Are you an Architect and don't know the parts of a traditional double hung window? Forgot how stone was detailed? Could not draw a lug window sill to save your life? Then this book is for you and your staff. Great drawings (real drawings, not CADD), all hand lettered and illustrated. I use this book to size masonry fireplaces. It is the ultimate resource on all types of wood burning fireplaces and masonry dimensioning! Although there are some things that are out of date (plumbing & electrical)this book tells a story about buildings in the emerging market of historic rehab and historic tax credit project.

Volume 4 of The Dent Uniform Edition Of Dickens' Journalism, The Uncommercial Traveller And Other Papers 1859-70 is a significant literary event for Dickensian studies. Like the earlier volumes of Charles Dicken's work, the articles and writings of thise literary compendium of Dicken's writings is enhanced for academia and Dickensian scholarship by a list of abbreviations, a prefance, introduction, acknowledgements, as well as "Note on the Text and Illustrations", select bibliography, "Dicken's Life and Times 1859-70", a list of illustrations, glossary, index, and four appendices: The Great International Walking-Match; Prefaces; Descriptive headlines added by Dickens to articles in the volume which were included in UT1; and Complete listing of Dickens' known journalism, December 1833-August 1869. Highly recommended.

Ehxileratiing. Captivating. Brilliant. A masterpeice...period.

I found this book to be very informative as well as fun to read. I loved the articles on players such as Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm, Carla Overbeck, and Briana Scurry.

It was also interesting reading about many of the other great women soccer players around the world. This book gives inspiring accounts of beating the odds and is a must read for any soccer player.

If you are going to read "The Federalist Papers," you must also read "The Anti-Federalist Papers" in order to get the complete picture. Both books cross-reference each other and both are instrumental in understanding how our government was designed and how it was intended to work. In addition to the Papers, this edition also contains the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and an excellent introduction by Charles Kesler.

In a time when each colony had its own "constitution," the Federalists believed in creating one strong centralized government (with one Constitution) that could effectively represent the people. The authors and supporters of the Constitution knew that they could not afford to lose the vote in the state ratifying conventions. In an effort to win over his home state (New York), Alexander Hamilton, with the assistance of James Madison and John Jay, began a collection of 85 essays and published them under the pseudonym of "Publius" (named after one of the founders and heroes of the Roman republic, Publius Valerius Publicola). The Papers, published in 1787 and 1788, analyze and defend the proposed Constitution of the United States.

The Federalists succeeded in winning the colonists' support. But, even though the anti-federalists lost, their ideas were also brilliant and made an important contribution to the history of our government, which is why you should also read "The Anti-Federalist Papers."

This book is a must-read for all Americans. After reading this book, you will have a renewed appreciation and admiration for the wisdom and vision of our founding fathers.

If you are going to read "The Federalist Papers," you must also read "The Anti-Federalist Papers" in order to get the complete picture. Both books cross-reference each other, and both are instrumental in understanding how our government was designed and how it was intended to work. In addition to the Papers, this edition also contains the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and an excellent introduction by Charles Kesler.

In a time when each colony had its own "constitution," the Federalists believed in creating one strong centralized government (with one Constitution) that could effectively represent the people. The authors and supporters of the Constitution knew that they could not afford to lose the vote in the state ratifying conventions. In an effort to win over his home state (New York), Alexander Hamilton, with the assistance of James Madison and John Jay, began a collection of 85 essays and published them under the pseudonym of "Publius" (named after one of the founders and heroes of the Roman republic, Publius Valerius Publicola). The Papers, published in 1787 and 1788, analyze and defend the proposed Constitution of the United States.

Obviously, the Federalists succeeded in winning the colonists' support. But even though the anti-federalists lost, their ideas were also brilliant and made an important contribution to the history of our government, which is why you should also read "The Anti-Federalist Papers."

This book is a must-read for all Americans. After reading this book, you will have a renewed appreciation and admiration for the wisdom and vision of our founding fathers.

I found this book to be one of the best books I ever read. Instead of giving a lay understanding of some of the arguments, I would like to note what I found exceptional about this book: the footnotes. The footnotes of this book gave detailed accounts of historical references made that shed much light on where the arguments were coming from. There is so much to be had from this book that I know I will read it at least five more times. Should be required reading by all Americans.

"You will be haunted by Three Spirits." So forewarns Jacob Marley's ghost to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge, a miser of stingy, unfavorable traits. And so begins the enduring Christmas classic distinguished by almost everyone. Come along on an erratic journey with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, all of whom attempt to point Scrooge onto a virtuous path. Meet the most notable characters ever introduced in literature: Bob Cratchit, angelic Tiny Tim, and good-natured Fred. With vivid descriptions of Victorian England and enlightening dialogue, 'A Christmas Carol' will enrapture both the young and old throughout the year with a vital lesson on hope and benevolence for humanity. This, I find, is treasured most of all in this brief story marvelously crafted by the creative Charles Dickens. No matter how many adaptations of the book one has seen on television or as films, the real source is highly recommended and should not be missed. For if you do pass the book up, you are being just a Scrooge (metamorphically speaking, of course!).

It's hard to think of a literary work that has been filmed and staged in more imaginative variations than Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"--there's the excellent George C. Scott version, the delightful Muppet version, the charming Mr. Magoo version, etc., etc. But ultimately true "Carol" lovers should go back to Dickens' original text, which remains a great read.

"Carol" tells the story of cold-hearted miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who despises the Christmas holiday and scorns all who celebrate it. But a visit from a series of supernatural beings forces him to reevaluate his attitude--and his life.

With this simple plot Dickens has created one of the enduring triumphs of world literature. It's a robust mix of humor, horror, and (most of all) hope, all leavened with a healthy dash of progressive social criticism. One thing I love about this book is that while it has a focus on a Christian holiday, Dickens puts forth a message that is truly universal; I can imagine this story resonating with people of any religious background, and also with more secular-oriented people.

This is a tale of greed, selfishness, regret, redemption, family, and community, and is enlivened by some of the most memorable characters ever created for English literature. Even if Dickens had never written another word, "A Christmas Carol" would still have, I believe, secured his place as one of the great figures of world literature.

Well, I finally read it (instead of just watching it on the TV screen).

This is what you can call a simple idea, well told. A lonely, bitter old gaffer needs redemption, and thus is visited by three spirits who wish to give him a push in the right direction. You have then a ghost story, a timeslip adventure, and the slow defrosting of old Scrooge's soul. There are certain additions in the more famous filmed versions that help tweak the bare essentials as laid down by Dickens, but really, all the emotional impact and plot development necessary to make it believable that Scrooge is redeemable--and worth redeeming--is brilliantly cozied into place by the great novelist.

The scenes that choke me up the most are in the book; they may not be your favourites. I react very strongly to our very first look at the young Scrooge, sitting alone at school, emotionally abandoned by his father, waiting for his sister to come tell him there may be a happy Christmas. Then there are the various Cratchit scenes, but it is not so much Tiny Tim's appearances or absence that get to me--it's Bob Cratchit's dedication to his ailing son, and his various bits of small talk that either reveal how much he really listens to Tim, or else hide the pain Cratchit is feeling after we witness the family coming to grips with an empty place at the table. Scrooge as Tim's saviour is grandly set up, if only Scrooge can remember the little boy he once was, and start empathizing with the world once again. I especially like all Scrooge's minor epiphanies along his mystical journey; he stops a few times and realizes when he has said the wrong thing to Cratchit, having belittled Bob's low wages and position in life, and only later realizing that he is the miser with his bootheel on Cratchit's back. Plus, he must confront his opposite in business, Fezziwig, who treated his workers so wonderfully, and he watches as true love slips through his fingers again.

It all makes up the perfect Christmas tale, and if anyone can find happiness after having true love slip through his fingers many years ago, surprisingly, it's Scrooge. With the help of several supporting players borrowed from the horror arena, and put to splendid use here.

The first 13 chapters or so are absolutely fantastic, super-poetic, naturalistic writing; as good as most of Hemingway (king of the overrated writers) and post-Death-on-the-Installment-Plan Celine. The deep hatred that's the flipside of love is here in its most brutally tragic and truthful form in the scenes between Camilla and Bandini. Some people don't respond to these scenes because they've never bothered to examine these feelings in themselves (though they've definitely had them), they've just ignored and repressed them. Not Fante. No way! Fante's out to force readers to face these feelings in themselves, and it's so annoying, it hurts! But that's what good naturalistic writing is supposed to do: HURT. If you can't deal with it go read some moralistic, 'sympathetic,' nonsense; there are thousands of books of that type to choose from.

It should be obvious after reading the first chapter why Bukowski liked this book so much. Without Fante there would definitely never have been a Bukowski (whose stuff is distinctly original in subject matter, but much more commonplace in its writing style than this particular book by Fante anyway).

The smell and feel of Los Angeles in the '30s is damn near palpable. Things come alive in concise, economically crafted sentences, on an an almost "Day of the Locust" level.

Starting with the earthquake chapter things run out of steam for a while before picking up again towards the end.

For a simple 'little' book written in 1939 to still continue to affect readers in 2000 is no mean feat. "Ask the Dust" is like a cross between Nathaniel West, William Saroyan, and, yes, good old Bukowski (without the scatology, of course). And though I wouldn't put it on the same level as Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa," or Celine's "Journey to the End of the Night," it's definitely one for the 'ages' (whatever the hell that means).

I read Ask the Dust years ago, when I was in college and in my tortured, Bukowski, Artaud, Rimbaud phase. I still smile when I think about those times, ridiculous though they may have been.

Fante really isn't for everybody, his writing is pretty crazy, but most should enjoy it. Aspiring young writers will most likely adore it. And Ask the Dust is a perfect place to start.

The best way to describe Fante (and this book) is with one word: URGENCY! It feels like you're reading something that was ripped right from the typewriter. It's all passion, all nuttiness, all fun intensity.

He's like Bukowski in many ways, but without the occassional creepiness. Fante is zesty. He's all life. His words are big and fat and each one matters. You won't find yourself digging through pages of exposition or superflous descriptions. It's all right there in front of your eyes.

Lot of fun. Very, very humorous. Fante had a wonderful, joking manner. He was able to laugh at himself (a great quality, rare among writers), but he was also able to see the sadness in life.

The ending made me cry.

Twelve years ago I read an article in the Los Angeles Times in which America's most successful fiction writers were asked to name their top-ten favorite works of 20th Century American fiction. John Fante's "Ask the Dust" was the only title to appear on every author's top-ten list in that article. Since then, I've read "Ask the Dust" twice, as well as every other book by Mr. Fante. Ironically, "Ask the Dust" was published six years before J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" and the similarities between Holden Caulfield and Arturo Bandini are uncanny. The difference is that Arturo is even more impulsive than Holden, if that's possible, and wholly American. You'll want to console Arturo and slap him silly at the same time! Unfortunately, John Fante didn't live to see the latest revival of his work, but Black Sparrow Press has made him a literary star. You will laugh outloud and embrace this book! I promise.

This book can be divided into three logical parts. The first part includes an overview of 4 dimensional physics (spacetime physics, chapter 1), an introduction to special relativity (physics in flat spacetime, chapters 2 to 7), an introduction to the tensor calculus (the mathematics of curved spacetime, chapters 8 to 15) and describes in detail Einstein's general theory of relativity (Einstein's geometric theory of relativity, chapters 16 to 22).
This first part is the best introduction to the theory of relativity I have ever read. The mathematics is introduced in a very comprehensive manner, there are lots of exercises where the reader can get used to the tensor calculus. The physical explanations are just brilliant and what is more important general relativity is introduced in the manner Einstein itself viewed it: as a geometric representation of gravity! Other books on this subject formulate general relativity only algebraically (like quantum theory) but this hides the importance of the idea that all gravitational effects can be extracted from the geometry of spacetime. The algebraic formulation may be regarded as more modern by some authors, it must be said however that no algebraic formulation managed to give more physical insight. The algebraic treatment tries to unify the view of general relativity and quantum field theory, but the physical discrepancies between the two theories remain unsolved.
The second part starts with the application of general relativity to stars (stars and relativity, chapters 23 to 26), goes on to the universe (the universe, chapters 27-30) and to black holes (gravitational collapse and black holes, chapters 31 to 34), and describes finally gravitational waves (gravitational waves, chapters 35 to 37) and experimental methods (experimental tests of general relativity, chapters 38 to 40).
This second part is a good overview, but many details of the computations of the applications are not shown. For the readers interrested in the details the two volume book by Zel'dovich and Novikov "Stars and Relativity"/"The Structure and Evolution of the Universe" is much better (but also much longer).
The third part finally describes the frontiers of general relativity (frontiers, chapters 41 to 44). Like part two it gives a good overview not showing many computational details.

By size and content, this book ranks as one of the largest in physics . Not only does it give an excellent discussion of all of the concepts in gravitational physics, but it gives clear presentations of the relevant mathematics, not hesitating at all to employ useful diagrams and pictures. Truly a classic, it is a work that is sure to be read by future generations of students in gravitational physics. I can still remember the excitement I felt when picking the book up for the first time. The authors are giants in the field, and it is great that they chose to take the time to write such an excellent book. It is readily apparent that they care a great deal about what the reader will take away after reading such a large book, as the presentation is always crystal clear and a great joy to read.

Space prohibits a thorough review, so I will instead highlight the parts of the book that I found particularly exceptional: 1. The example of how coordinate singularities arise: the "cells of the egg crate" squashed to zero volume. 2. The beautiful illustration of the Roll-Krotkov-Dicke experiment. 3. The "physics demo" of a local inertial frame of reference (it is not very difficult to construct this demonstration for actual use in a classroom). 4. The presentation of a 2-form as a honeycomb of tubes with a sense of circulation. Such an explanation is lacking in the general mathematical literature. 5. The flying ring demonstration illustrating Faraday stresses. This demonstration is done very often in physics classes, and is simple to set up. 6. The excellent discussion (with illustrations) of the covariant derivative and the Schild ladder construction. 7. The presentation of parallel transport around a closed curve. 8. The treatment of Riemann normal coordinates. These are typically presented in a purely formal way in most texts on general relativity, ignoring their status as providing a local inertial frame in curved spacetime. 9. The (philosophical) discussion on the principal of general covariance in the context of Newtonian gravity in tensorial form. 10. The illustration, with accompanying discussion, on a situation where two events can be connected by more than one geodesic. The authors mention the relation of this example to the Morse theory of critical points. 11. The discussion of the Bianchi identities and the topological result on the boundary of a boundary being empty. 12. The discussion on the gravity gradiometer. 13. The exceptional discussion on six routes to the Einstein field equation. 14. The variational principle and the initial value problem in the Einstein equation. 15. The connection between the Gauss-Weingarten equations and extrinsic curvature. 16. The ADm formulation of the dynamics of geometry. 17. The discussion on Mach's principle. 18. The radial oscillations of a Newtonian star. 19. The Hamilton-Jacobi description of motion and its employment in analyzing the central force problem. 20. The effect of the value of the cosmological constant on cosmological models and evolution of the universe. 21. The cosmological redshift and its explanation via the expansion of the universe. 22. The mathematics of the Mixmaster cosmology. 23. The dynamics of the Schwarzschild geometry. 24. The discussion on the global properties of spacetime and singularity theorems. 25. The short biographies of Hawking and Penrose. 26. The quadrupole nature of gravitational radiation. 27. The experimental justification of general relativity, particularly the description of Pound-Rebka experiment on the gravitational redshift.

The world would be less beautiful if this book didn't exist. What a remarkable feat! The sequence that leads from the very basic concept of spacetime to the computation of the components of Riemann tensor by using forms and the Cartan equations is unparalleled. A lot of mathematical formulas follow from simple reasoning and ... drawings! The introduction of Schild's ladder to motivate the axioms for a (torsionless) connection is very clever. The introduction of curvature by means of geodesic deviation is very intuitive. The derivation of the expression for the geodesic deviation (and, consequently, of the expression for the Riemann tensor) is, again, completely intuitive. The chapter on spinors is very beautiful and useful. Still, I would never recommend this book for a beginner. For it is absolutely non-linear. I have been told that this corresponds to the ideas of Wheeler's concerning learning. Sometimes an argument at chapter 4 (say) depends on something that is intr! oduced in chapter 8. Also, the three tracks (first, second and boxes)interfere all the time, requiring much discipline from the reader. If, however, you already learned the basics (for instance, in Landau, Lifshitz), so that you know what you are looking for, "Gravitation" is unbeatable, of a class apart. I've seen mathematicians adopting the language introduced by them to explain tensors: a slot for each argument of the multilinear machine! Last, not the least, the Index and the References are of the highest quality. This shows respect for the readers. Drs. Misner, Thorne and Wheeler are to be congratulated.

The chapters (10-13) on RDS made this book well worth it for me, since true client-side recordsets were integral to the suceess of a particular intranet project I was on (don't hold your breath waiting for any useful documentation from Microsoft on RDS). Some of your own experimentation is necessary as you expand out further from the RDS examples they give. They could have taken RDS a bit further than they did, but what they gave was still helpful to me. Everything they do cover is well-represented with code examples.

I kind of thought the amount of space devoted to ADO was excessive, since if you're trying to implement RDS, you probably already know much of the ADO they teach here. Some of that space would have been better used to expand on RDS a bit.

The included ADO 2.0 reference (Appendix A) and RDS 2.0 reference (Appendix B) are useful, and the sections on Oracle are helpful if your code has to work against Oracle backends.

One other note: In books like this, I rely on the index a lot to quickly get to topics I need. The index in this book is pretty bad. If you want to reference things for future use in this book, buy yourself a highlighter pen.

Bottom line, if you need to use RDS, bite the bullet (kind of expensive) and get this book. For ADO, however, you might want to look elsewhere.

This is a great book because it shows you exactly what you need to know. They get to the point effectively with every topic. I like the real world questions being answered. Like client side or server side cursors. And topics on how to write the more efficient rs object. The only problem I have with this book is the writers lack of expertise with other databases. Like MS SQL server, and Sybase SQL server. Getting information on pitfalls with other database platforms would be invaluable. They kind of tickled us with the Oracle info, I want more now.

I am an Internet Engineer for a Fortune 500 company. I recently designed and implemented an enterprise-level customer service Intranet application. This book provided many thorough explanations and examples of advanced ADO features.

I made heavy use of disconnected recordsets and data shapes, both of which I did not know how to use before reading this text. These methods allowed me to store recordset objects in session variables (remember, this was an Intranet application so I could dictate the client browser) and thus greatly reduce the load on the back-end database.

Criticisms are few and far between. I found a few nit-picky errors, nothing major. I also would have appreciated a chapter with tips on creating MTS COM objects, but I realize that topic can span an entire book (and it has).

I appreciated this book so much that after I had purchased and expensed a copy for my department's reference library, I went back and bought another copy for my personal collection. It definitely earns a five star rating.

Strenghts: Quite readable considering the subject. Terms are laid out in bold face and concepts are explained in identifiable sections. The summary at the end reinforces concepts and key terms. The end of chapter questions give you something to think about. Most examples are easy to follow. Weaknesses: Some concepts that include examples are explained with formulas in parentheses so that you have to stop reading and look at the figure. Not bad but I like them in the figure or in footnotes. Some of the exercises/problems were difficult to relate to the examples in the book. Other than that this book is great. What would make this book a 5? The study guide.

I am looking to buy this book for someone else. It seems there's a text book and there's a solutions manual by the same name, and i am looking for the latter. Can someone help me and tell me if this is the one i am looking for? Thanks in advance

I HAPPEN TO READ THE BOOK IN THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA'S LIBRARY. THE BOOK WAS WONDERFUL. MOST OF THE PROBLEMS SET IN OUR FINAL EXAMINATIONS WERE TAKEN OR COPIED WITH MINOR VARIATIONS FROM YOUR BOOK. THEREFORE IT IS VERY USEFUL FOR STUDENTS LIKE US TO READ YOUR BOOKS AND SCORE GOOD MARKS IN THE EXAMINATION.

HOWEVER THE BOOK DOES NOT CONTAIN DETAILED SOLUTIONS. AS A RESULT WE ARE UNABLE TO UNDERSTAND FULLY THE METHODOLOGY OF SOLVING IT. AND THE PRICING IN INDIA IS VERY HIGH TO AFFORD THIS BOOK. THIS MAY BE CONSIDERED BY THE AUTHOR TO MAKE THIS BOOK AT AN AFFORDABLE PRICE FOR AN AVERAGE INDIAN STUDENT.

THANKING YOU, YOURS FAITHFULLY,

M. RAGHU RAMAN