One Step from the White House is a very satisfying, well-written biography of a pivotal figure in both post-World War II U.S. political history as well as 20th century San Francisco Bay Area history. The book chronicles William Fife Knowland's life in a straight-forward narrative from his 1908 birth to his suicide in 1974. Knowland's life makes a compelling story -- from his early days as the favorite son of a politically ambitious father, to his Senate years as a strong voice for the Republican Party's conservative wing, to his self-destructive golden years. Montgomery and Johnson allow the story to unfold slowly and tell itself without too much analysis or summary. While this style gives the book good narrative momentum as the reader becomes more and more familiar with Knowland, this sometimes analysis-free style resulted in this reader wondering how certain events came about, such as Knowland's meteoric rise in the Republican Senate leadership. The book is also too "soft" on its subject for a post-Watergate era political biography. While the author's introductory remarks thanking the Knowland family for their confidence and trust seem polite and appropriate, they ultimately reveal an excessive concern for the subject's descendants at the expense of the story at hand. When Montgomery and Johnson do impose some analysis on the story, it is sometimes unconvincing. The most prominent example of this is naming the book "One Step from the White House," clearly an appropriate title for a biography of Thomas Dewey or Hubert Humphrey, but the author's do not successfully sell its applicability to Knowland. In spite of such lapses, Montgomery and Johnson deliver a effective chronicle of a fascinating man and flawed man.

Gayle B. Montgomery and James W. Johnson have presented an excellent book on the complex life of Senator William F. Knowland. This book is great history of California and the (SF) East Bay Area;the Republican Party of the 1950's and the Oakland Tribune. Daniel Wyatt, the author of the life of Bill Knowland's father, Joseph Russell Knowland.

I knew Senator Knowland well, having worked for twenty years for the Oakland Tribune, and having had the unenviable assignment of writing his obituary for the newspaper following his death. Gayle Montgomery and Jim Johnson have done a magnificent job of capturing the driving demons of a man whose brusque and hearty demeanor disguised a complex and, in the end, tortured personality. This is a compelling book for every reader, not just those interested in the social an political history of the time.

I was shocked at the innocent lack of knowledge about her own body. Then to learn of such mutilation in such a way brought tears to my eyes.

Our sex education system in this country may be too forthright in some things, but perhaps it is better then no knowledge at all.

For the most part, Mr. Rice writes a compelling story about a very different culture. I found it difficult to lay the book down.

No one has ever captured my curiosity and blessed the effort to satisfy it as Paul did in THE ORPHAN. I went on a great journey with the character in this book, and explored the emotional havock that presented itself with depth and understanding. This book offers new insight regarding the words "normal" and "successful". Paul captured the beauty of Creation and the pain of innocence with expertise.

I appreciate the fact that he brings to light one of the many african tragedies in a simple honest way. He is an excellent poet with a lot of sweetness in the words of his poetry, and he has decided to write this book more like a newspaper redactor, in an editorial way. I think that is appropiate. Like many other countries, the drama is amplified by the communist times and the dictatorship.The part in the book, where he describes Ethiopia, makes the reader to wish he could travel to that country. The poem at the end of the book is beautiful, of excellent quality, which does a lot of sevice to the country.

This is an excellent book. The author has done a great job in pulling together the elements which spell success in the quest for employment. I recommend it.

Wayne D. Ford, Ph.D., author of "The Accelerated Job Search" docwifford@msn.com

Of several books I've purchased on the subject, this is by far the best for executives or superstars negotiating contracts with options, bonuses, etc. The author is engaging and very informative, and topics are presented from the employee's perspective.

The book discusses typical contracts (as if any of these deals are "typical") and how to initiate negotiations, followed by chapters detailing each area of the contract - complete with pro's and con's for options in each subject.

Many real-world examples are presented, covering agreements between numerous named parties. Several full-text contracts are also included, and many more are dissected to illustrate key points. (Eisner's mega-deal with Disney is an excellent reference on the subject, and as such it's covered here appropriately.)

Despite being a 1997 edition, the content is very valuable. Position on options and other market-based compensation seem a little dated, but are probably still accurate. An accompanying website would also be nice to facilitate re-use of the contract texts presented.

Overall, this book is easily worth the money and the read!

awsome and yet practicl

I ordered this book because it was all I could find on P3. I had recently converted my project from MSPROJECT to Primavera P3. I could figure out how to do things such as entering activity codes and resource profiles but was having trouble figuring out how they were interpretted by the software. This book did little to answer my questions on project structure and why to input data into certain fields and omitt it from others.

I will say that if I'd have had the time to follow through the entire workbook, which is what it felt like to me, a lab workbook, and developed a project using the examples from scratch I may have been more enlightened and may have been able to establish the relational ties I was looking for from experience. However I didn't and as a reference book it was bulky and tedious in it's delivery of the facts.

I have since acquired a book put out by Primevera, Scheduling with Primavera and Primavera P3 Reference Manual, that were much more readable and helpful in developing a project with P3 and explained the why's as well as the how's of the software.

This book cuts through the voluminous, daunting documentation that ships with P3 and gets you quickly started in harnessing the power of this full-featured PM application. If you've used P3 you'll understand the steep learning curve. If you're seeking a book because your company is implementing P3 you'll appreciate the value of this book.

The approach taken by the author is to step you through the common tasks of planning, scheduling and controlling a project, using an example project. The value of this approach is you focus on the important features and functions, instead of getting lost in the myriad of other features that you may or may not use. The book is designed to get you started with P3, not make you a P3 wizard, so this approach boils it down to the essentials. What makes the book effective is the copious use of screen shots from the program, which serve as landmarks, and the way the author conversationally discusses the finer points of project management in general while teaching you how to use P3. For example, in Chapter 9 where you'll be walked through adding logic to activities, you'll not only be shown how to perform this task, but given reasons why you should use one approach from among four possibilities to establish relationships. In this example the choices are start-to-start, finish-to-start, start-to-finish and finish-to-finish. This is but one example in which project management techniques are imparted with P3-specific procedures, and it adds value to the book.

What I most like about this book is the way the author sticks to the basics, uses exercises called workshops, and resists the urge to get fancy and confuse the reader. In this respect, what he wisely leaves out of the book is as important as what is included. The tutorial approach makes this book ideal as a personal learning tool, and the structure and use of workshops makes this book useful as a training guide for companies that intend to conduct in-house training. Another point is the project management techniques that the authors shares are consistent with both the PMI PMBOK and the UK PRINCE2 methodologies, further adding to the book's value. If you are using P3 this book is the quickest way to become productive.

I could not find anything else on P3 in the bookstores. I was thrilled to discover this one on Amazon.com. Even happier that I brought this book back in July. I have been using it as a reference ever since. Paul Harris has written an easy to read and follow guide to P3.

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone that wants to master P3V3.

First a warning: I advice you to skip the very first part of the book, in which is the author tries to give the reader a feeling on the Polish background of the pope. It's unbalanced, emotional, somewhat chaotic, and very little to the point. I almost stopped reading the book because of this.

But when you start reading where the chronological description of the pope's life starts, you'll find a thorough biography, without exaltation, and not without some critical points of view. The first half of the book deals with the years before Karol became pope, and show how he was trained, coached, and grew as a actor, priest, play write, bishop, mystic poet and cardinal, in the often hard conditions in Poland. The second half deals with his policies as pope. Here is also a special focus on the Polish situation and how the pope exercised influence there. The book helps understanding the motivations of John Paul, even though one doesn't have to agree with him on all accounts.

An interesting, insightful book.

This book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the life of one of the greatest and most influential popes ever, John Paul II. Through the author's exceptional work, we get to know the man who became John Paul II, and relive his early heartbreaks and triumphs. From Nazi occupied Poland to the modern day Vatican, all significant events are detailed and discussed. This is a biography to be reread time and again.

Pope John Paul II has revolutionized the Papacy, stripping away much of the secrecy and making the Pope, for the first time in history, a Shepherd available to his flock. Although I thought this book leaned a little too heavily on Poland and Polish history, I will give in and say it enhanced my understanding of this complex and charismatic Pope. A very thorough biolgraphy with fascinating looks at behind-the-scenes-politics in Vatican City. Because of John Paul II's impact, he gets my vote as Man of the Century and I recommend this book as a must read for people of any faith.

Designed for the intermediate users of Windows XP, this book, "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Windows XP" is well-written and well-detailed.
With the analyses that covered both the Home and the Professional editions of Windows XP, it contains every information any intermediate user of the software would need. However, the more acquainted a user of this book is with any of the Windows 9x editions, the easier he or she will find this book. Even power-users appreciate the helpful annotations that are found in most of the sections.
But given the listed price of this book, it is a shame that Norton did not back it up with a CD-ROM. Nearly all comparable texts come with attached easy-to-use CD-ROMs, which serve as comprehensive e-books. And although that I still agree that this is a good book, I will say that its value for money ranks lower than those of many comparable texts that come with CD-ROMs.

Peter Norton's Complete Guide To Windows XP will introduce and discuss all of the new XP features in a style that is both conceptual and informative. Topics include why and when to upgrade to XP and if so, how to do it, understanding services and their configurations, explanation of the new internet options, such as third party cookie alert, firewalls, and web publishing wizard. Value information included on registry configurations and why the configurations work as they do, networking topics and integration ideas for home networks as well as explanations about using the networking wizards and understanding how XP works with software and hardware.

I purchased this book because Win XP Professional as it is preinstalled is very slow and I sought answers on how to enhance performance. This book had the most thorough section on performance enhancement which I followed with great success. I did have one problem and emailed the author who was kind enough to respond and solve it.

Honestly, if you decide to read this book, don't expect much. It is a rough read and provides random routines that do not provide a great deal of help to anyone trying to get into the sport of powerlifting, or just interested in putting up some weight. The routines in the book really don't provide any helpful info.
In short, if you are interested in a tall tale, read Pecos Bill. If you want a good powerlifing routine, read something else. If you want to blow 20 bucks on a few decent exercises you could get from your local trainer, read this.

-R-

Kelso takes a story about a weightlifter in a simple Texas town and turns it into a motivational journey that will have you rushing to your next workout. Kelso's writing is easy to follow and packs a strong message about dedication and hard work to achieve results with the iron. A great read and a great addition to any sports book collection.

I think the Kelso book (Powerlifting Basics, Texas Style) is one of the BEST primers for beginning lifters.

Kelso is able to do several things with that book that have eluded so many others:

1. It is focussed on developing a combination of real strength, size, power, and ability.

2. It stays on path with the common lifts that most folks know and can do, and doesn't go inot the weird and esoteric lifts that are only a distraction to the new and intermiediate lifter (rock lifting, one arm anvil presses, etc.)

3. He does address power rack work in as good a fashion as Brooks Kubik in "Dinosaur Training".

4. He offers lots of routines, but also "teaches" how to design programs and routines for various purposes.

5. He keeps a positive tone that supports the beginning and intermediate lifter, without going into the esoterica of how to train to bench 700 lb., etc.

6. He set the entire book in Texas, God's country and the home of High School powerlifting.

As well, Steve Holman, editor of Ironman magazine, reviewed it in the '97 January issue. He said (and I agree)...

"Since I come from Texas and was a fanatical participant in the Texas powerlifting scene at one point in my life, I devoured Paul Kelso's Powerlifting Basics, Texas-Style in record time. Although I never met any of the characters in his book-at least I don't think I did-there were plenty of folks in my neck of the woods who resembled many of Kelso's colorful acquaintances.

Lope Delk is one of his central characters, a know-it-all good ol' boy in his mid-40s who learns a lot of lifting and life lessons along the way, despite his hard-headedness. For instance, Kelso teaches him the bench shrug, a shoulder-girdle strengthener that builds bench press power. It develops the shoulder roll used by most great benchers, although many don't know they do it.

While the majority of Kelso's book is devoted to training anecdotes and routines, he peppers the pages with real-people views of bodybuilding and powerlifting. For instance, the lady librarian at the university where he worked considered IRONMAN "an anti-intellectual expression of narcissistic testosterone poisoning." Say what? Considering his description of the snooty librarian, we'll consider that a compliment.

This book is full of entertaining scenarios that will have serious lifters going from rolling on the floor with laughter to lapping up loads of solid training advice and programs. It's not just powerlifting though. Kelso leaves no iron stone unturned. He talks about breathing squats, basic bodybuilding, high-intensity training and even supplements: "Back in the '50s we all loaded up on raw milk and peanut butter and soy-based protein powder. We got bigger and stronger. Got gas too."

I'll leave you with one example that's indicative of Kelso's writing style and humor. He said he received a letter from a boy in Calcutta, India, who couldn't gain weight. The boy explained that the people in his village relied on the fish they caught for food. They didn't eat the fish, but traded it for "muhi," a poi-like carbohydrate paste that made up almost their entire diet. Here's Kelso's answer, and the results:

"I suggested he save back and eat a fish a day and explained about protein needs. He tried it awhile and was beefing up until his father caught him and beat him. I wrote a letter to his dad and included a picture of Steve Reeves in some kind of Sinbad outfit and told him that all the sons of the village could look like Steve if they ate a fish a day.

"Pretty soon the entire village was into it and getting healthier. Then I got a letter from a U.S. government agency telling me that I had created an international incident by interfering in the internal affairs of a foreign nation, and my scheme was playing havoc with the local economy and disrupting traditional values. My bodybuilding fisherman explained that the village headman was bought off by the muhi dealers. After a couple of food riots, the young man and his dad proceeded to become what passes for wealthy in the village by bootlegging fish. Shows you what kind of clout I have."

You can only imagine what the Stretch Mark Machine chapter is about. Paul Kelso has created a true iron classic, and you'll enjoy it and benefit from it-even if you've never been to Texas.

Pros: Great powerlifting and bodybuilding info, routines and tales interwoven with colorful, hilarious narration.

Cons: You may chuck everything, move to Seldom Seen, Texas, and start chewing Red Man tobacco when you lift."

In general, Mr. Proctor`s book is well done. Unfortunately, the autor uses many definitions which are not primarily used among ID specialists. These definitions are straight from the handbooks of Cybersafe Centrax, an IDS developed by the author (e.g. Network Node Intrusion Detection; the unique definitions of realtime/batched modes...). Additionally, Mr. Proctors seems to believe that only commercial IDSs are worthy of the professionel ID analyst. He wrongly describes Snort, an OpenSource NIDS published under GPL, as shareware and mentiones it very briefly in 3 sentences. Currently, 80-90% of all detects published on lists like Incidents are detected by Snort sensors ! Since Centrax is a first rate HIDS and only a second rate NIDS, the autor seems to be a very strong supporter of HIDS. This shows clearly through the whole book. The book gives a good overview over todays ID techniques combined with excellent examples. If Mr. Proctor had desisted from placing more or less hidden product advertisement in his book he would have done all readers a big favor.

This book is comprehensive and very readable. The information is excellent. Mr. Proctor's experience helps show how intrusion detection systems are used in real life through a lot of examples. My company implemented network-based IDS last year and this book really helped us understand host-based IDS. In fact it's the only book I've read on IDS that pays any significant attention to host-based IDS.

On the down side there are a few typos and the product section is a dated because several of the products mentioned have been acquired by other companies but this didn't take away from the really useful information.

I've read the other books on intrusion detection and if you've got Northcutt's book and this one you'll have all the information you need.

The Practical Intrusion Detection Handbook offers a highly readable and comprehensive presentation of intrusion detection.

Security is a holistic endeavor, requiring coordination of many different components, including technology, policy, practice, behavior, and so on. This trait of security makes the topic hard to grasp, and even harder to explain to non-experts, most of whom think of security as being conferred by a single object, whether a firewall, security policy, or chief security officer. The most impressive accomplishment of this book is that helps the reader apprehend all the different aspects of intrusion detection and how they interrelate.

The book helped me organize my own thinking about intrusion detection, providing not only an overview of approaches and technologies, but presenting the organizational, operational, policy, and financial aspects of intrusion detection.

The book is an excellent complement to other books on intrusion detection, such as Network Intrusion Detection: An Analyst's Handbook by Stephen Northcutt, and Intrusion Detection by Rebecca Gurley Bace.

This novel has some flaws and some characters are not well developed. However, it was hard to put down. It's an interesting whodunit with fast action over a period of a month or two, including an extended stay in the hospital. Holland Taylor is somewhat a loose cannon, tending to charge in where he should use caution. When you add his attitude, you can wonder how he stays alive and out of jail. In places, it is a manual on how to be a jerk.

An older friend of Holland's parents has been bilked by an investment advisor who was managing her money. Holland charges in against the advice of his girlfriend/attorney and stirs up a cesspool of wrongdoing. It is all about mistresses and money. When people are killed it appears that a third party is gunning for both sides. As the plot winds to a conclusion, Holland finds who his friends are.

The plot has details of computer crime and harassment. It demonstrates that businesses taking telephone orders should use caller i.d., and anyone taking over the counter orders should ask for photo identification. Based on language and violence, I would give it a PG-13 rating.

David Housewright is just a fun novelist. You won't be reading his novels in any university English classes, but rather taking them on vacation with you. I look forward to his next one.

I love this series. The books are almost impossible to put down, the plots are intricate and not obvious, the characters are interesting. In this one, P.I. Holland Taylor tries to recover the entire life savings of a little old lady who was defrauded by her investment advisor. kept me guessing throughout

In the story of Puss In Boots, a miller dies and leaves one of his sons nothing but the cat. This cat turns out to be quite clever and earns the favor of the King for his master. The cat also obtains land and a castle for his master and gives him the title of the Marquis of Carabas. The King becomes so impressed by the Marquis that he offers his daughter's hand in marriage, and the simple miller's son becomes a prince. The use of clever illustration makes this book an effective piece of folk lore. "Narrative Expectations: The Folklore Connection" discusses the basic pattern of a folktale. The article states that every folktale begins with the main character of the story being no different from or more special than any other character. Then, out of nowhere, the character is boosted into a "supernatural world" and all of a sudden he is moved up to higher society and viewed as a hero (67). This resembles the plot pattern of Puss In Boots, with the Marquis being the average character who becomes a hero. This jump to a higher level of society out of luck is strangely enough realistic in the twenty-first century. With things like inheritance, lotteries, and the stock market, a person of today could easily go from the poor miller's son to a "prince." However, this is not a common occurrence. The article also states that folklore "functions in part as an informal system for learning the daily logic and worldview of the people around us (71)." The author chooses not to use human characters to represent Master Slyboots and the rich ogre. He could have done this easily with illustration by making Master Slyboots a servant boy and the ogre a Marquis. Instead, he uses an informal style, placing animal characters in the book. This represents a higher level: Using animals in contrast to humans in order to show the differences in people as a whole.

This new translation of the "fairy" story first presented by Charles Perrault (1628-1703) in his Tales of Mother Goose in 1697 was illustrated by Fred Marcellino and translated by Malcolm Arthur. It was a 1991 Caldecott Honor book (that is, a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustrations in a book for children. The youngest son of a recently deceased miller receives a cat as his inheritance. He feels that he will soon die of starvation (after he has eaten the cat) since he has no other possessions. But, the cat convinces him to get him boots. The cat proceeds to find a fortune and a position for his young master.

I regularly visit school classrooms and read aloud to children from Kindergarten through eighth grade. Finding books that appeal to more than one grade level is a challenge.

I have found that the pictures in this version of 'Puss' appeal immensely to kindergartners through third graders. (Fourth and Fifth grade children also like it, but are often embarassed to say so in a classroom setting!). Children who often have a hard time sitting still for a story have sat transfixed as I read this book, holding the pictures in front of them all the time and giving them lots of opportunities to check out the wonderful use of light and color. The illustrator uses a lot of wonderful yellow that is very appealing to young children and seems to draw them into the book. I love reading this book out loud both to see children's reaction and also because I love the detail and color in the pictures.

Reading this book aloud has also sparked some beautiful art work from young children.