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Review Date: 10/30/2012
If you have studied English History, then this twist on the subject will clarify what you really don't know but should have learned by now. Because, of course, your knowledge of History (and apparently, especially English History) is only as good as what you can remember. That's why this edition is the Memorable History. When you've read this one, you won't want to bother to keep any others.
Review Date: 4/22/2013
Not Clarke's best (that was Childhood's End), not even his best Sci Fi (that was Rendezvous with Rama), but at least his third or fourth best effort; the movie said it all; even so, a worthwhile read, even having seen the movie. Do not miss "The Sentinel", which is the seminal story.
Review Date: 8/13/2021
Five classic stories from the 50s. Friborg: the Big Computer falls in love; Godwin: stowaway in space; Simak: build a robot in your garage . . . a reproducing robot; Abernathy: death in space -- what to do next?; Cole: a visitor from a superior civilization on harsh cruel Earth -- that it finds fascinating . . . . Stories first published 1953 and 1954 in various F&SF magazines, then collected in "The Best Science-Fiction Stories and Novels: 1955".
Review Date: 2/23/2014
Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) is on one view a Catholic apologist but on another an early existentialist. He died in 1936, shortly after facing being cut down cold-heartedly by a Fascist general in the Spanish Civil War for ridiculing the idea that one side of the war was more evil (or good) than the other. This novel and two stories illustrate the mental struggle of the intelligent man in accepting the directions of religion in a world that has gone sour. Unamuno's classic work is "The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and in Peoples", the discussions of which these stories illustrate beautifully. This particular Gateway Edition (1956) by Henry Regnery Co. appears to have been the first translation into English, by Anthony Kerrigan, who also write an Introduction describing the life and work of Unamuno. The novel is "Abel Sanchez", a story of good and evil in the retelling of the Cain-and-Abel tale; "The Madness of Dr. Montarco", the story of a self-willed man; and "Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr", the story of a priest who has lost his personal faith but who keeps up the appearance for the good of his parishioners who still have theirs.
Review Date: 2/12/2013
A play within a play about the intellectual relationship between Captain FitzRoy of "The Beagle" and Charles Darwin.
Review Date: 6/19/2021
F&SF novel-commentary, published in USA 1972, now somewhat dated but of historical interest, on eugenics, parthenogenesis, and male - female relationships. After 500 years of no males in the all-female society, DNA is taken from the sperm of a corpse, and re-vitalized. The consequent effects on the all-female society are devastating. Well-written, well-researched, an early novel-discussion in this field. First published in UK in 1958 as "World Without Men".
Review Date: 2/19/2012
This book of 128 pp was published in 1975 by American Brands, Inc. (Jim Beam, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Sunshine Biscuits, etc.) in commemoration of the Bicentennial.
Contains Kristol: "The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution." Diamond: "The Revolution of Sober Expectations." Nutter: "Freedom in a Revolutionary Economy."
Kristol's essay is directed more at the social aspects of the Revolution, while the other two discuss economic effects. Nutter had been an Assistant Secretary of Defense during the first term of President Nixon and was a professor of economic history at the University of Virginia. Kristol was a noted academic and journalistic voice of neo-conservatism. Diamond was a political science professor at Northern Illinois University.
The three lectures were presented in Washington, Philadelphia, and Williamsburg in a series sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute. The numerous illustrations were taken from the 1797 Encyclopedia Brittanica. Includes separate presentation note card from Robert K. Heimann, CEO and President of American Brands.
Contains Kristol: "The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution." Diamond: "The Revolution of Sober Expectations." Nutter: "Freedom in a Revolutionary Economy."
Kristol's essay is directed more at the social aspects of the Revolution, while the other two discuss economic effects. Nutter had been an Assistant Secretary of Defense during the first term of President Nixon and was a professor of economic history at the University of Virginia. Kristol was a noted academic and journalistic voice of neo-conservatism. Diamond was a political science professor at Northern Illinois University.
The three lectures were presented in Washington, Philadelphia, and Williamsburg in a series sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute. The numerous illustrations were taken from the 1797 Encyclopedia Brittanica. Includes separate presentation note card from Robert K. Heimann, CEO and President of American Brands.
Review Date: 2/11/2012
A 1977 collection, in about 240 pp, of American humor by and about many well-known and a few not-so-well-known American writers and characters, including Ben Franklin, Davy Crockett, Josh Billings, Mark Twain, O. Henry, Finlay P. Dunne, Will Rogers, Dorothy Parker, James Thurber, E.B. White, Art Buchwald, Woody Allen, the ever popular Anonymous, and many others. All selections are fun to read and from which to read aloud.
Review Date: 8/11/2011
A great read, a lot of fun; a North Dakota farmer finds THE Archaeological Site of the last ten millenia sticking out of his wheat field; then in come the professional archaeologists, the Gumment, the Sioux Indians, the CIA, the NSA, etc. The author's first novel, I believe, and with "Eternity Road", his best.
Review Date: 5/8/2021
Richard B. has missed Orwell's point: the story describes the effect of greed, namely capitalist greed; this book is not a discussion of American political parties and their platforms (have you gotten your cattle subsidy check yet? did you enjoy the recent governmental incentive checks?). The human analogy to the Animals' Farm was communism, not socialism, and the result of "pooling together" is that in all forms of government and economics, some people (or animals) are readily prepared to take change of operations and eventually of other people (or animals) to their own benefit. The final scene is "us" looking in on the upper one percent getting fatter at our expense. -- dnh
Review Date: 9/2/2011
Hersey wrote this novel before the movie "The Red Violin" was made, and the book would seem to be the germ of the movie, although the movie adds a mystical character to the violin. Hersey is an excellent writer, in many fields, and is best known for his reportage ("Hiroshima") and heavy novels ("The War Lover" and "The Child Buyer"). This one seems to have been written in a better humor, although in the end, you may not much care for the guy who ends up with the violin. The PBS blurb is incorrect: the novel is 308 pages, not 3 pages.
Review Date: 2/27/2015
First published in Penguin Books 2010. Translated from German by Christine Lo. Text and illustrations by the author. 144 pp. Size 10.5" by 7.5" by 0.5". Issued without dust jacket.
This book is one of the most fascinating cartographic design books I have ever seen. The format includes an 18-page essay by the author on her love of geography and cartography and of her fascination with the remote places of the planet, followed by a one-page description of the history and a one-page expertly-designed map of each island in its complete remoteness. The islands range the planet from the Arctic to the Antarctic: from Semisopochnoi in the US Aleutians (which I saw from the deck of the USS Princeton LPH-5 in the late months of 1969) to Howland Island in the Phoenix Islands, in the middle of the Pacific, the last known location of Amelia Earhart; from St. Helena in the South Atlantic, the final prison of Napoleon Bonaparte, to St. Kilda in the North Atlantic, the desolate scene of Hammond Innes' novel "Atlantic Fury"; and 46 others. Index of geographic place names in many languages.
This book is one of the most fascinating cartographic design books I have ever seen. The format includes an 18-page essay by the author on her love of geography and cartography and of her fascination with the remote places of the planet, followed by a one-page description of the history and a one-page expertly-designed map of each island in its complete remoteness. The islands range the planet from the Arctic to the Antarctic: from Semisopochnoi in the US Aleutians (which I saw from the deck of the USS Princeton LPH-5 in the late months of 1969) to Howland Island in the Phoenix Islands, in the middle of the Pacific, the last known location of Amelia Earhart; from St. Helena in the South Atlantic, the final prison of Napoleon Bonaparte, to St. Kilda in the North Atlantic, the desolate scene of Hammond Innes' novel "Atlantic Fury"; and 46 others. Index of geographic place names in many languages.
Bad Trips: A Sometimes Terrifying, Sometimes Hilarious Collection of Writing on the Perils of the Road
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
21
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
21
Review Date: 1/2/2012
A collection of the worst trips ever by writers who travel for a living. Some are hilarious, some are scary, some are just sad; all give a fuller look into what it means to travel to the most out-of-the-way places on the planet. 51 essays, stories, poems, and memoirs full of natural, animal, and human disasters by Joseph Brodsky, Jan Morris, David Mamet, Umberto Eco, Bob Geldof, John Updike, Paul Theroux, Peter Matthiessen, and many others. Inspiring and fascinating, whether you prefer to sit at home and scorn the idiocy of distant travel, or whether you're inclined to get out there and challenge your own encounters.
Review Date: 6/9/2012
A well-presented anthology of journalistic articles about the heroes and bums and the high moments of baseball history.
Review Date: 3/28/2017
Fifteen stories and poems from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, circa 1960 - 1962. Includes, among others:
Avram Davidson, The Sources of the Nile
E. E. Smith, Softly While You're Sleeping
Isaac Asimov, The Machine That Won the War
Poul Anderson, Time Lag
Clifford D. Simak, Shotgun Cure
Charles G. Finney, The Captivity
Cordwainer Smith, Alpha Ralpha Boulevard
Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron
Gordon R. Dickson, The Haunted Village
Avram Davidson, The Sources of the Nile
E. E. Smith, Softly While You're Sleeping
Isaac Asimov, The Machine That Won the War
Poul Anderson, Time Lag
Clifford D. Simak, Shotgun Cure
Charles G. Finney, The Captivity
Cordwainer Smith, Alpha Ralpha Boulevard
Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron
Gordon R. Dickson, The Haunted Village
Review Date: 4/24/2020
Seven excellent stories first published from 1944 to 1949, including the classic Lewis Padgett's (Kuttner and Moore) "Ex Machina"; Clifford D. Simak's "Ogre" (not otherwise easy to find); Fredric Brown; Theodore Sturgeon; H. Beam Piper; Kris Neville; and John Pierce's unusual take on immortality "Invariant". The editor's Introduction discusses briefly the history of the magazine. A great collection, every story a great read.
Review Date: 8/19/2014
A collection of ten SF&F stories, written by the author between 1952 ("Machine") and 1973 (the 17-page opening section of his novel "On Wheels"). In addition, it contains "Political Machine", "The Sellers of the Dream", "The Highest Form of Life", "One Race Show", "Love is a Punch in the Nose", "There's No Vinism Like Chauvinism", "Recidivism Preferred", "Here is Thy Sting", and a John Jakes Bibliography of his SF&F publications, 1951 - 1974. I for one had not known that Jakes had written SF&F and given the dates of his publications, he was an original and entertaining writer.
Review Date: 4/22/2013
One of Heinlein's early juveniles, originally published in 1951 as a follow-up to magazine serialization. This Ace Books No. 05501 was published Oct 1975. An exciting tale, with some Heinleinian satire in its plot and characterizations, but little of the later bite.
Review Date: 8/26/2011
This is the movie tie-in copy of Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" First Ballantine Books Edition May 1982. Complete text of the 1968 Dick novel; just the cover shows stills from the movie. Frankly, the movie is a better story, but Dick has his style and his charms in telling his story.
Review Date: 8/22/2011
Hawthorne's novels are a varied bunch; this one is one of his last; interesting in that context; not much read any more for plot or character but worth the while if you're reading them all.
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