Charles Black, a former investment banker and a tough-nut chairman of the Fed quits his job in a struggle with the White House over rising interest rates. But he's persuaded to stay on for a while as a special envoy to represent the Fed at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Swiss-based institution that serves as the industrialized world's clearinghouse for payments and monetary information.

So imagine Black's rude surprise when he arrives in Basel, Switzerland for one of the BIS's regular monthly meetings. Instead of the warm welcome he had been receiving for the past four years as a Fed chief, he is arrested, jailed, and charged with using his exclusive knowledge of U.S. interest-rate moves to mastermind the most audacious insider-trading scheme ever.

Intrigued yet?

As the conspiracy begins to unfold, Black finds himself no more than a fall guy for a shadowy Sardinian financier, a conniving Swiss lawyer with a desk full of secret bank accounts, and the real inside trader--a corrupt president of the Swiss National Bank. In this mix of characters lies the potential for a Hitchcockian drama of a victim mixing it up with his tormentors as he tries to clear his name. The Set-Up journeys from San Francisco and Washington to Switzerland, Sardinia, and the wilds of Alaska, where the plot against Black falls apart.

On the good side, Erdman keeps things moving with his descriptions of shady Swiss dealings, and prison life. Big Swiss heads come off as men of impeccable social standing but a flexible moral character. That's an all-too-common shortcoming among the Swiss big-money set that Erdman seems to have studied closely during his life as a doctoral student and banker in Basel.

But this is also my minor grouse with the book that is supposed to be more of a thriller than a treatise on global finance. Expect a fair bit of digressions into the minutiae of international banking including an introduction to the innards of derivatives markets. Which was great for me personally, but these are in fact slightly piquing in terms of the novel's flow.

Nonetheless this is all worth the ride if you are in the market for a financially inclined thriller. Recommended.

I was a young GI in Germany in 1969 just learning to appreciate "the Trib." I remember one article that caught my eye: a young American banker working in Basel at the sub of a California bank was arrested for trying to corner the world cocoa market! He failed miserably, and in the process wiped out his employer's equity base. As if the young banker, named Paul Erdman, did not know enough about Switzerland already, he was to learn more, from many months inside a Swiss jail. I next noticed Erdman several years later. He had written a novel, "The Billion-Dollar Sure Thing." I read it and liked it, and later learned that he had begun his novelist's career in that Swiss jail. Erdman's subsequent novels have never disappointed. He is the master of the financial thriller, an unfortunately under-populated genre. "The Set Up," like all of Erdman's fiction, takes place largely in Switzerland. Charles Black, former Chairman of the U.S. Fed, is arrested at the Basel airport as he enters Switzerland. (Erdman reminds us, as he never fails to do, that Basel's airport straddles the Swiss/French border.) He finds himself in the maws of the Swiss power structure, comprised of a hundred or so rich and powerful Swiss men who are, in Erdman's eye, as amoral and as slimy as any in the world. No Swiss Heidi-types here. (Had Erdman been successful in cornering the cocoa market he would have been hailed, not jailed, by this group for furthering the cause of Swiss chocolate!) To divulge any more of the plot would be cheating. Suffice it to say, there is lots of (1)German- Swiss bashing,(2)Deus ex machina that stretches credibility, and (3)untranslated "Schwietzer dooch" and other languages. There is also a woman/mate of the male hero who is sharper than the hero himself. This theme is present in most Erdman novels. Erdman has produced eight novels in a quarter of a century, about one every three years. When I haven't seen one for a while, I start looking in book stores. This year I did something different: I searched for Erdman at amazon.com. Sure enough, he'd written a new book which I ordered immediately. The several days it took to arrive in the mail was an eternity as I anticipated reading a new Erdman. It arrived, and did not disappoint. Erdman remains at the top of his form!

I love financial thrillers and have read most of Paul Erdman's fiction, but this is by far the best. Not only does he expertly take the reader through the world of derivatives investing and international banking, he paints a picture of Switzerland from Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse to the most remote parts of the Alps that makes you long to get on a plane and go there (and I have been there--it's worth it). The plot moves fast, from the point of view of every character; his knowledge of German, Swiss-German and Italian is impeccable, and the story culminates in an around-the-world chase that keeps you from putting the book down. I can't wait for his next one.

My curiosity was peaked as I settled in with this book. I didn't plan on spending my entire day off reading, but one thing lead to another. "Just one more chapter", I kept telling myself. In the late evening, after reading the last page, I found myself going back through the book, ear-marking the "The Angel's Voice" segments with little post-its. I've been re-reading one section a day for the last week.

As I began the book, I carefully evaluated the spiritual lessons almost like challenges, testing what the author was saying with my own interpretation of reality. As one insight lead to another, I noticed even more curiosity building. I continued to read, and found myself trusting instead of challenging, comforted by the ring of truth; as though I was remembering, not learning for the first time.

The lessons are both simple and profound, evoking questions and answers at the same time. In the end, whatever I say about this book will not quite be it. Because what I had was an experience, which always turns out to be beyond description.

Undoubtedly my insights moved me in the direction of higher spiritual awareness. And yes, I have found myself recommending this book to co-workers and friends. My daily conversations keep coming around to one or more aspects of the basic questions addressed in this book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in angels, spiritual development or the attainment of your hearts desires. Throughout this novel, the reader observes the infinite choices the characters are confronted with each moment. As the vivid characters in the story, we see that our own personal dramas unfold according to the choices we make.

As we slowly wake up to this fact and begin paying attention to the deep inner wisdom which is always softly whispering, we experience magic; wonderful outcomes which we could never have imagined.

From the first chapter, as my attention turned more to angels and spirit, my perception changed and my routine experiences shifted as well. As routine "breakdowns" occur around me I notice myself asking about the nature of this particular "miracle"; looking deeper until I see the truth. Words I may have used in the past (like "problem") are simply MY words, not reality. Not God's words. While watching the rippling effect this perception is having on the people around me, I need to say this: Read this book! Or get your hands on anything by this author! And start watching for miracles.

This novel is a unique combination of mystery and adventure with spiritual messages inter-woven at regular intervals. Although I normally choose spiritual books written in the straight style that Dr. Chopra usually uses, I found this book appealing and reassuring, generating a message of hope and clarity. The "angel voice" is an invitation to the reader to banish doubt and see themselves in the light. I believe that any medium which provides such an opportunity should be gratefully embraced and accepted, for the sake of humankind. Read this one and pass it along!

This book is a good book to get. It has a lot of useful and humorous info on finishing moves. This book I feel is not for the beginner cause it only contains finishing moves and not the positions or strategy for one to set up such finishes. I would recommend getting this book after one has had familiarity with Grappling arts instruction like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Shoot Fighting, Catch wrestling. I also recommend getting the book The Fighter's Notebook, which has positions and submissions as well as stand up fighting. Get this and the Gene LeBell book and your straight.

Gene LeBell makes learning fun with his humerous approach to grappling in all its forms. This volume includes techniques commonly found in Judo, wrestling, and a host of other martial arts from Asia to South America. Author LeBell commences with grips and handles, with gi (jacket) and without-after all the base of grappling is holding on to something (anything!). He moves on to slap and catch, and then a huge array of arm locks, shoulder locks, writst, hip, leg locks, chokes, strangles, cranks, counters against a boxer, and LeBell's own wide range of special tricks, many which are not commonly found anywhere else. This volume contains a wealth of information, probably easiest to assimilate for someone who already has a background in wrestling, judo, BJJ or some other art with a lot of ground practice--I had no trouble understanding most of the techniques illustrated within. You won't find much on judo-like throws here, but then this book isn't geared towards that. There are plenty of other ways to get your opponent to the ground illustrated in this tome.

This is a big, heavy book--a work this complete has never been undertaken before to my knowledge (with the possible exception of the "Fighter's Notebook"). There are many practical techniques, many "forgotten" techniques, and everything from the practical to the incredibly difficult in here. For the conoisseur of grappling or martial arts in general, you will enjoy yourself!

THIS BOOK BY FAR IS INCREDIBLE. GENE LEBELL THROWS ALOT OF HUMOR INTO THIS BOOK AND SOME RATHER FUNNY LOOKING HUMOROUS TECHNIQUES TO TAKE UP SPACE BUT HE DOES INCLUDE A BIZARRE AMOUNT OF HOLDS IN THIS BOOK. FROM BASICS LIKE HOW TO GRAB TO LEG LOCKS(AWESOME SECTION BY THE WAY) TO EVEN SOME PRO WRESTLING HOLDS YOU'D SEE ON MONDAY NIGHT. I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN GRAPPLING. THE FORMAT IS VERY EASY TO LEARN AND HE SHOWS SEVERAL TECHNIQUES IN VARIOUS ANGLES AND VARIATIONS. ITS OFF THE HOOK!

The first part introduces Vbscript concepts which may already be known by the intermediate level target audience. The sections on error handling and Active Server Pages will be useful to me. A value of reading this book is to be introduced to topics you didn't previously know existed. For example, learning about programming Outlook forms and Windows Script Host were useful though I have no immediate need for them.

The real meat is the 260 pages of the reference. Before jumping into that section, I would recommend reading Appendix A for a categorical listing of the elements. For example, if you are interested in doing string manipulation refer to the section on "String Manipulation" then look up the specific function alphabetically in the reference. I would also recommend browsing through the complete reference - you are sure to find some new useful function such as the dictionary, filtering, regular expression matches and complete set of string functions. In a few cases, I wish the examples were available on CD or from the web, but none are that long that re-typing is a major problem.

It's about time someone else reviewed this book!

I needed a good VBScript reference book to consult when doing scripting projects for my company. The entire book isn't just a reference to the VBScript language-- that's only about half of the book. The reference is organized alphabetically and contains a description, rules and usually a decent example of the VBScript function, statement, method, etc.

So the surprise is the first half of the book, and it may be important to you and it may not. There are 20 pages on general program structure that most every programmer will find boring: pasing parameters by reference, passing variables into a subroutine, etc. After 8 more pages on data types and 22 pages on error handling/debugging, the authors included four other sections on VBScript with Active Server Pages, Programming Outlook forms, Windows Script Host, and VBScript with Internet Explorer. I found these sections to be out of the scope of what I was looking for in what O'Reilly calls a "desktop quick reference" book: simply a reference to the language.

I gave it four stars because the thing is only $( ) and you are getting 500 pages. I bought the book for the reference, even if it has this other stuff I don't care about. If you are programming VBScript or ASP in Notepad without "Help" to consult, this may be the best pure VBScript book out there. It will come in handy.

Covers EVERYTHING. Scripting techniques, error handling, differences between VB, VBA and VBScript, Structuring your program for reuse, etc. It gives a quick, down and dirty, high-level overview of the places you're most likely to use VBScript -- ASP, IE, Outlook and Windows Shell Scripts (wsh) -- and an incredible reference to nearly every VBScript function, procedure and call.

This book is not for the beginner looking to learn the language -- it's for the intermediate or advanced scripter who already knows a little but needs a reference to know HOW to use the functions, etc. It excels in this regard, not only explaining every command and option under VBScript, but also the syntax, parameters, rules and even 'Programming Tips & Gotchas'.

In short, if you need a true reference that documents nearly every facet of the VBScript language, this is a must have.

the imprtance of this document is underlined by the frantic attempts by the international zionist organizations to have it declared a fake.This attempt was stopped by the High Court in Basel,Switzerland in 1928.The booklet has been systematically removed from libraries and collections around the world and it is still a crime to even own it in places like Germany.
what does it say to make it so offensive to Jews? it certainly is not anti semitic; quite on the contrary.It is instead the blueprint of a very longterm plan to conquer the world for the Chosen People.It can best be described as the Mein Kampf of Zionism.The step by step plan is brilliant with numerous very subtle and devious methods to gain and hold power over the undevious and stupid Goyim.
Here are some of the steps:control of money and gold,control of the press and opinion makers,infiltration of goverments at the highest level,control of elections in democracies with money,destruction of liberal society through all sorts of excesses. In short,the plan is going well already.It begs the question: who and where is the brain executing The Plan.

I got curious about this book when I heard about in on a radio program. There is such a well-orchestrated attempt to debunk it that could only mean one thing: "There is some through to it". Remember that when this book was written there was no Israel. This book details the Zionist plan to create a country amongst other things. If this was a hoax it is amazing that history has followed its plan. I have nothing against the Jews but I don't believe that they should dictate what we can and cannot read as American citizens. The actions taken to prevent the public from reading it only lend credibility to the contents of this book. Buy it and read it and decide for yourself.

Ignore the editorial from either side of the debate and simply read this book. It forms the keystone of the political arch founded by Platos Republic, Machiavelli and The Communist Manifesto.

Whether a forgery or not, this is one of the greatest works of political genious in the history of mankind. In fact it is possibly the most important book ever written. The Communist Manifesto seems like the rantings of a child in comparison.

Reading like polemic propoganda it is however plain to the reader that this document has formed the basis of many a political aspiration.

I sincerely hope that Ed Malloy does not teach at an accredited institution because not only is his opinion on Deitel and Deitel's programming texts flawed, he is also apparently incapable of constructing valid English sentences. I always considered myself a "full-time" student, not a "full/time" one, and usually questions, even rhetorical ones, are ended with a question mark. But I digress...I just hope the serious reader discounts his nitpicking review as an example of sheer hyperbole.

As a programmer with experience in Ada I found Deitel's book very engaging and easy to learn from. The treatment of the more complex topics is handled delicately while covering all the basics and when you've completed it you feel like a much more educated programmer. As someone who knows the "right way" to program as learned from a quality university computer science program, I can assure you that Deitel and Deitel will teach you the "right way."

I've bought many different C programming books, but this is the most complete book I've found.

Each chapter contains many tips for better programming techniques, avoiding common errors, improving programming speed and helping ensure your programs are portable. Many complete examples demonstate each subject, rather than small snipets of code commonly found in other programming books. At the end of each chapter there are lots of questions to get you to try out what you have just learned. Only half of these give answers, encouraging you to work it out for yourself. This helps improve self-study techniques and keeps the reader interested.

The most important aspect of this book, though, is how it explains 'Top-down, step-wise' program design. This is one of the most important aspects of structured programming, however, many other books don't even mention this.

It is obvious this book was written by programming teachers, not just programmers, because so much emphisis is placed on learning proper programming techniques.

I am a student at a university, studying computer science. My professor recommended a book that the students should get to learn the c language. I got the book he requested and just wasn't getting it. After a friend had told me about "C, How To Program" by Deitel and Deitel, I bought and began reading the book. I felt more confident and did better in school. The book has exercises and a cd that enhance your knowledge of C even more. It goes beyond what my professor is teaching and each chapter converges with the sequence of his teaching. The book also combines C++ and Java of which I will need throughout my college experience. What a deal and this book has saved me so much time. I am very thankful and hope they continue to publish more books. I am now a faithful fan.

On the whole, I thought it was a good read. I was a little disappointed that there was not enough focus on the MAX and the aliens themselves, which I felt would have made the book that much spicier. I also feel that too many pages were wasted on the twisted moralisations of the Lara character. There was a lot of action but,in my opinion, the author was not descriptive enough. I felt that Aliens: Genocide and Aliens vs Predator:Prey were better. For all those people who enjoy the Aliens/Predator genre I also recommend novels by Christopher Rowley and Iain Banks.

Berserker is actually one of the better and more captivating books in the Aliens series. While the concept isn't exactly original -- Aliens: Tribes was also about a berserker team -- this book was certainly a lot better written than tribes. The characters were well developed, and most of them were understandable people the reader is able to sympathize with. You could easily feel sorry for Teape when he's doing his job, or understand how Ellis feels around other members of the crew.

In addition, unlike most of the books preceding this one, there is actually quite a bit of action. We get a lot of bug hunting, and, more importantly, cool bug killing.

Others have complained about the lack of something so basic as a plot, but there is a rudimentary plot, and that's all that's needed. The team is sent to wipe out a bug infestation and uncovers a Company coverup. Let's face it, in this series, you don't need a great, subtle plot, you just need an excuse to kill some XTs.

The MAX (Mobile Assault ExoWarrior or somesuch) was really cool, although I seem to recall that in Tribes it was colled a MOX (offensive instead of assault). Oh well. Overall this was a fun, fast-paced, very readable bit of fiction. The only real downside is the cover. That must be one of the worst cover illustrations I've ever seen. UGGHH!

Berserker was a excellent book! It had a awesome story line, S.D Perry did a very good job writing this book. She keeps me into the book. I couldn't put the book down. I love how the Aliens bring in a memeber of the Berserker Team into the hive and send in the MAX. Like I said, this was a great book. A must buy book. Trust me this is worth buying.....

This book is definetely not for the beginner cichlid keeper. Although it provides some basic information on tank setup etc, it is geared toward the advanced aquarist.

As is typical from Loiselle the information is concise and in depth.

Only the lack of a decent index mars this otherwise excellent book.

Let me start by saying that this is not an ideal beginner cichlid book (my recommendation for that would probably the "Fishkeeper's Guide to Cichlids"). But for a cichlid keeper with some experience who wants to get more in depth information (such as breeding techniques for difficult species, discussions on cichlid evolution, specialized feeding habits, information about cichild groups you'll rarely see in stores), Loiselle can't be beat.

A problem with this book is that the index is missing. This is apparently due to a publisher error, since the index does exist. I was able to get a copy of the index (at no charge) by contacting Tetra Press.

Dr. Loiselle has written a very clear and informative text on the care and behaivior of Cichlids, from the basic considerations of tank size and filtration to compatibility issues between cichlid and non-cichlid species. The text does not focus on any single area of the world, so that keepers of South American cichlids (such as H.Severum or C. Managuense) and keepers of African cichlids such as the popular "Brichardi" (N. Elongatus) will find relevant passages. In addition to lots of information, this text contains a large number of very nice full color pictures. A valuable addition to any cichlid keepers bookshelf.

Shakespeare in this play shows how love is not human but surrealistic. Love does not answer reasonable questions. It is a fundamentally unreasonable attitude that brings the lovers to absurd behaviours negating all logical, political and historical values. Love has no limits even if history will prove stronger and the lovers will be destroyed. Shakespeare beefs up this theme with a language that is so rich that we are fascinated by the words, the symbols, the symbolic value of words and acts. He is particularly rich in his style that is entirely, words, poetry, actions, and even feelings, organized following some simple symbols, particularly numerical symbols. In this play Cleopatra appears as being the core of the symbolism and she carries with her the number eleven that comes from the old English runes with the meaning of fate, of fatal defeat, of a flaw that cannot be corrected or escaped. It is her destiny to bring Antony to his defeat and death, just as it is Antony's fate to be governed by this woman and led to his own destruction because of his love for her. It also shows how the Emperor is able to use this fatal situation in order to capture all powers and to impose his absolute will on the Roman Empire. He seems to be the one who plays not well but with all the assets of the game up his sleeves, and he takes them out one at a time when the situation is ripe for these assts to become the key to is ascension to absolute power by defeating those who may oppose him.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Cleopatra may be a somewhat ambiguous female character, but I totally loved her, and Bill's portrayal of her. I don't know if he expected the reader to judge her, but I suspect not. The harshest criticism of her comes from Octavius Caesar, who himself doesn't do a single noble thing throughout the whole play. She is fully aware of the fact that she is a sensual, passionate woman- which has no negative effect on her ability to rule Egypt. Her biggest faults are her violent temper (which I suspect is just part of her passionate nature) and her tendency to lie when it suits her (either for sport or for serious politics). Antony (I feel) is actually kind of a loser compared to her. His insincerity runs deep- he marries Caesar's sister in a political move, although he had repeatedly pledged his undying love for Cleopatra. She forgives him, because she truly loves him, even though he doesn't do anything to deserve forgiveness. Antony never fully allows himself to love Cleopatra. He constantly is overreacting to the slightest indication that she might be betraying him or whatever. It is one of these overreactions (combined with an ill-timed lie on Cleo's part) that ends up destroying them both. Even in the end, Cleopatra's death is more dignified and better conceived than Antony's messy and fumbling suicide.

Anthony and Cleopatra is one of Shakespeare's difficult plays, and so I suspect the ratings on the play are low because it's a more mature play than Romeo and Juliet. Here we have two middle age lovers who part of the time are foolish with lust/love and the rest of the time are tough minded heads of state. The "tragedy" is that they can't be both and survive. This is not a play for the young folks, I'm afraid. But if you want some heavy drama where the characters are spared nothing and given no slack, read Anthony and Cleopatra (hint: Cleopatra's suicide is more political statement than a crazy wish to die with Antony). Better yet see it performed by some real actors some time.

The cover art is horrible. The title doesn't fit. And the writing is just plain bad. Douglas Coupland does a much better job on the subject of alienation in modern society -- and even he could use a little help at times. Michel Houellebecq is riding a wave of knee-jerk popularity after being crowned France's "most controversial" writer in years. There's nothing controversial about this book, nothing new on these pages, and nothing here to believe that Houellebecq is anything more that a marketing-induced literary flavor of the month. Want to read a controversial French author of substance? Check out some Camus.

Written in a dry, ascerbic tone, WHATEVER follows one man's downward spiral as he feels increasingly less conected with the world and society that surrounds him. The book deals with many questions regarding modern times, picking up the ball, as it were, where writers like Kafka left off. The paradox presented in this book is that with the increase in speed and circulation of information and communication tools, people seem to be overloaded and more isolated. At times the book meanders and one never gets really close to the other characters but it seems appropriate in a novel about the solipsistic nature of our times. A true pessimist, Michel Houellebecq does not allow his character to surrmount his seperation from other (or as Hawthorn would have said his "black veil"). The novel is well worth reading and I'll be interested to to read other works by Houellebecq.

"Extension du domaine de la lutte", so does the original title, shows an acute vision of life in its everyday details and a taste for cold logics that help Houellebecq explain how his life went THAT bad... (See "The elementary particles" for this parallel between "hard" science and life). His vision might seem absolutely ugly and repulsive at first glance, but since his narration is flawless you just can't refuse it, and -above all- his (cold but terrific) sense of humor makes the book readable... To me it is a "must", even better than the "Particles" (the decade's best-seller in France), which is less vivid and more complex in its structure...