Peter Books


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Peter Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Peter
Atlas Maior of 1665
Published in Hardcover by Taschen (2005-07-01)
Author: Joan Blaeu
List price: $200.00
New price: $119.50
Used price: $79.90

Average review score:

Indeed, the greatest atlas
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-12
Johan Blaauw's incredibly large atlas - a marvel of cartography -, in a glorious edition by Taschen. The combination of full page reprints and overviews with commentary makes for one of the most luscious books I ever saw. Mesmerizing!

Fantastic Art Book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-15
The quality of the pics of this book is wonderful. Several images just need a frame to decorate your wall.
You will spend hours looking any detail of the book. It makes a wonderful gift or addition to a collection. Highly recommended.
This is wonderful a coffee Table book. Buy it now!

Beautiful
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-02-10
This Atlas is truly a work of art. The quality of the book itself is wonderful. Several of the pages fold out to large-scale maps/drawings - We have spent hours pouring over the detail in this book. It makes a wonderful gift or addition to a collection. Highly recommend.

Object of attraction
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-14
This sits on my coffee table and is a great companion to watching any sort of historical documentary on TV etc. Also makes for good cocktail party reading/conversation.

I've seen an original copy of this in the NYPL and this printing is true to form, with insightful tidibits and good translations extras.

The Bleau Atlas Major is the most beatiful and prolific atlases ever made.

A nice book
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2007-04-12
I bought the Barnes and Noble edition and save 80%. That being said the B&N version is smaller and harder to read. It is also 100 pages shorter, which is why I gave it only 4 stars. Nevertheless I found the book fascinating. But the maps were so interesting I felt a little cheated not getting the other 100 pages. I guess I'll go to this book store where they have a big one displayed compare it to mine. Also the full $100+ volume is so big the box it comes in has a handle to carry it!

Peter
Austria (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
Published in Paperback by Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd (2003-11-06)
Authors: Teresa Czerniewicz-Umer, Joanna Egert-Romanowskiej, Janiny Kumanieckiej, and Helen Peters
List price: $31.00
Used price: $22.37

Average review score:

These books are fantastic
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-24
I love these books. I have Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand and France. The information is good and the pictures are great. I don't actually take these books travelling with me. I look at them before I go and plan what I want to do by the books. I highly recommend these books for anyone who wants a travelling guide or for people who just want to read up on a country. The books have a wide range of information.

"Austria" review
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-03
My daughter found this book to be engrossing, and loves it. All the color pictures really enhance the book, and make the reading a pleasure. As she stated to me - all the Eyewitness books are so good, it's hard to put them down, and they are educational too!

Excellent Guide!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-12
My family loves these (Eye Witness brand) travel guides! They are VERY informative, very easy to follow, and include lots of good pictures. We've given them as gifts, and the recipients have always given us positive feedback. All of this, plus they are reasonably priced.

Virtual Austria in Print
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-08
I had purchased a similar book for my son about France to help him with his French language courses in high school. I ended up spending more time with it than he did, and when I saw the other country titles, I decided to purchase a few more. The Austria book is excellent in that it condenses a lot of information into a very portable volume. The photos and illustrations are fabulous and the background historical and cultural information is superb. The listing of accomodations and restaurants also appears to be very well researched and provides a starting point for further Internet research. My favorite part of Austria is the Salzburg Region, and this book provides a genuine sense of what it is really like. I can definitely benefit from this book on future travel to Austria. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to know more about the country, as well as for experienced travellers. Well done to the authors, editors, and publisher!

Great Guide!
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-30
I love this brand of travel books. The images really help you to identify attractions, as well as the birds eye view maps. I also enjoy the "must see attractions" call outs within each section. This book helped make our trip through Austria more well informed and helped us plan our major stops. We also got one for Budapest which was equally great.

Peter
Backcountry Adventures Southern California: The Ultimate Guide to the Backcountry for anyone with a Sport Utility Vehicle (Backcountry Adventures)
Published in Paperback by Adler Publishing Co (2006-04-24)
Author: Peter Massey
List price: $39.95
New price: $38.99
Used price: $30.00

Average review score:

Best 4x4 book available!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-27
This book has everything a casual offroader or overlander would want (this book does not cover the hardcore break stuff, tear up your rig trails). Great descriptions of the trails and the road surface you be riding on. Great turn bu turn directions to each trail with GPS coordinates! Also explains some of the history and highlights of the trail and rates all trails for remoteness and beauty. Interesting book just to read for fun. There is no better off road book available!

Great Read! Extensive info on So-Cal
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-30
I bought this, and another book about place to go off-roading in so-cal. This book is like the bible of southern California.
Not only does it have extensive trail location and info, it is a virtual encyclopedia of So-Cals towns, cities, how they got their start. In addition it has extensive info on native species, of plants and animals, important founders of California, and much more. I would definitely recommend it.

Excellent guide for the casual off-roader
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-02-22
I've been using this book for close to a couple years now. While I don't consider myself a novice to off-roading, I definitely don't fall into the rock-crawling group, preferring to use my 4x4 to simply get me to new and out-of-the-way places when time permits. Thus far it has proven to be an excellent resource for quick weekend off-roading getaways and for reading up on new trails to explore. In fact, I've enjoyed this book so much I wound up buying two others as gifts for family and friends. The photos and overviews of each trail definitely help give a good feel for what to expect. If you're a techno-geek like me, being able to plot a computer-generated map using the detailed GPS coordinates will prove highly invaluable (though I have discovered a few critical--though easily identifiable and correctable--errors in the coordinates), and with a handheld GPS I don't need to worry about the often-unusual orientation of the printed maps. For those of us who love exploring, this book will make a fantastic resource.

A guide to getting to know Southern California
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-21
After being transplanted to Southern California from the Northwest, I felt hemmed in, separated from all things natural. Backcountry Adventures has helped to change that. It's a wonderful guide to exploring the region.

The hefty book begins with a historical, botanical and geographic guide to the region, highlighting Southern California's explorers, settlers, missionaries, bandits, flora, fauna and more. It then moves into the individual descriptions of off road routes.

The book is geared towards exploring Southern California's outdoors with a 4WD and might disappoint the Glamas crowd who is focused doing awesome things in their trucks. But, for those of us looking to justify the excess of our SUV's with some exploration, it's perfect.

Each route guide begins with a simple rating guide which rates the trail on a number of qualities like driving difficulty and remoteness, then moves into a description of its history and the history of the region it explores. Next comes a description of the route itself, and then a detailed turn by turn guide with GPS coordinates.

The only real complaint I have with this book is that sometimes routes can be difficult to find without reading through the entire guide. It does contain a few "20 most scenic routes" and whatnot lists, but includes no way to find, say, the most remote routes in the book.

The other thing I'd suggest to improve the book is an accompanying website with downloadable GPS coordinates and user comments. Typing in the coordinates for a route is needlessly time consuming, and being able to download them from the internets would be wonderful. Hearing feedback from other drivers would also be great.

All in all, this book has helped to liberate me from the urban sprawl of Southern California, and for that I'm very grateful.

Great book!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-25
Tons of info, loads of great photos show you clearly what to expect on each trail. I'll be buying the Northern Cali book next.

Peter
Beauty and the Beast: Diary of a Film
Published in Textbook Binding by Peter Smith Pub (1972-06)
Author: Jean Cocteau
List price: $14.00

Average review score:

GREAT!!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-30
I purchased this not too long ago. I have the movie and adore it, so when I saw this book I was extremely excited. I was not let down. For all Filmmakers, for all aspiring Filmmakers, I recommend this book. It is Jean Cocteau's diary, or shall I say Director's Commentary, of the making of this film. If filmmakers think they have it hard making a good movie today because of the price, please read this book. It is about true dedication, true passion and true love for making movies, telling stories and bringing fairytales to life. After all, isn't bringing a movie to life every filmmakers fairytale? This book can teach you more than any film class can ever. Get this book and recommend it to everyone. Give it as a present to the aspiring filmmaker in your life. And after you're done reading it, let it soak in and never forget it (I won't). It is that GREAT!!!

Belle et la BĂȘte
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-12
Absolutely fasinating. So many of my French teacher colleagues show this movie. They would find this "making of" so interesting. It is not a record of how he created the special effects, though he does discuss a few (the dvd shows many more), but rather all the trials the entire crew endured to create this seemingly effortless masterpiece.

Illuminating book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-05
The book provides insights into the making of Cocteau's classic film. The incredible film obviously stands alone, but knowledge of the period and the various aspects and difficulties in making it adds to one's appreciation.

Suffering for his Art
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-08
Some have found Cocteau's litany of illnesses that he and others suffered while filming "Beauty and the Beast" tedious and skipped over them as seemingly irrelevant. Unfortunately, those who do so may miss the entire point of Cocteau's masochistic esthetic, namely, the necessity for the artist to suffer and triumph over all adversity for the sake of his art. That suffering is part and parcel of his art, suffering is art, just as "Beauty and the Beast" suffered during the filming and triumphed as a lasting work of art. Cocteau's suffering at the time mirrored the enormous technical difficulties encountered while making the film. The entire surreal struggle of Cocteau and of others involved in the film is wonderfully captured in his journal and any serious student of either Cocteau or the film will profit by reading it.

A great book!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2001-12-09
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has seen Jean Cocteau's fil version of "Beauty and the Beast" The book is the diary of the film. There are some great photos in it as well.

Peter
The Beginning Of The End
Published in Paperback by Virtualbookworm.com Publishing (2004-11-30)
Author: Peter Hershey
List price: $13.95
New price: $13.76
Used price: $15.61

Average review score:

An excellent book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-08
This is a great novel! Hershey really has done his research on international and military affairs. A fictional story about events that really could happen to the United States, it's a personal story filled with high stakes drama and adventure, reminding me of my own childhood imaginations. I couldn't put the book down!

amazing!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-12-24
i'm an english major, and a VERY picky reader, but i absolutely loved "the beginning of the end." the author does a great job of developing all the characters, and there are so many viewpoints that the story is always interesting. the teenage characters, especially scrub, are hilarious and fantastically written, as well as being accurate depictions of high school kids. the plot is very fast-paced, especially in the end, and there's so much suspense that i could hardly put the book down. i definitely recommend "the beginning of the end" to readers of ALL ages! hopefully peter hershey comes out with a new book very soon!

Loved it!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-06-05
This book is an attention grabber from the beginning. It has a well rounded cast of characters that are easy to identify with and keep you invested in their welfare. I could hardly put this book down, and I felt for the plight of each character in their individual conflicts (especially that of Scrub). Most historical fiction books tend to get slow toward the middle and end, but this book, by the young author Peter Hershey, kept me interested through all 260 of its pages.

Creative, Insightful, Refreshing
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2005-01-31
The author presents a creative yet insightful interpretation of what could happen in some of the most volatile and dynamic international situations facing the United States today. He simultaneously develops four conflict scenarios pitting the US against Iraq, North Korea, Russia, and Cuba, conveying each story through the perceptions of the young men and women struggling to do their duty for their country while using every skill and instinct to survive. The reader experiences a fresh, clear perspective on issues that have otherwise been clouded with politics and power struggles.

Great Book!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2005-01-24
Hopefully the beginning and not the end for talented young Peter Hershey! The book pulls you in with a humorous and masterfully written opening scene before launching into page-turning action. I couldn't help but fall in love with the Captain, a man torn by contrasting obligations, or Scrub, the precocious but rowdy teenage narrator. This fictional prediction based on the flaws of current political treaties is both fascinating and addictive. I guarantee you will not be able to put this book down-- buy TBOTE!

Peter
Beyond Culture
Published in Hardcover by Peter Smith Publisher (1992-01)
Author: Edward Twitchell Hall
List price: $32.25
New price: $29.02
Used price: $15.00

Average review score:

Helps you see what you have not seen.
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-08
I have read it at least 6 times since it was originally published.

It speaks to the current world scene each time and probably will for the next 50 years.

Hall is one of the 20th century's great geniuses.

Chapter 1: Education doesn't necessarily mean Learning
Helpful Votes: 50 out of 62 total.
Review Date: 2001-08-18
I read this book for the first time over 20 years ago after I graduated from college with an unrelated science major which I found loathesome and never used. I had already read "The Hidden Dimension" when working with an architect. I am not about to read this one again due to its complexity and the fact it "sunk in" then. Here are some of Hall's highlights:

Ch. 1 (The Paradox of Culture): "One wonders how many individuals who have been forced to adjust to eight-hour, nine-to-five schedules have sacrificed their creativity, and what the social and human cost of this sacrifice has been."

Ch. 3 (Consistency and Life): "He is forced into the position of thinking and feeling that anyone whose behavior is not predictable or is peculiar in any way is slightly out of his mind, improperly brought up, irresponsible, psychopathic, politically motivated to a point beyond all redemption, or just plain inferior."

Ch. 7 (Contexts, High and Low): "... in high context systems, people in places of authority are personally and truly (not just in theory) responsible for the actions of subordinates down to the lowest man. In low context systems, responsibility is diffused throughout the system and difficult to pin down ..."

Ch. 11 (Covert Culture and Action Chains): "The investigation of out-of-awareness culture can be accomplished only by actual observation of real events in normal settings and contexts. ... Culture is therefore very closely related to if not synonymous with what has been defined as "mind".

Ch. 12 (Imagery and Memory): "Our problems in education are exacerbated by eductional systems and philosophies that stress verbal facility at the expense of other important parts of man's mind ..."

Ch. 13 (Cultural and Primate Bases of Education): "One reason psychotherapy is so slow is that in order to change one thing it is necessary to alter the entire psyche, because the different parts of the psyche are functionally interrelated."

Ch. 13: Over bureaucratization: "The problem with bureaucracies is that they have to work hard and long to keep from substituting self-serving survival and growth for their original primary objective. ... Bureaucracies have no soul, no memory and no conscience."

Ch. 14 (Culture as an Irrational Force): "Since the men and women responsible for these [anthropological] studies for the most part are both well trained in Anglo-American social science methodology and well motivated, one can only assume that there is something basically wrong with the way in which social science research is often conducted."

UNDERSTANDING OUR WORLD
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 30 total.
Review Date: 2001-10-10
THIS IS THE SECOND TIME I HAVE READ THE BOOK. THE LAST TIME WAS A 110 YEARS AGO IN COLLEGE. MR. HALL MAKES US THINK ABOUT OTHER CULTURES AND ESPECIALLY OUR OWN CULTURE. IN THESE AWFUL TIMES IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND OURSELVES AND ONE ANOTHER. MR HALL'S BOOKS HELP WITH THIS. IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND A CULTURE'S LANGUAGE AND DRESS. TIME, SPACE, AND OTHER CONTINGENTS ARE JUST OR MORE IMPORTANT.

A must-read for "Diversity in the Workplace"
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2003-08-07
Since other reviewers have summarized this book, my suggestion is to read it with present-day work environments in mind. There is an increasing emphasis of Diversity and Globalization in the workplace. This book can be difficult to wade through, but the concepts stick with you. It was very easy to take the concepts and compare them to the daily situations of working in a multi-cultural corporate environment. Sometimes the best information, is from an original source or work. I would suggest reading this, just because Hall's premises still bear the brunt of time and provide that "ah-ha" awareness to an experience.

but within our understanding
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2004-11-22
This is not Hall's best known book but it incorporates many of the ideas that were originally presented in the Silent Language and applies them to culture. The idea of monochronic (M-Time) and polychronic time (P-Time) are briefly summarised as well. The underlying concept of Beyond Culture is that man is an evolutionary being and although we cannot evolve to adapt to our environment at the rate of insects we can continue to evolve through extensions. These extensions are the things we create such as fire and tools at the basic level and cars, computers, and mobile phones at the more complex level. In this way we have continued to evolve beyond the limits of our biology.

In a similar sense, culture is an extension of our personal being and is used to prevent us from having to explain every little detail. Regardless of whether a culture is "high" or "low" it contains a body of knowledge that provides for ease of communication among members. He develops this idea in the concept of action chains which is a sequence in which several people participate. Culture is by its nature participatory and understanding action chains within a culture can help us to understand how to prevent ourselves from running aground in a culture different from our own.

He also looks at culture and education and lampoons the current state of higher education in the western context. I find this somewhat unwarranted. He concludes with chapters on the irrationality of culture and our identification with culture. However irrational a culture may be to those who identify with it it makes perfect sense.

I do not always agree with the interpretation of cultural examples that he cites but his ideas are interesting and can be helpful in understanding cross/intercultural experiences. I would recommend this book to those who are, at least in passing, with his overall concepts of culture.

Peter
Beyond the Fringe (Acting Edition)
Published in Paperback by Samuel French Ltd (1964-08)
Authors: Alan Bennett, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, and Jonathan Miller
List price:
New price: $16.52
Used price: $7.90

Average review score:

What could have been
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-04
Such a shame this comedy troupe broke up. Humour with surgical precision. Roots of Python found here. You'll listen over and over again.

Worthy Ancestors
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2001-07-03
After Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers came the Beyond the Fringe crowd. This is one of the foundation stones of transatlantic comedy. Cook and Moore preceded Pythons Cleese and Chapman at Cambridge. (They in turn preceded Frye and Laurie.) Ripeness is all, and they had it...

Some of the funniest stuff ever committed to vinyl
Helpful Votes: 38 out of 38 total.
Review Date: 2002-06-17
The team of Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore was originally conceived as a potentially successful show for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1960 - hence the name. None of them had ever worked together before, or not at any rate in this configuration, and each of them went into the project with some doubts. They ended up producing one of the most savagely funny comedy shows ever, a piece of work that was to play a large part in the transformation of the British cultural landscape during the 1960s.

It's all very well (and true) to say that this stuff is still funny after forty years. It's more useful to put yourself back into the mindset of a 1961 audience, utterly unprepared for such a comic assault on the sacred cows of post-war British culture: dodgily reverential productions of Shakespeare; dreary and self-aggrandising prime-ministerial broadcasts by then PM Harold Macmillan; a devastating swipe at the cheery platitudes of governmental advice on what to do during a nuclear attack (basically, hide inside a brown paper bag); a brutal demolition of piously cliched movies about the sacrifices of world war 2 - these lads dished it out in spades. The laughter you hear on the soundtrack is not the cosy laughter of an audience hearing what it likes to hear, it's the guilty and almost hysterical laughter of an audience having its worst fears and suspicions confirmed and provoked.

Fair enough, Dudley Moore (RIP) went on to make some dodgy movies. Jonathan Miller did some fine work in the theatre and in opera, but nothing quite as cutting-edge as here. Alan Bennett became an English (not British) institution. Peter Cook ended up with a reputation as the Guy Who Never Fulfilled His Promise - but none of these assessments are accurate. Between the talents of the four of them, they produced a comedy that has seldom been lived up to. They truly were the Bill Hickses of 60s England. As Michael Frayn points out in his excellent introductory essay, it's because they made the audience laugh at their own prejudices. Few have done so much, and they never slacked. (One of the sketches from the 1964 Broadway production, included here, confirms this, in a sardonic assessment of American culture and how-the-show-is-likely-to-go-down-there, still true today.)

This is great comedy. We shouldn't imitate its content - we should strive to reach for the level of insight and the accuracy of target that they met. Mind you, it's still damn funny. My personal faves are the civil defence sketch and Bennett's stunningly vacuous sermon "Take A Pew", chunks of which I know off by heart. Good comedy is never cosy, and while this may seem like we've heard it before, bear in mind that nobody had ever quite done anything like this at the time - or, anyway, not so successfully. Genius.

The launch of true satire by men who got it right 1st time
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2001-04-26
The legendary performance by 4 true geniuses. Oh, if we could only have this on vid....

I have spent a great deal of time playing this to people who finally get it. The launching pad for Monty Python, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, et al, is right here. These 3 CDs contain the cream of the 60's satire crop by 4 very affable chaps not afraid to take convention and a sledgehammer and juxtapose the two. The material is first-rate and the performances practically flawless. One or two bits do require more visual, but the gist is just as good--gets the mind working.

Even the material that is dated (Harold Macmillan et al) holds up well because, in all honesty, have politicians really changed all that much in 40 years? I think not--it's just more public now.

Get this set by any means. You will truly treasure this gem for years to come.

Your Comedy Education:
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2000-10-09
Terrific. I've just spent the entire weekend listening to certain tracks over and over. The writing is fantastic and the talents of these 4 are really amazing. The characterizations are crystal clear and masterfully layered ("Words...and Things," "TVPM," "Take a Pew" among others) so that for any performer, writer or director, "Beyond the Fringe" is an education. Two of the three CDs were recorded in London and it is interesting to compare them with the third CD, recorded in the U.S. Although I questioned my hormone balances when I paid for the thing, I'm very happy to have it as a part of my collection. For any piano players, Dudley Moore does a wonderful job with humor and music. While some of the sketches aren't nearly as topical as they were in 1961, the time gap serves to clarify the choices of the actors. Even with that, the sketches have aged well.

Peter
Biology
Published in Paperback by Mcgraw-Hill College (1996-01)
Authors: Peter H. Raven and George B. Johnson
List price: $66.40
Used price: $65.00

Average review score:

Complete and very good textbook!
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 2004-08-14
I used this book for my college biology I and II classes. My favorite part of the book was animal structure and function. Although the writing in this book is on a pretty high level, nothing was left out--very complete. Sometimes it was hard to understand the chapters on genetics. Then again genetics is a hard topic. I used additional sources to clarify on what I learned in Raven's book.

I used AP Biology by Beck. This book was a helpful study guide. This was easy to comprehend. Made biology easier to learn.

However, what really did it for me was Patrick Leonardi's:
The Ultimate Study Guide for Biology: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations
This study guide comes in 3 volumes, make sure to get all three if you take biology I and II. If you are only taking Biology I, you can probably get away with only getting volume 1 and 2. These study guides had very good questions on every topic that is tested on in college biology. It was organized into specific sections, making it very helpful for exam preparation. It was so complete that it had the kind of questions that were asked on my exams. Don't go blind into an exam. These books are very helpful.

Wow a biology book thats fun to read
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-12-17
This is a great biology book. One of my favorite things about this book is the diagrams. I also like the sections on human origins and the individual sections on different organisms. This book is as good or might even be better then the Campbell biology-that speaks for itself

Best intro to Bio book out there
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2001-04-18
This is definitely the best intro to bio books out there. As a graduate student I got the chance to read lots of bio books and this one by far is the best. The chapters are well organized and easy to follow and gives you the depth needed to pursue any area of biology. When it was time for me to student teach this was the book of my chose. It expensive but definiely worth it to any biologist. The CD-ROM is also very good!

BIOLOGY TEACHERS N.B.
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2001-05-29
This is by far the finest Introductory Biology textbook I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Biology teachers, do yourselves (not to mention your students) a favor--make this the required text for your Biology I (and II) Class! Special Thanks goes out to Dr. Michael Hoefer...for requiring this textbook!

One of those books you take with you on a deserted island
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2001-06-25
.....or if you had to travel back in time. I had this for my textbook in Biology back in 1987 and even then, .... well before the human genome was anywhere near being charted, let alone completed, this was a spectacular acomplishment. This book isn't riveting like say Druyan and Sagan's SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESOTRS is, but it is as good as any biology textbook can possibly be. It has EVERYTHING you could possibly want to know about biology; from modern cell theory to ecology. All you have to do is look this over and you'll see why I highly recommend it. Does any other bio textbook even compare?

Peter
Birth
Published in Kindle Edition by Alterna Comics Inc. (2008-02-28)
Author:
List price: $3.00
New price: $2.40

Average review score:

Fantastic!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-23
I loved this comic from start to finish. The story is brilliant the artwork unbelievable. It is amazing how well drawn it is. The artwork tells the story almost completely without words. The reviews are right on! All 5's!

A DEEP, MOVING, WELL-WRITTEN WORK OF ART!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-03
This is the FIRST graphic novel to be published for the Kindle, and if BIRTH is any indication of what's to come in portable e-comics, then great things await!!!

This story of two alien societies is the prequel that sets the stage for the Novo: The Birth of Novo, from what I've read. I'll be buying Novo: The Birth of Novo in the very near future.

The story moves at a steady, even pace, not rushed or slow, and the artwork is stunning. I've written two ebooks on the subject of Kindle graphics (Graphics on the Kindle (Book 1 of the "Graphics on the Kindle" Series) and Formatting Comics for the Kindle (Book 2 of the "Graphics on the Kindle" Series). I've worked with MANY different artists in the past few months helping them improve their images on the Kindle, and I have to stay that this is the BEST artwork I've ever seen on this device.

ALTERNA COMICS should take a bow for taking the chance to be the FIRST graphic novel available on the Kindle, and for releasing such a well-done publication as the first of their many future Kindle ebooks. Their example should inspire and motivate other indie comic creators to follow suit and explore this emerging method of publication and delivery.

M Burgos,
Author
Graphics on the Kindle (Book 1 of the "Graphics on the Kindle" Series)
Formatting Comics for the Kindle (Book 2 of the "Graphics on the Kindle" Series)

Fantastic and Emotional
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-01
I ordered this book based on the author's artwork he had done in another book. This book sat on my shelf for a couple of weeks before I finally go to it... this should have been at the top of my to read list.

This book doesn't contain a lot of dialogue and relies heavily on the artwork to tell the story, and it does so beautifully. A hint of sci-fi element but a definite parallel to the human race and how we treat each other. Blaming one another for our own faults and never taking responsibility.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

I'm ordering the sequel, 'Novo', today and I'll write a review for that one later.

The next great comic auteur has arrived!
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-10
The ultimate cautionary anti-war fable, blending fantasy and sci-fi elements into something wholly its own. Bracco's art is jaw-dropping eye-candy, and the story is a fantastic mesh of text and visuals. This is a tale made to be a comic - it'd be extraordinarily expensive as a film, and perhaps overly didactic as pure text, but as the graphic novel BIRTH, it's pitch-perfect. It's got style, atmosphere and ambiance to spare. And it's very intelligent and imaginatively executed. A book worth your time and money, no doubt whatsoever.

FYI - while BIRTH is entirely stand-alone, it also serves as the prequel/prologue to the new ongoing grpahic novel series Novo Volume 1: The Birth of Novo, which is also one incredibly conceived comic. Bracco's the next Frank Miller, Erik Larsen, Doug TenNapel, etc. Mark those words.

Original, Unique, One-of-a-kind, riveting
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-02
I love the story, which relates to us all in some period of our lives. I love the artwork which details strong, confident lines, I look foward to the continuation which has endless possibilities. I thoroughly recommend this to everyone who can truly stomach real life, ok maybe real life in another dimension or world, but real life indeed. This is not your ordinary comic. Check it out!

Peter
The Boardman Tasker Omnibus: Savage Arena, the Shining Mountain, Sacred Summits, Everest the Cruel Way
Published in Hardcover by Mountaineers Books (1995-05)
Author:
List price: $38.00
New price: $22.49
Used price: $10.22

Average review score:

Good stories just too many of them
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-11
The stories are very touching and good, just it is a huge book and
there are too many of them and inherently they are quite similar.

The Best Climbing Book; Period
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2005-06-13
I have read literally dozens of climbing books. Without a doubt, Boardman's "Shining Mountain" is the best climbing book ever written. The only books that come close are "The White Spider" (Harrer), "The Mountains of My Life" (Bonatti) and "Touching the Void" (Simpson) which is not really a climbing but an epic survival book.

The other books in this omnibus are also good, but not as good as The Shining Mountain. I have read it about 5 times and have enjoyed it every time.

one of the best of its kind
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2003-09-14
The writing is clear and engaging and the expeditions are covered thoroughly. The last book of the Omnibus about a Tasker Omnibus is not as good as the rest. Book is partly a credit to the writing ability of the two authors and partly due to the nature of small expeditions documented where the story is intimate and human, rather than the unholy literary messes encountered in books about large expeditions.

Remarkable.
Helpful Votes: 26 out of 27 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-08
Having read inumerable books on mountaineering, I wasn't prepared for the impact of this one. I've read "Fragile Edge" by Maria Coffey, (it is excellent, she was Tasker's girlfriend)about her and Hillary Boardman's experiences following the deaths of Boardman and Tasker, and wasn't prepared for the emotional impact of this book. It is probably one of the best I've read. Boardman's style gripped me, and brought home what a terrible tragedy his death was for the literary community. I believe there are "writing climbers" and "climbing writers"; Boardman was definitely a gifted climber who wrote beautifully. This book should be in anyone's library who loves mountains and adventure travel.

A gripping collection
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2001-03-22
This book delivers one of the most comprehensive perspective on climbing in the Himalayas. With vivid descriptions of successful (and unsuccessful) climbs of a variety of peaks in the Himalayas plus descriptions of the North Face of the Eiger and the Snow Mountains of New Guinea, this book demonstrates the versatility of these two gentlemen.

The drama and imagery shines through the writing of both Tasker and Boardman. With details on the first ascents of the West Face of Changabang, the Southeast ridge of Dunagiri, the Northwest ridge of Kangchenjunga and more, this book is a treasure trove of great climbing. There are occasional technical terms but they demonstrate the effort and intensity of these two climbers. A great choice.


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