Park University Books

This is a great book if you are interested in the academic study of wolves. It can be a bit dry if you are not used to academic prose, though this didn't bother me (I'm an academic in a different field). Allen's text is enriched by extensive charts, figures, and BW photos. On the down side, he spends more time than I would like on non-wolf topics and on the logistics of the long-term wolf study on Isle Royale. I would also have liked more comparisons with wolves living elsewhere in North America as the Isle Royale environment has its peculiarities.
Criticisms aside, it's a very good book and I almost gave it five stars.

I read this book years ago when it was first published in hardcover. It was the best book on wolves I have ever read. The fact that it is scientifically accurate actually made it more readable, not the least bit dry or dull. The wolves are complex, intelligent creatures that you come to admire even more as you read about their elaborate social rituals. I am buying this book for the second time!

Mansfield Park is the story of Fanny Price, who at ten years old is taken away from her indigent family to live with her rich cousins, the Bertrams of Mansfield Park. Both Fanny's uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, and her Aunt Norris, his sister-in-law, want the distinction of rank preserved between Fanny and her richer cousins. Consequently, Fanny suffers under the tyranny of her Aunt Norris and the neglect of most everyone else at Mansfield Park. The only real exception is her cousin Edmund, who, as Fanny grows older, becomes both friend and counselor to her. The monotony of Mansfield Park is upset when brother and sister, Henry and Mary Crawford, visit their sister at the parsonage of Mansfield. Henry Crawford toys with the affections of Fanny's cousins, Maria and Julia, while Mary Crawford earnestly seeks the affections of Edmund. Fanny quietly observes all.

Mansfield Park is a complex and sometimes disturbing novel, and its conclusion has a tendency to feel less than satisfactory. Jane Austen contrasts the very moral Fanny Price and her cousin Edmund Bertram with the very charming but amoral Mary Crawford and her brother Henry Crawford. While doing this, Jane Austen never actually tells her readers what to think about her characters. She presents their thoughts, words, and actions in an almost unbiased manner and leaves judgment up to the reader. The novel is definitely food for thought, and every time I read it, I find myself feeling differently about both it and its characters than I did the time before. I appreciate both the storyline and its thought-provoking complexity.

The Oxford Illustrated edition of Mansfield Park contains a copy of the play Lovers' Vows referred to in the novel, which is such a treat. After reading both the novel and the play, one cannot help but be struck by the parallels between the two. I recommend this edition to anyone curious about the controversial play in the novel.

I love Jane Austen and would actually give this book 4 1/2 stars. It's a little slow in parts but like all of her characters, I loved getting to know Fanny Price. Fannie is a quiet girl who is sent to live with her wealthy uncle. She has a very kind heart and is very patient with her Aunt Norris who loves to "put her in her place". She is often reminding her that she is in a different class than her cousins that she is so fortunate to live with. It is wonderful to watch as Fannie grows into a young woman, how she learns to speak her mind and not allow others to manipulate her as they once did. It is definitely one of my very favorite books.

Since Edward Said wrote his foolish piece on Mansfield Park it has become de rigeur to attach agendas that reflect the intramural (ie bogus) leftism of the academy to novels (sorry texts) Even so this effort to do so in Mansfield Park is particularly outlandish. In fact the question "What is Mansfield Park about" is less interesting than the question "what is it like to read Mansfield Park" To answer that question one has to explore the LANGUAGE of the novel and see where it leads. The plot of Mansfield Park is off-putting--the verbal architecture of the novel is unsurpassed. Trust me--delight in the language, the layers of irony in a sentence or scene. Ignore current opinion which is both intellectually lazy as well as dishonest. Jane Austen made her feelings clear about the slave trade in EMMA. That A "political" intereprative industry should have grown up about this book testifies to the reigning stupidities of English Studies-- well an English Professor has got to make a living.

i'm not as in love with this story as i was about Pride and Prejudice, but it's still austen and it's still an excellent read.

In MANSFIELD PARK, Jane Austen expands her sphere of moral vision. In her earlier novels, she focused on the relationships between marriage partners that were framed in a comedic context of how the typical English society of the late 18th century might complicate the likelihood of a series of happy marriages. In this novel, however, she abandons the world of light and trifling romantic comedy for one in which she shows the unpleasant underside of the genteel society that was so noticeably lacking in say, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. This dark underside includes a number of troubling aspects, all of which are antithetical to the world of light comedy.

First, Austen relentlessly considers the impact of the lack of moral values as a result of inadequate education of children. The patriarch of the Bertram family, Sir Thomas, dearly loves his four children but he has given them a profligate style of life without teaching them how to live that life without being corrupted by its debilitating disadvantage of conspicuous consumption. Second, for the first time in her writing career, Austen boldly places the theme of good versus evil squarely on the interaction of several of her characters. The virtuous Edmund, who is as priestly as the collar that he wears on his neck, is tempted by the lascivious charms of the amoral Mary, who sees in Edmund only a fleeting diversion. Further, Austen places London itself as a den of urban iniquity, the source of the theatrical evil that threatens the pastoral innocence of Mansfield Park. Third, she calls into question some basic paradoxes about the nature of character itself. Are peoples' characters fixed at birth or are they molded by environment? And when character is fixed, is it capable of change, and if so, by what, by whom, and to what extant? These latter questions come into play mostly in the person of Fanny, the outcast relative of the Bertram family who loves Edmund. She is presented as impossibly virtuous, but in the face of her open defiance to marry the rich Henry Crawford, she is labeled as an ingrate and worse. No one in that group perceives her virtue, but the readers certainly do. From where does this virtue spring? It cannot be genetic since several others of her family are woefully deficient in virtue. It cannot be solely the result of environment since, except for the equally virtuous Edmund, the others treat her as uniformly unwanted and unloved.

The answers to the above questions are raised, but only partially answered. Part of the problem in seeking answers to such eternal questions as love versus honor, duty versus obedience, and heredity versus environment in a novel is that this is a novel, and for Austen, a didactic one at that. Since she chooses to use a number of flat characters to represent allegorical archetypes of good and evil, their responses to their encounters cannot convey the full spectrum of thought that a more fully fleshed person might. Further the many plots--the love affair between Fanny and Edmund, the plots of the Bertram sisters, and the interweaving of the many strands of plot between the Bertram children--combine to cause the reader to zero in on these many threads rather than ponder their potentially more universal significances. What is lacking in MANSFIELD PARK is a pleasing balance and harmony among the many snipped strands of plot and theme which cry out for a splicing that does not occur even at the happy marriage of Edmund and Fanny. This imbalance, combined with Austen's atypical use of realism and pressing social concerns, and her lack of a truly engaging heroine along the lines of Elizabeth Bennett, make MANSFIELD PARK a dutiful slog rather than a joyous read.

About 90% of this book can be said to be "fascinating", if only because it deals with a fascinating subject, the creatures of the Burgess Shale. The author, Simon Conway Morris, is one of the authors of the scientific descriptions of many of these animals. That alone should make this book of some value. And it does have a value of sorts, but one that is spoiled by a sometimes odd writing style, hints of design and religion, and a needless and constant poking at Stephen Jay Gould, the famous late professor of paleontology at Harvard University. Oddly enough, it was Gould who made Morris famous in his book "Wonderful Life". Morris returns the favor with backhanded slaps at Gould's view on how life would turn out if the "tape" of life were re-run again. Gould thinks everything would be different; Morris thinks convergence would play a major role to make things all closely similar. While it is clear that Morris disagrees with Gould, Morris' argument is not convincing and sometimes seems like mere meanness. I think Gould wins. Nice pictures, though.

I started this book with high hopes but found it consistently disappointing and annoying. He comtinually comes up with sentences that are so imprecise as to be meaningless. For example (page 205) ' It is my opinion that human history can make no sense unless evil doings are recognized for what they are, and that they are bearable only if somehow they may be redeemed'

Then in debating convergence he argues that whales are inevitable in the sense that life will inevitably produce a 'fast ocean going animal that sieves sea water for food' True, but it is surely not logical to deduce from that the inevitability of homo sapiens. One could argue the inevitability of 'something like an ape' ie 4 limbs, 2 for standing 2 for grasping, upright stance, omnivore etc. Sure, but not such a specific and unusual creature as man. Especially recognising that the features which give us uniqueness have emerged so recently in geological time. Surely something so inevitable and important would not have waited three and a half million years just to enjoy 50,000 years of existence.

The key characteristics of man in this context are intelligence and consciousness. If it is argued that convergence inevitably leads to the emergence of man (with these characteristics) then why do they not emerge (with similar inevitably) in some or all of the other phylla. Having heard his arguments I am afraid I side with Gould on this particular topic ie we could have lots of re-runs but still not lead to that fortunate (or unfortunate!) outcome labeled 'homo sapiens'.

The Burgess Shale is interesting in itself as well as for the deeper points that it makes (or rather than people make with it) for evolutionary history. Conway Morris' updated explanation of the fauna from the Burgess and recent research into similar deposits in China and Greenland is important but suffers in comparision with A Wonderfull Life. It is simply not as detailed or engaging. As for his larger points, Conway Morris points out several flaws and hidden assumtions in Gould's work but his conclusions are themselves quite weak. His later book Life's Solution does a much better job at presenting his points and marshalling evidence for them, even if they still, in my opinion, remain unproven.

Morris, one of two contemporary specialists on the Burgess Shale, has produced an exceedingly well-written survey of the Burgess shale fauna and their meaning for evolutionary biology. The book is loaded with scores of B/W photos, 4 color drawings, a 13-page glossary of terms for the uninitiated, an imaginative underwater excursis with time-travelling paleontologists to the middle Cambrian, and a chapter on developmental evolutionary genetics (wherein he argues that many Burgess forms *are* related to contemporary forms). Stephen Jay Gould's view of the significance of the Burgess Shale is that the bizarre life-forms seen then demonstrate the historical contingency of evolution--rewind the tape and let it play out again, and things would turn out differently (a la Jimmy Stewart's "Wonderful Life"). Morris's thesis is that Gould's tape-player metaphor is misleading, overemphasizing contingency at the cost of ignoring the powerful role played by ecology . One need only consider the evolution of convergent traits in insular life-forms (e.g., Australian marsupial cat-like predators) to get the point. (I should point out that I am suspicious of monolithic theories from either pole of the necessity-chance spectrum.) I find it unfortunate that Gould never discussed Bradley Efron's Bootstrap, a technique used widely in evolutionary and population genetics, or cellular automata, a la Stuart Kauffman, which give rise to the same recurrent patterns with astonishing regularity.) Morris is an adaptationist senstive to the power of ecology to shape evolution, who sees Burgess forms not as deviant freaks that accidentally went extinct but as ancestral to contemporary animals. As usual, there is likely to be truth to both positions; indeed, in some ways, their different views turn on different understandings of probability. For anyone with more than a passing interest in evolutionary biology and paleontology, who finds Gould's incessant digressions distracting, or wonders about the hypertrophy of contingency, this book should not be missed.

Hi everyone it's me Carl Flygare again trolling Amazon for anti-Darwinist books to rate down and creationists to harass! Whoooo hooo is this book bunkum. It has silly stuff in it like uranamium evidence that my brain is caved in so that I can't think straight and like to hate!

This so called "scientist" guy is stuck half way between the evolutionary tree of the banana and giant naked mole rat.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRcUMCSTANCES BELIEVE THIS BOOK! IT'S WACKY PEEPLES! TRUST ME! MEEE EMOTIONZ SED SO!

Uh uh uh, *frets crazily while pounding desk in fury and wishing to destroy his monitor* DAMNIT! DAMNIT YOU WHO WILL NOT AGREE WITH DARWIN OR WHATEVER I TELL YOU IS TRUE! LISTEN DAMNIT:

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BY THIS AND LIKE, THINK ABOUT ALTERNATIVE STUFF! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME PEOPLE! I WILL RATE MY REVIEWS UP 300 TIMES IN A ROW AND YOURS DOWN 400 TIMES IN A ROW IF I HAVE TO FORCE YOU TO AGREE WITH ME RATHER THAN CAREFULLY THINK ON YOUR OWN!

DAMNIT!

Sincerely,

Carl the Zealot

P.S.

Tyraniosaurs eat fish man, yeah.

I enjoyed this biography of Shakespeare very much. My wife and I were in London at the just opened Borders on Oxford St. when I saw a signed copy of this book for sale and decided to purchase it. It was a great read and quite convincing in its approach to the playwright and poet. There is not enough direct evidence of the man's life to flesh everything out, but Park Honan uses the plays forensically. What does a close reading of the plays tell us about the man who wrote them? And then look into how that matches with what we know directly of him. It matches quite well and becomes a wonderfully fleshed out portrait. That being said, there is much more direct evidence about Shakespeare and his plays than many of the conspiracy theorists would have you believe.

We follow him from his youth in Stratford along his journey to London and what work in the theater of those days was like. We learn about the sheer volume of lines an actor of those times would have had ready for use in their mind at any given time; it was thousands and thousands of lines. It is drawing upon that resource, just as a Handel or a Teleman or a Bach called upon the hundreds of works they had in their minds, that allowed him to compose with such rapidity. It was his genius to improve upon his sources just as Bach and Handel always made more of their borrowings. Genius never requires a noble source. In fact, it is usually sprung from seemingly poor soil. Yet it comes.

The author is very specific about what we know directly from the record versus what is a normative behavior for the time and a possibility for Shakespeare. Honan never allows speculation and possibility to become fact. Nor does he follow other modern anachronisms of wondering about the psychology of Shakespeare or whether he was "Gay" since even the term homosexual would be out of place in Elizabethan times, though homoerotic attachments were not.

I believe the author makes such a powerful case the William Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the plays that the Oxfordians will simply attack the book because of their faith, however unfounded in anything beyond desire and assertion.

I recommend this book highly.

A wonderfully written book that cuts through the myths and speculations concerning Bill's life. A view of Shakespeare's life as he lived it. As a boy, a writer, a business man. Easily the best book on the Bard.

Honan's biography of Shakespeare is superb. The writing style is good, the research reliable, and the play reviews are appropriate. The reader ends up with a detailed knowledge of the life of the bard. That is the purpose of a biography. Highly recommended.

We will perhaps never be able to come across a "definitive" (in the modern sense) life of Shakespeare because of the obviously sketchy nature of the extant documents relating to his life .Realising this,Mr.Honan has done the next best thing : to fill in the bare bones of the Bard's life with information from the Elizabethan period & done it in an exquisite fashion.What we get is not what Shakespeare DID at any given point in his life but a sense of what he was MOST LIKELY DOING given the socio-cultural milieu,Elizabethan mores,surviving public documents ,comments by his contemporaries and autobiographical fragments from his plays and sonnets.Mr.Honan's view is by its very nature "oblique" but given the paucity of "hard data" ,it is the wisest approach .Moreover he doesn't gloss over the gaps in our knowledge of Shakespeare's life but freely acknowledges them .Each chapter is thoroughly referenced and annotated .The picture that emerges from this account is of a remarkably sensitive genius endowed with a superlative gift for expressing the universal & the ineffable pertaining to the human condition____ in timeless prose .Interestingly ,Honan manages to do this without deifying Shakespeare ,which is wise given that Shakespeare is too fascinating a man to be 'deified away' !In the final analysis genius is always inexplicable in that it breaks the existing molds and "liberates" us to see,hear and experience the world in a novel and yet distinctly human way .This is an exquisite and enjoyable book .

A great deal of Shakespeare's life appears never to have made it into the official record, and Park Honan, for all his skill as a writer, cannot change that.

What Mr. Honan does do, however, is construct in detail the setting for what facts we do know about Shakespeare's life. Even if we lack many of the basic facts of Shakespeare's boyhood, for instance, we know what Stratford was like, and we know what kind of lives boys in Stratford led. Mr. Honan lays out this setting, gives us the known facts about young Will, contents himself with making the occasional relatively safe guess, and leaves it at that.

Despite the fact that Mr. Honan's book is mostly setting, with a fairly scarce plot, it's a good read, flowing well and entertaining. Your study of Shakespeare should start here.

Michael Immerso once again shows he is a cultural historian of the first order. His first book, "Newark's Little Italy: The Vanished First Ward," was near and dear to my heart as a native of Newark myself. This time, though, Immerso had a tougher sell. Not only did I know practically nothing about Coney Island, I had never set foot in it. After reading this book, however, I feel I know Coney Island's history, development, and demise as well as possible for a non-native.
We all know that there is a story behind just about any historical locale. What we need is the story teller. Michael Immerso is that story teller for this magical place called Coney Island.

Michael Immerso has taken a slice of America's past and captured it with all the sights, sounds, and glitter that made Coney Island what it was. This book is filled to the brim with history that comes alive on its pages. Mr. Immerso's compelling story telling and vivid descriptions are complemented by many classic pictures. You can't pick this book up without becoming part of one of the great icons of America's history. This is definitely a book to own, enjoy, and share.

I bought this book after reading Immerso's wonderful and insightful book about his hometown of Newark, New Jersey. His new book on Coney Island was not at all what I expected. It's more like a book report than a book, consisting of bits of information taken from previous Coney books spliced together with trivia from web sites. There appears to be no primary source material or original research. Immerso repeats the traditional Coney Island stories, weaving them into a dry narrative that will be interesting only to someone who is not familiar with Coney Island. The modern color photos are not very good and seem to be used as filler. Overall, Coney Island: The People's Playground is a pedestrian effort by a good writer.

I just got Michael Immerso's book on Coney Island as a gift to remind me of the excitement and magic I felt when I visited there. I was delighted to get a coffee table book that was not just slick, but edifying as well. I felt justified in this delight as the pictures were given weight by the academic tone of the narrative explanations. Although I hoped for a bit more colorful "sleeze" in both the pictures, and the descriptions, nevertheless I'm not disappointed. I feel both my need for visuals as well as story have been satifactorily met.

In this excellent book, Michal Immerso meticulously traces Coney Islands' wild history, from its origins as a sandy haven for rabbits to its development as the most spectacular amusement area on earth to its slow and sad decline.
Although this book would be right at home on a coffee-table, readers should know that they will be getting much more than photographs and anecdotes of Old Coney. Immerso's book is fairly serious in tone and crammed with details: I found myself wishing that I had a map of the area before me, so I could trace all the comings and goings of all the attractions that graced the three spectacular parks of Coney Island--Dreamland, Luna Park, and Steeplechase. Immerso also tracks the development of the main streets, the hotels, the great migrations of immigrants (still continuing today). He writes about the destructive fires that regulary swept through large swaths of Coney Island, noting in great detail what was destroyed in each and what grew each time from the ashes.
My favorite sections dealt with the amusements themselves--the many roller coasters (the evolution of which is carefully traced), the carrosels, The Trip To The Moon, Over and Under The Sea, and emporiums with great names such as the Pavillion of Fun and Wormwood's Dog and Monkey Circus.
If I have any criticism, it's that Immerso has given us too much, for in addition to this exhaustive history, he tackles even more ambitious territory: what it all means in the context of the American experience. No doubt Coney Island provided a template for the mega-amusement/entertainment industry that was to develop in its wake. But it also was one of the first, true, democratic vistas, where millions of Americans from every ethnic group have rubbed elbows on one stretch of beach for more than a century. This anarchic democracy born of sand and fun has, according to Immerso, left a profound imprint on the American consciousness.
My only real regeret is that Immerso did not include a time machine and ticket to transport me back Luna Park to see, hear, feel, and taste for myself the thousand-and-one delights of Coney Island on a summer night in the early 1900s.

This book is a great resource tool. A fairly inclusive area guide with historical, geological and physical details. There are very few locality specific guides available for plant identification. This book has a fairly detailed plant section without falling into the text book category.

I purchased this book for helping us plan a 5 day stay in Stove Pipe Wells. Well worth the money spent.

This book provides a good general introduction to Death Valley, but lacks detail on hiking routes. If you're going to be hiking Death Valley, Michel Digonnet's "Hiking Death Valley: A Guide to Its Natural Wonders & Mining Past" provides better details. The Bryans' book covers more locations, but provides less detail on each.

We planned a week exploring around Death Valley based on this book. Not visiting the touristy places that you can find on any map, but exploring canyons that don't get nearly as much traffic. Maybe it was partially because the book hasn't been updated in awhile, but the descriptions of the places were wildly different from what we found on the ground.

This guy was a Superintendant there for a few years, and thought he'd write a book -- big deal. Coming out of one canyon where he described springs all over the place but we found only rock, we met some people who had another guide that was much better -- sorry that I can't remember the name. Anyway, my advice is to look around, and buy something else -- and something with maps in it, for one thing.

For a general introduction to DV and several of its scenic roadways, unpaved roads, and hiking trails, it's not bad at all. Of course, you always need a good topographic map(s) of the park as well, and the latest information from the rangers, as roads wash out, and trails become blocked or impassible. Only a fool would explore DV, even by car or 4WD, with only the tiny maps in a guide such as this.

While motor vehicle travelers can get by with plenty of water, a full-size spare, a recently checked-over vehicle and proper caution for remote areas of the park, inexperienced desert hikers would be well advised to acquire some additional knowledge on trip planning, equipment, first aid, and map reading. An excellent resource for this is The Ultimate Desert Handbook by Mark Johnson.

We picked up a copy of "The Explorer's Guide to Death Valley" and found this book to be a fantastic resource for our visit! The book is very comprehensive in nature, with detailed descriptions of drives along ALL the roads in the park. It turned out that during our visit in March 2005, a large number of the roads through the park were closed due to storm damage from this winter's record rains, so the book was truly a godsend in figuring out alternate routes through the park.

Another great feature is that the authors tell you pretty accurately the condition of the roads (most of the roads are unpaved), including such important details as washed out areas, how steep are the grades, and the like. We also really appreciated the details on what mining ruins were to be found at the end of the bumpy drives.

We found the information in this book to be very accurate and honest, helping us to decide what we wanted to see in our way-too-short visit to the park. This book is a great one-volume source for seeing the most when you visit Death Valley. Enjoy!

When the gag order was finally lifted circa 1970 on the Bletchley Park operations, a lot of scientific, historical, and technical histories appeared. And there was a great hue and cry among military and political historians that the whole history of the British and American war against Hitlerian Germany would have to be rewritten. Well, much of that has been proven to be just hyperbole but it is generally agreed that the war was shortened by about two years. But the closer the Allies got to Germany the less role Bletchley played for the German forces used landlines for most strategic communications from mid 1944 on. Also they had another machine known as FISH which was not as easily read as Enigma. This book is a collection of personal narratives of life at Bletchley and how tedious most of the work there was, no matter how essential. Harry Hinsley, one of the authors, was a "whiz kid" recruited directly from university and after the war became a professor without ever completing his studies. Over the years he has written the monumental multivolume official history of British intelligence operations in WW II and many historical papers. Alan Stripp, was one of the original operatives and served for many years.

When I purchased this book I expected a coherent study of what Bletchley Park was like during its WWII heyday. I knew that its contents were derived from the collected input of a number of people who were at Bletchley at that time. It is actually a collection of short essays by these people. Each has a slightly different theme and focus. Some of the essay were quite interesting, but over all, I did not come away with any kind of coherent understanding of how Bletchley Park operated, what it was like to work there, etc. I wish there had been an over-arching narrative to tie the pieces together.

like some other reviewers, this wasn't what i was expecting, but i was reasonably pleased with what i found. this book is a series of narratives by various people who worked at GC&CS (later to become CGCHQ) and Bletchley Park during WWII. their stories typically recount how they were recruited, their nervousness, and their most memorable moments. some authors describe how the codebreaking operations worked, including some of the machinery, which itself was fascinating.

the whole book isn't all cryptographers and code breakers, some of it is written by WRNS (or Wrens, young women in the naval reserves) who assisted the operation. and not all contributions were truly seen as positive, the final story describes a woman who left feeling as though she had contributed little to shortening the war.

it's good that there are multiple perspectives, although some of the overlap in the tales gets a bit frustrating. still, the length of the typical piece means that the story is over before it drags on too long, and others you wish went on longer.

the organization is good, the stories are arranged to slowly immerse you into the work and the world of Bletchley Park in the war.

the book doesn't just cover engma operations at BP, it includes some tales of field operations (which sounded quite daring and thrilling), and some work to crack japanese naval codes (the last section focuses on this).

probably best in conjunction with an official history. lots of good references are listed in the book, and some nice diagrams to contribute to the technical side of things.

After a long period of silence, many books about the accomplishments of Allied forces in breaking the codes and ciphers of German, Italian and Japanese forces in World War II have been published over the last twenty years. Most of these books have been either written by one of the individuals who worked on a few of the specific enemy codes, or an editor who crafted a story by interviewing a number of people who were part of the Allied code breaking effort. Unlike most of other books on the subject, Code Breakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park is a collection of 30 first hand accounts about the daily grind and life at Bletchley Park and its outstations written by different individuals who worked there during WWII.

First, a little background about the subject of the book for those who may not be familiar the British code breaking activities in WWII. Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), the British organization responsible for intercepting and decoding foreign communications, was moved from London to Bletchley Park shortly before the start of WWII to provide a safer location. Bletchley Park (BP) started as a small operation with less than 100 people in 1939. By the end of the war, BP had broken almost all enemy ciphers and codes, including the formidable German mechanical encryption machines Enigma and Fish, and intercepted and decoded thousands of critical enemy messages that changed the course of the war. During this process, the headcount Bletchley Park had grown to more than seven thousand including some of the leading mathematicians in the world like Alan Turing.

Code Breakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park gives as a cross section of the different kinds of people who worked at BP between 1939 to 1945. We learn about how they were recruited, what they worked on, how they attacked the problems, how they felt and what the general atmosphere was like.

This book is a set of essays by people who actually worked at Bletchley Park during World War II, and describes in some detail what they did. Much of it is dry reading. That's because real cryptology is mostly dry work; months of boredom interrupted by moments of joy or chagrin. For those who care about World War II cryptology this is a "must read," but read either the 1967 or the 1996 edition of David Kahn's "The Codebreakers" first; otherwise, some of this book won't make much sense, for lack of context.

Some of the most interesting work done at Bletchley Park, and some of the most valuable people who worked there, are not mentioned at all in this book; not even a hint. I assume this is because of two problems: the British Official Secrets Act presumably still applies to a good deal of what happened at Bletchley Park, and the topics of inquiry that involved both British and American personnel could hardly be described in detail without the agreement of NSA, which might be hard to come by in some cases. I wish that two friends of mine who worked at Bletchley Park had been able to write memoirs of their work and their interactions with colleagues. But that didn't happen. However, we can hope that the remaining veil of official silence will be lifted some day.

The story of Euro Disneyland is an exciting topic and therefor I purchased 'Once upon an American dream'. I was both dissappointed by both content and style. I am affraid that even a high school student would have written a more superior and more enticing storey. Please do not waste your money on this book.

Once Upon an American Dream: The Story of Euro Disneyland is extremely well researched, with interesting backgrounds and developments preceding the opening of Disneyland Paris (DLP).

However, the book is published in 2000, but the last information on DLP in the book date back to November 1994, which is almost ten years ago!

The final chapter furthermore has very little to do with the European park, because it focuses solely on the development of the Walt Disney Company in the States.

The notes, bibliography and index take up one-third of the whole book. It shows how thoroughly Andrew Lainsbury's research has been, but represents a disappointment for the reader who expects 100 pages more on DLP.

Finally must be said that although Lainsbury worked in the European park, the book is written from an American point of view on Europe, which shows in Lainsbury's sometimes negative appreciation of French culture.

The book is definitely a recommendation for everyone interested in the development and initial years of Disneyland Paris, but is too short and covers too few years to be satisfying for the interested reader.

If you're a theme park enthusiast, the description of the design phases of Eurodisneyland are particularly detailed. If you're a Disney fan, this is a rare chance of looking backstage to discover hidden aspects that will boost your respect for the genius behind the magic. If you're a marketing student, this case history is enough to feed your thoughts for years. And if you're a sociology scholar, "Riding the Black Ship" is better. Warning: no mice, fancy photos and/or hypocrisy inside.

This is a great book, well documented and footnoted. Plenty of information for the Disney novice. There are anecdotes and paraphrases which imply first person research, but the notations are useful in clearing up issues.

A strong argument in favor of the theme park as a diversion and entertainment and not as an entity to spread American philosophy or forced culture. This is a compelling thesis for a talented author.

A little pricey, the book is a fine compliment to other books in the Disney library.

So this is the real story of EuroDisney... I have to admit that I never even thought (hoped ? forget it...) to find such a well made book on this particular topic. It's fascinating, how Lainsbury packs all the different contents and perspecticves into a single, compact book. Comprehensive, informative and above all, entertaining; you'll really enjoy reading it. It's too sad that it only consists of about 200 pages, but hey... it's really well worth a try. If you are curious about the history of EuroDisney/ Disneyland Paris and searching for a comprehensive, interesting source, this is your book of choice.

This book would be a welcome trip down memory lane for anyone who knew and loved Palisades Amusement Park and the simpler times the park thrived in. A plainly written, honest account by a man whose life was indelibly imprinted by this magical place; the book contains loads of small black and white photos, many of which look like copies from newspapers, but most are fairly poor reproductions. The two lonely pages of color photos left me longing for more.
If you grew up in Northern New Jersey with fond memories of your times at the park; then by all means you will enjoy looking back through the pages of this book.

This book dealt more with way before my time, more with the beginning times. I would have liked more from the 50's on. Returned the book.

Reading this book brought me back to the 60's and a wonderful time in my life. The book is filled with history but it is, more importantly, chock full of the spirit of Palisades Park.

Palisades Park was like Christmas, New Years and a fun Birthday Party all rolled up into one. As a small child I visited the park with my parents where we shared good times like a family should, but as a teenager it became something even more special. I performed there with my rock band a couple of times, and felt like I had really "made it".

How can these feelings be expressed in a book? Mr. Gargiulo does it with intelligence and a child-like awe of this place, the first "magical kingdom".

The prose is wonderful as so are the amazing pictures.
If anyone wants to take a time machine and return to those magical days in Fort Lee, one has only to read this book!

ITS GREAT. BROUGHT BACK ALOT OF MEMORIES.DIDNT CARE FOR CONEY ISLAND THO. TOO MANY PICTURES AND THAT ALL IT WAS

While "Palisades Amusement Park" might not be a book everyone would enjoy, it meant a great deal to me. I grew up in New Jersey, where this park was located and went there often as a child. The bus company where my Dad was employed provided free passes, which encouraged us to go. When it was destroyed, to erect a condo, my heart was broken, as I knew my daughter and grandchildren would never know the excitement I felt when I first rode the Cyclone at Palisades Park. Through this book, I was able to share some of my experiences with them. Even my son-in-law, who grew up in Georgia, enjoyed it, as history is one of his interests. If you are into historic sites or ever went to Palisades Park when you were young, I think this is a wonderful trip into the past.

A good set of lists, with location, for the various natural species found in Big Bend. Unfortunately drawings are not to scale and are not near the plant descriptions. The decriptions do not include any identifying characteristics such as bundles and number of needles, etc. The drawings are in black and white. It would be difficult to take with you as it is not eay to identify items by the descriptions and or drawings. You would need a plant book and bird book and tree book all in color to help you.

This field guide give a good general introduction to Big Bend, but is disappointing when it is time to go deeper. Also, there is almost nothing on the geology of the region, a topic that deserves attention.

I've been to Big Bend National Park several times. But this book introduced some plants and animals that I have seen, but not given much notice to. That will change on my next visit.

Naturalist's Big Bend is a comprehensive overview of the flora and fauna of the Big Bend National Park region in Texas. Big Bend is unique for a couple of reasons. First, because the US/Mexico border dips south there, many species are found in the US only in this region. Secondly, as the climate changed following the last ice age, other species found themselves islanded in the cooler mountain ecosystems as the plains around them became deserts. These "sky islands" hold unique flora and fauna that has remained isolated for thousands of years.

Authors Wauer and Fleming have comprehensive first-hand knowledge of the park that comes through in every chapter. The book provides the advantage not only of their expertise but of their access to many unpublished Park Service and other reports and surveys of the park. The bibliography is the definitive go-to guide for anyone wishing to research any aspect of Big Bend's ecosystem. However, for a more personal tour of the park, you might prefer For All Seasons: A Big Bend Journal by author Wauer.

The book makes an excellent reference for the knowledgeable biologist or biology buff planning, enjoying, or remembering a visit to Big Bend National Park. Casual tourists will find the detail overwhelming and the illustrations miserly. With a bigger budget, this could have been a stunning illustrated field guide. As it is, most species rely on description alone for identification. There are a few black-and-white plates of plants, a limited number of fascinating black-and-white photos of animals, and a select group of stunning color photos that illustrate the diverse habitats found within the park.

My husband and I both found this useful and interesting for our recent weeklong trip to Big Bend. I would recommend it more as preparatory reading before the trip, or evening reading at your room or campsite while in the park, than as a guide to specific areas or species. Also it is best used with oher books accompanying it rather than relying on it alone, such as hiking, lizard, flower, or birding book too, depending on your interests. The bibiography uses up about the last quarter of this rather slim book. So you may want to get it way ahead of your trip then order more books from the bibliography or elsewhere.