Harrison usually has intelligent characters making reasonable decisions, but this book is premised on a decision that is so ridiculous, that I couldn't get past the first few chapters. The situation: A modern-day bad guy has taken the plans for a simple machine gun back in time to change the outcome of the Civial War. The obvious solution: Take a year to train a Seal Team for the mission (You can send anyone from anywhen to anywhen, so it doesn't matter how much time you take to prepare.) Send them back to a month before the bad guy arrived, so that they are ready and waiting for him when he gets there. Harrison's solution: Send a lone black man with no training and no weapons to pre-Civil War Virginia to arrive several months after the bad guy. That's silly.

This is an interesting concept, and was run to read. I'm glad to see it back in print. I had a hard time finding it.

I found this book to be a pretty good read. I don't think Harry Harrison is quite the master of alternative history that Harry Turtledove is but he is a good writer. Most of the book deals with the present and is a detective novel. The last third of the book takes place juste before and during the civil war. I thought the first half of the book was very well paced and written and if the entire book had maintained the same tempo it would have deserved 5 stars. I felt the last part of the book, although satisfactory, was a little rushed and trite.

Definitely worth a read.

I'm a Lawrence Block/Matt Scudder fan. Can't get enough of that Matt Scudder.

So, I thought Block's other stuff might be just as good: not so. Hit man was a dissapointment and so was this.

Lame jokes: boring story. Too many characters who are alike -- how many men can we stand? Blatantly crude gratuitous "sex" scene. Sad

Laurence Block has become a recent obsession of mine. I love all of his books I have read, and in the week and a half I have been working on them, I have read somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 books. This was another great Chip. Everyone should read this.

"The Topless Tulip Caper," by Lawrence Block is the fourth and final book (as of this date) in a series of novels about Chip Harrison, the teen-age assistant to Leon Haig, who billed himself the world famous detective in "Five Little Rich Girls." (Which was also republished under the title, "Make Out With Murder." Now Haig agrees author's Rex Stout's famous detective, Nero Wolfe is the world's greatest detective. The novel is short, under 200 pages. In this story Tulip Willing is a topless dancer, hence the title. She's a tropical fish fancier and a biologist who call upon Haig in his capacity as a detective because he too is a tropical fish expert. Tulip's fish are poisoned and this leads to the murder of her roommate, Cherry Bounce on the stage of the Treasure Chest. Chip is sent out to investigate for his boss Haig. This Chip Harrison novels has the same brand of wit as the others and similar to Block's "The Burglar Who...." Series featuring Bernie Rhodenbarr. Both series light reading but certainly not as deep as the Matt Scudder mystery novels. Block is a very good writer. I have read most of series books, with the exception of the Evan Turner books which are on my to find and read list.

To any Beatles fans who have read Geoffrey Giuliano's writing, you know very well how destructive Giuliano is to ALL of the Beatles' lives, (note the book in particular, 'Blackbird: the Life and Times of Paul McCartney'.) His books are written in a manner similar to that of Albert Goldman's trashy 'Lives of John Lennon'. Had I not learned much about Paul before I read Giuliano's book, I would now hate him. This is what Giuliano does to the Beatles. He writes books for money, clearly, for he always focuses on the WORST aspects of their personalities, the MEANEST things they ever did. He apparently wants us to hate the Beatles. Be wary of Giuliano. And stay far from his newest release concerning John Lennon's diaries. Much of it is lies, and cruel lies at that.

Here is George throuhout his great life in GREAT photos and words. I loved it!

I thought this colorful well designed book was great! There are lots of rare pictures of George, and even more rare stories. I recommened the book to anyone who loves George Harrison of the Beatles. Besides being a great writer, Giuliano clearly loves the subject.

I was told this was 'the' book to read on this topci. Have never been so badly put wrong in my life. It was total rant, no arguments offered, the position was just stated without evidence or sources offered most of the time. The conclusions were jumped to by psycho-analysis into objectors' childhoods and prudish tendancies "these people hate sex" "this entire class of people hate women" all the while assuming without argument that anyone who likes sex and likes women will agree with her. If its feminist rant you want for the purposes of convincing other feminist ranters who don't would rather hear about their oponents women/sex hating tendencies than why their arguments are invalid then buy this you will love it. On the other hand if you want to engage in an academic arena and employ logic and arguments steer clear and don't waste your money.

Simply the best treatment of the historical, religious, theological, medical, ethical issues regarding abortion. Period. Any real discussion of abortion must deal with Harrison's work. Regrettably, I loaned that book to somebody (who I don't recall), and it was never returned. I trust they needed it more than did I.

Dr.Harrison was Professor of Christian Ethics at Union
Theological Seminary. She uses theological scholarship
and scientific data to make a case for a pro-choice
feminist morality of abortion. Her work is one of
the classics of pro-choice political theory. Also
recommended- her book "Making the Connections."

The problem with this book is that it doens't have enough pictures. I like the cover of the book, but Larry Griffin seems like he's forcefully yelling at the reader through his text. I just feel queasy thinking about it.

When I think about the South I don't think about all these problems and stuff, I just think about big ole biscuits and Nascar. I think Larry Griffin must just sit around and think about all kinds of nasty bad bad things.

Though I found some of the essays exteremely interesting and helpful in my studies (this was the textbook for a southern music class), other essays were just a waste of my time. The book and class did give me a different perspective of my southern heritiage and helped me understand southern slavery, poverty, and renewal after the civil rights movement.

A significant contribution to the study of the Southern United States. The selections and analysis therein provides the reader with an opportunity to analyze the most recent and important intellectual assessments of Southern culture, traditions, and influence toward the rest of the nation and Southerners themselves. Although the section dealing with popular culture issues such as NASCAR and pro-wrestling phenomena seems superfluous at times, in a broader perspective, the chapter melds well into the image and understanding of the South as a whole. The book may not be the best choice for the casual reader or those uninterested in American culture or Southern life; however, it provides a necessary tool and important insight into modern America.

I read this book after reading most of the Stainless Steel Rat books--and finding them to be dwindling in creativity and vitality. Bill the Galactic Hero left me flabbergast--it is so bad. I imagined that this was a novel that Mr. Harrison had stuffed in his drawer, probably the first thing he tried to write when he was in Junior High School. Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad -- that's all I can say. I was trying to find my copy to see the marginal notes I had written, but I guess it was so bad I threw it away. That's how bad, bad, bad, bad it is.

If you enjoy mindless sex and overindulgence in every aspect of life, this book is for you! It all starts out when the garbage tug Bill is on crashes onto an unknown planet called Usa (manufacturer of fine products the galaxy over). As the small little band of soldiers and drunkards are taken on a journey, things get a bit out of hand. If you don't mind the occasional typo and off-color humor, this book is great. I would give just about anything for this book. Verily, even my flabby buttocks!

I found this book extremely hard to read. The author keeps returning to the same evnts over and over again. No real flow of thoughts nor words. Very boring.

This was Roger Harrison's first book. For anyone interested in becoming an organizational or change consultant, this is probably the most inspiring and at the same time humbling book you can read. He charts his journey of learning as an OD consultant, sharing his experiences, good and bad. It should be required pre-course reading for all change-agent and consultant development courses.

At first glance this appears to be a great book for introducing youngsters to the subject of dinosaurs. Although the book does have nice illustrations and a recent publication date (1998), I would caution against buying this book for your kids. The last chapter (page), entitled 'Bye Bye Dinosaurs', is poorly researched. Even though the book claims to have used a 'technical consultant', the author writes that the dinosaurs died mysteriously (maybe it was a change in climate or habitat she suggests). This is a very poor statement. Very few scientists would deny the fact that a large comet (or asteroid) collided with the Earth 65 million years ago. Most believe that the result was the extinction of many species including the dinosaurs. Since I am against teaching uninformed science (especially to kids), I can not recommend this book as a worthwile purchase (unless you cut out the last page!).

This book is a great way to introduce young children to dinosaurs. It covers a large cross-section of dinosaur information without getting too scientific or technical for youngsters. Especially helpful to parents or young readers are the phonetic pronunciations of the dinosaur names. The illustrations are great and they will stimulate the imagination! It has become our family reference book for dinosaurs. Even though Amazon rates the reading level for this book as 9 - 12, our five year old has enjoyed it immensely. We like the fact that the author is not afraid to say that we don't know everything about how the dinosaurs lived or what happened to them. In fact, this has been very thought provoking and has led to many family discussions. We highly recommend it.

This book gives virtually no driving directions or driving times - an email query to the publisher was not acknowledged. It claims that the only way to fly in is to Albuquerque - in fact, United flies to Santa Fe, as I discovered while boarding my plane to Albuquerque - giving me an extra hour's drive coming and going. The maps are inadequate at best - few of the attractions/lodgings mentioned are shown. Hotel listings are incomplete, and biased toward the high end. Admission fees to attractions - often as high as $10/person - are not given. Many sights are mentioned (Anasazi cliff dwellings, Mesa Verde) without a description, but are not in the index. No chart of annual temperatures was given - that I could see - I found out the hard way that it gets very, very cold in the winter. In short, using this book to plan and travel was an extremely frustrating experience.

We (Kaatje and Justin) live in New Mexico, and every holiday or free weekend we use this guide to lead us to new exciting and beautiful places. This book is the perfect travel companion for anyone interested in smaller, off the beaten path places. This book led us to discover Las Vegas, NM, a (yet) not so touristy place unlike Taos or Sante Fe. Thanks to this guide, we enjoyed the free road side Hot Springs located in a pristine alpine valley, and delicious restaurants that put the more known places to shame. It has small eateries and interesting museums, parks like the little known Three Rivers Petroglyph National Monument with thousands of drawings, on the way from Socorro to Alamogordo. Yet again, this is a place not mentioned in other tourist maps or books. I would recommend for anyone really interested in traveling through New Mexico to also have DeLorme Topographic Map of New Mexico with them for references and the smaller roads. The general RandMcNally or AAA maps just don't cut it. Those topo maps are only about 16 dollars and will work great with the Hidden New Mexico book or any travelguide. Check out Chaco Canyon National Monument as well, and stay in El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, you will not believe your eyes! That was also a tip from the Hidden New Mexico book. Enjoy the most beautiful state in the nation (I am biased, I know)!

I went to the library to get this book out when I needed to make costumes for my daughters dance recital. It was an amatuer production of Swan Lake; so I needed some help making the classical tutus. Unfortunately, the book hrdly helped at all. The pictures and/or instructions were very hard to understand, and Iam no oaf so I do understand a lot. But this? I didn't understand at all. They did have some very nice ideas for costumes, I thought.

I bought this book looking for some help in making basic Classical and Romantic tutus. The book is dominated by illustrations, and the instructions could have been written a little more clearly -- but after re-reading them very carefully, I decided that all the information I wanted was actually there. It's just a little inaccessible.

The book describes how to make basic garments (tutus, leotards, etc.) without a pattern, and then has lots of illustrations to show how you might modify them for particular styles and dances. So, to get any use out of this book, you'll need to buy some cheap material, and draft your own patterns with the help of the book and perhaps a little trial and error. If you absolutely have to be provided with a proper pattern, you'll need to look elsewhere for it. Even so, the example illustrations may be helpful in adapting a basic costume to suit a particular dance, once you've obtained the basic pattern elsewhere.

The content of the book is just as old as I am -- first published in 1975 -- which is probably why Lycra (tm) isn't mentioned in the book at all! So if you're determined to use Lycra, you'll have to figure out for yourself what differences it will make to the design and construction.

Overall, this is a very good book which could really use a new revision to take account of new materials, and to make the text a little more accessible.