Leslie Baily wrote this definitive study of W.S. Gilbert, Arthur Sulivan and D'Oyly Carte at at time (early 1950s) where the copyright on the operettas was about to expire. Since that unhappy date, G&S has been swamped by the amateur dramatic societies and it is rare that one comes across a production which captures the brilliance of the original conception. Occasionally, an opera company puts on a good show but while they do justice to Sullivan it is usually at the expense of the libretto. John Lithgow is one of the very, very few modern performers who is able to draw the essence of W.S. Gilbert's lyrics. To travel to a time where G&S was cutting-edge, read this wonderful portrait of the two performers - both phenomenal characters in their own very different ways: Gilbert the mercurial, subversive master of the absurd; Sullivan the sensitive, working-class genius who often had to overcome serious ill-health to complete his scores.

I have enjoyed Gilbert & Sullivan's plays since I was a little girl. I watched performances of their comic operas that my family taped off of public television, but I never knew much about the men who wrote these wonderfully entertaining operas. Just recently I had an opportunity to give a presentation on Gilbert and Sullivan's operas for a college course. This book was the first one I picked up and it turned out to be the only one I needed. This well-written book gives an entertaining account of the lives of these great men. The book also paints a vivid picture of what life and, more importantly, the theater were like when Gilbert & Sullivan began their collaboration. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn more about Gilbert & Sullivan, Victorian life, or English theater.

I have one word to describe James Brooks. Hero. This book is an excellant portrayal of what our soldiers went through in the second World War. The words on the page are gripping and they can't even start to tell us what these men went through. It is amazing to see the bonds these men had for one another. Throughout the book, I pictured myself right beside Mr. Brooks. There is no other person that I would rather be next to if I was in this situation. He is an American Hero!

This book covers basic proofreading elements that will be extremely helpful to anyone who is new to the field or wants to pursue this career. There are many insider tips that are extremely useful. Also serves as an excellent refresher for people who have been proofreading for a few years. Not all-inclusive as far as grammar, syntax, etc., go (pick up a grammar book for that), but absolutely excellent for the basics and insider tips.

this is a wonderful score, one ranking atop the mikado in my mind.(...)

Some days, you simply don't have the attention span required of you for reading good books. Sometimes, I find even short stories too taxing and poetry much too dense to absorb properly. That's when Good Bones will come in handy, for it will provide doses of short, potent prose.

It's a tiny little book, with tiny short stories (three or four pages on average) that are clever, intriguing and shot through with Margaret Atwood's luscious style. Despite the lengths of the stories, they are in no way lacking in emotion or intensity. They are snippets of random musings, of well-known stories told from somebody else's point of view, of sci-fi fantasies that reflect upon our own humanity...

The stories do not link to each other. As far as I can see, they are writing experiments, little flashes of inspiration that do not fit somewhere in a greater whole (such as a novel). They are ideas, brief contemplation of how the world is, snapshots of human behaviour.

Atwood has a particularly cutting insight into the way things are. I cried at certain stories, not because they were formulated with particular tragic scenes, but because they moved me. Forlorn beauty, half-remembered sensations, the things she could say with a stroke of a pen are those dark, shadowy feelings we sometimes find in ourselves, yet could never describe. Now she has done it for us, and it makes for cathartic reading.

Through Good Bones we are given a glimpse of Atwood's world: usually bleak, sometimes spine-chilling with its prediction of how the world just might turn out, but always haunting and always beautiful. If you have not read any of her works before, this is a great place to start. If you have read and enjoyed her other works, this one will definitely be worth your while.

This is one of the more serious books you are going to find about "The Great American Comic Strip." Judith O'Sullivan brings an academic perspective (she is art historian) without getting caught down in conceptual verbiage. When I realized how deep she was getting with her analysis of George McManus's "Bringing Up Father" (a.k.a. Maggie & Jiggs), I laughed out loud because it was so delightful.

"The Great American Comic Strip: One Hundred Years of Cartoon Art" is divided into ten chapters: (1) The Comics, Medium and Message provides a fundamental overview of the place of comic strips in our social history; (2) Winsor McCay, American Master, focuses on the creator of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" and "Gertie the Bashful Dinosaur"; (3) George Herriman and His Black Kat, Krazy takes a look at the first beloved feline of the funny pages; (4) Children's Voyages, Domestic Struggles: The Kid and Family Strips only scratches the surface on domestic strips, focusing on "Bringing Up Father" and "Blondie"; (5) Law and Disorder: "Little Orphan Annie," "Dick Tracy," and "Li'l Abner" looks at some of the most famous and influential strips in history; (6) High Adventure: From Tarzan to Terry, dealings with the fighting heroes and superheroes; (7) The Anti-hero: Alienation and Social Commentary in the Worlds of "Pogo," "The Spirit," "Feiffer," "Doonesbury," and "Bloom County" deals with some of my personal favorites; (8) Notes from the Underground tells of the work of R. Crumb and his compatriots; (9) Enter the Women traces both the portrayal of women from "Tillie the Toiler" to "The Heart of Juliet Jones" as well as strips by women artists such as "For Better or for Worse" and "Cathy"; (10) New Directions--Mouse to "Maus" finishes with the cutting edge comic strips of today.

The back of the book includes a "Who's Who in the Comics" with 200 biographical entries from Nicholas Afonsky to Bill Zeigler. There are 17 color and 120 black & white illustrations that cover virtually every memorable comic strip from "The Yellow Kid" to "Doonesbury." This book can certainly serve as an introduction to the history of the comic strip in America, but its true value is for those who already know the basics and are ready to take there understanding and appreciation of this art form to the next level.

Not only does this book have expanded fencing rules, a plethora of new maneuvers, and templates for historical buccanears, but it also explains pre-industrial ship to ship combat and ship generation rules. Great for any fantasy campaign setting as well as historical.

I've adapted the D&D world of Mystara (The Basic,not AD&D, campaign setting. i.e. Isle of Dread, Gazateers, etc...) for this system. The Players love it and it's nostalgic for me since I started RPGing in this setting back in '82.

This new edition of Gurps Swashbucklers not only gives all the information about the age of pirates and musketeers you will need, it also contains various sword-fighting styles of the era - all of course in the detailed format of Gurps Martial Arts. The new maneuvers and optional rules for fencing alone are worth the price of this book. If you are a GM or play a fighter, who uses blade weapons of any kind - from knife to vibro-katana - believe me: you want this book!

I've read all the major books written on Harry Stack Sullivan and this one is by far the clearest, most comprehensive, and easy to understand. I can think of no better introduction to the interpersonal school of psychiatry. Sullivan is one of those seminal thinkers who was ignored for years because he was so critical of psychoanalysis and because his ideas were so radical. Only now, fifty years after his death are the implications of his work beginning to be grappled with by the field of psychiatry. If you want to understand Sullivan, before you read Sullivan, read this book. This is the book to start with.

This book has two sections. The first explains the different methods of touch therapy, from chiropractic to massage to energy healing. The second part lists common maladies and recommends different techniques to use for them. It's great reading for anyone who wants to "think outside the box"!