Gray Books

For anyone that tells you that you can't so solid code and script development on a Mac, they haven't been introduced to the application TextMate. There are several good options for doing power editing on the Macintosh and TextMate is one of those POWER options.

'TextMate: Power Editing for the Mac' by James Gray is a perfect companion manual for all TextMate users that want to lift the hood off of this power app and get to the nuts and bolts. If you develop on a Macintosh on a daily basis for work or fun and want to learn more about what you can do to make your life easier, pick up this book and you won't be disappointed. Written well and coming in at ~200 pages, there are 12 chapters which will teach you goodies in TextMate like how to create and use Macros, using Find & Replace to quickly edit text, and much, much more!!

The Mac is a great tool for developing code and TextMate is a great app for writing it, make yourself a more efficient coder today!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Visuals:
The font size in the Pragmatic Programmers books is a little larger than say the O'Reilly books, which I personally like. Easy on the eyes. Screenshots are clearly printed.

Readability:
I found the reading style conversational and easy to follow. Of course, with this type of book which includes many keyboard short-cuts you really need to be at your computer and using them to commit them to memory. Even a reading of the book will give you insights into the power available at your finger tips with Textmate.

Practicality:
If you spend any amount of time in Textmate, this is really a no-brainer. This book will help you be more productive and get more out of your chosen text editing tool.

Audience:
The book does not list an intended target audience, but if you use Textmate at all I would say you have a bulls-eye right on you.

Overall:
If you use Textmate get this book.

Books on editors are tricky things... I'm (still) a big fan and user of vi, but textmate is my tool of choice for more project level work for its capabilties. This book has brought me closer to to the keyboard level of productivity that vi allows for with its two modes.

"TextMate is actually a thin shell over a personalized team of robot ninjas ready to do your bidding."

The funny thing is, to people who have never used TextMate for more than a few minutes the above phrase sounds like an exaggeration. It's not. (As long as you can accept the analogy of "really awesome code running on a Mac" = "robot ninjas"...)

Anyway, this book targets a pretty specific market: 1) Humans, 2) who own Macs, 3) and use TextMate. I'm here to tell you that, if you're human you should have a Mac; and if you have a Mac you should buy TextMate; and if you have TextMate you should buy this book. So there, now it covers everyone.

As with all of the Pragmatic Programmer books, I found this book to be concise without missing anything important. You may be thinking, "200 pages about a text editor!? That's crazy talk!" But you would be wrong, my friend. The amount of functionality built into TextMate is incredible, but I didn't even know the half of it until I started reading this book!

I don't want to give away the ending, but:

Three of my favorite simple features I didn't know about until I read this book:
- Pressing [ESC] to complete the word you're typing.
- The built in TODO list functionality (so crucial!!)
- [Cmd-Enter] to add a new line below this one and go to the beginning of it.

Things I wouldn't have been able to do without TextMate and this book:
- Edit some of my Bundles to make TextMate work even more how *I* like
- Complete an after-hours Web Site project *way* under time and budget

Seriously. TextMate is the One True Editor for Mac (it makes me loath using any other editor on any platform) and this is a great book for learning how to *really* take hold of its power.

This book is the perfect primer for what I have found to be one of the most indispensible Mac OS X applications - TextMate. If you are a software developer or web designer or anyone else that edits text on a frequent basis and you have not already discovered TextMate, stop right now and visit http://www.macromates.com.

The Pragmatic Programmers' book, TextMate Power Editing for the Mac is a thorough introduction to TextMate. Edward Gray II has written a very accessible book, that covers the product very well.

The first third of the book is devoted to the basics - things you do every day in your text editor. The second third of the book dives into the details of some really sweet features of TextMate that you'll find yourself using all the time: bundles, snippets, macros and UNIX shell commands.

TextMate ships with over thirty 'bundles'. Each bundle is a directory of related files that provide additional functionality to TextMate. Let's say you're working on an HTML file. The HTML bundle will help you with loads of things related to your document: validate the syntax of the document, open the document in the default browser, refresh the document in the current browser session, insert open/close tags for the current word, strip all HTML tags from the document - just to name a few. Each bundle provides functionality that applies not only to the syntax of the language you're currently working with, but repetitive tasks that would apply as well.

As I mentioned, a couple dozen bundles ship with TextMate and many more are available for free download from various websites. You can even create your own bundles to extend the product in ways that only you can imagine. Here are a few of the bundles that ship with TextMate: Blogging, CSS, HTML, Java, Markdown, Objective-C, Python, Rails, Ruby, SQL, Subversion, Text, Textile, Xcode and XML. Bundles provide you with lots of help editing files and performing related tasks.

Snippets are a smart completion mechanism that go way beyond the simple concept of 'finish this word'. For example, if you are editing a Ruby file and you type array_object.ea followed by the TAB key (where 'array_object' is an arbitrary Array object), the snippet feature will automatically fill in the skeleton of the 'each' iterator, including the opening and closing curly braces, the text '|e|' with the letter 'e' highlighted. You simply type the name of the variable you want to represent the next element (or simply leave it as it is), hit the TAB key again and the cursor will be placed between the closing '|' character and the closing '}' character, ready for you to type in an expression. Very cool. This same trick works for dozens of different scenarios in your Ruby code. And that's just the snippets that apply to Ruby code. There are snippets that apply to a large number of file types.

You've probably seen macros in other editors and TextMate's macro facility works as you might expect: you start recording a macro, perform some actions and save the macro. TextMate saves the macros as XML files, so it's a snap to edit a macro after recording if you need to tweak it a bit.

The ability to fire off UNIX shell commands from within TextMate gives you another powerful tool to use while editing files. You can fire off one-liner shell commands by simply pressing the ^R key on a line containing a shell command. You can also use shell commands to act on all or part of the current document.

For the advanced TextMate user, the tail end of the book shows you how to create your own language syntax for use in TextMate, including how to describe the grammar of the language in terms TextMate will understand. So, if you program in some far out funky language that TextMate doesn't support out of the box, you can add the language grammar to TextMate and program away!

Overall, I found this book extremely useful and easy to read. TextMate ships with an excellent help system that will answer many of your questions. The TextMate Power Editing for the Mac book will take you beyond the built-in help and give you an in-depth guide for this great Mac application.

This is a really good book although it was writen a few years ago but still dazzling. Jim Gray who wrote it is known as the father of relational database systems (RDBS).

This book is about transaction processing of relational database systems. The theories in the book have been widely used in industry and business nowadays. The book does not only focus on the theory but also spend enough words on the issues of software and hardware implementations and performance.

However, many basic concepts in the book are not only limited to RDBS but can be also very useful in multi-threaded programming or distributed systems design and development.

I suggested every programmer, system designer, database developer, and of those who need a solid fundamental knowledge of computer science and IT should read it.

This book is the base for all who want to be a Gurus in a bigs systems OLTP with hundreds of TPS and hundreds or thousands of customes conected doing transactions or using a terminals. This is a book that you mast have mandatorily.

Well organized, complete, nontrivial, wealth of sample code, interesting historical notes, good index. Magnificent work. Definitely worth the money.

God himself has spoken. You will understand what is the difference between real computer science (Jim Gray) and changing configuration values at random in your MySQL setup (Jeremy Zawodny style)

For nearly a decade this book has been the definitive reference on transaction processing. Although the more recent, May 2001 book titled "Transactional Information Systems: Theory, Algorithms, and the Practice of Concurrency Control" by Gerhard Weikum and Gottfried Vossen will probably supplant this book as the standard reference, there is still much material that makes this book useful.

In particular, this book covers the following topics in more depth than the newer boom cited above:
- Fault tolerance and availability, both topics are covered in depth from hardware and software perspectives. This is unique for a book on transaction processing in that most books on the subject confine their scope to software and databases.

- A wide and complete survey of transaction models. True, some of this material is about models that are falling into disuse, but the value is the way the authors go deeply into the mechanics. I've always felt that this part of the book is the most valuable because the principles can be refactored into hybrid models. Moreover, comparing this material with the newer book by Weikum and Vossen shows that these principles are still employed in today's TP solutions.

Material about transaction processing monitors is obviously out of date, but, like the TP models, the principles still apply to contemporary systems. My recommendation is if you are going to buy a single book on the topic get the Weikum and Vossen I cited in the first paragraph. However, if your budget allows, I also highly recommend this book as well because of the depth in which fault tolerance and TP models are covered. If you want to just learn the basics of TP I recommend that you consider "Principles of Transaction Processing" by Philip A. Bernstein and Eric Newcomer because it is less daunting than this or the Weikum and Vossen book (both of which are 1100+ pages).

It is a great story, told with a unpresedented pasion and feal of both the human mind and spirit as well as the extensive historical knowledge of facts and myths.
I just hope to see more titles from The author MR. STEVEN WILSON who is, in my opinion one of the best wrighters today.

I stumbled on Steven Wilson's work by fortunate accident and was very favorably impressed with this novel. "Voyage" was well-researched, well-written, and very entertaining. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in WWII history and submarining!

Mike Stanley
Boise,ID

As a fan of World War II historical fiction, I've read a lot of examples in this genre, and their quality ranges from excellent to dismal.
Shortly after beginning "Voyage of the Gray Wolves", I knew that I had found one of the best examples. Steven M. Wilson's craft allows the reader to share in the emotions of the characters and the dialogue, while still making the pulse race during tautly written battle scenes. The fine treatment of the main characters, both Allies and Axis shows that just in real life, war is rarely about absolute villains and heroes. Rather, Wilson will have you deeply engaged in the exciting victories and crushing defeats of the brave men on both sides of conflict.
"Voyage of the Gray Wolves" is a highly recommended read, and stands up well next to other excellent examples, such as "War of the Rats" by David L. Robbins, or "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer. I look forward to Wilson's next foray in this genre...

VOYAGE OF THE GRAY WOLVES is a fast, exciting novel full of adventure and daring. Wilson does a magnificent job of basing his story around Guenter Kern, a German U-Boat captain who realizes that Germany is loosing the war quickly. His mission is a long-shot last hope to the ailing country. Kern faces difficult choices throughout the novel as he begins to clearly see how desperate Germany is. He also has to decide how far he is personally ready to go to remain loyal to his homeland despite his growing discouragement and sickness of a terrible war. Ultimately, Wilson does a great job at making the reader relate to and like Kern. Watching Kern as he is forced to make impossible choices will make the reader appreciate the often horrible intricacies that exist in war. This book will be especially enjoyable for those generally interested in the World War II era, but every reader will enjoy getting to know Guenter Kern.

Review:
Voyage of the Gray Wolves by Steven Wilson
Paperback 352 pages by Pinnacle Books

It is 1944 and the Battle of the North Atlantic is still as rampant as the winter swells. Hitler, Himmler, and others have a grand design that will, in their minds, create a turning point to the war. Their best remaining U-Boat Commander is chosen to lead a squadron of new Type XXI U-Boats against England.

The struggles of this makeshift squadron depleted by the ravages the allies are pouring on Germany make for a great read. They base is a perpetual cloud covered fiord in Norway which was an abandoned fishing village.

The training, problems with the untested boats, supplies, a decrepid tender, untrained crews, and the sudden arrival of
the SS add a great suspense to the book. Those events and the weapon that they are to use make up most of the very good read.

The story also has the approval of Michael DiMercurio and Joe Buff who are also premier submarine novelists.

The books is available at Amazon.com and other outlets. Get it, settle in and read a very good story.

"Architects on Architects" is such an amazing book where you can learn from the masters. See also Gray's "Designers on Designers" and "Writers on Directors" to discover how the pros are influenced by their mentors.

"...much more edifying is Tadao Ando's epiphany on his first visit to Le Corbusier's Ronchamp chapel: 'Because of the overwhelming spatial experience, which penetrated deep into my soul, I had to escape after staying less than one hour. I was awe-struck by a light unprecedented in my life.'Best among the other appreciations are Carlos Jimenez on Luis Barragan; Ricardo Legorreta on another Mexican, the little-remembered Jose Villagran;and Hugh Hardy on William van Alen, architect of the Chrysler Building. As Hardy writes of that idiosyncratic aluminum-spired skyscraper,'This iconic office building goes for broke, flaunting the exterior skin's independence as a costume pageant of pattern, gleaming profiles and symbolic panache. It's a theatrical gesture that identifies this as a building like no other, and gives New Yorkers proof that they are extraordinary.'"

Classic text, rich assortment of photos, all presented in this, the new contemporary work on archs. What could she possibly venture into next....can't wait Ms. Gray

Practitioners of a wildly competitive art form, architects are always looking over their shoulders, not just at contemporaries with whom they must compete for jobs but also at the great predecessors against whom they'll be measured by history. The master builders that 24 present-day architects chose to write about for this revealing if somewhat repetitive collection tell as much about the authors as their subjects. Predictably, many of the participants (all men, with the exception of Diana Agrest) gravitated toward the big boys of modernism, and three architects are the focus of almost half the essays, with five on Le Corbusier, four on Paul Rudolph and two on Louis I. Kahn. Sometimes those pairings can seem willfully contradictory. It would have been far more interesting to find out what Richard Meier thinks about Le Corbusier,who has had such an overwhelming influence on his own aesthetic,than for him to draw tenuous analogies between his work and the diametrically different architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Likewise, there is more than a bit of irony in Michael Graves's praise for Le Corbusier, whom he routinely belittled in lectures earlier in his career. Much more edifying is Tadao Ando's epiphany on his first visit to Le Corbusier's Ronchamp chapel:''Because of the overwhelming spatial experience, which penetrated deep into my soul, I had to escape after staying less than one hour. I was awe-struck by a light unprecedented in my life.'' Best among the other appreciations are Carlos Jimenez on Luis Barragan; Ricardo Legorreta on another Mexican, the little-remembered Jose Villagran;and Hugh Hardy on William van Alen, architect of the Chrysler Building. As Hardy writes of that idiosyncratic aluminum-spired skyscraper, ''This iconic office building goes for broke, flaunting the exterior skin's independence as a costume pageant of pattern, gleaming profiles and symbolic panache. It's a theatrical gesture that identifies this as a building like no other, and gives New Yorkers proof that they are extraordinary.''

Introspecting Influence

Who inspired the Whos Who of Architecture? "Architects on Architects" attempts to address this loaded question in a series of 24 essays by leading architects of the late twentieth century from around the world from Norman Foster to Carlos Jimenez to Tadao Ando. As the essays illustrate, influence is actually not simply a question of "who?" but rather comes from a number of different sources: a single building, an entire career of an architect,or sometimes just an attitude or way of looking. Many of these influential experiences happened during the architects formative years as students or interns and the impact of how these influences changed the direction of a life are revealed for the first time in these later career recollections. For Richard Rogers, his visit to the Maison de Verre as a student in 1955 would not only determine his thesis project, it would stay with him through the next half century as the symbol of "the power of innovation itself." For Tadao Ando, Le Corbusiers words in "Vers une Architecture" stressing that a journey in ones youth has a deep and strong significance throughout a lifetime inspired the young untrained aspiring architect to visit Le Corbusiers church at Ronchamp in 1965.As the essays attest, the importance of an architect can be measured not only by his or her designs, but also by the architects impact on other architects careers. Based on this criteria, Le Corbusier, Paul Rudolph,and Louis Kahn appear in these essays as some of the most influential architects. However, although five of the 24 essays are devoted to Le Corbusier, we see five very different aspects of the master architect: Ando describes impressions of Ronchamp, Michael Graves talks about Le Corbusiers method of drawing, William Lim discusses him in relation to Frank Gehry, Sumet Jumsai describes his personal meeting, and Arata Isozaki describes the context of his death. While Paul Rudolphs reputation suffered greatly during the Postmodern period, we see his lasting impact through his students who studied at Yale ranging from Norman Foster to current dean Robert A. M. Stern.
One of the most interesting aspects of this collection is the great variety of topics that the architects chose to write about. Some easily understandable choices include Cesar Pelli writing about his mentor and former employer Eero Saarinen and high-rise building specialist William Pederson writing about Rockefeller Center. However, it might come as a surprise to see Diana Agrest writing about architect-turned-filmmaker Sergei M. Eisenstein or Richard Meier writing about Frank Lloyd Wright rather than Le Corbusier. For the most part, these short essays are poignantly written -- a refreshing change from the typical arrogance and incoherence of many architects writing about their own work. Nevertheless, the essays shed great insight into the
architects inner thinking and also reveal architecture as a collective profession greater than the work of any single architect.The collection serves as a valuable document to understand this generation of architects from the second half of the twentieth century and also begs the question of how this generation will influence future generations of architects.

I was a huge Browns' fan growing up, even though I lived about 5 hours away from Cleveland. When the Browns lost on a Sunday, I had a miserable week and couldn't wait until 1 o'clock the next Sunday. Ah, the joy of growing up.

I learned a lot about the Browns that I never knew before about Paul Brown, Art Modell, Blanton Collier and the whole team. What memories it brought back. If you were a fan of that era by all means read this book.

Five years ago upon visiting the midwest I stopped in Cleveland to see a game and visit Jacobs Field. That Sunday morning I drove out to see the remains of League Park because that's where the Browns had their practices. League Park is arguably in the worse part of any town that I've ever visited a ballpark (and I've seen 150-200), but boy was it worth it. Too bad so little remains of the ballpark, but I have a baseball book describing and picturing League Park.

Pluto has done it again. This book, especially the second half, is a must-read for any Browns fan. Pluto's compelling take on the last Cleveland championship is loaded with information that cannot be found elsewhere. If you're a Browns fan, this book, if nothing else, needs to be in your collection.

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ IN MY ENTIRE LIFE

For me, the acid test of books like these is whether they manage to engage the neutral. Certainly Browns fans will enjoy this pleasant wallow in nostalgia from a time when football was still football.

I'm not a Browns fan but I found myself wallowing along with them. Pluto manages to capture the essence of the '64 season and yet not neglect the wider context. Fascinating stuff.

Award-winning Akron Beacon Journal sportswriter Terry Pluto's latest work is When All The World Was Browns Town. It discusses the 1964 Cleveland Browns, the last Cleveland champion in one of the four major professional sports. Pluto is one of the most gifted sportswriters working today, and the calibre of the writing in this book, like The Curse of Rocky Colavito, is a fine example of his work. It is far better written than the average sports book, in part because Pluto, like David Halberstam, does a fine job of digging up how the people involved saw the events he discusses. One thing I did not care for about the book is that it takes too much of the season itself as a given. The season up until the playoffs only rates one chapter, for example. For those who grew up in Cleveland and remember the season, that's probably sufficient, but I would have liked more focus on it. It's also somewhat unorthodox and anticlimactic to have the title game discussion come in the middle of the book and not the end, and the brief discussion of the 1965 season comes off as whiny and does not give the outstanding '65 Packers the respect they are due. There's much more that is good than bad here, however. Pluto is masterful as usual at showing how different people saw the same events differently. He handles the discussion of Paul Brown well, and did a good job of getting Art Modell's perspective even as he is (rightly) critical of him for moving the Browns to Baltimore. In short, I think any football fan would enjoy this book, and those who remember the '64 Browns firsthand won't be able to put it down.

I hadn't played an RPG in 10 years, and now I'm running one. With C&C, I can prepare for a night's play in about an hour. Teaching a new player the basics and letting them create a character is also about an hour. If you've played D&D you know this game. None of my players had ever played, and they picked it up immediately.

The book has all the rules for the game in one place. At 128 pages, this hardback is *thin*, and easy to carry around. Why doesn't it have an index? It doesn't need one. Half the book is spells, and there are spell lists by class and level. Almost everything else can be easily remembered or found on the GM's screen. In fact, you can get by with having only one copy for the whole group (depending on how many spellcasters you have).

The forums at troll lord games have helpful links and resources, where you can find several free adventures to run (provided you trust your players not to peek). I've had a blast--fun to play, easy to put down and pick back up at a moment's notice.

In my opinion this is a wonderful example of what a rpg Player's Handbook should be - all of the pertinent rules on building characters and performing the basic tasks of the game - without a lot of filler, fluff, or excuses for not having an imagination.

The game itself is terrific, as a return to a simpler time in rpg's when the game wasn't overly burdened with many, many different mechanics that slow down game play, but don't significantly contribute to story telling or experiencing the imaginary adventure.

In substance, the Siege engine (the authors' name for the near-d&d like structure that the game is based on) is a wonderful mix of First Edition AD&D (the first hardcover books - the first edition of the game to feature the word Advanced in the title), with some modernized D20 mechanics. In a nice mix of new and old, your abilities are all derived from your race and class, but the chance to perform those abilities is derived from your statistics - here is where the Siege engine adds, in my opinion. Each character can choose (based on race and class choice) up to 3 statistics (of the classic six - Strength, Wisdom, Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma) to serve as Primary statistics. All abilities that are based on Primary statistics have an additional 30% (+6 on a d20) chance of success over other practitioners of the ability. A player creating a Ranger character might pick Strength and Intelligence as his primary abilities. Another might choose Strength and Dexterity - the two characters will have very different areas of expertise and concentrated focus, even though both are Rangers.

Combat is quick, and straight forward. A quick roll of initiative (on a D10), players and non-players then act in order. Ties are broken by Dexterity bonus. Roll to hit, roll for damage. Spells may involve a resistance roll, or a saving roll. Abilities require a single dice roll. All in all, the combat runs great, and quick. Players are more interested in where their companions are, what the tactical situation of the fight is, and how to gain the upper hand through maneuver and magic, rather than picking just the right feat for the situation.

Having run some sessions (and having a very long history with rpg's in general, and all the versions of D&D in particular), I have to admit that I miss having some sort of skill system. The Non Weapon Proficiency system from First or Second edition AD&D would do nicely, as would the Skills system from Third edition. Feats are (thankfully) absent, as they are the one thing about Third edition that keeps me from liking it (and it's worst aspect, from the point of view of a DM preparing adventures).

Combat in Castles and Crusades runs very smoothly and cleanly, and is over quick, while still having all the round-to-round decision making and tactical choices of a good rpg. Magic is done very well, with a very nice spell list for the different classes, good rules on acquiring spells.

This with the companion volume - Monsters and Treasures Castles And Crusades Monsters & Treasures- makes a great rpg. I have to say, that I am anxiously awaiting the Castle Keepers Guide (now, if I am correct, due out in Autumn 2007). It is supposed to add a lot, and will be twice the size of the Players Handbook. If it adds a skill system, and (apostasy) somewhat more detailed initiative rules, then I will be in seventh heaven. If not, one of the greatest things about Castles and Crusades is that it can very very easily be added to, and I could easily plug in my favorite skill system and initiative rules.

I too started out during the original D&D red/blue box days and this is the best "version" of D&D since the Rules Cyclopedia. I've DM'ed OD&D and 1st ed AD&D and played in AD&D 1e & 2e. While I own D&D 3e, I've never played or DM'ed it. It just seems to be too complex and too much trouble. The older I've gotten, the more I've come to appreciate rules lite games that don't force me to memorize an encyclopedia's worth of information or constantly reference a large collection of books during play. Also, if I want detailed tactical combat, I'll just play a miniatures game. C&C has rekindled my interest in running a D&D-style fantasy game for the first time in over 10 years.

The game takes the classes/races of 1st ed AD&D and marries it to a unified task resolution mechanic based on a d20 role. Most situations are resolved by adding modifiers to a d20 role and comparing to a target number. DMs or Castle Keepers (CKs) as C&C calls them, will greatly appreciate the streamlined rules since prep time is greatly reduced. Combats are fast and fun rather than bogging down the game. Although Troll Lord Games will be supporting the game with new material (a Monsters & Treasures book is due out soon and will be followed by a Castle Keepers Guide and a fantasy setting book along with several adventures), you can easily convert any OD&D or AD&D module you already own (or can find used on Amazon or eBay), so you don't have to feel compelled to buy every new book that comes out and can buy only those additional books you want to. For those than don't have a shelf of old D&D modules, a selection of monsters, a character sheet, and an introductory adventure module are available for download at the Troll Lords website.

Although C&C appeals to me as an old-timer, it is equally suitable for new players/CK's as well. In fact, I would say that players new to roleplaying would be better off picking up C&C rather than D&D since it's much easier to learn and play.

I started with OD&D and have been away from roleplaying games for many years. And 25 years later, I wanted to teach my daughter and nephew about the world of Dungeons & Dragons and roleplaying games and so then discovered Castles & Crusades! It has all the great elements of OD&D and the benefit and experience of these last 25 years in gaming improvements. It's fast, easy to learn and a great way to get kids or newcomers introduced to roleplaying. Highly recommended!!!

Really takes me back to the simpler days of the "red box" era. When the detail was in your own mind instead of confining rules. I hope this brings more players back to the game. Simple play mechanics uncluttered with needless detail.

Expecting another boring science book on whales, I was surprised at the way Dick Russell made the whales seem what they should be: interesting. Russell covers almost all aspects of the gray whales in his book Eye of the Whale. As he follows the migratory path of the whales along the coast, the reader gets a good sense of the science, history, and issues surrounding gray whales. He writes about the story of Charles Scammon, the legendary whaler whose research on gray whales is still used by scientists today. He writes about conservation issues and the politics behind the plan to build a saltworks in the protected lagoons. He writes about the individuals involved in gray whale research along the coast. What I really liked about this book though was that instead of just telling the reader about these things, he shows them. He makes the book read more like a story than just a research paper about conservation by using personal accounts and treating the people in his book not just as researchers but as characters. I didn't like when he would go into long, and confusing background explanations that were hard not to skip over. Other than that though it was a well written and up to date account of the interaction between humans and the gray whales. I would reccomend this book to anyone interested in whales at all. You don't need to be a scientist to understand it and it is interesting and informational at the same time.

The critics are right to rave about "Eye of the Whale" by Dick Russell. In it's plainest form, the book entails a synopsis of the legendary gray whale and it's journeys through Oregon, Washington, the shores of Monterey, Vancouver Island, the Bearing Sea, the Bering Strait (Alaska), and Sakhalin Island, a hot topic in recent news. One of the best explanations of the book I can find is when someone describes encountering a gray whale. "Especially when you looked at its eyes, you just knew it probably thought it was a boatload of those [people] who like to pet them" In this passage we see a lot of what the book is about: People encountering the majestic grays and suddenly have a new opinion of them.
The book has many passage from Charles Melville Scammon, a nineteenth century whaler who brought gray whales to popularity, by nearly killing them all. He then turned naturalist, and studied the gray whale extensively, following them around the globe. Russell tells the story of retracing Scammon's steps and gaining a new perspective.

What is so strong about the book is the writing. When I opened it I didn't think I was going have a thrill a minute, and I didn't. But, I was surprised of it's intricately weaved passages, interesting readers, telling a simple story, and making a strong point without yelling it at you. In this way, Russell has helped the grays greatly by encouraging whale conservation, and showing the many sides of being an endangered species.

The books weaknesses were few and far between, in my opinion. I will say, sometimes the passages, though well worked out were a bit lengthy and could have been more concise. The largeness of the book is intimidating to some, but hopefully this review will help in the case that it isn't a hard read, and also it good to read in just sections, and good to have for reference.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in saving a great thing and encouraging conservation of nature in your friends, neighbors, children, and yourself. It's not worded at a hard reading level, and offers great views into the world of the deep.

Staring into THE EYE OF THE WHALE certainly seems to be a mystical experience. Unfortunately on the whale watching trips I've been on you get no closer to the whales than the deck of the ship. Not close up and personal (sometimes even rubbing and patting the "friendly whales")as is the case in Baja, California, with watching the Gray whales from small Zodiac boats. Perhaps you are like me then and (unlike the author) know nothing about the metaphysical powers of whales and their ability to bring about meditative and contemplative states in mankind while imparting transcendental wisdom. This book is therefore equal parts a journey of self discovery by the author and a natural history and scientific discourse on the Pacific Gray whale. For my liking there are just a few too many experiences here such as this one by a marine biologist: "It was a calf and I could see its eye looking into my eyes...I knew we were talking..." Mr Spock mind-melds with Gracie the Humpback a la STAR TREK: THE VOYAGE HOME.

Although the author and others see "whales smile by my fingertips" and get all "misty eyed" and believe that the whales are "trying to save us from our human side" these sentimental and lyrical asides are simply a matter of writing style. Overall they do not spoil the book. There is sufficient science and history here to satisfy those looking for something other than a "save the whales / save the world" soft-sell. The defeat of Mitsubishi's proposed salt-works at one of the whale breeding lagoons and the story of Charles Melville Scammon are themes that run throughout the book. Mitsubishi represents the modern day commercial threat to the whales while Scammon was an old-time whale-butchering sea captain. Scammons' conversion from hunter to benefactor (he ended up writing the definitive book on gray whales) is a tale well told. Perhaps, like the author, he too looked into the EYE OF THE WHALE.

"Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them" (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Dick Russell has produced an amazing chronicle of the life of the California Gray whale. This is a book that is not only important today but will hold a place of value and respect hundreds of years into the future. Sadly this book may most likely survive the species itself.
I have spent over two decades studying and working to protect the Gray whale and I've lead four major conservation expeditons to protect the species. The first was in 1981 to Siberia, the 2nd and 3rd to Neah Bay in 98 and 99 to oppose the Makah whale hunt and the 4th to San Ignacio in 2000 to oppose the development of an industrial salt processing scheme that would have damaged the breeding and calving homes of the Grays.
Dick Russell got all the facts right in the areas that I have intimate involvement with so I can safely assume that his facts in all other areas are equally investigated and thus correct.
This is a wonderful story and it is a great work of historical documentation both natural,social and cultural.
My life was changed by looking into the eye of a whale in 1975. I believe that Dick also caught a glimpse of the mystery, the majesty, the magic and the marvel of the mind of the whale reflected from the eye of one of these great and gentle giants.
For only a person who has seen into the eye of a whale could have written such an insightful book.
I intend to buy a dozen of Dick Russell's books for Christmas presents this year.

_Eye of the Whale: Epic Passage from Baja to Siberia_ (Simon and
Schuster) by Dick Russell is a brilliant and comprehensive account not
so much about the gray whale, but about how the humans and whales have
interacted over the centuries, and especially in the past few
decades. It is hard to imagine that there is any aspect of this
subject that Russell has not covered. The truly amazing part of the
gray whaleýs story is that it had a terrible reputation in the
whalerýs day. It was called a devilfish, and was viewed as a
dangerous quarry, especially when it was protecting its young. It had
to be approached with fear (and this was realized in the Japanese
fisheries as well). It is a devilfish no longer. No one knows why, but
sometime in the 1970s the behavior of the whales changed. Into the
lagoons of Baja, the whales go in the winter to mate and to deliver
calves. The whales started becoming interested in the humans that had
put out in their boats to see them. They presented themselves at the
surface, turning on their sides to point an eye up to look at the
humans that used to kill them for oil and meat, and for baleen to
stiffen their corsets. They seemed to enjoy being scratched and
touched. Individual whales, returning year after year, seemed to
spread the behavior, which has become the norm. They even nudge the
calves toward the boats to introduce the new arrivals into the
activity.

All the eastern Pacific gray whales come to Baja in an
annual migration from the Siberian-Alaskan waters where they feed. It
is a 13,000 mile round trip, the longest annual migration of any
mammal, and Russell has traveled the length of that migration, and
more, to interview almost everyone who has researched the gray whale
or campaigned on its behalf. The result is a multifaceted,
wide-ranging tale that takes in important stories about the
interaction of humans and grays. The Makah tribe in Washington resumed
whaling with a controversial kill in 1999, possibly of a whale that
thought they were friendly. They get support from the Japanese, who
want to bring whaling back in general. The area of lagoons where the
whales calve was in danger of becoming a giant salt production
facility; Russell covers the anguish and triumphs of the
environmentalists pitted against huge commercial and governmental
foes. The grays have made a comeback, but seem to be less healthy; we
donýt know if we can blame warming of the waters or other causes, as
research on the whales is only in the beginning stages.

Best of all,
though, is that the book is full of attempts to describe just what
happens between two species as they regard each other. "Once you get
a chance to see these whales," says one observer, I think it is a
natural reaction to fall in love with them. And to want to do the
utmost so this continues to be a place where they can come and feel
safe and secure." Another: "The mother was just lying there as if
she was watching the young one, and sometimes she came up and rocked
the front of the boat. I must say it was sometimes a little bit
frightening. But then when she came and looked at us, you were not
scared at all, just happy. I can't explain it." A crusty marine
scientist reaches out to touch a whale for the first time, and
although no one has ever seen him do it before, he starts weeping. It
is an overwhelming experience that no one who has had it ever
forgets. The whales seem to have many mysteries to tell us. They can
be thankful that their ambassador, Dick Russell, and his imposing,
full, and readable book, are bringing to us their story.

I bought this book in London and I couldn't put it down! I was exciting reading about places that I was visiting with wonderfully descriptive scenes. There were many nights of reading until the wee hours of the morning.

Sean Bryant
St. Louis

Gray's gifts as a dramatist are in evidence throughout this fine novel. The dialouge and period detail are marvelous. Strange that this ambitiuous entertainment didn't get the reviews lavished on Mr. Timothy which was fine but not as well-written.

This book I would recommend without doubt and is a very enjoyable read. The description of 19th century London and the characters are accurate and interesting.

With no small amount of national pride, I'm thrilled to report that mere superlatives somehow seem insufficient to convey Gray's debut success with The Fiend in Human.

Edmund Whitty is a profligate, dissolute freelance journalist who has succumbed to every known Victorian vice save womanizing - snuff, cigarettes, gin, opium, laudanum, and Acker's Chlorodine (a potent mixture of opium, marijuana and cocaine in alcohol!) Despite having achieved a measure of journalistic fame and public notoriety by assigning the moniker "Chokee Bill" to William Ryan, currently awaiting execution for the strangulation and grisly mutilation of five ladies of questionable virtue, Whitty struggles with an ongoing desperate need to produce the income required to stave off gambling debtors who won't hesitate to use a physical beating to persuade payment. In the course of searching out new "crisp copy", lurid sensational pieces he can submit to his tight-fisted editor, he meets the impoverished Henry Owler, a "patterer" who wishes to render Ryan's last confession before his hanging into "true crime" verse. But Ryan (not unlike other convicted criminals, of course) protests he is innocent and circumstances begin to persuade Owler and Whitty that Ryan is indeed telling the truth. The signature white scarf killings have continued, swept under the carpet and hushed up by one and all - the police, the merchants, the petty criminals and even the poverty stricken residents of the local neighbourhood! Whitty in a desperate bid to achieve real fame in a fading, limpid journalistic career and financial freedom from the debtors who are relentlessly hounding him, decides to stake all on proving Ryan's innocence.

Gray has masterfully married the ascerbically witty, comic and always flowery Dickensian dialogue with Anne Perry's superb, elegant atmospheric descriptions of Victorian London life and then improved both by taking a step down into a much grittier, earthier representation of real characters living real lives. Two gentlemen Oxford swells pass wastrel days around gaming, sex and booze. The pain and wretched difficulties of daily life in a London slum are portrayed in exquisite, graphic detail that might warrant a warning to sensitive viewers were the medium television instead of a novel. Older female chaperones, quaintly termed "confidential friends", are employed to protect the nominal virtue of young ladies of marriageable age. The surviving local champion bare-knuckles boxer is portrayed as a friendly publican quite capable of acting as his own bouncer. Steet walkers and hookers are picked up by "gentleman" johns with a ritualized stylized dialogue and negotiation that, by today's standards, is absolutely hilarious.

You'll be treated, for example, to Gray's wonderful Dickensian variation on a simple theme that you and I would have written as simply "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder":

"For in truth there exists no young female (charwoman or countess, schoolgirl or flower-seller) in London who does not exist in some male mind as a tantalizing fantasy, in whose honour some schoolboy does not regularly engage in self-abuse - fantasy which, when he becomes an old boy, he will seek to make real. Hence, the relation between the brothel and the theatre: success in both depends upon one's observation of the world, of the human mind, as well as one's own outward identity in the calligraphy of sex."

The whodunit succeeds admirably with a couple of superb twists reserved until the final pages. In fact, the final twist, a brilliant piece of mis-direction by Gray, is held in reserve until the very last paragraph! On a somewhat deeper level, Gray manages, like Dickens, to also make probing critical comment on a number of issues without disrupting the flow of the story in the slightest. For example, his criticism of the ethics of journalists and the vested interest they have in creating news where none necessarily exists is quite apparent.

What a find! The Fiend in Human qualifies as perhaps the finest, most enjoyable read I've had the good luck to encounter over the last few years!

Paul Weiss

With no small amount of national pride, I'm thrilled to report that mere superlatives somehow seem insufficient to convey Gray's debut success with The Fiend in Human.

Edmund Whitty is a profligate, dissolute freelance journalist who has succumbed to every known Victorian vice save womanizing - snuff, cigarettes, gin, opium, laudanum, and Acker's Chlorodine (a potent mixture of opium, marijuana and cocaine in alcohol!) Despite having achieved a measure of journalistic fame and public notoriety by assigning the moniker "Chokee Bill" to William Ryan, currently awaiting execution for the strangulation and grisly mutilation of five ladies of questionable virtue, Whitty struggles with an ongoing desperate need to produce the income required to stave off gambling debtors who won't hesitate to use a physical beating to persuade payment. In the course of searching out new "crisp copy", lurid sensational pieces he can submit to his tight-fisted editor, he meets the impoverished Henry Owler, a "patterer" who wishes to render Ryan's last confession before his hanging into "true crime" verse. But Ryan (not unlike other convicted criminals, of course) protests he is innocent and circumstances begin to persuade Owler and Whitty that Ryan is indeed telling the truth. The signature white scarf killings have continued, swept under the carpet and hushed up by one and all - the police, the merchants, the petty criminals and even the poverty stricken residents of the local neighbourhood! Whitty in a desperate bid to achieve real fame in a fading, limpid journalistic career and financial freedom from the debtors who are relentlessly hounding him, decides to stake all on proving Ryan's innocence.

Gray has masterfully married the ascerbically witty, comic and always flowery Dickensian dialogue with Anne Perry's superb, elegant atmospheric descriptions of Victorian London life and then improved both by taking a step down into a much grittier, earthier representation of real characters living real lives. Two gentlemen Oxford swells pass wastrel days around gaming, sex and booze. The pain and wretched difficulties of daily life in a London slum are portrayed in exquisite, graphic detail that might warrant a warning to sensitive viewers were the medium television instead of a novel. Older female chaperones, quaintly termed "confidential friends", are employed to protect the nominal virtue of young ladies of marriageable age. The surviving local champion bare-knuckles boxer is portrayed as a friendly publican quite capable of acting as his own bouncer. Steet walkers and hookers are picked up by "gentleman" johns with a ritualized stylized dialogue and negotiation that, by today's standards, is absolutely hilarious.

You'll be treated, for example, to Gray's wonderful Dickensian variation on a simple theme that you and I would have written as simply "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder":

"For in truth there exists no young female (charwoman or countess, schoolgirl or flower-seller) in London who does not exist in some male mind as a tantalizing fantasy, in whose honour some schoolboy does not regularly engage in self-abuse - fantasy which, when he becomes an old boy, he will seek to make real. Hence, the relation between the brothel and the theatre: success in both depends upon one's observation of the world, of the human mind, as well as one's own outward identity in the calligraphy of sex."

The whodunit succeeds admirably with a couple of superb twists reserved until the final pages. In fact, the final twist, a brilliant piece of mis-direction by Gray, is held in reserve until the very last paragraph! On a somewhat deeper level, Gray manages, like Dickens, to also make probing critical comment on a number of issues without disrupting the flow of the story in the slightest. For example, his criticism of the ethics of journalists and the vested interest they have in creating news where none necessarily exists is quite apparent.

What a find! The Fiend in Human qualifies as perhaps the finest, most enjoyable read I've had the good luck to encounter over the last few years!

Like its companion volume Generals in Blue, Generals in Gray is an important resource for both the Civil War buff and the serious historian (which is not to say that the two can't be one and the same!). In this volume, which was actually written before Generals in Blue, author Ezra Warner has written the biographies and rustled up the photos of all the general officers confirmed by the Confederate Congress, and a handful of those who weren't for one reason or another.

There were 425 men who served as Confederate generals. Nearly one-fourth of them died in the war. Boy generals, men promoted before they reached the age of 30, were plentiful, and nearly half of them were killed on the battlefield. Looking at their photographs, one can scarcely fathom the experiences they endured at such young ages. They look like college lads.

Several of the generals profiled by Warner especially stand out for me. There's William Flank Perry, for example, the philosopher-general, who enlisted as a private in 1862 and was commissioned a brigadier in the war's final months. After the war, he taught philosophy at Ogden College in Kentucky until the turn of the century. There's Alexander Reynolds, who at war's end entered the service of the Khedive of Egypt, and so must've known the tragic Federal General Charles Pomeroy Stone, of Ball's Bluff infamy, who did so as well. There's General John McCausland, who with his huge handlebar moustache and heavy eyebrows looks for all the world like Yosemite Sam of cartoon fame. And there's the boy general Thomas Benton Smith, a youngster whose fate breaks my heart. After he and most of his brigade surrendered during the Battle of Nashville, a Federal colonel tried literally to beat Smith's brains out. His brain exposed, in a coma, Smith was expected to die. But he somehow survived, only to spend the rest of his life, some 48 years, in an insane asylum.

.....but this one sure is. The Civil War is still a current event for many of us. For four long years, both sides were carried by their armies, and led by their Generals. Now, lots of us know about Lee and Jackson, but there were a total of 425 Confederate Generals over the course of the war, and some even I've never heard of. Of these, 299 were serving as General Officers at the end. A total of 77 were killed in battle; the rest died of natural causes, resigned, got fired, etc., etc.

They're ALL here, at least the ones that we can't argue about whether they were really a General. [There are others about whom we can argue, for various reasons--a separate book has come out in recent years...see "More Generals in Gray"]. While Lee has has more biographies than I can count, and many have at least one, for most of these guys, this is all we've got. Here we get pictures, pre and, where appropriate, post war careers, grave sites, and a study of just what the man accomplished [or didn't]. Robert E. Lee gets three and a half pages, but all get a good write-up.

They were a varied lot: six General Lees, six Jacksons, eight each of Smith and Walker. Professional soldiers, lawyers, politicians, even three preachers [Polk and Pendleton, you know; read this and find the third]. Some were heroic, some were drunks, a few were both. Some brilliant, some inept, one or two both. The post war lots of the survivors were as various as the men; poverty and wealth, glory and apostasy, and all points in between. Trivia: Who was the ONLY Confederate General born in Texas? Who was the last living Conferderate General? ONE man answers BOTH questions. [OK, I'll give it to you...Judge Felix Huston Robertson of Waco died April 20, 1928]. The very first American Indian to wear General's stars AND the last General to surrender...he's here, in all his glory.

I can go on all day. The late Ezra Warner, Illinois native and California investment counsellor, published this in 1959...it needs to stay in print forever. While I've had this, and the companion "Generals in Blue", for years, only recently has a trade paperback made it readily available, and affordable. A "thank you" to the publisher, and a huge, everlasting, "THANK YOU" to Mr. Warner.

This book is a must for any Civil War buff. Learn the good, bad and the ugly about all general officers of the army of the CSA. I keep this book, and its companion, Generals in Blue, handy when I am reading historical accounts of battles of the Civil War. How often, while you are reading, have you yearned to get additional information on a particular general? These books are perfect to provide more information, when you want it.

Warner does an excellent job in giving short biographies on all 425 Confederate generals, including a picture of each general. An excellent reference guide and a must have for your Civil War library.

I remember first reading Generals in Gray as a teenager and have often referred back to the book over the years.

Warner gives a synopsis of each general , usually containing the following information:

1. Birthplace and birthdate.
2. Pre-Civil War life.
3. Battles served in, promotions, woundings, death (if applicable).
4. Postwar career (if he survived the war).
5. Death and place burial.
6. Brief mention of the general's competency (or lack thereof).
7. Relationships with other generals (superior, subordinate).

I have often found the book to be extremely helpful when reading a book on a particular Civil War battle. Doing so helps me to better understand the general when studying a particular battle.

Whether you have a serious interest in the Civil War or a novice, I highly recommend the book as an excellent reference!

Every kid should read this book. It was one of my favorites after the only copy was discarded from my library for 10 cents and I was lucky enough to grab it. This is quite a long review because I want everyone to take notice of this book immediately. If you landed on this page, BUY THIS BOOK. It has been forgotten on dusty shelves and sold are library yard sales to afford Lewis Carol too long.

Muffler is a traditional foundling hero for that era of fantasy, but he's more accessible than almost any but Harry Potter. Compared to any single Potter book, I found Grimbold more rich, if, of course, much shorter, and better written. It is stimulating for young minds and fun for older ones. The adventures are classics, the characters are unforgettable and the Night World is tempting but also frightening. It contains many lessons kids into fantasy shouldn't forget, such as "Just like everything beautiful, it is dangerous", to evaluate deals well because of hidden costs/fine print, that not everyone ugly or frightening is actually bad (and likewise that not everything is as it seems), that adopted children are just as loved as biological children, that good people can do bad deeds and people deserve second chances, that friendship is incomparable valuable, that risks are sometimes necessary and that cats, even the heroes, are not trustworthy (ha ha).

Beyond being a captivating fantasy, the poetry is just great. I still remember most of it because I liked it so much that I memorized it.

This book straddles many lines: it's a book that can be read to young children; it can be read by young adults making their first forays into book-length fiction; and it can be read and enjoyed by adults looking to recapture some of the magic of childhood. There is a lot of wisdom contained in its pages, far more than in most "adult" novels.

At the same time, Grimbold is a very manageable read. The book is not long and stands alone -- this is no multi-volume series of 500+ page tomes. Further, it is divided into chapters that form an overall story in sequence yet stand alone as episodes, providing easy stopping points for daily/nightly reading. The vocabulary is not difficult, and the fact that paragraphs are short should make reading it less daunting than, say, a Harry Potter book, whether it's being read aloud or internally.

The praise heaped on many "young adult" books today is that they're helping young adults accept and enjoy reading as a form of storytelling, alongside more visual forms like TV and movies. That's well and good, but Grimbold's Other World goes beyond that. It doesn't just tell an interesting story, it tells it well. It's a book that can help people learn to enjoy written stories as an art form -- it can help foster an appreciation of language in itself, rather than seeing it as just a medium to transmit stories. It's simply the most well-written, well-told young adult story I can remember reading: a classic of the genre that deeply needs to find its way back into print.

I've been a big fan of Nicholas Gray ever since I first borrowed 'Overhills to Fabulon'. I think that Grimbold's Other World was one of the most magical books I've read, and this is including Nicholas Gray's other books. I totally agree that this author should be reprinted and considering the popularity of the Harry Potter series, I can't understand why any publishing company doesn't undertake this sensible option.

Okay, it may not be perfect literature, but it is perfect childrens fantasy. The originality of the cats and other animals and the nightworld they know of has been unjustly neglected. You may have trouble finding the books, but read them if you do!

I had this book read to me by my mother when I was seven, and fell in love with it... an enduring affair it seems, as I have just finished reading it. to my own seven-year-old son. He was even compelled to leave his xbox and stop slaughtering Orcs , to beg for a nightly chapter of the adventures of the not-quite-all-there goatherd, Muffler, in the world of night.The nightworld is configured in the same fashion as our own, but more mysterious, elemental, and enchanting. Cats are twice their usual size, with powers of magic some of us have always suspected they possessed. Nicholas Stuart Gray was a renowned children's writer, child actor,and playwright. His style combines sinuous story-telling with seductive wit, making the dialogue a joy to read, unlike the often leaden exchanges of fantasy fiction. Old themes are explored, the sense of being different, the yearning to belong but not conform, and , most poignantly, the pain of loss, of abandonment, separation, ageiing and death..I haven't made it sound all THAT jolly yet , have I? There is even a ring of power, and a sorcerer who, if not exactly evil, displays a fine temper and a nasty turn of phrase. Above all, this is a funny book, displaying a feline wit. The characters are gloriously drawn, and outrageous. A camp , damp ghost called Heliotrope, ineptly materialising and scaring itself silly, assorted talking horses and other friendly beasts, and the cool, glamorous Grimbold himself, the sleek ringmaster of this nocturnal circus, make this book a deep delight for the imaginative of all ages.