A great book for a history class text. Thia book is full of many great art essays along with detailed explinations of specific events. Kishlansky did a great job.

Vincent O'Brien is the author of this informational piece on stained glass. He caught my attention because most books that I have read on stained glass put great emphasis on copperfoil, lead, and mosaic techniques. Yet, the information O'Brien shares in Techniques of Stained Glass encompasses faceted and laminated techniques as well. The author uses language that ammatures can understand and benefits masters too. O'Brien explains each process well and includes photographs to illustrate the different techniques and multiple lighting effects on the glass. As a beginning stained glass artist, I found inspiration in reading O'Brien's book, and I look forward to using these new techniques.

No stone left unturned! Even if you don't support a TruCluster, this is a must have book for any Tru64 admin. You can gain insight into system internals, storage management, sysadmin tools like ca, etc. Packed with tips, tricks, and custom scripts. In short- lot's and lots of goodies!

This is a very good book, but not a great one. Vince does well describing Lombardi through his actions and the impact he had on those around him, especially his former players. Everything is written in a clear and easily understood manner, especially his paradoxical nature.

However, it does not clear my threshold as a great book. A great book would have involved me not as a viewer from afar, but as a fly in the locker room. Since O'Brien did not play for Lombardi, I was hoping for more insight of how his players felt. I never got emotional reading this book, and emotion is a large part of what Lombardi was about.

Basically, it reads like an exquisitely written research paper.

This book will help you teach your child how babies are welcomed into a variety of families and cultures. The illustrations perfectly capture the mood of the text. Recommended for adoptive families and others who wish to increase their child's multicultural awareness. Great new baby gift, too!

This book is a fascinating biography of Willis O'Brien that covers the high points of his movie career as well as the devastating tragedies of his personal life.It contains photographs that I hadn't seen before, including a touching shot of one of his sons, who was blind, and the Kong Jr. model from Son of Kong.There are also several drawings and script notes from unrealized O'Brien projects. The book is typical of so many McFarland books - it isn't "polished," but anyone who is interested in O'Brien's work will really enjoy it.

I recently found a list of the winners of the Hawthornden prize, which is awarded annually to an English writer "for the best work of imaginative literature." This book, by Kate O'Brien (1897-1974), won the prize for 1931. Since most of the Hawthornden prizewinners I have read (only 9 so far) have been good reading, I decided to read this. On balance it tells an interesting story and holds one's attention well. It is laid in Ireland of the 1870s and concerns an upper-class Irish Catholic family, the "proper" members of which are portrayed in a somewhat unfavorable light. The "rebel" members of the family get most of the attention in the book, as I suppose one would expect in a novel. I do not regret reading the book, and would read more by Kate O'Brien if I ran across such.

The Song of the Lark is a beautifully crafted novel with quite stunning visual and emotional imagery. Cather tells the poignant story of Thea Kronborg, a musically gifted girl. Thea struggles with her quaint, unartistic upbringing and tries to become her own woman. This novel is not one of Cather's easier books to read. If you have not read her before, or have read a little of her, I would suggest reading O Pioneers! or My Antonia. Both are wonderful,lyric novels. The Song of the Lark is one to read after these.

Rarely, if ever, do books captivate me on such a level as this one, and even more rarely do I find such a strong connection between a fictional character and myself. That is what I discovered in the pages of Song of the Lark.

In preparing to post this review, I saw the title of another, which I believe read Hideously Dull and Boring, or something to that effect. This story, my first Willa Cather, was nothing of the sort.

Within the pages of this book a reader finds passion, love, art, beauty, despair, tragedy, disgust, longing, and triumph. Not bad for 9.95 in this day and age.

Thea Kronborg, the heroine of the story, is from very earliest meeting somewhat different from the rest of her family, and the other citizens of Moonstone, Colorado. She is one of several children, but is seen as 'something different, something special' by Howard Archie, the town doctor. He becomes her confidant, her friend, and patron as Thea rises from midwestern girl to Metropolitan Opera headliner.

Through her training and triumph, Thea discovers what is sorely lacking in others in her profession....passion, committment, and integrity. She bemoans the success of other singers, as merely 'crowd pleasing' rather that technically superior, or even correct. She rails at the off-pitch, lifeless tones of some of the more popular of her contemporaries, thinking them hideous and beastly, and severely lacking in talent.

Thea's life starts in a small Colorado town, where she experiences her first 'love', and her first tragedy when she loses that love. But as she grows, as a singer, and as a woman, Thea realizes, through a series of highs and lows, that her one true love is the pursuit of her passion, her singing. She sacrifices all for that passion, and never seems to regret it as she reaches her reward.

Although I admired many traits in this character, the one that stands out most to me is her disdain at others for accepting mediocrity in themselves. Thea despairs when others sell out for simple recognition, and accept it in lieu of striving for artistic integrity. As a performer, this quality in her touched me personally, from having shared stages with many performers stealing scences, upstaging, oversinging, all for personal gain, whether it befit their charater or not. Integrity is a quality sorely lacking in so many these days, that to find another being, fictional or real, so disgusted with the lack of it, was truly a treat.

Willa Cather draws from her own childhood to illustrate life in a small midwestern town accurately, and makes liberal mention of many well-known operas in Thea's rise to fame. This is a perfect gem of a novel, with a very believable story of a woman's passion realized in her art. There are no lucky breaks, no right place at the right time, Thea works for everything she gains, one of the greatest rewards of all.

Very few books fulfill their capacity to both present a wonderful story and completely portray the character of a certain type of person. The Song of the Lark accomplishes both of these tasks. As a classically trained singer, I can attest that the emotions Thea's music wrought from her are precise and beautifully translated into words for others to feel. Cather's insight into Thea's mind transforms The Song of the Lark into a story so intimate that few books can equal it. In addition, Thea acts so realistically! She is young and driven by her passion for music and life. The story itself, besides its merit as a great plot, presents an accurate picture of a singer's training. These three elements of the book - its emotion, its plotline, and its realism - combine to create a powerful novel.

Z for Zachariah is a book that deals with what it would be like to be the last person left on earth. After a nuclear war there is only one person left a 16 year old girl named Anne. Somehow the radiation passed over her home that sits in a small valley. When one day she sees smoke of in the distance, she realizes that she is not the only left. From there the book explodes into a fast action plot. Should she trust the scientist in his "safe suit" because he is the only person left with her? Even after he swims in the contaminated river and starts acting different, meaner? I recommend this book to people of all ages. Its makes you feel like you were right there and keeps you sitting up at night to finish the book to see how it will it.

The good thing about this book is it starts out right in the action, thats what I like about books. This book starts you out in a families valley that they live in. Everything is going well when suddenly a strange green cloud peaks at the tip of the valley. The parents of Ann Burden(the main-character telling the story) tell her that they are going out of the valley and into town to see what happened. They go out but they never come back. But before they left, her brother jumped into the back of the truck without the parents knowing. The dog loves the boy so much that it runs after him and it never comes back either until the middle of the book. But while this is all going on she is getting a long all by herself when a figure keeps getting closer and closer to the valley. She investigates to find it to be a scientist who has a biochemical suit. It protects him from the radiation. She hides in a cave because she is afraid that he might do something to her. It is a very good book to read.

I think the book is very good and keeps your attention. The only bad thing is that it is not a good book for someone who is not over 12 because you really can't understand some of the technical terms but thats about it.

I recommend this book to any student interested in a science-fiction novel and it would interest anybody else who would be interested in what the world may very well be like in the next century. I also recommend this book to teachers because they might be interested in sharing this book with the class. It is a real mindboggler in how the plot takes you right into the story.

Ann Burden is alone and she is scared. The world as we know it has ended and Ann has managed to survive and build a life for herself. She has always assumed being alone was how it would be for the rest of her life. Now there is someone else and she's not sure how she should feel about him. Will they survive together or will she remain alone. Robert C. O'Brien is the master of writing about surving alone and of his three major books, this to me is the best. I have not only read it several times myself but it seems to cycle through my family as well. It's one of those books where you say to yourself, "It's time to read Z for Zachariah" again. The book is a page turner which is evidence of how well O'Brien knows his craft. One final, good thing about this book is that it is a great book for introducing people to post-apocalyptic science fiction. Especially those who are a bit wimpy and would not survive such classics as "No Blade of Grass" by John Christopher or "Earth Abides" by George R. Stewart or newer works such as "Shade's Children" by Garth Nix. Although dark, "Z For Zachariah" is more palatable. The awful things have happened almost before you realize what has gone down.

Tim O'Brien, perhaps the most vivid storyteller in the Vietnam canon of books, attempts to move beyond that mold in Tomcat in Love by writing a pseudo-contemporary story. Unfortunately, he doesn't go far enough.

If you are familiar with Tim's earlier work, this is somewhat more of the same, in an albeit more hilarious situation.

Similiar to the book Confederacy of Dunces in that the reader develops a love/hate relationship with the arrogant protagonist, I have to say that it dismays a long time O'Brien fan that he keeps making Vietnam a key role in his stories. I want him to move beyond his "known" life, and to be more imaginative about the modern world. He's that good of a fiction writer, and it's kinda annoying that he won't take up a totally new topic.

In all, if you've never picked up any work by O'Brien, this is a funny way to start. But for those of us who claim O'Brien as our favorite author, Tomcat In Love travels down a familiar path.

I love Tim O'Brien. No one tells a story like him. The way he creates and develops characters, the way he moves plot along, the way he unravels and reravels a story is incredible. His deescription of human emotion could not be more accurate. His laugh out loud means of desribing the tangible and intangible are unrivalled in contemporary literature. AND, his writing is not pretentious. I had a hard time with this book. I love reading O'Brien's prose - the way he almost seems to be talking to you over a couple of beers. I couldn't stand Thomas Chippering! He was very much like John Irving's "Garp". Most certainly NOT someone I would waste my time trying to be friends with! BUT...he is real. Thomas Chippering is a real and believable person. His thought processes are very similar to ones many readers have had, although in my case, about different subject matter. I am not obsessed with the female of the species, nor am I as self-absorbed or obsessed with nostalgia as Chippering. However, the excuses he uses to explain how he got to be a self-absorbed nostalgic womanizer and why he HAS to be this way all makes perfect sense. The manner in which he comes to these conclusions is a manner any person could apply to interpret his or her own lifestyle and mannerisms. I don't know how many friends I would tell to read this, but if you want to understand how similar you are to the neighbor or co-worker that you hate, read it.

I heard Tim O'Brien talking about this book in an interview on NPR months ago and was intrigued, having read The Things They Carried in awe. Now that I've read it, I'd have to say this was one of the most satisfying books I've come across in awhile! Thomas Chippering is a hoot--a delusional, Don- Juan-in-his-own-mind who does some despicable things...but the first-person narrative makes it hard to out & out hate him. He always has _some_ crazy, slanted justification. I think half the fun of the novel was figuring out what was real and what was in Tomcat's head, and where the truth really lay. The ending...I loved. I'd wanted Lorna Sue to get her comeuppance almost as much as I'd wanted Tomcat to get his. But O'Brien doesn't let Chippering get away with instant, unbelievable reform, either. I liked the vivid prose, the importance of the language. And the interspersion of the Fiji/redhead/ex-husband bits was interesting; I thought the final paragraph was beautiful. I was counting the pages that Tim O'Brien could go without delving into the Vietnam War. He made it to, I believe, 56. *g* A wonderful, if not "great" book.