This is really good. One of the best. But it was sort of sad that Peter and Nancy had to break their relationship off. They would have made a real good couple. But it is very awesome and I absolutely love it!

It is a very good selection of chess problems, grouped by level of difficulty. It is excellent for when you are travelling in the train, airplane, etc. The solutions are very well explained.

If you can't see this exhibit, this catalog is the next best thing. The photographs in this book glow almost as brilliantly as do the Mughal items in the exhibit at Houston's Museum of Fine Art. The only, more amazing exhibit that I've seen was at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Like at Topkapi, this Mughal exhibit features the dazzling glitter of thousands of gemstones set in gold, overwhelming me to the point of gaping at each item. I spent so much time studying the items themselves that I took scant notice of the exhibit's cards. This book provides the leisure to study the story behind the artistry. Little wonder that metal and gemstone workers were prized by Mughal rulers who enjoyed lavish gift exchanges. My friend took a look through the catalog and made a beeline to Houston to see the exhibit for herself. I'm sure that this catalog will inspire you, as well.

The Triple Hoax is on of Keene's best books. When Nancy, Bess, and George visit Nancy's aunt they stumble onto another mystery. They follow a lead to Mexico, where a little girl is kidnapped. Again Nancy finds herself in another tight spot. The plot will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time reading the book.

This is a must buy for all singers. The pieces are all reknown and tt is always good to perform pieces in which your audience can be familiar with. Also, these pieces are performed so frequently that people hear them done poorly at times and it is your chance to do it well and make an excellent impression on your audience. There are songs for everyone in this book. This kind of Baroque music has its own unique ability to engage and gtouch the hearts in the audience.

This book successfully pulls off the difficult trick of being both a serious scholarly text and an enormously engaging introduction to the history and architecture of Crusader castles for the lay reader. The book is an obvious labor of love, which helps to account for its great charm. You first get a sense of this on the dedication page - "For Xana, with love, to remind her of Syrian days" - whereby Kennedy expresses his appreciation for his daughter's companionship on his rovings around Syria. (In his "Acknowledgements," he also credits his daughter with persuading him "to complete the climb to Bourzey when the spirit was willing but the flesh was getting a bit weak.")

If you needed any further confirmation that Kennedy is a scholar with a puckish sense of humor and a droll wit, you get it at the beginning of his "Note on Names," where he wryly observes that, "Like the naming of cats, the naming of Crusader castles is a complicated problem." Kennedy's writing voice conjures to mind images of a cozy library in some great English country house, where your host relaxes in a satin smoking jacket while both of you swirl brandy in your snifters and discourse about the comparative merits of crumbling castles on the western fringes of Asia. The book's first chapter - a survey of the development of Crusader castle studies from the mid-nineteenth century to the present - beautifully encapsulates Kennedy's discursive style and story-telling skills. "[Emmanuel Guillaume] Rey's life is something of a mystery," he muses, and you want to lean forward from your chair on the opposite side of the fireplace and say, "Tell me more." And he does, with an notable eye for the memorable quote, such as T.E. Lawrence's ironic complaint, while traveling around the Levant in 1909, that he was unable to reach Amman owing to "the unthinking activity of some local Bedawin in tearing up the Hejaz railway."

In form, the book consists of a generally chronological survey of the development of the Crusader castle, with individual chapters on siege warfare and the special features of (respectively) the castles of Templars, Teutonic knights, Hospitallers, and the Muslim princes. Another sign of Kennedy's passionate engagement with this project is the fact that he took all of the 90-some color and black-and-white photographs that illustrate the book himself. (There are also another two dozen plans, sketches, and prints illustrating the text.)

The photographs, together with Kennedy's text, cover not only the well-known structures like Krak des Chevaliers, Belvoir, Saone, and Montfort, but will also introduce you to a fascinating collection of lesser-known castles. Among these are the great Hospitaller citadel of Marqat, near the Syrian coast; the two castles overlooking ancient Petra; and - most curious of all - the cave-castle of al-Halbis Jaldak overlooking the Yarmuk River valley, the subject of a siege memorably described by the twelfth-century historian William of Tyre (which Kennedy helpfully quotes in its entirety). Kennedy's enthusiasm also extends to the humbler fortified towers of the lesser Latin nobility.

Kennedy's secret is plainly that he is both a scholar and a romantic - as anyone who wishes to write effectively about the Crusades should probably be. Let me close this review by quoting his own explanation for his enterprise in producing this book:

"There is something fascinating and frequently moving about forlorn and failed enterprises, those 'old, forgotten far-off things and battles long ago,' however perverse they may now seem. It is impossible for me to stand on the windswept battlements of Crac des Cevaliers, climb to the remote crags of the fortress overlooking Petra or explore the magical stillness of the deserted valley by Bourzey, without feeling a potent mixture of admiration and nostalgia which breathes excitement and emotional commitment into scholarship."

This book can be enthusiastically recommended to history buffs and armchair travelers, as well as to those with a more scholarly basis for their interest.

Keene's writing is smooth and seems as if you're listening to a friend commiserate with you about all those silly, overwhelming, glorious and sometimes confusing things that happen when you step into the garden. The book is delightful! Made me want to tear into the soil one more time, with big plans for taking on nature--but then I couldn't put the book down and get to work!

i don't know what this means but i still want to say i liked this book very much!

This is the last of the Files books (and the Nancy Drew books of any description) where Ned makes a difference in nancy's life. They go away for the weekend on a Fraternity Mystery Weekend, and have to unravel the mystery before the weekend is over. Anyway, just a little bit sentimental, as the books in the "On Campus" series took such a sleezy turn after 60 years :(

This was a great book. I don't really wanna tell anything else cuz i might ruin it but Nancy Drew has really started at a better case solving ditorial.