Scott Lotts brings the complex game of golf into everyone's life by explaining the game thoroughly and easily. The book is easy to read, and will fit in a player's bag when on the course. He elaborates the game to a 'tee' and I encourage any novice (and professional) to buy this book. It is well worth the ten dollars, and I look forward to his next book.

First published in 1996, this book stands as a landmark reference work on herbal medicines for health professionals, particularly pharmacists. The authors are all affliliated with the Department of Pharmacognosy, The School of Pharmacy, University of London, and the book was commissioned by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in response to the many questions they were fielding on herbal medicines from practicing pharmacists. This is not a book that will interest most lay people as it is quite technical in its approach to the topic. The book, however, is very readable, despite being technical. It is organized around 141 monographs on individual medicinal plants. Each monograph includes species, synonyms, parts used, availability of other pharmaceutical monographs, legal category of product (in Great Britain), constituents, food use, herbal use, pharmacological actions, side effects & toxicity, contraindications & warnings, a pharmaceutical comment from the authors, and references. The monograph sections on pharmacological actions summarize both animal and human studies. In addition to the 141 monographs on individual medicinal plants, the book has a number of quick reference tables, e.g. potential drug/herb interactions, listings of ingredients by their primary activity, e.g. cardioactive, laxative, diuretic, hypotensive, hypertensive, anticoagulant (etc.), and listing of ingredients by constituents, e.g. coumarins, flavonoids, saponins (etc.). The book begins with a list of potential adverse effects of the herbal ingredients listed in the monographs and another list of herbal ingredients that is is best to avoid or use with caution during pregnancy. The book is well-referenced throughout, including a listing of general references at the beginning of the book.

If you are in the business of creating serious software that is safety critical or security related then this book is essential reading, it is also an excellent guide if you have an interest in how such software is created. Focusing on how the SPARK language assures correctness throughout the construction of the software and how the supporting tools allow analysis of the resulting program, the book forms an essential reference work for users of the SPARK approach to developing software.

This book consists of three main parts plus an appendix.
The first part consists of an overview of why SPARK was created and the background to the language and tools.
Part two looks in detail at the SPARK language.
Part three considers the tools available; various code analysis techniques and design issues that can help in the development of high integrity software. Three small case studies are included, together with some examples of real projects where SPARK has been used in large scale industrial projects.
The Appendix covers the syntax of SPARK, how to use the CD-ROM and some notes on the continuing developments of the evolution of SPARK.
The included CD-ROM allows you to try out some of what the book teaches and includes limited versions of the SPARK Examiner toolset.

In this book John Barnes writes in a style similar to his other texts; this is rather like a guiding teacher leaning over your shoulder as you work at the computer, pointing out things to observe and illustrating with snippets of code or background information. It is a style that has been criticised by some, but I find it rather reassuring as you are guided along the path to understanding. The inclusion of a CD-ROM also allows you to understand by doing, and although the tool is limited in capability, it is possible to get a good flavour of the capabilities of its parent product.

This book replaces the previous SPARK book: "High Integrity Ada : The SPARK Approach". Barnes covers the revisions and enhancements of the SPARK language described in his original book, if you are an existing user of SPARK, you need this issue to stay up-to-date with the important revisions of the language and tools. This book tries to distance itself somewhat from Ada95, possibly because of the image that language has with less well-informed programmers, but since you need an Ada compiler to produce executables from SPARK programs it would be fair to point out that SPARK is firmly rooted in Ada95.

Creating high integrity software is a disciplined process, and the book is very much based in the practical application of SPARK in building high integrity software. The SPARK language is based solid mathematical foundations, but there is no detailed descriptions at this level, the book rightly points out that they are there and then moves on towards giving you the practical information you need to write SPARK programs. Mastering SPARK gives you unprecedented skills in the highly desirable field of producing high integrity software.

Thus spake the Master programmer:
"A well written program is its own heaven; a poorly written program is its own hell."
- - from The Tao of Programming

I found this book an entertaining and educational read. While it doesn't cover all tech topics it covers the most common and/or most exciting. (How could any book cover it all?) Everything is written in plain English such that most anyone with a high school education can understand. I do suggest reading the middle section that explains the basic concepts first.

The sections on AI, Nanotechnology, Machine Vision, etc. were very fascinating even though not commonly used technology. Speculation on the future is always exciting.

The sections on Power Generation, Lasers, IC Chips, etc. were very infomative considering that people regularly encounter this technology.

As one peruses the world of rheology while completing a last minute lab report, one realizes this is the best book on the topic of rheology this reader has ever read. From its startling portrayal of serious research to its gripping narration of industrial applications - this book has it all. "An Introduction to Rheology" - folks, this IS the TOTAL package. Buy it, read it, love it.

It was thought for many years that there was another manuscript, or that there were more pieces to this book than the slim version which became a prose masterpiece included in the canon of American Lit 1900 to 1940. Because of the editing and work by Eliot etal, and because of Barne's reclusiveness, wse didn't know much about this manuscript. Thus Cheryl Plumb's work helps us understand more about the process of this book, it's starts and stops, it's magic and mystery. A must for Djuna Barnes fans

Former Mendocino resident J. Clifford Barnes' Only the Determined is a compelling novel of courage, set in the Mendocino Coast, and introduces a young artist returning home charged with the challenge of creating a new commission. Her journey requires that she face, understand, and accept her troubled past in order to produce a work to which only the most determined of creative souls could give life. Only The Determined is a deftly written, genuinely moving, highly recommended saga of finding the strength within.

Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, Clarendon Aristotle Series, isone of the most important books, yet, I think one of the mostoverlooked, in philosophy. Even a brief reading of the book will show that much of what it contains was adopted by Heidegger, Hegel, Marx and others. The simplicity of Aristotle's Posterior Analytics is misleading. It took Heidegger to show its true importance. Key topics of the book discuss definition, dialectics and purpose. It is astonishing to see that the complicated works of major philosophical figures like Heidegger and Hegel were first born in the clearly written thought of Aristotle.

This book is very informative on the exact subject matter, which is the psychology of love. They look at love from many different perspectives and look at all aspect's of love. Not only is this book informative but also interesting. The only thing that may come off as discouraging about this book is the vocabulary. Other wise, This book comes highly recommended by myself.

This work is a cross-section of essays from both western and Japanese specialists on highly specialized topics of Japanese history c. 50,000BP to 700CE. It provides not only the foundation of new technical research (pollen analysis and growth-lines of Joumon molluscan shells, along with more the traditional pottery analysis and historical linguistics), but also allows the astute reader to see some of the biases that shape the work of researchers on either side of the Pacific.

The highly technical nature of much of the work means that parts of it will probably too dense for anyone outside of a narrow speciality. At the same time this, when combined with the excellent Japanese-English glossary of technical terms, make it vital reference work, especially for those who use Japanese language sources. This is must for anyone who seriously studies early East Asian history, and who is searching for broader patterns of meaning from scanty evidence. However, the lay person who is looking for a general overview of early Japanese history would be better served somewhere else.