Sadly, I was disappointed by this novel. First, the fine British author Ian McEwan's name is dropped on the rear cover, which raises an automatic comparison, and tricks anyone who has enjoyed McEwan's work into being interested in this book. (They got me.) The cover art bears a stylistic resemblance to Ian McEwan's books also, which I'm sure was the result of intelligent marketing strategy. I have read all of McEwan's work, and I find him talented, skilled in both the novel and short story forms, and relevant, even though a not too slight cultural difference exists for Americans who read British fiction.

This was my first reading of Paul Griner. I found his primary characters (Jean, Steve, and Claudia) less interesting and more incompletely drawn than McEwan's, and lacking in either real conflict or motivation. Maybe it was the author's intention that the character's motives remained unclear, and, that they be drawn in a more superficial manner, a la the short story form. But this did not work for me. The backstory of Jean's and Claudia's childhood, including the traumatic incident they shared, was not of elemental importance to the present-day events Jean experienced, unless I "missed the boat."

I was interested in finishing Collectors only because I believed it would build momentum and get better. I did not find that to be so. Maybe it will take a second reading, and I am willing to do that.

I suggest readers check out The Cement Garden, The Innocent, and The Comfort of Strangers, all by Ian McEwan. Mr. Griner's Collectors is most similar in plot and theme to The Comfort of Strangers, I think. (I have recommended or spoken admiringly of The Cement Garden and The Innocent on at least one hundred occasions. I regard each of them as "the book I wish I'd written.")

The one thing I got from this book was: as an aspiring novelist, this novel is proof that maybe it is not so difficult to break through and get published after all.

She collects fountain pens, and he collects binoculars. Two collectors whose paths cross. Destiny? It would seem so, and the players seem to play out their roles dutifully. Jean Duprez meets handsome Steven at her friend Claudia's wedding. As children Jean and Claudia used to dare each other to do some frightening things, death-defying things. And now Jean takes up with Steven, a mysterious man who seems to like her yet is indifferent to her. Is this relationship an extension of Jean's risk taking behavior? And there is the strange fetish the author has with perfumes and colognes. People seem to be identified by smell rather than appearance.

When you read this book you keep wondering where the story is going. That's the intriguing part. Well, you will know soon enough where the plot is leading as this is a short story that is literally writ large. Our clever book publishers have once again found a way to puff a novella up to look like a full-length novel. Wide spacing causes your eyes to make a giant leap from one line to the next. Actually it does have the flavor of a good short story, a form the author is very familiar with. It's a fine read that will easily fill up a lunch break, providing yours is an hour long. After reading it you can put the book on your coffee table to impress people with your ability to spend lots of money on a small book.

The elegant, hypnotic prose is marred by an utterly unbelievable female main character. The underlying message here seems to be "the victim was asking for it." A nasty, cold little book that will leave the reader dashing out to find something else to read that will take away the lingering aftertaste of this one.

I am a C++ programmer, and my wife is using this book for a C++ class. I am constantly amazed at the ideas she gets from this book until I read Deitels' bizarre explanations. Also, the exercises are ambiguous, so the course instructor sometimes interprets the requirements differently. The CD contains the exact text of the book, plus audio. Part of the text is presented in sequence, other parts you see in a popup window only if you happen to click on a busy-bee icon. The only use I see for the CD is the search function, which would help to deal with the disorganized presentation of the material. Unfortunately the search returns nothing, or a list of unrelated items. You need to copy the CD to the hard drive to speed up access. The free Visual C++ compiler is nice, but don't run multiple copies to get multiple editors, as you can destroy your source file. Check out Eckel, Lippman, Meyers, Stroustrup.

Do authors ever read their own material? To see a book published on a programming subject without errors would be a real treat. Punctuation and grammar are poor, sentences run on and on and on ad nauseum.

Don't bother with the CD, it's limited usefulness matches the book. This is no where near a comprehensive coverage of any language let alone the one it's about.

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. I wouldn't have the book were it not shipped free to our department for evaluation.

i bought this book and it was very helpful. my friennd is a 2 yr programmer and got me into c++. he learned it from a Dummies book and when i let him see my book to check for its quality, he said it was good. i took it back but he grabbed it and said its a very interesting book. this book, i have read, teaches c++ thouroughly. who ever doesnt understand this needs too take english 101 part2. thank u Deitel and Deitel.

Paul Doherty was a much better writer before he started churning out book after book at maximum speed. "The Horus Killings" has irritating, ill-defined characters; a weak plot; and no real sense of historical grounding. I can't speak for the accuracy of the history behind this book, but Doherty certainly can't bring Ancient Egypt to life the way he can medieval England.
So read some of the early Hugh Corbett novels instead, if you want a more accomplished and interesting book by Doherty.

The Horus Killings is a quick read. Unlike the work of Pauline Gedge, I found the work somewhat devoid of detailed setting and character study. If you are seeking to read a book involving Ancient Egypt and are quite focused on plot, you will enjoy this book. It's an enjoyable mystery, full of suspense. Do not look for more than this because I fear you will not find it.

This book is beautifully written and you will probably travel to the time when egypt was very glorious and beautiful when you read it. The plot however is not very good but still fine. If you like descriptive books than don't get this one as Paul Doherty is not as descriptive as some authors. This book is great although i would actually give 3.5 stars.

Most of this book expands on topics of no interest to anyone who has a life. The prose is dense and hard to take. There are many technical details no one in their right mind would care about, even slightly.

You would think such a title would, at least, have its share of useful information. Trust me, it's slim pickings.

Out of 1160 pages of text, there are three on startup problems. Basically, you are told to start in Safe Mode. If you can't, good luck!

An example of the type of help you can expect is on page 20 of Chapter One (introductory material): "A value could tell you which interrupt and I/O port settings a piece of hardware uses. Suffice it to say that you'll find the value you need by using the keys, but you'll find the actual information you need by reading the values. There are three types of values: binary, string, and DWORD. Usually, only applications use the binary and DWORD value types. Values usually store configuration data in a format that can't be understood by humans."

I will modestly add, the way the early topics are explained is truly extraterrestrial. But for people who usually reside on this planet (as, I think, I do) this book is to be avoided. I kick myself for having wasted hours trying to follow the first two hundred or so pages.

This book would do well in a competition for the worst book ever written in the English language. I recommend it as a collector's item for that reason.

The authors got me up and running very fast. I didn't care all that much about details at first and this book avoided those details until later. The best thing it did at first was get me on the Internet with few hassles.

The power primers helped get my overloaded and underpowered system running better. I don't have the money to upgrade my system every few months, so getting the most out of what I have now is very important.

Once I did run into problems with my machine, the various theory and troubleshooting sections helped a lot. I found Chapter 15 especially helpful when I couldn't get games to run properly. The material on DirectX was great, even if it is a little out of date.

So, if you're looking for a book that's going to give you everything you need, try this one. I found that it really helped me when I needed it.

John Mueller and this book have saved me more hours of grief with Windows 95 than I could have imagined any one book would do. For example, when I needed some recommendation about how to keep my machine running correctly, I found everything I needed. There are sections on backup, regular maintenance like diagnostics and disk optimization, and some simple troubleshooting. I also found sections on the use of various files that other books don't even hint at. One such example appears in Chapter 9 where the author explains what the various compatibility files like Autoexec.bat are used for.

This book is a tad theory heavy, but even here the author excels. I now know how various parts of Windows 95 operate, making it much easier for me to diagnose problems with my system. The clear and easy to understand diagrams are a real plus. Again, the author lists filenames in the theory section. These file listings recently helped me fix a problem DLL (also known as DLL hell) by simply copying a new version of the DLL over the old one.

One of the authors, John Mueller, thoughtfully left his email address as part of the About the Author. I contacted him and found him extremely helpful and thoughtful of my concerns. Even though Windows 95 is old news, the author spent considerable time helping me use his book more effectively and even helped me around some problems areas within the book.

About the only two problems with this book are the index (not the author's fault since the publisher puts this together for him) and the lack of new hardware information. However, considering this book was put out before much of the modern hardware appeared on the scene, I can hardly blame the author for this oversight. My only thought is that he should keep the book up-to-date better for those of us who are still using Windows 95 and not filling Microsoft's pockets by buying Windows 98.

I am very disappointed with this book. Essential information is lacking, and too many details look like they were lifted from the older edition (which was excellent in my opinion). Better written and more comprehensive resources can be found online.

If you don't know what you're doing, this is not a book for you--the Nutshell series expects you to have at least a working knowledge of things, and preferably an intermediate to advanced knowledge of them.

MCSE in a Nutshell IS a good book because it allows the advanced user to do a quick study of the topics they're familiar with, and use alternate learning materials for the areas in which they are not. It is also excellent for giving you a quick idea of how much or how little you know. It's my favorite book on the subject because it's concise, contains good information, and tells you both what to expect in the real world, and what to expect on the tests. (As we all know that Microsoft's view of the world does not always coincide with reality.)

If you buy this book, though, use it as a REFRESHER and not a teacher. I noted one or two instances where the information given would have gotten me a wrong answer on the test, because while it applied to reality, MS's view on the topic was different... But this is how it is with MOST books (including official MS documentation).

i used this book as my primary review for 070-240, the combined test for nt4 mcse's, in addition to the readiness review cd from the microsoft kit. i passed the exam.

don't buy it if you're looking to learn the material; what it's useful for is if you either already know the material, and need to make sure there aren't any gaps in your knowledge, or if, like me, you need a good outline-type review of the material. it's condensed, sure... if a topic doesn't feel like you know it, you will need to reference other books to learn it. but as an overview, to make sure you know what you need to know for the exams, it's perfect.

It seems to me that much of this material is made up by the author. I could not understand how private facts of Crane's life would be known in this way. I find this book very disturbing because of this. I think Crane is a great author but this book did not help me understand his work at all.

Stephen Crane wrote some great books and lead a fascinating life, but this day to day rehash of every trivial detail with none of the excitement of this great author's life is terrible! This book does a disservice to Crane and his memory...confusing, loooong, and boring.

The Crane Log is a wonderful book which I have been reading over the past few days. I am surprised by the many underserved poor reviews this book has gotten. It must be stressed that this is a reference work, and one that is probably best read in snatches, and not in chronological order. includes day by day accounts, including fascinating liberal excerpts from memoirs of the people who knew him that allows you to form your own conception of Crane as he lived. For the first time we have a biographical work of Crane that is free of the fictions of Crane's first biographer, Thomas Beer. That is not something to grouse about.

This book is the worst finance book I've come across. I had to resort to a past finance book in order to get through the class that this book was assigned for. It has no mathematical basis for serious students of finance. There are numerous typographical errors.
An excerpt, "To give a simple example, consider the choice between alternative A - you get $100 today - and alternative B-you get $95 today. Suppose you had to guess how a stranger, about whose preferences and future expectations you nothing at all, would choose." This is UNIVERSITY LEVEL MATERIAL?!?
Do yourself a favor, look somewhere else and do not buy this [book]

I was required to purchase this book for an MBA class in Business Finance. To put it simply, this book is terrible. There are errors in calculations from front cover to back. The describers used to name calculations are changed from page to page, without any consistency whatsoever, requiring a flow chart to understand what it is Bodie and Merton are discussing. Nobel prize or not, Mr. Bodie and Mr. Merton should be embarrassed to publish such trash.

Also, the way the questions are worded in the end of chapter reviews leave little relevance to what was taught in the preceding pages. Often questions that are asked are open-ended and very ambiguous.

I would not recommend this book to anyone and have asked my University to stop using this book because it is so flawed.

Like others, I too first saw this book in paper. I am now using it to teach a class of law students -- smart kids but mostly without great numeracy. I think it is working okay but (like so many coursebooks?) perhaps not as well as expected. One problem is indeed the typos -- I'm a sloppy writer myself and typos are my incubus, but with all the beta testing and with all the publisher support, you would think they could have done better (indeed, I sent my own list to the publisher back in the beta days -- I got a nice thank you but I don't see my name in the acknowledgments, so I suspect they hit the trash). Aside from that -- the presentation seems mostly clean and straightforward, but quite often too elliptical for my students -- I've felt I had to do a lot of backgrounding. Unlike other reviewers, I quite like the problems -- I think some of them press the envelope a bit, but that is just fine with me, exactly what they should do. I do feel that the authors bring together a remarkable lot of stuff in a compact and orderly manner. In this respect with this book as with so many other coursebooks, perhaps it is the case that the teacher is getting more out of it than the student.

This is an abyssally written, horribly researched, inaccurate, unorganized babble of idle gossip about some truly great artists and writers. The author should not attempt to write about things beyond his limited ken. What a travesty that a publisher would agree to print such garbage!

As shallow look at some shallow men, specialy Platt Lynes. Only Paul Cadmus seems to have some reedeming qualities, and he is portrayed as undersexed and remote. I am glad I did not know any of these men.

My sole reason for acquiring this book was to learn more of the very private-seeming artist Paul Cadmus and to uderstand how he and Lincoln Kirstein came to be inlaws. As a result of the focus on George Platt Lynes, I will pursue more of his work as well. This narrative/history clarifies the various Cadmus paintings featuring Platt Lynes, Monroe Wheeler, and Glenway Westcott plus additional models. Personally, their sexual orientation is of no interest to me. Their art and contributions to art are indisputable. I enjoyed Mr. Leddick's presentation, which was fun and breezy. I look forward to locating Platt Lynes exhibitions and hope to view original Cadmus paintings before long. As for Jared French, imagine my surprise to discover a painting of his at the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, NY. Not once was there a single mention that any of these gentlemen might be fans of baseball, but you just never know, do you.

The sole purpose of this book is to convince parents to vaccinate their babies when and how the medical establishment/drug industry wants them to.

My baby girl's pediatrician loaned me this book stating that "it presents both sides of the issues." She mistakenly left inside a form letter from the MERCK VACCINE DIVISION saying that they highly recommend the book for parents to "dispel all of the misinformation" out there. In my opinion, everyone should proceed with caution when a multi-billion dollar conglomerate gives their stamp of approval on a book.

Don't bother using this book as a reference. It doesn't even tell you about the ingredients (like mercury, formaldehyde and aluminum) contained in vaccines. It truly insulted my intelligence by being so one-sided. There are other books I've read (i.e. The Vaccine Guide, by Randall Neustaedter, OMD) that give both sides of the story.

I just finished reading "Vaccines: What Every Parent Should Know". It was as I suspected; the usual arguments and half truths and snide comments about parents who choose not to vaccinate. I guess what surprised me is they are *still* saying that DPT doesn't cause permanent brain damage or death and there is no such thing as a hot lot! They also say that no one has *ever* died from the hep B vaccine -- I know a man whose 5 week old daughter died within hours after the injection! Everything else is pretty standard partyline fare. They do a neat trick with the references. They don't use footnotes, they just put a list of books in the back that they got their info from. That way you don't know what they are quoting and what they are twisting/making up (unless you are educated in this area). Who's going to take thetime to hunt through 5 books to find a reference? The book will very easily mislead a lot of unsuspecting, trusting parents. However, a couple of statements are so ludicrous it seems like anyone with a brain will figure it out. But parents looking for reassurance that vaccination is safe/effective will find it here. It's a good book to have on hand just to know what a pediatrican is likely to hit you with when you go in for a check-up or to use in a debate with uneducated friends and family when they question your informed choice not to vaccinate (or selectively vaccinate.)

While the credentials of the authors are good, do not be misled. This is not the objective scientific book I was hoping for. It is no better than the worst of the reactionary anti-vaccine books. It makes statements about the absence of side-effects which are clearly untrue. After reading many scientific papers and the excellent IMMUNIZATION by Kassianos, I opted to get Hib and DPT. However, my biggest misgivings were not from the vaccine opponents but by the blatent falsehoods in WHAT EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW (e.g., Hib vaccines have no serious side-effects-- p61-- BALONEY-- seizures are possible -- Kassianos p. 80). The book is riddled with errors that exaggerate vaccine safety.I think my choice to get Hib and DPT was probably good, but this political piece masquerading as an objective book did nothing to help me in my decision. The medical literature is clear that the long-term side-effects of vaccines, if any, are unknown. The authors pretend this is not true, presumably to "protect" us. Why would I be reading up on this if I wanted to be protected from information? This book is a waste of paper.

I have a 67 mustang that I want to swap over to a V8 (289-351) and wanted to know what needed to be changed. This book had no info for 6 cylinders. What ...[mad me mad] ...is that it doesn't say anywhere that it is for V8's only. If you have a 6 cylinder then don't buy this book....

The information in this book is incredibly inaccurate. The first thing I will point out is... it is impossible to use a 289 ci intake manifold on a 351W block. That is the most obvious mistake I found, but there were plenty more. Whoever edited this book knows nothing about the topic. There were captions that didn't match the right pictures, interchange numbers that didn't match the chart and tons of others mistakes. I do not recommend this book for anyone. If the information that I KNOW is wrong, how much other information is wrong?

I bought this book a while back and found it completely usless. I suggest you take a look at this book in person before you purchase it. It isn't the easiest book to use, is inacurate, and incomplete. You may have better luck asking someone at a parts counter for interchanbeable parts for your car.

This book needs revised and updated!