This biography was printed in a limited edition, and one could hope that it would be reprinted. The book is an essential reference for readers interested in seafaring novels about the Royal Navy during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is the biography of Rear Admiral Peter Puget, covering his entire naval career from the time he was a midshipman (starting at the age of 12 in 1778) serving in the West Indies during the American Revolution, to his final assignment as Naval Commissioner in India, with details of his final days in England, and some details on his children.

A large segment of the book deals with his service as second lieutenant aboard His Majesty's sloop Discovery under the command of George Vancouver during that ship's voyage to the northwest coast of North America (1791-1795). It gives some valuable insight into that voyage and the personality of Captain George Vancouver (Vancouver had served with Captain James Cook on both his second and third voyages). Lieutenant Puget was promoted to lieutenant at the age of 25 (see Richard Woodman's, "A King's Cutter," for a story about the difficulties of a midshipman from the American Revolution struggling for promotion).

The voyage of the Discovery started out soon after the mutiny aboard the H.M.S. Bounty (see William Bligh, "The Mutiny Aboard the H.M.S. Bounty"), with the result that a consort, the armed tender Chatham under the command of Lieutenant William Robert Broughton, was sent to accompany the Discovery. George Vancouver and William Bligh had served together on Captain Cook's third voyage, Bligh being the sailing master. There is no doubt that the mutiny on the Bounty influenced Vancouver's attitudes towards his officers and men. Vancouver had also been present when the natives in Hawaii killed Captain Cook, and that undoubtedly colored his attitude towards native peoples.

Peter Puget was responsible for surveying and charting Puget Sound in what in now Washington State. He apparently made a good impression on Vancouver. When Broughton was send overland to carry dispatches back to England, Puget was given command of the Chatham, skipping over Lieutenant Mudge, the first lieutenant on the Discovery.

Puget participated in the capture of a Dutch East Indiaman during the return voyage to England in 1795 for which he received an unknown amount of prize money (records show the final account was not closed until 1834, when his widow received a small balance of one pound, 17 shillings, 6 pence). The balance of the book covers the remainder of his career, promotion to commander in command of a transport, service at Gibraltar, command of a flotilla of transports, command of a sloop, promotion to Captain by Admiral Jervis at Lisbon in 1797 and assignment to command of a Spanish ship of the line captured at Cape St. Vincent, and then service with the Home Fleet in command of various ships of the line. He commanded the in-shore squadron at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. He was appointed Commissioner of the Navy at Madras, India, in 1810, and continued in that position until 1817, among his duties overseeing construction of the dockyard at Trincomalee. He was forced to retire due to ill health in 1817, arriving back in England in early 1818, and never held another active command. He reached the top of the Captain's List in 1821 and was promoted to Rear Admiral of the Blue after 24 years as a captain. He died the following year at the age of 56, having never regained his health. The book gives a good account of naval service during that period of time, including accidents and illness, the hard life at sea, successes and failures. He had enough time on shore to father 7 sons and 4 daughters.

I love this set of books. These books require students to learn not by lecture, but by doing labs and explaining their results.

These books certainly are not appropriate for high school students (the age level I teach), but they are the perfect resource for their teacher. A high school student needs very clear instructions and needs reassurance that he is on the right track. These books are not clear enough for these students.

However, as a teacher, I can adapt the material, write my own labs, and give the students something that is on their level.

I've done the electricity unit, as a student, and realized that there was quite a lot about circuitry that I don't know. I was a Physics major, but I never truly understood the material, I only thought I did. I'm looking forward to trying some of the other units and finding out what else I don't understand!

The other useful feature of these books is the cost. The labs use only very inexpensive equipment. For someone like me in a small, rural school, this is a godsend! In a few years, I hope to develop my program to the point that my students will get a good, high-level education, and low cost labs help make this possible sooner.

Out of school a few years and need a review? This book has saved me! Everything from applied mathmatics review to simulation to dose calculations. I used this book along with Kahns. It was helpful having two books explaining concepts in slightly different ways. If you are in Radiation Therapy and plan to take on Dosimetry---This book is a must!!

The Lorings have succeeded in writing the most complete Oregon rock art book currently available. If you are interested in rock art, especially of Oregon and southern Washington, this is definitely the book for you. The introduction by the Lorings explains how and why the book came to be written. One can't help but admire their determination to see this extensive project to completion.

The entire "A picture book of..." biography series byDavid Adler is outstanding. Perfect for lower elementary studentsdoing their first real report. Makes a great read-aloud for non-readers as they are easily completed in one sitting. The cute cartoon-like pictures are kid friendly. But most importantly, they are loaded with information including a timeline of important events.

Identical twins, Susan & Christine Pratt, visit Washington D.C. on a class trip in book number 7 of the series. While there, they meet a young Russian ballerina who asks the twins help in defecting. This is my favorite book in the twins series. It is a well-written, edge-of-your-seat book for young people about friendship at any cost. Kids will love to read this book over and over again to share the twins fun & crazy adventure to outwitt the KGB, and their plan begins with pink-lemonade colored dresses...

I enjoy visiting ghost towns and abandoned mining and logging camps to take pictures and look at some of Washington State's history. This is the best book I have found in over 30 years for old names of historical and abandoned ghost towns for the State of Washington. Over 7,000 entries.
Richard A. Walker

This trilogy should be recognized as a vital moment in the history of theatre, rather than a case of dramatic autobiography by an eccentric author. It is hard to know where to start this review, because so many subjects are covered and contradicted in these works. As readers we are led to regard it as a personal struggle, from the point of view of the Stranger (or the Unknown). We cannot even be sure if the seperate characters are all manifestations of one central character or not. The Stranger seems to be constantly buffeted and abused by fate.

One reservation I would have is with the translation, which seems laboured at times. I would love to be able to read it in the original and see if this is a fault of tanslation or Strindberg himself. Still, the raw energy and downright 'oddness' of this epic more than makes up for any reservations.

A goober is the old name for peanuts and A POCKETFUL OF GOOBERS is a biography about George Washington Carver, the scientist who made peanuts famous. To be completely honest, I didn't know much about Carver and therefore found this children's book entertaining, educational, and informative. For instance, I learned that Carver was a gifted artist as well as a scientist and that later in life he became good friends with Henry Ford. The biography is written in a simple style that elementary students will find easy to read and Carver's life is so interesting they should find the book interesting.

Lyons probes deeply into the various and overlapping political struggles behind efforts to reinvent policing in the United States. The analysis focuses on the community side of policing reform, which is a welcome antidote to the overwhelmingly police-centered literature most often found in this field.

In Lyon's study, it was community groups that first mobilized to pressure the police to do things differently. These communities wanted geographic integrity, police-community partnerships to jointly target criminal activity, and more attention to order maintenance and police accountability. These citizens, for reasons that are thoroughly documented in this marvelous study, succeeded in pressuring a reluctant police department to create partnerships and experiment with innovative patrol strategies. They persuaded the city to hire a new police chief, known nationally for his leadership in community policing. These efforts initially paid off: crime declined.

Lyons skillfully explains the interactions among the loose coalitions of citizen groups and between these groups and police officers or administrators. He then draws valuable lessons about effective policing from the kinds of reciprocal partnerships that community mobilization created. This book is a must read for anyone, citizen or officer, interested in the promise of community policing and the political forces that can undermine this promise. At the same time, the failures documented in this study are the most impressive and insightful contributions of this book. While citizens did succeed in the ways noted, their success was short lived and, Lyons argues, the atrophy of their initial partnerships and patrol innovations now stand as significant obstacles to the advancement of community policing. Instead of reciprocal partnerships that improve the effectiveness and accountability of policing these partnerships have evolved into organizations dominated by the police department that serve to make it more difficult for communities, especially those critical of police practices, to be heard. The marginalization of those communities already most victimized by crime is the most important finding in this study.