Further evidence that you don't need to be able to write (or hire a proofreader) to publish a book. If you can get past the second-grade grammatical errors, malapropisms, and punctuation gaffes, you'll at least learn something about another very sloppy enterprise: the Seattle Pilots.

Although Jim Bouton's 1970 book Ball Four made the Seattle Pilots famous (or infamous), no book actually told the full story of this one-year enigma until Carson Van Lindt's 1993 book, The Seattle Pilots Story. All in all, the book isn't half bad. The history of professional baseball in Seattle, especially at Sick's Stadium, was well covered. It has a few good photographs, goes into great detail about how the club was founded, and then how it floundered. It covers the Pilots' sole season in a series-by-series format that recaps each of the games the team played that summer of '69.

This book was clearly not a big-budget affair. No interviews - just a lot of hard work putting together the whole story by way of newspaper sources and other archives.

Now the downer. While a lot of effort was made to tell the whole story of the Pilots, Van Lindt clearly is not a gifted writer. His writing style for the most part tends to be factual and aloof. He goes into great detail about the games, the negotiations, and the courtroom battles, but there's something missing. You don't get a full feeling for the personalities of the players or some of the quirks and nostalgic memories that make a particular team or season unique. The coverage of the season games tends to be repetitive and is tempting to skip at least in part. The real meat of the book is in the sections before and after the 1969 season.

It also seems like no one ever took the time to edit Van Lindt's manuscript. The writing at times is awkward, and even a basic word processor should have snagged the myriads of punctuation errors that plague the book from start to finish.

Overall, good story and lots of information. The somewhat terse quality of the writing shouldn't detract from the unique subject this book covers. Because of that alone, I give it four stars.

I bought a few guide books to plan a trip to Seattle, the city of my birth. With only a few days to spend, The title attracted me because it is the TEN BEST THINGS to do.

225 pages on TEN THINGS?

NO MAPS - all landmarks are the same print color, events tend to blend into one another. Also the book is large, not an easy fit into the purse.

I recommend Access Seattle, which is a great guide full of easy to read maps, wonderful reviews and an easy to read lay out! Also gives you clues into festivals different times of the year. Not to mention, a good size to fit into a bag.

I gave it two stars because the book is rich in history. So, it is an interesting read, but I would not plan a vacation around it.

This book has been very helpful in planning my first distance adventure by myself. Instead of reading EVERYTHING about Seattle, it narrows down things to the important information of opportunities that I have in my short week visit. This has been a great help in deciding upon B&Bs and hotels, baseball tickets, boat excursions, etc. It is a must read for planning a trip to Seattle.

While there is plenty of interesting info on many Seattle bands, this book does NOT accurately document the real Seattle music scene. As an active full-time musician in the Seattle-area music scene for over 20 years, this book tends to reflect the attitude of the ROCKET magazine, a now defunct Seattle-area music periodical, which selectively covered only a tiny fraction which turned out to be more-or-less favorite bands of the staff.
I would NOT recommend this book if you are interested what actually went on in the Seattle music scene.

This book is okay if you want to learn about Seattle history. Me? I couldn't care less, I wanted to learn about the bands that came out of Seattle in the 90's not about who founded the town of Seattle!!

This book is definitive--a witty, thorough, often brilliant history of Seattle rock from its beginnings. It is not only the best book about the Seattle scene, it is one of the best books ever written about rock.

Everything you will find in this book is [fiction]. While the artistic quality of the illustrations is remarkable, the content has no connection with historical reality. Chief Seattle never left the Puget Sound in his entire life. He never saw a living buffalo, much less the slaughter of buffalo herds. And, most importantly, he never said anything remotely resembling the message in this book. In fact, he was nothing like the gentle environmentalist depicted by Jeffers:...he never made the famous speech upon which this book is based. The actual speech was written in the 1970s by an environmental apologist, originally for a screen play. It is incredible that anyone would pass this off on their children. No matter how strongly you feel about the need to protect the environment, you have a duty to your children to communicate such ideas without resorting to this form of [rewriting history].

If you do some research you'll learn that this speech was actually written for a 1972 movie. Chief Seattle never wrote this speech. Though beautiful, who would want to teach their childen the speech by screenwriter Ted Perry? This book is known as a joke, but the joke will be on you if you buy it!

You don't have to take my word for it. Do you own research on Chief Seattle and urban legends to learn more.

This is the biggest load of feelgood propaganda I've come across since Stuart Smalley arrived on the set of Saturday Night Live - of course, that was a satire; this unfortunately is for real. Yes, fairy tales are integral parts of literature, and are as important as any other genre. But, fairy tales should be just that - fairy tales...based upon fantastical lands far far away not factual events that merit accurate stories. Regretfully, Ms. Jeffers fails to realize this important point. The result? Many children (and even some adults) will believe the cowdung disseminated in this book. The only reason this book warrants a "One Star" rating is because of its quotes of Chief Seattle and because zero stars was not an option. Want a good fairytale? Check out Robinhood, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, or the now-popular Harry Potter series. Want to find accurate, historical portrayals of American Indians? (...) peruse titles under the subject headings of "History" and "Anthropology".

This book could not have been written by a Seattle native - it simply contains too many errors and ommissions. Several items are mislabeled and the dialog for each picture is vapid.

Additionally, it would not have been that difficult to match the "now" to the "then" photos. Many of the "now" pictures were taken at different angles and with the wrong lens.

A good concept but poorly executed.

I bought this book for my daughter. We both enjoy it. We have spend serveral hours together pouring over the book.

The book shows pictures of Seattle then and now covering a lot of areas like Pioneer Square, First Hill, Belltown, Fremont and some of the water front. Though I wish more of the water front would have been covered. There are a lot of historical buildings that are no longer there shown in the book. A description is given for each picture of what area it is, what the pictures is of and when it was taken. The book shows a lot of change that has occurred in the city and that fact that the Brooklyn has probably changed the least. It's a fabulous coffee table book and a great conversation piece.

Readers of this very popular work should know that it is not what it pretends. Chief Seattle's "speech" as presented by Jeffers is forgery, the real chief Sealth never said anything of the kind. The speech presented here was forged in the 1970s by a Hollywood script writer, and was further altered by Jeffers herself. This book is an insulting white stereotype of real Indians, much like "Dances With Wolves." Even Jeffers' drawings are lies, based on photographs of Plains Indians who in no way resemble the real chief Sealth, who was a portly little fellow. Books like this one do a grave injustice to Native Americans.

What a stunning book! My 5 year old son was given this as a gift and it has become one of his favorites. He has been deeply moved by the book's message to protect the earth for future generations, that we are part of the web of life that the earth supports and we must preserve. The illustrations are terrific, and we find something new in them each time we read the story together. I now give this book often as a special gift, hoping that its message will spread.

Has quite a few pretty tasteless, racial and adult-type comments. That is likely why it is no longer in print!

This book was great! We took our two boys with us (ages 4 & 6) and we couldn't fit in all the activities we wanted to do. I have relatives in Seattle, and visited there a lot growing up. This book covers ALL the highlights, gives great directions and reference information and is fun for the kids to look at too!

I wish I could get more books just like this one for every city we visit!

I can not believe a book like this was allowed to be printed with such smut in it. VERY DISAPPOINTED and I want a refund!

A completely forgetable book. I was so disappointed! Pass on this one. I'm going back to Nora a writer I can count on to deliver 'Time and Again!'

In an era of torrid romance, this story is a cool throw-back to the style of the 1950's. Lots of drama. Lots of trama. Emotionally scarred characters from early childhood and youth events try to cope as adults. However, by today's standards, divorce, infidelity, betrayal, and guilt are old stuff. Even our main character, Carolee, has an old-fashioned name. She is dramatically guilty because she loves her successful career and business travels and is often away from home. Her husband claims to be neglected and divorces her, keeps the child and gets support from Carolee. Not news in 2003. You get the feeling this book was updated from one of Stella's earlier manuscripts. This book is nothing like Glass Houses which was overstuffed with mystery, suspense, murder, and romance on two continents. Tell Me Why is much more provincial.

I still recommend this book as a light read on a summer afternoon when you just want to relax and not think about it. Yes, it is inconsistent (was his name Tom or Ted?) but it's okay, he is not one of the main characters anyway. Not much sex, but lots of longing. Mostly, it is about characters in their 30s dealing with growing up and trying to become responsible adults. Alas, all are not successful.

I have been a Jayne Ann Krentz fan for many years and have always enjoyed her Northwest U.S. locales the chemistry she creates between her main characters. However,FLASH was somewhat of a disappointment in one way - I figured out "who done it" very early in the book (and I usually do not). To me, that spoils some of the enjoyment. However, the book is still worth the read, but it will not be on my list of favorite Krentz books.

I have read almost all of this author's stories, and this one is my favorite. It looks like I am in the minority here, but I was totally enthralled with Flash and I think it is one on the best stories by Jayne Ann Krentz.

Since many reviewers have sumarized the plot, I'll just say what I liked. Olivia is a great heroine. Smart, sarcastic and dedicated to her family. Jasper is one of the most endearing heroes I have read about. An all-around nice guy with some quirks to his character that make him very human to me. He is very neat and methodical, and he doesn't relate to Olivia's disorganized unmethodical tendencies. It was great reading about these two clashing, then working together to uncover a blackmailer, and realizing they are in love. I loved this story and must have read it at least ten times. My ablulute favorite book by Krentz.

Okay, I'll come out with it. Jayne Ann Krentz may not be the most origional story teller out there. Sure, alot of her books have similare story lines. But, guess what? If you've ever read more then one of John Grisham's books or read a handful of any of Judith McNaught's books, you'll know that it is a common thing in the world of author's to recycle plots somewhat. Each book always has enough quirks in it to make it an origional, and _Flash_ is no different. Jayne Ann Krentz has used her trademark story line, but has added a new twist to it. So don't judge her because her books are a little similare. It's a common thing. Anyways, back to the book.

Olivia Chantry is the owner of a company called Light Fantastic. When her company is hired by another, their job is to make sure that the party that the company that hired them is giving is decorated and set up. Olivia gets most of her supplies for her job from her uncle's company Glow Inc. which supplies all of the lighting for the events. It is assumed by the Chantry clan that when Uncle Rollie passes on, Olivia will take over and that the buissness will stay within the family. But, when good ol' Rollie dies, it is discovered that a couple years back, he needed some financial help and got it from Jasper Sloan. To pay back his debts to Jasper, Rollie had it set up so that if anything ever happened to him, Jasper would own 51% of the company. So, Olivia is stuck with only 49% of Glow. The two clash when they first meet, Olivia thinking that Jasper will sell his percent of the company to her, and Jasper thinking that he will do no such thing. They work it out, and an attraction developes into something more serious. But, Olivia's aunt is being blackmailed, and the two are dragged into the scheme. As the blackmailer's threats become more personal, can Jasper and Olivia survive to live happily ever after?

I really did enjoy this book. Although Krentz's mystery was not at it's strongest, I was still guessing until the end. The mystery plot was a lot more complex then it has been in previous books, and I found that to be a very nice element to _Flash_. Olivia and Jasper's relationship was not hot and heavy, but it fitted nicely with the mystery, and I was not at all dissapointed with it. It's true that Krentz has used the same blackmail theme in one of her books under the name of Amanda Quick. But, _Mistress_, the historical romance in question, is one of my favorites by Quick/Krentz, and I thorougly enjoyed seeing it in a modern setting. Krentz's dialogue is at it's prime in this book, and I have yet to see another author match her in such witty exchanges between their characters. I love the setting of Seattle, and Ms. Krentz does it justice. She describes every place with such great ease, that it is obvious that she is a local. For all of you out there that want a good picture of what the Seattle atmosphere is, I suggest you pick up a book by JAK. Don't let the other reviews here fool you. This book is a flashy gem among books. It is garunteed enjoyment!

Usually books in the J.P. Beaumont series written by J.A. Janceare thoughtful, well-planned, and exciting. Lying in Wait is a hugedisappointment! How did she ever throw that ending together? So many unanswered questions. The whole ending was one big unanswered question. For example: 1) Where has Nazi Hans Gebhardt been for 30 years? Why did it take 30 years for this plot to happen? How did he connect up with Denise Whitney; what was their relationship? Did he actually kill his own son and why? None of this is ever explained and this is involving only one of the characters! 2) Who was the bigamist? What is that whole thing about? It was alluded to and never explained. 3) What happened to the gold? Did the Jewish Nazi hunters really steal it back or was it still in Gunther's house? It was all left up in the air. So unsatisfying for the reader. 4)Why were the other Nazis tortured and killed? Should we assume Hans did that or was it Erika or who? And why did it even happen - all because of the gold? More unanswered questions. I hope Jance never writes anything this ambiguous ever again!

J.A. Jance is a prolific and reliable author, but this book is not up to her usual standards. The murders in this book are brutal and both follow the same m.o. A person is burned to death and each finger and toe are severed. J.P. Beaumont and his new partner, Sue Danielson, do enough investigating to make a connection with a Nazi past and some missing gold from a German death camp. Perhaps in an effort to infuse something more exotic into this series, Ms. Jance sacrifices some of the basics of good writing. There are indeed, many unanswered questions at the end. I began to wonder if I had drifted off somewhere in the reading process! We do catch the usual glimpses of the attractive environs of Seattle and J.P. Beaumont is more human and more attractive as a recovering alcoholic rather than a man who reaches for a McNaughton's every time the going gets tough.

J.A. Jance is back in form with this J.P. Beaumont gem. There is a new partner to work with, grisly murders to solve, nazi war criminals and helicopter chases. What more could you want?