Personal accounts are what history is based on. Desert Voices attempts to do just that - provide readers with the stories of those who served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. As such, it makes for a useful history, as all branches of the service (even the Coast Guard) are represented, each providing a different persepctive on the war, but not an interesting read by any stretch of the imagination.

I am a Gulf War veteran, and many of the tales are similar to what I experienced. What frustrated me, however, was the lack of techincal understanding the author demonstrates of military abbreviations and slang - surprising, as he was a LtCdr in the US Navy. For example, in the glossary he explains "FDC" as "Fire Detection Center" - when in fact it is the "Fire DIRECTION Center" of an artillery battery. Similar mistakes are made when a Marine is quoted saying "FDC", where LaBarge has transcribed it "FTC", defined as "Fleet Training Center" - of which there is none. The book was rife with these errors.

Written to profit from the hype following the ending of hostilites, the book really seems hastily put together. It was hardly riviting (more "ho hum" reading, although that may be more the result of personal experience than anything else) and in the end, was not that good of a book. While I may be nit-picking, I feel that the author has a responsibility to be informed and accurate with the material before the book goes to print.

This 109 (+ xxv) page volume measures 11 1/2 inches by 8 1/2 inches (actual page size). It is printed on acid free paper (though not ANSI certified), and it is smyth sewn. The grayscale images are on a coated paper, but it is not glossy stock.

This edition just contains a partial bibliography on the Great Isaiah Scroll, and the plates, and an accompanying transcription on facing pages. At the foot of each transcription, are some notes on the transcription. This edition is a facsimile edition, its primary purpose is (evidently) to provide a complete "picture" of the whole scroll (though no photos of the whole roll are shown, nor of its exterior). The images are good up to a certain point, they are not really good enough for critical work. More extensive information on the background sources for the images would have been appreciated, Trever provided some and a S. J. Schweig (of Jerusalem) others: ....

The transcription offers very little over the earlier transcription and work done by Trever/Burrows and Brownlee. In fact the earlier edition shows the MS in color. Nor does the transcription illuminate critical variants or differences which exist between the earlier transcriptions and this present work. When differences exist, the user must look to the image to try to resolve the reading. And here is the problem.....

The images are not very sharp. They were scanned at only 400 dpi, and then printed in an unknown dpi (offset- photolithography). The resulting facsimiles though usable, leave a lot to be desired. Why not color?? Why not real sharp full-scale images?? Why not a printing on glossy paper?? Why not a full discussion of the variants, and a list of various variations between the MT and this MS?? Why not a discussion of all of the unique marks and signs in the text?? Why not a measuring scale (in mm or inches) next to each image?? Hence, I am not sure why this edition was made. (For someone's profit?). No critical value, and no way to really test Parry and Qimron's transcription. Qimron, for one, is an expert with this MS and the grammar of this "Qumran" Hebrew, but he remains largely silent in this facsimile edition, a loss. As a facsimile edition, the facsimiles are really second-class. In many ways the earlier work by Trever (et al) is superior even with the slightly fuzzy color photos.

However, if you need a copy of 1Isa(a), this may suffice. Mr. Gary S. Dykes

This book show its age. It was written over 10 yeares ago, when it was thougth that iguanas were carnivore(they are folivores). The only parts that are really good are the list of plants and a few of the tips on setting up tanks. It has soome really nice photos too. I would not really reccomend it. It was proabably very cutting edge when it came out, but a lot (not most) of the info is out of date. I reccomend buying a newer book.

Having been to the Palm Springs area on vacation and business, I decided to make a longer visit this year. I was therefore delighted to discover that this new guide had been published on the desert communities and eagerly looked forward to some good in-depth, insider information. My delight was shortlived, however, on seeing the book, which I found to be a rather arid compilation and rehash of information put out by the local tourism offices: all-the-usual-suspects restaurant choices & skim-the-surface places to stay and sights. The guide is not badly done, is well organized enough, and could be a useful starting place for the first-time visitor; but I found it did not offer much value-added beyond the good quality information I received in the mail from the visitors center itself.

This book is little more than a historical review of old newsletters from the Phoenix Bonsai Society. I sincerely doubt it would have any appeal to a non-member. It is not a book on techniques for growing Bonsai in a desert climate. Rather, it is a trivia and date laden, difficult to follow, historical overview/ramble on garden societies, Asian-Americans in America, with vast and (to my mind, uninteresting) lists of old members, who's plant won at what competition, and reminiscences of old meetings. If there are any tips on actually growing Bonsai in a desert environment, I was unable to find them in approximately thirty minutes of effort, and frankly, after skiming the book I had no desire to actually attempt to read it cover to cover. Good Luck.

The book would have general interest for those who belonged to the Phoenix club and wanted a record of its history. However, I purchased the book based on the "review" provided by Amazon.com, in which it was implied that desert bonsai techniques were discussed. After much digging through the book, I found nothing on what it takes to grow and maintain bonsai in desert environs. If there was any cultivation information, it was well masked by the historical text. In summary, both the title and the "review" were misleading. All in all, very unhelpful. I have sent the book back for a refund.

I'm sorry to say, but this CD-ROM is simply disappointing from a military-historian point of view. 545 MBytes of the 576 MBytes of data is an off-line version of the GulfLINK web page, which is focused on the Gulf War Illnesses. The remaining data are some interviews, some maps, some photos/artwork and the electronic version of "The Whirlwind War". For a CD-ROM that is centred on the history of the Gulf War this is simply not enough. There is another edition from the same publisher centred only around the Gulf War Illnesses for those who seek such information, so there was no need to recycle this data here on this CD-ROM and leave out all those other official important documents about the history of the Gulf War.

While there are a few interesting facts scattered about the book, most of it is focused on the strange sexual fetishes of the Australian aboriginal tribes. Perhaps this obsession is valid and those cultures are simply extremely sexually oriented; I'm not an anthropologist. The book, however, was also repetitive and boring, and I didn't finish it feeling as though I'd learned anything a) valuable or b) that I wanted to know. This is not worth reading, unless you're a specialist in the field and even then, I have my doubts.

In Danny's and T.R.'s townhomes The Rosemary Acers there are a lot of rules icluding the no pets rule and when thier friend Paul ttries to hide a cat who walked 15 miles from his previous owner to get to him and then the troulbes begin while T.R. and Danny wacthes the babes house and visits there father while still trying to keep the secret. One specific part I didn't like was how much they talked about women naked and through underwear drawers.Did I really need to know that?When I started reading this book I didn't think it would be this kind of stuff in it.I also didn't like how much they drooled over Mickey all the time. I would reccomend this book to people who want to know what a garter belt is because you will find out.Also if you are a boy there is a lot of stuuf in here about women in here. there all things in here from animals to suprising enndings.I didn't really like this book to well but other peolple might find it funny.

While the struggle to free Namibia is over, this book still illustrates the apartheid-era view that once dictated that Namibia remain a South African colony. Maddening and inaccurate, this book is recommended only if you are interested in learning more about this discredited perspective. Now that Namibia is a 7-year old stable democracy, the views represented here have entered the dustbin of history.

It didnt share much information on the book.