No comments about Miller's Antiques Price Guide 2009: 30th Edition (Miller's Antiques Price Guide).

4 comments about World Notgeld, 1914-1947: A Guide & Checklist and Other Local Issue Emergency Money.

1. This guide contains a list of emergency money issuing authorities, mainly cities. The reader will see many images, some of them in color, to have an idea of how interesting collecting emergency money may be and will have access to a bibliography which may help to search for a more comprehensive information.



2. An excellent reference to all kinds of Notgeld from many countries.
   Table of Contents
   * Introduction
   * Issuing Cities: Alphabetical by Countries
   * Periodical Abbreviations
   * Bibliography
   * Country Abbreviations
   * Issuing Cities Alphabetical
   
   The introduction gives a fairly thorough explanation of Notgeld in English and German. The book is designed as a checklist with a box to mark off as you find what you want. It makes no pretence to pricing. The Bibliography is extensive enough to be worth the book alone.



3. This book says it all in the title, except I'm not sure what they mean by guide. There is a short introduction of the author blah, blah... The notgeld is listed and easy enough to find but no information, like engraver/artist, where it was pressed, how many were made or how many in circulation, in fact it tells you nothing (and most do not not photos) except there is a general/vague 1-7 scale of rarity with no pricing or suggest value. this was merely a checklist.



4. Very good book of german notgeld, other countries are listed, very fews pictures of other countries

5 comments about The Matarese Circle.

1. I think this Robert Ludlum's single best piece of work. It is perhaps his most suspenseful work, full of his typical twists and turns, but at a seemingly higher level than many of his other thrillers. The interaction of Scofield and Taleniekov throughout the novel is very well written, yet it is the Corsican secret society of The Matarese that really makes this tale the best of Ludlum's stories. I really would like to see a movie made of this book, because it could be a very, very good one, if done right (which sadly doesn't happen much of the time).



2. As a diehard Robert Ludlum fan, it was never hard for me to get engrossed in just about all of his novels. But there are a couple of his books that are not only classic for him, but for the genre: The Bourne Identity and The Matarese Circle.
   
   This tale of a CIA agent and KGB agent, sworn enemies, who collaborate to bring down a cabal of international killers is riveting from beginning to end. The tension and thrills jump off of the page and into your consciousness.
   
   Just as Bourne has been brought successfully to the big screen, this book should be adapted for a major motion picture. If needed, details could be changed to contemporize it, but it's too good not to film.



3. i have read everything , from sydney sheldon to ken follet but i must bow down to the MASTER.Its a tragedy this great writer is not on this earth to treat us anymore but he has left his legacy behind.Whoever wants to read a masterpiece should give this 1 a try.This 1 is a collectors item.i dont want to repeat the cliche....but DONT MISS IT.



4. This was my first Ludlum book, and it certainly will not be the last. This was one of the most intelligently written fiction books I've read. Unlike many on this site, I don't like to get into a long, descriptive diatribe regarding the plot. I encourage people to actually read the general description on the back cover. If you like foreign intrigue, international conspiracies, and great characters this is the book for you. I may NOT read another book in the genre, actually, as I doubt they would be as good as this.



5. Two ageing spies are coming to the end of the careers. On different
   sides of the cold war, both men are in similar position, veteran field
   agents that are not necessarily so useful anymore, but know a lot of
   secrets. They have no families to live for.
   
   They can't stand each other, but they uncover a conspiracy that
   shocks even them, and must form an uneasy alliance to try and stop this
   massive corporate funded terrorist plot.

1 comments about Collecting American Country.

1. I bought this book in the early 1980's, and back then ,this was considered a very up-to-date book. I loved it back then!
   
   However, now that it's 2007, many of the photos in this book will seem out-dated ....to the reader.

No comments about The Big Book of Ford Tractors: The Complete Model-by-Model Encyclopedia...Plus Classic Toys, Brochures, and Collectibles.

5 comments about Russia: A History.

1. This book isn't so much a history of Russia, but a history of Russia's leaders and leadership. It delves into the machinations of the czars, rulers, bolshiveks, and all their minions with monotonous detail, but misses the importance of the significant EVENTS that shaped Russian history. Napoleon's invasion of Russia, why he failed, why the Russians triumphed, is barely analyzed. Discussion of the Russo-Japanese war doesn't even rate an entire paragraph! (Now, if the author ever wanted to delve into the mind of a Russian czar, here was a great place to do it. What prompted Nicolas II to provoke a war with Japan? What made him so confident that he sailed his navy halfway around the world to battle with the Japanese, only to suffer a near-total defeat? Who was in charge of the Russian navy, and what mistakes were made?)

   Skip this book. Maybe someone will find a better history of Russia out there, and write a review so we can find it.




2. As somewhat of a history buff, I bought this book for superficial reasons: neat cover and the bold ambitious title. In hindsight, I should have read more reviews. This book covers Russia from early Czarist times of Ivan the Terrible through the Sickle-and-Hammer days of the Russian Revolution. It features a number of short essay chapters from various contributors. Like a previous reviewer indicated, this book focuses more on the leaders and leadership than anything else. While this might be an easy way to approach an historically authoritarian country's history, it's not the best way. At times, certain chapters make for a totally dry and boring read. However, there were some interesting insights by a few writers, but marginal in number.

   Considering the horrific revelations of Soviet Russia's totalitarian past, the revisonist interpertation on Stalinism is a real crime. Especially since this book was so ambitious with it's 'in-depth' probing the Stalinist era. Yet, it only glosses over the surface, while downplaying and denying communist crimes all the way. Also it is full of pictures, but mostly those Stalinist-era propaganda variety that hails ambitious production and public works projects.

   At best, this book serves as an amateurish survey of Russian history. You'll need the Black Book of Communism to temper the revisionism if you get this book. I'd like to unbuy this book.




3. A couple other reviews do a good job of stating the problems with this book (Setliff and an unnamed reviewer). It is academic and dry. When it gets to the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin's role and character is minimalized and there is not even a mention of the murder of Nicholas II. Considering it blatant propganda at that point, I didn't read on past that. The comments about Stalinism in other reviews go in line with what I read about Bolshevism.



4. Gregory Freeze is an erudite scholar, and it shows with the current volume. This is not a popular book. It is written for those with some knowledge of the subject, who will appreciate the possibilities and limitations of serious historical reviews of events most of us find difficult to understand. However, understand these events we must, as Russia is not the only country to thrive on misinformation and misunderstanding of its place in the world.



5. This is a comprehensive book covering several hundred years of Russian history. Although the book is divided into 'bite sized chunks', make no mistake; this is no lightweight read. Gregory Freeze has an obvious grasp of the enigma that is Russia and has the skill to present his knowledge in a way that makes complex history fun to read instead of a chore.
   The revised edition takes into account the information that has become available since the fall of Communism in the USSR. This makes it all the more interesting as it helps dispel some of the myths propagated by the West during the cold war. I would recommend this book to anyone with a fascination for Russia but particularly for the undergraduate studying the topic.

No comments about Carnival Glass: Warman's Companion.

5 comments about Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse.

1. Courtroom 302 is a frank look at the shocking injustices built into the very foundation of the criminal justice system. The judge and laywers portrayed are identified as some of the best of their class, and they can still be seen turning a blind eye to injustice for the sake of expediency. A word of warning: Courtroom 302 will shake your faith in the great institution of American justice. If you want to maintain your fragile illusions, do not read this book.



2. Courtroom 302 was clearly written by a journalist. It reads like an in depth newspaper article--a good one. Bogira writes as a fly on the wall, following Judge Locallo around from case to case through the Chicago criminal justice system, observing the real world facts of murder, extortion, corruption, heartache, and betrayal, while also bringing in the big picture facts of a social scientist.
   
   Myriad stories are interwoven to show the bigger story of "justice," America style. (The quotes seem may seem more appropriate after reading the book.) The in depth investigations of each story show all the relevant sides and seem to bring out the truth almost every time. Bogira gives an honest effort at a fair showing of the facts.
   
   He also does a great job with the statistics--de-humanized and telling. The occasional chapter of big-picture facts and statistics helps to fill out the human stories and show that they are not isolated exceptions, but mundane reality. The statistics indicate that nothing is special about these tragic stories, and that is precisely the point that Bogira wants to make.



3. It seems to be an exciting look behind the scenes of a typical big city courthouse. And it is, the reader will be given an interesting and sometimes spellbinding look into the lockups, the backrooms and chambers where justice is being sought, sometimes found, sometimes not. Having spent many years in New York City courtrooms I can agree with the descriptions in this book.
   
   However, every page is dripping with bias. You will find every liberal prejudice that ever was invented: The deputies are pretty much heartless sadistic roboters, the prosecutors overzealous apparachicks who waste taxpayers' money -and always are white, which is pretty unbelievable-, corruption among the judges is rampant -which is even more unbelievable-, and the defendants always are poor, disadvantaged minorities, who in the author's view are only victims of society and should not be held responsible for their crimes. Luckily the author found a judge, who pretty much shares this attitude.
   The author only changes his view where the defendants are white. Here the judge cannot throw the book hard enough at them.
   
   Once the reader has been numbed enough to just ignore this mantra, the book is mildly interesting. Sadly, as in most liberal descriptions of our justice system, you read a lot about the defendants, the judges, the lawyers, but almost nothing about the victims of the defendants' crimes.
   
   Sadly, after a few pages you have already had all the information you will get. The rest of the book will only repeat the author's ideology. That makes reading this book pretty much a waste of time.



4. Bogira has his biases and they are imbedded within the narrative, sometimes to the detriment of the story. However, the stories are so compelling (at least to anyone with an interest in the subjecet matter) that the book does not really suffer. Plus, by focusing on at least a dozen different cases, the action moves too quickly to get bogged down in preaching and a fairly accurate picture of the system shines through in technicolor.
   
   Full disclosure...I clerked at 26th and Cal in law school working on the State's Attorney side. I agree that criticism of the office is warranted (an insular culture does exist) and that personal career aspirations motivate more prosecutors to wake up every morning than a true belief that the system works.
   
   The idea of the system as a "growth industry" hits a perfect tragicomic note. As long as drugs are illegal and ghettos exist within the city, the "demand" which creates the industry will keep many of the sons and daughters of Chicago's insular and politically adept south side gainfully employed. Meanwhile the ghetto kids of the south and west sides have a higher wall to climb. The thing about this "industry" is that the public officials who pass our laws are the masters of this "business" in ways they can't master any other market. It won't ever change until the public elects officials who campaign on the issue of rehauling the system. The book seems to suggest this but the tone is much more journalistic instead of solution-oriented.
   
   There are tough questions to deal with here, so I'm not inclined to follow the biases of some people who have posted on this book or perhaps Bogira himself that the system can be written off as an "injustice" or that we should all just up and legalize drugs tommorow and fund a bunch of afterschool programs. This book does not leave the courthouse much, so there isn't a whole lot of reporting from the front lines of these ghettos where the violence and drug markets exist.
   
   Further, the book tends to delight in reporting any racially-charged remarks made by the state's attorneys, the judges and the deputies. Obviously this will cause all the righteous suburbanites in California, New York, the North Shore or wherever to get all worked up about the racist system of whites oppressing blacks. Hopefully, that won't be the only thing people get out of this book. The truth is that the men and women who work there and the men and women who walk the halls as defendants or family members of the defendants are on the frontlines of the American race problem and probably have a much more comprehensive understanding of race in this country than anyone who's going to lament the injustice of all the racists and then move on to the next book their book club will read. Also, what people don't get from this book is that most of the racial joshing that goes on at 26th and Cal is done to people's faces- it's a white guy to a black guy, or a Hispanic guy to a white woman, or sometimes even a judge to a defendant- some people see this as abhorent, personally I see it as realistic and honest. This is America and the race problem is real...at least to those of us who live in a diverse community.
   
   Anyways, I applaud and recommend the book for jumping into the criminal justice system, compiling the stories and presenting a fairly accurate portrayal of life in the system. I'm sorry if my antennae is always up when it comes to racial hypocrisy.



5. Steve Bogira offers a stark look at the American legal system. By tracking cases in a single courtroom over the course of a year, the author makes it clear that the problems he uncovers are systemic and long-term, not a few exceptional cases or worst-case-scenarios.
   
   The racism of our laws and enforcement is laid bare here, as well as the inanity of modern prohibition. The deals cut by prosecution and defense, dictated by overcrowding of jails and courtrooms, is revealed as damaging to individuals and society. Few reporters take the time to fully explore their subjects, to invest the time that this author has lent to his subject.
   
   As an investigative reporter, I am well impressed by Bogira's work and product. We need more of his brand of reporting and we need legal reform -- for instance, an end to plea bargaining which clears dockets but does nothing for the rule of law or justice. Hopefully this book will encourage more of both.

4 comments about Brilliant Knits: 25 Contemporary Knitwear Designs from the Kaffe Fassett Studio.

1. As a warning, almost half of these designs are already published in Rowan magazines. The remainder, all new for this book, are often variations on Mably's style, which is similar to the well-known Kaffe Fassett's, although much simpler. The sweaters are really abstract, skirting the avant garde, although the fundamental styles are basic pullovers and cardigans. It's the color schemes that are dynamic and innovative, although Mably shows most of the sweaters in bright, bold, and sometimes almost garish color combinations. Since I prefer a more classic and muted look, it is difficult for me to see past the colors to the actual sweater and choose my own schemes. However, if you like lots of color, this book is an excellent choice. Most of the yarns used are Rowan (with some Jaeger), which is a sad choice since if you have used Rowan yarns, you are aware that as soon as a pattern is published, Rowan stops manufacturing the yarn. For instance, some of these patterns call for DK soft, which was recently discontinued. Pluses to this book are the introduction, which is concise and helpful, bearing tips on handling intarsia and fair isle in a nicely laid out presentation. Also, Mably introduces each pattern with a brief notation that describes his inspiration and intention, adding a charming touch. The patterns themselves are clear and simple to read, as are the large-size black and white charts, although there are no size diagrams, making it difficult to substitute yarns or handle your differing gauge. A huge plus is the photos of the sweaters. Unlike some publishers who concentrate more on the dramatic pose of the models, obsuring the sweater, this publisher paid lots of attention to showing the sweater. You know exactly what you are looking at and getting, including two or more photos of the sweaters, even with back views, to give you a strong idea. The book is really excellently executed, on fine quality paper. A nice presentation. I'm only sorry that these sweaters aren't my sort -- but if you like Mably's cover sweater, I'll bet you find you'll want to knit most of those included in the book!



2. Brandon Mably is a member of popular knit designer Kaffe Fassett's studio. I really liked many of Mably's designs, which are in some ways simpler and bolder than Fassett's--though clearly inspired by his mentor. But the design work here is spotty. Some of the ideas such as a Gypsy-striped scarf and vest, are simple in concept but look stunning. Others are Kaffee-clones, such as stars on complicated backgrounds. And there are complete departures from the Fassett style, such as a sweater with an intarsia design of pitted olives. Very cute.

   The problem with this book, however, is that the quality of the knitted models varies from great to just awful. I would never have let some of those photos see the light of day, let alone the pages of a book. Knitting boo-boos jump out of the page such as uneven motif joins in intarsia, bulgy and uneven increasing above the ribbing and other amateurish-looking knitting that would have a competent knitting editor shouting naughty words. Another problem is the reliance on Rowan yarns, which are expensive and go out of production rapidly. If you want to reproduce these styles exactly, in the colors and weights of yarn specified, you may find yourself on a wild-goose chase. And the yarns used are often cotton. Now, cotton is able to be dyed in deep and bright colors, and the sheen on a mercerized cotton yarn lends a brilliance to knitting that a matte wool cannot achieve. But knitting intarsia (a technique where yarns are knitted in independent color zones and linked on the wrong side with a twisting method) is incredibly difficult to do with cotton. This is because cotton drapes and does not adapt to fill gaps in tension variations. Wool is forgiving in this matter and the fuzzy surface also hides knitting flaws. With cotton yarns, the inevitable variations of hand knitting are magnified, though master knitters can compensate. If you are not experienced in intarsia, let me tell you that a horrific experience awaits you if your first attempts are with cotton yarns. So be forewarned. If you don't believe me, look at the "Olives" sweater which sadly illustrates the difficulties that even an experienced knitter can have with cotton and intarsia. Tragic.

   The sweater shapes in this book do vary from the wide and loose Fassett style (that does not always flatter the wide and voluptuous among us) and there are slimming v-necks and nicely done tunics. That's good. There are many design ideas here that are interesting and attractive, as well as some good colorways. However, other color choices were garish and muddy-looking.

   So, if you like the Fassett style and are looking for more inspiration, you may find it here. But the uneven quality and the fact that many of these styles were previously published in Rowan books elsewhere, limit the value of this book.




3. Well presented clear photographs and graphs Hard to decide which to knit first



4. Very inspirational knitting in this book. Be prepared to spend a wad on yarns as they call for many, many colors. Nice items, something for everyone.

3 comments about American Amusement Park.

1. This book is packed full of beautiful photographs and nostaligic postcards. Various chapters showcase the origin of amusement parks, and the different styles and hybrids from the "traditional" and "theme" to the Storybook Lands and Santa Villages. There's even a chapter on flat rides. The graphics and layout are great. The author also knows his material. This is a great companion to that other great BMI book, "The American Roller Coaster".



2. In the thrill seekers genre of books and videos, this fits right in. Although most of it is indeed a rehash, the layout is fabulous. No one can have enough photos of carousel horses or stories about old parks. The nostalgia factor in this book raises the bar. Unlike a few of the other books, this one is more rounded in that it covers the whole park instead of just the coasters. Be advised that these kinds of books are historical in nature and don't necessarily point to what's coming next at the World's of thrills.



3. Loved this book! Great info on amusement park history and behind the scenes secrets. I'm ready to go ride!