Kakaku：2800 saved$28.00
Wicwas Pr
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (Great information) 『The authors of this book clearly aren't novelists --- it's easy to doze off while reading it. But the information presented is stuff that for some unknown reason isn't covered in the general beekeeping texts. For example, this clearly explains why in-breeding bees can be very undesirable (or very desirable, depending on what you are trying to achieve). It explained to me for the first time, in an understandable way, the cause of "shot brood." I think this is an important book for people who want to go beyond simply having bees and want to understand what bees are all about. But it also contains a lot of practical information, such as detailed directions for constructing and use of robber screens for nuc boxes.』
(Lots of good information, but not well organized or prioritized) 『The beginning of the book that covers the logistics of getting ready to breed bees/rear queens is done fairly well. There is a lot of great information on what you'll need to do to get setup for the process. The section on genetics has a lot of less useful infomation and is poorly organized. I am not well versed in genetics, but I do have a strong background in Science (Math, Physics, and Chemistry) and one of my other hobbies besides beekeeping is cosmology. Most of the technical terms were not well defined and although the writter(s) of the genetics section of this book may be 100% correct and right on with there information, their ability to relate this information to the layperson (even one like me with an extensive background in science, just not genetics) was extremely poor.
If you are serious about bee breeding/queen rearing, you should probably have this book as an additional reference. As this is the first book I have read on the subject, I cannot recommend another book. I can recommend checking with your county extension offices and/or your state universities to see if they have more information on this subject or offer classes.
The University of Minnesota offers a class on Queen Rearing every summer. This year it will be over July 7-9, 2006. Here's the link: http://www.extension.umn.edu/honeybees/components/publiccourses.htm
I took this same class in July of 2004. It offered hands-on experience where everyone in the class got a chance to graft queens and learn the process of queen rearing. Lots of good class-room time and literature. If you have the option of doing something like this, I would strongly recommend it.』
(Excellent) 『I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Page in 2002, and this book helped me to understand the fundamentals of queen rearing. Although I love technical books, when it comes to honey bees, I found it straight-forward and a worthwhile text. Although I didn't have to rear my own queens for my experiment, it helped to understand how bees are bred for traits and the process that is involved with breeding honey bees.』
(Wonderful information--even if you know nothing about bees.) 『I'm biased--H.H.Laidlaw is my father, he is 91 years old and artificial insemination of honey bees has been his life work. This book has a great "look" on the page--many illustrations and photos. Interesting to "non-Bee-people" and really all about sex!』 『"Written for beekeepers who know little about genetics and geneticists who know little about beekeeping."
Few books deal so effectively with both the hands-on art of queen rearing and the scientific aspects of bee breeding as does this text. Professors Laidlaw and Page of the University of California, Davis, have prepared a comprehensive yet understandable book for both the beekeeper and the scientist.
Laidlaw, born in 1907, made important discoveries about breeding methods using instrumental insemination during the 1940s. He spent his professional life at the U. of California, Davis, perfecting II technology to the point where it is widely used in bee breeding techniques. Moreover, he worked with commercial queen producers and developed reliable methods for producing quality queen bees for either natural or instrumental mating.
Page has developed modern bee breeding concepts using computer methodology. His closed population breeding and mass selection techniques are widely used by bee breeders.
If you are a beekeeper interested in producing queen bees for your operation, this is an excellent book for your study. If you are a scientist interested in techniques used in bee breeding, this book is also for you.
The book is designed as a work-book textbook, with ample white space for notes and post-its. The twelve chapters cover history of bee breeding to a delightful 'Whimsy' section, and includes 'Song of the Queen Bee.'
There are many excellent photographs and illustrations to help you understand complex ideas.
The first printing sold out quickly, and the book has been reprinted and is again available.』
IPhone 3G used's review (better translation needed) 『I was excited to find this book. I had not heard of it before but "The Count of Monte Christo" is one of my all time favorites. Then seeing all of these positive reviews, and since the subject matter is of interest, I couldn't wait to dig in. I can still say that the subject is interesting. And I tried plugging along with it - the reason it gets 2 stars instead of 1 is that the story moves along quickly enough to hold one's interest. However, after about 150 pages I just couldn't go on.
This has got to be one of the worst translations ever! I don't know if all of these positive reviews are for this particular edition, but there is no credit for translation, and it's easy to see why. I don't speak French, but it seems as if someone who is not a writer did a straight translation from the French, without taking into account any of the idiom or sentence structure differences. And the constant repetition is soy annoying: everyone is always saying "ah, ah" at the beginning of their sentences. Another character says "mordi", whatever that means, at the beginning of everything he says. And words repeated as a sentence introduction, apparently to convey emphasis and excitement: "Well! Well!" "Go! Go!""Kill! Kill!" and so on, are just too annoying.
I don't have a problem with period dialog, especialy in a book written 150 years ago. But a translation needs to convey the intent and style of the writer, while making it understandable, and readable, in the language, and period, it is being translanted into. And it should be consistent with the period. Characters saying "thanks", mixed in with very archaic language forms everywhere else, just makes no sense.
It was all just too irritating and I didn't feel like I was reading something by Dumas. There are just too many great books out there - don't waste your time on this one.』
(action, romance, intrigue) 『I bought this book because I enjoyed Dumas' other works. Although "Queen Margot" certainly has much to recommend it: intrigue, romance, action, I did not enjoy it as much as "Three Muskateers" or "Count." The ending is especially unsatisfying.』
(A true classic) 『Alexandre Dumas pere was a master of story telling. If he was still living today he would definitely write some of the most popular television series. This is how this novel reads, as a TV series, and this is also how it was written, since it was first released in 2 page instalements in 19th century french daily newspapers. Every page ends in some sort of dillema or with an item a suspense. There is never a boring moment. Of course, even if this book is based on actual historical events, it cannot be considered a true rendition of what really happened. Nevertheless, Dumas succeeds in making his characters so alive, that you feel you are living through the intrigues with them. You feel what they feel. A true masterpiece of literature, in any language; and by the way, the book is a thousand times better than the movie.』
(Great book) 『When I started reading this book I thought it would be classic, boring, long story about some french queen - I was wrong. I could not stop reading it before I finishad. In my opinion every one who likes interesting books should read it. I am sure he will not regret it.』
(My absolute favorite book.) 『Queen Margot is missing nothing. I read it after falling in love with the musketeer series, and was overjoyed to find that it was as good as the others.』 『Released to coincide with the new Miramac film starring Isabelle Adjani, this is the classic novel unavailable for over 25 years. Massacres, conspiracies, clandestine trysts, secret alliances, daring escapes, sumptuous feasts, and duels of wit propel the action in this delightful story of French royalty during the 16th century. Advertising with movie.』
IPhone 3G used's review (BZ's Gone Mad) 『I will echo what I have read in the other seven reviews here. Worlds End is almost essential to understanding The Summer Queen to it's fullest extent. It can be skipped, sure, but I don't recommend it.
I'm afraid I read Ms. Vinge's books totally out of order, Summer first and then Snow and then Worlds End. So you can see how much I could have used the insight as to what was going on.
As far as World's End goes, I felt that it was great as a short.
BZ Gundalihnu is a failed suicide, a social outcast for the strictly heirarchal world in which he is from. Following his harrowing experience on Tiamat, and the unrequited love with it's new Queen, BZ is forced to leave along with the rest of the Hegemony. Though he tries to fit back in, he can't, his society is too steeped in their prejudices.
He is led by his misfortune and his squandering brothers to World's End a place that is literally crazy...even the earth and the sky follow no known physics. BZ comes across the land's leader, a woman of incredible power, who is positively insane. She wants him to remain with him, and infects him with the Sybil virus.
And yes BZ literally goes mad. But being a learned man, he figures out how to contact the Summer Queen, and with her help he gains on his sanity once more.
The molten lake at World's end is more than it seems, and it want's BZ's help to cure itself.
It is a breakthrough that will forever change BZ's life and the face of the Hegemoeny. It may even get him closer to his Summer Queen once more.
BZ Gundalihnu is a character I fell in love with from the very first time I read him. He is devout to his job, tortured inside, a good man to a fault. He oftens judges those around him just by their social stature. But for all his flaws he is endearing and charming. I always thought him older than he truly was just because of his demeanor.
Worlds End is definitely a good bookend to your collection if you can find it!』
(Not Free SF Reader) 『World's End has some overlap with The Summer Queen and is part of the whole Snow Queen saga. It is about the lost hyperdrive, and BZ Gundalinhu and his travel. Some time after the earlier book, he is still doing his thing.
He goes to the planet World's End, and gets infected with an alien virus. The book chronicles his journey and state of mind as the disease affects him.
He comes out the other end influenced by the odd nature of the planet. If you aren't super keen on this level of detail for this character, you can just read the Summer Queen instead where you will get bits of this, quickly.
』
(In its own way, oddly amazing) 『As the out of print sequel to the "Snow Queen" "World's End" it is an out of print, underappreciated little sci-fi novel that you can totally skip if you want and just read a shorter version of it's major events in the "Summer Queen" which is too bad, because this is one good book.
Readers of the snow queen will remember the lost star drive that once allowed people to cross space-something the galactic hegemony cannot retrieve and rebuild without. Well this book is that about that, insanity, being sane, duty, not doing your fu*king duty for once and finally forgiving yourself. There is also something wonderful in this book about chaos and what is really chaos and the desire to find order in crazy places. It's really veryu cool if you can wrap your mind around it. Starring in a very good first person narrative lieutenant BZ from "The Snow Queen" this is a short little shocking thriller that is in the end, quite inspirational. If you can find inspiration in this kind of sci-fi.
Four stars. 』
(Better than Snow Queen) 『I read this as a break from Snow Queen (which I'm almost finished as I write this). I thought this would be in the same vein as Snow Queen and Summer Queen but the story and style is completely different.
The book is told throught the eyes of BZ Gundhalinu, who was, admittedly, my favorite character in the other books, and the reader becomes deeply immersed in his thoughts and memories, which are fragmentary and not altogether sane.
The setting is fantastic and seems much more alien and alive than Carbuncle and Tiamat. The characters are far more three dimensional and believable than those in the other 'Snow Queen books', and BZ becomes far more sympathetic than any of Snow Queen's protagonists ever did (I found Moon a real pain to read about...). This book is also much more sci-fi than it's predecessors, which were more fantasy in my view.
The bok only gets four stars because some things it relies heavily on, such as sibyls and the Old Empire, aren't explained ebough if this is to be read as a stand alone, however if you have read Snow Queen or Summer Queen or posess a particularly fertile imagination you sould be fine with World's End. the ther reason for the slightly lower rating is that I thought that the background of Song, who is otherwise a fully realised character, could use more explaination. This is one of my favorite books and I would highly recommend it to anyone who lieks sci-fi books or books based on interior dialogue and highly character centric story lines.』
(The Unexpected Sequel) 『It's impossible for me to review this book without putting it the context of its classic predecessor. Probably I would not rate it so highly as a stand-alone book.
The fate of police inspector BZ Gundhalinu brought bittersweetness to end of THE SNOW QUEEN. If you care about the character, by all means read WORLD'S END. (Don't settle for the fractured summary found in THE SUMMER QUEEN.)
While reading THE SNOW QUEEN, I initially decided that I liked the officious technocrat Gundhalinu because of his unwavering support of his beleaguered commanding officer, Jerusha PalaThion. That BZ would expand his supporting role, undergo an intense personal upheaval, and emerge as a romantic renegade came as a delightful surprise. Even so, at the end of THE SNOW QUEEN, I assumed that BZ was an unfortunate bit of flotsam in the sibyl machinery's Greater Plan, and that the doors on his story had closed as tightly as the gate to Tiamat. I was happy to discover that Joan D. Vinge felt his journey worth continuing in WORLD'S END.
We catch up with Gundhalinu a few years later, burying himself in his police duties on the planet Four. Having experienced love on Tiamat did nothing to break the shackles of his Patrician background. BZ is still every bit the snob--defining nearly everyone--especially himself--according to the rigid terms of his hierarchical culture. And that culture judges him a coward and a failure.
More ghosts of the unresolved past surface when BZ's brothers, having squandered their aristocratic family's estates and good name, come to Four to seek their fortune in the notorious wilderness known as "World's End". They are presumed lost, and BZ embarks on what he assumes is a futile quest to set something right--to locate his brothers and perhaps regain his family's honor.
The quest is a Heart of Darkness-type journey, in which the increasingly surrealistic landscape reflects Gundhalinu's state of mind. A mysterious force in World's End creates disturbing anomalies in the harsh environment. As time passes, BZ succumbs to its maddening influence and loses his will to suppress his personal demons. At a shocking turning point, those demons are suddenly swept away as the demanding, insane consciousness behind World's End's anomalies invades BZ's mind. From then on he struggles to regain control and solve the mystery of this time- and space-defying wilderness.
The story is effectively told in the first person, through BZ's irregular journal entries. One can squirm experiencing the tumble towards insanity and the effort to return from the brink. The book is short, which saves it from becoming a wallow. But in spite of its brevity, it feels complete. A long, exhausting journey has taken place. Although the tone is unrelentingly grim, take heart! There is hope, enlightenment and rebirth at the end of the tunnel.』
『Hot on the heels of The Summer Queen, this novel is a must-read for fans of Vinge's Hugo Award-winning series. BZ Gundhalinu, a policeman who became an outcast after saving the future Summer Queen, quits his job to follow his ne'er-do-well brothers into the godforsaken waste, World's End, to prospect. BZ's odyssey will set the stage for The Summer Queen. Reissue.』
IPhone 3G used's review (It's cold outside!) 『I enjoy the new Red Sonja series, but in this book, Sonja is running around in the ice and snow, and she's still in her metal bikini! That can't be comfortable, at all! The story is entertaining, and the evil dwellers in the frozen tundra are quite scary, but no matter how tough Sonja is, I'm pretty sure she'd want to throw on a sweater or something.』
(That had to be COLD) 『OK, so we all know Red Sonja has good reasons for wearing a chainmail bikini into battle. But even she can hardly excuse wearing little more than that on a foray in the Arctic north of her barbarian homeland. I mean, the exposed flesh (which accounts for most of her) would be frost-bitten in moments, and the bits under the chainmail -- damn, that metal must be cold.
Fine. So we gamely remind ourselves that all the rational explanations in the world can't actually tell us why Sonja wears that outfit. The truth, we all know, is because her readers are largely male, and warrior women wearing chainmail bikinis are hot.
That matter aside, the story by Frank Cho and Doug Murray is another episode of rollicking, swashbuckling fun as Sonja, after leading a small band of warriors against a pack of northern barbarians, falls captive to a community of yeti and neanderthals led by a primal heart-eating sorceress queen. And really, it's better than it sounds. I mean, if nothing else, you have a bikini-clad swordswoman duking it out with large, hairy men, and their queen wears even less -- yes, it is possible -- than Sonja.
by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(net) editor』 『Savage Red Sonja: Queen of the Frozen Wastes delivers an action packed story and incredible art as Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword battles the beautiful and deadly Ice Queen and her army of Yeti Warriors! Under the Frozen Wastes, Sonja will work to lead an army, and restore the broken spirit of the Ice Queen's human slaves. This hardcover collection features all four issues of the series, a complete cover gallery featuring Frank Cho's incredible covers and more!』
IPhone 3G used's review (Boring...) 『Very disappointed with this book...
I kept reading until the 7th chapter, hoping to come across the "meat and potatoes" but found nothing except boring descriptions of an uneventful flight across America...
Not recommended.』 『The author ofFlight of the Intruderrecounts his three-month, forty-eight-state flight into the heart of America in a 1942 Stearman bi-plane, describing the panorama of forests, mountains, rivers, and valleys beneath him.』
Kakaku：800 saved$8.00
HarperCollins Publishers
In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. IPhone 3G used's review (Good Things Come in Small Packages) 『One of my favourites, and will surely become yours!
Colour-coded sections cover 1. Pre-Saxon Rule; 2. Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; 3. Saxons, Normans and Plantagenets; 4. Tudors and Stuarts; 5. Hanover to Windsor. The Compendium (part 6) includes Crown Jewels, Nicknames, and Genealogical Charts.
It is particularly good on ancient British chiefs and Celtic tribes, rarely covered in other guides. A short two-page overview of each monarch is preceded by a summary box containing birth and death dates and places, parentage, accession to the throne, coronation, authority (i.e. status and titles), death date and burial details.
The major public and personal events of each reign are outlined. Also, there are features on such events as the Roman Conquest, the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, Wars of the Roses, the Gunpowder Plot, Home Rule and the British Empire. Contemporary illustrations, e.g. the Bayeux Tapestry for the Norman Conquest, lend period flavour.
A perfect introduction, overview, or review. It's a useful first source before proceeding to longer royal histories or individual biographies.
IPhone 3G used's review (Excellent first-contact novel) 『The books in this trilogy read just fine as stand-alone novels; I read Phoenix Cafe first, then this volume, followed by West Wind. The author's conceptualization of aliens is believable and different enough to be unsettling. This book--and the subsequent volumes that carry the plot line forward--go far beyond the "invaders from outer space" cliche. These are beings--and individuals--who communicate and understand via shared parasites...which should give you an intimation of the Otherness that characterizes them. With this said, it seems more an anthropological difference than the shock of "monsters" familiar to us in alien-encounter stories.
I recommend this series for any SF fan who appreciates original writing.』
(Sedate Alien Encounter Novel) 『Book Review by C. Douglas Baker
Set in 2039-40 A.D., this novel of first contact creates an almost credible near future earth and avoids the cliche of vastly superior aliens swooping down to subjugate humanity and strip its resources. Instead, Jones' aliens live among humans for awhile, cloaking their existence, until a strange emotional relationship between Johnny Guglioli, a UFO chaser, and Agnes/Clevel, an alien residing in Africa, leads to their discovery. Jones spends a lot of time creating our future world doing a credible job on technological and ecological aspects but the socio-political aspects are more alien, and unlikely, than the extraterrestrials. For example, the United States has been overthrown by socialists and are minor players in world politics. Equally unlikely is the lackadaisical response of the Earth's population to the discovery of aliens and the central role played by politically marginal actors in dealing with them.
Johnny Guglioli, the most interesting character, is infected with a "petrovirus" that destroys the substance "blue clay", which evidently has replaced silicon as the key data processing material. Being a former "eejay" or engineering journalist, his occupation is destroyed because he can no longer work with computers or similar machinery because his virus destroys the data processing capabilities of the "blue clay". Having his livelihood ruined he chases UFOs as a hobby, leading to his encounter with Agnes/Clevel, an alien who reveals itself to him. Enter Braemer Wilson, a journalist ostensibly searching for a story who seems to have information about aliens possibly living in Africa. The emotional triangle that develops between Guglioli, the alien Agnes/Clevel, and Braemer Wilson leads down a winding path of human and alien interaction, neither side quite trusting nor understanding the other. Through the emotional attachments of these characters the reader learns about the physical and spiritual components of the aliens. Their interactions raise the intensity level of the story and serve as a microcosm of the meandering search for understanding, frequented by severe misunderstandings, between alien and human throughout the novel.
White Queen's depiction of earth a little over fifty years from now does not seem quite authentic. And even though the aliens attempt to shield themselves from human observation, the groping attempts at mutual understanding seem too restrained for such a momentous event. White Queen is barely saved by its interesting human/alien interactions.』
(A Disappointing Payoff) 『I was very disappointed when I got to the end of this book. I felt like the last page had been ripped out. It was as if the author got tired and decided to finish the story later. It was a difficult read, I had to constantly go back and pick up clues to help follow the story. After all that work how dare it just stop. Now I have the unpleasant task of reading North Wind just to tie up loose ends.』
(What am I missing here?) 『I really, really wanted to be impressed by "White Queen", because of what I'd read about it. But I found it nearly incomprehensible. When I finally finished reading the book (and it was a challenge to finish it), I sat back, sighed, and quoted myself a little Shakespeare about sound and fury.
I don't recommend it, and I think I owe my sci fi book club an apology for choosing it as this month's reading selection.』
(fascinating and frustrating) 『I am ten pages from finishing this book. It is very hard to follow but it is fascinating. The writing is strangely phrased which adds to the difficulty. There are no characters I care at all about. The aliens are a total mystery. But something keeps me reading - perhaps just a hope that all will eventually be made clear - but I am assuming at this point that it will not. Still - some part of me is fascinated by it.』 『Johnny Guglioli used to be a journalist, but his QV virus has rendered him an outcast. In exile from his native America, he encounters an enigmatic young woman. He is convinced she is an alien, and that she is part of a small force sent to reconnoitre Earth.』 『It's 2038 and the earth has been devastated by tectonic shifts accompanied by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The U.S. has undergone a socialist revolution, retro-viruses are rampant and most technology relies on a powerful organic "clay" instead of microprocessors. When aliens land near American-exile Johnny Guglio's adopted African home, Braemar Wilson, a cutthroat reporter, befriends him to get a jump on the story. Though no one knows the alien's intent, White Queen, an anti-alien group, begins working to undermine human trust. Even as ambassadors from both worlds talk, Braemar and Johnny must work together find themselves in a unique position to uncover the truth. The book won the 1991 James Tiptree Jr. Award.』
Kakaku：399 saved$3.99
University of Wisconsin Press
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (Like one reviewer, I too am a bit disappointed...) 『But I still like this book. I love some of the shots of Elizabeth. She was, and still is, one of the world's most beautiful women. I like some of the single shots of her and also the ones of her with Richard Burton. I also like the shots of the kids. I don't like the pictures of the photographer; they weren't necessary. Some of the photos ARE average, but some are beautiful. Too bad some of the shots show Taylor's frumpy figure; I would've preferred to see more of her face. I also wish there had been some colored photos in this.』
(Beautiful!!!) 『I love the cover of the book. The pictures I didn't like were the ones with Elizabeth in the bathtub And the pictures of the Author and his marriage This is a book about Elizabeth not Bozzacchi Overall, though I love this book. Elizabeth Taylor's beauty is dazzling right into her forties!!! That's amazing! This is one of my favorite Elizabeth Taylor books (and I have several). 』
(A decadent treasure from the Taylor-Burton years!) 『Gianni Bozzacchi's "Elizabeth Taylor: The Queen and I" is really is a treasure trove of photos from the Taylor-Burton years! It's one of three books that I consider my Dame Elizabeth "Bible's" - the other two being My Love Affair with Jewelry, and Bob Willoughby's Liz an Intimate Collection. In a way, Bozzacchi's book sort of starts up where Willoughby's ends. I was sort of disappointed when I bought the Bozzacchi book two years ago. It had fewer pages than I had anticipated, and at the time I was never really a fan of the late Burton years. I hadn't really seen any of her films from that period. But I found myself grabbing for that book first on my shelf, and I really adore it. I have also discovered the films from that time, like X Y and Zee, Secret Ceremony, Ash Wednesday, etc. and I love them! It was a completely different kind of glamour from the 1950s, but the clothes were stunning. And of course all that Taylor-Burton excess of diamonds, furs, and yachts were at their peak. It's a time that will never be repeated, for better or worse. I reccommend this book to any Dame Elizabeth Taylor fan!』
(Could be better) 『Being that the author knew Elizabeth Taylor so well, the photos could have been on a more upscale tone. Some very mediocre photos when we all have seen gorgeous photos of a gorgeous lady. Somewhat disappointed.』
(Queen Elizabeth Taylor Radiates) 『I just recieved my copy of Elizabeth Taylor: The Queen and I" I think the book is completely engaing from cover to cover. Gianni's personal memories to the time when the pictures were taken, makes you feel as if your just that bit closer to Elizaebeth. Elizabeth is trully displayed as a human being, human or star, this woman radiates confidence, luxury, and beauty. My favorite picture in the book would have to be the one where she is running in the Dorchester Hotel, skirt all the way up, hair racing towards every directions, very free and bohemian feeling. I love this woman, not because she was for a large time Hollywood's calling card, or the worlds most beautiful woman. But because there is a purity in her eyes, and her soul can literally touch you through simple pictures. Anyone in doubt whether to get it or not, take my word, the book is worth any price, youll have alot of fun looking through it.』 『Elizabeth Taylor: The Queen and Iis a remarkable collection of Gianni Bozzacchi's photographs of Elizabeth Taylor, most of them previously unpublished, capturing her as a film star, a woman, and a personal friend.
It was 1965 when Bozzacchi, an impetuous twenty-two-year-old, was given the chance of a lifetime. The streetwise kid from Rome was sent to Africa as special photographer on the set ofThe Comedians,a movie starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Alec Guiness, and Peter Ustinov. As the film wrapped, Taylor offered Bozzacchi a job as her personal photographer.
Elizabeth Taylor was the world's most famous woman at the time and undoubtedly its most glamorous. Her marriage to Richard Burton claimed international attention, and together they were the quintessential jet-set couple. Bozzacchi was to work with Taylor and Burton for the next eleven years. They opened the door to their world for him, and his own talent, drive, and artistic style earned him extraordinary success. Publications wanted his services, as did the movie and fashion industries, celebrities, political figures, and the merely famous. Bozzacchi was awarded the honor of International Photographer of the Year three times and became a celebrity himself, the subject of magazine layouts and television interviews.』
Kakaku：240 saved$2.40
Everyman Chess
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (Up-to-date on QGA) 『Three stars may be a tad harsh. The approach here is to walk through the main line once, then give a few complete games. The games included are almost entirely from the 90s or 00s. You get about 50 pages on 3 e4, about 70 on the "3 Nf3 main line" (including Furman, Steinitz, 7 a4, Qe2 and -- nicely -- Bb3), and about 40 pages on the rest. The book would suit either White or Black, but this also means there will be big chunks to skip if, say, you choose not to meet e4 with e5.
The warnings, notes and tips are often aimed at a Starting Out level ("When attacking...consider eliminating your opponent's best defender") but the analysis seems to be at a higher level. The authors explain by mainly by giving variations, and as much as I like full games, it's easy to lose the plot with some of them. Of course, opening books aren't recommended for weak players, but I'm not sure if they shouldn't have done more hand-holding given the book series and the less than exhaustive coverage overall. (Rizzitano's book is, I understand, more appropriate for the 2000+ gang.)』 『The Queen's Gambit Accepted (QGA) is Black's simplest way of dealing with one of White's most fashionable openings, the Queen's Gambit. Black grabs the gambit pawn and thus refuses to succumb to the passive positions so typical of the Queen's Gambit Declined. This direct and uncompromising way of playing gives rise to dynamic positions where both sides have excellent chances to play for the win. It's no surprise that the QGA has attracted many high-class advocates, including Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand. In "Starting Out: Queen's Gambit Accepted" Alexander Raetsky and Maxim Chetverik take a fresh look at this famous opening. The early moves and ideas are introduced and care is taken to explain the reasoning behind them - something that is often neglected or taken for granted. As with previous works in the popular "Everyman Chess Starting Out" series, the reader is helped throughout with a plethora of notes, tips and warnings highlighting the vital characteristics of the QGA and of opening play in general. Written by opening experts, this book covers the all the main lines and is ideal for the improving player.』
Kakaku：1495 saved$14.95
Harper Perennial
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (Hawkyns, Elizabeth and the Slave Trade) 『I absorbed this read with great interest. The subject of slave-trading has been too painful for me to tackle it head-on but here I got into it because I am interested in Elizabethan personalities. The thing that shocks me in the book is how matter-of-fact the trading really was. This fact-based account puts the reader into the then-contemporary perspective of humans as just another commodity to be dealt for profit and a highly lucrative one at that. The rewards for successful trading were enough to turn the Queen, Elizabeth, into a profiteer. In fact, we see an Elizabeth in denial after she has waxed moral in her view of the abduction of Africans. She says they should be asked to volunteer. (Which is ridiculous on the face of it.) Of course, Hawkyns only saw the green light to GO. One cannot view Elizabeth in any ideal sense after this: there is no Gloriana or Astraea in this book. The business of the Queen is business; Queen and country are one.
There isn't much of a biography of Hawkyns in the book. At least, insofar as a biography fleshes out the nuance of the character. What we get is a very competent individual who is able to make both military and financial decisions in quicktime. The depth of the book is focused on the ambivalence of Hawkyns in matters of religion. This is, in my opinion, is what places the story into it's deeper historical context. The English, as other Europeans, who were destined to fight bloody civil wars in the next century, were obsessed with the outer manifestations of Christianity (ritual, plastic images, etc. or not) and had lost any real sense of Christian teachings. In this book, we lose any ability to condemn Hawkyns as an individual; we are overwhelmed by the brutality of the times. I think the author, Nick Hazlewood has done quite a good job here.
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(Sliding into the slave trade.) 『Attempts to analyze the historical sociology of capitalism and slavery too often deal in abstractions. And the morality of power politics, and economic globalization, as with Marx, tends to be sublimated into the account by value-free laws of history, etc,... All well and good, but. This account of a one vignette of the early gestation of the Atlantic slave trade, in England, speaks more eloquently by its plain account of actual people, at the moment of the crystallization of a dreadful circumstance. Significant is the detail of Queen Elizabeth, quoted early on as denouncing the traffic in human beings, succumbing to royal patronage once the immense profits possible became clear. While one can practically hear the ghost of Marx snorting with contempt, the plain fact of the matter is that there is an ethical history possible, and there was nothing inevitable in the way slavery, almost extinct in Europe, made a comeback in the early modern period. It is not utopian, as this portrait makes clear, to consider that politicians, instead of being untrustworthyfrom the word go, might actually not succumb to terrible temptations and enter in league with poor devils like the Hawkins portrayed here, basically a capitalist thug, soon a courtier. The portrait of John Hawkins gives a fine-grain series of images of one of the great and classic failures of economic globalization, and the terrible legacy and bitterness that it led to.』
(Fascinating look at origins of slave trade, Hawkyns' role) 『Nick Hazlewood has written an engrossing book that gives us a rare and in-depth look into the opening salvos of the English slave trade through the voyages of Sir John Hawkyns (also spelled John Hawkins), the first English trader. Hazlewood supplies a brief biography of the Elizabethan mariner but focuses on Hawkyns' three major slave-trading voyages starting from 1562, from his departure from England to his actual acquisition of slaves in West Africa, through to his transactions in the New World and return to England.
This book is a must-have for those interested in the early Age of Exploration and the nature of early trans-Atlantic commerce, but it is of far greater significance and value for a general audience since it provides a rare glimpse into the little-known details of the wretched commerce in human beings that took place as the Americas were being settled. Treatments of the African slave trade often leave a reader wondering about the mindset and nature of the participants who were profiting from it, and Hazlewood provides us with a "you are there" feeling. He has clearly done his homework here, consulting primary literature in both English and Spanish archives to reconstruct the means by which Hawkyns acquired his slaves in West Africa, the "currency" exchanges which took place to seal the deal, the wretched and horrendous conditions on the slaving ships, and the nature of Hawkyns' eventual transactions in the Caribbean and Spanish outposts in America. What emerges is that Hawkyns was a remarkably shrewd and ruthless businessman, able to secure such an extraordinary profit margin from his deals that even Queen Elizabeth I-- initially opposed to the human commerce-- became a crucial investor in Hawkyns' slave-trading schemes, providing ships and resources for raising his crews and launching further voyages.
Hazlewood also casts Hawkyns' commerce within the broader context of 16th-century European seafaring, demonstrating how Hawkyns' actions-- viewed as smuggling by Spanish authorities-- in many ways constituted the root of the conflict that would flare between the Spaniards and English (leading to the Spanish Armada attack and a 16-year war between the two countries) later in the century. The reader is treated to an in-depth look at Hawkyns' fateful third voyage in 1567, in which his ships were attacked by a Spanish squadron off Veracruz. Hazlewood provides perhaps the best description in any recent book of the clash at Veracruz and its aftermath, both for Hawkins and his unfortunate crew members who were seized by the Spaniards. The book does drag somewhat in its later chapters but is not at all a chore to read, and Hazlewood's evocative style ensures that readers have a concrete tableau of the events that were transpiring, rather than merely an abstract depiction of them.
For what would become the United States as well as for Britain, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was integral to their history. Indeed, Americans are well aware of the brutal consequences of slavery from the Civil War in the 1860s, yet are often much less aware of the background to that "curious institution." Hazlewood details these often obscure origins with both accuracy and a highly readable presentation. The reader emerges from the book with a sense of the Hobbesian mentality and conditions that dominated seafaring in the 1500s, and a better sense of the psychology that enabled so many to allow themselves to partake in the bloody business of human enslavement and trans-Atlantic trafficking. Hawkyns is shown in all his complexity as a ruthless merchant and as an inspiring leader of his crews, who braved on-ship conditions and hostile oceans that would make most of us cringe barely minutes away from the dock. Hazlewood's book is an excellent complement to Harry Kelsey's book on John Hawkins-- which covers similar territory-- and to Hugh Thomas's general history of the slave trade. It's a must-have for historians, for teachers and school libraries (at many levels), and for
