Gray Books

... buy this book. This is a must have for anyone who don't know anything about cars and is buying a new one o wants to learn about car basics.

This is a great product for those looking to learn the very basics about car engines and car care. It gives a good, brief overview of how the major components of the engine work and even some care tips on basic maintenance procedures such as changing the air filter and oil.

I just started using this book and the workbook for a high school class that I teach, and hope to get a class set for next year! Finding this book made my automobile lessons a million times easier and better, and helped me explained things to my students much more clearly than I was able to in the past. The step-by-step pictures and directions in the activities, the diagrams, and the details of this book are wonderful. My students are at the age where they're preparing to drive and own a vehicle... this is the perfect book for my classroom!

I am currently teaching "Automotive Ownership" to high school students and I am using this book as a reference. It is a great book to give students the basic information about owning a vehicle. Many of my students do not know how a car works or how to treat their car, by the end of class they are prepared to own a automobile.

Great book and I suggest it to other teachers with a similar class.

Craig Christensen
St. Ansgar HS
St. Ansgar, IA

We are a Home Educating family (12th year) and have 2 teenagers and 2 more coming up. After reviewing this book online, we ordered a copy, along with 2 workbooks as our son had requested "Auto Shop" as an elective this year. It is our primary text for the first semester, covering everything from purchasing your car to maintenance/repairs and basic auto care. Our son is getting more out of it than we could hope for and wants to know when there will be a sequel on 'customizing' your car! =) We decided to make it a required course/text for all teens in our fam who are looking to purchase/own their own car. We highly recommend it!!! Oh, and the CD that comes with the kit puts the 'icing on the cake', including all the administrative extras you, as instructor, will need.+++

Great book! This book, Blues for Bird, is worth all the other biographies of Charlie Parker combined. A concise and direct evocation of the jazzman's life, it tells the tragic story of his rise and fall, and the tragic decline of his later years--it censors nothing, it tells the story better than a more detailed biographical volume, And does it with a poet's ear and eye! Alright! Be-bop!

How can you write an epic today when the world is no longer 'story-shaped'? You can go back and translate 'Beowulf', as Seamus Heaney has done, or you can be like Martin Gray and write an epic life in quantum bursts of three-stress energy.

Somebody ought to make a bunch of CDs, with an actor reading these highly accessible poems against a backdrop of Charlie Parker's music. They'd be a wow!

Great book! This book, Blues for Bird, is worth all the other biographies of Charlie Parker combined. A concise and direct evocation of the jazzman's life, it tells the tragic story of his rise and fall, and the tragic decline of his later years--it censors nothing, it tells the story better than a more detailed biographical volume, And does it with a poet's ear and eye! Alright! Be-bop!

How can you write an epic today when the world is no longer 'story-shaped'? You can go back and translate 'Beowulf', as Seamus Heaney, has done, or you can be like Martin Gray and write an epic life in quantum bursts of three-stress energy.

To those of you trying to find an alternative to the overly commercialized D&D 3.5, C&C is a good start. It is much simpler and easier to play , but, in my opinion is still misses the mark. Nothing beats a good set of "House Rules". Is the book necessary...Yea ya gotta have monsters to vanquish, and this book fills the bill very well. All those D&D miniatures you have collected...use em. Once you have the basics C&C books (players hand book, castle keepers guide, and this book (monsters and treasures), you are ready to roll. In addition you can easily convert all your D&D stuff, books and all to C&C. BUT I MUST STRESS...If you don't like a rule...CHANGE IT! We checked out C&C, and are back to D&D 3.5 with a lot of C&C inspired "House Rules". This alone makes the C&C series worth a look.

Fantastic Monster Manual and treasure guide! This is essentially the GM/Castle Keeper's guide at the same time.

A perfect companion for C&C. Easy to use and a fince price to boot. This system is the best.

It's a darn nice book crammed with information and fun art. The layout is clear and easily recognizable by any old hand at these games as well as decipherable by those new folks.

Along with the Player's Hand Book, it makes for a complete game with all the information in your hands to run a fun adventure for your friends. So for less than the cover price of just one of the "official core rules" you get a complete game. Later they're coming out with a Castle Keeper's guide, but I'm not certain that will even be necessary.

This book is the perfect companion to the C&C Players Handbook. It gives you a nice selection of monsters along with some very beautiful black and white artwork done mostly by Peter Bradley. The book is very reminiscent of the old 1E Monster Manual and just paging through it instantly transports me back to the fun early days of gaming. The last 1/3 or so of the book gives you a nice assortment of magic items along with some very useful tables and charts. This book and the C&C Players Handbook make up the core rules for the Castles and Crusades RPG system. Additionally, the binding is strong and well done and looks as though it will last for many, many years despite heavy use at the gaming table.

Conways 1906-1922 volume does an excellent,comprehensive,yet well detailed look at the most intense period of warship development and construction ever seen.All classes of warships,major and minor,of all countries are well addressed,with an excellent text as well as photos and sketches.It will serve a prominent place in my early warship library,along with their 1860-1905 volume.I was pleased at the high quality paper used,not often found today.Well worth the price to any enthusiast,casual or devoted!
Mike Dunham

It's very much like the 1922-1946 book in terms of coverage, and that's fine. What I wanted was a general survey like that, something to fill in the gaps in my knowledge for this period, and I learned many things here. There's only so much you can fit in a book like this, so I can't rate it down for lack of detail, other books can fill that gap.

The best book of it's type. While Jane's for the same general period is a collection of period work, complete with incorrect data used at the time, Conway's is an accurate library of the warships of the day.

The 1906-1921 book of Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships is arguably the second best in the series after the outstanding (although increasingly rare and outrageously expensive) 1947-1995 volume. It includes highly detailed histories of the various ship classes and a great deal of information. This sets it apart from the 1922-1946 edition, which feels strangely empty because it contains little in terms of history of individual ship classes and drowns the reader in facts and figures.

As such, the 1906-1921 edition reads much more like a very detailed history book than its successor, while giving us the same amount of facts and statistics, and is all the better for it.

I recommend it without reservation to fans of naval warfare, provided you can find a copy...

This book, together with the other of the serie that cover the period from 1860 to the present, is an outstanding one, the ideal reference book for the person looking for informations about the evolution of the modern warships through the description of the ship themselves. The book is divided into sections, each dealing with one nation's navy; the ships of every nation are grouped by type and each class is described by a brief textual introduction, a tabular description with the main ships' detail (size, machinery, artillery, armour and so on) and, for each ship, the building dates and the fate. The textual description is, at least for the greater ship category (battleship, carriers and cruisers) quite detailed and reports a lot of interesting data about the building, the machinery, the operational career and some other interesting stuffs. There is a good number of very good drawings and photographs (not as detailed as a ship modeler would hope, but this book is not for the modeler) and you can find in the books every nation that ever possessed a warship. A "must have" for every naval enthusiast!

Lisa "Tiny" Grey-Garcia graced our bookstore in Philadelphia with her
presence and incredible thoughts. She came off as incredibly
intelligent, very creative, and a very likable person. She is the
founder of POOR magazine, dedicated to the poor when all the other
magazines seem dedicated to people who don't need anymore dedication
(rockstars, politicians, actors, etc.). When at the Shoe, she talked
about strength through organization and treating people in that
organization like family, even when you want to butt heads with them.
She talked about strength through art and how even in a life of
constant struggle, you never give up, especially when the entire
culture is set against you (peppering her speech with phrases like
DWP, or "driving while poor", underlining her crystal clear thoughts
on our society). She had a beautiful picture of her mother, Mama Dee,
who she was close was with her entire life.

I had to read her book after listening to her speak. In
"Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America", Garcia lays out
her origins through telling the story of her grandmother who
immigrated from Ireland and had to make hard choices, her mother Dee,
her wealthy father who left them to fend for themselves, and finally
herself. Her mother could not work a job because of disability, so the
two eked a living on their own wits. The story traces Tiny and Mama
Dee growing as legends in Venice Beach, California, telling their
stories and making it by through art and selling t-shirts, and
eventually taking their "po' art" up to San Francisco. It's a story of
constantly being evicted, messed with by police, driving from one
place to the next trying to find a place to stay, and of all else,
never leaving each other behind no matter what. The "art of
homelessness" is the only way they can truly get by in an insane world
where everything that can go wrong, does.

Garcia helps found POOR magazine, and through the grit of her
teeth and really amazing talent, she is able to get POOR magazine
afloat. It becomes a project that empowers people to be great organizers and
activists in fights for survival, housing, jobs, expression, and
dignity. Her mother and many others are at her side the entire time,
and it really attests to what one can do when your back is up against
the wall. It illustrates plainly how if you are poor in America, you
basically have no rights in practice and how you are treated like an
animal by society. Tiny doesn't seek to "rise above this," she seeks
to rise everyone up and fight for real tangible gains for real people
who need them. That's what's really great about this book. You can
really tell that the author and people in POOR magazine have ability
above nothing else to fight and fight well for what's right.

I probably didn't mention that Tiny is a really gifted writer, too.
You can tell by her writing that she's been doing art for a long
time. She chooses her words really well and the book reads like stuff
that happened decades ago happened minutes before. You really won't be
disappointed if you pick this one up. Just awesome.

Tiny's memoir is an amazing behind the scenes look at homelessness in the United States. Activists can argue forever about what parts race-class-gender make in social problems--or they can just read the book.

I would have loved for Tiny to unleash her amazing mind on solutions to poverty and inequality. However, as a blistering critique of bureaucracy and class contempt this book is spot-on.

If it sounds impossible that one can be literate with a doctor father and a psychologist mother and yet be homeless for most of one's life, you can't imagine Tiny's story. Her father threatens to take custody of Tiny if mother pushes for decent child support. Her mixed-race mother was raised in a series of foster homes and has no family or savings. When government cutbacks dissolve her job, it is a short step to the streets. You can almost envy the creativity and resourcefulness Tiny learns on the streets, but it would be meaningless if she didn't finally get help in making the transition to a more stable life.

I literally could NOT put this book down. To say that TINY (aka, Lisa Gray-Garcia)is a gifted writer somehow minimizes her incredible tenacity of spirit, dignity, and the insurmountable love and intelligence she possesses in order to have lived the life she has lived, accomplished the things that she accomplished, and still lived to tell the story with such grace, insight, humor, and depth of character for the benefit of others.

This eye-opening, lucid description about an 11-year old girl who drops out of school because she and her single-mom are homeless . . . that eventually leads to her acquiring a PhD about the criminalization of poverty in the USA, through the "school of hard knocks," is a must read for every civic leader, politician, and CEO; every McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Coordinator, superintendent, school administrator, teacher, school nurse or guidance counselor; every public, private, or non-profit family support services manager, case manager, socialworker, or child and family advocate . . . and, yes, I daresay, every voting American in this nation. Where is the creativity in OUR lives and OUR work, and in the work we do for others??

I'm not sure what motivated me to pick up this book, after so many others. But I'm glad I did.

Criminal of Poverty is different because it's written by someone who lived the system. Tiny and her mother were thrust into poverty when her father (briefly described as a rich, handsome doctor) abandoned his family. Shielded by expensive lawyers, he could get on with his life, assuming that whatever happened was their own fault.

Beginning with the title,Gray-Garcia forces her readers to juxtapose crime and poverty in surprising but realistic ways. She confirms what academic researchers have already studied: survival as a poor person requires taking liberties with the law. She could have noted htat both crime and poverty tend to rise from mental illness.

Tiny writes magnificently, evoking people and scenes, keeping the pages turning -- rare for this kind of subject. She doesn't spare herself, her mom or anyone around her. She doesn't judge, even when almost anybody else would. For instance, at one point her mother decides to adopt a special needs child, a decision that predictably ended in disaster. In yet another irony, the child ends up in social services, probably to be sent to a series of foster homes, just as Tiny's mother was. But Tiny just writes that her mother believed in advocacy and helping others, so she naturally wanted to extend their family.

More than anything, Gray-Garcia shows that poverty is a spiral. Once you can't pay the rent or get medical care, you can't get a job. Or if a single mom does get a job, she can't pay child support. What would be a minor irritation to a middle class person can destroy the life of a poor family.


Tiny spends half a day getting relief for utility bills so she can get her heat and electricity turned on. She engages in creative, technically illegal manipulations to get her teeth fixed (and later getting access to a computer so she can do her writing). She spends a couple of nights in jail because she can't pay parking tickets and her car's registration was two days overdue.

For people who think, "There are places to go if you're poor," this book should be an eye opener. For years we've known that "See your local mental health association" means nothing. If The System had spent a few thousand dollars to help Tiny's mother get decent mental health care, this book would never have been written. But if Tiny had been caught shoplifting or committed a crime, the System would spend thousands of dollars keeping her incarcerated. In fact, as she says, she couldn't get legal assistance for moving violations or parking until she was arrested for unpaid parking tickets.

Both Tiny and her mother manage to carve out a lifestyle around art and freedom. At times, I couldn't help wondering why her mother didn't try for more "straight" jobs - even waitressing or working in a bookstore. But I suspect her mental illness kept her from doing anything but what she did. Tiny has the soul of a true writer and artist - finding expression under the most oppressive conditions.

Gray-Garcia's spirit bursts through this book like a bright light in a dark tunnel. Beginning with her middle school years, when most kids turn to video games, sports and half-hearted attempts at homework, she takes on the burden of her depressed, asthmatic, claustrophobic mother. She's far more patient and understanding than many people three or four times her age.

Perhaps the most amazing part of the book comes when Tiny creates a welfare-to-work program. She teaches herself a spreadsheet program and writes a proposal that actually gets accepted.

Perhaps the ultimate irony is that Tiny, defying and manipulating the very system that put her in poverty, has created a life that many middle class workers would envy. She has earned her living by art. She is now on a national book tour. She paid her dues on the street. Big dues. I hope she gets some pretty big payback.

1970's "The Crofter and the Laird" is John McPhee's graceful account of an extended stay on the Scottish island of Colonsay, ancestral home to his clan and a living fragment of an almost feudal lifestyle in the 20th Century.

Author John McPhee is rightly known for his keen observation, his simple but highly descriptive prose, and his ability to capture a sense of place. These skills are very evident in his clear-eyed yet sympathetic narrative of a vanishing culture in the Hebrides. The residents work small crofts, or rented farms, for a thin but apparently rewarding living in the solitude of a remote and beautiful island. The laird, owner of the island, lives in England but visits every summer. The crofters and the laird are enmeshed in an ancient legal tradition of mutual obligation, an anachronism which neither party was quite yet prepared to give up when McPhee stayed on Colonsay.

Colonsay's culture sits on a couple of millennia of history contributed by Picts, Celts, Scots, Vikings, and others. Some of the best parts of McPhee's narrative are his observations of the ancient remnants, such as ruined chapels, and the myths, stories, and customs forwarded by the islanders. Every physical feature on the island seems to have a name and a story.

The center of McPhee's narrative is his host on the island, one Donald McNeill, who pursues a variety of vocations to feed his family and make a living, and who provides insight into a close-knit society that regards "incomers" with some suspicion. McNeill is entirely comfortable in his life, appreciative of his family's long continuity on the island, yet honest about the hard work required by what is nearly subsistance living.

This book is highly recommended as a fascinating and enjoyable read on a small fragment of a vanishing island culture in a place time seemed almost to have forgotten.

The finely detailed observations and vivid turn-of-words which we have come to know so well from McPhee's books on North America and its geological history, is applied here with great skill in this look at the tiny Scottish island of Colonsay and its inhabitants. The small population of under 150 people can trace ancestry to two castes or clans. Most are crofters or farmers. Some are true islanders with family roots going back hundreds of years; others are "incomers". It's not a derogatory term but simply another social distinction. Then there's THE CROFTER AND THE LAIRD. McPhee offers a distillation of this social concoction. "The usual frictions, gossip, and intense social espionage that characterize life in a small town are so grandly magnified...everyone is many things to everyone else, and is encountered daily in a dozen guises. Enmeshed together, the people of the island become one another. Friend and enemy dwell in the same skin."

McPhee deals with his usual areas of interest such as the environmental past of the island, but its the people that fascinate him. Here it's also a little closer to home as Colonsay is the home of McPhee's ancestors. The book is as much a narrative of the strife torn history of clans as it is one Americans' exploration of the "sentimental myth" that he attaches to his Scottish surname. McPhee quickly sees that, rather than myth, the clan is as real to Scots as it ever was. This is only amplified in a feudal and cloistered social setting such as on Colonsay.

The McPhee's (or Macafee, MacPhee, Macheffie, or MacDuffie, as the various septs are known) are part of the ancient clan MacFie. They're Celtic, and the Gaelic origin of the name means "son of the Dark Fairy or Elf". Such fairy-tale-like legends seem incongruous when set against the treacherous and bloody reality of clan history. The McPhee's are a "broken clan", the last chieftan was murdered by the MacDonald's in the 17th century. The MacDonald's however got their comeuppance in the way of the clans. A group of MacDonald's were butchered in their sleep by the Campbell's of Argyll in the Glencoe Massacre of 1692.

And just to show that clan history dies very hard, many Scots, even until today, when pressed just a little bit can usually find something uncharitable to say about my Campbell clan. Time and geographical distance may make the clans of only historical interest to McPhee, myself, and other North Americans with Scots ancestors. In Scotland it's a lot more real and present, and this wonderful book gives us a slice of that life.

I really enjoyed this book. It was refreshing and light but great in detail. John McPhee explains his move from the U.S. with his wife and 4 daughters back to his Great Grandfather's ancestral home on the island of Colonsay in the Hebrides of Scotland. The population is around 150 and he learns all about the small town life in a feudal environment. McPhee talks about everything from farmers, crofters, and general laborers and their daily lives on the island. He also shifts from what he sees and experiences with first person gossip and comments from the islanders to stories and legends from the island's and his clan's past.

All the islanders talk of the Laird Strathcona who owns everything. Then John meets him and sees he is just a minor peer in the Scottish Court and more of a landlord trying to bring the island of Colonsay a little out of the past. The book is lightly sprinkled with simple sketches of the island which brings everything together.

A really enjoyable read for anyone with Scottish roots or just interested in Scottish life and history. Not everyone is descended from Scottish Kings and famous knights. Most of us are of the poorer stock like those portrayed in this book. I am even more proud of them now.

THE BOOK HELP INSPIRE ME, MY SON, AND BROTHER TO GO TO COLONSAY IN THE SPRING OF 1998. MOST OF THE PEOPLE YOU WROTE ABOUT ARE DEAD. HOWEVER CHARLIE MCKINNON AND HIS WIFE, GIBBIE MCNEIL, KEITH RUTHERFORD, AND A FEW MORE ARE STILL LIVING. I HAVE WRITTEN AN ACCOUNT OF MY VISIT AND WILL MAKE IT AVAILABLE TO THE AUTHOR IS HE WISHES. LAN NA LEF. JERRY D. MCAFEE

My family also originates on Colonsay, and we go back to visit occasionally. We were asked if we were related to John McPhee, because our name is McAfee. We were told that it was a good thing we weren't, because John had given away more secrets than the islanders thought wise. They told us that if he ever returned he would not make it off the ferry onto the dock. This is a great book and should be read and appreciated by all.

The Oxford educated author, Raymond Patterson, chucked his staid life as London banker for the extreme conditions of the 1920's Canadian far north, traversing barely navigable rivers and wintering in 40 below conditions far from the nearest supply post.
The accounts are highly colourful, occasionally humorous and truly amazing as real life survivor accounts. Unlike some modern adventure story-telling, the author thankfully omits hyping the risks and achievements, avoids ominous foreshadowing and such devices, and relates his account in a modest but richly descriptive style.

"Dangerous River" is one of the finest Far North adventures ever written. R. M. Patterson and his partner Gordon Matthews were the last of a breed of men who tackled the Far North with nothing but stamina, courage, and consummate skill with rifle, pack and canoe. Trapping and searching for gold in the legendary South Nahanni River country in the 1920's, Patterson describes their adventures in language that makes the reader yearn to see one the premier rivers of the world. Patterson's style is laced with wonderfully dry British humor as well as a poet's skill in describing the breathtaking landscapes. You feel as though you're right beside him throughout his adventures and hungering to go there yourself. You can't ask more a writer and his book than that!

I purchased Dangerous River: Adventure on the Nahanni to use as research for my latest release, The River, an exciting and terrifying techno-thriller that takes place on the Nahanni River.

I found Dangerous River to be invaluable to me, and after reading it, I yearn to travel to the Nahanni River to see this wonderful part of Canada.

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a true Canadian adventure. The photos take you back to a simpler life, and the author's humor and attention to detail are entertaining.

Patterson makes a 200 mile snowshoe trek in 50 below weather to pick up the mail seem like slightly unusual walk to the post office!

This tale of wilderness adventure is set in the unexplored region of the South Nahanni river valley in the Nortwest Territories, Canada. It tells of unexplained deaths (the reason it was called Dead-Man's Valley), and the survival tactics and techniques of explorers during the gold-rush days of the area. Patterson spins the tale in a way which makes you feel the icy cold winters and the lavish and wildlife filled summers. His writings are non-fictional, and he includes maps and photographs taken while he was there. It is exciting, and laden with danger about the rapids, ice-flows, and Indian legends. I highly recommend it to anyone with a love of the outdoors, adventure, or wilderness history!

The book has interesting visuals, set-up for taking notes, and covers a wide range of what is contained in the history and present of the study of the mind in relation to the body.
I think it will definitely help me in my entry-level Psychology course.

As an Intro Psych instructor, I reviewed dozens of psychology texts. Gray's "Psychology" is clearly the best.

First, because it is written by a single author, it maintains a consistent style and viewpoint throughout--that is, the application of evolutionary biology and cognitive science to the study of the mind and behavior. Consequently, he does not shy away from putting forward strong arguments where they are needed. On this, see especially his superb discussion of the fall of behaviorism and the rise of cognitivism.

Second, the author has a powerful command of several lines of important research, and he uses this to "smarten up" the text to make it *more* understandable. As an example, see particularly his discussions of the heritability of intelligence.

Third, the text is beautifully organized.

The text does, however, suffer from two small weaknesses: the discussion of self-esteem owes too much to James, with James' errors especially, and the discussion of mental health and happiness needlessly bore little imprint from the chapters on cognition.

Still, Gray produced a superlative volume.

If truth be told, I do not even like psychology, and feel contemt of some sort for it.I took it this semester to fulfill my humanity requirement.Nevertheless, I cannot deny that this book is wonderfully written, and it was a true pleasure reading it ! Peter Gray is obviously very fond of psychology, as well as of teaching it.It was much fun reading a book written so sensitively and with so much enthusiasm. I know many universities assign this book and am therefore surprised only one person reviewed it so far.

The first day of class my professor felt free to note that the text for her class was boring, in the opinion of some of her students. After reading it myself, I had to disagree. The text is one of the better ones I've read. I took AP Psych in high school and the text used there was boring. This textbook, however, presents Psychology in an interesting light. The first chapter, on the founders of Psychology is written so that you can actually make sense of it. Most cases studies of the guys like Freud, Wundt and the like proved to be boring for me, but not in this text. The authors also go out of thier way to make sure that you understand what you are reading through the questions that appear in the margins of the text. The book also features comics and interesting pictures relating to the subject matter. This book is not your typical "college text." I also recommend the study guide. It has self tests that you can use to study for the final.

I thought this text was great--it provides information in a very clear and well-explained manner for the student who has never taken a psychology course before. Gray proves he has a sense of humor as well, injecting funny lines every now and then. It provides a lot of pertinent information in an interesting manner, and covers everything from theories on development and society to cognition and neuroscience. After finishing my intro psych class I even found myself wishing I could still use the text for my other classes (in fact I still refer to it every now and then).

This book is a MUST have for planning a girls getaway to Orlando! The author does a great job of including something for everyone! The guide is compact and great for throwing in your purse! You can take it anywhere! I love how she took time to list details, such as price, attire, etc! I can't wait for the next city in the series!!

This ladies travel guide to Orlando is highly informative and up-to-date -full of helpful resources for both visitors and locals alike. It's the perfect travel size, is well-organized and contains not only all of the pertinent information that's necessary to plan a delightful and hassle-free trip but also offers fun ideas that can help add a whimsical touch to anyone's travel plans.

If you are planning a trip to Orlando or live in the area this book would be of great value in organizing any ladies getaway.

What a fantastic idea! All girls need a getaway but with full-time work and family who has time to plan! By using Girls Getaway Guide I was able to use Casey's experience to plan a girl's night out in just a week. The best shopping and dining experiences all in one book.

Traveling is fun and reading about traveling should be just as much fun. This book makes the planning just as much fun as the trip itself. A great guide with fabulous ideas!

I went to college in Orlando, but I had no idea all the city had to offer until I read this book. I'm currently planning a bachelorette party there, and the book has made it easy to determine the best activities for a memorable girls weekend! A great resource for anyone visiting or living in the Orlando area!

Bob Dolgan was a proverbial utility infielder for the sports pages of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer - feature writer, columnist, beat reporter and the editor of several fan-orientated sections - and even had an infamous tiff back-in-the-day with legendary radio sports-talker Pete Franklin.

But it was his last assignments with the struggling daily newspaper - pieces on the rich history of Cleveland sports - that became solid highlights in Dolgan's five-decade-plus career. And this May 2003 release is a jog down memory lane through profiles on 101 athletes.

There are the famous - Jesse Owens, Mark Price - one's whose cup of coffee got cold before their uniforms got dirty and the outright surly, like slugger Albert Belle.

Not just for fans of northeast Ohio sports, Dolgan's biographical sketches can be appreciated by any individual who enjoys excellent sports writing, with a historical twist.

This lively, pithy account of Indians, Browns, Cavs and other local athletes ALMOST makes the heartache of being a Cleveland sports fan worthwhile. Author and Plain Dealer scribe Bob Dolgan has been a staple of the local sports diet for almost as long as the Tribe has gone without World Series rings. It takes a wise soul and a strong heart to give us new perspective on The Fumble, Red Right 88, 20-Cent Beer Night and what, 83 years later, thankfully remains the only death from an injury sustained in a Major League Baseball game. May Dolgan perservere long enough to pen a second edition about dozens of future Cleveland championships!

A large part of what makes baseball so attractive is that it imitates life. Ear-splitting roars are reserved for stupendous comebacks and tide-turning home runs. Most games proceed, fans like to observe, like Sunday school outings.
Author Bob Dolgan adds another dimension to the game's popularity, as well as well-honed peeks at luster figures of other sports. What he endearingly captures in its quick-reading pages is the person behind the celebrity.
HSGG is a potpourri of 101 short stories on often fascinating, at least talented or simply memorable athletes, mainly ball-and-glovers who wore the wool and spandex of the Cleveland Indians from 1971 to 2001. Some of the headliners reflect the nearly invincible Cleveland Browns of the Paul Brown coaching days while a few found stature clinging to the edges of the sports world covering many venues and situational endeavors.
Warts and all, there is the first big-time Indians free agent, hurler Wayne Garland who, after pocketing a guaranteed ten year, $2.3 million contract, saw his arm go the rotator cuff surgical route even before pitching his first game for his new team. Garland and his wife unwisely spent a large portion of their cash take on a toney mansion in glittery Pepper Pike. So rapidly did they spend their bounty that Wayne eventually had to pump gas to make ends meet.
Sam Rutigliano, who alternately soared and stumbled as coach of the Browns, had as a favorite descriptive of a loss that "eight hundred million Chinese couldn't care less."
Jimmy Piersall, named as among the 100 best Indians of all time, ran backwards around the basepaths once after belting a homer just to bring laughs to the game and wake up the crowd.
Pat Seerey, roly-poly outfielder who played several decades ago when Tribe fortunes dipped near their lowest, seemed to smack a home run or strike out every other time at bat. An atrocious fielder, fans were galvanized by his all-or-nothing swings at any pitch that cut the heart of the plate.
Chief groundskeeper Emil Bossard often did as much from the sidelines to encourage a Cleveland wind as its players on the field. For example, he was a past master at flashing signals from the scoreboard that tipped off home batters as to the kind of pitch coming up next...and seldom was Emil reluctant to slant the third-base line toward foul territory when the opposition boasted astute bunting skills.
Reporter Dolgan, covering all sports for the Cleveland Plain Dealer over the past half century , winning awards along the way, now specializes in writing features soaked in nostalgia. It is seldom enough for him to hang his stories on startling statistics. He pokes about for the argument with the wife that may have preceded and influenced the big game upcoming or be-bops about for the funny happenstance that perhaps triggered a vital play.
With Dolgan, scamps and good guys rank right up there with heroes just as they do for fans in real life sitting on the edge of their seats in a crucial game or leaning back contentedly munching their second hotdog in a "Sunday school" affair and this perhaps is the beauty of the book.
Dolgan's machinations make for a delightful trip down memory lane, a chapter revisited of sports memorabilia a la the Cleveland scene bustling with the gusto and flavor of a bygone past. If you'd like a healthy taste of this time, dig into Dolgan's slice of it.

A large part of what makes baseball so attractive is that it imitates life. Ear-splitting roars are reserved for stupendous comebacks and tide-turning home runs. Most games proceed, fans like to observe, like Sunday school outings.
Author Bob Dolgan adds another dimension to the game's popularity, as well as well-honed peeks at luster figures of other sports. What he endearingly captures in its quick-reading pages is the person behind the celebrity.
HSGG is a potpourri of 101 short stories on often fascinating, at least talented or simply memorable athletes, mainly ball-and-glovers who wore the wool and spandex of the Cleveland Indians from 1971 to 2001. Some of the headliners reflect the nearly invincible Cleveland Browns of the Paul Brown coaching days while a few found stature clinging to the edges of the sports world covering many venues and situational endeavors.
Warts and all, there is the first big-time Indians free agent, hurler Wayne Garland who, after pocketing a guaranteed ten year, $2.3 million contract, saw his arm go the rotator cuff surgical route even before pitching his first game for his new team. Garland and his wife unwisely spent a large portion of their cash take on a toney mansion in glittery Pepper Pike. So rapidly did they spend their bounty that Wayne eventually had to pump gas to make ends meet.
Sam Rutigliano, who alternately soared and stumbled as coach of the Browns, had as a favorite descriptive of a loss that "eight hundred million Chinese couldn't care less."
Jimmy Piersall, named as among the 100 best Indians of all time, ran backwards around the basepaths once after belting a homer just to bring laughs to the game and wake up the crowd.
Pat Seerey, roly-poly outfielder who played several decades ago when Tribe fortunes dipped near their lowest, seemed to smack a home run or strike out every other time at bat. An atrocious fielder, fans were galvanized by his all-or-nothing swings at any pitch that cut the heart of the plate.
Chief groundskeeper Emil Bossard often did as much from the sidelines to encourage a Cleveland win as its players on the field. For example, he was a past master at flashing signals from the scoreboard that tipped off home batters as to the kind of pitch coming up next...and seldom was Emil reluctant to slant the third-base line toward foul territory when the opposition boasted astute bunting skills.
Reporter Dolgan, covering all sports for the Cleveland Plain Dealer over the past half century, winning awards along the way, now specializes in writing features soaked in nostalgia. It is seldom enough for him to hang his stories on startling statistics. He pokes about for the argument with the wife that may have preceded and influenced the big game upcoming or be-bops about for the funny happenstance that perhaps triggered a vital play.
With Dolgan, scamps and good guys rank right up there with heroes just as they do for fans in real life sitting on the edge of their seats in a crucial game or leaning back contentedly munching their second hotdog in a "Sunday school" affair and this perhaps is the beauty of the book.
Dolgan's machinations make for a delightful trip down memory lane, a chapter revisited of sports memorabilia a la the Cleveland scene bustling with the gusto and flavor of a bygone past. If you'd like a healthy taste of this time, dig into Dolgan's slice of it.

Bob Dolgan's Heroes, Scamps and Good Guys is as much a history of Cleveland over the past six decades as it is a cornucopia of the city's sports memories. The award-winning Plain Dealer sportswriter draws on his long association with the Cleveland sports scene to treat readers to a broad assortment of the best, brightest and most bizarre athletes who have both thrilled and thwarted Forest City sports fans in his lifetime. Dolgan's biographical glimpses into the athletic feats and later lives of some 101 participants in Cleveland's rich sports history range from Dutch Levsen, the last major league pitcher to hurl two complete-game wins in a doubleheader, to Jim Thome, Albert Belle and Mike Hargrove. Along the way Dolgan also introduces such collegiate legends from the Greater Cleveland area as Harrison Dillard and a sprinkling of high school wunderkinds including St. Ignatius's Dave Demko and Benedictine center Mike Medich, a giant in his time at 6'5" who tallied 59 points against West High School one night at the tail end of 1945 to set a new Ohio state scoring record. A deft interviewer, Dolgan is equally at home talking with former Indians infielder Kevin Rhomberg, owner of a raft of weird superstitions that have no doubt daunted many another sportswriter over the years, Boxing Hall of Famer Joey Maxim, "one of only two Clevelanders to win world ring titles," and Barbara Turcotte, the queenly wife of Cleveland harness racing king, Mel Turcotte. Heroes, Scamps and Good Guys, though steeped in the triumphant moments enjoyed by the Browns, Indians, Barons and Cavaliers, is likewise a trove of the heartaches and last-second disappointments that have left Clevelanders without a championship in any major league sport for nearly forty years.

David Nemec