At the time I ordered this book from Amazon, it was the only book available on the El Camino. Now there seems to be more selection, and I would advise interested readers to shop around if they're looking for real depth. Although the book does mention pretty much every model and show pictures of each, it's really just a brief once-over, and the pictures aren't even in color! That was the really disappointing part about a supposed "photo history..." But nonetheless, it's a fun read and a real enthusiast will probably want it.

The book does hit the basics with some good information. Photos should be in color instead of B/W. One El Camino is listed as an SS but from the photos it's a SS Clone.
If you are looking for all model specs, histories and options listing for the El Camino/Sprint/Caballero you will need more than this book but it is a good starting place.

this story gave me a feeling that even during this time alot of troubles befalls us.

Sara Stanley is reading a juicy melodrama to her King cousins about the evil Lord Doom and his dastardly deeds when Digger runs out into the night with the children in hot pursuit. Little do they know that as they chase Digger to the lighthouse where Gus Pike lives that they are about to get deeply involved in a real life melodrama. Gus meets the beautiful and mysterious Amanda Stone, and when she gives him not only a bag of valuable jewels to hid but a passionate kiss, he is completely smitten and will do absolutely anything for her. This includes standing up to the equally mysterious Robert Rutherford, who will apparently stop at nothing to get back the jewels or Amanda or both. Meanwhile, Felicity is, in the words of Felix, "conceived with jealousy" at the attention Gus is paying to the beautiful stranger.

Gail Hamilton writes the novelization of her own "Avonlea" teleplay or "A Dark and Stormy Night," which was notable for the performance of Christopher Reeve as the dark and dangerous Robert Rutherford. Although the adventure is not actually based on anything Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote about in "The Story Girl" and "Chronicles of Avonlea" volumes, at the heart of the episode is the budding romance between Felicity and Gus. It was made quite clear in "The Golden Road" that the high and mighty Felicity King was not going to marry some handsome, rich stranger, but the lowly stable boy she so disdained. On "Avonlea" the original stable boy is replaced by the character of Gus Pike and the fun of this particular story is how Felicity is too proud to admit to any feelings for Gus whatsoever. Of course, what is going on is perfectly plain to Sara. So while Miss Stone and Mr. Rutherford engage in their theatrical feud, it is this early chapter on the road to love that is going to strike a chord with young readers. I know wanting to see Felicity finally admit her feelings to Gus was why I kept subscribing to Disney, just to watch this series.

This book is a terrible statistics book. It is full of inconsistancies and mistakes. Believe me there are much better books out there.

This book helped me to solve many types of engineering problems which require an appreciation of variability and some understanding of how to use both descriptive and analytical tools in dealing with variability.

Volume I: Pike exhaustively recounts his daily activities on board. In almost no instance except for the frigid winter is there much drama or dialogue between he and his men. Even when he reaches what he thinks is the source of the Mississippi, he is actually mistaken, though "correct" as far as the assumptions of the day. Toward the head of the river, it is difficult to assess where Pike even is without the notes (which in themselves almost swallow the book, but of sheer necessity to the reading). We reach the headwaters of the river and return to St Louis without much fanfare or dialogue, save that Pike spoke with the English fur traders near the source and explained America's new ownership of the territory (one of his objectives).

Volume II: In this volume Pike is no better. There is an extremely boring journey across Kansas and into Colorado, and he the real drama sets in. Pike and his men are without winter clothing and now in the Colorado Rockies. The frostbite on some of his men forces them to stay behind, unable to continue. This occurs day after day, week after week, until the expedition reaches what is believed to be the source of the Arkansas River. Otherwise the volume meekly runs through Pike's capture by Spanish authorities and his return to the U.S. via Spanish escort. This last is a daily log of conversations with French or Spanish military figures, and of little interest in general.

This review refers to Volume Two. Although at times quite verbose and long-winded (due to the historical notation), the book did illustrate the adventure and hardships of early American explorers, along with political intrigue between Spanish and American relationships in the early 1800's. Pike left St. Louis in 1806 to explore the present southwestern United States.He and his men suffered and endured many misfortunes and hardships while in the Colorado mountains, then only to be arrested by Spanish authorities for trespassing into their territory. I suppose the debate will go on forever, did Pike intentionally get arrested in order to further explore Mexico so that the American government would be more enlightened as to their culture, military strengths and weaknesses, geography, trade possibilities, economy,etc.? It is a creditable, thorough and absorbing account of early American western history.

Family Rivalry is one of the best episodes of Avonlea! But something about it doesn't work as a book.....I read the book years ago.......The story is basically about the childhood fued between Alec and His brother....Andrew Alec's nephew has a loyalty to both his father and uncle and try's to stay out of it! Trust me this is one you should just watch on TV!

Given the dominance of Hetty King over the King family, it is remarkable that Alec King is such a levelheaded fellow. In "Family Rivalry" we have the return of Roger King, the world-famous geologist. Hetty thinks the sun rises and sets with Roger, although I am surprised she would ever approve of anybody in her family moving away from the island. However, the old boyhood tension between Alec and Roger is not only revived by the return of the conquering hero, who is convinced he can modernize the King family farm, their antagonism is being rekindled in their songs, Felix and Andrew (edged on by another example of Hetty King's thoughtlessness). Meanwhile, Alec has volunteered to help a neighbor, Amos Spry, who is having financial difficulties. Alec is motivated by the simple principle that neighbors help each other, a principle completely foreign to Hetty King. It is disheartening to think that Alec is so unappreciated by his family and even though they come around in the end, they really should know better.

It is also interesting to me that while the first dozen "Road to Avonlea" novelizations focused primarily on Sara Stanley and her young King cousins, the second dozen is focusing much more on the adults. Certainly an interesting choice for a series that you would have presumed was geared towards young readers, in which case the romantic side of Hetty King is not necessarily all that big of an attraction. The "Family Rivalry" storybook is written by Gail Hamilton from Jerome McCann's script for the "Avonlea" series. Although this is not one of the better episodes focusing on my favorite character, Alec King, it is nice to see him be the focus on a story.

This is the first story in the series of Road to Avonlea and explains what has happened to Sara when she was a child. When the book starts it explains how Sara's mother died when she was small and how it is Nanny and Papa taking care of her. She must leave Montreal, her "Kingdom" and move to a very natural and untouched town that her Mother grew up in King Edward island. Her Mother is also buried in the King graveyard, that Sara discovers, honors and respects. Sara is not welcomed by her King cousins but realises, in the end that nothing could get between them. This book really is *the* starter of the series

Novelizations of television episodes are basically what we make due with until they come out on videotape. But in "The Journey Begins," the novelization of the first episode of the "Avonlea" series, Dennis Adair & Janet Rosenstock provide some actually depth to this retelling of the tale. Specifically, they get into what young Sara Stanley is thinking when her life is turned upside down. Her father is threatened with financial ruin and Sara is shipped off to her late mother's relatives on Prince Edward Island. Sara arrives in Avonlea with her Nanny Louisa is tow, only to meet up with the formidable King family, headed by the imperious Aunt Hetty, who also happens to be the local school teacher. Adair & Rosenstock take pains to explain the complex dynamic that exists between Sara and her relatives on PEI, undoubtedly filling in some holes for young readers who saw the pilot episode and were not sure what to think about what was going on.

This first volume in "The Road to Avonlea" series is based on the Sullivan Films Production written by Heather Conkie, which, in turn, was adapted from the novels of Lucy Maud Montgomery. "The Story Girl" was Montgomery's favorite novel and its sequel "The Golden Road," along with two collections of short stories known as the Chronicles of Avonlea, are the material from which various episodes are developed.

What becomes fascinating in this first episode is how the premises of "The Story Girl" are redeveloped for this series. In the books Sara would come to visit her King cousins each summer, heading back to Montreal in the fall. However, the situation needed to be altered so Sara was a more permanent part of the Avonlea community. They could have made Sara an orphan, in the grand tradition of Montgomery's most famous literary creations Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon, but it is important that at least on some level Sara WANTS to stay on PEI. At the heart is one of Montgomery's strongest themes, how a young girl forges bonds of affection with a spinster. Aunts Hetty and Olivia certainly recall Emily's Aunts Elizabeth and Laura and there are strong echoes of that novel in this story.

Consequently, whether you are a long time reader of Montgomery's works eager to devour new tales using her literary creations, or a young reader who is working their way through these books and then on to the one actually written by Montgomery, you will find these tales to be kindred spirits. I used to have the Disney Channel just so I could watch "Avonlea" and honeymooned last year on PEI, staying at the "White Sands Hotel." So, it is pretty clear that I am just one of countless millions of enraptured fans.

Dear editor, I wish to withdraw a review mistakenly sent for this book an hour ago. Regards, L. A.

Not once in the review is New Zealand mentioned. Has someone forgotten what the NZ in ANZAC stands for? Or is this part of the Australian illusion?

The Anzac Illusion represents another addition by E.M. Andrewsto his body of work on Australian foreign relations in the twentiethcentury. This book joins Isolation and Appeasement in Australia: Reactions to the European Crisis 1935-1939, Australia and China: The Ambiguous Relationship, and The Writing on the Wall: British Commonwealth and Aggression in the Far East 1931-1935 as examples of his contributions on the subject. He teaches history at the University of Newcastle in Australia and received grants by the Australian War Memorial and the Australian Research Council to work on this book. Andrews consulted over 700 books, articles, and other words in preparation for The Anzac Illusion. The secondary materials mostly covered either the British or the Australians; the few that did, as Andrews, examine the relationship between the two countries were either journal articles or unpublished theses or dissertations. One also sees that he consulted the papers belonging to most of the key figures mentioned in the book as well as a considerable number of minor players. He has written the book to try to correct what he perceives as biases that occur not only in most histories of World War I but especially in Australian versions of the war. Andrews believes that errors have occured in many of the books written on the period and feels these mistakes stem from several sources. He claims that many times authors base their conclusions on second hand stories or propaganda that do not hold up under scrutiny. Also many works suffer in that they focus too narrowly on one event and also study certain parts of the war without looking at other aspects. In The Anzac Illusion, Andrews studies a narrow issue, the British-Australian relationship, in a broad context that allows him to develop his main idea. The Anzac participation in the Great War benefitted from a great deal of propaganda which resulted in an almost mythological exaggeration of Australian fighting ability. In the book, Andrews debunks those myths and attempts to place Australia's efforts in its proper social, economic, political, and military perspectives. The book begins by describing the relationship between Britain and Australia before the war. Some already posed questions about the nature of the Imperial relationship. Andrews presents the local politicians who have begun to develop concerns separate from Britain, especially on security issues, as a contrast to the new governor-general Munro Ferguson who sought a return to the old style relationship between London and the colony. The first decade of the century showed the widening gulf of opinion as Britain concluded an alliance with Australia's main perceived threat, Japan, then proceeded to pull back the Royal Navy to protect the home islands from the German Empire. However, when war broke out, Australians did volunteer in force to fight an enemy several thousand miles away. The mythmaking begins at Gallipoli when reports filter in about Australian fighting prowess. Andrews goes into detail about the Anzec myth throughout the book, illustrating how it started and spread as well as the reasons why. At the same time, he also tries to give credit where credit is due when the Australians do well, but also put the contributions of the other BEF armies in their proper perspectives as well. He cites the need to bolster relations with Australia and also such words as The Anzac Book that portrayed Australian soldiers as happy and brave, rarely scared or dead. Andrews wrote how the mythmaking irritated others and also gave Australians an inflated sense of their accomplishment, which they sometimes used against their English comrades-in-arms. The author envelops the story of the myth in the context of the British-Australian dichotomy. Each had certain needs that needed met that often went wanting in this period. The war disrupted the prewar economic relations between the two countries. It also awakened the Australians to the question of just how British they really were. It highlighted the differences between the militaries which led to tension. In general the Australians enjoyed more lax discipline, higher pay, and the lack of capital punishment. The war also gave Prime Minister W.M. "Billy" Hughes a chance to forge more freedom of action and develop a voice in imperial affairs although he did not always avail himself of every opportunity. Andrews packs as much information into 274 pages as many historians could not compress into 400. The anecdotes and information come with force, rapidity, apparent accuracy, and excellent readability. The book also paints good pictures of every subject it covers. It portrays the Australian soldiers without trying to burrow inside their heads with too much psychology, giving one an accurate idea about the Anzacs without going too far past what the facts can support. Andrews' conclusions that the Australian soldiers did not match their lofty reputation agrees with historical accounts of other soldiers as well as common sense. The myth that Australians faced the ordeals of the Western Front with a great deal more courage, skill, and fortitude than others served to bolster Australian pride when necessary, but in the long run does not treat fairly the other Allies or the Australian soldiers themselves. That Australians developed a national sense when comparing militaries, societies, and security concerns during this time of overwhelming crisis also seems reasonable. Andrews may be on his most tenuous ground when speculating that the deafness of Hughes played a key role in his sometimes acrimonious relations with others. The Anzac Illusion covers a different patch of ground than most World War I histories. One generally gets the impression of the British Empire as a single voice and a homogenous unit but this book shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that was not so. This concept of strain between Britain and the Dominions does not receive nearly enough mention and can educate the scholar while appealing to the general reader because of the quality and liveliness of the writing. English who liked to believe in the uniformity of Empire may feel distaste, but it actually is a tribute to a government when can keep several nations on separate continents more or less aligned on the same policy through periods of extreme stress and strain. (...) END

I was very disappointed with the pocket handbook for several reasons, the primary being that the ACLS guidelines were not the updated current ones. I also found the small print difficult to read and the use of only black print with no color coding made it hard to search though.

As a new nurse to ICU I have found this pocket guide handy as a reference, a teacher, and for finding information quickly It is easy to use, with a lot of information needed in the adult ICU. It has a very good section on IV medication with dilutions and infusion times. The size of the actual pocket guide itself is somewhat larger than others that I have seen, but it has easy to read print size.

This book has been originally writtem 20 years ago and today is reproposed in a new package. Being brief the problems with this book are essentially two:

1) the author has a tendency to get lost in details many of them insignificants for the story, and some of them plain wrong (and the author could have corrected them).

2) the book is in the stream of war histories watched only by one side. It is interesting to note that the author never mentions the unusefulness of the battle of El Alamein: it is in fact well known that the Torch landings will have forced the Axis army to withdrawn anyway and therefore the British could have attacked the Axis much more easily. But this it would not have been a British-only victory, but an Anglo-American victory.

Therefore it seems a little pretentious to call this book the "definitive" history of the western desert war. Given the boredom caused by the plethora of details, it is more likely the "bed-time" history of desert war.

"Montgomery and Alamein" is the third volume of a three-volume set by Barrie Pitt published by Cassell & Co. in London. Pitt is no stranger to war or the theater about which he writes, having served in both the European and Middle East theaters in World War II.

After the quick and unexpected fall of Tobruk on June 21, 1942, to a carefully orchestrated air and ground attack by Rommel's Afrika Korps, the German advance in North Africa once again threatened the British hold on Egypt and the Suez Canal. Churchill flew to Cairo on August 3, split the Middle East command by creating Eighth Army, relieved Auchinleck and Ritchie, and placed Gen. Harold Alexander in command of Middle East Command and Lt. Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery in command of Eighth Army. Throughout the remainder of 1942, Montgomery led his Eighth Army to successive victories against the Desert Fox.

Montgomery had his work cut out for him, but he and his men inflicted a defeat on German forces at Alam Halfa on September 7, and thereafter methodically pressed the Afrika Korps back toward El Alamein. Rommel, who could no longer hope to regain the offensive in North Africa, now found his forces practically surrounded at El Alamein. From October 23 to November 4 the battle raged, and when it was over the Axis had been decisively defeated, their losses staggering. It was a prelude to Allied landings farther west on November 8, and the success of Soviet forces against the German 6th Army at Stalingrad in February the following year.

Thoroughly researched and written in a delightful, fast-paced style, Pitt gives readers their money's worth. I came away from "Montgomery and Alamein" with a far better appreciation of the man who arguably was Britain's most irascible commander, but also the most successful. It was once said of Montgomery that he was "quick as a ferret; and about as likeable." But in war there isn't room for nice guys. Montgomery knew that.

In the end, one has to give credit to Cassell & Co. for introducing all three volumes of their "Crucible of War" series on North African fighting-you won't want to buy one without purchasing the other two.

Montgomery's book is a wonderful, delightful history of not only Lewis and Clark, but also the lesser known tale of Zebulon Pike's (ahem) explorations and the maneuverings of General James Wilkinson and Aaron Burr. The book is broken up by date, with each day of the history getting anything from a line to several pages. The whole book is full of humor, and Montgomery's zest for telling the story comes through consistently. This book is highly recommended for anyone who wants an introduction to Lewis and Clark (though at least passing familiarity is suggested) or wants a fresh look at their expedition. This book goes into the kind of details that many other histories ignore. For example, the sex lives of the Corps of Discovery and Aaron Burr's seductions are gone into with some detail. Where Montgomery really hits his stride is in the details of Aaron Burr's plot to make himself Emperor of the American west and James Wilkinson's part in it, as well as the General's bizarre and devious work as a Spanish spy. These divided loyalties are displayed against Lewis and Clark's loyalty to Jefferson and Jefferson's apathy for much of Burr's plot. Filled with lively anectdotes and new insight, and written more like a novel than a history, this is an excellent book on a part of our past that is unknown to far too many people.

This surely the liveliest and most entertaining book on American history published in the year 2000. Like Bruce Catton before him, M.R. Montgomery uses skills honed as a newspaperman to tell the compelling story of three groups of adventurers who set out on divergent, but interrelated missions in the newly acquired Louisiana Territory 1803-7. The best know of these is the Corps of Discovery led by Lewis and Clark, whom President Jefferson has sent on a multi-purpose mission to the headwaters of the Missouri River and beyond to the Pacific Ocean. As Lewis and Clark ascend the Missouri, Jefferson's former Vice President, Aaron Burr, who had recently killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, travels west to conspire with the commanding general of the US Army, Wilkerson (who is also governor of the new Louisiana Territory). They plot to either invade Mexico or to split off all the land west of the Appalachians into a new nation -- or perhaps to do both. Wilerson then sends off an exploration party of his own led by Lt. Zebulon Pike first to the headwaters of the Mississippi and then into the southern Rockies and Spanish New Mexico.

Montgomery's perspective is mildly revisionist, his tone is ironic, and his story-telling is crisp and colorful. He uses the present tense to draw the reader inside the frame of the story. His narrative uses intercutting -- as a novel might -- to keep us abreast of the progress each of the groups is making toward its objective, as well as what Jefferson is doing back in Washington. Lewis and Clark's adventures provide the main thread of the story, while the conspirators and Pike supply the villainy and the comic relief. The hapless Pike's energetic but incompetent leadership serves to highlight the skills and foresight of Lewis and Clark.

Jefferson and the Gun-Men, in little more than 300 pages, does better than thicker academic histories at putting the Lewis and Clark expedition in the context of its time. A time very different from our own -- not just for the absence of truck stops and shopping malls. It is a time before the gospel of manifest destiny and a civil war had resolved the question of how many nations would occupy the continent. It is a time when a Vice President of the United States could kill a man in a duel and then preside at the impeachment of a Supreme Court Justice. (Montgomery has the wrong justice Chase being impeached, however) It is a time when the commanding general of the US Army is taking Spanish bribes at the same time he and Burr plot for empire. Montgomery works hard to show us not only Lewis and Clark, but Jefferson, Burr and the other figures in this story not as icons, but as complex human beings -- capable of great vision and great acts, but afflicted with blind spots and shortcomings peculiar to thenselves and to their times.

The title is taken from a speech Jefferson made to a group of Indian chiefs sent east by Lewis and Clark and others. He begins by telling them that "we are united in one family with our red brethren"; a sentiment few of Jefferson's white brethren would have endorsed. Then Jefferson says (untruthfully) that he plans to establish non-profit trading posts for their benefit. He closes with a plea for peace among the tribes and between the tribes and whites. In case the Indians do not opt for peace, he warns them, "My children, we are strong, we are numerous as the stars in the heavens, and we are all gun-men." We present-day Americans, the beneficiaries of those gun-men, can learn a great deal from this book.

If Aaron Burr had not killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, Burr might later have become the first sociopath to be elected president of the United States. But, because of this single fatal pistol shot, he had to content himself with conspiring to become Emperor of the American West.

He worked with the Commander of the United States Army, General James Wilkinson, a traitor and spy who worked for the Spanish, and with Zebulon Pike (the Pike's Peak or Bust Pike) to amputate the West from the United States.

But Burr's timing was awful. During his conspiracy Lewis & Clark led The Corps of Discovery to Astoria, Oregon and back to St Louis, setting in motion a doubling of the size of the United States.

Read this fascinating, engrossing story of those times, when it seemed as if the United States might double in size -- or be cut in half.