Average customer rating:
- Not very cohesive... but so cool you won't care
- Hilarious, bloody, brutal, chilling, fun
- One of the best crime novels of the new millenium
- AMERICAN TO THE BONE
- Could have (Should Have) Been the Greatest Mystery Ever
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Everybody Smokes In Hell
John Ridley
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Ridley, John
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Suspense
| Thrillers
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Similar Items:
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The Drift
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Stray Dogs
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Love Is a Racket
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Those Who Walk in Darkness
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What Fire Cannot Burn
ASIN: 0345421477
Release Date: 2000-08-01 |
Amazon.com
After a bad night at the 24-hour market in Hollywood where he works, Paris Scott finds the Filthy White Guy who just bought a ton of frozen burritos with a hundred-dollar bill (and then destroyed the store's microwave), slumped half-conscious on Scott's rusty 1976 AMC Gremlin. "Paris wasn't a particularly good person," writes John Ridley, "and that was by his own figuring. It's not like he hung around soup kitchens doling out freebies, or gave a damn when dykes were outside Mayfair Market in WeHo collecting money for the AIDS Walk, but he was one of those 'There but for the grace of God' guys; one of those guys that thought if you went out of your way to ignore someone else's bad shit then that same bad shit was liable to boomerang around and smack you in the head at some point." So Paris gives the Filthy White Guy a lift home, and it turns out he's a famous rock star, who repays the favor by calling Paris a loser before passing out. Paris gets even by stealing a tape of the singer's proposed comeback album, an action that might get him killed if the folks who are after the stolen dope that Scott's roommate Buddy took get to him.
Ridley, who writes gritty, critically praised thrillers about Hollywood types who have traded in their dreams of stardom for the reality of survival (Love Is a Racket and Stray Dogs), hates Los Angeles "more than cancer" (as he says in a disclaimer). In Everybody Smokes in Hell, he describes the city with more poetry, passion, and mordant humor than anyone since Nathanael West in Day of the Locust. If you can tolerate the occasional outbursts of racism, sexism, and other non-PC activities, it's a journey worth making. --Dick Adler
Book Description
Hollywood nights are for people with name tags. Call them employees. Losers. Or call them Paris Scott. He microwaves hot dogs at a twenty-four-hour convenience store. His girlfriend just dumped him. And everyone is working his last nerve. Until a surprise encounter with a bum leads to a Bel Air mansion, a dead rock star's last gasp on tape, and a chance for Paris to flirt with a dream. Even if it is someone else's. It's worth his life. Even better, it's worth a million bucks.
From the snarling vastness of Los Angeles to the neon-lit inferno of Las Vegas, John Ridley charts a one-way ride into a glittering hell of blood, bodies, and broken hearts. Dope dealers, Hollywood agents, two-bit felons, three-dollar strippers, honest Joes, and an increasingly desperate Paris Scott--no one comes out clean in this raucous ride that turns an obsession with fame and fortune into a dangerous game of truth and consequence. It's a wild place where dying large is a must, every crime is a thrill, and the finest pleasures are the guilty ones.
Customer Reviews:
Not very cohesive... but so cool you won't care.......2007-04-03
The story is less a cohesive story with a definite beginning, middle and end than a wild, disorganized chase across the desert. But not only does that style not detract from the fun of the book, it goes along with what there is of the plot: everyone stooping to all kinds of selfishness and sin to get what hey want, only to have it kick them where it hurts most (or shot, or have their throat slit, or choke on a pile of manure as the case may be).
The characters are a fun gallery of villains and not-quite-heroes, from psychotic dancing assassin Brice to certifiable loser Paris, the locations a glorious assortment of the worst of two "glamorous" cities, and the violence widespread, bloody, and claiming practically the whole cast. If this sounds like a fun way to spend an afternoon, then buy the book. If, however, you take your reading seriously and refuse the read something that isn't a bestseller, from Oprah's book club, or just takes itself entirely too seriously, then I suggest you leave this page now.
Hilarious, bloody, brutal, chilling, fun.......2003-11-16
Ridley writes noir with the cynical edge of a stand-up comic. He also has a wonderful style that might be merging screenwriting and novel writing into some new kind of art form. Love his gleeful, viscious take on Hollywood scum and sleaze that is SO dead-on. This was one of the best thrillers I've read in a long time.
Jason Starr, author Twisted City, Tough Luck, etc
One of the best crime novels of the new millenium.......2003-07-01
I am a big fan of crime novels and this is by far one of the best I've read in recent years. Ridley takes a character that was briefly in one of his previous novels, "Love Is A Racket", and builds a compelling story around him. His description of LA is dead-on accurate and, as a resident of the area myself, you can tell by his frank discourse of the good and the bad that he has spent a lot of time here.
The most amazing part of the book though is his dialog and his characterizations. His dialog is spot-on, using modern slang as well as anyone out there. Think a Tarantino film in written form, nothing seems forced and everything is used for the purpose of advancing plot or giving us insight into the minds of the main characters. His characters also feel very three dimensional, not just some cookie cutter cutouts of real people. Ridley also balances the humor in the book with the violence and the suspense quite well.
The only complaint I would have with the book is its brevity, but that doesn't diminish from the book's brilliance nor its enjoyableness. Actually, its short length encouraged me to re-read the book again a couple months after I finished it initially. This book will suck you in and you'll be sorry when you're spit out again at the end. I give it my highest recommendation. A great summer read.
AMERICAN TO THE BONE.......2002-11-03
NOBODY does America like John Ridley. These are not the sugared down moral tales they're feeding you on prime time. Nor are the characters well adjusted homeowners, working in airconditioned offices during the heat of the day. These are wicked, wicked tales, happening in savage places, where one bad move leads to another. But John RIdley's writing saves it from being just another bleak trip to the underside. BRILLIANT WRITING. Alternately vicious and dazzling, Americans will recognize the landscape. Will know it best as home sweet home.
(Tip of the day, John: The Coen brothers should be making the movies.)
Could have (Should Have) Been the Greatest Mystery Ever.......2002-11-02
I have been an avid mystery reader since I picked up my first in 1976 and this came close to being the best that I have ever read. The characters, their dialogue, the plot, the author's story telling style, his descriptions were fantastic, but the story fell flat at the end. (I will not give anything away here). As I was reading it and realized how close to the end I was getting, I began to wonder how it was to be wrapped up and perhaps my book was missing 25 pages.... however in the last page and a half the book comes to it's sudden conclusion. The pace of the book was well executed and the characters grew and took me along with them and then like hitting a brick wall, it is over! It is one of those types of books that ends but doesn't quite. I sure don't think it calls for a sequel, but it appeared to me that the author got tired of writing, didn't know how to end it, so quickly found a way to. Very unsatisfying. Like eating a delicious dessert and finding a cockroach in your last bite. The ending here spoiled everything that came before it. I was ready to pick up another one of the author's works right away, but now I am going to wait for a while. Well worth the read, but the end may dissapoint some.
Book Description
He was Charles Harmon, a black man “living white” and living well—beautiful wife, German car, big house—in an upper-upper-middle-class suburb of Los Angeles.
He is Brain Nigger Charlie, a train tramp eking out a ragged existence on the railroads, leaning on drugs to keep him from thinking about everything he had, everything his creeping dementia has forced him to run from.
Charlie’s been asked a desperate favor: find the seventeen-year-old niece of the man who taught him how to survive the rails—a girl lost somewhere on the High Line, the “corridors of racist hate” along the tracks of the Pacific Northwest. Charlie has little hope of finding her alive, but the request is an obligation he can’t refuse. The search is a twisted trail that leads from Iowa to Washington State, mixing lies and deceit, hate and hopelessness, and brutal, stubbornly unsolved murders. All of which Charlie is prepared to meet in kind. What he isn’t prepared
for is a path that will eventually lead him back to what he thought no longer existed—his own humanity—though the toll may turn out to be his life.
At once stunningly visceral and psychologically complex, furiously paced and deeply empathic,
The Drift is John Ridley’s most ambitious, most galvanizing novel yet.
Customer Reviews:
SO GOOD I "GOT IT" TWICE.......2005-01-22
A friend lent me the book. Read it, loved it, ordered a copy 'cause I thought I owed it to the author. It's that good. I'm curious: a couple of reviewers gave it bad marks and apparently haven't read it. Clearly hattters, but this is the kind of book that'll rock you if you're not ready. Should have a warning label: for the intellectually hearty only!
A "BEST" READ.......2005-01-21
You'd be hard pressed to find a book that is more visceral, thoughtful, insightful and emotional. That this book will be polarizing to some doesn't diminish its strength. In fact, it enhances it. While it is certainly Hard Boiled fiction, good luck finding anything quite like it - an former middle class black, now a hobo, riding the rails. It's a stunner. And Ridley's a hell of a writer.
Just say no.......2005-01-20
[...] Plenty of better things to do than torture yourself with this attempted entertainment of imaginary thrills and convoluted plotting. Go ahead and start reading -- from this point of view you won't be able to finish the book anyway, unless, perhaps, you like sleaze for sleaze own sake.
Simplistic and sophmoric.......2005-01-19
Not one idea deeper than a mud puddle in August, not one theme more lasting than the dew. A novel to make Harlequin romance readers weep for their relative depth and complexity.
Excellent -- a wonderful performance.......2004-11-26
Wooden George Plimpton, alluring Elle Macpherson, ill-named Mathais Smikle and Brain Nigger Charlie (a name to put the politically correct off immediately, but you soon learn how he got the name and why he wears it, so you accept it as he does). These are a few of the characters you'll meet in a book of great story-telling and fine writing.
Among other reviews here, I liked John Bowes succinct "bleak and unique" description and I held the opposite view of Mi-Mi's disappointment with the ending -- I thought it fit the mindset of the man perfectly.
I'll spare you any more rhetoric -- just read any of the fine comments in the four- and five-star reviews of this book. Reading John Ridley's prose is like watching a tightrope walker over a gorge. You are slightly breathless hoping he maintains that steady, mesmerizing line of progress and delicate balance throughout the entire journey. Ridley definitely does, making The Drift a harrowing, exhiliarating experience for the reader.
Book Description
Returning to the world of Myrial, Maggie Furey continues her heroic saga of The Shadowleague. When all is lost, it’s the actions of a few brave souls that will be remembered forever.
Echo of Eternity
The Curtain Walls have fallen--leaving the world of Myrial vulnerable to unknown enemies from other realms. A slaughter by brutal winged invaders has left the city of Tiarond reeling, and the laws governing reality itself no longer seem to hold. Under the rule of a renegade leader, the Shadowleague slowly gathers itself together from its tattered remnants and braces for a devastating attack meant to shatter it forever. Missing is a ring, the symbol of Myrial’s divine power--and a reminder to its new ruler of the part he played in the collapse of the Curtain Walls. It must be found before his secret is discovered.
Missing also is the one man whose mind holds the Dragon Seer’s knowledge of all tribal memories. Two warriors and a firedrake embark on an urgent mission to find him--before the Dragons do.
When all hope seems lost, a young boy points the way to an amazing discovery. Caverns beneath Tiarond hold ancient artifacts that just might be the key they’re all searching for--but which they may be sorry they’ve found…
Customer Reviews:
way too long..........2005-06-03
...and nothing happens. I read this book simply because i read the first two and wanted to know what happened at the end.
At over 500 pages, this book is a whole lot of nothing to wade through at times painful to read thanks to the chain of cliches that make up the ending. Part of the problem is there is no antagonist. Sure there are a few minor battles and "evil" characters, but with no set bad guy, there is nothing to drive the plot forward. You could make a case that the vampyres are the main bad guys, but by this point they are more annoying than compelling. There are only so many times the characters can swoon over how horrifying these creatures are before you start to roll your eyes. Also, who is the main protagonist? Reading the back of the book you'd assume Veldan and Kaz are, but they're barely in the book at all. They appear in one chapter out of at least five before disappearing again for another handful of chapters (which is a shame because Kaz is one of the most interesting characters i've ever met).
It is a shame that such an interesting concept for a series resulted in this disaster. Ms. Furey has enough imagination to create vivid characters and unique worlds, but not enough to see her stories through. I had the same frustration with her Aurian saga: i kept waiting for the story to actually become entertaining.
Skip this series. Or if you're still interested, borrow it from the library so don't have this clunker staring you in the face when you're done.
Good, good, good!.......2003-09-16
I have not finished this book, but I can say that I like it, just as much as I enjoyed the other two. The story is original, the characters are believable, and it is a story I can follow without continously asking myself, "Ok, now what's going on?"
I have not read her other series, but I think I just might once I am done.
I highly, highly recommend this book, heck, the whole series!
Neat if a bit to Neat.......2003-08-13
I liked this book. This is the best out of the three. Prehaps is it beacsue she had somewhere to go and an end. All of the qestions are wrapped up, all of the answers are given. The ending is a many segmented thing, and I guessed at a coupel parts of it because they were rather obvious.
My only problems lay in the fact that it is incredably neat. Everything is answered, resolved, and everyone is happy. Many charaters have made a hundred and eighty degree turn from what they first where.
But I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the answers, the resolutions, and the ending. Buy the series and read it. Read them one after another and you will be pleased.
wonderful concluding novel.......2003-08-06
Maggie Furey completes her trilogy in fine form. She even leaves openings for further novels in her world of "Myrial". While I prefer her "Aurian" series more, this trilogy is worth a read and even a re-read.
As good as the first two.......2003-07-13
Very good, fast read. Didn't end like I thought it would. I cried.
Average customer rating:
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Israel (An Echo of Eternity)
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Heschel, Abraham Joshua | ( H ) | Authors, A-Z | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000PLNK3S |
Amazon.com
Israel: An Echo of Eternity is a philosophical history of the past, present, and future home of the Jews, written by Abraham Joshua Heschel following his visit to Israel just after the Six Days' War in 1967. Illustrated with beautiful line drawings by Abraham Rattner and written in Heschel's characteristically pithy and penetrating style, the book is implicitly critical of secular Zionism for its lack of interest in Judaism's religious teachings. "We do not worship the soil," Heschel writes (meaning that the land is not holy; it is, instead, a site where holiness is to be created). Therefore, Heschel also refuses easy interpretations of the creation of the state of Israel as recompense for the Holocaust. "It would be blasphemy to regard it as compensation. However, the existence of Israel reborn makes life less unendurable. It is a slight hinderer of hindrances to believing in God." Heschel's observations about religion and politics are extremely durable. Referring to Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, he avers that religion cannot ever be an excuse for racism: "You cannot worship God and at the same time look at man as if he were a horse." Even as an account of one man's relationship to the Holy Land, this book is of lasting value. To arrive in Jerusalem, Heschel writes, is to be joined in "streams of endless craving, clinging, dreaming, flowing day and night." --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
Israel "the promised land," the "holy land," has long played a central role in Jewish and Christian thought. Now, in the closing few years of the twentieth century, politics and prophesy coincide. The Israeli-Arab peace process unfolds; messianic concepts of the role of Israel at the millennium and the end of days are receiving great attention. In
Israel: An Echo of Eternity, one of the foremost religious figures of our century gives us a powerful and eloquent statement on the meaning of Israel in our time. Heschel looks at the past, present, and future home of the Jewish people. He tells us how and why the presence of Israel has tremendous historical and religious significance for the whole world. This classic, originally published in 1967 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, is now updated with an important introduction by Susannah Heschel, his daughter, who holds the Abba Hillel Silver Chair in Jewish Studies at Case Western Reserve University. Illustrated with line drawings by Abraham Rattner.
Average customer rating:
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Isreal: an Echo of Eternity
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus And Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Heschel, Abraham Joshua | ( H ) | Authors, A-Z | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000JVEUCO |
Product Description
Shadowleague Trilogy: Volumes 1-3 By Maggie Furey - The Heart of Myrial, Spirit of the Stone, Echo of Eternity.
Average customer rating:
- The end of Niven's slower-than-lightspeed State that started in World out of Time
- Nice world, boring characters....
- Imaginative Revelations
- Superb
- Fine sequel to a good novel
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Smoke Ring
Larry Niven
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Niven, Larry
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Similar Items:
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The Integral Trees
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Ringworld's Children
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Ringworld Throne
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The Mote in God's Eye
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Playgrounds of the Mind
ASIN: 0345302575
Release Date: 1988-03-12 |
Book Description
In the free-fall environment of the Smoke Ring, the descendants of the crew of the Discipline no longer remembered their Earth roots -- or the existence of Sharls Davis Kendy, the computer-program despot of the ship. Until Kendy initiated contact once more.
Fourteen years later, only Jeffer, the Citizens Tree Scientist, knew that Kendy was still watching -- and waiting. Then the Citizens Tree people rescued a family of loggers and learned for the first time of the Admiralty, a large society living in free fall amid the floating debris called the Clump. And it was likely that the Admiralty had maintained, intact, Discipline's original computer library.
Exploration was a temptation neither Jeffer nor Kendy could resist, and neither Citizens Tree nor Sharls Davis Kendy would ever be the same again...
Customer Reviews:
The end of Niven's slower-than-lightspeed State that started in World out of Time.......2007-08-03
This is a nice follow up to the Intregal trees. Now, Larry built a quasi-universe with an all controlling "State" that was established in the novel "World out of time", a very odd novel that Larry took years to write from the time of 1975 until the late 1970s.
The Intregal trees is the immediate follow up to the Smoke world, people live in a zero G enviorment that looks like a giant Smoke Ring (or it's a Ring World less a ring). Basically, it's still Larry's flat characters in a world that is fantastic by any part of the immagination. Personally, I didn't think there was much of a story here. It was more a story about a tribe of humans adapting to life with no gravity. Since I'm a big Niven fan that's not a large deal. Also, since about 90% of the reviewers here are Niven fans it's no big deal. Now, if you're not a Niven fan the book is dry and not with a lot of purpose. If you're part of the Niven fan club then the book is a four. If you're not then the book is a two star book. On average the grade is three stars, a C grade.
Looking back on this book I'm a little perplexed on how the Smoke Ring could work. The radiation from Jupiter would be fatal to any human life in a matter of days. "Gold" is a good part of the mass of Jupiter, if Gold's radiation was a fraction of Jupiter, the radiation would kill off all life in the smoke ring in a matter of weeks.
But this is still a fair book. The characters are interesting. We get to see a tribe of teenagers turn into a group of responsbile working adults. Larry takes care of a question of the fatherhood for one character. Also, Larry gets rid of one of the most annoying computers since the infamous HAL of 2001. Somebody said they didn't get the ending. Actually, there is an ending. The last part of the State has to leave the humans. Read the book and you'll get it.
I hope you enjoy this book. You'll read my last Niven review in "Fleet of Worlds" which is ready for release this coming Fall of 2008. My 28 years of reading Larry's books will be at an end.
Thanks for all the fun time, Mr. Van Colt. It has been a pleasure.
Signed
Bill Hensler
Nice world, boring characters...........2006-12-06
Smoke ring is the story of humans who colonized a strange world where gravity fluctuates. The people of Citizen's tree are pretty much space hippies, scorning ownership of items, violence, and money. When they rescue the crew of another 'tree' from fire, they become curious about another colony of humans in a distant place called the Clump. At the urgings of an unstable AI computer, citizens set out to explore the clump and discover how backward they trully are. Will Citizen's tree remain the same? Or is their utopian lifestyle forever altered?
I enjoyed Smoke Ring for its world-building, but I was rather lukewarm about the characters. The humans of the smoke ring seemed to be cut from a Heinlein novel. They have multiple wives, live in peace and harmony, and eschew violence and property. The wives are not jealous of eachother, and seem perfectly happy to share their mates. They just did not seem human to me, without a little tribal tension. The hero Rather is an interesting fellow, but we spend most of the novel pining after two different women. The ending of the story posed some interesting questions but left me with a 'that's it?' feeling.
An enjoyable read, but what's the point of making a cool world if you don't inhabit it with characters you want to read about?
Imaginative Revelations.......2006-11-03
While I enjoy Niven's imagination, I didn't feel like I got enough of it in The Smoke Ring. The story left everything incomplete- don't expect to feel like you have a handle on the story arc when you're finished. I found myself repeatedly skimming sections that talked about everyday life, but in a rather bland way. There was no real emotional depth here, and no well-developed characterization. The characters don't grow, or surprise you. What you expect is what you get.
Yet still I recommend this book, because of the imagination of Niven. True, it only peeks out from time to time here, but those are bold peaks. Niven has an intriguing use of science which he applies to novel situations. He slowly builds more of the possibilities of what it is like to live in the smoke ring. I just wish he'd built that up more- or at least given us a sequel sometime in the last two decades.
Superb.......2002-10-21
This novel describes the life of human colonists in a very peculiar alien world. They live in the atmosphere of a neutron star that has no habitable planets!!. Although this the sequel to the novel "Integral trees", one does not need to have read it to get a grasp of "The smoke ring". The story has no real plot, but is very gripping nonetheless. The author reveals details of the world and way of life of colonists bit by bit, so one is always finding new concepts in every chapter. It is very good exercise for the imagination. This a mandatory reading for all hardcore SF readers.
Fine sequel to a good novel.......2002-07-30
Descendents of a starship crew populate the Smoke Ring, a ring of atmosphere surrounding a neutron star. The starship, Discipline (from a totalitarian state) and its self aware computer, Kendy, are still out there. . .
Twenty years have passed since the events of The Integral Trees, and the first native generation of Citizens Tree is reaching adulthood. When a merchant ship crashes from a civilization known as the Admiralty, the citizens' wanderlust is again piqued, and several head towards the Admiralty on a scouting venture. The mission: find out what they can, bring back supplies and knowledge, and try to avoid Citizens Tree's technology from becoming known . . .
A very good hard science fiction novel. Not perfect, though. What use does the Admiralty have for all that wood? The pieces of trunk that are brought in are often thirty kilometers long and several hundred meters in diameter. The population of the Admiralty is only a few thousand. You do the math. One integral tree would have all the wood they'd need for centuries.
Customer Reviews:
The Smoke Lesson by Chris C. Geneva, NY.......2003-02-05
Book Title: The Berenstine Bears
In this book the Berenstein Bears are trying to stop Smokey the Moose from selling tobacco to children. Four children and their papa bear went out to stop the moose. On their way they found two kids,Joe and Sammy, smoking the Mooses' tobacco that he sold to them. The children had a meeting with Smokey to try to get him to stop selling tobacco to small kids and adults, but the meeting didn't work. finally the children and the papa decided to get the police involved.
I think this book was very good. It tells children that they should not smoke. Sometimes things look cool because the person selling them looks cool, but it can kill you. I think the children were smart to go after someone who is bad on the inside that was selling things that could hurt them. You should buy this book for your children because it teaches them how harmful smoking can be.
Corny dated book bores kids to tears.......2001-11-28
This book is extremely out-of-date and cheesy in its depiction of Bad Guys Who Smoke. The only reason I read it to my son was because it was assigned by the school (who'd gotten free copies from the state. I can see why they were free). I would urge people NOT to bother buying this book. Of course kids shouldn't smoke, but I think this book will backfire with its corny lingo that was fit for another era. Smoking stinks, but let's find a more up-to-date way to tell our kids.
Pretty Good.......2001-08-16
It teachs kids about smoking and peer preasure. It has a pretty good moral except it has brother bear (eight or nine) smoking which is pretty well.. extremely unrealistick. Except for that it is pretty good, except the action is only in the last 1 or 2 chapters.
Product Description
The Bear Scouts know smoking kills. Can they convince Brother Bear before he gets hooked?
Average customer rating:
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Smoke rings
Dorothy Lyons
Manufacturer: Harcourt, Brace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
Children's Books
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ASIN: B0006AWJW6 |
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Smoke Rings
Howard Hull
Manufacturer: AuthorHouse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
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ASIN: 1420859927 |
Book Description
This book is divided into three distinct parts and an epilogue. Each is related to and dependent upon the others for continuity and meaning. Part one is set primarily in a 1950s era Diner in Syracuse, New York. The plot of that part revolves around the relationships of Ruby Hart, a beautiful dark haired waitress to various people who move in and out of her life. Part two is set in Mitchell School near the small town of McMinnville, Tennessee during the 1960s. It is concerned with the day to day activities of school personnel, including the principal, several coaches and teachers, and some of the students. In part three, two primary characters from Mitchell School, a third grade teacher and a basketball coach leave middle Tennessee and travel to Nachitoches, Louisiana where the coach, Ray Canfield, has been given a one year college teaching appointment. This is a novel that teachers and other school personnel will enjoy reading. In many instances they will visualize themselves in the roles of the primary characters. They will hear echoes of footsteps in the hallways they have walked down, and see the faces of the children they have taught. They will share the laughter of good times and the tears of times not so good. And finally, they will remember how it feels to love and be loved by someone in return, and maybe, when nobody is listening, they will smile while reading a certain passage, and say softly, "Yes. That''s the way it was."
Book Description
The preface to this field manual (FM 3-50) states: "[it] provides US Army units with doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedures to use smoke and obscurants to attack and defeat specific enemy targets, sensors, target acquisition systems, weapon guidance systems, and other enemy electro-optical devices. Also, it describes techniques to reduce friendly degradation in smoke. The scope of this manual is smoke operations at the operational and tactical levels of war. The target audience is maneuver unit commanders and staff officers, particularly the G2/S2, G3/S3, FSO, and chemical officer at corps level and below. Most of the examples depict smoke support for brigade level operations. The focus is on synchronized smoke planning — smoke integrated into the commander's tactical plan, sustained as necessary to defeat the enemy's electro-optical systems and create a "one-way mirror" — one which our forces can both see and shoot through to set the terms of battle. Smoke is a double-edged sword. Smoke conceals troop movements, slows attacking forces, disrupts command and control, and reduces the vulnerability of critical assets for both friendly and Threat forces. Combat operations in World War II and the Korean War demonstrated that the proper use of smoke enhances mission success and force survivability. In recent times, US forces have reinforced the positive benefits of large-area smoke use at the combat training centers at Fort Irwin, California; Fort Chaffee, Arkansas; and Hohenfels, Federal Republic of Germany. In battle, the side that employs smoke correctly and is experienced in limited visibility operations will be more agile and respond faster to changing situations."
Product Description
Light as air cowl in knitted lace and sparkly touches of beads at each end of the knitted tube. This versatile accessory can be worn pulled down around the neck to lay on the shoulders as a dressy neckline, or pulled up over the head as an elegant head covering. 2 sizes - 22" [25 ½"] circumference and 17" [18]" length. 275 [350] yards laceweight or fingering weight yarn; 108 [126] glass knitting beads, 5 ½ sts/inch, size US 6 / 4.0 mm needles suggested. Shown in Hunt Valley Cashmere 2-ply yarn. The beads are size E clear glass. Written stitch instructions.
Average customer rating:
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The Berenstain Bear Scouts and the Sinister Smoke Ring
Manufacturer: Scholastic, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Berenstain, Jan
| ( B )
| Authors & Illustrators, A-Z
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Berenstain, Stan
| ( B )
| Authors & Illustrators, A-Z
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: B000FGBV9S |
Product Description
Bear scouts learn about the hazards of using tobacco.
Average customer rating:
- Terrific read
- Fair and generally balanced
- An original and insightful account
- Such a pity
- A very humane insight into this mysterious historical figure
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The Last Pagan: Julian the Apostate and the Death of the Ancient World
Adrian Murdoch
Manufacturer: Sutton Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
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General
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
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Religious
| Leaders & Notable People
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
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General
| Europe
| History
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General
| Religion & Spirituality
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Comparative Religion
| Religious Studies
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
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ASIN: 0750932953 |
Book Description
Examines Julian's emergence as the sole survivor of a political dynasty soaked in blood and traces his journey from an aristocratic Christian childhood to his intiation into pagan cults.
Customer Reviews:
Terrific read.......2007-06-12
Adrian Murdoch's book on Julian was a pure pleasure to read. The story of how Julian came to wear the purple and his fight against the growing wave of Christianity is fascinating, and this book reads more like a novel than a book of history. The only complaint I had was not about the book itself, but was that I had to go to amazon.co.uk to purchase an affordable copy. This was a great book, but it is not worth $75-100, and can be purchased for E10-15 at the other site.
Fair and generally balanced.......2005-09-04
Very readable treatment of Julian, a.k.a. "The Apostate." Murdoch shows Julian to have been generally incorruptible, effective, inspiring, good leader. He was philosophically committed to a rule of law. I thought Murdoch downplayed a bit his inconsistency, immaturity and intolerance toward Christians. But his poor military decision in the way he waged war in Persia is clear.
An original and insightful account.......2005-01-21
As a "lettered academic", I would have to disagree with Mr Clarkson's review. I found this text to be readable and entertaining, as well as thoroughly and accurately researched. Adrian Murdoch has accepted the challenge to historians to do more than merely report history, but to offer some analysis and interpretation of events. I would recommend his study to those interested both in this specific historical period, and in the development of Western religious thought.
Such a pity.......2005-01-05
This book attempts to tell the story of the emperor Julian the Apostate, the most appealing and romantic figure in Late Antique history. The author has done a good job on assembling and marshalling the known facts of Julian's short but dramatic life but his book is marred by the author's crass English style and by his tendency, so common in today's unlettered academics, to assume that decisions with unfavourable outcomes are the result of stupidity or even folly on the part of the decision makers. For instance he states that the barbarians who had Julian under siege gave up the seige simply because they were bored! Academics must surely be aware that their defining characteristic is not intelligence bur diligence, even drudgery. Were they intelligent they would have chosen better paid work.
I will not belabour the reader with numerous examples of stylistical inadequacies but confine myslf to observing the the words "duplicitous" and "massive" are used in a most unfortunate way and that the word "arrive" is not known to the author.
A very humane insight into this mysterious historical figure.......2004-09-25
An easy-to-read biography that presents Julian from a different perspective. Julian, the human being. A man trapped between 2 worlds. A man that dreams of bringing back the Old Roman glory and traditions. A man who perhaps would have succeeded if not for a twist of fate.
It is obvious that there was a substantial amount of research on the author's part. In my opinion, this book makes for great reading even if biographies or history are not the reader's cup of tea. "Talle lege!"
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