Product Description
Even now something is missing from the history of Vietnam. Behind the burning sense of horror and betrayal the personal stories remain untold. No one has bothered to talk to the men and women who went to Vietnam and fought the war. What happened to boys and girls straight out of school who were plunged from the basketball park into the napalm jungle? Who were they fighting for? How did conscripts and volunteers live through the war and how can they live with the scars? Mark Baker recorded conversations with dozens of Vietnam veterans. NAM is a unique and harrowing collection of those interviews, as raw and shocking as an open wound. This is the story of the human cost of a war that had no survivors, only veterans. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

used book
Book cover was a Little more worn looking than expected but generally in good condition.Book came in a timely manner.

Great non-fictional book to read
This is a great representation of the Vietnam War and its soldiers.It tells the true stories of how different people from different parts of America got in the war and how they survived.The stories are very intense and very real so this book might not be suitable for young readers.I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what really happened over in Vietnam and not the fairy tales you see on television.

The best way to learn the truth
If you think you know vietnam read this book, it will shock you and amaze you. Easy to read hard to digest Nam really makes you understand what all the involved went through and trully puts in perspective weather kennedy was a good man.

Great book from a 15 year old
Great book, my dad's friend gave it to me to read, i couldn`t put it down, and most the time i hate reading, but it read it very quickly, the fastest i have ever read a book, its so vivid, i can picture it, just the best book i have ever read!

Very Real details of soldiers lives in the Nam!
Its very well made, chapter 1 starts with how each soldier joined, to the final chapter when they came home, Not a book about the author, but the lives of many vets, and told word for word by the vets. ... Read more

Product Description
'I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal having had a violent experience at the age of nine' Jessica Vye's 'violent experience' colours her schooldays and her reaction to the world around her- a confining world of Order Marks, wartime restrictions, viyella dresses, nicely-restrained essays and dusty tea shops. For Jessica she has been told that she is 'beyond all possible doubt', a born writer. With her inability to conform, her absolute compulsion to tell the truth and her dedication to accurately noting her experiences, she knows this anyway. But what she doesn't know is that the experiences that sustain and enrich her burgeoning talent will one day lead to a new- and entirely unexpected- reality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal
A long way from Verona indeed. Jane Gardam's novel is set not in the Italian city but in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Verona is, in fact, never mentioned in the book, although there are a couple of references to "Romeo and Juliet", and an Italian prisoner-of-war plays a minor role. The story takes place in 1940/41, during the early days of the Second World War. The narrator and central character is Jessica Vye, the thirteen-year-old daughter of a local clergyman. There may be autobiographical elements in the book; Ms Gardam would have been thirteen in 1941, and the seaside town in which it is set is clearly based on her own home town of Redcar. Jessica herself has ambitions to become a writer.

There is no central, strongly-defined plot line; the book is episodic in structure, recounting the main occurrences in Jessica's life over a period of several months. Despite the historical period in which it is set, this is not so much a war story as a coming-of-age story with a wartime setting. Only in one, crucial, episode do the hostilities play a significant role. Jessica has become friendly with Christian Fanshawe-Smythe, the fifteen-year-old son of one of her father's clerical colleagues, and he suggests that they should together visit a neighbouring industrial town to see how its working-class inhabitants live. When they do, they are caught up in an air raid.

The theme of social class is an important one in the book. Although the fathers of both families are clergymen, there is a strong contrast between the wealthy Fanshaw-Smythes and the lower-middle-class Vyes, a contrast brought out when Jessica is invited to spend an uncomfortable weekend as a guest of the Fanshawe-Smythes, and is dismissed as "gharsley" (ghastly) by their daughters. Christian, an ardent Communist, regards the working-class neighbourhood as a hellish slum, whereas Jessica cannot see what is so bad about it. Christian's friendship with Jessica has less to do with any romantic interest in her than with his (probably incorrect) belief that her mildly left-wing father, a former schoolmaster who has left that profession to follow his religious vocation as a curate, shares his Communist convictions.

There is more to the novel, however, than a guide to the British class system as it existed in the early forties. Ms Gardam's main concern was not to explore social issues but to create a portrait of a sensitive girl in her early teens. As one might imagine, the most important element in Jessica's world, apart from her family, is her school, and many of the incidents describe concern her relationships with her classmates and her teachers. One point that comes through is that the British educational system at this period seems to have been in many ways a stiflingly conservative one, more concerned with turning out well-scrubbed, well-behaved little conformists than with encouraging children to think for themselves. (A similar point is made in Muriel Spark's "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie"). The system is quite ill-suited to the needs of a sensitive, intelligent child like Jessica, whose class teacher Miss Dobbs nurtures a strong dislike for her.

Despite some serious themes, the book is essentially a witty one, even at times a comic one. Jessica has a quite original, idiosyncratic way of looking at the world, as she readily admits; the opening words are "I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal, having had a violent experience at the age of nine". Jane Gardam encourages us to see the world through Jessica's eyes and to smile with her at its oddities. A very enjoyable novel.

God for Harry, England and St. George!
It's one of those rare books that began as a children's tale and ended up considerably adult 30-some years down the line.This happens to a great many children's books over time."The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland", and others all began with kids as the intended audience but later ended up in the hands of scholarly adults everywhere.Such is the fate of the remarkably well-written "A Long Way From Verona".A thoughtful book that considers what it is to be a writer, one girl's battle with the crippling depression of adolescence, and some mild magical realism for kicks, this is a mighty intelligent 190 pages.It's funny, insightful, and one of the few books that I will concede that adults will enjoy far more than children.

Jessica Vye cannot tell a lie.Or rather, she probably could but she would prefer not to.Growing up in the middle of World War II and attending an all girls local school, Jessica has been having some difficulty with certain members of the educational staff.She's occasionally abrasive but always amusing to listen to and has a far clearer eye than most of the adults around her.She is convinced that she can be a writer by an elderly author at the start of the book, and as such she dedicates herself to her own style.The rest of "A Long Way From Verona" follows suit, with Jessica doing exactly what she wants in the face of those with more power around her.By the book's end she has grappled with what it means to be happy in this world in spite of all its misery and has been ultimately redeemed in terms of her own writing.

By the time I finished reading this book, I found that I had been continually comparing it to 1972's mighty similar, "A Sound of Chariots", by Mollie Hunter.In both cases, English girls growing up during and after major world wars deal with their communist/socialist fathers and defy authority at every turn.I wish heartily that I had read, "Chariots", only after reading "Verona", since Gardam's book was not only the first written but is also more amusing as a whole.Gardam is not afraid to dive deep into the world of biting satire.Some of the best passages in this book come when Jessica reluctantly stays a week-end with some rich neighbors on their own insistence.These people are the kind of pink-cheeked, healthy, all-British family that you'd see on greeting cards or advertisements.Their relentlessly cheerful and utterly and completely awful.For a brief amount of time, Jessica falls for the family's son, Christian, a boy who adores her father for his articles about human dignity in the New Statesman.In my favorite passage, Christian decides that Jessica has never seen any slums and takes her to see one.The thing is, Christian is coming from a very privileged background.The area that he repeatedly calls "hell" is, to Jessica's eyes, not so bad.As he tries to convince her that she's in the worst place in the world, Jessica just says, "Well, I think I expected green slime or something.Just shacks and green slime.I mean I haven't seen anywhere worse exactly ... But if they planted a few trees ... If it was all painted white, and it was in Africa or somewhere and they had bright-colored clothes".

I love this.And this is the tone of the book in general.What makes Gardam so remarkable is that "A Long Way From Verona" has a very modern voice.Jessica is cynical in a very contemporary way.Her father has become a curate, though this is the Church of England we're talking here.Nothing too relentlessly spiritual.At one point Jessica is sick in bed and she asks her father to remove a particularly sickly picture of, "Jesus as a boy with curly yellow hair, holding out his hands above a lot of rabbits".Her father agrees instantly that it has to go and with a flourish shoves it under the bed with a "Goodbye".Gardam also zeroes in on that peculiar phenomenon where girls in their early teens fixate on depressing literature.Jessica reads "Jude the Obscure" and can't stop thinking of it.Girls today read, "The Lovely Bones" and "A Child Called It" and feel the same way.It's marvelous.If I've any objections to this book at all, it might be the name.Who on earth is going to pick up a book called, "A Long Way From Verona"?It has almost nothing to do with the book, aside from Jessica's decision not to read Shakespeare's, "Romeo and Juliet".Far better to name it, "The Maniac" after her prize-winning poem or, heck, "Green Bezzums".I vote for the latter.

It should come as no surprise that Gardam's book reads better from an adult perspective than a childish one.Just look at her more recent novels and you can see that she has given up writing for children entirely.Whether this is because she realizes that her voice is better appreciated by people over the age of 22, or because her publishers and editors are forever steering her away from a younger audience, I do not know.I do wish that this book might get a re-release under an adult publisher and be rediscovered by humanity as a whole.Until that happens, however, it's just going to remain one of those amazing little secrets.A book that pleases everyone who reads it and deserves more attention.Lovely.

Superb beyond all possible doubt
It's good to see this exceptional book back in print. I don't think Gardam's adult novels--fine as they are--have the dancing intensity of her early work for children. Jessica Vye is immediately engaging, and her growth takes her out into the world instead of into herself, and towards the amazed discovery that "good things take place" in spite of everything. I was a teenager way too long ago, am male, and never lived in the north of England; but this remains one of my favorite pieces of fiction. Read it, reread it, and go dig up a copy of "Bilgewater", too....

To hell with school! English is life!
I first read this book at the age of ten. After I returned it to the library, I forgot the title and had to spend hours scouring the bookshelves to find it again. It was worth it. Even now, at eighteen, I love it more than ever. This book should be read by everyone, but especially by children.The basic story is; a young girl who dreams of being a writer goes to a stuffy English private school where the teachers take every action possible to crush her ambitions. However, she prevails with irrepressible wit and humor. If you're passionate about life, literature, or anything at all, READ THIS BOOK!

favourite book of all time
This is my favourite book of all time.I never get tired of reading it. It's about this thirteen year old girl in England during the second worldwar, and stuff that happens to her over a year or two.It's one of thosebooks where the girl is narrating and perceiving one thing but you (withyour superior wisdom and experience) can see more than she does.I thinkit's very real and subtle and a true statement of what it's like to be ateenage girl.This part is so true, that I feel like I'm really learningabout how it must have been like during the war in England.So often Ifeel a disconnect when people write about this age group. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A MUST-BUY FOR PARODOPHILES
Beyond a doubt, this is one of the best ideas ever conceived. A University hosts a contest where the contestants try and come up with the most intentionally stupid opening lines for a novel. Needless to say, some of the results are downright hilarious. I spent a good part of a day pouring over the pages of this book. There are categories for science ficton novels, romance novels, plain-jane fiction, detective stories, "It was a dark and stormy night" stories, you name it, it's probably in here in some shape or form. Because the entrys are short, this is one book that can very easily be finished in one sitting, whether you're riding in the car, or flying your hang-glider. The artwork that goes along with the book is nice, too. If I were you, I'd hunt down these books with the same enthusiasm that a headhunter would go after Mr. Potatohead.

If you like wordplay, you just can't beat it.
"Son of 'It was A Dark And Stormy Night' " is the second of, to the best of my knowledge, five collections of entries in the annual "Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest". (The others being "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night", "Dark And Stormy Rides Again", "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night: The Final Conflict", and, I think, "Bride Of Dark And Stormy", if I'm not mistaken.) The Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest is a contest , named for Sir Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose "Paul Clifford" (1830) opens with the immortal line "It was a dark and stormy night...", which is run by Scott Rice and sponsored by San Jose State University, in which contestants vie to write the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels. Generally, the trick is to make the sentences as complex syntactically as it is possible to imagine, while violating as many rules of creative consistency as possible, and to be certain that no noun is without more than its share of purple-prose adjectives.

This is not for everyone, but if this sounds like fun to you, it probably is. This is the third of the collections that I've read; I thought that "The Final Conflict" was better than the original; this is even better than that one.

A wonderful way to wile the hours away.
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction competitions are simply great for light reading.Highly suggested.Great Gifts, too. ... Read more

Product Description
This classic freestanding abacus is perfect for counting and problem-solving activities. Its 9" x 9" (23 x 23cm) wood frame holds 100 beads in 10 rows and six colors. Activity guide included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Counting Frame is an abacus
After reading that one buyer's Doug & Melissa abacus fell apart, and Lo! Beads went all over the floor, to expose 10 child-menacing wire rods, I decided to take a chance on this one.

This abacus is a kiddie abacus (counting frame).Hope it does not collapse. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

a unique time capsule
This book is a great time capsule of movie making Special Effects, pre 'Star Wars' in 1977 when everything, including the attitiude toward special effects in movies changed!
The book focuses on a lot of movies which were in their day ground breaking, and are still vital in the history of visual effects today - Willis O'Brien's 'King Kong' being the most notable example.
There are many interviews and anecdotes from the Hollywood studios of the 30s, 40s and 50s, through to the legendary '2001: A Space Odyssey' and into the early 70's. Significant time is dedicated to stop-motion animation - which for many, many years was the only reasonable way to create decent creature effects.
Overall, the book is a little light on technical details. Techniques are described in concept and many of the processes and issues discussed are not relevant today. e.g. - The pros and cons of back-projection vs front projection which are barely used today.
Throughout though, there is a genuine love and respect for the craftsmanship, as well as the importance of the context for the work - the awe and wonder the images conjure up.
This is a book that I read at an early age and it got me really interested in how special effects were done, and while it did not provide all the answers, it certainly got the creative juices going.
Above all though, it's a great time capsule in that it does not look back fondly in light of what we know today, it literally was written before the rule book got a total overhaul (in 1977), and as such is pretty much unique.
For anyone really interested in the craft of Special Visual Effects - as I am - they should have a place for this on their shelf.

A Forgotten Masterpiece
In this era of viral Internet information, it's impossible for this generation to remember a time when instant access to special effects jargon wasn't always at our fingertips.

Years before "Cinefex" magazine became a staple for the FX hungry, THIS book was the repository -- the Bible -- of accumulated FX knowledge.The first proper authoritative tome of its kind.

In my childhood, I borrowed this book (along with Jerome Agel's "Making Of 2001" -- the book that influenced James Cameron to pursue a career in special effects) from my local library for well over a year.It fascinated me, and made me want to follow in the footsteps of the people I read about within.

It was my pleasure to become a drinking buddy with Mr Brosnan some years later in London's West End.When I told him this book made him a childhood hero of mine, he groaned and told me he'd lost count of the times that had been told him.

It was an appelation he deserved.

When Mr Brosnan died in 2005 -- I had to miss his funeral literally 5 minutes walk from my house because I had to give a lecture in Ireland.But, I thought of him that day.

I have a copy of this wonderful book that I purchased in a secondhand store in Burbank.Even now, it's an incredible repository of knowledge that anyone with a passing interest in the special effects field should seek out.They'll still learn a trick or two. ... Read more

Product Description
The poems of Louise Erdrich reflect what it is to be a woman, a Midwesterner and a native American. She presents that region and those people without sentimentality, and although drawing from a deep well she does not ignore the ordinary. Her novels include "Love Medicine". ... Read more

Product Description
The Abacus Evolve Textbooks for Year 4: * Offer clear differentiation and progression. * Contain problem-solving integrated throughout the book, including word problems, number puzzles, investigations and more. * Include 'owl questions' to extend high achievers and provide opportunities for using and applying for the whole class. ... Read more

Product Description
"A fascinating compendium of information about writing systems–both for words and numbers."
–Publishers Weekly

"A truly enlightening and fascinating study for the mathematically oriented reader."
–Booklist

"Well researched. . . . This book is a rich resource for those involved in researching the history of computers."
–The Mathematics Teacher

In this brilliant follow-up to his landmark international bestseller, The Universal History of Numbers, Georges Ifrah traces the development of computing from the invention of the abacus to the creation of the binary system three centuries ago to the incredible conceptual, scientific, and technical achievements that made the first modern computers possible. Ifrah takes us along as he visits mathematicians, visionaries, philosophers, and scholars from every corner of the world and every period of history. We learn about the births of the pocket calculator, the adding machine, the cash register, and even automata. We find out how the origins of the computer can be found in the European Renaissance, along with how World War II influenced the development of analytical calculation. And we explore such hot topics as numerical codes and the recent discovery of new kinds of number systems, such as "surreal" numbers.

Adventurous and enthralling, The Universal History of Computing is an astonishing achievement that not only unravels the epic tale of computing, but also tells the compelling story of human intelligence–and how much further we still have to go.Amazon.com Review
From the I Ching to AI, tremendous human brainpower has been devoted to devising easier means of counting and thinking. Former math teacher Georges Ifrah has devoted his life to tracking down traces of our early calculating tools and reporting on them with charm and verve. The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacus to Quantum Computing gives a grand title to a grand subject, and Ifrah makes good on his promise of universality by leaping far back in time and spanning all of the inhabited continents. If his scope is vast, his stories and details are still engrossing. Readers will hang on to the stories of 19th-century inventors who converged on multiplication machines and other, more general "engines," and better understand the roots of biological and quantum computation. Ifrah has great respect for our ancestors and their work, and he transmits this feeling to his readers with humor and humility. His timelines, diagrams, and concordance help the reader who might be unfamiliar with foreign concepts of numbers and computation keep up with his narrative. By the end, his slight bias against strong artificial intelligence comes through, but he is careful to acknowledge the future's unforeseeable nature and suggest that we keep our minds open. How can we resist? --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Simply A Must Read!
This is simply a must read for anyone who is interested in numerical literacy!

Indispensable and should be required curriculum for anyone who teaches who wishes to think of themselves as versed in the arts and letters.

APhilosophical Approach
If you have been looking for a more academic approach to the history of computing then this is the book for you.

The book is divided into three parts. Part One contains a very comprehensive taxonomy/chronology showing the evolution of human number systems.

Part Two is where you will find the core "History of Computing" bit: tables, logarithms, analogue/digital, mechanical calculators, automatic calculation, electronic machines etc. It also includes an interleaved, and detailed, explanation of how computing has evolved from basic number crunching into abstract information processing.

Part Three reads like a long philosophical conclusion and contains some excellent material on ethics and artificial intelligence.

It starts with the development of efficient notation
Until recently, the history of computing has tended to be tied to the goals of mathematicians, as they struggled to keep up with the increasing demands of a society growing more technical. As nations began to trade with other nations, the necessity of performing computations on larger numbers very quickly forced changes in the notation. When first introduced into Europe, the modern decimal system of notation was greeted with skepticism and some hostility. However, as is nearly always the case in human endeavors, it was accepted rather quickly, as it was so much more efficient than other systems such as Roman numerals. Therefore, the history of computing devices is bound very tightly with improvements in representation, and the historical changes in notation are the topic of the first section of the book.
Ifrah does an excellent job in recapitulating the history of the notation of computation, covering the entire world, ending up with the modern notation and the efficiency of binary numbers. Nearly forty pages are devoted to explanations of many ancient numerical notations, and many figures are included. It is this approach that differentiates this book from other histories of computing. Other authors concentrate on the history of the evolving architectures of the computing devices, ignoring the necessary precondition of a compact and efficient notation. It is very difficult to imagine computing devices that could easily perform arithmetic on Roman numerals.
The second section is a two track treatment of the development of computing devices. One track covers the mathematical preliminaries and the second the mechanical advances that led to the construction of accurate computers. Most of the early improvements were done by mathematicians, and it was not until the late nineteenth century that governments started to be interested in computers. The primary event was the work of Charles Babbage, who showed that computers were possible and how valuable they could be in performing routine computations that were highly prone to error.
In many ways, this history of computing is more a history of the requisite mathematics rather than a history of hardware. This is a second way in which this book differs from other histories. One of the reasons why computers have improved so quickly is that much of the theoretical background for their actions were developed before the machines were. Ifrah explains that in great detail, describing how some of the principles of abstract mathematics have been applied to the building of computers.
The final section is very small and deals with the future of computing. This is a wise move, as this book is a history and one thing we have learned from the recent history of computers is that predicting the future is largely impossible. We know that they will get faster, have more memory and the usage will increase, but the consequences of this are difficult to predict.
If your interest is in the preconditions necessary for computers to be widely used, then this is the book for you. Ifrah covers all of the notational and mathematical background necessary for computers to be useful, for without that, they would probably have been little more than intellectual toys.

Published in the recreational mathematics e-mail newsletter, preprinted with permission.

Methodical history but a little dry
I would have expected from the title that this book might have started in the 1940s (or at the earliest with Babbage and the Difference Engine) and told the story of the development of computers from there. No, as the subtitle indicates, this book goes way back. In fact, the first section is a summary of number systems going back to the age of the Egyptians and before. It's a very methodical and somewhat dry tale, not helped by being translated from the French by translators who feel compelled to insert their own comments at intervals.

When it does get going, it provides a history of the relevant mathematics as well as automata from the Islamic era forward. The actual computer era is touched on mostly in its early stages, with the first computers of the forties and fifties. And it concludes with about sixty pages that have nothing to do with history but rather attempt to define key words such as "information" and "computer."

All in all, it is a methodical and thorough book, perhaps a little dry but not as much as some books I have read. The author muses on the implications of various stages of discovery rather than simply relating the facts (and the translators chime in as well), which enlivens the story. Still, this book is probably for the more interested rather than the casual reader.

The Universal History of Computing : From the Abacus to
This book is really fascinating, especially if you are interested in scientific and technical achievements. Read this book and you'll find out how the computer can be traced to the Renaissance, and how Word War II influenced the development of analytical calculation. The epic tale of computing comes to life in these pages. ... Read more

Product Description
The essays in this book include some of the subjects that fascinated Primo Levi - the house he lived in all his life, butterflies and spiders, imaginary creatures dreamed up by children, Rabelais, writing a novel, returning to school at 60 and the need for fear. Throughout the book there are glimpses of long lost childhood summers, his grandparents, adolescence and, most importantly, his writing. The book, which is near to autobiographical of Levi's post-Auschwitz years, conveys his conviction that though "we are living in an epoch rife with problems and perils, it is not boring". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A humane, wise book
It is really unfortunate that this book is out of print now, it deserves to be reissued and widely read.Those who know of Primo Levi only know, for the most part, that he was a partisan, was a survivior of Auschwitz, a chemist, and died, a likely suicide.All of these are true. However, there is more to Primo Levi than those stark facts, and this book makes them abundantly clear.Levi had many interests, a lively curiosity, and was an excellent writer.Think Stephen Jay Gould or Lewis Thomas as a passionate Italian, and you're close.He does not mention his time at Auschwitz in this book.He writes about his youth, the apartment building in Turin he always lived in, about his experiences with primitive personal computers/word preocessors, his trip upon a submarine, and so much more. ... Read more

Product Description
The seahorse-shaped island of Evia is the second largest in Greece - and most British visitors have never heard of it. Not so long ago the inhabitants were still walking to town to swap a goat for a pair of trousers, and the question of where a bus ends its journey is still largely contingent upon what takes the driver's fancy. Taking an idiosyncratic look at island life, this is an account of the author's five-month journey encompassing a goatherd's wedding with 250 revellers, Early Bronze Age excavations, sheep's heads in the sink, Coca-Cola and cold goat for breakfast, disastrous rendezvous with unlikely men, and theological persecution by Orthodox nuns bent on converting her. But it is a journey as much about time as place. The author's responsiveness to Evia's present is, on another level, a search for a way to preserve its rich history and rural traditions, as the island's fragile way of life is rendered increasingly precarious by Western culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Lifting the veil off Negroponte
Sara Wheeler's merits as a potent travel writer and her powers of description are obvious. Her displaying of the multiple facets of this multiethnic island (Euboea is the Latinizedname for Evvia, which in turn was known during the 273 year long Lombard and Venetian rule as NegroPonte, and then during the Ottomans as Egriboz) brings justice, finally, to Euboea, prior known rather as a narrow unadulterated Greek outpost.
She describes also the Arvanite (Mediaeval Albanian) community of Southern Euboea who stubbornly clings to their archaic patois. These people were invited in Euboea by the Venetians (and they inhabit to-day the romantic Cavo D'Oro aka Cape Kafireas)..
Wheeler's work is one of pioneer and she deserves aplauses..

A good travel book is like a warm bath
And this is a good travel book. Wheeler tells of her travels through the modern Greek island of Evia-- exploring the remnants of ancient Greece (including the fascinating Dragon Houses) and the modern culture of theisland. This is a warts-and-all kind of book with Wheeler being constantlyharassed about her freckles and unmarried state and her opionions aboutMargaret Thatcher. However, she doesn't neglect the good things-- like thewarm hospitality of the people and her good fortune in being able to standas koumbara to a Greek child. ... Read more

Product Description
Covering the background and philosophy of the "New Abacus" programme, this book shows how it delivers UK curricula requirements, offering examples of good practice in planning, and record-keeping and assessment. ... Read more

Product Description
THOUSANDS OF YEARS FROM NOW THE HUMAN ANIMAL IS STILL A BEAST

Now there are two sentient races inhabiting the known universe: one as human as Adam. . .the other of robotic mind.

They share the Earth in harmonious coexistence. But elsewhere, only those who age and war and die are permitted.

On earth, a young human prince has befriended a being far different from himself. But usurpation and fratricide are calling them both to the royal youths embattled home planet--drawing them into a nest of treacherous family conspiracy and cruel, naked ambition where the enemy owns the armies, the power, and the very soul of the world. But the prince will have his revenge, though only ally stands at his side: a peace-loving creature of augmented intelligence in a place where he is am unwelcome stranger--a barbarous world where he is forbidden. . .and feared. Amazon.com Review
Winner of more than one Ditmar Award (Australia's highest honor for sciencefiction), Damien Broderick has been doing SF, criticism, and academicresearch for many years. The White Abacus doubtless introduces himto more people outside of the Commonwealth.

To use the phrase "Hamlet in space" to describe The White Abacus is not a criticism; the book is a Shakespearean tour de force set far in thefuture. "Hu" (humans) are scientifically sophisticated, but emotionallyimmature. "Ai" (artificial intelligence) are rational and peace-loving,though more politically developed than most hu know.In most of theuniverse, hu and ai live together in harmony, but not in the Asteroid Beltof humanity's home solar system. An isolationist movement there left thepioneers extremely religious and dead set against using the "hex gates"that enable instantaneous travel between planets. Life on Psyche in theBelt remains a serious business, for humans only--no ai allowed.

Psyche's young prince Telmah (try reading it backwards) is sent to Earth tostudy, and there befriends an ai being named Ratio who has been painfullyseparated from the Gestell, a unified state of the ai. Telmah and hisfriends spend their days studying, romping, and playing at sophisticatedgames. Back at home, his uncle Feng allegedly murders Telmah's father,marries the widowed mother, and usurps the Directorship. Determined toavenge his father, Telmah returns home to confront Uncle Feng. Thefaithful Ratio accompanies him, but unbeknownst to Telmah, Ratio hasanother motive besides friendship--a secret assignment from the Gestell.

Sound familiar? A fast-moving, updated version of the Hamlet tale, The White Abacus offers comedy, space opera, literary puzzles, and not a few surprises. --Bonnie Bouman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Australian SF Reader
Luddites in space. You would think that people that work in an asteroid belt wouldn't be anti-technology, but there you have it.

However, this particular part of society is definitely in the 'if you have to take me apart to get there I don't want to go' camp.

One of the leaders decides to cause a bit of trouble, and it is up to the protagonists, both human and machine, to stop him.

THE WHITE ABACUS
William Shakespeare's HAMLET is said to have been based on an older play, possibly by Tomas Kyd; the older play may have been taken directly from Danish legend or from some other intermediary source. Great stories thrivein new times and places.

THE WHITE ABACUS gives a thoroughly enjoyableanswer to the question of what Shakespeare might have done with HAMLET'splot and characters, given the chance to transport them to a time whenminds are connected through the Gestell and hex-gates allow instantaneousaccess to any point in the galaxy. For our characters, we find in thisfar-future setting a wide range of body-types to choose from, including thecasque-headed, artistically sensitive ai; the macho-anachronistic hu whobelieve that their soul resides in their vermiform appendices; and theGenetics who take on a surprising array of organic forms. Mind-bogglingfuture technologies, some inherited from science fiction forbears andothers newly invented, play their critical part throughout the book.

Thebook preserves HAMLET's immortal elements of power-lust, murder, betrayal,madness, and revenge, while adding some fascinating plot twists of its own.The tale is told with language as startlingly delightful as Shakespeare's:narrative that paints incredibly detailed sensory images and is at the sametime brilliantly comical; and dialogue that is at times hilarious, at othertimes thought provoking. To fully appreciate certain humorous references,the reader must have some knowledge of classical science fiction, as wellas classics in general.

This book is probably best approached as a totalimmersion Experience, where the reader floats along with the words on onelevel, enjoying the scenery and the ever-present soundtrack; and at anotherlevel thinks critically about what she's reading and laughs aloud when, forexample, she notices that Aaron Copland's APPALACHIAN SPRING is playingthrough a receiver in the ai Ratio's head as se stands in the middle ofDeath Valley, looking out over the salt flats.

My only regret is thatI'll never again have the opportunity to read THE WHITE ABACUS for thefirst time.

Pleasant Read But Too Whimsical By Half
A whimsical science fiction from Australia; a pleasant read, which nonetheless does not attain philosophical profundity and high drama it apparently strives for.The fact that the story is a reworking of HAMLETneeds not be a drawback, and in fact the author does manage to bring someamusing twists to the familiar elements of the Shakespearean tragedy,turning it into a comedy of manners disguised as a space opera. Unfortunately, after around Chapter 3, the plot gets into a hyperdrive,spouting conspiracies and Cosmic Issues everywhere like fungi, thecharacters either get hilariously psychotic (most of human personages) orturgid and boring (the ÒaiÓ characters, most of them acting like a bunch ofsullen C3POs), and the whimsy grows steadily grating.Believe me, by thetime you encounter a spacecraft piloted by a giant chicken (I am notkidding!) who insists on being called Captain Arthur C. Chicken, some ofyou would want to throw towels into the ring. Lower your expectations,expect an eloquently told yarn with little emotional stake and an averageSTAR TREK-episode level of brain labor, and you will have fun.

Not for Me
Soap Opera in space complete with the usual kings, queens and universal bores. UGH ... Read more

Product Description
Progress has led to more exciting inventions in this title of the Crafty Inventions series. Find out why astronomers developed the astrolabe, learn how military signals led to the invention of the kite and how the abacus made arithmetic easy. Then get your bearings with your own working compass, look through a pinhole camera, rig-up a model boat and cast a jelly hand.Table of Contents:AstrolabeEarly astronomySpinning wheelWheel and axleRudderBalanced forcesGlass windowMelting pointsCompassEarth s magnetismAbacus beadsNumber systemsCamera obscuraReflecting lightKite-flyingWind energyFurnaceMaking heatStained GlassLight and colourGlossary and IndexTools and materials ... Read more

Product Description
Back when they were students, just like everybody else, Ray Ash and Simon Darcourt had dreams about what they'd do when they grew up. In both their cases, it was to be rock stars. Fifteen years later, their mid-thirties are bearing down fast, and just like everybody else, they're having to accept the less glamorous hands reality has dealt them. Nervous new father Ray takes refuge from his responsibilities by living a virtual existence in online games. People say he needs to grow up, but everybody has to find their own way of coping. For some it's affairs, for others it's the bottle, and for Simon it's serial murder, mass slaughter and professional assassination. Visit the author's website on www.brookmyre.co.uk ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Carefully plotted, and very funny, but a little too long

I saw this author's stuff in bookshops in the UK - he is one of the top sellers there, but little known in the USA.What I got turned out to be a good subway book, a page turner that is a little smarter and a lot funnier than most.All in all, an enjoyable if not very enlightening read, and my only complaint is that, at 500 pages, it took up more of my time than it deserved.

Brookmyre, like my friend Tim Cockey, works the border between humor and mystery.His stuff is not quite funny enough to be hardcore humor, and it is a little too lite to be gripping suspense, but of course that is what he is trying to do, and it does work.I did find myself wondering who really is in control here - the clown or the master of suspense.Probably the clown - when he goees into burning sarcasm mode, he is as hot as anybody.But he takes his suspense very seriously, almost a little too seriously for a comic writer.The book is carefully plotted out, and rationales are provided for everything that happens.Practically every page has a cliffhanger on it.

The story centers on a college friendship that went awry.Raymond Ash and Simon Darcourt were flatmates and members of the same mediocre rock band, The Bacchae.Simon, a cold, manipulative egoist, always dreamed of stardom - but when this was denied to him, he became a leading international terrorist known as The Black Spirit.Raymond has recently had his first baby and entered the teaching profession.Raymond apparently spots Simon by chance in an airport, which is strange, because Simon is supposedly dead, perished in a bombed plane.In fact, he engineered the bombing himself.Raymond soon finds himself shot at, then kidnapped by a group of terrorists.I won't give away any more, but the book dips back into the past a lot, explaining Simon's motivations and past relations between Simon and Raymond.The ending is a little too much, and seems designed for Hollywood.

Brookmyre is a meticulouos plotter and a sarcastic humorist.Some sections are hysterically funny, like his description of a corporate workshop coach who gets people to make up raps about how they are going to help their companies - e.g. "Well here I am, my name is Je-re-mee / And my game is enhanced ee-fish-en-see / Sintek en-er-gee! /There for you and me!" etc.Simon kills him.All in all, an entertaining read, one written by an undeniably funny and careful craftsman.

Terribly Black Comedy
Christopher Brookmyre has taken a topic that has become present in the forefront of everyone's consciousness, presented a story in which he has managed to inject numerous humorous anecdotes and still been able to end up with a relevant reminder of how easily our lives may be touched by terrorism.

The title A BIG BOY DID IT AND RAN AWAY is reference to the way terrorists operate with the suggestion being that their acts of terror are nothing more than cowardly attacks by bullies who haven't got the guts to meet their enemies face to face.

The book starts out with a series of terrorist attacks that take place in various parts of the world and can all be attributed to a single man who is only known as the Black Spirit. Each of the attacks was simple yet untraceable and devastatingly effective resulting in the loss of many lives. The disturbing fact for the British Police Force is that the intelligence gathered by MI5 indicates that the Black Spirit's next attack is likely to occur somewhere on British soil.

Raymond Ash is a bored English teacher suffering the sleep deprivation that comes with living with a 3 month old baby with colic. One day while sitting in Aberdeen airport imagining what it might be like to just chuck it all in and jump on a plane out of there, he is startled to see his room-mate from his college days walking through the terminal. The reason for his surprise is that the guy had died in a plane crash 3 years ago. From this innocuous sighting, Raymond is about to have a very bad couple of days and a whole new appreciation of how fortunate he was to have led such a boring life.

The main storyline is set in Scotland with much of the dialogue spoken in Scottish slang for an authentic (although at times hard to understand) feel. We are slowly led towards the terrorist's target and the "against all odds" attempts by an unlikely bunch of "heroes" to avert a full on disaster. Along the way, Christopher Brookmyre has a habit of punctuating his story with a constant stream of asides, anecdotes, character introductions and histories. These interjections are both amusing and entertaining but they tended to break the flow of the story and occasionally made it a little hard to follow at times.

This minor inconvenience is offset by the enormous wealth of background information we get about each of the central characters. Whether it's an explanation on how a low-level marketing guy with a failed attempt at a rock career could become a deadly international terrorist or an interlude to reminisce about Raymond Ash's school days, Brookmyre has a flair for executing with an entertaining delivery. One thing's for sure, thanks to the plentiful supply of anecdotes throughout, we know all of the central characters inside and out. We care about them, we can identify with them and we can understand how they're feeling during the more stressful scenes. And believe me, towards the end of the book there are plenty of stressful moments.

When the finale takes place, it's inside a large complex and was rather reminiscent of some of the Matthew Reilly books that rely on action at all costs and a suspension of disbelief to ensure that a wild ride is had by all. It's a complete change to the way the first three quarters of the book was written, but it certainly entertained. One problem I had was in the convoluted description of the layout of the complex and where all the characters were in relation to one another. This part was crying out for an illustrated layout to be included a la Reilly or Clive Cussler.

For anyone who enjoys a humorous mystery that makes light of the more serious global concerns we face today, Christopher Brookmyre's A BIG BOY DID IT AND RAN AWAY is extremely satisfying. I have heard him compared to Carl Hiaasen both for his humour and his more serious underlying themes and I would have to agree with the comparison. A small warning about the extreme profane language used that may offend some readers.

Another Great Read
CB has produced another fantastic read. Maybe the references are a little parochial, but so what - use your imagination. IMO dry humour works anywhere - if you've travelled beyond your state/country who can't relate to PJ O'Rourke's rantings. CB manages this with a little more subtlety which makes his reading well worth it. His books capture the reader from start to end - which is quite annoying, I've read the fecker dry and wait for his next.

'Big Boy' is fantastic - the losing virginity chapter is laugh out loud funny. Of course I relate to the Glasgow setting (being a glaswegian and ex-QM member), but the characters translate country/cultural divides. Read it for feck sake and kick yourself out of the 'King of The Hill' mentality.

DB

A must read for us nerds
This is great! I never tought I'd read a novel with so many references to computer games, and to think that I even have played ALL of them is insane! (Yes even the most obscure game, I've played it!) The story is also a great read if you don't know about games (I asked my wife what she thought) even tough you might miss out...

Gaming rules, and C. Brookmyre, if you're ever on Rubi-Ka, come see me as Agna, Biola or Thesau ;)

Great Laugh and Good Suspense from the UK
I raced through the 500 pages of this book.It was really funny, witty, and quite a good look into current pop-culture in the UK.Brookmyre the author is able to make you laugh out loud.If you are looking for something that will tell you about life in the UK in an interesting and funny manner this is your book.Read it -- it's just good! ... Read more