Contrast is written to assist law enforcement, attorneys, students, and writers, in their efforts to learn the many details of fingerprint science. The book is an excellent layman text. The details of this book will help law enforcement field officers in their crime scene evidence collection, and attorneys with the preparation of their case. Few fingerprint books have been so valuable to the reader. This book is a must for ANY person who works with fingerprint evidence.

This is Volume 8 in a multi-volume series, all with the same format. That format is to take NTSB accident reports and NASA ASRS (Aviation Safety Reporting System) forms and use them to illustrate proper (and often improper) technique. The result is similar to the "Aftermath" and "I Learned About Flying From That" columns in aviation magazines, and is quite effective. This volume covers situational awareness, and is replete with examples of busting airspace, traffic conflicts, runway incursions, running out of fuel, getting lost and flying into adverse weather. The book uses the text of the NTSB report (for serious accidents) and then analyzes what went wrong in more detail, discussing both what went wrong and what should have been done. Numerous ASRS reports are analyzed in the same way, and it is easy to see how some of them could have become NTSB reports without some "luck" on the part of the pilots involved. Some of the incidents mentioned are ones I've never even thought of before, like what happens when the airport name changes but the change hasn't made it into the Airport/Facility directory yet? Yes, this situation has caused near midairs, and is well described by the pilot filing the ASRS! The only issue I have with the book is that the organization of the material is a little haphazard. Otherwise, this book (and the series in general) is an excellent example of how to use NASA's ASRS to advance aviation safety. And the price of the books is quite reasonable as well. Highly recommended.

I've now read about a dozen CI-oriented books in the last twelve months and Controversies in Competitive Intelligence stands out from the rest of them for tackling head-on some of the more troubling matters long affecting the field. Not too dissimilar in format from the last book I read by these authors (see my review of "Managing Frontiers in Competitive Intelligence"), it consists of two dozen chapters, mostly by different authors who work in the CI field, and addresses the questions that many of us, including me, have been dealing with for years.

Several chapters thoroughly piqued my interest, especially the ones that dealt with avoiding over-reliance on the internet for CI work (Chapters 7, 8, and 10) - something I see far too many of my corporate clients succumbing to, the growing debate over the field itself - best demonstrated by Fleisher's chapter 5 on what to call the field and chapter 3 whether those doing it are professionals, and the chapters that deal with CI's relationship to other organizational processes such as marketing (Chapter 22 by Blenkhorn), knowledge management (Chapter 23 by Knip), MIS (Chapter 13 by Nikkel), and CRM (see the very interesting Chapter 12 by Davis). Although I viewed these as the most valuable, there were no chapters in the book that I didn't find at least somewhat interesting and thought-provoking.

The book won't provide all the answers we need to answer the questions it poses. Many of the chapters in the book could likely be treated in book length manuscripts themselves - and some of them deserve that treatment sooner rather than later. Having said that, this book is a very worthy and unique addition to the working bookshelf of any serious CI consultant or practitioner, is among the most insightful and valuable recently released in this field, and is easily worth the time to thoroughly read through its meaty 350 pages.

I learned much of what I know about cooking from this wonderful little cookbook and worn out two paperback copies over 30 years. (#2 is held together with rubberbands. I won't part with it until I have my hands on a couple of back-up copies.)

This is one of Craig's first books and, I believe, one of his more interesting books. Craig Begins with Plato and walks through the cosmology and metaphysics of Aristotle, the Arabic philosophers (i.e. Kalam), Jewish philosophers, Aquinas (i.e. five ways, etc.), John Duns Scotus, Spinoza, and Leibniz. He covers each of these thinkers views on cosmology, creation, metaphysics, and their various arguments in support of their philosophies. Craig's writing style is direct and easy to follow which makes for a good read. The contents of the book are not too complicated and thus Craig has (or had rather)the potential of a fairly wide audience. Some of the strengths of the book, I thought, were the chapters that dealt with the Arabic philosophers (this may be since I do not know a whole lot about this area of philosophy and this section was very helpful), and the chapter titled "Typology of Cosmological Arguments." In this latter chapter Craig goes through certain arguments that have arisen against philosophers such as Hume and Kant, and then he delineates the types of arguments that have been used throughout the history of philosophy (i.e. kalam, Leibnizian, etc.). He discusses errors that have arisen regarding certain cosmological arguments, explains how they occurred, etc. Of course, Craig is in favor of the kalam cosmological argument, and this can be seen sprinkled throughout the text (and the chapter on the Arabic philosophers is the longest in the whole book). Nonetheless, this is a nice assessment of several various arguments in the history of philosophy regarding the cosmological argument. If you can get Amazon to find this book you will not be disappointed. I highly recommend this book. I wish someone would reprint it.

This has my vote for being the most romantic quilt in the world. Its style is soft, country, floral, large-scale, and definitely inviting. The rest of the books in the same series are similarly beautiful, but this one is my fav.

Great recipes - wonderful to eat! Delightful! Mere words are not enough! This cookbook will be in all the Christmas stockings I need to fill!

In Crack in America, Reinerman and Levine have brought together a wealth of facts and expertise. The authors' chapters are well-written, and hardhitting. Their arguments are carefully composed, and the authors present sensible alternative models. The editors and their contributors have obviously spent time and effort researching the medical, legal and social components of drugs in America and elsewhere. Reinerman, Levine, and their contributors - Loren Siegel and Ira Glasser from the ACLU, Troy Duster, Ethan Nadelman from the Lindesmith Center, Marsha Rosenbaum and Sheigla Murphy, et al, are informed by a sense of social context - the issues of class, race, the economy and popular culture. They are sharp-minded thinkers and writers, who obviously should be involved in the creation of our nation's drug policies. The answers aren't easy, but if we are going to start anywhere we first need to ask the right questions. Levine's and Reinman's book poses substantial questions and issues that must be addressed if we plan to be a more inclusive society, and not a culture that marginalizes and demonizes people in trouble.

Craig Claiborne writes wonderful cookbooks with great basic recipes in them. This books incorporates all of the great skills and experience that Claiborne has and provides a huge amount of information. With basic techniques explained it is a wonderful gift for the beginner cook. It also is wonderful for the experienced cook due to the wealth of information that is included in it. It is a great reference...from A to Z.

"A Cup of Tea in Pamplona" actually has nothing to do with tea or Pamplona (the city famous for its running of the bulls) and frankly I think Laxalt could have found a better title. The book is a poignant novel about Basque smugglers, set in the 1960s. In his recent book, "The Land of My Fathers", Laxalt lamented the extinction of the "contrabandiers" (as they're known in France) when Spain entered the European Union, regretting that "something of the romantic past has been lost". In this slim and rapid-fire novel, though, Laxalt makes no bones about the ugly, desperate, and sometimes violent world of the "romantic past" of Basque smugglers.

The story revolves around Nikolas, an impoverished Basque with a wife and infant sons who, driven by financial despair and in spite of his wish to live a respectable life, takes on work as a "contrabandier" for Gregorio, the "patrón" of a small team of smugglers. As the narrator comments, Nikolas "[breaks] the pattern in a land where patterns were not made to be broken. If your father was a cobbler, then it followed that you were a cobbler. If your father was a peasant, then you had better remain a peasant, too. If you were born poor, then it was your duty to remain poor." Gregorio argues him out of tradition, though, reminding Nikolas (correctly) that a man cannot feed and clothe his family with "the substance of respectability" and, besides, smuggling "was not like stealing from a neighbor. The only victim was the government, and who had ever felt sorry for a government?"

Gregorio arranges to have Nikolas lead a team of other smugglers (including Luis, Nikolas' brother-in-law) in an effort to smuggle fifty horses over the frontier straddling the ridge of the Pyrenees between France and Spain. If they are caught by the French border guards, they'll spend time in jail, which can mean ruin for a poor man. Worse, if they struggle with the guards, it can mean death on the mountain.

Does the novel end in tragedy or does the team successfully make it over? Laxalt doesn't drop hints beforehand. Neither will I. However it ends, "A Cup of Tea in Pamplona" is a weighty indictment of the grinding poverty that led Basques into smuggling. It offers a good glimpse into social conditions in the Basque Country, and though it isn't an "ethnic" novel or "quaint" in any way, you'll come away knowing something about customs and social relations in the Basque Country forty years ago. Additionally, Laxalt has an ear for terse narration and realistic dialogue free of clichés, plus the ability to weave a intense, continually engrossing plot.

I'm thinking about travelling in the Pyrenees next spring and found this book a great way to get a feel for the place. And having read Laxalt before, I can also say that I'll definitely read him again. A+ and 5 stars.