Mr. Carroll's book about the saga of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade is an interesting insight into a part of American history that is lost. What is most interesting is his stories of the men and women who choose to fight and die in Spain and the reasons that they did. As a collection of personnel stories this book excels. These men and women went to Spain notwithstanding the antagonism of their country and the countries surrounding Spain and then returned to a suspicious nation that treated them as part of the red menace.

However, if one is expecting to get a history of the Spanish Civil War, or even an overview of the war, one will be disappointed.

Just looking at the title, I am curious why it was chosen. There was no Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. It was the Abraham Lincoln Battalion which was part of the XV International Brigades. John C. Howell, johnchowell@msn.com

This extremely readable book tells the story of the 2,600 American volunteers who fought for the Spanish Republic in the years 1936 to 1938. They fought against Franco; they also fought against Hitler's and Mussolini's armies; they also fought against the Governments of Britain, France and the United States, which did so much to assist the forces of fascist aggression.

"But the remarkable thing was that though fully conscious of the odds against us and though suffering staggering losses in long, drawn out gruelling campaigns, we all went back to the front time after time ... always with a belief in the possibility of victory." This was the testimony of Milton Wolff, the last commander of the Lincoln-Washington battalion. As Carroll wrote, "the Americans remained in action, constantly facing superior firepower. As in previous engagements, they demonstrated remarkable courage and stamina; they held difficult positions against overwhelming odds." They were finally withdrawn from Spain after the two-month Battle of the Ebro in late 1938: "the Americans under Wolff held fast and waited. They were still there when a relief column came to replace them; only then did they withdraw from the lines."

Within the Republican forces, it was the Communists who fought longest and hardest against Franco. What is amazing is that they fought so well for so long against such odds, not that they lost. How could they have fought any better? If they had followed the line of revolution now, war later, Franco would surely have won more quickly and easily. This approach would have lost them the support of those in Spain who wanted the Republic but were not yet ready for revolution. This approach would have made support or even genuine neutrality from other Governments even less likely. It would have increased the intensity of German, Italian, British, French and US Government support for Franco. It is quite possible that the British, French and US Governments would have abandoned even the pretence of neutrality and joined in the attack on Spain, just as they had in 1918-1922 when they jointly attacked the Soviet Union.

The British, French and US Governments used Hitler and Mussolini as their hired goons to attack Spain, just as they tried to use them later to attack the Soviet Union. (And just as they now use other goons in other countries.) In June 1940 when Roosevelt accused Mussolini of stabbing France in the back, former brigade commissar John Gates replied truly, "It was you who stabbed Republican Spain in the back. It was you, and the British and French rulers, who provided Mussolini with the dagger that he has now proceeded to plunge into your own backs."

When the Brigade left, La Pasonaria spoke: "We shall not forget you and when the olive tree of peace puts forth its leaves again, entwined with the laurels of the Spanish Republic's victory - come back! ... Come back to us. With us those of you who have no country will find one, those of you who have to live deprived of friends will find friends, and all of you will find the love and gratitude of the whole Spanish people who, now and in the future, will cry out with all their hearts: Long live the heroes of the International Brigades!"

She said, "They gave up everything, their loves, their countries, home and fortune; fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, sisters and children, and they came and told us: "We are here. Your cause, Spain's cause, is ours - it is the cause of all advanced and progressive mankind.' You can go proudly. You are history. You are legend."

After the war, they fought on against the enemies of Spain and of all progressive mankind in America. Bill McCarthy said in 1990, "We have to do our fighting right here. There's no use being discouraged because victory is ours if we fight for it." Milton Woolf, who had not completed high school, said, "Spain was only one battle. World War Two was only one battle, what's going on in Central America, South Africa, the Middle East now is another battle, and we're into those things. Struggle is the elixir of life, the tonic of life. I mean, if you're not struggling, you're dead."

'Say not the struggle nought availeth.' Spain (not Munich) gave Britain the time and opportunity to rearm. Spain damaged Mussolini so much that his intervention on Hitler's side was more hindrance than help. Franco too could do little to help his sponsors. Veterans of the Brigade fought Franco to the end. After his death, his monstrous regime crumbled away to nothing. The veterans worked in the movements against the US's war of aggression on Vietnam, against US support for apartheid, against the US arms buildup, and against the US's wars against Nicaragua and Iraq. They did not retire; they were not defeated.

This was an excellent historical record of probably the greatest American that ever lived. However, it has long, complex, diffcult to read wording that makes it somewhat labor-intensive reading. The content is great, but there are far easier to read (and understand) books about Lincoln.

interesting in that it was written from a british perspective. i have read several biographies on lincoln and would recommend this book as an introductory volume for those who want to study lincoln, but, as an important volume for those who study general presidential history, civil war, and general american history.

Though it is dated in some of its facts and assessments,Lord Charnwoods classic study of Lincoln remains one of the dozen or so greatest books ever written about our greatest President.What sets it apart from most other studies of the sixteenth President is the attention it gives the intellectual and spiritual underpinnings of Lincoln's life and actions. It is, in short a work of philosophical history, not a dry recitation of facts. Charnwood is interested in the moral meaning of democracy and the scope and limits of democratic leadership. He performs his task beautifully. I , for one , found his old-fashioned Victorian prose a joy to read, and a relief from the cliche' ridden jargon that too often passes for literate prose today. A great book by a foriegn observer of America, fully worthy of being placed beside Tocqueville and Bryce.

First, I hope I'm reviewing the right book!! My book is Children of Abraham Judaism Christianity Islam, Both of these were listed as separate books by this author, but the one called Judaism, Christianity, Islam was too long to be the one I have.

Anywayssssss..... I enjoyed reading this book. But don't expect any more than what the title says or any controversial arguments. Its just an informational source comparing the 3 Abrahamic world religions. Though the layman can read it, and its nothing difficult, its not exactly an introductory book either. I suggest you already familiarize yourself with the 3 religions prioring to using this study.

But it does a good job presenting the history, theology, and rites of the Children of Abraham. =)

This is a novel about most overlasting topics and themes. I mean love, racism, social and economic differences and above all hope in future and in human beings.
I am presently writing a thesis on it entitled: "Social determinism in Peter Abraham's The Path of Thunder".

Peter Abrahams books all have one thing in common, they make you want to read them again. (It is kind of like a movie that you want to watch again and again so you can catch the killer when he shows his hand early in the movie.) He has several story lines going at one time and when you get about halfway through the book you are compelled to finish! He is very good at depicting the female characters, even though he is male. I have read all but three books in the last month and I am ravenous for more.

I selected this book for teaching the Operating Systems course to my undergrad class. The reason was simple, it was the only latest book available on the OS concepts.

But after going through the first 9 chapters, which are on intro to OS, process managment and memory management, the response I got from my students was that this book is very difficult to understand and I couldn't agree more.

I wouldn't say that all the chapters are like that but yes, there are few chapters in the process management section which I had to teach them from outside resources, the only help I took from the book is the topics that were covered. Infact when I first took this course, I had a difficult time understanding these chapters myself from the book, so I couldn't expect the students to do so.

One example is chapter 6, process synchronization, where they mention deadlock at many places, whereas the deadlock topic is discussed in the later chapter (chapter 7).

Good for experienced but don't expect the students to go through this book without additional resources.

By the way, can anyone explain the idea behind the dinasours on the cover?

If you have no experience with operating systems concepts this book can either be a decent friend or a nightmare, depending on which chapters you read.

On top of vagueness and ambiguity, the illustrations are poorly placed, sometimes pages after the accompanying text. Many chapters are confusing to the point of frustration, especially those concerning synchronization and paging. Some algorithms are oversimplified, while others are given in so much detail the basic concept is lost.

The book does however have its good points, hence my rating of 3. It's not so horrible that you can't learn from it. Some chapters are represented quite well. At the end of each chapter, the basis of that chapter's implementation in modern operating systems is given (Windows NT, Unix, Solaris etc.).

All in all, the book is faithful to its title but not worth the price. A good second choice if the book you want is out of stock.

This popular book was written as an introductory course to operating systems but systematically provides an extensive description of operating system concepts. The 1st half of the book is typically used for undergraduate computer science classes although the book as a whole is often required for graduate level classes.

It is assumed that readers will have some knowledge of high-level languages and general computer organization. The book does not spotlight any one particular operating system but rather presents concepts and algorithms that are common to many of the Oss that are commonly used today, including MS-DOS, Windows 2000 & NT, Linux, Sun Microsystems' Solaris 2, IBM OS/2, Apple Macintosh, and DEC VMS.

The book has 7 major parts:
1) Overview: What Operating Systems are, what they do, how they are designed, and where they came from. General history and explanations. Some discussion on hardware.

2) Process Management: How information is processed. Methods for process scheduling, interprocess communication, process synchronization, deadlock handling, and threads.

3) Storage Management: How main memory functions and executes. The mechanisms for storage of and access to data is covered. The classic internal algorithms and structures of storage management is discussed and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

4) I/0 Systems: The types of devices that attach to a computer. How the devices are accessed and controlled. Performance issues and examined thoroughly.

5) Distributed systems: The collection of processors that do not share a clock or memory. How distributed file systems are shared, synchronized, communicate, and deal with deadlocks.

6) Protection and Security: How mechanisms ensure that only certain processes that have obtained proper authorization can use certain files, memory segments, CPU, etc.

7) Case Studies: This is where individual real operating systems are discussed in depth. These systems are Linux, Windows 2000, FreeBSD, Mach, and Nachos.

Of course this is a very general list and omits many other aspects of Operating Systems that are included in the book. This 887 page book does not include formal proofs but it does contain (though it would be better to have more) figures, diagrams, examples, and notes to help explain concepts.

Linda and Scott Gardner have hired an instructer from a tutoring service, Julian Sawyer, to privately tutor their son, Brandon, and help him improve his SAT scores. Brandon is all set to dislike Julian right from the get-go but never gets the chance. Hey, this guy is cool! Linda and Scott fall for the tutor's charm next, relying on him for car rides, business and financial advice, and tennis tips. Brandon's little sister, Ruby, age eleven, an outgoing little Sherlock fan, shares Brandon's feelings as well. But she's also brighter than her brother (or parents) and soon deduces that Julian is not everything he appears. While the rest of her family is cuddled in Julian's palm like a sparrow in the hand of the neighborhood bully, Ruby is sniffing along for clues in a manner even Sherlock Holmes couldn't knock.

THE TUTOR starts out strong. The pace is fast, the details interesting, the characters memorable. The middle isn't so bad either. But the ending bombs inexcusably -- perhaps because as the story progresses it becomes more and more out of this world. Peter Abrahams has created here a portfolio of surreal characters, more caricatures than flesh and blood people. Each one represents a certain weakness which Julian exploits to the hilt, although Julian himself has weaknesses, as every good villain must. There's a blurb on this book's jacket from Stephen King praising the author, and while Abrahams's style may briefly remind you of King's in the way it comes across as not quite on the level, Abrahams doesn't hold a candle to King's way with words. THE TUTOR is reasonably well written and contains some excellent descriptions, but most books are reasonably well written. Little here stands out.

Horror fans, be warned. You may not be horrified (unless snakes deeply upset you). But THE TUTOR is a stylishly crafted if skewed nailbiter tale, and as such should have a case with suspense fans.

Peter Abrahams must be a scary,scary man. "Crying Wolf" was a brilliant, intense suspense thriller in a class of its own. Now he's given us "The Tutor", outdoing himself by far, notching up the intensity to the n-th degree, creating a page-turner to beat all page-turners!

The Gardners are a typical upper middle class family, striving to be better. Husband and father Scott Gardner is jealous of his brother, who seems to have everything Scott doesn't. Scott pushes his family to excel and succeed...but is hampered by the memory of his dead son, Adam. Brandon Gardner, Scott's next-oldest son and still living, must survive with the pressure of Adam's ghost hovering over his world all the time. Scott is certain that Adam would've grown up to become the perfect uber-son, had he not succumbed to leukemia at a relatively young age. And now Brandon is beginning to show signs of failure.
Enter Julian Sawyer, an opportunistic man hired as tutor to Brandon Gardner. Think Norman Bates here. The tutor is a skillful sociopath with evil intent on his mind.
Throw into the mix a precocious young daughter who idolizes Sherlock Holmes, and you have a brilliant thriller that makes ones pulse pound to the very end.

Abrahams has written an intelligent, wonderful novel in "The Tutor". Well-portrayed characters, and a believable plot make this a must-read book!

Like Stephen King, Peter Abrahams has the literary skill and imagination to tap into our worst nightmares and bring them chillingly to life. His special forte seems to lie in exploring the nature of obsession: the monster that lurks beneath a mask of normalcy until circumstances suddenly combine to put its prey within reach. Julian Sawyer, THE TUTOR, is a man obsessed with a meglomaniacal desire to create a living novel out of the raw material of ordinary people's lives...to first learn their secrets and then exploit them at his will in order to destroy them. The Gardner family is his chosen target. Scott and Linda are doing their best to achieve today's upper-middle class dream of 'having it all', but their sand-castle world is a sadly dysfunctional one. Scott, desperately competing with his more effectual brother, has never been able to achieve the quick-fix financial success that he craves; Linda is career-driven to the point where she has become oblivious to what's going on with her children, and both teen-age Brandon and his precocious eleven-year-old sister Ruby are in trouble. That trouble becomes grim reality for his shocked parents when Brandon's SAT results are far below their expectations, although only Ruby...escaping parental pressures to become what she is not into a dream world with her idol, Sherlock Holmes...realizes the full extent of his rebellious, anti-social behaviors. In desperation, Linda calls a tutoring service, and Julian Sawyer enters their lives. In the tradition of "Kind Lady" and "Night Must Fall", he slowly gains their confidence and trust which, in turn, also exposes their fears and weaknesses. When circumstances combine to place Julian in charge, the stage is set for an increasingly horrific series of life-threatening confrontations that beggar description.

THE TUTOR walks an extraordinary stylistic tightrope between spine-tingling suspense and dark horror...a tour de force combination of taut plotting and brilliant characterization that captured and held me spellbound. Peter Abrahams careful attention to the 'whys' of their behaviors made me not only understand the Gardners as fallible human beings, but care deeply about them, especially young Ruby who is probably one of the most enchanting fictional children that I've encountered in my recent reading. His talent makes the bizarre seem believable, and I found it impossible not to accept the complete plausibility of his nightmarish premise. This is not an easy novel to read, but it is one that the reader will not readily forget...a totally gripping literary experience and a benchmark for the genre.

The book gives exercises at the end of each chapter, but does not give the answers to check by. Some of the Exercise questions are so difficult to find answers to.

A good introductory O/S book for undergrad/beginning graduate students. Well-designed and straightforward. Good examples of Java code.

The one drawback is a tendency to get rather wordy in some sections and ramble on a bit. Taken as a whole, however, this is a very worthwhile textbook.

I have taken many courses at both undergrad and grad levels and in doing so have come across books that left me wondering. This book in contrast is wonderful! It is excellent at covering the full spectrum of various operating system issues. I doubt I'd pick it up if I were intently interested in Macs, though. It does a good job of addressing UNIX/Solaris issues, JAVA, and of course Intel-based OS's. Was an easy read.

Roger Cullingwood discovers that his wife Francie is having an affair with Ned Demarco, so Roger decides that Francie must die. Roger hatches a perfect murder or did he?

The quality of the writing grabs you on the first page. Characters are drawn with accuracy and keen insight. The plot is beautifully developed. It is suspenseful but not in a predictable way, you see what's coming, but trust me you are still surprised and amazed. This book has several graphic love scenes.

Peter Abrahams is the author of eight previous novels, including " The Fan" and "Lights Out", which was nominated for an Edgar Award for best novel.

Roger Cullingwood discovers that his wife Francie is having an affair with Ned Demarco, so Roger decides that Francie must die. Roger hatches a perfect murder or did he?

The quality of the writing grabs you on the first page. Characters are drawn with accuracy and keen insight. The plot is beautifully developed. It is suspenseful but not in a predictable way, you see what's coming, but trust me you are still surprised and amazed. This book has several graphic love scenes.

Pam @ MyShelf.Com

The quality of the writing grabs you on the first page. Characters are drawn with deft accuracy and keen insight. The plot is beautifully developed. It's suspenseful but not in a predictable way: you see what's coming, but trust me: you're still surprised. The grace with which Abrahams accomplishes what seems to be effortlessly unfolding left me thoroughly impressed. The author does not resort to cheap tactics, no easy outs: it's just solid writing. This guy is now near the top of my list of all-time favorite authors. My only question is, why isn't he more acclaimed? If you thought Grisham was good, this makes him pale in comparison. If you think Grisham is mediocre, RUN to your keyboard and order this book, and you can thank me later.

Packer starts her ambitious novel with a picture-perfect prologue: in spare, elegant prose she sets the scene and sends her protagonist's boyfriend to his quadriplegic fate. She takes the reader inside Carrie's head, and her strong writing keeps us engaged as Carrie and friends wait for Mike to emerge from his coma and as Carrie dithers over whether or not she'll look like a creep if she dumps Mike now. Packer has populated her story with a few interesting people--the therapist mom, the co-dependent friend, Mike's pal Rooster--so we forgive the lack of plot and the lack of character development.

Abruptly, the book switches directions. (Perhaps Packer decided that readers must be as bored with Madison as she and Carrie were.) Without warning to mom, friends, fiance, or the reader, Carrie jumps in her car and drives to New York. (Apparently young women never meet with foul play in Madison--Carrie's mom and friends don't seem concerned about her disappearance--they all somehow know that she skipped town because she didn't want to deal with her feelings about Mike.)

Packer's leisurely style becomes lethargic once Carrie hits the Big Apple, where she quickly acquires a free place to live, the stereotypical gay buddy, and an enigmatic boyfriend, Kilroy. Except he's not an interesting enigma; Carrie never figures out what makes him tick, and neither do we. What's more, it's hard to care, or to understand what she sees in him. Nor does New York feel "real." Packer, who excels in portraying Madison, fails to capture any of the essence of the big city.

The reader is still inside Carrie's head, but not a lot seems to be going on there. Much of her behavior is inexplicable. For example: she's planning to come to Madison for a visit (Rooster's wedding). Being a talented seamstress, she buys the most gorgeous, expensive fabric in the most upscale fabric store in New York and fashions a stunning outfit for herself. Then, at the last moment, she decides not to go. This scene, which could (and should) have some emotional depth--might even explain Carrie's internal state of disrepair--is simply flat.

Finally, Carrie comes home to Madison (she never should have left) and the story picks up again--but by then I was tired of her whining, her lack of insight, her poor impulse control, and her inability to learn from her past mistakes.

Other reviewers have mentioned the sex scenes. I suspect that a well-meaning friend or editor told Packer that she needed to spice up her book, and that's why she inflicted these embarrassing and ineptly written episodes on her readers.

Bottom line: not awful, not great, could have been better.

While I enjoyed reading this book, I felt disappointed somehow by its ending. Carrie Bell is narrating the story and we discover that she is suffocating in her life. She is 23 and engaged to her high school sweetheart but the love she felt is no longer there. Unfortunately, her fiance, Mike, is involved in a diving accident and paralysed for life. Carrie has a whole new set of obligations to rise to and consequently her moral dilemma begins.

While I do not blame Carrie for leaving behind her hometown and heading out for a life of her own, she could have at least had some closure with her family, friends and most certainly with Mike. She spends her entire time in this book running away which causes the reader to have no real connection with her, we just cannot empathize. She meets Kilroy while in New York and jumps into a relationship with him. Then she is torn between her life there and her obligations to the people back at home. Carrie just cannot make a decision and face the consequences.

We want to see Carrie mature and learn something from the choices that she has made, but by the end, I just felt let down. She never had the courage to truly follow her heart. She let others choose for her, even after her courageous move away from home.

This book does however raise some interesting questions for ourselves. What would you do in such a situation? Would you choose loyalty over love?

Also, the author was able to use some beautiful prose in this book. Her writing ability is wonderful, I just think that the characters themselves were a little unrealistic.

I first heard about this novel from "Entertainment Weekly" and its annual list of the best books in fiction and nonfiction which "The Dive From Clausen's Pier" held a prominent spot (I can't remember exactly what it got). The main character, Carrie, has been dating the same guy for several years, all through high school and college. Though engaged to him, Carrie decides she wants to break of their engagement because she no longer loves him. Just as she reaches this conclusion, her fiancee takes a dive off a pier and breaks his neck. The novel follows Carrie focusing on the impacts of the accident on the victim's family and friend. Though the question of whether Carrie will stay or leave is compelling, I was more moved by the realistic and heartfelt portrayal of Carrie as a person. I truly felt like she was someone I had known my entire life by the end of the novel. One may not like Carrie's actions, but the author fleshes out her character so well that you understand Carrie's thought processes as if they were your own. On a personal note, my mother's brother injured himself the same way at twenty and my mom chose to come home early from college to help take care from him. Because of this book I feel I understand what contradicting feelings of love and hate my mom must have experienced over the situation. I recommend this book to all. It is one of the few books I have compulsively read and been unable to out down.