Sheldon T. Aubut and Maryanne C. Norton bring the history of Duluth, Minnesota's buildings to life in this book. "Duluth" starts with an early history of the Indian settlements of the Sioux and Ojibwe people, to Minnesota Point and the street car line serving both residents and businesses in the late 1800s.

Then we tour the West Downtown business district with its two-story structures where families lived on the second floor, to the West End now known as Lincoln Park. Continuing on our journey to East Downtown discovering mainly retail with fraternal organizations and theaters built in the 1870s and 1880s to the early government buildings constructed from the 1860s to 1900s and later.

Our hosts guide us through the hills, which rise from Lake Superior for a look at one of the nicest residential areas of the time. Personally, I did not know the city once had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the United States and this wealth produced many beautiful commercial buildings, homes, and bridges.

We then steer towards the East End, an area filled with the period revival homes that were much in vogue. Lastly, the "Streetcar Suburbs" where it was possible to live away from the crowded downtown area and commute, and Skyline Parkway, a roadway near the top of Duluth's hills.

"Duluth" is the perfect gift book for architectural aficionados and those that want to learn more about this area. The book offers a wonderful sampling of the city's significant structures and makes for enjoyable reading about its wonderful historic treasures.

This volume in the Images of America series looks at Duluth, Minnesota the "Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas." Local historians Sheldon Aubut and Maryanne Norton have put together a collection of mostly vintage photographs (and a few etchings) showing the office buildings and grand homes that have defined Duluth for the past century and a half. For me the most fascinating photographs are not of the buildings, which stand, but for the most distinctive landmarks which have been lost. So more than the photograph of the town's first Post Office it is the shots of the Lester Park Bridge (116) and the Pavilion at the top of the Incline Railroad (82) that especially stand out. I do not think of this book as being a guide for visitors but rather as a keepsake for those already living here in the Zenith City. However, if you are interested in historical photographs then you might want to check out "Hibbing, Minnesota" and other volumes in this series.

Sheldon T. Aubut and Maryanne C. Norton's 'Duluth, Minnesota' gives an inexpensive look into the history and architecture of this picturesque city. I wish it had been available before my last trip up there last year. I will definitely re-read it before my next visit. The book's easy-to-read conversational style keeps you moving through, and the photographs tell a fascinating story. Very highly recommended for anyone with an interest in this part of the country.

I love to read real-life adventure stories and when I picked this one, I could not put it down. Fun and easy to read. No long drawn-out details or facts but plenty enough to get the 'feel' of this cross-country bicycle trip with all its beauty, joy, satisfactions, dissatisfactions, happiness, sadness, trials, weather (good and bad), people met along the way (good and bad) etc, it has it all.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Just the Two of Us", the real life adventure of a married couple who decided to challenge themselves, their fifty-something year old bodies and their thirty-something year old marriage by taking a cross country cycling trip. Bicycle travelogues can become tedious since long distance biking cycles through experiences relatively slowly, but Melissa's book maintains a good pace for the reader by distributing a variety of themes throughout - information about the equipment, the conditioning and the planning needed to attempt such a trip, a running commentary on the road conditions and scenery encountered, damage control as they run into the inevitable equipment failures, weather problems, and accommodation surprises, and most engagingly, an openness about how the relationship between two people who have been together for a long time can grow during such a long trip. Melissa does a good job in recounting anecdotes about the people and places that one meets traveling cross-country. This is a good read not only for distance cyclists who can find all kinds of useful information but for anyone who would enjoy sharing the experience of a cross-country trip up close and personal.I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Just the Two of Us", the real life adventure of a married couple who decided to challenge themselves, their fifty-something year old bodies and their thirty-something year old marriage by taking a cross country cycling trip. Bicycle travelogues can become tedious since long distance biking cycles through experiences relatively slowly, but Melissa's book maintains a good pace for the reader by distributing a variety of themes throughout - information about the equipment, the conditioning and the planning needed to attempt such a trip, a running commentary on the road conditions and scenery encountered, damage control as they run into the inevitable equipment failures, weather problems, and accommodation surprises, and most engagingly, an openness about how the relationship between two people who have been together for a long time can grow during such a long trip. Melissa does a good job in recounting antidotes about the people and places that one meets traveling cross-country. This is a good read not only for distance cyclists who can find all kinds of useful information but for anyone who would enjoy sharing the experience of a cross-country trip up close and personal.

Review of Just the Two of Us

This is simply the best book I have read on cycling. From first-hand experience, Melissa Norton captures the essence of cycling: why people do it; how they do it; and what the experience is all about.

Just the Two of Us describes the process of a husband and wife team getting into cycling, building their cycling skills and experience by cycling over weekends. Weekend cycling extends to week long trips, and then to the ultimate: biking across the United States.

Bikes are unpacked at Astoria, Oregon overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The adventure begins with the thrill of watching fisherman reel in 4 foot sturgeons at the mouth of the Columbia River. Norton makes the reader feel as if they are vicariously biking along with Dave and Melissa: seeing what they see, working up the hills, and coasting down the slopes at exhilarating speeds. Each chapter is introduced with the cities to be visited and the miles to be rode for the week. From the sunrise on June 15, the reader cycles with the Norton's along the Pacific Ocean, over the Cascades at McKenzie Pass, through the rich agricultural fields on the high plateau of Oregon, over the Rockies, trekking the long expanse of the plains of the Midwest, into the finger lake region of New York, and returning to familiar New England. Finally, we triumphantly ride with them into the Atlantic Coast town of Bar Harbor, Maine.

By vicariously cycling with the Norton's, the reader meets the local people in the cities, their history, and the way they are. During the course of the trip, the reader learns a lot about cycling such as maintaining the bike, carrying gear, and safely riding among traffic. The pictures embedded in the book enrich the telling of the journey: landmarks are included, geographical perspective is integrated. I especially like the picture of the 13 percent grade sign shown on a steep "hill" in Vermont.

Just the Two of Us is an exciting read. I highly recommend it. And, I hope that this will be just the first book from author Melissa Norton in sharing her experiences and thoughts about a most accessible and enjoyable sport.

Richard L. Nolan
Lexington, Massachusetts
February 2002

A delightful tale of a cat ("Mickey Miggs") born in a mouse family's home and raised to be a mouse. Garth Williams' illustrations are, as ever, outstanding: The colors are bright yet soft, intimate and warm. Once the (human) children befriend Mickey, the cat discovers his true nature, and learns to accept cats instead of fear them. Still, his new feline-identified life does not end his friendship with and participation in the lives of his mouse family. This 28-page book from 1951 is a treasure for kids and the adults who read to them!

This is one of those that stays with you, well, forever! Written in 1951, it's really a timeless, gentle, and quite funny story. Garth Williams' illustrations of the "huge" kitten and his mouse family are loaded with personality, atmosphere, and great charm. Believe me, your kids will thank you for reading this one to them-now, and when they're all grown up.

My son has asked for this one every single night for the past 8 weeks. It is a sweet story, complimented by wonderful illustrations that make you wish you could pet the fluffy gray kitten. It's funny when the kitten finds out that he is not really a mouse, and for a while he's afraid of "his own cat self."

Great reading on those quiet Sunday evenings. The historical perspectives and timelines are the best part; really helps you understand the progression of literature as we know it. The Norton series (western literature) was used often in highschool for me, but I had quite narrow historical perspectives back then; this book has helped change that. I would also recommend Glimpes of World History by J. Nehru. Though it can be at times tedious, it is good accompaniment to this Norton anthology.

This book is very fascinating to read if you're insterested in early Greek and Roman culture. The many stories and translations make the reading easy and fun. I would recommend this book to anyone!

This book has it all! This is the GREATEST collection of books ever printed!

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The other reviewers have just about said it all: in short, this is a GREAT book!
I would just like to add that it is good to have ONE book that over ALL the essentials of Linux as compared to those who cover just PARTS in one book and more PARTS in another (just to sell more books?).
I own MANY books on Linux, but if I were forced to discard them all but ONE, THIS is the one I would definitely KEEP! When you have the BEST, why mess with the REST? :o)

Lloyd W. Cary
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I finally became so frustrated with the Crash-A-Lot software from Redmond (some of us actually have work that needs to get done, OK, Bill?) that I decided to give Linux a try. I bought a copy of Mandrake and after some fiddling got it installed on an old laptop. The problem was, I really didn't know what I was doing. It ran even more slowly than Bill's stuff (although it didn't die of embarrassment and crash every time I looked at it funny). I knew there had to be ways to make it run better, but I was clueless about how to go about it. The stuff that came with the disk was almost useless, and the books in the stores seemed to either be written for somebody who ought to be getting juice and cookies before nap time or for major software gurus. Then I discovered this book. It explains how Linux works, how to set it up, and how to make it work better. HE ACTUALLY EXPLAINS HOW LINUX WORKS! Here and there I had to go elsewhere to look up a few terms and some stuff he assumes his readers knew (how to get into BIOS, on my ancient Thinkpad you hit F2 as soon as it starts up), but for the most part it's all there. I recommend reading this thing all the way through, even the chapters about stuff you don't think you will need, before you try anything because his approach is to talk about something like partitioning a hard drive and then a few chapters later approach it from a different angle and add some more useful information. If you want to hit a topic all at once, there is an excellent index. I'm going to give Debian or Slackware a shot and between the online documentation at their sites and this book I think I can handle it. I know some of you guys hate to ask for directions, but save yourselves a lot of trouble and read this book.

Having used Linux since 1995, my biggest struggle has been in finding reliable sources of information. This book is such a source and and all around excellent Linux guide.

I run Slackware and Debian so I wasx hesitant that I saw Red Hat, SuSE, and Caldera featured, but that didnt matter. An non-distributipon-specific, clearly written explanation is given and then they take small detours into each of those distributions, pointing out specifics to those (usually under X).

I began this book in chapter 8, User Administration and continued through. I am self-taught which has it's own merits, yet tends to leave holes in my "home-grown Linux Education". This book filled in the gaps and have made me an much more competent Linux user/administrator.

I can not write as a new Linux user so I can not honestly say how this book would be for some one totally new to Linux (although my guess is that it wouldn't be a bad choice to start off with!)

When in the company of other Linux users, I find they talk about things without explaining what they are, where they are found, what they do, or what other options may exist. Those are the kinds of holes I had in my Linux education. Now, init, X configuration, mysterious configuration files, and many advanced topics that I had desperately been trying to understand and piece together, are all much clearer to me now thanks to this excellent book.

In summary, this book has helped this Linux user to sort out and relate the commands and configuration that once "kept me in the dark".

After reading Glyn Williams' trenchant 'The Prize Of All The Oceans' I had an overwhelming desire to read this classic once again. I first read it when I was a mere 10 year old and it completely mesmerized me; I find that it still held the same power over me thirty years later. It is difficult to put this tale down once the title character becomes a castaway on the "island of despair" (as Crusoe refers to it) and he begins the battle against the odds to survive. Facing extreme tropical heat, torrential storms, a dreadful loneliness and the struggle to master some of the simplest of skills we take for granted Crusoe wages his one-man crusade for survival. Beginning his desolate existence steeped in woeful self-pity he slowly realizes through a series of trying circumstances, devotional reading of the Bible and finally relief from his isolated state that the experience proves to be one of reverie. In the process Crusoe becomes quite possibly the most inspirational figure to spring forth from the pages of literature.

Though it is annually listed by literature scholars as one of the 100 finest works of fiction, today primarily adolescents read Defoe's enduring tale as part of their required reading for school; very few others rarely bother with this nearly three century old tale. 'Robinson Crusoe' it seems is a classic awaiting a renaissance of rediscovery by adults who regularly read for either leisure or as a part of continuing education. While the novel's approach to morality may seem a bit old fashioned by today's contemporary standards, the character's awakening to wisdom, inner strength and faith will inspire any reader of any age. Crusoe's ability to steel himself against the onslaught of natural elements, his own self doubts and finally a band of savages who discover his "island empire" should win over even the most jaded of us. This Norton Critical Edition is the perfect package to gain a deep appreciation for this masterpiece of the English language. So do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book today and transport yourself back to your youth and also to a time long past. It's a journey you won't regret taking.

Unfortunately, this book suffered the fate of many other masterpieces: be classified in the "children" bookshelf. That guarantees most editions will be abridged, censored, and forgotten, since kids today read very little and waste their time playing with horrendous japanese toys. Enough lecturing. This is a book about a man who, yes, goes through many adventures, and in the way finds himself. This is not the story of a man who goes through pleasant experiences, enjoying adventure. He suffers very much finding himself alone for many years, having to survive by himself in the midst of a desert island. The book is narrated in the first person, so it's a long monologue by a truly lonely man. His reflections are deep and moving. It's good that this is a complete and unabridged edition, since the first part is usually severed from the rest, which is a pity because it puts the whole story in context. This is a fun but also an interesting reading.

This is a simple, beautifully written story of a young man who rejects the advice of his father and pursues a life at sea. His fate, of course, is to dwell alone for many years on an isolated island. The main point, however, is his slow realization that, in finding God and religion, his "cup is not half empty but half full". This is NOT a childs book and should be read by those in their 30's and above...otherwise the message may be lost on youth.

Sergeant Major, U. S. Marines is the biography of Maurice Jacques, who rose from the rank of Private to Sergent Major of Marines during his 30-years of honorable service to his Corps and Country. Written by Major Bruce 'Doc' Norton, who served in combat with Jacques during the Vietnam War, this book follows Jacque's life from his upbringing in Massachusetts to his days at Parris Island. His post-World War II learning was handled by Marine veterans such as Colonel "Chesty" Puller and General Edward A. Craig. His three tours of combat during Vietnam tempered Jacques into a true combat veteran and teacher. Unfortuantely, there are no Marines with Jacque's experiences serving in today's Marine Corps, but his "lessons learned" and his documented dedication to his Corps is the stuff that legends are made from. Segreant Major is a great book; well-researched, well-written and totally accurate. Credit to Major 'Doc' Norton for a great story about one of our Corps true heroes. 5 Stars for this one!

If I had to select one book that accurately defines what it takes to become and stay on as a career Marine, this is the Book. Jacques grew up poor and uneduacted, like so many Marines, but he found a home and his "calling" in the Corps. Norton does a masterful job in describing Jacques' career, to include wonderful descriptions of Marines (and Jacques) in combat during the Korean War and during his 3 tours of duty in Vietnam. I would make this a "must read" for anyone considering a career in the Corps, enlisted man or officer. Well done!!

If Maurice himself were writting this book himself he could not have done a better job. Its a wonder why this book isn't at a higher rank. This book gets five stars all around.

King of the Jews is a compelling, interesting fascinating read that tells the story of Lodz, the last ghetto to be liquidated in Poland. I.C. Trumpelmann is the protagonist. Supposedly a doctor, he cons his people, leaves, and returns to rule them and "protect" them from the nazis. He is loved and hated. There are funny parts, but most are horrifying and sad. One of the more interesting things about "King.." is that it gives you a look at not only what life was like inside the ghetto, but also the Jewish politics behind it.
The down side is that there are so many characters it's difficult to remember who is who. I knew that this was based on a real man, but it took me a while to realize that Epstein had changed almost every major character's name, including Hitler's.
Either which way, this is a fascinating book, that if fell into the right hands, would make a movie that could rival Schindler's List. Highly recommended.

I came across Epstein's latest novel SAN REMO DRIVE in the new fiction section of the bookstore, and rather than pay hardcover price for a good read, I decided to see if the store had his backlist in stock, and came across this. Almost buried under a dozen highly laudatory blurbs, I decided to take a chance, and discovered a great work of literary art. Based on the Polish city of Lodz and the sort of puppet leader set up by the Nazis to govern/liaison the Jewish ghetto there, Epstein paints a teeming, vivid portrait of what it was like to live in the absurdity and morally ambiguous maze of the ghetto. With a grand cast of quickly drawn yet almost-at-your-side breathing characters, dark, dark humor and a consistently paced torrent of words that captures the nearly Bosch-like space of this harrowing, unbelievable and dastardly experience, I feverishly followed the rise and fall of what becomes an apocryphal Jewish ghetto existence, if you can call it that. The best thing about it all is the lack of moralizing and judgement-making. Epstein just shows is like it is -- even though, thankfully, it is a thing that was. Historical. Hopefully. And lastly, but not leastly, I'm going to have to shell out hardcover cash to read his latest.

In 'King of the Jews', Epstein tells a captivating story of a doomed Polish Jewish Ghetto during WWII. The narrator makes us laugh and cry with his ironic view of the tragedy. It was daring of the author to break with tradition by allowing the reader to perceive WWII ghetto life with a sense of humor. By omitting the extremes of WWII horror, Epstein makes the story more believable without mitigating the tragedy. I could emphathize with the struggles yet did not perceive the Jews as victims. A great script for Mr. Spielberg!

Lacks the tragic inevitability of "Dead Man in Deptford", but still a good read. Brilliant language, Elizabethan England nicely evoked, well-drawn characters, clever speculation to fill in the gaps in what we know of Shakespeare's life. A bit crazy, especially at first, but that's what you pay for with Burgess, right?

Anthony Burgess's "Nothing Like The Sun" is a linguistic marvel. It is a philosophically oppressive look at William Shakespeare's foray into literature and the world. Starting in the small 'borough' of Stratford, WS (as he is called) is an apprentice leather craftsman. He spends his days and nights dreaming of plays, gentility, and idealistic love.

Most of the novel shows WS trying to figure out what kind of love he is after. His notions of love come from Plato's "Symposium" - will it be common, physical lust, or contemplation of absolute beauty leading to his best poetic and dramatic works? The relationships that the novel explores these questions with are with the youthful noble Henry Wriothesly and the exotic, colonial Fatima.

Burgess delights in wordplay throughout the novel, using for the most part, the language of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets in the narration and dialogue. Unlike "Shakespeare in Love" Burgess's novel does not build around any specific text, instead making his works almost marginal to the drama of Shakespeare's fictional biography. Burgess presents Shakespeare's works as the results and expressions of a desperate life.

Burgess augments Shakespeare's story with an almost post-colonial historical setting. With Fatima allegedly from the Indies, and a backdrop of English oppression of the Irish, "Nothing Like The Sun" complicates Shakespeare's historical moment. Class struggles, plagues, and political sterility also mark the temporal setting as the novel moves from the country (Stratford) to the coast (Bristol) to the capital (London).

Reading "Nothing Like The Sun" was a welcome experience for me, having only ever read Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" before. The writing style takes a little getting used to, but that is the price you pay for art. I highly recommend it.

This fictional account strings together those facts we know about Shakespeare and uses complete and admitted fancy to flesh out the rest of his life. In this way, Burgess creates a fascinating and engaging lifestory of the young provincial man who became the greatest playwright of our language. While clearly a novel, it manages to make real, palpable people from those faceless names of the Elizabethean time, and helps makes sense (or nonsense) of so many of the theories surrounding Shakespeare's genius. It's vividness shows Burgess as a master of both academia and imagination. A thoroughly good read, and a must for anyone remotely interested in Shakespeare.

Here are six essays by John Ashbery about six of his favourite minor poets, ranging from John Clare, born in 1790s England, to David Schubert, born 1913 in New York. John Brooks Wheelwright and Laura Riding are included, from the early 20th century, as is Raymond Roussel (a French precursor to anti-novelists, a specialist in parenthetical labyrinths, and endlessly detailed descriptions of bottle-labels). We have, too, the doomed author of "Death's Jest Book," the 19th-century poet Thomas Lovell Beddoes.

These essays are engaging and readable, informed and informative without being pedantic. There are anecdotes, too (about Riding, most notably, who is aptly diagnosed by Ashbery as "a control freak"). We notice that half of the authors are homosexual or possibly so, most either committed suicide or had a parent who did so, three were affected by mental problems, and the majority were ardent leftists (Riding being an exception).

To this reader, the two Johns, Clare and Wheelwright, are the most immediately endearing, and David Schubert's disjunctive colloquial tone does fascinate. Some of the comments about the gang of six do shed some light into Ashbery's curious methods: Clare's mucky down-to-earthiness and Beddoes' elegant, enamelled "fleurs-du-mal" idiom both being "necessary" components of poetry, in Ashbery's view. Some of Wheelwright's elastic sonnets have a Saturday Evening Post-type folksiness that is often found in Ashbery's own poetic inventions; Schubert's poems (in Rachel Hadas's words) "seem(ing) to consist of slivers gracefully or haphazardly fitted together." An aside: Look at the first two lines of Schubert's "Happy Traveller." Couldn't that be John Ashbery? About Raymond Roussel, whose detractors accuse him of saying nothing, Ashbery mounts an impatient defence that reads like a self-defence: "If 'nothing' means a labyrinth of brilliant stories told only for themselves, then perhaps Roussel has nothing to say. Does he say it badly? Well, he writes like a mathematician."

We learn that Ashbery is not fond of E E Cummings, and he is unconvincingly semi-penitent of this "blind spot": Cummings, with his Herrick-like lucidity, his straightforward heterosexuality, and his resolute nonleftism, would not appear to fit nicely into Ashbery's pantheon. Ashbery even takes a few mischievous swipes at John Keats -- rather, he quotes George Moore doing so. Ashbery will doubtless forgive his readers if our enthusiasm for the poetry of Keats and Cummings remains undiminished.

There is much in the poetry explored by "Other Traditions" that is dark and bothersome; but there are felicities. These lectures form a fascinating kind of ars-poetica-in-prose by one of America's cleverest and most vexing of poets.

Every once in a while, I come across a book that opens up new doors for me. They introduce to me to areas of life that I otherwise might never have encountered. Other Traditions by John Ashbery is just such a book.

I have always had a love for, but limited knowledge of, Poetry. It was Edward Hirsch's great book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry that first introduced me to Ashbery's work. He is, in my opinion, one of the greatest living poets. Therefore, I jumped at the opportunity to read Other Traditions.

Other Traditions is the book form of a series of lectures given by Ashbery on other poets. Ashbery writes about six of the lesser-known artists who have had an impact on his own life and work. All of them are fascinating. They are:

-John Clare, a master at describing nature who spent the last 27 years of his life in an Asylum.

-Thomas Lovell Beddoes, a rather death obsessed author (he ended up taking his own life) whose greatest poetry consists of fragments that must often be culled from the pages of his lengthy dramas.

-Raymond Roussel, a French author whose magnum opus is actually a book-length sentence.

-John Wheelwright, a politically engaged genius whose ultra-dense poetry even Ashbery has a hard time describing or comprehending.

-Laura Riding, a poet of great talent and intellect who chose to forsake poetry (check out the copyright page).

-David Schubert, an obscure poet who Ashbery feels is one of the greatest of the Twentieth Century.

The two that I was most pleasantly surprised by are Clare and Riding.

Clare has become (since I picked up a couple of his books) one of my favorite poets. He is a master at describing rural life. I know of no one quite like him. Ashbery's true greatness as a critic comes out when he depicts Clare as "making his rounds."

Riding, on the other hand, represents the extreme version of every author's desire for the public to read their work in a precise way--the way the author intends it to be read. Her intense combativeness and sensitivity to criticism is as endearing as it is humorous.

Other Traditions has given me a key to a whole new world of books. For that I am most grateful.

I give this book my full recommendation.

This book is much smaller than I thought it would be, but this only enhances its gem-like charm; from its rich cover to its finely homespun interior. I thought at first I had heard it all before from Ashbery, in his short Schubert and Roussel essays, and in comments dropped in Reported Sightings; but even when covering the same ground he subtly brings forth new worlds. It's refreshing to hear him talk of these beloved poets, like a tour through the comfortable rooms of his mind, which of course also offers countless insights into Ashbery's own career of poetic journeys. I recommend this book to both literary scavengers of the past and arcane poets of the future, but especially to the intriguing combination of both living a dream right now.