Breeders Books

This is my fourth Hammond novel and I didn't find it to be of the same high quality as the other three I have read. This story is about a kennel owner, John Cunningham whose car is stolen from out front of his business with a quarantined dog named Jove in the back. Jove's owner Noel Cochrane was moving to America and his briefcase containing important papers was also in the vehicle along with John's shotgun. The cops aren't too happy with John, Noel disappears and bodies keep appearing while searching for the car and possible rabies filled Jove.

Sounds exciting you say. Well yeah it is in parts but there are a lot of boring needlessly lengthy chapters in between the good stuff. I have also read the Dirty Dollar, The Snatch and A Running Jump which are sensational five star rated thrillers by Hammond. This book however is not in the same league as them.

Poor Cochrane has just retreived his pooch from quarantine only to have the poor doggie stolen along with his briefcase. Not only that, but the kennel owner's missing car and shotgun make the authorities jumpy. When the events lead to a murder case, as a woman's battered body is found near the burnt car, the kennel owner finds himself embroiled with trouble.
Lovely outdoors adventure in Scotland with a clever mystery involving a dog... who could ask for more?

Did the author have this read by a nuclear engineer or physicist for accuracy? Obviously not!!!!! First thing, on page 39, the author states that electromagnetic separation is the same as a centrifuge. If he would have researched the separation techniques for more than 5 minutes would have seen that we used calutrons (electromagnetic separation) in WWII but that is not the same as centrifuges which is the primary form of separation today. Second, his discussion on radioactivity on page 54 shows that he doesn't understand the topic. Furthermore, he makes blanket statements that do not attempt to frame the situation or put things in context. If nuclear power didn't produce an ounce of energy like the author says then why are countries actively pursuing this power source (such as France as an earlier comment stated)? Lastly, this book could've been one page but he continues saying the same thing over and over again. It was the first book I debated quitting reading or at least going directly to the end. I want my money back, this was one of the worst books I've ever read.

The Radioactive Boy Scout
By: Ken Silverstein

Non-fiction
The book is about a boy who finds a golden book with science experiments in it and he becomes obsessed with it and basically he becomes a science expert. He then decided to have a lab in his potting shed. In the book it tells about how to perform experiments. Whenever he had the chance he would look over his nuclear research, in the library, in his potting shed, and at school. The kids at school think that he is a geek so he brings some of the rare elements on the periodic table of elements to school to show off. He got the elements from clocks, smoke detectors, and borrowing some of the things he needed. Then David made a great discovery and made a gun for it. His dad wants him to join boy scouts so he did but that didn't take science off his mind. He even won merit badge in atomic energy. His dream was to collect a sample of every element on the periodic table of elements. But later he gets in a lot of trouble using the things on the periodic table of elements. I like how the author describes the elements so well and where they are on the periodic table of elements. I also like how the author describes how the elements work in liquids and other things. I didn't enjoy reading the book because he took to long to describe things like the elements or what they did. I also dislike how the book only described how the elements work and where they are on the periodic table of elements. The author didn't talk about other things happening in his life like his girl friend. She only appears once in a while in the book. The author also didn't tell what happened to the boy at the end of the prolog.

The Radioactive Boy Scout
By: Ken Silverstein

Non-fiction
The book is about a boy who finds a golden book with science experiments in it and he becomes obsessed with it and basically he becomes a science expert. He then desited to have a lab in his potting shed. In the book it tells about how to perform experiments. Whenever he had the chance he would look over his nuclear research, in the library, in his potting shed, and at school. The kids at school think that he is a geek so he brings some of the rare elements on the periodic table of elements to school to show off. He got the elements from clocks, smoke detectors, and borrowing some of the things he needed. Then David made a great discovery and made a gun for it. His dad wants him to join boy scouts so he did but that didn't take science off his mind. He even won merit badge in atomic energy. His dream was to collect a sample of every element on the periodic table of elements. But later he gets in a lot of trouble using the things on the periodic table of elements. I like how the author describes the elements so well and where they are on the periodic table of elements. I also like how the author describes how the elements work in liquids and other things. I didn't enjoy reading the book because he took to long to describe things like the elements or what they did. I also dislike how the book only described how the elements work and where they are on the periodic table of elements. The author didn't talk about other things happening in his life like his girl friend. She only appears once in a while in the book. The author also didn't tell what happened to the boy at the end of the prolog.

I was David's scoutmaster when he was preparing for his Eagle Scout Board of Review. I was to contact five registered adult Scout leaders, who would comprise the Board. One prospective adult told me he could not, because "something happened".

I learned that David and some friends were stopped by the cavaliering Clinton Township (Michigan) Police, who were randomly stopping teens and searching their cars for stolen tires.

David was not allowed to keep his experiments in his stepmother's home, so he kept everything in his car trunk. The cops found no tires, but saw his stuff and overreacted.

Days later, David's father phoned and said that David would no longer pursue the Eagle Scout rank.

A month or so later, a man claiming to be a reporter phoned my home, wanting to do a telephone interview about David. After a few moments, I refused. There was something negative about the line of questioning.

As a Scout, David was always clean-cut, polite, and well-liked by the other boys. My take is that David had the scientific curiosity of a Tesla or Edison; not of an evil prankster.

David's father, like so many divorced and re-married men, walked a tightrope between caring for his son and appeasing a new bride.

For Mr. Silverstein should keep his story factual, and keep his opinions about Scouting to the editorial pages.

The story of David Hahn is interesting enough that it would be difficult to write a bad book about it. Fortunately, Silverstein's prose is breezy and well-written, and the book is quite the page-turner. Hahn is a near-perfect antihero - you know that he's clearly endangering himself and others, but at the same time, you can't help but cheer him on.

The story was initially an article in Harper's, which Silverstein then expanded on. This is pretty obvious, as lots of the book has little to do with David, but more to do with atomic energy and its history in the US. However, it's all pretty interesting stuff, and even though I already knew about most of it, I think that it would be quite educational for people who don't know as much about the US's history with the atom.

Now for the bad parts- Silverstein does a lot of moralizing, and it gets on my nerves.

He correctly judges David's parents as being neglectful - indeed, they do seem to treat David more as a burden then anything else. I also agree that his school should have done more to channel his energy in a positive direction. But what the hell - schools in America suck at this sort of thing, and everybody knows that. This is a problem that should be addressed, but you could hardly blame the school system for David's building a nuclear reactor.

Silverstein portrays David in a mostly sympathetic light, but he does judge him a bit harshly at times. I think this is unjustified - David carried out his experiments when he was still an adolescent. At that age, you really don't know right from wrong, which is why there's a different set of laws for people under 18.

Silverstein blames various adults for "not catching on" to what David was doing, and I think that's absurd. You can't expect that a teenager is going to build a nuclear reactor.

Finally, Silverstein seems to have a serious hate-on for nuclear science, and that really got on my nerves. Yes, the US does have sort of a dark history with nuclear science. However, is this the fault of the atom, or the fault of the US government? Last I checked, France gets 76% of their power from atomic energy, and they seem to be doing pretty well with it. Point being, you can discuss our past mistakes in atom-splitting without dismissing an entire branch of science.

Anyway, good book, you'll probably enjoy it, but you'll have to filter out some of Silverstein's gratuitous editorializing.

There aren't a whole lot of useful books that have been published about dart frogs. Jewels of the Rainforest, the huge coffee-table book by Jerry G. Wells is probably the best one, but Poison Frogs (Pro Breeders Series) is the second best one. Sure you may get more up to the minute information off of the internet, but poison frog taxonomy is a very volatile subject right now. The authors present a very nice package for a not huge price. If you are into dart frogs you can't skip this title. It needs to be in every dart frog keeper's library. Until Poison Frogs: Biology, Species & Captive Husbandry finally comes out, (maybe spring 2007??) this book is close to as good as it gets.

i read the title professional breeders series and thought this would be a good book for a lot of info, it was not. It was very vague and incomplete, i had gained more and better knowledge fron the net then that book, it also didn't name the frogs by thier common morph names, which would have been very helpful, the title was very decieving

Written by Tennessee State Historian Walter T. Durham, a distant cousin of my friend, Hal Durham who was from McMinnville, Tennessee and now Florida, he has published others since 1995 about Tennessee and his native county, Sumner. He calls the subject of this detailed account Balie Peyton an American patriot.

First Peyton was on Jackson's side, then formed his own Whig party. Then worked behind the scenes to maneuver national politics. Andrew Jackson had laid the cornerstone for the city of Washington, D. C. Jan. 11, 1836. Baile Peyton was born, raised, lived most of his life within a few miles from the Hermitage, antebellum home of "Old Hickory," our distinguished President from the State of Tennessee. Born in 1804 on a farm three miles from Gallatin, up the river a little ways from Jackson's grand home, and was buried on that same land on which he had been born in 1879.

Described as a great orator, highly skilled raconteur in politics and horseflesh; perhaps his greatest talent was public speaking. Once he gave a "strong, taunting speech" -- my kind when I have the chance to give one -- and was passionate in many confrontations as he did have a temper, as do I. Let's see, he must have been born in May. "When he told a tale, his listeners were spellbound."

He was a slave owner as was his neighbor there in Hermitage (yes, there is a town named that now so that folks can find this historical place -- and it is worth the trip to Nashville); but he loved the horses which he bred in that area of bluegrass from which they transplanted the grass and the thoroughbred horses from Kentucky. He used both the slaves and the horses as 'studs', but not together! Quite a feat for someone who was always involved in politics in Washington and other places.

Once he was in Texas when Sam Houston and Ohio Congressman had a dispute which ended in the court system. Sam was charged with assault in 1832 because the Ohio politician had called him one of President Jackson's "bullies." A resolution in court declared Houston 'guilty of contempt of Congress' for his physical attack while William Stanbery was censured for "use of unparliamentary language." Sam had accused the Ohio man had made "wanton attacks" on his domestic relations, probably advertising Sam's festering groin injury; he testified that Stanberry had 'slandered' him in six newspaper columns and "refused ever to answer a polite note."

"Modern" history was rewritten a few years later when A. W. Terrell wrote an article in which he'd added a squalid drinking party which included James K. Polk, another Tennessean who became U. S. President, and statesman, Balie Peyton. Though he was a Southern Unionist (worse than a Union sympathizer!), his son John Bell Peyton, joined the Confederate Army and died in battle.

In 1879, Peyton was buried in the family cemetery on the farm where he'd been born seventy-five years earlier. Graveside services were conducted by Rev. John Arbuthnot of Gallatin Presbyterian Church and the local Methodist preacher, Berkett Ferrell. He had intervened to free Ferrell from incarceration during the Civil War and now "in a broader sense, the minister was returning the favor."

An early X-Men module, that was eagerly awaited by fans of the game. Magneto, Danger Room, and more.

Due to the fact of many good, already existing leopard gecko books on the market i expected a lot more ...
it's a good book for beginners, for it is very easy and clear to understand, but nothing worth spending the money if you already own or have read books on the subject!

Jackson came up through Silhouette Special Editions, and currently does a lot of suspense, but her early works show great merit. This one was first printed in 1986, and it shows dating, but still holds up rather well. She had a strong pattern in SSE, the woman who had been done wrong and left behind. THE man returns some time later and they have to come to terms with the past. I have all her works, and think she is one of the best writers to rise through SSE ranks. Jackson is a strong, emotional writer and always delivers on that level, but there are a few flaws in this particular one. Still, if you are a Jackson fan, as I am, you will want to read this one.
I just found Jackson title a little off her perfect tempo, due to the heroine just accepting the treatment she received 8 years before. She just accepts he married another, leaving her hanging without word (she could have been pregnant, but he never bothered to find out), then let him right back into her life. It seemed forced.

Savannah Beaumont, rich daughter of a horse breeder, grew up with Travis McCord, loving him first as a child would a brother, later as a woman would a man. Travis declares his love to her - in his mind - (while playing around with lover Melissa). One night when drunk, he gives into his passion for 17-year-old Savannah, promising to come to her later. Instead, she is greeted the next morning with the news that Travis is marrying Melissa. During the next 8 years, she barely sees Travis. He wanted to explain why he was forced to marry Melissa (she tricked him, but then he declares he loved her - sorry that came over a little fickle. Just like his desertion of Savannah, leaving her a situation that could have become bad without thought). It really causes you like Travis a lot less. Also, that Savannah's brother-in-law strikes her 9-year-old nephew and everyone just warns him "not to do it again" shows a dated attitude toward what is and is not acceptable in child abuse.

Now Travis is back, demanding Savannah accept his excuses, saying he is going to change everything at the horse farm. Savannah is distressed by the situation. Someone is stealing from the farm, someone is stealing from Travis and he is going to put a stop to it. It's all clear, no mystery here except to Savannah.

You like Savannah, feel for her. But her too easy acceptance of the striking of her nephew (she is angry and fusses a bit, but that is all) and her too easy accepts of the betrayal Travis did to her, undermines Jackson's strong writing.

Despite the flaws, Jackson makes you see feel for people that are less than perfect, paints vivid characters (though dated). Considering this work is nearly 20 years old, we can forgive a few bumps in an otherwise good read.

This book takes a long time to get into (and it's not that long!). At first I was really turned off by a strange writing style: it doesn't flow; it seems unnatural; although not complex it requires time for interpretation. However, once the Chinese come into contact with the Europeans, the conflict is intensified and interest ignites. Then again at the end, too much denouement occurs too rapidly. But through all the strangeness, the reader is forced to think about the value of knowledge for its own sake. This novel should be made into a movie as it has great potential for great visual beauty.

I was so confused trying to read this book that I put it down after the first chapter. There are paragraphs written in the first person layered between those beginning with "Jasmine says..". The entire book is written this way. The editor and writer have so hatcheted the writing it is hard to take any of the advice contained in it seriously. Very disappointing.

This book turned out to mostly be an advertisement for other books in the "Felines by Design" series. It seemed like every other paragraph said something like "it's really important to know this if you want to breed or buy purebred cats, but I'm not going to tell you here. You'll have to buy another book by me." The information it did give was common sense: like be nice to prospective buyers and answer all their questions patiently. Save yourself a couple of bucks and don't buy this book.

This book was very dissappointing. The author wasted alot of space complaining about her first experience purchasing purebred kittens. She doesn't point out the fact that she was a totally uneducated buyer. This book is completely useles.

Jasmine has a way of simplifying the information for the newbies and experienced. I have read it through 2 times already and learned basic info. both times. Cat breeding is not an everyday common venture, it is tough to find people you can trust to help you learn it ethically.
It was helpful with breeding and with marketing. How to place a basic ad to encourage calls and to protect yourself from un-ethical breeders.
I am looking forward to her upcoming books as they will be a great learning and teaching tool to help others also.
Thanks so much.

The books have good information, if you can get glean it from the poorly edited and written volumes. These books jump back and forth, in a disturbing way, between first person "I did this.." and "Jasmine thinks this...". Unfortunately, You cannot tell if the book is: a. written by a professional cat breeder b. ghost written FOR a professional cat breeder or c. written by someone that feels alright about talking about herself in the third person.

If you can get past the poor writing style there is good information. Just be warned, it is not all in ONE volume. You are being led into purchasing a multi-volume set. "Jasmine will address this in the next book on..."

Ok book. Some good information. But really doesn't get into detail. Very basic information. Great common knowlege that can apply to many dogs. Great "I am thinking about buying a Pug" Book. If you own a Pug or decided to buy a pug look for a more deetailed one.