I personally found the *gritty* style of this book annoying. I knew it was an intimate look at the circumstances surrounding the disasterous Hubbard expedition and the subsequent journey undertaken by his wife Mina, but this account reads more like a 1950s pulp novel or a Louis L'amour western. The prose is choppy and entirely too chatty, sinking at times to a veritable nadir of banality: "George stepped off the Williamstown train, feeling like a fox ready to have his heart pulled." (whatever hell that means), or "...a lot of trappers weren't interested in the idea of foolin' with someone dead" (too folksy). In short it's a slipshod narrative history written in the vein of an adolescent adventure story.

This is a fabulous narrative of a wilderness adventure, like many others filled with the hazards adventurers encounter when they stray far from home. What makes the story unique is not a side-bar intrigue of romance and mystery but a deep underlying question about human motivation, relationships and dreams - as lived through the minds and bodies of the adventurous. The story is told with skill and grace - and is spellbinding.

From two of the men who brought us "The Complete Wilderness Paddler" (a marvelous book in itself), this is a must read, preferably while you yourself are tucked comfortably at camp, or in the tent waiting out the storm, or late at night by the oil lamp. You won't miss with this one.

This is a wonderful book on Texas snakes. As one who recently had a (noninjurious) run-in with a western diamondback rattler, I can attest that the photography is stunning. This is almost an artwork. This book provides a wealth of information that is easily accessible to the nonspecialist on each species--range, specific habitats within that range, generalized behavior traits, likely reactions upon encountering humans, diet, mating habits, etc. The only real criticisms I have of the book are minor. It would have been nice if the color plates had been interspersed with each species covered, rather being placed all together. As it is now, one reads up on the snake and has to thumb through the book to find the picture. Also, as many of us buy this book to be able to identify snakes we are likely to encounter in normal activities, more information pertaining to where one is likely to encounter each species (e.g. in leaf litter, under rocks, inside ranch buildings) would have been helpful. This is a book that every Texan who wanders outside should have, as well as those interested in herpetology or snakes. As a librarian I have encountered numerous books on Texas snakes. This one is far and away the best.

The authors inform us in the preface that work on this book began twenty years before publication. It shows. It has all the usual sections you would expect from such a guide: a general introduction, an identification key, a note on venom, an extensive bibliography and, of course, species and subspecies accounts. But those accounts have a level of detail and thoroughness that are unmatched by any other guide, and each gives an in-depth survey of the scientific knowledge of the snake in question. The range maps are extraordinarily detailed and precise, and the 208 color photos are nothing short of exquisite.

Nitpickers will surely complain that this book does not always follow the standard common and scientific names established by Collins. Suffice to say that there is a fierce debate about taxonomy at the moment, and to dismiss a book because its authors take the other side of that debate ignores the treasure of knowledge that a book like this offers. Frankly, most readers couldn't care less one way or the other; there's more to herpetology than just taxonomy. The snakes remain the snakes no matter what they're called.

If only guides to snakes of other regions were this good. Highly recommended.

An excellent book for anyone who wants information about the Snakes of Texas & even surrounding states. Comprehensive in content: from vivid color photographs for easy identification; myths, legends and folklore, to behaviors of specific species, it has it all!

It has been said that most great men are bad men. Samuel Eliot Morison's superb biography of John Paul Jones supports, if not proves, that proposition. Jones's greatness is undeniable: Although he was the son of an obscure Scottish gardener, he virtually founded the United States Navy, he won one of the most important sea battles of the Revolutionary War when he was only 32, and he later commanded ships in the service of France and Russia. But Jones also was extremely temperamental, excessively vain (after receiving an honor from France, he liked to be addressed as "Chevalier Paul Jones"), and he had mistresses in practically every port. Morison, a longtime professor at Harvard and the author of the authoritative, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Christopher Columbus, as well as a massive, multi-volume history of the U.S. Navy during World War II, reports all of this in a matter-of-fact fashion. Morison's Jones is a great sailor and a man of the world in every respect.

According to Morison, Young Jones was highly ambitious and went to sea at age 13 "as a road to distinction." During the next 15 years, he learned well his trade and he also became an American patriot. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Morison writes that the American navy was "only a haphazard collection of converted merchant ships," and the Royal Navy was probably the most powerful in history. But General George Washington, according to Morison, "had a keen appreciation of the value and capabilities of sea power," and, in October 1775, Congress appointed a Naval Committee of Seven to manage the colonies' maritime affairs. In December 1775, seven months before the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain, Jones accepted a commission as a lieutenant in the continental navy.

Although Morison is primarily interested in Jones's activities during the Revolutionary War, he makes a number of more generally cogent observations. For instance, the United States government was in a state of nearly constant impecuniousness and was able to afford to build only one of the largest class of naval vessels, a ship of the line, during the conflict. In Morison's view, this was the status of the war at the time of the battle off Flamborough Head in September 1779, which secured Jones's fame: "The War of Independence had reached a strategic deadlock, a situation that recurred in both World Wars of the twentieth century. Each party, unable to reach a decision by fleet action or pitched land battles, resorts to raids and haphazard, desultory operations which have no military effect." That deadlock continued, according to Morison, until 1781. Morison also writes that Britain took the position "since the United States were not a recognized government but a group of rebellious provinces,...American armed ships were no better than pirates."

Morison appears to be deeply impressed by Jones's technical competence: "One of Paul Jones's praiseworthy traits was his constant desire to improve his professional knowledge." That passion for self-improvement reached fruition September 1779 off the Yorkshire coast of east-central England when a squadron which Jones commanded from the Bonhomme Richard defeated the H.M.S. Serapis in a three and one-half hour battle during which those ships were locked in what Morison describes as a "deadly embrace." (Bonhomme Richard sank during the aftermath of the fierce fighting.) It was during this battle that Jones defiantly refused to surrender with the immortal phrase: "I have not yet begun to fight." According to Morison, "[c]asualties were heavy for an eighteenth-century naval battle. Jones estimated his loss at 150 killed and wounded out of a total of 322." Morison writes that Jones was at his "pinnacle of fame" in late 1779, and, when he visited France, which was allied with the U.S. during the Revolutionary War, in April 1780: He became the lion of Paris, honored by everyone from the King down." When Jones returned to the United States in 1781, however, he was unable to obtain what Morison describes as a "suitable command," and he never fought again under the American flag. In 1788 and 1789, as "Kontradmiral Pavel Ivanovich Jones" he swerved in the navy of Catherine II, "the Great," Empress of Russia. When he died in 1792, he was buried in France, but, in 1905, his body was returned to the United States and now rests in the chapel of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Jones's nasty temper is frequently on display. Morison remarks on various occasions that his crews were "disobedient," "sullen," and "surly." Which was cause and which was effect is difficult to ascertain. Jones clearly was an overbearing commander, which may explain, though does not excuse, his crews' bad attitudes. On one occasion Jones had one of his officers "placed under arrest for insubordination [giving the officer] a chance to clear it up, and Jones was unwilling to admit his error." It is not prudent to compare events during war in the late 18th century to the peace and prosperity of our own time, but no reader of this book will be impressed by Jones's interpersonal skills.

Morison makes numerous references to "prize money," the curious, but apparently then-universal, practice of rewarding captains and their crews in cash for capturing enemy ships. The fact that Jones pursued prize money with vigor may raise additional doubts about his character, but I would guess Morison believed that Jones simply followed a custom which probably motivated many successful naval captains of his time.

Morison held the rank of admiral in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Although the degree of detail in his narrative is fascinating, I found some passages too technical, and I suspect some other lay readers may be baffled as well. (The book's charts and diagrams were, however, very helpful.) But that is a small price to pay for a wonderful biography of one of the most intriguing figures of the American Revolution.

A hero of my youth, this book appears to tell the full story. This is a scolarly work which reads easily. I only wish I would have read this book in my twenties. There are some wonderful life lessons in this biography. If you read it you will learn his flaws, his good and fine attributes, and some mysteries. This is first-rate biography and detective work by the author. I recommend it.

As someone who had recently seen the "John Paul Jones" movie that was made in 1959 with Robert Stack, I was curious to learn more about the man who put the U.S. Navy on the map. Of course, most know him as the one who coined the immortal, defiant phrase "I have not yet begun to fight!" This book delves beyond that, as Morison shows Jones as he really was, a human being born in obscurity in Scotland who developed a love for the sea at an early age. He was simultaneously a shrewd combatant with a quick temper (in many ways the American equivalent of the great English admiral Nelson,) and a gentleman who enjoyed the company of numerous lovely ladies ashore. Morison leaves no stone unturned as he takes the reader on a detailed, captivating journey (from page one, the reader is hooked.) He sailed the waters that bore witness to Jones's battles and drew extensively upon the naval archives of the four primary countries that figured in Jones's life. To give you some idea, the engagement with H.M.S. Serapis is fleshed out in such marvelous detail that one can almost smell the gunpowder, but Morison goes beyond that, explaining what happened before, during, and after, most of which one would not learn in history class. In fact, I would make book that at least ninety percent of what one will read in this book would not be learned in history class. Morison has included pictures, charts, diagrams, excerpts from letters (some of which are in French with English translations), and has deftly blended them and the text into a perfect biography. For anyone who wants to learn more about Jones, this is required reading.

Accessing databases and datastores via the internet is becoming commonplace today. This book gives developers the fundamentals of what databases are, how to connect to them with ADO.NET, how to access/manipulate the database information and, especially, how to present it in meaningful ways using ASP.NET controls and VB.NET. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to grow beyond static-content web pages and begin development of data-driven web applications.

Written by a team of 10 professionals with different areas of expertise, this book provides a solid foundation for creating web applications that rely on creating, modifying, and displaying information accessed from an SQL database, although the source can be any data repository that has an OLEDB or ODBC driver written for it. Filled with many rich examples, both in the text and in the hands-on exercises, the authors go beyond the "this is the code you need to insert" paradigm and explain what each section of code is doing, reinforcing lessons learned from earlier examples as necessary. The exercises can either be typed in or run from source downloaded from the WROX Press website, both are error-free. The book is full of tips and best-practice methodologies, with an entire chapter devoted to performance considerations. The exercises were tested on students in a school lab and common mistakes are presented in a section of each chapter. WROX Press also has multiple levels of support available to those who need it. The book finally culminates in a "real world" online-auction application that covers all the bases and gives comprehensive substance to the theory and examples previously presented. ---Reveiwed by William S.

This is a great book which covers most of technique to write an ASP.Net web application using VB.Net for database access. All the examples are quite easy to follow and understand. I highly recommend to any person who wants to learn and build web application.

It is not until you read a book that is dedicated to using databases in ASP.NET that you realize just how much there is to learn. This is a very readable & well structured book with excellent 'Try It Out' examples that provide easy to follow step-by-step guides.

Obviously understanding data readers, datasets, command objects and web server controls is vital but there are some rare and extremely useful chapters: componentization - leveraging class libraries for data access, performance, and a chapter that discusses Data-Driven ASP.NET application in the Real World that raises some very interesting issues; for example security tips, raising your own database errors & organizing your code.

The authors not only provide information that you would expect but they offer every encouragement to raise the bar by discussing ways to do things even better; for example 'A Better Connection String', creating Data Access classes, and fine tuning dataset & datareaders.

Following the very disappointing BROKENCLAW, here Gardner gives us a different Bond story--one with very little action, lots of plot, and yet, a real page turner. This is certainly one of the most political Bond stories, and it is concerned with issues in the headlines at the moment (or from 1991), namely the Gulf War and also the shaky state of the former Soviet Union. The story concerns a free-lance terrorist group--The Scales of Justice--demanding the trial of a former Nazi SS officer largely responsible for a massacre of Russian Jews in Barbarossa during WWII. They claim to have the real man, but meanwhile the French Secret Service have captured another man whom they believe is the criminal. An agent of Mossad--the Israeli Secret Service, a Russian KGB official, James Bond, the French Secret Service, and various other spies all engage in a plot to unravel The Scales of Justice. What they uncover is an ambitious Russian general with plans to sabotage the crisis in the Gulf War by sending a nuclear strike among other things to the United States. There is a lot of plot and very little action--pretty much all in the next to last chapter or so. And yet it is very carefully laid out by Gardner, who doesn't give us an unbelievable love story nor a completely ridiculous ending as he did in the preceding clinker BROKENCLAW. In BARBAROSSA Bond finds himself confused about his role in the mission, and he also finds that a number of the people around him are not who they seem. One of the best elements is the way Gardner weaves an exciting tale involving elements from real-life modern stories and situations in the world--the Gulf crisis and impending war, the state of post-Communist Russia and quests for power. There are a number of intriguing characters and some great scenes, such as M receiving the news that 007 has been killed. Bond is not the central figure all of the time--he finds himself neck-deep in a complicated web of intrigue. The writing is certianly an improvement over BROKENCLAW, as! is Bond's relationships with the opposite sex here. Some may be disappointed by the greater presence of story and by the fact that action takes a backseat, but give BARBAROSSA a chance indeed. It is very well written, tightly plotted, and frankly very exciting. Do not disparage the name Gardner when it comes to Bond. Although this is more of a solid thriller and less of your typical BOND story, it is a welcome addition to the canon.

In this action and intrigue packed adventure Bond works with a Mossad officer, K.G.B. officers, and a sexy French D.G.S.E officer to stop a Communist hardliner from taking power in Moscow and helping Iraq during the Gulf War just before coalition forces are about to move on Iraq.

Very good book for individuals looking to explore the basics of programming. Covers structured programming techniques and other basic fundamentals of programming. Perfect for students who want to discover if programming is an industry they would like to enter.

I just finished a class in QBASIC using this book and it was very easy to follow. It also has many great problems with which to quiz yourself and includes many great programming examples which will be similar to actual programs you will write in the workplace.

As John Gardner's third Bond novel, Icebreaker shows an increasing understanding of the character. The novel shows a good deal of creativity as far as situations and the Neo-Nazi villains are concerned, and keeps the reader guessing as to who on Bond's team are actually on his side, especially as the book progresses. All in all, a nice adventure for Bond, and a nice time for any Bond fan.

In his 3rd book, John Gardner pits 007 with agents from the CIA, KGB and MOSSAD working against a Neo-Nazi force. Another masterpice thanks to John Gardner. Not as good as the first two, but is absolutely stunning anyway!

This is the best of the Bond books written after Fleming. Bond, and an agent from the KGB, CIA, and Mossad, must trek into the arctic to monitor a secret bunker serving as a base for a neo-nazi organization. This is fantastic story filled with double crosses and a chilling villain.

This tape is well done. The sound effects create an atmosphere that draws in the listener. The actors are dramatic, but not overly so. The short stories themselves are well written, delivering edge-of-the-chair suspense (or knee-slapping comedy, as the case may be).

As most net surfers are aware the Sci-Fi Channel's web site has included a section devoted to science fiction radio drama...Seeing Ear Theatre. One aspect of which includes originally produced productions cerated especially for the site and which has featured performances by many well-known SF actors as Micheal O'Hare,Mark Hamill,Marina Sirtis,and others. With a few exceptions, a lot of the dramas are based on recent short stories by SF writers such as Terry Bisson, Allen Steele, John Kessel and Gergory Benford. With the release of this audiobook editon(which includes introductions by SF's resident angry young{sic}man Harlan Ellison)now one can listen to these stories anytime you want. The best stories(IMO)are the Three Odd Comedies and The Death of Captain Future (which despite the pulpish-sounding title is a darkly humorous tale set in the future history of Steele's previous works such as Orbital Decay and Clarke County,Space). If you like audio drama-- especially newly produced audio drama...you'll love this collection and you may also want to check out Vol. 2 which should be on sale soon(I know I can't wait).

WOW what a story! Brian Smith could sell this as a short story by itself it is so good IMO. I just wish they sold a hard copy of these writings--not just audio! I have been reading Sci Fi for a long time. This guy is great! Reminds me of 2001, a space odyssey a bit. Worth the price just for this one folks! I noticed there are no other books by Brian Smith for sale on Amazon. What's up with that? He needs to write books, and Amazon needs to sell them--geez, do I make myself clear?

What a fun book! I have found, from reading many Patterson books, that his novels have increasingly gotten more and more unpredictable and exciting. I love the way that the people that you think "dunnit" are the wrong people and how he makes the villains in his books people that you would never guess could do it. All of these different mediums that Patterson uses culminates in "Jack & Jill." I would recommend it along with all of his other books, even the early ones.

B.S Readers in Cleveland We all agreed that James Patterson's book, Jack and Jill was a good book. The suspense kept us into it and wanting to read more. We liked the interweaving of the two plots in one story. Different killers made the story interesting and more challenging to read. Patterson really made us think. Every time we thought we had figured something out, the plot gets twisted. (The best was the twist when Cross found the "supposed" Truth School killer dead.) The one thing that was very disappointing was the end. It seemed as if Patterson rushed through it. However, by dangling the plot, there is room for a sequel. We were angered that Patterson didn't reveal the motive of the killers. Also, the CIA is always involved in conspiracies and we felt it wasn't dumb to include it in the story. We did like how Alex Cross had more to him than just detective work. By including the kids, it showed that he was human and had feelings.

I loved Kiss the Girls and Along Came A Spider, and felt that Jack and Jill was a continuation of a look into one mans life. Patterson created a terrific character in Alex Cross. I can't wait for the next Cross book.

Confusion. This novel is for those of educated minds. Stream-of-conscious runs through this book and only stops as you stop to re-read each page to find out what happened. The book runs free from subject to subject, all seen through the mind of Stephen Dedalus. His imagination runs freely throughout the book and it is sometimes hard to pick up whether what your reading is reality or just a thought process. Symbolism. Every word, sentence, and page is key to understanding this novel. If your focus wanders away for one paragraph, you lose, game over and go back to the beginning to start reading again. The thick symbolism makes it hard to read, but Joyce is able to capture many feelings through the symbolism of birds.
I couldn't get into this book. Every time the book was about to pull me in, a sudden change of pace would leave me scratching my head. This novel seemed to drag me nowhere, granted it is a classic, my classic eyes, nose, and ears say "no" to this book.
This is a well-written novel told about a young boy's life as he grows up. You learn side by side as this young boy, Stephen Dedalus, learns of life. You see things as he sees them, experience things as he experiences them, and feel as he feels. Whether it's fear, loneliness, pride or remorse, the feelings are lived as Stephen's imagination and life intertwine themselves together through each page.
This is a great novel if you have a Joyce-code-reader that helps you understand the Irish slang, Latin and symbolism. Irish slang dots this book, Latin develops it, and symbolism flies through it. This plot-less book is very hard to understand, which conveys Stephen's attitude toward life. He, a young man, is very confused in life. There are five stages in which Stephen goes through in this novel. He goes through school homesick, and looking for an identity other than his father's. Joyce depicts the family through debate at the dinner table, showing the strong political views of Stephen's father. Stephen also finds himself in a growing situation at school. After being wrongly beaten by the prefect of studies, Stephen decides to go and tell the rector on him. Fear mounts as he enters the hall across from the rector's room, but joy comes as he excitedly runs to tell his friends what happened. As he continues to experiment with life as he finds himself wading through sin. He struggles with the lusts of the natural man, as he gets involved with the opposite sex. And then it hits him. A power sermon about death, judgment, heaven and hell chain his soul down as he wishes to escape the eternal torment that surrounds him. He wants his soul to be at peace. And so through a battle with his conscience he repents and frees himself from sin. He then devotes his life to religion and purity. Seeing his devotion to the priesthood, a Father offers him a vocation. However, he discovers another path to paint the picture of his life. He journeys away to find his freedom lies in being an artist.

If you're going to read this book, put your code-decrypter nearby and get ready for a ride through the mind of Joyce.

James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel is probably the most read of all his works, most likely due to the fact that it is less bizarre and easier to read than his other novels. Realizing this, most readers jump into "The Portrait" expecting it to be a simple and straightforward story only to find that nothing could be farther from the truth. It is extremely complex and ahead of its time and damn near prophetic. Many readers criticize it because the plot is so realistic that whereas other books are fantastical and overblown, the plot to "Portrait" is so prevelant that it could have happened to anyone, and indeed, similar series of epiphanies do indeed happen to many. Perhaps ironic is the fact that many of the same people who criticize this lack of action enjoy spending their time watching "real life" shows such as "Survivor" and "Big Brother" that are heavy in realism and light in action. The difference of course between those shows and this book is that while the shows are completely and utterly mindless attempts to quench the public's ever-growing hunger for drivel, "Portrait" is one of the most though-out, complex psychological testaments to the life of a human being ever put to paper. It is the story of a young man, growing up in Dublin in the same manner as all other boys, and how, along the way he became different than the rest. In this age, society is obsessed with peering into others' lives, in "A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man," we peer into someone's soul: an artist's soul.

I read this years ago in college and once or twice afterwards though I haven't had the chance to re-read it in recent years. Still it lives on vividly enough in my memory to allow a review, here, I think.

Joyce was a strange one, where writing was concerned, focusing as he did on language as a means to evoke the world rather than merely for telling a "story". Over the years I have come to conclude that fiction requires narrative requires storytelling . . . and yet Joyce successfully broke that rule and he did it first in this book.

PORTRAIT is a book which builds the world of its narrator in the telling, without really following any kind of plot or storyline or giving us a beginning, middle and end. From the opening lines of ludicrous baby talk, where we see the world through the young hero's infantile eyes, to the end where the young lad, after much intellectual wrestling in his school days, steps off into the wider world, this is a book which paints a young man's coming of age, through his very subjective experience of life, with words. Indeed, all good writing "paints" its world to some extent. But Joyce, and several of his contemporaries, set out to re-write the rules of writing by only painting the picture, as though the story (an artificial element in most cases) did not count at all. And they did what they set out to do. Joyce did it most dramatically of all with this book. Like Hemingway, Joyce was a literary impressionist, building the world through bits of language instead of merely describing it or telling us about it.

I think we need to get back to basic story in our day, as theirs was, to some extent, a false trail. But it was a trail worth following and of great value to all readers and writers alike. Aspiring writers, and anyone with a real craving to explore the literary world, ought to have a go at this one. It's an original.

SWM