Don't pay me to read this junk again.If you still want to email me for nothing my email is andre00_us@kidsmail.com

Like the other Ripley's 100th Anniversary Edition books, the book is a little bit on the small side and many adult readers will find that they get through the book pretty quick.

There are some good facts in this book and lovers of art or architecture will find the drawings and styles of the buildings in this book to be very good.

I partly agree with a previous reviewer that a few of the facts may be a bit corny, after all who really cares about a couple that were engaged for 30 years without being married, that's not what I'd call a great or strange work of art! Similarly, a letterbox that looks like a road runner is not really that strange (a drive around the Australian country side and you'll probably see more than a dozen letterboxes just as interesting).

Give this book a try, the price won't break your bank balance and Ripley's books are pretty hard to find.

This is a great book to own. Once you read it, you'll be telling all of your friends the weird things and coincidences that have happened.

Many adults will be familiar with the cartoons of Ripley's Believe It Or Not! that used to appear in many newspapers. This book contains some facts about reptiles, but many adults may find that it is a bit on the short side and many of the drawings don't seem to resemble the style of those that were found in the paper.

It is still a good book and anyone who gives it to a child in upper primary school will find that their soon enthralled. Many kids love dinosaurs, frogs and lizards, so facts about weird ones are right up their alley.

I liked this book alot. It is full of cool and interesting things. I liked this book because it was filled with stuff i like. For example if you like strange animals or weird disformed creatures you would love this book. The other Ripley's books arre like this, they give you interestin facts about strange happenings/ or things.Even though it is short it is a good book to fill in your empty time with.

This is a classic book on computer simulation, well read and cited. I read it before and bought a copy from Amazon for reference. However, the copy I bought was electronically reproduced. Although legible, it is a produt of poor quality, especially at [the price] for 237 pages.

Compared with other books on the same topic, this book discussed dangers of poor random number generators in great detail, perhaps in an exaggerated way.

Stochastic simulation techniques have been heavily used in many areas of computation, including physics, material science, and most recently in computational statistics. The basis is, however, the ability to generate pseudo random numbers based on deterministic systems. The theory of chaos, about generating randomness series from deterministic recursion, obviously underlies the guiding principle in such exercises. Prof. Ripley discusses many of the important issues of how to generate random numbers based on many well-known generators and some of the pitfalls.
He then discusses the important issue of how to do goodness of fit test. Applications to many well-known statistical and probabilitic problems are then discussed. The book also discusses the now widely developed area of simulating multivariate distribution using Markov chain method. Professor Ripley has an excellent writing style of going at the heart of a complex problem and a mastery so that this complex subject becomes simpler and clearer under his hand. Though quite a few books on stochastic simulation, especially Markov chain Monte Carlo, have appeared after this book is published, it is still original in its coverage in many of the basic issues in simulation. So Stochastic Simulation still remains a valuable reference and indispensable guide to this vastly important and rapidly growing area.

This is Arnow's companion volume to her SEEDTIME ON THE CUMBERLAND. While SEEDTIME focuses on physical aspects of pioneering, i.e., food, clothing, shelter, the struggle against Indians and governments, FLOWERING emphasizes social institutions and activities that required the early settlers to interact with other people as a society, i.e., communication, education, industry, and trade. Home life as a focal point is reiterated, and the transplanting of Old World culture into the Cumberland River region is stressed. Primary sources, as well as some unpublished materials, are cited. The treatment, however, seems somewhat romantic and not critical, almost like a novel. In essence, Arnow is telling the story or stories of these early pioneers. The material is structured topically.

This collected volume is a useful introduction to the topic. I have used it to prepare lectures on the subject for college students in the context of a broad course on maritime peoples. It is not terribly in depth, however, and most readers will want to move on to heavier works like _The Lesser Antilles in the Age of European Expansion_.

Some references in the text let me think that this novel is a sequel and that the background has already been described in a previous one that I did not read. Notwithstanding it, the background is : after an atomic war, the survivors of humanity, having conquered the stars and colonised many planets, have been affected by many mutations. The new political system is made of two Autorities, the Civil Authority and the Military Authority, and people are parted in some classes, more or less affected by the mutations, the most usual being class 4 and class 5. Class 1 ("pure" humans) has disappeared. At the other end of the scale, there is a semi-mythical class 10 of which the members should be human vegetables. The heroine, Jo-Tac, captain of a merchant vessel has, in the previous episods, been charged by the MA to transport a member of this class 10, Lewis, and has then discovered that "renegades" of both autorities organise clandestine biological research on the survivors of some slaughter : not being as one believe "living vegetables", "class 10" are gifted by various psi talents. E.g., Lewis is able to cure illnesses and wounds. After different incidents, Jo-Tac and Lewis have fled the research center of Camelot, which has been distroyed in the struggle beetween Auithorities and renegades. In this novel, Jo-Tac is on Porto Flora, to ask for the Intervention of an Ombudsman, liaison officer beetween independant merchants and Autorities. She undzerstands that "renegades" are again trying to prepare the destruction of the remaining "class 10", and flees again from Porto Flora to look for Lewis, and entertain saving the other "class 10" and destroying the renegades.Much action, but a happy ending.. Even if I cannot imagine a galactic empire in which humans would be the only sentient species, the background is well done and the novel agreeable to read. Georges Bormand, 48 ans, Vanves, France

The book, With Pen or Sword, is a fair book. It describes the life and family ties of the Ripley family. It is the biography of Rutland Ripley.

A friend gave me this book b/c I am an art historian who specializes in the Italian Renaissance and b/c I love romance novels. This is an absolute DUD! The writing is terrible and it is full of historial inaccuracies. None of her descriptions of life in 15th c. Florence make any historical sense. I feel like she consulted a junior encyclopedia written in the 1920s for her history, then added the names of some Florentine artists and other personages. I was so disgusted with this that I tried to write my *own* romance set in the Italian Renaissance !! If you want something fun to read before visiting Florence, try Foster's "Room with a View" or "The Agony and the Ecstasy." The latter is pretty much *pure* fiction, but at least it's fun!

After reading the reviews this book got, I almost didn't read it. Luckily, though, I know Alexandra Ripley's books and I am aware that she is not writing for art or 15th century Italy historians. She is writing for the pleasure of the typical reader that enjoys fiction sprinkled with history. Of course there are going to be errors along side the facts, but this is FICTION. If everything were kept exactly true, the story would neither flow well or catch much interest. If you want to read history then check out the reference section of your local library, but if you want to read a good love story that takes you on exciting adventures and mixes it with historical figures and places then read The Time Returns. You will absolutely fall in love with Lorenzo de'Medici and his leading lady Ginevra de'Pazzi

I read this book at the age of 14. I knew nothing of Renaissance Italy or it's cast of characters. This book ignited my interest and desire to learn more. I paid attention in history class because these characters were personal to me. Although it is historically inaccurate in many regards, I think it's a passionate and colorful tale. It seems as though Ripley should rewrite it to be more true to historical details/events--it's a shame to let the spirit captured in this book die because of its messiness with historical fact.

The title would lead you to believe that those photos you found in the family bible may more easily be identified after reading this book. Think again. There is only one chapter, Chapter Three, that even comes close to delivering on its promise, i.e., "Dating Photographs: Clues to Identification." But even then, this chapter, like the others, is crammed with such drivel as "..a photo taken in America in 1885 cannot possibly be that of an ancestor who did not arrive until 1900." What? And another: "When you present photographs to relatives for identification purposes, you will be confronted with one of two situations. Your relatives either will or will not recognize the faces in the photos." No, I am not kidding. This is really the advice that is offered. The book is padded out with chapters such as "The First Step: Identifying the Family" and "Public Sources of Information." In a word, Awful

I find this book very useful. Author Karen Frisch-Ripley gives specific information on locating old photographs and using genealogical research techniques to identify the subjects pictured in them. She discusses the different types of photographs and clues in the photographs themselves that can help date them. She emphasizes the importance of carefully studying the persons, scenes, and objects in each photograph.

I reviewed this book for Library Journal a few months ago, and upon further consideration, I still consider it to be a waste of valuable timber resources. _The Sportsman_ was "published by wealthy men for their wealthy readers," and the snobbish tone of many of the articles will rankle a modern day reader.

Buy it as a historical curiosity if you must, but you'll be disappointed in how little useful information this book contains.