This book has been a treat for my six year old and four year old this summer. It's taken the headache out of encouraging my older son to keep up with reading this summer--no hastles! He looks forward to doing each hunt, and hasn't even asked for a reward for completing them! I plan to reuse this in two years for my younger son. Don't worry parents--it takes only a minute or two to hide the clues, and each is marked where to put it. Great fun! Now, if the author could just create a treasure hunt that involved writing practice...

I don't usually write book reviews, but this book is such a winner! My 5-1/2 year old daughter loves to do these treasure hunts as soon as she wakes up in the morning or when she returns from school. Not only is it fun, but it's educational too -- practice reading and following instructions. The sheer fun and receiving the sticker at the end of the hunt are more than enough to entice her to play. In fact, she keeps asking for more hunts! I'll definitely order more copies of this book and give them away as gifts -- perfect for 5 to 7 year olds.

This is a terrific, practical little book for you and your beginning or reluctant reader. After a friendly introduction in which the author discusses various methods of reading instruction, the book contains the clues and solutions for 50 treasure hunts! Just tear out the pages, fold them and place them in the appropriate spots. For example, Treasure Hunt 1: Clue 1 tells you to "Look under a pan", Clue 2 reads "Look under your bed", Clue 3 says "Look under the bath mat" and the solution page reads "Great. You did it! Come get your sticker." There are even 50 stickers at the back of the book (the idea of the author's son, who contributes a charming introduction as well). Each solution also has a bonus game of matching words to pictures, and successive hunts get more challenging in length and vocabulary.

This is a terrific idea, well executed and thought out. Who doesn't love a treasure hunt? You'll undoubtedly be looking for a sequel or be inspired to construct your own treasure hunts when you finish these fifty exercises.

Excellent resource.

Lehmer's book is downright exhaustive in the coverage of the fateful Feb. 3 1959 plane crash that killed Holly, Valens, and Richardson.

I appreciated the detail and content of this book a lot. Being from Iowa, I have been interested in the Winter Dance party, and accounts of the crash for a very long time. (In fact, I just visited the Surf Ballroom and Mason City Airport while returning from a recent weekend vacation.)

Lehmer's book is very well-balanced, with chapters devoted to each of the three headliners. And it also has detailed plane crash info as well as analysis of the official CAB report.

In my opinion, easily the best book on "The Day The Music Died".

Author Larry Lehmer has provided readers with a very detailed story of the events that led up to the deaths of early rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J. P. Richardson, and pilot Roger Peterson. Individual chapters are provided on each individual and a thorough description of the various cities the rock stars visited during the Winter Dance Party in the Upper Midwest beginning in January of 1959. Due to inadequate bus transportation with little or no heat, the three singers decided to charter an airplane from Clear Lake, Iowa, to Fargo, North Dakota, for their next performance in Moorhead, Minnesota, to arrive early and get some needed rest. The crash of the airplane was due to poor flying conditions and the inadequate skills of the pilot in flying by instruments. The author explores other theories such as a fight on the plane or, incredibly, Buddy Holly shooting the pilot. Author Lehmer also provides a great deal of information on the airplane that was used and what has become of the arenas the singers used for their performances in each of the visited cities. Numerous photos of the singers during this Winter Dance Tour and of the crash site are also provided. Some readers may feel they are being told more than they want to know about this subject, but the author has done an incredible job in covering this story of this incident and what rock and roll was like during the late 1950's.

This is a very excellent book about the Last Tour of the Three Stars and the plane crash that Don McLean dubbed "the day the music died" (and it did). I would give this book 8 to 10 stars if I could. I remember reading about the event in the evening paper on the day it happened (Feb. 3, 1959, near Mason City, Iowa). When one has read as much about the history of rock and roll as I have, one realizes that the most influential person in the history of the genre was Buddy Holly, and his death is the central event of the music's story. The losses of Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (J. P. Richardson) were also very devastating to rock and roll.

One feels great sympathy and pity for pilot Roger Peterson, whose unwise decisions and lack of skill were major contributing factors (along with the weather) in causing the crash.

Don't let the branding fool you -- this is easily the best book on lawns currently available. I've read many books on the subject, and most of them are very simplistic and useless, or spend some time on the lawn and then go off into growing vegetables or flowers. This one is just on lawns, and contains sections on lawn weeds, lawn pests, types of grass -- basically everything you could think to ask or need to know about how to maintain a great lawn.

Makes a terrific housewarming gift, too. I wish someone had given me one!

Worth the price just for the extensive section on weed indentification and eradication with color pictures. Since they have drastically cut back extension agents and services in our area who used to be able to field lawn questions, this is an invaluable reference for the homeowner.

I found this book to be simple to understand, yet extremely helpful in helping me to do what is best for my lawn. I would highly recommend this book to all who are interested in improving their lawns.

Sorry for my english (I'm french). I'm practicing martial arts since about 15 years now (fist/foot boxing + tai chi) and discovered wing chun about 1 year ago. I read lot of books on wing chun (I think "most" of them) because I'm leaving in the countryside and can't get easily class of wing chun (a pity). Anyhow, I manage to train daily .
Rene Ritchie - & Ngo Lui Kay sifu - book is BY FAR the finest I bought. It covers 12 simple attack/defensive mvts + the 1st form. EACH mvt of the 1st form is shown with splendid & reallistic explanations + fighting applications that allow you to really possess the form and to train even if you are no more a beginner. Each applications is VERY cleverly choosen to light a new concept of the mvt of the form.
Thank you so much M.Ritchie for this book. I'm waiting for the next books YOU MUST WROTE : the ones on 2nd/3rd form and wooden dummy :)

Ritchie does a tremendous job providing the historical background of the Wing Chun style. In addition, his pictures bring clarity and demonstrate the applications of this system well. This should be on every students bookshelf.

The structure is well laid out. Intorductory information is well presented. The actual technical sections could have done with better and larger photography. The use of 'motion-lines' like those in Wushu books from China would also have been useful.

The dominant line of Wing Chun in the world today is the Yip Man line from Hong Kong. This book is a good introduction to another line. It is no more or less in depth than many books of this nature, but printed materials can only convey so much. An accompanying video would have been great. How about that for the next book. Could certainly have done with a page-numbered index for quick reference

I think the book thoroughly deserves a 5 stars rating and the contents justify the tilte. An all round better and more mature effort than the authur's last book. It sets out to introduce the history and foundation and it accomplishes that without getting too complex.

If you are a breeder you will know what I mean when I say that there are not alot of vets that are experienced with the hadeling of birds. I was able to save many of my birds with the use of this as a reference. It is a great reference manual.

I've had this book for 4 years, and each time I read it I'm still constantly learning.

As a breeder my main reference points in the book has been: Neonatology in regards to my 'tiel babies. Supportive care and Emergency treatments have saved so many of my tiels when I couldn't get to my vet. Antimicrobial Theapy has made me better understand the cause/effect of the drugs given to the birds, and Formulary as to the dosages. These are only a few of my favorite chapters. I've added my own handwriten notes to pages Such as: Pg. 762 covers a prolapsed oviduct and cloaca. It mentions treatments to reduce the swelling of the expoesed tissue. I had none of the listed items. At midnight I'm faced with a hen with a prolapsed uterus. Over the phone my vet suggested coating the exposed tissue with sugar, leave on for 15 min.,rinse off with warm running water, then gently insert the tissues back into the cloaca. IT WORKED! So, these notes are handwritten on the page in regar! ds to additional emergency treatments. The book is 1384 page, which is a wealth of information. But it is too much information to constantly go through when an emergency occurs. I've highlighted the key points in each section, which has saved me a lot of searching through paragraphs for what I need. I reccomend this book to all whom are concerned with the care and health of their birds. *NOTE* Please don't use it as a replacement in using a vet, but as a survival guide as to when an emergency comes up and you just can't get to your vet. Use the book as a learning tool. You and your birds will benefit greatly from it.

We purchased this book in 1994 when it was released and have used it numerous times for reference. Most recently when a pet bird had a stroke. I highly recommend this book

I've read another collection of Ritchie's stories, "The Adventures of Henry Turnbuckle," but this has more realistic, engaging, and concise stories, tales that range across the board from light humor to borderline Jim Thompson. The style is simple and straightforward, but the characters have little quirks that make them memorable. Certainly deserves to be in print again.

Ritchie's stories are spare (but describe everything)and macabre (but funny). His narrators are usually histrionic or extreme, but in a calm way, and arrogant, but likeable. Each plot sweeps along swiftly, but the journey is so enjoyable you actually want to slow down and savour the asides. As if all that weren't enough, Ritchie has a talent for the surprise ending, the little flick of that story that turns it completely over. Great and consistent skill is at work here, but some stories are standouts: "A Deadly Game of Cyanide" (hilarious on one page, chilling the next); "A Taste for Murder" (quite gruesome); and, as the previous reviewer mentioned, "The Killing Philosopher," with a terrific ending, one of the most compact, neatly stuffed and folded stories ever written.

This collection of Jack Ritchie's short stories is unfortunately out of print, but if you can find a copy I suggest you grab it. "The Killing Philosopher," which may be my favorite in the bunch, is the best use of a really condensed amount of prose I've encountered. It's less than three pages, and it's given me a kick each time I've read it. Not a weak story in the lot. If you like dark comedies or twisted mysteries, give Ritchie a look.

The endnotes would lead you to believe this is just another popular pirate saga but it is actually much more. Ritchie actually tells a tale more concerned with the political, social, and economic realities of 17th century England than piracy and wayward ambition. His presentation is easily read, very well documented, and a bit shocking in its revelations of political corruption and backstabbing. Ritchie clearly possesses an impressive working knowledge of the source material available in the British Museum and the Colonial Office of which any scholar would be jealous. It is unfortunate that material is lacking to permit a better examination of Kidd's character and motivations and Dr Ritchie is often left to delve into the hazardous realm of speculation and supposition in this regard. Overall, however, he deftly uses Captain Kidd as a blank canvas while the overlaying picture he paints of merry olde England is what really makes the book worthwhile. PS-The more you read the better it gets.

This book makes you hostage from start to finish Was the captain out on the seas in quest for something other than treasure You Decide Great read

It is ironic that Captain Kidd is one of the most famous pirates of all time considering that he was probably one of the worst and most unlucky pirate of them all. This book chronicles the adventures of those most "notorious of pirates" and gives an excellent account of the times that came to be known as the Golden Age of Piracy from about 1695-1730. Here are found names like Edward Teach, or Blackbeard as he is better known, Bartholomew Roberts, Edward England, and their ilk. Armed with tales of hidden treasure and cold steel cutlasses, Robert Ritchie weaves a wonderful tale of the time of the pirates as they plundered shipping and coastal towns from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean in search of excitement and riches. The book focuses on the exploits of William Kidd, a man hired as a pirate hunter in a time when crime on the high seas was taking its toll on an emerging global commerce. Kidd is a poor pirate hunter, but when his crew evetually threatens to mutiny, he is forced to turn to piracy himself. We see Kidd slowly spiral into oblivion as his crew and his life are pulled into the blackest depths of self-destruction. Kidd is finally captured by treachery and put on trial as a scapegoat for the financial ruin and embarrassment he has caused his secret aristocratic backers; made the victim of a conspiracy gone awry. This is a great book on a fascinating subject that has too often been shrouded in myth.

This is the one and only book to have on the C programming language, written by the original developers of the language. It covers all of the syntactic and semantic issues of the language. Any question regarding C can be answered here and can be located quickly thanks its good index. I am impressed by the completeness of this text, it includes very useful information such as: precedence and associativity rules, bit-wise operators, the preprocessor, control structures, pointers, the standard C library, I/O, interaction with the UNIX operating system, and a complete language specification. The list goes on!

For nearly every feature of the language, there are very useful exercises that will either familiarize the reader with the feature or clarify the reader's previous knowledge. Although many of the examples are targeted towards intermediate or advanced programmers, beginning programmers should be able to get a lot out of many of the examples.

I have purchased many 1000+ page books on different languages including C and have found that many are incomplete and spend numerous pages on topics that can be stated in one or two paragraphs. This book in around 250 pages covers everything you need to know about the C programming language and I would highly recommend getting a copy for your own library.

This book is not "for Dummies". It assumes that you already have some knowledge of structured programming languages (i.e. Pascal). For example, this book spends four well-written pages explaining everything you need to know about functions. If you don't know what a function is, this will clearly not be enough. However, if you do know about functions, this book will not drone on and on for an entire chapter or two on the subject like some of the foot-crunching tomes the size of an encyclopdia.

The book is expensive ($40) for its size (approx. 250pgs.), but it is worth every penny. To quote the authors: "C is not a big language, and it is not served well by a big book."

As a bonus, almost anything you need to know about C can be found in seconds using the excellent index. It should be noted that this is a language reference and will NOT tell you how to use your editing environment or compiler.

In summary, intermediate or advanced programmers should be able to learn C with reasonable proficiency in a short amount of time.

About 5 years into my programming career, I was mildly interested in learning C, so I picked up this book. At the time, I was deterred - it was very brief, terse, and confusing, so I put it back down again.

But now, years later, with many more languages under my belt, I find myself again drawn to C. So I picked up this book again (2nd edition), and finally, I see the light! It is a wonderful book, I agree with all the glowing comments people have written about it, BUT! It is a book written by a computer programmer, for other computer programmers, not a book written by a teacher for a beginning student.

C is alive and well, and still in use today - it lives "at the core" of most popular languages. You can see its influence on C++, JavaScript, even Visual Basic. If you are ready for it, reading and working through the examples in this book will provide you with a solid base for understanding an amazing variety of 'newer' programming languages.

You have to work through the examples, though. If you 'just read' this book, you'll comprehend and retain close to '\0' (null) of the information presented. It's only by going through the examples, that you really nail the subject matter. Yeah, I know, some of these examples are tough - but they're also real-life, and typical of routines every programmer writes and uses. I myself sweated blood over exercise 3-3, but hours later when I was done, the satisfaction of comparing my answer favorably to others was worth it. :-)

I have the C For Dummies books 1 and 2, and after going through them, I was still a Visual Basic programmer. ;-D If you already are a computer programmer, and want to obtain serious knowledge in C without wasting your valuable time, learn from this book.

I PICKED THIS BOOK UP AFTER SEEING CHIEF SHOEFOOT, GARY DAWSON AND MARK RITCHIE SPEAK AT OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY. SHOEFOOT WAS OBVIOUSLY QUITE INTELLIGENT. I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND AT THAT TIME WHY HE STRESSED OVER AND OVER THAT THE YANOMAMO ARE HUMAN, "JUST LIKE YOU." HE WAS INDIGNANT ABOUT THE WAY THEY HAVE BEEN PORTRAYED ON T.V. HE MADE IT CLEAR THAT THEY ARE NOT 'THE MISSING LINK' AS SOME ANTHROS HAVE ASSERTED. SHOEFOOT WAS FASCINATING AND SO IS THIS BOOK. A REAL EYE-OPENER ABOUT THE SPIRIT WORLD. IT MAKES ME WORRY FOR THE NEW-AGERS WHO ARE SEEKING THEIR OWN "SPIRIT GUIDES." IT IS A SURE INVITATION TO THE SAME MISERY THAT JUNGLEMAN DESCRIBES.

The 16,000 Yanomamo people are depicted as the most primitive, most violent, and most famous tribal society in the Amazon. Popularized by the most widely read book in the history of anthropology (*Yanomamo: The Fierce People*, by Napoleon Chagnon), these people are today suffering excruciating problems from gold miners and newly introduced diseases. Major debates have raged among anthropologists, and between anthropologists and missionaries, for 20 years over the "truth" of the Yanomamo culture. Do they live a wonderful life in a beautiful rain-forest Eden, as Chagnon implies in his 1992 book, *The Last Days of Eden*, or do they live in fear and misery as some missionaries say?

Perhaps we should ask that question to the Yanomamo themselves, rather than to the anthropologists or the missionaries. Who does speak for the Yanomamo, anyway? Here, for the first time, author Mark Richie allows the Yanomamo to speak for themselves to us. This is truly "a Yanomamo shaman's story," as the book's subtitle says. It is the autobiography of a Yanomamo shaman-chief named Jungleman. He, at least, is weary of his violent society, and fed-up with the anthropologists, too.

Anyone who thinks the Yanomamo culture is idyllic must be a male: The women live in chronic danger of gang-rapes, savage beatings by their husbands, and kidnapping. And men suffer one of the highest homicide rates in the world from the frequent raiding between villages. If you think it's a romantic way of life, why don't you try it?

Non-specialists in Amazonian anthropology may be skeptical of Jungleman's descriptions of the sexual customs of a European anthropologist who the Yanomamo call "Ass Handler." A.H. has lived with the Yanomamo for many years and, says Jungleman, makes a regular practice of forcibly sodomizing Yanomamo boys. Disbelievers may want to ask the opinion of any anthropologist specializing on the Amazon.

This is a gripping book to read: hard to put down, violent (some would say pornographic), and gut-wrenching. Students who have read the other ethnographies on the Yanomamo will recognize that this book has, above all, a ring of truth. New Age seekers will be fascinated by Jungleman's descriptions of the spirit world that shamans have found. Anthropology students will be shocked by Jungleman's insider view of the political internecine intrigues among anthropologists and between anthropologists and missionaries.

This book does a terrific job of telling the REAL story of the Yanomamo people. The fact that it is told by a Yanomamo shaman lends to the credibility of the book, as does the author's documentation.It was awesome to be able to finally conceptualize what I've believed all along; that the spirit world is very real. Ritchie does a wonderful job in not interjecting his own thoughts and bias into Jungleman's story. It was a moving and gripping tale of a people struggling with the ways they've known for so long and the ways they now wish to live.

This book is just incredible. The author (who also directed the Chevy Chase Fletch movie series), goes waaaaay back into an era of surprising TV struggle! Please, order it, buy it, get it used, new, hardcover, paperback or whatever. BUT GET IT. Almost every paragraph is and eyebrow raiser, every paragraph reveals some incredible detail! (For instance, Steve Allen was NOT the first talk show host in TV history!). It's perfectly written. It covers almost every area (Sports TV, Drama TV, Contest TV, etc.). It tells everything on the subject, and makes you gain hopes regarding the starting difficulties of any new project you may be trying to implement! Hold on to your idea! Hold on to your dream! These old time dreamers kept going, and made TV possible for everyone today!. It's the best book I've read this year (2001). Please. DON'T stand by and rush to get Please Stand By! You'll be really glad to know how many amazing things happened between 1928, when TV really began, and 1948, twenty years later, when they have made us BELIEVE everything started.

Carlos Sicilia, Caracas, Venezuela.

What do Milton Berle, Eddie Albert, and Dinah Shore have in common? They've all appeared on television. OK, you knew that--what you may NOT know, however, is that they all made their first TV appearance far sooner than you may think. Try 1929, 1936 and 1938 respectively.

Wait a minute, you say, television didn't exist yet. Well, actually, it did, if only experimentally. According to Michael Ritchie, those who think the television era began when Uncle Miltie donned his first ball gown are in for quite a shock.

Ritchie takes us into the hitherto unexplored "prehistory" of television, an era that in some ways typified Murphy's Law. Everything that could go wrong usually did--from Dinah Shore's disastrous singing debut (her mascara melted under the blistering hot lights) to the "nude" chorus girls in one early 30's production number (early cameras were insensitive to the girls' red costumes).

The book takes us through the pioneering days of what are now industry staples--television sports, news, drama, and quiz shows. The numerous anecdotes from such personalities as Hugh Downs never fail to amaze--and amuse. (Be sure to read his account of his role in the earliest TV news broadcasts).

Not to be missed also are the long-overdue tributes to individual pioneers, such as Charles Francis Jenkins, who began the first television "network" of sorts in the late 1920's; John Logie Baird, whose "mechanical" method of transmission (using a spinning disk) was doomed to failure; and of course Philo Taylor Farnsworth, the young Mormon genius who, at age 14, conceived the idea of electronic television while plowing his parents' field. The rise and fall of Allen B. DuMont, who at one time ran a fourth network (only to fall victim to the backstabbing maneuvers of NBC head David Sarnoff) is told in painstaking detail.

If you like television, you'll love this book. If you don't, you'll know who to blame.

An editorial review calls this book "dull." Dullness, like beauty, is in the beholder's eye. This beholder is fascinated with the pioneering days of broadcasting; unsurprisingly, I found this book tremendously interesting and even entertaining. By focusing on the people and the anecdotes of television's experimental days, Ritchie vividly transmits the new medium's uncertainty and excitement.