History Books

Not only was the book very pleasing to the eyes, it held my full attention to keep reading non-stop! Fascinating information about the spiritual level of these beautiful birds was also revealed. WOW! Much kudos and thanks to the AUTHOR for enlightening me.

I'm thrilled that my neighbors love this book. The kids just love the birds! And my older friends love it when they received in Christmas.

It's such a lively and vivid portrayal into the bird "characters" that I feel they are my true great friends.
The author has successfully conveyed her love for these birds to her readers and made them a part of their lives.

This is the best book you can get to give as a gift honestly :)
Would appeal to many, many people, regarless the age or even if you believe they don't care much about birds or things like that, you would see that they will love it!

This book surely shows the love animals have inside and the beauty of their inner souls.

Much like Pierre Berton's great Canadian history books, Robert Massie brings history to the "people" with Peter The Great. In this long but highly readable biography, Massie illumimates the distant past of a backward nation which grew into a major European power under the energetic Peter. We read about the palace intrigues in the Kremlin in Peter's early years, his rise to power, and his historic trip "incognito" through Holland, Austria and England. A major part of this book is devoted to the Great Northern War with Sweden, and the fascinating character of Swedish king Charles XII. I knew very little about that attempted invasion of Russia, and Massie paints a vivid picture of the Swedish campaign. The author also brings us inside the Ottoman Empire and the life of the Sultans and Grand Viziers. He puts Peter's life in context with the greater world and shifting alliances of Europe.

The brutish nature of life in Russia in this era is not glossed over. So many labourers died in the construction of Peter's centrepiece city St. Petersburg, and the cruel punishments of the time are depicted. Overall, this is the type of historical biography they don't write anymore. History can be and should be written to appeal to a broader audience, and also to tell things as they were, without resorting to revisionism. Books such as this encourage readers to explore history more.

What a treat this book was to read. Robert Massie demonstrates an ability at biography to a level I had never before experienced, though a huge portion of my reading is in fact biography. Truly amazing is the level of detail and background, which is somehow seamlessly spun into fibers, into yarns, and into a rich textile of thoughts and events sweeping through Russian and world drama by the fluid hand of Mr. Massie. He is with no exaggeration a master of his craft. I suppose this is why the book has earned a Pulitzer prize.

Not only is the worth of the author a call for every historically curious person to swim eagerly through this work, but so do the very facts of the account examined create among the richest stories available in history for any author to weave into narrative. It just so happens that here we have a wonderful and rich history handled by an unusually able story teller.

Peter The Great is such a curious character that one might consider such a collection of ability, insight, temper, and crushingly wielded power more the subject of a novel before thinking him one who walked the Earth, leaving his mark forever impressed upon Russia until the modern day.

It was Peter who pulled Russia kicking and screaming from the dark ages. It was Peter who created the Russian Navy from nothing (actually it is said from a single rotten sailboat). It was Peter who created Russia's first standing professional army. How? From the ranks of children with whom he played army as a child himself. He grew, they grew, and they became the core of the new Russian army. This by the way is a brutal and captivating tread of the story in its own right.

The book is riddled with such accounts, rendered in a degree of detail as to leave you simply awestruck and immersed in your own transported imagination. This to the point of regretting the arrival of that last of its many polished and engrossing pages.

This is truly a wonderful display of scholarship, of factual organization, and of rich story telling. This book is absolutely perfect for those with a mind, seeking to have it engaged.

I love to read history and have numerous books about many people and events that happened throughout history. But this book has to be my absolute favorite. Peter the Great was an amazing person and led a life without one dull moment. Once you start reading this book it will be difficult to put it down. Even though he did not live into old age, he lived a life full of adventure and you will never be bored while reading this book. You will find that Peter the Great is one of the best leaders of all times and I often wonder how Russian history would have evolved if Peter had lived to be eighty. It is too bad the man cannot be cloned.

This is a rich, detailed examination of the life of Peter the Great. One almost gets a sense that his was a life characterized by ADHD--but with enough ability and imagination and focus that the almost out of control energy worked to his homeland's benefit.

This book examines in considerable depth the arc of his life, from childhood and the dangers that he faced, to his play warrior simulations, to his journey abroad, to his desire to reshape Russia as a more modern nation. Well told is his zeal to create a Russian navy that would be a force. From his childhood on, he was fascinated with this thought. The book recalls how his childhood imaginings developed until, indeed, he had developed a navy that was able to project Russian power.

His learning to be a soldier is also told well. He had ups and downs as a military leader. Part III of the book details dreadful losses and an ultimate triumph over the Swedish forces at Poltava.

Then there is his desire to create a new capital city, a city to be the envy of the world. The book outlines the many struggles and challenges in the creation of St. Petersburg.

The reader will feel almost exhausted by the end, as a result of the great ambitions, the enormous energy, the prodigious accomplishments of Peter the Great. The book balances well his failures with his triumphs and provides a nuanced view of this important historical figure.

I've just finished reading this book in 2 weeks - mainly when i'm commuting to and from work. There's very little i can add to the positive reviews. This is one biography that reads like an action-packed novel. Here's what i enjoy most about this book:

1. It's written in a very engaging manner. I breezed through all 900pages of the story not wanting to stop. Having read some shorter historical biographies where my interest ran out less than halfway through the book, this really says a lot about this book and its author. Robert Massie had stucked to the facts and yet narrated them in a way that was never boring.

2. You not only learn about Peter the great as a person - warts and all, you also get to know many luminaries of early 18th century Europe. E.g. the warrior-like King Charles XII of Sweden (Peter's archrival of the Great Northern War), William of Orange, King George I just to name a few. The narratives on these person are threaded together as part of Peter's life story and are no less interesting than that about Peter himself.

3. One gets a feel of what life was like in Europe at that time because the author described in detail the various places that Peter lived in, e.g. his beloved St Petersburg, Paris which Peter visited during his second grand tour of Europe, London/Amsterdam which Peter visited in his first grand tour.

After finishing the book you feel that you've learnt a great deal about Peter (the Tsar and person) as well as the stage (Europe from late 1600s to 1720s) on which he performed. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history.

I have found it very frustrating how hard it is to get an accurate sense of what is going in the Iraq War. Much of the media, of course, has a bias that they wear on their sleave: they see the war as Vietnam Act Two, and they strain every nerve to find disaster and defeat in everything. We get dozens of stories about prisoner abuse and the alleged massacre in Haditha; we get close to nothing about Medal of Honor winners.

The problem, however, goes beyond ideological bias, as bad as that has been. The larger problem is that the media does not understand what they are looking at. What facts indicate success? What facts indicate failure? The media, by and large, does not have a clue. They thus confine themselves to reporting the obvious -- like the latest car bombs -- and to printing the opinion of some windbag pundit as if it were news. In this respect, the Right has often been no better than the Left. While the Left sees doom and gloom in everything, the Right sees American victory in everything.

In this total desert barren of understanding, Micheal Yon has been and continues to be one of the few beacons of actual information to come out of the war. Yon is not a conventional reporter. Yon is an ex-Green Beret, who turned into a writer and who does freelance reporting from Iraq. I have read his reports for several years now on the internet. They have been the best single source of information that I have found on the war.

In this book, Yon pulls together what he has seen and where the war is. As he sees it, the war has gone through three phases. First, we had the fast and easy phase when American firepower knocked down Saddam Hussein. Second, we had the disasterous phase when grotesque incompetence on the part of Rumsfield and Bush threw the victory away. Their primary error was not to create law and order in the post-Hussein Iraq. We dismantled the Iraqi army and police, leaving Iraq with no functioning government, but we replaced it with nothing for far too long. In Yon's view, we were also too brutal and too rigid in this phase of the war, with the exception of the work done by General Petreaus as commander of the 101st Airborne. All of these mistakes lead to Al Queda taking over most of the country. This then lead to the third phase, in which Al Queda's unbelievable brutality toward the Iraqi people lead them to turn back to the U.S. and gave us a second chance for victory, which, in Yon's view. General Petreaus is brillantly exploiting, in his new role as overall commander.

Yon is very knowledgeable about the technical aspects of his subject. He understands modern weapons and he understands modern war, particularly that part of the war which is fought in the press. What he stresses, however, is primarily morality. Al Queda lost, in his view, because they had no morality. They acted like savage beasts, killing, raping and stealing from the Iraqi people, which lost them the critical moral high ground. In Yon's view, America is now winning the war, because -- while the Iraqis often saw us as stupid and out of touch -- we were never seen as evil. On the contrary, as Yon describes it, the Iraqi people have gained incredible respect for America, because of the exemplary behavior of our troops. The Iraqis respect strength and fighting spirit, which our soldiers have shown in spades. They also deeply love their children and their families. When they came to see Al Queda as threatening their children and their families, and the U.S. military as protecting them, that was the turning point in the war.

This book has flaws as a book. It is not very polished. It reads at times more like a bunch of reports stuck together than a book. It often assumes that the reader knows about things which the reader might well not know about.

But none of this matters. This book tells the truth about the Iraq War. Amid all of the partisan distortion and ideological hype, here is a guy who knows what he is talking about, who loves the United States and our military and who is dedicated to bringing us the truth, in all of its complexity and ugliness.

While the changes in Iraqi are often attributed to a "surge" or increase in the numbers of our troops there. Michael Yon makes it clear that the real change came when our military began to adopt the 'live with the people' tactics of our special forces. And with that came a change in the attitudes of Iraqi citizens. Here's how he put it:

"We'd spent billions of dollars to protect ourselves against roadside bombs in Iraq, while mostly failing to cultivate the most effective defense of all: an Iraqi citizen with a cell phone. We spent hundreds of billions of dollars on combat operations that might have been avoided if we'd learned from our successes in Mosul in 2003, rather than compounding the blunders of 2004."

But then we'd gotten, miraculously, our second chance. And we were making the most of it. Cell phones? Iraqis are e-mailing our guys Google Earth maps to show where the terrorists are. With the increasing support of citizens and the growing prowess of the Iraqi Army, American troops have been able not only to leverage their combat effectiveness but spend more time in cop-on-the-beat mode, building closer ties to their communities, which then translates into being more effective in working on local civil affairs issues."

--Michael W. Perry, editor of Chesterton on War and Peace: Battling the Ideas and Movements that Led to Nazism and World War II

If you want to know what is really happening in Iraq, read Michael Yon's book. The title says it all - 'Moment of Truth in Iraq'.

Truth is what Yon writes in this book - aided by photographs which genuinely deserve to be called 'searing'. One such photo has since become world famous after Yon snapped it in May 2005. Up until that point, the only photos which the American media showed were negative photos (such as Abu Ghraib, etc.) which all painted American soldiers as depraved sadists. Yon's photo, however, was a staggering rebuttal to the press slant. Nicknamed 'Farah's photo', the picture showed a desperate American Major Mark Bieger frantically clutching the blood soaked body of tiny little Farah as he raced her to medics in a desperate attempt to save her life. Moments earlier, Iraqi insurgents had deliberately detonated a car bomb amongst a group of small children of which little Farah had been a member. The reason? The insurgents had been angered by the sight of the children gathering eagerly in front of a Stryker to receive candy from the American soldiers. The sadism of the Iraqi insurgents becomes even more horrible in contrast with the heartbreaking grief of Major Bieger. Overcome with emotion, the picture showed him stopping in mid-race to hug the dying little girl in a desperate attempt to comfort her.

This photo and so many others, as well Yon's incredible descriptions of the brave soldiers those photos are about, are in his book "Moment of Truth in Iraq." Truth is what Yon went there to find out. Long before then, two painful experiences had taught him that he couldn't expect it from the media. The first horrible lesson had involved the death of an old high school friend of Yon's, ex-Navy SEAL Scott Helvenston. Helvenston was a victim of Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah who'd not only murdered him but mutilated his body, afterwards 'dancing and chanting' in triumph over the grisly remains. The media, however, had blamed Helvenston for his own death by labeling him a 'mercenary'. This vicious treatment struck an especially painful nerve with Michael Yon. Years earlier, he himself had been the same victim of lies in the press when the media labeled Yon a murderer after a fistfight in a nightclub. Though the charges were completely false and eventually dropped, Yon had endured the agony of watching lies printed about him in the media. Seeing the same thing now happen to his old friend and then to other American soldiers finally compelled Yon to come to Iraq on his own and report the truth.

This book is the result. And it is an incredible read. I began reading this book as an act of solidarity with Michael Yon's cause - but I ended the book for a different reason. It is superbly written, it is gripping. It is real. And - as the title makes clear - it is the truth.

Please read Yon's book. In more ways than one, it will be one of the best books you've ever read.

In a sea of cynical books and media coverage on the war in Iraq, which lead US service members to ask themselves "Are these guys even covering the same war that we're fighting daily!?" Michael Yon does indeed deliver a "Moment of Truth". He writes from the point of view of the infantryman and cavalry scout: the young men who enlisted specifically to put themselves into harms way and fight a cunning enemy. Unlike his contemporaries, Yon understands the meaning of honor and sacrifice, that casualties are a part of war, and that it is the American soldier's ability to overcome the horrors and fight on that wins wars. Unlike the mainstream news media who focuses on the loss of life while turning a blind eye to the success that loss of life paved the way for, Yon paints an intimate unbiased (left OR right) view of the commitment of this generation's warriors who have turned the tide in the sands and cities of Iraq. He does not candy coat the truth, or gloss over failures, he simply paints the entire picture. In the end I believe that this is hands down one of the best books written about the war in Iraq, and is a must raed for both those for and against the war as it is one of the few objective accounts of the battles being waged thousands of miles from home.

While I wish the Iraq war had never happened and personally think it was the biggest favor we could ever do for Iran, I also want to know what is truly happening and not have it filtered from either a right wing or left wing bias. I found this to be a tremendously interesting book. Yon is rightfully critical of the original war planners as being totally unprepared for an insurgency, but tells vivid first hand accounts of how the war is actually now being won. More importantly, he portrays the amazing heroism of the soldiers and leaves you stunned at their courage. He even has pictures of actual battles backing up his accounts. It seems like the turning point was putting General Petreus in command and getting rid of the bozos before him. If anyone is interested in an account of the last year in Iraq which will really give you info you never hear, then I really recommend the book. Even if you are anti-war, it is must reading.

This is one of the first Holocaust survival stories that I read. It is by far one that has stayed with me in the most detail.

I'm not going to give the story away I'm just going to say you will cry and rejoyce in this story. It will touch you to core of your very being.

I must read for EVERYONE!

I have read many of the holocaust books out there but this is the one I pass on to friends to read. Especially moving is the liberation of the prisoners at the end of the book. I wish all schools made this mandatory reading. What a way to learn history! This author is quite an incredible woman.

This book was gripping and I could not put it down until I finished it. It's so hard to believe the hardships so many endured for being Jewish. A must read. Beautifully written with rich detail.

I read this book a long time ago and just got done listening to the book on tape for the second time. It is the most powerful representation of the Holocaust I have found. Please read this book if you want to learn about the Holocaust from a gifted author and survivor.

Despite the horrors around her, and fellow prisoners dying and becoming mentally unbalanced every day, young Gerda Weissman managed to survive several Nazi camps from the late 1930s through the grisly end of World War II.

Imagine being a teenager, wrenched away from your beloved parents, older brother and home -- and never seeing any of them ever again. It would be enough to make anyone unstable, not to mention bitter. Yet somehow, Gerda emerges from her horrifying ordeal stronger than she began. As her body heals in a hospital run by the Allies during the spring of 1945, Gerda begins a relationship with Kurt Klein -- a young soldier who urges her to tell her story.

Now an elderly woman living in Arizona, Gerda Weissman Klein is able to see just how far she's come from the young Jewish girl living a priviledged life in Poland. Yet at the same time, her writing style allows readers to see clearly just how that same persona has managed to live such a rich, eventful life to the fullest all of these years.

I've read many Holocaust memoirs, though I must say that Gerda's story is beautifully and distinctly told.

When I first read this book it took me back to Alive by Piers Paul Read & I remembered how special Nando was in the story. I was madly in love with Nando for his common sense and bravery. I still have that original book. Finding Miracle in the Andes was a special surprise because it's HIS story of it all. It is such a good book that I know I'll keep this one forever too, and read it over and over. I read Alive several times and I intend to go back and read it all over again too now. It touches your heart. I was so sad about Susie. Nando's mom too of course, but Susie seemed special to me. It's not surprising that Nando has become a huge success. His wife and daughters are beautiful, as he is. His life has shown that he's an extraordinary person.
Barbara,
Ukiah, CA

An amazing story that I couldn't put down! I was awestruck by the sheer impossibility of anyone surviving. The most striking moment was under the avalanche in which Nando surrendered his life and was ready to die.
Their courage and instincts for survival were amazing. The message I took away is that love can inspire a person to do miraculous things and that God is too distant to rely on or understand. While I myself am a strong Christian, I still enjoyed the story. Finally, the book was well written with inner monologues and background and mixed with just enough detail to keep the story moving along. I highly recommend this book to any adventure/survival story lover, or anyone who wants to ponder the human spirit.

Nando Parrado has wriiten a great book, not only on survival skills, but on the Leadership it took to pull the survivors together to work as a team.

This book takes you on a journey that inspires you to live everyday to the fullest and appreciate what you have.
It's a incredible book and hard to put down once you start reading. I am in awe at the pain and suffering they experienced and how they overcame all the obstacles that were in their way including death. I had listened to the audio book first and then bought the book and read it too, love everything about it.
It is worth your time.

I loved this book so much I lent it to family and friends. Now I can't wait to get it back, so I can read it again. A truly empowering book. Written with such compassion that readers could never be "grossed out" by some of the extremes of survival that are revealed in this book.

This book reads about as exiting as the monotone drone of a window box fan on a hot sweaty summer night. Gann's style seems didactic to say the least. Muddling through the first chapter I fell asleep and woke up just in time to learn of a near miss in the plane Gann was flying. However in all fairness, most books are written like this, full of details and tangents before coming to the point. Who can get through Moby Dick or Les Miserables without wondering where the authors are going? One should only read books like these if he has a bad case of insomia.

If one is looking for the plot to the movie: Fate Is The Hunter, forget it. This book has almost nothing in common with the excellent screenplay written by Harold Maud except for the title and some flashbacks. Of course it is always a disappointment when the movies don't follow the books, which are usually better than the movies; this case being one of the exceptions.

The paperback book is not an abridged version of the hardcover. So don't try searching for a used copy as I did. It's just a waste of time and money. Quite frankly, I'm sorry I bought the book.

Flight possesses a seductive mystique and "Fate is the Hunter" is one of the few books that has ever really truly captured flight's essence.

It is not only pilots that look skyward at the sound of an aircraft or slow down a little as they drive past an airfield. Similarly, Gann captures what is almost intangible and presents it to the reader with an immaculate style that will engross all who read it.

Gann carefully blends the worlds of the philosophical and aeronautical. In this mix, the reader looks out from the cockpit to at times see better within themselves.

A true classic.

Owen Zupp. Author: "Down to Earth"

www.owenzupp.com
DOWN TO EARTH: A Fighter Pilot's Experiences of Surviving Dunkirk, The Battle of Britain, Dieppe and D-Day

This is the memoir of one of the first 300 airline pilots in America. It tells the story of the development of the airline industry and the Air Transport Command during World War II. It is well-written with wit and pathos. I enjoyed the read.

One will see why this was and remains one of the best works of fiction in any genre, but especially aviation. A great book that every pilot has in the bookcase. I also highly recommend, Flying North South East and West,
a non-fiction book that I think is destined to become an aviation classic.
Flying North South East and West: Arctic to the Sahara,

This is one of those books that has a sneak ending - best appreciated by reading through at a steady rate (which only makes sense once the climax of the book is revealed). The stories, anecdotes and tales seem almost trite and mundane - but build to the showdown, for me a life lesson. Flying is revealed for the joy it is, for its wonder, the thrill of a good landing when one has fought the good fight aloft in peril of ending badly. Gann wrote the thing with a purpose - and it wasn't to entertain you. He is like a grandfather with good advice, and he hits you with a zinger to make the point. You will be grateful, either gender, any station, rich or poor.

This book is soul-wrenching. A Must for everyone, regardless of religious affiliation. Brings together both priest and artist: Rembrandt's insights and those of Henri Nouwen. . .

Henri Nouwen had a truly God-given gift - the gift of explaining timeless spiritual truths in very clear, ordinary language in a conversational and deeply captivating way. His words and his explanations imprint themselves into the memory and stay in the heart, and truly help to change lives. Much of his wisdom surely comes from his own struggles, which he admits to in the book - he personally struggled with depression, pride, desire for success and fame, envy, etc. - common human ailments. He also struggled with feeling unworthy of God, and with feeling distant from God. Yet, he learned to overcome his struggles (though he admits that he is still on a journey), and he describes how.

This is the third book I have read by Neuwen. After reading Life of the Beloved I really didn't think that anything could compare, but this book, if not better, is at least just as good. It is an instantly timeless spiritual classic. The whole book is a reflection on Rembrandt's painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son. First Nouwen reflects on the younger son who came back from a foreign land. Then he reflects on the older son who witnesses his younger brother's return. Finally, Nouwen reflects on the father figure. His insights are deep and beautiful. He leads the reader to a natural and yet incredible insight: that after identifying ourselves with both the younger and older brother, we must realize that rather than being either of these two brothers, we are called to become the father!

"Return of the Prodigal Son" is a wonderful opportunity to hear the gentleness and genius that was Henri Nouwen. The book was originally a talk given at retreat when Nouwen was 57, about 8 years before his death, in the time following his famous service at Toronto's L'Arche Daybreak facility for severely handicapped adults. Nouwen's humility is on display, as are his deep spiritual and psychological insights.

The impetus for Nouwen's reflections was Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son," painted when the artist was elderly, and following multiple tragedies in his own life. Nouwen's inspiration is less the painting, though, than the parable. His lecture is split into three parts, focusing on the younger son, the older son and the father. Nouwen's take on the parable is Jesus's radical break with interpretations of God that held sway in his own day as they still do in ours. The God that Jesus defines is not angry, vindictive or retaliatory, but completely open in love and forgiveness. While many will agree with this description of the Father, fewer will agree with Nouwen that this image of the Father exists the rest of Holy Scripture (both OT and NT) as well. While many of us are willing to accept Scripture's seemingly schizoid vision of God, Nouwen does not. He is completely committed to the loving father portrayed in this parable. For those committed to the God of condemnation, hell and judgment, Nouwen will be a disappointment (or a challenge). Human beings separate themselves from a God who is always anxious to take them back, teaches Nouwen.

In Nouwen's take on the story, the younger son teaches the journey from dissolution to containment. Dissolution includes dissipation of the kind associated with the younger son in the parable -- insults to parents, arrogance, squandering of resources, immorality. But dissolution extends to other activities and attitudes that spread our energies beyond our capacities. We spread ourselves too thin, spiritually, usually out of a desire to impress those in our lives whom we want to impress or influence. But by recognizing our sonship with God, we realize that we do need to impress of fathers (whether heavenly or worldly) into loving us, allowing us to bring our spiritual energies into containment and focus. The elder son often lives in our hearts alongside the younger son. The elder son's error is in resentment and separation. He cannot rejoice that "this son of yours" has returned from death, whining about his own ceaseless and unrewarded labors. But his error also speaks to a misunderstanding of the Father's love. He feels he will be loved *because* of his obedience (evidently given grudgingly) and has missed that his gift is to have been in the presence of the Father all along.

Nouwen's deep insight into the parable, whose subtlety and profundity become apparent the more listen, is astounding. The parable has the power to heal as well. For any who have felt conflict or hurt in family situations, as has Nouwen himself, the parable points the way toward a recognition of our true place in the world, and in God's eyes. This is not a dewy "I'm OK, You're OK" insight, but can lead to a profound shifting of our existential relationship with ourselves, our parents and our God. What false fronts and defenses we might shed if we truly believed in a God who loved us as beloved children -- no matter how far astray we had gone?

Nouwen's style and delivery belie the intensity of his own struggle and the wisdom of his teaching. Yet the insights continue rolling in, like waves following the passage of a ship, long after the book is over. A fascinating and potentially life-changing book.

This book opened up so many different ideas on the well known story of the Prodigal Son. I loved reading this book. It was my first Nouwen read, and it definitely will get me reading more of his books. If you are not familiar with Nouwen, this is a good first read.

This is an excellent life changing book. Presents the core truth of the Christian Gospel in a way that touches everyday attitudes and struggles. A book so personal and touching you may find that Nouwen is addressing your own unique circumstances. I certainly did. You may find yourself thinking about a new way to live. This book changed my life.

Before I lost this, I was constantly using this as a point of reference for the time line of things and to make sure I wasn't mispelling certain things.. getting other things right, what was where, what all kinds of Star ship classes there wear, etc... this was all for a fan fiction novel that I was, am.. writing. Good thing I put some of those things I was always looking at.. on paper.. so I didn't have to lug the book around everywhere I went.

Granted it's lacking the last few seasons of Voyager and the whole of Enterprise, but I thank Okura for even making "an" edition of these, though it would be nice for a new one.

This is a great book, with one rather glaring error. Under the SETI entry, there is a picture of Pioneer's plaque. On the plaque, the Pioneer appears to be launched from the second planet from the sun. As we all know, the probe was launched from the third planet, Earth.

If you consider yourself a Trekkie or just someone who is truely intersted in Star Trek this Encyclopedia is a must buy period.It has insight to every facet of the Series.From the Original to Voyager you'll know details to everything.You'll won't be able to just glance through it once.I consider myself a huge Trekkie and like to think I know alot about the Shows,but I'll find myself amazed when I discover details about a certain charecter of Episodes I've forgotten or never knew exsisted.Especially interesting is the Timeline parts of the book,The breakdowns of Ship commisions and Designs,information about Actors,Cuisine,backstories of Charecters.You name it and they have everything about it...well almost everything.

You have to realize this fact before buying this Encyclopedia is that it was made in 1999.It's been 9 Years.Alot of History has happened in Star Trek since then and if you don't realize this now,you'll be disapointed to discover that to information about Deep Space Nine's last Season,the last 2 Seasons of Voyager,The whole of Enterprise and Star Trek Nemesis.All of this information is non-exsistant.And just imagine the frustration of people who actually owned this book through the years and reread it wishing it had all this wealth of new information.I honestly can't comprehend why Pocket Books would not release the Book with all of this missing information availible.Or make a CD-Rom of it.

This might sound like I'm ragging on the Book,but that would be impossible to do.Wiether or not this info is in this paticular Book doesn't really matter,because it extensively covers in scrutinizing detail of all the Series up to Deep Space Nine Last Season,Voyager's last 2 Seasons,the whole of Enterprise and Star Trek Nemesis.And believe me you'll be more than satisfied with that alone.

So,most definately buy this now and enjoy it and you will.But just realize it's outdated and once you do that then you can truely enjoy this Encyclopedia the way the Publisher intended you enjoy it:with wonderment and fun.

I bought this book in 2003, and it covered most of the bases then, but only the movies through 1998 ("Insurrection" IIRC; "Nemesis" is not covered.), and the 5th season of Voyager. It just covered the last season of DS9. And of course it has none of the "Enterprise" series.

There have also been events such as the Paramount auction of all the series and movie paraphernalia since then, and that could be a chapter all by itself.

I came on Amazon today expecting to see a new and updated version for sale, and was disappointed that the old edition is still all that's available.

Michael and Denise Okuda know everything there is to know about ST, and are the perfect people to update this. If I were shopping today for the first time I would say wait for the new edition, but buy a used paperback 1999 just to see what it's all about.

Keeping my fingers crossed that someone sees the demand for an updated version!

Nothing on the end of Voyager's Delta Quadrant wanderings? Nothing on Enterprise's backstory additions and newly-created anachronisms? Both this book and the related Star Trek Chronology need serious revamping. I appreciate the Okuda's insider Trekker style, but this reeks of willful blindness!

There are some hard parts to get through describing the fire, but you'll appreciate the Chicago history, the history around the event, what it did to the surrounding neighborhood and how it changed fire codes in the U.S. and likely the world. Your children are safer today because of what happened to these kids.

The book also made me replace all of my smoke detectors!

This book was given to me to read when I took my first fire fighter class. My instructor loaned me her copy and I ended up buying my own copy. The tragic events detailed in this book led me into teaching fire prevention and making sure that a tragedy such as this never happens again.

I have recommended this book to several people both in and outside of the fire service. Everyone that I know who have read it have been touched by this story. I have also given this book as a gift to several students taking their first steps into the fire service so that they never forget the impact a tragic fire can have.

I love to read and I feel that this is one of the best books I have ever read. I am also a firefighter and decided to read this book because it had to do with a historic fire, little did I know that I would love this book for much more than historic and educational reasons. This book was very well written and showed all aspects of this event from the firefighters to the victims themselves. I would recomden this book to anyone who wants a good read, as well as to anyone who is interested in fire history.

This was a fascinating book. I bought it to read on a trip, because of the excellent ratings. We were stuck in a plane on a runway in Dallas for 6 hours. The wait seemed much shorter, because I was thoroughly involved in reading this book.

I highly recommend it.

This is one Chicago tragedy that resonates with me strongly. My former attorney, recently deceased, was a survivor of the deadly fire at Our Lady of Angels Catholic School.

Despite our shared interest in history, he never spoke of the fire during the twenty years in which I knew him. Last year, I found a web site maintained by survivors of the fire and questioned him about the inclusion of his name and that of his sister on the list. His sole response was that the entries were correct. Both had attended school on December 1, 1958, the date of the fire. Our brief conversation proceeded no further. My friend was visibly uncomfortable and I did not make press him with additional inquiries.

Having read this well written account of the fire and the arson investigation, I can understand why my friend preferred to change the subject. This book is compelling, but it is not for the faint of heart. The descriptions contained in "To Sleep With Angels" will haunt and disturb you. You may not be able to read the book without pausing to weep.
I could not read the book in a single sitting.

It is difficult to forget any of the tragic events described in "To Sleep With the Angels." In no particular order, the random images include a father, who rushed to the school with a ladder to rescue trapped children, watching his own son perish in a cloud of toxic smoke as the ladder was too short to reach a high window; a sick ten year old girl had a premonitory dream, but within a few hours the same child felt much better and asked her mother to let her attend school after recess; from an upper floor window, frightened children recognized an adult neighbor, the owner of the local candy store, and began shouting at the woman and begging her to help save them. The terrible list goes on and on as the authors relate the individual memories and recollections of many of the survivors, the families of the victims, the witnesses and the investigators.

More than ninety persons perished that on that cold December afternoon. In addition to ninety-two students, three nuns were also killed in the burning building. A majority of the victims succumbed on account of smoke inhalation. In the aftermath of the fire, a national campaign was launched to improved fire safety at schools throughout the USA.

Almost as painful as the fire itself was the ultimate fate of many of the survivors. Following the tragedy, many local residents began to move away from their formerly beloved parish. Some people would describe the exodus of the families from the blue collar West Side neighborhood as white flight, but others believed that it was simply too painful for many parents and children to continue living in close proximity to the school where their loved ones had died. They needed to find new surroundings in which to live rather than be reminded of the tragedy on a daily basis. There were far too many unanswerable questions: How many additional lives might have been saved if a set of doors had been closed? How many children would have been spared if the fire had occurred fifteen minutes later after the three o'clock dismissal bell? Why wasn't the fire alarm bell sounded at the school more quickly? Firefighters felt that they could have saved many more lives if they had been given the correct building address and had arrived on the scene four minutes sooner.

No one was ever prosecuted for the crime of arson in connection with the suspicious fire. A juvenile offender set the fire, but he could not be tried under Illinois law since the crime occurred before his thirteenth birthday. This same minor was subsequently tried and convicted for a series of arsons committed in suburban Cicero, where his family moved after the fire at Our Lady of the Angels. The authors posit that church and civil authorities sought to shield the identity of the boy on account of his minority. This explanation is wholly credible.

After my friend's funeral, his two sisters related that their brother regularly attended memorial masses held to honor those who died in the fire at Our Lady of the Angels. The elder sister, who had also attended the school on the day of the fire, exited the building safely. Her brother was also escaped without serious injury. Their father heard a radio broadcast concerning the fire while driving his car and he was permitted to enter the police cordon to look for his children. He was unaware that they had arrived home safely during the confusion. There was a great deal of crying when the children and parents were reunited at their home that afternoon. These personal stories are not repeated in the book.
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In a bizarre and equally disturbing development, one of the authors of this book was convicted of arson after setting a fire to a storage building opposite St. Benedict's Catholic Church on the North side of Chicago in June of 2005. Thankfully, only property damage resulted from the fire. David Cowan was said to be despondent after losing his janitorial job. The defendant, who was also a former suburban firefighter, was sentenced to serve a three year prison term in December of that same year. He has been paroled. Ironically, he was also the author a book entitled, "Great Chicago Fires" and had reported on fires for various newspapers.

I finished reading Chickenhawk last night just a few minutes after midnight, July 4, 2008. I feel like I oughta apologize to its author, Bob Mason, for taking 25 years to "discover" his excellent account of one man's horrific wartime experiences in Vietnam over 40 years ago. Sam Hynes, author of the equally excellent WWII pilot's memoir, Flights of Passage, once told me that one of the most important ingredients in a memoir is that the narrator be likeable. Chickenhawk has that most vital element, for Bob Mason is as likeable a guy as you'll find in the literature of war, and his prose is absolutely real and riveting as he tells of his whirling descent into the madness that was Vietnam. His final chapter summarizes the kind of confusing nightmare his life became upon his return home, as he struggled to understand and survive this thing now commonly known as PTSD. I like this guy. In fact I like him well enough that I will try to find a copy of his out-of-print sequel to Chickenhawk. It may take a while, but I'll be back to comment on that one too. In the meantime, I urge anyone who enjoys good writing of any kind to read this book. It's the real deal. - Tim Bazzett, author of SoldierBoy: At Play in the ASA (RatholeBooks.com)

Read it in six days. Kept my interest. Hope Mason's life is going better these days.

As the cover says, "The best book to come out of Vietnam". This is a hard hitting book which is very well described. Approx. 50 pages in, you are already riding in the chopper with 'Bob' Mason. A sorry tale but a very true one.

I have read many military books. This is the best one I have ever read. I suggest the sequel "back in the life" as well as "Weapon" and "Solo". Anything written by Mason is good.

Bob Mason wrote a very eloquent, very eye-opening account of his Vietnam tour as a helicopter pilot.

Having just lost my older brother, who was also a helicopter (slick) pilot in 67-68 with the D Troop 1/10 Cav (Shamrocks) and A Co., 4th Avn Bn (Black Jack), I found just how much he sugar-coated the "war stories" he told myself and our siblings when we were pre-teens/teens. After reading Chickenhawk, it's a miracle that Bob Mason (and my brother) ever made it home at all. It seems that if this war didn't get you physically, it sure got you mentally and emotionally - making you pay one way or another.

From a woman's point of view, I recommend this book to every woman who ever had a son, brother, uncle or husband in Vietnam. This is what our Vietnam heroes went through for US ... somehow, a mere "thank you" will never be enough.

Welcome home, Bob. Thanks for all you gave up for us.