The story of how the custodian (Jim Robinson) of one the worlds most recognized names, American Express launched a defamation campaign against a Swiss banker (Edmond Safra). Their efforts would've succeeded if they didn't rely upon an eccentric master of PR (Harry Freeman), a neurotic conspiracy theorist (Susan Cantor) and what could only be described as weasel of a man (Tony Greco)to execute it all.

The portrayal of Safra as an innocent is a bit misleading. Admittedly he took advantage of his post holocaust Jewish peers by purchasing their gold for obscenely below market prices to resell at market prices. In addition, Safra isn't without blame in American Express's paranoia that he would exercise unscrupolous tactics himself.

Read the book to find out why.

This is a fascinating story of international intrigue and business. The author provides historical background for both AmEx and Mr Saffra and then proceeds into the meat of the story.

What's interesting here is that the Vendetta alluded to in the title raises some serious ethical questions on the part of some folks. All I'll say is as you read it do a name search on the web and see where some of them are today, it's not the poor house and it's not jail either.

The book exposes high finance, high power, bare knuckled business street fighting taken to an internation stage.

The science is far from perfect, and occasionally diverges from what was known even in the 1930s and 1940s. "Thundering Worlds" is full of passion and plot, but the physics of planetary bodies is inaccurate enough to be distracting to an informed reader ... yet, still, it's one helluva story.

This Del Rey edition has a striking illustration on its cover of the best story of the lot, "He That Hath Wings." You'll shed a tear for the fate of the protagonist even if you don't envy him his mutation, as I do.

It is a concise no nonsense approach to diving medicine for everyone from diving novices to hyperbaric physicians (I have seen both groups use this book). I think it is a must for all doctors who treat or do medicals for divers. The main problem with this book is that it comes in paper back and my personal copy is now deteriorating from overuse. Its that kind of book that you just keep going back to.

For the price and breadth of knowledge (including venomous fish/shark attacks the facts as well as decompression illness and medical conditions that preclude diving) there is no book than can come close.

Edmond Halley is famous for his comet - or more specifically for showing that the comet returned by calculating its orbit. We also know of his relationship with Isaac Newton, and Halley's crucial role in the publishing of Newton's Principia from Westfall's major biography of Netwon.

Alan Cook has produced a well researched and sympathetic biography of Halley. Here we find details of Halley's upbringing, his voyage to St Helena to survey the southern skies and observe a transit of Venus, and his appraisal of Hevelius's observations by naked eye compared with telescopically aided observations. There is a basic account of his marriage (Mary Halley has left little trace behind her) and a good account of Halley's finances. The circimstances of the murder of his father are explored, and once again we are reminded of the autocratic and mercantile flavour of those times.

There is a full account of Halley's sea voyages, undertaken as they were in tiny unstable wooden ships. His mapping of the magnetic deviation of the compass, and of the tides and depth of the sea in the Channel mark Halley as perhaps one of the first government scientists.

Halley's time as the Royal Astronomer is documented, together with his fractious time at the Chester Mint during the recoinage overseen by Newton. Cook provides a mildly critical account of Halley's involvement with the publication of Flamsteed's star catalogue.

Halley is shown as a man of action, a shaper, and a man prepared to trust his judgement in difficult circumstances. This is a sharp contrast to the Newton revealed by Westfall's book, the obsessive and semi-reclusive thinker concerned mainly with his own thoughts.

Halley's world is described, and his interactions with Wren, Hooke, Pepys and the royal households of the time are well documented. The myth of Halley's poverty after his father's murder is laid to rest with some detailed examination of estates, wills and chancery court proceedings.

There are technical details of the Venus transit measurements, and a very welcome analysis of Newton's lunar theory, together with a statistical comparison of the Moon positions of Halley and Flamsteed.

Alan Cook is a scientist and a busy academic administrator. The book is composed in 15 chapters each divided into many sections. One has the image of a busy man typing the odd page or two when possible, and the text does not 'flow' as a narrative. You get the facts with sound judgements backed up by references.

Though remembered chiefly for the comet that bears his name, Halley was a scientist of extraordinary breadth and depth. Cook reconstructs all the major categories of Halley's productivity. Chapters are devoted to his youth, the year spent at St. Helena mapping the southern stars, his key role in prying the Principia out of Newton, his role in the quest for longitude at sea, his years as the Astronomer Royal, as well as his career on the high seas, both as a ship's captain (civilian) and scientist/explorer. A scientist like Halley demands a biography of considerable scope, and Cook delivers.

As much as any biography I've read, Cook's "Halley" spends considerable space delving into the contemporary zeitgeist. The 30 page opening chapter "Halley's World," is a splendid essay on the culture and spiritual/political/popular world of the late 17th and early 18th century in Great Britain and Europe.

This book is not an easy read, but it is absolutely essential for any student of the golden age of science. Halley lived in Newton's shadow, but was never eclipsed. Cook has done the literary world a great service in this book.

The colorful illustrations of mom's and dad's spending quality time with their children help bring to life a well-organized and subtle story about who makes a family. I particularly like how the author draws the child in to the story by asking him/her to personalize their book with family photographs and a short story about his/her own family. The second half of the book contains a coloring book of "When Grown-Ups Fall in Love". The child can let his/her imagination soar as he/she decides how to color the pages.

My son and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book together. My partner and I have always taught my son the importance of family and that love makes a family. It is nice to have a book help to reinforce those values. I highly recommend this book to all open-minded individuals who want to raise healthy happy children with a strong sense of family no matter who lives in their home.

The Starwolves are Viking-like space pirates whose world's harsh gravity imparts to them a superhuman strength and musculature. Morgan Chane was almost one of them...though his family had come from earth. Finding himself an outcast after killing a fellow Starwolf in a feud over their plunder, Chane joins a band of tough interstellar mercenaries to survive. However, his troubles are not over--if any but Dilullo, the aging Merc in charge of the mercenary band, learns his secret, his life could be forfeit, for Starwolves are considered such a menace that they are usually shot on sight.

These books owe a lot to "Conan: The Barbarian," some to the pulp SF books of the 30s and 40s, and a bit to "The Stainless Steel Rat". Though somewhat derivative, they are nonetheless competantly and entertainingly written, with sufficiently interesting characterization, that they are well worth the time they take to read.

A really fun read.

This is a short book (around 150 pages), but in that brief span, White is able to touch on all the major events of Proust's life, the key relationships of his life, the major themes of his work as an author, and the ways in which Proust's life became the basis for his work. If one is unfamiliar with Proust before picking up this book, one will gain a first rate overview of him before setting it down. One thing that tremendously enhances the value of the book is an excellent annotated biography that gives a great overview of work on Proust both in English and French.

White, who is a well known gay author, does a superb job writing about the myriad of contradictions in Proust's own work as a lightly closeted gay author. Although Proust's being gay is the worst kept secret of the century, Proust fought many duels over accusations that he was homosexual (or, an invert, as Proust would have put it). Proust was the first writer to write extensively about homosexuality, both male and female, but maintained a façade of heterosexuality to those who did not know him well.

All in all, this is an excellent brief biography of the man many regard as the great novelist of the 20th century. I heartily recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about Proust.

The novel is a grim portrait of the suffering of the poor, in spirit and in fact. Readers who recall the grand historical scope of "War and Peace" and the poignant personal drama of "Anna Karenina" will be struck by the modest presentation of this book. The plot development is minimal, and mainly consists of Nekhludov's interventions on Maslova's behalf with a variety of legal, military, and political persons. This privileged structure, contrasted with the suffering of the prison inmates, leaves a deep impression. Tolstoy's goal is spiritual maturity, and not revolutionary incitement. He writes graphically and realistically of the world. This novel was banned for a time in Edwardian England. It is an eloquent albeit modest summary to Tolstoy's career as a thinker.

The book starts with a claim that, having interviewed several surviving attendees who saw the poker incident, they will conduct a forensic analysis as to who said what, and who lied. They do this in only a very sketchy way. (The poker incident was a verbal argument between Popper and Wittgenstein over whether philosophy had meaning, or was only about verbal puzzles. The argument was either a seminal moment or a silly huff, and this book argues both sides of that case.)

The book also creates some tension between Wittgenstein's view that philosophy was essentially about language puzzles, and Popper's case for philosophy being about real lives, real people. But this is never resolved in anything but the most cursory way.

The result is a fun read, but not a weightly or important book. I think that a shorter magazine article in the New Republic would have sufficed.

The confrontation between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Carl Popper in October of 1946 is a minor footnote in the history of philosophy, but it provides a foil for the authors to explore the histories of these two men and the world in which they lived.

After setting the stage by describing the confrontation, the authors turn to an examination of the lives of the two philosophers, both from Vienna, both powerful intellects, both giant egos. The emphasis here is on historical context, not on philosophy, so the story is very accessible to the general reader. The account of their lives before World War II is fascinating. The description of the academic world in which they worked is vividly drawn.

The authors have given us a real sense of who these two men were and have introduced the reader to the supporting cast of characters as well. The authors have wisely avoid an analysis of the sexual lives of the two protagonists, though Wittgenstein's personal life is alluded to at a couple of points.

The philosophical issues are presented late in the book and are explained carefully and simply, so that the lay reader will see the intellecual stakes involved in the argument. While both men are presented as driven, they are sympathetically portrayed and within the context of the lives they lived, seem quite compelling.

This book captured for me the feeling of being there and gave me a real sense of time and place. The book is short but compelling. I recommend it highly for the reader interested in the lives of intellectuals mid Twentieth Century.