All in all, this is the one audiobook one should acquire if one is a fan of Q. Written by the actor who plays him, you need never worry that he will act out of character. The way that Q's journey goes is an intriguing philosophical journey. The problem is that the begging secion and the next section is done by someone else, and it justs drags the overall stry down, to the point where it seems it hardly has an ending at all.

For the record, the story takes place after the episode of ST: Voyager where Q and another have a baby.

As afr as a basic primer as to what life was like in the early frontier, this is not a bad book. However, much of the writing is ponderous, boring, and quite dull. This is a decent book to skim through, but one should not bother trying to read it end to end to find out more about frontier life; there are far better books for that.

Basil Duke was a former editor of the Southern Bivouac and helped spread pro-Confederate literature after the Civil War. His Reminiscences offer an inside loom at the various facets of the Confederacy. Buke looks at the truth and beliefs about CSA Generals such as Albert Sidney Johnson and Braxton Bragg. He talks about what the Confederate people thought during the war, and what has happened during Reconstruction.

The Civil War scholar should have a copy of this book to refer to; it is an accessible and easy to obtain primary source.

Manifest Destiny's Underworld, a book written by Dr. Robert E. May of Purdue University, offers an in depth look at mid-19th Century filibusters.

Dr. May first gives a detailed history of the filibusters. First, he details the origins of the name and then describes the roots of filibustering. Then, he details all the prominent attempts to filibuster. He goes on to explain why Americans filibustered, why the United States government was unable to stop the filibusters, and the logistics involved in financing a filibuster attempt. Lastly, he deals with the consequences of the filibuster movement; specifically, how it affected United States foreign policy and the War Between the States.

Dr. May's goal in writing this book was to give the filibuster movement its proper place in history. He thought that too few historians had studied what the filibuster movement was, who was involved, how it came about, and its consequences. Dr. May wished for people to get a better understanding of the filibusters and what they meant in the history of America.

Dr. May did an excellent job in making his arguments and conclusions. Every time he makes a proposition, he backs up the statement with numerous facts. At the end of the book are 107 pages of notes, showing the amount of detail Dr. May gave to the book. I had always thought filibusters sought the expansion of slavery, and were few. This book taught me how widespread the filibuster movement was, and how much United States officials hated it. I never before realized how much the filibuster movement affected antebellum life in America. Previous lessons about filibusters never taught me as much as this book; after reading this book, I feel that I have read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Filibusters, only written in words that do not insult my intelligence. The author could not have done a better job at illustrating his points.

The best feature of the book is how well organized it is. Everything is logically discussed at the appropriate time. The voluminous notes guarantee the academic reliability of the book.

The only thing wrong with this book is that some details were skipped over in order to give further impact of other subjects. The epilogue was rather rushed; more detail about filibusters adjusting to life after the War Between the States would have been welcomed. A comparison between the filibusters and the gold miners of the California Gold Rush and the Yukon Rush would have been welcomed. The legacy of the filibusters in the annexation of Hawaii in the 1890's would also have been welcomed. Also, the Monroe Doctrine was curiously absent throughout the book; how it was impacted by the filibuster movement seems necessary, but absent. Still, it is easy to overlook these deficiencies.

Still, I am glad that I have read this book. As an American historian, I feel now that I had missed out on an important aspect of antebellum American society. I never before realized how necessary it was for an American historian to have knowledge of the filibusters.

This a great book. However, if you have all the strip compliations already, the only thing new is the 2002 strips for Christmas, and the fact that many of those from the 80's are now in color. Still, it's Garfield, its funny, and its nice to have them all in one book.

Unless you are an extremely big fan of Bob & Tom, I can not recommend getting this CD excrpt at bargain-basement prices. Any of the bits that was any good are already on the Greatest Hits CD. When one of the best bits on the CD is Bob Zany, you know you are in for a rough ride.

The background of the book is quite interesting. One would normally expect a Chinese professor to write in Chinese, not English. The book is just one volume in a book series entitled "The United States and the World: Foreign Perspectives". The series is intended for American readers in the hopes that Americans will gain the perspectives of people around the world and how, in particular, they view the United States. Thus, Jiang had some leeway in not reciting the "party line" of Communist China of Chinese/American history, but instead give his own views on the subject. Jiang knew he was writing to American readers and therefore used both American and Chinese sources in writing his book

Jiang starts the book with saying that, after the American Revolution in 1783, Boston merchants immediately sought trade with China. He studies this relation up to 1978, when full diplomatic relations were established between the United States and Communist China, a full ten years before he finished and published his book.

The only problem with this book is that you need a primer in Chinese history first in order to get anything out of the book. One needs to understand the overall trends in Chinese history to fully appreciate the nuances of America's relationship with China, and Jiang, unfortunately, overlooks this.

When reading Jicai's book, it is best not to be too softhearted. TRhat is because the stories regarding the horrors of China's "Cultural Revolution", where paranoia ran rampant as if it was a twisted role playing game, only these events are only too real. Jicai did an excellent job in giving us first hand accounts of so many individuals and how their lives were effected by this madness that enveloped China from 1966 until Mao's death in 1976. However, one must be careful not to cry; some of the stories within are that emotional.

If you are studying Modern Chinese History (and where else is events in the 1600;s considered modern), its hard to go wrong with this book. Each section is well laid out, and easy to read. The balanced approach should not offend anyone, and has lots of useful pictures. The only thing is, the book could really have used a glossary and a better summary so that students of Chinese history will better understand what Schoppa believes is most important to learn.

Anderson's book focuses on the actions of American diplomats in China from 1861 and 1898. This is an interesting time to focus on, due to the political situations within each of the states. For the United States, it was a time when most of the states used forced to keep eleven other states within the nation, and then had to deal with the bitterness caused by the war. In China the Imperial government was forced to allow Western powers, seen as barbaric by the Chinese, wide access and de facto ownership of several Chinese ports. This would have been bad enough for the Chinese, but they also had to finally allow foreign diplomats into Beijing on a permanent basis, when originally all such diplomats could go no further than Canton in the southernmost part of China.

Anderson sees America has having to deal with a dichotomy between self-interest and self-sacrifice, and sees this dichotomy in America's initial dealings with China. Should the United States join with the other Western powers in dividing up China, or should it aid China in its moment of weakness? Anderson states that the eight American envoys to China between 1861 and 1898 dealt with the failing empire with varying mixtures of selfish imperialism and selfless idealism. As he focused on th American envoys, almost all of his sources were American in origin

After reading Anderson's first two chapters, there is no reason to read others. It goes in excruciating detail over the most boring and trivial of matters. Most of these American diplomats had no real impact that any other American could accomplish. After all, Americans were simply following the European's leads, so American envoys did not lead, therefore they did not have anything to add. Why would anyone feel the need to belabor on this? Sadly for Anderson's readers, he felt this necessary. I spent an hour searching for anything worthy of note that Anderson said, but I could find nothing. Anderson tried, but he simply could not fill the book with anything but the most boring of minutia.