FBI agents Joe Flynn and Martin Tanner work the serial killer beat for the western states in general and Los Angles in particular.When they respond to a murder Tanner recognizes the work as that of a man he saw executed in Texas the year before.What follows is a trip down nightmare lane that involes a goverment experiment to create the perfect covert assassin and a secret goverment agency that is willing to go to any length to cover it's tracks,including the murder of an FBI agent,and his wife.

An excellent look at the Commonwealth forces that fought in Korea. Brian Cull continues his thorough and engaging style with a look at a long neglected aspect of the Korean War. Looking forward to volume 2.

"A Day No Pigs Would Die" is about a young boy at the age of twelve named "Robert". He lives in the town of Learning, in Vermont, on a farm. I believe this is a good book, but in my certain interests, not the best of its kind. In the beginning, Robert describes his life and how he left school for a bully who was picking on him, while later he helps a mother cow who is giving birth while chocking to death! You can say that his life is no ordinary one at all! The real interesting thing is that his father is a pig butcher/killer and that he comes home every night smelling of death. That somewhat bugs me. The confusing part is when he receives a piglet as a gift for helping birth a neighbor's cow's calf. From then on, the story is about a bond and battle between the father and son, and how a piglet can change a many thing. The author of this book is the main character in the book and I wonder if this truly occured in his childhood.

The novel A Day No Pigs Would Die is a good book for Middle School students. Robert Newton Peck's novel about a young farm boy from Vermont is written in a slow moving, laid back manner that makes it easy to imagine yourself living on a farm. "Can't keep swine and kine under the same roof," is one example of how the author uses farm language dialogue to help the reader relate to the characters' life styles. In addition, the author also wants to show the similarities of a young boy raised in the country compared to a young boy living in the city. For instance, a young boy in the novel, Rob, lives in the country and attends school every day. This is very similar to an average city boy who attends school. One highlight of Rob's summer was when he attended the grand annual Rutland Fair. Entertainment events, such as carnivals and fairs are also popular for children living in the city. Throughout the book, the reader learns about the hard work and dedication to run a farm. Even considering the workload involved, many farm children tend to carry on the family tradition of farming. After his father's death, Rob was forced to mature quickly by taking over his dad's responsibilities. Through his fathers training, Rob was now able to run the family farm. Rob shows his admiration for his father by stating, "I want to be like you, Papa." Family commitments and traditions of farm life helped Rob become a responsible adult. Middle School students can learn from Rob's experiences and relate them to their own lifestyles.

"A Day No Pigs Would Die" is a well-written book that is representative of the time-period in which it was set. The book had very good descriptions that helped you see what was happening in the story. However, in some cases, these descriptions were not necessary, and made sections displeasing. In some sections, this made it rather enjoyable. "The wear of his labor had made them [the tools] smooth and shiny, where his fingers had held each one." The theme of maturity in this novel made it relatable to those who are coming of age. Robert's parents accepted him as an adult through his maturing behavior as he witnessed tragic events. "A Day No Pigs Would Die" uses dialect and events that are true to the time period in which it was set, making it more realistic to when Robert Peck was a child. The book is usually slow-paced, and description is unnecessary in some parts. In spite of this, this comical novel is realistically based on a true part of the author's life. This novel will have you crying on one page and laughing on another. I recommend this for those who like realistic events, and can handle tragedy.

While this is a revolutionary book for it's type (there are not many guides to coaching cross country) I think that there is an underlying flaw with coach Newton's philosophy. From what I read of Newton's workout chart, it seems that he over works his runners. While this does get quality results and fast runners, it is not working in the runners best interest. High schoolers who are worked too much get burnt out easily and are overlooked by college cross country coaches.

Coach Joe Newton is a great coach, infact, I have ran for him, his coaching is the best that you could wish for. If I were buying this just by his track record it would be highly recomended! He is without doubt in my mind the best coach of Cross Crunty in history, if not all sports.

Joe Newton is the GOLD STANDARD when it comes to coaching high school cross country. Year in and year out his teams challenge for state and national titles. This book is not as good as the "Long Green Line" but that is THE book on high school cross country. This book stands by itself as an excellent, practical guide for coach, fan and runner. It is broken into easy to read sections and full of interesting antedotes. Joe Newton gives solid insight into his highly successful progam.

This book will be very helpful to someone needing correct information about guns. It is completely worthless to those of us (like me) who picked it up believing that it would touch on all sorts of weapons - knives, swords, bows, etc. I know they are targeting mystery writers, but not all mystery writers want a gun-toting suspect.

I picked this book up because 1.) I enjoy the Howdunit series, and 2.) I was hoping to find out some useful information about guns for my own writing. From reading the first few pages of the book, the author comes off as all-knowing and haughty. I decided to overlook this because many writers have done the same thing, especially when they're pretty much an "expert" on what they are writing. It took me a week to get through this book. Why? Because I found the text boring; it read like an outdated text book.

Firstly, the book presented a lot of history. Maybe too much. I didn't really count that as a negative since not every mystery/action writer writes in the present year(s). The way the material, though, was presented was enough to cure my insomnia. I nodded off on this book more times than I'd like to mention. The only thing that interested me in that "history lesson" was the depictions of the 'Old West'.

Secondly, where were the pictures? It was hard for me to get a mental image of the guns he was describing. Yes, he described them nicely, but I'm not going to describe the gun exactly as he did in my own story. It would have been nice to see pictures, so that I could have rendered my own descriptions. In the back, there are only 4 guns pictured. I found myself relying more so on internet sources (handguns.com) than the descriptions in this book.

Thirdly, unless you have at least a little prior knowledge of guns, then this may confuse you. There are too many technical terms and not enough layman terms. You'll find yourself constantly flipping back and foward through the book to make any sense of some the things he mentions.

But in defense of the book, it's obvious the author knows his guns. I was impressed with his knowledge on the subject, but I wasn't impressed with the way he presented his knowledge. It seems like he was trying to exercise his rather extensive vocabulary rather than actually educating his readers. Would I recommend this book for buying? I don't know it depends on your knowledge thus far on firearms. It might come in handy as a reference every now and again, but personally I feel there are better references out there.

Michael Newton, the author, has penned around 70 novels, and his knowledge of weapons and firearms is undisputable. However, the problem with this book is the amount of space it takes on the history of weapons. For the crime writer, it's way, way too much. The other problem is that it lacks illustrations. A book of this kind could have done with color plates so that the writer can get a chance to describe the gun him/herself by looking at the picture rather than having to rely on Newton's analysis. The appendix and glossary are probably the most useful for writers, with clear labelled photographs of some weapons (only 4!) and tables of calibre types and ammunition. Unless you absolutely want to own the entire Howdunnit Series, give this one a miss. It suffers from having to fit into the look and size of the other books in the series, when it clearly should have been a bigger and more pictorial book.

I've not read any Jane Smiley books before and was given this by a friend who loves her work, as a birthday present. I almost gave up on it about three times, but perservered. Problem one: too many minor characters. I had to keep skipping back pages to find out the background to people she'd met when she first arrived in KT. Problem two: too many towns, often mentioned briefly, then returned to later in the book. Problem three: the Lidie of the first half of the book just doesn't match up with the second half Lidie who just gives up her goals and becomes everything she has been rebelling against. It's as if Smiley had a publishing deadline to meet and took the easy route out of the story. Characters weren't clearly drawn, and the KT discussions/meetings about anti slavery were protracted and boring. Lastly, my paperback was printed in a tiny font; very hard to read at night (especially if you're camping). This was my Summer read, and unfortunately it was not up to the standard of those authors I usually choose to take on holiday with me, eg Carol Shields or Anne Tyler.

This work is certainly nothing like Moo, the only other Smiley book I'd read to date. While I enjoyed that book, I REALLY enjoyed this one.

The world of the Kansas Territory, seen through Lidie's eyes and described in her 19th century voice, was a revelation to me. I was only vaguely aware of this chapter in our country's history.

I was charmed by Smiley's chapter titles, page titles and her consistency in remaining within a sensibility so different from our own. She truly evoked for me how it must have felt to be caught in the time and place of Kansas and Missouri just before the Civil War.

I appreciate Smiley's portrayal of both the good and bad of those on both sides of the "goose question." I believe Lidie sees the many shades of gray that existed in a world we've been taught to think of as black and white. This book was an engrossing read and educational, too. Can't ask for a lot more than that!

I've read this novel twice and listened to it once on tape and found it to be thoroughly enjoyable each reading. The description of the conflict in Kansas Territory between the abolitionists and the Missourians was rivoting and engaging. Smiley provided an immense amount of detailed history--clearly she did her homework. Some readers find this distracting from the story; personally, I find that it added an originality and realism to the narrative. This is not a conversational piece; rather it is the narrative of Lidie's experiences, not her emotions. Lidie is appealing to me as a heroine because she is portrayed so realistically with a mix of passive and aggressive traits. As a reader I sometimes found her inaction frustrating; however, inaction is a part of life. Other readers have complained that the novel is depressing; I object to that analysis. The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton is not an escapist novel and one should not expect it to be. In my opinion, it is a de-Romanticized retelling of Huck Finn with a woman as the lead character. I highly recommend this book as one of my favorite novels and Smiley as one of my favorite authors.

This is not a detailed biography of Newton, nor is it a "pure" technical text dealing with Newton's great accomplishments. Rather, the author takes a quick bite at the overall accomplishments of Newton- which is inventing Calculus, propounding the laws of gravitation and the particle theory of light, with Newton's life story as the frame of reference. The result is a book which is a useful source for a quick introduction to the Life, time and accomplishments of Newton, even for the average reader without any background in physics or maths. My quibbles are the author should have put effort in explaining the science of Newton, rather than getting self-involved in writing charming prose. The author's intention was to give a "sense of Newton" to the reader, at which he succeeds. But, it doesn't give a feeling a satisfaction. It is an cross between reading a story , where some physics concepts are thrown in in a broad manner and punctuated by ornate writing. Obviously, i need to read other books on Newton to know more.

Some of the "superficial" knowledge i gleaned from the book, which i quote at random are:

Newton's enlargement of the binomial theorem made use of mathematical expressions known as Infinite series, which is a series of numbers that goes on forever.

He invented Calculus (Leibiniz also has claim to this honour).

He extended the forces of gravity to the orbit of the moon.. i.e established a connection of sameness between the gravity on earth which brings a apple down to the mystery force which keeps the moon orbiting around the earth without falling into earth.

He advanced the particle theory of light, which said that light was a stream of particles moving in a straight line through space.

He elucidiated his grand ideas on the nature of gravitational forces in his masterpiece "Principia". The universe revealed by principia containts particles, forces and mathematical structures. It has three specific laws of motion, two general principles of time and space. The three laws are familiar to any high school student- the law of inertia, law of acceleration and the law of action and reaction. The second law is the mysterious one which needs further explanation.; The principles of time and space wre absolute time and absolute space i.e time and space are measurable.

Why doesn't moon crash into the earth, instead of orbiting around it?? - Newton's analysis begins with the law of inertia. The moon's natural trajectory in the sky is a straight line. It travels in a fixed velocity, because no forces are inducing acceleration in it. But, since the moon is orbiting circularly around the earth, there is a force on it which is continuously deforming it's path. Since the resulting path is circular, the force must be centripetal whose origin is at the centre of the earth. (eg: carousel). Based on the second law, the force makes the moon accelerate continuously towards the centre of the earth. It does not fall into the earth because it's natural trajectory (straight line) and the centripetal force of the gravity from the earth balance out, due to which the moon falls forever without falling into the earth. (rotates).

Newton's universal gravity law states every material object attracts every other material object, with a force that is proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of distance between them.

Note, gravity is explained for what it does, what it affects, but there is no explanation for what gravity actually is. It remains a mystery.

Regarding Newton's personal life- his spars with Robert Hookes, Leibiniz shows him in poor light - as somebody vindictive, vain and secretive. His successful stint as the Master of Mint, in a bureacractic role of crushing counterfieting which was profuse at that time, is an achievement unique in the sense that we do not often find a great scientist and Govt official in the same person! Also, another curious aspect of Newton's life was he never married and is widely considered to have lead a celibate life; and yes, the apple boink on his head is apocryphal.

In his book Newton's Gift - How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of the World David Berlinski presents us with an engaging biography of Newton. What I personally liked was the fact that Berlinski avoided the trap of many biographies that merely present names, dates and places. In this book we see the person that Newton was and how it affected his study of mathematics.One of the main reasons that one should study the history of mathematics is to appreciate the human side of its creation. Berlinski presents Newton's human side quite well.

If you are looking for a lot of detailed mathematics, you probably won't find it here. The mathematics is presented at a very readable and understandable level. This is certainly accessible to the average undergraduate math/physics major.

I recommend this book without hesitation.

David Berlinski has created a marvelous intellectual history focusing on the progression of Newton's epic breakthrough thinking. He does this in a way that is totally accessible to those who are phobic about mathematics. The explanations are achieved through a skillful combination of simple sentences, symbols, pictures, and diagrams. The presentation is so effective that most readers will find their understanding of important mathematical and scientific principles greatly improved. This is a great book!

Newton was a seminal thinker in the areas of mathematics (developing calculus), physics (with his propositions about gravity and motion), and optics (with his conceptualization of light as being comprised of particles moving in parallel). He also did much work in theology and alchemy, which are recounted here.

A key challenge for David Berlinski was presented by Newton's reticence. He was not a very social person, and wrote almost nothing about how he developed his ideas. Berlinksi does a magnificent job of locating and sharing hints and clues about the bases of these intuitive leaps. This result is enhanced by considering the continuing themes in Newton's thinking, and assuming a connection to his intuition. I suspect that Berlinski is right in connecting the dots that way, but we will never know for sure.

The centerpiece of our story turns out to be the tangent to a curve. From that humble beginning, most of our modern understanding of how physical motion takes place follows.

I also enjoyed better understanding how Newton's thinking was aided by the careful observations and conclusions of Kepler.

If the history of science were always this entertaining, this subject would be one of the most popular majors in colleges.

As Berlinksi tells us in the beginning his purpose in the book is "to offer a sense of the man without specifying in details his . . . activities." This allows us to see the other sides of Newton, but without spending too much time on them. Newton was not perfect. We get glimpses of places where he wasted his time, such as his unsuccessful experiments with alchemy. We also see his flirtations and infatuations. Beyond that, we see what could enrage him, and how he took his revenge. This fleshing out of the whole man makes the scientific history all the more compelling.

If you liked David Berlinski's book, The Birth of the Algorithm, you will probably like this one even better. The asides are much more contained and relevant here.

For those who want a little more math with their scientific history, Berlinski has provided supplementary materials that are quite entertaining.

After you have finished enjoying this wonderful romp, I suggest that you think about where everyday events are unexplained in your life. For example, why do the people you meet with act the way they do? Why is progress slow in many areas, and rapid in others? By looking for connections, you, too, may isolate fundamental principles that can expand our own appreciation as a species of how we achieve understanding. The mysteries of how to improve thinking are still mostly unsolved, and many are relatively unexplored. Perhaps you can be the Newton of this important "last frontier" of self-limiting progress for humans.

Think about it!

Helmut newton. yuk! just another glossy athena, teenage poster loving fantasty's of an old man who should know better. How he ever managed to worm this tat into the art world i will never know. The equilvent of man holding kitten. yuk! avoid avoid avoid

"My women are always victorious." -- Helmut Newton

This collection of Helmut Newton's work casts a special focus on his harder edge images of women as sexually domineering and manipulative. Among the fetishes and voyeuristic images are some wonderful portraits of women, as well. The book is an interesting study in how strongly the personality of the model can be injected into a portrait, especially by the objects chosen, the setting, and the way clothes are worn. The essays do an excellent job of developing your understanding of his methods.

Before going further, please be aware that these images contain much female nudity in sexual situations and one male nude. If these images were in a motion picture, some would undoubtedly go beyond an "R" rating. Many of these images are not appropriate for children, in my view.

Many people think of Helmut Newton as a fashion photographer. These images focus instead on the timelessness of the female personality and role in "overcoming the other." "The clothes . . . only have one purpose: to insufficiently conceal the long, slender female bodies . . . [which] lack innocence." In each case, the women are "defiant."

I found his more playful images, rather than his darker side, the most rewarding. I especially liked "Sie Kommon" where the same scene is done first as dressed and then as naked. It is a stunning set of facing pages. In many other images, he appears in the photograph while taking it. Yet in other cases, the model is juxtaposed against a background object that creates a moderately sexual joke.

I graded the book down one star for overrepresenting the sexual dominance theme at the expense of Newton's other styles, since this is a "best of" book by its title. The sexual dominance images are often highly repetitive, and sometimes not particularly appealing in any way -- even as abstract compositions.

Here are my favorites in the book:

British "Vogue", London 1967 (images 3 and 4)

Tan Giudirelli for Mic-Mac, Paris 1970

French "Vogue", Paris 1975

"Sie Kommon", Dressed and Naked 1981

Jodie Foster, Hollywood 1987 (jacket cover image)

Leni Riefenstahl, near Munich 1992

Big Nude II, Paris 1980

Study for Voyeurism, Los Angeles 1989

Helmut Berger, Beverly Hills 1984

Skull and diamond necklace, Paris 1979

Andy Warhol, Paris 1974

Crocodile eating ballerina, Wuppertai 1983

After you enjoy this book, think about what you believe about women that makes these images work or not work well for you. Where do you detect "truth" and where does the image seem "made up" to you? In particular, is life this sexually tinted?

Then imagine how you would have to change these photographs in order to create feelings of love, peace, and progress. How would you benefit or not benefit from such images as compared to these?

Should the person describing the world have an agenda, or a slant . . . or simply seek to reveal the underlying overall truth that is already there?

Which one of these (if any) is Newton doing?

Overcome your stalled thinking that what you see is literally what it seems to be. This book will help you with that.

is worth a thousand words. He just has that magic!

I am not a supporter of the Black Panthers, in fact I oppose them. Hugh Pearson does more than promote the Panthers in his hollow tell-all book by showing the public how lied about the Panthers are. Much of his sources are misinterpreted, as others have said, and he often seeks the worst outlook as a way of conveying the situation, never giving to even a modest viewpoint. He takes several sources that can be interpreted as unreliable, and then makes it worse by distorting the information therein. His book is as reliable as the history book you used in high school. It has so little of a reliable basis that one should only use it with the utmost scrutiny.

I became interested in the Panthers during high school, and during my research for a term paper on the BPP, I encountered sources that only supported and maintained the view that the Black Panthers were destroyed by FBI counterintelligence. Pearson's book finally provides a more accurate view of Panther history. While Pearson concentrates on the party's criminal activities and the overall negative impact on the community and its members' lives, he does not do it with Horowitz-style, moral judgement or a conservative, revisionist agenda. The story Pearson presents is the true story, whether we like it or not, and any educated perspective on the Panthers must take this work into account. However, I do feel that the book lacks serious discussion of the FBI's campaigns against the Panthers, which were damaging. The murder of Fred Hampton is the most egregious example of the government's persecution of the Party, but it only gets a passing mention. Also, Pearson forgets to bring it all together in the end and truly weigh the impact of the Party on the overall civil rights struggle, but overall, for any one who wants to finally see a less biased view of the Black Panters, this book is a definite read.

This book offers a look inside the rise and fall of Huey Newton and the Black Panther Party in Oakland from the 60's to the 80's. Nelson has spoken to many of the participants and assembled what appears to be a well-balanced overview of the promise and problems of the Party.

His essential argument is that the Party began as a criminal enterprise with revolutionary trappings and was eventually consumed by it's own criminality. The book was apparently somewhat controversial because this, of course, contradicts the standard view that the Panthers began as a worthy endeavor but was tragically destroyed by increasing criminal activity and mismanagement and illegal government meddling.

Despite some awkward prose, this is an excellent look at the turn from non-violence to violence in the Black Community in the mid-60's.

GRADE: B

This biography of the discoverer of gravity and inventor of calculus by the co-author of a similar work on Einstein misses the mark. Michael White concentrates on filling the gaps in Newton's personal life - mainly focusing on all his feuds but also offering unprovable speculation about a relationship with another man and with a widow - but offers little insight into the science. It's as if White assumes everyone understands how gravity works and what calculus is. There's little here that shows me how great a scientist Newton was, but too much to tell me that he was not much of a human.

There is also the author's contention that Newton's extensive dabblings in alchemy directly influenced his success as a thinker. Little evidence offered by White backs this up. White also undermines himself by connecting Newton's alchemy and Newton's unorthodox but deeply-felt Christian beliefs, thereby joining the far-too-long list of science writers who denigrate religion along the way to worshipping at the feet of Science.

Beyond all that, this book is competently written if wordy. White clearly needs Gribbin's help to succeed as a biographer.

people have criticized this biography for not being some kind of newtonian primer. if you want to learn the calculus, look elsewhere. newton's scientific theories are merely sketched here...BECAUSE IT'S A BIOGRAPHY. if you want to refer to the more obscure biographical details contained in this book as "gossip," so be it; but it's silly to take white to task for not giving you the principia in cliff's notes.

that said, he is not the best author in the world. he does tend to stress certain points for no apparent reason; his phrasing is occassionally awkward and redundant; and too often he fails to back up his contentions with sufficient hard facts. but the book is readable enough anyway. betty jo dobbs' "janus faces of genius" is a much more thorough investigation of "the role of alchemy in newton's thought," and as far as popular biographies go, gale christianson's "in the presence of the creator" is more balanced and complete.

the notion that alchemical experimentation contributed in any direct way to newton's "legitimate" scientific discoveries is disputable. all white offers conservatives is a vague description of the so-called "star regulus of antimony," an alchemical phenomenon whose formation suggests lines of force drawn towards an attractive center. his contention is that newton's observations of this regulus may have contributed to his coalescing conceptions of attraction and gravity.

this biography is also a little less "clean" than others, emphasizing newton's paranoia, manipulativeness, and hypocrisy. if you can't deal with your hero's personal shortcomings being placed under the microscope, then pass it by. otherwise, dig in.

True, Newton was a "man of science" and certainly among the
greatest. But "science" was not in the 17th Century what it
is to us today and like many of his contemporaries, Newton
inherited a scientific legacy which was steeped in alchemistic
mysticism dating back to the Ancients.

White cites the undeniable alchemistic, mystical influences in
Newton's thinking not to stir up controversy or serve up "gossip"
as some would superficially contend.

Rather he intends to point out the quasi-magical, occult leanings
in Newton's thought which enabled him to dream of or "conjure"
such unseen forces as gravity while other minds remained trapped
in commonplace and hence unfruitful modes of thinking.

Basically, Newton's ability to shift his view of physical reality
to a new paradigm, White's book seems to be saying, was as much
a product of his sub-conscious imaginings as well as his
conscious, rational thought.

Einstein purportedly said [and I paraphrase] that imagination
was more important than knowledge because new knowledge comes
to us nascently through sheer imagination.

If this book seems to delve too much into Newton's mystical
beliefs then it is simply to compensate for the two-dimensional
and in some cases, untruthful "rational" biographical depictions
that have coloured our view of the man and ignored the role of
non-rational philosophies in driving modern science to where it
is today.

The interesting question is: we speak of modern science as a
rational endeavor today but in another hundred years, how
superstitious and primitive will we appear to posterity?