Even without SQUADRON SUPREME, his excellent runs on CAPTAIN AMERICA and QUASAR speak for themselves. But this is one of his finest hours.

This limited series is not the first appearance of the Squadron Supreme; they had shown up in several issues of THE AVENGERS, parodying DC's trademark heroes and "proving" that the Avengers would beat them.

But it was the late, great Mr. Gruenwald who took them and placed them in a superb mini-series that combined comedy, drama, and action with moral arguments.

Even to this day, the questions remain. Who was right--Hyperion or Nighthawk? Where EITHER of them right? And so forth.

Rest in peace, Mr. Gruenwald. After writing this, you've earned it.

Other reviews have mostly summed it up. This story is superb. Mr. Gruenwald is underappreciated genuis. It's unfortunate he, and the Squadron, haven't been appreciated sooner. And, that Mr. Gruenwald didn't get to see his most cherished creation enjoy the recognition and popularity it deserves. The exciting and innovative concepts and ground-breaking devices aside, I enjoyed the heck out of the Hyperion character. With Superman being one of the premier characters of the superhero genre, and practically a pop-culture institution today, it seems odd that unlike other hit characters, he has never seriously been emulated. But it is that very popularity that prevented it. He is so recognizable, writers were just too afraid of being "copycats". Leave it to Gruenwald to have the courage to create his own version of a classic(as well as the rest of JLA), and instill it with it's own identity, and his own unique vision. Not unlike an "ElseWorlds" story, there is much familiar, and much strikingly different. Powers and origin parallel. But Hyperion, like the other Squadron characters, has his own unique quirks, hang-ups, dreams, and ambitions. The story takes the "What-If?" concept to extremes, as Hyperion and the Squadron say and do the things their "original" counterparts wouldn't even think. Fans of Superman and/or JLA should love this, as will any fans of good comic story telling. Don't pass on this one, if you miss it the second time, you may regret it.

I recently bought and read the collection after having read the original limited series back in the 1980s. The late Mr. Gruenwald's storytelling skills and love for the old JLA series continue to shine. I loved some of MG's takes on the classic heroes. How would Superman change his outlook if he abandoned his Clark Kent persona? How would the Golden Age Wonder Woman act if she outlived Steve Trevor and lost her Amazon homeland? Would Batman be more effective on the streets or the White House? We see all kinds of fantastic technology in comics, but what would happen if it was unleashed on the real world? Before Kingdom Come, he had the courage to present the ramifications of great power taking on greater responsibility at the expense of free will. Unlike KC, SS does not get bogged down in dark tones and endless fights, while it still allows the reader to empathize, as well as root for, the Squadron even though they have gone beyond their lawful duty. One wonders what comics would have looked like today if Squadron Supreme had been the big influence instead of Watchmen.

Just finished reading this for a class. Enjoyable and a fast read in historical fiction. I especially admired the skillful way Irving Stone mixes fiction and fact to breath fresh life into long dead characters. The story is told through Rachel Jackson's narrative and we immediately find out about her first marriage to an abusive husband. The after effects of this tragic marriage have diastrous consequences for the future political career of Andrew Jackson. Love triumphs and the tender depictions of the couples enduring love and intimate moments make the book a very human and readable. I'm not a history buff, but the book is interesting and historically accurate. The descriptions of New Orleans were appreciated. Rachel proves to be a more than capable homesteader, managing a large property and horses in Jackson's absence. A good perspective showing Americian politics hasn't really changed much at all.

Had already read "The Origin" and loved it so gave this a try. Fantastic. Also, was visiting Nashville when I started it (didn't even know this is where they were from at the time) and got to visit the Hermitage while reading it. Really brought things to life. A great read!

Reading history can be challenging. But Irving Stone makes reading history a delightfull and entertaining experience. This book is very well researched and presents an in depth portrait of an enduring love affair. A must read for students of American history and a delight for all.

What a combo! Shelby Cole returns to Bad Luck Texas after receivng pictures of a child implied to be hers. She 'lost' a baby girl 10 years prior and returns home to get the truth. At the same time, a convicted killer is released from prison unexpectedly to the chagrin of all concerned, especially Shelby and Nevada, the father of her child. Ross McCollum is someone you love to hate and hope he gets his just desserts. Meanwhile, he plows over everyone in his way. Pretty suspensful reading with a nice romance thrown in to boot. Good for waiting in long airport lines!

Suspense, murder,and lies it is all here. Shelby Cole has a dark secret she wants to keep secret and a daughter that she is determined to find. But in order to find the daughter she must go home to Bad Luck Texas to her father and family secrets that she would rather avoid. There is also a man from her past Nevada Smith. The towns bad boy who Shelby had fallen in love with 10 years earlier and who she thinks is the father of her missing child. Add to this a murder suspect is released from jail and the murder is opened again. Who killed Ramone Estevan 10 years earlier and why? And how does is effect Nevada, Shelby, Ross, and the Judge. Your going to have to read the book to find out. A great effort by a talented author

Shelby Cole has returned to Bad Luck, Texas after being gone nearly ten years. When she was told by her father that her daughter died, she left with no intention of ever returning. Then she received an anonymous package with pictures of the daughter that she thought died. Knowing that she'd do anything to get her daughter back, Shelby returns to Bad Luck. Once there, she asks Nevada Smith for help, her one time love and the father of her baby. Although she swore that she would never fall in love with Nevada again, she knew that she couldn't stop it.

Nevada Smith was always labeled a "no good half breed" by the citizens of Bad Luck. He couldn't stay away from Shelby Cole ten years before, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to stay away now. Even though she was the pampered daughter of Judge Red Cole, something about her drew him. When he's hit with the information that he was a father and never knew it, Nevada vows that he will do anything he can to find their daughter.

Then a ten year old murder case resurfaces when the man originally convicted is released. When the man who's testimony sent him to prison says he was wrong about what he saw, Ross McCallum is a free man once again. Tension runs high in this book of greed, evil, jealousy, and love. Everyone has secrets in Bad Luck, secrets that Nevada and Shelby are close to revealing. Not only do they have a daughter to find, but now they have to find out who murdered Ramon Estevan, because Nevada has been arrested for the crime.

Don't miss it!

In this book Zacks has compiled an extensive collection of facts about how Sex played a major role in history. The more I read, the more amazed I was at how history is cleansed of these realities before we are taught it in school. This book has made me hungry to dig up other books that fill in the blanks in my knowledge of the past.

It seemed to me that history classes took all the life out out of the past leaving a shell of battle dates and wars. I never really cared about that. This book puts back what history teachers (and time) took out: The Smut!

This book is an easy read as it has a lot of humor served in doses of one to two paragraphs. The subject is not wartime strategies...well, not on the battlefield. Cleopatra's seduction of Marc Anthony was better planned than most military skirmishes, and was far more successful with only one moonstruck casualty.

I would recommend this book for anyone who loves history, and even for those that found it tedious in school. It is essentually a fun and frisky romp through the bedrooms of yesteryear.

This book is where you go to learn the things they wouldn't teach in school.

Steve Jackson's clean, crisp prose and his story-telling ability make "No Stone Unturned" a very readable and enjoyable journey into the fascinating world of forensics. Despite a diverse cast of characters and five detailed case studies, I couldn't help but be disappointed. My chagrin is not related to the writing, but is due to the fact that in each of the cases it was the traditional detective work that lead the forensic team to within yards of the bodies they were searching for. The team was only called to complete the process. I expected that their abilities would be showcased in locating the impossible, but they proved far more human then dust jacket promised.

The whole idea of Necrosearch is fascinating to me and Jackson's coverage of its beginnings is intriguing. I only wish that Jackson had included more cases and perhaps left out some of the detail on the few cases he did cover. Nevertheless, I couldn't put this book down and carried it around for several days, reading it every chance I got. These investigators were making the rules as they went--the incident that impressed me was how they devised "the bucket test" after finding a skull that had clearly rolled downhill after becoming separated from the rest of the body. I liked Jackson's writing so much that I bought 2 of his other books this week--but I hope he writes another one about Necrosearch's other cases!

This book is about a group that helps found those hard to find bodies. Anyway the best thing I can say about this book is that if you like C.S.I(the t.v show) and true-crime books you will love this book.

ReaD IT

I was never one to enjoy history much until my college history class used this book for the main text. I found this book great reading (interesting and kept my attention most of the time). I must say that after that class and this book, I have become much more interested in aspects of history. This book is wonderful and I would recommend it to any college professor of history or high school student with even a slight interest in history!

I used this book for self-study after many years away from any formal courses, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find myself engrossed in the lucid and engaging descriptions, the beautiful illustrations and photographs, and helpful index. It covers, at just the right level of detail, American History from the colonization of the Americas to Clinton's presidency. It gives a big picture without being condescending and simplistic, but also without assailing you with inessential jargon and names.

I looked at many different American History surveys and this is my favorite by far. On the other hand, if you already know the main outlines of American History, and want detailed analyses of particular periods, then this book will not be as helpful, as it is merely an overview and the bibliography is not very detailed or well annotated.

This book has been a great aid in writing my research papers! I really liked the way the book was broken down between chapters and sections, it made choosing a research topic much easier. The book was also very well written and to the point, it was not at boring at all!

The book The Destructive War by Charles Royster, examines the war policies and strategies of the Union and the Confederacy during the civil war. The book talks extensively about Confederate general Jackson and Union General Sherman.

At the beginning of the war the Union did not attack citizens or their property. The Union did not destroy any property of the citizens of the Confederacy because they anticipated winning the war. They realized that if they won the war it would be their responsibility to help the south rebuild. They also thought of the south and the people of the south as Americans despite labeling them traitors. But despite the reluctance on the part of Union Generals to damage citizen's property it eventually became policy. This change in policy came about because, "northern expressions of support for intensified war-making assumed that the Confederate army was an instrument of the Southern populace and that the populace was a legitimate object of attack," (Royster, 81). Women were also subject to attack. Union soldiers attacked women because "in the conventions of the time, women were supposed to use their power to ennoble and civilize-whereas, Southern women, it seemed, were serving what Elizabeth Cady Stanton called "mere pride of race and class." By promoting war against the union and by showing their hatred of Federal soldiers, they imitated Lady Macbeth and "unsexed themselves to prove their scorn of 'the Yankees'." Thus they forfeited their exemption as ladies and noncombatants," (Royster, 87). Confederates did not share this policy. They always were proud that when Lee invaded Pennsylvania in 1863 that he gave an order that soldiers were not to damage citizen's property or plunder it.

The book also talks about General William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman was a southerner who chose to stay in the Union. "He shared (southern) distaste for abolitionist and for Northern politicians who made hostility to slaveholders a political platform. Still, he told Louisianans that secession was treason and that he would not collaborate with it by remaining in the state," (Royster, 90). He hoped to stay out of the war but eventually he joined the Union army. He participated in the battle of Bull Run and blamed the "defeat on the inexperience and panic of the privates," (Royster, 92). He was the senior commander of central and western Kentucky in 1861, despite his desire not to be in charge. He was dismissed of command of the area and rumors spread that he was insane. He eventually led campaigns down the Mississippi River and captured Atlanta. He became famous for his destructive marches through the south.

General Thomas Jonathan Jackson or Stonewall Jackson was a very famous and effective Confederate General. Everyone even Northerners considered Jackson a "genuine general," (Royster, 42). Jackson on many occasions outmatched many Union Generals on the battlefield. He died on the battlefield on May 2, 1863 from friendly fire. Many Confederate Generals including Lee thought that if Jackson had not died that they would have won the war. After the war Jackson came to symbolize many things after the war. He epitomized the courageous and skilled Confederate soldier. He also represented a model "to all the men especially ambitious and aspiring youths, that the self-control and assiduous application he had become a self-made man," (Royster, 162).

The civil war was "an interior struggle in the (Confederacy and Union), an effort to make the newly forming conceptions of nationality inclusive lasting while they were still controversial and nebulous," (Royster, 145). Both sides believed that the best way to validate their idea of the nation is to destroy the other side's army. The Confederacy thought the best way to establish itself as an independent nation would be to deliver to the north a decisive defeat on their soil. General Stonewall Jackson gave the south many victories against the Union and came to be one of the most famous Generals in the war. The Union thought one of the best ways to bring the Confederacy to its knees would be to attack Confederate citizens. General Sherman was famous for his invasion into the south, wrecking havoc on the Confederate citizens.

I had to read this book for my Civil War class. I thought that the book was a valuable source of civil war information. However Royster repeated himself several times in the book. The book also jumped alot from subject to subject. The chapters did not flow into each other; they tended to skip from idea to idea. Despite this it was full of very detailed information.

This is a brilliantly labyrinthine disquisition on the American Civil War. Royster's premise is the examination of the wars' scale of destruction, and the surprising extent of its violence, developed out of biographical sketches of Sherman and Jackson, who Royster believes best personify the Union and the Confederacy. Further, Royster sees the devastation of the Civil War as incipient in the antebellum period. The Destructive War is interpretive as well as critical, literary as well as historical, dealing as much with the idea of war as the facts themselves. Indeed, the author terms his work " a long essay."

Royster depicts the Civil War as-primarily-aggresive, anomalous, vicarious, and as the title suggests, destructive. The Confederacy sought aggressive war to achieve quick legitimacy, its viability depending on the ability not only to wage war, but also to take that war north of the Potomac, make the Yankees feel its effects, and thereby convince them that the costs of prolonged combat would be far too dear. Royster argues that the Union pursued aggresive war, ultimately, to bring progress to the South and demonstrate the superiority of free labor over slave labor, by razing the Confederacy to its foundations and then rebuilding it in the North's own image.

For Royster no one better epitomizes the Confederacy than Thomas Jonathon Jackson, better known by his sobriquet Stonewall, which Royster asserts, reflected a self-created persona. Jackson's Stonewall was an inelegant fusion of plodding resolve, frustrated (if not checked) ambition, and intense piety, smacking of both Calvinism and Arminianism, all funneled into a zealous devotion to duty. His untimely death at Chancellorsville gave birth to the Stonewall myth-patriotic Christian warrior-providing tantalizing 'what if' grist for the counterfactual mill of post hoc Confederate nation building. An advocate of "the tactical offensive in battle" Jackson is certain the Civil War will be "earnest,massed, and lethal."

The essence of the Union, according to Royster, can be found in William Tecumseh Sherman. Alarmed by Confederate strength and resolve, Sherman presciently observed that tactical defensive warfare would be woefully insufficient in what he believed would be a long and costly war. Egged on by newspapers ravenous for victory on the cheap, and deferring to troops already engaged in wanton mayhem, Sherman embraced, then embodied, that which he originally resisted: total war.

Royster includes subsidiary characterizations of the war as drastic, Republican, and vigorous. Drastic war knows no limits in the pursuit of emancipation and abolition. Republican war means "Emergency war powers" and "passionate nationalism" which will create "a new republic, purged of antebellum evils and backwardness." Vigorous war is possible because of the "widespread eagerness to be exonerated of the criminality attached to bloodshed." Auxiliary adjectives such as harsh, bitter, ineluctable and causeless are employed to complete the illustration. In the book's chapter on vicarious war the author asks, "How had the naive notions prevalent at the start given way so readily to killing on a scale supposedly unimaginable?" This single question is the essence of Royster's work.

Royster's "The Destructive War" is one of the most important works of Civil War Scholarship in the 1990's. He blends a sweeping narrative with extensive analysis to explain the development of "total war" and its effects on Americans. What will really engage the reader is not so much Royster's examinations of General William Sherman's actions and those of his men, but rather the ideas of Stonewall Jackson and the calls for the destruction of Northern cities that they elicit from the Confederacy, a nation that was supposedly only wanted to fight a defensive war. While Royster's argument is not without some structural flaws, it makes some very interesting points about Confederate war aims and the willingness of populations and troops of both sides to destroy the cities of their former bretheren. I've read this book twice for graduate level classes and each time a lively discussion has been generated. An excellent book.

Making HIStory is a great book for big M.J fans like myself. It has some briliant colour photographs but it is not exactley a litery classic. I does however have a great interview in it conducted by Adrian Grant. A not bad book all round but it is not one of the greatest M.J books around

I've followed Michael Jackson's Career for a Long time.No Other Artist in the Past 20 plus Years has Brought the Hype&Interest like Him.Now the Interview was cool I tend to like more detail stuff&Grant has done better Books on MJ still this one has some cool Commentary.I enjoy Reading on MJ's Creative Process Period.Adrian Grant sheded Light on that in another Book.

This book is great for MJ-fans like myself...You should buy the other books that Adrian Grant has writen too...He's a great author...There are very many beautiful pictures and a GREAT interview with Michael himself... There's an great A3 poster...(the book cover is pictured) You really should buy it.... From an REAL Michael Jackson fan...

i hope one day the book, will catch up with me. i am new at buying on line. this is the first item i never got. i have now moved. thank you for your time barbara.

this book is full of pictures and loaded with info on neil.

This is a must for all Neil Diamond fans! I could not put it down. It has great pictures and the articles are well written.I hope that the author updates it before too long but for fans and others wanting to more about this private star this will help answer many of your questions.

The book was an engaging read, and one i would recommend, but I was floored by how depressing Shirley Jackson's life was.

I suppose my mistake was reading "Life Among the Savages" and "Raising Demons" before reading the true story behind the funny, anecdotal, pleasant life the other "non-fiction" books presented. I admire her work, and I was saddened to discover the pain in her life - a pain soothed and heightened by alchohol, barbituates, and sleeping pills. An abusive mother (hers, Jackson comes off as a warm loving mother with her moments just like the rest of us), a philandering husband (who saw her genius, and loved her, but still couldn't keep his pants on), and the sad legacy she left behind for her children to cope with. Oppenheimer follows up on their lives, and they appear pretty reclusive and strange (strange can be good, but their brand of strange read as sad).

So, although the book left me saddened, I think it was a fine read- a real page turner at that, and will add new insights into the books of hers I haven't read as well as the ones I have.

Ms. Jackson was a singular writer in 20th century America. However, much of her work is not known outside of literary circles and (before this book) less was known about her life. Ms. Oppenheimer's biography sheds considerable light on the latter subject.

Ms. Oppenheimer's biography is competent because she interviews several primary resources (notably, Shirley's children) and because it is well-written. This material yields several insights into the life and work of a very good writer and a fascinating human being. While Ms. Jackson might not have appreciated this book, I believe she would have respected the workmanship involved. Writers, readers and researchers everywhere should be grateful.

Just discovered the works of Shirley Jackson, although I'd been familiar with The Lottery since high school. Awesome, totally original writer. I will never tire of reading the first paragraph of "The Haunting of Hill House." The sheer skillful power of her writing ... as Stephen King wrote, she never had to raise her voice. Dug out a short, unsatisfying bio of Ms. Jackson by some German academic, then discovered Ms. Oppenheimer's work. A terrific biography, reads like a great story should. I can empathize somewhat with the Jackson offspring, since I, too, had a mother who was a writer and a giant personality and an overindulger in food and drink. But my mother cleaned up her health and lived till age 77 while Ms. Jackson's overworked heart gave out at age 49, truly a shame.