Taken on a Mediocre level, some of the characters grate, but they are meant to. The parody is perhaps ironic in it's exaggeration, but maybe not to all. It works, but not if you haven't already got the joke before you read it.

Try it. It is different, if reminiscent of Koontz at his scariest or Herbert at his usual genuinely scary levels. That is not the point, this is not a horror novel, but the horror serves to highlight the real issues.

Following this treacherous course of events, Mr. Graham's well-paced mystery creates an atmosphere that permeates Philadelphia's antique charm with a physical awareness of the muggy summer haze and gaslight noir in which the story unfolds. The Killing Breed's pages come to life with cast of characters -- from the compelling, self-assured McCleary to the imposing, self-confident Bunker, and the tormented Munroe to the demented kidnappers -- that bustle about the streets of late Nineteenth Century Philadelphia in search of ransom, solace, power, and the successful closure of two crimes. An intriguing look into the darker side of The Quaker City in the 1800's, The Killing Breed blends the dark finesse of Poe with the terse dialogue of Chandler; it is sure to appeal to the tastes of hard-boiled fanatics, mystery lovers and anyone who enjoys a thoroughly entertaining read.

In 1874 Philadelphia, police detective Wilton McCleary enjoys his job, protecting his fellow citizens from the criminals. However, the former Civil War vet soon finds himself embroiled in two different cases that take him to the seamier side of the city.

A valuable canine, Jocko, has been dognapped....

THE KILLING BREED is an impressive debut novel that will elate fans of historical mysteries. The two prime plots intelligently blend into a cohesive and highly intelligent story line. Wilton is a fabulous character and the secondary cast helps bring post Civil War Philadelphia into clear focus. If this novel is any indication of the future, Mark Graham has a long career ahead as the author of the Wilton McCleary historical police procedural.

Harriet Klausner

However, as a textbook for learning the kanji it ultimately fails, in my view. You will not learn to read Japanese solely by studying meanings and readings of kanji, and there is little purpose to learning the kanji if you are not going to read Japanese. You need reading practice in addition to this (reading passages also tend to be more interesting than endless drilling of readings and compounds).

There are plenty of books which are better at teaching you to read Japanese, including "Basic Kanji Book" (volumes 1&2), "Kanji in Context", and "Reading Japanese".

It includes tips no one ever thought to tell me. For example during installation the author gives his own real world experiences on what are the best partitions to create and how much to allocate. He also includes a lot of tips I've never heard about before, such as how most versions default to netmask 255.0.0.0, when usually an office intranet uses 255.255.255.0 and this saved me a lot of troubleshooting time.

Other personal experience suggestions the author includes helped me to fix problems before they ever became issues such as the excellent details this book includes on using Emacs (the whole problem I got with the "this buffer is for notes" error message was resolved thanks to the tips).

Overall, I have never seen a more compact (just over 100 pages) and yet information rich book on Linux. I own a lot of computer books that are much more expensive and I am thankful to have this included in my library.

The indepth explanation of the disk partioning, and selection of packages was most helpful, and wasn't a daunting task for a novice. The book also contains a very helpful reference section with the most widely used Unix commands, and gives you examples of how to use the commands effectively.

Overall, a great addition to my library and I recommend it to everyone who has thought about getting started with Linux.

My complaints:

A) On many occasions, Fisher refers the reader to "the Appendix" for further details and examples. Well, some of the information is there, and some of it is missing. At the price Wiley is charging for this book, they could have had an editor clear up those dangling references.

B) A more serious issue is that Fisher's ACD trading system depends on a number of market-specific time and price parameters, which the author says are calculated using his firm's "proprietary methods." So, if you want to use the trading techniques he describes in this book, you'll need to get some historical intraday data and do a little number crunching of your own to fill in the missing information.

This is an excellent book. One of the other reviewer's pointed out that as the biggest energy trader on NYMEX and as someone who built a very successful clearing firm, Mark Fisher is a "Michael Jordon" of his field. His bona fides cannot be questioned.

The fact that Paul Tudor Jones' recommends this book to his traders as a must read (as PTJ points out in the foreword) should also be noted.

Mark Fisher describes in great detail his approach to trading - the ACD System. This is a very robust system that works across markets and time frames. It has also held up well for > 20 yrs.

As Fisher points out in the book most of his traders adapt the ACD approach to their own styles. This is something I have done as well. I have tested this methodology and it unquestionably has merit.

The main question one should ask is - does one have the discipline to follow the system without hesitation? Discipline (or execution or psychology - whatever one calls it) is a huge determinant of investment returns. Some people cannot make $ even if they are presented with a high expectancy system because they are constantly second guessing the signals. The importance of discipline is magnified when one is dealing with an intra day system.

Bottom line, this is an excellent book from a market master whose methods have been proven across many markets by 100s of people over decades. If you have the discipline to follow a pretty active system (mutiple times per week) w/o hesitation and stick with it through drawdowns then you can profitably use the ACD system.

Over the last 15 years, Fisher, an independent trader, has taught his trading approach dubbed the "ACD" system to over 4,000 individuals including members of his clearing firm - which is the largest clearing firm for the NY Mercantile Exchange. Of the 1,000 traders who use Fisher's methodology, 10% make over $750,000 a year, according to Fisher. This is certainly a testament to the soundness of Fisher's methodology. Fisher emphasizes that is method can be used to trade commodities, currencies, or stocks either at a trading firm, on the exchange floor, or at home. Traders taught by Fisher have had a 40 - 50% success rate compared to around 10 - 15% for the average trader using different techniques/

Fisher peppers his books with examples, anecdotes and stories. However, the main thrust is focused on explaining his ACD system in excruciating detail with numerous chart examples, detailed explanations of the key terms and trading parameters.

The ACD system - plotting price points in relation to the opening range - requires no expensive software. The method provides reference points for trading - A and C points are for entry and B and D are stops. Using the system the trader can calculate when to go long or short. Coupled with additional indicator and measurements, layered on top of the ACD system, the trader will be able to develop a trading plan.

To use the ACD system -which is based on simple math - the trader must have certain abilities including collect and analyze information, make and implement decisions, be good with numbers, be disciplined to follow the system. Fisher describes pivot points, the daily pivot price (high+low+close)/3), daily pivot range, 3-day rolling pivot, etc. The last 30 days data are viewed to obtain the big picture of the vehicle being traded. He calls this his Macro ACD. He provides 25 chart examples to illustrate how to score each day.

After the first four chapters, Fisher has an exam with answers to make sure that the reader understands all the key concepts and calculations.

Fisher adds more meat to the ACD system by introducing the use of pivot moving average (using daily pivot price as opposes to the day's close) to determine the current trend (up, down or flat). He uses three pivot point moving averages (14 day, 30 day and 50 day) and focuses on looking at the slope of the moving average line to determine the existing trend or rate of change in the trend. Then Fisher covers exit strategies. He explains the rolling pivot range (RPR) which typically spans 3 to 6 trading days. This is the reference point for entry of the trade. The RPR let's you keep your winning position longer and gets you out of your losing positions in a more profitable manner. Fisher also calculates the price momentum of today's close compared to 8 days ago to determine the trend. He then discusses his use of the "reversal" trade set-up to exploit the market failures. Other subjects covered include the two-way swing, trend reversal trade and sushi roll (change in the direction of the market), and outside reversal week.

Fisher illustrates the effectiveness of using the ACD system using charts from the 1929 crash. It would have worked well in 1929 at the top and in 1932 at the market bottom in keeping the trader on the right side of the market.

Fisher devotes on 27-page chapter to real person trading stories focusing on risk management. Lastly, Fisher interviews seven traders that have successfully used his system with their personal perspectives.

The book contains a 10-page glossary of relevant terms, a table of 20 simple trading rules, and a 27-page compilation of sample data gathering for the ACD system.

In summary, this book requires a lot of time and study from the reader, but the potential rewards could be substantial

Although their relationship becomes strained and severely tested, Mark expects his lover to understand that he is not perfect. Meanwhile, the story that Mark and David are covering centered on a conspiracy involving the Millennium 2000 celebration turns deadly. In some manner, a phony astrophysicist, a dead reporter, and a Christian fundamentalist are tied together. It is up to Mark to learn what binds these people together before the country is dramatically changed.

EYE CONTACT picks up where FLIGHT DREAMS left off by focusing on the mystery and the growth of the man coming to terms with his sexual preference. The who-done-it is well plotted and interesting, but the beauty of this novel lies in Mark's struggles to understand what makes a relationship work. Michael Craft demonstrates he is an artist as he crafts a beautiful relationship drama that is superior to most on the market today. Harriet Klausner

I can see how some readers would not read and evaluate this book as highly as I do. Epstein's personal approach won't resonate with everyone. But when it does it works well, and I suspect it will resonate often and deeply enough with most readers interested in the subject matter to make this book an enjoyable and valuable read.