Genl Richard Taylor offers his insights of the "late unpleasantness". Unlike too many other popular civil war personalities who wrote first-hand accounts, Taylor usually avoids the name-calling and back-stabbing others seem to readily participate in. His immediate supervisor, Genl Edmund Kirby Smith,however, doesn't fare too well by Taylor's standards. Taylor holds Smith responsible for failing to allow him the necessary reinforcements needed to route Banks in the Red River Campaign (North Louisiana). Taylor indeed offers a unique perspective, as the son of Zachary Taylor, as well as having served in the Eastern and Western Theaters. A well-bred, highly educated man, Taylor's writing is filled with allusions to Classic Literature and military folk-lore, which is often muddlesome. Also annoying is the lack of ANY maps -a real problem when discussion of the various bayous, rivers and small towns fill page after page. Definately recommended for those of Confederate ilk - especially his remarks on post-war happenings.

I read this book as part of a correspondence course through the University of California, Berkeley in 1997.

The book is 8x11, about 350 pages, color photos and diagrams. The typography and layout are very good. Text is dense. The writing style is clear.

Chapter topics: Intro, Darwin, cell biology, genetics, race, human variation, primate evolution, living primates, primate behavior, hominid origins, interpreting early hominids, homo erectus, homo sapiens, lessons learned.

I rate the book average because topic coverage seemed thin. Later editions of the book contain more material. The book is graphics-rich. Lots of drawings, photos etc. More so than I am used to seeing in textbooks.

This book has some good truths in it, and helps a reader have a better understanding of what Lewis was doing with his fiction. Its greatest weakness is that it is not entirely devoted to bringing out the truth in an expository way. Instead of assuming the reader has a general knowledge of the story (which is no crime in a critical work), Kilby summarizes the novels, and then in a numbered list goes into the points of truth. To me, I don't like this. Half of the book is summary of the stories. It would better aid the general reader had it all been insights into his fiction, instead of summarizing for the first half (or more) of each chapter, dealing with on whatever particular novel he is talking about....

Kilby obviously has good insight into Lewis's fiction - if only he would have devoted more of the book to it. Kilby does bring out some good points. However, a much better book (although it only deals with Lewis's Space Trilogy) is David C. Downing's PLANETS IN PERIL. That is a shining example of what a critical book should be like. I highly recommend it.

Clever, predictable rhymes and vivid, detailed illustrations were used to tell this story of a frog who learns to appreciate the clean, pure condition of his natural habitat when he moves to another habitat, which happens to be highly polluted and inhabitable. "Lester and Clyde" is a good springboard for a primary social studies lesson about pollution. "Pollution? No Problem!" is another effective teaching resource.

A good ravenloft adventure with curses, undead, dark magic and sea travel. It was the second ravenloft module and continues the Grand conjunction series of undead adventures this time dealing with Ghosts.

It can be inserted easily into any campaign where the group chooses to or needs to travel somewhere by sea.

However it does require lots of work on the part of the DM to flesh out significant parts, one central section just has lots of adversaries with family relationships done out but no stats, no maps, no significant use of their unique powers and scant plot outline. one section is set underwater but no provision for allowing the party to do so is provided if they do not already have the appropriate magic.

There are good base elements provided and many parts are well designed and can be run straight as written. I found it a fun game to run after reworking it.

This book is a comprehensive look at Texas politics which in itself is somewhat confusing, but the style of the book tends to cloud the issue even more. It sometimes uses examples that are not exactly on point and if you don't live in Texas than you may not fully understand the point of reference it comes from. Overall though, it is a detailed and comprehensive. The book offers some great study questions at the end of each chapter. This book tends to really very frank with it's criticism of the Texas political machine and on occasion it leans to the right somewhat, but heck, this is Texas, what did you expect.

(actually, 3 and 1/2 stars)

A somewhat dated book. This is much more a portrait of the man than a critical assessment of the then unpublished Silmarillion. Kilby states he didn't believe it will be completed. That turned out to be true. There was a chapter Kilby wrote for the book, but it was cut because Christopher Tolkien thought it gave away to much plot of the book, and Kilby, wanting to maintain cordial relations with the family, abided by Christopher's wishes. This book probably had a short publication life, mainly because it was published in 1976, and The Silmarillion was published in 1977. This was mainly cashing in on the anticipation of The Silmarillion. So if you buy this expecting a critical work of The Silmarillion, don't buy it. If you are looking for a charming, thin book on Tolkien, buy it.

Not, by any means, that it is a bad book. A very notable feature is it also talked about the then unpublished C. S. Lewis short story about a man born blind and then getting his eyesight back by surgery, he doesn't understand the concept of light, thinking it a solid substance. It sounds something of a tribute to MacDonald's musing on lights as emphasized in his faerie tales. Or perhaps it was insipiered by that (I just reread his short tale of Nysteris and Photogen in The Day Boy and the Night Girl). It is different than the story in some respects, and Hooper felt that Tolkien probably was told a version and had not read the story. The story is "The Man Born Blind" in THE DARK TOWER AND OTHER STORIES. This book also has contains comments on Smith of Wootten Major. It is a good source of information, and a charming book in its own right. It provides a "distant glimpse of that promised work", referring to The Silmarillion, as the blurb would put it. If you are a Tolkien admirer, it is worth a read

An adaptation of Smith's dissertation, this academic volume finds and interprets many incidents of walking found in Henry David Thoreau's writings, from his journal to his essays, from his poetry to his books. One can't help but wonder why.


The author advances his topic through general themes and the various ways in which Thoreau used walking: as the perfect transcendental physical and mental exercise; as the investigation of nature and the wider landscape; as a way to rid the mind and body of civilization in order to think straight; as a way to exhibit nonconformity and individuality; as a way to inspire writing or garnish income by surveying. I find it particularly curious that only two pages are devoted to surveying, which was one of Thoreau's primary means of support and which got him travelling around his town, learning the nooks and crannies of Concord properties, providing the walking experience while allowing him to unearth natural discoveries along the way. Surely that part of his life deserves more than a mere two pages of coverage, especially when he had to walk to do the job.


Perhaps the casual Thoreauvian will pluck this book off a shelf because the title sounds as though it might be a guidebook for applying Thoreau's philosophies to our lives today. Well, that gentle reader will be disappointed. By changing one word in the title, the author could have given us a better expectation of the content. If the subtitle instead read: "Thoreau and HIS search for self," then we would know that it's all about the famous naturalist's physical and introspective journeys, and not a model for our own. Smith sticks only to literary analysis. If he had gone that one step further -- both literally and figuratively -- and shown how Thoreau's experience can apply to our own search for self today, a person would have a real reason to pick up this book.


For it is painfully obvious that Smith has most likely never seen the places Thoreau visited. While Thoreau could claim, "I have traveled much in Concord," the reader gets the impression that Smith can't say the same. He sticks to literary analysis and never puts himself into the picture. In a passage on page 106, Thoreau is quoted as having earlier traversed "a rocky hillside where the sweet-fern grows for a mile." The casual reader might be interested in knowing that sweet-fern still grows on the northern rocky shore of Walden Pond; and when you squeeze a leaf between your fingertips, a lovely spicy scent stays with you for the rest of your walk. But Smith probably doesn't know that. Instead he spends four pages of the final chapter mentioning articles and books written by those who actually HAVE attempted to walk in Thoreau's footsteps. Thus this book appears to be written by someone who has READ quite a bit but has not DONE. And yet Thoreau is quoted on page 182: "The forcible writer stands bodily behind his words with his experience. He does not make books out of books, but he has been *there* in person." Evidently Smith read and copied those words but did not heed their admonishment.


The text itself saunters along. It isn't broken by subheadings for emphasis or for easy reference, and no index is included, so its academic usefulness is limited. This book is not designed in a way to be accessible to scholars, and it's not written with contemporary lifestyle application in mind. So the question on the reader's mind is: Why should we care? Or, Why am I reading this? Hmmm. Why, indeed.


I should mention that I found Smith's list of sources moderately useful. Some interesting titles about walking or about Thoreau appear in the bibliography, and they are worthy of further investigation. So my investment in purchasing this volume was not a total loss.


Here's the coup de grace: A lovely ethereal photo of the North Bridge graces the cover, providing yet another temptation for the casual reader to believe that held within are the secrets of how we can use Henry David Thoreau's writings in order to live our lives today. For of course the savvy Thoreauvian knows that while the North Bridge is indeed an historical symbol of Concord, Massachusetts, no bridge existed in that spot from 1793 to 1875. Thoreau (1817-1862) would not have and could not have walked its expanse. Ah, the irony.

I'd never had any accounting courses before. This textbook was required for my financial accounting course in an MBA program. The book does a good job of logically explaining all the important topics. Unfortunately, it takes a Herculean effort to sit down and study the material due to the dry subject matter.

The authors did a good job of using examples from real firms, which, I think, makes it more interesting. I've decided to keep this book after the course for a reference.

Many people get this book wrong. This is a book for graduate students, not for undergraduates. It introduces the concepts of financial accounting in a condensed way, which does require more time and patient to understand it, like the way we study in MBA program. Since this book assumes its reader as future statement readers, it introduces finanical statements, including balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement,in the first few chapters to let student understand the linkage among them. It is usually very difficult to understand for those without background, though. Plus, given the fact that this book is required by most of top MBA programs, like Chicago, Columbia, and NYU, I'd like to say that accounting professors have told us the quality of this book. For those who have a hard time on this, I would also recommend its accompanied study guide and solution manuals (used one available on amazon website ISBN 0030269695& ASIN: 0030182697; make sure get the right edition!!). After all, this is a good book, but requires more practices. Good luck.

I recently used this book for an accounting class. I am not really an "accounting head", having come from a computing background, and I had to do the course as a graduate degree requirement. I found the book to be very thorough and well written. The authors took their time to explain every new term throughout. The book also has numerous exercises [maybe too many]. I do not expect to "do accounting" in the future, but if I have to, I'll get a copy of this book again. In reading this book, I found my professor's advice quite handy: 1. start off with the learning objectives for each chapter; 2. read the chapter summary; 3. check all the diagrams in the chapter; 4. read the text; 5. practice as many exercises as you can; 6. finally, review your work. I did this and smashed the course [B+--not bad for a "non-accounting head"]. I found the accompanying study guide [By LeBronne Harris and James Moon] invaluable also. This is probably the best book out there on Financial Accounting.

it doesnt get much worse than this, green is green, and if you read the book you know what i mean. when in dought for descriptive terms, just use the word green. i love the dragonlance series, but i am amazed anyone wouldve allowed this book to carry that title.

I have mixed feelings about this book. This story makes Sturm look stupid and brash, which perhaps he was in his youth, but his character in this book is a far cry from the man we later meet in the Chronicles series. The storytelling, however, was really enthralling. Michael Williams' forest imagery was fantastic and reminded me of some of the great imagery in the Chronicles and War of the Souls books. He also gave depth to his characters and pulled some surprises that I didn't expect. I find this to be most interesting because I didn't like Weasel's Luck and Galen Beknighted by the same author mostly because I thought that his characters, even the main ones, lacked depth. I recommend reading this book if for no other reason than because there is a giant, friendly spider who's entire existence turns out to be quite ironic. Okay, that's not really a good reason. Read it or not, it doesn't really matter. I don't think you will learn much about the overall Dragonlance storyline from this book, but it is kind of an interesting read all the same.

I have to say that this book did start out a little slow, and didnt really get going until quite a ways into the book, but it did get better as the book went on. I found it to be a good read once it got going, and i do recommend it to any dragonlance fan who wants to learn a little more about Sturm's past. Though i can't say that it is the best book in the series, bit is written pretty well, and the characters are written pretty well. Recommend it if you plan on reading the whole series.