Good for price and collecting, never the "full" story
346444
For the price you can't beat golden books. They are a good read for little ones but as soon as they are old enough to realize that the story is missing parts from the movie is when they don't meet children's standards.
Good art and price. Good books for starting a little one on reading and they are fun to collect.
3972193
I found this a bit disappointing, given the other glowing reviews I had read. It was interesting overall, but I wouldn't have said it was fascinating or revealing. It is much less the story of the idea of importing hippopotamuses (and other African animals) to the US, and more the story of one of the men who supported the idea. This is an interesting story in itself, and I would have been happy just to read a biography of this one character, whose life was certainly eventful enough to warrant it. In the end, I found the book unfocussed, and wasn't sure what the point of it was. The author also seemed to pontificate a little at the end about the way that the USA tends to solve its problems. Don't have an opinion on that, but it again seemed out of place to me. I would actually have given this 3.5 stars, if that were possible. Given that it's a Single and quite cheap, I would say it is still worth reading if you are interested in American history.
2043369
A great collection and a 5 star option given the price (the content I would say is more like a 4 star). But pay attention that there are two kindle editions available, one with 13 stories and the other with 18; make sure to buy the bigger one.

Not all of the stories are equally good, but in general, they are all worthwhile and will satisfy those who are not very picky with scientific accuracy, since most of the science described is kind of unrealistic, outdated and sometimes even laughable, specially regarding to the outer space travels and planets.
752237
A nice collection, including some of the famous stories that became movies (e.g. Paycheck, Total Recall).  Best taken in small doses, though, the stories become repetitive and blur into each other if read all at once (for instance, many of them are set in a depressing post-nuclear holocaust America, and have either an ambiguous or a downer ending).
3110070
Some very interesting stories and some less so.  Worth the money, but not a super bargain given that its only about 100 pages..
610759
This is an interesting and informative exploration of some of the lesser known stories of Hawaii.  Ranging from Menehunes to Ukuleles, this book contains brief descriptions of the tales rather than the tales themselves.  Even the chapter on the history of the ukulele, although factual, does not bring to light the quirky, eccentric personalities of the Portugese luthiers who worked together to transform a traditional standard-tuned five-string folk instrument into the four-string, re-entrant tuned ukulele.

A pretty fair value for the price, but lacking any real entertainment value.
1820246
I bought this book thinking its a historical work on Paris during the Great War, but its not.  I think it may be an attempt to cash in on the centennial of the Great War.  The books subtitle is a bit misleading.  Paris is but a piece of the story.  The work is a loose collection of material and ponderings about France, England, and even Australia during that war.  One chapter is fiction.  There is some chronology in the order of presentation, but at times it seems to be all over the place.

There are really two stories told.  One is about Archie Baxter, the authors Australian grandfather who served during the war with the Anzac troops and spent some time in France.  It seems that Archie never told his family about what he did or where he was in France during the war.  The author patches together available family mementos and archival records to find out that a medical problem (varicose veins) kept Archie out of combat, and a good bit of Archies time was spent in England for needed medical care.  In fact, there is no evidence that Archie ever saw the lights of Paris.  So why is he a central figure in this book about Paris?  Is it perhaps because his story helps to fill pages?  The fabricated chapter is an effort to link Archie with Paris, but it doesnt work well.

The other told story is about the literary and performing arts and the various caricatures that spun around the art world during the war.  Many of these people are self-indulgent nouveau riche who seem to be disconnected with what is going on around them.  Much of this is entertaining, but these events and personalities are presented as if they are representative of Parisian life during the time.  To be sure, that was part of life in the city, but what about everything else that was going on?  Very little is said about the effects of the war on the middle and lower classes or what the war did to family life, or about the economics of a capital city so near to the front, or local politics during the ebb and flow of the conflict, or about any effects on in the religious institutions and activities.  I could go on, but the bottom line is that the book comes up far, far too short on what life was like in Paris during the Great War.  Its interesting in places, but wanting on historical substance.
31845
A useful and mildly interesting book with a couple of unfortunate limitations.

First, although there were twelve Century Series designations (F-100 through F-111), and eleven of them were assigned, the book is ENTIRELY about the six named on the cover.  I would have hoped that a book subtitled "The Century Series Fighters" would at least briefly discuss all of them, if only to explain why the others weren't covered.  Nope.

Second, a common weakness of books written by enthusiasts:  it has lots of historical DATA, dates and squadrons and deployments, but little historical ANALYSIS, so it's rather dull reading.  It talks a lot about what happened, but only rarely discusses why.  For example, the attentive newcomer might notice that the F-100 was designed as a day fighter (to shoot down other aircraft) but seems to have spent its entire service career as a light bomber (dropping things on ground targets), but the book never even mentions this apparent contradiction, let alone explaining why it happened (hint:  no room in the nose for radar!).  The F-104's accident rate gets only superficial coverage (not all air forces that flew it had lots of crashes).  There is no mention of why F-105 production ended relatively early.  And so on.

As a collection of the basic stories of the six aircraft named on the cover, it's okay.  I did learn some things from it.  But a full and proper history of the Century Series fighters, it's not.
2992320
The book is not bad, it just does not move the main story forward.  It's basically a collection of stories that allow you to learn about the various characters back stories. I would have been much more satisfied if it has a story that expanded the main plot and then just two stories that covered the back stories of the other characters.
889299
This book provides an excellent narrative "making-of" overview of things like how Neil Gaiman wrote and sold the original "Coraline" novel, some cover/internal artwork from various international editions, the adaptation of the story to stop-motion animation w/ descriptions of the process, the professional backgrounds of the filmmakers and voice-actors, other dramatic adaptations of the story, and so on.

What it *doesn't* provide is a true visual overview of the finished film itself. It reads very much like an extensive promotional kit that was released before the movie to whip up interest without giving too much away. The conceptual drawings and behind-the-scenes photos are perfectly adequate for this sort of background/promo prose, but they certainly don't live up the "Visual Companion" title that invites direct comparison to other exhaustive "Visual Companions" of the Star Wars movies etc.

If this were titled something like "The Making of Coraline", I think it would solidly rate four or even five stars-- Gaiman and his daughters provide some fascinating background information about elements of their respective childhoods that were eventually incorporated into "Coraline". But as a "Visual Companion", it's an abject failure.

I'm still giving it three stars because I don't think it's a bad book in itself; it provides perfectly solid background info of the type I've described above. It just has a completely misleading title whose implied metric it doesn't live up to.
1489015
Visually arresting if somewhat flat on story -- still it's worth a see. Get it when it's on sale -- worth it if purchased for $14 or less
3572785
Pros: Nice pics, covers a lot of background shark information

Cons: Formatting errors, no color, few information errors

Overall not a bad book for shark enthusiasts. However it is not perfect & in a way a missed opportunity from what it could have been. A few errors that bug me is not listing "Xenacathida" on the shark family tree (but listing every other group), saying sharks are virtually unchanged & implying have been unchallenged at the marine apex predator role for the past 400 million years, saying the cenozoic lasted from 65 to 37.5 MA (likely meant the paleogene), not listing when certain species were alive/ went extinct (but of course you can research yourself/ write it in) and listing all Hemipristis sharks under mackeral sharks instead of ground sharks (but is an easy fix as they are at the end of the lamniform section). Just don't expect a perfect book if you already know a bunch about sharks but if you are just getting into sharks, you may not even notice. Expected this book in color, especially for the price, but the pics are still good.
1502181
This book is a slim, nice little book that tries, I think, to do too much.  It covers sixteen battles of the ancient world, from the show Time Commanders.  Yet is uses very little in the way of images, either from the game show or any other source.
It does have a nice section dealing with the ancient historians who helped us to understand the battles and it also has a timeline that links them all together.
However, the battles are not really written about in any great detail.  The chapters on each are only a few pages long and the battles themselves sometimes are only described in a few paragraphs.
So if you are a adult wishing to know more about a certain battle this is not the book for you.  And a kid will unlikely find enough blood, glory and action in it for their tastes.
As for being a TV Tie-In for the Time Commanders show, the information in the back lists the first season battles, team information and results.  But many of the results are wrong.  For example, at the battle of Cannae Bedfordshire police officers played the Carthaginians and the book says they won.  Well, no, in the show they lost.  And so on.
So if you are a serious historian this book isn't really detailed enough.  If you are a kid this book is too dry for you.  And if you are a fan of the game show it is not worth picking up.  I would suggest the DVD set&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Decisive-Battles-of-the-Ancient-World-History-Channel/dp/B000H5U5UI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Decisive Battles of the Ancient World (History Channel)</a>&nbsp;instead.
4581742
Brian Cronin's book, "Was Superman a Spy," purports to be an overview of urban legends and myths throughout the comics industry, with the intent to confirm or debunk them.  Instead, it's an overview of the history of superhero comics, with the majority of its attention given to the Big Two, Marvel and DC.

That doesn't make it bad.  Many chapters are thorough, and have enough new and interesting facts and factoids that keep the reader interested.  However, certain problems arise from either a writing or an editing perspective, or possibly both.

First of all, Cronin includes chapters on "DC Comics Miscellanea,"  "Marvel Comics Miscellanea," and "Various Comic Book Companies."  While the information contained in these chapters is interesting, there seems to be little or no attempt at organization.  While I understand that these chapters are intended to focus on miscellanea, there are no subheadings to sections, simply a lurch from topic to topic, seemingly at random.  The chapter entitled "Various Comic Book Companies," in particular, has elements regarding a lot of the litigation between companies and could have been an interesting and focused discussion about intellectual property while maintaining the interest level.  Instead, it just...lurches.

Second, the tonal shifts are disconcerting.  The overviews of DC and Marvel, as well as the chapters on major characters, tend to be interesting and entertaining, with a touch of the scholar about them.  Other chapters seem slapdash, written from a highly opinionated perspective that jars with the rest of the book.  In addition, Cronin loves exclamation marks the way metal bands love umlauts.  It's kind of sloppy.

Finally, Cronin seems preoccupied with Hollywood and film versions of characters.  Sometimes the discussion is interesting (The Incredible Hulk), other times it seems pointless (does anyone care that Jonathan Frakes was once paid to dress up as Captain America for a Comic Convention?).

I think that, to a degree, Cronin suffered from an inattentive editor.

I somehow get the impression that this was rushed to meet a printing deadline, since parts of the book seem so unpolished.  However, it's still worth reading.  The content and information provided gets 5 stars from me.  The slapdash nature of many of the chapters and the tonal shifts/writing style get about 2.5 stars.

My advice is to pick up Scott Tipton and Chris Ryall's&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Comic-Books-101-The-History-Methods-and-Madness/dp/1600611877/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Comic Books 101: The History, Methods and Madness</a>&nbsp;first, for a better overview of the history of the industry.  If you're still interested, come on back and read Cronin's book.  It's decent.
3024311
Well writen but doesn't cover much that hasn't been said before
3233484
This is Columbia's McTell 2-CD boxed set. The text on the back of the box tells us that the collection is complete, but doesn't specify what they means by "complete".  It lacks Statesboro Blues, which means the collection is neither complete nor definitive. Typical of Columbia remastering of old blues or jazz recordings, the surface noise is minimized at the expense of depth of the actual recording. McTell's booming 12-string sounds rather thin on these Colombia remasterings.

For better alternatives, there's a new Yazoo "best-of" collection which will probably be the CD of choice if you want a one-CD collection. These guys are reliably excellent with digital remastering of early blues recordings. Then there's JSP's boxed set (5-CDs) of complete early recordings up to 1940. The JSP includes Statesboro and all of his early classics, in excellent sound. And it can be had for $20 to $30, so it might steal 1st choice from Yazoo, unless you're short of storage space. Whichever you choose, McTell is one of the great singers of his age, plus he had a fair hand with the guitar. An essential acquisition if you're building an early blues collection.
3705866
It's not a book. It's not worth the money. It is a fascinating story which pulls you in BUT the sample is the entire story minus a few paragraphs that end that chapter or section. Rest of the book is old grainy pictures with no description and bios of those individuals who were part of the early ET movement/speakers/photographers, etc. The first part about Valiant Thor draws your interest but it is just a teaser and the story is not complete. It does not cover any of his time with Frank Stranges or his time here. It is just a fascinating intro that goes nowhere.