I found this book to be interesting enough that I hated for it to end. As the author took me through the rural area of the Dakotas, I could reach back in my early childhood days and visualize the community, the people, the weather and the relics of generations of hand me downs even though I come from another part of the country. I like dialogue but the descriptive scenes were not boring but entertaining and put me right there. I appreciated the togetherness of the sisters in spite of their differences and infighting and I liked the closeness of those on the fringe of the immediate family. We knew most of what was going to happen as we went along but how it unfolded and how they were going to deal with it, including the authorities, kept me reading. I would like to read more of this author.

Mavis is the first book I read by Brenda K.Marshall and I personally think that she is a very good writer. What I liked about this book is that she didn't give the story away, which I thought was very impressive, because usually in books like these, the author may give the story away a little too soon. What I didn't like about this novel is that I never found out about who got accused for the murder. I would reccommend this book for grades seven and up.

While an entertaining book, it is somewhat hard to read because it is not well organized chronologically. Could have been a lot better.

Cook and Walsh give a great story of major league baseballs favorite past time, trading. from some of the most famous trades to others that your grandaddy might not know about. It's great book for the baseball historian or for the first time baseball fan whose interested in the nations great pastime. Cook and Walsh write with a color that is rarely seen in a book about this great game. The style should encourage one and all to read up and enjoy.

This book is a posthumous collection of Hodgson's essays on world history, Islamic history in particular. Much of the book was unpublished at the time of Hodgson's sudden death. Consequently, the book reads as if Hodgson was thinking out loud. The prose is very dense and he often pounds home points over several pages that could have been made in a paragraph or two. Nonetheless, many of the ideas presented by Hodgson were advanced for the time, and a necessary correction to William McNeill, his fellow University of Chicago prof. Hodgson's main thrust is to set right the place of Islam--or what he calls the "Islamicate"--in world history. This argument should be well-heeded in view of the overly Eurocentric tone that much work on world history has taken. Specialists on Islam will appreciate the book the most, and anyone interested in world history can benefit from it--but it is a very tough read that could easily be pared down to a precis.

Hodgson was the pre-eminent Western historian of Islamic societies, as set forth in "The Venture of Islam." In "Rethinking," Hodgson's widow has seen to the publication of a series of broader essays on the philosophy of history as applied to the world at large. Part 1 tries to get outside Euro-centrism as best as an Occidental can. Part 2 considers Islam in a global context, and Part 3 discusses commonalities and differences that make for meaningful comparison, decompositions, and aggregations in regional and global history.

The most interesting chapter is entitled "Modernity and the Islamic Heritage." Here Hodgson inquires whether it is possible for a society to be Modern yet not Western, given that the presuppositions of Modernity reach deep into the Medieval Occident. For example, "with an effort of the imagination, one can guess what the institutions of Modernity might look have been like if it had developed, for instance, in Islamic society... The nation-state, with its constitutionalism, its particularist characters of rights and responsibilities, stems from the corporate conceptions of Medieval Western society. From the very different legal conceptions of Medieval Islamic society, with their abstract egalitarian universalism, there might well have developed, instead of the nation-state, some international corps of super-ulama, regulating an industrial society on the basis of some super-sharia code." This tension between Western-ness and Modernity is palpable in the West, but elsewhere it is a defining issue running through politics, economics, and warfare. It is especially evident in the violent Islamist organizations, where Modernity is used to combat Westernization.

The successful resolution of those tensions, in the Islamic world as elsewhere on Earth, will be the only way that civilization of any kind can continue at all.

This book has quite a few interesting stories, but as time has passed it has become less useful in practical terms. I think the authors were a bit behind even when the book was published in 1996 (they talk about BBS's and Genie and AOL, with barely any mention of the web). The internet changes so quickly, any book would probably be quickly outdated.

This is probably the most useful, most practical guide to online love, dating, and yes, over-the-'net sexual encounters. It's an even-handed, practical and commonsense guide to flirtation, love, and cybersex over the 'net--but it's not an alarmist approach, rather just a safe and sensible caution. This won't be the number-one book for those into voyeuristic thrills and saucy, erotic stories... but for anyone who finds the idea of online love intriguing but a bit daunting, challenging or scary, you definitely need to check out a copy of this book first. (Just be careful; you probably don't want to be reading this on the subway!) : )

Marshall is an Army historian who has written several good books about America's battles in WWI and Korea. In this book, he writes about Israel's small army taking on the Egyptians during the Suez crisis. The Israeli Army manages to take over the Sinai from the Egyptians. In the book, a heroic Ariel Sharon makes his appearance in one of the central battles for control of the Sinai. All of the battles are covered in this 100 hour war. Marshall details the tactics the Israeli Army used in defeating the Egyptians. Also covered is how the Israeli Army is made up, the training required, and the role of women.
What is not covered in this book is the Egyptian perspective, and what the effects of the war were. This angle was not covered, and one wonders what the reader is missing from this perspective. I have read more thrilling combat history than that covered in this book.

S.L.A. Marshall is probably best known for his book "Swift Sword," which chronicled the 1967 "Six Day War" between the Israelis and the Arabs. However, he wrote extensively as a reporter, a foreign correspondent and a writer. Among the best of his many books is "Sinai Victory," which chronicles the complicated 1956 Suez War (often also called The One Hundred Hour War) between Egypt and Israel with France, the UK, and others. Marshall focuses on the combat between the Egyptians and Israelis on the Sinai Peninsula.

Marshall traveled to Israel and spent time with the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) at training, peacetime, and then war in 1956. His accounts are authentic and actual observations. Being a Western reporter at one time an official US Army reporter, Marshall has some very revealing and lucid observations of the Israeli army. He was given very free reign to interview Israeli commanders, troops, and others to make his determination how an inferior outnumbered Israeli army could defeat the massive forces of a nation like Egypt in so short a period of time. His comments on training and operational techniques are an excellent case study of desert warfare and still hold lessons for today's militaries in the Middle East (including the US and UK militaries in Iraq 2003).

The book is a hardback edition and features no photographs other than those on the dust jacket. However, Marshall included many hand drawn maps and illustrations inside, which are extremely cogent. Some of the information I have found in no other reference and is uniquely valuable. The three appendices cover training in the IDF, the air battle in 1956, and an outline and chronology of the war as well as an extremely useful index.

A small side note that I highly appreciated regards "Parker's Memorial," a large monument, which marks the Mitla Pass. It is actually a monument to Col. A.C. Palmer, DSO, and a British officer from earlier times. However, it was erroneously called "Parker's Memorial" so many times that the name has remained in most histories of the area.

While "Sinai Victory" is nonfiction and fact, I also highly recommend the historical fiction novel "Mitla Pass" by Leon Uris for more background on the 1956 Suez War.

This book is an outstanding reference to anyone studying the 1956 Suez War. Its' information would be useful to historians, wargamers, and anyone else interested in the topic.

I highly recommend "Sinai Victory" to anyone wanting to learn more about the 1956 Suez War.

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

This is a well-written book on the phonetics of English diction. It is a good book and contains most but not all the rules and pronunciations of words in the English language. Just like any book involving vocal diction, this book does have variations of pronunciations, but not many. Overall it is a good addition to have in any singers collection.

As a vocal technique teacher for more than 25 years, I've had plenty of experience using this book. Ms. Marshall's rules may sound stilted or downright weird by today's "standards," but when applied by a singer who knows and uses correct vocal technique, the singer instantly understands why she wrote what she wrote. I hope this never goes out of print!

My first time tiling and this book definately takes you through step by step. Talks about tiling floors as well as walls and countertops. Mostly illustrations but done well enough to understand what each procedure entails. Packed with tips and experts' insights. I high recommend this book and "Setting Tile (Fine Homebuilding)" by Michael Byrne.

Grerat book with lots of step-by-step procedures. Easy to understand, but very laborous steps!

When I started playing guitar some 35 years ago, I would listen to guitar riffs on records and try to emulate what I heard. That was a slow, laborious process, that not only resulted in many scratched LPs, but often I could never figure out exactly what the guitarist was doing. This book, and others like it, takes much of the guesswork out. It does not give you every note SRV played on the songs (I doubt anyone could thoroughly tab Stevie!) but does give the guitar player enough to learn SRV's riffs and how he weaved them into his songs. And the accompanying CD is almost like having a teacher sit with you; much more beneficial than just using a book!

It looses a star for being too wordy and overly technical sounding (kill the adverbs, Wolf). Learning to play guitar is not complicated, nor does it take a music degree to be a Stevie Ray Vaughan (just lots of hard work, dedication, love of music and talent!). Like myself, many guitar players (SRV included) never took time to learn to read music. Just remember, the riffs are in the chords. If you want to learn to play like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hendrix, or other guitar greats, this book will help. I think Stevie would have been flattered by the nice tributes Wolf gives him.

This book really gave me an insight into the basics behind SRV's playing, as a beginner guitarist, it was very helpful.

Al Matheson received a phone call from his mother late one night. He was told his father died in a motel room while away on business. Word had it that the death was due to natural causes. Soon Al was on a hunt to discover what REALLY happened to his father in that Phoenix motel.

*** A good book for mystery fans if you understand the administration world of businesses. Otherwise, many parts will go over your head. The author explains the corruption that dwells in the lives of Al Matheson and Ernie Dickerson, a corruption that goes through three generations. However, I found myself scratching my head in confusion a few times at parts that seemed out of sync.

Author A. Townsend Marshall creates a cast of people who battle the world in the way they were raised by their parents (mainly the fathers) taught them. Not only did this author succeed in showing how businesses can, and often do, cheat the public, workers, and owners, but he also succeeded in showing how parents influence the behavior and work ethics of their offsprings. Good debut here. ***

This book is a thrilling mystery which struck an amazing relevancy to the current business climate. The book comes at a time when corporate greed, corruption and immorality are all over the media. This story shows that such corruption and greed have always existed and are seen in all arenas of business. The book is relayed in such a way that we can all relate and identify. I'm sure we've all met similar characters in our everday lives (good and bad).

I thought this was an excellent first book from this author and hope to read more from him.

Forget the "Uncompahgre Mountain" in the description of this book above - it's really known only as the Uncompahgre Plateau, and Muriel Marshall knows this plateau like few do, even those of us who have spent a lot of time wandering its folded canyons and open wide-viewed mesas. Maarshall has a unique way with words - this is one of the few books you can read without ever going there and still get an accurate feel for the place.

I have throughly enjoyed reading this book. My grandparents homesteaded in the Uncompahgre Valley, and this has given me new insite as to what life was like when they homesteaded back in the late 1880's.