The author does a wonderful job of bringing early Seattle history to life. By describing the characters that were important in the founding of Seattle one gains a new respect for what it is that makes Seattle unique. The directions given for locating the graves of famous Seattle pioneers are very helpful, because although most of these pioneers are located in the same cemetery, Lake View is not your typical pioneer cemetery.

This book is a great resource for anyone who is visiting Seattle for the first time, and would like to make the most of their time spent in the area. It has useful tips on places to go, clothing to wear depending on the time of year, and maps of Seattle and the surroundings. Overall, I rate this book as a thorough source of travel information on Seattle and the Puget Sound area.

I've always preferred Gary Snyder's prose over his poetry. That is why this book is so good -- filled with essays and interviews, it manages to be simultaneously insightful and revolutionary.

This work would be a great introduction to the work and politics of Gary Snyder. Even if you dislike, or are unsure of his poetry, I would encourage you to at least check out this book; a knowledge of his poetry is not a prerequisite for enjoying and learning from it.

Only one work from this volume, "The East West Interview" was excerpted in the Gary Snyder Reader that was recently published. So, even if you have that book, there will not be much repetition.

Textbook format with interesting highlights of the world's major religions. Not as focused on doctrine as Huston Smith, but indicates the cultural impact and use of these eastern and western religions. Good reference tool.

I would heartily recommend this book to all dental ceramics and prosthodontics students and researchers. It includes step-by-step procedures for tooth preparation and fabrication of ceramic prostheses with color pictures. If you can find a copy, I would also recommend reading volume I, which explores dental ceramic processing and properties on a technical materials science level.

This volume is mostly a reprint of the manuscript mentioned in the title. Adam McLean gives some brief observations on the material and the manuscript's history then let's the user do the interpretation.

Why I call it invaluable is that it really constitutes one of the most important links between John Dee and the late 19th century schools of occult (i.e the Golden Dawn and the Aurum Solis). For those who, like myself, question the why's of the correspondeces formulated by the GD (esp. in terms of geomancy) this book unravels that mystery. While Rudd did not actually describe the specifics of his attributions, it becomes clear where the GD was borrowing from. It's catalog of spirits also contain entities from other Grimoire traditions and their associated sigils which probably make it useful for anyone investigating those traditions (e.g. Solomon).

These stories describe the antics of contemporary Scottish pond life. But they do so in a flat, affectless voice. The experience is akin to half watching other people whilst waiting in a bus station. Only slightly more diverting than watching dry leaves being blown about on a crisp autumn day.

Good, solid, slice-of-life type of stories. Reads quickly.

From the author of the totally creepy Bunker Man and the deftly delightful Blackden comes this collection of 23 short stories ranging in length from a half-page to 42 pages. McLean's voice and fine writing is as evident in these short works as in his two novels. If one placed each of his novels at the end of a spectrum of creepiness and wholesomeness, the stories in this collection would fill the gap between them. Indeed, the longest story, "Hours of Darkness" shares many of the creepy and ultimately nasty characteristics of Bunker Man, while others such as "Tongue" or "The Druids S***e It and Fail To Show" hearken to Blackden. As a whole, the collection is a great example of the new Scottish writing, and a perfect introduction to McLean.

I bought this book as requirement for an MIS class. The book has good graphics, but the authors have tried to cram in a lot of information. As a result, things have'nt been explained systematically. One has to move to a later chapter to look for things discussed earlier. The quality of writing leaves much to be desired. In a nutshell, the book is only ordinary. It is much like a glossy story book for children, certainly not worth the price.

If you want make a decision whether you apply a new Information System or not to your organization, buy this book. There are lots of real world examples and reasons to go to IT. It is an excellent book for all those who are in the any level of management position with little or no IT background. If you are going to develop a software product and be a multimillionaire, buy one. It will inspire you. It is also a marvelous book for IT professionals who want to know real world of business and its relationships with what they are doing. As usual, every good thing has it own short falls. This book is not organized well enough to balance with the weight of subjects it discusses. For example, Chapter 2.1 INFORMATION SYSTEMS: CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS does not have any concepts and definitions of IS. Rather, you can find them in Chapter 1 (page 17). It also contains same concepts in different places and repeat similar explanations.

This is one of the best book in IT Management (for upper level undergraduage or graduate level course). I have found that the book has been very updated in the pace of the current trend, and is providing one of the best and balanced treatment (for very broad field, but with fairly in-depth coverages in each critical area of IS and IT management) with the solid managerial and profound organizational groundwork. Some of the chapters that I enjoy reading is Ch.3 (Strategic Information Systems), Ch.4 (Business Process Reengineering and Information Technology), Ch.6 (Electronic Commerce), and especially Ch.12 and Ch.13 (Planning for Information Technology and Systems, Information Technology Economics) for Managing IT. My appraisal about this book is its well-balanced and insightful critiques (to rescue and enpower many of the simple and naive, or stubborn, from many of the crafty propaganda, illustions and deceptions of today's "rise-and-die-quick" empty promises and sales pictchs in this field). This is one of the main reason that I have adopted this book for my students.

I honestly had trouble staying awake reading this one. I'm very interested in type design and typography but the pace of this book made me feel like a kid with attention deficit disorder watching C-Span. There's a lot of interviews so definitely get your money's worth. Illustrations are bit sparse for a book on type and the whole book comes across as überconservative.

The four stars are for the content, which is generally excellent and has not been published in other books. Everyone will have their favorite chapters, but the interview with Dwiggins is particularly illuminating and amusing.

My problem with this book is its astonishingly poor design. The layout of the pages works well, even though there are few illustrations. The paper is a shiny, bright white that positively hurts my eyes. If the book featured photography, I could understand. But it's all black type on snow -- nasty. Not to mention that the stock itself stinks. It has a heavy chemical odor, and consequently is difficult to hold at a comfortable reading distance.

If Rauri McLean did not want to use ligatures, he should have choosen a type that did not require their use. The crashing fs disturb me. Also, the beginnings of chapters are not flagged well. They begin with a drop cap followed by a short introduction in italics. This would probably work if the drop caps were larger, or in a different color. As it is, it's difficult to pick out a subject by simply thumbing through the book.

I understand that McLean was trained by the great typographer Jan Tschichold, whom I admire enormously. However, I don't see much of his influence in this glaring white, smelly book.

This is a great compilation of the thoughts of numerous renowned typographers and type designers. It is not light reading, but consequently provides great insight. McLean has done a great job with all aspects of the book, including its layout

"Lone Star Swing" is an entertaining and occasionally funny read, though not very enlightening about the subject at hand (western swing music). McLean made the mistaken assumption that he could breeze through Texas with little planning beforehand and produce a compelling book within the 30 days his money allowed him. As a result he stumbles around, trying to find interesting people and experiences on the fly, but often coming up empty. An in-depth interview with Adolph Hofner would have been great, but McLean didn't bother to plan it in advance and blows the opportunity. He praises people like Billy Briggs and Smokey Woods but makes no attempt to track down people who can shed light on their personalities or music. Thus most of McLean's comments come across as witty fodder for a fanzine, but not much else. His hyper-enthusiasm for Bob Wills is a little disturbing, since the most interesting people he talks about in the book had very little contact with Wills, and actually played with other groups. The story ends with the author attending a rather tepid "Playboys reunion" that features guys who played with Wills in the '50s and '60s -- far removed from the 1930s era band that McLean is so enthused about in the rest of the book. Not much of a climax, but McLean is such a "fan" that he doesn't notice this discrepancy.

Amusing, but you'd be better off buying some western swing CDs.

I like most travelogues, and I love McLean's fiction (Blackden, Bucket of Tongues, Bunker Man), so, even though I've never even heard of Western Swing music, I thought I might like McLean's account of his journey to Texas in 1995 in search of the remnants of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. After reading half the book, I'm forced to admit that I was wrong. While McLean's enthusiasm brims from every page, it's hard for the outsider to care about his descriptions of obscure artists and their tunes.

And while McLean is an excellent writer of fiction, he is alas, only a workmanlike travel writer. He dutifully chronicles his trials and tribulations, but there's a certain zing missing-a lack of true insight perhaps. There is plenty in Texas to remark on, and he does, but having driven across the state several times myself, I never felt I was learning anything new. So, while I love his fiction, I'd have to recommend giving this a pass unless you're a fan of Western Swing.

Some people, judging from their reviews, just didn't "get" the book. That's okay, I can understand it. It's probably best for people like myself, folks too young to have heard Wills' music any normal way, but who somehow stumbled across it and fell in love. If you're a long-term fan of the music, or have never heard it at all, well, I can imagine the book may seem lacking - though personally, I liked the tales of McLean's efforts not to seem too alien to his surroundings, and his disappointment in finding that mid-1990's Texas is not quite the wonderland of Western Swing he'd hoped. That reviewers point out the book seems to be too much about McLean is rather the point - it's a lonely journey and he only catches a few faint echoes of the subject of his search.

The part where McLean attempts a phone interview with an absolutely befuddled Floyd Tillman is fabulous. Tillman's importance to country music is huge, but the peak of his career is several decades past. Tillman can't seem to wrap his head around the idea that some guy from Scotland would even want to interview him - told the title of the book, Tillman thinks it's "Lone Star Swig", which he assumes will be a book about beer!

The question isn't asked too directly, but the book really does make one wonder about how much we appreciate the heroes of our past and the innovators and originators of our cultural history. That the book is written by a Scottish guy looking for the answers to questions most of the "native" people in his book seem to care not a whit about really drives the concept home.

It's a well-written book with a lot of cool tales and McLean comes across as the sort of guy you wouldn't mind joining on a road trip. On that basis, this book works for me.