X Books

Dr. Stephen Monfort Vail, my great great great grandfather, wrote this book. Dr. Stephen Monfort Vail was a prestigious minister and a renound abolitionist. The book is a great intellectual and enlightening book that tells how God disapproves of Slavery. Dr. Vail displays examples of his proof of God's disapproval of slavery in the Bible. If you are interested in the abolitionist movement in the late nineteenth century, this greatly written book, I recommend to you.

I think everybody in the whole world should get one of these I and my family love it I especialy love the embroidery

What a shame that this book is no longer in print. Cut-aways are, simply put, a marvelous way to study architectural design. Allow a child to sit uninterrupted with this book and he will learn quite a bit about techniques, optical tricks, building design, sculpture, friezes, and so on.

Ten buildings are the subjects of this illustrated book: the Great Pyramid in Egypt, Abu Simbel in Egypt, the Parthenon in Athens, the Colosseum in Rome, Notre Dame in Paris, Bodiam Castle in southeast England, Mont Mt. Michel off the northwestern coast of France, the Basilica of St. Peter in Vatican City in Rome, the Taj Mahal in India, and the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.

Each structure is laid out in two two-page spreads with a general history and overview in the first spread, then particular details in the next spread. For example, in the first, the many buildings that made up the Parthenon are shown and identified, and structure is described. In the second, the optical illusion of straight columns is detailed, sculptures are explained, and figures identified. A brief history of the destruction is illustrated.

The same setup follows for each of the remaining nine. No matter the beauty, no matter the preference for style, the one that stands out above the rest for architectural and engineering brilliance, attention to details is the Colosseum. Built in the first century A.D., the Colosseum was the largest Roman amphitheater built exclusively for gladiator events. It was built of concrete and supported by a system of arches and vaults. Below ground was a series of passageways that led to hundreds of rooms that housed gladiators and animals. In fact, several species of animals were hunted and eventually eliminated for the sport of arena fighting. The open section of the Colosseum could be shaded by a huge awning, and the arena could be flooded for mock battles.

A case could be built for each structure as the most incredible. Children could spend hours pouring over the illustrations for these ten building and come back to find new details. Cultural and historical backgrounds are provided, as well as a geographical location by use of a globe and identified country.

The X-Ray Book is written at probably the fourth grade level. Heartily recommended.

Cool Single man's guide to adapting to single life and many helpful 'hints' to surviving.. Includes interesting autobiograpy of man in the 1970's -80's, revisited.. Also a Ladies must read, for inner knowledge of men..

This is the story of Frank Shields, a great tennis star who was ranked as the best tennis player in the whole world in 1933. It was witten by his son.

Shield was a real high liver in the early 20th century running with Barrymores, Clark Gable and other. He was a free liver and a free lover. A passionate Irish fellow, he was wild and irresponsible, and yet irresistable in his own way.

William Shields writes of his father with a warm love, even though he does give notice to all his imperfections.

This is quite possibly the best-written technical book that I have ever read. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in "sustainability" issues or use of renewable materials. This book describes the growing use of plant-based chemical feed-stocks and materials although there is also a chapter on the use of feather (chicken, turkey etc) reinforcement. The authors selected the material very nicely so that the subjects covered have a nice flow. Topics move from industrial-type separations processes to chemical modifications of oils, to blending materials to get desired properties, through to manufacturing and current products. There is also discussion and data comparing materials properties based on source and processing. Throughout the book never loses its "readability" or interest. I started the book with a lot of interest in the subject and finished it with even more interest in the subject, and that does not always happen. I have read other books in subjects that are of interest to me and yet lost interest in the book itself and thereafter used the book merely as a reference source. This book is one I quickly decided I would read from cover to cover. It does assume basic familiarity with chemical terminology and some technical background but I think anyone with a bachelor level background in chemistry or chemical engineering or some materials-related field will have no difficulty with the treatment of the subject matter. Modern industry is highly dependent on non-renewable resources, and the polymer industry specifically is largely dependent on petroleum-based feedstocks. I think every materials educator, researcher, formulator or manufacturer should start learning about bio-based materials since they are certain to become increasingly important to our economy, and I think this book is not only the first to deal with the subject, but even as other books become available, I believe this will remain the best for quite some time.

This is an excellent work which deserves much greater recognition. Inspired by "The Art of War" and the video game of the same name, this book takes a documentary-style look at the life of a man who many see as a hero, a mentor, and a friend. In sum, when the Bionic Commando, otherwise known by his civilian name, Jack Markson, loses his arm during a ninja-attack in his hotel room there is some serious trouble. For one thing, his friend Super Joe is gone, kidnapped as leverage in what appears to be a bizarre blackmailing/extortion scheme. This is disastrous for Mr. Markson as Super Joe is a friend and colleague with whom he has worked for decades. Predictably, our blonde hero vows revenge on this faceless, heartless enemy. He appeals to his government, The Federation; in recognition of his years of dedicated service this organization grants him a bionic arm that has, among other tools, a grappling hook, truth serum, and a flame thrower (NOTE: the latter two are not apparent in the NES game for some reason, so this is one of the major surprises of the book!!!). During the course of the novel Markson must find Super Joe and battle a hoard of enemies in various locations. The ending is a surprise twist that will shock, amaze, and ultimately befuddle any reader, young or old, happy or sad. This work should be required reading for anyone who is interested in bionic limbs, ghosts, soldiers, and video games.

Despite what modern readers might be tempted to infer from the title of this book, the notion of 'Theoria' at work here does not involve 'theory' in its modern, privative sense - i.e. as a prelude to practice, or purely abstract, auxilliary notions about some particular thing or state, but refers to a type of contemplative action that Aristotle held to be an end in itself - for the philosopher.

Needless to say then, Erikson's study of N.E. X will be an eye opener and prove somewhat shocking, for those weaned on the notion of Aristotle the 'empiricist' and antithesis of Plato's 'contemplative' style. Rightly or wrongly, Book VI
is often taken to be the definitive chapter of N.E. Heidegger, for instance, made much of Book VI as a 'phenomenological' exploration of the springs of social action. There, we find no appeal to abstract states - and, in Book VI, human and moral excellence (arete)and the blessed life (eudaemonia)itself - is stated to lie within the scope of the 'kalei praxeis' or noble practices incumbent upon man in his social being. In the life of the Polis, it is the logical corollary of Aristotle's 'ergon' argument - that a thing is defined by its function (ergon)- and, insofar as human beings live in a world of shared meaning, their 'ergon' requires a social framework. Ostensibly then, Aristotle had no time for a consciousness, priviliged to operate beyond or outside the social realm.

Strangely, however - with N.E. Book X, Aristotle does privilege consciousness in an almost Platonic sense - and the life of the philosopher along with it. This upsets the Aristotleians who wish to make Aristotle into a modern empiricist and phenomenonologist too, if they can. Surely, they think, Aristotle could not have been serious when advocating the contemplative life as man's highest vocation? They go back to Aristotle's N.E. BK VI - citing the 'ergon' argument, failing to see that so far as Aristotle and N.E. Book X are
concerned, the 'bios theoretikos' represents the most complete activity. There is reason to feel that he had in mind something like Dogen's notion of samadhi as the self fulfilling activity of Za-zen. Those with little or no wit like to see the absurd in this, a life dedicated to "thinking about thought " etc. But actually, Aristotle's argument is that the bios theoretikos - as he articulated it - mirrors the activity of the gods or THE divine energeia itself. The Latin equivalent for the act of theoria - in this sense, means something like pure
speculation, as in the pure reflective power of a speculum or mirror. In Christian terms, it is contemplating the divine in terms of a pure act (actus purus). Like other commentators, Erikson underscores the tension between N.E.@Bk. 6 and Bk. X, but unlike most commentators, beside the odd Thomist scholar, Erikson has endeavoured to understand the separate argument presented in N.E. Bk. X. I like to think that the jury is still out on this. It is intriguing to think that we might read N.E.
Book X afresh, after 2, 500 years.

I thought that this one was a slow starter but all in all a great mystery.

I am writing this review to let other browsers know that the wrong Table of Contents is shown on this web site for the book Blood In Our Boots. This book is the story of Ed Haider who trained as a ParaTrooper in WWII and participated in the first jump into Sicily and ended up in the Stalag 2B. You will enjoy his story. I have listened to Ed tell these stories for the past few years,and his book has the same great "storytelling" qualities.