Doctor Joe Bell: Model for Sherlock Holmes Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a great book detailing Doyle's inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. This book is also a fine introduction to a wonderful man in Joseph Bell. Joseph Bell is the subject of a number of fictionalized movies which are certainly worth your time and money.
B.K. Loder

Click Here to see more reviews about: Doctor Joe Bell: Model for Sherlock Holmes

Click here for more information about Doctor Joe Bell: Model for Sherlock Holmes

Read More...

Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I was lured by the title/cover photo....I was hooked by the synopsis and thought this would make a diverting read. I knew I would laugh at Ms. Vincent's exploits and adventures, what I was completely unprepared for was the sense of sadness that overcame me as I finished 'Self-Made Man'.
In her guise as "Ned", the author explores such bastions of manhood as strip-clubs, the world of dating women, a monastery and a men's support group. Her experiences are intriguing as well as entertaining and will make most people think about how men and women are perceived by each other.
I think this book should be required reading for any woman who is currently married, engaged to or in a relationship with a man. It made me seriously examine my attitudes towards men and my perceptions of their behavior. It underscores so sublimely the need for men and women to HONESTLY communicate with each other...on ALL levels.
The most telling point for me was when the author was at the men's support group retreat, when the members drew their heros & some drew Atlas holding up the world.
Read this book with an open mind, whether you are male or female and you will see there is more to it than just a cool stunt just for its own sake. I hope people will pick it up and give it a chance.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again

Click here for more information about Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again

Read More...

Curve Ball: Baseball, Statistics, and the Role of Chance in the Game Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Jim Albert and Jay Bennett share two traits that make them the perfect authors for this type of book (1) they are both baseball fans who know the game and have seen many games and much statistics from many angles and (2) they are both professional statisticians who understand probability and the subtle aspects that chance can have on statistics. By being professional statisticians they also know how sophisticated statistical techniques can add to ones ability to seriously address questions of strategy and comparison of player performance. That is what they accomplish in this book, teaching some basic probability and statistics along the way.
They also make it very interesting to the baseball fan by raising interesting baseball questions related to players that the fans relate to, namely the stars that the fans follow and the great clutch hits and clutch defensive plays that we baseball fans have imprinted in our memories, like Mazeroski's game winning home run in the 1960 World Series, or Willie Mays' famous over the shoulder catch of Vic Wertz's long fly ball in the 1954 series, or Bobby Thompson home run that won the 1951 playoffs for the Giants.
In the very beginning Albert and Bennett distinguish themselves from the sports statisticians that are hired by the teams. The sports statisticians collect the data and present it in various ways. However, this is merely exploratory data analysis. Albert and Bennett point out that a numerical difference in a hitting statistic such as on base percentage between Chuck Knoblauch and Kenny Lofton may be a real difference in ability but may also be a small enough difference to be merely due to chance. Finding ways to analyze the baseball data to make probabilistic inferences like answering the question of whether Lofton is better at getting on base than Knoblauch is the focus of what professional statisticians do and is the theme of the book.
In the course of reading the book you will learn many things about baseball. Some may agree with previous notions and some will be surprises. You will learn about the massive amount of major league baseball data available, about SABR a society for baseball research and more. You will be opened up to the hinden world of professional statistics where probability models have been used for over a century to handle military, engineering, energy, environmental, agricultural and medical problems. These same tools in recent years have been used to handle baseball questions also.
They start with simple table top baseball games like All Star Baseball to introduce concepts. They then move on to baseball data and probability. Then they look at statistical questions, situational effects in Chapter 4, hot hitting in Chapter 5, methods of measuring offensive performance in Chapter 6, more sophisticated measures in Chapter 7, simulation models in Chapter 8, measures of clutch play and team value in Chapter 9, ways to predict performance in Chapter 10, analyzing World Series results in Chapter 11 and final comments in Chapter 12.
This is a great book for any one who loves baseball and baseball statistics. It also is a great way to learn and become interested in the techniques of the professional statistician.
For statisticians that teach statistics, it provides a wealth of interesting examples to help illustrate important statistical concepts in basic or even advanced courses, including the value of Bayesian methods, the need for overdispersion models (e.g. batting averages) and the value of linear and nonlinear prediction models.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Curve Ball: Baseball, Statistics, and the Role of Chance in the Game

Click here for more information about Curve Ball: Baseball, Statistics, and the Role of Chance in the Game

Read More...

The Age of Lincoln Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The Age of Lincoln" by Dr. Orville Vernon Burton is an insightful , hard headed , clear eyed look at the roots of the American Civil War , the path that led to eventual victory and the utter failure of Lincoln's successors to "win" the peace as decisively as he had won the war. This book is a stunning feat of original thinking, scholarship, and research. The depth and the breadth of the research is revealed in the many details of what was taking place in the political , social , religious and economic strata of American life during this tumultuous time. The weaving of these disparate elements into a cogent tapestry is a testament to Dr. Burton's scholarship. Dr. Burton's mastery of his voluminous research and his skill in writing a riveting narrative only enhances his standing as an American historian of the first order.
As Dr Burton shows the "original sin" of our founding fathers to face the question of slavery as a blot on the face of humanity in "The Declaration of Independence" and ""The Constitution" sowed the seeds that produced the bloody harvest of the Southern Rebellion. The evolution of President Lincoln's thinking of "The Emancipation Proclamation" as a strategic war maneuver to an act of basic humanity reflects Lincoln's antipathy towards slavery and his changing feelings on the equality of the races. While Lincoln was still evolving in his recognition of the equality of African Americans to the white's of America his legacy of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution ultimately redeemed the promise of the founding fathers.
Dr. Burton's book illustrates that just as slavery's darkest shadow lays across the trinity of our most precious documents, the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights Bill for almost a hundred years, the dark shadow of the Jim Crow era would eclipse the bright promise of Lincoln's legacy to mankind the 13th, 14th and15th amendment of the Constitution. Because of Lincoln's successors failures to stay the course with Reconstruction and the ultimate perversions of the Restoration and the Jim Crow era another hundred years of lynching, murder, degradation, economic slavery and forced migration faced African Americans most egregiously in the American south.
Dr. Burton's book also pounds the stake into the heart of the argument of the Civil War being fought over any thing but slavery. Over shadowing and intruding into all aspects of life during the arc of the age of Lincoln was slavery,slavery.slavery. This book resonates with the passion that the American public had for public affairs during "The Age of Lincoln." This passion for the governance of their affairs was an on going concern not just a concern during the election cycles. This book could serve as a cautionary tale. The American public could do well to see past the "Roman Circus's" of sports , celebrity pap, unreal reality shows, egocentric pursuits of "me" and reevaluate some of the basic values so wisely enumerated in "The Age of Lincoln".
"The Age of Lincoln" is a very important book that would be a rewarding reading experience for anyone.



Click Here to see more reviews about: The Age of Lincoln

Get 44% OFF

Click here for more information about The Age of Lincoln

Read More...

Spoken in Darkness: Small-Town Murder and a Friendship Beyond Death Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Spoken in Darkness is the book The Dead Girl wanted to be. It is more a memoir about growing up in a town that doesn't care and beginning to question why it doesn't care, than about the actual incident. Imbrie asks how her and her friend's lives ended up so different...and why she didn't know about the darkness in her friend's life...how they lost touch...and how her friend slipped away. At the end, Imbrie asks how this world can hold such evil as the animal that took out his hatred on her friend that slipped through the cracks in our fragile world so long ago. Every woman knows that the line between a safe, protected life and being lost in a dark basement forever is thin. Very thin. Every woman knows that our safetey depends on the caring of each other. This is what this book is about. The Dead Girl has some passages I underlined about safety, but Spoken In Darkness is elegaic. Neither book is really about the victim or the perpetrator. Both are about why we care and look out for each other ... or lose sight of each other , let go of eather other's hand, in our dark, dangerous world

Click Here to see more reviews about: Spoken in Darkness: Small-Town Murder and a Friendship Beyond Death

Click here for more information about Spoken in Darkness: Small-Town Murder and a Friendship Beyond Death

Read More...

King of the World (Nova Audio Books) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Remnick is smart enough not to contribute just another Ali biography to the shelves, and instead focuses his efforts on Ali 1960 - 1965...from his post-Olympic days through to the second fight with Liston. These are the years when Ali became Ali...the champ at the height of his powers.
But there's a special bonus in this book - a good portion of it deals with Sonny Liston. You talk about your seminal 20th Century characters. They don't get any more interesting than this guy: the abused son of a sharecropper, long stretches of imprisonment, a fight career directed by mob interests, a violent death. In short, a writer's dream. Remnick brings Liston together with Floyd Patterson (and you'll never find a greater constrast) and walks you through these two battles before turning his attention to Ali. Thus, you get a full portrait of Liston prior to encountering the force of nature that was then Cassius Clay.
The effect is a curious sympathy that you have for Liston as he enters the maelstrom developing around Ali. In most retellings, Liston is cast as the personification of evil. Remnick made me see him in a different light.
My advice for a great Ali study program:
1. Watch 'When We Were Kings' [Best documentary ever]
2. Read 'The Fight' by Norman Mailer
3. Read 'King of the World'
4. Buy any book featuring Howard Bingham's photography of Ali.

Click Here to see more reviews about: King of the World (Nova Audio Books)

Click here for more information about King of the World (Nova Audio Books)

Read More...

Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic (Constitutionalism and Democracy Series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Few books have treated this topic, Madison and Washington's collaboration, and this is an excellent treatment. Unravelling the waxing and waning of this relationship serves well those interested in the Federalist Era. The scholarship is obvious, and the presentaion is good. Those interested in the unfoldings of the Republic must pay attention to the Father of the Country, and his relationship to the Father of the Constituion. Liebiger allows an enormous view of Washington's dignity as a statesman, and Madison's erudition in the realm of Constituion building, amongst other federalist era realtionships, this collaboration was as crucial as any, and a topic long overdue.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic (Constitutionalism and Democracy Series)

Although the friendship between George Washington and JamesMadison was eclipsed in the early 1790s by the alliances of Madison with Jeffersonand Washington with Hamilton, their collaboration remains central to theconstitutional revolution that launched the American experiment in republicangovernment. Washington relied heavily on Madison's advice, pen, and legislativeskill, while Madison found Washington's prestige indispensable for achieving hisgoals for the new nation. Together, Stuart Leibiger argues, Washington and Madisonstruggled to conceptualize a political framework that would respond to the majoritywithout violating minority rights. Stubbornly refusing to sacrifice either of theseobjectives, they cooperated in helping to build and implement a powerful, extremelyrepublican constitution.Observing Washington andMadison in light of their special relationship, Leibiger argues against a series ofmisconceptions about the two men. Madison emerges as neither a strong nationalist ofthe Hamiltonian variety nor a political consolidationist; he did not retreat fromnationalism to states' rights in the 1790s, as other historians have charged.Washington, far from being a majestic figurehead, exhibits a strong constitutionalvision and firm control of his administration.Byexamining closely Washington and Madison's correspondence and personal visits,Leibiger shows how a marriage of political convenience between two members of theChesapeake elite grew into a genuine companionship fostered by historical events anda mutual interest in agriculture and science. The development of their friendship,and eventual estrangement, mirrors in fascinating ways the political development ofthe early Republic.

Click here for more information about Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic (Constitutionalism and Democracy Series)

Read More...

Creating the Bill of Rights: The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book has been cited in at least one written Supreme Court decision but is very lacking and incomplete. Most of the content seems dedicated to (a) lists of proposed amendments, (b) the debate between inlining vs. appending the amendments (appending won, obviously, giving us a toilet paper roll of amendments rather than a concise constitution), or (c) the addendum of private letters at the end which focuses on sentiments of the Bill of Rights as opposed to actual decision-making. You will get very little substance of committee meetings where the more interesting decisions get made, or why most of the amendments are worded the way they are.
This book is a dud, a very weak followup to Madison's 1787 convention notes. Such a shame and such missed potential.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Creating the Bill of Rights: The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress

Click here for more information about Creating the Bill of Rights: The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress

Read More...

Murder She Wrote: A Study of Agatha Christie's Fiction Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Might have been a groundbreaker in its day, but it's totally disposable now. In fact, we've seen this formula done over and over again. Who needs another book with a chapter on Miss Marple, another chapter on Poirot, then one on Tommy and Tuppence, et cetera, always concentrating on how loveable these characters are? Yuck. There's even a chapter called "Christie's Prestigious Policemen," which delves into a topic no one wants to know about at all, and talk about graceless, how about the use of the word "prestigious"? Couldn't they have thought of another adjective? Maybe it wasn't high in their minds, in 1982, when this book was printed. If you get a copy with a dust jacket, you'll see a truly frightful looking book, with a line drawing of a hand--presumably Dame Agatha's--holding an old fashioned fountain pen hovering over an invisible piece of paper. Ghastly, looks like my baby sister did it.
The trouble with Christie scholarship is that it's largely all about trivia. One chapter stands above the morass of "Mrs. Oliver created a Finn Detective, a parallel to Hercule Poirot but Finnish." This is the survey chapter called "The Puzzle-Game" which rather smartly observes, categorizes and condenses some of Christie's narrative inventions--her tricks, if you will. Patricia Maida and Nicholas Spornick list the murderer's gambits as follows: the "Hidden Impersonation"--essentially you think there are 2 characters but actually there are only one. The "frame Up," in which an innocent character gets blamed for the villain's misdeeds. The "Red Herring" (a la THE CLOCKS) which isn't so fabulous if you ask me. Most of all we associate Christie with "The Cover Up Victim" in which I, a killer, fake an attack on my own life to make police and Poirot think I'm innocent. Christie fans are therefore always suspicious of anyone who survives an attack--which itself has thrown me into the soup more than once, for there are actually innocent people who haven't faked their own murders. Did you ever see SCREAM? Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven had a field day spoofing Christie's use of the "Cover Up Victim" device. Maida and Spornick also examine Christie's incredibly sophisticated use of point of view to confound, to reassure, to disturb, and to subvert. If only the rest of the book had been as good as "The Puzzle-Game," this might have been a keeper. As it is I hesitate to recommend it even to completists.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Murder She Wrote: A Study of Agatha Christie's Fiction


This book explores the inter-relationships between Agatha Christie and her works to seek the wholeness in the Christie experience. The authors perceive an integration in personal experience and moral and aesthetic values between the woman and her art.

Click here for more information about Murder She Wrote: A Study of Agatha Christie's Fiction

Read More...