Book Description
The Matter of Desire is the story of Pedro, a Bolivian-American political scientist who teaches at a university in upstate New York. Having become entangled in an erotically charged romance with Ashley, a beautiful red-headed graduate student, he returns to Bolivia to seek answers to his own life by investigating the mysteries of his father's past. Trapped between two cultures, Pedro ultimately finds himself in an existential dilemma of tragic dimensions. The Matter of Desire combines elements of the political thriller and the family mystery with a torrid illicit love affair and brilliantly elucidates the complex relationship between Latin America and the United States.
Customer Reviews:
"The media put them all in touch with the hereafter.".......2004-07-12
Pedro Zabalaga, a young professor of Latin American Studies at a New York university, is the son of Bolivian hero Pedro Reissig, one of six men massacred by the army in the 1970s, as their socialist cell was planning the overthrow of President Montenegro. When Reissig died, young Pedro was still a small child, and Reissig's legacy to him is a book he has written entitled Berkeley, a cult novel filled with symbolism. By discovering the messages hidden in the book, Pedro believes he will discover his father. Now in Rio Fugitivo on sabbatical to do research, he is staying with his Uncle David Reissig, the only survivor of the massacre.
"Berkeley can be considered as a political critique of the media," David Reissig tells Pedro, "And of history as well, starting with the telegraph." Political use of the media, the dominant theme, is also a concern of Pedro, who writes political commentary for American magazines. In addition, the drug kingpin of Bolivia uses the media to promote the idea that he is a Robin Hood-like hero, several of the revolutionaries whom Pedro Zabalaga befriends are involved in the media, and a popular contemporary rock band, named "Berkeley," conveys revolutionary messages through its videos. In a clever double irony, the author of this novel himself uses the clues of cryptograms to convey the history of the revolution to readers of this book.
Despite its well developed themes, this is not just a "message novel." Pedro Zabalaga's return to Bolivia is an escape from a disastrous affair with a student whom he still loves. As the novel alternates between Bolivia and New York, tracing the relationship, the reader sees innumerable parallels between the lives of Pedro and his father in their unwillingness to commit themselves to the future. The mystery surrounding Pedro Reissig controls the action and direction of the novel-Who is he? Who betrayed the group to the army? What does his novel Berkeley mean?
This first-ever translation of a Paz Soldan novel provides insightful descriptions of people, their actions, and their politics. The author's sensitivity to the contrasts between life in Bolivia and life in upstate New York is obvious, and his ability to create not one, but two less than admirable "heroes," both of whom keep the reader engaged, is striking. Despite the constant changes in time and setting, the novel is tightly constructed, using a mystery and love story as the framework for important political observations. Mary Whipple
Same Old Themes in a New Package.......2004-06-24
There has long been a dearth of fiction from Bolivia available in English, so this recent translation from one of Bolivia's foremost contemporary writers is very welcome. The translation is very smooth and readable , which even attempts at times to recreate "Spanglish" dialogue where sentences start in English and switch to Spanish halfway through (and vice versa). Soldan is part of the "McOndo" literary movement, which seeks to move Latin American fiction away from magical realism and into a reality where North American pop culture reigns. Indeed, one of the book's themes is the extent to which American pop culture has become the lingua franca of Latin America, and how although the intelligentsia moves easily between the North and the South, this comes at the steep price of a confused identity.
The narrator is emblematic of this, and interestingly bears several similarities with the author (they are about the same age and both are professors at liberal arts colleges in upstate New York). The story is told by the professor taking a leave of absence from his school and returning to Bolivia to live with his uncle in a fictional city (the setting of other works by Soldan). His ostensible aim is to do research for a book about his fatheróa famous militant insurgent killed by the army in the '70sóhowever he is also running away from a torrid affair with a student who is affianced. These two threads form the main plotlines that drive the narrative, which are underpinned by repeated references to puzzles (the narrator's uncle is a popular crossword creator) and hidden messages.
On the one hand, the book is highly accessible for Western readers, with a great deal of flashbacking to life in a thinly veiled Ithaca, and a life in Bolivia that revolves around trips to shopping malls, trendy nightclubs, the internet, iBooks, and music. On the other hand, the narrator's dilemmas are pretty old hat. The professor who finds himself obsessed with a beautiful student. The educated third-worlder torn between the comforts of life in the North and the nostalgia of life in the South. The young man seeking to understand his dead father and discover the "truth" about him. The academic who's lost the drive to play the tenure game. We've seen all this before, and Soldan doesn't add anything particularly new to the mix. Sure, there's some decent writing about a sex (always a tough nut to crack), and there are a few twists and turnsóbut even these are pretty well telegraphed. It's not a bad book, just not particularly compelling or original or insightful. The people who will get the most out of it are probably those for whom the notion that there are people outside the West who like to download music and carry their iPods everywhere is a stunning revelation.
Latin visions made real.......2004-04-03
What comes after 100 years of solitude?
Literarily speaking, one would hope, a new start.
That start is well under way: A new Latin literary movement that eschews the illusions of magical realism to tell stories set squarely in a world that's both familiar and alien at the same time -- on two continents. And Edmundo Paz Soldan's new English edition of "The Matter of Desire" is not only the latest, but maybe the most commercial work from this intriguing genre.
Barely 37, Paz Soldan is already an important literary figure in Bolivia. And in the process of becoming one of Latin America's rising literary stars, he's become a leading figure in that continent's newest literary movement.
Earlier this year, Oprah anointed Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 1970 classic "100 Years of Solitude," and introduced her book-buying hordes to magical realism. The groundbreaking novel is set in the fictional village of Macondo, a rural environment populated and/or haunted by ever-present spirits. The result was poetic prose that slipped effortlessly between the natural and supernatural.
But kids will be kids. In the 1990s, young Chilean novelist Alberto Fuguet led other Latin American Gen-X writers in a new direction. Their stories often have one foot on each American continent, embracing rather than denying the inextricable entanglement of North and South American cultures. They abandoned the bucolic settings of the interior for more urban, hip context where McDonald's, iMacs, and MP3s are more pervasive than ghosts of the past. Thus, with a tongue-in-cheek homage to Marquez's Macondo, the new literary movement became known as "McOndo."
Like Paz Soldan's protagonist, McOndo writers are often suspended between Americas, between their sometimes sordid history and their urbane future. Their characters are often proud Latin Americans who have succumbed to the North American siren song. Their settings span both continents, too. Their neo-realism is edgy, erotic, virtual and cool. What it *isn't* is exotic and metaphysical. It is evolutionary, not revolutionary.
In "The Matter of Desire," Paz Soldan explores the concrete obsessions of love and sex, fathers and sons, literature and word puzzles, past and future, place and dislocation. Besides exploring a hip "new" storytelling model, Paz Soldan tells a story with fascinating twists and turns. It's also a complex love story marbled with political suspense, erotic fascination, and a sense that we are all tethered to a parallel existence in a different place and time. It's a real context for many Latin Americans with intimate ties to El Norte, including Paz Soldan.
Book Description
Bella Bathurst's first book, the acclaimed The Lighthouse Stevensons,told the story of Scottish lighthouse construction by the ancestors of Robert Louis Stevenson. Now she returns to the sea to search out the darker side of those lights, detailing the secret history of shipwrecks and the predatory scavengers who live off the spoils. Even today, Britain's coastline remains a dangerous place. An island soaked by four separate seas, with shifting sand banks to the east, veiled reefs to the west, powerful currents above, and the world's busiest shipping channel below, the country's offshore waters are strewn with shipwrecks. For villagers scratching out an existence along Britain's shores, those wrecks have been more than simply an act of God; in many cases, they have been the difference between living well and just getting by. Though Daphne Du Maurier made Cornwall Britain's most notorious region for wrecking, many other coastal communities regarded the "sea's bounty" as an impromptu way of providing themselves with everything from grapefruits to grand pianos. Some plunderers were held to be so skilled that they could strip a ship from stem to stern before the Coast Guard had even left port, some were rumored to lure ships onto the rocks with false lights, and some simply waited for winter gales to do their work. From all around Britain, Bathurst has uncovered the hidden history of ships and shipwreck victims, from shoreline orgies so Dionysian that few participants survived the morning to humble homes fitted with silver candelabra, from coastlines rigged like stage sets to villages where everyone owns identical tennis shoes. Spanning three hundred years of history, The Wreckers examines the myths, the realities, and the superstitions of shipwrecks and uncovers the darker side of life on Britain's shores.
Customer Reviews:
Mostly rubbish...........2006-05-03
The main problem with this book is that it confuses the definition of what constitutes a 'wrecker,' with what constitutes a 'salvager.' The two are very different, even though they both deal with shipwrecks. The wrecker encourages or lures ships to crash onto the rocks and reefs, and thus benefitting from the resulting valuable cargo from the wreck at the cost of the lives of the sailors on the vessel so wrecked. A salvager simply benefits from the recovery of the cargo of a vessel that has wrecked itself, and ordinarily after rescuing the crewmen aboard forst. Two very different things! This book is about salvagers, not wreckers! To be fair, I believe Ms Bathurst originally intended to write about wreckers, but because her research methodology was so weak, she simply switched to writing about salvagers without changing the title of the book. The failure of her methodology for obtaining original source information is hardly surprising; if you simply walk into waterfront pubs as a stranger and start asking people if they were, or know anything about wreckers, they will understandably all deny any knowledge. You might well ask them if they were murderers, or criminally insane! Information of this sort is very closely held, very rarely divulged, or even spoken about, and certainly never to strangers! In any case, if you would like to read a book about salvagers from around the British Isles, this may be your cup of tea. If you are looking for information about wreckers, this ain't it!
Fascinating Look Into A Little-Known Area.......2006-01-09
We all know about shipwrecks, but I had never heard of people who make a living off of these tragedies - even whole communities that basically lie in wait for these wrecks to happen - until I stumbled on this book.
Bella Bathurst's look into Wreckers is really interesting, though a tad overwritten. Nonetheless, it's totally worth reading. She's particularly good at capturing the personalities of the people involved, as well as giving a great historical overview of this bizarre and fascinating pocket of human life.
If you like books about seafaring, this is a great little detour.
Lively Tales of Rocky Seas and Rocky Morals.......2005-07-12
You are walking along the beach, and you find a box that has obviously washed up from the sea. You look inside, and find something valuable. What do you do? For almost anyone, this is as clear a case of finders keepers as can be. But what if you saw the ship on the rocks from which the box came? What if you rowed out deliberately to take such boxes from the foundering ship? What if in rescuing boxes you refused to rescue passengers? What if you had lured the ship upon the rocks deliberately by making a false lighthouse? The wreckers can tell you the answers to these questions, if you can get any of them to make frank replies. Wreckers are those who are eager to claim soon-to-be-lost cargo as their own, and the history of British wreckers (frank replies and all) is told in _The Wreckers: A Story of Killing Seas and Plundered Shipwrecks, from the 18th Century to the Present Day_ (Houghton Mifflin) by Bella Bathurst. The author's previous book, on the lighthouse-building family of Robert Louis Stevenson, was a sort of preparation for the current one, the light as opposed to the dark. It is full of death, riches, and good and bad luck, and therefore cannot help being fascinating.
The complicated legal status of wrecks, wreckers, and wreckage is here covered in detail, but it is fair to say it is not made plain. No English law has supported "finders keepers" in any form, but wreckers pretty much depend upon it. After all, as Bathurst invites us to consider, if a foundering ship has been properly evacuated of all its crew, and it is about to break up with all its goods going to the bottom, what can possibly be wrong with nimble wreckers climbing aboard and plucking whatever they can? It's a different issue from wreckers luring ships to their doom. Go to Cornwall now, the setting for _Jamaica Inn_, and they will sell you souvenirs from the age when wreckers deliberately wrecked ships, and they will deny that such things ever occurred. There is much less malevolence described on most of these pages, although they are full of those who live by the sea and try to profit thereby. If you don't like the dark of _Jamaica Inn_, which may or may not be based on real history, try the rollicking _Whiskey Galore_, which is really based on the sinking of the _Politician_, with a quarter million barrels of malt whisky, wrecked off parched isles of Scotland in 1941. The _Cita_ ran aground on the Isles of Scilly in 1997 and gave the islanders tons of toys, car engines, and brand name Nike trainers. These are fine stories that anyone will enjoy, because wrecks are inherently fascinating. One man who photographs says anyone will go look at them, "Not necessarily to go and pick it over, but just to go and see it. It seems to create an awful lot of interest in people."
Just so this book. Bathurst has visited the locales described, and most importantly, has actually sailed these dangerous waters, with expert local guides. Off Scotland, for instance, is the Gulf of Corrievreckan, with monstrous rocks and a subaquatic pit known as "the Gateway to Hell". Bathurst is mystified by her scary visit: "A couple of hours ago, I though I understood the laws of physics." Valleys of water, liquid obstructions, and boiling cold water teach her differently. A captain unaware might be sailing along, only to realize that a great pit of water is opening in front of him and there is nothing his vessel can do. The Goodwin Sands, near the narrowest part of the English Channel, are islands that can disappear or reappear irregularly, depending upon how the sands shift, and since they are in a busy waterway, they have dragged innumerable ships down. The wreckers (locally called "levellers") assist such vessels if they can, but pick up whatever merchandise they can, too. Even the members of the legendary and fully respected Royal National Lifeboat Institution, one man says, would get to a wreck first and rescue the survivors, and then "... if they got some perks of it, well..." This is an engaging tale of the gusto of sea life, of unsure waters, and of uncertain morality.
Customer Reviews:
An essential Darkover novel........2002-04-18
Although this is not the best Darkover novel written, it contains a conflict we all knew had to happen--Terran interests try underhanded methods to gain control of Darkover. How Darkovans deal with it is interesting. I do think it's a shame that the major villain had to be a lost Cheri. Too predictable. However, I like the reorganization of the Comyn which was forced by the ecological disasters and the weakening of the major bloodlines.
The sad thing is, this had a lot of potential..........2001-04-09
There were some very good ideas here, and I suppose that theoretically the other (later and better!) books should have been written to be more consistent with this one, but...
Ditto on what the previous reviewers said about inconsistencies, and another one I noticed - Regis is described as fairly short in World Wreckers, while in Heritage he's 5'10" at 15 (and presumably expected to grow some more).
The romance between David and Keral was written well enough and with enough sensitivity to keep this from being a one-star review, but damn, I wish this had been rewritten as The Bloody Sun was....
Can I give it zero stars?.......2001-03-28
"The World Wreckers" is awful. Plain and simple. Now, I'm a die-hard Marion Zimmer Bradley fan, so this is not an easy thing to say. Take my word for it -- this is a BAD BOOK.
Why? The plot is inane. Basically, some evil scum developers come to the invented planet of Darkover with the intention of exploiting its people and antural resources. The aristocracy of the planet jumps into action, and the author seems to forget their previous indifference to the well-being of the peons.
Why else? The characters are better described as caricatures -- always seen by the reader as stereotypes and extremes. The writing itself is confusing, unstructured, and full of grammatical errors. The book lacks originality, and reads like every other science fiction pulp ever written. Even if you love the Darkover series, skip this one.
Another nonsensical thing.......2000-06-15
Ditto what the previous reviewer said, I've got another thing that was wrong - the fact that in this book it was stated that all Comyn with laran were red haired and grey eyed when she previously described Dyan Ardais (who no one would doubt his telepathic power) as dark haired. Also, she made Danilo (among other things) red haired in this book, and in Heritage, he was dark haired. =] Just some additions to the previous reviewer's list!
Makes no sense in context.......2000-04-10
Of all the Darkover books, this is the one that should have been either rewritten completely (a la Sword of Aldones becoming Sharra's Exile) or never reprinted. It was written early, before the development of many Darkovan characters and plots, and it quite simply does not make any sense given later novels.
Among the worst examples:
1. At the end of Sharra's Exile, Darkover has joined the Terran Empire (which turns out to be a democracy, not a monolithic Evil Empire out to destroy primitive planets). Given this, there is no reason for the World Wreckers to attempt to destroy the planet.
2. In Heritage of Hastur and Sharra's Exile, Regis Hastur is depicted as bisexual with a preference for men (or rather, for *a* man, Danilo Syrtis). Danilo is his own age, and is his best friend as well as his lover. The romance with Linnea may just *barely* make sense (it's foreshadowed in Heritage of Hastur), but Danilo's complete lack of jealousy (and his apparent age!) are absurd.
3. The "sex settles everything" ending worked *once*, in Forbidden Tower. It comes across as very, very dated and early 70s.
4. Given that the Comyn have officially surrendured power on Darkover at the end of Sharra's exile, the attempts to kill what Comyn are left should rather be directed at the non-Comyn authorities, such as the Renunciates.
5. Andrea Closson is supposedly out to kill the Comyn because they displaced the chieri. However, considering that chieri intermarried with the Comyn, and that chieri features such as polydactylity and laran are dominant, destroying the Comyn means that she's destroying the last remnants of the chieri. Huh?
If the Chosen Continuators such as Adrienne Martine-Barnes *really* want to do Darkover a service, they should rewrite this. Right now it's probably the weakest of the MZB-written books, and that includes some mighty weak books.....
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- World's Greatest Tow Trucks
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World's Greatest Tow Trucks
Earl Johnson , and
Grace Hawkins
Manufacturer: Motorbooks International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Trucks & Vans | Automotive | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Automotive | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Transportation | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Automotive | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books | General | Safety Engineering | Vehicle Design & Construction
General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Transportation & Highway | Civil | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books
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Tow Trucks: A Photographic History
ASIN: 0760306044 |
Book Description
More glorious colour photographs of the greatest tow trucks currently being operated around the globe. This new collection features dozens of modern tow trucks along with detailed descriptions of their equipment, special uses, specifications, and histories. The authors' fourth volume on the subject also includes a brief history of the towing industry.
Customer Reviews:
World's Greatest Tow Trucks.......2002-02-10
A book filled with pictures of tow trucks from all over the world. It has over 116 pages. I believe this is the second book he came out with. If you like tow trucks this is another one to have in your collection.
Book Description
This study covers the world outlook for complete winches, aerial work platforms, and automotive wrecker hoists across more than 200 countries. For each year reported, estimates are given for the latent demand, or potential industry earnings (P.I.E.), for the country in question (in millions of U.S. dollars), the percent share the country is of the region and of the globe. These comparative benchmarks allow the reader to quickly gauge a country vis-à-vis others. Using econometric models which project fundamental economic dynamics within each country and across countries, latent demand estimates are created. This report does not discuss the specific players in the market serving the latent demand, nor specific details at the product level. The study also does not consider short-term cyclicalities that might affect realized sales. The study, therefore, is strategic in nature, taking an aggregate and long-run view, irrespective of the players or products involved.
Book Description
This study covers the world outlook for winches, aerial work platforms, and automotive wrecker hoists across more than 200 countries. For each year reported, estimates are given for the latent demand, or potential industry earnings (P.I.E.), for the country in question (in millions of U.S. dollars), the percent share the country is of the region and of the globe. These comparative benchmarks allow the reader to quickly gauge a country vis-à-vis others. Using econometric models which project fundamental economic dynamics within each country and across countries, latent demand estimates are created. This report does not discuss the specific players in the market serving the latent demand, nor specific details at the product level. The study also does not consider short-term cyclicalities that might affect realized sales. The study, therefore, is strategic in nature, taking an aggregate and long-run view, irrespective of the players or products involved.
Product Description
Multiple books shipped as one item for your convenience. Save on Shipping/Handling charges.
Book Description
On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners approaching the world market face a number of questions. Which countries are supplying special purpose motor vehicles, wreckers, cranes, and derricks excluding those for the transport of persons or goods? What is the dollar value of these imports? How much do the imports of special purpose motor vehicles, wreckers, cranes, and derricks excluding those for the transport of persons or goods vary from one country to another? Do exporters serving the world market have similar market shares across the importing countries? Which countries supply the most exports of special purpose motor vehicles, wreckers, cranes, and derricks excluding those for the transport of persons or goods? Which countries are buying their exports? What is the value of these exports and which countries are the largest buyers? In what follows, Chapter 2 begins by summarizing the regional markets for imported and exported special purpose motor vehicles, wreckers, cranes, and derricks excluding those for the transport of persons or goods. The total level of imports and exports on a worldwide basis, and those for each region, is based on a model which aggregates across over 150 key country markets and projects these to the current year. From there, each country represents a percent of the world market. This market is served from a number of competitive countries of origin. Based on both demand- and supply-side dynamics, market shares by country of origin are then calculated across each country market destination. These shares lead to a volume of import and export values for each country and are aggregated to regional and world totals. In doing so, we are able to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of both the value of each market and the shares that countries are likely to receive this year. From these figures, rankings are calculated to allow managers to prioritize markets. In this way, all the figures provided in this report are forecasts that can be combined with internal information for strategic planning purposes.
Book Description
There's no place on earth quite like Las Vegas. Today's Sin City is all about excitement-with nightlife that goes until dawn, the world's best chefs competing to outdo one another, and a bevy of once-in-a-lifetime experiences from firing a machine gun to partying with A-list celebrities. With opinionated listings, insightful descriptions, and witty, intelligent writing, travelers rely on Night+Day Las Vegas to get the insider information they need to make the most of their time. From the trendiest tables, hippest hotels, top shops and galleries and coolest classic attractions, this guide is packed with expert recommendations and insider tips. For discerning travelers, it's the details that make the difference. That's why Night+Day Las Vegas emphasizes what you really need to know: the right hotel rooms to request, the best seat at restaurants, bars and clubs, and the prime time to be there, with equal billing for both nighttime and daytime activities. Night+Day's signature sections include: The 99 Best - the very top picks in categories that represent the city's standout features: the must-do, must-see and must-experience; The Perfect Plan Itineraries - three unique, nonstop 3-day itineraries put you in the right place at the right time; The Cheat Sheet - essential information savvy travelers need to hit the ground running; Shopping Blocks - quintessential, classic, and cutting-edge stores and products; Black Book - the invaluable tool that puts all our recommendations at your fingertips - don't leave the hotel without it; Leaving Town - Full recommendations and hot tips for the best way to spend your time outside the city limits; Maps, event calendars, and more...
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Nevada Nights (Tapestry Romance, No. 55)
Ruth Langan
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Langan, Ruth
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ASIN: 0671544276 |
Product Description
Wild Women: A virgin with an outrageous to-do list hires a reluctant Prince Charming to help her live a whole lifetime in one short week. Too bad he's not interested in starred item No. 12: A one-night stand. Throw in a serial killer, a U.S. Marshal out for revenge, a hoodlum seeking redemption, and a family secret about to be exposed...and you've got wild times, wild rides, and most of all, wild women. Wild Horses: After discovering a slaughtered band of horses and a woman left for dead, an embittered ex-cop wants to investigate the crime and be left alone. He will risk his solitude, his heart, and possibly his life to catch a killer, but can he find forgiveness for his own past sins?
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A Night On the Ground A Day in the Open
Doug Robinson
Manufacturer: Mountain N\' Air Books-Author
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
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General
| Essays
| Literature & Fiction
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Instructional
| Hiking & Camping
| Outdoors & Nature
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| California
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| United States
| Travel
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Mountain Climbing
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ASIN: 1879415143
Release Date: 2004-05-03 |
Book Description
"Doug Robinson is John Muir meets Jack Kerouac, a nineteenth century mountain man on a 21st century journey. A seeker and a visionary... he is that rare treasure: a mountain man who can write, and writes like a poet. His writing is filled with passion, pain and profound insight." - William Broyles Jr. author of the screen play for Apollo 13
Customer Reviews:
A beautiful book.......2006-11-08
This set of articles, originally written for magazines and catlalogues, is one of the most eloquent collections of mountain writing I've yet come upon. The book is divided up into chapters such as 'Climbing with Style', which features articles about "the whole art of natural protection" written at the the start of the clean climbing revolution, and 'Further Aborad' which includes the authors account of a climb on Ama Dablam.
One of the features I most enoyed about the book was the introductions to various historical figures such as Smoke Blanchard and Royal Robbins. And the memoir style accounts of what it was like for a small band of climbers to live in the mountains away from civilization getting their kicks out of the "simple joys" and living in bare subsistence, long before climbing turned into the popular sport which it might be called today.
Doug Robinson is well qualified to write what he does, and his style is nice and clear without being base. Most of it is written in an autobiographical style, dealing with developments on the climbing and skiing scene for wenty odd years. If you are partial to a bit of Dharma Bums then get this book. Also anyone interested in the history of the Sierra Nevada.
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Las Vegas NV Insight Day & Night Guide
Manufacturer: Insight Guides
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Map
Pacific
| West
| Regions
| United States
| Travel
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General
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Las Vegas
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ASIN: 981246803X |
Book Description
Insight Night and Day Guides let you plan your daily itinerary with reliable information that will make finding your way easy. Expert recommendations help you visit a museum, shop, or see the sights in the day and paint the town red at night. The perfect travel companion, Insight Night and Day guides allow you to make the most of your trip without the stress of negotiating unknown terrain. .Information is presented by day and night activities .Listings are cross-referenced on detailed maps .Illustrated with colour photographs .Reviews of the top 10 sights .Laminated accordion-style format makes it durable, portable, and easy to use. .Attractive plastic cap for ease of display and closure
Customer Reviews:
Detailed book description.......2005-05-21
TEXAS TOMBOY
When feisty Dallas Durango couldn't bear the stuffy Boston girls' school a minute longer, she fled as far West as her money would take her: to St. Joe, Missouri. There the runaway heiress discovered that women earned mere pennies and, dressing herself as a boy, signed on with the Pony Express. But what the defiant female never counted on was meeting horse breeder Quint Randolph, whose glance made her want to shuck her disguise... and whose touch made her want to beg for more!
KENTUCKY GENT
Feeling guilty over his wife's death the year before, handsome Quint Randolph had sworn off women and now pursued only stallions that could improve his thoroughbreds. But when he first gazed at the tall, slender Pony Express rider, he knew right away that was no lanky lad... and his virile body responded as never before. Hating her for making him break his vow, loving her for reawakening his desire, Quint chased her along the dangerous trail, intent on making her share his bedroll during the long, hot NEVADA NIGHTS
One exciting trip to Nevada !!.......1998-09-29
What a story. Cheyenne Warrior & Kentucky Cowboy both love a Texas girl, who's posing as a boy to ride for the pony express. Cheyenne Brave takes Texas girl hostage, which Torments Kentucky Cowboy. Real Historical battles are the backdrop for this war to win her heart. The ending of this book is exciting, but what is possible becomes reality in the next book, Apache Caress, as an underlying plot. Your just so happy to hear more of this story, like they are friends you have not heard from in a long time.
Book Description
Bluegrass Days, Neon Nights takes you through the rollicking life and times of legendary Las Vegas casino host and bon vivant, Dan Chandler. The wayward son of former Kentucky Governor and Major League Baseball Commissioner Albert "Happy" Chandler, Dan likes to say he started at the top and has spent his life working his way to the middle.
Dan's bluegrass days began as a boy growing up in the Kentucky Governor's Mansion, the youngest son of one of the most popular politicians in America. Dan not only encountered President John F. Kennedy, but also learned a hard lesson in politics and life.
Dan arrived in Las Vegas as the gambling capital's mob days were fading, but Caesars Palace had no shortage of characters - and he became intimate friends with super high rollers and stars ranging from Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson to Frank Sinatra.
Bluegrass Days, Neon Nights is an unforgettable true tale told in the voice of one of the last of the great Vegas characters.
Customer Reviews:
Very disappointing book from John L. Smith.......2007-02-28
I have never submitted a review, but feel compelled to do so after reading this book. I am a huge fan of John L. Smith's writings and have purchased and read every one. This book, however is NOT, repeat - NOT - written by him! In the preface, the real author, Dan Chandler, says this book is written in his (Chandler's) own words and, clearly this book is. It is not up to the usual very high standard of Smith. It is a rambling, name dropping, everybody loves me chronicle of Chandler's relationships with known personalities and leaves the reader with a sense of how important Chandler thinks he is (or was - he's dead now). If you even think this is a biography (or autobiography) of Chandler's life you are wrong. Even though he brags about being employed by Caesers Palace seven times and working several other casinos as a casino host, there is not one sentence about how he got fired and rehired seven times. He only wants people to know how many of the rich and famous were his "best friends" or in his words "my man ..." What Smith's role in the book is unclear, except to think that he somewhat edited Chandler's words. Very disappointing book "authored" by a great writer with a biting, humorous way with words. I will still by Smith's books, but this one is a stinker!
A brilliant exposé in to the life of Dan Chandler Las Vegas Host.......2006-03-22
In John L. Smith's latest book, Bluegrass Days Neon Nights, he travels through the life of Las Vegas casino host Dan Chandler. The son of Kentucky Governor and Baseball Commissioner Albert "Happy" Chandler, Dan Chandler often joked that he started at the top and spent his life working his way to the middle. His rise or descent can be argued but as a casino host in Las Vegas Chandler led a riotous life filled with the greatest celebrities of politics, sports, music and movies.
Average customer rating:
- lots of cool quicktime VR
- Great CD
- Amazing Tour
- Don't waste your money!!
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Las Vegas Night Lights
Matthew Newton
Manufacturer: Virtual Reality of Oswego
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: CD-ROM
Pacific
| West
| Regions
| United States
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Nevada
| States
| United States
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0971621403 |
Book Description
"Las Vegas Night Lights" is a virtual walk up the "strip" in Las Vegas. It includes 39 interactive virtual scenes that include the Las Vegas "strip", Fremont Experience and a few scenes of nearby attractions. Also included are photos, addresses and phone numbers of the major hotels. You will also find audio descriptions, casino sounds and a dynamic method of delivery. The CD-ROM is a hybrid (both Macintosh and PC formats) that includes 8 different programs for each format so that virtually any windows or mac machine with a large or small monitors and allowances for low memory users will be able to use this CD-ROM. The Macintosh side of the CD-Rom takes up 213 MB and the PC side of the CD-ROM takes up 267 MB.
Customer Reviews:
lots of cool quicktime VR.......2003-03-03
This CD lets you see a lot of Las Vegas in the cool Quicktime VR format. You can take a 'virtual tour' and get a good idea about how to plan a trip to Vegas, and see a variety of perspectives on the action!
Great CD.......2003-01-26
I got the CD for Chirstmas and thought that it was a great CD. It was fun and bought back some cool memories. I would recommend this CD if you love Vegas.
Amazing Tour.......2002-12-19
I bought this CD sometime ago and thought that it was a great resource for my family. If you are ever going to go to Las Vegas you should see this CD. It really helped us grasp a very confusing and overwhelming town.
Don't waste your money!!.......2002-12-09
Save your money. This virtual reality program of Vegas is just some virtual junk. First of all, the program doesn't come with instructions or even an installation application. It took me 30 minutes to figure out how to start the program and when I did, I was greatly disappointed. The program did have some nice picures of Las Vegas, but [price] for a collection of pictures that you can rotate and zoom in and out on, is a bit much.
Average customer rating:
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Night Before Christmas in Nevada, The
Sue Carabine
Manufacturer: Gibbs Smith, Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Limericks & Humorous Verse
| Humor
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Gifts
| Spirituality
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Christmas
| Holidays
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Reference & Tips
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
| Beaches
| Business Travel
| Cruises
| Essays & Travelogues
| Food & Lodging
| Guidebooks
| Pictorial
| Reference
| Spas
| Tips
| Tourist Destinations & Museums
| Travel Writing
General
| Parenting & Families
| Subjects
| Books
Accessories:
-
philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer
ASIN: 1586851683 |
Book Description
Nearly evening time, St. Nick reaches Nevada and gets to see Lake Tahoe and Carson City. Then all of a sudden there is a very bright light that nearly blinds Nick and his reindeer. Landing on a cactus in the desert, Santa meets a little girl who has never been anywhere-not even to Las Vegas! So the two travel down the strip and have a night filled with fun.
Book Description
Tender spring asparagus. Luscious summer berries. Spicy autumn greens and bright winter citrus. More than any other dish, salad allows the characteristic flavors of each season to shine. A simple combination of fresh ingredients in a salad from your kitchen can be more impressive than even the most elaborate dish.
Williams-Sonoma Collection Salad offers more than 40 wonderful salad recipes, grouped by season to emphasize the importance of using ingredients as they reach their natural peak of ripeness. Whether you have a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes in your backyard or a handful of wine-colored beets from the farmers' market, there's a recipe here that offers a delicious way to prepare them. A chapter of portable salads will tempt you to plan a picnic, while a selection of classic salads -- from Cobb salad to celery rémoulade -- rounds out the collection.
Full-color photographs of each dish help make the choice an easy one, and each recipe is accompanied by a photographic sidebar that highlights an essential ingredient or cooking technique, making Salad much more than a great collection of simple recipes. An informative basics section and extensive glossary fill in all you need to know to create the perfect salad.
Salads bring out the best in fresh seasonal ingredients, whether they are delicate spring lettuces paired with soft goat cheese or crisp autumn apples tossed with toasted pecans.
Williams-Sonoma Collection Salad offers more than 40 easy-to-follow recipes, including both classic favorites and fresh new ideas. In these pages, you'll find inspiring salads designed to suit occasions throughout the year -- from an informal summer picnic to an elegant dinner with friends. This vividly photographed, full-color recipe collection, appealing to both novice and experienced cooks, will become an essential addition to your kitchen bookshelf.
Customer Reviews:
Great Recipes!.......2007-04-06
I absolutely recommend this book. The salads are tasty, fulfilling and varied enough to keep you wanting to try a different one everyday of the week.
A very nice book of classics and seasonal salads........2005-07-18
`Williams-Sonoma Salad' with recipes and text by Georgeanne Brennan, under the general editorship of Williams-Sonoma founder, Chuck Williams is an excellent little, inexpensive hardcover book all about salads. Unlike some other grandly titled books on salads, this little volume does two big things right for a salads only book.
For starters, it's first chapter of recipes has seven (7) recipes for major, classic salads, almost all of which originated in French, Italian, or American cuisines. These are:
Caesar Salad
Cobb Salad
Potato Salad
Salade Nicoise
Celery Root Remoulade
Insalata Caprese
Ambrosia
The second `big' thing it gets right is that the next four chapters cover salads appropriate to each of the four seasons. While your average megamart has virtually all fruits and vegetables throughout the year, there are still some important seasonal considerations that make a difference in the quality or cost of a salad. For example, asparagus and artichokes are far cheaper in the spring than at any other time of the year; tomatoes and fresh corn are at their very best if obtained locally in the summer; apples and pears are freshest in the fall, and citrus is most abundant and least expensive in the winter.
The last chapter of recipes gives us seven (7) `picnic' salads whose taste improves over time or which are easily assembled at the last minute `on site'. They are also very good for extended periods without refrigeration as they contain no mayonnaise or any other uncooked or semi-cooked eggs.
There is a non-recipe chapter at the end on `Salad Basics' covering the primary ingredients and techniques including vinaigrettes, creamy dressings, types of greens, and varieties of other ingredients. It is beyond me why this chapter is put at the back of the book when it is something you should read before embarking on the recipes or on a career of ad libbing salad making.
The only other quirk of the book's organization is that the two potato salad recipes are in two different chapters, one in the classics and one in the summer chapter. Otherwise, in general, this is a very well thought out book organization, making up for the slightly pricy $16.95 list price for 43 recipes. We are also well served by the fact that there is a full-page color snapshot of the results of each and every completed recipe. For a glossy book like this, one would feel cheated if there were pics of only half the recipes.
With all this good stuff going for it, I did find some things that were just a little off. In the recipes for the classic salads, I found at least four instructions that concerned me. The first two were where poaching chicken and cooking hard-boiled eggs were done at substantially longer times than what I have found to be necessary from both other authoritative recipes and from my own experience. I was inclined to think that the author was just trying to be careful with microbes, until I read the Caesar Salad recipe, where a totally raw egg was used to make the dressing. In all the very best recipes for Caesar Salad, the raw egg is `coddled' before adding it to the dressing. That is, it is cooked in boiling water for about a minute to kill off any microbeasties. I was also just a little concerned with the amount of fresh garlic used in the Caesar salad, and the method by which it was added. It called for first making the toasted croutons, then rubbing the fresh garlic onto the sides of all those little cubes. This seems to be a relatively tiresome method, which could easily be replaced by toasting the bread slices, rubbing on the garlic, then cutting the toast into little cubes. And even better and quite traditional technique is to rub the cut garlic into the wooden salad bowl before mixing the dressing.
All in all, this is a better salad book than others I have seen and it is a very good first salad book.
Books:
- The Music Room: A Novel
- The Night Watchman's Occurrence Book: And Other Comic Inventions
- The Road to En-Dor
- The Seduction of Silence
- The Singer: A Classic Retelling of the Cosmic Conflict
- The Sorrow of Belgium (Tusk Ivories)
- The Treasure of Montsegur: A Novel of the Cathars
- The Ultimate Intimacy
- The Winter Zoo: A Novel
- To Err Is Divine
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