS, and is awakened to the love that is missing in her life. The closing scene between the mother and her distant husband is bittersweet, a poignant and finely-crafted ending. Throughout the other stories, which all have ties to the same wealthly Eastern town, are characters who are searching to come to terms with themselves and those around them. They are all on quests that may or may not have answers: "Close" tells of a married man who must make a decision between his wife and lover, while not wanting to have to give up either; "The Tower" is a more disturbing story about a confirmed, life-long bachelor who finally falls in love, only to discover that the woman who has awakened him may be his daughter; and "The Secret Spot" is one wife's vindication-gone-wrong, where an encounter with the woman she believes was her husband's mistress threatens to turn her entire life on its head.

Alice Elliott Dark writes prose that is refreshing and brisk. Her stories clip along, revealing her characters' idiosyncracies, while unfolding delicately at the same time. Their searches are not necessarily completed by the end of the story; there are many stories that end without reaching a conclusion, allowing the characters to live on in the minds of the readers. As the author is quoted as saying, characters "have their own lives and their own endings", which she has both enlightened and witheld for a captive audience.

It is now old news that John Updike selected the title story from this volume of short stories as one of the best American short stories of the century. Quite an accomplishment for Ms. Dark. "In The Gloaming" is the story of a young man with AIDS who comes home to die and his mother's caring for him in his last illness. Early in the story Laird and his mother Janet are sitting on the terrace at the close of day. "'The gloaming,' he said, suddenly. She nodded dreamily, automatically, then sat up. She turned to him. 'What?' Although she'd heard. 'I remember when I was little you took me over to the picture window and told me that in Scotland this time of day was called the 'gloaming.'. . .'I always thought it hurt you somehow that the day was over, but you said it was a beautiful time because for few moments the purple light made the whole world look like the Scottish highlands on a summer night.'" Thus Ms. Dark sets the mood for this beautifully and delicately understated story. Janet seizes the waning days of her son's life. Each fleeting moment is precious as both of these individuals seek to know more of each other in the little time they have left. Laird's father Martin husband is not so lucky. He is one of Ms. Dark's characters who suffer from opportunities lost, a recurring theme in several of these stories. I must say the only jarring note in this exquisite story is Janet's deciding on a bagpipe for her son's funeral. I understand that this is a Scottish instrument. I just have heard "Amazing Grace" played on the bagpipes one too many times at memorial services for friends and acquaintances who died of AIDS. This is purely my own bias and probably unfair to Ms. Dark.

To me, many of these stories are equally as good as "In The Gloaming." I particularly liked "Home." This is again another story of the waning of life and the way loved ones react to the coming loss. In this instance,Gordon and Lil are being moved into an assisted living home--what a euphemism-- and Lil, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, asks and is granted permission to visit her home for one last time. There are no villains here, just decent people trying to make the best of a sad situation, the loss of health and ending of life as these two old people know it and their daughter Charlotte's trying to do what she perceives as the right thing for them. One can hardly fault her for doing what she has to do. Although she tries, she cannot know completely the utter horrow her mother faces at the loss of both her home and her intellect.

These fine stories go straight to the heart.

I received a gift certificate to the bookstore for my birthday (my friends know me well) and I wanted to get something good so my friends' money wouldn't be spent in vain. I nearly spent it on a book about which I'd read good reviews, and I nearly spent it on a book recommended to me, but for some reason I picked up Spirit Gate and decided to take a chance. Oh Oh OH, Happy Birthday to ME!

I enjoyed the characters, the entrigue, the cultures, the lands, the reeves, pretty much everything in this book. I didn't feel like it dragged at all like the other reviewer said, but he was right when he said the end was fantastic. I was a little shocked when a main character was killed at the beginning, but Elliot tantalized us with something about that death later in the book.

The story deals with slavery so prepare for that. It's not the kind where slaves are tortured needlessly, it's more of a servent/slave type. It's still slavery, but it's integral to the storyline, not gratuitous.

There is also some sex in it, although it's done tastefully. Some of it needed to be graphic to add to the story, but you won't feel like you're reading, you know, Goodkind.

Honestly the only complaint I have about this book is that it's the first in a series that's still unfinished. Waiting for the next one will be excruciating.

I really want book 2 right now, I feel a great need to continue the story.

It's not *quite* a 5* book but close, very close. There are moments when I found myself wondering what perspective I was reading from but once I got my bearings I couldn't stop reading. I was disgusted by intrusions from real life that got in the way of the story.

The story starts with a shocker, a character introduced as important is killed. However this does explain why her partner and lover does some of the things he does later (including trying to drown his sorrows regularly). Then it moves to a young woman in a different country and what happens when a handsome captain of an occupying force falls for her and offers for her hand in marriage.

There are some leaps in time here and the concept of people riding eagles has been done before. The eagle riders are called Reeves and are entrusted with the justice of the land (yes a select group with special mounts who serve justice, again done again) and they're losing the battle for power. Someone, somewhere is gathering power and some unsavory types and undermining the Reeves. The other mystery is where the Guardians of the land are. Old folk remember them, but they haven't been seen in generations, have they forgotten their covenant to the land and it's people? Have the Gods?

It's interesting how the different people interact and how different cultural differences are drawn, the characters became quite vivid in my mind by the end and I was left feeling annoyed that I couldn't immediately continue with the story. There are places where it falters I found it interesting and exciting. Others may not find it so but Kate Elliott has found a fan.

"Spirit Gate" is the beginning of a seven-volume fantasy starring circuit court judges called reeves, who fly from court house to court house aboard gigantic eagles. The setting is sort of Oriental-medieval and the action begins in a land called the Hundred, although it quickly moves to other countries and Empires. Nine super-human Guardians once protected the Hundred and dispensed justice, but they've disappeared and the reeves are on their own against some very poisonous enemies.

Then the reeves and their eagles start to disappear.

This fantasy novel is a multi-viewpoint affair, sometimes confusingly so. There are enough love stories to warrant reviews in the romance blogs as well as "Sci Fi Weekly" and "Publishers' Weekly." The life-styles of the reeves, merchant families, mercenary soldiers, priestesses, and bonded servants are minutely detailed. There is lots of sex and violence--enough to require parental guidance if "Spirit Gate" were a movie, but not enough lingering close-ups for an `X.'

Except for the monstrous eagles, there is very little magic in this first volume. The reader is treated to careful world-building, as multiple characters travel hither and yon, building relationships, and fighting shadow-armies. A once peaceful land is toppled from its golden age into war and chaos. The peasants are slaughtered like sheep. Farms and villages are set to the torch, almost with impunity, until the reeves and an outcast band of mercenary soldiers begin to organize and fight back.

I found "Spirit Gate" a little slow in places, especially when the viewpoint switched to yet another new character. I also would have preferred a few more touches of fantasy. But the eagles were magnificent, and most of the leading characters held their own against mischance and outright slaughter. I moved right into the second volume, "Shadow Gate" and read through until I ran out of pages. Hopefully, Kate Elliott is hard at work on volume III. It's usually a good sign when a fantasy series starts out in paperback and segues into hard-bound as this one did.

The prolouge was great, but then there was a major dry spell from there until page 300. I'm sure the author could have dealt with character exposition and setup in a far more concise and precise manner.

Had the writer been one for whom I have less respect, I never would have gotten to the end, but it's well I did. The ending was fantastic, and I wouldn't be opposed to getting the next book in this series.

This is Kate Elliott's best work to date, in my view. I was drawn in quickly by characters that are diverse, believable, and sympathetic. The story is unfolded slowly but deftly. That's the way I like epic fantasy! Chief characters are revealed by layers within the story. The pace is taut but unhurried. Great start to a new series. I look forward to future installments! It's all about the crafting of the story and the characters who live in it . . . and it's all here.

The book arrived in good condition, however I thought it would be a larger book.

As a new initiate into the world of birding, I found this book and audio cd to be very helpful in identifying bird songs. A numbered list of cd tracks is provided in the book, enabling the listener to skip to the songs they want to hear on the cd. The book is informative and includes beautiful photographs of each species. I love it and highly recommend it.

I am a budding bird-watching enthusiast and this is the first book I have purchased. I love it! I do wish it covered more birds, but the descriptions of the birds it does include are very informative. The photographs are some of the best I've seen!!! The CD is also great for beginners because you never really realize how many of those calls are familiar to you until you hear them with a name. I know now there are Baltimore Orioles near my house (though I've never seen them) because I hear that very distinct call all the time! Now I've put out special food for them and I'll just have to wait and see!!! I recommend this book and CD to all - especially beginners like myself!!!

I am new to serious birdwatching, but already own half a dozen books on North American birds. I find this book and companion CD especially nice because of it's portability and ease of use. The photographs are clear, and the information concise. The songs of the birds are likewise, and if you have a cat, you will amuse them along with yourself as you listen...

Common Birds and Their Songs (Book and Audio CD)I got this book for our two year old grandson who spends time looking at Birds and the Peterson Field Guide with his grandmother. The pictures are wonderfull and he loves the book; the songs are less interesting just now. He calls it the Two Owls Book. Our only disappointment is that the "Thrasher" he loves was omitted.

This is a very useful and must have book for every graduate student in logic.Theory covers many fields(logic and computability) and has a lot of exercises (and also solutions to the tough ones)!!!

Mendelson reaches an optimal point between the concision of the expert reference, and the wideness requested to a introductory text. Not in vain it has been the text forced in the universities during forty years.
Nevertheless, I believe to have found an error in the demonstration that does of the theorem of the completeness of the Predicate calculus, in the part in which it tries to demonstrate that all logical truth is
a theorem of the system.
[...]

This is one of the more popular introductory textbooks on mathematical logic, with Enderton's being its biggest competitor. I prefer Mendelson's for its breadth of material and the choice of proofs he uses, which are generally the most intuitive (e.g. Kalmar's for the completeness of the propositional calculus). This is not to say that they are always constructive, as they many of them are in the older texts (e.g. Kleene, Introduction to Metamathemaitcs).

The exercises are thoughtfully chosen. There's a good range of difficulty and a good portion of the answers can be found in the back. Difficult questions are indicated to the reader.

Out of all the mathematical logic texts I have (which are quite a few in number), this is the most oft-referred-to.

Mendelson's Introduction to Mathematical Logic was the textbook for a logic-course I took a couple of years ago. At the time I did not like the book at all. It seemed too difficult and so typographically ugly that I thought I would never use it. Things have changed though. Now, I keep it close at hand on my desk and use it almost every day. Technical questions that used to require a trip to the library and several different books to answer, can usually be resolved by a look in Mendelson's book. It's wonderfully rich and clear! I still don't find everything easy but that's because the material isn't easy and so not something Mendelson can be blamed for. I do find the typography ugly and at times annoying, but that's a small price to pay for a presentation as rigorous and detailed as Mendelson's.
So in summary: it's not the ideal book for the complete newcomer, but once you get past the initial hurdle it's a must read.

Even though I already knew the material, I found this book painfully slow to read. The author habitually writes in sentences that are runon, convoluted, repetitive, and indirect. I kept reading passages over and over to sort out what he was saying. That goes double for the proofs.

There is just not a clear unfolding of ideas at the sentence, paragraph, or chapter levels. It is even uninviting to look at; the layout is cramped and the notation is unnecessarily elaborate. The only point I can say in its favor is that it covers more material than most texts, as it is designed for a one-year course.

I really like this book for it's simplicity and yet great tasting recipes. While some of them may be very simple - such as the cucumber pizza - I would have never tried it without the guidance provided. I made those simple little pizzas and took them to a party and they were not only a hit, but they totally disappeared - and fast!!

I have about 12-15 raw books and find this one to be right at the top of the list (along with Jennifer Cornbleets too) due to the ease of the recipes without a lot of upfront prep time. This is definitely one of my "weekday" recipe books! Granted, on a raw lifetstyle one does have to remember that soaking nuts/seeds is part of the deal so keep that in mind.

Enjoy and eat your veggies!

Some really lovely recipes for dressings which we are always looking for to pour on our many salads and wraps. Also, a couple of soups I hadn't tried yet were very good. We don't eat many sweet things, but this book has a great sounding lemon pudding I want to try. A nice investment for the busy raw foodist.

I recently purchased three raw cookbooks, this is the first I have tried.

I have tried all but two recipes of the first three days menu plan, plus two extras, sometimes they took a little longer than 5 minutes but I have enjoyed every recipes.

This is my fourth try going raw and I may make it this time because the foods in the book are readily available (except maybe one or two).

There is not a lot planning days ahead to soak, sprout, grind, dehydrate for three days so maybe it will be ready and hopefully you will still want it and remember what you were trying to make in the first place! With this book you see it, you check the frig and find the ingrediants, you make it, you love it!

This little book is great. Gives many great ideas for eating healthy. I just bought a vita-mix and find this book very useful

This book is a great place to start for anyone making the transition to raw food. I recommend it to my neophyte raw food friends. It's not overwhelming and most recipes don't have long prep times.

This is a very unique book about settlers and the plains Indians because the author gives a detailed introductory history on each as it coincides with the discovery of gold, the mass migration of miners and settlers that went west and the effects it had on the nomadic Indian's way of life. Lots of minute detail that is not exactly for a quick read but the author makes great points that the Indians existed in America thousands of years before Moses and that their life as nomads accelerated when Cortez introduced the horse to the plains Indians. The author also demonstrates that the various tribes of Cheyenne, Kiowa, Arapahoe, Comanche, Apache and others were already straining the resources of the plains, which are dramatically effected by the mass migration of whites. Even the buffalo moved further east from the front range of the Rockies where tribal rivalries gave the over hunted beasts a sanctuary in no mans land. In addition, the development of Denver through the discovery of gold is actually quite interesting as the mountain men and those married to Indian women had initial influence that promptly disappears as Denver flourishes once a higher class society emerges. The initial boosters are eventually disregarded as well as the tribal influences through family relations. Finally, the author puts it altogether noting that whites took the various oases on the plains where water, grass and trees were plentiful, removing the primary sources of comfortable survival for the Indians. What happens to the Indians has some familiarity to what is happening in rural America where developers (ranchers, the army, farmers and miners in this case) flatten large tracts of land changing not only the landscape but also the community itself but of course with more dire effects to the Indian way of life. By taking the natives' areas of shelter and food, they are eventually hard pressed to survive culminating in occasional armed conflict particularly by the dog soldiers. There was a misunderstanding or lack of appreciation by settlers that just because Indians did not occupy water and treed sites at the present, it did not mean it was not used. The Indians used many of these more productive areas as seasonal shelters for their nomadic use, which begin to be occupied exclusively by whites. In the end, resistance by some dog soldiers fuels the totally avoidable massacre at Sand Creek where peaceful Cheyenne were instructed to camp. The massacre was even a greater tragedy since responsible individuals knew and informed Chivington that village camp was peaceful with several notable whites staying with their relatives by means of marriage. As the author points out, the massacre may also have been a violent repudiation of the intermingling of the races. Sometimes there is too much detail (in the introduction that author states that his friends complain that he cannot write about a stop sign unless he gives an in-depth history of the intersection) but the final 60 pages converge into understanding how the Indians were pushed out of their prime hunting areas and areas of respite resulting in short termed and sporadic welfare. As the author points out, the attraction of gold in Denver causes the vacuum of the plains to be filled changing the life of the Indians in virtually a short period.

This may be an important work in it's field, but it is, sadly, quite boring. I began skimming it at about page 50 and finished it that way. I read a lot of history for pleasure and derived none from this book. I could only recommend it to scholars or students.

The Contested Plains, by one of the most imaginative Western historians writing today, is a masterpiece in the field. It puts peoples-white and Indian-together in a complicated field of action--the Plains and the Rockies in the 19th century. West shows us a world of surprising and fascinating complexity, a place of high drama undergoing sweeping transformations. West is a master storyteller. Behind the compelling and vivid narrative there are new approaches in the field of Western history, including its way of re-looking at the frontier as a zone of cultural contestation and exchange in which it is as important to take stock of the land and animals as of the peoples, their economies, and their ideas. If you are at all interested in Western history, read this book!

The title, The Contested Plains, relays Elliot West's desire to tell the story of the 1858 Colorado Gold Rush not from the perspective of the destination, but from the tale of the journey. West is determined to understand the environmental history of the plains as well as the perspective of the Indians who long inhabited them. He not only attempts to understand the land itself, but also how the indigenous peoples, and ultimately the gold seekers, used it. Clearly defined within the story are the concepts of imagination, impact, and power and the story itself is in fact divided into these three subsections: Vision, Gold Rush, and Power. West relates the tale through multiple scopes as he attempts anthropological, geological, economic, cultural, topographical, and biological interpretations of the 19th century transformation of the western Plains environment.
West begins by taking the reader back to the land before time in what he calls the "Old World." His clever play on the general Euro centric application of the world is all the more poignant when it is understood that this truly is the Indians' "Old World," and that a new and generally inhospitable future awaits them. After this short introduction, introduced is Spanish explorer Coronado and offers the foreshadowing of the encounter, exchange, and exclusion of the next four centuries.
The staples of the Western encounter remain the same. Disease, trade, firearms, and the horse are the four major players in the transformation of Indian lives. This is where West's biological angle emerges. He constructs the interdependence of life between the Indians and the Plains and the fundamental impact that the introduction of the horse levied upon their lifestyle. While horse and firearm prove beneficial and disease fatal, trade has been cast in a more complex light. The same trading systems that permitted the general rise of the Plains Indian became its downfall as settlers pushed westward in search of increased capital through a marginal gold rush or a now expanded trade system.
The encroachment of settlers onto the Plains found fundamentally different uses for the land. While the Cheyenne, or Tsistsistas, had managed a sustainable lifestyle consisting of hunting, grazing, movement, and trade, the relatively static farming productions of the white settler not only consumed valuable land space needed for the Indians, it levied substantial tolls upon the environment itself, particularly in times of drought. Accompanied by a population explosion wholly untenable with the nature of the land, it wasn't long before bloody conflicts between the two groups would arise, with the ultimate victor being the white settler.
West has written a comprehensive narrative consisting of several different vantage points, the most emotive being the ultimate transformation and decline of the life of the Plains Indian tribes. Voice has also been given to the land in this account. West is careful to make no judgments on the Indians or the gold seekers and settlers. He is pragmatic when he exclaims that "two cultures acted out compelling visions in a land that could support only one."

Elliott West is an intriguing author and this expansive history of the Plains Indians and the Colorado gold rush is fascinating. He begins by relating the story of the peopling of the central High Plains, how the Spanish-introduced horses thrived on the grasses found there and how the Indians, especially the Cheyenne, made the horses the central aspect of their way of life. He describes next the earliest contacts with Europeans, the early fur trappers and traders along the Santa Fe and other trails. Then he reaches what will be the main thrust of his book: the discovery of gold along Cherry and Dry Creeks near today's Denver by a group of Georgian prospectors in the summer of 1858. Word of their finds reached Kansas City by late August, the rest of the eastern United States by September, and California by October (via the Isthmus of Panama). The rush was on. He tells of the three main river routes open to the gold seekers: the Platte (northern), the Arkansas (southern), and the Smoky Hill (central), the riskiest route because of a shortage of water and deadly weather storms. He explains how the Front Range prospered quickly and towns grew. And he traces how all of this activity devastated the way of life for the Indians, resulting, if not exactly ending, most disgracefully at Sand Creek. The field covered by West's book has been mined often, but rarely with the flair and style he brings to his study. The book combines scholarship and anecdotal reports magnificently, and is a pleasure to read. Highly recommended.

Gus Lee does a fantastic job of pointing out that Integrity and Character in business or personal life are of supreme value. However, as he points out, without courage to face conflict and difficult situations in business and life in general, we will not show integrity and character.

The book is filled with fascinating stories of corporate executives who learned how to have courage in the midst of difficult circumstances. The communication model he sets forth in the book is outstanding. I would highly recommend this book to any business owner or Human Resources Manager.

You easily get intriqued with this book. Great reading and examples of management decisions that Mr Lee was involved with. Highly recommend.

Gus and Dianne-Elliot Lee share captivating stories about real people confronting important "points of decision." The kind of decisions that leaders and people from all walks of business and civilian life face in their everyday lives. The behaviors of people with strong character and some people with little character are analyzed through a lens that reveals more about courage, integrity, and character than I have ever known. Leadership is celebrated, weakness is crushed, and the slippery slope of the behavior headed to the status quo is illuminated in a way that I think that anyone can identify with.

This is a great text book for leaders. It is full of illustrations, charts, and metaphors that drive his concepts home - to heart. There are examples of how interactions of the worst sort can be corrected. Not a passive read; I could not avoid mapping my own life to the outlines and examples throughout the book.

I recommend this book to anyone who is serious about becoming their own personal best. Your spouse, staff, board, customers and friends will all appreciate what you learn through Courage!

From his autobiographical novel, "China Boy", one might infer that Gus Lee has spent a lifetime learning; learning to overcome fear, and learning the worth of high values and moral principles in life. In this book, Lee applies, what can only be described as a `novelistic' writing style, to re-creative dialogue of situations where these life-long learnings are put to the leadership test. Noting that results are resources passed through relationships, (performance leadership as a relational process), Lee takes the reader through demonstrations of courageous leadership, including the use of his Courageous Communications model - Communicate collegially, Listen actively with Empathy, Ask questions on point, and Relate respectfully (CLEAR); among others.

Although not unique, the several relational models for handling difficult conversations or for addressing relational failures (`The Black Box Solutions Model' to help understand why a relationship has crashed -- 1) Assess what's broken, 2) Accept the failure, 3) Repair the failure, and 4) Team up and work together) are interesting; in addition, Lee introduces his three types of motivating power; authority, reward, and courage - ethically modeling and inspiring others to be their best selves and to act courageously for what is right. But, as I worked through the book, I kept looking for some underlying leadership framework for Lee's Courage process. In the end, I could find no such framework, and was left with a rather randomness feeling about the book and it lessons on courage. For a word such as "courage", that speaks so of the heart, I expected direction and purpose - and in the end found none in this book.

COURAGE is, quite simply, the best business book I have ever read, and I simply couldn't stop once I started reading it. Though I am now neither a corporate employee nor in any direct way connected professionally to commercial enterprise, I have been in the past. But more important, I am a human being, and the lessons I learned in this book, though perhaps primarily directed to occupants of corporate board rooms, apply directly to normal day-to-day life and social interactions in the post-industrial America of the early 21st century. It gives very direct aand effective instruction on how to be a truly great leader in the business world, and it is the latest approach to a very old problem. To me, the best book on business leadership before this one was The Gamesman, by Michael Maccoby, which I read, I think, in 1979 when I was an aspiring young lawyer. In it, Maccoby spoke of the gradual evolution of leadership types in American business. From the late 19th century through World War II or so, as I remember, including the days of the "Robbber Barons" who established corporate norms for a long time, he said most successful business leaders were what he called "jungle fighters" - ruthless entrepreneurs whose workdays normally included aggressive acts to promote themselves and/or their businesses. That meant stepping on others, back-stabbing, and amorally clutching and clawing their way to the top. Then, as I recall, he described how aggression fell from favor, and I think the next type succeeding the jungle fighter at the top of business came in the 1950s, and was what he described as the "Company Man", in gray flannel suit, white shirt and tie, reliably obedient to corporate rules and standards, conservative and predictable. Safe, but not very good at change. Then Maccoby outlined his perception of the latest successful (in the late 1970s) leadership type, the "Gamesman", who typically looked at his role in the business world as a game, one that he played hard to win, but still just a game in which he very smoothly adapted to change. Typified by a confident, smiling JFK, whose perceived persona became an important model to many, the Gamesman was King. For a while. Maccoby seemed very insightful at the time, but the world has changed much. After Reagan entered the White House in 1981, the American business world went into overdrive. And as technological wonders (personal computers, cell phones, Google, etc.) arrived, authority structures in major businesses began to flatten as more and more people were able to work independently. The command economy was disappearing, and rigid, authoritative power games in the business world began to collapse dramatically. That meant that we all began to recover our basic humanity in the workplace, and respect for others began to dominate as a norm. And that's where Mr. Lee's book comes in. He talks of the continued or even incresed need for leadership in today's marketplace, but he also explains it to us, as well as the underlying principles on which it must be based. His basic theme for success calls for principled behavior under pressure, for boldness and courage to "do the right thing" as the very backbone of leadership, and for complete respect for others always. But he does all this gradually, in language that really captures the reader. Most rewarding of all, he shows in simple and believable terms that anyone who adopts the right mind set and follows his or her own well-established principles of behavior in life can be an effective -- even a great -- leader. Rather than ordering or directing, a good leader listens and interacts, allowing great freedom to subordinates in choosing their path, but requiring strict adherence to agreed-upon behavior, schedule, or production. And as he develops and describes the best behavior for business leaders under pressure, he uses the case method, describing actual events to illustrate his concepts, and he does so very effectively. I am sorry to say that I do not have Mr. Lee's smooth facility with words, and my attempt to give a favorable synopsis of what I believe to be a wonderful series of lessons ends up sounding lumpy and complicated. The book is neither. But perhaps the best way I can describe the effectiveness of Mr. Lee's work would be to tell how it applied immediately in my personal, non-business life. I won't try to describe his recommended approaches here, for though they are simple and straight-forward, he does a wonderful job of teaching them, and they are an eye-opening delight to read. But I hope my personal experince that follows will convey the powerful effect on me of this masterwork. I have a young son who is not as careful with sleep and personal cleanliness, especially washing his hair, as his mother and I would hope. The night I finished reading COURAGE, I went upstairs well after midnight and discovered that son still up and playing video games, long after his bedtime. This has been an issue in the past, and I am sorry to say that it too often resulted in my loud, raging anger, and hurt feelings ranging all the way to tears for my son, unfortunately including his physical fear of me. I always felt bad later and swore it would never happen again. But when next pushed to the edge of my patience, I am sorry to say that it sometimes did. Having just finished this book, however, I knew I no longer had to resort to my old strong-arm tactics. Rather than my nornmal raging, I went into my son's room and followed the pattern proposed in COURAGE, quietly asking hinm what he thought of a boy staying up late on a school night, etc. We had a slow, comfortable exchange of ideas, and he soon agreed that he would be better off the next day if he got right into bed. Smiles on both sides. I then brought up the benefits that might come from his taking a shower before he went to bed, but he quickly dug in his heels, and I as quickly backed off. Shower or not, I thought as I left his room, I had been able to rationally explain to him why he should go to bed, and he had very reasonably explored the idea himself, then agreed to my arguments.No anger or fear on either side -- how refreshing was that? I was quite pleased as I went back downstairs, and I was really quite surprised at how immediately effective the application of Mr. Lee's ideas had been with my son. A few minuteds later, I came back upstairs, and heard, to my surprise, the sound of the shower. I went back downstairs until I heard the shower turned off. Ten minutes later, I crept back upstairs and into my son's room, where I found him asleep, his hair smelling of fresh shampoo. What better change in behavior between father and son could have been desired? And my son and I were both happy at the resolution of the issue, not angry, hurt, frightened, or even sad. Truly, at that moment I felt the sun of human-interaction enlightenment rising inside my own head. And that interaction, I am sure, was far more sensitive than most of those one confronts in the business world. But it was resolved more happily than I ever could have anticipated, simply by my adopting and folowing the humanizing, honest, and honorable approach promoted in this wonderful book. For me, reading it and applying its lessons have brought me monments of true joy. I give it my very highest possible recommendation for all readers, whether you are in the business world or not. Read it: you'll love it!