Book Description
Generally, consumers invest more time researching a car or home computer purchase than they do in making the decision of which insurer to buy homeowners or auto insurance from, yet the consequences of an inappropriate decision in the latter case can have much more far-reaching consequences.
This book discusses the basic insurance coverage that all of us deal with-homeowners, auto, tenants', life, health and disability. It will also cover the simpler forms of small business (business-owners) policies. Details from how the insurance is sold to determining the amount of necessary coverage to common exclusions in policies are also explained.
Book Description
The original, firsthand account of the greatest flight in history. (SEE QUOTE.)
Customer Reviews:
WE - The first take.......2006-08-03
Lindbergh rejected a ghost written life story and account of his flight. Committed to a book soon after his New York to Paris flight and feeling obligated he wrote quickly and did not re-write or edit. While many of of the tales in WE are repeated in The Spirit of St. Louis, there is a feeling of spontaneity and freshness in WE that is not present in the later, more formal book.
Book Description
Put yourself in the cockpit of the "Spirit" as it wings its way across the Atlantic toward Paris. Take part in the great receptions in France, England, Belgium, and back in the United States. Find out how the "Spirit" was fine-tuned and patched at every stop. Learn how the airplane was preserved after its flying career was over, and take a look at the many flying and non-flying replicas which are available to view across the country and around the world. 250 B&W photos.
Customer Reviews:
The Way It Was.......2006-02-21
Even today, almost 80 years afterwards, few do not know the legend of Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis, but the details of how the airplane was designed, built, tested and finally displayed in The Smithsonian are harder to find. Ev Cassagneres tells the story well, with enough technical background to satisfy the deeply interested, and with enough style to hold the attention of almost everyone else. The photographs and drawings, some rarely seen, are alone worth the price. The stories of some of the people involved add something missing in most other accounts.
Highly recommended to anyone interested in the story behind the story, and a true value in card covers.
A Magnificently Detailed History.......2004-02-01
The title of Ev Cassagneres' "The Untold Story of the Spirit of St. Louis" sounds presumptuous. What on earth could be written, new and enlightening, about one of history's most famous planes? Well, simply put, Cassagneres delivers on his boast. Within the 168 pages of this book are a treasure-trove of photographs, along with a highly detailed text which describes every aspect of the Spirit of St. Louis' career -- from construction to first flight, to record-setting flight, to world tour, to delivery at the Smithsonian, and then up to the present day. This book will answer every single question you ever had about the "Spirit", from the materials used to construct it, to the exact number of miles it flew prior to being stored at the NASM. Cassagneres, who spent over thirty-five years conducting interviews (with Lindbergh and others), examining the actual aircraft (the Smithsonian let him in the cockpit!), gathering photos (many never published before) and finding lost materials, deserves to be applauded for what amounts to THE definitive guide to one of history's great aircraft. Bravo! This book is a must-have if you are interested in the "Spirit", and makes a wonderful companion to Scott Berg's Pulitzer Prize winning book. It's also a terrific find if you are a modeler trying to find the most detailed description of the plane (at various stages of its career) in existence. I would also recommend it to anyone who is a student of history, not just simply because the book paints such a detailed portrait of both pilot and plane, but because it demonstrates so thoroughly the fact that complex historical items, such as the Spirit of St. Louis aircraft or the Enola Gay B-29, are constantly subject to change and modification -- not only during their useful lives but for many years thereafter. What is truly "authentic" about the "Spirit" hanging in the NASM, and what is not? It is a question which, thanks to Cassagneres' diligent effort, future generations will be able to answer.
Customer Reviews:
Good history of early thru current trans-atlantic flight.......1997-06-14
A very thourough account of the entire history of flight across the North Atlantic. Covers the very early attempts in much detail. Many, many photos make the book very interesting and readable. Includes more recent historical topics such as the super sonic transport developement of the 1970's. Author has a long history of involvement in trans-atlantic flight and is quite an authority on the subjec
Average customer rating:
- Moving!
- Great inspiration.... indeed a test of the human spirit
- Interesting Read for the Adventurer in all of us
- Almost Too Much to Believe.
- A unique, fascinating, true-life tale
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The Cockpit : A Flight of Escape and Discovery
Paul Gahlinger
Manufacturer: Sagebrush Press (UT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 True Accounts
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Espionage
| Murder & Mayhem
| Organized Crime
| Serial Killers
| True Crime
General
| Aviation
| Transportation
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Travel
| Writing
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Essays & Travelogues
| Reference & Tips
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
Air Travel
| Specialty Travel
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Adventure
| Specialty Travel
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0970313004 |
Book Description
In 1992, ignoring the advice of every aviation expert who said it couldn't be done, a university professor decided to fly his small Cessna alone from California to South Africa. Plagued with horrendous weather, mechanical glitches, and uncooperative governments, nothing went right from the beginning. Yet, despite ice- and sandstorms, an earthquake, and the threat of civil war, he made it safely to his distant destination. His journey became a personal metaphor for the search for meaning in life and the crazy, breathtaking things that one man would do to find it.
Customer Reviews:
Moving!.......2004-10-12
Dr. Gahlinger chronicles his experience flying from CA to South Africa (actually Egypt, but that is beside the point) in this wonderfully lucid and entertaining book. Superficially, the book is about flight, but metaphorically, however, Dr. Gahlinger takes us on his mental & emotional transformation from what appears to be a transition from being an academic doctor to becoming a medical doctor (among other things). I've taken a course from Dr. Gahlinger and very much enjoyed reveling in the details of his life --- his story is an inspirational one!! An outstanding read!
Great inspiration.... indeed a test of the human spirit.......2003-09-13
I felt that this book is extremely good especially to people in their late teens.... it is very inspirational and helps in understanding what you really want out of life, what you want to make out of it. It offers an interesting insight on his adventures and the way the story unfolds is very beautiful as well.... A must read especially for people in their late teens and aviation enthusiasts !!!
Interesting Read for the Adventurer in all of us.......2002-01-01
I just finished reading this book in about 4 hours (which is rare for me) and was very interested in his joys and tribulations that
he encountered in his personal life and in his trip from Santa Cruz all the way to Egypt with his Cessna Cardinal. On the plus
side he has a very interesting personal life and flight across the USA, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Europe, and Egypt with a
brief bio of his stay in South Africa. I was disappointed in his cancellation of his African flight with his Cessna. He did a very
good job of describing the northern States and Labrador from the air but he barely covers the land between Ottawa and
Labrador. He is also quite brief about his flight over a good chunk of populated Europe. On the other hand his description of
his flying experiences over dangerous areas are very interesting and a must read for all real and virtual pilots. His is very good
with his avionic explanations except for a small number of mistakes on the functioning of certain instruments.
I really enjoyed a good chunk of the book but wished he would of included some scenic pictures, maps, and pictures of his
characters.
Pilot (East coast America, Utah, and Arizona)
Almost Too Much to Believe........2001-05-15
A beautifully written story of one man and his airplane searching for an elusive goal, which he has not yet found. A brilliant PhD and MD, he relates so many accomplishments in his matter-of fact way that I was tempted to create a time-line to see how he could have accomplished so much at such a young age. He weaves the art and science of flying into his tale, explaining how the instruments work, adding entertaining bits of history, astronomy, and other sciences, educating while entertaining, much like Asimov. I am a fast reader, but read this book twice, to savor in the second reading the beautifully crafted prose. An exceptional book.
A unique, fascinating, true-life tale.......2001-03-19
The Cockpit: A Flight Of Escape And Discovery is the story of Paul Gahlinger, a university science professor who decided to fly his small Cessna aircraft from California to South Africa. Gahlinger ignored the pronouncements of every aviation official that such a flight could not be done. From the beginning nothing came easy or worked quite right. Governments refused to give him permission to fly over their countries. The weather was horrendous. His airplane as an aging, under-equipped machine beset by mechanical glitches. But he persevered through ice-storms, sand-storms, an earthquake, and the threat of civile war to successfully accomplish his flight and make it to his intended destination. As his story progresses, Gahlinger weaves together the history and mechanics of flight with his real-life adventure. The Cockpit is a unique, fascinating, true-life tale of hazardous personal adventure and the unconquerable human spirit.
Average customer rating:
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Story of Transatlantic Flight (Airlife Classics)
David Beaty
Manufacturer: The Crowood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Aviation
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Aviation
| Transportation
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Commercial
| Aviation
| Transportation
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Aviation
| Transportation
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Piloting & Flight Instruction
| Aviation
| Transportation
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1840374284 |
Book Description
The Atlantic had proved a graveyard for many ships, and when the first butterfly craft began to fly it after the First World War, all the omens warned that it would swallow up planes as well. Nonetheless, the pioneers - Read, Alcock and Brown, Lindbergh, as well as many who gambled and lost - continued to pit themselves against the odds. David Beaty involves us not only in the drama of man against the elements but in the increasingly vehement struggle of man against man: the race to be first, the race to beat the ships, the race to run a commercial airline, the race to be fastest. Opening with a passenger in the mid-70's who is taking off in a jumbo jet, he unfolds the tapestry of what went before: the vision and blindness, the guesses, mistakes and waste, the political interference and technical advances, the personalities, the tragedies, the commitment and the successes.
Average customer rating:
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The First Solo Transatlantic Flight: The Story of Charles Lindbergh and His Airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis (First Book)
Richard L. Taylor
Manufacturer: Franklin Watts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Lindbergh, Charles
| ( L )
| People, A-Z
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Other
| United States
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Nonfiction
| Aviation
| Transportation
| Science, Nature & How It Works
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Transportation
| Science, Nature & How It Works
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Engineering
| Science, Nature & How It Works
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0531201848 |
Average customer rating:
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An Incredible Journey: The Story of Alcock and Brown (Incredible Journey)
Carolyn Sloan
Manufacturer: Silver Burdett Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Nonfiction
| Aviation
| Transportation
| Science, Nature & How It Works
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Action & Adventure
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 038239920X |
Average customer rating:
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Lindbergh of Canada: The Erroll Boyd Story
Ross Smyth
Manufacturer: General Store Pub House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1896182615 |
Average customer rating:
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The Story of the Spirit of St. Louis (Cornerstones of Freedom)
R. Conrad Stein
Manufacturer: Childrens Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Lindbergh, Charles
| ( L )
| People, A-Z
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Transportation
| Science, Nature & How It Works
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Engineering
| Science, Nature & How It Works
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0516046675 |
Book Description
Chinese foreign economic policy before 1978 has been considered isolationist and centered on Maoist self-reliance. In this revisionist analysis, Lawrence Reardon argues that China was not out of touch with the global marketplace during the 1949--78 period and that Deng Xiaopingís heralded liberalizations in fact were revisions and expansions of policies from the Maoist period.
The dramatic economic reforms initiated by Chinaís leaders in 1978 boosted GDP by between 9 and 13 percent each year during the 1980s and 1990s, while the nationís foreign trade figures rose from a trivial US$1.94 billion in 1952 to US$325 billion in 1997. By opening to the outside world and liberalizing the domestic economic infrastructure, China has become the third largest and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
The story of Chinaís on-again, off-again trade efforts provides an important window on the cyclical struggle for power between Mao Zedongís ideologically driven allies and more pragmatic leaders such as Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, whose approach eventually prevailed. Reardon relies on primary sources, including Chinese Communist Party histories and other restricted-circulation materials that have recently come to light, to show that Chinaís apparently sudden turn outward in 1978 was actually an extension of previous experiments hobbled by bureaucratic infighting and conflict among rival elites. He describes in unprecedented detail the seemingly contradictory strategies used by Mao and other leaders to assert Chinaís absolute self-sufficiency while also striving to modernize the economy and achieve maximum prosperity as rapidly as possible.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book that demands reading.......2003-08-18
This is an excellent book that demands reading by students and those who're interested in the subject. Some of the thoughts expressed may be rather alarming to some. Yet, the author always support them with cogent arguments. I've derived much insight from reading this. Recommended.
Useless, rehash, better info found online.......2002-09-19
Please do not buy this book. Do an internet search and the data points you seek will be better presented. I considered using this book as a teaching tool at the college level and decided against it.
Often when my fellow professional academics write books they tend to get lost in detail, use a poor narrative voice, and become so impressed with their own ability to think that the book as a whole diminishes in value as it progresses. That is the case here.
All of this information is better found through a simple online search. As an added benefit to online work you'd be able to find original sources.
Clearly this is a case of a teacher out to line his own pockets by forcing his students to buy his work. A practice that in itself should be outlawed. At least this fellow will be able to capitalize on this disgusting gouging of students. I cannot in good faith recommend this text to anyone.
Book Description
From flying hot-blooded squirrels and diminutive kinglets to sleeping black bears and torpid turtles to frozen insects and frogs, the animal kingdom relies on staggering evolutionary innovations to survive winter. Unlike their human counterparts, who alter the environment to accommodate physicallimitations, most animals are adapted to an amazing range of conditions. In Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, biologist, illustrator, and award-winning author Bernd Heinrich explores his local woods, where he delights in the seemingly infinite feats of animal inventiveness he discovers there.
Because winter drastically affects the mostelemental component of all life -- water -- radical changes in a creature's physiology and behavior must take place to match the demands of the environment. Some creatures survive by developing antifreeze; others must remain in constant motion to maintain their high body temperatures. Even if animals can avoid freezing to death, they must still manage to find food in a time of scarcity, or store it from a time of plenty.
Beautifully illustrated throughout with the author's delicate drawings and infused by his inexhaustible enchantment with nature, Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival awakens thewonders and mysteries by which nature sustains herself through winter's harsh, cruel exigencies.
Customer Reviews:
Nature doesn't answer to science........2007-01-27
Heinrich would better serve Nature and his spirit if he were a naturalist, rather than a scientist. His methods of collecting information are, at times, destructive.
Killing life as a means of obtaining knowledge about the individual shows impatience and proves laziness.
Also, I find that studying "wild" animals in a lab environment is, not only, unreliable, but also inhumane. Information gathered as such, should be disregarded, for animals removed from their natural environments, and subjected to captivity by their predators (i.e. humans) have noticeable changes in their behavior. Any and all conclusions cannot be relied upon.
Aside from those two notable nuisances, the book was a good read and very well authored.
A book of marvels.......2005-12-15
Do bees defecate in their hives if it's too cold to make the necessary dash outside? Why don't hibernating black bear lose bone mass and develop sores like a bed-ridden human? How does the 5 gram golden-crowned kinglet (about the size of a large humming bird) survive a northern winter?
I suppose the intelligent design folks can explain all of these mysteries without even strapping on their snow shoes, so let us be doubly grateful for naturalists like Bernd Heinrich who learn and test and publish the exact mechanisms for survival in the stark northern winter. There is so much wonder to be had from the truth.
Heinrich is interested in learning how such disparate survival traits such as hibernation and migration actually evolved, and he takes his reader on his journeys of discovery. One of the questions that he answers in "Winter World" concerns the migration of the monarch butterfly.
Do the same monarchs who journeyed up to 4500 kilometers to "twelve extraordinarily small patches of pines and firs" in Mexico, survive to return to their summer haunts in the eastern United States?
Due to an interesting bit of biochemical sleuthing that the author shares with us, we learn that it requires up to four generations of monarchs to make the long journey back to their northernmost breeding grounds.
For that matter, why do monarchs migrate to those small overwintering sites in the Transvolcanic Mountains of Michoacan? Why do these particular butterflies bother to migrate at all?
It is amazing how many winter survival traits involve shivering, and the small temperature range in which animals such as monarchs and bats can shiver and survive. Monarchs migrate to a small area that has exactly the right winter temperature range, and as the author says, "it is a sobering thought that most of the [monarch] population of eastern North America could be wiped out by an irresponsible woodcutter with a chain saw."
According to E. O. Wilson, "Heinrich is a scientist and naturalist of the first rank." He is also a writer who can lead his reader further and further into the winter woods, following a trail of fascinating detail and discovery.
One of the mysteries that lured the author and his ecology students into the woods is the presence of the elusive golden-crowned kinglet. Why doesn't this particular bird migrate?
Monarchs migrate. Robins migrate. So why not kinglets?
Gradually, through the course of many winters, Heinrich and his students discover how these little birds survive. One of the last of the delicate line drawings in this book enlightens us on how kinglets endure the harsh nighttime temperatures of a Maine winter: it shows two of these birds fluffed out and huddled together in a miniature snow cave on a spruce branch--an accidental discovery made by one of Heinrich's students.
This is truly a book of marvels.
Somewhat slow reading but very interesting.......2005-07-15
This book describes terrestrial life in the cold reaches of the world, emphasis on the forests of Canada and the Northern states of the USA. The text is written in first person in a diary format of the author traveling thru and living in winter environments. This format is punctuated with occassional asides to elaborate on scientific issues. The colors are black and white illustrations which are unfortunate for a nature book, but it does keep the purchase price down.
The book itself starts of somewhat slow, but is interesting enough to keep you going. The author describes how various animals living in cold climates have evolved to survive and even succeed. I learned many things in this book that I was unaware of. For instance, birds and mammals are not "warm blooded" in the strictest sense of the word. Specifically, many birds and mammals have body temperatures that fluctuate in cycles to keep track with outside temperatures. Man has a 24-hour cycles to match day-night transitions; during this cycle our body temperature changes by 1 - 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Bears and other hibernating mammals have seasonal cycles to match the change in seasons. The body temperature of a hibernating bear can be 20 - 40 degrees lower than that of an active bear.
Conversely, many other animals that are considered "cold-blooded" in most high-school science textbooks actually are not. For example, a lot of insects living in cold climates will huddle together and shiver to keep their body temperature elevated above the ambient temperature.
Overall, I am glad I read this book, and would recommend it to other people.
Cold is a relative thing.......2005-02-12
Have you ever had your leg in a cast? And when the cast comes off your leg is small and wrinkled because of the muscle atrophy that took place during the weeks of inactivity while the cast was on? Have you ever wondered what a bear looks like when it comes out of hibernation, having spent 3 or more months lying around mostly sleeping? Are its muscles smaller? Bernd Heinrich's mind thinks like that, putting such questions together and then he goes off in search of an answer.
If you only weigh a few ounces and are covered in feathers and it's -30 deg outside tonight, how do you live till morning? And why is it a good thing if there's fluffy snow on that evergreen tree? Heinrich knows.
This book is all about how animals live through brutal weather, and the word "ingenuity' in the title is a fine descriptor. For us indoor folk, 20 deg is cold, but for some animals who can make it to -40, that's a cakewalk, and Heinrich will tell you how they do it. It's a wonderful set of stories and observations and scientific fact about many different animals.
I still don't know how it came to be that I found a turtle dying in my garden on a 10 deg day recently (why was he/she out in the first place?), but I know more about why I'd better go fill my birdfeeders before the sun sets so the birds will literally have energy to burn when it's 15 deg tonight!
Where are all the animals in winter?.......2005-01-31
I picked up this book because, living in the northeast, I wondered what happened to all of the animals in wintertime. Which ones hibernate? Which ones migrate? Which ones die? And I wasn't disappointed. Heinrich provides ample explanations, in understandable language, of what happens to squirrels, birds, insects, turtles, trees, and others (although there isn't much about fish). He is also a fantastic nature writer, weaving simple but elegant stories in and out of the science, stories mostly set in his two main observation sites, Vermont and Maine. And the overriding theme of the whole book is the battle of animals to regulate their temperatures and metabolisms to avoid freezing, in the harsh food conditions of winter. This is good introductory reading for anyone with questions about winter survival.
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