No comments about Gerhard Herzberg: An Illustrious Life in Science (NRC Press Biography).

1 comments about Soapy Smith (Amazing Stories) (Amazing Stories).

1. I have always been curious about the preposterous stories of the Klondike gold rush. This wild period in history features gold fever lunacy -- a desperate stampede -- boom-town lawlessness -- wilderness hardships -- gambling -- hard work -- hard drinking -- hard women -- and shattered dreams -- all the ingredients for some light adventure reading.
   
   You will be introduced to colorful gang members: Old Man Triplett, Fatty Gray, Canada Bill, Doc Baggs, Slim Jim Foster, Reverend Bowers, and Red Gibbs. Of all the determined characters of that frantic period, their leader, Soapy Smith is the most engrossing.
   
   Stan Sauerwein is the author of Amazing Stories' "Soapy Smith: Skagway's Scourge of the Klondike", the entertaining biography of this legendary boomtown crime boss.
   
   Jefferson Randolph Smith Jr. as a teenager tried his hand in a cattle drive to Abilene, Kansas, where he acquired a life long taste for cards, liquor, and loose women.
   
   Once back in San Antonio, Smith was soon cleaned out by Clubfoot Hall, playing the shell game. Smith was hooked and begged Hall to teach him all he knew. Smith was sent to Leadville, Colorado to learn under the master: V. Bullock "Old Man" Taylor. It was in Leadville, Smith first saw the infamous soap bar game, and fell in love with it.
   
   Soapy moved through the west, building his gang and adding new scams.
   
   Hearing about the gold strikes in the Klondike, Soapy and six members of his gang sailed to Skagway, Alaska -- the jumping off point to the gold fields. Here, Soapy quickly set about fleecing the thousands of stampeders pouring into Skagway.
   
   He first opened a high class bar with gambling in the cozy back room -- customers routinely were robbed on their way to the outhouse, behind the building.
   
   Soapy's gang operated numerous phony businesses such as barber shops, information booths, map sales, a freight line, phony US Army recruiting center, and weather forecasting, all with one purpose -- size up the suckers and rob them blind.
   
   At the height of the gold rush, Soapy hit upon the idea of a phony telegraph station in Skagway. "For only five dollars for 10 words, every stampeder could send home news of this safe arrival." Often the miners received urgent pleas from the miner's families back home for money (actually sent by Soapy's gang). "Soapy's men, of course, accepted the miner's money for transfer -- not back home, but directly to Soapy's strongbox", relates Mr. Sauerwein.
   
   Soapy had always limited his targets to new comers -- never preying on the locals. Soapy explained that robbing newcomers was really a community service by preventing amateurs from being stranded in the wilderness. Soapy sometimes paid their passage back home -- mainly to get rid of complaining victims and to make room for new suckers.
   
   In "One Poke Too Many", the reader will find out the ultimate fate of Soapy Smith.
   
   Mr. Sauerwein tells his story in a clear, informal, entertaining style complete with dialog that brings a stage play feel to his tale.
   
   The book contains ten chapters covering 131 pages and four interesting pictures.

2 comments about Arms and the Man: Dr. Gerald Bull, Iraq and The Supergun.

1. This is a great read, even for those who know nothing about the exploits of Dr Gerry Bull. Dr Bull was a flawed genius - a passionate and driven ballistics visionary responsible for the design of many of the worlds deadliest artillery cannons, and yet he was politically naive, inspirational to his colleagues, and a practical joker. He provoked both deep loyalty in his friends and deep hatred in his enemies. The latter would lead to his assassination. He died during his work on Project Babylon - a cannon several hundred metres long!
   
   This book delivers on many fronts: it is well researched and provides in depth information about the superguns that Dr Bull hoped could send small satelites into space, it also delves into his personal life, and takes the reader into the shady and nervous underworld of illegal arms dealings that Gerald Bull wound up in by circumstance.
   
   William Lowther has written with great passion and produced a book that will captivate you and make you want to tell Dr Bull's story to everyone you meet.



2. This is a fascinating look at the life of a true genius whose path took him, inevitably, to Saddam's door. His dream of producing a gun capable of putting a satellite into orbit was twisted into a weapon for the Iraqi regime. Reads like an espionage novel, although it slows down a bit when talking about the businesses and fronts used to get the weapon's parts into Iraq. Otherwise, a really good read!

No comments about I Never Sold My Saddle.

No comments about James Fitzgibbon: Defender of Upper Canada (Dundurn Lives).

No comments about Canada : Portraits of Faith.

No comments about Louis Jolliet (Groundbreakers, Explorers).

No comments about Robert Whyte's 1847 Famine Ship Diary: The Journey of an Irish Coffin Ship.

No comments about Reading In: Alice Munro’s Archives.

5 comments about The Silence of the North.

1. IF YOU FEEL SORRY FOR YOUR LOT IN LIFE..READ THIS..ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I EVER READ...



2. Wow-this book was so fun and sad and interesting to read, all at the same time. Olive's story is piercing and makes one ponder the amazing will to live in the face of such overwhelming odds. A fantastic true adventure story!



3. A story of a courageous strong woman. Descriptions of the environment (land & conditions) enticing. I found myself being scared right along side of Olive. A real adventure story.



4. A fresh, uncomplicated tale of the people who adventured north in the past. Action packed, engaging and reveling, this book will remain for ever one of my favorite adventure and romance stories. It shows much about how people may face a foreign environment, difficulties, and above all themselves. All comes out in very simple and clear language, with suits the story and the characters divinely.



5. This was a favorite, and it was done with no bad words or violence, other than from nature, I loved it and still wonder what happened to Olive and her second husband after they were married and flew off in the airplane. I watch it everytime it comes on tv. I have taped it and shown it many times to company.