I am a practitioner of I-Chuan and Pa-Kua in Hong Kong. I have bought almost every chinese Pa-Kua books published in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. This book had been recommended to me many times by my friends, but I was still reluctant to buy it, thinking that not much more could be learned, not to mention my more than ten years efforts in finding and seeing many of the well-known masters both in Hong Kong and China. One very important thing I've learned over these years is that the esoteric teachings of internal martial arts had been developed most of the time by teachers who did not have the real skills but wanted to cheat for more students. I was amazed at how earthly and scientific this book has finally explained the real mechanics for the tremendous striking power of internal martial arts, it tells you which muscles to use instead of the apparent movements of the body. This book teaches in the same way and language of every real masters I've met - no hype, no lengthy discussion at qi(though I do not deny the role of qi in internal martial arts)which could not been verified anyhow, but every instruction is consistent with morden physics and human biology. I'm very happy at the fact that this book is not written by a chinese, which symbolizes the art of Pa Kua has truly been taught and spread to other parts of the world.

I purchased vol. 1 and 2. This book was extremely well written and articulate. It clearly sums up Chinese philosophy, (an inherently formidable task), and applies it directly to the martial art form. It's one thing to read history or didactic technicalities, but the authors ability to concisely present the philosophy in a fashion that is directly applicable was nothing short of heroic!

This book is an absolute must for practitioners and teachers of the Chinese martial art of bagwa or Pa Kua Chang. It will crystallize the meaning and substance of movements for students - For teachers it will help forge much better instructors.

If you have never practiced bagwa, (Pa Kua, BaGua or Bagwachang, etc.), I would suggest you go elsewhere to learn about this unique system of martial art.

If anyone has a question about it, feel free to drop me an email!

Martial arts in general has two distinct facets: the internal arts, which ultimately tend toward spiritual and theoretical issues, and external arts, focusing upon training and competition. Typically these lead to divisiveness in the martial arts community. Resolving these two sides of the same coin, on an individual level, is a difficult and often frustrating issue.

Pa-Kua Chang is a style dedicated to incorporating both of these aspects of the martial arts. Its skilled practitioners can easily confound some of the best stylists from other disciplines. The techniques are extremely efficient and systematic. At the same time, internal cultivation is emphasized as a key to development physically as well as spiritually. Both sides are necessary.

This work on Pa-Kua Chang introduces the reader to the many diverse facets of this style. Tradition, theory, internalization, physical considerations, are all interwoven into a complete and self-contained foundational work.

Many of the details (read: secrets) one may wish from a martial arts book are necessarily missing. After all, true martial functionality is a social aspect of life, between two (or more) intelligent beings. Exercises and basics are described herein, so that the seeker has tools with which to pursue higher degrees of refinement. Nothing in this work is glossed over, however. Reaching a high level of proficiency of even the basic exercises outlined takes tremendous discipline and dedication. One can seek out further instruction in the interim.

Thomas Clement uses this book to tell his story of being one of the first Korean Adoptees. He tells of his struggle to "fit in", in a culture that is different from the one he knew. He also tells what it has been like for him to "grow up Asian in a Caucasian" family. Mr.Clement uses humor like no other. There are some parts that will have you laughing, but others that will bring you to tears.

Being an adoptive parent of a child from Korea, I found The Unforgotten War to be a book that has helped me have an understanding of what it it can be like to be adopted from another country. This is a great book not only for people who have adopted, or are adoptees, but for everyone!! Thanks to Mr. Clement for sharing such a well written, informative, life experience book with us.

This book is a definite two thumbs up whether the reader is a Korean adoptee, adoptive parent, birth parent or just someone interested in knowing more about the Korean adoption experience. Clements¦ book is more than a narrative of his life as an orphan, mixed race child or adoptee. His book is an amazing blend of innovations, adventures, joys and disappointments. Toward the end of the book the reader can¦t help but be overwhelmed by the complex life Clement has led, and by the manner in which he currently lives.

It must be stated up front that this autobiographical account by Thomas Park Clement is not comparable to the one written by Elizabeth Kim, author of 10,000 Sorrows. Readers wanting to read a captivating, authentic, and verifiable story of a mixed race Korean War orphan will find The Unforgotten War a truly memorable work. His book is filled with names, dates and photographs of himself with other people, including his adoptive family and friends. In the end he shares with readers how he might be contacted. Kim on the other hand tells a gripping and emotionally loaded story of her alleged life as a mixed race orphan that seems to attract tragedy after uncontrollable tragedy. She portrays herself as a survivor of numerous and horrendous abuses, however she provides no substantive information to lend credence to her story. Given the lack of verifiable data, one can only conclude Kim¦s book is actually fiction disguised as fact.

Clements¦ life was no bed of roses either - however unlike Kim, he does bravely reveal the name of the orphanage where he suffered both physical and mental abuses. And unlike Kim who seems determined to be the queen of all martyrs, Clement is able to put his personal experiences into productive and admirable perspective. Most readers will find it incomprehensible to learn that Clement was abandoned by his birth mother when he was about four years of age. They will be drawn in by his poignant memory of his last time with her, how she carefully and lovingly buttoned up his coat for one last time before leaving him alone on the street to fend for himself.

After his birth mother abandoned him, Clement tells chilling tales of how he was beaten up on the streets because of how he looked and smelled, and how he would go days before finding a piece of garbage that would temporarily ease his hunger pains. After several years of fighting the other street orphans for every bite of food, he finally meets a young Methodist missionary who takes him to an orphanage.

Orphanage life provided Clement both good and bad aspects. He describes haunting stories of life in the orphanage, bringing to mind images that anyone else who has ever been an orphan in a Korean orphanage would recognize. At the orphanage Clement is initially thrilled with being given a fresh pair of socks and clean clothing. He is delighted with getting one meal a day, even though it is very diluted and hardly substantial for a young boy. However Clement soon learns that he has to fight the other children and staff if he wants enough to eat. He learns to tuck his blanket around his body at night, so he doesn¦t get his blanket stolen and awake freezing. He also learns, like in the streets, that his mixed race looks means he is the lowest of the low even among the other orphans and staff. Along with the other children, he experiences both physical and mental abuse until it becomes known that a family in the States wants to adopt him. Not surprisingly, he is fed more and his physical bruises allowed to take a break.

As he leaves the orphanage, Clement is told menacingly by an orphanage worker that if he ever tells anyone of his experiences in the orphanage, that they would come after him and take him back to Korea. Terrified, he is relieved to finally board the plane where everyone is smiling, happy to see him, and not interested in hurting him.

Adopted life in the States brought numerous challenges, as well as wonderful benefits. At his first family meal he is introduced to the concept of having his own full plate of food, and then offered seconds and then at future meals thirds! His story about how he had a hard time adjusting to a raised bed is just one of many cross-cultural transitional stories that most Korean adoptees would similarly recall. Another time his adoptive mother invites a couple of Korean students over to the house in order to have them talk with Clement about what had happened to him in Korea. Terrified Clement refuses to talk, choosing instead to hide behind his adoptive mother¦s skirt, frightened that the students were going to try and take him back to Korea and the war.

From beloved son to: mixed-race bastard, street fighter, orphan, adoptee, rock musician, motor cycle dare devil rider, group home worker, carpenter, administrator, emergency ¦medic,¦ husband, father and humanitarian Clement has led a rich existance. His stories are amusing, serious and thoughtful. His outlook on life commendable. In a presentation for adoptees Clement said, ¦If I think about the Korean War, living on the streets and the orphanage, I could be ¦totaled¦ by these thoughts; or I could use these life experiences to feed the fire...feed the fire to motivate me to make a positive change...make the world a better place for our children in the future.¦ Certainly those words are ones that all parents, regardless of adoptive or birth status, would find memorable.

Being an adoptive parent of a child from Korea, I have read alot of books written by Korean adoptees. None have touched me like The Unforgotten War!! Knowing what Mr.Clement was feeling at different times in his life, I might have an insight which could possibly help my daughter at times. Also Thomas Park Clement has chosen to include a sense of humor like no other. There are also parts of this book that will bring you to tears as I was. This is a book that will make you feel so many different emotions. I recommend this book to EVERYONE, not only to people that have an association with adoption.

Finally there is a book that captures the spirit of Fenway Park, the oldest and greatest of baseball shrines. This book has stunning and beautifully reproduced photographs and a moving and entertaining text that is better than going to a ballgame. Plus it has Ted Williams definitive word on the ballpark. This joyous book is not just a hit, it's an over the Wall, onto the Pike, Grand Slammer. Thanks to the great Shaugnessy, Grossfeld and The Kid.

As the old addage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. For fans of baseball, there are a select few "classic" parks left that allow that saying to come to light. Yankee Stadium, replete with all of her splendor and majesty; "The Friendly Confines" of Wrigley Field, her bleacher bums, and the ivy; and, greatest of them all, Fenway Park, the oldest park in the majors left standing.

When one sees Fenway park for the first time, one is immediately taken with the GREEN that the park exudes- the well kept grass, the Green Monster, the green bleacher seats, the green of the luxury and broadcast seats behind home plate. One will also be drenched in the history of this grand park- Pesky's Pole, left field (where several of the greatest players of that position donned Red Sox uniforms from Duffy Lewis to Teddy Ballgame to Yaz, and Rice), the left field pole, where Carlton Fisk hit his miraculous home run in '75; the manually operated left field wall scoreboard, complete with the morse code on it stating then-owner Tom Yawkey's name... Fenway Park is a living, breathing archaelogical site.

Famed Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy takes the reader of this book to each part of Fenway Park with remarkably clear and bright pictures, as well as choice anecdotes from former Sox greats like Ted Williams, Yaz, and the Eck, to other notables such as Jim Palmer, Stephen King, and Bob Costas.

It is the pictures, though, that dominate this great book, and what pictures they are. Focusing mainly on the fans, filled with joy, hope, anticipation, concern, angst, (and a Yankee fan giving us the middle finger) the book captures well what it is to be part of Red Sox Nation on any given day at the park. Add to it photos from outside the park on Yawkey Way, filled with vendors, street musicians, scalpers, etc..and those of the Sox themselves, and this book well encompasses a day at Fenway. The old photos of Williams, Ruth, the Royal Rooters, and "Honey Fitz" throwing the 1st pitch as opening day 1912, remind us to Fenway's rich and storied history, as well.

With the future of Fenway Park well in the balance, this book is all the more poignant and worth sitting down and studying. Whether you believe in "progress" or in saving Fenway Park,(I am among the latter) Shaughnessy's book offers the perfect snapshots to either remember Fenway by or to use in your arguments for saving her. Whatever may happen, Fenway Park is an American landmark, and "Fenway" helps to capture her in all her dignity.

As author David Halberstam said: "You go to Fenway and you think, 'Something wonderful's going to happen today.'"

It's obvious that Major League Baseball fans love the home run, because they voted Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey, Jr., Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire into the All-Star Game at Fenway Park as starters.

No doubt there is great anticipation of seeing four of the greatest sluggers in history take their hacks against the left-field wall known as the Green Monster. And perhaps they can go the other way, toward right field, and land a ball beyond the red seat that marks the longest homer in Fenway's illustrious history - a homer hit by none other than the Splendid Splinter, Ted Williams, more than 50 years ago. According to Pulitzer Prize-winning author and baseball historian David Halberstam, the walk into the park often is as exciting as the game.

"I think walking up to Fenway is thrilling," Halberstam said in a new book published about Fenway. "The approach to it. The smells. You go to Fenway, and you revert to your childhood. You go to Fenway, and you think: 'Something wonderful is going to happen today.'"

In the book - entitled "Fenway, a biography in words and pictures," published this year - writer Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe and photographer Stan Grossfeld, an associated editor at the Globe, pay tribute to one of Major League Baseball's most storied parks. And, due to construction delays on Milwaukee's new stadium, Fenway will be in the national spotlight for perhaps the final time as it hosts its third All-Star Game.

You can't talk about Fenway without talking about the Green Monster, perhaps the most famous outfield wall in baseball history - a wall that Shaughnessy described in his book as a "New England monument, no less so than Bunker Hill Monument, the Old Man of the Mountain or Walden Pond."

The wall was built, Shaughnessy wrote, to keep balls in play. But more memorable are the balls that have sailed over it - home runs like the one hit in 1978 by Bucky Dent, whose pop fly in any other park cleared the Monster and gave the New York Yankees a victory over Boston in a one-game playoff to determine the division champion. And because the Monster is only 309 feet from home plate at the left-field foul pole, plenty of balls have been hit over it. It is the shortest fence of any major-league ballpark, and rules today stipulate that no wall in any park be closer than 325 feet from home plate.

But, as short as it is, at 37 feet high and capped by a 23-foot screen, the Green Monster can frustrate batters like McGwire and Canseco, who may be able to hit the ball far, but not high. It also can make opposing fielders look bad. Jim Palmer told Shaughnessy about the time Baltimore teammate Don Buford saw a ball skip through his legs, turned around to try and retrieve it and then watched the ball zoom through his legs once again after it caromed back off the wall.

It would be difficult to find another sports arena with a feature as famous as Fenway's Green Monster. Frightfully deceiving. Inviting even the most hapless amateur to step tp the plate and try to hit a ball over it.

"You hear a lot about it," Dent told Shaughnessy for the book. "But when you actually walk out there and see the Wall, you realize what an impact it has on you as a player."

Inside the wall is one of baseball's last hand-operated scoreboards that also adds to the allure of Fenway. And with the cozy dimensions of the park - the right-field pole is only 302 feet from home plate - runs could be going up on the board at a fast rate on Tuesday.

It could be the right-field wall that gets McGwire's, Sosa's, Canseco's or Griffey's attention - or, rather, what's beyond that wall. For, just as famous as the Green Monster is a seat in right field that's painted red - the lone red seat in a sea of green ones - that marks the spot where Ted Williams hit the longest measured home run in Fenway's 87-year history. Newspaper accounts at the time claimed that the 1946 blast traveled 450 feet. But the Red Sox measured the distance in the mid-1980s and got an official number of 502 feet.

"It's hard to believe anybody could hit a ball that far," former Boston player Mo Vaughn told Shaughnessy. "I know I've never even come close - not even in batting practice. I mean, it's not even down the line. It's in the gap. You can barely see that thing."

The Monster, the scoreboard, the red seat and the coziness of the park are just some of the features that make Fenway unique. Love it or hate it, the park always seems to evoke emotion, a lot of it captured in the book by Shaughnessy and Grossfeld, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer whose pictures in the book are as riveting as Shaughnessy's written words.

If you have ever thought about making sneaky peeky spying your business, you had better read this book! In this story Junie B. Jones spies on her grandpa and Mrs., her teacher. She finds herself in all kinds of T-R-0-U-B-L-E! This book is a great read especially if you read it outloud to another person. Enjoy this story.

I am a children's librarian and a mother of two young children. I recently discovered Barbara Park's wonderful books. Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying was the first of her books I read. I have never laughed so much while reading a book. My children loved it. I then read it to my son's second grade class. The students and teachers were instant Junie B. fans. They clamored for more. The students are now checking Junie B. Jones books out from the library and keeping me informed on which ones they have read. I now visit school and read to them once a week, and they always request more of Junie B. Jones. I say Hip-Hip-Hooray for Junie B. and thank you Barbara Park for giving us such funny, touching stories. You have helped so many children discover the love of reading.

JUNIE B. IS THE FUNNIST KID YOU WILL EVERY MEET.
IN THIS BOOK YOU WILL READ ABOUT SOME TOP KID SPYING.
HOPE YOU READ THE BOOK. IT IS THE BEST.

The Kid In The Red Jacket was a very funny book for all ages to get humor out of. I want to get this book a lot now that I`ve read it. The story of Howard Jeeter and his pesky little neighbor Molly is an enchanting story. I only give this book 4 stars because I thought that the base of the story could have been better and more detailed. Overall, this book is highly recommended by my fifth grade class. Special thanks to my teacher for reading it and making the very humorous Molly Vera Thompson voices and many others. Also, for being such a great teacher. P.S. You really would want her. She`s great!!!!!!!!!!!!

I enjoyed this book because it really explains what a new kid goes
though.Bullies,making friends,meeting people are all the the things new kids have to do.Well my favorite character was the main
character.He has met a little girl that wants to be his friend,and
bugs him every day.She comes to his house every day to talk to him.He is embarrassed by her.The whole story he is trying to get
away from her.The ending will leave you shocked.You would have
never thought that it would have happened that way!

This book was about a boy named Howard Jeeter that had to move from Arizona to Massachusttets.If you are one of those people who have to move, I think you should read this story. It's called The Kid in the Red Jacket by Barbara Park.This book reminds me of the day I had to move to another school and I didn't know where the bathroom was. Anyway, I think you should read this book.

The Blue Bear is one of the best and most concise expressions of the meaning of life that I have ever read since Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Especially Schooler's experience with the Kingfisher and the crows. It's a beautiful story about love and friendships between man and nature, man and himself, and man and God, however one envisions Him. I could not put the book down once I started to read it. Schooler's quotes from Michio's book seemed to hold a very personal message for me.

This book had more impact on me than anything I've read in the past few years. I've never especially wanted to see Alaska (too cold) and never appreciated it as a special place, but Lynn Schooler's writing pulled me in to the land and its enchanting forms of life and interesting residents. I kept thinking how brave he was to write as he did about his demons and pains and the healing he painfully found, as elusive for most of us as the Blue Bear itself. I taught classic English literature for years, and I know powerful, gripping language when I see it. This is the real thing. If I could write to Schooler, I'd tell him how moving his book was. Read it right away, and slowly.

This book is true literature. The authors discriptions are very visual. I could not put the book down. It is more than just an adventure book. It is a story of true intimacy,personal discovery and tragedy. Schooler opens himself to the reader as if he is sharing his personal intermost secrets to his closest friend. It changed my life.

Frances Park has created an absolutely mesmerizing character in the form of Cleopatra Moon. A young woman with the power to captivate all males who cross her path, expressed in terms which are both poetic and sensually unique to Ms. Park's writing style. As the novel progresses we are provided with clues which indicate that turbulent and unexpectedly vulnerable inner worlds exist within Cleopatra and her initially adoring younger sister. The story twists and shatters stereotypical expectations with the richness of the characters. Yet in the background we see gradually emerge a loving portrait of an often absent father who becomes a multi-layered symbol for redemption and the re-integration of portions of the soul which the two sisters have misplaced over the years.

The two sisters are very much the product of the American 1970's, yet Ms. Park is also able to masterfully convey the Korean-American experience through the character of the mother and her relationship to the two daughters.

Cleopatra is so charismatic that the reader would initially be willing to fall under her spell for the entire length of the novel. Read Chapter Two as a separate work of art in this regard. Yet Frances Park has done far more than create a host of intriguing characters. She has created situations in which initial suspicions yield to deeper meanings over sometimes traumatic and sometimes wryly humorous flows of time. The reader will reflect upon the nature of his or her own relationships and the continuing impact of unresolved emotions of the past. This is a book to be read several times over.

Though sisters, Korean-Americans Cleo and Marcy have not talked for years. That changes when the forty-two years old Cleo calls to tell her younger sister that her husband Stu just died. Apparently, the wealthy Stu lost control of the car when lightning suddenly struck right in front of him. Marcy drops everything to race to Cleo's side to help her with the funeral even knowing the true dark side of her sibling and that she probably never loved Stu.

Marcy thinks back to when they were young and she idolized her gorgeous and fiery unconventional (at least in the Korean culture) sister. That is until Cleo left for college, came back on summer break, and left again for school, leaving Marcy to contend with their Korean born mother who never adjusted to her new country. Marcy resented Cleo then and resents her now as she watches a pro shed crocodile tears to gain sympathy from Stu's side.

WHEN MY SISTER WAS CLEOPATRA MOON is an incredible novel that works on three levels: the rivalry between sisters, the Korean-American 1970s experience, and the difficulty of an immigrant to adapt to this country. The story line is insightful yet quite entertaining as readers will appreciate the key players. If this novel is any indication of her talent, Frances Park is going to become a star as she provides her readers with a convincing character study.

Harriet Klausner

Kisook and Misook Moon are Cleo and Marcy Moon as they grow up in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC during the 1970s. Cleo -- who, one summer, decides to extend her name to "Cleopatra" --- is older and very glamorous to Marcy, who is discovering her first crush and trying to figure out her own identity within her Korean-American family.

Years later, after not speaking to each other for years, Cleo needs Marcy when her husband suddenly dies. Marcy goes to the Southwest to find Cleo and start a relationship with her junior-high-aged nephew.

This book is interesting because it captures the emotions of a younger sister and the rise and fall of her hero-worship of an imperfect older sister, letting go of being daddy's little girl, and being first-generation in a predominantly white country (and it don't come much whiter than Fairfax County, VA, the richest county in the USA today, where this story takes place!)

Perhaps the most masterful of the writing is that the author balances these three components of the protagonist Marcy's life, without letting anything dominate and define her, since the novel is about Marcy defining herself.

If only this author had included a preface or afterward explaining the basis for her fiction. Did she read real letters? Were there really such botanical missions? The main character's coy use of initials to hide her gender is too cute as is her ability to rescue a man in a snowstorm. The men in the book are without exception pains in the neck. I wanted to like this, but I couldn't believe in it, or lose myself in it as I did in Andrea Barrett's books of the same style. For a real trip to the 19th century west, read "A Lady's Life in the Rockies."

Although I enjoyed reading this book, it probably would not be a satisfying read for anyone who hasn't been to Yellowstone National Park, or isn't planning a visit there. For those with a connection to Yellowstone, this book brings to life some of the park's history and grandeur. The plot is a little thin in the middle, but it comes to a very satisfying ending. If you're looking for a book to read before, during, or after a trip to Yellowstone, you'll be glad you chose this. The characters are very appealing; the setting is magnificent; and the fact that the novel is shaped by the characters' correspondence is a nice touch. It is somehow easier to appreciate the timelessness of Yellowstone when reading these letters written so convincingly in nineteenth-century voices.

I recently have had the great pleasure of reading Diane Smith's Letters From Yellowstone, and would recommend it without reservation to a wide variety of readers. While I am not normally a fan of epistolary novels, the characters in this work are so compelling the novel is difficult to put aside. This novel should appeal to environmentalists, feminists, naturalists, and other ists who prefer to remain unlabeled, such as I.

It is ostensibly the story of a group of 1898 scientists on an expedition of discovery to catalog the flora and fauna of Yellowstone Park before tourists, the railroad, local entrepreneurs, and poachers destroy it. I say ostensibly, because the expedition is one of self-discovery as much as scientific cataloguing. None of the principals is unchanged by the experience. Additionally, Smith uses this forum to introduce readers to a number of late twentieth century concerns: wildlife management, commercialization of public lands, role of women in sciences. The author's treatment of these topics is not heavy handed, and her careful research shows these concerns are universal, not just limited to a single era.

The novel's primary characters eventually find themselves debating the validity of science in comparison to other systems of knowledge and belief, and their conclusions are rather enlightening to those of who might think we have our position in life all figured out. Unlike numerous other authors who have attempted to express the dialectic of science versus belief, Smith succeeds. She is neither dry, nor pedantic in her characters' discussions.

All this is accomplished against the sublime background of the Northern Rockies. The action of the novel moves at the pace of a northern summer: days seem to last forever, but the summer season lasts scarcely more than two months. Despite delays and reverses in fortune, the party moves along with an inexorable drive brought on by the knowledge of the fleeting field season. While not an adventure, this book is nevertheless a page turner. Read Letters From Yellowstone while the summer is still here. You won't regret it.

I am 8 years old and Iiked the parts where Junie B Jones kept going into her mom and dads room. This was a fun and easy book for me to read but I think it is for littler kids, not third grade. I also have read Junie B Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus and I liked it more. Katie, Wade Elementary School

Do you want to be eaten by a monster? Junie B. Jones has a monster under her bed but she can't think of a way to get rid of it. I like this book because the pictures can be funny. One of the important events in this book is when Junie B. has picture day. I learned that you shouldn't always trust what other people say. Will Junie B. ever get rid of the monster? Read Junie B. Jones Has a Monster Under her bed by Barbra Parks to find out!

I read this book the other day with my 6 year Kindergartener and I don't know who laughed harder, me or her! I encourage her love of books and the Junie B. Jones books are a great way for her to transition from picture books to big kid books. I hope new ones come out on a regular basis, because I am sure will read our way through the current books no time at all!

Submerged: Adventures of America's Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team written by Daniel Lenihan has action-adventure throughout, underwater exploration with intrigue and full of information about early diving and salvage.

What I found interesting is that the author takes the reader in with easy going folksy prose and narrative. Which is easy to read with historical facts put in the text that blends the historical and technical details, thus giving the reder a good informative read.

An engaging adventure told of shipwrecks in U.S. parks and territorial waters gripping the reader, with well-constructed ending, preserving these sites important to our American heritage. These are truly professionals that tackle astonishing often harrowing assingments including the surveying the Isle Royale, shipwrecks in Lake Superior, exploring ther U.S.S. Arisona in Pearl Harbor, and Investigating the HL Hunley the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship in Charleston Harbor during the Civil War.

All in all, this is a book of underwater adventures told with a flair that will keep you interested till the ending.

Although I know little of underwater archeaology, I have done my share of contract land archeaology and am an avid sport diver. Mr. Lenihan gives bonechilling acounts of diving situations involving caves, polluted waters and other truly extreme variables. I have been a scuba diver here in San Diego for over thirty years and I have come with time to admit my limits. This man, wether crazy or not, has defied most the limits I am aware of, but you can't say he was clueless, he's still here to write this book. Being quite involved in the diving community for some time and also associated with some west coast based archaeologist, I have heard nothing but high regards for this mans reliability and profesionalism as an archaeologist.
I have read some of the reviews by other so called sport divers who are down on Mr. Lenihan. I am angered by their comments and dissappointed by their ethics treating ships. Essentially, they are treasure hunters and thier ethics are, "the gold I find while destroying sites for other divers is mine!" I fully admit that they know more about ship wreck diving than myself although I doubt Mr. Lenihan is in jeopardy of being overwhelmed by their "unselfish principles" or vast historical knowledge of the sites they desecrate. From the very positive articles I have read in such magazines as "Skindiver" or "Sportdiver" magazine, I am more willing to take them seriously. But thats just me. For anyone interested at all in the ethics of preservation or the insanity of adventure, wether you agree or not, this book will probably fullfill alot of those curiosities.

Submerged by Daniel Lenihan is an entertaining book by a National Park Service employee who truly and enthusiastically loved his job - doing recon dives on the underwater treasures owned by the American public. The subtitle of the book - 'Adventures Of America's Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team' - may be somewhat misleading, since Lenihan's adventures are usually tales of the initial dives to evaluate an underwater resource for future recreational divers and archeologists who will follow in his team's wake. This is not a book about the day to day details of underwater archeology, and if you buy it with that in mind, you may be disappointed. That said, Lenihan's tales about the founding and early adventures of SCRU [Submerged Cultural Resources Unit] are fun to read and Lenihan's enthusiasm is catching. It is obvious that Lenihan has a dislike for private treasure seekers and if you don't share his opinion, you may not want to read this book. If you have an interest in diving, sunken ships, the preservation of cultural resources, the National Park Service, or just enjoy rousing good tales of underwater adventure, I can definitely recommend Submerged.