Alice in Wonderland is a great book that I truly enjoyed. I like how the author made something symbolize something else. For example, the rules of the game they were playing symbolized the actual rules of the land. Even though this book is intended for kids to read but I say it is a book for all ages.

This is good book, starts with a pretty good review on the mathematical foundation you need to continue through it, vector algebra, tensor analysis, calculus of variations, etc. then starts with theory of deformation , theory of stress, three dimesional equations of elasticity, plane theory of elasticity in rectangular cartisian coordinates, etc. As you can see the text begins with the most general theory an carries through a great deal of detail in the derivation of the equations. This is the text book for the AE731 theory of elasticity class in the aerospace department at WSU. I think this is definetely a good book though I would not reccommend its use to an introductory level, this is more for upper level or graduate students because it sometimes gets pretty difficult in the mathematical theory. I am currently using it and I would say you should buy it.

Although again a warning, the mathematical level you need sometimes is high but with the review in the first chapter and the help of your instructor is a valuable tool in elasticity in the point of view of grad student.

OK, first the good points about the book. It's superbly organised, providing word lists at the beginning of every chaptre, which gives you a great idea of how different accents compare on identical sets of words. The intro about different styles and registers of Received Pronunciation, including grammatical points, is also of great help to understand how accents may differ. The tape is a must, and the dialogues in it are great, since they were recorded in a very spontaneous manner. OK, so, the sound's quality is not the best around, but you get spontaneous dialogues (and therefore more natural dialectal pronunciations) in exchange. The only problem I'd see is that is that stylistic varieties are not covered more in depth. J.C. Wells' "English Accents: An Introduction" and "English Accents: The Brittish Isles" offer a lot more information, cover more nuances of accent, and are in general more complete that this book. Anyhow, it's still quite a good buy if you're interested in regional varieties of English in the Brittish Isles.

I remember having these Fairy Tales read to me at bedtime when I was little. I bought the same book to read to my son. The stories are bit anachronistic and may not meet modern standards of being politically correct, but we love them anyway.

Most of Arthur C. Clarke's nonfiction books are collections of scientific articles he has written. This collection of some of the first emails ever made is a great read. It gives a great insite into the production of the film version of 2010. Some of the best parts are from writter-director-cinematographer Peter Hyams as he struggles to find dophines, sattilite dishes, actors, heat sheilds, money, spacecraft designs, and other such things. If you like Arthur C. Clarke's books or like Peter Hyams' films, you should definetly get this book.

Very concise and complete. Excellent b/w line drawings - a pity the artist is not credited. Could use more photographs, esp. in color, but nonetheless an extremely useful reference work.

Seems to cover a lot, from networking to graphics to XML & CGI. I was surprised that the chaper on CGI was so short, given that its not covered at all in Professional Perl also by Wrox press. Also the book was a lot shorter, but still long at 650 pages.

As well as the creator of legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was also something of an amateur detective himself. This book explores the many cases he involved himself with, although in most of them his part is minimal. However, he did help with some memorable investigations - Jack the Ripper, Dr Crippen and the disappearance of Agatha Christie for starters.

Unlike Holmes, though, most of Doyle's observations proved inconclusive. As well as this, the authorities were sometimes loath to accept his findings, and the author, Peter Costello, implies that several innocents were executed for wont of incriminating evidence. Throughout Doyle's long career, though, his crusading nature and willingness to stand up for the truth are impressive attributes.

This book concerns itself with Doyle as Holmes creator only in passing. Here we see the author as an ever-inquisitive seeker of solutions to real-life crimes, a passion he later directed to the Victorian fad of Spiritualism. Indeed, there are some crimes he claimed to have solved through consultation with then-famous mediums. Costello wisely leaves judgement on this score up to the reader.

As an addendum to Doyle's more familiar literary achievements, this book serves it purpose well and provides many interesting insights into the Victorian and Edwardian crime scene.

This book really helped me when I was doing a report in 5th grde on the pioneer trails. It can help you too. It was extrodinary

People seem to have mixed opinions about the character "Random", Arthur and Trillian's (biological) daughter. Her presence in the story constitutes more of a Statement than a character as such, I think. She is Douglas Adams' way of saying "hey, we all feel lost, alone, helpless, overwhelmed, uncertain where we belong, etc etc etc" Even so, she probably could have been a little more fleshed out...

The "Guide Mark 2" is really pretty creepy. It makes you think about some of the big questions, unsurprisingly, if you have read any of Douglas Adams' other stuff... Also, although the plot just goes hogwild for 95% of the book, it really does all pull together at the end. The book is relatively self-contained, compared to some of the others in the series. In general this book is less wacky, and generally a bit darker, than the other books in the "trilogy". Reading this is a little like going to "The Cable Guy", when you are expecting a usual Jim Carey movie. It does make you laugh, but also makes you think, and not always in very comforting ways.

This fifth and final installment in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy is simply amazing. While it seems that a lot of people weren't satisfied with it, I am quite the exception. The tone of the humor in this book (as with SLATFATF) is much darker than the earlier books, but that's just fine by me. I prefer a little darkness.

While this book returns somewhat more to the zaniness of the first three books (at least in comparison to the fourth book), it is not entirely wacky. It seems that this book is, in many ways, quite "fannish," there to please fans of the series with cheap thrills and tips of the hat (one example would be the return of the Vogons, which I don't exactly think anybody was clammoring for). However, in the midst of all this, Adams tells a wonderfully adventurous story that ties together in an ending that will leave you stunned and breathless (I'll try not to spoil it, but it's reminiscent of something that happenned in the first book, HG2G).

The worst part of the book is that Fenchurch just disappears... literally! And we never see Arthur deal with it! Still, Adams provides us with yet another wonderful character to help reveal the human side of Arthur....

I think it is a wonderful, if unexpected and somewhat unnecessary, end to the series. Trillian returns (although thankfully Zaphod doesn't), but Marvin is depressingly absent. Oh and remember Agrajag, from LTUAE? Well, there's a wonderful tie to that whole thing that you just can't miss. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, go read LTUAE and then read this and laugh along with me. Read it. You'll be blown away.

People who read the book "Mostly Harmless" with a focus on the events of the book will probably end up disappointed. Adams continues his shift toward writing character centered novels (as begun in "So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish", and continued in the Dirk Gently novels).

The story focuses on three characters: Arthur Dent, the perenially confused Briton; Ford Prefect, the manic Betelgeusian; and Tricia McMillan, a BBC television reporter who, had she decided not to go back to get her purse when she met "Phil" at a party, would have become Trillian.

Adams presents Dent as a wonderfully tragic picture, and mirrors the beginning of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" quite well. Dent is presented as a lost soul, desperately in search of a home and a place to belong. Of course, when he actually finds a place where he belongs and becomes comfortable, outside events tear his world apart. This is a theme that was present in three of the four previous HHGTTG books, but the presentation is probably the best in "Mostly Harmless" (and particularly intriguing is that Arthur's world is torn asunder by a person searching for the exact same thing as Arthur had: a place to belong).

The story of Tricia McMillan offers an interesting counterpoint to Arthur's troubles. Although she is a successful television personality, she is obsessed with the consequences of one of her past choices. Unlike Arthur, who is preoccupied with the process of finding a place to belong, Tricia is preoccupied with thoughts of what might have been.

Unlike his previous books, Adams allows the tragedy to come to a fitting end. The tone is certainly darker than the previous HHGTTG books, and the humor is perhaps less prevalent. Even so, it is a fitting end to a fine series.