...this book is somewhat uneven; it is almost implicitly written as a travel guide for those who might wish to visit the remnants of these fortifications and in that regard, the authors' amply accomplish their purpose. In essence, this volume seems to suffer from Osprey's failure to establish a uniform structure for this new Fortress series, leaving it up to the authors to decide what to focus upon. Thus a reader looking for greater detail about the fortifications will find that this volume does not suffice...

The authors cover the fall of the Manila Bay fortifications and their recapture in two sections totaling 19 pages. These sections are adequate, but provide relatively sparse detail on the garrisons and critical aspects of the siege...

Graphically, this volume is quite appealing. There are five 2-D maps (the Manila Bay environs, the defenses of Manila Bay in 1941, a strategic map in December 1941, the Japanese assault on Corregidor, the American recapture of Corregidor) and two very nice 3-D maps (Corregidor island and Carabao Island). However, none of the maps depict the range fans of the American coastal batteries, which is rather important. The artwork is also excellent and includes cut-away diagrams of Battery Cheney, Fort Drum as well as depictions of Battery Smith in action, Battery Gillespie, and the destruction of Battery Geary. The authors provide a bibliography and two appendices (American coast artillery weapons and a list of batteries around Manila Bay). In sum, this volume is very good in areas that the authors have chosen to emphasize, but it is noticeably lacking in areas that they found less interesting.

"Baghdad-by-the-Bay" is a sentimental collection of essays by San Francisco's beloved newspaperman, Herb Caen, about the city he loved. Written in 1949, "Bhagdad-by-the-Bay" suffers not only from the syrupy civic pride newspaper columnists cultivate, but also from postwar gush for the average joe and the quiet of the home. But Caen has a heart of gold, and he writes skillfully and beautifully, and if you live, visit, or dream of The City, you must read this book. How else can you cultivate memories of the city before you were born?

Caen's 1949 city had a train that ran across the Bay Bridge. Its Third and Mission was Skid Row, not Multimedia Gully. The Sunset in 1949 was a laughable trend of new development, not the only (barely) affordable housing in town. San Francisco 1949 hadn't heard of the Summer of Love, didn't know what would happen at the corner of Haight and Ashbury, and Castro Street was just a street. After all, ships still used San Francisco as a port, and longshoremen were busy along the Embarcadero piers.

Some traditions still linger: Caen's city had a housing shortage, and traffic clogged Market Street. Even in 1949, people called the train system "Muniserable." San Francisco had great restaurants and a great orchestra, trendy first-run movie houses downtown, and cloak-and-dagger town politics. Defense attorneys slept through trials 50 years ago, too.

How well you enjoy this book depends on your preference : pictures or text. The book consists predominantly of b/w and sepia photographs of the teams, fields, and fans associated with the long and interesting history of baseball in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater. The photographs are excellent, but I am among those who would have liked some of that rich history in text.

Bay of Arrows interweaves the imagined parallel lives of two ambitious men named Christopher: the infamous Captain Columbus, celebrated discover and brutal conqueror of the New World, and Christoper "Geno" Genovese, an allegedly brilliant and frustrated 20th Century English professor. The good professor, obsessed with his namesake, however can't finish his epic poem or forget a sexual encounter with a student. Despite some poignant historical vignettes illuminating the fanatic intensity of Columbus' search for gold, Jay Parini's cinematic technique of quick cuts traveling back and forth across five centuries becomes increasingly tiresome - and sometimes very confusing. The novel's bizarre climax, where the two Christophers' lives merge, reveals the limits of Parini's awkward imitation of magical realism. The post script and final chapter, a symposium on Columbus' life and legacy moderated by St. Peter, features Noam Chomsky, Samuel Elliot Morrison, and God. This second ending - in both its disconnection from the preceding 370 pages and its breezy style - ironically shows why Bay of Arrows could have been a classic short story. Unfortunately, Parini's "whimisical parody" - cursed with a vocabulary worthy of a German metaphysician - becomes a boring, unfocused rant. It's a shame. I would have loved to read the 30 page version.

Not all of the Beck novellas are great, but they all lend themselves well to audio cassette due to Updike's simple, precise, colorful language. His main character, here, is sort of a Philip Roth take-off, and Roth does the job much better. I give this a moderate recommendation, but I give Roth an absolute recommendation.

This seems to be a great book for giving you ideas of where to go hiking with your kids. But the user should beware that as far as
I can tell, the information is at least 10 years out of date. I have gone on three of the hikes so far and they were all incorrectly described in the book. The first hike (Lookout Loop) described the parking lot to start from. But it turned out that the actual parking lot was CLOSED to the public and could only be used if you had previously made a group reservation. So we had to park on a twisty mountain road and walk to the closed parking lot. On another hike, the Palo Alto Baylands, the hike entails a long walk out on the catwalks over the marsh. As a local resident, I know for a fact that those catwalks have been closed to the public for AT LEAST ten years!! The descriptions of Shoreline Park are also out of date in that they describe duck blinds that have been gone for at least several years. Given all of this, I find the phrases "entirely updated" and "completely revised" that are on the back of the book very misleading. This is a good book to give you ideas of where to go. But be prepared for surprises because you are reading a hike guide from the early 90's (or even earlier)!

I usually ignore Harlequin's and the likes as they are too simple and much too short. I received a few freebies and read them when I need a quick read. Bittersweet Sacrifice is the story of Lindy Scott whose hubby dies in an auto accident and her toddler is seriously injured needing major surgery. She desperately needs money to pay for the surgery, so she enlists as a surrogate mom. Only she becomes attached to the baby and decides she cannot give it up. Meanwhile, she meets a man, Zade, at her job as a secretary at her ob/gyn's office. Zade is the doc's cousin and Lindy falls for him. He falls for her. Unbeknownst to Lindy and Zade, he is the father of her surrogate baby. It is predictable, but a sweet, quick read.

This is a collection of 55 anecdotal legends as related to the author by his grandmother and other elder Ottawa tribesmen. The Ottawa once inhabited much of northern lower Michigan and had a well established settlement near present day Harbor Springs, Michigan, the author's home town. Wright's grandmother was reportedly the great grandaughter of Pontiac, the revered Ottawa Chief who lead the last rebellion against the English at Detroit in 1763. As with any "word of mouth" history, the authenticity and accuracy of these stories is questionable, but this is probably as good as it gets. The stories cover a variety of subjects: the changeable Michigan weather, the confusing federal bureaucracy. My favorite story is chapter 28, the Great Feast of the Ottawas, during which a villager named Shawn relates his experience on a recent trip to Washington, D.C., to obtain treaty payments. Overall, I was disappointed: some of the stories are so brief (less than 200 words) that it is difficult to grasp their intent; that is assuming that any story worth telling has a lesson to offer. The book also contains a glossary of 167 words, phrases and names of Michigan cities and their Ottawa translation. Recommended as light, summer reading.

Dead Man In Catfish Bay was about a murder mystery. It had to do about a KKK member that died. When a Vietnamese man moved to the cove they thought he did it. The KKK stirred up a lot of commotion trying to blame the Vietnamese refugees. Cam Powell a teenager with a police record for car theft gets into a murder situation that puts his own life in danger. He spends the whole summer with his uncle at catfish cove. When his summer is over they find out the real mystery behind the story. I recommend you check out this book to learn more. It was really good but sometimes in the story they would go into a lot of detail.

This book doesn't show the greatest plot or characterization skills you'll ever see, but it's a pleasantly lazy read. It has a mildly interesting if improbable plot and mildly interesting if improbable people. The protagonist is a wishy washy sort of person, but you can see flashes of interest there. There's a sort of pseudo love-interest character that ends up being more interesting than anyone else in the book -- I hope there'll be more about her in future books. It's unusual that in this book the protagonist -- a book order service person who inherits a boarding house from a possibly murdered aunt -- is not a detective herself and yet still manages to be friendly with someone who is -- the maybe future love interest. For anyone who isn't familiar with this author, both are women. Unfortunately, you could give this book to your ten year-old daughter without any fear of awkward questions. It isn't the greatest, but it's fine if you have nothing better to do, and it seems likely that the future ones will be better. I thought when I first read it that there was a spark of absurd humor here that's worth looking for in other books by this author, and I found after I read a few more that she does improve, although she still loves the really improbably situations. Still, how many books can we find that have lesbian characters that aren't villains or freaky friends that are just comic relief?