- One of the true classics.

- A great book for beginners or lower-rated players.

- An incredible value if you buy it used.

This was one of the first chess books I read as a beginner many years ago. Its main strength lies in its endgame examples as the openings, though updated by Fred Reinfeld, are totally obsolete by modern standards, this book having been written a hundred years ago! Very little is explained and you must simply work through the examples yourself. Also this book is written in old notation (non-algebraic) but is certainly considered a "classic". James Mason was an old English master who wouldnt crack the top 1000 player list today (Dr. John Nunn would laugh his xxx off.), but was considered a very respectable player at that time. The middle game examples are also obviously obsolete but not completely worthless, its just that the art of defence has become so sophisticated that it is doubtful if those old fashioned king side attacks would stand up to modern defensive techniques. I also wonder how many middle game examples would be exposed as erroneous by a strong chess program. Still, this is a classic Dover book.

This work would be considered good if Malmuth and Sklansky had not written it. I think this is by far the most disappointing work that Sklansky and Malmuth have produced.

They are the standard by which gaming books are written and for them to produced this weak mathematical work is a travsitiy.

An excellent review of the games that are beatable and the math that supports these conclusions. They differentiate between a "gambler" and an "investor". For example, the skilled card counter in blackjack can have the same edge over the casino as the house has over the baccarat player. In spite of the subtitle, I'm not sure how realistic the possibility of consistently winning $100K a year is. Mastering one discipline is hard enough. The authors appear to have made a "killing" in many areas from horse racing to sports betting. For blackjack players, the articles on when to quit and toking are worth the price of the book.

This book stunk, it literally had smelly pages

This is a reprint of Mason's classic 1938 edition. It is fascinating, even though Mason uses some slightly racist-sounding phrases, it is obvious that he repects (respected) Amerindian culture. He has a great feel for their spirituality. And personal experience with our First Peoples. It's a little corny and naive other parts.

Mason's book has many drawings of original drums and their designs. He gives detailed practical instructions on how to build drums, hand-frame drums and a pow-wow drum, from processing a raw animal hide to bending wooden slats into a hoops, stretching and drying the drum head, painting and adding adornments. He left me with the impression that it is nearly impossible to build dud!

Stinky probably spoke true (if the book was a 1938 musty-smelling edition) but Stinky's review was woefully misleading. The book is a classic on woods craft type drum building. It also provides an intimate glimpse into the recent past before thoughts and words were filtered through a politcally correct seive.

Hamilton argues that there are historically and spiritually significant links between the Great Serpent Mound (Ohio) and the Greek alphabet.

I say nothing here about non-linguistic issues in the book, but this should not be taken to mean that I see no problems on these fronts (I see many). I simply think it best to concentrate here on my own main relevant areas of expertise, namely general and historical linguistics and the history of the Greek language.

One problem which is shared with most amateur proposals in this area involves the use of outdated comparative linguistic methods in 'establishing' historical links between words. It is demonstrably unreliable to equate (even tentatively) forms (from pairs of languages, whether known to be related or not, or even within any one language) on the basis of superficial, unsystematic phonetic similarities between forms with related meanings - even more so if the semantic link is not at all obvious. Most such cases will involve accidental similarity. Eg, there is NO basis for suggesting a link between and (p 138). (This has been known for very many years, and now the statistics have been calculated.) In some cases it is actually clear that forms which are equated are NOT connected, because the etymologies are known; eg, is clearly NOT + ('god-lizard') (p 151). The known historical phonology of Greek excludes this: the vowels in and the position and type of the inherent accent on differ between the two cases, showing that the forms are unconnected. In other cases Hamilton accepts a standard etymology but offers a redundant reinterpretation involving a 'deeper' sense. Eg, the letter-names and (p 147) very clearly refer to the LENGTHS of the vowels named (short and long respectively). There is no basis for an interpretation in terms of 'spirit'.

The identifications of Greek letter-forms with parts of the Serpent Mound (pp 153-191) are essentially impressionistic and do not appear at all persuasive. One would need to see evidence that at least a high proportion of these identifications or the set as a whole should be preferred (eg on statistical grounds) to other possible interpretations and especially to the null hypothesis of there being no link between the Mound and the alphabet. The null hypothesis would appear to have the strength (in terms of Ockham's Razor) of a better fit with the lack of historical evidence of contact between the two entities. In addition, there are further specific worries here, eg confused comments about Etruscan and the origin of gamma on pp 156-157, inaccurate phonetics on p 191.

Other points in the linguistic section (pp 141-152): 1) The Greeks did NOT invent the alphabet (pp 141, 150) but rather (as Hamilton actually acknowledges) adapted a Semitic (probably Phoenician) abjad to Greek, using consonant symbols not needed for Greek to represent vowels (this does occur in Semitic scripts but became universal in Greek) and (naturally) adding symbols to represent additional consonants and clusters requiring their own characters. This was clever but does not demonstrate any superior facility with Semitic symbolism. (Naturally, the senses of the Semitic letter-names were not carried over into Greek with its very largely unrelated vocabulary. By the time of transfer, the pictographic element in many of the letters was no longer obvious, in any case.) 2) The ordering of the alphabet as recited and used in dictionaries was derived from the Semitic scripts. (p 141) I know of no evidence that the numerological values of the letters had any significance beyond numerology. 3) There is no link between the earlier syllabic Greek scripts and the alphabet; in all probability, most Greek communities went through a period of illiteracy in the interim. (p 141) 4) Language naturally flourished in Greece (as elsewhere) even in the absence of literacy. The Homeric poems were originally composed by illiterates. (p 143) 5) It is not clear what would count as evidence for or against various mystical-sound statements about language on pp 143-147, or even what some of them mean. They appear susceptible only to subjective/impressionistic confirmation or disconfirmation - which would naturally tend to involve unresolvable disagreements and thus could not carry much weight. 6) The counter-criticism of mainstream scholarly methods in these respects on p 151 is not adequately justified. 7) No good evidence is produced for the claims (p 144) that there is an important link between numerical symbology and the adoption of alphabetic writing and that the alphabet was very deliberately planned. 8) The choice and structure of the linguistic terminology is strange, eg (alpha), (gamma), (delta), beta described as the 'mean' of the mutes (plosives), beta described in terms of manner (plosive) but gamma and delta in terms of position (velar, dental), the non-technical term , etc (p 144-145). 9) It is quite possible that some parts of the Semitic abjad system were derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs (p 144), but this does not show that any specific cultural influence is even likely, still less that any such influence later penetrated to the Greeks. 10) No good evidence is produced for the claims about changes to the spellings of letter-names and their motivation and significance, made in general terms on pp 144-145 and later in more detail (eg on p 156 for ). 11) The minuscule forms of Greek letters are late developments only. (p 152).

Whether or not the general theory can be made to hold up (which one must doubt), Hamilton will need to address points such as those made above and to increase the sophistication of his linguistic discussion. Until he does this, he will struggle to attract the interest of experts in these matters.

This book is one of the most incredible books on the Serpent Mound I have read. Traditional archeologist, of course, will not accept the theories presented here because they contain numberology, spirituality, and most of all, the fact that the Greek alphabet is encrypted within the Serpent Mound. The author, however, doesn't notice that this aludes to the fact that builders of the Serpent Mound where aware of the Green Language of the Alchemist, also known as the Language of the Birds. These subjects are covered fully in William Henry's "Language of the Birds" and David Ovason's "The Secrets of Nostradamus".
One of the most important discoveries in this book is that the Great Serpent Mound is meant to mirror the constellation of Draco. This constellation is important to Eastern esoteric sciences such as Tao, among others.

A book based on the lunacy that the Earth's magnetic poles will do a 90 degree shift when secret planet X cruises by.
It's ok though because there is an extra earth that lives on the other side of the Sun-we can't see it-and aliens are over there and they might help us and it is all so bloody obvious, until: Those pesky laws of physics are put to play. Oh yeah, The Shriners have something to do with it. Damn the luck.

its clear and consice

This book had all the twists and turns you expect from a Perry Mason Mystery, but lacked some of the charm. The court case, which is always my favorite part of a Perry Mason book, does not come until close to the end, and Mr. Mason does not have that much a part in it-Which is an interesting turn that makes most of the otherwise kind of boring story, worth reading. All said, it is an entertaining story, but far from Mr. Gardner's best work.

Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason is faced with a peculiar request in "The Case of the Screaming Woman." Joan Kirby wants Mason to cross-examine her husband, who she says told her a cock-and-bull story about picking up a stranded woman in the middle of the night and dropping her off at a hotel. When Mason investigates, he finds that his new client is likely to be implicated in the murder of a doctor running a singular sort of clinic.

It should come as no surprise that the book ends with a dramatic courtroom confrontation. This time, though, the scene rings false. Mason confronts his D.A. nemesis, Hamilton Burger, but the D.A.'s actions seem unusually inept and cartoonish. Mason succeeds in making a fool of the man far too easily, and the book ends on an unimpressive note. This ending is especially unfortunate given the strong beginning. In setting up the preliminary hearing, Gardner does a wonderful job of presenting the lies of witnesses and suspects alike, leaving Mason with the difficult task of finding the truth in the pile of lies. In addition, the mystery here is one of Gardner's better ones. The clues are there, and the identity of the true culprit still comes as a surprise. The review, then, is mixed. Amid so many good things is the one false note, but the prominence of that note makes it a real clunker.

"The Case of the Singing Skirt" is one of Erle Stanley Gardner's eighty-five Perry Mason books. In this case, the famed defense attorney undertakes to help Ellen Robb, a cigar-and-cigarette girl who works at a local gambling club. Because she refused to help the owner swindle a gambler, Ellen finds herself framed for the theft of a certain amount of money. Mason quickly defuses that situation, enabling the woman to keep the money and threatening suit against the employer for defamation. Events escalate soon, though, when Ellen turns up with a gun in her possession that she cannot explain. Mason suspects that another attempt to frame Ellen is in the works, and he takes steps to thwart that attempt. When a woman turns up dead, though, Mason must defend his client on murder charges--and himself against charges of being an accessory after the fact.

"The Case of the Singing Skirt" is really a novel in two parts. The first part deals with the machinations of the various parties before court, and the second part puts Mason in his element--the courtroom. As a legal thriller, "The Case of the Singing Skirt" is passable, though not particularly exciting. Mason spends a great deal of time deflecting his opponent's thrusts, but only in the last few pages does Mason go on the offensive. As a result, this book is not the best forum for Mason's considerable legal expertise. As a mystery, there is little doubt who the murderer is. Once one starts with the premise that Mason's clients are, as a rule, innocent, there is little more to figure out. Still, eighty-five books with a single character do not come about by accident, and there is a fair amount of charm to "The Case of the Singing Skirt."

S. Omar Barker provides a warm, refreshing look at life from the perspective of the Americn cowboy. This book draws you in to the simple world of the old west where the big frustration is "bob" wire, and the simplest pleasures seem mountainous to the cowboys and ranch hands.

Barker does a fantastic job.

As a translation student I think this book is quite tough to read because it is very dense and hard to understand in some occasions. I think it's a good book in the way that it classifies translation and its varieties, but it is not the kind of book to read on holidays.