A note to readers -- the first half of this book is more of a chronicle of WW I than an account of the Lusitania. If you're just a disaster buff, you'll probably like the Titanic stories better than this. The author explains in his final note that he deliberately focused on the historical context and meaning of this event rather than the minutia of the sinking itself (as he does in his Titanic book). I personally enjoyed the WWI refresher. There are still many unanswered questions about the ship's death -- did Churchill deliberately let it be struck to draw the US into battle? We may never know. The author does a nice job of putting this event in context. The sinking chapters are shorter than you'd think (heck, the ship went down in 18 minutes) but there is a lot of juicy background stuff here.

This book is one of the best I know in the subject. When I first bought it about five years ago I could recognize this fact clearly. Nonetheless, it is my opinion that this book is not for absolute begginers. When I read it for the first time I understood some things, but others escaped my comprehension. The third chapter, for example, on Qabbalah, is quite technical and philosophical, perhaps even too "stratospehrical" for readers without SOME (not neccesarily large) formation on Qabbalah. Re-reading it now, after five years of constant work and study on the subject, all these doubts have been solved... but not precisely through THIS book. There is a good section on de Middle Pillar exercise and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, and an excelentet chapter on talismans which includes the three different and interesting theories regarding the magical charge. On the whole, it is a very good book about magical theory, and in this it is accesible even to absolute new-commers to the subject, although technicalities make it a little dense even to the experienced reader. I would say that this book is a must for students of the occult and arm-chair and practical magicians alike, but I don't give it five stars because even for the sholarly occultist it is sometimes a little hard. Nonetheless, anyone pursuing magical studies seriously should have read this book at least once. I would include it, along with Regardie's, Fortune's and Kraig's books in the list of "10 books a magician should read"

I'm actually an analyst of the telecom industry, so I come to this with a special interest. Nonetheless, I would highly recommend the book for those interested in some real foundations to understand the communications revolution. (and not just sound-byte Internet history). It's a pity that the name Lucent Technologies isn't in the title, because that's the real subject of the book. It's a history of Western Electric, which after a 120 year "pit stop" at AT&T ultimately spun out to become Lucent. The best part is the early chapters where we learn about the competition between the telegraph and Bell's telephone, the coalescing of local telephone companies under Bell's leadership, and ultimately the emergence of AT&T (with Western Electric)as the "Bell System" that most of us grew up with. Don't be put off by the fact that Lucent commissioned the book. It's a throughly documented, balanced, and obviously professional undertaking.

I took to this book very quickly as the descriptions that the author gave of growing up in Cork were right on the money. I found myself walking with him, having spent some time in Cork I could vividly picture the city. I also felt as though I knew the people that he spoke of in the book. I found it to be a pleasant trip back to Cork, as well as a well written story.

Este libro trata de un navegante solitario que repentinamente naufraga y se encuentra en su balsa en la mitad del Atlántico. Casi no tiene agua dulce ni comida. Este es un relato que se detiene en muchos aspectos prácticos que enfrenta una persona viviendo en una balsa y de la manera en que fueron resueltos. Se refiere también a la soledad y a la experiencia existencial de escontrarse en estas circunstancias. Creo que la lectura de este libro puede ayudar al lector a prepararse para enfrentar circunstancias similares.

Jack Butler is probably most known for his contempory fiction and (perhaps to a lesser extent) his poetry. This is his first foray into Science Fiction (his later novel "Dreamer" may qualify if the definition is stretched a bit). While the transition could have been a little more graceful, the results are compelling.

For starters, Butler paints the same kind of landscapes that Robert Heinlein does. You won't find a lot of exposition, the action comes at you fast, and the reader has to do some work keeping abreast of the slang of 22nd Century Mars. There's also a slight political undertone. Never pedantic, Our Author prefers to show situations that have resulted from the extremes of human nature and technology.

Hellas is a Martian frontier town, a community living in one of Mars' 30 mile wide craters. The atmosphere being thin, an enormous tent keeps the air pressure at habitable levels. Within this settlement live the kind of folk one expects to see in any Martian Colony of the future: genetically engineered beasts, ranchers, enhanced people, and intelligent robots.

The story (and I don't like giving stuff away), deals mostly with a war for independance from Earth. But focus is kept on our hero--a rancher turned leader of the cecessionists--who is about 400 years old.

The book gets off to a bit of a slow start. Somewhere about a quarter of the way through--somewhere about the time you've figured out how this world works--the story sinks it's talons into you and takes you away. You're helpless.

Nightshade is not without it's flaws, but I really enjoyed this book and would love to see it come back into print. In the meantime, see if you can find a copy somewhere.

This book is a great read.

It reads like a research paper, but as family, I really enjoyed reading it.

The first couple of chapters really kept me interested, since it had family history. I'm not much of a sports fan, but I felt Kniss' passion for the game and his respect and admiration for my uncle. I can tell that it took a lot of research and hours of work to put it together. I especially enjoyed getting in-depth accounts of stories that I have only heard in passing over the years. I never fully realized how much my Uncle O.J. went through to get to where he is today. And I probably wouldn't if it weren't for Mr. Kniss.

I really enjoyed this book. I never read start to finish, but I copied many of the poems for my own use. This book has so many wonderful poems, and it's very easy to find a poem you're looking for. All you have to do is look in the back of the book and find the first verse in alphabetical order. This is definately a great book to own for all poetry lovers.

I am an art student and bought this book with an awareness of postmodernist artists' work, but with little understanding of the movement. This book provides a good foundation for understanding the theory and attitude behind postmodernism.

My only complaints are that the reading gets pretty dry at points, the pictures are not in color, and the text is extremely small.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with this book.