With lots of color (black and white) photos, this book looks at the most powerful (& at 15 million German Marks - a lot of money in the late 60s - most expensive at the time to develop)sports car ever to take to the track.

It goes into its history at Le Mans - its originally purpose being to win there at virtually any cost, including looking at the long tail version that would reach around 240 mph on the long (Mulsane) straight there, and the factory sponsored John Wyer/Gulf sky blue & orange colored short tailed cars that dominated many long distance races.

It also looks at the 917s that might be more familiar to Americans - the turbocharged open cockpit Roger Penkse prepared Can-Am series monsters that produced outrageous horsepower and which arguably put the final nail in the coffin of an already dying racing series. This was due to their enormous power - more than any normally aspirated engine could produce, the attention to preparation by the Penske team - more than any other team but the then underpowered McClaren works team, the driving skill of its drivers, not least Mark Donahue, and the rising costs of gas due to the October war in the Middle East causing presssure to be brought on the series' governing body.

No other team could equal Penske's Porsche turbo 917 and once McClaren pulled out of the series it was all over bar the shouting.

The book has a good, easy to read but informative text - the author, Michael Cotton, obviously did his homework - as well as a list of the car's successes at the back.

The book is maybe a little on the slim side - it almost got a 4 star rating from me as a result, nevertheless, a great addition to any real motor racing enthusiast's library.

Supernatural hope is one thing that this world desperately needs. Few writers who can teach us true hope better than the French poet, Charles Peguy. In his dramatic poem, The Portal of the Mystery of Hope, Peguy has us listen in as Madame Gervaise, a 25-year-old Franciscan nun, teaches the young Joan of Arc her catechism beneath one of the great doorways of a cathedral. In fact, Madame Gervais's monologue is the whole poem, the mode of God's speaking to the young Joan of Arc and calling her to sainthood, and a way that God would speak to us through the poet and his drama.

And how does God speak? In theological definitions? In the categories of philosophy? If this were so, Joan could have neatly deflected the attacks of the inquisitorial court. No, for Peguy, God speaks from the heart with the simplicity of a peasant father, in language that is permeated with the Psalms and the common language of the Gospels. He repeats himself often, not because he is a doddering old man, or because he is lecturing us, but because he is revealing still further dimensions to mysteries that we may regard as trite. And though the words repeat, the meanings modulate and take on nuances previously inconceivable. In Peguy, God repeats himself because he would have us appreciate the depths of his creation, particularly hope:
What surprises me, says God, is hope.
And I can't get over it.
This little hope who seems like nothing at all.
This little girl hope.
Immortal. (7)
The translator, David Louis Schindler, Jr., has done very well in turning the French idiom of Peguy into English idiom. The lover of poetry will find this book very accessible, and the student of poetry will find avenues for further exploration. This poem was translated from the French critical edition, and offers full biographic notes and a bibliography on Peguy at the end. In addition, a preface by Jean Bastaire, an excerpt by Balthasar on Peguy, appreciations of Peguy's contemporaries, a publisher's note and a translator's note offer further context for the poem. For my part, I recommend that the poem be read first, for the poet still does a marvellous job of making himself clear to the reader. This work has waited eighty-five years to be translated into English, let us wish that its secret of renewal finds its way into American hearts.

Prayer: the Mission of the Church was originally written as a series of talks for some days of reflection for laypeople. As such it is a splendid text for lay formation. Danielou initiates the reader into true prayer as the task of every Christian. From there, he takes the reader all the way to mission with practical suggestions along the way. The text is very accessible, but will reward even experienced readers.

There are sections discussing Advent, John the Baptist, Hope and its necessity in contemporary society, humility and corrupt humility, reflection on the Our Father, and an extended consideration of the Holy Spirit. In addition, there is a profoundly Trinitarian reflection on the Redemption.

This book would make excellent spiritual reading or reading during Advent, and would be valuable to anyone interested in lay formation.

This book, apart from being the world's longest job description (for a Counselor to the President for Grand Strategy), remains a vibrant and provocative discussion relevant to guiding the Nation into the 21st Century. Part I discusses the "world theater" and Part II discusses in turn a grand strategy and then political, public, deterrence, negotiating, resources, technology, Third World, and economic strategies. The book ends with thoughts on organizing for strategy that should, because of who wrote them and how good they are, be required reading, in their twelve-page entirety, for the President and his entire Cabinet team.

This book is terrific: for a serious treatment of all of the implications of the public/private distinction, this book has it all. Indeed, Jeff Weintraub's essay, "The Theory and Politics of the Public/Private Distinction" is worth several times the cover price alone. Revealing astounding erudition and producing penetrating insights, Weintraub clearly and patiently shows us how many commonly understood notions of the public/private distinction are wrong and why. To sit at Weintraub's intellectual table is to be guaranteed a delicious feast -- as readers of this volume will quickly find out. Buckle up as Weintraub takes you from Smith to Gellner to Jane Jacobs to Aristotle to Durkheim and way beyond; for any lover of ideas, his essay and the others in this collection are a real treat

In the Introduction, the authors quote Steven W. Hawkins: "Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations...However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists....[We can then] take part in the discussion of of the questions of why it is that we and universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason reason -- for then we would know the mind of God."

This book was written for the reasonably intelligent non-scientist who shares the authors' curiosity about matters such as these:

• Over the centuries, why have so many great minds attempted to formulate a "unification theory" which accommodates the totality of what is known about the universe?

• As a results of such efforts, what have been the major breakthroughs in understanding the universe? For example, what are the specific contributions of the ancient Greeks, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, and Einstein?

The authors observe: "Our purpose here is to focus on the state of physics, for that is where the search for unity is currently being pursued the most actively and has been rewarded with the greatest achievements in the realms of both the infinitely large and the infinitesimally small." In all probability, this book will not be of great interest to everyone. I recommend it highly to the aforementioned "reasonably intelligent non-scientist" who is curious to learn more about the evolution of intellectual history, and especially the evolution of the history of science during which physics has played such an important part.

This book takes you through the ups and downs of Jordan Grand Prix's 1993 season. From the launch of the car to the last race of the season. And about the struggle to survive against the major, big budget teams of Formula 1. A great inside view of how a (small budget) racing team operates and deals with the pressure of the high tech world of Formula 1.

As the miles click by on the way to the Grand Canyon - this keepsake is your personal tour guide to the history of people, places and habitat on the high plains of Arizona.

It is so funny! We all knew that politicians could at times be really stupid, but this book proves it even more. It has some quotes that I had not caught before and now I certainly wish I had. I'll warn you, this book will have you laughing for a long time.

Heinlein has been my favorite author for many years, and his death seemed a personal tradgedy for me, knowing that there wouldn't be any more of his books forthcoming. However, Requiem at least fulfilled some of my need for new Heinlein material, because I hadn't read some of the short stories. I also really enjoyed reading the tributes by other authors who knew him and/or admired him, because it made me feel more like I knew him. I found Spider Robinson's tributes especially moving, and I really felt like he was writing the same sort of things I felt in Rah rah R.A.H, one of his tributes. The selection that Heinlein wrote some years before, and his wife read, that is in this book "This I know" was a very touching and uplifting essay, and it revealed some things about Heinlein I hadn't really known. The short stories by Heinlein, were, as usal, very well-crafted pieces of work. The two short stories he had written for a girl's magazine, Poor Daddy and The Bulletin Board, were especially interesting, because they are so different from his usual work. REQUIEM was an enjoyable book, not quite up to the very high standards of his other books, but this is a collection of his old stories, after all. Still, they are worth reading for any Heinlein fan, and the tributes are a must.