I bought this book for my daughter. I read it first. It is a good introduction for children to medieval English life, somewhat unrealistic in spots, but nonetheless nicely written. It is just a simple story about a boy, whose faithful dog is stolen, and in his search for the dog, his father Roger the Minstrel loses him. Adam's adventures and misadventures help him learn courage, self-reliance, gratitude,as well as generosity. He learns the value of work, perserverance and friendship. It is a little slow in places, but the story is more about a boy growing up than it is about a boy looking for his dog. The illustrations by Robert Lawson are beautiful and really capture the spirit of the book. In general it's a very good book.

So many of today's children know little of true hardship and deprivation. It's good to let them read about what life was like when one traveled on horseback or on foot rather than by wagon or car, when one used candles rather than electric lights, and when one was warmed by a campfire or fire in a hearth rather than by central heat. The detail provided in "Adam of the Road" about the way that young Adam supported himself on a daily basis makes history come alive for the reader. Adam's existence was hand-to-mouth, gritty, and portrayed quite realistically.

SYNOPSIS: Adam Quartermayne, a minstrel's son, travels all over southern England from June, 1294 to April, 1295, first accompanying his father, Roger, and then in search of his dog Nick--and then in search of his father. In the process Adam grows up and becomes more resourceful and self-reliant. Both Roger and his son are honest and believe in working to earn their keep. Adam learns the hard way that most others of the traveling-minstrel profession are unscrupulous. A minstrel named Jankin gambles with Roger and wins Bayard, a retired workhorse, from Roger. When Jankin abuses the animal and makes it lame, he steals Adam's beloved red spaniel for the dog's companionship and for the tricks the dog can perform.

IMPRESSIONS: "Adam of the Road" can certainly serve to teach many positive messages to young readers. Adam's perseverence in the face of discouragement, his courage and positive attitude in the face of failure and disappointment, and his ability to adapt to change are wonderful values that it's important for children to learn to recognize and incorporate into their own characters.

If you like action, drama and romance (well not much romance) then you will like "Adam of the Road." The story begins at St.Albans abbey in the June of 1294. When Adam Quartermayne, the son of Roger, the minstrel of Lord De Lisle, gets picks him up at the abbey by his father the adventure begins. Adam's father loses their horse, Bayard, to another minstrel Jankin. Jankin rides Bayard so hard that Bayard becomes lame and Jankin does not want Bayard anymore. In the middle of the night, Jankin steals Nick, Adam's cocker spaniel, and heads out before Adam awakes. Then the case begins taking Adam all over England. I won't tell you anymore about the book other than it is a great book and you should read it!!!!

A good story about prison life. And about a serious problem in America. Prison overcrowding. It also shows how races can work together in a hard situation. These characters are as real and tangible as the people next door. Worth a read.

It is rare to find superb writing and a gripping plot in the same novel. However, both are present in this gem of a story. My advice before picking up this novel is to go to a secluded spot and don't plan on leaving until you finish because you won't want to put this book down. One gets the feeling that Sommers is a master in the making and we are privledged to be able to watch him develop. But back to the topic at hand. This book has it all, good, evil, morality, meaning, philosophy, crime, punishment, sex, and a very attractive cover. If you like reading -- better yet, if you CAN read -- you should read this book.

People wonder why I choose most of my reading from independent publishers. The reason is simple. Every once in a while there is a treasure buried in the rubble. Adam Sommers' first novel is not just a treasure but a tour de force. Someone at a major publishing company that rejected this book kicks themselves every morning, and well they should. This is a riveting story that you will want to read over and over. Buy this for someone you know and you'll have a friend for life. Bravo!!!

While the beginning of the book was an interesting read with the author talking about Microsoft's hiring practices, the inner workings of the company and his experience at SoftImage, a company acquired by Microsoft, I felt that the book went downhill quickly from there.

At exactly page 146, I felt like I was reading a different book. Unfortunately, it was a book that I did not enjoy nearly as much as the first 145 pages. From this point onward, Mr. Barr felt the need to write a long drawn out essay about the history of the computer industry peppered with comments about how it affected Microsoft.

I have read this history countless other times in books much more entertaining and comprehensive (i.e. Fire in the Valley) than this book.

The author supposedly worked on two different versions of Windows NT and Windows 2000, but there was no talk whatsoever of what it was like to work on those teams. I definitely expected more information about what specifically went on inside Microsoft (from an insider's point of view) rather than Microsoft's relation to the industry which is public knowledge.

Adam Barr writes well. I found myself agreeing with several of his analyses: esp. his dissection of MSFT's evangelistic activities and his keen understanding of the api-itis that afflicts MSFT products today.

The book is in four parts. The first is a look at MSFT hiring and interview processes, which is followed by a description of his time at Softimage (which includes a brilliant dissection of type-1 through type-4 demos), then a long and meandering recounting of his early involvement with computers and then an equally meandering final part which is a compilation of his observations about MSFT and the industry in general. I found the first two interesting enough to read, but found the final two not as compelling. He completely mis-understands the point about middleware and Java (see Lou Gerstner's book "Who said elephants can't dance?" for a different definition of middleware and business strategy). Perhaps his narrow, unappealing and unfocussed second half meanders so much because he didn't take his chances to widen his own career within MSFT as a manager or PM.

Like Adam with his interviewees, I agonized over whether or not I should give this book a "four" or a "three" star rating :). Ultimately, I had to go with the lower rating because as a developer, I was hoping to read about what "he" had actually "learnt as a developer" when I picked up the book. Unfortunately, while he talks about a whole lot of things (such as the importance of testing for product quality, and the importance of programmers getting a 'life' as they mature, the contributions of MSFT to the open source movement, etc. etc.) he doesn't at all talk about what he worked on, what was exciting and new about NT code he may have contributed to, or how methodologies and practices changed while he was there. Maybe MSFT prevents people from talking about such stuff, but by cutting out such professionally interesting bits, the book becomes a "missed opportunity" (esp. since Adam is a self described "systems guy"). Perhaps he really was writing only for the non-programmer crowd (but I doubt it).

In this book you'll find the story of Microsoft and SoftImage in the 1990s, from a software developer's point of view. I worked at Microsoft myself for most of this time and I can say that the book is accurate and gives a good sense of the place, and of the problems facing software developers. I especially liked the detailed discussion of hiring practices. In the software business the assets walk out the door each night and a software company is only as good as its employees - hence the critical importance of hiring and retaining good ones.

The author includes a history of the personal computer industry and some thoughts on the problems facing Microsoft now, from court battles to public opinion. If you want to get a sense of what it's like inside the company, this is a really good book. I enjoyed reading the book and recommend it to you.

Merril may be a funny man on the field but in the book he is boring. As in many sports stories the subject gives the writer a line and the writer blows it up to a paragraph or a nonsensical chapter.

What was billed as a wildly hysterical look at major league baseball through the eyes of an umpire turned out to be a rather booring couple of nights of reading. If you want real humor, check out Ron Luciano's efforts. If you want "ol' boy, down home country lingo" this will do. The foreward, written by Ken Griffey, Jr. is banal and self-serving. The book itself does little more than proclaim baseball analyst Tim McCarver as a jerk, superstar Reggie Jackson as the "second coming" (presumably because he professed to enjoy the author's fried chicken) and Merrill himself as a blind supporter of his fellow umpires. Funny,,, Merrill referred to former umpire Nestor Chylak as "Nestor Shylock".Didn't his editors check this out beforehand? That's reason enough for me to ask for my money back. If your looking for baseball humor, try Luciano - and leave this book on the shelf.

Durwood Merrill has had some interesting experiences, and crossed paths with some of the more intriguing people behind the scenes of baseball. For that, it may be worth struggling through this poorly written manuscript.

Mr Merrill is not expected to be much of an author, and should rely heavily on his editor to tighten up his anecdotes into a readable, coherent, flowing manuscript. Mr. Dent has failed him miserably here. It's as if the editor read each anecdote separately, and forgot about it once he turned the page. Spelling and typos were ATROCIOUS.

In short, this book would have been much better if it were edited down to about 2/3rds its size, and nothing of value would have been lost.

P.D. James pulls out all the gothic stops. I sometimes wondered whether she was parodying the gothic genre. The characters and dialogue are unrelievedly morbid, but with a certain amount of depth. The plot is sort of slow. This is the second gothic novel set in Dorset I have run across recently (the other is Ex Libris by Ross King). I shall never visit Dorset. I liked this novel enough to finish it, but I don't think I will read any more P. D. James. Her detective is too introspective, sensitive, and filled with self-doubt.

Commander Adam Dalgliesh is recovering from a severe illness when he receives an invitation to visit his old friend and mentor Father Baddely. Deciding that a visit to the countryside might give him time to relax and give thought to perhaps giving up his career at Scotland Yard. But there is no rest, as there are a series of deaths at Troynton Grange, and with each death Dalgliesh is drawn inexorably back into his old life, solving murders.
'The Black Tower' is a little less in classical Agatha Christie style as 'The Skull Beneath The Skin', the other PD James novel I have read. The setting for 'The Black Tower' is in a local sanitorium for patients with long-term illness, which provides a suitable sense of dread and decay. James peoples it with several interesting characters. A fine effort.

"The Black Tower" is arguably the creepiest of P. D. James's works! In addition to having the highest number of murder victims, the novel has a claustrophobic setting--an isolated nursing home on the Dorset coast--that lends itself well to a level of suspense bordering on terror.

H. R. F. Keating has cited "The Black Tower" as one of the 100 greatest mystery novels of all time. (James's "A Taste for Death" is also on the list.) Interestingly enough, although the element of mystery builds throughout "The Black Tower," its resolution is not as satisfying as in some other works by P. D. James. The reason may be that the motive for the multiple murders does not seem to be as well integrated into the heart of the novel when compared to "Shroud for a Nightingale" and "Original Sin," to name novels that both preceded and followed "The Black Tower."

Still, the remarkable characters and, yes, the element of creepiness make "The Black Tower" a terrific read. The setting is atmospheric and plays a large role in generating the tension that pervades the novel. Bonus: Fans of both detective series in the P. D. James canon will be gratified by the teasing references to Cordelia Gray in this Dalgliesh novel.

I've kept diaries, notebooks, and journals for 30 years, and for fun and new ideas I like to read books about writing and journaling. This was the most boring book on journaling I have read yet. It makes journaling sound like a chore or school assignment.

This book did not make me want to put it down and do my own writing, which is one of the things I look for in books on writing. It made me want to lie down on the couch and sleep. The author includes NO actual diary entries, either her own or other people's, and she goes on repetitively about the benefits of keeping a journal, as if trying to resell the idea, chapter after chapter. She also overstates both the need to schedule one's writing and the pleasures of writing for new journalers. I don't write every day unless I feel like it; never have. And I don't set aside one special pen for writing -- how limited! Although she gives lists of types of journals one can keep, they are obvious and lifeless, with almost no discussion of visual (non-word) ways of journaling. Sad to say, I got only about 1/3 of the way through this book before giving up, skimming each chapter, and just reading the box at the end of each chapter, "The Least You Need to Know."

There is so much more potential energy and enjoyment in journaling than this book conveys. Fortunately, many other books do cover this ground vibrantly; find one of them instead.

But most importantly, just get yourself a nice blank book, a comfortable pen, and START. Write when you feel like it, when you have time, and when you feel a burning issue or a lack of clarity. Read other people's published journals and get inspired. And don't destroy your journals (especially if you're young); find a good hiding place, treat them lovingly, and they will reward you with insight into your own patterns and a treasury of memories to which you can return again and again.

As an eclectic journalist I come to appreciate this book for what it is, a medley of ideas that can be use to tailor your own journaling experience. While I do not agree in forcing, yourself to write, I do agree you should keep a schedule or else you will forget about writing. Keeping a sensible schedule depending on your life style is the most practical approach. Whether is every day, week or month. I draw the line on forcing people to participate in journaling because journaling is meant to be a personal experience. Your journal should be your friend, one that allows you to grow in many aspects in your life. Just as your life is changing your journal should change with you. Keeping too many journals is not conceivable to me in a practical sense because is time consuming. Life is about living it not writing it, you need to strike a balance. Must people including myself find that having different sections in their journal can-better reflect their emotional states, vacation travels or the creativity aspects of their life. The book suggestions are quite valuable if apply with an eclectic view and I highly recommended it for a beginner or experienced journalist...

I usually bypass the ...for Dummies and Idiot's Guides but after reading this Idiot's Guide I might be looking at others more closely. This book is well-written and thorough, a very good compendium and probably the first journaling book to read before considering purchasing others. It details the many types of journals as well as the many reasons a person might want to keep one in the first place as well how as what to journal in and how to keep the writing private. It goes into specifics for each type of journal ('the unsent letter', for example, toward healing and resolution) and generally serves to enlighten one about journaling.

Lonely Planet Italy (3rd Edition) is definitely the book to get for a tight budget tour of Italy. I went on a round trip tour, starting from Milan, to Verona, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Pisa, Beaches on the West Coast and back Milan, simply based on the book. And the most interesting part got to be that I spend a total of not more than £300, having visited most of the places featured in Lonely Planet . The advices on safety given in the book might be a little over the top, but back to think of it, it's worth the precautions.... Love it Cheap.