What a fantastic book. I have never read anything this funny period. I recommend that you buy it.

I really wish a new edition of this book would come out. Nelson's scathing commentary is hilarious, and, as if there needed to be more, he also includes interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits, serious commentary on the role of television in society, TV curses, and cheeky lists of what popular shows reveal about our secret longings and beliefs ("There's nothing as much fun as watching people reveal some deep, horrible secret").

I only caught one small error: in the music video section, Nelson says that "oregato" (should be "arigato") means "hello." It means "thank you." Fans of Styx will be appalled, but nobody else should care.

Highly recommended for television fans and MSTies, and anyone else who wants a good laugh.

One of the best over all books on turkey t.v. i've ever read! However it could use an update (it's sooooo 1992!} + howsabout more real info about the the shows! 1 paragraph's just not enough!

Aloha! I am the editor of this fine publication (and the owner of more than one completely stained, well worn copy) and wanted to throw in a quick pitch about the Grog Log's place amidst the bevy of "Trendy Tiki Drink Books of Questionable Quality".
If you are a Tiki Freak / Cocktail Enthusiast who legitimately wants to experience these classic recipes in their original, robust forms, the Grog Log is the only way to go. I sought out Jeff Berry after seeing his original self-published Grog Log five or six years ago. I was intensely facinated by these old restaurants and all of the amazingly complex creations they served. No matter how many modern (or vintage) drink books I came across none captured the true nature of these original (mostly) rum drinks (with the possible exception of some of the classics in Trader Vic's own line or the Hawaii Kai Cookbook). Jeff's self-published, xeroxed zine was the only authentic source.
We decided to team up to do an expanded mass produced version of the book to make it available to a wider (although niche) audience. Since that time (1998) the Tiki craze has exploded and more Tiki-focused drink books have been released. Don't get me wrong ... I own each of them myself ... for the most part the art, design, and production make them interesting ... but for actual recipe content they are sadly lacking. If you really want to dial up the way back machine and sip with the Masters (Trader Vic, Donn Beach, etc.) the Grog Log is for you.
NEWSFLASH: Jeff and I are just about done with a sequel to the Grog Log titled "Intoxica!" to be released in the Summer of '02. Check back often to Amazon.com as they'll be selling it once it's available. Mahalo!

You finally found it -- the ultimate cocktail recipe book. Click that "buy now" button and begin your exciting journey into a land of exotic tastes and potent potions. I've had a blast hunting down the ingredients and whipping up drinks for my friends. I own many cocktail recipe books, but this is the one I always use.

Most highly recommended!

This book is great fun! My copy is already stained with the Blue Curacao, and sticky with Marachino Cherry juice. Lots of great recipes- some easy to make and others an adventure to find all the ingredients, but all of them are tasty and impressive. Wonderful graphics to check out while your blender is running. There is even a guide to how potent your potion will be and what type of glass to serve it in. Really a great book--

This high quality and well written book will certainly join Burnhams three volume set as a long term classic, for those wanting to explore the sky with binocs. The numerous drawings and charts are priceless in locating interesting objects. It's a pity this excellent book is listed as "buy it used" by Amazon, with none shown as available used, since mine arrived spanking new in three days from Richmond to Maine via UPS in a highly professionally wrapped box for only a... handling fee and zero shipping charges from Willman-Bell the publisher. The inclusion of the outstanding Tirion Star Atlas is a huge plus, highly useful with only the naked eye, as well as with binocs and small telescopes. A Best Buy for anyones library. When you or the children in the family are ready to go beyond Rey's priceless "The Stars-A New Way to See Them", this book should come next.

This book is INCREDIBLE. It covers many deep sky objects for binoculars and also increases your understanding of our galaxy. The writer does not only explain deep sky objects for binoculars by season but also explains why some kinds of objects are very dense at some constellations and rare at some other part of sky. Also this book explains what actually happens in the objects that we look. Also this book includes Bright Star Atlas. So you don't need any other atlas to follow the book. This book is for both beginners and intermediate level observers.

I'm not a huge fan of binocular astronomy, but I bought this to learn more about it. I'm still not a huge fan of binocular astronomy--but this book has added very considerably to my telescope-based observing. The reason is that many of the targets discussed (beautifully) in this book are tough for binoculars esp. in suburban skies such as mine, but are easy and extremely rewarding through a small telescope (e.g. my 5 inch reflector). Yet these very rewarding objects are largely omitted from telescope gudebooks (perhaps since they're too easy!). Thus, this book provides a huge collection of great targets for a small scope. And it is far more than a mere list (though convenient lists are provided). The astronomical and astrophysical context of the objects described is provided very nicely--but learning this is optional, so the user of this book can create the desired balance between "theory" and pretty observations. There are only a few things I don't like about the book--no index (but the organizatin and table of contents are excellent, so essentially make up for this), no discussion of the moon, which is a great binocular object, and nothing about sketching your observations. Nevertheless it is a tour de force, filled with great information, organized well, and with very high production quality. I would strongly recommend this to all amateurs with telescopes (and maybe binoculars,too!).

Generally, I'm fairly hard to please. That being said, I love
this book without reservation. I've recommended it to and
foisted it on friends for years now. Many of them react much
the way I do: there isn't anyone else like Frank O'Connor.

The stories are lyrical, sharply and humorously observed, and
told with elegance in an easy but precise idiomatic diction.
O'Connor always gave his work the test of being read aloud,
and this care for the sound and cadence of his prose shows
on every page.

Finally, there is O'Connor's feeling for people. Reading the
stories, one gets the impression that he was an intelligent
but fundamentally kindly, generous man. Even when a character
in the stories does something that seems objectionable, he
never loses sight of that character's humanity.

Any selection of one's "favorite" stories will be personal.
To an interested reader, I would say, "Read them all." To
friends who ask, I add that they should start with
"Guests of the Nation" and "First Confession." These
aren't his "best" stories, but I've always liked them
both, they are typical of his best, and one must start
somewhere.

When I've given 5 stars to a book, I've often had to argue
with myself as to whether it deserved it. Not for this one.

There are very few stories that can make you just want to sit for a while after you've finished them. You're not sure if you're happy or sad: they just fill your body and you need to sit for a while because you know something special has just gone through you. Maybe they have a way of looking at the world that's just somehow more right than anything you've come across before. Chekhov's "The Bishop" is a story that does that for me, and Salinger's "For Esme, With Love and Squalor." A couple of others.

It's not that they make you happy, exactly, but they give you a sense that life is a more worthwhile thing than you might have felt before, stranger and more full. Frank O'Connor has more stories that give me that feeling than any other writer I've read in English - The Drunkard, My Oedipal Complex, The Mad Luceys, The Ugly Duckling, Don Juan's Temptation. He gave me the same feeling I got when I read Tolstoy and Chekhov for the first time: this guy is onto something: he knows the secret, and if I just read closely enough I'll figure it out too. Well, no luck yet - but each time I read one of O'Connor's stories I feel like everything around me is both more sensible and more mysterious than it used to seem, which is possibly all the answer any book is going to give.

The tradition of the Irish story teller has been reborn in this century in her marvelous short story writers. None was finer than Corkman, Frank O'Connor. All of O'Connor's classic stories are here. O'Connor truly captures Irish life in the early part of this century. The wit and humor that are legendary among Corkmen is present throughout this book. This is one of my favorite books ever. I have given it as a gift too many times to count. Every person that I gave it to came back raving about it!

"Combat Medic Vietnam" is a solid military story. Its 33 chapters are devoted to some 10 Army and Marine medics who served in Vietnam. While "CM" pulls no punches, neither does it belabor or drag the episodes out. Each episode, told in the first person "tells it like it was" and moves on. The result is a highly compact and readable tale with no gratuitous gore and suffering. To the credit of the men involved, there is also no trace of self-pity though the Lord knows they were well entitled on that score. The Afterward reveals what became of the 10 when they returned to "The World"- more power to them all! I enjoyed the Appendix, which encompasses a brief world history of military medics both U.S. and foreign. "CM" has 2 minor flaws common to military books: There are no maps and no glossary of Army/Marine/Navy acronyms or jargon. Their inclusion would have helped. Their exclusion does not detract from the larger story. "CM" represents yet another view, another observation post into the Vietnam War. Both "Combat Medic" and author Roberts earlier work, "One Shot-One Kill" are highly and earnestly recommended.

This is a great book. I couldn't put it down and read the whole thing from cover to cover. It covers the experiences of the medics in the Vietnam war. I know one of the medics featured in the book. His name is Doug Wean, and he is a heroic honorable person. If you want to get the inside story on the Vietnam war this is a book for you.

This book is on the "Recommended Reading List" of Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 295, Indianapolis, Indiana

Reading this book gave me the feeling of being there. A must read.

Having spent over twenty-five years teaching in classrooms in Alaska, I've read numerous survival stories. Comeback is an artfully told story about a teacher/coach and his survival - filled with tension and intrigue. The fiction will captivate readers; the truth will rend your heart. I'm a fan out of the author's past who continues to be one...

I am a 16 year old basketball fan and this book is every thing i ever wanted in a book. Up until i read this reading was like torture to me. But now i read all the time I can't wait until Craig Strohm writes another.

Weird but true is a great book, and yeah it is very cheap although I had to pay more I got it in a book store. This books gives you many cool pictures and facts that you don't know about cartoons. They give you quickies, there are no full articles in this book, just quick facts maybe a sentence or two. Heres one, did you know KISS had blood take from them to mix into their comic book? Heres an amazing fact I liked, fulfilling marvel comics write Mark Gruenwald's dying wish, the ashes of his cremated corpse were mixed into the ink used to print the Squadron Supreme comic book ! Talk about ghost writers! This is a cool book and fun to read for an hour. But there are no colored pictures in this book, everything is black and white, I wouldn't suggest giving this to a kid either it's not suitable for a child!

I loved this book and if you're any sort of a cartoon fan, so will you. It's one of the few books on animated cartoons and comics that I've seen that actually evokes the fun of the artform. Lots of great drawings (many unpublished and rare) and lots of totally useless cartoon trivia to amuse your friends. Plus, it's just so darn cheap. This book is hard to find in stores but I hope it's successful so we can see the second planned edition come to life.

zany, crazy , wacky, funny, surprising, sexy, educational, politically incorrect. and WEIRD!

This is a challenging work.

He realizes 5 standpoints. He writes "What is historically called art in China, by whom and when?". Really, I feel it rather reflect unconscious attitude of 20th century collectors and scholars.

Art in the Tomb /Art at Court/Art in the Temple/Art in the life of the Elite /Art in the Market-Place

Following recent searching environment of artifacts; lifetime of painters, art-market, patrons, etc., as "Painter's Practice" by J.cahill, Mr. Clunas searched relations of arts-makers and the society. This approach is interesting and very suggestive. It may be the first try among such cheap and popular books about "Arts in China". For such character, I feel it should not be an elementary textbook.

Calligraphy was more focused than M. Sullivan's book"The Arts of China" in the chapter "Art in the life of the Elite". Short columns explain words and technical terms vividly. It is worth to buy it only for them. Bibliographical essays(231-237 p.) are very useful. Plates and figures are all fine. There is few inadequate item. Fig 83 and 87 shows as we appreciate in museums, i.e. shows its handscroll format. I think the author make effort to show surrounding textile of paintings and the format in some figs.

As an avocat d'diable, I notice some. The gong of Fig. 49 is not 8th century. Dragons and a beast should be genuine 8th century items. The gong is regarded 12-13th century Japanese artifact. The item of Fig. 82 may not be a representative work by Tang-Yin.

Both C. Clunas and Michael Sullivan edited catalogues of Sir Alain Barlow Collection(now in Sussex College). (ref. The Barlow Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes and Jades: an Introduction, The University of Sussex, 1997/Nov.) Sullivan did in 1963 and 1974. Clunas did in 1997. They might have share common intellectual environment according Oriental Ceramic Society, England.

While not the easiest to read, Clunas's book is currently the best short modest-sized introduction to art in China. The title "Art in China" (not "Chinese Art") is intentional, for Clunas is one of the rare Occidental authors on this subject who transcend the limitations of their background and succeed in communicating some of the subtlety and complexity of the subject, so remote from Western tastes, but no less beautiful and profound.

For example, he points out that while Western art has concentrated on painting, calligraphy is the most esteemed art form in China. Furthermore, from its earliest beginnings, Chinese aesthetics has placed little emphasis on illusionism and perspective, even regarding these as juvenile and distracting from artistic self-expression. (In this respect, the Chinese anticipated "modern art theory" by centuries.) The very term "Chinese Art", he maintains, is a Western invention, since the art work in China was, until recently, never divorced from its political, religious or decorative functions. (That is to say, it was not "museum art" isolated from its context and consciously regarded as art.) Because of these characteristics, art in China has been little appreciated in the West.

Clunas's probing book should be read slowly-- and re-read. The illuminating text gives a relatively sophisticated and sympathetic account of art in China, unlike many books, which are simply naive, provincial and as full of trivial dates and abstractions as they are lacking in insight. The representative works, drawn from all periods of Chinese history--including modern times--are superb and well chosen, and the pictures are excellent, considering the book's modest size. I especially enjoy the full-page color reproduction of Guo Xi's masterpiece "Early Spring" which equals, if not surpasses, the finest landscape paintings of the Dutch golden age (of course, not in illusionist technique, but in sheer expressive and evocative power as it unveils a mysterious fantastic landscape reflecting an interior, as much as an exterior, reality).

My only complaint is that there is only one book on "Art in China" in the Oxford History of Art series, while there are at least 30 on Western art in the same series. One book covers Western art for a 25-year span (1920-45), but 5,000 years of high art in China--in painting, jade, ceramics, lacquer, porcelain, calligraphy and sculpture--gets only a single volume! Talk about provincialism! Certainly, this is no fault of Dr. Clunas, whose work seems all the more commendable in the midst of the naive insularity and ethnocentrism with which it has unfortunately been grouped.

In researching information regarding Sung Dynasty scrolls and artists, I found this book to be a most generous indeed. The author provides clear, precise information without the clutter of person guesses. He provides a wonderful assortment of pictures and resources. Clear, clean photographs of artifacts providing the reader with primary documentation .This is a MUST for anyone studying the Arts and Artists of early China. Thank you Craig Clunas!

Years ago my cousin gave me a stack of books, and this rather trashy-looking one called Blood Secrets was the last one I read.
It is a book I have reread several times and in all my trips to the used bookstore I have never traded it in.

In college, the popular, a-list Irene marries Frank; a man any girl of her ilk would normally not be caught dead with. Her friends and family are initially put off. They just can't see what the appeal is. Yet the marriage succeeds and they go on to produce daughter Regina, who becomes hideously spoiled during a long recovery from a childhood illness. When we get to the "now" of the story, the unattractive teenage Regina has inexplicably hooked a handsome boyfriend, and her father has begun to act very strange. Irene begins to believe that Frank has an unhealthy obsession, a paranoia about his daughter--but is she right, or does Frank know something that she cannot imagine??

A GREAT read--totally underrated and unappreciated book. Don't miss it.

I can't believe this book isn't in print anymore... I've never seen more twists in ANY other book that i've ever read, and i've read many. A brief description reads "it starts as a love story and escalates into a nightmare for those involved"... and how. Best damn book that i've read in the last year, it's in my top 3 at least and i'd compare it to any other great horror book for the emotional shock value at the end. I'll never forget this book. Very suspenseful and devastating, and i'd recommend it to anyone.

This book is little known, but a really great read! It was extremely shocking and hard to put down. Highly recommended.

This is not a chummy kitchen science experiment book. The science is serious and some principles obtuse. I studied this sort of thing in college and found some of it tough going, though I do think I came away with a lucid understanding for the effort.

The author rambles a bit, mixing exposition and reminisces. This is not a terrible thing, but may not be what you expect. Some of the experiments are elegant and clever, and impressed my 6 year-old considerably. The author's bent is towards optical phenomena, such as why the sky is blue, more than the meteorological, though there's plenty in there.

A fun and interesting book in a conversational and sometimes amusing format. And yes, I finally can explain why the sky is blue.

This book has been invaluable to me in teaching a university class on the Earth's climate. I've been able to pull off some of the clever demonstrations in the classroom. I've never read more understandable descriptions of pressure, "heat", the latent heat of vaporization, and blackbody radiation, including its relationship to the greenhouse effect. The author's dismissive comments towards global warming as just the current fad of 1982 have not stood the test of time. His book, however, will help educators explain to the public our dire circumstances so that something might be done about it.

This is a very well written, creative and informative work. It's a league well above the cliche "amazing science experiments" books and offers detailed insight into atmospheric phenomena. The style is prose, not the boring step by step method that turns off many readers. You can use it to perform experiments, but it's a good readin itself. I highly recommend it to teachers - you'll learn some interesting stuff while getting your demo ideas.