I recently re-read this novel and was impressed by how good it was on a second read. Although FROST has the style of a "traditional" fantasy, it is anything but conventional. Seek this one out!

This is the first book of one of my favorite fantasy trilogys. Not lighthearted fantasy reading, but a bit dark and mysterious. I would also love to know if there is a book 4!

wonderful charactors, great story, drew me into the charactors lives and I want to find book 4 if there is one????

It was a great book. Eddie's grandmother has him take piano lessons from a strange man, Lance E. Lott. The place where he takes piano lessons even looks like a castle complete with a round table. Could Mr. Lott really be a knight in shining armor? The Bailey School Kids are going to find out.

I enjoyed this book because it was funny and interesting. This story comes complete with sword fights and jousting matches. Maybe Eddie should have taken flute lessons instead. If you want to find out why you will just have to read the book.

Ryan, age 8

Knights Don't Teach Piano, by Debbie Dodey and Marcia Thornton Jones is from a series, "The Bailey School Kids" series.
My favorite character is Liza because she is very nice. Eddie thinks he is the best at everything but he is not. There is Melody,who is really bossy, and Howie,who is really good at science. If you read this book, it will be the best!

I read Knight's Don't Teach Piano Lessons by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones. Knight's Don't Teach Piano Lessons is a very good book. It's about four kids who start to take piano lessons. Their teacher's name is Lance A. Lot. The four kids names are Meloby, Liza, Howie, and Eddie. I liked it because they always find something to find out, and they always have some spying to do.They are funny books. They are like detectives. I recommend this book to peole who kind of like mysteries, ages 8 to 12. There are 30 (including Knight's Don't Teach Piano.)

It surprises me that it is necessary to argue whether or not Columbus discovered the Americas. But whatever you call it, Columbus transformed the world by what he did. Even so, Sailing to Paradise presents a case for not even the odd visit before Columbus but of a substantial intercourse between the two hemispheres during the Bronze Age. Very much like Ignatius Donnelly's Atlantis for today (although one to be taken seriously), this book compiles all the evidence of pre-Columbian contact.

The thesis is this: tin and copper, needed in to make bronze, only existed in sufficient quantities in America. (The source is otherwise a mystery.) Trade was carried out and the metals (and religions) transported to the Middle East by the sea people, Atlas people or Phoenicians, and distributed. (It gets very complex.) Even megalithic stones, like Stonehenge, were built for navigation to America. When iron surpassed bronze, trade ended and so did commerce, except in small numbers. It also presents evidence of significant interaction between America and India.

Presents many solid foundations for the approach to understanding history, but although sometimes convincing in its arguments, it often inserts any scrap to prove a point, firm or flimsy, and often requires leaps of faith on short evidence. Interprets almost all stories (myths, Bibles, hearsay) as relating to his thesis. At one turn saying that one thing can be taken literally, but that another must be substantially re-interpreted in order to fit it well into the picture of the Bronze-Age world he describes. Yet the only real incredible thing to accept is that every mystery is explained by this one idea.

Still it is thought-provoking and self critical enough to be taken for serious consideration. Most things before 500 years ago are sketchy and always open to some debate. The further in the past the more this is true. In this sense, we are blinded by a lack of written sources, yet his argument is that this book is only to establish a basis from which to focus archaeological study. Which is true since what is provided as evidence is still too circumstantial, even if I agree with much of what he says (even if not the broad thesis).

As for how the book is put together, things are often referred to casually, such as places, expecting the reader, apparently academics, to follow his line. So this book may not be easily understood by a general reader, since he is clearly presenting this theory in the line of an academic argument. Of trivial note, although there are many illustrations, one irritation was that they don't follow the text. You have to continually hunt around for them. So read this book, if this sort of historical debate or theories about Atlantis (America?) are of interest to you.

James Bailey please email me at mcmaguire@mindspring.com as soon as possible . I have some imfo that you must have and be part of. The Smoking gun? No Joke. Mike

It is a fact that North and South America are crawling with evidence that there were visitors from Europe and Asia centuries before Columbus. Skeletons, artifacts and inscriptions abound. Denied by mainstream archaeology, but refuted by analysis of DNA, bone structure and common sense. (See the April 26, 1999 issue of Newsweek -- it is the cover story.) If you like this book, you will like Gloria Farley's "In Plain Sight."

I liked when they found out about when Eddies mom joined the motorcycle race. THe book was funny and adventurous. Jeanna age 10

I like Sea Monsters Don`t Ride Motorcycles because it takes place at the beach. And I like it at the beach. And I like motorcycles too. by Will (age 7)

It was very entertaining. I always like it when they are going to solve the mystery when the weird adult leaves and they can't finish the mystery.

Delightful and refreshing! The author is sharing his real life experiences with his readers. I also like the way each story ties into another.

It doesn't matter if you are 15 or 55; Spiritual Snacks is uplifting, inspirational and enjoyable to read. I have the good fortune to work with Randy Bailey and it's no surprise to see that he is as true and down to earth in print as he is in person. I don't consider myself a religious person, but I believe Randy has a gift that was meant to be shared with the world. I am thankful he has been brought into my life and I am confident after you read this book, you'll feel the same way.

I enjoyed the book and felt uplifted and inspired. I really enjoyed the poetry and was glad to find a book that was simple to read and yet challenges the reader to have a closer walk with God

I just re-read this book for the first time since I was living in Berlin, Germany (S.O. 36) through most of the 80's. (My copy of this book is a dog-eared Avon paperback, fallen to pieces and carefully saved by means of rubber bands.) Like the book's author, I am multi-lingual (German, Dutch, French, with some Spanish, Wolof and Eve). So, his attempt to get more understanding of Germans from the German language itself makes all the sense in the world to me. I also appreciate his notion of what he calls the "polyhistor." This is the only book in which I've seen this term. I recommend the book highly, but it is not easy reading (pleasurable, yes, but not easy). I doubt that I could get any of my engineering friends (I am also an engineer) to read it, because they wouldn't get the jokes. You almost have to have lived in Germany, as he did and I did, for it to make any sense.

I wish this book were back in print, just as I wish Charles Beard's books were available. It repays the effort of reading it, something that can't be said of many books these days.

My father handed this to me when I left to live in Germany ten years ago. My entire experience of the country turned out to be colored by Bailey's mixture of autobiography and profound linguistic and historical knowledge. This man knows the peoples and history of Central Europe inside out, to a degree that one can only envy. The book veers back and forth: from tiny specific details of Bailey's own experiences in military intelligence in the Second World War (and his life in a German family afterwards), to sweeping views of what the German national character is and how it came to be. It's all written in a clear, vigorous style, sort of like George Orwell as a bon vivant. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the subject.

Growing up as an "Auslandsdeutscher" (German raised in foreign countries) I early on came to understand that NOBODY understands the "Germans," not foreigners with their cultural/ethnic/political biases (even if they are positively inclined), much less the Germans themselves with their "unbewaeltigte Vergangenheit" (unprocessed past).

So, it was amazing to find that the person who got closest to the German essence, soul, substance, what you will, was someone who discovered the people in his adolescence and then pursued this interest into adult life. His view is loving and critical at the same time, as it should be. That he is of Celtic ancestry surely helped him in acquiring insight, because I have found tremendous parallels between the two peoples. 'Nuff said - I'll be accused of something....

THIS BOOK SHOULD BE RE-ISSUED !!!...

As with any book on making your home more efficient, a grain of salt must be held at the ready. Saving $50 a year may be a goldmine to some and may just be a private victory against oil corporations to others. Still, with all the info in this book, you'd have to be pretty wasteful to not recoup the purchase prise pretty quick!

Like the previous critic, I advise the ever-present grain of salt when reading anything that has yet to be proven scientifically. . . Like the wrapping of the water heater HAS. You WILL save energy and in turn money by doing so. So much to the point that the state of California now provides Water Heater Blankets with installation, free of charge, to anyone that wants one. Soon it will be a requirement.

The advice in this book spans the gamut-- everything from "First, go after holes a cat could crawl through." to triple-paned windows that take decades to pay for themselves. Whether you're looking to save a few quick bucks, or you approach conservation from an aesthetic, save-the-planet viewpoint, there is plenty here to keep you busy. Some of the advice is controversial (vapor barriers in attics) and some is bogus (wrapping your hot water heater, which is probably well insulated already), but the treatment of the subject appears thorough and reasonably practical.

Like the previous critic, I advise the ever-present grain of salt when reading anything that has yet to be proven scientifically. . . Like the wrapping of the water heater has. You WILL save energy and in turn money by doing so. So much to the point that the state of California now provides Water Heater Blankets with installation, free of charge, to anyone that wants one. Soon it will be a requirement.

As another reviewer remarks, English prose style is not the colonel's strong suit. If ever a book called for the firm hand of a skilled editor, this is such a book. It abounds with inconsequential asides ("I met him years later in Korea"), terse sentences and a wealth of exclamation marks. Nevertheless, this does give the reader an idea of the author's authentic voice and persona - that of an end of empire action man.

The exploits of Colonel Bailey show that the kind of military man that we read of in Rider Haggard and John Buchan's novels really did exist. He would not have been out of place joining an Indiana Jones expedition. He really was an Edwardian action man writ large - bold, resourceful, uncomplaining and considerate of those endangered by his presence.

He is almost a caricature of the quintessentially British officer muddling through to triumph. He comes across as a talented amateur jack-of-all-trades - no James Bond he! He was a fair linguist but, as luck would have it, only had a smattering or no knowledge of the languages of the nationals he pretended to be: Serbs, Austrians, Romanians etc.

He certainly comes across as fearless. On one occasion he nonchalently reads a copy of The Times that he has "borrowed" from a Bolshevik officer in the room next door who had been sent to hunt for him. English sang froid is much in evidence as he casually mentions the executions of numerous people with whom he had been in close association. This guy had more lives than a dozen cats.

The book very much brings alive the chaos and casual brutality of the early days of the Bolshevik revolution in Turkestan. Somehow Bailey slips through it all, constantly striving to get intelligence out to Britain. Miraculously he never seems to want for money - we never do learn where it came from or where he kept it.

Bailey was a first class eccentric officer - as evidence of this I offer the fact that, whilst detailing his adventures in a world gone mad, he thinks it sufficiently important and interesting to his readers to catalog the various species of butterfly that he captured and preserved on his travels. He even presents us with a complete list of those taken between the Pamirs, Kashgar and on the road to Russian Turkestan complete with Latin names, and the place, altitude and date they were collected.

Mad dogs and Englishmen indeed!

Let's get the bad bit out the way first, F.M. Bailey was not a great writer. This is reflected in Mission to Tashkent, where the style of the writer does not follow what you would normally consider a gripping read. For example, there are one or two occasions where a character in the book is not mentioned for long enough, for you to have to go back several pages to find out who they are. I would have given it five stars had it not been for this.

What Mission to Tashkent is, is a factual account of the Russian Revolution, as played out in Central Asia, where the Bolshevik Russian minority based mainly in Tashkent (now in the independant sate of Uzbekistan) had to overcome White Russian, Moslem and British forces to establish the revolution on Central Asia (the British eventually withdrew, not wanting to become too involved).

In this book, F.M. Bailey, whose previous adventures had involved accompanying Francis E. Younghusband to Tibet in 1904 (on account of the fact he could speak Tibetan), details his journey from India via Kashgar to Tashkent. Once in Tashkent, the book covers the writer's life there, under constant fear of arrest or execution at the hands of the local Bolshevik Provisional Government. His official purpose was as a diplomatic representative for the British in Central Asia, which created much danger for himself, due to the presence of British forces at Ashgabad in Turkmenistan. He also gathered information for the British as to what exactly was happening there, due to concerns that the large number of German and Austrian prisoners of war held in Central Asia could be used to attack British India, if organised into a fighting force by German agents known to operate in Iran and Afghanistan - it was 1917/1918 and Britian was still fighting Germany. He also acted on the British behalf, believing that the British were about to advance on Tashkent and unseat the Bolsheviks in Central Asia, but in the end, this never happened with the aforementioned British withdrawal. The book finishes with his eventual flight to Iran, ending in his escape after a skirmish with Bolshevik troops on the Iranian border.

I found the book to be a thoroughly engrossing read, bar the aforementioned problems with the book's style and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in Turkestan / Uzbekistan and Central Asian history. With it being a factual account, it also makes for a useful insight into what was happening in outlying Tashkent at a time, when everyone else's eyes were focused on what was happening in revolutionary Moscow and St. Petersburg and how the Germans were going to react after the withdrawal of the Russians from the Great War. Highly recommended.

So much of what has happened in Persia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in the last 150 years is due to what has been called "The Great Game." Russia has always been a superpower that lacked a salt-water seaport free of ice all year round. (The Black Sea doesn't count because Turkey controls access to it through the easily defensible Bosphorus and Dardanelles.) Consequently, it has always sought to destabilize South Asia in the hopes of being able to get a port on the Indian Ocean.

One of the highest ranking pieces in the Great Game was the British intelligent agent Lieut-Col Frederick M. Bailey, who wrote this fascinating book. So if you're a great intelligence agent, why is it so difficult to write a good book? Simple: A good intelligence agent keeps too much unsaid. Information is his stock in trade, so he is very sparing of all the interesting details.

Picture present-day Uzbekistan in the first year of the Bolshevik takeover (1918). No one in Europe had any idea of what to expect from the Bolsheviks. Would they become more moderate in time? Would the Muslim population accept them? Would the White Russians defeat them in battle and restore the Czar?

In the midst of all these swirling theories strode the skinny and extremely canny Colonel Bailey. He set himself up in Tashkent as the official representative of His Majesty's Government but immediately ran into roadblocks. Without informing Bailey, Britain had in the meantime engaged the Bolsheviks in battle near Murmansk and near the Caucasus. That quickly made Bailey persona non grata (which meant ripe for execution in those times).

But how does one arrest a wizard? Bailey immediately went underground and assumed the identity of a Romanian, Czech, Austrian, Albanian, or other POW, of which Tashkent had many from those WW 1 days. He rarely stayed in one place for more than a day or two, though he did manage to develop some loyal contacts, including the US consul Tredwell. For over a year, Bailey eluded capture. During the whole of that time, there was no effective contact with his government; and during most of that time, he was actively sought by the Cheka, or secret police.

The escape from Tashkent was ingenious and dramatic. Bailey got himself hired as a Bolshevik agent under an assumed identity and assigned to Bokhara, which was not yet under Bolshevik control at that time. There, he reached into his inexhaustible supply of money and bought horses, men and influence to allow him to escape south to Meshed in Persia, where there was a British presence.

I wish I knew at every point how the magician pulled a particular rabbit out of his hat, but I'll just have to take that as a given. Today, Bailey is regarded by the British as one of their greatest spies. In Central Asia, he is regarded as an arch-villain who threatened the development of Communism in Central Asia.

MISSION TO TASHKENT is not an easy read, but it is absolutely vital in understanding the forces, many of which still operate in this pivotal area of the globe.

Having attended KU during the sexual revolution I really looked forward to reading this book. It is interesting to read about events you actually got to attend and to read about persons you knew at college. The writer has done a masterful job of research and certainly the book was entertaining, yet it does not capture what was going on. Young people want to have sex, and they will have sex as long as it is reasonably possible. The reason there seemed to be a sexual revolution in Lawrence at the end of the 1960s was because there were now so many more college students there. This fact, more than anything else, was the moving force behind the "revolution." As I remember college, it was a time of poverty, too much work, being away from home the first time, and loneliness and isolation. Perhaps in the fantasy world of the mass media all college students were having sex, but in the real world most of us were just trying to survive. There is sexual behavior going on everywhere, and there will be sexual behavior as long as we are human beings. But in Kansas many boys lose their virginity in whore houses in Junction City Kansas. Others utilize barnyard animals. (Sheep are best.) The fact that this dirty business is kept quiet does not mean that it does not occur. The presense of many homosexuals at KU could indicate the occurrance of a sexual revolution. It could also just as well indicate that the state itself is so repressive they flock to Lawrence for a chance to be free. I don't think the author understood this and I do not think that the book is all that intellectually significant. The kids who came up to Lawrence in 1968 and began having sex there would have been having sex had they come up in 1938. Similarly those who couldn't get laid in the 1960s would have done without at any time. Additionally the gay fringe and the counterculture were simply not representative of the student body and to compare or even discuss the two groups is to compare oranges with frogs.

This is a very accessible, well-written book which at the same time provides a complex analysis of American's changing attitudes and assumptions regarding sexual practices. While focusing on Lawrence, Kansas, (very useful for understanding how individuals and institutions reacted within a specific context), it says much about the country as a whole. It is refreshingly forthright without being unnecessarily salacious. And it manages to inform without taking all the fun out of the topic-quite a balancing act!

The sexual revolution didn't just happen in New York and San Francisco, and this book tell the story of how the sexual revolution came to the liberal college town of Lawrence, KS.

This book has a lot of fascinating stories, such as the history of birth control in Lawrence, the story of the town's attempt to "protect" itself from 10,000 sex-crazed young men working the nearby arms factory during WWII, and the history of gay liberation in the area.

Anyone interested in sexual/cultural politics and social issue will really enjoy this one.

Once again the Baily School Kids Melody, Eddie, Howie, and Liza have found that they have a pretty wierd adult in Baily City, and it just turns out to be their ecology project coordinator. Mr. Bunyip is definitely strange. He says he comes from Australia and he came to the United States because people were overcrowding his space. Plus he chases wild turkeys!! Melody knows somethings up again so she does some research and comes up with the conclusion that Mr. Bunyip is a swamp monster. Well, once again that Baily School Kids are out to save Baily City and this time in a ecological way too by cleaning Swamp Dread! However will cleaning be the only way to drive out Mr. Bunyip? Read to find out!!!

These Baily School Kids books are quite entertaining and still give me a few laughs. However these books are definitely getting more predictable and the plot lines are practically the same in all the books with just different monsters. I have been reading these books for 4 years and I still find them to be entertaining at times but I usually only read them if I have a lot of spare time. To sum it up: Still not a bad read for a cold dreary day!!! Especially would be good for little kids cause I think part of the reason I am not that interested in them anymore is because I am much older now!

The Bailey City School books are great! You'll love them! Also, be sure to check out the other books and book series by the same authors - Barkley's School For Dogs - Bailey City Monsters - Triplett Trouble. They're great, too!

This one kept me laughing.