This work of fiction makes the Civil War come alive through a series of letters the narrator, Henry Wylie, writes to his wife,(the Dear Elizabeth), back in Memphis. It is very worthwhile reading. You get the feel of what it was like to ride with General Forrest throughout the entire war. You experience the reality of the war, feel the desperation, the chaos of battle, suffer the hardships of inclement weather and deprivation, and share the comradery that only war can forge. The main character, Henry Wylie, is a pressman for the Memphis Daily Appeal, who joins up as a private with Forrest's cavalry at the beginning of the war, and gets promoted to corporal, sergeant, and 2nd lieutenant by the end of the war. He is selected by Forrest to be a member of his elite escort--a group of about 60 soldiers that Forrest could depend on to run errands, scout, lead the charge, etc. This gives him an unusual perspective from which to observe the war and interact on a personal basis with General Forrest. In these dialecical, but vividly detailed letters, Wylie describes everything he sees, feels, and experiences. He has managed to bring the incredible "Wizard of the Saddle" to life as no history book could do. Highly recommended to Civil War history buffs or others interested in learning more about General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

A good song for who love romantic

It is a good book. It is fun to make those hideouts.I like "The Pole Bean Teepee."

When Easter Eggs that ring when touched fall from the sky, it's both a new kind of First Contact and a love story. The question is--what kind of love?

An original science fiction novel from the author of SPARROWHAWK.

This is one of the great key-stone books of the popular history/religion genre.

The Hiram Key combines an interesting review of the history with some compelling theories, fascinating new ideas, and informed speculation.

The book is essentially a review of the mysterious history of freemasonry in the light of information from ancient Egypt and Christian scripture. A revised version of historical events is proposed, and some intriguing solutions offered to some unanswered questions.

The authors argue their points so confidently that the less sceptical reader might be convinced by everything they read. The purpose of this text is to present a new theory, rather than consider the opposing arguments. The reader should explore other sources for additional evidence to balance the author's arguments.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in secret societies, history, or religion - especially freemasonry, ancient Egypt, Christianity, or the knights templar.

You'll enjoy reading this fascinating book and perhaps learn a little bit of history too.

Still a teenager, Vel hesitantly accepts the crown that makes him king of Hope. Unused to this role in any sense though being a former con man helps, Vel turns to the Lord of the Church Denon for advice. However, the monarchy leads Vel to new problems as a rebellion is multiplied by a nasty winter depleting food supplies.

Vel journeys to the Frill, alien enemies with an alleged food supply, to make peace and trade. Instead, Vel meets Blakes, a clone of the English poet William Blake living inside a computer. Blakes once used Hitler methods to try to conquer Earth and subsequently was exiled to this planet. Still, he is Vel's only hope to provide sound advice without his unseemly ambition strong enough to take the throne away from the lad.

Though clearly a middle book plot (nothing of significance is resolved), HOPE'S WAR is an entertaining speculative fiction tale that examines the relativity of good and evil. The key characters (Vel, Blakes, and Denon) are multidimensional and the latter two retain qualities from the first novel (see HOPE'S END). Though the support cast contains no meaningful depth, fans will delight in Stephen Chamber's latest novel and hope the next book comes out rather soon.

Harriet Klausner

This book tells of a girl who can get her two goldfish, three kittens, four puppies, five butterflies, six inchworms, seven ants, eight hens, nine crows, and ten rabbits to move, but not her one turtle. How will she get her turtle to move? This book has lively illustrations and repetitive text that is great for young kids (ages 2-5.)

In 1988, Dr. Peter Drucker wrote an influential article, "The Coming of the New Organization," in which he argued that companies would in the future become flatter organizationally to capture the potential of knowledge workers. One model, he opined, was the symphony orchestra where the conductor adds vision, but must evoke the best performance from her or his independent players.

Leadership Ensemble looks beyond Dr. Drucker's vision, to the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's practices in operating without a conductor! The result is a "dynamic equilibrium" where everyone takes turns playing leadership roles and is encouraged to provide the kinds of ideas that only conductors normally propose. Interestingly, the Orpheus group is inspired to make great music . . . along the lines of what the collaboration of chamber groups has always done. If they thought that having a conductor would help, they would get a conductor. Instead, they seem to have harnessed many dimensions of the talents of all 27 musicians in the group. Their intent is to evolve further in this direction, so the book represents the group at a point in time, rather than at a destination.

The usual orchestra is run like a dukedom, with the conductor in charge. Few opinions are asked for and even fewer are brooked. In fact, independent surveys show that musicians in orchestras generally have very poor job satisfaction. The authors joke that "every dictator aspires to be a conductor" because a conductor's power is so absolute.

The best part of this book involves describing the way the orchestra operates to select a repertoire, decide how to perform a piece, determine who will play what parts, and handle differences of opinion. There are many other interesting sections about how the musicians have expanded their roles to get into more areas of management and recently (1998) were added to the board of trustees. The processes involved reminded me a lot of what jazz musicians do more informally, and improvisational actors do on the spur of the moment. The remarkable thing is that great planning is captured by the orchestra, without getting bogged down in spending too much time preparing. Their processes are very complex and effective, and depend on thoughtful and timely action by everyone involved. I would love to see a DVD version of this book that involved showing them at work in preparing pieces and handling other important tasks.

The key principles of their success are boiled down into 8 principles. These concepts are elaborated with a few examples from other organizations (mostly profit-making companies), five steps for implementation, and problems to look out for in implementation. Although this material is good, I would have preferred to have read more about Orpheus itself instead.

A key caution that I have about the advice here is that the organizations using these principles were either founded upon them, or have been using them extensively for a long time. I'm not sure that the transition from a more hierarchical organization will go rapidly and smoothly. If the purpose was to advise companies and nonprofits on how to make these changes, the authors would have done better to focus on organizations that were recently hierarchical and rapidly changed to something close to what Orpheus does.

If you are like me, you will be tempted to dismiss the example because it involves highly talented and motivated musicians who earn a good living. But the authors have brought into the book enough examples of nonprofessionals responding just as well that I was persuaded that this model probably can be taken much further than most companies are trying to do. Will CEOs be comfortable in this new role of encouraging the culture, and staying out of the way? I hope so!

Where can you let go and do less as a leader and allow others to lead more? Where do you need to do more as a leader for your organization to accomplish more?

True to is title, this book is entirely devoted to life on the red planet, but does not restrict itself to the modern scientific data. Instead, the text chronologically explores the evolution of the idea of Martian life in the last few centuries.

Mostly based on the scientific results of each period (except the last part), the author starts his expose with the knowledge acquired before the space age. The 'canali' of Schiaparelli turned into canals with Percival Lowell, which lead to the conclusion that a Martian civilization did exist. The debate raged for decades, until technological improvements finally killed the civilized Martians. Mars was a dead planet after all.

Then came the space age, the Soviet and American probes were sent to Mars, confirming Mars as a dead planet... but revealing a once warmer world, with rivers. And if Viking failed to detect life (did it?), what about extinct life?

The third part follows with the possibilities of fossil life and the famed Martian meteorite ALH84001. With a comparison of the origins of life on Earth, the chapter tries to deduce where life could be hiding now.

The final part leaves the area of science and enters the realm of conspiracies and telepathy, Cydonians, UFOs, movies and books. After all, they are all manifestations of Martian life, at least in our culture.

Quite easy to read, this book effectively covers the 'life' subject, and, as a bonus, provides an interesting look at the evolution or scientific knowledge. However, you won't learn much about the red planet, since the astronomical and geological data are quite rare, and, unfortunately, badly documented, contradictory or even false.

For a complete coverage of ALH84001, you may be interested in Donald Goldsmith's "The Hunt For Life On Mars" (1998, ISBN 0452278554).

@As same as another Doverfs scores, this gMAJOR ORCHESTRAL WORKSh is reprinted one. The original is THE BREITKOPF & HARTEL version, so you will never be anxiously to use this score. This includes some important works of Mendelssohn, ie gA Mid-summer Nightfs Dreamh and so on. It has very clear lines and you can look out one or some part easily. So if you have this score, you can enjoy your ghome concerth.