Like others have said it, I say it too because it's true, reading this book makes you feel like you're there, seeing everything happen and actually sharing the same feelings with Margaret. I couldn't have read a more touching story as this one. I highly recommend you all read it because I am SURE you will enjoy it. The whole book is about Kathi's life (Margaret's daughter). Kathi was a very special person and a great great loss to her family and to all who knew her. But in return for Kathi's tragic death so many other people have turned to God and that's what Kathi wanted. Her dream came true. reading this book will surely make you think twice about your relationship with God and will give you the motivation to improve it.
Thank you Kathi for the great examples you have set in your life and thank you Margaret for publishing your daughter's life and sharing it with the world.

Again I recommend this book to everyone, please read it.
God bless you all

Like others have said it, I say it too because it's true, reading this book makes you feel like you're there, seeing everything happen and actually sharing the same feelings with Margaret. I couldn't have read a more touching story as this one. I highly recommend you all read it because I am SURE you will enjoy it. The whole book is about Kathi's life (Margaret's daughter). Kathi was a very special person and a great great loss to her family and to all who knew her. But in return for Kathi's tragic death so many other people have turned to God and that's what Kathi wanted. Her dream came true. reading this book will surely make you think twice about your relationship with God and will give you the motivation to improve it.
Thank you Kathi for the great examples you have set in your life and thank you Margaret for publishing your daughter's life and sharing it with the world.

Again I recommend this book to everyone, please read it.
God bless you all

This was an absolutely wonderful bitter-sweet book. Kathi's zest for life and spirit just lept from the pages. She had such a gift for leading lost souls to God. She wasted no time with her short life on this earth. Some of us never have the pleasure of meeting someone on this earth that touch us so deeply and make such a difference in our lives. Those that Kathi touched were so blessed to have known her. It's so amazing that even in death, Kathi, through her mother, Margaret, is still leading people to God. What a legacy! God bless you, Margaret, for having the courage and strength to tell Kathi's story so that others may benefit from it. This is a great book to read if your looking for a heart-warming story. You are sure to find a blessing in this book.

THE ALLEY OF WISHES is one of the finest pieces of literature I have had the pleasure of reading in a long time. The creativity of the author's beautiful words captured my attention from the first page. The characters are well defined and endearing.

This is a heartwarming tale of Beck; a disillusioned, broken man. Three years of fighting on the front lines during WWI have left this American with little hope. Cerise is a victim of abuse, which has left her spirits wounded. They find each other in war torn Paris. Can their love heal old scars? Will the adversity that has plagued each of them make them stronger?

The writing style of Ms Johnson made this story both believable and touching. The reader is transported to another era with ease. I felt the deep emotions of the characters. The angst and triumphs were written with an almost poetic beauty. The bombs exploding in Paris were real and frightening. This is a must read for people that want a glimpse into the horrors of war while experiencing the wonder and power of love.

This is an outstanding book and I give it my highest recommendation. I am sure that I will read this one again. It has all of the qualities of a classic novel that should be handed down from generation to generation and read over and over again.

Johnson showcases her talent of painting a story with words in her second book, "The Alley of Wishes."
First book, "The Grass Dance" gave readers a glimpse at the God given, hard working woman developed gifts this author possesses with her poetic sense while writing prose, but her first was non-fiction and her second is not only a novel, it is a book that could very well become one of those classics read time and again through the years by countless readers hungry for oil paintings crafted with words.
Main character Beck Sanow and the person he loves more than humanly possible at times, Cerise, seem to be the victims of post traumatic syndrome warwise and domestic violencewise.
Johnson strokes out her oil painting of words with such fluidity and vibrance the reader may at times feel as if they are awash in colour...(the author's spelling of the word "color").
At one point in the story artist Sanow is asked if he sketches before painting and he says he never does. So too, it is believeable that author Johnson doesn't sketch, either. The words come together into an oil painting masterpiece and the reader is able to feast on every word upon well written word until literally spent.
The deepest lifelong "love" as well as friendship "love" are brilliantly captured on this canvas of a novel.
To be able to take such heartwrenching human conditions such as tragedy, horrific abominations inflicted on another, and soul testing physical conditions endured into a beautifully rendered story that stays with the reader is a testament to the author's awesome ability as a writer.
I will never again take a bath without thinking of the sensual nature of this book.
I will never again wonder how much domestic violence affects people.
And I will never again take lightly the horrors of war and what serving your country does to those who are trained to do whatever they have to do to win the war.Outstanding!

If you think this is simply a romance, guess again.

Beck Sanow is a young American struggling to live with memories of what he saw and did along the Front in World War One. Beck went into the war an educated, idealistic, optimistic young man, and deserted three and a half years later shattered and empty. Strong French cigarettes and whiskey are the only comforts he allows himself.

Cerise L'oiseau is a bistro singer, not all that pretty or appealing. But her sorrowful voice penetrates Beck's mind and tears at his heart. Cerise has been systematically battered by a cruel, demented fiance. She feels this dysfunctional relationship must surely be due to shortcomings on her part. She lives on an obscure Parisian side street - The Alley of Wishes.

Beck is inexperienced where women are concerned. He struggles with desire and sexual obsession for this woman he secretly names "the songbird". She sees a core of purity in Beck and soon becomes his angel of hope in a hauntingly dark life.

The beauty of this story is how they complement each other, fight each other's demons and persevere no matter what befalls them. Quiet courage and devotion is their hallmark, unconditional love is the key that frees them from dishonor and near death. It's a hopeful, love filled story, more than a romance.

Mr. Eschbacher and Mr. Johnson have teamed up to deliver a wildly creative and imaginative children's book that truly lives up to its title, Nonsense! He Yelled. Chock full of silly, nonsensical rhymes and hilarious illustrations, Nonsense! He Yelled introduces 26 quite unique boys and girls whose names just happen to begin with each consecutive letter of the alphabet. While their names follow a logical pattern, their descriptions of the themselves or their circumstances are anything but. For example, representing the letter "K" is Kyle, who finds himself keeping cautious company with a crocodile who has come all the way from the Nile to visit. "He claims he did so just to meet me, but I suspect he'd rather eat me," Kyle nervously reports.
The author and illustrator recall the literary style of Dr. Seuss and the visual style of Bugs Bunny creator Chuck Jones. The combination is a winning one and I found my children laughing as much at Mr. Johnson's illustrations as they did listening to Mr. Eschbacher's silly verse. With any children's book, the reactions of the children who read or hear it is the ultimate proof of whether a title has hit its mark. In the case of Nonsense! He Yelled, the reaction of my kids indicate it's an out-of-the-park home run. You'll have as much fun reading it to your kids as they will listening to it.

I liked this book, I liked it alot, and that's not just because my name is Scott. The characters are so real, cool and clever, I had to share this book with my friend Trevor. You see Trevor is my hip friend who's in the know, of course he has to be to hang with me and our pal, Joe. If you must know the truth, my real name is Andrew, but it's hard to work in a rhyme that's as hoppy as a tan brew. My three little girls have enjoyed this book, so much so that Daddy's no more a schnook.

What a children's book should be - entertaining, fun to read aloud, great rhythm, clever, and awesome illustrations. I look forward to the next collaboration of Roger Eschbacher and Adrian Johnson.

Nonsense! He Yelled is a wonderful book on several levels. The one thing it is not, though, is a story; although there are a couple of minor threads woven through it. But that's just fine. A story is not needed.

What you get instead are short, fun rhymes that provide a stealth mnemonic device to help children learn the alphabet. It's a rather painless lesson for kids, and very entertaining. The rhymes hint Seussian but stay within the English language (no floogle floops here). Each character (one per letter for a total of 26) is unique and has a little something to say.

This arrangement gives parents the opportunity to act out each character in a different way. There's nothing kids like better than to see their parents act goofy, and this book offers that chance. After several readings the kids start to play along.

Given the rhyming text, the artwork could have gone the Dr. Seuss route, but didn't. Instead, the artist embodied the figures with modern animated sensibilities, providing images that could easily be part of a Cartoon Network original series like Johnny Bravo or Ed, Edd 'n Eddy. Not that the artwork is particularly reminiscent of either style, but it carries the same sharp attitude and sense of fun that the animated shows have. It's very modern and appeals to kids who, through exposure, understand that style.

The bottom is this book is just plain good silly fun. It's something kids will enjoy and parents will enjoy reading.

The real differentiator of this book is that its focus is on how to use J2EE to solve real-world problems, rather than providing an overview of the J2EE specification itself. As such, it's a much more pragmatic approach to using J2EE than the other books I've read on the subject.

The author starts by taking high-level perspective on the subject, showing the different design considerations that need to be applied when choosing which J2EE technologies to use. A case study (a ticket booking system) is described and elaborated on throughout the book, showing how these design considerations affect a real-world solution.

The book also provides a load of coding tips I found useful, from better use of reflection, to judicious use of design patterns, to how to minimise your refactoring. The author assumes the reader is an experienced developer, so doesn't focus on rudimentary Java and architecture. I found this useful, but it means the book is more focussed to a specific audience.

Amazingly, the book also provides an entire framework based on J2EE on which you can put your application logic. My only complaint is that this is not included in a companion CD - you have to download it.

Overall, the book works because it shows you how build solutions, not just understand the technology.

Even though this book is named "J2EE design and development", it seems to be much more than that. This seems to be the book in which the author attempted to put, in a crystallized form, most of his expertise not just in J2EE (that would be trivial), but in programming and (particularly) architecture in general. Given that the author is a true expert in the field (this is clear after reading just a few pages), this book has a value beyond anything I can express here in my words. I learned from this book more than from any other book on programming and architecture, with a possible exception of GOF "Design Patterns" classics.

No other book on web programming that I know of comes even close to this one. Some noteworthy features:
-- Always framework-oriented approach (which in my view is the only possible choice for real-world projects)
-- Heavy emphasis on architectural side of web development (follows from the previous point)
-- Comparison of different view technologies from practical point of view, w/o exclusively subscribing to a particular one which seems popular (like, JSP).
-- Excellent coverage of MVC paradigm, again, w/o subscribing to a particlar implementation (like Struts, etc)
-- Extensive coverage of all levels ("tiers") of a web application.

But what really shines, are the insights on architecture, namely the things which is impossible to find out by theoretically studying J2EE specifications and books such as "Enterprise Java Beans" and the like. For example, why Entity EJBs don't work. Or when is collocated EJB architecture is more appropriate than the distributed one, and why. After reading the book, many concepts just clear up. Not to say that everything is written in a clear and concise language (despite a few typographical errors that Wrox books are notorious for).

In short, this book is simply amazing.

When I first heard about my coworkers talking about this book, I thought "oh great, another J2EE book!" Much to my surprise (& delight), this book is not a how-to recipe book at all, but rather a collection of valuable suggestions on how to use J2EE and build high-quality J2EE applications. What sets this book apart from other run-of-the-mill Java/J2EE books is it gives you suggestions distilled from lessons learned in the battlefield (not regurgitated marketing shpiel from vendors), and it tells you exactly WHY. Moreover, it tells you what the tradeoffs are for each design option you take, which is almost never mentioned in any technical books and only obtainable from work experience. I'm just glad I'd bought and read this book, because it really helped me to raise my game, and I can now design apps with much more confidence.

Randy Johnson is very informative and contains alot of useful information...once you understand what he is trying to explain. In my opinion this is not the book to read if you have absolutely NO idea how the mortgage process works and how and what lenders do in that process. If you are a total novice , the terminology Mr. Johnson throws around may sound very cryptic; and his examples might make sense to you if you were either a finance major in college or have some minor experience with terms of finance. In my opinon, the total novice should read another book for the basics before coming to this one . I recommend Eric Tyson's Mortgages For Dummies. It is very concise, clear, easy to understand and concentrates solely on the basics. After you have acquired some basic knowledge of the lending process, then come back to Mr.Johsnon for some serious nuts and bolts tips and strategies. To me, that is the best way to maximize the insider info and stratagies mapped out in Mr. Johnson's book. However, for those of you versed in the lending lingo and who have been around the block a time or two when it comes to the home buying process, this book is definitely a must read. You need look no further for info that really will help you to save money on your next loan or refinance(but I still recommend MFDs , it can compliment or elaborate on alot of the info mentioned in Randy's book). So, all in all, a good read for the novice and for the semi-pro.

This book is written by a mortgage industry insider and makes the claim that it will reveal the inner workings or even secrets of the process of obtaining a mortgage. And there is some interesting detail concerning ARMs, lender rate sheets, zero-point loans, etc.

But I think the book lacks organization and consistency. Like a lot of "insider" books it needed to have been read by a lot of "outsiders" for coherency before publishing. The author is not consistent in using the terminology that he defines at the start. He often is not clear about when he is talking about the firm originating your loan or the ultimate buyer of the loan. He creates as much confusion as clarity in his sloppy use of the terms: rebates, points, loan discount points, or loan origination points. Furthermore, for a detail-oriented book I was surprised that section numbers of a standard settlement form, 800, 900, 1000, etc, were not referred to when discussing closing costs.

I would have like to have seen more realistic discussion about the ability of a consumer to force a loan originator to reveal or discuss the profit margin on a loan as the author suggests one do. As far as I know American businesses are not in the habit and in fact resist revealing markups to consumers.

For some readers this book may be just what they are looking for, but I suspect that for most the detail is just not presented in a way that makes it particularly understandable or usable.

This is one of the books I bought when I bought my first house. It's a fine reference source if you want to know what all the different mortgage options are (e.g., what's the difference between a fixed-rate mortgage and an adjustable-rate mortgage, what indexes are ARMs tied to, etc.). And the author--Randy Johnson--makes honest recommendations on which mortgages best suit certain typical lifestyles or income scenarios. Also, one of the books great strengths is the discussion of how many discount points to pay. The one thing I found missing, though*, was at least one real-world scenario that you're likely to see used if you visit a mortgage broker in my neck of the woods [Silicon Valley], or other high-priced regions. And that is the use of a 'first' and a 'second' mortgage in a so-called "piggyback financing" or "80-10-10 financing" arrangement which can help you eliminate Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). There's no in-depth discussion of this technique--which is very common--which I found incredible. There's all this advice on getting an ARM tied to the CD index vs. the LIBOR index with a balloon payment if you stay in your house for 3 years instead of 10 years and so on and so forth...but nothing about getting a conforming, fixed-rate, 30-year first mortgage and a smaller second in a technique to reduce your overall payments during the lives of the loans. It's a simple technique, and very worth a detailed analysis, but I couldn't find it. Anyway, like I said, if you want to know esoteric information about mortgages, then this is a worthy book. It helped me, it's just a little shy of a full-fledged 5-star effort.

*Please Note: The review written above pertained to the 1st edition which I initially gave a 4-star rating. The second edition--which I now own also--has effectively covered "Piggyback" loans (i.e, 80-10-10 transactions), which I think propels this book into a solid 5-star work. The second edition also has updated information on shopping for a mortgage on the Internet, and some [though not all] of the examples that show different types of mortgages have had their interest rates brought more into line with present-day (i.e., 2002) rates. This is an excellent book for folks who want to know all about mortgages.

I have the 1996 hardcover edition of this book and do not know what revisions have been made to this latest addition, however I imagine the text and content will be very similar.
I have found this book to be an excellent source of information on skyscapers in general and the buildings featured in particular.
It has a very easy to read format, witch follows the developement of the skyscraper, with two pages at a time dedicated to one building. This makes it ideal for flicking through and just reading here and there at what ever catches your eye. There are also small gerneral interest and overviews pages troughout the book that help to explain the developement of these buildings.
Not a lot of technical details also make this an easy read and ideal for younger readers.
This is one of the best books I have seen on the subject and I have no reservations recomending this book to anyone even remotely interested in these large buildings.

When I first saw this book, I knew that it had to be on my Christmas "wish list." Upon receiving it, my excitement knew no bounds for this is an exquisitely produced homage to the skyscrapers of the past, present, and future. All the famous are here, from the cover featuring the oft-photographed Chrysler Building in New York to The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center to The IBM Tower of San Francisco. Included are many less known mammoth structures from foreign lands, such as Malaysia's Petronas Towers, touted presently as the tallest of all, and the uniquely designed Bank of China in Hong Kong.

When one says, "The sky is the limit," the pages of this book showcase the adage perfectly.

By Jeffrey K. Herzer -- The jacket notes accurately describe the author's work as exploring "the interaction of text and image on the printed page". This book is wonderfully presented, a collage of big pictures and little treasures -- like under construction photos, sketches and diagrams, or other "trivia bits". You will find some new and precious treat every time you crack the cover. "Skyscrapers" is primarily a history of fifty important and world-famous skyscrapers, beginning with the Washington Monument and the Eiffel Tower & finishing with the Petronas Towers (Malaysia), the Jin Mao Building (Shanghai), and the planned Kuningan Persada Tower (Jakarta, Indonesia). A book about tall buildings should have tall pages...and this book is 18 inches tall and 7-1/2 inches wide. The format is entirely black & white, but most enjoyable. Ms. Dupre's text is short and direct and a perfect complement; it illuminates without getting bogged down in technicalities. Whether you're a skyscraper fanatic, an architect or engineer, or just plain fascinated with tall buildings, it matters not...this is a book everyone can enjoy.

John Hart has done a fabulous job of expanding and updating his coverage of Win32 system programming. Unique in it's perspective of educating programmers familiar with UNIX or a similar OS, this book explains the landscape of Win32 operating systems, how they relate to each other and what features are present or missing from each of them.

With almost 150 pages of new material, John digs way beneath the surface and covers new topics such as advanced thread synchronization, sockets, Windows 2000, Win64, and performance comparisons of multiple ways to solve a problem. Many existing topics are also updated and have new sample programs.

The appendix cross reference of Win32, UNIX, and C runtime library APIs that was in the first edition has also been revisitied and expanded. A very valuable resource for anyone new to either OS or working with both.

In short, if you are coming to Win32 from a UNIX background this is definitely the book for you. If you're already a crack Win32 programmer, you'll probably learn a lot as well.

This book provides a thorough treatment of system programming principles for Microsoft Operating Systems. The author has a concise, to-the-point writing style and he covers the majority of relevant topics. The text also contains a number of useful and imaginative examples of the Windows programming interface. I liked the revised multithreading sections, which contain a lot of interesting new material (especially for readers with UNIX experience). Win32 System Programming is a manageable and useful reference guide.

This book pretty much covers everything I needed to know about Win32 system programming. It has very good coverage of topics like threading, file handling, Memory Management, Interprocess communication, network programming, and asynchronous I/O with completion ports. Ever wonder how to share memory or access really, really huge files? Want to learn how to build more scalable servers? This book covers all that and more. I recently took a new job that uses all of this stuff and I was relieved to find a book that covered it all so well.

He gives a very good generalized view of the windows programming philosophy and explains some common windows types and their uses, which helps in understanding the rest of the API. There are plenty of programming examples and he often compares Win32 programming techniques to UNIX programming techniques giving references to the Stevens book which will help put things in context for UNIX programmers.

For client side programming you can get by with Petzold but for server side this book is a must. If you do system development on Win32 then this book is your weapon.

My grandson, who is six, especially enjoyed the arithmetic lesson in this book, as Henry's friend adds up his earnings steadily. He was also interested in seeing which bear got to Fitchburg first. The illustrations are charming, and the story wears well for repeated reading. As for the references to the Alcotts and Emerson and Henry the Bear's likemindedness with Henry David Thoreau, that's just an extra for adults.

I read this book based on Javagirl 23's reveiew, and I must give her kudos. Great pick! Henry (a bear) and his friend decide to visit Fitchburg. Henry plans to walk, but his friend decides to work enough to afford train fare, since walking will take forever. While Henry's friend slaves away at different jobs (pick up on the last names of the employers!), Henry leisurely strolls towards Fitchburg, collecting flowers to press, berries, and enjoying himself thouroughly. Henry's friend finally gets his train fare, and they both end up in Fitchburg at the same time. "The train was a lot faster!", says his friend. Henry merely replies, "Yes...but I got us some berries to eat". What's the lesson? Sometimes the fastest way isn't necessarily the best way...take time to stop and smell the roses...or any other cliche you prefer. This is a great lesson for adults- stop rushing around so much and take the slower way of doing something; there may be more enjoyment along the way if you do.

There's a lot to love in this book by D. B. Johnson. There is the priceless story-lesson concerning two bears traveling to the same destination by widely divergent paths, one enjoying the pleasures of nature along the way while the other works to earn fare to travel by more modern means. There are the beautifully memorable illustrations, one after another, of the bears as they make their way to Fitchburg. And there is the message, to stop and smell the roses, take in a little nature, just walk. Or maybe just sit in the woods and read Thoreau.

This is not your average "read-about-a-successful-athlete" book just for the sole purpose of some inspiration for track and field or just for dreaming about being like Mike, or any other athelete. It is much more. Michael Johnson takes his struggles and triumphs in his life and relays to the reader how he learned proven success principles that helped him accomplish the tasks that he had set out to do and has done a fantastic job in giving the exact same principles in everyday, easy to read and understand language. He even states in his book that these principles can be applied to whatever goals or tasks or dreams you want to achieve and puts them in an excellent sequential form from the start of the pursuit of one's dream or goal, to making a plan of action to reach them, along with what to do when disappointments;failiure;set-backs;distractions in life come along (and they will) and how to overcome them, and then finally, to making those dreams and goals a reality. To the reader of these comments, I think the point has been made clear. GET THIS BOOK, PERIOD!!

Michael Johnson is undoubtedly the greatest long-sprinter EVER. In fact, his 19.32sec world record in the 200M is in my humble opinion the single most mind-boggling race ever, and qualifies Mr. Johnson as one of the greatest track and field stars of all time.

What is often overlooked, however, is Mr. Johnson's consistency over his career. He once had a consecutive win-streak of 400M races that spanned a number of *years*. Quite simply, he very rarely lost any of the races he entered.

This book offers great insight into Michael Johnson's mental toughness, and explores the mindset of what made him great. True, this man's single-mindedness and no-nonsense determination may come across as slightly monomaniacal and somewhat opinionated to the average reader, but for any athlete that has dreamed of excelling, his words are truly inspirational.

I really enjoyed this book because of how accessibly it was written. You don't have to be a track and field fan to appreciate the universal message Mr. Johnson is trying to get across. This book can be used as a motivational tool, and I think that any book that you can read and then come away with something is a book well worth reading. And this is such a book.

Track and field athletes are not usually known for their intellects or even candor (with the possible exception of Carl Lewis), but Michael Johnson also succeeds here in impressing how much of an intelligent, well-rounded man he is... there is no doubt that he will succeed in his life after his track career has ended. Although supremely confident in his racing abilities-- and who wouldn't be?-- Mr. Johnson never comes across as arrogant or condescending. What I like best about this book is how it almost seems as if it were written purely for the benefit of the reader, as if Johnson had something that he felt he could share, to be read by others for their own benefit. In fact, 'Slaying the Dragon' feels like a message that Mr. Johnson felt compelled to share, and it is written in the humble spirit that he has simply worked very hard to get where he is.

I have to like such a humble message coming from such greatness. We will not see another sprinter like Michael Johnson for a long time. But we can still enjoy his words and his message, which were written in such a helpful and giving way. I came to this book in awe of this man's accomplishments, and came away with a respect for his character.

I just wish this book gave information on where he can receive fan mail!

I've got to admit, Michael Johnson is my all time hero. I'm a big track and field enthusiast, and I just had to get my hands on this book. I want to take my track and field career to Michael Johnson's level of greatness. I was surprised when I started reading "Slaying the Dragon." I was ready for some great training techniques to improve my physical strength and endurance; but this book goes so much deeper then that. It's really a counselor in disguise as a book. It helps you improve your everyday life from all aspects. It gives you good ideas on how to set goals, and achieve your objectives. I found that you can apply this book to just about anything and it will produce results; whether it is on the track, in the classroom, or at the office. I will use this book to help me balance my sports career with the classroom. After reading this book I now have a direction and destination to strive for. No matter what your "dragon" is, this book can help you overcome it. If you give this book a chance, I gaurantee success in all aspects of your life. It's a must read book.

If you want to know where this franchise went wrong (and why, every once in a while they haven't), this is the book. Easily the best history of a baseball team I've ever read. It celebrates what there is to celebrate, such as Boston's early successes, 1967, and 1975, and takes an unflinching yet still entertaining look at the rest. New information throughout, from the myth of the curse, Tom Yawkey, to Fenway Park, to the ineptitude of the current acting owner. Although this book is a year old, the reasons why things went wrong this year (and why that's likely to continue barring change) is laid out for you - amazing. Whoever is contemplating buying the Red Sox should read this book and committ it to memory. For the rest of us, it just might get us through til next year.

What a sensational book. I have read Red Sox books in the past, and nothing seemed to capture the essence of the ball club's trials and tribulations than Red Sox Century. This book is as tragic as any classic story and examines 100 years of "what ifs." This book leaves no stone unturned and gives fans the ability to learn and love the former players of seasons past. It is the best Red Sox book I have ever read and will give one a deeper appreciation for the organization and it's tragic history. A futher note of excellence for this book are the points the authors make in putting to rest, the "cursed" theory and many other false misconceptions of the organization. It is a tremendous book and is a must read for any diehard Red Sox fan. Hell, it's a must read for anyone who wants to read a good tearjerker...

For fans wanting some reading during the next 6 months, I can recommend the brand new title RED SOX CENTURY. There have been a lot books over the years which were histories of the Red Sox, but I believe this one is clearly the best. It's a hefty 473 large pages, and very comprehensive. Exhaustive, even.

There are a lot of photographs included. The book is written by Glenn Stout and Dick Johnson, noted for their collaborations on books about Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Jackie Robinson. This will be my standard reference book, but it's also a book with opinions.

RED SOX CENTURY questions a few long-held beliefs, and fears not treading on sacred Yawkey toes. It goes further than any other book to suggest that Tom Yawkey, more than any other person, held the team back from success. Yawkey ownership clearly dominated Red Sox history, spanning from 1934 until the present, in one form or another. Noting that the Red Sox have so very often been one or two players short, the competition (frequently the Yankees) rarely are. The ultimate goal is, of course, a world championship. The "commitment of the franchise to this goal has not matched the devotion of their fans."

Tom Yawkey was one of the wealthiest men of his time, far wealthier than I had ever realized (the authors calculate the money he inherited in 1933 as being equivalent to somewhere between 4 1/2 and 7 billion dollars today.) His lineage is traced back to Johann Georg Jaky, who came to the new world from Germany in 1736. From time to time, Tom Yawkey paid a lot of money for specific players. The purchase price for Joe Cronin was an unheard of $250,000. Sounds like a lot, but Stout and Johnson translate that into 1999 dollars and the equivalent today would be a staggering $37.5 million! Anyone think we could pry loose a player or two from the competition with an outright cash purchase price of $37.5 million?

Yet Yawkey never quite achieved what he could have. Oftentimes, he was out of Boston for months at a time in mid-season. He had a private side - even his own GM Dick O'Connell had no idea that Yawkey had a daughter Julia, adopted by Tom and his first wife Elise. RED SOX CENTURY makes the case that Yawkey never made the moves he could and should have made to see the Red Sox triumph. The refrain is that he held the team back.

While Yawkey is lionized in Boston, Harry Frazee has always been held in contempt. After all, this is the former Sox owner who sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees - and gave them the mortgage on Fenway Park as well. The legend has it that Frazee was forced to sell the Bambino to finance losses caused by gearing up to present the Broadway show NO NO NANETTE. Stout and Johnson make a persuasive case for Frazee fighting for right against the machinations of Ban Johnson in the early days of the American League, and losing out in that struggle. Frazee was hardly broke, though. He died a very, very wealthy man. Frazee was a successful promoter who staged several successful efforts between the sale of Ruth and the opening of NO NO NANETTE.

There are quite a few interesting side notes found throughout the text. In the early Twenties, there was more Boston-area enthusiasm for the Twilight League, which could draw 20,000 fans to Hoyt Field in Cambridge - more than either the Red Sox or the Braves could attract. The level of play was often higher in such leagues, for semipro players could often earn more than major leaguers in this era - and thus often attracted higher quality players.

One amusing line caught my fancy. Discussing why Joe Morgan was replaced as manager by Butch Hobson, they write of the Sox ownership of the period, "They couldn't fire each other, so they fired Joe Morgan...."

There are very few errors that I noted - misspellings such as Elden Auker, Ted Williams' mother May Venzor and Johnny Pesky's birth name, Paveskovich - and a few very minor errors of fact, such as the idea that Pesky had been taken under the wing of former major leaguer Carl Mays (Pesky spent a few days at a camp Mays ran.) These errors are very minor indeed and in no way detract from a masterful job. I do highly recommend this solid, comprehensive work.

-- Bill Nowlin, co-author TED WILLIAMS: A TRIBUTE; FENWAY SAVED; TALES FROM THE RED SOX DUGOUT