This book is magnificent for learning Engineering Maths. It's sister volume, Further Engineering Mathematics, continues that tradition. Although it isn't a textbook (it's more like a workbook), you'll find it actually TEACHES you how to solve mathematical problems - a rare feature in books these days. If it is your first time studying the topics (whether or not you are strong or weak in maths) you will find that this book helps you to learn and really increases your interest and enjoyment (and speed). The only people I would NOT recommend this book to are those who have already studied engineering maths and simply need a quick refresher (get a textbook instead). My only (repeat ONLY) gripe about this book and Further Engineering Mathematics is that they lack a few minor points and subjects. If the two books can be "completed", this would be as close as you can get for the ultimate teacher, without a teacher.

I've recommended this book to several students in a signals and systems class I have recently taught. Most of the students I have been working with should have covered most (if not all) of the material in this book to some basic level in high school, and certainly should have covered the material during first-year maths courses. However it seems that some people do tend to forget or haven't really learned the material properly initially. I believe this book is excellent to aid such students in coming up to speed on a basic maths background as you need from any first-year engineering course. The book is not an advanced maths book, and more advanced students will need to look elsewhere. However, for those that are struggling with some of the maths it is pretty much all you need.

I've skimmed through the entire book, and while I have some minor objections to how a couple of sections are presented, I do think that overall the authors do a really good job. The style of the book is what they call "programmed instruction", and is in some ways a workbook format. That's not to say it lacks substance as a textbook -- just that it has lots of worked problems and trys to engage the reader by asking them to work problems right from the start of the chapter, with the worked solutions then provided immediately.

If you aren't doing a heavily mathematical engineering program and don't have a strong background in maths, then this may be the book for you.

This book by Straud et al. is absolutely brilliant and takes the reader by the hand and guides him or her step by step through each topic without assuming any background knowledge. It also has numerous worked examples and is the best arranged maths textbook I have come across (and I am doing a PhD so I should know!!) The second volume covers more advanced topics which are useful in the second and third year! Totally indispensable, this is a textbook I still refer to till this day and the one I would recommend to any maths students.

Like Norman Mailer's portait of Picasso, this book should be titled Memphis/Booth leaving it slightly ambiguous as to the true topic of the book. Stanley Booth approaches his subjects in this collection of essays about "the music of the American South" with adoration but with each sentence you get the feeling that Booth feels the need to impress upon the reader that he is worthy of writing about these subjects. His need to belong makes some of the essays unreadable as Booth will spend most of the text naming records that he "grew up listening to", defending his use of black vernacular as being the way "we (southerners)" speak, condemning Yankees, etc. Once you get past that there's some mildly interesting information, nothing too new, especially if you're a music fan. The chapters on Phineas Newborn and James Brown are interesting. As a Southern music lover, I found the book too much about Booth and not enough about music. This book, sadly, seems to be more for the people he tries to distance himself from in the book - northerners with limited exposure to black Southern music. Southerners will find that he tries a bit too hard.

This book really captured the true essence of the influence of Memphis on the world music scene. Popular music is poorly written about and is normally glamorized or scandalized. This book really seems to capture the true essence of the music, the musicians, and the times. This book was so interesting to me I went to Memphis last summer on vacation and went to many of the old out of the way musical history spots in Memphis.

Stanley Booth has always sacrificed something for his work; whether it's his health or his sanity or his relationships but never his sense of humour. Rythm Oil takes its shape as an overview of Memphis, living on through yellow fever and famine, the death of all its musical heroes, who as it happened, came to Memphis and died there or who were born there and who left never to return. Even Booth, who today lives in Georgia, his home state, can't seem to find it in his heart to repudiate this strange and fascinating town with its greasy river that recently claimed another musical hero, Jeff Buckley. Memphis is a town of contradictions: its streets run north-south and its avenues run east-west, something Priscilla Presley never knew. "It's like she lived in a cocoon," remarks Booth, talking to his mother who replies "She did, it was on top of her head."

Inside Dreamweaver is a gigantic book that covers everything from basic HTML construction, to DHTML Animation and behaviors, to creating dynamic pages using server side scripting languages such as ASP or Cold Fusion. The sheer scope of its coverage should make it a valuable reference for Dreamweaver users both new and old.

Among the new features in Dreamweaver MX is the ability to create dynamic, database driven, pages in either ASP, PHP, Cold Fusion, JSP, or ASP.NET. While the specifics of any of these languages is out of the scope of this book, Inside Dreamweaver provides a valuable starting point, and explanation for these technologies.

As someone who's been using Dreamweaver in both personal and professional environments for several years now, I've found several areas of this book to be incredibly helpful. Specifically, the chapter on animating layers, which is something I've played around with on several occasions, but never fully understood.

This is the most complete book on Dreamweaver I've ever seen. While I would agree that it is lack in a few areas, it certainly provides a solid foundation and a valuable reference. I also found the interviews to be a nice touch as well as informative.

Inside Dreamweaver MX is the book that should be included as the manual for Dreamweaver MX. At over 1100 pages long, the extent and depth of material is covered is amazing. It ranges from how Dreamweaver MX is organized (dissecting the workspace, explaining preference settings, setting up the panels, site management, etc), to designing pages in Dreamweaver MX (using Cascading Style Sheets, frames, layers, JavaScript, dynamic pages, etc.) Nothing is left out. Each chapter gives background of the concept at hand. It then has steps to accomplish a given task. Then there are optional exercises (CD contains files) to give you an actual hands-one experience. The exercises really give you confidence in learning the concept.

Both beginners and advanced users will find the book helpful. Beginners can use it to create good, solid professional web pages. Advanced users can use this as a manual to answer the question at hand.

The book is laid out in a very readable and understandable format. Screen shots emphasize what is being discussed. Note to PC users: all screen shots are taken from a Mac. At times there are differences between the two platforms. However in most cases they are the same. Note and tip boxes are scattered throughout for additional reinforcement and consideration about the topic.

For those who want to venture into creating dynamic pages, there's an entire section on using Dreamweaver to this end. This includes an introduction to dynamic site. What follows is a chapter dedicated to creating a website based on each of the various application servers. (ASP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, PHP, and JSP.) The exercises for this section include a small database to use. Step by step you put the pieces together that Dreamweaver MX utilizes in order create pages based on a database.

Bottom line: whether you're just beginning or a serious developer, you will want this book on your shelf. It's thorough and can be used as either a tutorial or a resource. No matter what's your level of expertise, you will find Inside Dreamweaver MX very handy.

If you are a true lover of computer books or someone looking to learn Dreamweaver, you are going to be very happy if you make the choice to hit that 'Put in Cart' button!

Each chapter is packed full of information. In fact, it is so thorough that this is the only downside of the book!

Imagine that, too much information a downside! The reason some may find it to be a downside is because people new to the program will find that later parts of some chapters will be too advanced and advanced users will find that earlier sections may contain too much detail.

But, I'm tellin' ya, it's worth every penny and then some. Pick a chapter any chapter and I'll give you an example. Oh, the chapter on Tracing? Okay!

A lot of designers use programs like FireWorks and PhotoShop to lay out site ideas for their clients and then pop them on a CD or web page for the client to choose from. DreamWeaver has a powerful utility that takes advantage of these images as a 'Tracing' image to be used when the designer is ready to start building the site.

Inside DreamWeaver MX covers this process in detail and even though it is a process I am familiar with, it has taught this old dog new tricks! As I mentioned earlier, there are parts of this section that reviewed things I already knew, but even those early sections contained information valuable to my skills because they decreased the time it takes to complete a project. I always say, found time is found money!

This is only one small section in a huge book. I haven't even mentioned the details it has for processes like ASP.NET, XML, plus tons of additional e-commerce and site design information. Inside Dreamweaver MX is definitely something that anyone interested in building sites would benefit from, even if you don't use the program!

Happy building!
Leslie

The thing that I remember most clearly about _Dancing with the Virgins_ is that both of the detectives in it were a little annoying. Not drunken and rakishly annoying to women, but fussy and disorganized and at least a little bit thick at times. It takes courage to not give in at the last moment and not make your heros larger than life, and Booth at least has that courage.

I know that I enjoyed the book at the time-- it was a quick read and kept me well occupied in a week where I was sick, but the plot felt a bit overdone. And now that I sit (one week later) to write a review, I found it really difficult to remember who had done what to whom and why.

A woman's body is found in a ring of standing stones which legend has it are the remains of Virgins caught dancing on a Sunday and turned to stone. Bound up in the mystery are a woman with a disfigured face found wandering in the same location, a very angry farmer on the brink of ruin, and a missing girl with dreadlocks who nobody seems to be able to identify. Even while still being at odds, Ben Cooper and Diane Fry need to work together to solve the mystery.

Excellent mystery set in the north of England. Good sense of place, main characters well developed. plot complex and moves at a good pace. Detective Ben Cooper, a local copper with a good feel fo the locals is not led off on tangents like the others, particularly Detective Diane Fry, who has recently arrived from the south. The murder of Jenny Weston and attack on Maggie Crew appear to be related but it is only towards the end that the link between them becomes clear but is muddied considerably by the apparent link with a dog fighting business.

The resolution is slow coming but very satisfactory. The on-again-off-again relationship between Ben and Diane appears to be warming up but both have depths and secretes not yet available to the other.

Reminds me somewhat of the early books by Peter Robinson. rating 4.5/5

This is a long, continuously rewarding whodunit, featuring two young detectives who do not get along. Sergeant Diane Fry and Detective Constable Ben Cooper have to work together to try to solve a murder near the Nine Virgins--ancient standing stones decorating the moors of the Peak District. They also have to link the murder to the hideous disfigurement of a woman who may have survived a first attack by the killer, though scarred Maggie Crew will never be the same and has very little memory of who attacked her. Through it all, Fry picks at Cooper's "naive" personality, while Cooper...well, I'm not sure that he does anything to justify Fry's critical remarks, so Cooper is technically the more sympathetic character, though maybe too wimpy?

This book is packed with red herrings, but in superior story like this, you can't just call the red herrings red herrings. They are full fledged, highly involving subplots. What I mean is, the police connect victim Jenny Weston to a whole lot of strange people, with odd secrets. There's the nasty farmer, with the quiet, scared little boys, whose wife found Maggie Crews after she'd been slashed, and who is up to something sinister in his barn. There is Mark Roper, area Ranger, who may be dangerously manic about the rules, and who seems to know a secret about his lonely boss, Owen, who doesn't always answer his radio when he should. There's another missing woman, Ros Daniels, who may have visited Jenny Weston in her home, but if so, were they friends or enemies?

The two main detectives--with some support from an extended cast of law enforcers, each with well-drawn personalities--bicker, and criticize each other (Fry gets especially incensed by Cooper's investigations beyond the obvious scope of the case; but then Ben Cooper is the one more likely to follow up a vague hunch that turns over the wrong rocks), but they do follow all the various trails left by all the colourful suspects, and naturally it can't all relate to the main chain of violence that cultivated in murder.

In the end,I think some of the clues could be classified as a bit transparent by the adept mystery reader (though the large quantity of red herrings and smokescreening in the form of bona fide interesting subplots may help to counter this if, like me, you read too fast to do any really diligent sifting). I maintain that any stalwart ready to pounce on every apparent clue may pick out the real clues, especially the ones near the end of the book that do some last-minute "pointing" at the true culprit. Plus, I recall a few chapters--short ones in the first half or third of the book--that probably could have been cut. One short chapter basically focuses on Sgt. Fry driving somewhere after an intense interview with scarred and bitter Maggie Crew, and Fry's ruminations and reflections don't really add to the plot. I recall another chapter of a similar nature; mood and character are slightly attended to in ways that merely buttress what is already clear in other chapters, but overall a few chapters that could possibly have been eliminated, or just boiled down to a nub and summarized in a longer chapter. See if you spot this in two instances.

But only two. Mostly, this crime novel is engaging from the get-go, with lots of details, and a powerful mood brought on by a simmering rural pot of explosive ingredients, where not just a murderer has something to hide.

A Review by James

When Jet, the dog, was in the army after his owner went to jail she was a great dog. She saved lives and helped the army. She got hurt once and awhile but immediately went back into active duty as a patrol dog. Soon Jet's owner that went to jail joined in the army and found jet. He didn't take over and was her patrol keeper but he did see her once in awhile. The book ended up the owner telling the class about jet and her heroism and her courage.
Well this book wasn't a joyful book for me but maybe for you. This book has dogs and also about war, how war is bad and such. It was hard to fallow, but I am a slow reader. This book was only a 133 pages but yet it took a long time for me. One thing that I did like about this book is that it set during the beginning of WW2. When the Americans weren't exactly in the war but had some Americans fight for the British army. The dog part of the book wasn't really a interesting thing for me, Boring.
If you really like dogs and like ww2 then this is the book for you, the book is WAR DOG and get it if you want, I give this book a 3 star rating.

If your like me and love dogs this book is an amazing book for you. The book is about an army that is going to war aginst Germany and there leting dogs be in it. This is how Jet, the dog, got in to the army. At the begening Jets origanal owner was a poacher, someone who hunts in a way that is aginst the law. One day when he was poaching with Jet the police caught him and took him to jail and Jet was put in a cage and Turnip was looking for a dog because he was in the army and he needed a dog and Jet had been turned down several times so Turnip took Jet and used her in the army. Turnip had'nt knoun Jet was a pouching dog so she was already trained. So one day when they were training the dogs the captian saw Jet and Turnip training and the captian was impressed so he said they were going to war. In war Jet and Turnip were both shot but they made it and Americ, after a long hard war, defeated Germany.

This novel was one of the best books I've read in a while. The main character is a black labrador named Jet who is seperated from her owner when he's arrested for poaching right before WWII. Jet is requisitioned by the Army and begins her adventure in Dunkirk where she and Turpin (her new handler) fight against the Germans. She is soon moved to England and then to Italy where she saves many lives and becomes a hero. There weren't any dull parts in the story, and I also learned a lot of history. I'd recommend this story to anyone, young or old, who loves animals and happy endings.

Writing novels about adolescence is difficult; either because the writer in intimately involved in the business of being an adolescent and has not as yet acquired the narrative skills, or because the adult writing about that developmental stage retrospectively colors his memories of how things were. (Françoise Sagan's BONJOUR TRISTESSE is a happy example of a book written by an adolescent that effectively addresses that period.)

Newton Booth Tarkington had produced the PENROD series of juvenile novels before writing SEVENTEEN. In this work, he narrates the summer of love (lower cased letters then) of William Sylvanus Baxter, who is smitten with Miss Lola Pratt, also known as "the Baby Talk Girl" because of her talking baby talk, endearing to William, but grating on the father of the girl whom she is visiting for the summer. I read this book when I was an early teen; and years later read it to my then pre-teen daughter. On both occasions I found it to be amusing and insightful.

William is a typical young boy who goes through a series of pratfalls and misadventures. Like many of his status, he is clueless. He tries to write, um, poetry. A sure sign that his is smitten. Tarkington is able to straddle the fence of finding humor in William's behavior without being unduly condescending.

A young reviewer commented earlier that the emotions and behaviors of his characters where more like fourteen- or fifteen-year old adolescents. I would have to agree with that perspective: from the standpoint of today's teens, if Tarkington's book were written recently, it would probably merit the title "FOURTEEN." Nevertheless, I think that SEVENTEEN was an accurate depiction of middle adolescents of that upper middle social class in that era in history. Certainly, the average mid-teen is more worldly nowadays than back in the early part of the twentieth century (or even back in the 1960's).

Readers fond of esoterica might find it interesting that Lola is based on Rose O'Neill, who later on developed the Kewpie dolls that were so popular in the early part of the twentieth century.

A caution should be made at this time: there are some passages in this book in which African-Americans are depicted cruelly and in an unnecessarily unflattering light. We maybe should regard this book as reflecting too-typical of attitudes prevalent in that time, but not encourage the emulation of these attitudes.

I did find the device of the omniscent narrator to be intrusive at times, and Tarkington's way of tying things up at the end to be unconvincing, but still this is a great book. I can truly say that it offers something for both the young reader and the adult.

This is the best Tarkington book I've read yet. Booth captures the essence of the 17-year-old youth in love in this fictional account of a group of 17-year-old boys mooning over the neighborhood girl. He's got the emotions, the irascibility and the hormones all in one story. This book is a stitch as well -- humor similar to The Little Rascals is also included that had me chuckling from time to time. In addition, it gives the reader a view of what dating was back in that era. Attitudes, liberties and customs have certainly changed... Easy to read, light-hearted, and fun...

This is a sweet story, set in the American heartland at the turn of the 20th Century. The focus is the group of people and the very region which created the American nation as the greatest country in the history of the world. The rhythms of life vastly were different a hundred or so years ago, the dreams were more simple, the morality clearer-cut. Anyone reading SEVENTEEN needs to understand that this book is about a time and place now so far away and different from what we have come to know that it could be science fiction. Yet people remain the same, emotions remain the same. As a result, SEVENTEEN holds its value as the prototypical coming-of-age novel. Booth Tarkington was one of the premiere authors of his era and that is the reason why, decades later, SEVENTEEN remains worth reading. It is the definition of a classic.

My 5 year old son loves trains and train books but says this book is "boring" (and I have to agree). I think he finds it confusing. Rather than a story (with a beginning, middle & end) this book lists train car names one page says "Phoebe Snow, B&O, Thirty-four, five".

"Crossing," which combines a simple poem by Philip Booth with artwork by Bagram Ibatoulline, is about a rairoad crossing. Here are some sample lines: "warning whistle, bellclang, / engine eating steam, / engineer waving, / a fast-freight dream." As the train passes we see the various types of cars (boxcars, a cattle car, etc.). What makes the book special is the artwork: vibrant, realistic, and packed full of intricate details.

Our son (2.5 years old) loves this book. The cadence of the poem is engaging and the art is stupendous. The style wonderfully evokes the times of steam rail and the colors are gorgeous. This one is truly beautiful. If your child loves trains, this is a must-own.

nicely designed, but shallow book about a non-existant connection in contemporary culture.

Okay, I only bought this book because it was recommended with the Fruits book on Japanese teen fashion. It looked interesting and wasn't that expensive.

I think the contents of this book is a bit over my head. In my spare time I am a web designer who does some graphics work, so I am not completely without artistic abilities. Some of the works in the book is very neat to look at. But others just left me scratching my head and questioning the intended message. The printing of the book is exceptional, as you would expect. I keep it on my coffee table just to see what other people have to say about the book.

I honestly believe that someday soon this book will replace the bible as a source for inspiration.

I am very sorry folks, but after reading this book you get the impression that John Wilkes Booth was some sort of a psycho who was born and bred to do something foolish that would get him killed. This view of things is archaic and completely false. Read any recollection about him, from his sister's to his closest friends, and it becomes obvious that John Wilkes Booth was a smart, good, kind man, an incredible actor, and very possibly one of the most considerate human beings to grace the stage. Was it a good idea to kill Lincoln? Of course not, but at least he wasn't a fool like Oswald and had his pictures taken with the very rifle that would be used to kill Kennedy. If you are interested in fiction about John Wilkes Booth, there are quite a few other books that I think you would be interested in, such as Theodore Nottingham's "The Curse of Cain" and Finis Bates' "The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth".

I too consider myself to be an expert on the subject of Booth, and am familiar with many books on the subject. The previous reviewer (Josh) seems to want to read books on a fictionalized Booth, not the real person. The book by Russo takes no point of view, but presents the life of the assassin's boyhood based on many sources. It seems to me that I hardly have time to write one review, but Josh has written TWO. This sounds like some sort of vendetta against the author, and certainly not a valid review by an unbiased reader.

I don't know who the guy is who wrote the other review, but I read this book. It uses Booth's sister's words and a bunch of other witnesses. An expert reads more than one book, and this author has done his homework. It tells about the years Booth was a kid, and he was no angel. The only fools around are those who defend Booth and think they know it all.

On a battlefield it matters little whether you fight for a right cause or a wrong one; whether you are decorated with a Purple Heart or a Silver Star; whether you are a proud officer or a humble soldier. When a bomb explodes near your feet, when hostile forces loose hell over your head; when you breath nothing but blood, perspiration and uncertainty, you are shattered inside, unrecoverably. You are at war with yourself. You fail to contemplate the causes and the ethics. You simply refuse to reason. You smile at your enemy and raise your rifle.
...Sounds rung in our ears, sharp, like the blade of grass. The pores of our skin took in the air, searching for sour unwashed uniforms, mingled with gun oil, and the greasy, oily stink of a German. I could hear the heartbeat of a cricket...

Cover Fire is less about battlefield than about the psychology of war. The book guides you through the varied 'contributions' of war-the structured disarrangement, the shattered pieces of human anatomies, the plights of the soldiers (very often victims themselves) and the physical and mental scars that once realized will be borne throughout their lives.
The author, Ms. Karon G. Booth, herself a teacher and an active educationist, takes up the challenge of raising fundamental questions about war.

...A war that made life stale as you dragged one foot in front of the other from nowhere to nowhere. Where every wall was broken, every window smashed, every green or fresh thing booby-trapped...

It all begins with World War II, when Lieutenant Morgan and his band of brothers arrive behind the enemy lines with a mission to detect and deter 'The Screecher' from firing on the Allied forces. Their search leads them on series of misadventures, traumas and uncertainities, which form the heart of Cover Fire. The story grips the imagination from the start. Ms. Booth's construction of simple and short sentences aptly suits the subject

...I sneezed again, annoying me. Moved my little finger up, then down. Gasping air trapped between our helmets, I set forth the theory-I was alive. Life brought terror-lost in the dark, buried in the ground, alive in a grave with a corpse on top of me. I screamed out, but only in mind...

Much to its horror, the crew discovers Sergeant Randall buried alive, suffering undescribable cruelties, retaining nothing but the brutal remnants of war life. "Dragon, there's a dragon in the cave" was all that Randall could whisper. Well, where is the dragon? Where is its cave? The answers are however not forthcoming. Morgan, realising the helplessness of the situation, transcends to the role of a psychoanalyst and explores Randall's dispirited psyche to arrive at a "solution".

...The wind from the trigger blew my hair. Each time I wanted it to be the bullet that killed me, and every time I prayed to live just one more second...

The dragon has multiple lives. It never accepts defeat and rejuvenates itself after every downslope. This is not an imaginary beast or a mythological symbol of power, but something that breathes flames of fire and hatred in our midst, blatently. It is hidden from vision, awaiting opportune moment to emerge and strike. Its effects are devastating, and never operate on a smaller scale. It is but a predator in the wildest form, posing serious threat to peaceful co-existence. We need more analytical and reflective works like Cover Fire to identify and slay such a dragon.

...There were limits to what you could do to a man, even in war. This was outside the limits of what humanity, the Geneva Convention and God had agreed upon...

When taken at face value the book is an excellent, action-packed war thriller. If we weigh the plot and its treatment, however, the work is revealed as a penetrating examination of war and its consequences. In Cover Fire, Ms. Booth has succeeded in uncovering a seldom explored side of war-that which bears a haunting human face.

Warning if you start reading Cover Fire be sure you have the time to spare. The first sentence starts off with a bang (really) and you will be avoiding the bullets just like the rest of the characters.
Even when the first skirmish ends, the pacing doesn't let up. 2nd Lt. Bruce Stuart Morgan, the main narrator of the story, leads his men behind enemy lines into Nazi Germany as they search for their missing Sgt. Matthew Randall, who knows the location to a Super Cannon (called the Screecher) the Germans are using to nail down the Allied Forces.
They find their beloved Sgt.Matthew Randall -- who has been a father-figure to all of them -- but he has been tortured and literally left for dead. Unable to return back to base they hide in a German castle.
At this point, Cover Fire begins to lag. 2nd Lt. Morgan's narration is interrupted by the other men in the company. The technique fails mostly because the characters are distinct enough (the opposite of the brothers in As I Lay Dying) to justify such a change. Morgan could've continue being the narrator and nothing would have been lost.
Yes, readers will never forgot a soldier such as Grease, who scalps his German kills, but he doesn't tell the story any differently from Morgan. POW Randall's testimony becomes vital towards the end of Cover Fire but still it could've been told effectively from Morgan's POV.
Which brings up the main purpose for Cover Fire. Author K. G. Booth of Bowling Green, KY wrote the World War II novel as a tool to help abused boys.
"While teaching male juvenile offenders I found I had no materials to reach their emotional needs," Booth said. "To help promote trust in their unit, I began using episodes of Combat! in class. The boys were fascinated by the interaction of the squad. From that the novel grew. I read an early draft to a class who volunteered to sit in hard desks on a Saturday when they could have been out playing ball. The boys listened for 3 hours as I finished the story."
A play and study guide based on Cover Fire have been designed as a way for the boys to role play to understand their own emotions. "These young men, who have been abused and who had abused others, found an expression for their feelings and needs," Booth continued. "The play and study guide was added later to allow the reader to project their experiences into the story and remain safe emotionally.
"My co-author on the play and the study guide added valuable insight into how a victim feels. As a woman, she underscored the point that a female reader can see men enduring and suffering mush as abused women."
And that is how the Cover Fire ends, Randall confiding to his company about the tortures he endured. He wants to die but Randall lives on thanks to his men, whom he rescues when they are captured by Nazis.
Thankfully, no Hollywood ending ruins Cover Fire. It ends the way it should end -- Randall isn't miraculously cured. But his is better off, especially with all the guys pooling for him (as well as each other). They are each others family. They may not always seeing eye to eye, they argue and bicker, but they stick together when times are tough. What more could a abused boy ask for (because not being abused at all)?

During World War II, Second Lieutenant Morgan leads his men behind enemy lines. The Captain orders Morgan and his men to protect a pontoon bridge that engineers were working on. Meanwhile, the Germans possess a devastating weapon called "The Screecher", a powerful cannon with such long range that it tears huge holes in the American offensive line. When battle wounds force Morgan to report to the field hospital, his Sergeant receives orders to locate the cannon for air strikes.

An interrupted message sends Morgan and the remaining four men of Randall's rifle squad on a search and rescue mission. They intend to find both Randall and the location of The Screecher. They find a scene of unbelievable horror with Randall, still alive, lying in a shallow grave. Incoming strikes and a dangerous grass fire send Morgan and his men toward a distant castle and a rumored resistance cell.

COVER FIRE by K.G. Booth explores the devastating psychology of war where the most deadly enemy is within. On the surface, COVER FIRE is an excellent, action packed war novel; but it also something more. Booth brings her 25 years of teaching experience to bear as she forges a powerful emotional link between the reader and the characters of her novel. Her students began as her audience as Booth struggles to reach incarcerated youth through fiction, allowing them to explore their own battle scared psyches in a safe environment. But others will find COVER FIRE powerful reading as well. Fans of war fiction, victims of posttraumatic shock syndrome, and others who bear the deep emotional burdens that can only heal by exposure and exploration will find COVER FIRE a useful tool to begin their own healing. Booth's deep understanding of the psyche brings the novel immediacy and depth that will linger long after the last page is turned. Highly recommended.