F Books

As far as I'm concerned, you can never begin too early in teaching children how the innumerable elements of nature connect with each other and that messing with one element will affect everything else. Robert Baldwin's wonderful rhyming blends beautifully with Don Dyen's rich and evocative illustrations. This is a delightful book that will make young folks smile and learn a valuable lesson at the same time. On a personal note, I am so lucky that Don Dyen (whom I've never met) was chosen to illustrate my first children's book, "Benjamin and the Word," coming out spring 2005. Don, if you see this, drop me an e-mail!

My children and grandchildren are getting copies of this book for Christmas! It shows how all food is ultimately derived from sunlight and the tiny creatures that live in the seas and oceans, but it also shows how we are all connected to the sea and to each other. It is a joyful experience to read this book and enjoy the incredible illustrations.

I bought this book for my 7 year old daughter, but I'm enjoying it just as much as she is. The cumulative verse rolls with the rhythm of ocean waves. Not only is it fun to read, it teaches vital information about the food chain simply and clearly. The illustrations are beautifully appropriate, evoking the feel of the seashore, and bringing extra life to the imaginative images introduced in the verse, such as huge storm clouds looking like flying whales. I love this book!

It isn't often you come across a book that you could sit down and read to a four year old and an eight year old and still manage to capture the attention of both. "This Is the Sea That Feeds Us" has that ability. It's beautiful illustrations and the author's wondrous ability of explanation combine in that magical way that allows learning to be fun. Every child deserves to own this book.

This book has been a real find. My son, who has just turned two,absolutely loves the pictures and the rhyming text. He holds the book and gleefully waits for the next page. I love this book because I feel it is aimed at quite a wide age group. For the toddlers it has amazing pictures and the musical rhyming text; the four to six year olds, a book they can read themselves with the help of an adult; and the older reader will enjoy the scientific explanations. To sum it up, this book is beautifully written and extremely lyrical, and the artwork is delightful. Well done Robert F Baldwin, and his artist Don Dyen.

My son is really into Titanic and we both had a great time coloring all of the beautiful pictures in this book! This to me is a MUST BUY if you have a little one who loves Titanic. Heck, as an adult I love this.

Titanic coloring book is great for kids. The book is great because the wonderful pages of art are masterpieces when you color them, there also great for tracing too or helping you draw your own titanic picture. The book i say is for all ages,yes including you grandpa.
THE BOOK IS JUST FUN!!!!!!

My 5-year-old son is infatuated with the Titanic! This was the perfect and age-appropriate gift for him. He had the whole book colored in about three days, but I must admit, I colored some with him - and enjoyed it! The illustrations are superb and the text is also good! Chock-full of interesting facts.

it helps you learn how it sunk and it really is a good book to get.

A book that invites children to color in scenes from a well-known disaster is probably as horrifying, as sinking in the ship itself. After being exposed to the media hype and all of the other coverage surrounding the film release and the Oscars, the last thing I would want is for children who color, which means they are usually of pre-school age, let their imagination run wild with a box of crayons. Studies have shown that children are attracted to color, and I can just imagine the 64 crayola packs famed magenta coloring the dresses of the woman jumping into the life boats. The cries for help written in block letters and sky blue for the bitter cold water that took so many lives. Maybe they can start a companion series and have children color in scenes from Kobe or perhaps the fateful plane crashes on the twentieth century. This coloring book makes me worship teletubbies, as I pray to Barney for salvation.

Being a current flight instructor in the Naval Aviation Training Command I can atest that Jay Stout's book "tells it like it is." It is an accurate, informative and interesting tour of what a young man or woman goes through from the day they show up to begin training, through the awarding of the coveted "Wings of Gold". Clearly written, technically correct and well illustrated, Jay has authored the authoritative primer for anyone considering or interested in becoming a Naval Aviator. A must read!!

This is a well-done, picture book that takes you from the commissioning process (Academy, ROTC, OCS) to API and then through the different pipelines to the wings of gold. Seems most of the primary pictures came from Whiting, and the advanced portion is a little heavy on the Jet Syllabus- many pictures from Kingsville (written by a Jet Pilot) Overall a great picture view of the different phases of training. Makes a great gift for the family of a Naval Aviator for them to understand and see some of what takes place

Outstanding book that accurately depicts with excellent pictures and graphics. My son is undergoing the training now and we gave him the book for a while to assimmilate the information as well.

This book is written by a Naval Aviator in layman's terms and provides an excellent source for information about and/or becoming a Naval Aviator. Each of the Navy "pipeline's" is discussed and illustrated with great photography.

For someone who is considering trying to join the navy as a pilot, I found this book very informative. It walks the reader from basic training up to joining the fleet at sea. It is filled with great pictures and plenty of details.

I sitting down to write this review, I am moved by many forces. First of all is the shear outstanding qualities of this book. But in stating that, I keep in mind the fact that the author is a Marine Corps officer (well, WAS - but once a Marine, Always a Marine) and that anything less could not be expected of his work. That fact aside, I am confident in making the statement that this is perhaps the finest analysis of a Marine Corps unit I have ever read, and certainly one of the finest on a mid-level military unit in general. Lt.Col. Owen has written objectively and honestly about the 2nd Battalion/6th Marines, with true candor and skill. He is unapologetic concerning the problems faced by the Corps and the 2/6 in particular (something rarely encountered when Marines write about other Marines), and presents the FACTS clearly and concisely. This is clearly an asset, especially in this case when one must consider the fact that Owen was Executive Officer of the 2/6 during Operation Desert Storm. His sketches of the characters involved present the reader with a clear picture of the individual - only that which is necessary to gain a clear understanding of the men and their motives is included, while superfluous clutter is cast aside. This can sometimes appear very workman-like in print, but is definitely not here due to Owens' clear and direct writing style. Simply put, the book reads well.

Taking a step by step approach to the story, while not getting bogged down in far too much detail, also holds the reader's interest. This book could easily have been twice as long, as the sources Owen had to hand at the time were considerable. In delving into unpublished memoirs, the truth behind many of the myths and legends behind some of the Corps most famous moments is brought into clearer focus, without the flag waving and chesty pride usually associated with such endeavors. What the 2/6 went through at Belleau Wood was simply appalling, and Owen makes no bones about it. Nor the advance at Soissons, where a serious leadership blunder led to carnage. By the end, however, we see the learning curve that the AEF had to go through during its 19 months of serious existence beginning to take hold. There has been a spate of critical analysis of what the AEF high command did wrong in France written lately. Here, Owen does not hesitate to point out the flaws in AEF (and, by extension, the Corps') tactical doctrine as well, but is also quick to lay praise where it belongs and give due credit. This is a commendable initiative in a climate where the AEF is being hammered by many who seemingly refuse to accept that the AEF command structure did a remarkable job when one considers the time span and climate in which they had to work. Owen thus risks irritating 'serious' historians, but his effort is justified in the clear picture he paints of the 2/6's actions in France. The transition from tight knit, closely trained unit to tightly trained but more effusive 'organization' is particularly telling. It is also illustrative of exactly why so very few original members of a true combat unit actually see the end of any war...

I have read this book three times now, in order to keep a clear picture of all that i have read in my mind as I write this. Further, i read it three times because it is just a damn good book and has called to me!. Poignant moments prevail throughout the book, that stand out in relief against the swirling backdrop of war; scenes of men, thrown into a maelstrom, who learn the true meaning of death under fire. Among these that I will carry with me for many years to come are the first and the last; the first, in the shelling of the unit at Belleau Wood in their first action, where the men of the 2/6 are slapped in the face by the full reality of their situation; and the last, as the all but exhausted, spent and dirty officers of the battalion command staff stand in the cold, rainy darkness on a hillock overlooking the River Meuse on what will be the last night of the war, with orders to advance across the dirty river - all the while knowing that the end of the war is but a few hours away, and that German Maxim guns await across the cold, black water...

I have talked at length with Lt.Col. Owen about his work and the war in general. Those talks, however, have in no way influenced this review - it stands on its own and is based in the merits of his work. The idea for the book was given to him while standing in the darkness at the rail of a cruiser in the Persian Gulf coming out of Desert Storm. He himself had 'seen the tiger smile' only days before. And as XO of the modern 2/6, he therefore found himself doubly qualified to become the custodian of this portion of his unit's history. As a writer myself, I am aware of the sometime NEED of writers to write about specific events, and the apparent inevitability that leads them to certain projects. Peter Owen answered the 'call' that came to him and has done justice in no small way to the 2/6. Because of his excellent work, the sacrifice of those men from so long ago will never be forgotten, and we are provided with a glimpse of the lineage that made Peter Owen, and all his brothers in arms, the Marines that they were to become...

Well done Marine.

Robert J. Laplander
Author of:
Finding the Lost Battalion: Beyond the Rumors, Myths and Legends of America's Famous WW1 Epic.

To the Limit of Endurance: A Battalion of Marines in the Great War by Peter F. Owen was a fascinating look at the tactical level of World War I. The only other book on World War I that I have previously read that focused on the challenges of tactical leadership was Erwin Rommel's Infantry Attacks. (Most books seem to either talk about generals or the actual foot soldiers.) But Field Marshal Rommel's memoir of his exploits in World War I was not a critical analysis of the German Army's doctrines or its ability to execute those doctrines.

LtCol Owen recounts the tale of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, a unit he would later serve in, from its formation in 1917 through the end of the war. He insists upon using the original unique numerical designations for the rifle companies of the battalion rather than the alphabetical letter designations imposed by the U.S. Army and later permanently adopted by the Marine Corps.

Owen gives the reader thumbnail biographies of many of the key personalities that made 2/6 Marines the unit that it was. He discusses the equipment and organization of the battalion. He also discusses the training and doctrine imposed upon the battalion--and how that training and doctrine measured up to the stress of actual combat. It should be no surprise that the doctrine had to be modified in light of the lessons learned on the field of battle. Owen contends that the battalion probably represented about the best that the U.S. Army or Marines could field at the time that they were committed. And they were found wanting.

It almost goes without saying that the casualties suffered by the battalion were simply appalling. The tidbit about units holding back 20% of their troops before an attack so that it would be easier to rebuild the units was very informative (if grim). In addition to the "normal" hazards of the Western Front battlefield (fortified machine gun nests, gas attacks, etc.), the men of 2/6 Marines were also to suffer from the inexperience of their leaders and their staffs--from the platoon commanders all the way up to the corps command level. What struck me was, as in World War II, the American war machine quickly absorbed lessons and applied them. When you look at the time period of March to November of 1918, the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) learned its craft in a relatively short amount of time. I speak in particular here of the arts of logistics and coordinating tank and artillery support.

What was also striking was how Army and Marine officers were interchanged. This dismayed the Marines of course, but the exigencies of the situation resulted in an intermixing of officer assignments that probably is rare even in our present ground forces--and certainly almost unheard of in the Second World War and Korea.

And the most compelling thing about this book to me was the author's candor. All too often (in my view), the Marines tend to whitewash unsavory parts of their history. And as Harry Truman observed, their propaganda arm is as good at Joe Stalin's. But Owen is not hesitant to expose examples of poor judgment and sometimes outright incompetence on the part of 2/6's leaders. This is after all, a critical assessment of the performance of the battalion in the Great War. And he does not trumpet the battle at Belleau Wood as an unvarnished success.

This book is an imminently readable and informative book about one battalion's part in the Great War. And it hopefully also gives the reader a look into the problems faced by probably every American rifle battalion that fought in that conflict. Any serious student of American involvement in World War One should look to add this work to his or her library.

An exceptional job by Lieutenant Colonel Pete Owen on his research and writing by masterfully piecing together first hand accounts of the Marines of all ranks that fought at Belleau Wood and Soissons. A well organized, simple read - but one that provides any military leader many lessons learned that can be applied to today's global war on terror and the battlefields of Iraq. Any reader who enjoys historical or military writing will enjoy and learn something from this book. LtCol Pete Owen provides interesting facts and military traditions of that era that are probably not known by many current military personnel. This book makes the perfect gift for any newly promoted NCO or recent academy school graduate and has become a definite addition to my PME library. Highly recommended and congratulations to LtCol Pete Owen on a job well done. Semper Fi Mac.

LtCol Peter Owen's book is a must for your PME collection as well as for anyone who likes to read about units of the Great War. Owen's book focuses on the 2/6 Marines which was part of the AEF's 2nd Division during WWI. Owen brilliantly tells the story about how the unit was a mixture of career Marines and men who joined up after the US declared war in 1917. Along with describing the personalities of the 2/6, Owen focuses on the operational effectiveness of the unit from its inception and how loses in combat negatively effected the performance of the unit. Owen also shows how the lack of training and poor doctrine was coupled with poor leadership decisions that led to very costly battles for the battalion. The book is easy to read and the chapters are well structured so the reader clearly understands the story Owen is relating to them. I plan to give this book to my friend who is going to USMC Command and Staff college!

COL Owen(USMC)'s latest effort is a must read for all those interested in the United States in World War I particularly the US Marine Corps readers.

Expanding on his excellent work annotating a previous Marine Corps WW1 effort published by Texas A&M University Press, COL Owen's smooth writing style combined with exhaustive primary and secondary documentation research, makes for an "easy" read detailing the 2nd Battalion's grim and bloody campaigns during WW1 as part of one of the Marine Brigades attached to the U.S. Army's 2nd U.S. Infantry Division 'Indianheads" .."2nd to None!" The officers, non-commissioned officers, and enlisted men of the 2nd Battalion fought in most of the major battles of the last year of the war and its casualty rosters reflect the butcher's toll. Many of the veterans of these battles played major roles in future Marine Corps efforts in Nicauragua(sp?), Haiti, World War 2 storming the beaches of the South Pacific and the Korean War.

The book contains the all-important maps for military history, an extensive bibliography/associated footnotes, and index as well as photographs.

A highly recommended effort worth adding to one's WW1 library and USMC histories.

I bought this book two years ago, and my wife and I didn't actually use it until this weekend. We've really been missing out. The book contains 15 driving tours:

1) Northwest Georgia (Chicamauga to Rome)
2) Native American Tour (Fort Mountain, Chatsworth, New Echota, Etowah Indian Mounds)
3) N. Georgia Mountains Tour (Cleveland, Dahlonega, Dawsonville, Ellijay, Helen)
4) Northeast Georgia Tour (Hartwell, Toccoa, Clayton)
5) Fort Yargo to Tucker's Ferry (Winder, Jefferson, Commerce, Danielsville, Elberton)
6) Classic South (Oxford, Covington, Madison, Eatonton, Greensboro, Washington)
7) Plantations (LaGrange, Pine Mountain, Warm Springs, Greenville, Senoia, Newnan)
8) Middle Georgia Ramble (Jackson, Monticello, Gray, Thomaston, Barnesville)
9) Georgia Capitals Drive (Milledgeville, Sandersville, Louisville, Waynesboro)
10) East Central Ramble (Metter, Millen, Sylvania, Statesboro)
11) Southwest Georgia Ramble (Cuthbert, Lumpkin, Fort Gaines, Blakely)
12) Middle Georgia Farmland (Perry, Marshallville, Americas, Vienna)
13) Altamaha River Loop (Claxton, Reidsville, Baxley, Jesup, Hinesville)
14) Wire Grass Tour (Ashburn, Fitzgerald, Douglas, Alma)
15) South Georgia (Bainbridge, Cairo, Ochlocknee, Thomasville, Valdosta)

This weekend we took two tours: 6 and 5 (we did them in that order, but did 5 in reverse since we drove north from Washington to Elberton). Even though the book was published in 1997, we only found one driving instruction that was no longer correct (and it was easy to figure out). The driving instructions were very accurate, and the information about the various cities and the houses, graves, and people were very interesting. I've lived in Georgia all of my life and I've never been to a Revolutionary War battlefield within the state before- but the tour took us to the Kettle Creek battleground, something I'd never heard of before.

Rather than just give you small bits of information about each stop of interest and lots of information about hotels, restaurants, etc., this book gives you lots of information about what you're seeing and lets you figure out where to eat and sleep on your own (which is best- that sort of information changes frequently anyway).

The only criticism we have about the book is that the driving instructions are blended in with the narrative. We got around that with the second tour by going through ahead of time and underlining all of the driving instructions so they'd stand out. Perhaps in future editions this could be set off to the side on boxes so it's easy to find.

All in all, if you're looking for interesting tours of parts of Georgia you probably haven't seen before and won't find in other guidebooks (which spend their time talking about touristy things like Six Flags and Zoo Atlanta), this is the book for you.

Bought this as a gift for my father who recently remodeled an old Austin Healy. He thought this book was great!

I bought this book for the driving tours and I loved the one drive I have taken so far. But, I really enjoy the delightful stories that fill this book. It has the most amazing array of colorful anecdotes from Georgia history. It is a wonderful armchair book and an even better driving guide. I'm looking forward to doing more of the drives.

Frank and Victoria Logue are prolific writers. Their work covers hiking, camping and outdoor adventures in Georgia so this book is a natural extension of that work.

Touring the Backroads covers the entire state (don't be misled by the title). The tours are Northwest Georgia Drive, Native American Tour, North Georgia Mountain Tour, Northeast Georgia Tour, Fort Yargo to Tucker's Ferry, Classic South, Plantation, Middle Georgia Ramble, Georgia Capitals Drive, East Georgia Ramble, Southwest Georgia Ramble, Middle Georgia Farmland, Altamaha River Loop, Wire Grass, and South Georgia.

Our favorites: Georgia Capitals, Georgia Mountains (covers the Georgia Gold Rush), Northwest Georgia (takes you from the Tennessee State line to Rome), and the Southwest Georgia Ramble (highlights the Kolomaki Mounds and Providence Canyon, two underused state parks). The Native American Tour covers the Etowah Indian Mounds, the first capital of the Cherokee Nation at New Echota (now a Georgia State Park) and a wall built by Indians that pre-dated the Moundbuilders.

One of the things I like about this book is that Frank and Victoria don't assume you know esoteric facts about Georgia's history. They take you through the whole story, telling what you need to know to appreciate the stop.

I am a librarian reviewing this book for our school library which we purchased. Like the backroads, at first glance one might think there's nothing much there. Eventhough the photos are small and not color, this book makes up for it with surprisingly rich content. I gave it 5 stars for the content alone. The history and facts about this my home region were quite impressive. I only wanted the tour to slow down and concentrate more on some of the individual topics, but alas when you're on tour you only get a few moments before moving on. I've learned some things I did not know. The style of writing is intelligent and very readable. The research level is substantial in order to have uncovered these facts, that as a resident here in the backroads I know were not easy to come by. If you take a tour of any of these areas, take this book along because you won't find this information readily available aside from long hours of historical research. Facts about the history of growing peaches in Georgia along with recipes for peach cobbler and pecan pie are especially nice. Printed on alkaline paper, I only wish it was hardback.

"That was terrific!" While not what you would expect to hear after a colonoscopy, these were the first words out of my husband's mouth as he woke up from this somewhat inconvenient procedure a few weeks ago, which he and I had postponed as long as possible. Howls of laughter burst forth from the nurses and others present in the recovery room. Nonetheless, the words revealed my husband's shock and delight that the dreaded procedure began and ended so imperceptibly and so painlessly.

"That was terrific!" would also be my assessment of this little book. While there is nothing sexy about the prospect of reading a book about cancer, my middle age, my weight, my family history, and personal medical history nearly demanded that I inform myself. The previous reviews for amazon.com have focused repeatedly on Dr. Adrouny's gift for making a boring, technical, and frightening subject accessible to the non-medical public through very readable text, references, and glossary, as well as lucid diagrams. I would echo all of those comments nearly verbatim. Anyone in the field knows that teaching science to non-science majors is more difficult than teaching it to those committed to the subject. You have to engage them first, and then inform them. Dr. Adrouny succeeds brilliantly in his chapters such as "Who Gets Colon Cancer and Why," "The `Look'...," "The `Feel'...," the stages, the prognosis, the treatment, prevention and future of colon cancer.

For me, however, Dr. Adrouny's greater gift is the art of gentle persuasion. He informs but does not preach. Who wants to go to the doctor and be ordered to go and lose 30 pounds? My husband was spurred to action by Dr. Adrouny, and now it's my turn. My colonoscopy is in two months. When will you sign up? (As he points out, there is usually a wait.) Read the book while you are waiting. Meantime, I am wondering if perhaps Dr. Adrouny's next book should be, "Understanding Extra Pounds."

Reviewed by Sonia Russo
Gaithersburg, Maryland

Dr. Adrouny is one of those rare physician/oncologists who is able to convert knowledge of his subject into words, phrases and thoughts that are fluid and understandable to the layman. Since colon cancer is the number two cause of cancer in the nation today, interest in the subject has heightened considerably and the book is a fast, yet comprehensive read for a wide audience. Having ordered and read the book before undergoing a routine colonoscopy I went into the procedure with a positive and informed outlook. Dr. Adrouny also analyzes the latest techniques in colon examinations including the merits of virtual colonscopies.

C. G. Elliott
Wailea, Hawaii

Richard Adrouny, MD is a personal friend of mine but I am not a patient of his nor a physician nor do I have any medical training. However, I am approaching 60. I do get annual checkups and prostate exams and I do worry about cancer.
Understanding Colon Cancer is as good a book on a critical medical issue as any lay reader could ever hope to find. Dr. Adrouny writes very fully and specifically about colorectal cancer, its development, theories regarding its prevention, and current treatment interventions. What makes his writing so valuable to cancer patients and others of us without medical training is its accessibility. He continuously offers clear, direct and perfectly understandable explanations so that the interested reader can truly grasp the meaning of necessary medical terms and their significance. When he mentions sigmoidoscopy he explains that the procedure is an examination of the inner rectum and lower colon. When he refers to adenomatous polyps he specifies that a polyp is a growth from a mucous membrane and an adenoma is a benign growth from a glandular tissue. Continuously, he shares with us state of the art medical understanding in terms non-physicians can grasp. And in the course of treatment for a potentially life-threatening disease understanding is comfort.
Colorectal cancer screening as an annual event isn't a high priority for most men or women. When Dr. Adrouny explains that 15% of all cancers can be detected by a simple digital rectal examination, the momentary inconvenience of this act of diligence seems a small price to pay confirming our health status. Similarly, fecal occult blood testing, barium enema, and endoscopy all offer evaluations that could spare us suffering and save our lives.
While reading this book I wondered if Dr. Adrouny didn't perhaps edit his own writing by asking himself "So what?" every paragraph or so and then took the time to make clear the importance of his points to his general audience.
While reading this book, I could imagine a colon cancer patient returning home after seeing his own oncologist and grabbing for Dr. Adrouny's book by way of understanding his own physician comments.

Adrouny does a great job explaining the ABC's of colon cancer.

This short--less than 150 pages--guide to colon cancer is accessible to those of us who are not physicians or familiar with healthcare terms. Adrouny patiently walks us through the basics of colon cancer: Who Gets Colon Cancer (men and women, too!); the look (signs) and feel (symptoms) of the disease; and the treatments and prevention.

This book is an absolute must for anyone who has colon cancer or anyone who is close to someone with the disease. The book also provides easy to read charts and drawings that I found very helpful.

My father was recently diagnosed with Colon Cancer and I decided to purchase a book about the horrible disease. This book by A. Richard Adrouny MD, a new author of medical books, provided me with facts and a new understanding of what my father is going through. This book will make you much smarter about this disease no matter what knowledge you have. I strongly suggest you buy this book to further increase your knowledge of one of the most common forms of cancer in America.

This book is the best quick reference I've seen out there. It does not go into great detail on the commands. But usually gives you what you need. It does not have the blah blah blah most books have. It just has the commands and the options needed to do most anything you'll need. The only thing better ... the internet.

I have been a UNIX professional now for more years than I would care to think about. I find this book a personal library "must have".. It's style is open, and easy to understand from the beginner to the seasoned professional (who can at times forget what the "date" options are or which cron columns are which! :)
I personally recommend this as a "first book" to those who wish to join the ranks of us UNIX drones.. This book and a few weekend courses at their local C-College for UNIX I and II..

This book is well written, well configured and is the course material I use to teach Unix. This book is a must have for the new to nearly new sysadmin type person. I actually wore mine out. Thanks for writing such a clear and concise book.

If you are new to Unix then this is a great book to get you started. It clearly tells how to get around the Unix environment and is a great reference book. I would be surprised if a new user could not find everything he/she needs in this book. The inclusion of switches for each command was extremely helpful as was the DOS to Unix cross reference.

Great Author for Unix and Linux. This book is
put together very easily to read and understand. Goes step by step with the "How to" stuff.

A colleague who likes to call himself "Captain Suction" and I were debating the exigencies of a client's flow leak detection problem, and needless to say, things got quite hot. At least they did until I slammed O'Hanlon's volume on his cubicle and yelled, "Look it up, sucker!" I didn't hear a peep from him for weeks.

Thankful we found more complete data on vacuum system.

John f. O'Hanlon is so thorough, and has so much to offer. Whether the reader is an engineer or an operator of a vacuum system there is plenty here for each. This is a reference book, so never lend it to anyone!

Since I work in a very big semi' fab as field service engineer I looking for a good description of any tool part's on several manufacturing machines. But i work in Germany and it isn't so easy to find much more and better information as for an student without experience. It is my second book about vakuum technologie, all new kinds of engineering and also standard technologie is well prepaired in this issue. Some description of Pump's could be better or more funktionplan's , but all in one book is maybe too much. I was very surprised of this universal Handbook for engineer's and technician, best offer for all who need information about PVD, CVD, Implant vakuum etc. A lot of basic's in introduction part, well to understand, intresting gas properties, cluster technologie and last but not least - a big appendix with all what you need , very fine. Thank's for this good book.

I borrowed this book from a colleague here at Applied Materials. After looking at it for a few minutes, I offered to buy it from him. Of course, he refused. So here I am at Amazon (physically at work) to purchase the book. It is extremely practical and I intend to keep it here at work as a reference for problems I encounter. By the way, my web address is http://www.netcom.com/~kvick/main.html. Please feel free to visit or email me

Gregory Michno has a talent for researching a subject and presenting the knowledge he's gained in an interesting and easily understood way. He turns a non-fiction story into something which holds the interest of even those not particularly interested in history. he's done it again with USS Pampanito: Killer-Angel. We aren't encumbered with technical stuff but feel as though we're slicing through the water with the crew of this sub. The Pampanito served the U.S. well then suffered personal anguish when they learned they had helped sink two Japanese ships which held Allied POWs. The sub risked their own safety to return and rescue many of the POWS.

This is an excellent portrayal of life on a WWII submarine. It is a good picture of what life was like for the enlisted men, and for the service in general. I served on the Pampanito with the author's father. This is what it was REALLY like on a submarine in the Pacific during WWSII. I commend the author for his thorough research into the history of an unusual submarine and the living conditions aboard them during the war.

There have been many books written about individual US Navy submarines during World War Two in the Pacific, but almost invariably they are written from the viewpoint of the commander or executive officer. "USS Pampanito: Killer-Angel" is different. This is a book which, for the most part, tells the story of a submarine at war through the eyes of her crew, the men who kept her engines running, who scanned the skies for enemy aircraft when surfaced, who strained to load the torpedoes into her tubes during convoy attacks.

Sparked by the stories told by his late father, a crewman aboard the Pamapanito during her first two combat patrols, Greg Michno collected the tales of fifty of the men who served aboard her from her launch in 1943 till the end of the war. Together with extensive research into official records, Michno has woven these firsthand accounts into an absorbing portrait of ordinary men at war. His recounting of a harrowing depth charge attack with the Pampanito at a depth of over 600 feet could have come right out of "Das Boot". But the story is more than just combat. Day-to-day shipboard life in insanely cramped quarters, jury-rigged repairs upon vital malfunctioning equipment, wild R&R escapades ashore which could cause as many casualties as a battle at sea, conflicts and comradeship among the men and officers ... it is all here in this book.

The Pampanito appeared on no one's list of "top" submarines as measured by merchant tonnage sunk or major warships sent to the bottom. All too often her successes were more than balanced by bad luck or, perhaps, less than stellar leadership. But on one remarkable occasion, the boat rescued 73 Australian and British POW's whose ships had been sunk during an attack on a Japanese convoy. The story of this rescue and the subsequent close bond formed between these former prisoners, many of whom had worked on the notorious "River Kwai" railroad construction, and their saviors creates an emotional high point of the book. Many of the Pampanito's crew felt that saving those men was more important than the sinking of any ship.

As it happens, the Pampanito is still afloat today. Spared the scrapyard, the fate of most of her contemporaries, the Pampanito has been declared a National Historical Landmark and is docked at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco for visitors to board.

The book is well illustrated with maps of the combat operations plus numerous photographs of crewmembers, both as impossibly young men during their war and as elderly veterans visiting their boat during a recent crew reunion.

"USS Pampanito: Killer-Angel" is an excellent look at ordinary men on an ordinary submarine during an extraordinary time.

This is a well-written, refreshing look at submarine warfare in the Pacific during World War II. Unlike many previous submarine books, including fictitious ones, which are written by the skipper or the exec and therefore put the sub in the best possible light, this book is written from the point of view of the enlisted men with "warts and all". Instead of concentrating on target data computers, gyro angles, and attack solutions, the story concentrates on the ultimate success or failure of individual torpedo attacks, descriptions of depth charge attacks, the rescue of P.O.W's and shore leave. Rather than reading yet another description of the intensity of being in command, the reader learns of the intense dislike of the captain by most of the crew which did not prove a hindrance in causing some damage to the Japanese war effort.

The author is particularly adept at describing interesting facts or procedures in context, sometimes glossed over or ignored by other sub authors, without becoming bogged down in unnecessary detail. These topics include distilling "torpedo juice", decoding mechanisms, how a torpedo arms itself after it is fired, a comparison of Japanese convoys to U.S. ones, ordinary shipboard routine, venereal disease, and the mechanics of carbon dioxide exposure in a submerged sub.

The author also achieved the number one objective of all stories--he kept the narrative moving forward.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the "silent service". I look forward to visiting the "Pampanito" someday.

After a recent tour thru the actual USS Pampanito (twice!) at Fishermen's Wharf in San Francisco, I bought the book at the bookstore next to the sub which is run by volunteers of this wonderful floating National Historic Landmark. What a thrill to actually see the sub in real life and then read a book about its' six patrols during WW2. As a son of one of the sailors who served on it, author Michno said he used to listen to his dad's war tails with some disinterest as they grew with each beer and retelling. Later he visited the sub with his own son and after realizing that it was his father's boat he was inspired to research and write a book about it, saying he wished that he had been a better listener. The book starts by giving a brief early biog. of six or eight men, where they were born, educated, etc., and how they came to be on the Pampanito. How it was built in New Hampshire, its' commissioning and shakedown and then an interesting and never boring account of each of its' six wartime patrols in the Pacific. It brings alive the details of the boats' activities and daily lives of the men, developed through oral histories given by them. Containing numerous photos, especially interesting were the recent photos of and recaps by the men, now in their eighties, who attended the fiftieth reunion in 1995, aboard the Pampanito. Touching was reading about the tolling of the bells ceremony where the ships bell in rung once as each of the names of the fifty-two subs lost in WW2 was called off. Well written and researched, Michno provides an exhausting list of footnotes on many of the details in the book. An interesting and scholarly work that is a fascinating and easy read.

I return to this book off and on. (I wish I can study this book with someone who has mastered this material.) The only epiphany I have had in my life is/was when I read Chapter 2 of this book about two decades ago (and understood that Skinner was analyzing language utterances as law of effect conditioned behavior).

Simply a brilliant book. Most underrated,as people have pointed out.

I just reread Chapter 1. It only has 12 pages. However, the brilliance can clearly be seen. As is the difficulty. There are about 12 sentences (in these 12 pages) that I do not understand almost completely. (For instance, the one about speaker also being a listener.)

Added on 6/12/2004
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I happened to come across Chomsky's critique of Verbal Behavior online and started studying it closely, especially Section 3. I noticed several misunderstandings almost right away and started answering them, in a writeup. (I will post the details on these later.) On a lark, I sent a copy of this to Noam Chomsky, not expecting to receive a reply. I was surprised to get a reply. We exchanged several e-mails. However, Chomsky stubbornly refused to see my points. His answers were mostly non-sequiturs. Are may points valid? You be the judge when I get around to posting my two specific points. In the meantime, you may want to look at

http://www.sulekha.com/expressions/column.asp?cid=305940

A key finding of Radical Behavorism is the role and power of operant behavior. An importance of "Verbal Behavior" is that it suggests that operant behavior can explain much of human language and, with that, much of human thought. So with this book, Skinner could feel that his findings on operant behavior had the power to help us understand "mental" and "psychological" aspects of being human that hitherto had been no better defined that a Tarot deck could do.

My only one reading so far seems quite inadequate. I had to make an effort to get through the first half, in which a lot of fundamentals are introduced. Fortunately, all the preparation paid off for me in the second half, which I found quite exciting. Much of it, oddly, given that I was struggling at times to understand, felt familiar. I thought "Yes, that's how I revise my speech, yes, that's how I think, yes that's how I adjust what I am saying with my audience in mind."

Skinner's hypothesis that thinking is a behavior (verbal and nonverbal) of the same basic kind (albeit of its own nature and complexity) as other human behavior hit me with the greatest force. It implies that, although for each of us there are private events, dualism is overcome. It may not be that we're "beyond freedom and dignity" as that we've rendered such terms obsolete - because we now we have the knowledge to do what needs doing instead of spouting empty words about it.

"Verbal Behavior" lives: for example, extending Skinner's "Verbal Behavior" work, Barry Lowenkron from California State University has added to our understanding of an area not well covered by Skinner: how a listener comprehends what is said. Lowenkron goes to great pains to provide clear examples of his finding of what he calls "joint control", which is fully based on Skinner's own findings regarding tacts and self-echoics. It can take much longer to find the truth than make up a story, but the ignorance that supports cognitive fictions is being brushed aside to be replaced by behaviorist knowledge.

Skinner's VB is a fascinating read and is the bedrock on which subsequent analyses of VB stand. It was and is an ambitious, risky, brilliant work. Despite its flaws in the final few chapters, the influence of this work on modern clinical- and applied-behavior-analysis is significant. Skinner's chapters on tacting (the VB of accurately, usefully labeling one's own behavior and the objects or qualities of one's world) and manding (asking for what one wants or needs from others) should be required reading for every psychotherapist. Contrary to popular opinion, VB was not refuted by Chomsky and never died. The proof of this has been in its usefulness for analysis, intervention and the improvement of human behavior. This is not BFS's most accessible work. Thus, three suggestions: (re)Reading BFS's _Science and Human Behavior_ OR _About Behaviorism_ may be an advisable refresher before tackling VB. Additionally, Kohlenberg and Tsai's (1991) Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (especially their chapter on the Self)will make clear, simply and compellingly, the importance of a rich, carefully trained repertoire of verbal behavior to the healthy development of the human. Finally, spending some time looking at the data - actual studies of verbal behavior in the journals JABA or VB - really highlights that a useful marriage of theory, philosophy and technology were brought forth by this book. Sr+ reading!

Verbal behavior is a classic work and one the most neglected and underrated scientific texts of century, erroneously believed by many to have been conclusively demolished by Noam Chomsky (whose work in competition with Freud's is possibly the most overrated). Skinners analysis of verbal behavior differs from other accounts both in psychology and linguistics in being entirely naturalistic and free of the quite far-reaching metaphysical assumptions about 'meanings' and 'rules' inherent in traditional approaches. The latter focus on an idealized and abstract entity (grammatically correct language) which does not really exist, whereas Skinner analyses the verbal behavior actually performed by people. He demonstrates that a large amount of linguistic phenomena can be interpreted and explained by the principles of operant conditioning which have been demonstrated in laboratory experiments and he explores the consequences of this analysis for problems normally only addressed by philosophers, such as the nature of meaning, the social aspects of language, the possibility of a private language and the nature of thinking. Many philosophers will surprised to learn that some of the best ideas of the later Wittgenstein can be found more clearly and elegantly expressed by Skinner.

This is not just an excellent book for those of us who are students of behavior; it is also an effect tool for those unfamiliar with the scientific principles of behavior analysis.

Dr. Skinner describes the different kinds verbal behavior, behavior that is reinforced as a result of the mediation of other people with similar repertories, produced by the contingencies of reinforcement on the one hand, and the way in which they are formed into effective verbal discourse and successful action on the other. Therefore, it is primarily with behavior of the former and latter that a behavioral understanding of what you are doing and saying is profited.

Dr. Skinner's approach to verbal behavior is derived from countless experiments in the analysis of behavior, experiments in which the principles of behavior have been rigorously studied, demonstrated, and verified. It is consequently not unnatural that finding it practicable and convenient, as undoubtedly it is, to verbal behavior is justifiable. Such a view obviously renders it easy to welcome behavior as an appropriate subject matter in its own right. Moreover, it is downright profitable to welcome behavior, which its first implication is the fact of objective and successful action!