With a title this bad, you know the story has to be good. THE SPIDER is out-of-town fighting bad guys again, with the usual twists and turns to the plot, and two bonus short stories from the 1930's to boot.

This is another of the books that I loan out to teachers who are trying to get Romeo and Juliet across for the first time. I generally give out this book with a couple of others that i use for reference, because unlike the others it doesn't stand real well all on its own.

I find the articles interesting, and the annotated script is very useful, but that is about where it ends. There really aren't any of the worksheet or quizzes that you might expect. I like to use this book if I am going to look at the play in great depth, but if you plan on covering it quickly (less than a month) this should be a choice, but probably not the first one if you're on a budget.

This book lists a number of potential do-it-yourself (DIY) home-improvement and repair projects. Each project has a short description of the labor and materials involved, along with a comparison of the costs and time for DIY versus hiring a professional. It offers a realistic approach to what it takes to do the project yourself, and it warns you of projects where your inexperience can lead to costly damage (for example, marring your hardwood floor during a refinish job). This book is not really a manual for exactly how to do a project, but it does offer some helpful hints. My only complaints are that the book could be a little more broad in scope and that it have a logical order how the projects are listed. Overall, it is worth reading if you are trying to decide whether to undertake home improvements yourself or hire a contractor.

Space opera. Found it used, probably would not have bought it new. As a used book it was well worth the $1.50.

Dreams of a Young Girls is a typical work of David Hamilton's. Those who are familar with his particular brand of artistry will feel at home with his adoration of the young female form. Those a bit more on the prudish side will see the man as nothing more than an aging voyeur. Whatever your personal opinion, "Dreams of A Young Girl" is standard Hamilton fair.

RAND, as usual, produced a first-rate study here. In this text, they looked into commercial SATCOM for Department of Defense use, what roles it should fill, and cost comparison between DoD-owned satellite versus commercial satellites. Many graphs adorn the text, adding useful information to make conclusions clearer and vivid. Anyone interested in commercial satellites and the role they should play for the DoD should buy this book. No hyperbole or propaganda here, RAND's text is useful text and solid conclusions that layperson and communicator alike can understand.

Garry Wills' Explaining America - The Federalist (1982) presents civics as I never learned it in high school. Wills is probably better known for more recent books (e.g. Lincoln at Gettysburg), or his coverage of the 1988 Presidential campaign. There is substance here - a detailed consideration of the context in which Alexander Hamilton and James Madison wrote The Federalist Papers, and their understanding of how the government would work under the Constitution. [Some of this conceptual framework was re-presented in A Necessary Evil.] The preface identifies this to be volume 2 of a 4-book series on the foundations of the U.S. government. I have been unable to locate the promised volumes 3&4, on the Constitution itself, and on the Supreme Court.

Wills opens with an exposition of Hamilton's & Madison's similarities & differences. He then focuses on two specific papers (of 85): Number 10, "Representation", and Number 51 "Checks and Balances". He elucidates the Scottish Enlightenment as the source of many of the most important ideas, such as separation of powers, checks and balances, and public virtue. Most interesting are the explanations that the authors of the Constitution gave as to how they expected it to work, which is not at all how it has worked out: representatives would exhibit public virtue (meaning that they would place the interest of the whole above the factional or party interest) because of distillation; political parties would not exist because they would be unnecessary; the primary (in fact, only) check on legislative tyranny would be the bicameral arrangement; the executive and judicial branches would be weak and relatively unable to resist legislative dominance.

Unfortunately, the book is not as accessible as Wills' more recent works (wordy with obscure details in spots). Perhaps this is due in part to comparative familiarity. Most of us have never really spent a lot of time on Constitutional law, nor read much of the original writings of the founding fathers, nor their intellectual forebears, such as Hume & Locke. But for purposes of understanding the founders' original intent, its applicability in today's world, this book provides significant insight. It is valuable precisely for the reason that we are unfamiliar with how & why the Constitution structured our government as it is.

Having enjoyed the fruits of our Federal Republic for over two centuries, we may be lulled into taking it for granted. Conversely, viewing a world abounding with tyrannies, dysfunctional nations, and failed states, we might look to the founders of the U.S. government for wisdom. Here we find that they struggled to integrate widely varied visions and concepts, compromised extensively, and produced a government that succeeded beyond their expectations for reasons fundamentally at odds from their understanding. Perhaps the only shortcoming of this book is that this crucial topic - success for reasons differing from the founding fathers' understanding - is not explored in depth.

Maurice Hamilton has told the story of a man who has meant so much to Formula One but who has been an enigma to many. His book gives great insight on the real Frank Williams -- and has given me an entirely different outlook about the him. His determination to rise to the top -- and not let his crippling crash get in the way -- is fascinating. Hamilton does a great job of capturing his personality and his trials and tribulations in an unbiased fashion. It's a must read for any Formula 1 fan.

This is a wonderful biography on one of Georgia's greatest legacies. If you are interested in the life of Grace Towns Hamilton this is a must read

Charles Houston was the father of Brown v. Board of Ed--but tragically died in 1950, just as this historic litigation was getting underway.

It is hard to imagine any other lawyer--not to mention a Black lawyer in the 1940's who could have had a greater impact on the law as we know it. A truly remarkable human being. He not only gave birth to the NAACP's school desegregation campaign, but he also broke ground in employment discrimination, union rights, and many other developing fields of law; not to mention founding the modern day Howard Law School, which has served as the incubator for virtually all fo the civil rights litigation in the 20th Century, running a private practice, writing a regular newpaper column, and holding public office (the D.C. school board).

Ms. McRae thankfully spends only a brief time on his family history, and then gets right to the story of Houston's legal career. However, one story from Houston's formative years is instructive: When Houston served in the (segregated) Army (in WWI), he was appointed to decide the fate of a Black soldier. His investigation showed that the alleged infraction had been blown out of proportion. However, he was ordered by his superiors to find the soldier guilty, and sentence him to hard time in the brig. As a result of this experience, Houston vowed to learn the law, so that he could devote his life to ensuring that Blacks could never again be subjected to this type of injustice. He succeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

The moral? I suppose the racist superior officer lived to regret the day that he set Charles Houston on the path of justice--a [ath which ultimately lead to the destruction of legally enforced racial segregation in America--talk about a short sighted victory for racism!

Anyone who is interested in reading the story of a true (but underappreciated) American hero would do well to read this book!