Highly recommended for the graduate school core curriculum. Eidle's understanding of the subject matter is unbelievable. He is a masterful technician of the English language which allows his readers to fully comprehend a painfully complex topic. In my opinion, Bill Eidle has clearly distinguished himself as a world leader in the theories and applications of Cognitive Psychology.

accomplished contribution, adding new insights to the well worked field, at times relentlessly funny, ...idiosyncratic, and deeply felt. an absolute must-read!

This is another great book from Dr. Stephen Turnbull a two part serie on the amazing Siege Weapons of the Far East that they really should change the name to Siege Weapons from China and the Far east thats because of the mayority of the weapons are from china. This is the first time a see a book about the Siege Warfare use by China,Japan and the Mongols, illustrated with spectacular artwork. The Illustration are from Wayne Reynolds which make a great work trying to reconstruct a manual trebuchet use by the chinese.

Exploding cows, wheeled rocket launchers, elephant-mounted crossbows are some of the rare weapons use in Asia, I can tell you that you would not be disappointed because of the great detail of these weapons, to tell you the true is sometime hard to believe that this type of weapons were ever use but the work of Mr Turnbull is very high technical quality.
One of the best and original works publish to this date.Also form the same author Ashigaru 1467-1649(Warrior 29)and Samurai Warfare are another great title to buy.

I adored this book, because I left Sioux Falls, my birthplace, when I was only one and a half. When I read this book, I learned so much about where I was from and it helped me choose where I am going to visit when I go with my family on a trip all over South Dakota! This book is for all South Dakotans!

Having read 2 of Mr. Reynold's previous books 'Men of Steel' (History of 1st SS Panzer Corp) and Steel Inferno (1st SS PC in Normandy), I was eagerly anticipating this book on the exploits of the 9TH SS - Hohenstaufen and 10th SS - Frundsberg Divisions. True to form, this book is an incredibly insightful and detailed account of the savage defensive battles these divisions fought from Normandy, to Arnhem and the fighting on the Eastern Front and Vienna before the war's end. There is no question that Mr. Reynolds (a retired British Army Officer) is the pre-eminent expert on the Waffen SS and I thoroughly recommend that anyone with an interest in the German Army in WWII read this book as he will help dispell some of the myths that are all too common about these elite divisions. If you want to learn about the fighting elan of these soldiers, the tactics they employed against a numerically superior enemy and the motivation for continuing to fight against all odds, then this is a great book for you.

The book A HISTORY OF BEST-LOVED CAROLS THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS by Virginia Reynolds is beautifully put together as a hard bound book. Just to look at it is inspirational. The pictures are spell binding, the written history of the songs are captivating, so very informative and easy to read. The music lifts you to a higher level. The fonts used in the making of the book makes for such a elegant vision to look at. The CD to listen to, is so spirtual that you feel you are in a gothic cathedral. The music gives you chills of spiritual bliss within. It is a sincere gift of heartfelt angelic magical inspiration.

IMO, Susan Lynn Reynolds is head and shoulders above popular Young Adult fantasy writers like Tamora Pierce, Vivian Vande Velde, and especially Gail Carson Levine. I recently read Levine's book ELLA ENCHANTED, and liked it far less than I'd anticipated, given all the rave reviews it's received. It was an entertaining enough retelling of the Cinderella story, but I was disappointed by the stereotypical portrayal of the Wicked Stepsisters (wasn't it enough for them to be nasty? Did they have to be repulsively ugly dunces as well?), the thoroughly traditional ending (instead of getting married right away, when Ella was still so young, why couldn't she and the Prince just have been friends for a few more years?), and Levine's cutesy psuedo-mediaeval fantasy world, which was like something out of a Disney cartoon. ELLA ENCHANTED isn't a book I'll want to read again; my copy is going straight to the secondhand bookstore.

On the other hand, I've had my copy of STRANDIA for years, and reread it regularly. The world created by Reynolds is a refreshing change from the usual quasi-mediaeval setting of knights, mages, elves, princesses, castles, et cetera. The society on the island of Strandia has its own unique social structure--and accompanying social tensions--customs, religion, and myths. The more advanced civilisation on the distant mainland, while described in less detail, provides an interesting contrast. The story has a lot of what have become rather cliched and formulaic fantasy scenarios--young hero can communicate with animals (in this case, dolphins), has extraordinary powers which she tests to their limits but also becomes adept at more down-to-earth skills (cloth-making, herblore, sailing) under the guidance of wise mentors, is ultimately called upon to save her homeland, etc. However, Reynolds makes these scenarios seem new and fresh, yet at the same time, deeply resonant, because of her original, fully realized world and her strong characterizations. While possessing all the traits of the typical fantasy hero, the protagonist, Sand, is a fully fleshed-out character with many distinctive characteristics of her own. Her doraado (dolpin) friend M'ridan has a believable personality that never strays to the cloyingly anthropomorphic. All the other characters, right down to the minor ones, are very well drawn; even the less than sympathetic characters, such as Sand's vengeful rejected suitor, her hidebound mother, and a fanatical priest of the sea goddess, rather than just being two-dimensional villains, are shown to be products of their strictly-ordered society.

Virtually my only problem with the book is that there are two inconsistencies: the Midisle woman Jaunta has long hair, even though Reynolds wrote earlier that only raeth women grew their hair long, and another character's footwear switched from sandals to boots in the same scene.

Reynolds only seems to have written this one book, which is a real pity. I wish she were as prolific as Tamora Pierce and Vivian Vande Velde.

I took structural geology at the University of Washington spring quarter 1997. Book was excellent and contributed to a reasonably good grade (3.3) for the course. Recommend for students or professors of structural geology

I had the good fortune to meet the author of Sunday Special in Rome, where he and I both live, and was compelled by this meeting to pick up a copy of the book at the nearest english language bookstore. Michael Reynolds has a penchant for the absurd, a sharp and lively sense of humor, and a passion for poetry. He shows us all of these things in this book. Sunday Special is a collection of stories ripe with humor and humanity. The author takes us to the most unexpectd places and situations, yet he is so sure of his narratives, he writes with such "authority", that you are willing to follow him, convinced that however odd things might become, he will lead you out the other end of the story with something of great value between you hands. It would be difficult to explain the stories without giving them away. I'll just say that my favorite story in the book was "The Strap-On Cure" and let the title give you some hint as to what it might be about.

Bonus: Sunday Special also includes drawings by a painter by the name of Troy Henriksen, drawings that are as odd and imaginative as the stories themselves.

It's been a while since I have read anything that seemed new, different, and at the same time of such quality. A good read for anyone who likes contemporary literary fiction.

Paul

This book forever changed the way that I read superhero comics. Reynolds discusses the factors that are present in virtually every superhero comic since Superman was created. Some are apparent (devotion to justice, secret identitities), and some are subtle (lost parents, accountability only to one's own conscience). Virtually all factors are recapitulations of the developmental struggles of the primary audience of these comics: adolescent males. Reynolds continues by illuminating the grand, mythical nature of the comic-book universes, all stories blending into one vast "canonical" story, each comic becoming part of a larger continuity. This continuity shares several features of classical mythologies, which Reynolds explores in depth, citing the X-Men, the Watchmen, and the Dark Knight Returns series (among others) as evidence. Read this, it's great.