...that's part of the fun in the sense that you can track the development of regions and vinyards. Content-wise, the history of vinyards cannot change, so read up and learn about the histories of your favorite wineries and vintners. Although only a handful of the (arguably) best new-world wineries are covered, Clarke's attention to detail and humerous writing style counterballance any shortcomings and make this a "must-read" book for any serious wine-lover.

This good brief introduction and guide, competitive with Hugh Johnson's Pocket Encyclopedia, will be familiar to anyone who owns the Microsoft Wine Guide on CD-ROM, which is a multimedia treatment of this excellent guide. Wine buffs argue endlessly over the relative merits of fellow Briton Johnson's and Clarke's approach. I say buy 'em both

I enjoyed the only other retellings of the Parzival legends I've read, "Parzival's Page" and Katherine Paterson's "Parzival." A brief flip-through the book made me think at first that I wouldn't enjoy it, but I did end up liking it. Clarke does a good job of sapping the stiffness from old legends and making it palatable to the modern reader.

The story begins with the story of Gahmuret, who goes off on a Crusade and then returns to Britain, marrying two women along the way -- a Moorish queen and a Welsh queen. He's killed shortly after the birth of his son Parzival, and the shock of his death drives his Welsh widow mad. She secludes herself in the woods with her son, trying to keep him sheltered away from the world that might make him a warrior knight.

Years pass, and Parzival accidently encounters three knights on the road. Immediately he becomes obsessed with being a knight, and despite his mother's protests, he leaves to become one. By training and assistance, he does become a knight and marries the beautiful queen Blanchefleur. But before he arrives at King Arthur's court, Parzival comes to a magical castle where he is expected to ask the king a question. His failure to do so drives him away from God and into a desperate quest for redemption.

Alongside Parzival's quest, we also have the adventures of Sir Gawain, who seems to develop a crush on any mildly pretty lady he comes across. He becomes enamored of a very proud and obnoxious woman, who is entrapped in the dark magic of an evil sorcerer.

This is a nice book. It isn't perfect; with the exception of Gawain and Parzival, the characters are pretty two-dimensional, especially Kei, who is obnoxious for no reason that anyone can really explain. Other characters, like the pig-faced sorceress Cundrie, seem to exist for no other reason than to tell Parzival and Gawain things. Fans of the usual Camelot love triangle will be disappointed, while people who dislike the much-rehashed love story will probably enjoy reading some Camelot-related material that hasn't been done to death.

The writing style and dialogue are formal but not incomprehensible; Clarke does a good job of giving us a view inside the heads of the lead two characters. The plot itself is fairly straightforward, with some sudden twists and turns that might confuse people unfamiliar with the original legends. Readers may need to backpedal a few times.

This book would probably be a good retelling for teens and adults alike; it has some dirty content that the YA and juvenile retelling doesn't have, such as Gawain almost being seduced by a girl (they're in bed and they kiss and snuggle, but nothing more), and references to the "activities" of Gahmuret and his two wives, and briefly of Parzival and Condwiramurs. In addition, there are some very gruesome scenes, such as Parzival's maddened, deteriorated cousin who totes around the head of her dead lover.

A good retelling for any who enjoyed Parzival's Page, or Katherine Paterson's retelling. Or for anyone in the mood for some freshly-told Arthurian stories.

I generally like the Bill Clarke series of airplane reviews. I own this book as well as the second editions of "The Cessna 150 & 152" and "The Cessna 172." All of these books are easy reading yet provide detailed information on the plane (or planes) in question. This book starts with a chapter on the history of Piper Aircraft Company, followed by a few chapters detailing the specifications of the Piper PA-28 Cherokees, Archer, Warriors and Dakotas and up to the retractable Archers and twin-engine Senecas and Aerostars. Each is described with detailed performance specs, and the author notes any issues good or bad, especially any AD (Airworthiness Directive) issues that might be expensive to comply with. The latter half of this book is more generic, covering used airplane buying in general, forms that are needed, avionics, maintenance, etc. The only problem with this book (and the series in general) is that it was published in 1988, so the prices do not reflect the current rapid appreciation in the used aircraft market and some of the chapters, like the avionics chapter, are somewhat outdated in this GPS age. That's a one-star demerit. Otherwise, I highly recommend this book for anyone who is seriously contemplating the purchase of a Piper, particularly one of the fixed-gear singles.

This book is written very well, but there are hardly any pictures. An the small amount of pictures there are are in very bad condition. All this book needs is a makeover and its perfect!

The book has a very good collection of articles from many important car magazines like Motor Trend, Car and Driver, Motor Sport, Road & track, etc. they all are articles talking about Porsches from 1990 to 1997 and cover comparison tests, specifications, performance and model specific details. If you like to buy and keep these type of magazines for certain articles, AND, you are a 911 fan, this is the book for you! I'd like a porsche company edition myself but this is a very nice collection from other magazines articles.

Despite the fact that this was Arthur's first published novel (came out in 1951), it is one of his most interesting in many ways. First, note the date I listed above of it's publication. That's right, it came out several years before Sputnik (much less Apollo) and yet still offers up numerous technical-drenched in-book conversations detailing the ins and outs of rockets and spaceships. Arthur describes an elaborate plan of how to build and execute a spaceship, many of which were taken into account in the eventual building of the first spaceships (ACC placed the first Moon landing in 1977, and thought he was being optimistic), and several of which we have yet to fulfill. An interesting thing to note is that he uses atomic technology for the spaceships.

Aside from what I already mentioned above, there are several othe prophetic things in this book. For example, Clarke mentions an array of satellites positioned above earth to be used for communications purposes (this is written by the man who invented the Com-Sat, after all), and this book was written in 1947!

Also, Clarke fans will notice that this lays the foundation for many of his later works. It is a Prelude To Space in more ways than one. For one thing, he mentions in the book how we will attempt to colonize the Moon, something that has been done in the majority of his subsequent novels. It makes one wonder why we haven't done this in real life. Also, in an ironic twist of fate, the novel ends with the earth at the turn of the century, in the year 2001! Truly amazing stuff.

This is a good story in and of itself, and it is interesting to go back and read older (pre-Apollo) books like this and see how close they were to the real thing. As interesting as it would have been to read a groundbreaking (back then) book as this at the time it first came out, it is just as interesting, if not more so, to read such a book now.

I've read this book and I can strongly recomend it, but I'd like to say that, even this is a very complete and ilustrative publication, it is too old and the exposed data must be updated as soon as possible. I'd like to see the latest edition because I had acces to a 1969's one.

A collection of short stories and essays (and even a poem) on the possibility of using a solar-sail as a mean of inter-planatary travel. Written by masters like Niven, Clark, Brin & Anderson, this book cannot be bad. The stories are interesting, and the book is not too long that the premise begins to become annoying. Maybe the theme is a bit forced at some points. All in all, one of many other good sci-fi collections.

In The Question, Austin Clarke takes us on a brutally honest journey through the emotions tied up in our personal relationships. A man and a woman meet at a birthday party, and their lives become permanently entwined. As time passes, the man is forced to ask himself what it is that exists between himself and this woman. He thinks about what he misses about the lover he left to be with her. And how does he really feel about his wife's friend, to whom she talks every day for hours in their own pig latin, keeping him separate from their sisterhood.

Clarke's writing is mesmerizing, giving us brilliant images of the narrator's childhood in Caribbean. These bright colors contrast starkly with the colder images of Toronto, where the story takes place. The flow of the language wraps the reader into the story, taking a lilting, but inescapable path towards the climax.

Clarke's language creates a feeling of langour, and yet the book is a quick read. No time is wasted; every page and paragraph contributes to the overall story. The narrator is a human being, honestly presenting his flaws, flaws which drive the story and its conclusion. Along the way, we are granted new insight into human relationships, the interplay between secrets and intimacy.

I highly recommend The Question, a rare book in that it's both an extremely good and easy read while also providing plenty of content to think about when you're done.