After four years of college, I could no longer run from chemistry. After numerous drops from the class, I finally found a chemistry book which is easy to understand. This book has every example problem you could think of. Every chapter gives you a good introduction, then cuts strait to the points every novice chemistry student should know to pass a general college level class. I do suggest a run through of chemistry in high school before stepping up to this book. I would have liked to have seen a book accompany the text which shows the drawn out ways to answer the review questions at the end of every chapter. Other than that this book is very down to earth and easy to follow.

I had difficulties solving chemistry problems I also bought many books but when I found this one in My local library I was extremely happy with the simplicity of the text problem examples
THIS IS THE BEST BOOK FOR CHEMISTRY CLASS EVER ....I HAD A D IN MY FIRST CHEMISTRY CLASS NOW I AM GETTING As AND Bs Every household should have one .... The best book by far

This book is very well written, with helpful diagrams and detailed examples. It is easy to understand and text and with this book it is truly not hard to understand chemistry and do well. I easily got an A in Chemistry I and I believe that everyone who failed the class simply didn't look over the book or their notes after class. It certainly wasn't the fault of the professor or the text- both explained chemistry very well.

I ordered this one after if was plugged on several genealogical newsletters. It's a good love and mystery story interwoven with the details of quality genealogical research. That said, the self-published author needs a good text editor to take care of the typos, the questionable punctuation, the sometimes wooden dialog and the gratuitous use of obscenities. Brown has his educated middle class characters talking like low-class barflies. It's a good read but it could have been much better.

I was dismayed and disappointed with the author's use of expletives and low-level language expressed by the main characters of the book. The plot, the story line, the accurate use of genealogical research plans and actions were superb. I would like to share this book with my daughters and grand children but, instead, it ended up in the waste basket. I was appalled with the poor quality of the given text--any spellcheck and grammer program would have caught many of the errors. This is not acceptable in grade school! The author's note revealed a higher level of aspiration to inspire curiosity about family history and heritage in his readers, than was displayed in the story as exhibited by the language used throughout the book. I was uncomfortable reading the book, but kept on for genealogical research interest.

Mr. Brown is an exceptional author. His amazing writing ability bringing the past & present and fiction & non-fiction togteher holds the reader until the end. "A Promise to the Past" will delight readers of all generations. It makes the reader (at least it did for me) want to know more about their (my) own heritage. As Mr. Brown wrote "I firmly believe that it helps you know where you are going if you know where you have been." How True!! A+++

Much more needs to be written about the Brown v. Board of Education era. Patterson indeed does a good service of describing the "trouble legacy" of Brown. For while school integregation and the end to seperate but equal laws were a major revolution of sorts in this country, Brown left unresolved significant questions and problems concerning the education of African descended students and other minorities. For example, while Brown focused on legal and structural changes in public education, which led to the desegregation of schools, it did not address issues of integrating school curriculum and preparing teachers and school officials for a multicultural transformation of schooling. It simply assumed that the solution to racism in this society was to provide a way for Blacks to assimilate in the larger White society instead of empowering themselves to respect and build their own culture and institutions. While Patterson deals with the legal aspects Brown, he too avoids or overlooks the pedagogical and cultural issues that went unaddressed in Brown. Thus, Patterson's work doesn't add significantly anything new to the history of Brown that is not dealt with in J. Harvie Wilkson's From Brown to Bakke or Kluger's Simple Justice.

Patterson succeeds in writing a very different book than Kruger's unequaled "Simple Justice." While Simple Justice told the story of how Brown v. Board of Education came to be, Paterson asks whether Brown should have been.

After giving a brief history of Brown (covering, in summary fashion, much of the ground covered by Kruger), Patterson examines the aftermath of Brown. The question Patterson addresses throughout the book is whether Brown marked a step forward in civil rights.

Patterson successfully debunks the argument that Brown was a step backwards. As he says, anyone who thinks that the country was better off before Brown had better buy a two way ticket if he wants to go back in time, because he will want to turn right around and come back. Before Brown, most black children were educated in tarpaper shacks, by grossly underpaid teachers, with no supplies, and even less respect.

Did Brown solve all problems? Of course not. As Patterson notes, what Brown does do is prove that there are limits to the power of the courts to accomplish social change. However, the Supreme Court did set an unequivocal moral tone, which set the stage for the civil rights movement, which (building on the constitutional foundation built by Brown) changed the world we all live in.

Has racism ended? No. But no one should expect any Supreme Court decision (or even a series of decisions spanning less than 25 years) to undo the racial history of this country which had taken 400 years to build. The real shame is that beginning in the late 70's, the courts, Congress, and the President have all worked to reverse the moral tone set in Brown. Unfortunately, they have succeeded all too well. But one can not fairly blame that on the Supreme Court's decision in Brown.

A thought provoking book which should be read by anyone who is interested in the history of race relations in the second half of the 20th Century.

This is really a must read book for anyone interested in the issues surround desegregation and the efforts by Thurgood Marshall and others to end such practices in America's schools. It also is a very vivid reminder that courts and lawsuits can only go so far, and in the end it is people and their institutions that must be changed as well. Did Brown achieve all that it was hoped that it would - the author argues that it didn't, but that it did lay the foundation for tremendous change in racial relations during the last century. The author also helps to place the decision of Brown in context with other legal and political events that help the reader understand what was the source of resistence in various parts of the US to school desegregation and subsequent busing endeavors. Well worth reading and keeping on your shelves.

THis is a good book on not judging people by the first impression. PEople thses days have to learn not to judge epople by looks. Just becasue someone looks different doesn't mean they are different. IF someone is bigger than you, it doesn't make them a bully. A lot of people make stereotype's and think people are mean because of their size. Yet they have to that it whats on the inside that counts.

We all judge people at one time or another, its natural. We just have to learn to except people for who they are. I like this book because it shows how people treat others in modern life. This book shows how to except others. I also like it because judging is not a good think, it the good qualities we need to look for i a person, not the bad ones.

This book, a continuation of the Rainbow Fish series, is about a group of fish with shiny scales. They live near a Coral reef and eat all the krill they want. One day, a big blue whale came. He started eating the krill, and staring at the fish. The fish are afraid that they will become whale food! How will Rainbow Fish and his friends deal with the whale? Read this book by Marcus Pfister to find out!

I love this story. ... I think it teaches lots of lessons. For example, it teaches how it is wrong to make snap judgements about others. It also teaches how to work out differences, and meet with people that are different.

Parts of the book are overly detailed, yet some parts are quite sparse. The portrait of Brown's hometown of Mineola, Texas is riveting yet there are few details of what Brown was like as a child -- readers wanting to find out what books, philosophers or anything that inspired Brown will be left wanting. We must settle for the unsupported statement that he was a voracious reader. Also, there seems to be a mismatch in focus -- over half of the book is devoted to Brown's career before becoming speaker when he really was a marginal figure. Perhaps a dozen pages are devoted to obscure delegate credentialling details about the '72 convention that could have been covered in a fraction of the space.

On the objective side, the book does call Brown to task for several ethical and race-baiting missteps, and he largely accepts the common view of Brown as a fixer extraordinare who made the trains run on time in the legislature at the expense of an agenda. The author also perceptively highlights why Brown succeeded tactically in holding his Speakership for so long, sometimes by pulling absolute political miracles. This is when the book is at its best, showing how Brown has become one of the most powerful, savvy figures in California political history.

On the minus side (for those who prefer their history unfiltered by the author's personal politics) references abound throughout the book to "ultra right conservatives", "hard right conservatives" and the like but there are no similiar references to figures on the left; Jesse Unruh and Ronald Reagan have "cronies" while Brown has friends.

While clearly critical on occasions, at other times the author blatantly bends over backwards to make Brown look good. When Brown made some vicious personal public remarks about then Governor Duekmajian (sp?) the author criticizes Brown yet excuses him by saying he was just doing so to satisfy the Democrat Assembly members who disliked the Duke, yet its impossible (for me at least) to believe Brown's Assembly delegation ever included people who demanded hateful comments from the Speaker. Throughout the book, Brown is portrayed as a consummate, off-the-cuff showman who's unmatched with his rapier-like comments, yet we're expected to believe this one was done calculatingly to satisfy people who insisted that Brown engage in brutal personal insults. This doesn't hold water.

The author also uncritically accepts Brown's assertion that he went to law school on a whim and says if he hadn't seized this seemingly random impulse, he never would have gone into politics. This seems a stretch to say the least, largely because the author paints a quite vivid picture of Brown the showman who lives for thie limelight -- it's virtually impossible to imagine this truly unique personality not in politics. That, and the fact that he was running for office by the time he was 28 indicate to me that like Bill Clinton, Willie Brown was intent on being a politician at an early age.

In the "give Willie the benefit of the doubt" category, outrageous remarks that can be fairly categorized as inciting violence are excused because Brown, according to the author, was so personally devastated by RFK's assissination a few weeks before. Yet the author provides nothing to support this strange assertion. It seems reasonable to conclude the author is going to extremes to excuse some of Brown's most inexcusable conduct.

At the end, the author drops all pretense of objectivity and discloses that he was a McGovern delegate at the '72 convention (which explains why, although doesn't justify, the excessive focus on that convention's minutae) and highlights Brown's greatest achievement as stymying the agendas of numerous Republican governors during his Assembly career.

The book was enjoyable largely because the subject is so fascinating. Parts of it are extremely well written, filled with strong analysis and the author undeniably did a tremendous job researching the book, but even more, in landing firsthand interviews with the major participants. Nonetheless, the book is unevenly focused, lavishing attention on Brown's flamboyance at the expense of personal insights. There is also a sometimes subtle but unmistakable bias from beginning to end in favor of Brown's leftist politics and Brown himself.

I found this book to be very interesting and informative. Without a doubt it gave me a look into the life and times of Willie Brown and the state of California. From growing up under the repressive laws of Jim Crow and segregation to becoming one of the most powerful men in California,Willie Brown is a courageous and complex figure in California's history. In the tradition of "showmen politicians" like Adam Clayton Powell, Huey P. Long, and Lyndon Johnson, Brown is a part of a by-gone era. With term limits well in place, we will never see the likes of such a powerful and personable politician. President Clinton could not have said it better when he arrived in Sacramento and met Willie Brown in person for the first time. He stated, " now i have finally met the real slick Willie". Whether demon or devil, Willie Brown changed the face of legistlative politics in Califonia and paved the way for the state to expand in many other areas. After reading this book, you wonder how California can survive without Willie Brown.

Willie Brown is a politician regarded as both a political reformer and a modern political boss, a sometime political progressive and sometime defender of corporate interests, and a man of humble background who flaunts a flashy lifestyle. The book, "Willie Brown", presents a study of a man's contrasts and complexities.
This biography neither glorifies nor lambastes its subject. The reader is allowed to thoroughly understand the gray areas between the good and evil which is the human nature of most public figures. We learn about Willie Brown and the events shaping his life and histroy.
We learn that Willie Brown sought being the center of attention from childhoold and how this trait was internalized through lifelong quests for leadership. Willie Brown emerged from a life of gambling and nightlife into a life or politics and nightlife.
Controversy has followed Willie Brown's life. Branded as both a radical liberal and a conservative coalition builder, Willie Brown has learned that power and personal feelings can change and that these changes can be used for advantage. Readers learn how Willie Brown, upon becoming Speaker of the California House of Representatives, was adept at maintaining power.
The author demonstrates that Willie Brown enjoyed political power games more for the sake of power than for setting policy. Willie Brown played the legislative power game very well for a long time. When he finally lost the power game, he exited the legislature by becoming a big city Mayor. This book presents a remarkable study of one of America's most resilient politicians.

Charles Brockden Brown's importance in the field of American literature is indisputably very high; thus, how unfortunate it is that his works are so unknown to us today. Were it not for H.P. Lovecraft's mention of him in his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature," I myself would remain ignorant of his very existence. Brown is arguably the father of the American novel, a brave pioneer in the era of the early Republic. This man set upon himself the noble purpose of writing fiction for a living, going against the wishes of his family and the dictates of contemporary society. Had there been no Charles Brockden Brown, there may never have been a Poe--at least, not Poe as we know him today.

The story is an Americanized Gothic romance. The spirit of Gothic literature pervades the tale, but the setting has been transferred from old castles and courtly settings to a recognizably American rural landscape which is preeminently beautiful rather than spooky. The horrors described so effectively by Brown are borne in the minds of the characters. The female protagonist Clara narrates the tortured history of her family. Her father dies mysteriously, perhaps by spontaneous combustion, ostensibly due to his failure to follow God's will in his life. She enjoys a happy adult life with her brother and his wife until a stranger named Carwin appears and quickly becomes a part of their inner circle. Carwin eventually becomes Clara's tormentor. She, her brother, and their mutual friend Pleyel all hear mysterious, unexplained voices warning them of danger and imparting fateful news on several occasions. Her brother, deeply religious like his father, is greatly affected by these phenomena--how much so we learn later in the novel. Carwin fatefully destroys Clara's life when his evil designs paint her as a harlot in Pleyel's eye. Her unrequited love for Pleyel is now met with his condemnation of her--the agony of the charges against her is particularly poignant in the early American era in which the story takes place. On the fateful night, she discovers Carwin hiding in her home, and he admits to having had murderous designs on her. Her sorrows are greatly magnified the following day by the murder of her brother's wife and five children by none other than her own beloved brother. She blames Carwin for having influenced her brother to commit murder, but we later learn that dementia itself is almost surely to blame for her brother's wrongs. Before the tale ends, she faces a confrontation with both Carwin and her murderous brother, an experience which she is fortunate to survive.

The tale itself is wonderful. The suspense Brown draws out and continually heightens is first-rate. Clara's encounters with voices and human spirits hidden in the darkness of her bedroom are spine-tingling. The language of the novel does make it a work that requires some concentration on the part of the reader and may serve to frustrate some, but I think it greatly magnifies the horrific aspects of the tale. The dialogues of the actors are admittedly overdramatic and drawn out. No one speaks in this book; rather, everyone makes speeches. The protagonist often resorts to long laments of her great woe and asks how she can possibly go on with the story. Despite such dramatics on her part, though, Clara is clearly a brave, independent woman (reflecting Brown's strong and admirable commitment to the rights of women). Overall, the tale delivers a buffet of the passive voice style of writing, which I for one refuse not to love; even the most unimportant sentences are graced with a flowery, beautiful aspect.

In terms of the Gothic element to the story, one cannot say that the supernatural aspects are wholly disproved in the end--to some extent they are, but not to such an extent that Wieland's murderous actions can be explained by them. Clearly, Wieland did hear voices other than those made by Carwin the biloquist. The air of mystery that remains about Wieland's dementia and the causes of it makes the ending more successful than I feared it would be once I learned of the power of ventriloquism exercised by Carwin to dictate many of the related events. My only complaint is with the final chapter, which is basically an epilogue in the protagonist's journal. Inexplicably, it introduces a new character to explain something about a minor character whom I frankly could not even remember.

This book has a very original plot line. The influence of the bazzar, mystical death of the father of this family set off much questioning and fear when similar occurances happen decades later. You will be desperatly trying to piece together what is going on as this family is ripped apart. The true cause of these events is far to bazzar to be guessed. This essencial Gothic classic can be a bit slow to read at parts, but the conclusion is well worth hanging on for.

Charles Brockden Brown has been almost completely forgotten today. Unlike the more famous James Fenimore Cooper, who is often accorded the title of the first American novelist that Brown should bear, Brown's reputation is largely borne up by those few literary critics who love the earliest roots of American fiction. "Wieland" is Brown's best novel, and still quite readable today as a Gothic novel (although the secret of the villain seems rather mundane today, as the 'power' he exhibits has been played largely for laughs since the days of vaudeville and radio). Brown was born in Philadelphia in 1771, trained in the law, was one of the first to try and make a living as a writer in the early years of the American republic, and died young in 1810. If you like Gothic novels, or you have a passion for early American literature, you will enjoy "Wieland." Myself, I prefer him to Cooper, who has been forever rendered laughable in my mind by Mark Twain's hilarious essays on Cooper's literary sins.

I found Dr. Brown, in conjunction with Dr. Churchill, to have written a very dry and non-useful text. It fails to provide the undergraduate student with the resources and background information that more highly touted books offer. There are a few examples that are somewhat helpful, but overall I found myself having to use reference texts to supplement this one. I am not a math major, but am continually searching for good math texts to help me grasp the fundamentals of more difficult topics. I did not find that help here. Too much 'math prose' and not enough to-the-point definitions and examples, which is the cry of every non-math major. Their treatment of the Laplacian is not even worth the bother of placing it in the book. The physical size of the book is small, (9 1/2 by 6") with 335 pages. Not nearly enough for the treatment of its titled subject.

That is, you can't find a better book on the subject at the undergraduate level!

This is a great book that gives precise examples which are easy to comprehend. Dr. Brown proves to be an excellent author once again.

The idea behind this book is very good. A comparative history of vaqueros, cowboys and buckaroos is needed. These three groups share much in common but they are nevertheless historically distinct. I was hoping to understand the uniquess of each experience by learning about the common threads that tie the three groups together.

Unfortunately, the authors were not up to task. The authors are amateurs who share a great love for the subject. Unfortunately, there is large chasm between an enthusiast and a professional author. Sadly,the writing and analysis was weak. While reading the book, I wanted them to succeed but in the end, this was a book written by enthusiasts. This book only proves that gifted amateurs are a rare bird.

This book is all you could hope for in the truth about vaqueros, cowboys, and buckaroos. These authors have done a wonderful job compiling all the true facts about these three similar, but not exactly a-like groups. This a must for anyone ineretsed in expanding your knoweleg. It is perfect for research or just fun. I would never part with my copy, and I wish I could have owned it sooner. Don't waste your time with other more falshy books, this is the only one you'll need.

This the most comprehensive collection of Vaquero, cowboy and buckaroo history. Comparing in equal page length the diffrences and similarities of each group of horsemen. This is a wonderful book. I can't recomend it highly enough. It is perfect for research work or just to expand you knowlege. It is amust have for any person who enjoys the thruth behind the mythic cowboy. Wonderfuly complete, not a thing left out in this book. I don't know how I survived without it. Comgradualtions to the authors on such a complete job.

It's probably easier to read this book now that we have a new Browns team in place. It makes me a little more understanding of what Modell went through before his grievous decision.

It is fun to get an insider's look at some of the issues over the years: Kosar's release, Belicheck, etc.

Author Poplar gives an insider's view of the financial crisis that caused American's Team, the Cleveland Browns, to move to Baltimore. It shows how Modell's formation of the Cleveland Stadium Corp. caused him to take out millions of dollars in loans to pay for stadium upkeep and upgrades. Then the city/county gave the Indians and Cavs multi-million-dollar playpens, while leaving Modell to find ways to compensate for the loss of Stadium Corp.'s major tenant, the Indians. This resulted in even more loans. Then came free agency, and Modell had to go to the banks again to get cash to pay big bonuses to stay competitive. From his perspective, maybe Modell eventually "had no choice" to move. However, he is not absolved from his most tragic mistake: not being forthright with the fans and the public about his financial straights and asking for help. A good read for Browns fans who want to know more about what happened to their heritage.

This was Ellroy's first published novel. It's a good, solid crime novel. It's mostly in the tradition of his predecessors like Chandler and Hammett, but some of his future trademarks are there, like the seedy anti-hero who eventually discovers and follows his own moral imperative. It's a bit bumpy in spots, and sometimes the plot falls into place a bit too neatly, but it's a good read. It's not nearly as amazing as the L.A. Quartet or American Tabloid, all brilliant books for which he has become justifiably famous. I read this after reading those (as well as My Dark Places and Crime Wave). Had I read this first, I would have been shocked by his later work. Maybe The Black Dahlia is a better place to start for the Ellroy novice.. This one seems almost quaint in comparison.

Not to use a cliche or anything, but it was a book I was not able to put down. I started reading the book at midnight, and if it weren't for my eyes, I no doubt would have read it the whole way through that night. Anyway, it is a very entertaining novel that keeps you intrigued throughout thanks to new devolpments and twists in the story. Ellroy does an excellent job of devoloping the main character, Fritz Brown as well. I have not read any of Ellroy's other books, but after reading this one, I am certainly going to try another one of his novels.

I am not a James Ellroy fan. In fact, "Brown's Requiem" is the only novel of his that I have read, because it is the only one of his books I've found that is a straight private detective story. And as an example of the that genre, this books stands among the best. Ellroy's hero, Fritz Brown, is everything a good P.I. should be; world weary, cynical, alcoholic and carrying heavy baggage from his past. He also has plenty of good character eccentricities, like a fascination for classical music. He is also prone to make that classic P.I. mistake, to fall in love with a woman he knows he probably shouldn't fall in love with.

All of this said the book takes some unexpected twists and turns. Brown ends up investigating his own client, his romantic interest turns out to have a VERY complicated past and his case turns out to be far more elaboarate than it first appears. All of this leads to a violent and satisfying climax, like any good P.I. novel should. Fans of P.I. masters such Andrew Vachss, George Pellecanos and yes, Raymond Chandler, out to be right at home with Fritz Brown.