Wilson Books

I bought this book when it was first published and used it as a primer to learn how to cook. It is highly practical with the chapters arranged by technique (boiling, braising, sauteing, etc). And it is well illustrated with simple drawings that effectively communicate how to execute those techniques. I would recommend it to anyone, especially those who are just learning to cook. Unfortunately, even though it was re-issued a few years ago in both hardcover and paperback, the used booksellers think this book must be worth its weight in gold. It isn't. If you can find a copy in good condition at a reasonable price, consider buying it. If not, look for James Peterson's -Essentials of Cooking- which, in many ways, is a superior book and should be available at a sane price.

Selection, technique and associated recipes from this legend make this a book one turns to often. Mine is worn out from over fifteen years of usage. You'll put it profit in your kitchen.

This is the classic of American cooking, the first cookbook to own and the one you go back to all your life.
Beard had a brilliant sense for food, and in this book he shares concepts and approaches, explaining the equipment you use, and the techniques, methodically, clearly and with his particular elan.
Anyone can follow this book. But between the recipes presented throughout the book (organized in the unusual manner of by technique - things you boil, things you bake, things you roast, etc.) and the concordance (organized by food), you can find great recipes and just plain information and direction to help you make just about enough food to last a lifetime.
I brought it with me to France and still rely on it.

This classy reprint of a standard cooking guide deserves a spot on the shelf of any serious cook's collection: this edition provides an introduction by Julia Child and a foreword by Barbara Kafka as it covers the basics methods and ingredients of good cooking, with a healthy dose of Beard's philosophy added for spice.

A must for anyone who loves good food. I bought my copy about 20 years ago in my bachelor days, and still refer to it regularly. If you can learn the techniques in this book and in "From Julia Child's Kitchen," you'll be in the 99th percentile of home cooks. Add a couple of Pierre Franey's 60-Minute Gourmet or Cuisine Rapide volumes, and you and yours will eat well for life.

I am so thrilled that Stone Waverly is back!

I do not like to read books about war, but a friend convinced me to read Steve Wilson's first book, Winter in Kandahar, and I couldn't put the book down. There began my love of Stone Waverly.

So naturally, between Steve Wilson's compelling storytelling and style of writing, I was thrilled to learn of his second book, Ascent From Darkness. I was equally as thrilled to learn that Stone Waverly continues on his journey.

I have not changed my mind and decided to read books on war, but Ascent from Darkness is a book about mysterious happenings wrapped in the most mysterious of all happenings - love.

May Mr. Wilson keep me anxiously turning the pages of Stone Waverly's life adventures for years to come!

P.S. I expect some smart movie producer to purchase the movie rights to both Winter In Kandahar and Ascent From Darkness and turn them into the blockbusters they so deserve to be!

We just read this book for my book club after one of the member's husbands, a Special Forces Major, recommended it. I was reluctant to read a book with soldiers on the cover, but read it because it was a finalist in the Indie Book Awards in Action adventure. I was delighted with the romance aspect of the novel. You'll love it!

One of the best action adventure stories I've read since Black Hawk Down. It's a well-written, fast-paced page-turner that focuses on the current situation in Iraq and Syria. Highly recommended!

I finally got around to reading Ascent from Darkness and I loved it. Like Winter in Kandahar, it's intriguing plot centers around an ethnic group, here the Kurds in northern Iraq, and provides a lot of perspective about the current situation in Iraq, especially the relations between the different groups. The novel is multi-layered and I found the characters credible and engaging. I highly recommend it.

I just got this book last weekend and once I started reading it my family lost me until I finished a few hours ago. "Couldn't put it down" definitely applies. What a great story! (or should I say stories? There are three parallel stories that converge to a memorable ending). Adventure, romance, interpersonal conflict, combat, humor...Ascent From Darkness has it all. It would definitely make a fantastic movie. Wilson's first book, Winter in Kandahar, is a great favorite of mine, but you can see maturation in his writing style and plot development with this new novel. At the end of the book, it mentions a new novel "The Ghosts of Anatolia" is coming in 2009. I can't wait!

This is such a fun book. Hilda is making a mess of the jungle with her dancing and the other animals are trying to get her to take up new hobbies. The book rhymes and is fun to read. I bought this for my 2 year old and she loves it. Karma Wilson writes several books we enjoy, including her Bear series.

my 2 year old loves this book. she knows it almost by heart. very fun to read!

My daughters (3 and 4) LOVE this book and so do I. It has been one of our favorites for over a year. We also like others by this author.

My 18 month old daughter and I first heard this book at Story Time in the Library and we checked it out that day. We fell in love with it and I had to purchase it immediately to add to our collection. My daughter LOVES the sound effects and begs to have me read the "dancing" book to her. The book just flows and is so much fun to read, and the pictures adorable and brightly colored. This has become one of our favorite books!

I love this book! The illustrations are beautiful and cheerful. The rhyming text is fun, and the message is positive.

I'm a civil war historian -- and i can't even put into words how important it is to read this book.

Trust me, you will love it.

The author successfully weaves together regimental histories with grand strategic movements and anecdotal observations of the common soldier. All this gives a feel for the the tension and struggle faced by the "heroes" of this story-- the officers and common soldiers of the Iron Brigade. Common men of uncommon bravery and valor. The reader is able to follow the progress of each regiment within the Brigade through Nolan's fast paced, dramatic narrative. A fine reference and requisite companion to Herdegen's "Four Years with the Iron Brigade," since it puts the diaries in the larger context of Brigade movements. I appreciated Nolan's work all the more after Herdegen's book, and wished I had read them together.

Author Alan Nolan has brought the story of the Iron Brigade to life in this excellent study of this famous group of hard fighting midwesterners. Nolan's information is valuable and everything is backed by references. Nolan's style is concise. It was nice that he didn't dwell on subjects like battles or politics not involving the Iron Brigade. He kept the book's chapters flowing and informative. He kept biographies short while the movements and changes in command structure through out the book were covered very well. The fighting at Gettysburg was probably the best coverage and most descriptive although it was most fitting considering it was the brigade's crescendo in battle. Overall, Nolan's book is a valuable tool, reference and history of the Iron Brigade that many people could benefit from reading. 5 STARS!

Nolan's book about the Iron Brigade is a fantastic account of the brigade's history, covering its intriguing stories off the field as much as on it.

The book is very easy to follow as it begins with the creation of every regiment in the brigade and ends months after Appomattox.

By using primary accounts and concise analysis, Nolan covers the relationships between the ordinary men and their officers, the relationships between the regiments, the relationships between the brigades and divisional/corps commanders all the way up to McClellan/Hooker and more. In addition, the politics in the brigade and the Army of the Potomac as a whole are covered, and all of this without even getting into the combat history of the brigade.

Nolan covers in depth every combat the Iron Brigade was engaged in while it consisted of just Westerners, and the Epilogue in the book deals with the addition of non Western units to the Brigade, the dissolution of some of the regiments and the mustering out of notable officers through discharges, wounds and death.

In Nolan's interpretation, although it keeps its name, the Iron Brigade is no longer THE Iron Brigade after all the casualties at Gettysburg and the addition of Eastern troops to the brigade on July 18, 1863. Thus the combat from Brawner's Farm to Gettysburg is covered in depth concerning the brigade's actions. The book has exceptional maps for the actions of the brigade on the battlefields and casualty counts for every regiment. The chapter dealing with Day 1 of Gettysburg is the book's most poignant and gripping battle account.

The notes in the book are nearly 100 pages and are nearly as interesting as the narrative itself. In the notes are extended discussions on casualty %s (the Iron Brigade as a whole suffered the most battle casualties by % than any Federal brigade during the war, the 2nd Wisconsin suffered the most by % of any regiment, the 24th Michigan suffered 80% casualties on July 1 etc.) and Nolan's explanation in how he dealt with discrepancies in battle records and accounts. In the epilogue's notes, Nolan offers up post-war details of the officers in the 5 regiments.

One of the best parts of the book is how Nolan really takes issue with Glenn Turner's book on Gettysburg due to its pro-Confederate slant. Turner claims the Iron Brigade was "swept off" the field and calls Old Man Burns, the old citizen who came onto the field and fought with the Iron Brigade, a "cowardly" "bushwhacker" despite fighting in line and being wounded three times during the battle.

This book is perfect for anyone interested in the Civil War or anyone interested in the military history of Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan.

Nolan's "biography" of the battle-torn Iron Brigade contains the most stirring description of the 1st day of battle at Gettysburg that I have ever read. His account of the bravery and heroism of these men is exceptional. At times I got a bit confused trying to keep track with whom was in charge of which regiment/brigade/division, etc., but this information is vital to the history of the brigade. This book also made me aware of the under-appreciated accomplishments of Lt. Col. Rufus Dawes who should be accorded the same recognition as other noble Union leaders during this battle, such as Chamberlain, Hancock and Warren.

Perfect gift not only for Pug lover but for all dog lovers. This is a sweet tale of pure love...the kind only dogs know and give and the kind we only aspire to share. There is a message in this simple story to implore the heart to cherish innocence and see the world through "dog eyes."

Nancy Levine never ceases to amaze me with her awesome photographs of the pugs (and a new "guest" dog) and her great stories. This book is perfect for any pug or other dog lover, adult and child alike. It is rare that books come out to satisfy both the adult and the child and this is one of those exceptional books.

I highly recommend this book and the other books in the "Wilson the Pug" series.

Wilson and Nancy write wonderful books. Lots of love and time go into each one that they have written. My Little Luci Lu says Puggy paws up for The Ugly Pugling and the other books, too! **Smiles** We are looking forward to reading your next book and thank you for keeping Puggy smiles on our faces.

This reviewer recently adopted a Basset-mix puppy (that's him on my profile page) from a shelter/rescue (and encourages all of you reading this to consider giving a rescue/shelter dog a home, too!) It appears that my puppy is a Basset/Coonhound mix. Which brought to mind the question - how, logistically, could a Basset and Coonhound mix? You will be pleased to know that this fun photo story does NOT answer that question.

Once upon a time, Wilson the Pug, descendant of Pug-tzu, "author" and star of The Tao of Pug, fell in love with Hedy, who was "unlike the other pugs I'd met before. With her big floppy ears, prominent muzzle and huge paws, she was a vision of lovliness." Time passed. And Wilson saw his love no more. He went to her house. And " "a huge dog, the biggest I'd ever seen!" appears at the door. Oh My! A Mastiff! But gazing into her big brown eyes, "I got a whiff of her sweetly biscuited breath." It's Hedy stuff! She isn't a homely pug - but a marvelous mastiff!

Our hero and heroine may be parted by humans - unless the dogs come up with a Taoist plan! The words and photos along the way will charm children and dogs of all ages.

My original quandry remains unanswered after the Afterward by Wilson: "Fortunately, I was a neutered pug, because Hedy and I felt strongly that the world did not need a new breed of mastug or pugstiff."
/TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer

This book tells a poignant story about unrequited love that is appropriate for both adults and kids alike. I gave this book to several children as a holiday gift and their moms all concur that the kids just adore it and want to have it read to them over and over.
The humor is infectious and the photography superb, as always. We'll be keeping our eyes out for the next adventure!
P.S. Wilson the Pug is the only author my pugs will read....

As one plunges deeper into the wilderness of this work, it becomes increasingly difficult that to keep in mind that it is not the first novel of a very young man indeed. All the usual signs are there: the complete absence of objective grasp; the interminable soul-searchings of the hero; the megalomaniac inconsequence of the plot; the feverish effort to get everything in. To these generic defects Mr Powys adds a conscience condemned, by the lack of fixed principles, to constant overwork, and a style of such unsophisticated badness as becomes, in the long run, almost endearing.

Wolf Solent is a man of 35, whose inner life, through a prolonged or rather petrified adolescence, has ben entirely in daydreams, to which he attaches a mystical significance and which, his adult acquaintance having presumably outgrown them, he believes peculiar to himself. This belief the author seems, unfortunately, to share. Wolf's return to his native Dorset, and his experiences there, drive him out into reality a little, but how far the reader must be left to decide; for none of Wolf's irrelevant and repetitive musings are ever spared him, and they resemble each other very closely from first to last.

The bok is full of the grandiose beginnings, loose ends and meaningless gestures of the amateur. It is, on the whole, heavy reading, for Mr Powys does not attempt to select -- his aim is to transcribe.
This is no doubt a form of sincerity, but still, sincerity is only a means; and an accumulation of detail merely puzzles the mind, as the car is puzzled by a succession of unrelated sounds. A Novelist, besides, must leave out something. Mr Powys' method is to leave out the difficult things. Important transitions, the growth of relationships, her passes over in silence, assuming in the next chapter, that they have taken place, and leaving the how and the why for ever a mystery to the astonished reader.

To say that a book is without selection, proportion, or logical development, is to condemn it at once as lacking the qualities of mind. Now there may be art forms in which the will and the intellect have a subordinate place, but the novel is not one of them. The novelist must know his own mind before he can advance a step; otherwise, concerned as he is with life directly and as a whole, he is obliged to put everything in. Anything that presents itself may, for all he knows, be the essential thing, and besides, if he leaves it out he feels it will be lost for ever. Great novels are based on principles, and Mr Powys, for lack of them, is a prey to all the bugbears of the imagination.

Wolf Solent has two bugbears-- will and energy. They take in his mind the forms of modern civilisation and sex. The first he escapes, though it continues to haunt him at intervals, by returning to Dorset and living in a small workman's villa: beautiful houses are apparently too voluntary and coherent for him.Sex he cannot escape, being as much attracted as repelled by it. Sex, therefore is, what this book is about. It is treated with a mixture of pedantry and superstition hard to describe; indeed, Mr Powys quite loses his head over it. For example: the bad Squire has engaged Wolf as his collaborator in a history of Dorset; he is introduced with every circumstance of the sinister and hair-raising; then he begins to talk about his history:

" We must select, my friend, we must select. All history lies in selection. We can't put in everything. We must out in only what's got pith and sap and salt. Things like adulteries, murders and fornications."

Wolf, however, continues to take him seriously; indeed, he is shocked. He is in a continual state of shock; shocked at his friends, shocked at himself, shocked still more when he is not shocked.; shocked by sex particularly, but not exclusively.

" Behind the pigsty! It seemed to him odd that he had lived there a whole year and never seen this familiar shed from the back. It was queer how he always shirked reality, and then suddenly plunged-- plunged into its inmost retreat! Behind the pigsty! It was only when he got desperate that he plunged into the nature of human beings-- that he got behind them! Ay! how coldly, how maliciously, he could dive into people he knew and see their inmost souls...from behind, from behind! Poison and sting...the furtive and the sex clutch, yes, a spasmodically jerking, quivering ego-nerve, pursing its own end-- that what was behind everyone!"

He torments himself unflagging over his ideals without having any clear notion what they are, or any impulse to sit down and think them out. In fact, Mr Powys has rediscovered the hundred per cent. romanticism of Sturm und Drang-- and he does not appear to entertain the lats suspicion that it has been discovered before.


His moral sensitiveness, indeed, and patience in recording impressions might give this book some value if he had command of English enough to do them justice. Unfortunately, he has not. At the end of a long, serious, introspective sentence, suddenly you come upon an exclamation make: it strikes on the ear like the blunder of a too genial guest at a gentel and rather strained tea-party. This hearty symbol, however, recurs so often that one comes to take it in the right spirit, as a mere confession of inadequacy.

Mr Powys' literariness is a more consistent shock. 'Miss Gault's face,' he says, 'was like an ancient amphitheatre full of dusky gladiators.' Faces, interpretated by Mr Powys, are seldom without some monstrous oddity. Smiles are reflected in them like bunches of honeysuckle. In fact, this book is so strenously over-written that it was hardly possible it should be expressive. It has been grossly over-praised.

This is my third Powys novel, after The Glastonbury Romance and Weymouth Sands. I still think Weymouth Sounds the best, representing what Powys called "elementalism" (his own particular form of animism) and a magical, kaleidoscopic whirl of poetic prose seen through the mind's eye of several characters. This book is darker, told through the perspective of the eponymous main character who resembles Powys himself not a little (q.v. Powys's Autobiography), but it still has the trademark mystagogic prose that is unmatched in literature. The other reviewers have done a thorough job of painting the setting and characters. So, I'll just add a quote to give the potential reader an idea of what s/he is in for here:

" ` Don't you ever feel,' he said, `as if one part of your soul belonged to a world altogether different from this world - as if it were completely disillusioned about all the things that people make such a fuss over and yet were involved in something important?'" p.239

If you've ever had intimations of this sort, you'll love this book...and the rest of Powys's novels I might add.


As a footnote, for those interested, the last chapter presents a very droll description of Bertrand Russell in the character of Lord Carfax. Powys and Lord Russell were near contemporaries and neighbours in Wales. They often debated each other in America, and remained on very good terms, despite their diametrically opposite philosophies.

The first time I read this book I must admit Wolf's mad ramblings irritated me and I merely skipped through to the "naughty bits". How glad I am that I took it up a second time! John Cowper Powys gives us a malevolant England full of incestous activity - outright, as in the case of Mr Malekite and his two daughters, and in the overtones of Wolf's relationship with his mother and half sister. Indeed, both the girls he falls in love with are described as childlike in different ways, Christie physically and Gerda mentally, and are indeed nearly half Wolf's age. Throw in hints of homosexuality in the clergy, conversations with the dead and twelvemonth corpes being dug up, and you have a very dark veiw of the English countryside indeed. Yet somehow the lush, lyrical prose and mystical torment of Wolf contrive to make this one of the most intriguing and beautiful novels I have ever read.

I took a previous reviewers advice and initiated my experience with Powys upon reading WOLF SOLENT. I found it a very rewarding reading adventure.POWYS packs his pages with profuse imagery,pagan and otherwise.He extracts profound symbolism from the most ordinary enviorments/characterizations.
His writings here are mystical...drawing upon pre-christian archetypes as well as modern day affinities.The characters are believable,likable, and frought with imperfections which only add to the otherworldly strangeness of his literary style.This book is over 600 pages so's it might be a little while before I proceed with more works of his, but I have already purchased WEYMOUTH SANDS and look forward to reading more of his peculiar "vision".

John Cowper Powys is one of those authors who can be recognized just by the distinction of his prose, employing a style characterized by a picturesque metaphorical lyricism and, particularly in "Wolf Solent," the title character's deep introspection regarding his relationship to the world. Terms like "first cause" and "magnetic" are repeated throughout the novel like motifs, revealing the author's preoccupation with metaphysical forces, motivations, and effects.

Wolf is a 35-year-old man who, at the beginning of the novel, is moving from London to his native county of Dorsetshire to take a job assisting a wealthy man named Urquhart, the Squire of King's Barton, in writing a book about the more scandalous aspects of the histories of local families. Wolf finds Urquhart to be rather eccentric and petty and soon learns that his previous assistant, a young man named Redfern, died under disputable circumstances. This sounds like a setup for an intriguing mystery, especially when Wolf discovers Urquhart's gardener and another man digging around Redfern's grave one night, but the novel is concerned more with the essence of secrecy than with the mechanics of revealing secrets.

The residents of Dorsetshire, with their piquant personalities, rustic sincerity, and realistic complexity, are worthy of a Thomas Hardy novel; no set of characters can expect higher praise than that. They are there not just to drive the plot forward but to act and react against Wolf and each other to create a theater of emotions and passions in which life becomes a colorful, unpredictable masquerade. The principal players include Jason Otter, a morose, temperamental poet; Selena Gault, an ugly old spinster with whom Wolf's father had had an affair; Tilly-Valley, a foolish vicar; and Bob Weevil, a lascivious butcher whose sausages possibly connote something priapic about his role in the community.

Wolf's research brings him to two young ladies with whom he falls in love: Gerda Torp, the stonecutter's daughter, whose stunning beauty and nymphlike nature arouse his sexual desires; and Christie Malakite, the bookseller's daughter, a relatively plain but bright girl who is harboring a vile secret about her father and to whom Wolf relates on an intellectual level. As Wolf's romantic reveries careen between the two women representing two different erotic ideals, body and mind, we see an intense internal conflict building within him, one that threatens to, but somehow never does, unravel his inner peace.

And what is the source of this peace? Simply that Wolf has escaped the modernity and materialism of London to embrace the idyllic antiquity of rural England and to experience "certain sensations" -- not that he knows exactly what these are yet, but perhaps the fun is in not knowing, in exploration and self-discovery. This is also why he is annoyed by the encroachment of automobiles and airplanes into Dorsetshire towards the end of the novel -- twentieth-century technology has no place in the world whose nineteenth-century tranquility he wants dearly to preserve.

We had never been 4 wheeling in Colorado and found this resource to be very helpful. We had a great time.

I bought this guidebook a few years ago and it is definitely one of the best. It fits easily in our seatback. He covers many trails. What has been helpful about his book, is that the mileage is given in both directions, so you can easily figure out where you are given your starting point. All the cross roads you come across are described as well, so you don't wonder, should I have gone that way. His mileage was right on with our odometer. I have a few other guide books, but his is definitely the best because of the detailed description of your road trip. Highly recommend. With his book and a Trails Illustrated map, no reason for you to get lost.

Informative book,great roads description, could use more pics but very good addition to my existing 4wd library as it contains few trails not listed anywhere else. Perfect for beginner offroaders, also great companion to Well's books!

This book is organized very well and is extremely useful and accurate. The one thing I wish it did have was an overal list of trails by difficulty/scenic value. If you also buy the Wells book, you will be adventuring for quite a while.

I recently used this book for a back country trip in Colorado, after years of using Massey & Wilson's similar book for Arizona. I highly recommend them. The GPS coordinates, odometer readings from two directions on each trail, and difficulty ratings make these invaluable tools for navigating back roads. The local histories and lore make for fun reading even when you're at home.

My 2 year old son got this as a gift. Of course, being two he's already tore off half the tabs, but so what! He still loves it! It definitely won't last until his sister is old enough to enjoy it but we've already gotten our money's worth in the short time we've had it. I plan to buy another copy soon.

My 5 year old grandson loves the moving parts in the book and like to pretend while he looks at it. Enjoys it alot.

Another big vote for this book. As a small red plane pilot, I've given out two of these books to friends kids, with very positive results. 90% of the activities are amazingly accurate, from "chocks away" to refueling.

I agree that it is a little fragile, as some of the cardboard effects are a bit ambitious, but worth it for the detailed appreciation of flying.

Captain Brian says "take off!"

I am writing in response to the reviewer who said that the book is especially great for boys. (let's not gender-type!) This is our daughter's favorite book. She is 13 1/2 months now and it has been her absolute favorite since we started reading it to her when she was just a few months old and we just ordered a second copy because hers is so tattered from use. Highly recommended for girls as well! :)

My two-year-old son loves this book but he has already destroyed more than fifty percent of it after two months of use.

This book has many interesting features, from radio sets connected by string, to "radar blips" on a screen in a cockpit, little planes "flying" through the sky, to a steering wheel that changes the view out windscreen as you "come in for a landing--and that isn't even half of the activities in the book.

The problem is that it requires a high degree of fine motor skill to operate many of the activities. The "radar blips" were difficult for me to spin, for example, and the steering wheel kept getting stuck until mommy tore it in one of her many attempts to "Fix it!" under pressure. My son also removed all of the little "flying airplanes" in less than a week of play.

Don't get me wrong--my son still LOVES this book, despite the fact that it is now falling apart! He has a blast using the things that still work, and explaining to me how the things that are broken used to work.

I would recommend waiting until a child is at least four before buying this book for them unless they are very careful players or there will be parental help all the time it is in use.

And, I would like to add that the girls in my son's playgroup loved this book as well--it is DEFINITELY not just for boys!

Ably written for the non-specialist general reader by Michael R. Wilson (a professional Orthopedic surgeon of 25 years experience), The Other Midlife Crisis: Arthritis And All Those Aches And Pains offers solid information spiced with a touch of humor concerning the health problem of arthritis and how to best deal with it. Excellent recommendations for exercise, improved diet, health concerns and personal care fill the pages of this superbly organized and presented instructional for coping with the problems of arthritis and reducing join pain.

Our co. had an epidemic of carpal tunnel syndrome. People would take days off and our worker'c comp. claims increased. I, as a manager, didn't understand what cps was, how our workplace could cause it and which employee complaints had merit. The illustration and text on cps are so clear that I saw which work stations were a problem and learned what I could efficiently due to eliminate some of the risk and avoid loss of productivity

"When my doctor told me I had arthritis of the hands and knees, I panicked and thought the worst. My mother is wheelchair bound with arthritis. But I learned there are a lot of things I can do to help myself stay in good condition, keep muscle around the joints balanced; and that I can live a normal life with arthritis. I have never had this condition explained to me so plainly."

"It seems that when I go to a doctor any more, I feel rushed and can't ask all my questions. The doctot seems distraught with HMOs, insurance, Medicare and so many other patients that I feel guilty taking his time to ask one more thing. When I sat down and read Dr. Wilson's book, it was just like sitting down with a doctor I could talk to, who related to my shoulder problems and tied it in with how it limited what I can do. I found his explanations for common problems forthright. My better understanding will help me prepare what to ask the next time I have to go to the doctor."

Dr. Michael R. Wilson has written a superb book here that will inform anyone who takes time to read this easy-to-follow, thorough look at our bones, joints, ligaments and tendons . . . plus all those pesky pains associated with them. The information will help you avoid having problems, reduce the amount of problems you will experience and minimize the pain and lost time you will have to suffer.

I was attracted to this book because many members of my family have arthritis or bone-related medical problems. A good friend is an orthopedic surgeon, so I had received from him good advice a long time ago: Avoid exercise that damages joints (like jogging). Beyond that, I knew very little.

As I began the book, I was a little concerned when chapter two contained many pages of medical terminology to be learned before reading the rest of the book. That chapter was the only hard and not very rewarding reading. The rest I enjoyed very much, and found easy to follow. I particularly liked the cartoons, drawings and x-rays of the various conditions and syndromes. I could often grasp with the image what a whole chapter would have had trouble conveying.

Although the book is aimed at those who are middle aged (currently, the baby boomers), there's also lots of information for younger people and the elderly. So you get the whole enchilada. That makes the book helpful in working with parents and children, as well as with one's spouse, siblings and oneself.

I particularly benefited from learning the differences between osteoarthritis (the joints wearing out) and rheumatoid arthritis (infected joints). I had questions about shoulder problems (including those I hear about on television for athletes), tennis elbow, bursitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, bifocal neck, sciatica, knee problems, heel pain, osteoporosis and gout. All of my questions were answered in more than adequate detail, and I learned important information that I didn't realize that I needed to learn.

Unexpectedly, I came away with a better understanding of how each of my joints works, how to react in an accident, and what to talk to my physicians about if I have a bone or joint problem. Although Dr. Wilson is an orthopedic surgeon, he is candid about the situations when surgery will probably make matters worse.

As I finished the book, I was thankful to the gym teacher who many years ago taught me how to fall so that I would not hurt myself.

I've been fascinated with the 200" Hale telescope on Mt Palomar since I read "The Glass Giant of Palomar" as kid. "The Perfect Machine" meets the highest standard you can apply to a non-fiction book--it reads like a novel. Not only does it correct the many errors and omissions of "The Glass Giant of Palomar," but it weaves interleaving stories in a fscinating and riveting way. There's the story of the glass blank of Pyrex and the difficulties casting it, the extraordinary vision of George Ellery Hale, and even the Surrier Truss design first used on this telescope tube. Then there is the site selection, constuction problems, and most of all a vivid portrait of the personalities involved in the construction of this giant. It is even more mind-boggling to realize that all this happened in the first few decades of the 20th century!

After reading this book I finally made my pilgrammage to Mt. Palomar to view the monster for myself. Knowing the details of the telescope's construction added even more to the sense of awe I felt standing in the visitor's gallery gazing in disbelief at this huge, huge machine, and knowing all the discoveries made with it over the years. It was an incredible experience. No photograph of the Hale telescope does it justice.

This is an extraordinary book.

Not only does Ronald Florence give a vibrant account of the design and construction of the Hale telescope, he manages to make the reader share his fascination for an admirable project and an awe-inspiring science machine. The book is better than well written, it is captivating. Having been closely involved in a major telescope project, I can only state that his account of the production of the "giant eye" rings true. Rarely has a science writer shown so much understanding of the intricate processes, technologies, and human relations underlying a large science project. Still, there are a few disturbing inaccuracies in Florence's story. On a number of occasions, the author wrongly gives credit to the Palomar telescope designers for innovations that had been experimented long before, such as the principle of the support of the primary mirror, actually due to Lassel (Malta, 1861). The account of the in-situ finishing of the primary mirror sounds completely implausible, the metrology of the time (I saw the Hartmann screen on the occasion of a privileged visit in 1995) being of too low resolution to allow any meaningful verification of local refiguring as reported by Florence. The post-1950 period would also have deserved a somewhat broader and fairer account; the Russian 6-m may not have been a success comparable to the Palomar but paved the way for modern mechanical designs, and the advent of entirely new and far-reaching concepts, such as active optics, in the hands of European designers and suppliers is completely ignored. Still, the vision and the endeavour underlying the making of the Palomar telescope emanate from every page; it is a nearly perfect book about a nearly perfect machine.

I purchased this book at the telescope gift shop on Mount Palomar back in 1996. I read it in the next few days. It is the fascinating tale of George Hale, a remarkable man who had to battle personal demons (in the form of debilitating mental breakdowns) to build the world's largest telescope--then do it again and again! I can't remember the first one offhand, but the 100-inch Hooker Telescope on Mt. Wilson was next, then the 200-inch Hale telescope on Mt. Palomar. This book talks about all the technical, financal and other difficulties that were overcome to make the giant telescope possible. It explains large earlier telescopes and how the problems encountered in their construction provided lessons for the designers and builders of the Palomar telescope. Anyone interested in the history of technology or astronomy should give this book a look.

I have no trouble pinpointing the splendid-ness of this book. All I have to do is mutate a cliche and say that "the angel is in the details." Florence's full, dramatic account of the various attempts to create the mirror for this enormous telescope -- first by General Electric and then by Corning -- is worth many times the price of admission. What you get is an exciting story of engineering hurdles met, overcome, and sometimes not overcome ... I am not an engineer, but probably should have been one. My father _was_ an engineer and, while reading this book, decided he would probably find it enthralling, and I was right.

Florence is such a careful and masterful writer, that this tale of seemingly-insurmountable obstacles and struggles should appeal to anyone. He makes molten glass come to life. Bravo. One of the better books I've read in the past 5 years - and I read a lot.

Florence's narrative brings alive the fascinating saga of the great Mt. Palomar reflector, in its time the world's largest telescope and a pioneering example of "Big Science." The instrument's gestation period, beginning in 1928 and interrupted by the second World War, was so long that three of the principal figures didn't live to see it dedicated in 1948. Included in this group was the project's founding father, George Ellery Hale, for whom the telescope is named. The author uses Hale's remarkable abilities and seemingly unending physical and mental travails as a unifying theme throughout the book.

A renowned telescope developer and respected solar astronomer, Hale had the establishment clout and scientific connections to launch such a grand project and assemble a team to carry it out. While suffering from a chronic nervous condition that often left him isolated in a darkened room, he was nevertheless able to lead the program through its most critical periods and help rescue it from a multitude of financial and organizational crises.

The immense 200-inch (nearly 17 ft) diameter of the Palomar telescope's main mirror gave it twice the theoretical resolution and four times the light grasp of its Hale-inspired predecessor, the 100-inch reflector on Mt. Wilson. Everything about the 500-ton machine was Brobdingnagian, perhaps best symbolized by the fact that an observer at the prime focus actually sat inside the telescope tube, with plenty of clearance for starlight to stream past him to the mirror some fifty-five feet below.

In the hands of Florence, what might have been a confusing welter of facts becomes a coherent and utterly engrossing suspense story. He seemingly overlooks nothing about the relevant issues of Astronomy, optics, engineering, business, politics and personalities; yet there is no sense of overkill and one always feels eager to begin the next chapter. The dozens of interacting characters are portrayed with enough subtlety, irony and humor to make them seem real and familiar. I have seldom gotten so much pure enjoyment from a book.