Transportation Books

After reading this book, the Stern Librarian found it necessary to amend her Amazon List of "books to keep you on the sea after finishing Patrick O'Brian." Overlapping in time with the Aubrey-Maturin series, but telling a French story, this book is a fascinating tale of what results when a Navy rewards political favoritism over skill. The story of the wreck of the Medusa off the coast of Senegal is artfully related, and the author alternates between details of the tragedy and the creation of Gericault's painting of its desperate survivors, which today hangs in the Louvre. Although there is horror to spare in the details of the shipwreck, I was most moved by the story of Gericault's love affair with his uncle's wife and of the unhappy fate of their abandoned child. The Stern Librarian (I am the daughter of a daughter of a sailor).

One of the many masterpieces within the Louvre is a huge and grim painting of a group of men abandoned on a raft in the middle of the sea, each in a pose of despair, or of the sliver of hope that a ship, seen as a tiny smudge on the ocean's horizon, might notice them. The famous painting, _The Raft of the Medusa_, is an 1819 version of what moviegoers now know as a disaster picture. It is the most famous artifact inspired by a real incident that had occurred three years before, the result of a shipwreck that had caught the imagination of the people of France and was a scandal that affected the restoration government of the time. The stories of the sailors, raft, and survivors have been told before, but Jonathan Miles in _The Wreck of the Medusa: The Most Famous Sea Disaster of the Nineteenth Century_ (Atlantic Monthly Press) has incorporated them into a larger tale of politics, painting, and propaganda. The disaster at sea is inherently fascinating, but it is finished in the first half of the book, the many strands of which Miles has made just as interesting and vital, if not so macabre.

The ship _Medusa_ was a French frigate in a convoy bound for the French colony Senegal, carrying Governor Schmaltz, the new leader for the colony and captained by Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys, was an old Royalist who was given his commission by the new king Louis XVIII, who with Napoleon in exile was trying to produce a unifying government. De Chaumareys was an incompetent seaman, and the _Medusa_ ran aground on bank west of the Sahara. To handle those fleeing the wreck who could not fit into the boats, the crew made a huge raft, lashing together spars and planks, and giving it a mast and sail. 147 people crowded on board the raft, which was tied to the ship's boats and was supposed to be towed by them as the whole conglomeration made for land. The raft was waterlogged and it held the boats back, so the governor gave the order that the tow rope be cut. For two appalling weeks, the diminishing crew experienced murders, suicides, delirium, hallucinations, mutiny, and cannibalism. The raft was eventually found by another ship in the _Medusa_'s convoy, with only fifteen men barely alive. One of the survivors was Alexandre Corréard, an engineer who went on to co-write the outstanding account of the disaster, along with political blaming for it. One of those susceptible to the romantic horror and the political barbs of the book was Théodore Géricault, who was inspired by the horrors of Corréard's story to depict the lamentable raft and its final crew. To help with research for the painting, he gathered body parts from the nearby morgue, and kept them within his studio. Corréard would come to the study and be unfazed by the stench and the gore, as it was a commemoration of an episode he had actually lived. Géricault painted his new friend into a key role in the painting, and among his other (living) models was also his friend Eugene Delacroix, who could not endure the body parts in the studio with Corréard's detachment.

Géricault produced a romantic, horrifying painting which was not a journalistic depiction of the actual events but an artistic exaggeration of them in many ways. Miles points out that the bodies are of classic musculature, not wasted away. There are too many of them in the picture, and the raft is too small. There are three black Africans in the painting, one given pride of place at a pinnacle as he tries to wave down the distant ship. Actually, only one black man was aboard; Miles examines the French attitude toward slavery at the time, and Géricault's use of these figures to make a statement upon it. The painting, completed in 1819 made Géricault's name, although not immediately. Critics objected, among other things, to its almost monochromatic use of sickly browns and greens. When it was viewed in London it caused a sensation, but it failed to sell. It was rolled up for storage, and the disappointed Géricault lived on only three more years, dying at age 32. He was emaciated and crippled by tuberculosis, and by debt and disappointment. His morbid fascination with his subject and his macabre way of producing his masterwork could almost be said to have made him yet another victim of the shipwreck. Miles's retelling of the story of the wreck and the abandoned raft is full of grisly thrills, but his account of its effects on Géricault and his art is of heart-wrenching humanity.

Anyone who has studied art history is probably already familiar with Gericault's famous painting of the Medusa. I was first introduced to the painting in high school and while I remembered that it was inspired by a true and politically important incident, I didn't really know much beyond that. This book explains the event in great detail, but in a way that is very readable and not at all tedious. It also provides an overview of Gericault's life, his experience of creating the painting and public reactions to it. So really, you get a lot out of this book: naval history, 19th century French political history, art history and it has enough depictions of humanity at its worst that one might even classify it as having "true crime" elements. Highly recommended.

I had the impression to step into the very fabric in the canvas of Gericault's celebrated masterpiece, knowing personally each of the painting's characters. Mile's storytelling is so vivid, down to the last historical detail, that I soon forgot Medusa is not a novel. Compelling, hypnotic, fascinating.

If you`ve been fortunate enough to visit Paris, there's a good chance you've gone to the Louvre. There you may have found yourself looking at a very large and very striking painting, The Raft of the Medusa, by Theodore Gericault.

The painting graphically portrays men dying, dead, and clinging to life on a raft at sea, while frantically signaling to a distant ship on the horizon in the hope of rescue. Was this painting based on a real incident? How did these men come to find themselves there? Why did Gericault paint this horrific work? How did the public react to it?

Jonathan Miles in his excellent new book, Medusa: The Shipwreck, The Scandal, The Masterpiece, answers with passion and wit these and more questions about the events that inspired this masterpiece. Compelling though the astonishing acts of heroism, savagery and villainy spawned by this horrific ship wreck are, they're only part of the story. The resulting scandal rippled through 19th Century French and British politics and society for many years.

Miles' work is an excellent piece of scholarship that is also a "ripping good yarn" of a wreck at sea and human survival at its rawest. It also a study of a cover-up and justice, both gained and tragically denied. In telling the story behind Gericault's memorable painting, Miles demonstrates how events can influence art, and how art in turn can influence events.

Whether you are a Historian, Art Historian or just someone looking for a good book that provides food for thought, Jonathan Miles' vivid account of the Medusa and its fate is well worth a read.

I way out in the middle east, and I got this item in a much faster time than anything else i've been sent!!! bravo zulu!

i have used this manual several times for basic maintenance
and simple repairs.

well worth the price. will probably pay for itself
the first time you use it instead of paying someone
else to do the work.

good section on tuneups and routine maintenance.
appears to cover any work i would be inclined to attempt.

well illustrated and easy to follow

this book does not cover all sohc engines from 92-95!!!
d16a7 and many more are not included.
does not cover ecu types as well.
very basic book.

It's a detent starters, but if you know how to search on the web, you can find the Helms manual which is much better. The big flaw of Haynes is that if you don't know where to search for a part, the close-up won't help you locate it.
It also won't help you troubleshoot soemthing. For that join a forum or club, and use the book as a reference to do the repair once troubleshooting is done.

I used it for electrical and for such it's fine...

This is a decent general reference book, but as I was troubleshooting an ignition problem I found that color codes and positions of wires listed are incorrect. The illustrations are black and white, grainy, and very small. Additionally they certainly appear contradict the instructions in the text.

Example : a drawing labels 4 wires coming off of a part as a,b,c,d and gives the color codes. These don't match the real part. Then the instructions say check the resistance between a and c, but the photo shows them checking between b and d. The color codes are right for the picture, but the labeled position is wrong - or is it the other way around .... who knows ????? Many of the photos are too small and grainy to verify what is being checked anyway, so now your really lost.

Another example, a section tells you to remove all the wires from the terminals on a part (so that only the case is electrically connected to the ground). Now you are asked to verify that there is voltage between terminal X and ground. How could there be!?!? Not finding any is supposed to tell you the part is bad. The photo shows it being checked with all wires connected. ?!?!? BTW one of these check is for resisitance between two teminals that show 12V between them - ZAP! there went your VOM fuse!

From these types of checks you are expected to determine if a part is faulty or not. If you have two identical hondas, one working and one not, you could use this book to get the gist of what you are supposed to be checking, otherwise its pretty useless.

There is a decent section on trouble codes which seems to be correct if not complete, and other than the nitpicky details it seems to be a good guide, but they assume the user has a good bit of knowledge and don't go into enough detail on alot of steps.

Our son has all 4 in this series that are available and they have become his favorite which is amazing since he is 3 and a half and has over 100 books in his library. He especially likes them since dad has a John Deere lawn tractor and he has a John Deere Gator and Power Pull tractor.

I guess you either love these guys or you hate them. My wife finds them incredibly annoying when she hears them on the radio.

Myself, I love them. Their accents are not off-putting to me, and I love how they laugh together.

What I've learned over time, though, is that the 'straight' answers they provide are actually pretty authoritative. They actually know what they're talking about, based not only on their extensive formal education but also based on their hands-on work with many, many cars.

But they don't know anything about animals - maybe that's why this collection is not as good as their best efforts.

If I personally found anything annoying, it's only their constant self-referencing which gets old. However, it's a part of their "shtick" which we would not want to do without...

We enjoy Car Talk so much and we really had fun with this! These guys are hilarious! The only problem is that it's too short!

On Saturdays when I take a break for listening to CDs, I usually
tune into Car Talk on my local NPR Radio station. I have a
fancy for the crazy antics of Click and Clack, the Tappet
Brothers.

In their show, they dispense humor and car repair information. I end up laughing at their crazy banter more than I get car repair tips. Plus when my car messes up, I take it to the shop-I don't want to be their next call!

In their current audio collection, Car Talk: Doesn't Anyone Screen These Calls? (One hour, one cd, radio selections, Highbridge), the Tappets take calls regarding animal and cars. It is funny with out trying. A few of these REAL people seem like they came out of crazy central casting (especially about the horse who ate the stering wheel)


If anyone hasn't heard these boys before on the radio or on their cds, you are in for a laughable treat for your ears. I am still laughing at this one. ENJOY!

Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD

Brothers Tommy and Ray Magliozzi have a call-in show on National Public Radio called "Car Talk." The calls range from the serious to hilarious--but rely on the "Tappett Brothers" to make even the mundane call funny.

Check your local listings to see when "Car Talk" comes on. Tommy and Ray are the only people that'd get me up and cheerful at 9 AM.

Their radio show has provided both my husband and I hours of laughter. Their website is also helpful for finding mechanics, buying cars, etc.

It's good to have them around if you need a laugh at other times. My only complaint is they could have packed a little more into this CD. Then again, "Car Talk" is never long enough for me, either!

This book is VERY good, it's informative, comprehensive, fun to read and goes a long way to improving your understanding of the "whys" rather than just the "hows". It's an excelent resource for someone looking to build their own race car. Anyone looking to attach something to something else or move a fluid from one place to another will get something out of this book. As an added bonus in the years since it was first written most of the fasteners that the author found hard to find have become available easily online.

...This book is indispensible. It's written for the race car driver who does at least a little bit of their own fabrication. And that's almost any club driver, and many entry-level pro drivers. Making sure additions to the car stay put, supsension bits adequately bear their loads and stresses, and repairing these things in a pinch, is no small part of winning races.

This book doesn't explain everything ther is to know about fasteners. And it isn't dripping with technical detail; ...

But this book does provide something more valuable: explanations. It looks at a couple dozen of the most popular fasteners in each category and explains why a fabricator or mechanic would or would not want to use them. Carroll uses his incredible experience and approachable, conversational writing type to discusses their strengths and weaknesses, applications, and design.

I think the book isn't limited to racing applications; it's useful for anyone who works metal, and will offer something of value to anyone who's ever tried to replace a fastener in an emergency. Were you overwhelmed when you went through the fastener aisles in your local hardware store or home supply center? This book can help.

The book is a little weak in two areas. First, there's few pages devoted to plumbing. Of course, this is about real plumbing: laying lines and connecting them with pressure-tight fasteners. It explains Army-Navy fasteners and their applications, and discusses all the subtleties of pipe flange fitting. The book isn't about stopping a leak behind your toilet.

Next, the book is showinng its age. It doesn't treat some of the materials that were not exactly commonplace ten or more years ago, but are quite common now. For instance, I can buy titanium lug bolts for my car. (Well, I could, if I had a spare $500 lying around.) Carroll doesn't make much mention of the more interesting alloys being used more commonly in fasteners these days. He also doesn't spend much time discussing the material to be fastened: holding down a carbon fiber body panel is different than getting the same bit fabricated from fiberglass to hold. Some of the illustrations look like they were drawn by a plotter 20 years ago: terrible resolution, confusing lines, poor perspective. Freshening some of the illustrations would be a real shot in the arm for the book.

Those shortcomings withstanding, I can't give this book less than five stars. Mr. Smith's incredible reputation and outstanding experience hold up a dry subject, and give the reader more background than a broader (or deeper) technical reference ever could.

Book contains poor photography and what appears to be over-reproduced images of hardware. Prospective buyer should look at some of the aviation publications that offer the same or better information to Experimental Aircraft builders. Some of the same principles apply.

You have to question a guy who claims to be an engineer, and glorifies the title to no end, and then goes on to say how he refuses to buy anything from China, France, Mexico, Italy, etc. Aside from that BS, this is a good book to read if you're like me and don't actually have the ability to learn what works out at race weekends.

Admittedly this is a dry subject, but this book should be considered required reading for anyone who is serious about building a safe race car. There's more to fastener technology than most of us realize and a right and wrong way to do things. Mr. Smith gets the information out in an easy to understand format with splashes of well-timed humor. While we have all blamed a poor performance at an event on a broken fastener, Mr. Smith explains how to eliminate these problems, plus your vehicle will be safer. You won't even think about using grade 8 bolts from the discount hardware store on that flywheel after reading this book. The section on plumbing was particularly helpful to me.

This isn't a book you sit down and read, take some notes on, or highlight. I found myself reading it lightly to familiarize myself with what info was where, then going back (many times) and studying short sections when I was thinking through some scenario, critiquing an earlier flight, or getting ready for a flight.

For students, this takes off-airport operations far beyond what you'll get from reading any required material. And probably tells you things you'll otherwise have to figure out on your own or from chance opportunities from flying with a high-timer. If I'd had it for my private, I'd have skimmed it right before starting confined space and pinnacle operations--this goes into way more detail than the RFM does. I can't imagine that this wouldn't also greatly benefit the commercial pilot or those moving from air taxi and tour operations to external loads and other cool skills (there are chapters on external load operations, night flying, and things I won't get to do for years).

On the downside, sometimes the writing is a little awkward and confusing. The perspective offered by this manual overrides any negative tho.

Frankly speaking,after having received "Helicopter Pilot's Handbook Of Mountain Flying & Advanced Techniques",I underestimated the value of the book,due to size,i.e. 96 pages.But the book prooved its value by reminding me its content.There are many advices for pilots who are earning their lives over mountainous terrain.
At the beginnig,i decided to highlight important lines,but I decided not to do so,because every line is essential to remember.

Noted nautical author Bill Miller has written a new and very fascinating book on doomed ocean liners. Quite wisely he elected to skip the "Titanic" tragedy as it has been so well covered in many other books. He elected to start the book with the sinking of the "Lusitania" on May 7, 1915, by a German submarine, the "U-20." It ends with the capsizing of the "Oriana" at her berth in China during a typhoon in March 2004. Between these two bookends, there are many liner tragedies summarized, including the famous like the "Morro Castle," "Normandie," "Bremen," "Rex," and "Andrea Doria" as well as ships virtually unknown except for those personally involved in the accident in question, such as the "Alcoa Corsair," "Viceroy of India," "Empire Windrush," and "Klipfontein."

The book provides a brief operational history of each ship as well as the vital statistics of each vessel. The accidents are examined in varying degrees of detail: after all there are no commonly available accounts of accidents like the fire that ravaged the "Skaubryn" in the Indian Ocean during 1958 (especially given that all passengers and crew were rescued). This points to a great strength of the book: less well-known accidents are presented here alongside famous disasters, and the lessons learned from all are valuable and interesting regardless of your exact motivation for reading the book. As an aside, I didn't keep track, but an inordinate number of losses occurred due to fire (and water from firefighting). This was especially the case among French built liners, an observation not overlooked by the author.

Overall this is an excellent effort. It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. It is not encyclopedic, nor does it claim to be, but it is an interesting book on a difficult subject to cover well.

I was quite disappointed with this book. Most of the cases used have been historically previously researched and written about. I was expecting to read much more on the deatail of the actual disaster but this was not the case. Maybe its because I am a former merchant marine officer and familiar with the case studies used. Possibly this book would appeal to non-seafarers.

I was expecting a lot from this and was let down. Usually the William Miller books are excellent. Some great photos that I hadn't seem before, like the Leonardo da Vince at sea with her famous roll, and the Hanseatic on fire in NY harbor.
There is just too much information for a small book like this. Lots of info got left out. It may have been more satisfying in a larger format. As an introduction to the topic it would be useful.

Pretty comprehensive manual considering the range of models and years it covers. I recommend putting index tabs throughout the sections you're about ready to use that are applicable to you model. Good schematics, breakdowns and fairly clear photos.

If youre in the USA (the Haynes manual is prefered if you're in the UK) and need a thorough well diagrammed and photographed repair and maintance manual, this is it. It tells you all of the tools you'll need for each project and goes over maintance procedures and fault diagnosis step by step. An invaluable resource.

A friend of mine that helped me fix up my old BMW has one of these, and we used it extensively as a reference, so I had to buy one. He has a couple of airheads himself and knows much about the general ideas behind the engine, but he does not have the same model as mine so we used this book for some of the specifications. I tend to like this book more than the Haynes manual, which my friend has as well. NOTE: I have read on some of the discussion forums that both the Clymer's and Haynes have a few errors/type-o's in them, and it is good to check multiple sources for any major job you have to do.

I needed a good book to detail the pieces of the R100GS fairing and control cluster, so I could re-assemble a bike that had been badly "customized" This manual had the diagrams, the pictures, and the wiring information I needed. Good history on the different BMW models in the preface as well.

If you are a auto hobbyist / enthusiast planning to rebuild a motor, or just want to know how a motor goes together, this video book is certainly one to have. I have not ventured into a small block myself yet, but this book (along with others) will give me the confidence to start, and presumably will be covered in grease soonafter I begin.

Excellent book and very well made DVD. I learned quite a bit that I didn't know. I would recommend this book to anybody wanting to learn small block engine repair.

I was impressed with the book and the DVD. As a novice to engine building I was able to follow the DVD and book with relative ease. There were a few areas of the process that are in the book that the DVD did not mention. Overall I think it is a very good tool for the novice like myself.

I recently read Jeff Hartman's book on Turbo charging titled "Turbocharging performance handbook", and I recommend this book to anyone wanting to build, own, or enjoy a boosted vehicle. As an individual working in the automotive area and using boosting devices I have found Jeff's detail and thoroughness informative and helpful in my development efforts. I have read most every book available and found this latest effort to be superior in readability, basic science, history, technology, and theory of engine boosting. The overall presentation is better then any I've seen and the science is top notch with useful and practical insight and "how to". A liberal assortment of project cars grounds Jeff's effort in reality.
This is a great book, I'd recommend to anyone with interest in vehicle performance beyond the mundane.

This is an excellent source for Turbocharger information, It covers all aspects from history and manufacturing through modern OEM applications. It is written in an almost texbook like manner. The book also extensively covers custom applications and performance gains. It is fairly numbers heavy, and it helps to have a good base knowledge of engine dynamics. Some of the early chapters may seem confusing, however the author builds onto explanations as the book progresses.

I have followed the turbo field beginning with the Turbo Buick in 1979 (hands on experience modifying it) and the original, as well as best book on turbo's -- Hugh MacInnes' book.

I bought this book on the strength of the author's last -- the one on fuel injection systems. While that was a fascinating and informative book, this one measures up only as fair.

I'm trying to be nice here, but the writing style is forced, at least for me, and requires major concentration to follow (and not due to the technical nature of the material). I found my mind repeatedly wandering while reading about a subject that typically finds me fascinated and unable to put a book down.

Maybe my experience is unique. At the very least, though, I'd advise you look the book over in person before committing cash.

This is a good book but compared to the excellent work Mr.Hartman did in his previous EFI tuning book, this book is merely "good". I now own all the available turbo books sold here on amazon and this book ranks third on my list of useful turbo books. Second place goes to mark warners book and well well into the lead in 1st place is A. Graham Bell which so far as pretty pictures goes is terrible but the information in the book is SO comprehensive it includes everything from all the other books and then some. Hartmans book fails to address the million and one details that bells book covers and that is why it gets a 3rd place.