H Books

I learned about this book while reading another book, "Prime Obsession" and it awoke my curiosity mainly for two reasons: because it was a interesting subject, an apology for being a mathematician, trying to explain the purpose and usufulness of mathematics, and because I wanted to know more about Hardy's life, since I knew a few things about the nice story of this mathematician and Ramanujan. This is a brief book, there is a foreword that serve as a brief biography before enjoying Hardy thoughts, which by the way really grab your attention, even you learn a few lessons of simple mathematics proofs that try to show the beauty of it. I consider this book valuable for everyone.

Hardy was a giant among early 20th century mathematicians. It is difficult to overstate his importance. He was one of the first to show that mathematics is as much art as science without having to have interpretation (such as Dunham's "Journey Through Genius...").

This is what makes this book so poignant. Hardy realizes that he no longer is Hardy. In today's mathematics world that may not have been the case given the immediate communications possible between humans which may have kept him going. However, it may have been that he was suffering from the onset of dementia or Alzheimer's - it is difficult to tell given his admissions of not being up to the task - regardless, this book is overwhelmingly sad.

Anyone who cares about math should read this and thank Hardy for his contributions - plus they should have a copy of "A Course in Pure Mathematics".

This short book has long been one of my favorites. Hardy's philosophical musings may depress some but they ring so very true. Hardy is quite honest about life, art, mathematics, and his failing abilities. For example, his statement, that a very small minority of us are really good at what we do may sound depressing today. But the fact is true.

I can recall when words such as super, excellent, awesome etc. were used judiciously and very rarely to describe truly significant achievement. Today, doing one's job, albeit poorly, is described as excellent.

What I most like about Hardy's book is it's honesty and respect for the reader. A suggestion. Read the book proper BEFORE wading through C.P. Snow's forward. After about the second read tackle the forward.

A must have.

One of the most scholarly books that has been written in the 20th century, G.H. Hardy's thrilling memoir tells a story that other people are too afraid to discuss. Hardy's depressing transition from mathematical genius to near vegetable is a telling example of the archtypical fear of cerebral atrophy that resides among even the most resilient and foolhardy among us. This concise "novel" reads fluidly and especailly so for when written by a mathematician and serves to enlighten the world of the multi-talented nature of a world class mathematician. All in all this book is a rare find and should be read by people of all ages: whether a young aspiring mathematician or an old decrepit intellectual.

As Hardy himself makes clear in the beginning, he would never have written such a book if his mathematical powers had not failed him in old age. I do feel like this book is more an apology for not being a mathematician anymore than for having been one. As for all true loves, the time for judging and summings things up comes only when the joyful days of passion are over. I was hoping this book would give me an inspired first person view of what is higher mathematics and what is like to be a real mathematician. I found that it is not a good book for that, it doesn' t even try it. What it accomplishes instead is giving a precise, objective, cruel, marhematically clear picture of the drive, the ambition, the passion for excellence in any activity, be it a sport or a science that makes the life of the ones who dedicate their life to it so more pure and meaningful. It also poses some tough, fundamental questions regarding how much of your life one can dedicate to one single "abstract" passion without having to go trough some really bitter times and regrets in old age. My personal answer is that what really counts, in the end, is how much you loved and, what was sorely missing in Hardy's life, how much you express that love. But for some people, gifted and cursed at the same time, that is still not enough.

Although I am not quite finished with the book, I can highly recommend it to anyone interested in the real background and inside operations of the CIA written by past insiders. The content has been screened to assure that no classified information is contained, as well no endangerment of agents or other pesonnel is done. To add to the real meaning of the book, the forward was wiritten by George Tenet, Director of the CIA.

Some of the details of particular operations will have you on the edge of your seat. You will also be amazed at some of information on equipment developed and used by agents. You will be given an opportunity to decode a message using a real cipher code.

Don't miss this one!!

Spycraft, an important work that must be listen to/read and understood, especially in light of cooling relations with the Russians (once again). Anyone who has lived through the cold war will remember the tensions of the 'doomsday' clock and how it colored our world. As I remembered living through those times I felt there was an under current beyond our perception, struggling for dominance. This book details the struggle and fills in all the things you thought must have been happening.

Fantastic! Told from the unique perspective of the technical and operations officers of the day, this is a must read for anyone interested in the period of history between the Cold War and today.

This fascinating book takes you into the real world of the role technology plays in gathering intelligence. While not as magical as Q in the Bond movies, it comes awfully close and has the benefit of reality. Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton always tie the technology back to why it was needed and the various problems that had to be overcome in creating the solution. Seeing how the technologies evolved over time and how some of the technologies eventually became parts of consumer products was quite a hoot. While this is a 500 page book, I think you will be so fascinated by it that you will have a hard time putting it down. I know I did. It reads quickly because you just want to find out what happens next.

The book is in six sections. The first two chapters provide a short background on the earliest days of spying and tradecraft (how spies do what they do). Section 2 covers four chapters and the way the CIA facilitated a spy called Penkovsky and how he was eventually caught. Section 3 shows us the work of a spy called TRIGON, the first really small spy camera (The T-100) and even how our people in Moscow wore surveillance detection gear (the SRR-100). Part of the problem with these devices, decades before the iPod was how to wear an earpiece without it being scene. The solution was to create a perfect latex year that you wore over the earpiece. Another great story was the CKTAW operation that required the bugging of a secure Soviet communications line right in Moscow. A recurring theme in this book is how our operations were betrayed by traitors in our intelligence organizations such as Edward Lee Howard, Robert Hannsen, Alrich Ames, and others.

Part IV covers the amazing achievements of the audio techs, their gear, and some of the crazy operations they pulled off. Some of the problems they had provide comic relief. Part V tells the story of one of our audio teams going to Cuba in the early days of Castro's regime, their getting caught, and their brave years in prison. Eventually, they received the Distinguished Intelligence Cross. We are also taken to the early days in Vietnam, the early days of fighting terrorism, and the world of forged documents

Part VI provides six chapters on tradecraft. The authors show us how technology supports the important work of intelligence gathering in assessing and recruiting agents, the uses of cover and disguise, in creating and protecting concealments, and in covert communications. The sixth chapter focuses on how the digital age undermined the traditional methods and created a whole new realm of opportunity and challenges for spies and the agencies that have to try and counter them and the work of terrorists.

There are also six appendices (the genealogy of OTS, its chronology, its directors, CIT trailblazers from OTS, which names in the book were pseudonyms, and instructions on how to decider the code the book opens with. There is also a glossary, selected bibliography, acknowledgements, and a good index.

The book also has good drawings, diagrams, and photos.

Obviously, for people really in the trade this stuff is all ancient and out of date, but for those of us on the outside who have an interest in this, it is terrific reading.

Great stuff.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

It's hard not to be fascinated with the James Bond spy persona, what with all the cool gadgets and such. But what is the reality behind spies and their techniques? Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda by Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton, and Henry Robert Schlesinger offers up a comprehensive, detailed guide to the real-life story of the tools that make up a spy's arsenal of weapons.

Contents:
Section 1 - At The Beginning: My Hair Stood on End; We Must Be Ruthless
Section 2 - Playing Catch-up: The Penkovsky Era; Beyond Penkovsky; Bring in the Engineers; Building Better Gadgets
Section 3 - In The Passing Lane: Moving Through the Gap; The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword (and Shield); Fire in the Attic; A Dissident at Heart; An Operation Called CKTAW
Section 4 - Let The Walls Have Ears: Cold Beer, Cheap Hotels, and a Voltmeter; Progress in a New Era; The Age of Bond Arrives; Genius Is Where You Find It
Section 5 - Prison, Bullet, Passport, Bomb: Conspicuous Fortitude, Exemplary Courage in a Cuban Jail; War by Any Other Name; Con Men, Fabricators, and Forgers; Tracking Terrorist Snakes
Section 6 - Fundamentals of Tradecraft: Assessment; Cover and Disguise; Concealments; Clandestine Surveillance; Covert Communications; Spies and the Age of Information; Epilogue - An Uncommon Service
Appendix A - U.S. Clandestine Services and OTS Organizational Genealogy; Appendix B - Selected Chronology of OTS; Appendix C - Directors of OTS; Appendix D - CIA Trailblazers from OTS; Appendix E - Pseudonyms of CIA Officers Used; Appendix F - Instructions to Decipher the Official Message from the CIA on page xxv
Glossary; Notes; Selected Bibliography; Acknowledgments; Index

The authors focus less on the "human" side of spying and more on the "technology" side of the spy game in this book. Going back to World War 2, you learn about the formation of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and how they started to create their own tools to aid in the uncovering of enemy secrets as well as creating havoc behind the lines. These efforts created things like the Limpet mine (designed to be used on ships and attached below the waterline), the Mole (an explosive that would be attached to trains and would trigger when there was an absence of light, like tunnels), and the Anerometer (an explosive to be used on planes that would detonate when a plane reached 1500 feet in altitude). The key in their designs was that they were not "one-off" devices never to be repeated, but instead would be manufactured on a small scale, in secret, and be available when the situation called for it. Through the years, the technology becomes more focused on surveillance and capturing of communication. I was amazed at the wide array of bugging devices and homing beacons they were able to deploy successfully to track and monitor individuals who were intent on doing harm to U.S. interests. Although not one of the now cutting-edge devices, I was fascinated over what they were able to accomplish with miniature cameras in the 1960's that could be deployed to agents and used to copy secret documents. Tucked away in devices like pens and cigarette lighters, a spy could photograph a document in seconds with a high likelihood of success.

There are also interesting stories on how certain terrorist crimes were eventually solved. The most well-known example was the bombing of Pam-Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. With debris scattered over 800 miles, it was not an easy task to assemble enough clues to determine how the bombing happened, much less who was responsible for it. Incredibly, the case ended up turning on the discovery of a small piece of circuit board and a fragment of a t-shirt. The technology gurus were able to match the circuit board to a type and design made by a certain company, as well as find the location of where the t-shirt had been sold. These clues tied the crime back to Libya and two specific terrorists, who eventually were tried in an international court. But it was only due to the extensive amount of intel uncovered on unrelated cases that allowed everything to be reassembled for this particular incident.

Spycraft is not a book you'll sit down and finish in an evening. It's long (550 pages), very detailed, and it's not written in a novel-like style. But it is fascinating reading, and the authors did an excellent job in telling the story of the hidden people in the CIA who work with no recognition but make all the difference in the world.

This work is a very extensive examination of the tactics used by Arab small units. It goes into vivid detail about their ambush techniques as well as other aspects of how they fight. The only serious issue I have with it is it is difficult to read at times. Mr. Poole uses many quotes especially block quotes which are very useful and come from legitimate sources. However, these quotes hurt the flow of the book and make it very choppy to read. If you can work past this flaw though it is a great resource.

This book is excellent. It should be required reading for both military Officers and Non Commissioned Officers. This book gives an ever day insight into the tatics used by Mid-Eastern terrorist.

During seven months in Falluja in 2005 I spent approximately 150 days in the city. The history alone in this book showed us just how much we may have been underestimating our enemies, and that if they followed their classical influences they could have done much more damage.

The history is priceless dating back to influences of the Samarai and how it came to bring the original Middle Eastern assassins, and how today's suicide bombers are like those in the past, only they have explosives instead of knives, and do not need as much skill.

John Poole had spent close to 30 years in the Marine Corps leading men as both a gunnery sergeant (when enlisted) and a Lt Colonel (when commissioned). He saw Vietnam first hand, and left feeling that he could have done more for the men he'd led. Although the officers that are in charge of teaching battle field skills are not fast to accept his methods the men on the ground who deal with the enemies in the streets of Iraqi cities know he is right.

If you want to truly understand how difficult it is to fight and win in the Middle East, then this book is required reading. Far too often we get watered-down information out of the press and on the Internet but the tactics of our Eastern adversaries go unmentioned. We know of suicide bombs, but where did this tactic originate? Which group in the Middle East is the most proficient at close-range combat? Where does Al Qaeda excel and what is the role of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard? Are Sunni and Shia groups always adversaries, or will they work together when faced with a common enemy?

This book gives countless examples of diffent tactics in different areas of the world from Afghanistan to Chechnya to the Levant. It illustrates the strengths of our adversaries and addresses our own weaknesses as a "Western" army. Finally, Poole makes recommendations on how we can win this fight through better light infantry tactics and restrained use of preparatory fire and air power.

It is in my opinion the best book yet on this "4th Generation" warfare. It is an outstanding read and will make you an expert amongst your friends when discussing the current state of military affairs in the Middle East.

I would highly encourage any person who is Battalion staff or lower to read this book. All Army and Marine personnel should read this book on the jet flying them to Iraq or Afghanistan. This book will give a typical soldier or marine a good snap shot of how the Eastern combat mind thinks. Also, unlike much propaganda to the contrary, the Islamic soldiers fight using Eastern techniques. There is more hand-to-hand fighting than in the past. American's just can't call in their massive fire support because the targets may not be easy to hit.

This book is great for privates, sergeants, lieutenants, and captains. I don't know if the advice will be taken if it's read at the level of battalion or above. That is where the "rubber no longer meets the road". The staff disconnect from the soldiers begins.

For all war fighters this book is a must read. All ROTC departments, Marine, and Army infantry should have this book as required reading.

If you can't afford the Oxford Edition of Shakespeare's complete works than this is the next best edition you can find.

This was the text for my college Shakespeare classes over 20 years ago (different edition of course) I still have it and still use it. A wonderful book for students and those who want not only the complete works but some well written and authoritative information about Shakespeare and the world in which he lived and wrote.

The texts of the plays are well foot-noted and the type is easy on the eyes. Well worth the investment.

While reading reviews of this edition elsewhere on the Web, I came across this review by David Allen White, professor of English @ the U.S. Naval Academy and editor (with Charles Boyce) of Shakespeare A to Z:

"Re-writing Shakespeare is nothing new. The Nahum Tate version of King Lear--with the happy ending--held the stage for nearly a century and a half. The great actors of the romantic age, Kean and Booth and Macready, not only spotlighted the heroes in the tragedies but felt free to beef up their roles. Directors began more than 50 years ago to monkey with the historical settings of the play, often with imaginative and instructive results. Scholars, critics, and directors have ridden various hobbyhorses through the plays for years, introducing us to Freudian Hamlets and Marxist King Lears and feminist Tamings of the Shrew.

"Recent Shakespeare production and scholarship, however, add a perverse twist to this long tradition. We no longer care what the Bard actually wrote. Years of deconstructionist theorizing have taught us that words are needy and we, readers or actors or scholars, have the right, indeed the obligation, to give them the gift of meaning--our meaning, the more bizarre the better.

"For the 23 years that I've taught Shakespeare at the United States Naval Academy, I have always used the same text, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, edited by David Bevington of the University of Chicago. Professor Bevington is an old-school scholar with a distinguished career. The book he edited had many advantages: large print, full character names before each speech, specific indications of settings, modernized spellings, solid introductions that connected the plays to the students' experience of love and politics, morality and order, passion and faith, and comprehensive but not overwhelming notes. Every few years a new edition would appear, and I would open it with interest and a little apprehension. But the changes would be minor--thinner paper (approaching the substance of tissue, a malady afflicting many recent books), hints here and there of encroaching academic perversity in the notes--nothing sufficient to make me seek another text. The 4th edition's introduction to The Tempest caused me to swallow hard: We learn there that Prospero's authority "is problematic to us because he seems so patriarchal, colonialist, even sexist and racist in his arrogating to himself the right and responsibility to control others in the name of Western and Christian values." But this is an imperfect world, and I soldiered on.

"Notified that a 5th Edition would appear this fall, I took time to examine it closely. Many of the introductions remain the same; but new editors and commentators have significantly altered others. Despite the myth of progress that reigns in all the disciplines of modern academia, "new" is often far from "improved." Apparently, Professor Bevington has either ignored the changes or allowed the young scholar-colts to have a romp. In some of the new introductory essays, especially under the guise of new brief histories of stage performance, questionable judgment, to put it mildly, has crept in. For example, the introduction to Othello ends with the following observation:

'In another recent development, Emilia has stood out in several productions as the raissoneur and heroic figure in the play, speaking as she does on behalf of maltreated women, urging Desdemona to stand up for her rights. One recent Chicago production went so far as to rewrite the ending: Othello and Iago both survive unpunished for what they have done, while Desdemona and Emilia lie dead as their innocent victims. This deliberate and provocative overstatement might seem extreme to some viewers, but unquestionably did signal the direction of recent performance history of the profoundly disturbing play.'

"It may be time to stop buying tickets to that great play.

"The current obsession in academia is "queer theory," and the homoerotic is everywhere, not just in Shakespeare studies. But this particular perversity fills the introductions to the new Bevington, especially the introductions to the comedies. Compare the following passages, the first from the introduction to As You Like It in the 4th Edition, essentially a carry-over from earlier editions:

'Rosalind's disguise name, Ganymede, taken from Jove's amorous cupbearer, has homoerotic connotations that are easily misinterpreted today. Shakespeare delicately acknowledges the suggestion, to be sure, both in Phoebe's pursuit of a young lady (but really a boy actor) in male attire, and in Orlando's courtship of "Ganymede" as though addressed to Rosalind. Yet this innocent titillation, found also in Shakespeare's source, is not meant to hint at homosexual attraction as we understand it. On the contrary, the point is that Orlando can speak frankly and personally to "Ganymede" as to a perfect friend, one to whom he can relate in platonically spiritual terms without the distracting note of sexual interest.'

"These are eminently sane and sensible remarks. Now from the Introduction to As You Like It in the 5th Edition:

'Rosalind's disguise name, Ganymede, has connotations that suggest ways in which human sexuality can be partly understood as socially constructed. If Rosalind in disguise as Ganymede wins the affection and eventually the love of Orlando, while her father and the others are equally taken in by the disguise, are maleness and femaleness chiefly matters of sartorial convention and superficial appearance? When Phoebe falls in love with Ganymede, is not her infatuation a way of showing that the roles of the sexes can be put on and off? Theatrically, the device of having a young male actor play Rosalind who then disguises him/herself as a young man adds to the witty confusion of sexual identities by introducing homoerotic possibilities. Not only can the roles of the sexes be put on and off, sexual desire itself is unstable...'

"This is ideology masquerading as interpretation.

"To be sure, the range of possible interpretations of Shakespeare's work is wide, for he encompasses all of humanity and tells profound and mysterious truths about human life. Such inexhaustible expansiveness invites discussion and dispute and differences. At the end of the Introduction to Richard II in this volume, for example, there is a brief but superb account of various interpretations of that rich role by leading actors. Professor Charles Forker of Indiana University provides that account; another old-school scholar, he knows more about that play than any other living soul. Too many of the revised introductions, however, are more interested in advancing the latest academic-political orthodoxy than in discovering and illuminating the natural and conventional moral order so abundantly on display in Shakespeare's works. Nothing is more orthodox--still--among contemporary literary critics than the alleged truth that there is no truth, that all interpretations are valid except the author's own.

"Thus Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream can be presented as "the denizen of a drug culture, with the love potion as the weed he gleefully distributes. The experience of the forest becomes a drug-induced 'high,' for audiences as for the actors. The fairies, sometimes played by adult and hairy males, can exhibit a streak of cruelty." And, indeed, in a recent production at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C., the fairies were hairy males who carried something like miners' lights. So much for lightness and charm and magic. This same Dream introduction gives the game away in words that are echoed in many of the other essays: "These modern interpretations are arguably neither more nor less 'true' to Shakespeare's text than earlier or more 'traditional' versions. What they do demonstrate is the play's remarkable permeability and openness to differing views."

"The new Bevington retails for $90; in good conscience, I cannot ask students to fork over such a sum of cash for a book that is now rife with nonsense. So next fall I'll assign The Riverside Shakespeare, which fortunately is still in its 2nd edition. I fervently hope it is not soon updated.

"Of course, the Bevington volume has come to reflect the universities it serves, where young students pay small fortunes to be taught that there is no enduring meaning or beauty to be found in the poetry of Shakespeare, no tradition worth preserving, no "truth" other than personal whim and innovative foolery. If the price of the new Bevington is petty theft, the tuitions charged by these institutions have become, at least for the study of the humanities, highway robbery.

"I know a father who gave his son the equivalent of a year's tuition and told the lad to go to Europe, to travel, to observe, to learn for as long as the money would hold out. The young man came back after two-and-a-half years, mature and educated, and instantly found a good job. The time has come for imaginative, alternative learning. I talked recently with a very intelligent young woman who loves literature; she is completing her sophomore year at Yale, where she had hoped to pursue an English Literature major. She informed me with sorrow that she was abandoning that plan. Her reason was quite simple: she had already sat through too many classes where lunacy prevailed. She mentioned the possibility of looking at traditional Catholic convents. Could this be the first refreshing drop of a wave of the future? It would not be the first time that civilization was preserved in the convents and the monasteries. Nymph, in thy orisons, be all of Academia's sins remembered."

(Allen, David White, "An Unweeded Garden," The Claremont Institute, http://claremont.org/publications/crb/id.959/article_detail.asp [originally published March 22, 2004])

I guess it's safe to say that, based on his review, Professor Allen'd give this edition 1 star...right?

I purchased this book as a birthday present for a graduating high school student who is a big fan of Shakespeare.
This volume has a lot to offer to both students and casual readers. In addition to very readable text of all the plays and sonnets, the fifth edition provides historical and literary context, including drawings and photos, as well as insightful essays on each of the plays. The essays include background, plot summaries and discussion of major themes and would be very useful to anyone seeing a play, especially for the first time. The helpful glossary is extensive, so the reader doesn't have to look up unfamiliar words or feel intimidated by the language. Professor Bevington's fifth edition of the Complete Works is a gem, authoritative and attractive. The birthday girl thinks so, too-- she gives it an A+.

This is truly a great book. Not only does it contain all of Shakespeare's works but it also has an enormous amount of information. There's a little bit on his life and a bit more about the theater during his time. There are also some great drawings in the beginning of the book.

when i first picked up this book i assumed it would be living on my bedside table for several weeks as i read a chapter here and there. i was surprised to find that once i began reading i just couldn't put it down. the book captivated me on three levels: the array of characters about whom dr. helfant writes are fascinating and run the gamut from a mafia kingpin to a tortured catholic priest; helfant also explains in some detail the various symptoms of cardiac disease as well as the limitations faced by the practioner and finally, and perhaps most important as indicated by the title, the transformative impact that life threatening illness has had on the seven patients about whom he has so eloquently written. each vignette offered a real-life drama which helfant has conveyed with a style one would expect from a first rate novelist rather than someone who has spent his life in the medical profession. this book was a wonderful surprise package.

Wow. Dr. Helfant's book is absolutely amazing. He is those rarest of doctors; one who cares deeply about his patients.

His stories of his patients' suffering, recovery, and life-changes were so heartfelt and touching. I'll remember those people for years to come. Don't miss this book. It's a must-read.

Dr. Helfant's accounts of courageous patients surviving near fatal illness and going on to change their lives for the better is truly inspirational. I was moved by each story, and for a different reason. This is a distinctly powerful book, and is sure to be a bestseller.

What is remarkable about "Courageous Confrontations" is the philosophy of hope offered by this dedicated and highly skilled physician. He explains in language easily understood by a layman the medical factors relating to diseases of the heart, and then demonstrates how one's fate is not solely limited to medical factors, how one's will and character can affect the medical outcome of the most serious condition. He vividly descibes his cases so that each person seems universally human and yet unique. The description and dialogue make this book as enjoyable as a novel to read, yet the fact that this is a work of non fiction makes the ideas expressed much more meaningful. I read this book on the recommendation of a friend and have recommended it to every one I know. It is amazing that a skilled physician like Dr. Helfant is also gifted with ability to write a book in which each case fascinates the reader while teaching the importance of the human spirit in the outcome of any disease.

As an Internist and Gastroenterologist with 36 years of practice experience, I have to confess that Dr. Helfant has written the book that I always wanted to write. Every physician, with any length of experience, has patient interactions that leave him amazed, astonished and enlightened. I can't tell you how often I've told friends and family, "I should write a book". Well, I never have, but Dick Helfant has, and it is a fabulous read. He is clearly, not only an excellent Cardiologist, but a marvelous story-teller. I heartily recommend his book to medical students, young physicians, and anyone else who just enjoys a good read.

Hal Kaplan, MD

I read this book to my fourth grade students every year. The storyline is exciting and enjoyable for students of all backgrounds. Bruce Coville writes this novel in a way that keeps the children engaged and always wanting more. Each chapter ends with a "cliffhanger", leading to choruses of "Read more! Read more!" The characters in this story are well-loved by myself, and my current and former students. They are all able to sing Igor's bear bopping song long after the last word is read. This is an absolutely fantastic book~one of Bruce Coville's best!

Goblins In the Castle

What would you do if you found a secret passage in your room that led down to a dungeon filled with evil marauding goblins?

Goblins in the Castle is about a boy who does just that. He opens a door he shouldn't, letting out the spirits of a Goblin army. Now he needs to leave the castle and take down the goblins for good. During his adventure he meets people and asks if they will join in his great adventure to defeat the goblins. Oh, did I mention his best friend is a hunchback who whacks people with his teddy bear?

Goblins in the Castle was written by Bruce Coville and illustrated by Katherine Coville. Bruce has written many books you might know like: "Space Brat" and "My Teacher is An Alien."

THE GOBLINS IN THE CASTLE

By: Bruce Coville
The book I'm doing this report on is The Goblins in the Castle. It's about a boy named William, a girl named Fuana, and a thing named Igor. In the book William lived in a castle and finds a hidden passage and meets Igor. On Halloween he accidentally let the goblins out of the north tower. Igor said they needed to see Granny Pinch Bottoms. They go and on the way Igor was stolen by goblins and William falls in a pit and meets Fuana, then goes to Granny Pinch Bottom, she gives him items to save the goblin's land. He went and did what she told him and saves goblin land.
I think William is the kind of kid that just wants some attention. He is brave to do what he's told. He's friendly to his friends. He's kind of crazy.
The problem was William opened the north tower door and let the goblins out. Another one is that he doesn't know what to do. The most important one is trying to find the courage to save the goblins.
The solution was the goblins roamed free because William made them good. He finds out what to do from Granny Pinch Bottom. He finds the courage by figuring out what at stake.
I would recommend this book to people that likes a good mystery. I would rate it at a five star book and because it's cool.

I first purchased this book when I was seven years old at a school book fair because I was raised by my father on The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings and the cover, title and description looked cool.

I remember vividly being in second grade and being absolutely tantalized by the day or two it took for me to finish it. It was just a wonderful tale of charming adventure that immediately struck the right chord with me. I'm 21 years old now and I still find myself taking time every year or so to pick up the very copy of the book I purchased when I was 7 to re-aquaint myself with the characters and the adventure and the feeling of being so completely absorbed with a story that can't really be captured beyond grammar school levels that the rest of the world doesn't matter.

This book has stood the test of time for me. It served as a fantastical escape when I was a wee lad and can still provide that exact same charm now as I finish college that I don't believe I'll ever be able to find anywhere else.

Stellar book that will do nothing but encourage young people to read; it's something that's really needed today.

This is a great book. I have read it to my 4th and 5th grade students and to my own children and they have all loved it. It has just the right mix of "scary" and funny to keep the reader's (or listener's!) interest. This book is not one of Bruce Coville's best known stories, but once you read it, it WILL be one of your favorites!

This work of fiction looks, feels and reads like a real journal, full of love, tender memories, and feels to me like it captured some tiny sense of what it must have been like to be Miss Potter. I search for words to express how highly I recommend this book; every one in my family that has enjoyed it felt a sense of excitement and wonder and awe. And the photos are so endearing!

Entralling book at an incredibly low price, fully worth much more! A beautiful and wondrous work of art and whimsy, a joy for all ages! I will be reading and admiring this over and over again. This book is far too lovely to be shelved into a bookcase- do display it and enjoy the sweet memories that viewing it often will invoke! I thank the publishers for an inspired, dedicated, dear, devoted, honorable bestowment to the legacy of Beatrix Potter.

A simply gorgeous book that you must add to your collection. Lots of little pockets and fun stuff within the book. Being a full grown adult...I was very happy to find this colorful and interesting book. Large, thick cover. High quality construction and excellent arrangement.

The biggest question I have about this book is how in the world can it be put on the market for only $13.59? The book is a complete delight. As some of the other reviews have mentioned; it has reproductions of letters, notes, and other items that give inside glimpses into the life and times of Beatrix Potter. There is something on almost every page to surprise and delight the reader.

This book can be enjoyed by both adults and children; it does need to be handled carefully as the reproductions of the notes and letters deserve special care.

Hidden inside the back cover is a reproduction of Beatriz Potter's privately printed edition of 250 copies of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit"; what a delightful finish to a tour of the life of a remarkable woman.

This is a wonderful addition to any Beatrix Potter collection and an amazing value as well!

'Beatrix Potter: A Journal" is a beautifully bound keepsake that Beatirx Potter fans will cherish for years to come. It is presented in the form of a journal or rather an album, and basically contains journal entries dating back to when Beatrix was 16 years old and had begun discovering wonderful things that helped her evolve into the creative writer and creator of Peter Rabbit and friends.

The journal is beautifully put together - there are old family pictures, reproductions of Beatrix's original sketches and drawings, personal documents [e.g. Beatrix's old report card] - what a delight to peruse these treasures. The journal entries themselves make for absorbing reading - though they are in cursive form and younger reders may need help with deciphering what is written. There are reproductions of letters to family and friends,delightful illustrations throughout the journal. Of interest is information as to how certain characters in The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Friends was inspired by real-life people, such as the character of Farmer McGregor.

There are many lift-the-flap features in this journal that makes it even more of a treat - there's an envelope containing a reproduction of the letter which contains the story of Peter Rabbit complete with illustrations, a map of the beautiful Lake District, a paper version of the game of Peter Rabbit, and the prize jewel in this journal - right at the end of the journal, embedded into it, is a little book "The Tale of Peter Rabbit"! One would not know it, for it is concealed so well - and indeed a delight to peruse.

I can't recommend this highly enough. I am a life-long fan of Beatrix Potter and my three-year old daughter is following in my footsteps. It is such a treat to be able to share this book with her!

As a former Outward Bound instructor who loves adventure, I found this book riveting. As a business coach I know that learning occurs when we are on the edge, in a little less familiar place. This story supplements the narratives about Shackleton because Perkins takes the story and applies it to leadership. Hence, it becomes contemporary. I liked some of his points so much that I referenced him in my book. I strongly encourage you to read this book. Doug Gray, PCC, author of [ASIN:0975884158 Passionate Action: 5 Steps to Extraordinary Success in Life and Work]]sionate Action.

Perkins uses Shackleton's Antarctic expedition of the early 1900's to identify ten leadership strategies. These stategies have proven useful for me in both military and civilian business settings. Perkins uses real-life examples form the Shackleton expedition in Part One to identify the strategies. In Part Two he uses recent (from when the book was written) business example to demonstrate how these strategies can be applied. This is an easy read and the stories of the Shackleton expedition helped keep my focus on the people that we lead while keeping the ultimate goal in sight. The title of this book applies whether you are leading at the edge of the world, the edge of survival, or at the edge of competition.
"Fortitudine Vincimus"!

This book is a "must read" for everyone aspiring to become a leader. The different life and death situations that Shackleton and his men faced, and how they overcame the obstacles in their way, is an example for all to follow.

The book is written masterfully, allowing the reader to reflect on how different leadership techniques were applied and how to apply the techniques to the situations particular to the reader.

Outstanding Work!

A fantastic text based on an epic journey. The history of Shackleton's ill-fated expedition is a sharp contrast to the modern view which epitomizes personal liberty as the highest virtue.

This book features vignettes from an expedition faced with nearly insurmountable odds that highlight the difficult choices faced by Shackleton and his men. In the face of adversity, they managed to endure, though not without cost. Perhaps the most moving part of the narrative is knowing that, after he and a few of his men made it (barely) to the safety of a remote whaling outpost, he insisted on mounting numerous rescue attempts for his other stranded crew-mates until they were successfully extracted.

I highly recommend this book to anyone, whether or not you are involved in business management. As a father, I found many of the examples and stories inspirational, and I have shared them with my children to teach them the virtues of perseverence and the responsibilities of leadership.

The author, Dennis N. T. Perkins, shows extraordinary insight in leadership with 10 clearly stated principles. Based in strong part on Shackelton's expedition, these 10 principles are not only clearly stated, but truly make a difference. It is obvious that Perkins understands leadership. The book is easy to read, but takes plenty of mental energy. This book should be read by any manager, and should be considered a classic.

Can you imagine my surprise when I encountered this book on Amazon.com!

I am 18 years old and I read "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters" in elementary school and I was enamored with the story then! And I still am. This "African Cinderella" is sure to resonate with young girls and make them curious about Africa.

It is the story of an African King who has two beautiful daughters, only one of them, Manyara, is mean, nasty, and "haughty" (this book is where I learned that word!) while Nyasha is sweet, compassionate and kind. When their father learns that a ruler of another kingdom is to take a wife, he decides that both of his beautiful daughters should go. However, Manyara arrogantly leaves alone to get there before her sister, ever so certain that she will be chosen.

On the way both her and her sister encounter a series of tasks and through these, their true characters are tested.

Other than a great story, the illustration is absolutely beautiful! They are artwork unto themselves. Love this book! I can't wait to purchase this for the little girls in my life! Or, i just may buy it to reminisce!

Wonderful book about Manyara and Nyasha, daughters of an African King. This books shows that beauty comes from within. Manyara is a selfish sister and wants nothing more than to be queen and she will stop at nothing to be it. Nyasha is kind and loving and only wants to be happy. She sees the beauty in nature and people. A king from the neighboring town is searching for a wife and immediately Manyara wants to be queen. Manyara gets up early and sneaks to the village of the King but she is met by a little boy who wants food, and a elderly woman whom she is told to be kind too. She doesnt give the boy food and is verbally mean to the old woman. Nyasha goes through the forest and finds the same people but this time she gives food to the little boy. She is met by a woman who points the way to the city and she is kind to her and gives her sunflower seeds. As they approach the city, Manyara runs out and crying saying that she saw a snake with 5 heads and was telling her how rotten of a person she is. Nyasha is brave and walks in only to a find a simple snake for whom she was friends with. He tells her that he is the king and the elderly woman and little boy in the forest. He then asks her to be his queen because she is the most beautiful and kindhearted of them all.

The illustrations are breathtaking. The story emphasizes the true ugliness of getting to the top no matter what, while at the same time showing the beauty of compassion, empathy, and taking the time to make true connections with others and embracing their essence. These are values that we must instill within our children. I read this story to my own beautiful daughters over and over and it opens the door for deep discussions about the nature of their special bond as sisters and the need to not face one another as competitors, but as lifetime companions and support for one another.

This book is about these two sisters Manyara and Nyasha father of Mufaro. Manyara is the rude sister. Nyasha is the warm loving sister. One of them would be getting married to a king and the other will be their servant. Manyara well she wanted to get a jump start on things so when she was going to find the king she seen a boy (that was in need for food) that she refused to give food to, then she came apon a old lady she didn't listen to, she also met up with some trees that laughed at her and she laughed back at, and last she came upon a guy with his head in his arm.
So if you really think people that are rude won't get far and their rudeness will just catch up with them later as they go threw life. This book has inspired me to be a better person in many ways. This book is an amazing book it not only expresses the persons outside feelings but it expresses the persons inside feelings.

This story is based on an African tale that is similar in nature to Cinderella. In this story a man named Mufaro had two beautiful daughters, one named Manyara, and one named Nyasha. Manyara is rude to Nyasha, who just calmly bears it. When a call comes saying the Great King wants a wife, Mufaro plans to take his daughters to the palace the next day. Manyara decides to leave in the night to make she is chosen to be Queen. During the journey she is rude to a number of people, who turn out to be the King himself, shape-shifted into those forms as well as the form of a garden snake well-known to Nyasha. When Nyasha passes the next day, she is kind where her sister was rude. Needless to say the King picks Nyasha, and they live happily.

The story is told well, and the language used is wonderful, though not quite as wonderful as the illustrations. They almost look more life-like than photographs. The way lighting is used is amazing, and they are just stunning pictures. Everything about this book is wonderful, with nothing to detract from it.

Loggie-log-log-log

Judith Sherman's Say the Name can be seen as a theodicy that arises out of the Jewish tradition and in response to the events of the Holocaust. In poetry and prose we see, on the one hand, the horror of human evil, and on the other, the hope and meaning that arises out of tragedy in the form of poetic expression and imagination. Sherman a provides vivid and horrific account of physical pain, mental suffering, and moral wickedness. In a moving passage, Sherman recounts:

Today a woman runs suddenly from the Appell line--she runs towards the electrified fence. The dogs get to her before she reaches it. Screaming, she tries to put push the dog away...The animal is not called back, he attacks until there is no more movement. Every horrified one of us wants to rush and help--no one does. Silence. There are so many of us here, how are we so crushed into silence and inaction? The reason right there, in front of us--they watch us closely, provocatively, hand on the trigger and dogs at the ready--hoping for another futile sacrifice...We are filled with rage and pity and helplessness and are paralyzed by their brutality (102).

This passage confronts us with the reality of evil as experienced by Jewish women in German concentration camps. Based on this reality, it is not difficult to see how people who believe in God, and have a particular image of God, can question or call into account the God in whom they believe. Sherman's account reveals a questioning of the divine. Is God not outraged? Does God not hear what is going on? Indeed, where is God? "Where is the judge? Where are you, judge? Is there a judge?" (117).

Her response to these questions is to invoke biblical imagery and to invite God to come and witness, and account for the tragedy that has taken place. In her poem, "The Invitation," she invokes the imagery of Jacob's ladder and asks that God come down the ladder and witness the sights "not fit/ for Godly eyes/ not fit for thee/ is it for me?/ who will make it fit for Thee?" (118). Or again, having experienced so much pain, she requests that God take on her pain, "You have it/ and be/ branded" (122). Does God identify with our pain? Is God in solidarity with those who suffer? It seems that Sherman is inviting God to be present with the women beaten down by guards, chased by dogs, shot to death, and with those who have to witness these events without the ability to respond. It is a moving book in which the author has mustered up the courage to recount her experiences and to "say the name."

How can there be so much evil in the world? More pointedly, how can an all powerful and loving God allow such evil? Where is God? These and other tough questions are asked by Judith Sherman as she reflects on her time spent at the Nazi concentration camp Ravensbruck at the young age of fourteen. Combining narrative prose with short poignant poetry, Sherman walks the reader through the painful and emotional events, describing her sense of frustration at a God who has abandoned her and the rest of the Jewish people. Most accounts of the Holocaust elicit deep emotions and feelings and this book certainly does that, but in a unique way. The prose unfolds the details of her story and then all of a sudden you become struck by the overwhelming emotion and powerful insight of a short three or four line poem. This combination has a strong effect and throughout the book the poems remain clearly in your memory and serve to give more meaning to the details and descriptions of the horrendous struggles of a concentration camp.

With detailed descriptions, Sherman focuses on everyday objects, such as a pair of shoes, and transforms them from their ordinary status into things that have a greater significance and meaning. The transformation and emphasis on objects shows how Sherman's outlook on life has changed and through this outlook Sherman has finally been given the voice to tell her story, giving the reader the chance to connect to it in a moving and profound way. Reading this book will give new meaning to the themes of theodocy, family, memory, the human spirit, and most of all will give you a new outlook on life.

After having learned at length about the atrocities of the Holocaust in history class every year of middle and high school, and after hearing personal accounts from my many Jewish classmates about their grandparents in concentration camps, I felt almost overloaded with news of the horrors and wasn't particularly excited about reading another book about the Holocaust.

But Say the Name is different. Judith Sherman manages to convey the depths of despair and suffering that occurred during her time in hiding, in concentration camps, on a death march without any trace of stridency, but rather with her own quiet and simple words that are humbly defiant and moving. She communicated to me, for the first time really, how it feels to not have any control over what happens to your body, to be stripped of a voice, to be robbed of a name. This poetic novel, more than any other I have read on the topic, speaks to the psychological death as well as the physical one that the Nazis inflicted on so many millions. Judith Sherman resists both, however, and her spirit is evident in the fact that she was able to share in writing her deepest and most agonizing thoughts and memories about her experience.

Another aspect of the book is Sherman's relationship with God, which is a complex and vacillating one. In some passages it almost seems as if she is referring to a lover who has betryaed her, and she is filled with sadness, anger, longing, and ultimately a love that she will not forsake. She does not, however, blindly accept "the will of God," instead demanding over and over, "where are you?" If God should be praised for the blessings he gave her, then he should also be held accountable for his apparent abandonment of his people.

To read this book is to explore memory, theodicy, religion, family, genocide, the human spirit, and will leave you saying its name.

Say the Name is a powerful and poignant account of a young woman's experience in Nazi imprisonment during WWII. After years of silence, Judith Sherman was compelled to come out and tell her story, not only for herself and her family, but for the millions of other who had no voice. The unnamed victims of human suffering in camps like Ravensbruck cannot be put away with the history books. They are people who were made to be things, but they were not things. Sherman describes in her prose and poetry how the life that they had known before the war melted away, and was replaced by a reality that terrorized, brutalized, and destroyed. This reality was the dehumanizing force of the Nazi regime.

I wonder how an author who is so modest with her prose, who even wrote that "words fail" to capture the "monumental horror" of the Holocaust, is able to to move the reader with her words with such remarkable ease. Her voice resonates with the child, the daughter, the mother, the friend, and the person who had to ask God, "Why?". Sherman's writing, and especially her poetry, are evocative and elegant for sure, but I think that it is the place that she is writing from that creates this feeling of "being there' with her. Her pain and the pain of those she names is human pain. Their loss is human loss. As people we have lost something by allowing evil like this to exist in the world. It doesn't have to.

Her tale is not one of Jewish suffering but human suffering and survival. She recalls the ways she resisted the forces that sought to destroy her. Sherman's life was never the name when the war was over, which is to say that the experience never ended. However, she is able to take her pain and wordlessness and make something that helps others understand. I thank her for that. Sherman's book would be good for students of all ages and particularly those interested in the stories and history of the Holocaust. I guarantee this courageous little book will move you no matter what you're looking at it for. Her connections with human suffering are particularly intense regarding family loss, motherhood, friendship, the struggle with divine over the existence of evil, and the loss of the "ordinary things" we take for granted when we're home.

Judith Sherman's Say the Name is a survivor's account of a teenage girl's struggle with God and humanity in Ravensbruck concentration camp during the Holocaust. Sherman, now a wife, mother and grandmother living in the United States, writes her memoir some 50 to 60 years after the Nazi's carried out their "Final Solution."

Sherman's poetry and prose in this book reflect a loss of people, places and things that make up the fabric of a person's life, culture and beliefs. She is, at turns, angry and bewildered. She demands an accounting for these atrocities. But ultimately Sherman's quest for survival and her insistence on remembering the names of women who were killed conveys a sense of humanity and even of hope. This is Sherman's first book, and she is not a polished writer. She writes in fragments and one has the sense of poetry scribbled on napkins over the years and then included in the memoir. Her book is all the stronger for this.