I just finished reading this book just the other day,and it kept my interest in a big way. Zoe is just like a lot of us. We think we found the right man just because he is successful, a ball player, yet he is the biggest player around. How she didn't take a closer look at Devyn's friend Chase is beyond me. But like Lil Kim said in an article in Honey a while back, she is more interested in thugs and guys like that,not real nice men who have something going for them. Once you get into this book, you will be glued to it. Gauranteed. Also, I also like the Reading Guide with the Scriptures you can refer to at the end of the book.

A Lova' Like No Otha' is a page turner if I've ever seen one! I was captivated from page one and couldn't put the book down until I had read every word. This book ministered to my soul. It gave me encouragement and hope that I to could be strong in the Lord even in this world that we live in. I thank God for Stepanie Perry Moore. The characters were honest and believable, and often times I thought she was writing about ME!! I cried with Zoe, the main character, through her ups an downs; in near fatal situatons I held my breath. And in breathtaking moments, I felt like I was right there with her; crying tears of hapiness. I couldn't believe the way in wich this story was woven to flow so nicely and include so much action, so much love, but most of all...so much faith. God was all up in this book!! If you are searching for a nice and easy profound blessing to read, look no further...A LOVA' LIKE NO OTHA' is it!!!!!

I don't want to give too much of this delightful fast paced read away. Simply put, it's a book you don't want to miss! But okay, I'll tell you just a few reasons why we really loved it:

"A Lova Like No Other" is an excellent Christian book! Author Stephanie Perry Moore did a magnificent job capturing the struggles of what it means to have faith in God. This book is so captivating that it was difficult to put down. Moore allows the reader to experience the same range of thoughts and emotions that accompany us when we attempt to compromise or rob God instead of allowing His will to be done. This book is real, it does not sugar coat, gloss over or mask the natural needs and desires we have as Christian women. This book reveals the Christian woman's most intimate prayers and longings, even those that are not always pure.
Never have I read a book that has had such a strong male Christian character. It is easy to settle for the Christian man that just attends church on Sundays. But what about the Christian man who is sold out for Christ? What about the man who loves Christ so much that he will not allow anyone, or anything to come between his love for Christ? It is so awesome to read of such love and devotion, and as a result, it forces you to reconsider being complacent with a partner who has simply given their life to God, but has not dedicated his life to God.
It is truly an exhilarating and secure feeling knowing that we (as women) don't have to worry about positioning ourselves or manipulating men and situations in order to find and receive love. This book confirms that putting God first in your life above all else makes Him "A Lova Like No Otha."

This is a fair book about an extraordinary man and martial artist. Although I learned a few things about Dan Inosato that I didn't know from reading magazine articles, I wanted more. I was left feeling that the overall presentation was flat, almost lifeless at times.

Inasanto is an incredible, tireless martial arts master who is an icon in the martial arts world. I didn't feel that energy in this read and I was left wanting it.

The positives are that you will learn much about him, including some of his human weaknesses. But mostly you will learn that he is a driven man, who even now, in his 60s, is willing to be a student and learn from others.

I recommend this book, I just wish it had a little more spark.

Loren W. Christensen, author of FIGHTER'S FACT BOOK

This book is an excellent general biography of a great martial artist. It covers his life before and after Bruce Lee, touches on his progress since Lee's death and has some very interesting interviews and quotes. The book is a fine tribute to a humble, talented person and instructor.

Bruce Lee is amazing. He was before his time. Dan Inosanto, however, is beyond anything I have ever experienced. Having gone to seminars to train with the man himself, I can truly say this man is responsible for the JKD we know and also one of, if not THE, most well-read, experienced, and talented martial artist to date.

This book, although a LITTLE thin, is a wonderful read and addition to any martial artist's collection. He is, afterall, THE martial artist of our time. READ IT!!

Doug Flutie recounts his career from his earlest days on the playing field thought his magical first season with the Buffalo Bills. Lots and lots of football facts and game-related jargon here! I would have liked to have learned more about Flutie's personal life; what sort of things really shaped and inspired such an exemplary athlete? Who is the man behind the face mask? I recommend this book for Flutie and football fans everywhere but don't expect any great revelations.

Read this book! I loved it as much as you do! So read it

Excuse me, the 2nd review listed for Doug Flutie's autobiography is for another book entitled "Flutie, a novel". The juxtaposition of the reviewed content is hysterically funny however, so you might want to leave it.

I found this book very interesting. I liked how Perry wrote an introduction of British Comedy leading up to Python. This gives you an idea of what the Pythons were up against.

I also thought it was nice to split up the book into the mini biographies of each Python and then to go into the Python years as a whole. I especially enjoyed the sections on John Cleese and Michael Palin. Perry has a way of picking out the more interesting details. He does a good job of outlining the Pythons early careers in television and comedy. I was also introduced to a few post-Python projects through this book.

This is a great book, although there are better in-depth ones. I would reccomend this book for those who are unfamiliar with Monty Python and who want to learn more, but individual biographies of each Python would be better if you want to get a more in-depth view of the Python People. Otherwise, a fantastic resource.

As a college student in the seventies, Monty Python's Flying Circus was part of my growing-up. Their brand of insane humor seems almost natural to me, since it was such a part of my life. This book, however, makes clear how revolutionary it really was.
Mostly, though, it's a history of Python, from what led into it both on television and at Oxford and (particularly) Cambridge, how it came about, and what happened afterwards. It discusses who worked with whom throughout (including on the show, which is significant: Graham Chapman and John Cleese were one pairing, Terry Jones and Michael Palin were another, while Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam tended to work alone).

It's copiously illustrated, including a demonstration of silly walks in the upper-right-hand corner that one can experience in motion by flipping the pages rapidly. My only quibble is that there seems to be an inordinate fondness for photographs from lesser-known efforts like Erik the Viking and The Missionaries.
The text is good overall, though it could be better organized. Early chapters cover the careers of each of the Pythons individually, then return to their history as a group. Since many of the Pythons worked together after the program went off, there's a significant amount of repetition as a result.

Overall, though, this is an excellent overview and appreciation of the Pythons and their remarkable accomplishments in bringing us a new brand of comedy.

I first read "The Life of Python" approzimately one month after my PBS station started running the series. I love it when I can find a book that goes beneath the facade, and shows you the backstage turmoils and et cetera; such is the case with this book. Not only do you get the inside story behind the scenes, but you also get mini-biographies of each of the Python team. This is a spectacular book for any Pythonite.

Considered one of the classics of black pulp fiction by many, this story of a young boy's gradual slide into a life of crime with Brooklyn gangsters owes a lot to Jim Thompson, especially in its Oedipal sexual themes. In fact, I think that if the author had been white, the book would probably not have garnered the praise it has and would be regarded as yet another Thompson imitator. In any event, while the insights into the criminal life might have been new stuff in 1962, there are no great surprises to found within the pages for the modern reader who has probably seen Goodfellas, et al.

I'm all most all the way through this novel and so far it is great! I had never heard of it until i watched the movie Six Ways To Sunday thats based on it. The book just blows me away, and it's sad that Charles Perry never got to write anything else. xXx

PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN DROWNING was a breath of fresh air and I enjoyed every page-even the slow ones. It had everything; drama, action, betrayal, sexual tension (some by the wrong parties involved), and psychological torment made the novel exactly what I needed at the time, which was a book that had each ingredient, and then some. I've passed this novel on to two of my co-workers and they both fell flat on their backs with praise. To Charles Perry, wherever you are, on behalf of the three of us, THANK YOU!

Shortly after the original edition of this book came out a bunch of US Navy admirals sued Howling Mad for libel, won, and got a court order to have the remaining copies destroyed and all Howling Mad's royalities turned over to them. For the "good" of Navy/Marines/Army relations the court case was kept rather quiet. Guess this makes this book one of those "banned" books of high collectability. Anyone who reads this book must read Edmund Love's "The 27th Infantry Division in WWII" for balance.

Penned by Smith with the help of Percy Finch in 1948, Coral and Brass is the autobiography of one of the most colorful and controversial commanders of WW II. Prior to the Japanese in the Pacific, Marine "Howlin' Mad" Smith waged war with the Navy and the Army. Never one to back down from a fight, he often railed against real and imagined slights. His resentment against the Navy seemed to stem from the horrible treatment he and his men received aboard ship in 1909. Headed to Nicaragua, the Marines were denied access to the canteen and were forced to pay 10 to 20 times the going rate for cigarettes and candy. At the Naval War College in 1920 he again ran headlong into the Navy's mindset that Marines "...were the lowest form of naval life" and "Marine officers are not qualified...to command large forces in war." It was largely through his efforts and others that the Marines were finally placed on equal footing with the other branches of the service.

In 1933, the Fleet Marine Force (FMF) was created and a permanent organization for the study and practice of amphibious warfare was brought into existence. The following year they produced a new doctrine of landing operations - the "Tentative Landing Operations Manual", which was subsequently adopted by the Navy in 1938 and by the Army in 1941. In 1937, then Col. Smith was made Director of Operations and Training and began building a modern amphibious force along the lines of the new doctrine. He later became Commander, V Amphibious Corps and then Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force.

Smith and several other men of vision understood the nature of the coming war in the Pacific and set out to train and supply the Corps properly. It was these men who fought so hard for the production of the Higgins boat, Roebling's "Alligator", the LVT and other amphibious craft. In this regard and in tactics, Smith was a foresighted genius. For better or worse, he also saw himself as a combat commander. Surrounded by controversy for most of his career, this book was written largely to justify his dismissal of Army Maj. Gen. Ralph Smith at Saipan. He tells us in the introduction that he does so relying "largely" on his memory. Perhaps that explains why many of his recollections are at odds with other written materials and testimony of the day.

Smith is one of those men who became larger, much larger than life. The media of the day sided with H.M. Smith and the history of the event is largely taken from a magazine article written by Robert Sherrod and subsequent newspaper articles. Questions, nevertheless, persist as to his fitness to command. (See, "Howlin' Mad" vs The Army by Harry Gailey) This is unfortunate for, in his proper element, the man was, without doubt, deserving of the praise heaped upon him. His co-author should have told him that making "I" his favorite word would not serve him well.

Covers the development of the fledgling Fleet Marine Force, a new concept in Amphibious Warfare. Deals in some detail the extremely important aspect of how landing craft were devised for this mission. Anyone who knows anything about the pre war Marine Corps or Navy will find the men and ships of that time on parade in this book. "Howlin' Mad" didn't get his nickname as a mistake. The only question is was he more angry with the Japanese, or the brass of the Navy or the Army. Describes his long and usually unsuccessful fights with the Navy as to who would control the landing force. Readers must recall that WW II began with the Marine Corps headed by a Major General, and the Marines themselves considered as what Harry Truman later called them in 1950, "The Police Force of the Navy." It would be the Fleet Marine Force and its success, formed by the brains and experience of a handful of officers, and the blood of all hands when it came to that, that would break this mold. Forever? There isn't any such thing. Each new generation of Marines must refight the fight to retain the right to fight. Jimmy Forrestal, looking at the U. S. colors being raised over Iwo asked Holland Smith if he knew what that event signified. Forrestal then told him that it meant a Marine Corps for the next 500 years. Two years later we were fighting in the halls of Congress to continue our right to exist. And by 1950, there were only some 23,952 serving officers and men in the Fleet Marine Force. A year later there were over 30,000 Marines serving in the Korean War. So, you Modern Day Marine Warriors, this is your charge. It's your turn. You've got some pretty good shoulders to stand on, but the battle is yours.

While this book has many great pictures from the decade and examples of artwork inspired by psychedelic rock, it is a very lightweight effort. Perhaps it was meant to be that way. Concentrating almost solely on London and the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, the book consists mainly of reminiscences of aging hippies, most of whom were involved in the music and/or art scene of that era, either in San Francisco or London. Pretty much all of these consist of uncritical reminiscences about the hippie movement, whose downfall, if we are to believe these people, apparently came only from its eventual invasion by those looking to get rich off the movement (i.e., the establishment), totally disregarding the fact that those hucksters and exploiters were there from the beginning within the movement. One thing that also bothered me is that the rampant drug use of the period was presented almost completely as a positive thing. Indeed, it was glorified. With the exception of mentioning that Syd Barrett apparently became emotionally unhinged at least in part due to his use of LSD, there is almost no mention of the lives destroyed by the hedonism and drug use of the period, including such famous rock pioneers as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison, to name the most prominent. While it was interesting and entertaining to read many of these reminiscences, I wanted to know more. I wanted the authors and editors to dig a bit deeper than the superficial outline of that period's history that we've heard about before. One good effort in that direction was the timeline that was at the bottom of every page, spanning the years from 1965-1969 throughout the course of the book. Basically, I recommend this book, but mainly for the great photo spreads and not as much for the commentaries and reminiscences.

i found that this was a wonderful book. i was not around during the sixties, but i have been in love with them for a while. this book is a great trip back to the sixties for those of us who weren't fortunate enough to be there, and i'm sure it is great memories for those who were. i would reccomend this book to anyone in search of information about the sixties/hippies. it is definately a must read!

This book is an excellent portrayal of life in the 60's. It is great nostalgia for those who were there, and a great taster for those who wish they were.

I'm an English teacher in Taiwan and I've found the full four-book set to be the best Chinese course available anywhere. Unfortunately, this book alone is probably just a waste of time and money.

As has been stated before, anyone who wants to use the Chinese series books should get at least three -
1. Bluish color, with lessons (mostly dialogues) in pinyin and English
2. Red book, with exercises and grammar notes for the first blue one
3. Yellow book, for character practice.

There is also a green book that has all the lessons from the blue book translated into traditional and simplified characters, which could have been useful to me, if I had only known of its existance...

The three books set comes in two versions, one in pinyin, and
one in GR, here's the explanation:

Pinyin is the standard romanization of Chinese in the People's Republic of China, so native speakers should be familiar with it more - important if you want to take a tutor.

Gr is a kind of romanization that is apparently very popular for teaching to foreigners. Most Chinese people are not used to it, however. So I guess it's better for professional teachers.

Bottom line, ask your tutor/teacher which version they recommend.
If you're not sure, I'd recommend the pinyin - it worked for me so far.

I've been using first three for about 4 months, and I'm already able to use Chinese in simple conversations. Mind you, you need to put a some time and effort and a lot of patience every day for this to work. The people who wrote the book recommended using the Gr set, but I found the pinyin much easier. Just stick to the instructions inside, don't rush things, and follow the yellow brick road!!

This set is not merely the blue book, but instead all but the green book (dialog text in Chinese characters). That fact is plainly stated in the description itself. Please keep this in mind when reading the other reviews. As for my opinion of the set, I certainly think this is one (three?) of the better Chinese textbooks available, and was what I used when I was a Chinese major at the introductory level.

For a book that started with so much promise, it really fell flat. Dreadfully needed at least one character who was likeable or at least not annoying. But anything good that might have come from the actual writing was ruined with the author's eventual overuse of the word "flesh". At least once a page, sometimes once a paragraph, some times more than once a sentence. Who edited this thing, anyway? Give this man a Thesaurus. It distracted me to the point where I couldn't enjoy the story.

This novel concerns the inner thoughts and personal experiences of several characters, both Federal and Confederate, before and during the fall of Fort Pillow. Lentz does an excellent job of presenting despicable characters: the envious, cruel, cowardly Suttell, the uptight Seabury lost in his fantasy world, Acox with his excuses and denial of responsiblity. At the same time as the reader is appalled by these people, though, it is impossible not to identify with them, because their faults are in all of us. Lentz' writing is generally excellent, with very good combat scenes. I like his portrayal of General Forrest, and wish he had included Forrest's response to the final events in his story. The research seems accurate -- I wonder if his image of the behavior of black troops during a truce is true to life. However, I suspect that this book has a fatal flaw as far as ever gaining mass appeal. Lentz' world is too gross, too ugly, his characters too corrupt, his black characters in particular too stupid and promiscuous (although I don't believe the author is prejudiced: he's portraying his image of the results of enslavement). I like "gritty" historical fiction, and this was a little too much of a downer even for me. Those who like romance and highminded causes should stay away from this book. For those willing to descend farther into the depths, I certainly recommend it.

Perry Lentz is a bit of a legend at Kenyon College, the school where he teaches and where he penned this fine novel as an undergrad. History buffs and lovers of fine fiction will find much to praise in this book. There's action, moral dilemma, and great characters, all placed in a detailed (but fascinating) historical cutout of one of the Civil War's least known but most notable battles. Lentz's writing is rich and sonorous, urging me to ask again, "Why is no one reading this book?"

i thought it was not very good

These morsels are ideal for bedtime delectation. To quote "Death of the Mallory Queen" narrator Chip Harrison, the 'Archie' of Lawrence Block's laugh-out-loud take-off on Nero Wolfe and assorted generic conventions: "If this were novel length I'd say what each of them was wearing and who scowled and who looked interested, but Haig says there's not enough plot here for a novel and that you have to be more concise in short stories ... ." Lack of complexity and lightning-quick resolutions aside, pleasures are many. First published in 1949, Talmage Powell's "Her Dagger Before Me" reads like a picture postcard of the era come to life on the page. "Chee's Witch" spread lore. In "Snow," a new story, Stuart Kaminsky's Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov is a uniformed police whose future depends on his ability to woo his damaged left leg. Stories are arranged by age, from masters to the "new breed," the former being primarily male [with the exception of Maxine O'Callaghan, creator of Delilah West,according the editor, the first modern female P.I.] and the latter being women. The modern female sleuths -- Shugak, Matelli, Plum, Monaghan -- are fearless about defining for themselves the meaning of guilt and justice.

Robert Randisi has succeeded masterfully in pulling together a single volume of works that provides his reader with a brief, thorough, and excellent overview of contemporary mysteries. The stories in this collection feature the "first" cases of many of today's leading sleuths. Unlike many short story anthologies, there is a great range in tone and subject matter in this FIRST CASES volume. Some stories are cozies while others are hardboiled. All fit somewhere across our genre's spectrum.

I was pointed to this short story collection by my favorite mystery bookseller. I told her I needed a fresh text for this upcoming semester's course on writing mystery short stories that I regularly teach in the California State University system. Students in that class usually have a wide range of writing interests, and FIRST CASES--VOLUME 3 provides models that can apply to their varying literary efforts. It features stories by Tony Hillerman, Gar Anthony Haywood, Laura Lippman, Lawrence Block, Maxine O'Callaghan, and Anne Perry, among others. There is even a Talmage Powell story dating from the mystery genre's pulp fiction years. I am quite pleased with this collection, and it is now among my course's required texts when this semester's course begins soon.