I found the puzzles and problems in this book to be original and varied, and with a wide range of difficulty levels. I enjoyed the fact that some puzzles might actually have more than one answer, which leaves room for healthy debate and for better understanding the way different people think. I think this book can be enjoyed by readers of different levels of mathematical sophistication. For example, a freshman in high school could skip the more difficult problems, like the one on Ramanujan Congruences, although this is one of the most interesting chapters. My favorite chapter is one that poses a statistics-like question, dealing with bones thrown into a pit. You have to figure out the ratio of the long piece to the short piece. Here's a sample of other chapters that I really enjoyed:

1. The Yellow-brick Road
2. An Experiment with Kansas
8. The Problem of the Bones
16. Omega Sphere
28. Legions' Number
29. The Problem of the Tombs
35. Prime-poor Equations
36. Number Satellite
43. Ramanujan Congruences and the Quest for Transcendence
49. The Jellyfish of Europa
99. A Connection Between Pi and e
103. The Scarecrow Formula
107. The Omega Crystal
108. Attack of the Undulating Undecamorphs

I've already spent hours reading and rereading the book, and showing it to friends, and I know I'll spend many hours more!

I'm the webmaster for the WWII destroyer escort USS Wintle ... I've purchased every DE book I can get my hands on to help me make my web page better. Unfortunately, there aren’t really that many good books on DE's. The few that are out there fall into two or three basic categories, those that are technical and meant mostly for WWII enthusiasts that are excited about the equipment (like model builders), and those that are “action” oriented. Since my web site was really geared to celebrate the regular people who were the crew members of a ship that “merely” did its duty escorting convoys and hunting subs, neither of these type of books typically has the depth of experience necessary to tell that type of story. After a lot of digging I did find a few “memoirs” from sailors, but inevitable they had flaws. They were not professionally published, so they were weak on proofing and editing. They tended to be spiral-bound. And if they had pictures or illustrations they were amateurish. Finally, they were often written by sailors that didn’t have access to the bridge. The authors seldom really understood the “big picture” or had researched the specifics of what their ships part was in the grand scheme of things.

When I found this book, Men of Poseidon, I was pretty impressed. The binding is professional, as are the pictures and the layout. There are no weird grammatical errors or spelling problems. The research is impeccable. Throughout, the author refers to specific log entries that he himself had made in the official ships log, which he requested from the US Navy in order to write this book. That brings up an important point. Since the author was an officer on the USS Rall, he was able to get the big picture and understand the real behind the scenes missions. He not only explains what happens on a day to day basis, but addresses why it happened. I learned a great deal from this book that no film or military history book will ever convey. In fact I learned so much that I couldn’t resist emailing the publisher to try to contact Mr. Graves himself, to see if he could help resolve some questions I had run into researching “my” DE, the USS Wintle. Imagine my surprise when he wrote me back and gave me wonderfully detailed information to help me in my work. A DE officer with an amazing memory is a tremendous resource. And he turned out to be a really nice guy.

The most important thing about the book is that the author, Richard Graves, is a very good writer. I was never confused, since the book takes the time to explain everything, yet I was never bored, since he kept things moving. That’s a very hard balance to achieve. The book does not skimp on scope either. It starts in the time leading up to the war, so you can appreciate the anti-war sentiment that was real, and the ambivalence that many people had about it, and continues on to the ships 50-year reunion.

When I categorized DE books, I didn’t put Men of Poseidon in the “action” category, because it doesn’t read that way. It’s not written to culminate in an exciting battle. However, it’s definitely more than a memoir. The USS Rall saw real action. The punishment it took at the hands of a concentrated 8-aircraft Japanese Kamikaze attack was substantial and deadly. I’m sure Mr. Graves could have chosen to write an action book about the episode. But instead he wrote a very personal memoir. It’s not about drama, it’s not about action or inflated speeches. It’s not about firepower, speed and camouflage schemes of a particular ship class. This book really is the story of the sailors of the USS Rall -- regular men in extraordinary circumstances, forced into heroism to serve their country and oppose imperialism. It’s a good book, a fun read, and an inspiring real-life, real-world memoir. It’s one of those book that, after you finish reading it, makes you feel like you just had the most amazing dinner conversation with a great story-teller. In other words, I highly recommend it.

my dad wrote this book i like it i read it alot all of you people should buy it!Its awsome!

New ocean crusts are a topic which most certainly concerns all of us, particularly in these times of crustular uncertainty. Add into the pudding the unique element of Mid-Ocean ridges, and you've got a subject which will be discussed over a cup of hot grog for decades to come. Let's not forget that were it not for oceans, crusts and ridges, there would simply be nothing out there separating the continents, and then undesirables would simply be able to walk over here and plunder us. Let us all do our homework and learn how to nurture our crusts, so that our oceans never go away when we need them most!

Losts of information on the Moon, Mars, Venus and even outer planets' satellites have been distributed in papers and magazines, thanks to images captured and transmitted to us by spacecrafts and telescopes. And maybe we know much more about these Earth-like bodies than our own Earth. If we compare the planets in our Solar System, we will notice that a great part of ours is hidden under the oceans and what artificial satellites can scan is greenish-brown continents on a dark blue background. What does our "home" really look like? As the cover shows, Adolphe Nicolas has elegantly achieved the task of focusing the processes that create and destroy oceanic crust, by presenting real evidence such as colorful photographs of pillow lavas of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Oman ophiolites and illustrations that clearly explain the causes and consequences of plate motions and the constitution of Earth's lithosphere... not to mention nine revealing chapters and a glossary of scientific terms. This book is not only aimed at geosciences students and researchers, but to all who care for and what to learn more about this beautiful blue planet.

This boom is a must for any cruise ship lover. See the beginnings of the cruise ship era with ships like the Canberra and QE2, before seeing the modern RCCLs. Miller does another great job with this one with not only the pictures, and stats, but also the facts.

"This excellent book is effectively series of mini-reviews covering the complete gamut of molecular techniques which have recently become available to the marine biologist or oceanographer...The book is beautifully presented and all contributions are of the highest quality; the editor has done a fine job of maintaining consistency without suffocating the authors' individual styles"
- by Bill Burnett, Center for Tropical Coastal Management Studies

Being a Swiss, I know Mr. Ulrich personally and I know how much effort he put into his book. He really is an expert on the subject and he published hundreds of articles on cruises all over the world. His book, starting with the first cruises in the late 19th century and ending with the huge cruise ships now operating in the Caribbean, is extremely well written and a real joy to read - though I must admit that I read it in Germnan (published as "Luxusliner"), but I assume that the translator did a good job. Unfortuantely, the development of new cruise ships is so fast, that the book should be updated every year. Nevertheless, it has excellent pictures, probably the best ever published in a book on this subject. And though it is not a guide to cruising, the book tells much about what a cruise is all about.

Monterey Bay within Us

by Nick Pierotti

It is said that we all come originally from the Sea, and that one day, like the racing waters of the streams, we will all return. For we all live downstream. That is why we must pay careful attention to the Sea, for our well-being depends ultimately upon the health of this ancient water. Perhaps we feel this way because, not only is our blood chemically similar to seawater, but our bloodstreams surge with the same ancient rhythms. That is why it is so important for us to stay in touch with this ever-present miracle that we dwell beside, and stay educated in its subtleties.

Nowhere is our great interconnection with all life better represented than in the web of the Sea, and nowhere is this great web better displayed and described than in the halls of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The aquarium is, first of all, a fun trip, but the things seen and the lessons learned run much deeper. You get to put your hands in the salty water, and touch the creatures that dwell in the watery realms. You are allowed to know many creatures that we are used to seeing from above, or from on the shore; and get to know them from underneath, and from next to them, separated from the sea's blue surge by a mere wall of glass. Into dark undersea caverns you dive and tunnel, communing with giant octopi, locking eyes with cuttlefish who stare you down with their ancient eyes and prehistoric wisdom. You watch live sand dollars in their sandy beds, and sea anemones waving their fluorescent feelers. Pelagic barnacles, attached to far-floating buoys, filter off tiny creatures that you cannot even see, through delicate combs. Sea turtles drift, and jellyfish spin and bob like strings of lights dancing before your astonished eyes. The black depths of the deep Monterey Canyon are revealed to you, full of astonishing creatures that gleam and glow with their own light.

And in the outer bay, endless schools of tuna and mackerel and sardines and sharks perform their primeval round dance, ceaselessly circling, hypnotizing you with their bright and glittering armor.

It is appropriate, that on the very spot where ol' "Doc" Ricketts, who was memorialized by Steinbeck in "The Log from the Sea of Cortez," once collected tidepool creatures and studied them in a small, makeship lab, that there should be erected a great memorial to the Sea, and to its miraculous and multifarious creatures. And that on a street made famous during the early years of this century for its Sardine Canneries, again described by Steinbeck, as "a stink, and a noise," that we should be graced with the sight of living, swimming sardines, and reminded that the sea is all about life, and not death.

How fabulous it is that there is a place, where families can voyage to together, and learn all about the great dynamic body of water that we all make our homes beside. And that we have a resource that explains and illuminates this great mystery, the mystery that we feel when we listen to the great murmuring waters, and to the tumble and crash of surf, and feel the icy torrent of brine that surges over our bare toes at the beach. For we are all of one earth, but our hearts beat to the sea surge of the great Pacific Ocean.

In late 1907 Liverpool, the maiden voyage of the world's largest ocean liner, the Mauretania begins. Among the passengers is detective George Porter Dillman sailing in second class and his new assistant Genevieve Masefield staying in first class. George and Genevieve met on the Lusitania (see MURDER ON THE LUSITANIA). They are working undercover for the Cunard Line to prevent robberies of the wealthy patrons from thieves that are plowing their trades and to protect a 2.75 million-pound gold shipment.

As the ship sails, George stops minor pilfering from happening, but an unknown phantom continues to steal in spite of the detective's efforts. The weather for the most part is nasty, but the powerful Mauretania keeps a steady pace. However, the calm changes when a first class passenger falls overboard in what appears to be a tragic accident. However, Sam soon sees a connection with that incident and the clever stealing of some of the gold. Even with Genevieve's access to the wealthy first class patrons, Sam struggles to identify a master felon.

MURDER ON THE MAURETANIA, the second Dillman-Masefield historical mystery set on the ocean cruise liners, is a wonderful tale that brings readers along for the ride sans seasickness. The story line is entertaining as readers obtain a glimpse at the ship, its passengers, and its crew mostly through the eyes of the undercover sleuth and his assistant. The enjoyable who-done-it adds to the fun of an exciting sea voyage. Sub-genre fans will book passage on Conrad Allen's next ocean adventure.

Harriet Klausner