Mr Nabhan took us on an extrardinary journey through St Francis county. Entertaining and educating on each page. Then the big let down in the epilogue, as he rejects everything St Francis stood for. St Francis loved nature and the animals, but only because they are God's creation. St Francis's every moment was spent glorifing God. He loved all animals as an extension of his love for Jesus, nothing more, nothing less. Mr Nabhan totally misread St Francis.

If, one week ago, someone told me that I'd be reading & loving a book subtitled "An American Naturalist in Italy," I'd have laughed.

This is a witty and charming book (a very quick read) which will get to you even if you are NOT a naturalist---even if, like I, you hardly know what a naturalist is or does!

Nabhan, with a friend, hiked through the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside, interviewing natives and chronicling his discoveries and stories: an old farmer shares wine and his knowledge of how to find truffles simply because Nabhan was walking to Assisi and the farmer was named after Saint Francis; an elderly couple waltzes in a town square and becomes, in Nabhan's words, "the dance, itself;" another man explains to the author why grapes need to be trellised & how beautiful they are when alternated with maples; a woman explains how a she-wolf was tamed and fed by town residents. The tales are all about the land and the people who have lived there for centuries. And they are all fascinating.....simple, true stories that will help one believe, again, in the human race.

This book is a perfect companion to that other fine book of Italian (i.e. human) discovery: "Under The Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes.

I'm ordering several copies to give as gifts! This book touched my heart.

I have just finished reading the "Spider Stumbled" by Frank Paul Venis, a new author. I was more than pleased by his unfettered story telling ability of a very realistic experience of life in a once middle to upper income Queens NY neighborhood. The detailed account of a young teenager from a good family, but nevertheless inexplicably involved in murder,sexual promiscuity, racial bias and a host of other threats to normal progression to adult life by many of our teenagers regardless of their surroundings. It gives the reader pause to consider the question is their anything society can do to remedy these conditions which threaten so many of our young people. The book can be considered alarming, or, a warning. Nonetheless I enjoyed it. Good reading ,fast paced, fine first effort.

I grew up in Queens, NY, so that is why I was drawn to the book. But you don't need to be a New Yorker to enjoy this tale. The plot keeps you interested and involved up until the last page. In fact, I hope there is a sequel so I can find out what happens to Spider and all the others.

I thought this book was excellent because of the diversity of plots and subplots. To me, this book was a composite of various small stories occuring at once, all tied together. There were stories of racial tensions, the strengths of friendships, the temptations of the criminal element and the confusions of being a teenager. It is well-written, and the various themes are deftly handled and linked. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading even on a casual basis.

Darren George and Paul Mallery made a very good, exact book that really works as an introduction to SPSS. Those last versions For Windows of the SPSS software are excellent, sound and solid - and to write a book about that was not a very hard work. But the complexity of the program can be a disturbing burden to the beginner, believe me. The worst problem here is not related to the Windows commands explanations but with the lack of explanation of those intrincate OUTPUTS you get from some of the SPSS macros. Maybe in a future edition some attention will be given to that VERY important "detail". It would turn that good book in an excellent book !

After spending more than 5000 hours (along with Paul Mallery, my co-author) to write the book, I now take a few moments for a note of a more personal nature. First, the book listed here is the 2nd edition (SPSS version 9.0). the 3rd edition has recently been released (on SPSS 10.0), and Allyn & Bacon (the publisher) also has our book (the 1st edition) for SPSS version 7.5.

The most recent edition contains 28 chapters. The comment by the gentleman from Louisiana reflects the many e-mails we have received on this book from, literally, all over the world. Paul and I have gone to excruciating efforts, particularly on the first 16 chapters, to create a tool that makes SPSS absolutely clear to the beginner. While we routinely recommend that anyone who uses the book first take a course in statistics, for anyone with reasonable math aptitude, the first 16 chapters should be understandable without ANY statistical background. In the final 12 chapter our book explores more complex statistical procedures (log-linear models, factor analysis, discriminant analysis, multi-dimensional scaling, and others) in the identical format as the earlier chapters.

If you are looking for a book that is comprehensive yet ultimately understandable for fundamental statistical procedures (data entry, data manipulation, frequencies, descriptives, chi-squares, t-tests, correlations, ANOVAs, simple linear and multiple regression analysis, graphs) but includes excellent coverage on the more advanced procedures we suggest that this book was made for you.

We, the authors, welcome your comments. Many reader comments have been incorporated in new editions of the book.

Darren George

This book has proven to be both an excellent tutorial and reference for not only SPSS but also statistics in general. The step-by-steps are easy to follow--even for the a novice computer user. Each chapter also provides a brief summary of when that statistical proceedure is appropriate which is quite useful. In addition, each chapter's "Output" section tell you which of SPSS's abundant output is most important during interpretation. These "Output" sections also provide a brief list of defined term that are displayed on the SPSS output. The definition of these terms are quite easy to understand and will often include a clarification of values for that term. This is a reference manual I carry with me at all times and I strongly recommend it for anyone who has less than expert knowledge in either SPSS or data analysis in general.

Peter Wright was a former assistant director of MI5 (Britain's secret service or counter-intelligence). This is his story of his career, including his anecdotes about his American allies. He joined MI5 as a scientist who specialized in tools for espionage. He had been promised credit for his years as a civilian scientist. When this promise was broken at retirement, he wrote this book to even out things.

This is an interesting book that can't be summarized in a few paragraphs. It is definitely worth reading for the details on government activities in a "democracy". Watergate was a notable failure of such activities. Do these activities continue? Of course!

Pages 158-9 tell of his proposal for a "Bolshevik model" for former colonial countries: let a political party control the army and secret police so that neither the army or another political party could gain control of the government. He pointed out that only those newly created countries that adopted this principle have escaped military dictatorships and civil war.

Does the above advice seem to cynical and radical? But our Establishment DOES control the army and secret police so that neither the military or a populist political party (one not controlled by corporate interests) can gain control.

Yet the classic solution for democracies, from Aristotle to Machiavelli to our Founding Fathers was well-armed citizens and their militia. It has worked well for over over a century, and the idea still survives today.

Well, the Peter Wright who wrote SPYCATCHER is a deceased person. Your side-bar link to, "...an interview with Peter Wright," leads to an interview with a live Peter Wright, not the dead Peter Wright. Right?

this is not a review, but a note to amazon.com

for "spycatcher" by peter wright, you have on the same screen an interview with peter wright. unfortunately for you, Peter Wright-who=wrote-spycatcher DIED a few years ago. He is an ex-spycatcher (cue dead parrot sketch). So please REMOVE your "interview-with-DIFFERENT-PeterWright" link from the spycatcher book page.

I hope this note is sufficiently clear, if not, email me at bg283@ncf.ca thanks, bts

And by the way, I would very much like to write a review of "spycatcher", it is an excellent book, but please take the "interview" link out of the page for this book.... thanks, bts

One can never deny that Yonggi Cho has made the platform to Cell-Church base. Needless to say the rate of growth in his church has back in 1964 has outgrown his one man leadership. To consider starting a cell group in your church. We need to consider this. Korea is different from your country (if you are not from Korea). People there are close knitted and community based. Therefore to start something in homes is widely acceptable to their culture. Koreans are very accommodative to starngers and they welcome almost anyone even is they don't call first for a visit. Westerners are different. They need to make appointments and they have the right to deny your request for a visit. Nevertheless a good book to keep us afresh of what God is doing in Korea and other parts of the world.

Dr Cho speaks as a lay person even though he is the pastor of the worlds largest church. I had my reservations about reading the book for fear that the content may be too detailed or uncomprehesible for a young aspiring cell-group leader, but Cho has written a simple to understand and inspiring guide to building, or transitioning to, a cell-based church. This book speaks of the principles of building such a church, which seem to be universal...what does this mean?...you will not be able to use excuses about your culture or your congregation. The priciples and groundwork laid out by Dr. Cho will change your perspective on church growth for ever.

Home groups are the best! We have them in my 1,200 member church and they have allowed me to unite with the heart of the church and with the people of the church. Home groups are as useful in North America, South America, or Korea. Most of the "mega-churches" of today have them, including Ted Haggard (New Life, CO, 7,000 members), Peter Wagner, and the 90,000+ member churches of Argentina and Africa.

While SLfD is easy to follow when you have all the popular devices and cards, it doesn't leave room to explain how to overcome problems during installation. Ie, devices (printers) or cards (sound) not being recognized. There is a page or 2 in the back that says where to check the compatibility lists. By then is way too late, you've either given up or did some research, fixed the problem yourself.

I did the latter for my video card, sound card and printer and by then I no longer required the book. SLfD refers to packages but doesn't take the time to mention that not everything comes in a fancy package. So, I also had to learn how download and compile the source for drivers and libraries that weren't pre-packaged.

SLfD also has a very bad habit of comparing everything with RedmondWare. When it mentions reading something on the CD's it uses "drive letters" and backslashes in true RedmondWare fashion. It also assumes that we are installing onto a system that has RedmondWare running.

Believe it or not, I actually liked SLfD. It was a good place to start but I guess i was expecting too much from it. It also was written for slackware, unlike the other books I've looked at which give the impression that Red Hat is the only flavor of Linux.

This book did an excellent job of getting me through the setup process successfully and teaching me something in the process.

I decided to 'learn' Linux a few weeks ago and brought this book home for a 'weekend install' project. The book is perfectly designed for this kind of project. The book walks you though the setup process, step by step. I now have a fully operating Linux machine with an XWindows graphic interface. Not bad, in my opinion.

I very much liked the author's attention to detail and accurate anticipation of what I would encounter during the project. For example, one of the first steps the author demands of the reader is backing up everything you currently have on your machine. A few hours later, that back up became very important. Sure, everyone should think of that, but it certainly wasn't on my mind as I got started. A host of little things like that made the book work.

Additionally, there is an adequate amount of 'introduction to UNIX/Linux shell commands.' This taught me enough UNIX to figure out a few problems on my own. Every computer system is a bit different, so a 'single' list of instructions just isn't going to help everyone through the set up. My multiple SCSI hard drive setup took me off the 'normal' track (the book is written for someone with a single IDE hard drive). Despite these problems, I had learned enough to fight my way through, anyway.

Just in case you are wondering how long this newbie took to install Linux, it took 16 hours of full concentration over two days. This includes reading the entire book as I went through the project, completely reinstalling my Windows system from backups and reinstalling Linux a second time to change my hard drive partition scheme. Now that I know my computer and how the Linux install works, I could 'reinstall' it in an hour or two.

This book really goes into detail, unlike the other Dummies books for popular Linux distributions (like the Red Hat, Suse and Caldera books). It tells you how, and also why. It is certainly much better than the manuals I got from the boxed Caldera, Mandrake and Suse sets.

In other words, it is a dummies book that really works. If it had been out a couple of months ago, I would have used Slackware instead of Caldera. Slackware "gets you under the hood" more than the GUI automated installers in Mandrake, Caldera, Suse and (ugh!) Corel.

I am a beginner, but I learned DOS and don't want a GUI to mask the intricacies of learning a new system. If you just want a desktop alternative to Windows, as close to a Mac as you can get, try Caldera, Mandrake or Suse. But this Slackware will actually teach you Linux as you get it installed, and the book is concise, well organized and easy to follow. I wish I had had it two months ago. My introduction to Linux would have been much less painful.

Short of buying a naked CD, this is the cheapest way to get Slackware and has the best documentation. The write states he has been using Slackware almost exclusively since 1995 and the depth of his knowledge is evident.

Highly recommended.

Sure, some of the characters were funny, but so overdone there seemed to be little point. A non-realistic bunch of people living fairly futile lives, IMO. Pick it up at a garage sale if you need to fill a couple hours, but don't expect much.

A fantastic read! Completely enjoyable. Hip, light, insightful, over-the-top hysterical. Nice to have it re-released.

Obviously, giving this book a "10" rating may seem a bit much. It's no Madame Bovary, afterall. But this book is tremendously funny. A slice of life from the go-go 80's new york after-hours club/trust-fund scene, Rudnick tosses out stomach-muscle-aching lines sometimes so fast, it's hard to keep up. The one-liners alone are worth the read. I had the pleasure of reading this book on a plane. Reading a book that forces you to laugh out loud in an enclosed public area is bad enough, but when the cover is emblazoned with the title "Social Disease," the stares you get are even more glaring than usual. Very fun. Read it tonight.

Stand Up for Your Rights is a great intoduction to humanrights. Children will appreciate the detailed and well chosen artwork and the short passages contributed by children from around the world. The passages come in the form of poems, letters, interviews, and narratives. These passages are short and easily accesible to both children and adults. While the book does attempt to give a balanced view of human rights, some ethnocentric and unbalanced reporting did come through. In several cases the authors failed to explain the reasons behind human right violations. In this respect, Stand Up for Your Rights is a good resource manual for teachers and parents to go over with children, who can supplement the book with discussion or other resources. At the end of the book is a listing of organizations and ways for children to get involved with human right causes. In all, this is a gook book about human rights and I believe children will appreaciate it as well.

"Stand Up for Your Rights" is a book written by and for children around the world from over 60 countries, who describe in their own words and pictures the importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 and sets forth the basic civil, economic, political, and social rights and freedoms of every person. This book divides the Declaration into two broad sections, the first dealing with legal and political issues, such as freedom and equality for all people, while the second relates to the daily quality of life of an individual. Within this context the book explores each of the 30 Articles, beginning with the language of the article made simple and then a mixture of historic and contemporary events with the words and drawings of the children and young people. It is the later that provides thought-provoking material, which should serve as an excellent starting point for class discussions. Certainly the topics touched upon within these pages will be easily relatable to what young students see on the nightly news. The book also includes the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1989. Comparing the difference in the rights of children versus those of "humans" should also prove interesting, especially as a way of defining the difference between children and adults. There is also a list of organizations and efforts, such as Amnesty International and Defense for Children International, which gives children an opportunity to do something about this issues besides just reading about them.

Stand up for Your Rights is a fascinating and informative book. Written by youth from around the world, this book puts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into terms that everyone can understand. Photographs, drawings by children, first-person narratives and explanatory paragraphs make this a very readable and eye-catching book. As an ESOL teacher with young students from around the world, I find this book to be unparalleled in offering a view of life that doesn't always make it into the daily news or the movies. I highly recommend this book for anyone of any age who wants to learn more about our world and its people.

This is rather a weird book, but pretty good. I think the three stories kind of go in descending order from best to worst. The first is highly entertaining, even if it is rather pointless, but, as often happens, there's some irritating moral ambiguity here. In this case, the protagonist meets a lesbian schoolmistress who helps him out, but the last time we see her consists of him discovering her sexual orientation and being pissed off at her--and then she's never heard from again. That annoyed me, because it was the most interesting aspect of the story. The second tale is still more problematic. The protagonist is an incredibly egocentric, white-supremist, Swiss professor, and while his points of view are certainly not ENDORSED, you don't really get the impression that they're being condemned, either. Very odd. I did like the touch of comparing things to plants and animals and then parenthetically providing their Latin names. That was cool. The story was fairly entertaining, but, as with all of these, there's rather a pointless aura around it--you don't get the impression that anything's really happening. The third story was the weakest, I think. The portrayal of Whitman was quite good, Dickinson less memorable. And, although the back cover informs us that they meet Alen Ginsburg, don't expect any sort of meeting-of-the-minds. Yes they meet Ginsburg, as well as a number of other twentieth-century poets, but they're not really detailed in any way--they're all fairly anonymous children. And the way they meet them is really unspeakably bizarre. I have to admit, it made absolutely no sense, and it was never explained. Also, the ending was less than happy. You really have to get used to Philipo's idiosyncrasies, but if you can, you'll find a quirky and though-provoking, if somewhat flawed, work of fiction.

I had read Ribofunk 5 years or so ago and enjoyed it and reread it this summer and enjoyed it even more. When it was finished I wanted more so I sought out The Steampunk Trilogy. The book was engaging and funny from the very start. Very, very clever language and style and very funny. I was particularly impressed with the life the author bestowed upon the many historical people who were incorporated into the story. After reading the books I even discovered that the Hottentots Venus' pickled "friend" is indeed at the Musee de l'Homme in Paris. As a New Englander I also loved the fact that two of the stories take place in Massachusetts. When will you be in Snipe Harbour again, Paul Di Filippo?

and you've got to approach this book with an open mind. Moralistic he is not. Wildly imaginative, outrageous, he is. STEAMPUNK took me to the most bizarre places I've ever been, literarily speaking. And Di Filippo details his worlds to an amazing degree. Loosen your collar and enjoy the ride. Clearly this is a book the author had a blast writing. It's hard to believe anyone would pick this up and not enjoy him/her/itself.

A few extras I forgot to note in my original review.

One page 123, where the book starts to talk about 88 level data items (Condition Names), it's time to go find a different reference. Any other reference. This book botches the explanation. I had trouble with it, the friend I mentioned had trouble with it (and I did not warn him about it in advance). It's the only major problem with the book.

This book has not been revised since initial publication, and contains no information on the 1989 Addendum to the COBOL Standard (which is mostly Intrinsic Functions), and no information looking at the upcoming release of the new COBOL Standard.

This book does a good job of explaining COBOL, but concentrates on a format best suited to those who don't know mainframes (introducing TSO, ISPF, dataset concepts, computer concepts, etc.). The complete set of COBOL commands is not taught. Instead, the author concentrates on the most often used commands and techniques. The author takes time out to mention obselete and/or "bad" commands (goto, alter, perform-thru, etc.), and stresses why avoiding them is good, and why using them is bad. I found that, as a beginning COBOL programmer, this approach of avoiding the entire command set to be quite useful. Because the author takes time out to explain most things, I was able to readily absorb the language. The main drawback is that in the last third of the book, some of the extensive explanations go away, and readers are left to figure out certain concepts on their own. The other drawback is more minor. This book is copyright 84 or 85 (I don't have it on my desk, it's out on loan to another programmer, who thinks it's good, too), and has a somewhat dated "air". In the end, I feel this book was worth the money I spent on it.

Working on my own, with no access to manuals, I'm able to find anything I need to modify or write COBOL programs. Suggest the reader buy Part 2 of this 2-book set, and also VS-COBOL-II. The latter isn't a complete COBOL manual, but lists the differences between COBOL and COBOL-II.