The overall content of the book was good and easily readable, but especially on the cover the authors stated some out and out untruths about the Gila Monster. The Gila Monster is not the only lizard with a forked tongue or with an armored hide as the authors stated. The varanids and teiids also have forked tongue and at least some have armored hides. I tend to disagree with a few other comments made in the book, but at present these are just my opinions and need more research before I can justify an argument against them. The book was interesting, but have some suspicion when reading as to whether or not it is all correct.

Fascinating information regarding early envenomations in the American West, a good bibliography, and wonderful introduction to the subject suitable for any naturalist.

It is an unfortunate fact of publishing that the people who design book covers are not the same as those who write the books. In fact, authors frequently have little or no say over how their work is packaged. I suspect this is the case for Brown and Carmony's excellent work on Gila monsters.

It is true that Gila Monster, Facts and Folklore of America's Aztec Lizard carries errors on the back cover, but there are none in the text. Indeed, Brown and Carmony communicate their fascinating subject in a manner that is both readable and accurate. They present not only a complete picture of Gila Monster biology, but also a fascinating look the animals' cultural significance. I heartily urge this book for anyone who has an interest in the herpetology, natural history, or folklore of the American Southwest.

If you are fascinated by film or archetecture, you ought to find this book of interest. Many great pictures, interesting anecdotes and perspectives beyond the "typical" film analysis.

Interesting, if a bit wordy, book explaining some of the thought processes that went into designing films of the near-future / alternate reality variety. This book would have much better had more illustrations/photographs been included.

When I was small I inherited my Father's WONDER BOOK OF THE NAVY. Written probably in the mid 1930's THE WONDER BOOK gave me a comprehensive overlook at a vanished fleet: lots of pictures, clear, comprehensive text covering every class of Royal Navy warship & all aspects of service life. I get the feeling that Brown may have tried to do a WONDER BOOK for grown-ups, and if so he has failed. What we have here is a nice "coffee-table book" with lots of black and white photos of a broad range of ships, but there is little in-depth coverage of anything (the two title warships are particularly slighted -NELSON gets one shot-from-a distance and two partial photos, VANGUARD maybe three or four) Battleships as a whole get only 15 pages of text and photos, destroyers by contrast get 20. While it can certainly be argued that neither NELSON nor VANGUARD had particularly stellar service records, they did represent important (and at least in the case of NELSON, peculiar) examples of warship design, and it would have been nice to hera a good deal more about them. Also missing from the text is any real discussion of the effectiveness and/or limitations of deign in action -we would have benefitted from hearing more about the fates of given warships. While there is a chapter on "battle damage" it tends to focus exclusively on physical damage to structures with little attention to crew or performance. Nowhere do I find much discussion of the human element, and, especially given the RN's remarkable ability to stay at sea for long periods under often hideous conditions it would have been very interesting to hear more about how the nature of the ships made this possible if not exactly "fun". The chapter on inter-war modification of existing ships is a real teaser -there are various coy references to what might or might not have been learned from WWI or post-war tests, but I felt that I would have to go elsewhere for any real understanding. Again, more detailed discussion of the fates of specific ships would have been most instructive. In summary: Interesting? yes. Comprehensive? by no means.

It's always a pleasure to see Brown's insider perspective on British design. In this book, he takes the opportunity to heap praise on some of his predecessors and nose about in their memoirs for hints of their thoughts on nascent designs. There is little effort here to provide a systematic survey of post-WWI designs--which I would like to have seen--but there is a sufficiency of substance and a liberal sprinkling of anecdotes. This is not a great book, but it is informative and enjoyable. My main complaint is that it tends toward the pricey.

Good luck on finding mineral sites using this guide. While the minerals may be in the areas indicated, the maps are so crude that the likelihood of your finding the sites is very poor. I have tried using the guide for several years with almost no success.

Well worth what I paid for it. This book has lots of information and would make a good reference for the Geology of California.

The maps though, don't say what the major highways/roads are, so you'll need another map. I have the book Roadside Geology of North/Central California, and this book goes really well with it.

In some ways, Rocks and Minerals of California I think is more useful, despite the missing road ID. The book has sections of counties (not all but most) and minerals found in those areas. Also, quadrangle information, township/range locations of minerals is listed.

Brown figured out where Tchaikovsky's musical ideas came from, and how he wrote music. Also, authors like Brown, Poznansky and others mention Tchaikovsky's homosexuality, but don't explain or stress why. My thoughts here are about Tchaikovsky and his sexuality. Some people may misunderstand it or simply not know what caused it. You may not find this interesting, but I do. If Tchaikovsky's sexuality is mentioned, authors should at least try to figure out and stress why. I've read different sources on Tchaikovsky and psychology. Why isn't this psychology stressed and emphasized by Tchaikovsky's authors? So, like Brown, I don't think Tchaikovsky's authors tried to emphasize why Tchaikovsky was homosexual, and I think they should have.

Just to clarify for readers who may be confused by the review below (as am I): Brown, like most modern Tchaik biographers and critics, cites Tchaikovsky's sexuality often in his analyses precisely because Tchaikovsky's life is inseperable from his music. They are one and the same, you cannot understand Tchaik's music without understanding his life, and his inner torment. Furthermore, if you seek to further understand Tchaik's music by understanding Tchaik as a person, David Brown's comprehensive insights are among the best out there. He gives thorough account of his life, history, etc, as well as his psychological mindset. With this, he goes into extensive analysis of his works as they were written- genesis, reception, and then in hindsight. As for the confused review above, Brown covers Tchaikovsky in whole much more completely and eloquently than many authors. These books are great resourcs, and if you do not own them, at least go to the library check it out for some minimal study. It is great fun, and very enlightening.

M.L. Brown's The Wild East: A Biography of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park is the amazing story of the centerpiece of eastern wilderness. Introducing herself and her work with a refreshing and highly personal account, Brown immediately enlightens the reader as to her motivations. What proceeds is a history that is so meticulously researched that the wildness of the park seems almost suburban, making The Wild East simultaneously fascinating and slightly disappointing. But pathos is bound to ensue after the mythical GSMNP is taken off of its pedestal, and Brown delivers a heavy dose of reality by focusing on prior land use within the park, the contradictions of park management, and the nebulous concept of 'wilderness'. The result is an accurate account of the park's creation that de-shrouds it of some of its wild mystery, an effect that might not be enjoyed by every reader.

In Brown's defense, she had few complete histories of the park to update and examine (outside of D.S. Pierce's The Great Smokies), and the litany of personal accounts, newspaper articles, and other histories that she unearths make for a tremendous piece of scholarship. Brown leaves no stone unturned in describing the opportunism of the Tennesseans and consternation of the North Carolineans, and she fully reviews both sides of every major argument that enveloped the park to the present. Of particular interest is her focus on making the history of park and area residents seem less like 'hillbillies' and more like average Americans of a century ago, with many personal accounts of day-to-day Appalachian life.

But missing in her attempt to please everybody is a sense of the rancor and vitriol that must have surrounded the park's formation, guided by a healthy dose of eccentricity from all of the wonderful folk who gave a hand in helping of hindering the park's will to survive. Her most flagrant omission is an unbiased discussion Horace Kephart and his contributions to both regional anthropology and the park's development; Kephart is only mentioned in passing. For a park with such a dynamic history, one might wish for a more dynamic story, with a greater sense of the conflict and character that makes the Great Smoky Mountains the centerpiece of eastern wilderness.

Again, a good portion of the park was settled, and thus its status as 'wilderness' is a matter of debate. To this end Brown inexplicably addresses eminent environmental historian William Cronon on the topic of wilderness in her conclusion, which is a departure from her storyline and should have been omitted. Had she debated wilderness directly throughout the book her conclusion would not be so disjoint.

An argument that Brown does develop is the issue of land management both within and around the park, with a focus on the Gatlinburg area and conflict surrounding park managers and policies. Her bear management discussion is particularly strong, as is the history of contrasting land development on the North Carolina and Tennessee sides of the park and park management of Cades' Cove.

In short, despite its shortcomings, The Wild East is a necessary read for all GSMNP enthusiasts. Brown's honest history might make the park lose some of its luster, but will also surely create new leagues fans for the dynamic GSMNP.

Margaret Lynn Brown's "The Wild East" is an important contribution to the field of environmental history. The author seems to know the region where the Great Smoky Mountains is in, well. She traces the history of the Smokies and of the people living there. She analyzes how the Smokies came to be under the federal government's jurisdiction and how the landscape was changed profoundly.

What I find most interesting is the attempt by a superintendent's effort to preserve the mountains as pristine as possible but he came up with some strong objections by surrounding residents who were concern about bringing money in to the region. Also, surrounding towns began to flourish as attractions like Ripley Believe it or Not and even Dollywood became the focus of tourists going to the Smokies to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It's almost ironic that there is such drastic difference between the Smokies, where wilderness is preserve and the very commericialized towns surrounding the mountains.

The book touches upon certain investment subjects such as TA FA and news reaction in very limited detail which in my opinion could be a serious disadvantage to the newcomer with naive knowledge gained from the book. The book should of stuck to giving an overview of what is on offer on the Internet It should definately of included a chapter to the risks associated with investing online. I think the reference made to Momentum investments is also not correct.

A well organized book about US online investment services. But I would like a more extensive coverage of mutual fund and european investment services, maybe it will show up in the 2.edition?

I like the combination of this book and "Common Sense on Mutual Funds" by mr. Bogle, they are complementary!

This book shows the beginning online investing the different tools and services which are available on the graphically rich information superhighway. The book is well organized, there are a lot of pictures and a lot of website addresses.

If you step into the Java universe bubble, then "Java Collections" means the standard core API with the same name. This book does not cover the standard classes and interfaces that form the Java Collections API, and this is a real shame. I don't like books that feature highly misleading titles, because it hints at a lack of accuracy of the book's content.

I've been teaching data structures and algorithms for over 25 years,
and the fundamentals--which every computer science student should
know--haven't changed very much. However, it doesn't follow that
everyone needs to write their own linked lists or hash tables from
scratch, when Java already supplies so much of that. I have looked for
a textbook that balances explanation of the basics with exploration of
the Java Collections Interface, and this is by far the best book to date.
(The similarly-named book by Zukowski has too many errors of fact
in it for my taste.)

Another reviewer said that this book does not cover the Java Collections
API. This is incorrect. The authors develop the ideas behind each data
structure as a suitably abstract data type, and then go on with "...and
here's how the Java Collections API does it." I think the previous
reviewer simply didn't read far enough to get to those parts.

For a tutorial on just the Java Collections API, Sun's online "Trail" is
the best single source, and has the advantage that it is not intermixed
with implementation details. If that were enough, no data structures
textbook would be necessary. However, in real problems, any
predefined generic data structure is likely to be inadequate and will
need to be extended; this is why a good programmer needs to know
the Collections API (so as to avoid reinventing the wheel), but in
addition a good computer scientist needs to know how these data

structures are implemented, so that he/she can go beyond them when
necessary.

The book is somewhat weak on algorithms and would not serve as a
reference on this topic; however, there is plenty of meat here for a first
course on data structures and algorithms.

I've been reading through a copy of this book, and comparing it to another notable book on the same subject, mainly "Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in Java" (DSAAJ) by Mark Allen Weiss. Something very noticeable is that Java Collections is a much simpler book to tackle, though I feel that this detracts slightly from its use as a textbook. As a PhD student in Computer Science, I prefer the mathematical detail I found in DSAAJ than the lesser amount of math that Watt and Brown provide in Java Collections. Yet, at the same time, the case studies in Java Collections are a tremendous help in understanding what a given ADT is useful for, which DSAAJ doesn't go into at all. And the detail on what a specific ADT is supposed to do is much better detailed in Java Collections than in DSAAJ. As a TA, I taught a course in Data Structures and Algorithms for Computer Engineering students. The textbook we used for that was Weiss' DSAA book directed towards C++ instead of Java, but for those who know both versions of the book, the two are very similar. If instead of C++ the course was oriented towards Java, I would have chosen this book as a textbook for that course; these students weren't needing the math focus, and they (and I) would have preferred the practical programming knowledge in here.

For the programmer out of college, or the college student that wants an alternate view on ADTs than what DSAAJ provides, this is an excellent book.

Member of the Columbia Java User Group (www.colajug.org)

I've read the other books in the "Book of Psalms" series and this one was very disappointing. The story began in a fairly amusing and intriguing way, as is usual with Kate Charles, but about half way through, the characters and dialogue became very predictable and the ending was not a surprise, to say the least. The dialogue also seemed very dated and similar to the author's other stories. I hope the next one will be better.

This book held my interest all the way through and was well-written. One thing puzzles me. Part of the plot hinges on a young bride who receives obscene phone calls. She gets so upset that it is ruining her marriage and her health. She listens to each phone call all the way through each revolting detail. Why? Why doesn't she simply hang up the phone? Or report the problem to the telephone company? Somehow, since the gal is not an idiot, this part does not ring true. I wonder if this bothered any other readers.

In a small and insulated society, sometimes evil grows and festers. And then, if changes are introduced from outside that society, sometimes that evil begins to ferment. Evil Angels Among Them by Kate Charles takes place in the small English village of Walston. Everyone knows everyone else and everyone understands his or her place in the social and power structure of the village. Newcomers Gillian and Lou, a lesbian couple with Gillian's young daughter, and Stephen and Becca, the newly married rector and his wife, engender the change that activates the malignancy. There is gossip and rumor, then obscene telephone calls and finally murder. Stephen's friends, David Middleton-Brown and Lucy Kingsley, come to Walston to try to sort things out. This is a study of evil, a banal and petty evil, but evil nonetheless. The atmosphere of the book is fetid with fear and ambition and hatred. Only the church stands, peaceful, beautiful, above the infection in the village. This intricate and intellectual mystery pulled me into the story, taking me down by-ways and back lanes, until finally the solution was revealed, layer by layer. It also introduced me to some very complex and interesting people, three-dimensional people who change and grow because of what happens to them in this little village.The church and the rector are at the center of the story, but the storm swirls around them, hardly touching them with its frightfulness. This is hopeful because that means the good people who live in this village may rise above the gossip, the prudishness, the licentiousness of the few tainted people. This is a story that is a mystery and yet surmounts the mystery to reflect a universal truth

Dale Brown returns with another aerial techno-thriller, after delving into a James Bondish yarn in Tin Man. This book, Battle Born, was not his best, but it wasn't bad either. 500+ pages and most of it was spent in building up a crew in Nevada to fly modified B-1Bs against ballistic missles.

The main storyline has South Korea coming into possesion of a nuclear weapon. Then after months of infiltrating North Korea with spys and helping to fight their poverty situation, the South Koreans attack, and most N. Koreans revolt against their fellow Communists to overthrow that form of government, effectively uniting Korea.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. a dysfunctional Air National Guard unit is being tested by Gen. Patrick McLanahan over the Nevada deserts in B-1B's. Dreamland is testing plasma-yield weapons as well as antiballilistic missles.

Back overseas, a United Korea has found a stockpile of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), i.e. chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. A leftover crew of loyal North Koreans, still with some WMD's launch an attack on the Southern part of Korea. The defense minister, Kim of United Korea, believes China launched the attack, and wants President Kwon to retaliate against the Chinese with nuclear weapons.

Hence, lies the political and military struggle for the rest of the book. China invades the northern part of Korea, while the
B1-B crews get their act together to keep Northeast Asia from becoming a nuclear wasteland.

Most of the book is dialogue, both normal and technical as only Brown can deliver. Some good aerial sequences, especially near the end.

Patrick McLanahan is back to face his most dangerous mission.

Patrick must put together a group of young pilots to help fight a nuclear conflict. The new mission begins with joining of US-Japanese-South Korean mock bombing raid, but turns deadly when the South Korean fighters decide to break free and cross the border to North Korea, and support the people's revolt against communists.

Patrick knows this move by the South Koreans can start World War III, but he knows of top-secret aviation technology to stop them in their tracks, to do this he must have his group of rebellious fighter pilots stop fighting each other, and work as a team, or the world as we know it will no longer exist.

"Battle Born" is a great techno thriller. It starts off with a bang, and keeps on banging until the last awesome battle has been fought.

Dale Brown writes easy to read techno thrillers, that keep the reader riveted from page one. His latest novel is a return to top form, by keeping the action scenes exciting, and the plot racing along.

Nick Gonnella

Military fiction novelist Dale brown has finally published,after a long wait mind you, his newest novel called "Battle Born". I personnaly received the book on last Thursday from the publisher. I hasten to say that this is the best Dale Brown novel to date. It only took two days to read this 390+ page novel. I just could not put the book down. Patrick McLanahan, Dave Luger and the rest of the Megafortress crew rejoin in this novel performing operations at the relatively new Elliot Air Force Base. And yes the rumors are true, this is new "Megafortress-2". It is a bigger and badder HAWC creation. I wont ruin anything from the book, but war erupts over Korea again and here comes the new EB-1C. As always, Elliot Air Force Base runs the risk of being shut down. Like I said earlier, this is my favorite military fiction novel of all time. I guess I can I am kinda bent toward this novel because I am currently a memeber of the 28th Bomb Wing of Ellsworth A.F.B., South Dakota. Dale came here last spring to get source material for this book. He kindly gives some hearty kudos in the book to the people here at Ellsworth. I will close this review with three words, "BUY THIS BOOK".

Take care all and read books!