The best (and possibly only) book I've seen on the topic. I very much liked their approach of starting with a simplified language and adding the necessary features. The algorithms are useful, well presented, and their assumptions are laid out clearly.

This book contains so much more than the title would suggest. It tells not only of the cactus itself but also of the desert life that surrounds it and uses it. There are photographs and sketches of the desert animals as well as "side bars" with interesting information about desert life. Also included are suggested activities for using the new knowledge about desert life.

this book has to be discover as much as his masterpiece that i'm looking for in english to offer to my american wife! If anyone have info about it(Tomba-Tomb!!)l,please let me know ASAP!

Courtesy of The Best Reviews

Robert Maxwell, Laird of Clan Maxwell, longs for peace and the end to a bloody feud with the English Grahams. In order to achieve this, he decides to wed the oldest sister of the Graham family head. Robert enters into this agreement, much to the dismay of his entire clan, swearing to do whatever is necessary to make the alliance a happy one.

Caroline Graham is furious with her brother for signing her life away to the hated Maxwells. She has been convinced all her life no man would ever want her, the ugly sister, and she had planned to give herself to the Church as a nun. So she enters into this marriage determined to keep her icy demeanor (and her maidenhead) intact and show Robert just how unsuitable she was for a wife.

Robert is pleased when he meets Caroline and sets a course of seduction to convince her she is neither the ugly duckling she believes herself to be, nor the nun she desires to be. Caroline's walls are gradually beaten down by a very determined Robert, and she finds herself falling for him, all the while convinced he couldn't possibly love her.

An ancient legend stands in their way, however. There is a magical stone, taken from the scabbard of the legendary Excalibur, said to protect the possessor from harm. This stone is the basis for the nasty feud, and the cause of a deadly massacre 60 years previous. Problems escalate again upon the marriage of Robert and Caroline, as her greedy brother wants the stone for his own.

Can Caroline and Robert overcome their fears and plaguing doubts? Will their binding relationship put an end to the feud forever as legend proclaims?

Ms. Holling has woven an intricate tale of passion, greed, and vengeance. This book runs the gamut of emotions and desire. The characters are engaging, though it took this reviewer a while to warm up to Caroline. The plot is seamless and the legend of Excalibur is worked in effortlessly. The story is slow going for the first few chapters, but once it picks up, the reader will not be disappointed.

One will be eagerly waiting to see how the rest of the story pans out in successive books. This is a delightful read and comes highly recommended.

This classic text is a complete treatise on the concept of dislocations and their interactions with various other defects in crystalline materials. The dislocation concept is built up using basic theory of linear elasticity (Part 1 of the text). Hence, this book is ideal for someone with an elaborate background in Mechanics/Elasticity and looking to extend their backgroud in Crystal Plasticity from a Materials Science perspective. Parts 2-4 of the book will be of particular interest, as they deal with substantial Materials Science issues important at the atomic/meso-scale level.

For a Materials Scientist, while Part I might prove to be a challenge, as the references might not be as helpful as one might like (the authors do confess to not being exhaustive in their literature survey), Part 2-4 would be particularly useful in developing a basic intuition in the various dislocation-based phenomena important for understanding the various structure-property relationships that exist in crystalline materials.

Excellent book for beginners in TCM. Recommend for even those who have been studying for some time.

A deep look into the problems of China a hundred years ago. Corruption, bribery, lies, and greed all play out across 44 vignettes to show how inept the Qing government was after its ranks were filled by the monied, not the meritous.

I looked forward to the release of this book so eagerly because I have loved- LOVED- everything else of Lipman's I have read... Ladies' Man, Inn at Lake Devine, Isabel's Bed, etc.

But I was so disappointed by this one that I left it on the airplane rather than drag it back home.

While it is Lipman's usual collection of eccentric characters with interwoven lives, I felt like nothing HAPPENED in this one. What did Sunny want? What was she after? She was a protagonist without a rudder. And the big revelation at the end is that her mother was slutty? So what? In the end it affected no one at all, apparently.

If you have never read Lipman I definitely would start with some of her others. In my opinion, she is usually a much better writer.

I agree with the other reviews, in that this book didn't pack as big a punch as the rest of Lipman's work... but I really liked it anyways.

She writes the best characters with the best dialogue, and that's good enough for me.

The story revolves around the character's, Sunny's, mother's death, and the plot then spins out to involve everyone in this NH town with every character having their own fun quirks and mini-plot.

Wait for paperback if you must, but it's a must read for Lipman fans. Enjoy!

Elinor Lipman has written another perfect book for summertime reading--a witty, wry commentary on social conventions combined with characters with whom most readers would want to invite to the next party. I started this Friday evening and finished it before I left the beach on Saturday afternoon. Much to my dismay, I read them far more quickly than Lipman can write them. I anxiously await the next group of characters she'll introduce to me.

The title story written in pidgen English of a Chinese grandmother was cute, but too stereotypical. It reminded me of the movie Joy Luck Club. I am also a 1.5 generation Asian-American like the author, but I must have had a different experience of the United States, regarding growing up as an Asian among a white society, that makes me hard to connect with the stories. Even though I studied Confucianism and East Asian History at Harvard, I didn't realize we Asians were so pessimistic and dour in our outlook of American Society. I did enjoy the last story of the professor and his young wife. This one could be made into a full fledge novel. I did enjoy reading the whole book because I could understand the author's experience in Cambridge. I gave the book with favorable recommendations to my younger sister who may connect better with the stories written by Gish Jen. Look forward to more books. JL

I am a working mom with little time to read fiction. But the need exists. Amy Tam never did it for me. Maxine Kingston Wong was too ethereal. Finally, I found an Asian American writer with an East Coast sensibility! Gish Jen's new book of short stories is a delight. There are treasures in this volume. For me, she is the most down-to-earth and funny(!) Asian American woman writing today. "House, House, Home" is one of the best short stories that I have ready anywhere, anytime. The short story format (some are more polished than others, but all are worth the time) makes for good summer reading.

Jen's collection includes "Birthmates" which John Updike selected for his recent "Best American Short Stories of the Century." This is one of the few literary stories I've read with any insight into the business world and it shatters many a stereotype. My favorites, however, were the title story "Who's Irish?" and "Just Wait" (though I liked them all -- not a dud in the collection). In "Who's Irish," Jen subtly balances the humor and pathos of both intergenerational and interracial conflicts. The two grandmother characters are forever memorable! Reading "Just Wait," I was on the floor laughing at the sibling dynamics, but found much to chew on later. "Chin", the darkest story of the collection, illustrates the broad variety in this collection. The final story, "House, House, Home" goes far beyond the surface issues of a single mother in suburbia to provide insights into what attracts, and separates, men and women. The ending was unbelievably moving. This is a long story and I would not have minded it being a novel. Jen seems to have a talent for treating weighty subject matters within the confines of "ordinary life" (nothing exotic here). She also takes amazing risks with racial material without stumbling -- I find her characters to be complex & painfully authentic (you'll scream when you get to Duncan's mother). As with her last novel, Jen's voice in these stories is unique, intelligent, funny but not off-putting. Highly recommended.

Probably the biggest problem with this often charming novel is feeling. The Asian-American teen Mona rebels from her parents, and we see it, are told about it, rather than feeling it. It doesn't particularly make sense, and that stems from Jen not being whole-hearted about the characterization of the parents. This story is a sort of romp for Mona, a notebook purge, perhaps, wherein anything Jen can think of goes in, when the subject is the protagonist and her Jewish boyfriend. The parents are cliches, whipping posts. Occasionally the mother's harangues strike a true note and are thus stirring, but are usually placemarkers. A subplot that occupies a lot of space, concerning an available crash-space for a Black friend of Mona's, doesn't begin to carry the drama Jen seems to attempt. It seems a waste of effort. A lot of the book is like that, including another twisty set of events not to be given away here--not as interesting as the narrative voice would insist--not felt.

Gish Jen's second novel has the quality of magical realism, but retains a firm grounding in reality. Her title character, Mona Chang, shifts in and out of her multiple identities-- Chinese, Jewish, American. While Jen's first novel--_Typical American_--also explored America's varied identities in terms of clashing cultures and the immigrant experience through humor, _Mona in the Promised Land_ is more lighthearted though still a substantial book. _Mona_ is a book of the second-generation Asian-American. The only grouse I have is the sentimental way in which Jen tends to end her novels, and this a fault more evident in her second book. Nonetheless, I look forward to her future works. She's a worthy successor of the older generation of writers like Maxine Hong Kingston

I was tempted to give this book 3 stars, but couldn't bring myself to do it. Gish Jen is really a fantastic writer who can carve meaning out of detail as well as anyone else pumping out fiction today. And that's almost good enough.

In Mona Chang, Jen creates a funny, wise-cracking Asian-American woman confused by the dizzying cultural contradictions that surround her. Bad enough that her own country - the US, folks - stereotypes and denigrates her; the real problem is her parents, Chinese immigrants who want their daughter to be Chinese without being *too* Chinese - independent and obedient in the same heartbeat. Mona proceeds to find herself by experiencing the entire spectrum of the so-called "melting pot," and in doing so unearths discrimination - spiritual, financial and racial - under every rock, including those in her parents' own yard.

Reviewers have remarked that this book sheds new light on race relations in America. Jen's primary achievement, however, is in demonstrating the equivalence between the battles for financial, racial and spiritual liberation. She puts inclusionism - or "cafeteria racism" - to a scathing acid test: most of her characters are so bitterly wrapped up in their own quest for social liberation that they don't notice the common cause they share with the people they profess to despise. MONA is also illuminating for whites who have never experienced racism, who wonder how asking an Asian-American "Where are you *really* from?" could possibly be insulting, or why a group of militant African-American men would revolt when a young white girl accuses them en masse of thievery.

Unfortunately, the book bogs down in several places, most notably near the middle where Mona, Barbara and Seth futz around in the "Underground Railroad". Worst of all, the ending is completely botched. Everything said by any of the characters in the last 30 pages has the stilted air of moral finality; characters seem to reappear out of thin air, under flimsy pretexts. And, of course, there's the infamous epilogue, which substitutes the complexity and bitterness experienced throughout the book with a well-telegraphed, made-for-Hollywood five-hankie affair that makes you blink and scream, "What the hell was that??"

Despite its flaws, this is still an important book. Any time you find a voice this crisp and witty, it should be held on high as a standard for aspiring writers. Read it, and take the last thirty pages with a grain of salt.