I rank this book as a solid four star book. I didn't rank the book with a five star rating because it didn't cause me to have a "paradigm shift" or see the world from a different perspective. However, those interested in American History or economic history should thoroughly enjoy this book. I loved reading the book because Mr. Gordon's work clearly shows his in-depth knowledge of American history and his excellent storytelling capabilities.

These 47 articles, gathered from Gordon's 10 years as an American Heritage columnist, cover the post-Revolutionary period through the 1950s. Each article is written, as the title portrays, from an American perspective. Mr. Gordon talks, for example, about the railroads and the characters behind them in the American boom but rarely does he specifically address who invented a product / technology, unless an American did. Additionally, I found that little attention was given to air conditioning, as it has impacted migration patterns dramatically in the U.S.

...

Ten years' worth of writing, these forty-seven essays capture illumuniating anecdotes about economic history, captured in the stories of people, ideas and moments in time. Booms and depressions, clever inventions and failed plans, tough competitors and grandoise government schemes all receive their due.

There is the story of King Cotton and how the gin made it profitable. Gordon reports on the California Gold Rush, the first television syndication (that's how Desi Arnaz earns a cover picture on an economic history book), war economies, the decision to build the World Trade towers (an eerie story to read today), steamboat races, railroad competition and more, each in pithy, five-page synopses of major historic studies or records. Brief as they are, there is not always a full story, but the histories leave the read impressed and engaged.

Gordon highlights well-known phrases, e.g., "The business of America is business," "The public be damned!" and explains how they came about (and the myths around same). Before we spoke of people "going postal", Gordon writes about the now-lapsed term, "postalization", another idea entirely.

In "The American Game" he shows how baseball is unique in that it was a business and not just a sport from its early years. A strange business, yes, where today "semiserfdom" of ballplayers has produced average annual salaries of $2.38 million and an industry prone to "work stoppages" and seemingly on the brink of disaster.

The better stories are of the visionaries who made and managed business in America, including the man who spent his personal fortune to make milk safe to drink for millions and the unsung heroes who saved businesses from failure. This is a good education for those who don't understand or who doubt the power of free markets, an idea whose time has come, or simply the American dream as it has been lived.

I so enjoyed this book I didn't want it to end. Please, Mr. Gordon, write another. My normal read is gory mystery thrillers, so this was quite a departure. I saw Mr. Gordon on C-Span and thought "The Business Of America" might be interesting. This book went far beyond interesting; it made the history of dull finance be as exciting as my normal gory thrillers!

Discover Acadia National Park: A Guide To The Best Hiking, Biking, And Paddling by nature photographers and outdoor enthusiasts Jerry and Marcy Monkman is a comprehensive, informative guide to the scenery, wildlife, trails, trip-times as it showcases the resources and sights of the beautiful Acadia National Park of Maine. Difficulty gradings, maps, and straightforward information make Discover Acadia National Park the perfect guide to learn which hiking trails are best for the interests of every reader. A fold-out hiking and biking map is included in this book enthusiastically recommended for anyone planning an outdoors expedition to this splendor-filled preserve. If you are planning an outdoor adventure in the Acadia National Park, beginning planning your trip by browsing through the pages of Jim and Marcy Monkman's Discover Acadia National Park!

This book gives you all you need to know about travelling to Acadia. It covers biking, hiking, kayaking, and just about any other "-ing" you might be interested in.

The maps help out anyone not familiar to the area, too.

I think it's a great, well-written book that will aid anyone planning to visit this part of Maine.

I love this book and refer to it often when I feel the need to take an outdoor adventure in Acadia. While it aptly describes every trail in the park and comes with an impressive 4 color map , what sets this guide apart is its descriptive narrative of park features. It's sidebars and little factoids about the area's history, flora, and fauna give the reader a deeper understanding of the place he or she is hiking, biking, or paddling through. It makes for much more interesting reading than the typical "turn left at the trail junction." Visitors new to the area will also appreciate the book's listings of campgrounds, museums, gardens, whale and puffin watching tours, etc. Tons of great info packed into a reasonable size!

Cyril Kornbluth died almost a half century ago, leaving behind many great stories written in SF's golden age. The short stories have been conveniently collected into one hardcover.

Kornbluth's stories are not sweetness and light, he writes of the darkness in the human spirit, even in the point of view characters in the books. "The Little Black Bag" is an example of how the urge to do good can fall to evil. "That Share of Glory," perhaps his greatest work, is the tale of a young man of the future who learns that even our urge to violence, that we attempt to keep hidden, is very much a necessary part of the human spirit.

Every story is a gem. While some are written in a style which now seems somwhat dated, it is easy to get past that and recognize the genius who wrote them.

OK, I've read most of these stories already. And I already knew that Kornbluth was a great writer. But reading this volume all the way through -- and in pretty short order because I couldn't stop -- just reminded me how great a writer he was.

If you have only dim memories of these stories, I guarantee that upon rereading them you'll be amazed at how much *better* they are than you remember. (Not all science fiction of that era holds up so well). If you've never read these stories, prepare to be amazed. This is a book that every lover of science fiction -- or just good writing -- should own, and read.

If you're looking for a compilation of insightful short sci fi stories, then this book is for you. Kornbluth was way ahead of his time and these stories are not of the cheesy variety as most "golden age" sci fi seems to be. Check it out, it'll be worth your time.

The more I ponder this book, the more intriguing I find the story. Beigh Masters is an "asset-hunter" in search of a legendary diamond from India, The Emperor's Tear. Her research leads to a connection with a distant relative, Hannah Easton, who lived in Salem, Mass., in the 1670's. Now fascinated by her own familial ties, Beigh traces Hannah's life from New England to the Coromandel Coast and the powerful East India Trading Company. Most extraordinary, Hannah becomes the "Salem Bibi", the white lover of a Hindu Raja, carving herself a place in history.

But there is more: the novel is so brilliantly themed, the premise so unique, that this reader was guided through a journey of staggering originality. Beigh's lover/companion, Venn, is developing a computer program that would allow an individual to experience a few moments in the past, set to a specific time frame, with pertinent information entered into the program. Beigh provides the structural facts, creating the opportunity to ......? Is it really even possible? This is not "time-travel" as usually written, but Virtual participation in real time. Mukerjee actually ties the threads of history together, from one side of the world to the other, suggesting infinite permutations. Not your traditional historical novel, Mukerjee fashions an ending worthy of any mystery-adventure devotee. Experiencing this story is an adventure in itself.

Bharati Mukherjee emigrated from her Brahmin family's insular compound in India to study at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and her abiding literary yantra ever since has been inter-cultural dislocation, transplantation and rebirth -- in particular the collision of intransigent tradition with the chaotic possibilities at freedom's edge. In "The Holder of the World," she does not merely turn her personal experience on its head, but she does dizzying somersaults with full twists in midair. The context and model for her treasure-hunt mystery is one of the fascinating artistic traditions of the Indian subcontinent: Mughal miniature painting. The unexpected depiction of a fair-skinned Western woman in one of these 17th-century paintings launches the narrator on detective work she expects to lead to material treasure, but what she exhumes as virtual reality and historical truth converge is both tantalizingly less tangible and inestimably more valuable. The particular virtuosity of this slender volume is Mukherjee's determined compression of plot, narrative, character and information that makes reading something akin to aerobic exercise. Brief phrases and gestures become complex characterizations; sketches and outlines evoke transcontinental adventures; narrative whizzes by in a blur that somehow suggests rich detail; well-placed smudges and squiggles expand into vast landscapes. "The Holder of the World" is a sprawling, wide-screen historical epic, painted in miniature with a one-hair brush.

If someone told me that an author could transplant a seventeenth century female Protestant from Salem, Massachusetts, to the excesses of southern India and have the character enjoy that life, I might raise an eyebrow at its improbability. If someone told me that the vividly bloody action of King Philip's (Indian) War in Massachusetts and a Muslim-Hindu holy war near the Coromandel Coast in India were connected, I might look askance in disbelief that such atrocities on opposite sides of the world, committed for totally different reasons, could possibly be related. If that someone then told me that a narrator might locate a missing three hundred year old jewel by using a virtual reality program developed by her MIT researcher/lover, I'd be picturing a bodice-ripper with Fabio on the cover. And if that someone still had the nerve to suggest that all the above could be combined seamlessly, knowledgeably, and totally successfully in one astounding novel of fewer than 300 pages, I absolutely would not believe it. I still don't. Yet that is exactly what Bharati Mukherjee has done in The Holder of the World. In doing so, she manages to create a true literary bridge between East and West, reaching so far back to the roots of our respective cultures and thinking that for the first time in the dozen or so novels I've read by Indian authors, I feel as if I'm beginning to understand how and why we and they became who we are.

I found that the content was intriquing, but that the amount of fluff in the book was a bit overboard. The rules themselves have too many loopholes as well as contradicting eachother at times. The creativity was excellent and sparked the imagination to ponder new and interesting things.

The 8th edition of the Rule Book has been supplanted by a new book, just published in October of 2001. To find this new edition, type in "Ventrella" in the Yahoo search -- it's just called NERO Rule Book!

Thanks!

Mike Ventrella

Step out of the stress of your mundane, everyday world and enter a fantastical realm of heroism, adventure and magic. An endless source of fun! Buy the rule book and then come and play the game! Check out the webpage at nerohq.com for a campaign near yo

Book is very well written. Two complaints:

1) there are no illustrations. The pictures were all black and white and very old. I would have liked to see illustrations of baiting techniques like a start to finish illustration of rigging a dead eel. Also no mention or review of using clams as bait? Would have liked a more in depth review of casting techniques ect.

2) About half the book is old fisherman stories. While somewhat entertaining this is not what I bought the book for.

All in all it is a good book. Worth the money but not more than the current selling price.

I loved this book, and have read it several times. All the sections are appropriately done and are close to perfect. The major problem I had with the book, however, is its "Locating Striper's" section. This is because only a cursory look at locating stripers was taken, meanwhile, that is the most important aspect of Surf Fishing! Not as much cursory, but the basic principals such as "what is a tiderip/bar/back eddie/dropoff.exc." were not covered. I think pictures of such structures would have been helpful in locating these structures in real life.

Also, some of the sections on lures were vauge. I mean this not as if they weren't long enough, but simple things beginners would like to know such as retrieve speed of bucktails and plugs weren't covered extensively, meanwhile, these are the most important parts of lure fishing. In fact, all the retrieve speeds for lures were vauge, and, with the exception of the Eel section, the rigs needed for other types of bait fishing weren't covered well.

All in all, a great book, but Daignault shouldn't simply say, "Look for stripers in back eddies and behing bars", before explaining what they are and how to locate them. Pictures would help. Don't read until you know all the Vocabulary of Surf Casting and how to apply it. Then, It will be one of the best books you have ever read

I've saved just about every article Frank wrote for SWS. He has the ability, as a writer, to make you feel as if you are in waders next to him at the surf's edge. His best book, which offered insight into a family that lived to fish, is "Twenty Years on the Cape" (hard to find, but a great read). This book is great if you want to spend your time (mostly your nights) chasing Roccus from the shore. This is invaluable whether you are just starting out, or have been fishing for years. I'd recommend this to the legions of saltwater fly rodders as well. Frank spends less time on locations to fish, and more on understanding striped bass. Thanks, Frank!

I'd get my money back on this one, if I could. As a first-time traveler to NYC, I found this book absolutely less than worthless. It's probably better-suited to use by people who are experienced NY visitors, and are looking for new and different things to do, but even then I can't see how it would be worth spending the money for the hardcover. We made an honest try to use it, but found it essentially no help at all, and it spent the entirety of our trip sitting in a pile on the hotel dresser.

City Secrets New York City is not only an amazing guide to the lesser known sites and sounds of New York but it is the perfect gift for those traveling to the great city. I find the strolls through the neighborhoods helpful and amusing. The commentary offered by the contributors is inciteful and offers an education to the great city rarely found in other travel guides.

I am having my wedding in New York City and along with our "save the date cards" we have sent out copies of City Secrets New York to guests. I believe City Secrets is a charming primer for anyone planning to visit the city!

In the rapidly changing face of New York City fast becoming another strip mall full of chain shops and uniformity, it is refreshing to note that yes, real New York still exists--those unappreciated, and undervalued landmarks, shops, and restaurants that truly define NYC. Famous luminaries living in the city--architects, artists, curators, and gourmets--guide you to those hidden gems through witty, and informative stories on the cultural, and historical significance of each place. Entries are organized by neighborhood, and comes complete with addresses, phone numbers, hours of operation, and directions. City Secrets is a must for saavy travelers, and residents alike--there are many things here I never knew about. rkchin

This is by far the worst cookbook in my collection. I consider myself to be a decent cook, producing beautiful and delicious results from recipes in all of the other books in a rather large collection.

Every single item (save one) tested from "In a Vermont Kitchen" has been nothing but disaster! The "Cranberry Nut Pumpkin Bread" does NOT need to bake for 90 minutes. A Cranberry Nut Brick is what came out of my oven ten minutes short of that time. "Drunken Apple Chicken" is the only meal I have ever literally pitched into the trash and then reached for the phone to call the pizza man. "Maple Magic Mousse?" Not magical. The recipe doesn't tell you where to add in the gelatin, resulting in a little too much experimentation for my taste, not to mention a disappointing result. Cranberry Apple Conserve was satisfactory, but today's recipe was the last straw for this book. "Brie Pizza with Apple Onion Sauce" - the apple onion mixture is truly disgusting! After following the instructions to the letter, I have a limp and gross-looking mess that I would not want to feed to my dog, let alone put on a pizza shell for my guests later this evening...

I have always been suspect of cookbooks that carry beautiful covers. Often the treats inside cannot live up to the magical picture the eye is first drawn to. This book has forever changed that suspicion. From page one I felt wrapped up in the honest, poetic style with which Amy Lyon has painted upon these pages. Suddenly I was not in Ohio experimenting with a recipe, I was in a small farmhouse smelling a robust meal that only Vermont could deliver. The recipes were easy enough for me to follow, but I still felt like I had created my own masterpiece after I was finished. I could write on and on, but the chill wind of November is urging me to retreat to the kitchen and visit Vermont with Amy Lyon!

The recipes were easy to follow and the results were superb. Never have I had such "delicious" results with my cooking from the many recipes I tried in this cookbook. I particually enjoyed reading the narratives at the beginning of the recipes and learning about the backgrounds of the contributors of some of the local restaurant owners.

I was under the impression that this book would provide the information I needed to cultivate these plants on some scale. I was very disappointed. There is no way that you could reliably produce these plants with the information provided in this book. There are much better books out there for that purpose. If you are a novice, homegardener wanting to learn about wildflowers and grow a few in your backyard, this book would be okay for you. But if you are knowledgeable on the topic already, I think you will be disappointed.

This is a wonderful book about the culture and propagation of North American native flowers. The author clearly knows his stuff and communicates it well.

The only weakness is the limited and low quality photography (lots of depth of field problems) which, I gather is not the author's work, but came from a wildflower society. There really are far too few pictures considering the wide variety of plants. Don't plan on being able to tell which of the diverse Eupatoriums or Asters you want to plant by looking at their pictures.

HOWEVER, this book would be worth it without pictures, just for the information. Go buy the book and then write the pubisher a note saying the illustration is beneath the writing....just like I just did.

This is the best reference I've found for native plants, and it's a worthy book for a coffee table. Accessible and extensive, it's pleasantly written, with care information about the species and then add'l info on specific plants in the species. The photographs are often quite nice, although I wish they more consistently showed the plant's habit in addition to flowers. There's also an appendix in the back on seed propagation.

If you get this, purchase the companion shrub&tree reference, too. It's just as good.

i thought this was the worst book i've ever read. usually it takes me a few hours to read a book, this took me a week. i could hardly get through it. it was too descriptive, and too slow moving. i thought the first was alot better.

Sorceress is a great book! I got so involved in it that I've cried twice already! It's an amazing book filled with romance, suspence, action, and mystery. I think what makes it more interesting is that there is REAL evidence to the events in both books. You feel more connected with the book because it's nonfiction. Sorceress is a great book and I recommend it to everyone! (PS. I would love to see the remains of Mary's quilt and her journal!)

The book pulls you into the world of Mary through the eyes of her kin. I found myself it feel what she was feeling. I think at one point I found myself to be freezing as the girl was.