Nearly every day I read something in the commentary that really speaks to me. I read these during my morning prayer time, with scripture (daily readings). I really love the contemporary application of scripture to real life. I have remembered and told the stories to friends when in need of an encouraging word.

i loved the cookbook it was very easy to follow and very fun

I received Adobe LiveMotion as a Christmas present, along with VTC's training CD. I had never used LiveMotion, but I'm already creating web animations. The training is very clear and moves at a steady clip, and Fletcher's British accent in the narration reminds me of Monty Python, so that keeps it all light.

If you are a newbie this book will save you a ton of money and hours. Spoonfeeding at its best. High repetition ensures high retention rate. Reads like Decameron. Very easy. Most importantly, the author doesn't try enforce his authority in the field by savouring Confusion which is a second name of Unix. Enjoyable from the first page to the very last thanks to contageous easy going atmosphere. John would make a good movie director or an orchestra conductor.

This book is an introduction to celestial mechanics. It assumes some knowledge of calculus and vectors; given the subject matter, an unavoidable assumption. It contains a number of nicely chosen numerical and mathematical examples in each chapter so that the reader can see both application and extension of the results presented in the chapter. Each chapter ends with some problems, without answers, that continue to extend the basics from the main text. Each chapter contains references to books and papers that supplement and extend the subject matter of the chapter. It ends with a glossary, an appendix of physical constants, and an annotated list of books for further reading for the very interested reader. The book list is particularly valuable if the reader wishes to continue learning celestial mechanics; it covers elementary to advanced texts.

The first chapter provides a historical review of progress in celestial mechanics with a list of notable (dead) practitioners of celestial mechanics. A subjective list of living practitioners might have been helpful in this chapter. Chapters two through six establish the basis of orbital motion, starting with circular motion in chapter two. The mathematical basis for orbital motion is established in chapter three using the law of gravitation and Newton's laws of motion. Successive chapters generalize and expand on the results of chapters two and three. Chapter five introduces rockets and powered flight trajectories. Chapter six introduces parabolic and hyperbolic orbits.

Chapter seven discusses two topics of great practical importance, Kepler's law and Lambert's theorem. While both of these topics are several hundred years old they continue to be rich areas for current development in celestial mechanics. These two crucial topics are well covered. Chapter eight applies the previous material to the subject of orbital transfer; this chapter is the basis for flight between planets. Chapter nine digresses into spacecraft attitude dynamics, a complete discipline in its own right. It introduces the mathematics of the physical motion of a spacecraft about a local reference system. At 25 pages, it is a tight and tidy introduction to the subject. Chapter ten is titled "Planetary Exploration" although it also covers the creation of the solar system and trajectory modification by gravity assistance. More heavily illustrated than the other chapters, chapter ten's main topic is exploration of the solar system by spacecraft. Chapter eleven introduces perturbation theory; what happens to an orbit when more than two bodies make up the gravitational system. Chapter twelve applies perturbation theory to artificial satellites of Earth. (Chapters nine and twelve ought to make you appreciate how hard it is to get those great Hubble Space Telescope images.) Chapter thirteen must have been both the easiest and hardest chapter to write since Szebehely was one of the masters of this subject. It introduces the three-body problem and solar system stability with a nod to chaos theory.

All in all, this book is an excellent introduction to the topic of celestial mechanics. To the depth that the subject is explored, there are no loose ends. (The reviewer does regret that the Introduction from the first edition of this book was omitted from the second edition.)

James Josiah Webb was a young enterprising man in his twenties who made several trips down the Santa Fe and Chihuahua Trails in the 1840's and this is his account of what life was like then. While not exactly filled with tales of high adventure or edge of your seat drama, it is a good character study of relationships between Americans, Mexicans and Native Americans. The chapters on his 1846 trading venture during war time Mexico are very insightful and gives the reader a feeling for what it must have been like going through those tense and turbulent times of political unrest. A good book.

Plain and simple, this is a book that you have to read again and again and again just for good measure. One cannot possibly appreciate modern American literature as it exists today without reading Huck Finn. Twain's style is one-of-a-kind, and his keen sense of politics and history is one that rarely exists in modern times. Get past the racial implications of this book and look at what Twain is -saying-. Huck Finn is a character who is a rogue, a modern scoundrel; however, we trust his moral judgement and are able to look inside another time and place through his journey with Jim up the Mississippi. So get out your maps and notebook and enjoy Twain at his finest.

The Story: Huck Finn is a boy adopted by an elderly woman because Huck's father is a no-good drunk constantly in trouble with the law. In this pre-Civil War era, Huck's best friend is Jim, a slave who yearns for freedom. Of course, Huck is not socially allowed to acknowledge Jim, a slave, as his friend, even to himself. Huck and Jim "escape" from Aunt Polly's and take off on the mighty Mississippi, in search of freedom. For Huck he wants freedom from Aunt Polly's efforts to civilize him and make him a proper young gentleman. For Jim, it's freedom from slavery he seeks. Along the way, the two encounter many an adventure.

Commentary: On one level, this a great adventure novel that portrays the time just before the Civil War. Twain's writing is flawless and effortless to read. There is considerable humor in the book as well. On another level, however, Twain did to slavery what Carroll O'Connor's Archie Bunker did to more contemporary racism and bigotry: shine a light on it so bright and so clear that the ugliness becomes obvious. Who is the most denigrated character in the book? Jim, for fleeing from slavery. Who is the most caring, loyal, honest, and resourceful character in the book? Jim. The anti-slavery statement is subtle but definite.

Overall, this is a great novel with a subtle but important message.

After reading Huck Finn at age eight, and then reading it again in English class at age fourteen, I found that, though this is a delightful book, it is not the moral monster it is made out to be by English teachers everywhere. I don't believe that it should be banned from libraries or schools, having read it at a young age with no particular evils coming from it, but I also don't believe that it is a book that should be scrutinized as it is now. I think that everyone will take away something different from this book, and that it should be discussed, but while reading this in class everyone came up with the "right" answers, not their own personal opinions and ideas.

An extension of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn is a book that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.
-LJ

Its about a boy named Tom Sawyer who is the town tricker he always has a trick up his sleeve but all the tricks stop when Tom and Huck see Injuin Joe murdering Doc. Robinson in the graveyard .It was all fun and jokes until that night, then things got serious.